A Prank Falling Flat (Patreon)

Bluesky/Pixiv (Part 1)/Pixiv (Part 2)Perhaps Zhongli will need to make a return trip for an air pump; I don't think that would be brought along for the purpose of a burial after all.===============================================================Artist's Journal:- Inspiration: Hu Tao is a very eccentric and quirky character that enjoys pranking people and has a dark/creepy sense of humor. But everything, pranks included, can sometimes go unexpected directions.- My first piece to be made on my replacement computer and boy, did I have to go through hoops to get everything to work.• I couldn't use Blender 2.8 because I kept on getting an error saying that the 8.6 CUDA binary kernel was not found for my GPU whenever I tried to preview renders in the viewport or finalize them.• Alright, no biggie, let's upgrade. It's been a while anyways. I just have to hope that my essential add-ons for importing certain model formats still worked. And they did, except the version I used (2.91) was unstable and would crash repeatedly while separating materials. One of the more simpler, but vital tasks to my workflow, and it only worked maybe 10% of the time. Seriously, if I couldn't have worked this out, it may have just completely shut down my art production. Forget about me doing this as even a hobby, it'd be insanely frustrating to never get anything done because I'd only have a tiny success rate every time I want to perform a task.• Though it's worth noting that I did in fact have options. I'm often not so quick to give up the moment something doesn't go my way. Ultimately, I could have simply rendered with slower times on my CPU instead or used 2.8 to work on a render then using another version of Blender to render with my GPU.• Not wanting to have to work in constant annoyance however, I tried looking into the issue more, trying to see if there was any way I could get 2.8 to render with my GPU. I downgraded to 2.83 and even that was crashing with the same issue. I was in the middle of more investigation when I downloaded 2.92 and to my surprise, that was actually stable. At first, I was skeptical and thought that maybe I had just gotten lucky.  Upon further inspection, my issue was actually solved and internally, there was a small celebration. I'm just glad it worked out because otherwise, I'd be a lot unhappier making art if I continued.- While switching my work between monitors, I noticed a somewhat distinct color discrepancy between them. I compared both of them to my phone and found it lined up more with my newer one, so I adjusted my older one to be closer to both of them. It occurred to me that I may see something completely different from someone else because of their settings, since I generally use warmer colors and lowered brightness to make things easier on my eyes.- The original thought composed in my head was that this would be a partial flattening, but then after some tinkering with lattices, it hit me that that would actually be a lot more work than intended.  My drive to make art was only just coming back and I didn't want to exert myself after I just regained it after losing it in January thanks to my computer issues then. Plus, it'd be a pretty small coffin if Hu Tao's arms and legs would be sticking out from the sides...- I searched for a suitable background to import, but couldn't find one, so I just compiled my own instead. While doing so, I experimented with grass generation again, feeling like I wanted to pay more attention to smaller background features and while I thought it actually looked pretty good, I didn't include it because it obstructed the view of Hu Tao, opting to settle on small patches of grass.===============================================================Trivia:

1. In Universe:- There is no one who Hu Tao trusts more than Zhongli out of anyone else, but even he is not safe from her teasing. Although Zhongli is also employed under Hu Tao, he cannot stand her usual behavior, so I pictured him brushing off this scenario as just another incident he has to put up with.- Wuwang Hill is known for its ghostly environment and it's even the place where you initially meet Hu Tao in her story quest. I added in some fog to make the piece feel more atmospheric and in accordance with Hu Tao's work as the director of the Wangsheng Funeral Parlor.===============================================================Credits:- Characters: Hu Tao and Zhongli (Genshin Impact).