#adventures in meshing

[fade-touched-eezo]

Listen, I swear I will quit posting terrible screenshots of half-baked blender mashups of dragon age meshes at some point but not until I have finished with the goblin victory screeching because I have finally o b l i t e r a t e d that fucking chainmail from the dalish outfit. Can I explain why that detail, of all the many, many inexplicably stupid things in these games, has personally enraged me for the past nine years? no. Can I force everyone silly enough to follow this zombie account to behold my absolute crimes against everything I was ever taught about making meshes for gamedev and-slash-or game modding? yes. Also once more let me express what a manifest tragedy it is against me, personally, that Frosty doesn't allow me to hack at the cloth meshes, and that this apparently means I can't make my little buttflap dalish dress into proper Inquisitor armor.

also also please god someone stop me from attempting to replace the ef (and em, and probably definitely hf) arms with the buff ones from the qunari outfit i'm begging you

[chamerionwrites]

When will someone gently take all the internet food bloggers by the shoulders, look into their eyes, and explain that coconut milk is not a neutral-flavored dairy substitute

[marshmellobunny64]

Marcille

[citricacidprince]

Adventure time au where everything is the same but the only clothes Simon and Marcy could find in the apocalypse came from Spencers

I just think they deserve to have father-daughter bonding/trauma time while looking absolutely ridiculous, is that too much to ask?

Don’t ask why I put so much effort into this, I was in a wild sleep deprived state 💥

[morrigan-sims]

I'm back on my sword-making bullshit. Or in this case, taking 3 other meshes and mashing them together to get something that looks halfway decent.

(Absurdly long and skinny image under the cut.)

[whos-hotter-jjba]

Hottest JJBA Outfit Bracket - Narciso Anasui Preliminary Poll

[cad-faoi-maeglin]

I think Entombed has some serious missed Tech x Phee potential. Like, they're all dropped into a space Zelda dungeon inside a Devine Beast of Mass Destruction (R.I.P Mel) to go Indiana Jones some artifact, and you're telling me this wasn't the perfect time to have their two areas of expertise come together to get them through?

Yeah, Tech would need to learn the ropes on how to handle a puzzle dungeon and the knowledge required would probably land more in Phee's wheelhouse of cultures and legends (though to be fair, there are instances where Tech seems to also be knowledgable about the former at least), but I'm inclined to think it wouldn't be impossible to write some puzzles that require the two of them to put their head's together.

Considering how little screentime the two get together, I don't think it would have hurt to place the emphasis on their interactions here. This scenario could have been such a good way for them to start making heart eyes at each other while solving puzzles that the others can't keep up with becuase it requires the kinds of weird niche knowledge these two have. And even if they didn't want to go so far as heart eyes, then it would have been a good (and entertaining) way for them to establish a mutual respect and an understanding that they make a good team.

[simlicious]

I'm feeling adventurous and tried sculpting with the cloth brush in Blender. It's such a game changer, just wow. In maybe 20 minutes I went from base to what you see below. Incredible. And this is my first time using them. I just wanted to get a nice texture bake from the high poly sculpt for my base mesh, but I definitely love how dynamic that sculpt looks! If I'm feeling totally reckless I might attempt a retopology of it... but I'm not sure I want to put myself through that kind of torture just yet 😜

I talk more about the project under the read more!

But then again, I already changed the base TS4 mesh a lot and did the entire UV map from scratch. Some people would consider that torture, but I weirdly enjoy it. I also found a great way to turn UV maps into squares (thanks, UV toolkit add-on!). The UV's need a bit of finetuning afterward, but it's definitely less work than doing the process by hand. I tried to make a really low drop-sleeve. I know the bones will give me hell but I will paint them on myself. Hopefully, it will look okay later. I still want it to be a chunky wool pullover and have to be careful not to overdo it with the folds though. Even if it is so much fun to add them. Must. Resist. In case you are wondering about the base mesh, it is this one: you can see that they avoided doing a low sleeve at all costs (it looks a bit funny how tight it is around the shoulders and how wide the sleeves get, no one would actually knit like that but I bet they did it because of the animations.

Does anyone else feel peeved about the way the TS4 knitted fabrics look? It's so cursed.

As a knitter, it's really hard to tolerate even looking at those weird alternating stripes with way too low of a saturation. It would look tons better if they just had used the light vertical V's without alternating them with a darker shade. If that is supposed to be imitating a ribbed texture, that's such a fail (where are the purls??). Maybe they had a brioche stitch in mind? I doubt they did much research on the basic knit stitches before they made the texture. Huge missed opportunity, and kinda sad for a pack centered around knitting. The ribbing on the hem looks nice though, I give them that.

But enough rambling about that, I'm not going to use the texture anyway. I want to update my TS3 CC meshing workflow and have been learning new techniques here and there. They just need to come all together and I need a few projects that I actually finish to solidify the workflow. Once I figure it out, I really want to make tutorials about how I do things. That's the plan (that was the plan for this year, in fact, but realistically, I should make it my 3-year plan instead). I'm not even attempting to finish anything mesh-wise to the point of release at the moment (so don't get your hopes up yet). I'm just playing around and learning and trying new things. I need to reduce my anxiety to actually work on projects at all, and if I don't have a public release on the back of my mind, it seems a bit easier :)

[beansnpeets]

Getting to see the sled dogs yesterday was a much needed pick-me-up. I am realizing, though, that my favourite dogs tend to be the wildest ones 😅

I am going to need my own team this year and some of the younger dogs still need training. That's why he brought me on to help out in the first place. I am kinda hoping Suka and Bruce can be on my team. They are crazy assholes, but gosh I do love them. They are good boys. I also really like Kita. She's such a crazy little thing lol

But my absolute favourite is Steel and he is a nice chill boy. He is my buddy. We got a lot of bonding time last season and I just adore him.

