qualtroverse

Another Update on Blueberry Simulator VR

I'm back with another update on the VR version of Blueberry Simulator!

I've been working on porting all of the UI elements and controls to the VR version, and optimizing the game to be played in VR. I've had a lot of technical problems with the VR version at the start that delayed it's original release, but after fixing the bugs, I realized I have a lot more work to do with the VR version.

The UI has to be reworked or left out of the next VR update as making a UI in VR is an interesting and difficult task to pull off right. I want the VR version to have full feature parity with the non-vr version (aside from the third person view).

But currently aside from the UI, the VR version is in fact functional, I have to add the auto rolling function as it was also a little more complicated than I originally thought.

I also just had my wisdom teeth removed so I'll be recovering for a bit, but as soon as I feel ready to work again, I'll be working on getting the game out asap!

Soon I'll be sending out more invites to the testing server to get the VR version tested, I have a number of VR headsets that I can test the game on myself but it takes a lot of time so I might need some additional help with the VR version!

I've also decided that I'm going to try porting the game to the Oculus Quest/Meta Quest headsets soon, I can't simply try now because the renderer isn't compatible with Android, but when the VR version is complete, I'll give it a short shot. The game will probably lack the physics destruction because of the limited processing power, as it's already strenuous on certain PCs even with some higher end processors.

I appreciate all of your patience and I'm working hard to get the game out as soon as possible! As soon as the VR update is released, I'm beginning full time work on the Inflation Mode update!

Update on Blueberry Simulator VR

Development is still taking place, it's going to take a little longer. Unity is having issues with the VR Plugins I'm using at Build, and I've also been working on a new UI specifically for VR.

VR Version is still coming, apologies for the delays!

Blueberry Simulator v.0.2 NON-VR Build

0.2 is Here!

Change Logs:

Added new Third Person Mode: Now you can roll around in Third Person!

Manual Rolling: You can now manually roll the Blueberry! You can also manually adjust the speed of your berry

Physics Based Destruction: You can roll around the lab and wreck everything in your path! This will be improved upon in future updates

Softbody Physics: You can now jiggle around in Third Person Mode!

Color Options: There are now Color Options, so you can customize your Berry to your liking!

Benchmark Mode: Now you can benchmark your system to see how well the game runs If you have performance issues, you can send this to me and help me tune the game!

VR Build Update:
VR Mode is coming, there's still a few game-breaking bugs with the VR Build, so it'll take a little bit more time, but it's coming next week in May.

Known Issues:

First Person Mode movement is a little buggy at the moment because of how the movement is handled, I'll be fixing this in the next patch

The Fullscreen Option isn't functional just yet, this will also be addressed in the next patch

Audio may or may not work, I don't know why it is bugged, it's in the game, but it's not working for some reason. I'm also addressing this in the next patch.

DOWNLOAD:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1oyc7ua7-HlnrFbfE65tu9Y8os4G7meIL/view?usp=share_link 

Next Minor Update:

Will re-introduce automatic rolling, this was achieved in the first version through manual animation, which severely limited the customization options I'm working on reimplementing automatic rolling,

Adding Head Sink Function and improving Limb interactions with rolling

And fix the issues above.

Next Major Update:

Will Enable Inflation Mode, the POV Swelling Mode!

Will introduce a new Course, designed to be destroyed.

Adding AI Players, this will be a new gameplay element where AI Players are around the lab, and run away from you before you roll into them, they'll also try to stop you from destroying their lab and roll you out of the room, ending the game.

EDIT: Issue is fixed!

Blueberry Simulator v0.2 Limited Testing Sign-Up

I'm getting ready to launch Blueberry Simulator v0.2 as we speak, but I need some help!

I've implemented Soft-Body Physics, and I need some performance data to see how it performs on a variety of systems. I'm selecting participants based on their computer specifications!

Being a Patron of any tier also means you get priority access, so if you have a system that is similar to another and they aren't pledged, you'll get priority over them and get it first! Just include your username or email of the account used to pledge, and you'll be set!

There is no guarantee that you'll be selected, it will be a small pool of users, but you won't have to wait long to try it for yourself when v0.2 is published later this week for everyone!

There is no deadline, but I'm going to start sending builds out tomorrow (4/25/2023), so get them in ASAP!

Please read all of the instructions before submitting, and I'll see you all later! :)

Blueberry Simulator v0.2 coming this Week!

I have updates! I apologize for the long absence, I assure you I'm not dead!

I'm gearing up to release the next version of the Blueberry Simulator! I've been working on the game as much as I can, I admit I'm letting my perfectionism seep into the project, and I've been trying not to, but I am finally close to releasing something I'm happy with and I think you all will like!

I know you guys will love it, and I'm so grateful to have all of your support, especially as this has taken a moment to get ready.

If you wanna know why it's been taking so long, it's on me. I wanted to remake the project in Unreal, and spent a good amount of time trying to learn Unreal, but honestly I'm a Unity guy, so I've been shifting back to Unity and getting things going in that engine, and it's going a lot smoother.

