VIVI - The CONTINUED Tale of the 8th Version.

Alrighty then, so I decide to update the ol' Vivi model but with a simple twist: Make her a little more low-poly. The V8 model in her main outfit has a high polycount of over 65k tris (35.4k tris without the clothes) This next one I target the polycount to be under 4000 tris. Why 4000 or less? I'm trying to match the 6th-gen console aesthetic like the PS2, Gamecube & Xbox titles, and one thing for sure is that the character polycount can reach over 1000 by default, and more than 5-6000 if they wanna push it. I've done my research.

Before we get to the magic, a word from our sponsor: This side tangent.

SIDE TANGENT: IMAGINE NOT POSTING IMAGES HERE ON BRAVE...

Yep. I main the Brave browser since last year just to see what's all the fuss about and I liked it. Mostly. The one odd problem using Brave is apparently trying to make my blog posts and CANNOT upload images here. No, it doesn't show a message saying "oh hey switch to Chrome" or some shit, when I try to upload, it's telling me to sign in (despite I already did), open up a new window to upload and after I did that, it didn't work.

Also, when I click on my little username icon on the top-right corner, it should show a small window showing my name, email, and options to switch accounts or log off, but no it had problems there. For now I'm still using my former browser of choice, Opera GX because that lets me upload images n' shit. Wonder if that Mullvad browser works properly here too? Thing is, I don't wanna go through the hassle of switching internet browsers, whip out my little notebook to sign in all of my accounts.

THE PROCESS PRELUDE: THE NEW REF SHEET.

To start off the whole thing, the first thing I did is dust off the ol' tablet fire up CSP and start drawing on September 6th, and slowly process it down until the end of the month.

The collage of the design process (shown above). The main focus for me was the front/back sides. The profile goes later. Ever wonder why it's called V8.2 instead of 8.1? I was going to make the 8.1 ref sheet at one point, which spoilers: It's based off the 8.0 model. 8.2 is more of a revised version of the 8.0 ref sheet, but now with added facts & details like color palettes, what her teeth looks like, the fact I can't draw makeup for shit, how many fingers on Vivi's hands, and even down to the shoelace patterns.

I didn't look far on outfits since I already had the VivDolls. I'm only showing you 4 out of the 10 outfits I made off-screen. 2 of which were swimsuits. I didn't bother drawing clothes on her left side since it's mostly the same as the one drawn on her right. Except one of the swimsuits I DID drew on all 4 sides.

Alright, so what were the changes on Vivi's 8.2 look comparing to the model & old ref sheet?

-New earrings, colored.

-Thicker ears & hair strand

-Updated hairstyle, made it a tad longer

-More square-ish eyes (though that might change later)

-More "beanpole" body shape

-Reduced hip width

-Reduced the amount of ass on the side profile

-Increased bust size

-Added shoes

There was only one update to the ref sheet before modelling and that was I reduced the amount of ass on her profile side. It's not shown here, but trust me it's for the best.

PHASE ONE: THE EARLY BASIS OF THE MODEL

To start off the whole thing, the first thing I did is dust off the ol' tablet fire up Blender and go to town on the modelling. The first ones to model are the smaller details: Ears, strand, tail, and even the head. The main body will be it's own model.

Ref sheet used.

The blocking.

The topologizing.

Now one thing I remembered is that how much of a pain in the ass to model the body. I did model the body part, but deleted it because I needed to deal with the more difficult part, and you see that blocky mesh infused with the mannequin model? Yeah, that's a bitch & a half.

THE BEST LAID PLANS...

So after I made the model, now what? I had an idea when it comes down to the face. Normally it should be the other way around, but once I dealt with the main model (sans hair, that's later), I go for a hybrid mix between the V6 bitmaps & V8 full-modelled look. The full-model being her eyes, and bitmaps being her mouth, with a whole set of expressions & visemes. Yeah, seems wild that I do that instead of modelling the mouth, but lemme assure you that doing shape keys for her mouth is a pain. Yeah, I know it probably takes more resources than modelling one out, but still. 

CONTINUING THE MODEL

You may noticed in the ref sheets I didn't add a section on her hands (only the notes). I do that once I finish the body since I'm gonna do it from scratch. I still do the 4-fingers thing, and one thing I should do is to make a quick reference pic of anyone's hand for not only scaling, but proportional. Remember that hand modelling & scaling's a bitch.

The ass. Custom matcap by me.

The head model (sans ears & hair strand) & neck base are separate models. I found a way to not only make the object transparent, but also color it as well. 

The hand model in it's rough stages.

The full body.

 There are some things I did discover when modelling, like I could snap on entire sections of verts to the mannequin model without applying a modifier, or double-tapping G to move the verts along the edges without going off somewhere. It took me a stupid amount of time just to connect the arms to the torso (that, or I was just too lazy, who knows). ANYWAYS, wanna know some bullshit?

This here is a closeup on the head model with a different matcap. Take a good look on the fluffy cheeks because they're connected to the head with the smooth shading. Wanna know the problem?

I can't make any edge sharps because if I did: The cheeks would break out. Keep this in mind, I applied a sharp anywhere BUT the cheeks just to show you the bullshit. The reason I wanted sharps is for detail reasons, like applying that under her breasts, ass, the corners of her fingers, etc... Also her eyes.

The eyes I make had to make not only a boolean but also a second edge layer for the shading.

I have applied several materials for her right off the gate, but these are only temporary. The plans are shown in this pic below.

You may be like: Mace, why are you planning on making such low-rez textures? Well, here's the thing, bucko: Old PS2 textures are like that, often times mixing lower-rez textures with higher ones for specific details (or lack of texture space).

Updated face

So eventually I did updated her face, added a mouth texture, modelled the details and finished the hair which is a pain in the ass. I did started the texturing process, which I initially drew out the outlines but the packing isn't good, so this here is the second attempt. This body texture is going to be the one page, and the purpose for that is the sake of adding details around the body that's mostly visible.

Also in case you noticed: I started rigging. So far, all but the hand parts are rigged. May need to adjust the weights on the arms & legs to get them looking right. Also, a friendly reminder that rigging hands (let alone fingers) are not fun. Ever wanted to model a hand then rig that to a fist?

Anyways, the next thing I found out is a neat little addon known as Loop Tools, which tweaks the topology that should save me a LOT of time. The next thing to do was finally: Texturing. I went for this, along with some subtle highlights and outlines. 

The first attempt of body textures

The body texture above is in 1024x1024px, but will scale it down once I was done with it. Another thing once the rigged body is done: CLOTHES!

dead

The first piece is obviously the Summer outfit. It's a simple procedure of duplicating the main body, buff it's size, and texture the whole thing. The shoes on the other hand I had to manually rig them myself. 

Vivi's winter outfit, along with textured shoes.

One of the pains to these textures can be summed down to some subtlety. Unless you're the pair of jeans, then the seamstress hell. Trust me, the seams took me about a week to get it looked right.

What's so good about the summer without donning the main fit?

Or better yet: What's so good about a beach without a swimsuit? The swimwear is the quickest one I did. It's mostly a cut & dry case, the process is the same, but with less polygons to deal with. The pain in the neck was the straps though, and even after I came back to finish this blog, I think they're not done completely.

Vivi in the "Swimsuit A" outfit

The ASUZA soles.

ASUZA sandals.

The ass end, complete with tramp stamp.

Front side, giving a closer look at the bikini.

Now, even though the model is fun n' all, there is still work to be done. The crucial component as of now is the additional mouth textures for speech. The extra outfits I will do later. I have a Tangent Room to finish off as well.