3D-Daz Early character studies for future game - no name yet

HogRocket

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Jun 8, 2020
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For those of you who have interacted with me much know I am a bit weird (and I embrace that). As such, I usually do things in a weird way, not like other people; including Daz. I just discovered something I have been wishing for since I started playing with Daz - a way to duplicate a character in a scene. It turns out to be amazingly easy! This will help reduce the amount of time it takes me to make multiple layouts for a scene. It may only reduce my time by 1%, but 1% of "too fucking long!" is an improvement.

For example, I have one scene which will result in about 5-8 renders. It has taken me about 30 man hours to get it laid out the way I want it. 30 hours is 1800 minutes. 1% of 1800 minutes is 18 minutes. 18 minutes is time enough to eat a sandwich, an extra bathroom break, 18 extra times to walk to the refrigerator and get a beer (that might be counter productive though)

In honor of my newfound knowledge, here's an old render of Nami and Sascha in a sports car
N&SRide2-06.png
 
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HogRocket

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Jun 8, 2020
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Ok, scrapping everything and starting over; it's just not flowing well......what?.....you're kidding.......really?..... add one scene to the prologue and it will bring Chapter one all togther?.....how?.....you're sure?......I don't know......Ok, I'll try it.......I still have to cut the story down to less than 23 love interests and make their stories mesh.......what?....lengthen the prologue and leave Chapter one for the first update?.....hell yeah! procrastination central!, leave the hard stuff for later! Wooohoo! I dodged that bullet! Release the Prologue in early 2023, string people along with lies and bullshit and release Chapter 1 in early 2024........wait......did I leave the microphone on?.......is this going into the message? ..... Oh Shit!.....wait....delete!.....NO! Not "post", "delete" damnit......Maybe I can.......................................................
 

HogRocket

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Jun 8, 2020
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Ok people, feedback time. I'm trying to indicate the passage of time without a lot of boring explanation or a card that says "10 years later...". Does this indicate the passage of years to you? I know the background doesn't change at all and I may switch to daylight, but since a scene takes place here in front of the moon it would be better at night

TimePassTest.gif
 

Dylan741

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Nov 18, 2019
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Ok people, feedback time. I'm trying to indicate the passage of time without a lot of boring explanation or a card that says "10 years later...". Does this indicate the passage of years to you? I know the background doesn't change at all and I may switch to daylight, but since a scene takes place here in front of the moon it would be better at night

View attachment 2133317
It's good I like the idea of the tree growth, but at least a switch to daylight event though it's not essential could help to indicate time pass.
I mean I would include at least two or three daylights ( even though it would be more work for you) in this looping sequence, if not it would seems unnatural imho, but I like it personally I found it more original than a simple quote about 10 years later, combined with the difference in the characters look it's more effective at least in my personal opinion. :)
 

HogRocket

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Jun 8, 2020
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It's good I like the idea of the tree growth, but at least a switch to daylight event though it's not essential could help to indicate time pass.
I mean I would include at least two or three daylights ( even though it would be more work for you) in this looping sequence, if not it would seems unnatural imho, but I like it personally I found it more original than a simple quote about 10 years later, combined with the difference in the characters look it's more effective at least in my personal opinion. :)
I wanted to tie the scene in with the "sitting in the moonlight as kids" thing, but when I got it done it looked like a mutant tree growing over night. I wish there was more flexibility in Daz assets as far as "spring", "fall", "winter" in something like this - it would portray the passing of seasons and years better.

I still like the concept, gonna have to find a better way to do it.
 

Dylan741

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Nov 18, 2019
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I wanted to tie the scene in with the "sitting in the moonlight as kids" thing, but when I got it done it looked like a mutant tree growing over night. I wish there was more flexibility in Daz assets as far as "spring", "fall", "winter" in something like this - it would portray the passing of seasons and years better.

I still like the concept, gonna have to find a better way to do it.
I can understand, I think it's quite difficult to set a cycled animation that comprehend the day/night switch and also the 4 seasons too.
Of course it would be a fantastic animation, but I don't know if it's possible to do it without spending on it too much time and resources though, if I were at least good at it I would have liked to help you but I barely started with 3D so I can't.
I mean I can draw both traditionally and digitally, but modelling or rendering, those are skills that I don't have yet sadly. :)
 

HogRocket

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Ok, here's "take 2". Tried some day/night variations as well as some other things. Quality is pretty poor because, to get the transition I wanted I had to take them into a video editing program, make a MP4 movie out of it then convert it to GIF.