I've also been making assets for the game, the environments have been especially challenging since I couldn't make something that satisfied me, but now I have a level that I think looks good!

Anyways, how about I talk about some things I've added!

The Rolling Mode will support third and first person views, and I've added a character for the third person view!

I've also added a few options, so you can adjust the height/sinking of the head in first person, manual rolling, speed, and some color options so you can customize your berry!

This version will support VR and Non-VR!

And the Inventing Room had a face lift ;)

Although, I have decided to skip native Quest support, at least for now. I'm only one person, and developing for one platform is already a handful, introducing two at the same time just gets me thinking of how I should get it running on Quest rather than getting it working in the first place. It could absolutely be possible to port it, but I'd rather focus on the PC version for now. You'll still be able to play it on Quest using Oculus/Air Link, or Virtual Desktop. I'll revisit native Quest support eventually.

And yes, I'm working on the POV Transformation, I have an idea that might work and can support motion controllers. I've just gotta finish making the shape keys for the model. I'm gonna work solely on that for the next update and just skip Spectator Mode, I think I can finally do it. I'm really wishing I could have saved the progress from my previous IK Project because it'd help a lot here lol. 

Anyways, I know it's been taking a bit, and again, I'm really glad I have all of your support! I feel like I sound like a broken record, but really, this couldn't have happened without all of you, I really hope you like the simulator when the next version drops this week!

Blueberry Simulator Progress Update

Here's a few work in progress 3 Blueberry Models I'm working on to include in the Blueberry Simulator!

I've been working on packing as much detail as I can into some of these models and baking the bumps and wrinkles into textures that can be used in the game!

I currently have the second model (the purple one, it's really similar to the first, I know, but the purple one is supposed to be a bigger model) imported into the game right now, I just have to repair the color texture.

Once that's done, I'm gonna rebuild the environment and add more details.

now, you may be asking yourself "If you can only really see the top half of the berry, why do you need to model the rest?"

Because I'm adding a Spectator Mode

I have a few things I need to figure out to get this mode really going, but I'm going to have a version of it ready hopefully in time for the next update, if not then the next one after.

After Spectate and Rolling, I will finally try to tackle the actual transformation again, with some trade-offs.

When the first version of the transformation launches, at least with VR support, I won't be supporting tracked controllers, at least until I figure out a way so the model doesn't break. Maybe I'll just ask you all nicely during the transformation to continuously rise your arms, but that's ridiculous.

The reason it's so difficult is because of the arms and how they need to be posed to achieve the round look.

IK or fake virtual bodies as a whole are already a difficult problem that a ton of developers have taken a shot at, much more skilled and experienced than me, and having an actively deforming mesh that requires a certain pose that just can't be done by anyone.

Without tracked controllers however, just using your head, is entirely possible and within my scope.

With all of these ideas in mind, I've decided to just call it 'Blueberry Simulator'.

Maybe even Expansion Simulator later down the road.

Blueberry POV Rolling Simulator V0.1

Download Below!

Currently this simulator requires a PCVR Headset to function properly

I've tested a few of the most popular VR headsets and this game works on all of them, so long as you can use OpenXR, it will work.

If you're trying it without VR, you just won't be able to look around, and SteamVR may launch if you have it installed.

This is only the first version, I plan on finishing this with an updated model, sounds, and a better environment, and overall polish the product.

I hope you enjoy, this is just one of my many tests with Unity and Unreal, I'm looking into ways to make an Unreal POV game where you actually swell up, but that's a ways away for now.

WARNING: This is a rolling simulator, and may induce motion sickness in some users. There are no speed controls or comfort options yet.

That being said, please stay seated for this experience, I am not responsible if you fall over and break your headset, you are using this at your own discretion.

And be mindful of your surroundings while playing.

Download it Here!

https://mega.nz/file/h2wUTapA#ZZ8KS3PL7tvYprb0VMABSrKZwEiizRRw4Okv_X1nvyU

EDIT; If you have problems opening the application on your PC, ensure that your OpenXR Runtime is set properly!

Follow this guide to set your preferred platform as the default OpenXR Runtime!

https://academy.vrex.no/knowledge-base/openxr/

Render Preview of the Next Animation

Here's a quick render preview of the video so far!

https://tinyurl.com/chair-animation-WIP

This will be a helium based animation with one more scene that I haven't finished!

What should it be called?

Next Animation Preview! (WIP)

Animation is underway right now! This will be the first proper project showcasing what I've learned with Softbody and Cloth! I'll be rendering out a test animation soon, so sit tight! ;)

I'm also using a new model!

VFX Experiment Featuring Candii Kayn!

Super special thanks to Riddlercorps and Candii Kayn for collabing with me on this project! Please go check them out and support their content! Their handles are up in the corner, and you can also find Riddlercorps on DeviantArt!

This was an incredibly fun one to make, especially with the method I used.

To create this, I took a model and lined it up as closely as possible to Candii's body, and projected a frame of the video onto the model, thus giving me a full model with a realistic texture that I have full control over, which means I can do this.

