I know this is NPR rendering but,
the shading is too flat,
The kind of NPR I like at least is
What iām going for is more 2D though, and that picture looks more 3D to me.
Alrighty! So week day nights are animation, weekends are video games.
Bam. Thatās the plan.
Right now iām working on the model for Experiment 217, but itās very basic at this point and not clothed, so no pictures.
Maybe we can do some basic story description?
Alright, so Project: Heroes is based around how I feel people would react to humans suddenly gaining magic. Now, this is not to be taken as me saying that there has never been magic; there has. Our main setting is a fantasy type land, where magic has existed for as long as anyone can remember. Dragons, phoenixes, unicorns, ogres, alchemy, holy magic, etc. The only magics that humans have been able to utilize are Holy magic and Alchemy.
Holy magic is magic give by the church. There are two kinds; Enchantments of Light and Purified Light. Enchantments go on weapons, armor, tomes, water, anything. It will instantly destroy undead with just a simple touch. It has no effect on the living. Purified Light is magic given to a select few chosen by the church; these are Paladins. Paladins can focus the power of the Purified Light and direct it at anything dark or unnatural in this world. Again, the living are unaffected, but evil people are mildly disgruntled by it.
Alchemy is the interaction between science and magic to make medicines, poisons, poultices, reagents, etc. This is how the medicine in this world is seemingly as advanced as ours; they have magic to help them. Alchemy uses not magic from a person but from innately magical ingredients, such as dragonās blood.
These are the only magics that have existed up until this point regarding humans. But now some people are acquiring magic from an unknown source for an unknown reason.
These are the magics that I currently have planned; they may be dropped and this list may grow larger.
Elemental Magic- this is your fire, lightning, air, water, etc mage. Fairly basic magic that allows the control of these elements. Advanced mages can conjure their element from seemingly nothing.
Etheric Magic- for elder scrolls players, this is your bound weaponry; though this is not limited to weapons. Etheric magic is essentially a hard light in the shape of anything.
Shifting Magic- these are your shape shifters. Most can only change into one form and back to human. Advanced mages can have many.
Blood Magic- magic is typically fueled by the users soul or mana. Blood magic is a corruption of magic stemming from a damaged soul. the soul is damaged to where it can no longer create mana, and so the magic turns to a more concentrated source of power: the users own life force. Blood magic is extremely powerful and extremely dangerous. None have been born a blood mage.
Healing Magic- surprisingly not considered holy magic, healing magic has no offensive uses to note. Used to heal injuries, wounds, and sickness, healing magic is a controversial topic due to its usefulness.
Those are the five main forms of magic as of now. Keep in mind, these five categories can intersect. Etheric shifters exist. Blood mage healers exist. Healing elemental mages exist. Magic is not limited by certain categories, but by the power and wit of the user.
Thatās enough information for tonight. Next will either be a progress on 217, or more information regarding our four main characters.
I thought Iād have more than a base model. I was mistaken.
So, story time!
Since iām working on 217, we can talk about her.
Experiment 217. An adorable little girl. Why is she a main character? Iāll tell you why.
Because murder isnāt cool. And murdering the mind of a child isnāt cool.
We need some backstory fro this backstory. Alright, so magic is showing up. People are getting godly powers. Thatās bad, mmk? So the king forms an elite team of warrior called the Silver Axe. Their job is to collect mages and put them in camps for their safety and the safety of others.
The leader of the Silver Axe has other plans.
You see, the leader has strong ties to the church, and the church views all non-holy magics (other than alchemy) as impure and evil. It is not to be contained, it is to be destroyed.
So what do we do? We find out the cause of magic and use that information to destroy it.
And so people are no longer asked to come for their safety, they are forced, violently, to come to these prisons. If they protest, then they die.
In 217ās case, it wasnāt her. You see, 217 was blessed by the gods with healing magic. She was able to restore dying plants to life, heal sickness, and mend wounds. But it is not considered holy magic, and so it is evil.
The Silver Axe came for her, and her parents tried to resist. They were cut down in front of her, and they took her and her little brother to a compound.
Magic is tricky, and so they felt they needed to find the source of this magic. Tests 001-150 were testing the blood through various means. Tests 151- 250 were brain tests through less desirable means.
