BTS: Postwork

One last post before my vacation.

I've been racking my brain to think of some "behind the scenes" content to put up here, and I'll be honest, its super hard. There's not a whole lot you can do without spoiling upcoming content. So I figured, I'd look back (and a tiny bit forward) and shed a little light on the arduous process that is postwork, or at least the way I do it. And it's relevant, because its currently what I'm gonna be spending a whole lot of time on these coming weeks.

Around 9 or 10 months ago I literally had no idea about postworking. I was playing through what I had of Origin Story already and thinking "this is missing something". The colors were washed out and dull, some renders were overly grainy and they just needed something to make them pop.

I asked around for some tips on the best things to do when postworking and some other devs were kind enough to provide a few pointers (I remember one of them was MissFortune... check out Move The Chains if you didn't already. Great VN).

So I set to work testing all the tips I had been given and all the skills I had learned. I began postworking my way through over a thousand renders until my fingers could take no more. It was exactly what I needed. Now the renders were more vibrant, the lighting and shadows popped that bit more, the grain was significantly reduced, the detail in faces you could bring out with just a few little steps blew me away.

I learned to automate what I can. I began run a few steps with a simple programming of custom shortcuts. I learned to postwork much much faster the more I went on. The trouble is, my process still involves a lot of manual input.

I manually paint in light and shadows. I manually paint in gleams in eyes. I manually paint out detail where it is not required. I manually paint in shine to jewellery or metal. It's still a process that is long, boring and frankly painful at times (my poor poor fingers). But I'm glad I do it. Because Origin Story wouldn't look half as good without it.

So here's a few examples, mostly from chapters you have already seen, and some to come, comparing the "straight out of Daz" version of renders to the fully postworked. I hope it'll help you appreciate why I put so much effort into this part of the development and why Origin Story is better for it.