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Happy birthday to my Patreon page; it's now been four years since I publicly started this journey with 0 patrons!
Time has passed so damned fast, and while it feels like I've not been moving forward that much, I stepped back to see what I've done over these years.
What struck me the most is how much the art has changed and how different Acting Lessons would have looked if I made it from scratch today, with all my current experience.
I loaded up the old files to view how I did art back then, what settings I used, and analyzed what's different today, and I could spot several rookie mistakes and facepalm moments.
I'm not talking down about what I accomplished, but it's just a testament to the journey and growth that's ongoing right now.
It's hard to see the progress before you take a moment to step back and look at the past.
For fun, I modified some old files and re-rendered them in a way to show you how the game might have looked if I had made art for Acting Lessons today.
I want to show you these renders as a kind of "before and after", roughly four years apart.
Melissa
Here's the original art from Episode 2, made in April 2018. This scene first introduced Melissa.
I remember when I made Melissa's model. Melissa was the first model I learned to morph and alter greatly, which is why she's unique.
If I remade the cafeteria scene today, the art would look closer to this. I'd use animations instead of panning static renders, which I used back then when I only had one 1080 Ti available and 16 GB RAM for making renders.
Megan
The model of Megan used in the game was the fourth version of Megan.
The first three versions were various levels of horrible, and one was even a bit cartoonist.
The first Megan (Roughly two days of experience):
The second Megan (Anime Megan, first week of experience):
The third Megan (Getting closer to the final Megan, week 2):
Final Megan (Week 2 model, but the actual render was from a few months later when I remade parts of episode 1, which is why this quality is better):
Megan was the first model I created as a developer, and I didn't know anything about 3D art when I worked on her. I was very close to giving up on all of this because of the learning curve.
Sadly, she's much more low-quality than the other models in the game. It's because of my inexperience at the time, but even so, her looks are special, and it would be too hard to replace her model for something similar without ruining what she is to the game.
And despite her being lower quality, I can still make some nice art with her today.
This original render was from episode 6, when my art was starting to look somewhat decent.
I loaded this file and replaced the Megan model with the original hair model and improved the scene in a way I would have done it today to create a better ambiance of Jonas' (or your MC's name of choice) living room. I came up with the following.
Rena
Rena's model was the first model where I went over the top with morphs and modifications, and I think it shows. She's unique and very high quality.
I dare say I wouldn't be able to make a better version of her today than back then. This is nuts since the first time I modeled her was two months into development.
In episode 7, I remember this scene when you played her branch.
I still think this scene has some beautiful renders of Rena, thanks to her blue hair, clothes, and the environment's ambiance. I took that as a challenge to see how much I could improve it today.
First, what struck me was how naked her apartment was. Adding some furniture made it look better immediately. In general, I'd work much harder on all environments in Acting Lessons today. Then I did my tricks to improve the render, and the following is the result.
Rena probably has the best set of eyes out of every model I've made so far. They always seem to pop in renders.
And finally, I wanted to make a render of the three girls together. And I chose the environment that means a lot to me on many levels.
This particular jetty had some great scenes in the game, and the entire episode centered around this trip is what I believe to be the story's high point before the mood shifts in the game.
It's been really fun to remake these renders, and I did feel that it would be fun to remake Acting Lessons. But as soon as I went back to work on Being a DIK, I could feel that it's the game I truly want to work on 100% until it's done.
I enjoy working on Being a DIK so much more, and there's still a long and exciting road ahead of us. But it was fun revisiting Acting Lessons for a couple of hours to appreciate the journey.
Some of you have been here for almost the entire time. I can spot roughly 50 patrons who've been continuously supporting since earlier than August 2018, which is both humbling and insane.
But no matter when you joined, thanks to everyone involved and who supports my dreams to make these games.
When I started this journey, I believed that independent developers are only independent because they don't have enough funding for their games. Now, I believe many indie developers are indie because they love what they do too much. It's certainly something that applies to me.
Cheers to these past four years and what's to come in the future!
Download high-resolution versions of the new art in the attachments below.
Love ya, DIKs and HOTs
Dr PinkCake
