AkELkA - Project Updates & Recap part 2

Well, the GR2LAB addon has evolved into a pretty solid animation tool. Here's a quick recap of some of its most notable features:

✧ Ability to search for animations directly inside Blender, preview them, use the Animation Zoo feature, and set up auto-rigging.

✧ Ability to import full cutscenes with multiple actors, camera positions, and hiding actors(if they hidden for some camera angle), with NLA strips synchronized to the exact timing of the original cutscene.
It also syncs with Moonglasses, allowing you to see the scene in both Blender and the game engine simultaneously.

✧ Ability to change body type and race while automatically loading the correct animations for the scene, based on linked cutscene

Addon still in the work and progress stage, but if you want to try it, the GR2_LAB_2.1.870 is the last publicly avalible right now on my GitHub

Why needed:
Well, I nearly broke my head trying to figure out why some of my paired animations didn't match sometimes. Turns out my "eagle eye" for positioning isn't quite as good as I thought. In actual cutscenes, the same animation can be cropped or repeated at unexpected points, so no wonder I had so much trouble figuring them out.

Now add the fact that one Karlach animation has to match every animation from different body types that paw her different body parts, which multiplies the number of animations I need to adjust exponentially. So this has kind of become a personal challenge for me.
An interesting one, though!

I switched to a different shader for the head fluff and scalp, which meant remaking nearly all the textures to make it work.

Pros:
✧ Better shading, giving the fluff a softer, fluffier appearance
✧ Pretty good anisotropy, which the old shader lacked
✧ More parameters that I can expose in presets, giving you more customization options
✧ More optimized texture handling, meaning smaller file sizes and more room for additional assets in the mod

Cons:
✧ No wind support in the base file
This means no wind effects on the feathers in the base pak. I could add wind support through a separate shader in an optional file for PC users only, after base version is finished

Also added some tail prototypes. They still need more work, and I'm remaking the wings because I'm not happy with their current weight paint at all.
And yes, obviously, custom selectable body types, just like in FleshForge

Some of you may remember the shader shenanigans we got up to during an old collaboration.

Well, I've got some good news: I'm making my own custom Dragonborn shader from scratch!It already has all the features the old one had, and more. The original files were always locked, so no, I didn't copy anything. The whole pipeline is different, and I'm building this one myself.

Current assembly: Stripes/Dots Coating, Tattoos, Emissive, Scars (in progress), Expanded Makeup.All features are configurable through texture scale masking.

Even better, EvilSnail and Nzx have proposed joining forces on this project, so why the hell not? Hopefully, we'll finally get to give Dragonborns the customisation options you deserve XD

For those who missed the original experiments, here are some old posts:
Post 1 · Post 2 · Post 3

You might have already seen some of the textures from those experiments making their way into my head mods as lip tints, or into FleshForge as tattoos and stripes. My part of the original collaboration was more or less finished back then.

Unfortunately, the original project never made it to a public release, and it's safe to say that collaboration is no longer happening. So you won't be seeing that custom Dragonborn shader I showed in those previews in its old form.

But hey, I'm making something new, and hopefully something even better

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There are also some smaller additions and experiments, like custom vertex cuts to hide tails when wearing tail armor, some UI shenanigans, and other bits and pieces, but I think I'd bore you to death with all this