Spook’s Progress Posting #2 – Getting Effective (and Kriemy)!

Welcome, welcome, wild-os! It’s past the midnight hour on Friday night as I write this, having just clocked off another week working all of beWilder’s levers. Still so far so good! Want to hear all about it? First things first though, let’s give the top line week in review for the fans-on-the-go, then get into some [SPOILER] looking and speaking, eh?

So how did the slightly shortened week go?

Goal: The plan was to tackle the tail end of the current scene in progress started at the end of the last go of things, and create the next 15 CGs specifically.

Accomplished: Break out the smiles, as I finished the 15 CGs and the scene, plus an extra 4 on top to start off the next scene in the coming version. That’s +19 CGs again this week, for 42 total (my 38 thus far plus 4 left over from Unshi).

Things keep going well in these early days. A few learning bumps in the road along the way but no real roadblocks hit thus far. The spirit levels are steady and high, so here’s to things continuing into the week ahead. In fact, given I got my goal finished by Thursday’s end, I used a little of my Friday time to whip us up a little helpful graphic I can quickly update going forward. Take a look.

Nice to see things at a glance like that, huh? 2 weeks in and we’re making encouraging progress. We did have the texts and most of the engine work progress coming in (FYI the remaining ~5% is testing the scenes with the finished art in place, which is why it’s still TBD), and those bars will reset in future versions, but the big takeaway is the top bar (in Noe’s colours as it’s the most important) is coming up from 0 at a clip. So much so we’re about ready to start planning the Public Teaser. More on that below.

I’d love to be able to give an overall progress % and a window for release, but these bars aren’t weighted equally so that’s tricky to do. The top bar takes weeks to months as we know, the bottom ones usually are counted in days, but we’re getting there. The big ??? right now is the time it’ll take to render all the CGs, and until I can find that out, I’ll be careful to put an exact date to the release. I am hopeful we’ll get there in July though, and I’ve got a little more news on the rendering at the foot of this post (Misc News section, if you’re looking).

Now though, it’s time to look at some even tastier stuff!

[From Here On The Post Contains SPOILERS. Read On At Your Own Risk!]

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So the week gone by was a productive 1, I found, and a lot of it was spent on giving 1 of our girls both some love and some hard knocks all at the same time. I don’t want to show off too much and spoil all the goodness to be had in playing the game when the time comes, but I’m going to try balance that out with showing some sexy and tangible content progress, especially since these posts kind of make the old Backer Teaser posts a little moot, huh? So here’s a little something, then we’ll have a little something more teasy after.

Kriem’s always been my go-to girl for heaping on the hard life blues, but I do love her so too, and it’s time she gets a little satisfaction… Though not without our signature dash of drama, beWilder style, along the way. She finds herself in a “Show me yours, I’ll show you mine” situation with a customer as seen here, and that’s just the beginning of things.

That was actually a CG I put together last week, but already it’s giving a lot of the game away, so to speak. Still, I want to give y’all a bit more that, and a look at something from this week, so let me spoil you a little more (or look away now!)

(Left – A close-in crop of a late scene CG, as shown in Daz’s working environment.

Right – The same crop of the in-Daz quick view, showing the difference in effect settings once rendering. No post-production.).

I meant it when things get a little rough for her, but rest assured, good times were had more than bad by the end of things. I know, I’ve made the scene start to finish by now! I’m showing you all this part specifically as aside from some specific posing and camera placements along the way, this has been the most challenging aspect of the scene. I’m still very much learning by doing as I go and skin/bodily effects are an area I’m going to have to put some more dedicated practice time into. We’ll arrange some of that later though, after we have a release done.

Given how heavy Kriem’s mascara is in every scene (to the point she looks notably different enough without it, actually), I thought it inconceivable it wouldn’t run some over this scene. Make-up is a surprisingly limited part of Daz, as it can’t just be slapped on like the real-life thing. It has to match the pre-set textures/materials for that character’s skin, and the fact that Kriem is non-white makes it even trickier. Still, I think I managed something that works well… Or did I? Here’s a chance for you to tell me again for this week, either in comments below or(/and) on Discord. The difference in how noticeable the smear is in the left than the right is down to the settings, shaders et all that I still need to get more experience working with to make the most of. Still better than letting her face stay dry, don’t you think? How mild would that hook-up be?

Similarly, I’ve been trying to get wet effects to work on the lower end of her body, but as of right now I’m still hampered there. There’s still a chance to get that going before I render the scene fully when I can take a crack at them with a stronger GFX card, so we’ll see about that. Hope springs eternal, and so does a pussy in heat, I’ll keep trying until the show must go on!

Misc News of the Week

Before I get to looking ahead and wrapping up the week, a couple small asides y’all might be interested in.

1) The results of last week’s poll on the Noe-Damon CG are in. It seems the original CG was the strong favourite. However…! In discussing things on the Discord channel, it seems the hair succumbing to gravity was appreciated but what may have been the clincher for the first shot was the less obstructed view of the connection of their parts… duh. It was suggested flipping the pose in the second option to get that better view while keeping the hair falling (which can’t be flipped with her hairstyle) could be the best compromise. I’ve made an alt shot with just that, which will be on the backers’ section of the Discord this weekend for those that want to see and test the theory before it's decided which CG goes in the game.

2) I’ve mentioned in the last few posts and above that I’m building a new rendering-orientated PC to work on now that I’m part of the art department directly, especially since we’ve taken a downgrade in hardware with Unshi on leave. Well, good news! The parts have started arriving! Until I have them all and have a working machine built, I don’t want to be promising things on hope alone (did far too much of that the last few years), but we’re past the point of planning and of no return on this. I’m building a PC, the Sexbox 2099 I’ll call it, muhaha! Give it a few more weeks for the most important parts to come in and we’ll talk more.

The Week Ahead

Alrighty then! As much fun as I’m having making the art at this early stage, I’m as ready for the weekend as anyone, so let’s get to it. First though, here’s what I’ve got in mind for the week ahead.

We’re solidly past the point of 25% progress now, as you can see above on the graphic, and even though that is a bit of an arbitrary point to do it now, we really are far enough along we should go for it. The start of the week I’m going to get our big 1-per-version post put together and put out, Monday/Tuesday, and I plan to lead it with the scene I’ve started working on today. I’m willing to bet that this scene is the highlight scene of the version after all… And since you’ve read this far, here’s a reward. The reason I believe that is because we’re bringing back the Car Washing and getting wet and wilder than we’ve done so far in the alleys near Noe’s apartment. You heard it hear first before the Public Teaser!

The rest of the week will be working on that scene. It’s about as long as the Kriem scene, but more involved with props and minor effects, so I don’t expect I’ll get through it all in the week ahead. The goal will be to get at least 75% of the way, so aiming for another 15-18 CG to add to the pile. If I get that much, I’ll be happy, and I hope y’all will too. Getting that much will put us over 55% on CG Creation too, so let’s stake that as our claim and I’ll get to it come Monday’s light.

So that’s the week that was, #2. Another week down and some consistency starting to shine through. I’m learning a lot, having fun, and getting stuff done, at least for now. Got to keep it going though! Until it’s a real streak to be proud of…

Be kind to your waitresses (they aren’t all Kriem tough), and beWilder!