Alright listen, I love 3D characters, sure. But having used many over the years, I still keep coming back to Victoria4, or ‘V4’, which was designed in about 2006. And I do give new 3D models a chance, you know, I try different ones when they come out. But they suffer basic things, that I can’t work around; terrible joint motion or lack of available textures or whatever.
Anyway I’m thinking of giving away a few more V4 characters and maybe scenes, like I did in 2020/2021. So stay tuned if you’re into it.
I mean look, here’s the default V4 character, okay? :
… oh dear, sure. But then all we need to do is sort out the ridiculously bad default texture and skin shaders:
… alright? Already much better. So now we just need to sort out her bad default mesh, which lacks genitals and has problems around the thigh/butt area:
…. ahhhh, that’s better. How lovely! You see, with a bit of tweaking, any old clone can have a wonderful time, spattering the bedsheets with the best of ’em.
HOWEVER. Now let’s do the same thing with the much newer La Femme character, alright? The character by Renderosity, here’s the latest, ‘pro’ version:
So far so good; don’t get me started on her hands/fingers, but her default skin is actually pretty good, and her hips bend pretty well, AND:
- By default, ‘Left Labia’, and ‘Right Labia’ are TOP-LEVEL body features, at the same hierarchical importance as CHEST or LEFT LEG 😂😂😍😗
- Whereas something like ‘Left Mouth’ is a third or fourth- tier body feature 😂
- So to make her smirk takes three more mouse-clicks than it takes to adjust her foo-foo 🥹🧐🥳
- Conclusion: This girl is designed to fuck. 👉👌 🎉
- Don’t deny it, Renderosity. You’ve designed her to hump.
All good so far? All good. Now let’s give her better skin texture:
Bit shiny, but generally super! Lots of potential here.
Now we come to the problem. We adjust her face either by meticulously manually-manipulating her many facial controls which takes bloody hours, or by using store-bought facial poses … either way …
… that’s about as good an expression as we can get. It’s not that she’s ugly; she’s not. And believe me I’ve tried lots of alternative structural facial morphs and textures. It’s just there’s something ‘off’ about her face, and no matter what I try, I can’t get her to have any sense of actual life in her.
Whereas good old trusty, battle-proven V4 on the other hand …
… seriously, setting up that pose and face took 1/4 the time the previous La Femme facial pose took. And there’s more life in it, somehow. It’s not me, I’m the same 3D artist trying my best to give stuff life, because alive stuff is MMMUUUCHHHHHH sexier than not-alive stuff.
Anyway, that’s my gripe with La Femme. She’s a nightmare.
Because here is a girl clearly designed, as we’ve seen, to fuck. Here is a girl with a very delightful bottom, and very excellent pose-abilities straight out of the box. And whose face is technically very pretty.
But, at the end of the day, no matter what I try, she looks like this:
… (ignore the fact that her hair is slicing down through her shoulder and sticking out her armpit). The issue is; she looks like a haunted pigeon on the hunt for a snack. Like a Tory MP caught lying by a journalist. Like a survivor from an explosion in a Botox factory. Like Pat Butcher reincarnated in a Halfords carpark. Okay that last one didn’t make any sense but you get the point.
Whereas, with almost no posing effort, our delightful, actual-twenty-something year old developmental 3D mesh V4, looks like this:
… and even holding a glowing cup of warm piss in her hand, she still absolutely slaps.
Is ‘slaps’ a phrase still? I do try and keep down with the kids, but now I’m thinking ‘slaps’ completed its nomenculature peak back in 2018.
Now … due to my relative fame and infamy in the 3D world, there is a small chance the La Femme developers actually read this. If that’s you – listen, you’ve done an incredible job on the mesh and La Femme is still a great character (that arse, honestly … I could work on her arse all day long), which is why I’m frustrated not to be able to use her. The dials on La Femme’s facial expressions are what need expanding asap. Daz did this thing with V4’s face where they released the ‘++’ expression poses, which included tons of expressions -that was amazing. The second thing that doesn’t work about La Femme’s face, is that as soon as you adjust any of the manipulators, her face skin just doesn’t move naturally. I don’t know if it’s an IK issue or the shape of the mesh deforming in weird places, but try doing a corner-of-mouth smile and you end up with this weird sneer thing going on. On the plus side – she looks great and as long as you don’t need to move her face, nobody’ll notice. Probably. But yeah … can’t use her, sorry. Have tried. Failed.
Here’s some side-by-side comparisons. For science. You can guess which one is which:
La Femme’s butt is pretty good though:
And it outperforms V4 when bent over, even if it does go a little ‘Action Man’ in the crotch. V4’s butt never really worked bending over – hence there being so few examples of Doggy Style in the Lithium Comic:
… oh, Victoria. Why is your anus so high? Who are you, Bob Mortimer?
Anyway yeah stay tuned, I’m going to go mad and just give away my 3D character setups. Because I want to see more good 3D content out there and I appreciate it can be hard setting up 3D characters when you’re getting started.
I also realised I built the Lithium default apartment scene using freebies – so I might give that entire thing away as well (as the original models are available in the public domain anyway), all setup with better lighting and textures.
Why not, eh? It’s not like I’m making money out of any of this. And as my website blocker page says for people in Alabama (if it works, which would be a rarity), I don’t make money out of this, and you can’t control someone if they don’t give two shits about money, eh? Mwa-ha-haaaaaaaaaaa. Up yours, capitalism.
