Uncertain Walk (Playblast) & Zoe 2.0 Early Look! (Patreon)

Here's a first look at the first playblast of the upcoming Halloween special, which starts out with Space Hero nervously making his way through a seemingly never ending forest! I'm already a little further into the animation and aim to have the entire intro part done in two weeks or so. I'm also considering to start rendering right away, so this section can already render in the background while I move forward with the animation.

In terms of the overall look and feel I'm already quite satisfied! Thanks to Redshift, indirect lighting looks better than ever due to proper GI and scattering. I'm also making use of fancier volumetric simulation here, which includes soft smoke rising from the ground. For the final render I'm likely going to add moss patches to some environment objects, as the greenery looks otherwise a little flat at 4K resolution.

At long last, a first look at Zoe's new model! Cid is already a little further on the overall progress, but I thought it was a good idea to show the general geometry first. Unlike the previous updates, this is almost a full remodel of her body, merely using the old model as a base to start from. Her face and head received a major upgrade as well, going away from that previous boxy look and giving her proper ears and eyes, including proper eyelids as opposed to alpha map cutouts. Her mouth got an update as well, mainly improving her lips, teeth and everything else. This also includes a throat that also goes a lot further than in the original model.

I'm probably going to make my own tweaks later down the line before we move to rigging, but overall I'm pretty happy with her overall structure. Her face looks a bit like a mix of Diane Foxington and Krystal, which were both references I've sent to Cid. I'll keep you updated with new model shots early next month! For now I'm hoping you like this revision! (: