Miracle

@miraclebutt

Animator at KO_OP. 3D Animation and rigging with Blender || He/Him. || Art may be explicit from time to time. Rigs:

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Miracle@miraclebutt· 22d

Spent most of the weekend planning something out. It'll take a while to finish so thank you for your patience.

Miracle@miraclebutt· 23d

I had not considered their size disparity when i made this post.

Miracle@miraclebutt· 25d

peach emoji

Miracle@miraclebutt· 28d

Another bake test. I'll need to sharpen his face features a little more, doesn't really match his torso detail.

Miracle@miraclebutt· 29d

Afford me an indulgence, my brain is making cartoon wolf noises and I can't get it to stop.

Miracle@miraclebutt· 29d

Experimenting a little bit with baking normals from a high res sculpt. The results are appealing, I think.

Miracle@miraclebutt· Jul 7

it's working, it's working!! i have to make them even gayer.

Miracle@miraclebutt· Jul 6

Prototyping a way to knock seeds out of trees and other high up places in Young Suns. I had Mario's forward air from Smash Bros in mind when I animated it but I'll likely redo it into more of a volley ball spike and keep this as a variant maybe.

Miracle@miraclebutt· Jul 6

WIP. A miscreant approaches. I think I might've let this one get away from me a little bit, it doesn't look a thing like my draft.

Miracle@miraclebutt· Jul 4

WIP from this evening. My face does that around pizza, too.

Miracle@miraclebutt· Jul 2

the timing on this one is beating my ass but man i'm having fun.

Miracle@miraclebutt· Jun 29

Some texturing progress. Not quite where I want to be yet, but getting there.

Miracle@miraclebutt· Jun 28

Some kind of cat boy, maybe?

Miracle@miraclebutt· Jun 21

Walk cycle to stop me from going insane swish swish swish

Miracle@miraclebutt· Jun 14

Sculpting and retopo is the accepted pipeline nowadays I think, but for poly modeling I learned by modeling along with timelapses. I think it was Flycat's female base mesh timelapse on Youtube that was really useful for getting me started.

A trick that helped me is using the sculpting tools for poly modeling. Start with a box: extrude out the basic shape, subdivide, sculpt, loop cut, extrude, sculpt, repeat until you have something you like. Then just fuck around with it. Make adjustments, play around with the geometry, look at what other people are doing with their models (gacha game models are super easy to get ahold of and great for this). The more you fuck around the better you will get, and that's basically how I learned.

Miracle@miraclebutt· Jun 14

I wrote down their names elsewhere in this thread so you can refer to that if there's some confusion, but here's some tidbits:

- Olivia has a younger brother who she loves very much, but is deeply ashamed of.

- Lilly lacks the self-awareness to be embarrassed.

- Finn used to dye his fur because he wanted to look more like a wolf instead of a coyote. He insists to this day it was a winter coat. A year-round, black, winter coat.

- Ryan projects the image of someone who has it all figured out, but in private he is a fucking mess. He has zero idea how to maintain an emotional connection so all of his relationships are whirlwind physical affairs that last a month at most.

- The Director was married. Legally, she might still be, but she's also been legally dead for years so her wife is a widow who has since remarried and they're probably not gonna renew their vows any time soon.

- Ms Schael abuses the overtime budget afforded to her agency to pay her assistant, Mr Chesterfield, to pet her. Their relationship is entirely nonsexual but they would do literally anything for one another, so the overtime is either window dressing or embezzlement, depending on your point of view.

- Reese, by comparison, is startlingly well adjusted and the most embarrassing thing about them is probably something completely normal, like maintaining a fanfiction page dedicated to shipping characters from an obscure late century cartoon.

Miracle@miraclebutt· Jun 14

They are! They work at the Ministry of Public Service, a government agency that used to be responsible for public works, but has since had its role eroded so is now mostly obsolete.

It's considered a dead-end career path for any ambitious public servant, so its management positions have been largely vacant since their last director died, literally in office, on the eve of his centennial, his mind long taken by dementia.

Ryan (the grey wolf) was the acting director until the current Director was placed there to keep her out of trouble, but he's apathetic to his role and just wants a smooth ride to retirement, so he's happy to be the assistant director if it means he doesn't have to do much.

Miracle@miraclebutt· Jun 14

I randomly saw a tweet from one of our producers @seemo.bsky.social for a Blender Animator opening in... late 2023/early 2024 I think? I was unemployed but not seriously looking for a job in the industry, but I figured what the heck, might as well.