The important thing about this method is it's really simple to reproduce, and really fast (besides composition, which is the merging of the two footages).

I'll be posting more about my method soon!

Softbody Tests

Teardrop Softbody Blueberry Test:
https://mega.nz/file/YvZigCqB#C-XHGHJ2Kl5w7VCCJwQxHeDUouWcYAnPegC9BrWFUQc

Body Expansion: Car Impact Test:
https://mega.nz/file/M3QQnYoB#kP05ojbHvkwMAwfLNMIBsKtNX3PCq_0zhloKeqhbw68 

I've finally got working, reliable, good looking softbody and cloth simulations, all in Blender!

The process is rather long, so this process is mostly intended for the end, once all animation is complete.

This one was hand animated by me with the IK Rig, and the simulations just add that much more to it, and I'm super proud of it. It's a great test, and I hope you all enjoy it, as it's also a glimpse towards what's coming next.

I want to have another simulated layer that acts as the belly pushing out of the tight clothes, and I think I know how I can do it, but it'll take a second to pump out.

Overall, this makes me confident that I can reduce my reliance on things like Houdini for these simulations, so I can produce them faster and more efficiently, and leave Houdini to simply tear the cloth instead.

As for the car test, this one was mostly just for fun, and to test an idea of pinning parts of the body to a spherical model would achieve. 

New Years Update

Heyo! Thank you everyone for being so patient with me this month, I've been recovering from Code Blue and getting ready to start work on the next project. It's been a while since the last update, but I've got some good news!

First, the next big project, then a couple of smaller projects that I'm also working on.

I've been working on a few things since the beginning of the month I've been wanting to show off, specifically Physics. In some parts of my work, I think some parts look pretty stiff, so I'm working on improving this with physics.

I have a couple goals for the next big project too that I'm going to aim for too like adding a plot, improving audio and editing, environment interactions, extending the length by 1-2 minutes. After my break from Code Blue, I looked back on it and took some notes on what worked and didn't work, and it's helping me lay out plans.

Realistically, this animation is probably gonna be out in February or March (March is more likely), at least that's the plan to have this animation out by, but my track record isn't exactly the best with release timings, even if it's off by a couple hours or a day. But I'm planning out the animation, I'm doing tons of tests with physics (that I am sharing very soon) and Houdini figuring out the programs and figuring out certain challenges.

The animation codename right now is Monday Blues, and it will be an animated adaptation of Taking Up Office Space. It won't be exactly like the sequence, but it'll be taking place in an office setting.

However, even though the next big project is a few months off, I do have content planned for the time between now and then, roughly. I have some upcoming physics tests that I've been working on that's coming very soon. I also have a physics  based animation that I want to make that's about a minute in length, it's a helium expansion in a bedroom, and I'll be using it to test a couple of physics goals I want to tackle.

I really look forward to showing off what's in store for this year, and I hope you're all ready too. The support this year was mindboggling to me, and from the bottom of my heart, thank you all so much for enjoying and supporting my content, I wouldn't be here if it weren't for all of you, so thank you, and I hope you all have a Happy New Year :)

See you all in 2023! 

Archive Link Delivery Issues

Edit: I won't be able to get them out before December 1st. Please reach out to me if you have any questions or concerns either on my Email or Discord concerning the Archive Link, I'll respond as soon as I can and help you resolve whatever you need!

I managed to get a few out, but the messaging system is still having some serious issues on my end, PC and Mobile.

For the remaining Patrons that need Links, I'm trying to get Archive Links out, Patreon seems to be having some issues with it's messaging system. I was able to send a few out, but for the most part, it's having a lot of issues.

I have a list of the remaining people that need links and I'm trying to get them sent, but if possible, message me if you pledged this month and haven't received a link yet!

You can try messaging me here on Patreon, but if that doesn't work, you can email me at qualtroverse@gmail.com or DM me on Twitter (@qualtroverse) or Discord (Qualtro#2080), just be sure to include your Patreon name in your message and I'll get it sorted out for you!

This is getting deleted as soon as the message system gets going again, so if you're seeing this, make sure you got a link, and if not, reach out if you need one!

CODE BLUE

Well, I can finally call this entire release complete*.

I also have a compressed version available in case you have issues watching this version

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1vN2mrfJERgt4cK5l42Qq-ZaS1w0RVRbU/view?usp=sharing

https://mega.nz/file/Y6BAAYBS#8JAPOfePrel-L118r2D3oN24-jEX6vGC4_8wmwp_VEQ 

Finally finishing this animation and having a public release that I'm really happy with is genuinely a relieving experience, especially after it taking a couple of months to finish after a lot of hiccups, but overall, I think it turned out great with what I had.

Obviously there's room for improvement, and finishing this means I can reflect and analyze what I did good and what I did poorly on.

For example, the model looks kinda stiff when moving like around the joints, it doesn't bend and squish like it would, but adding that would take a lot of time and effort, but I think it'll be worth it, so I'll be looking into that for the next animation.

And the hands look terrible, I butchered them, but I have a solution for the next animation, if I can get it working right.

