The color of progress (Patreon)

I've been anxious all week - apart from drawing the remaining commissions, I've been nervous about attach Daisy to her skeleton, because I don't know how much time I'll have.  As of yesterday, the latest word from my boss is that I'll have at least another week to work on her!

One thing I've started - perhaps prematurely - is her color map.  This is difficult for me, because I can't paint.  One nice little cheat?  Ambient occlusion.  Baking this is to a texture takes my machine HOURS, but even then it's a time-saver*.  For other areas, like her fingernails, I use Maya's deformers to save out masks.  The only parts I've actually painted so far are her lips, and the redness in her nose, cheeks, and ears.

* the nutty thing is I'll have to bake it out AGAIN once her breasts are modeled & attached.

I've also more or less settled on Maya's realtime shaders, for now.  I've tested out the Furryball renderer, and while it is nice, it has its drawbacks.  A full license costs around $500, which isn't that bad, but not something I want to shell out unless I know for sure I'm going to use it.  It can be used for free, non-commercially, and can render non-watermarked images in HD...  but it frequently reminds you that it's a demo, in very intrusive ways.