Blog Post #19 Once Upon A Time…
F. 3/7/2025
I’m working on learning Marvelous Designer. I haven’t gotten anywhere directly relevant to the Studio project that I’m working on, but I’m learning. Since the example projects are not immediately relevant, I’m not getting caught up so much on getting the details right. Better to absorb more, faster, than to do less, slower. I can always go back and iron out the details later.
This is the pleated skirt that I made as a half-hearted replication of Persona 5. Obviously, there are some issues. Not sure exactly how to amend it, but that’s not pressing.
I woke up at 3am today; got up at 4am.
I went to bed in the afternoon yesterday, getting up around 9pm to touch up my dental and facial care. So, I slept a lot, but I got up early, and it’s 1:15pm, and I’ve been productive.
I played about an hour of Red Dead Redemption 2 (2018). I’m going to be running a D&D oneshot for my undergrad friends in a new setting— that mixes Dark Sun, Wild West, and Mad Max elements— and I bought RDR2 a while back, so I had it— just took a while yesterday setting up the two disks on my PS4. I can’t adjust the audio level in my headphones for that, specifically, so it’s pretty loud.
Anyways, I worked on Marvelous for a little over an hour today. Consistency is going to be the key. Judging by my notes, it’s been over a week since I worked in this program. I don’t feel especially out of flow in regards to Marvelous, but I didn’t start feeling particularly in flow, either. There is work to be done.
Right, so for alla prima, I need to import a character mesh, doing a weapon swing. That’s the first step. I’ve watched the entire refraction weapon trail tutorial, and it’s not super complicated, but I just need something for it to act on. I’m going to do that bit— import the mesh and animation— right now.
Ok, so it didn’t work importing a Mixamo animation to the base skeletal mesh. I’m going to need to pair it with the matching Mixamo mesh.
Done!
I worked on formatting the 2nd edition of Wanderer’s Guide to Dromknost, my D&D book, for about 25 minutes. I had to fiddle with it. I still hadn’t discovered a foolproof way to remove the extra vertical black lines in the last rows of the tables— but I found it! I select that row, right click, Cell Options, Strokes and Fills, then change the strokes to Paper (color).
Sa. 3/8/2025
I’m working on the refraction weapon trail currently. It’s in Unreal, and I don’t want to overload my computer (and make it crash), so I have the tutorial on my phone hooked up to my monitor— at 50% speed. This tutorial is closest and simplest compared to the goal of the refraction trail, but it has no vocal instructions. I watched the entire thing through earlier this week to prep myself. I’m at 2:55 minutes of the 23:18— it’s taken like 20 minutes to get this far. And I’m overheating.
So I’m going to take a break!
Later.
I worked in Marvelous Designer for an hour more. I learned how (and why) to make darts (it has a special dart tool; you can also make a dart from a segment’s point, i.e. from an edge), how to add buttons and buttonholes (the button tool is in the 3D layout on the left; the course must be using an older version of Marvelous, because I was able to just select all the buttons, Right Click, and create button holes opposite— and the instructor wasn’t), and how to make POINTY SHOULDERS! (Pointy shoulders involve a short horizontal rectangle placed under the shoulder seams, with a lower Particle Distance and Strengthened.) I also just extended my screen onto my monitor— Marvelous doesn’t use a lot of computing power, and I appreciated the improved video quality of the course.
I slept in a bit today.
By my new standards, that means that I got up at 6:30am. I was planning on getting up at 4am. Do I wish that I had [gotten up at 4]? Yes; I’m running low on time to get everything done— but I am making the most of it!
I have a new morning routine! I’m still figuring out the order, but I meditate, stretch, write three pages (can be anything; today I wrote some prose fiction), and read 15 minutes. I also didn’t use my phone (other than to set a timer for meditation) until 11:45am. I’m trying to see how little I can use my phone (even for music)— especially before noon. I’ve noticed an increase in cognitive clarity.
There are some things that I’ve been slacking on.
- I need to work on securing funding for the summer. Haven’t really done anything for that.
- I need to work on my upcoming Texturing assignment. It’s due Monday, and I haven’t even started it. As a grad student, I have to model and texture some plants to go outside of the house. I messaged Mengliu, invoking my right to turn it in 24-48 hours late! (I don’t know if I’ll be able to turn it in by then, but at least it’ll postpone the grade deduction.)
So I will add these to my schedule in the coming days.
Later.
