New ‘Do News
I wasn’t expecting to make another update so soon after the last one but there’s been a major change/development. I was doing some test renders of Shelby’s backpack last night to adjust the materials for Superfly when I noticed a fatal flaw with her old hair model that I was unable to fix. (It left a big black blob on her back when rendered that I couldn’t get rid of and would be too much of a hassle to postwork out of every frame.) I can’t believe I never thought to render that hair from behind before! Well, I had to find a new hair model for Shelby and finally settled on the one you see at left. It’s a little longer and straighter than what she had before but it renders beautifully and has tons of movement morphs so it should work wonderfully for the novel’s illustrations. You can see her with her new ‘do and all on her concept art page: Shelby Bly.
As you may have noticed, this led to me needing to update all the web graphics and avatars for Shelby… at least I’m in the process of doing that so some might still show the old hair model. I’ll get them all changed in due time. Now I’ve got to decide about the Promotional Art. I know I’m going to redo the two I just created in the past few days with the new hair but I’m not sure about all the rest. I’ll continue to think about it and decide whether or not if it would be worth the time and effort.
When I was deciding on what model to use as Shelby’s new ‘do I found a new hairstyle that is absolutely perfect for Maia Avanti as well. You can see her new hairdo at right or on her concept art page. I also updated a few other concept characters. I also updated the outfit of Joel Rio and the hair and other elements of Olivia Cole.
I’ve also added a brand new concept art page for a new creature concept; The Siren. She looks pretty cool now though I think I can make her look even better in time so stay tuned!
I plan on creating more props and location concepts plus some alternate character concepts.
At this very moment, I am rendering the first “selfie” for Shelby’s Instagram account. I hope to post it later today. I’ve written down ideas for more such renders to create and post in the future. This is promising to be a fun diversion and give me another chance to test out these characters more thoroughly… which I obviously need to do more of.
That’s all for now as I need a nap!