And so Experiment 217 was tested. Violently.
They tortured her brain, trying to break her mind, trying to force the magic to destroy itself or her. The torture wasnāt enough by itself, so they upped the ante, using alchemical poisons to cause enough pain to kill someone, yet keeping her heart at a normal pace so as not to kill her. Her mind was fractured, and 217 was broken.
About two weeks after the initial trials, 217 began noticing that she couldnāt feel the pain during the tortures anymore. In fact, she couldnāt even remember them.
One fateful day, a rampaging beast destroyed her cell and she managed to escape. She ran as quickly as she could away from the beast, and ended up in the torture room. There, she saw the torturer standing over the body of her now dead brother. Experiment 217 changed, shifted, into something evil. A pure embodiment of hatred, malice, and wrath. This being has powers truly fit for a god, yet it chooses to kill its victims slowly with its own claws, savoring their screams of agony.
This beast was 217 herself; a fragment of her mind that all of the pain was directed to during the torture, turning it into a malicious beast.
This fragment of her is not always in control. It claws at the inside of her mind constantly, trying to force its way out. There is no friend or foe, there is only an obstacle that must be eliminated. Every moment of her life is now a torture of trying to not unleash this creature that would undoubtably kill anyone and anything around her.
Experiment 217 is now forced to live with the consequences of the actions of others. This little girl, from whom everything was taken, even her own mind, understands what she has become. She is a monster, and a monster doesnāt deserve a human name. And so she is know as Experiment 217, to remind her, and her enemies, that they have forced a little girl into the worst form of torture imaginable.
The Silver Axe tried to destroy her magic. But they failed. And now the time has come to make them pay. To make the world pay.
So, thatās the gist of her. My plans for her in the future are (to me), pretty cool. Tomorrow will beā¦ How about Krieger?
Ugh, I hate being sick. I can barely focus on anything. Makes modeling hard. So, iāve been playing with Willowās shading. Learning some stuff, making progress.
Anyways, I promised some Krieger backstory.
Krieger is part of a long running family of knights, paladins, and other do-gooders. Theyāre good people. So when some Silver Axe decided to show up, asking if Krieger would like to volunteer for some testing to help them cure this āmagicā, why would he say no?
Fast forward a week or so, and we see Krieger, on his knees, shackled to a wall in a windowless cell, and drained of a lot of blood. Krieger was Experiment 003, so he was one of the first in the blood trials. His specific mode of fun was being drained of his own blood, nearly to the point of death, but supplied with blood from someone else; just enough to keep him alive. Obviously very weak, he doesnāt try to escape for two reasons: First, heās too much of a good guy to want to. If he did, how would they be able to help cure others of this terrible disease? And second, he barely has enough strength to stay awake, let alone escape.
And so, we insert Scarlet (formerly know as Red) into our scene. Scarlet has plenty of reason to escape, but she doesnāt have the numbers or the strength to do so. She kills the two guards, busts open the door, and throws them inside to hide them. And what does she see, but someone else that has survived these tortures! Unfortunately, he can barely muster up the strength to look up at her. She borrows a key from one of the guards and unlocks the shackles anyway, and leaves Krieger in the room.
Blood starts flowing from the guards towards Krieger. It flows up his arms and soaks into hims, restoring his muscles, his strength, his vitality. He grows to nearly seven feet tall, his muscles and strength restored. The guards are entirely drained of blood, all of it absorbed by Krieger. Theyāll blame him for the dead guards; theyāll kill him. He has to escape. He runs out out of his cell, though the hall, and out the door to the main courtyard. There he finds Scarlet, held down, arguing with the torturer. Something about morality. Itās hard to focus. Thereās yelling. She knocks her captor in the face with the back of her head, drawing blood. She turns and scratches at him, and run towards Krieger. She shakes her hand, flinging blood on his face, and the air explodes into steam, blocking all visibility between her and the captors.
Krieger falls to the ground. His heartbeat grown louder. Faster. His blood pumps. And then he changes.
And all there isā¦is blood.
