Proper 3D, Poser MoCap and trouble with Genesis

Hey people! Exciting times! I've finally saved up enough to buy some very interesting gadgets that should help things speed up a bit, and also allow us to see Lali in true 3D!!! 


So... these comics?

What is taking so long? Every time I made a comic in the past, I learned something about production and saw where my workflow was slowing me down. As a result the transition to a new comic took long for me to re-adjust. I need to set my environment up so that I can keep producing. A while back I bought two new machines to exclusively take up the heavy task of rendering all the images of my upcoming comics, and so that I can continue on other computers while they were busy. But before I could even think of rendering my new batch of comics, I needed a better figure to work with. Although Victoria 4 served me well and gave me a lot of pleasure, it was time to move on to a better, more detailed figure, tailored to my requirements. I spent the last part of 2014 modelling and rigging Project E, and up until today she still undergoes constant refinements on a weekly basis. I can now safely say that Project E is ready for my comic. (But not yet for the market for this, like promised, I will try to make a simplified version for the store, right after I do some improvements to the mesh... and figure out a way for you to transfer textures!!)

But by far one of the biggest most time-consuming parts of making a CGI comic, outside of making a base figure and rendering hundreds of images, is the posing and animating of the characters in the scenes. When you're talking about a typical Erogenesis comic, you're looking at a different complex pose per image per character (and I always have several in one scene!), and in my upcoming comics we're easily looking at well over 300 images per comic (and 500+ for the next black desk!). That's thousands of unique poses! (I don't use stock poses, they suck) Although in the past I enjoyed working on the figures in such detail, it slows production down immensely!

Enter the Kinect! Poser's latest software solution is called 'Game Dev', which is essentially a pimped-up version of Poser Pro 2014, and it has a feature that allows you to apply motion capture to your figures. Now I've heard that Poser's MoCap feature isn't the best and most accurate in the world, but I am pretty sure it will at least do 50% of the work for me from what I've seen online. So that's one thing I am excited about!


True 3D!

I'm quite sure that most of you have heard about some of the developments taking place in the realm of Virtual reality these days? In the US they've been developing a cheaper way of experiencing Virtual 3D Reality for the consumer market, called the Oculus Rift, and although the device is not yet market-ready, the developer kits have sold like crazy and are sending shockwaves throughout the online community. Youtube is filled with crazy tech-fanatics showing us the possibilities of this Oculus Rift and its got me very interested in joining the hype. One of the first things I'll be trying out is making true 3D images of Lali, and if time allows, I'd love to make an entire comic in 3D!! BTW there are other devices getting developed like the Samsung GEAR and I believe Microsoft also has plans for Augmented Reality.

Can you imagine Lali in 3D?? or Sen for that matter!!!! :D

Genesis 2 attempts

FYI, ever since the release of Lali's Bits for V4, I've been asked numerous times if I'm going make a version for the new Genesis characters by DAZ. Although I was reluctant to do this at first (mainly because of the amount of work involved) I've been thinking about it more these days. Now don't get your hopes up, trust me when I say this: I have tried. 

Although DAZ Studio is not my preferred choice of Software, and I do have strong opinions about its design and usability, I am not by default anti-DS. Its still very good figure development software and on top of that it is free! I do keep track of their new releases and I do install it from time-to-time to see what the new features are. I have strongly considered developing Project E in DS like Hivewire did with Dawn, but its DS's learning curve that daunts me, especially considering all the other work I need to do. But who knows, maybe one day I might take up the challenge. In any case, I would be stupid not to keep track of DS's developments considering what I do. 

I bought Victoria 6 and Victoria 6 High Definition a while back with the intention of perhaps trying to convert the bits to them. After playing around with them several times, one thing is for sure: whatever development I would wanna do on V6, is not happening in Poser! If I would develop them in Poser, the developments wouldn't successfully translate back to DS at all. And just for the record, the DSON bridge is not an option. Development with DSON lodged inbetween is impossible. What I did was export V6 as a CR2, that seems to let V6 work in Poser without the DSON bridge. Also, V6HD is actually not HD at all, since the base mesh is no different from the regular Genesis 2 models. The HD part is apparently just a DS feature. 