I’ve been rereading Mr. Penumbra’s 24 Hour Bookstore. And I needed to take a break from work— recharge a bit— so I sat down and finished the last two chapters. There are flaws (i.e. if new codex vitae are being added to the shelves as more unbound are bound, how does the Founder’s face maintain its shape?) but it truly is one of my favorite books. It possesses all of the comfort, stimulation, and intrigue that reading has offered me since I started reading.
What are my favorite books?
1. Epic by Conor Kostick. I have read this book literally dozens of times. Sometimes, when the need arises, I read it, turn the last page, and start again immediately from the beginning.
2. Mr. Penumbra’s 24 Hour Bookstore by Robin Sloan. See above.
3. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince by You-Know-Who. Of all of the last six books in the series (the first book is designed for children, and is a slog— even back when I started reading it at age 7), this is my favorite. Things finally get over the crest of maturity into real Darkness. I’m also a sucker for subtle romance. I consistently read the entire series at least once a year— often more.
4. Babel by R.F. Kuang. I’ve only read this book once (it’s too dense to read frequently) but it supplied my linguist brain with a unique concoction of language-specific lore that I have never before, nor since, found anywhere else. I often refer to reading this book (as me, a linguist) as “holding a key to a door that most people don’t even know exists, let alone can open”.
5. The Binding by Bridget Collins. I often think of this book as the best-written fiction book that I have ever read. It has just the right mixture of light fantasy, gloom, and gay romance. Like Babel, I haven’t read it very often (though more than once). It’s like a rich dessert; you can’t eat it for every meal.
Later.
I just spent 15 minutes trying to get my USB-C to HDMI adapter to work. I blew into the ports? I dunno, but it works now. I worked before, and the issue wasn’t the HDMI cable (that worked connecting to my laptop), but it stopped working. Now it works again, so I’m going to work on my weapon refraction trail more.
I just worked on it for 20 minutes more, and now I’m up to 5:07 minutes on the video (50% speed). I’m starting to get ideas on how to make it look less gelatinous and more like brush strokes. It’s all based on a Noise generator, which is then iterated on a bunch. So if I make a tiling brush stroke texture, and use that, instead, I’m thinking that it should work. I doubt that I’ll have time to experiment with that this Milestone, but Milestones 4 and 5 are all about bringing it together, so I’ll have time then.
M. 3/10/2025
I’m working more on the refraction trail. At 5:37, in M_RefTrail_01, a 1 and a 2 constant are connected to a Lerp Interpolate, which is then connected to the material’s Refraction element. But the issue is that my material node didn’t have an active Refraction element. So I had to activate it on the left menu, but I had to choose the type of refraction. I chose Index of Refraction, but I really don’t know if that’s right. In the video, it just has “Refraction” on the material node. If it doesn’t work, that may be something to play with.
Ah ha! At 6:09, it manually changed the refraction to Pixel Normal Offset. Potential problem solved!
Double ah ha! I now have the beginnings of a weapon refraction trail! It’s still gelatinous— but it will remain so for this Milestone— but it refracts! And it’s socketed to the weapon! Ah ha!
I am now at 11:17 minutes.
T. 3/11/2025
I think that I’m not going to keep a whip as the primary weapon for Pareidolia: Unbound. And I’m not keeping the human main character. Instead, the player will be controlling Sir Babbage, a pumpkin-headed warrior, wielding a giant wooden polearm shaped like a honey pot stirrer. It will take two hands to wield, but can be held in one hand when Babbage enacts his ranged attack— still knucklebones, which will shift the perspective from behind and to the right to behind (closer) and to the left. It will still destroy Babbage’s left hand and forearm—
Wait.
If the Honeypot Greatclub requires two hands, how will Babbage wield it when his left hand is destroyed?
It’s good that I have so much time to figure all this out.
I’m also going to make the NPCs around the rim of the hollow— it’s still going to be a swemp, still forested, but a hollow in the ground scattered with red stone ruins, centered by a purple crystal obelisk— as my D&D characters. They will be merchants and crafters, and perhaps others drawn by the sounds of violence in the hollow. I’m particularly excited to model, rig, and animate Baker Gyld; I can do this for the project, but I can also make a 3D printable model to make for the Archwoods campaign in which I play him. And I have so many characters! So many options! I’m not going to make all of my D&D characters— that would be impossible, especially since I intend to be the primary 3D character artist— but that just means that I get to choose the best!
Let’s break down what must be in the demo, and what I would like to be in it.
What must be in the demo.
Alla prima. Duh.
At least one boss, that is summoned when you interact with the purple crystal obelisk in the center of the Hollow.