As we know, Krieger has the ability to shift into the Blood Beast. This, however, is not an intentional change. The magic in his body has been irreversibly changed. In order to keep him alive, itās changed to passively absorb blood from others to keep him in top condition. Once he hits this magic amount of blood, his magic will no longer absorb blood from dead or unconscious targets. However, if he comes in contact with any, his body will absorb it, and it will force the body to uncontrollably seek out high amounts of blood. It turns him into a monster that was crafted to do this task.
The details on how he shifts back are a little hazy, but one could assume that not getting any blood would return him to his normal state.
Krieger is our resident āvillainā. Though, I donāt like playing standard roles just because the story demands a good guy and a bad guy. A villain is never a villain ājust becauseā. Every character has a story, even a villain. Krieger has a fairly interesting story being that he starts as one of societies nicest and most caring people, and slowly turns into someone who wipes out villages to gain power. He has to deal with what the Silver Axe has done to him; making him into the bad guy.
Next up will be either Echo or Scarlet. Scarlet is our most important side character, whereas Echo doesnāt yet have very much story.
Ok, so we have three updates, one of which is ratherā¦huge.
First, the Arena.
The original plan was a big battle between multiple fighters. This is no longer the case, as it seemed against the point.
The point of the Arena was to learn and demonstrate rigging and fighting animations. I feel that this can be accomplished by a simple 1v1 battle.
And so, the Arena was shut down and replaced by the Duel. This Duel is a one life battle between the two fighters Duelist and Battlemage. Battlemage is also going to have her current materials toned down to basically the beginning material, since the sword and cloth seemed to not fit. So, the plan now is:
1v1 fight between Duelist and Battlemage
Learn and demonstrate rigging and battle animations
Create an awesome battle!
Look forward to thisā¦ before thanksgiving, maybe? Not sure.
Second, Project: Heroes.
Alright, this is a big one.
So to make things clearer, I need to define a difference in semantics.
For me, a plot is something that takes place of a season and rarely two. A big plot is something that can take place over the entire life of a show, or for many seasons of it.
We clear? Cool.
So the plot of Project: Heroes was the beginning of magic; how people would react in a fantasy setting that now has magic in people. This has not changed.
Basically everything else has.
The big plot isā¦well, to avoid spoiling anything, Iāll just say this: The old gods are dying. And gods can never die.
Now, the stuff I can say without spoilers are the bigger changes:
Willow is no longer the main character, and has been given the name of Zephyr (though she is still known as willow for some time towards the beginning).
Experiment 217 has become our main character.
The scientist that performed the experiments on the mages has become more important.
A new character comes in about halfway through the first season, by the name of Loki. More details on him later.
Echo is gone, and replaced by a new male character. He is our only non mage main character.
That means that our main team of four is now: Zephyr, 217, Krieger, and the new male.
No, he doesnāt have a name yet. Iām bad at names.
The setting has been changed from multiple big continents to only one that anyone talks about: Arcenell.
This does not mean that there are not other lands, or that no one knows about them. This allows (on the small chance of being hired) an easy way to add Arcenell to another pre-established lore.
Arcenell is a fairly new kingdom, only about ten years old, currently ruled by an anti-mage King.
New magics have arrived: Wind magic, Shadow magic, and Parasitic magic. Details later.
And finally, the name āProject: Heroesā is no longer the name. It has instead been changed to Project Broken/World.
Iām sure thereās more that iām just forgetting. Oh well.
And finally, an actual update on modeling!
So, the idea of magical familiars.
Not every mage gets one, they are made from pure energy (and so cannot be hurt), they are almost never aggressive, they seem to react to the emotions that their owner is experiencing, and we are unsure as to why a familiar appears in the first place.
This specific familiar is Experiment 217ās! The white form is its normal form, and the glowy-blue one is the radiant form that it becomes when 217 switches to her darker side.
Her familiar is never aggressive, and it is the only thing that can consistently bring her out of her darker form.
Krieger is the only one that I currently plan on also giving a familiar to, but iām not completely certain what his will be.
Iām modeling 217 right now. I have everything done except for her outfit, which is provingā¦difficult. What would a little girl wear in a fantasy setting? She doesnāt wear armor, since Krieger and Scarlet do their best to keep her out of any form of stress. She doesnāt wear basic rags or peasant clothes because, again, Krieger and Scarlet take care of her. So, kinda stuck there. Iām really hoping I can have her done modeling by Haloween, including her dark form. Hereās hopingā.
