Monthly Update: August 2022
So things are finally picking back up, so to speak. The first half of August was amongst the more nonstop stressful periods I’ve had in a long time, but things are finally starting to settle down. The past two weeks I’ve finally found the time to begin having some fun again. And not just exploring my new neighborhood, fun as that also is. No, I’m talking getting my hands dirty and working on some Forlorn stuff.
Music continues to progress. I have no idea when it will be done at this point, all I can hope for is soon. In the meantime, I’ve begun looking towards the future. With the release of UE5 and more stable Metahuman tools, I wanted to explore that aspect a bit more. So, I decided to run the model of Kaelis that I made for this first short through the Metahuman creator, and with some minor tweaks I was able to produce her likeness, only with all the bells and whistles that Metahuman can afford. With some really powerful (and finally stable) animation tools in engine, I figured it was time to make a go at deprioritizing Maya in favor of these new tools. And so, these past two weeks I began recreating Kaelis for Unreal Engine 5. That required a whole heap of work. Her entire outfit, minus her pouches and her helmet, needed a complete remodeling to match her updated proportions. So, I had to make new custom clothing assets for the Metahuman rig, as well as completely repainting all of the assets from the bottom up. It took a couple dozen hours, all told, but I couldn’t be more pleased with the initial results. There are still many small tweaks to be made - some skinning stuff, maybe trying my hand at creating a different hair style, etc. - but Kaelis is now alive and kicking in this new space. My plan now is to run her through the paces, animating a stand alone acting piece to test where any potential faults with the system may lay. I hope to complete that in the coming weeks.
In addition to these Kaelis updates, I also designed the official release poster for the short film. I current have a couple of variants, some with more text, some with less. Below is the textless version:
And so, things are finally getting back to a place of normalcy, and I feel a bit better now that I’ve been able to work on some stuff. After this short animation test there are a lot of potential avenues to explore, and for once I don’t have a definitive plan of what I’d like to do next. All I can do is follow what feels best to me in the moment. I do very much hope that Part VII will finally be out by the end of September. If it’s ready, I’ll definitely say something. Until then!
Alex