What I would like to be in the demo.
NPCs around the rim, to be interacted with between runs.
An innovative inventory system, where you get to physically arrange the items in your rucksack.
A “tag” system based on the inventory, where items that you carry impart special buffs.
A crafting system, in which you can take the materials scavenged in the Hollow, and meld them with pre-existing items, binding “tags” to those items, while saving space in your rucksack.
Pareidolias, grunt-level enemies that only spawn when the player’s visual perspective aligns with the environment in ways that create an illusion of a creature in the shapes, shadows, and colors of said environment.
I think that’s it.
Any more than that would be unrealistic.
To be fair, I don’t know if any of it is “realistic”. I’ve never run a game studio before. And it’ll all depend on the number and skill sets of the people that work with me on it.
But yeah, I’m going to do some sketches of Sir Babbage today as recharging breaks. And I’ll include those in the slideshow, along with references of clothes.
Refraction trail work.
In NS_Trail_01, clicking on the Fountain node, scroll down to Ribbon Shape— I’m experimenting with Width Segmentation Count. It was at 3 originally, but I didn’t like the effect of having visible segments in the trail.
At 10, it looks more cohesive.
At 1, it has tons of visible divisions.
The maximum is 16, which I’m going with. It looks best; no visible divisions.
One issue that I’m foreseeing is how part of the trail always seems to be behind the character mesh. Of course, that’s only an issue right now due to the Mixamo animation I’m using. It might not be an issue with the real Babbage animation.
Why is it an issue? Because I don’t ever want alla prima to affect the player character.
I also want to taper the trail so it looks less planar, and more like a streak.
W. 3/12/2025
The guy from my UE5 Blueprint Udemy course released an article on programming theory for inventory systems. I’m going to pass it on to any programmer I get who is going to design the inventory system for Pareidolia: Unbound.
I just watched the IGN review for the upcoming Blades of Fire. It has a crafting system that I could definitely draw inspiration from when designing the crafting system for Pareidolia. In addition to allowing full customization of the parts of the weapon crafted, BoF has a forging mini-game where you actually have to try and create the shape of the desired weapon in as few strokes as possible.
For Pareidolia, I would love to extend the immersion by implementing a similar mechanic— though, of course, you won’t be forging weapons, but instead crafting Wyrdwood components and folkparts into pre-existing equipment— to gain those components’ “tags”.
I presented today! It went pretty well. I had a lot to show, but also kept it concise. Amanda broached an important subject of inquiry. She asked me how Mortimer Babbage (the new MC) fits into the narrative of the game— and how he comes by the power of alla prima. I had not thought of that! To be fair, I hadn’t really thought up Alice’s (the original MC) connection to alla prima— I had a vague idea of a scene with the Pumpkin King granting that power to him, but if the MC is now a jack o’ lantern, that changes things.
F. 3/14/2025
In Pareidolia: Unbound, how does Sir Mortimer Babbage’s story begin? What is his “call to adventure”?
I think that it would make sense to have an opening cinematic of a storybook, with a gravelly-voiced narrator telling the tale.
“Once upon a time, there was a farmer...”
The farmer had a daughter, who loved pumpkins. She would read to the pumpkins to help them grow. Tragedy struck, and the daughter was killed. [Need to expand upon this.] The pumpkin patch, knowing empathy for their fallen grower, convened under the moonlight, and chose to sponsor a hero to right the wrong. They pooled all of their power, withering and crumbling to ash, so that one pumpkin could grow beyond normal bounds. The bees kept by the farmer recalled the kindness of the daughter, and contributed honeycomb, which would form the arms of the hero. The horses, too, knew comfort from the daughter, and went without food, so that the hay sacrificed could form the torso of the hero. And so he grew. He grew into a humanoid form, which the farmer clad with the patchwork clothes of the scarecrow from the field. He lacked fingers, so the farmer dug up ten heirloom carrots, and bound them to the honeycomb stumps of the wrists. The local gnomes witnessed the efforts of the farm to right the wrong, and stole into the house one night, nabbing a honeypot stirrer. With their fey guile, they enlarged the stirrer into a great wooden polearm, which the pumpkin knight could wield as a weapon. They imbued the honeypot stirrer with enchantments, drawn from their own artistic nature, allowing the knight to swing it and reshape the environment around him. And finally, the farmer carved a face into the pumpkin head, so that their enemies would flinch at the sight of him. The farmer did not want the fear to be absolute, so for one eye, he carved the shape of a heart.
