"S+ Rank" Release

"S+ Rank" Release

Hey all :)

Today I have for you a render I'm really excited to share. This concept originally started out as a tightly-cropped portrait render, with the idea behind it being either a picture Jill had sent to you or just a provocative pinup in general. The flavor text would've been something along the lines of "I'll be waiting..." or "Don't keep me waiting..."

However, as I kept turning the idea over in my mind, I wasn't 100% happy with that particular flavor direction. I decided to change the composition to a 16:9 landscape, and I immediately saw the potential the scene had to serve as a results/summary screen. I I love how the concept pays homage to certain video games, like the Metroid series, which reward the player with "better" endings the faster you beat the game. E.g., in Super Metroid, completing the game with a faster clear time shows Samus wearing less of her Power Suit, and completing Super Metroid in under 3 hours shows Samus out of her Power Suit entirely, wearing a revealing black bikini outfit. The Resident Evil series similarly rewards players with higher ranks and secret unlocks depending on how quickly they beat the game, so this was a perfect fit. The only problem was, now that the camera angle was no longer a tightly-cropped portrait, I had to adjust the lighting and build out the scene in order to make the idea work. Hence why this render took a bit. I'm extremely happy with the results, though, and glad I decided to rework the idea.

As for the render itself, the text overlay was added in post, so I've included a textless version if you just want to enjoy Jill without any distracting text ;) Additionally, with the release of S+ Rank, I'm debuting a new post-processing style that's sort of a hybrid between the recent "soft" style I've been experimenting with and my classical "sharp" style. The embedded images in this post are post-processed using said "hybrid" style, but I've also included "soft" and "sharp" versions in the MEGA archive.

Speaking of which, as usual, the embedded images in this post are the downscaled half-rez versions, and you can find the native full-rez versions in the MEGA archive!