So yeah not developing in Poser makes any hope for the bits for Genesis a bit slimmer. And no I cannot just migrate to DS; DS is good for figure development but Poser is way better for comic-making. Like I've said many times, Lali's Bits is a very complex system that can only be developed as I use it. Its like with Project E or what the guys of the Oculus Rift do, we develop these things in an applied environment, fine-tuning them according to what is required of them. Project E is another such an intimately complex system that responds narrowly to the movement of the limbs. You cannot just develop that in a in a separate environment than you actually use it. Within Poser, I am constantly refining her when suddenly I see her doing a pose that causes a problem around some bodypart. I make a morph to correct it, or change the Weight-Mapping or the ERC programming. You don't wanna know how complex Project E is under the hood. I cannot do this for Genesis unless I start using Genesis as my base model, and therefore also DS... and that ain't happening considering how limited Genesis is in so many areas, and how not suitable DS is for rapid internal image production (as you know I only use Poser's inbuilt Renderer to speed up production). 

One thing I will try is the GenX plugin whenever I have time. I still considering trying to make something for Genesis since I could use the money right about now. But I think I'd better take my chances with Project E rather than wasting my time with Genesis. We'll see though, we'll see. the point of this story is just to let you know that I have tried!


New Website

Jim, I still need to email you haha! Busy busy!

Google thinks twice, but we're still bruised

Dude! Srsly??

Ok I should speak for myself here but I wouldn't be surprised if all of 3DX land got quite a shock from it. I guess its the price we pay for free services by companies like Google and Facebook. So just in case you didn't know, Google rolled back their recent decision to curb adult content on their blogger service: 

Hello everyone, 

This week, we announced a change to Blogger’s porn policy. We’ve had a ton of feedback, in particular about the introduction of a retroactive change (some people have had accounts for 10+ years), but also about the negative impact on individuals who post sexually explicit content to express their identities. So rather than implement this change, we’ve decided to step up enforcement around our existing policy prohibiting commercial porn.  

Blog owners should continue to mark any blogs containing sexually explicit content as “adult” so that they can be placed behind an “adult content” warning page.

Bloggers whose content is consistent with this and other policies do not need to make any changes to their blogs.

Thank you for your continued feedback.  

The Blogger Team

Besides thinking: WTF?? I admit I am impressed that they listened, which is more than I can say for Facebook, who doesn't give a rat's ass about their members. Good show Google!

Also, thanks to all you guys for your supportive responses. I was a little worried about myself but I was more worried about the artists that cannot afford a new website. I'm not super rich at the moment either, but I don't have kids and a day job and all that to worry about. Some of my colleagues do!

So now? Despite Google's second change or heart, I am definitely still going to set up my own website a.s.a.p (hold on Jim), hopefully transferring all my blogger content to there, and then some. I am after all linking to commercial porn sites on this blog, which is not allowed... OOPS! I think I'll leave this blog running though, perhaps as a second portal about my naughty undertakings. I will try to expand my outreach a bit more, like to places like Ambient Dimensions, a website run by a nice fella by the name of 'Nephanor'. He's willing to expand his site and is very open to suggestions. Go check him out! (and thanks for being there Neph). I do hope Affect3D.com will start running a gallery soon.

Renderotica has put itself in gear in response to the blogger hiccup and is doing its best to set up a blogging system that will accept blogger XML exports a.s.a.p. They are trying to set it up in such a way that you can get more autonomy as an artist. You will be allowed to link to other websites where to show your work from certain pages in Renderotica, provided off course its not commercial.

All-in-all it has woken me up to the spastic nature of mainstream society's awkwardness to erotica and porno, despite the fact that just about all of us adult humans engage in erotic behavior on a daily basis. In other words, its time to jump ship, and board a stable one, and I highly recommend any other 3DX artist does the same before they get another neurotic impulse. 

Don't get me wrong, I am super grateful for blogger's free services all these years, but the price at which it comes is a little too uncomfortable. 










Comics!

In other (more happier) news, after babbling on for weeks about plans for this year, I'm finally making some headway! The set of Disco Dragon is almost ready (just finished the VIP bar), and after a few more little details, I can put the characters in the sets and start posing! 

