New version will hopefully be just slightly better in basically every way thus making him "more good"
The Goals [honestly writing this down for my own sake to like distill down what my actual goals for the project are]:
Key priorities:
- Minimal change to overall shape, I Really like how he currently is
- "just" fix all the jank in preparation for adding all the optional stuff he doesn't have yet
- trying to make geometry less of a mess
and then
Reduce the poly count a bit but distribute detail better:- Reduce poly count in places that don't need it e.g. back of head
(why were the little antler attachment points geometry before, I don't even draw them sticking out, why did I add like 60 polys to do that at random) - Increase poly count in places that need more
- ...for better deformation - e.g. around mouth for better expressions & visemes [current visemes don't actually have his mouth and lips moving very much, I want talking to be more visible])
- Or for being on model - e.g. how with current version I literally forgot that there's supposed to be a hole in his back as an accessory attachment point until after almost everything was done so I added it with a normal map and it honestly looks Fine but it should probably be geometry
- Reduce poly count in places that don't need it e.g. back of head
- Improve rigging & weight painting
- shoulders don't bend right currently
- ass weight painting is literally scary currently
- I realized he only has 4 fingers (or 3 based on my old ref but I think I'm sticking with 4) which means I can give both foot hoof cloves a bone - I want to learn to do the paw splay thing so his steppies can look better
- Improve texturing slightly
- Existing texture was done with a mouse and it's fine but all of the seam lines are wobbly
- I didn't realize you could use multiple materials (shut up) so I think I could distribute detail better if I broke some important details out into their own separate material
- Gotta add a little emissive
I'm rly hopeful that I can hit excellent performance with the new version bc I will be reducing poly count quite a bit and thus remove the need for the janky ass quest version...
and then I'll use this as a base to make the 'all options' version with optional extra geometry shit like:
- 3x antler options
- Clothes & accessories
- Wings?
- Real digitigrade leg bones? Not sure if I'll bother but I definitely will have a version like that for posing for renders outside of VRC