#thinking of giving eris a slight redesign

[dipdoodlesamuel]

made two ship kids, and heres a buncha random doodles ive done over time

[spartanburger]

Title

So I want to give a quick update on the state of the updated Quarian Civilian model I’ve been slowly working on over the last few months.  I’ve had a few heavy weeks at work that have taken precedent, and I’m only now getting back into a normal routine, but it is coming along steadily.

Right now, I’m still adding the hood flexes.  I would say I’m somewhere between a third and a half of the way done with them.  My process for doing them has sped up quite a bit lately, so it shouldn’t take too much longer.

Anyway, here’s one of the issues I’m running into:  Adding a shapekey to flex the hood on one side is easy enough.  The issue is getting a mirrored shape key on the other side.  For example:

Here we see the fifth left hood flex.  Now, in blender, the easiest way to mirror a shapekey is to duplicate the current shape key (”new shape from mix”) and then hit mirror shapekey.  However, this feature is programmed to have zero tolerance.  If the corresponding vertex is even a millionth of a blender-unit off, it will say the key failed to mirror. This poses an issue as, although the model appears to be symmetric, it isn’t (by very slight amounts that would otherwise be imperceptible).  About 20% of the vertexes are symmetric as well, so if I just moved the model, those would then be off.  I can’t mirror those 20% and then do the rest manual as, when the mirror is applied, any failed vertexes are left behind, so I would have more work, reversing the flexes on the old side and then applying the same flex on the new.

Right now, my process has been that, once I’ve got the main key done, move vertexes manually by putting the old and new blender-unit coordinates into a spreadsheet, and then the coordinates of the new vertexes as well, and it will automatically give me the new coordinates I need.

I then just copy the calculated coordinates into blender and the vertexes move.  I do this by vertex pair (if you look at the model, the hood has an outside and an inside. Outside vertex and corresponding inside vertex make a pair).  Generally, about 50 vertexes are moved per shape key, so this means I only have to do this 25 times per mirrored key.  I’ve gotten the process down, so it doesn’t really take me too long (relatively speaking) to get a key mirrored.

I plan on doing about 6 keys per side that pull the hood back (each at different heights along the edge of the hood), at least three that pull it forward, and 3 that pull them out horizontally, a total of 18.  So far, I’ve done five of the pull-backs, both sides, so a total of 10.

Main point is that, animating the hood being pulled back should look more realistic as you can flex the edges of the hood instead of having the hood move like plastic - something that even my new hood animation bones doesn’t solve.

As for what’s next:

1. Tiddie bones.  Merely just to be able to give some more realistic move to them.  Not meant to be sexual at all - just to make them act more like breasts rather than metal cups.  Less like robo-tits and more like hey there’s actually flesh under there ffs.  For what I want to do, any modifications here would be extremely slight. Almost imperceptible.  But hey, I always tend to add things to my work that are generally pointless and imperceptible, so why stop now?

2.  Mask armor bodygroup.  I’m gonna export that tali armor mask she uses for her From Ashes skin and put it on as a bodygroup.  Additionally, I’m gonna try and modify the mask and create different versions.  I’ve seen quite a number of amazing Quarian OC concepts with various different mask armor types, and I want to be able to add more options like that.

3.  Play around with the mask shape.  I want to see if I can make it so the entire mask can detach.  This is not likely to be successful as there simply is no face geometry back there below the upper lip.  But, I should be able to play around with different shapes for the mask itself, much like with the mask armor.  Again, this is based on numerous concepts I’ve seen that I am in love with.  I wish I could do something like this with my own OCs, but being limited to the models makes this more difficult.  Hopefully, I can add some nice variety to the model here.

4. Textures.  The normal civilian has something like 5 textures to it.  I will redo these in 4k, because anything less would be for the fucking casuals. I’ve already redone a number of civilian textures in 4k, so I have the process down already.  However, with the new helmet geometry and the mask armor, I will also have to modify those textures to fit the color schemes of the civvies.  Now, those will just be the regular textures that will go along with the model on release.  I will be creating separate textures specifically for my OCs that are slightly (or totally) different - depending on how much I redesign them.  A first pass of Eris and Vera are already done.  Related, but I already have skingroups for different mask shaders (each one has their benefits and disadvantages regarding AO, letting visual geometry pass through, and lighting).  I may remove one once I play around with them so more to confirm which one I like better.

5. SFM eyes.  I briefly tried earlier and it didn’t work, but I’ll try to add them again.  I may have to remake the eyeball geometry from scratch.  SFM eyes require half-spheres to work, and the current model has eye geometry that is a little more than half a sphere.  I intend on using the eye shader settings that Lord Aardvark used in the Bodymorph Tali model.

6.  Face Flexes.  Stuff like eyebrows, eyelids, upper cheeks and stuff like that.  Hopefully, it will be symmetrical enough to mirror shapekeys this time.  

And I think that will be it.  Compile as civilian, then compile separately as private OC model with different texture links. Then just throw it up on SFMlab or the workshop and be done with it.  Workshop may not work to well due to size limits.  4k textures are mean to harddrives.

With that done, I will be able to finish final attributes for Eris, like what I want her face model to be, modifying the bodymorph tali model to work as a nekkid model for her, working out the scale proportions and textures needed to make her at different ages (her suit changes colors), and then document everything for making her so I don’t forget where I keep her textures, or what scale proportions to use for her.

With the model done, doing all that for Vera will be easy.

Then on to the Geth trooper (needs headflaps), Male Quarian (hoodless), and porting the Turian Cabal model, since the few pieces of artwork I’ve seen of her in Source Engine are by those who are unable or unwilling to share a source.  Maybe see if I can snag a Vetra model too for the higher polygons.  

Along the way, a few other models will be ported as well.  I know I need that damn Adas ASR model so Kael can compensate himself with big guns.

Anyway, yeah. Stuff. Writing it all out helps me see what needs to be done and to focus on what’s next.