Hi everyone, hope you enjoy the update. I'm copying a post from Patreon in anticipation of comments/questions regarding the time it took for this update as well as a quick recap of the last 10 months.
TLDR:
"Will the next update take another 10 months!?"
Although this update took 10 months, it's not 10 months worth of content. The overwhelming majority of this time was spent on not only learning the software but figuring out how to implement some of the same functions that already exist in Daz. I discovered that there are many things in Daz I took for granted.
I expect the next and likely
final update to be completed by the end of the year.
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Finally, after 10 months we have an update. I'd like to do a quick recap of the journey so far and why it took so long. (I'm lying, it's going to be a lengthy read)
December 2019, I was planning on releasing a Christmas special. After a week of frustrating bugs and errors in Daz, I was fuming and thought that there's got to be a better way. Poor Sophie would randomly look like a shark attack victim because Daz would bug out on simple tasks in the animation timeline. Seriously, how the hell does this happen?
Daz is an excellent program when it comes to doing the core things it was designed to do, which is being able to quickly pose and render beautiful still images with ready to go assets. Animation, simulations, modeling and a plethora of other tools are non-existent or very primitive. Frustrated and annoyed, I reached out to
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asking if he'd like to explore the option of leaving Daz with me to another software. It's always easier learning new things with someone else. We spent a lot of time learning, bouncing ideas off each other and troubleshooting things together. Thank you, you grumpy cuddly teddy bear <3
First up was Cinema 4D, a fun but pricey software. After nearly a month of learning it, watching tutorials and trying to figure out how to bring our Daz characters in, we realized it's not the best option for what we're trying to do. At least I got to make this cute little submarine from a tutorial, so... worth?
Next up was Blender. Turns out this
free software has everything I need to make a great game.
-
Sculpting (Make quick adjustments and customization on anything)
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Modeling (Can make anything from scratch or quickly edit and customize existing assets)
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Simulations (cloth, soft body, fluid, fire/explosions, collisions, hair)
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Advanced Character Rigs (No longer using premade pose libraries, everything is posed from scratch to fit the scene)
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Animation (Robust animation tools that make it a fun and enjoyable experience. No more shark attacks!)
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Performance (I can preview my animations in real time rather than guessing what its going to look like and having to render it every time for an accurate preview like in Daz. Projects open in 10 seconds not 5 minutes.)
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Data Exchange (Other software that do certain things better can easily be incorporated into Blender)
Most of these perks of Blender, although nice, are not needed for Personal Trainer. Other than the animation tools, I can fake the rest using Photoshop. However, everything listed is an absolute requirement for my next game, which will not be possible to make in Daz.
I've mentioned this several times already but Personal Trainer was always intended to be a learning project. It's a guinea pig for learning the technical side of things. This is why it has renders from three different engines and has so many inconsistencies in visual quality, writing and doesn't take itself seriously whatsoever. My goal was to learn as much as I can while also hopefully giving you guys an enjoyable experience and a laugh or two.
Please keep in mind that just because Blender is capable of all these things doesn't mean that I'm completely capable just yet. It's a learning process which is reflected in this update. Some animations look just as janky as my old ones and some look pretty damn good. Some renders look like a regression and some look great. I'm still learning and improving. The good news is that the biggest obstacle now is my own knowledge/capabilities rather than fighting the software itself like poor Sophie's Jaws attack I showed earlier. I wanted to get through the huge learning curve now rather than bringing these sorts of inconsistencies into my next game.
Finally, I'd like to get ahead of a question I know many will have.
"Will the next update take another 10 months!?"
Although this update took 10 months, it's not 10 months worth of content. The overwhelming majority of this time was spent on not only learning the software but figuring out how to implement some of the same functions that already exist in Daz. I discovered that there are many things in Daz I took for granted.
I expect the next and likely
final update to be completed by the end of the year.
Thank you all for your continued patience and support. I hope you enjoy this update.
