3.0 WIP: Further materials update + some discussion about alternate part delay

Hello! As you can see from the images above, the phonodroid avatar has gotten quite a texture makeover since i started working on 3.0. I may have gotten a little excited at the prospect of global specularity maps. Theres still quite a lot left on the table to do (including a hefty overhaul of the internal modeling. I've been wanting to model out a more proper hydraulic system for the joints!), but the exterior is pretty representative of how I want the final model to look!

I experimented with faking a shadow of the head and buttons on the chest plate and for how unsure I was about the idea before doing I'm pretty happy with the result. I liked the extra depth having AO and SSR on in blender but obviously that is not representative of how it will look in VRChat so i felt like this way gave it enough of that little extra detail to make it feel Right.

As you can see the badge on the back of the droid has a new Phonodroid logo:

And its a proper vector .svg this time for infinite scalability, and will be distributed with the model for people to use for record labels or whatever else!

Alright, now for the less fortunate news. A few posts ago i said i was also working on an analog vu meter chest plate for 2.1. I had a feeling i would regret making that promise and sure enough I've realized because of the extra material space it would need due to custom textures it would be a pain for me to do and an even bigger pain to try and distribute in a way that would be simple for someone less experienced with blender to add to their avatar. After thinking it through I think it would be for the best to push that back and make it for 3.0 as the new material setup would make it so   So. So much simpler than currently, and I could make it a lot closer to my original vision. 

I feel bad not having anything in the works for 2.1 besides the stickers (which are still on track due to them being equally complicated to do for either version, I just need to work on drawing out some and writing out a tutorial!) and the truth is working on 2.1 just isn't very fun anymore as dealing with the old material system is a bit of a chore now after getting used to the freedom allowed with the new materials. I hope you can be patient while I pour all my focus into 3.0 and make it the best it can be. It will be worth the wait.