I put together a demo reel, submitted an application (and to a few other places, but KO_OP was my first choice.), interviewed well, impressed with the art test, and was offered a position, which I'm extremely happy to have.

I don't know if my jobhunting advice is any good, but I can mention a few things that stood out to me. Seemo might be able to fill in how it was from their side and what went into their decision, but from where I stood, these parts seemed to help most:

My demo reel at the time showed solid fundamentals, but also included some of my own models, which demonstrated that I knew the character creation process. Less important in AAA, very important in indie and AA because you will wear a lot of hats.

I typically interview very well, which helped, but also showed practical understanding of the job -- as an animator, you have access to a vocabulary that others do not, so part of your job is to interpret and translate layman's terms into the visual language of animation. Showing interest in the studio, why people worked there, that's important as well.

During the art test (which was paid!) I showed I could take feedback, produce quality work within a time limit, but as a little bonus, showed what I could do with additional time.

This all added up, but I was still lucky. Circumstances, if they'd happened two weeks earlier, would've made hiring me impossible. I am glad I don't have to look for a job in this industry and my heart breaks for all my compatriots still trying to find work in this climate.

But industry woes notwithstanding, I would work at KO_OP for the rest of my life. I've been ruined for other jobs. The world would be such a better place if everyone's job treated them as well as KO_OP has treated me.

Miracle@miraclebutt· Jun 14

It's the Ministry of Public Service, a government agency, but it's largely obsolete by this point so anyone remaining is doing so either through ignorance, obligation, or apathy:

- Ryan is the most senior. Former Intelligence Service agent, he specifically picked this job because he wants to easily ride out the rest of his working years to a nice fat government pension.
- Olivia is a family friend of Ryan's, and a recent immigrant. Ryan got her this job when she emigrated. She's young and eager but isn't quite sure what her duties are so she just does whatever.
- Lilly is chronically unemployable in most industries so when work placement put her into a clerical position at MOPS they were pleasantly surprised when Ryan's apathy to her shenanigans means she officially gets removed from the unofficial Problem Child board they keep in the Ministry of Employment's break room (celebrations were had).
- Finn won't tell anyone why he's there.
- The Director was placed there to keep her out of trouble and because the Intelligence Service wants to keep a close eye on her.
- Reese isn't actually on staff, she works at the Ministry of Conservation a couple floors up but the vibes are nicer down there. The MOC's director is a bit volatile.

- Ms Schael is the acting director of the Intelligence Service and has taken a personal interest in popping down to the MOPS office to antagonize the Director.

Miracle@miraclebutt· Jun 14

She's very closely intertwined with the background setting but some hopefully interesting info:

- She/Her. Much older than the rest of the cast (considered elderly, but still very fit).
- Married, but estranged from her wife.
- Infamous vigilante/revolutionary, had a major part in her country's proletarian revolutionary war, but disappeared when it ended to fight for similar causes around the world.
- Went inactive, presumed dead. Big state funeral.
- Reappeared home years later. Given a new identity and quietly put into a dead-end position at an irrelevant government ministry (Ministry of Public Safety) to keep her out of trouble.
- Laconic, direct, not very charismatic so never gained much of a following postwar.
- Might be up to something, but hasn't made a move yet.

Miracle@miraclebutt· Jun 14

She is evil, now.

Miracle@miraclebutt· Jun 13

Hrm... Feline... Hm...

Miracle@miraclebutt· Jun 11

Checking with some temp textures. I think I really like this look for her.

Miracle@miraclebutt· Jun 10

Playing around with a possible new outfit.

Miracle@miraclebutt· Jun 9

Factory reset.

Miracle@miraclebutt· Jun 7

Epilogue. Just a quick thing over a day or two, no audio on this one.

Miracle@miraclebutt· Jun 3

Loving that even the animators at Santa Monica Studios appreciate a good spin jump.

Miracle@miraclebutt· Jun 2

Been helping make the movement on Young Suns feel a bit more zippy and responsive and I'm really enjoying boosting around on planetoids at the moment.

Miracle@miraclebutt· May 24

Golden week (belated).

Miracle@miraclebutt· May 23

Making some face rig improvements. Splitting the single face controllers into left and right opens up some much nicer dynamic expressions than my usual rigs.