I am also preparing some characters for Sen's first cinematic comic, namely Wawa the creepy Initiation Master and the M4-based Murguul that Sen has to face during the whole ritual. As I've said before, this comic will be VERY different from all my previous comics. It will be a lot rougher and harsher than Lali's cute world of pink nail-polish and giggles. I am still testing the waters with this one though, the main theme and conflict in the story will be "woman against nature". 

I am also working on a secret little project, which will be free :) you'll see!

And off course, I hope by the end of the year I can also squeeze in my first, more mainstream-style comic about Lali's adventures as a Black Desk agent. I already have loads of episode ideas, but its just a question of how fast I can start production. The format will be different from your standard 3DX which focusses more on large renders and detailed sex. This comic will be more like mainstream comics, with lots of smaller panels and much much more story. there will off course be a persistent erotic element, but not pornographic. And I'm also thinking that if there's a scene that just demands explicit sex, I'll provide a version with the detailed sex scene. We'll see how it goes.












In any case, it will be exciting to see how Project E will fare in these comics! Concerning that, since the current version of PE is absolutely not fit for the market, and since these issues will not go away any time soon, I'm thinking of making a consumer version to put in the store, with a different more simplified morphing system. That is still a big 'if'  though!

Erotica gets kicked in the nuts... again...

How many times in the history of mankind has some regional power attempted to stamp out erotica under some general moralistic ideal or belief... and failed? Answer: innumerable times! 

How many times do we need to witness these completely immature and futile attempts at controlling human nature, and sit and wait until they tire of it or until they finally see that its useless!? Probably the same number of times! Somebody blow up the entire world!

I just got an email from Blogger:

Dear Blogger User,

We're writing to tell you about an upcoming change to the Blogger Content Policy that may affect your account.

In the coming weeks, we'll no longer allow blogs that contain sexually explicit or graphic nude images or video. We'll still allow nudity presented in artistic, educational, documentary or scientific contexts, or where there are other substantial benefits to the public from not taking action on the content.

The new policy will take effect on 23 March 2015. After this policy comes into force, Google will restrict access to any blog identified as being in violation of our revised policy. No content will be deleted, but only blog authors and those with whom they have expressly shared the blog will be able to see the content that we've made private.

Our records indicate that your account may be affected by this policy change. Please refrain from creating new content that would violate this policy. We would also ask you to make any necessary changes to your existing blog to comply as soon as possible so that you won't experience any interruptions in service. You may also choose to create an archive of your content via Google Takeout (https://www.google.com/settings/takeout/custom/blogger).

For more information, please look here (https://support.google.com/blogger?p=policy_update).

Yours sincerely,
The Blogger Team

First of all, what on earth do they mean with "sexually explicit or graphic nude images or video" and "We'll still allow nudity presented in artistic, educational, documentary or scientific contexts, or where there are other substantial benefits to the public from not taking action on the content."??? I've tried to seek clarification on their 'Help Forums' but all you'll get is some dude directing you to some rules page with even vaguer or older bullcrap about what Google attempts to mean with 'Adult Content'. In other words, its a gamble! Good luck avoiding the almighty Eye of Google after 23rd of March. I referred them to the TOS of Deviant Art, whom are at least friggin solidly clear about that's allowed and what not!

Second of all I don't have time to go through my entire blog and filter out the 'explicit stuff', and I have like 200 posts. There are many more artists, better than I am, that have WAY more posts than I do. Must they now sit down and sort out all their posts for the next few weeks to satisfy Blogger's sudden change in heart?

Don't you think we're noticing a pattern? What is this sudden crackdown on erotica everywhere? How far have we come since pompeii? Are we really going to pretend to be as embarrassed as those Victorian archaeologists? Have people become entirely asexual? Have the Taliban convinced us? Has the pope declared war on sex? Do people suddenly hate sex? Have people at Google stopped having sex? Or has paranoia won over our bedroom intimacies? Those few bastards that cannot keep their dicks in their pants are gradually succeeding in stealing away all erotic excitement from the healthy people in this world? Have the predators won the war for world sexual domination? And you're helping them succeed? Do we give in that easily? 

Is it not possible to make some kind of a special non-erotica internet, some barren network that is not connected to erotica sites? A special asexual interwebs full of website of teddies, ponies and cupcakes or some religious babble, guarded by US NAVY SEALS for the sexually unbelonging / unable to surf in safety because I am fucking sick to death of having my adult fantasy rights dictated to me by mankind's general inability to keep their dick out of places where dicks don't belong!

