Marah Animation WIP 2 (Patreon)

EDIT: This is being posted publicly, as something is wrong with Patreon's new interface that will not let me post it to patrons. I will try and get in touch with Patreon about this, but this one will be a freebie. Enjoy!

Alright, more progress! And with actual animation this time! Click the link for almost-full quality.
https://gfycat.com/gifs/detail/PowerlessShrillHousefly

I've attached this to the post in case you'd like to see it in full-quality, but the gfycat link should be better than the embedded gif here. Aside from the actual animation, I've also been working on improving the placeholder terrain features. Mostly the lighting and water, but I've added placeholder sand as well on the beach here. Wanna do some splash effects when she hits the water too, learn how to work with particle effects and the like. 

Still not finished, but it's starting to actually look a bit what I'm going for. Part of my work has been learning to adjust settings to cut down on render times and problems as well, not shown here since I threw out the bad results almost immediately. Just imagine this image with hideous amounts of film grain and bright pixels scattered all over the water, then cut down the render time from about 70 seconds per frame to 40, with some frames rendering in as little as 20 seconds.

As for the inflation itself, that'll come shortly. My plan is that she drinks her fill (without expanding) through her feet after she lands, steps out of the water, and double-takes, thinking that she might be able to "stock up" on water for later. I'm sure you can imagine where this goes next. ;) Anyway, that's all for now. I'll keep you filled in as I continue working on this, especially when she starts growing. I'm as excited to see where this goes as you are! Stay tuned!