My main gripes with this animation is mainly from the armature and rigging as you can tell, but I can also improve on the shading and lighting.

I also don't think the displaced underwear looks great, even though I tried to spend enough time dialing it in. I think it looks okay for what it's trying to accomplish, but I'll be spending a lot more time on this for the next animation.

I've got a lot of new hardware to make this new animation with, and I'm taking the proper steps to make sure it comes out the way I want it to

The biggest thing honestly might be my updated workflow. For this animation, it's one big (aside from previous versions and backups) blend file containing all of the assets and animation, and it's a non-stop continuous animation. As I'm moving to an animation only workflow, this kind of workflow is hell. If anything goes wrong in the stack, it could inadvertently affect the entire animation. For stills and really short form looping animations, this is fine, but for long form animation, it just complicates the entire project and opens the door to more and more error. So I'm starting to do shot based work, where instead of one big continuous animation like Code Blue, it'll be segmented and planned per shot. This should also improve efficiency as I can finalize and render shots for the animation way sooner, rather than rendering the entirety of the animation in one go. This should also simplify tasks like cloth, hair, and softbody simulation as the simulations will be isolated to their specific shot, rather than interfering with the entire animation.

*Now that this version is finished though, honestly, I'm not happy with how the NSFW Version came out compared to this one, and I'm tempted to re-render it yet again with some much needed improvements that the Standard Edition got like the reflection, subsurface scattering, and displacement improvements.

I'll probably end up re-rendering when I go on my small break, and just get back to it when it's complete and I'm rested, I feel it wouldn't be a huge issue to re-render and quickly replace the versions compared to the standard release.

But as for the next animation, I'm currently storyboarding it right now, it's currently up to about 30 shots and I need more space for sticky-notes, but the change in scenery definitely helps with this next animation, I have some cool ideas in there already that I hope will make it into the final.

I really need to step up my production quality if I want to pull some of these ideas off, and because I need to upgrade my models and resources to do so, this animation will most definitely release sometime early next year. I'm gonna try to have some content available in the mean-time, and not turn them into full-fledged animations, but the next long form animation will take a while to make.

And it takes place in an Office, there's lots of cool, unique ideas possible there, I can't wait to show all of you! I'll probably end up posting some of the storyboard ideas, I'm not a great sketch artists so they range from "I put a lot of effort into this one frame" to "sketched really fast just to get the idea across without regards to quality of the sketch"

I'm going on a small week long break to relax and enjoy some time to myself for a bit, I hope you all have a good Thanksgiving, and until next time! :)

CODE BLUE: Public Underwear Alt is Rendering!

I've finally begun the render on the Public version of CODE BLUE, it took a little longer than I would have hoped to make some much needed improvements from the NSFW Version, which will eventually make their way into said version when I re-render that layer like planned, and some additions to the overall quality like the deformation of the underwear.

It'll take about 2-3 days to render as expected, so a Tuesday/Wednesday release is most likely, Thursday if it takes slightly longer than expected to edit.

Another thing I've been considering is skipping the updated Cloth Simulation version of Code Blue to focus on the next project. I just don't think the cloth simulation will be worth the effort and time to implement and then re-release. Sure it'd look cool, but this animation just wasn't really a good start for it, and I'd rather direct more of my time and energy into a much better project more suited for cloth simulation.

I've got some big plans for the next animation, mainly a location change. The next animation will no longer be in the Berry Fields, I've got a new location in mind that allows for some ideas I really wanna try, especially now that I can focus on individual shots rather than the entire continuous animation with my workflow adjustment ideas. I just feel the Berry Field is kind of a blank slate that you can throw anything in, kind of like what Code Blue became.

Code Blue was mainly just a basic expansion animation, I wanted Soon TM to be a longer, more detailed animation rather than just a location and a person that happens to expand in it.

I want a crowd, I want cloth tearing, I want to do another chair thing like I did with the CobaltRev pic, I want interactions, and I want the expansion to affect the environment too, and this new location opens it up to those kinds of things unlike the Berry Field.

I'm gonna start working on the storyboard as this renders and planning the shots out so I can get to work. I'll share more here soon when I've got stuff to share, it'll probably be the updated shape-keys first since I can definitely improve the ones in Code Blue, then I'll probably share the storyboard details, but I'll leave you all a little hint for the
new location I have planned until then. I'll leave the location details in next weeks TPS reports.

CODE BLUE: NUDE VERSION

The first version is complete!

Honestly not too sure how I feel about the audio, but I'm gonna revisit it when I get to finishing the public version.

There's still a few bugs with this render, but I'm comfortable with calling this a complete version, but I do plan on revising this version when the public version is done to fix the bugs and improve the sound.

It's my first long form animation, and it's a little rough around the edges, I still feel like I can pull of something great with enough time and effort, and this animation has taught me a lot for making these long animations.

I'm planning on making one final upgrade to the public version and re-rendering the human layer, fixing the masking issues I have to manually (and kinda fucked up) resolve. That'll be out later this week.

As for the cloth simulation version, I'm taking a small break before I work on that version.