Thanks for looking, stay tuned for more!
The eyes were changed to be a bit closer, I fixed the mirror with the eyes, and added a nose line. For the dress, I basically just made the first one longer. I also made a version of the first dress where it was layered, and had slightly thicker straps, so Iād like opinions on which is better.
Thoughts?
Alright! So with the update from Project: Heroes to Project Broken/World, Willow is getting a small change, mainly eye color and changing her outfit a small amount.
Krieger is getting a weapon, a lance/sword hybrid thing. The guard is probably going to get changed. For the record, itās nearly six feet long.
Krieger himself is done with his base model, and needs clothes before showing him off.
The most recent version of Experiment 217 is as follows:
Getting shoes of some kind next, then maybe better hair? Either that or starting her darkness form, heh heh.
Our last character is another male, about as old as Willow (18-19). He needs a name soon. Iām pretty sure I have an outfit idea for him, I just need to make the base model first.
As for the Duel, I was incorrect in saying Battlemage vs. Duelist; Itās supposed to be Duelist Vs. Lancer. Lancer is done being modeled, Duelist just needs her weapons. The battlefield itself is done being made. After Duelist gets her weapons, Iāll rig them up and start animating, hoping to have it done by thanksgiving (since Iām working onā¦ what, six characters at once? Woo)
As modeling gets done and rigging gets started, I start to think about a few things that iāll need before I can actually make the first episode of Project Broken/World.
Namely, voice actors and a composer(s). Both of these are extremely important. If you or someone you know wants to try out their skill with either, or if itās someone with experience looking for exposure, please direct them here, it would mean a lot.
Getting ever closer. Letās keep moving forward.
And, for the record, thanks to all of you that have supported this project in any way. It really makes it worth it. Soā¦thanks. Iām glad youāre here.
Currently iām working on rigging up Dualist and Lancer, which is about as fun as rigging is, and iām working on modeling/concepting Experiment 217ās shadow form.
As of now, the main change (other than color) is the shape of the eye. Instead of a large oval shape, they become a much smaller circle shape. She also loses her mouth, and her eyes are smaller in general, along with longer hair. Sheās also going to get claws.
However, I still donāt feel like thatās quite enough. Not sure what else to do, however. My one idea is to make the dress longer to hide her feet, and have her hover slightly above the ground.
Still, tinkering with concepts.
Hopefully we can get a nice gif of the transformation from normal form to shadow from relatively soon. Would have to rig her first, ugh.
Been away from this for a week because Halo 5ā¦ I want to animate and play Halo 5 at the same time, but I canāt! O.o
Not a whole lot of progress, since iāve mostly been working on the story, but I do have a few minor tweaks for 217.
Working on shading and stuff, hopefully I can get the dress o be better shaded. Sheās also getting feet eventually, iām sure. I may rig her before I start dark form, since I really just want to mess around with the model. Krieger is getting detailing done to him, since heās supposed to be muscly, but iām bad at making textures. No pics yet because no clothes. Yet.
Iām thinking of trying to have The Dual done byā¦ I have no idea. Christmas? Iām working on so many things, but the holidays are coming up which means more days off of work.
The first trailer for Project Broken/World is probably going to be a proof of concept trailer; just a generic trailer of the story, instead of focusing on one character. Iām still doing trailers for the main four, but this one will be first.
Thanks for looking!
HEY.
HEY GUYS.
GUESS WHAT.
SHE HAS FEET NOW.
Yeah, so this is the final model for Experiment 217 for season one, unless something changes. Probably wonāt.
Sheās ready to be rigged! When I learn to rig.
Sigh.
feet are always a good touch.
Alright, so I have this project posted on three different forums, and iāve gotten a few PMās asking some questions about the series, so iāll just answer the most common ones here:
- How many seasons?
Four! - Prequal/Sequal?
That really depends on how good the original does. I have very vague ideas for both a prequel and a sequel, but I wonāt be making them if there isnāt enough interest. - LGBT characters?
Yes, but not many. - Patreon/Kickstarter?
Not now. Iām not someone that likes to ask for money from people, especially since there is currently very little to show for it. MAYBE after the first trailer is out, but even then itās still in the air. - Youtube channel?