Yes, the overall picture is always better, but many small details are lost. For example, in the automotive industry. In the mobile phone industry. In the field of 3D modeling. In translation.
And now something completely different:
20 months, 1,800 hours of work, GIMP, Fooocus, DeepL, Cambridge Dictionary, Urban Dictionary, BalloonsTranslator, FontForge, and me.
I translated 54 SAJ or SAJ-related comics, 5896 pages into Hungarian. The whole fucking universe. I translated poems, song lyrics, redrew almost all the pictures, and by the end I was sick of having to sit down at the computer again to translate the words PLEP, Sqlch!, Huhahh, Aouwhhh. But it’s done. And worth it. 🙂
WOW, SAJ Fan! That’s amazing dude, congratulations and thank you so much for such dedication!
5896 pages?!?!! Holy shitballs. We’re both some machines … please accept this virtual high-five and a Boba Fett nod as well. And maybe a HRRRNGGGHHHHgyeu-k-k!
She looks like she’s trying to be Overly Obsessed Girlfriend.
She looks like she takes staring contests too seriously.
She looks like she thinks she can teach Superman how to see through lead.
She looks like she must maintain rigid eye contact in order to still keep breathing.
And are we 100% certain that the cup of glowing piss is warm? Because I have expectations on warm glowing piss containers now. Thanks for that.
On a more serious note, the problems you’re describing are what keep me from even attempting to get into what you’re doing. I can’t do the doodles at all. I can write stuff, sure. But the doodles is where everything goes awry. I’ll just sit back and enjoy your work and cheer you on from the sidelines. Keep being amazing!
…MAYBE add an ice cube to that cup. =p
Thanks Mike, yeah the doodles can be tricky, but great that you write stuff – good stories work perfectly well in the mind 👍
CBBE and Bodyslide (IYKYK)😁😜 Would nice if these existed for your art for the funsies and the ease of use.
Also, Bob Mortimer… LOL
I had to look them up but yeah hehe. I’ve often wondered if I could get some of my characters into a gaming thing that could animate them live – that’d be so cool. If only Sims did a super x-rated version I’d get it for sure hehe
I’m thinking about the models and renders. I just re-read Kinfolk, and I started wondering what it was about that it is that resonated with me in that comic. No, it wasn’t the V4 models and the weird butt.
After much thought and comparison, it turns out it was one simple thing, at least in the art. Jilly’s upper lip is awesome. It curls up when she pouts, then disappears when she smiles wide. Truly well done!
After comparing it to the lips in other STFW comics, it’s seems unique to me. Not that other upper lips are bad, just that Jilly’s is way out in front. So to speak!
There is no other comic universe I’ve re-read so much and so often as STFW. So many layers to disentangle and appreciate. The models. The arrangements. The camera placement. The lighting. The dialog. The philosophy. THE MUSIC!
I like how the pendulum swings from porn to philosophy, from action to contemplation, from discord to peace.
Tonight, I intentionally opened a good red before reading Kinfolk, to dampen the libido and allow me to more easily go with the character flow. Turned out my eyes focused better as well. In particular, I better appreciated the wide horizon scenes. I’ve seen many myself, and the comic captures some of the most restful and restorative moments so well. Just right for the characters and the plot. Pulled me right in.
I read lots of web fiction, and lots of manga, but Sindy’s stuff rocks me hardest of all, even after many repetitions. At least I’ve given some model money, but I’m still behind the curve on “thanks”.
More than the comics themselves, sometimes a plot point can stir my own memories, and I can get lost in them for a few moments. It keeps happening. But not as simple recollections. No. Now I want to turn them into my own comics, and share them widely and freely.
I’m now thinking my stories aren’t meant to be only mine. That, even if I do it badly, they deserve their own chance to meet and influence others. It’s an odd feeling and perspective. I’ll probably start with writing some blogs, but I can already tell that imagery must be a key part of the story, because my words will likely be insufficient.
I really like my stories! Some have simple titles, such as “The First Woman I Should Have Married”, going up through the fourth. I’m able to see them from my perspective, hers, and the outside world’s. Most are funny as hell, with a touch of pathos for texture.
But I suck at art. I can do simple real-life sketches, but I can’t do anything from imagination, despite trying for years. I can’t draw what I see so clearly in my mind. I’m wondering if 3D might be a better approach, though I’d probably need to spend major bux on a rendering PC!
Hear, hear!
Thanks Bob, I like the ‘pendulum swings’ stuff – I try and give some balance to stories like that so it’s good when someone notices 🙂
And yes I would 156% encourage you to continue to write your stories down – just getting the ideas down before we figure out what to do with them, is super important, and can be life changing simply in itself. And then yeah, if you can bear to publish them in some form, even through Amazon or whatever, that is also to be encouraged. Drawing isn’t essential, good stories work perfectly well in the mind
In your description of V4. My first impression of her expression was. Like she just reacted having sat down heavily on a to large vibrating butt-plug by standing upright not having yet able to, feel, recognize or understand what just happened. Like any artist you there is not detail to small to overlook. Keep up keeping up exploring new aspects until you hit that sweet spot.
Yeah it does have that look about it hehe
Does the Gary Falafel RTZF comic contain a mix of Victoria4 and La Femme characters? I mean, that La Femme example above sure does have quite the zombie stare!
Probably, yep. We’d have to ask Mr Falafel, but I suspect there are a lot of face-avoiding and gag-using scenes to get around that particular problem …