CODE BLUE IS ALMOST DONE

I'm in the very final stages of production, I'm finishing up editing, sound is basically complete and just needs a bit more work, and I'll be posting the final animation soon!

CODE BLUE Update

I've got some news about the upcoming animation!

- Free Version and NSFW Patreon/DA Subs Version will release at the same time!

- Estimated Release Date is November 12th!

- Free Version will just feature underwear, NSFW version will not *wink wink*

- Free + NSFW Cloth Simulated Versions coming later

- Hoping to god the tests didn't lie to me and render goes smoothly.

- I've increased the resolution from 1080p to 4k for extra clarity and sharpness.

- Estimated Render Time is roughly 4-5 FULL Days, but I've made optimizations.

I made some major optimizations to the render, specifically the layer separation. I'm now rendering the subject, setting, and underwear layers separately one after the other, per frame.

This actually takes about the same time as it would to just render it all out as a single layer, but what this actually saves me from is having to re-render entire parts of the scene that don't require a re-render, like the setting or underwear.

Rendering the subject alone rather than with the setting is significantly faster, and actually nets better quality as it can sample faster than it would with the setting, so she'll look less noisy than the previous full quality test render, on top of the higher render resolution.

If there's issues with the hair, the extra few days I allocated for myself gives me slightly more time to correct errors in the render, which should be significantly easier as I only have to render the subject. If there aren't any errors and the edit goes smoothly, there's a chance that the animation may release sooner, but that's not guarantied.

As for the cloth simulation version, I don't know how long it'll take to figure out, so I'm just releasing a free version rather than delaying it, which should have been my release strategy instead of the other one.

The version featuring Cloth Simulation is still coming, but I don't know how long it's going to take, and I need to buy a license for Houdini so I can export the cloth.

The cloth simulation could just be a drop in replacement for the current animation, but I'll be re-rendering the background and subject layers for proper reflections and shadows. Call it a Special Edition featuring Cloth Simulation.

I'm really happy with this animation though, especially after the catastrophe that was trying to get this animation out before November. It's definitely an ambitious step up from Star of the Show in terms of render quality, animation, lighting, complexity, and length. 

The only real challenge now is color correcting the HDR video for SDR, which is challenge I need to tackle while this is rendering. Which is why this image used looks a little funky as I had to correct it, it looks much better in it's full color range but I can't upload that to most websites.

I also need to finish the sound, but that's going along smoothly, but I don't have much to share about that.

But yes, assuming nothing goes wrong from this point on, I should be able to release this on or before the 12th!

Title Suggested by JuggerPuggs

Final Lab Test Render

I'm finally happy with how this render has turned out, and I think I'm ready to start rendering the final animation!

I need to make a few more adjustments before I hit render, but this animation is as close to final as it gets. The final won't look as noisy and low resolution, I'm dedicating a whole weekend to just rendering this out at a good resolution and sample count.

As for audio, the mix is about half-way but I don't feel it's ready to share just yet, so it'll have to wait till the full animation drops after the weekend. I've been working on it while the test render was rendering, and I'll continue to work on it while the final animation renders out. I'm also still editing and tuning color correction, but after the render is finished, it'll be a drop in replacement for the video I'm currently using, and it'll be out very soon!

I'm super happy this project is nearly complete (again), and I'll have more to share soon!

Lab Animation Test Render 3

This was initially planned to be the finished product, I really wanted a version of the animation to be finished by today, and spent hours tuning the hair settings, fixing small issues, and after over 35 hours of rendering, this is what I've got.

To say that I'm devastated is an understatement.

I feel this animation is already taking long enough considering the gap between the Car Video and this one, and having to delay the final release of the animation again just leaves me feeling defeated.

Overall I'm happy with the quality of the render, the mocap, the environment, and the pacing compared to my previous attempts at full body transformation animation, but even with all of that, I can't call this finished.

I've got the idea stuck in my head that the next piece has to be significantly better than the last, and in most ways, I feel in some ways this meets that expectation of myself, but I've failed miserably in some ways, specifically the hair and render quality in some parts. I still think I can bring the quality of those parts back up to par with the rest of the render, but I'll need just a little extra time to do so, and verify that it's all good for a final render.

On the bright side, a little extra time allocated for this means I can implement one more idea that won't cause issues, and that's to bring this full circle and re-use the unfinished short animation as the introduction for this one, just to tie it together. The animation where the subject is in the chair and is administered the blue liquid from the IV. It'll be in a separate project file so it won't interfere with the main project, but I think it'll add a lot rather than just starting, waving and turning blue.

I'm aiming to have this done and rendering over the weekend, knowing the goal is so close is keeping me going, so I'm not giving up and foregoing aspects of the animation just to get it out the door faster.

Thank you everyone for your continued support, if it weren't for all of you, I may have just thrown in the towel on this one, but I know I've gotta get this finished.

I'm gonna get back to work on the animation, I'll keep you all posted!

The Animation is Rendering!

I finally have the animation rendering! It's about 650 frames in as of right now!

It should be done by sometime tomorrow, then I'll get to editing and releasing it here!

