I’m Back! Big Changes, and New Previews (Patreon)

It’s been exactly three months since my last update here. Time to explain what happened and share some important news.

After the July update, my financial situation changed abruptly, and I couldn’t afford to keep working with the new artist. We had to part ways. I didn’t say anything at the time because I don’t like to bring bad news without also bringing a solution. So I silently spent the last two months working nonstop to find a way forward. Even though I have almost zero skills in drawing or painting, I refused to let the project stall. After a lot of trial and error (and a few discoveries), I finally managed to put together something solid using Blender 3D.

Here’s where things stand now:

I managed to produce a painterly, highly detailed skin texture that, in the right poses and lighting, looks far better than I ever dreamed of creating myself.

The lineart, eyes, hair, and clothes still need work, but the workflow is set up so I can easily reproduce it for other characters and improve it over time.

With Blender, posing is straightforward: once the characters are in place, the program composes everything and delivers results with no post-processing needed.

To test the process, I made five poses for Melissa. It took me about half an hour to pose her, and only two minutes to render each frame. Here’s the result:

Next step: I’ll pause the research phase and apply this technique to Veronica and Martin as soon as possible. Once all three are ready, I can move forward with the story.

Thanks for your patience and for sticking with me. It’s been a grind, but I believe we’ve just unlocked something powerful for the future of the project!