WORK PROGRESS

Artwork 2 & 3: Finishing Mintie's video 2 & Starting 3

The second environment was designed to be minimalist, centering the focus on the character rather than the environment itself. However, to convey the concept of rose petals, it would be nice to have some elements that differentiate the environment from the other two. To achieve this, I've designed some fog and placed it in the environment on top of the minimalist landscape, aiming to convey a vast and grand cinematic atmosphere.

Even with this new environment or the transition to the new project from the previous work, there were some binding issues again with the hair and the body mesh when retargeting the animation from Mixamo to Mintie's body mesh. The problem stemmed from the animation setting up the mesh with a higher starting point (ground) than normal, as it was originally animated for a female character wearing high heels. While the animation in the first video was more static, with Mintie standing in place, for this one, I picked a "catwalk" animation, where she walks around in the environment with different poses. Catwalk is a more active animation, and it captures the vibrant side of emotions, energy, and life. The catwalk animation with various poses shows confidence and energy, which aligns well with the theme. I managed to resolve the binding issues by re-applying the binding mesh.

https://connect.clo-set.com/livesync
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hB9S-rYm98M&t=1s

With the previous clothes, I tried exporting the animation as an FBX from Unreal and importing it into Marvelous Designer. However, it wouldn’t let me export the animation if it was longer than 150 frames. After conducting some research, I discovered that Clo3D/Marvelous Designer had just released a new feature called “Unreal Engine LiveSync,” which serves as a bridge between Unreal and Clo3D/MD, allowing for clothing simulation for Metahuman without the need for exporting and importing files in between. And it worked! I was able to simulate the garment without exporting and importing the body FBX with animation, even if it exceeded 150 frames. This animation was about 400 frames, and it still worked quite well.

After simulating the rose dress, I encountered another issue with the hardware (rose FBX models) attached to the dress not properly binding when imported into Unreal, despite functioning correctly in Clo3D. I had to re-attach all the hardware on the dress while Unreal and Clo3D were still live-synced and connected.

Simulating the dress and recording it to match the animation precisely was quite demanding, considering the complexity of the dress draping. So it took some time to record the animation. Also, there isn't much information available yet on the workflow using LiveSync, as it has only been a few weeks since its release. I had to spend some time figuring out how to utilise it, but it definitely helped streamline several steps in the workflow of bringing custom garments from Clo3D. I plan to use LiveSync for the next piece of clothing as well

The major issue that I’ve been dealing with for several weeks now is about the hair going into the body mesh! I’ve been doing so much research and tried so many different approaches but still haven’t solved the issue yet. But meanwhile, I could not wait to start rendering until the issue is solved, so I’ve been rendering, hoping I can cut the frames where the issue is too obvious if it’s not solved for a while. Some say it is the issue that Metahuman has, and I hope I can find the solution as soon as possible!

After so much troubleshooting, I finally managed to queue some renders, which also took a lot of time due to frequent crashes! I'm definitely challenging myself with this project these days, and I feel like I'm learning so much! Hahaha.

Moving on to the next environment, I started by creating the clothes first. With this one, it has to be designed to capture the opposite side of the previous one, the dark side. The thorns, fears, anxieties, and the sadness of life.

Visual inspirations really helped with designing the last dress, the Thorn Dress. While the Rose Dress was all pink, this one should be all chrome. Whereas the rose dress embodies softness, curves like the curves of petals, drapes, and fluidity, the thorn dress portrays rigidity, sharpness, spikiness, straightness, and coldness. To convey the concept, I was thinking of utilising tassels in the dress. Then, I designed the tassels to look more like metal spikes to symbolise the thorns.

It was challenging to figure out how to properly create tassels in Clo3D and actually make them as a dress, but after experimenting with it for a while, I was able to design the thorn dress with metal spikes. Each of the spikes is individually stitched to the dress, which took so much time! I’m quite enjoying the look of this dress. It’s spiky and cold, but chic! Now that the dress is done, I’m thinking of bringing another facial sculpture either as an accessory on top of the dress or as a facial mask. And I’m still adjusting the parameters of the fabric’s physics to make sure it won’t go too out of control when simulated.

INDUSTRY ENGAGEMENT

Application submitted to the Digital Art Fair Open Call for 2025 Program

https://www.digitalartfair.io/
https://www.instagram.com/reel/C4aGISivYiB/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link

While doing my usual research on opportunities on Instagram, I came across a posting about an open call for the digital art fair program in 2025. They were looking for digital artworks including VR, AR, generative art, and interactive installations, and I thought I could definitely give it a try! Also, the instructions to apply were quite simple. It just said:

"Submit your application with your artist portfolio NOW at info@digitalartfair.io 📩
Application closes on 31 May 2024. Artists whose submissions align with our vision will be contacted by our team for further discussion."

I sent an email explaining both of my projects: the Quantum Faces project and also the Meta Rose project, with links to my Instagram profile, project website, and some footage from the last exhibition. Fingers crossed!

Casual Opportunities

I have a habit of searching for opportunities, including artist grants, residencies, collaborations, or gigs on Instagram and saving all the posts in my opportunities folder. There is so much information, and it is quite challenging to find the ones without past deadlines and applicable eligibility criteria. I noticed that if I do not apply right away, it’s easy to forget about them and lose track of their submission deadlines. So, I’m trying not to overthink too much and apply as soon as possible to the ones I can. With more casual opportunities, including the two above, if it’s something I can apply to right away, I just go ahead with it.

The first one is the "Gardener Community," which offers artists easier access to gigs. I came across the post about the community and signed up for it right away. I was invited to Discord, and it seems like I can definitely keep an eye on collaboration opportunities there!

The second post is from a photographer based in Melbourne looking for artists to work together on her projects. It was a casual call, so I DMed her. Who knows what will come out of this!

SOCIAL MEDIA

Three postings were made this week, including new visuals in three different colours of 3D typography for the Meta Rose project, several screenshots of renders from Video 1, and the top 10 hotkeys for Unreal Engine.

Also, I share stories of the posts to engage more within the social media community. I also use numerous tags when posting, such as #3Dartists, #3Dmodelling, #digitalartists, #metahuman, #blenderart, and so on!

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