Thank you all for being super patient with me while I finish this animation up, it's been a long time coming, I hope you enjoy the finished result :)

Update on the Animation (10/23)

I have some good news! I've been hard at work on the upcoming Lab Animation, and it's nearly complete, but not in the way I was hoping it would

Soon, I'll be rendering out two versions of the animation and posting it here within a few days, a nude version and an underwear version. As for the fully clothed version, unfortunately I have to delay it for a bit until I can figure out how to simulate cloth onto the model, but it's still coming! I would have hoped the mocap rig would make animations easier but the real challenge now is the cloth.

I've decided to use Houdini for the cloth simulation, at least at the later stages, as Marvelous Designer isn't giving me the results I need, specifically cloth tearing. I've decided at the later stages of the animation that the clothes are just gonna burst off. I have a method to tear cloth now and I'm really excited! It's quick to iterate on, and it looks great! It's all thanks to Houdini.

I had to remove the intricate jiggles due to the breasts glitching and complications with the cloth simulation, but I've substituted it with a faster and simpler form of soft body where the bones of the armature make the model jiggle, like they would in a videogame.

As I get better at Houdini, I can re-introduce an actual soft body simulation into the model and anticipate and fix issues that would break the soft body simulation, but as of right now, it would be too complicated to figure out and just push the current animation out further, so I'm gonna save it for the next project: the berry field animation.

This animation kinda became what the berry field animation was gonna be, give or take a couple of details like the location and certain location specific actions like picking and eating the blueberries, but it opened my eyes to how big and complicated long form animation can be, and especially pacing. The berry field animation was planned to be about 1:30-2:00, and that barely feels like enough for this animation, and this animation doesn't even have a plot even though I would like to add a small one. So the Berry Field animation may end up being 3-4 minutes long after what I've learned from this one.

But I'm excited the animation is finally nearing completion, and I hope all of you are too, so I'll keep you all posted with updates!

Animation Test Render 2 (WIP)

The animation is nearing completion, but I've still got some stuff to figure out.

This test animation isn't even the full animation, I skipped rendering the last 100 frames as it's the same shot regardless, so while it's cut from this spot, nothing interesting happens, and it will be in the final animation.

The final animation will be 2000 frames long, which is about 1 minute and 23 seconds, my longest yet, and definitely my most technologically impressive animation I've made so far, from the soft body physics to the mocap animation. I'm really proud of what I've made so far, but its clear it's not done yet, and still needs some work before I can release the final animation.

I'm planning on reworking the lighting again, it seems a bit dull now, especially near the beginning of the animation. I don't have a specific idea in mind, but I might make it darker, but I want to keep it relatively well lit, so I'll need to spend some more time figuring out how to fix that. 

I also need to fix the hair, I made some changes to it so I could simulate the hair physics, and I haven't been able to do so yet. I ran a single hair dynamics test and it looked pretty good, but I didn't like the shape and quality of the hair.

I have the old hair setup from the glow-up post, so I'll probably fall back on that setup and figure out how to simulate that properly.

Unfortunately the hair physics didn't make it into the test render, but it will be in the next test render alongside the cloth simulation.

I also added the soft body and jiggle physics to the model, and it still needs some tuning, especially towards the end of the animation and the breasts, I think it turned out pretty well in the end. The soft body physics however aren't even technically soft body, it's a cloth simulation.

I've found after some testing and research that the soft body tools in Blender are pretty alright, but they don't fit this specific scenario. But in my research, I found people where using the cloth simulation tools as a stand-in for soft body physics, and not only does it look better, it bakes significantly faster too! So this animation's soft body physics are actually powered by the cloth simulation tools, despite the soft body tools being derived from the cloth simulator itself. I could not get the soft body tools to work well with the model, where as cloth worked wonderfully.

I also want to make the transition to the blue skin more dynamic rather than just a simple fade to blue. I have a test shader from the project this was derived from, the Blue Lab Subject, but it's specially built for that specific animation. However, that shader laid the foundation for what I need to make it dynamic, specifically the edge veins and spread technique. It utilizes vertex colors to determine where the blue should be and at what value, and while they're painted manually in the test animations for the Blue Lab Subject, there are methods to paint them dynamically, and I plan on doing so in this animation.

As for the watermark, I believe transparency is the best option for explaining why they're here. This version of watermark is only for work in progress art, and I really want to make it as non-intrusive as possible while still remaining in a sensible spot.

NSFW Versions will not have this specific type of watermark, but will have a version similar to the watermarks on public images, still as non-intrusive as possible, less so than this.

As I and some others who reached out to me have found, the test animation from last week was posted to various servers and websites, mostly without credit, and as an animator showing off my early work, it's really frustrating seeing it pop up in random places with no attribution or credit, on top of being unfair to all of you who support my content through Patreon or DeviantArt subscriptions. 

It's unfinished, I know it and you know it, and while I make it clear in my posts here, it might not be so obvious when viewing it out of context. I only post what I deem to be a certain level of quality publicly, especially after releasing some works that I don't think were as good as they should have been the first time around. 