At least it gets the concept across....ish

ezgif.com-gif-maker (1).gif
 

Dylan741

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Nov 18, 2019
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Ok, here's "take 2". Tried some day/night variations as well as some other things. Quality is pretty poor because, to get the transition I wanted I had to take them into a video editing program, make a MP4 movie out of it then convert it to GIF.

At least it gets the concept across....ish

View attachment 2134916
Definitely cooler already, love it!:love::love:
 

Warscared

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Jan 26, 2021
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Ok, here's "take 2". Tried some day/night variations as well as some other things. Quality is pretty poor because, to get the transition I wanted I had to take them into a video editing program, make a MP4 movie out of it then convert it to GIF.

At least it gets the concept across....ish

View attachment 2134916
IF WHAT YOU WANT is to say years summer winter intervals would make more sense! 4 stills should be able to do it!

but you will probably need to snap the images of the tree growing up to give it the proper sequence!

that might actually be the hardest part but once its done and if its well done it looks natural!
 
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HogRocket

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Jun 8, 2020
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IF WHAT YOU WANT is to say years summer winter intervals would make more sense! 4 stills should be able to do it!

but you will probably need to snap the images of the tree growing up to give it the proper sequence!

that might actually be the hardest part but once its done and if its well done it looks natural!
Some Daz assets come in "spring" and "autumn" seasonal colors, a very few have 4 seasons. I really wanted to show seasons, but that grassland asset (which is great for the "younger" scene) doesn't have any of that. I may look into other environments, or just do something different.
 

HogRocket

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I found a snow asset I might be able to use to make a winter scene.

It's funny, this transition scene may take more time and effort than scenes that have dialog and action and is ultimately not important at all. I just feel like it would be cool and visually impressive if done right. It's one of those "extra effort" things that can set a game apart. The downside of wanting to tell a good story visually is that it will mean my development time will be longer and more time between updates. I just don't want to bring out something less than I can just because people are impatient.

I've always been a fan of visual story telling. Pixar told more of a story with no words in the first 10 minutes of than some whole movie franchises tell in multiple movies with hours of dialog and millions of dollars in actor salaries and special effects.
 

HogRocket

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Oh yeah, what I actually came on to say is: Now that I have a complete sequence of story for the prologue - I'm not happy with my main story. It feels awkward and contrived a little. The main story arc is good, but the way I've put the pieces together feels clunky. I'm going to work on the story some for a while because if I'm not comfortable with the story going forward, it makes working on the prologue awkward, like I'm telling a story that ends in a maze or brick wall. I don't want to get into mid-game-reboot-hell
 

matschbirne

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Aug 24, 2019
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Amen to that! (wait.....I might use that one myself :unsure:)



Exactly!

hmmmm, that sounds an awful lot like "rationalizing to the readers to cover up a minor plot screw up" territory there

( something I will DEFINITELY have to remember, as I'm going to make SOOooo many mistakes and get called on them :ROFLMAO:)
your words in Mythos-thread , not mine...:sneaky:

mistekes.png
 

HogRocket

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Jun 8, 2020
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If you randomly heard a bunch of squealing, cheering and other happy noises......that was me. I just found out that the tree I'm using in the "kids watching the moon" and "time passing" scenes has Autumn and Winter textures for it.

Goal.gif

I have made some clumps of the same tree in different sizes and can replace the background trees with these and change them as needed.

Quick and dirty examples

SummerMeadow01.png AutumnMeadow01.png WinterMeadow01.png

Layout needs work, but then again I bashed this out in a hurry :ROFLMAO::ROFLMAO:
 

HogRocket

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the future game will out in 2023 i suppose ? :)
if that's not motivation enough Hog, then I don't know what else can stop you. ;)
My plan (depending on how much trouble I have when doing the programming) is to release early 2023, January-February. I will be traveling quite a bit for short periods of time over the next few months that may impact that though.
 

HogRocket

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Jun 8, 2020
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I thought about sitting down and writing some story. I had a BIG margarita with dinner. Started writing. Yeah, no writing story when drinking......bad idea. Y'all would either love it or hate it, but either way it wouldn't fit the story.