Not yet. When the first trailer comes out, itāll be on youtube, so keep an eye out for that. - Expected time for the first episode?
Honestly, iām going to try to shoot for around next winter. I know thatās a long time, but there is a LOT to do before that can happen. Voice actors, music, environment, more characters, rigging, learning good animation techniques, it all takes time, and I have very little of that. - DeviantArt?
Yes, actually. Here: http://graysilhouette.deviantart.com - Want help with modeling/rigging/animating/anything?
Yes, help would be pretty great. That being said, just leaving feedback is also very helpful. - How many episodes per season?
Iām not sure. Most anime have 12 episodes per season, but sometimes thatās too short. Some seasons have more in them than others, so iām not entirely sure how to divide everything up to be even. - Length of episodes?
Again, unsure. Just a five minute episode is already a lot of work, but barely any story can go into that. I want episodes that are 15 or so minutes long, but thatāsā¦ a lot of frames o.o
Have any more questions? PM me on whatever forum you use to keep watch!
Thanks all!
Have I mentioned that I hate rigging?
Because, good god, do I HATE rigging.
Everything is fine except for the shoulder and wrist areas. Iāve spent nearly three hours trying to fix just the shoulder alone, and clearly not succeeding.
UGH.
The shoulder deform would be FINE if it didnāt decide to take HALF OF HER CHEST with it.
And the wrist, FFFFFFFF- It canāt decide what bone it wants to move with, ends up making either the arm look fat or the wrist look tiny.
Thereās got to be an easier way to do this.
But itās ok, because all I have to do is fix those TWO spots, and everything will be fine.
I really hate rigging.
Also, side note. The mouth is actually no longer part of her face. What you see here is a quick shape I made up to resemble a mouth. Iām going to try to use the UV warp modifier toā¦
Alright, iāll simplify it. Iām going to make it so the mouth has different shapes (textures) for each sound/expression, and switch between the shapes each frame using movie magic to make it give the illusion of moving, like standard 2D cartoons and anime.
Also, to make the really 2D anime look, iām disabling interpolation between frames. Those of you that donāt know what that is, you probably donāt need to know 
Also, I hate rigging. So much.
shoulders are always a problemā¦best is to use the corrective shape keys add-on. also, I think you can make shape keys while the mesh is deformed by the armature in recent versions, so you may not need the script.
(edit) same with the butt / hip areaā¦super pain to rig correctly, but adding a couple of butt bones can help, short of using shape keys.
(edit) also, for animating a drawn mouth, use the anim-all add-on to animate the UVs, and set interpolation type to constant. lay out a few drawn mouths in a grid pattern, and use snapping in the UV editor to switch between them.
I will try all of those!
Itās set to mirror the weights on each sideā¦
The shoulders are deforming differentlyā¦
SO HAVE I MENTIONED THAT I HATE RIGGING?
You may have mentioned itā¦
Instead of chasing the deformations around with shapekeys, weight paint and other garbage try this:
Add a Corrective Smooth Modifier. Youāll have to play around with the factor and repeat values until you get something you like. Then, make a vertex group to isolate the modifier to the chest, shoulders and upper arms. Make the weights 1.0 for most of the chest/shoulders area, then drop the weights to 0.0 as you near the elbows, go up the neck, and down the torso. Add this vertex group to the vertex group dropdown in the modifier.
Rinse and repeat for the hip/thigh areas.
Like anything, itās not perfect. Youāll have to be careful that you do not shrink the mesh too much, but itās the easiest solution to poor shoulder and hip/thigh deformations that I have come up with.
Also, I have found that an A pose is far better then a T pose for deformations. The main reason is a T Pose is already at the extreme of upper arm rotation. An A Pose is closer to a natural arm-at-sides position and itās easier to weight from that centered point.
I agree with Modron. Add some butt and breast/pectoral bones to aid in the deformations. I often add action constraints to those bones to automate the movement/rotation of those bones with the shoulders and thighs.
Good luck!
Edit: I should have also mentioned: Make sure you have Preserve Volume checked on your armature modifier. Also, the Corrective smooth Mod should be after the armature mod and before any SubDiv mods. Check Length Weight as the Smooth Type and Original Coordinates in Rest Source.