I work very hard on these animations, as I invest a lot of time and energy into prepping them for prime-time, and it's demoralizing to see it posted elsewhere publicly, with or without credit before it's finished. Whether it's criticized or still praised despite it looking terrible compared to what the finished product will be like, I really am not comfortable with it being public yet.

As you're all my primary supporters, I feel comfortable sharing these with you as I know you'll have my back, and as a sign of my gratitude for the support, I love showing these tests and work in progress works, and describing what goes into them. You make my work possible, so I like to share my though processes and experiments with all of you to show you what I'm working on, and I only want to share more, especially over disappearing for a few weeks and coming back with a new animation.

I hope these watermarks will make it clear that it's only intended for a specific audience (you all) while also stating it's a work in progress animation. Most of the people who posted the animation didn't even know it was paid content.

This is not a call to action, please do not attack anyone for posting paid content, whether they know it's paid or not. You can reach out to me if you'd like to inform me so I can figure out how to handle the issue, but please keep it civil.

Thank you again for supporting my content through Patreon or DeviantArt subscriptions, I wouldn't have had the budget to invest in better hardware and mocap equipment without your help, and it genuinely means the world to me and helps me spring right back into creating these animations knowing you all have my back.

I hope these watermarks aren't a bother for you, and I apologize if it is. I'm always up to re-iterate on these things and improve on them in the future, and I'd love to hear your feedback on it, positive or negative, it really helps me improve on these types of things. I won't see you any other way even if you call me an idiot for adding watermarks to W.I.P content.

Thanks again, and now I'm gonna get to fixing the soft body physics!

Animated Cloth Simulation Test 1

Finally finished a version of the jiggle physics for the character, I still need to tune it a bit, but while it's very subtle not by design, it's there.

But I've decided to run a little test simulation for the cloth to see how it will react to the animation and specifically the jump from the first armature to the second armature for the model.

There's two separate armatures that the model uses in this animation, the one with the mocap data with Mixamo generated weights, and the original rig with the original weights. The issue comes when you use the shape keys designed for the original rig with the mocap rig, the weights used to influence and deform the model are different, resulting in the same pose looking different between the two armatures. 

I cannot use the original rig for mocap as it doesn't play nice with Mocap Fusion, the software I use to do the mocap in, so I generated a new rig in Mixamo, and used that rig and weights, and it worked significantly better.

I cannot fix this without creating entirely new shape keys for the mocap rig.

But I do have a workaround. I just transition to the original armature during a camera change. The model looks slightly different, but in the animation and from the camera views, it looks similar enough. You can see this armature change in Marvelous Designer, and it handled it extremely well.

You do lose the mocap, but at this stage, it's not necessary, so I think it's a fair tradeoff.

I'm using Marvelous Designer for this as I'm most familiar with it as I'm still getting the hang of Houdini. I've had successful cloth simulations in Houdini, but compared to MD, it's pretty slow, slow enough where I can't make reasonable amounts of iterations on it compared to Marvelous Designer.

I think it did a tremendous job on the simulation apart from the end where my issues with MD are still apparent with the stretching of the cloth and collision with the ground ruining the pants at the end, but with some manual work, I think I can get it looking good. But the main thing I'm impressed with is how it handled the transition to the main armature from the mocap armature. The very first frame is a little janky as it determines where the model is, but solving it the very next frame was most impressive, and that accurately, with just a single frame, is honestly incredible. I expected it to just glitch out and not even work, but this exceeded my expectations, it's great.

This will be the outfit in the animation, I'm planning on removing the hood. With some minor tweaks to the soft body physics and manual cloth adjustments, I think this'll turn out great!

I'll update more as I continue iterating!

Cycles Lab Test Render

Update: Reuploaded another compressed version, hopefully should fix some issues with playback, again. If not, I'll try uploading to Imgur.

Got the animation rendered out at about 20 samples per frame at 720p, its pretty low quality in this render, but it rendered in under 2 hours, so it's a fair trade-off

Release version will be rendered at 1080p with many, many more samples

But it still needs some work before release, especially towards the end and some odd camera angles. The lighting also needs to be re-done, and the set needs to be finished on the other side when the camera swaps behind her. I also need to make the moving smoke seem more animated, it is animated but I animated it pretty slowly, so it looks almost static.

I'm also gonna add an audience here in a bit, and add softbody and hair simulation for the berry

Another Animation Update

Made some heavy upgrades to the hair for the animation, I'll be messing with hair simulation shortly after I finish up the animation, just gotta make some correction shape keys for the animation and it should be done.

Then I'm gonna try some softbody simulation stuff, I think it'll really add to the mocap, I just need a method to tackle it.

I'm gonna finish adjusting the lighting here soon too!

(Animation) Lab Animation is being extended

Fixed the Link!

Originally, I was just gonna mocap the seated swelling video really fast and get it out after the initial mocap tests worked out super well, but then it turned into this.

I recorded about 11 mocap sets, I wanted to record multiple in one run so I could have a set to work with without having to throw on the mocap equipment again and setup the character just for 1 more recording, and I thought it'd be fun to record just a simple run of someone blowing up, which you're seeing now.