Guys, there is such a thing as a healthy curiosity in sex, and censorship will just screw it all up. Leave healthy adults alone to explore this, think of another way to crack down on the sex criminals. How many items do you need to ban to see that banning shit doesn't work!!! Alcohol, drugs, porn, guns...! As Chaucer wrote in The Canterbury Tales: (and as I copied from another blog) “When something's difficult, or can't be had, We crave and cry for it all day like mad.” Or to put it in modern words: "If you outlaw porn, then only outlaws will have porn." Sound familiar?

Dammit I am trying to make erotica fun! I like having sex with my girlfriend and she likes having sex with me. We like fantasizing! We are not the only ones. Why is this such an issue? Every friggin woman's magazine is laden with innumerable articles about 'how to please your man in bed' (just like how pointless the rest of their articles are). All I'm trying to do is make is fun for both sides!

What am I going to do now? Wordpress? Or just move my base of operations to Deviant Art, where they seem to have a bit of common sense? But how long will it be until they start getting infected with this asexual virus that seems to be spreading around...? 

Comics in the new year

Hey guys and gals, just a small update to say I'm still alive. The year started off a little crazy with insane storms and cyclones messing up the local infrastructure to the point that we had no power for days. But all's back to normal now and I'm busy with three comics, Disco Dragon, Sen's Initiation and Lali next Black Desk. 



Like mentioned before I'm now taking a slightly different approach to the whole storytelling thing, partly for speed, but also for better stories. I hope it will work! I'm doing the Disco Dragon and Sen's comic in the style of Impulse and the Black Desk comic will be the traditional upright comic format (with hope of printing!). I also went ahead and thought up a whole series of concepts and titles for future comics. 

So, from now on its just work work working down lists and lists of to-do's, scripting, storyboarding (almost done), prop making or preparation, refining PE some more, dressing up my characters, etc etc... and hopefully I can knock a few out this year!

 

Because of all the chaos during new years I have a stack of emails to reply to, so if you're one of the waiting 300, I'm gradually working down the list since last week. 

Despite that, my main center of activity currently is Deviant Art and Art of Darkness. My Deviant page is where I dump anything new that I've rendered, I'm also the most active there because of their intricate commenting system. If you're not familiar with Deviant Art I HIGHLY recommend it because of all the amazing stuff there!







For a more intimate Erogenesis experience ;) you can find me at Art of Darkness hosting a simple thread on Expressions and Posing that I started a week or two ago. I will use some of this material to make a tutorial about making CGI Figure Art comics. 

For the sexy stuff I sometime post it on Renderotica, where I sell my comics. I'm waiting on a couple of important updates on Rotica (blogs and forum-wise) and perhaps try some series fun there too.

You might be wondering why I do all this free stuff at times, like the Pock Rescue series. Yes, its a LOT of work, and I'm not getting money for it, but its a brilliant learning experience because I get to see first hand what readers see and like (and don't like). Its different when I make a comic, a LOT of effort also goes into it. I get paid for it and that's obviously very useful for paying the bills. I also get great responses from my fans (I cannot express how grateful I am for that), sometimes in detail, but its always more of a summary of the comic than actually seeing how a reader experiences the story bit by bit. With online series I can see how the reader experiences Lali's stories, and its very interesting to see what people respond to. Also, I can adapt the series according to the comments, which results in a heck of a lot of fun. So I can highly recommend it if you wanna learn about entertaining people.

For those interested, Project E is still on the menu. I am using nothing else but PE at the moment and she's proving herself very useful. However I am coming across various things that need improving, like some parts of the mesh that need redoing and I might deviate from V4's rig entirely at some point. But most importanly, the development software needs a very important update before I can prep her for the store. Once that is updated I need to redo all the JCMs. The current JCMs have little flaws that will become noticeable with multiple morphs, the technical stuff behind it is a long story. My version now has all sorts of little workarounds which would drive the average Poser artist crazy (even me sometimes)!

Oh btw I've got a bunch of new banners (250x50) if you wanna link my blog on your website. Sorry to all those waiting to be linked, but that's all happening today! These banners will also be hosted on the 'About' page.

Cheers!