Published: February 22nd 2025, 10:37:00 pm
Normally, I don't do much after an animation challenge. With the previous two, I more or less did some standard loops and I was satisfied with them. The only extra content was rendering out alternate versions. For this challenge, there's actually a little more I want to do.
As you can tell, my animations for this challenge were a lot more ambitious. Usually, I make 10 second loops, and I didn't go far out of my comfort zone for the previous challenges. This time I added extra length, extra camera angles, and pose transitions. I had a lot more confidence with animating these projects. That said, the time limit was still the same, so extra length meant compromises elsewhere.
It's probably not very surprising that the Dame Aylin animation turned out to be quite popular, but I was actually not satisfied with how the lighting turned out. Mainly, I don't like how I lit Isobel. I actually ran into some issues with Eevee too. It's not easy to notice but there are some SSS artifacts on Aylin's thighs. I'm actually not that familiar with this version of Eevee, but using Eevee is a must for the challenge for quicker render times. Despite that, render time still adds up when you make longer animations. This one took around 2 hours just to render it at 1080p, and I usually render Eevee at 4k.
I'm in the process of re-doing the lighting in Cycles for a re-release. This will also mean a higher res (1440p) final render for the $10 tier as well. I'm not entirely sure what I can do for alternate versions on this though. There's not much in the way of outfit variety for these two, so I might just leave it at that.
The Saga animation ran into even more issues. It was even more ambitious than day one. I stayed up close to 20 hours for this project. Render errors caused me to cut a pretty brief outro. With the outro cut, I also decided to skip the intro as well. The intro was actually a kind of collab effort. The weekend prior, QuickE actually helped prepare some assets for the project. I used RE Remake props to construct a scenebuild of AW2's mind place. QuickE slapped together some quick lewd pictures of Saga to be used on the investigation board.
I'd like to release a full version of the project with the intro and outro added. I will probably also make some slight improvements to the animation and lighting. The lighting, for example, was slapped together in about a half hour for almost the entire project. Each camera angle needed separate lighting and only the first scene was set up early. I was left with so little time, I couldn't polish much. The full project would be about 35 seconds, so I'll probably keep it in Eevee but render at 4k.
Lastly, day three. I don't have much to say here actually. The animation was fairly simple. I didn't have much in mind more than one camera angle, and after two exhausting days, it was a good way to relax. I had way more time to polish the visuals and I think it shows. I think this one is excellent. I should be able to put together some alternate outfit versions of this one like usual and render at 4k.
I'm actually really pleased with the ideas for this challenge and how much work I was able to get done. I do want to polish them more though.