Of course I adore Echo, too. I also really like Raiden. Obviously I love ALL the dogs, but they are all unique and I get along better with certain dogs.

[findroleplay]

sorry you're bored and have been having bad luck, this is my ad but it's for you, you should rp with me, mod /lh

Thanks Anon, that's the struggle with rping small fandoms and rarepairs lol Just go ahead and DM, let's see if we have some interests in common, why not?

[nixie-deangel]

@redfurrycat the crochet mesh market bag inspired by Hulk/Halloween! 💜💚 I love her y'all!

[papaiyatree]

thinking about what ian flynn said about issue 56....

[marigoldbaker]

ok i have to for real go to sleep i just am thinking about my little bard girl and her endurance, as ever, surprises me. made her to throw her down a cliff but i think i kinda want her to win

[fictionadventurer]

@freenarnian The cranberry sauce turned out beautifully! And smells divine!

[whos-hotter-jjba]

Hottest JJBA Outfit Bracket - Jolyne Cujoh Definitve Preliminary Poll

[eegasleega-will-change-this-l8r]

Prophecy Rambling

So a while ago I wrote this fic about Giygas and the Apple of Enlightenment, based on this neat bit in one of the japanese guidebooks detailing a conversation between them

Recently I took it down because I've been thinking more about the Apple and the Prophecy and my ideas surrounding both have become wayyyyy more complicated than what I had in mind at the time (it also just needed some rewrites anyway but that's beside the point ><)

Earlier today I rambled at @commandernachos for about half an hour trying to put everything together, so without further ado, here's my current thoughts about the Apple, Buzz Buzz's prophecy, and the confusing time travel shenanigans involved in Ness's adventure!

(note that as per usual, this is firmly personal headcanons, not strict analysis)

Right so, my fic had a pretty simple premise: Giygas asks the Apple of Enlightenment, a super advanced machine able to predict the future, to tell him how his invasion unfolds The Apple informs him that not only does he fail, he'll be totally destroyed by a boy named Ness Outraged, Giygas tries to find some way to alter the course of the future, and lands on corrupting Porky into helping him, against the Apple's advice And so this leads into the end of Earthbound, where Porky is an unexpected wrench in everyone's plans (The Apple of Enlightenment couldn't predict this.)

So that's all neat and orderly, BUT I was neglecting some crucial things For one thing, while I was drawing from that Giygas/Apple conversation thing, I was totally ignoring the legend from the actual game:

When the chosen boy reaches the point, he will find the light. The passing of time will shatter the nightmare rock and will reveal the path of light.

Which was very much on purpose, because it's weird and super confusing. Plus it's radically different from how the Apple gives its predictions in the guidebook convo and my fic, so I didn't wanna bother figuring out how to reconcile it with them. That being said, it's a pretty huge thing to ignore, and it's been nagging at me ever since!! so here we are.

But, that aside, there's another thing I didn't consider! Which is how Giygas wins!!

So, along with the legend, Buzz Buzz tells us that he's from a future (10 years after 199X) in which Giygas succeeded, and everything was destroyed At a glance, this is easy to rationalize:

Apple predicts Ness will destroy Giygas

Giygas snatches up Porky to mess up the Apple's prediction

Porky's presence allows Giygas to win and destroy everything (presumably by turning off the Devil's Machine and unleashing Giygas's full power, like at the end of the game)

But this begs the question: why are Ness and his friends able to defeat Giygas in the game's timeline? What changes???

So what I've landed on all hinges on one thing: the Apple's prophecy and Buzz Buzz's legend are two different things. Both predict Ness's role as the hero and Giygas's death, but they're both separate things. As the Apple states in its conversation with Giygas, "The results of temporal interference cannot be prophecized." It can only predict the outcome of the unaltered timeline, which never came to pass. The legend, meanwhile, is something ancient, predating Giygas, able to transcend his meddling with time.

So basically, we're left with three different timelines. I imagine this is all pretty convoluted, so here's a handy little chart I made which I think simplifies everything pretty nicely:

How I imagine things play out:

Unaltered Timeline: Buzz Buzz never arrives, so neither the sound stone nor the sanctuaries are in play. Ness goes on journey of his own accord, things play out much more smoothly without Porky's interference (Paula is never kidnapped, for instance). Giygas is never released from the Devil's Machine, and is defeated without ever using his full power or destroying his mind. All goes according to the Apple's prophecy.

Porkified Timeline: Giygas, fearing the above outcome, corrupts Porky to his side. Porky gives Ness much more trouble on his journey, but he is able to make it to Giygas as before. Porky disobeys Giygas and disables the Devil's Machine, allowing Giygas to destroy the Chosen Four and begin mindlessly devouring the rest of reality. Buzz Buzz, knowing the ancient legend, travels back in time to bring it about.

Earthbound Timeline: Well, you know how this one goes.

One thing I have difficulty reconciling though, is that despite the changes Buzz Buzz brings with him, it's NOT Ness who destroys Giygas in the end! Why does Ness fulfilling the prophecy, gathering the power of the earth, overcoming the evil parts of himself in Magicant, becoming more powerful than he ever could've been otherwise, ...allow Paula to destroy Giygas? What was different in Giygas's altered timeline that prevented Paula from doing the same thing then? This is something I don't have an answer for :/

So it seems I still need to do some more brainstorming. But in the meantime, those are all my ideas about this! Hope it's not too confusing to wrap your head around ^^ And man that fic is gonna be so much more complicated whenever I get around to rewriting it haha