The start lags a bit, not sure why, otherwise, the rest of the playback is pretty smooth. The animation is going along nicely, so I don't expect this one should take too long, even though my estimates have been wildly off in the past and absurdly optimistic. Those were mainly constraints from animating however, with the new mocap system, it's absurdly faster while getting wildly better results, I couldn't do this level of animation if you gave me a full month to work on it, and it was just recorded tonight.

I'm was super excited to introduce the mocap rig into my workflow, and it genuinely makes it that much faster, it's honestly incredible how much of a time save this is, and I wouldn't have it without all of your support, so thank you thank you thank you!!!

Not only can I animate the subject incredibly well, I can also animate on-lookers, which would have taken a massive amount of time because of each individual I'd have to animate, but now I can just spend about half an hour to an hour recording a bunch and using whatever ones I need. It took a while on Star of the Show just to animate the 3 people in the background, and in my opinion, they don't look great, but they were background characters on screen for a couple of seconds, blurred from the depth of field, so it didn't matter as much. But extras can just be added without worrying about how long it'll take to animate them, and they'll be animated to the about the same quality of the subject in the video.

I'm planning on upgrading the mocap rig with some more trackers relatively soon, primarily so I can track a few more parts of my body.

The main issue I've been noticing with the mocap is the elbow solver in Mocap Fusion, which is the software I'm using to do all of this. Actions such as reaching around a swollen belly or lifting the arms and bending the elbows upwards mess with the elbow solver, and doesn't match where my elbow actually is, so you'll end up with the elbow just clipping the model which messes with cloth sim and looks terrible.

Unless foot tracking is completely omitted, more trackers just seems to be the solution unless I can figure something else out in the time being. I'll probably post the other mocap recordings here soon when I'm not working on this animation so you can see what I'm talking about.

But the future looks very bright for my animation ambitions, and its all thanks to you  all, and the mocap rig I could only afford with your support!

Cycles Stills from Lab Animation

Mocap Tests

Update on the animations, re-doing animation with mocap

Hello! Sorry about the lack of updates on the animations, I've been animating them but I've come to the realization that hand animating these is gonna take forever.

So I've decided to scrap what I've had so far and invested in motion capture equipment.

The shorter animation is coming out relatively soon, as it has been re-animated by hand and just needs a bit more polish then a render and it's done, but the upcoming full animation will be about 1 and a half to 2 minutes long, and I was only really a quarter of the way done with it.

That's why I investing in motion capture equipment, as it'll produce significantly better results faster than if I had just done it by hand. It should be way more realistic and lifelike compared to my traditional hand animation (not literal hand animation, animating it all manually).

I've been working on other projects in the meantime however, I've started another trek into better cloth simulation tech, and I'm gonna start exploring avenues like Houdini and Syflex for cloth simulation. I loved Marvelous Designer, but the quality of the sims actually isn't particularly accurate, so I'm hoping the two programs I've listed will solve this issue.

Syflex is the same cloth simulation software used by Moving Picture Company, the VFX house behind Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, specifically for the cloth in the blueberry scenes, so I'm hoping I'll be able to figure it out and get it into an actual animation if I can't use Houdini, which Houdini should hopefully be enough. It's still supported in most software today. I'm hoping to get it working in Cinema4D but it seems the exact version I need has serious issues working on Windows 10 (and I'm on 11) so they basically wiped it from the fucking internet and I can't find a single download for it. 

Specifically C4D R20, so if anyone knows where I can find a version of R20, I'd greatly appreciate it, and I'll even throw in an Archive link if you can find one for me before I find a working version (and it has to work before I send the link).

But, I had a whole talk about cloth on Twitter that I'll summarize here since it was pretty long.

Basically, while Marvelous Designer records tension and stress maps, it doesn't seem like it actually simulates the cloth to account for said tension and stress, which means cloth doesn't ride up like it usually would IRL. This can actually be seen in Star of the Show, where the bottom of the cloth on the legs is still pretty unstretched, and doesn't seem to really shrink as the rest of the shorts expand. Also, cloth tearing is possible but extremely improbable and inconsistent in MD as new tears would require a brand new animation, and recording a new set of keyframes for cuts in the animation ruins the quality of the animation, which means most of the cloth has to be simulated in a single go, unless I can find a way to make edits to cloth without messing up the animation when I go to continue the simulation. It doesn't restart the simulation exactly where it left off, and messes up the shape and look of the cloth. Also, new edits to the cloth just straight up deletes previous simulations, so multiple models would need to be produced just for the cloth tearing. Hence, why its impractical and inconsistent. 

This shouldn't be an issue with Houdini or Syflex however as they're designed to be more realistic (from what I understand), more so than Marvelous Designer.

Marvelous Designer while extremely great, just wasn't built for this kind of work, more for games and designing clothes.

Again, the animations are coming, the mocap hardware is gonna make it infinitely easier, faster to produce, and way better than just hand animation like how I've been working this entire time.