2024 – The Year of Many Things
It’s been a while, August being the last blog entry I believe, and a lot has happened behind the scenes during that time. Let’s not dawdle on about it and just get right into the elephant in the room first.
The Site Overhaul
It’s been in development for a while now, but the site is in a suitable working state now on all devices. I don’t plan on changing much, if anything, for the rest of the year.
There are, however, likely some oddities in the pages.
All my text used to be black on a white/light background, but I have switched to white text on a black background to make it easier on my eyes, and hopefully for yours too! This change, however, meant I had to go over every single page and manually change the text to white. If I missed any, you’ll just see a black space. I’ll get around to fixing any text I might have missed, but I’m pretty sure I got it all.
Another change has been the gallery; before it only showed a few of the things I shared; now it shows everything! (Well, almost. 3D models you can interact with aren’t there.) You can also click the image to view a larger version of it.
Something I’m proud of getting to work is the sticky navigation bar and a top-of-page button. These work even on mobile and tablets.
A handful of pages have been removed because the relevant project has been abandoned or merged; Subject 218 for example is now part of the Jinimaru Project and no longer has a seperate category.
Onto that matter…
Reworking Old Rigs
Subject 218 was originally going to have a hand-drawn comic made of it, but my age and art style didn’t make drawing out so many panels at all pleasant. Yes, I wussed out, in a way… the comic is being made using 3D models in cartoon style, as we’ve seen in the past examples I made for characters.
I’ve been cleaning up my old models to make them animate better, namely, the Subject 218 stuff had AWFUL teeth/tongue meshes, but the rigs themselves weren’t very clean either, so I wound up remaking them both.
The old mouth/rig is on the left, new one is on the right. The mouth no longer has to open really wide for teeth to be visible, and the tongue actually works!
The only model with the improved rig and mouth setup is Tim. All the other characters I’d already done before need updating, and then I’ll also need to update the models for the Specimen G-13 characters, but they’re not a top priority as the Subject 218 bunch are so they can wait. I also need to work on some improved fur for those characters anyway…
All Meshed Up!
The sister site, All Meshed Up, no longer has 2 websites dedicated to it; both the shop and 3D Services are found under one roof now.
I spent the better part of the last few months of 2023 setting up the store and getting a portfolio of free models going on MakerWorld, Printables, and Cults3D.
I’m not done with this portfolio, or getting the store working; I plan to release one free model every 3 months, and one Patreon/Exclusive model the following month after the free one.
I will also be attending local events as All Meshed Up now, and no longer Zuperbuu Works. Until I have a better range of completed projects, as ZuW is dedicated mainly to very large or long-spanning projects, ZuW will not be showing itself at Conventions.
Is this the end of ZuW? No. I am still working on the Subject 218 comic and the last written entry to Specimen G-13 alongside one another, but all other projects are on hold or have been scrapped. Donisaur is an unfortunate casualty of my larger projects and has since been retired. In a way, Donisaur is being reborn at All Meshed Up as part of a collection of models I am finishing up.
The Little Dinosaur models are Convention exclusives that can only be obtained in a Gatcha machine and have limited print periods.
Wave 1 is ready for our last show sharing with Dreamie In a Bottle, and will end after our first show on our very own table. Wave 2 will begin at our second show, and end on our third. Wave 3 will start on our fourth show, and end on our fifth.
If any of the models from each wave are left over, they’ll be bundled into the machine for our last show of the year. Will they come back again in 2025? Hmmm… we shall see.
Writing a Blank
Writing is still in progress and is still very slow. I had hoped to get Heart of the Feles 1st draft done by Christmas but failed miserably. Last year was VERY hard for writing, and it will be a year next month since my Feline writing companion passed away. I’m not setting myself any deadlines for finishing the first draft anymore; so long as I pick up the project and write something every month, even if it’s just a paragraph, that will be a win in my book.
Anything Else? Nope! That’s the end of the blog post. I will post another when I feel like I’ve made progress on a project. That could be in a few months, or the end of the year, who knows. Regardless, I hope you had a wonderful holiday and have a better 2024.