WorldOfLeah
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Learning a new program - Conclusions
🕑 Added 2022-10-07 15:43:27 +0000 UTCHeyhey!
In the past 3 weeks I've checked out and learnt the basics of two new programs (Blender and Unreal Engine 5) to see if any of them are worth properly learning in the future to expand of what I'm able to do with this project! (Context)
Here is a summary of what I learnt and what conclusions to draw (TLDR at the bottom as always):
Blender
My experience with Blender was fairly straight forward and many things that I already learnt in DAZ could be translated into Blender, just that Blender offers much more versatility in that it would also allow me to animate properly - which is my main goal for the future. It'd also allow me to build own models/props so I wouldn't be reliant in buying assets on the market - though I came to the conclusion that this isn't really an issue that needs to be solved right now as the time consumption of making my own props, environments, etc. (my characters are already fairly unique) would shadow the actual use I had for them as the DAZ market is already full of great and high quality assets.
So this would mainly leave Blender for me as a way to Animate. The issue with that and probably any other 3D Program is that assets that I use in DAZ had to be modified and exported to make them compatible with another platform. This, especially considering the amounts of assets I use, can be extremely time consuming.
Of course this is a step I would have to take if I changed programs or used another program in addition to DAZ. But this also means that if I want to learn a new program, I should only choose one and committ to it rather than having multiple that I'd all have to learn and juggle around files with. With that being said, I don't think, as great as Blender is, that it would be my go to in the future but rather the Unreal Engine 5.
Unreal Engine 5
If you're a gamer, you probably heard about UE5 already and know it's a very potent and new game-engine. In addition to that, the UE5 offers a lot more than just making games on it. It can just as well be used for animating or for making photorealistic photos or movies.
While the game engine itself has a really great looking real-time renderer that can make beautiful gaming graphics, it also has a built in (non real-time) path-tracing renderer similar to what I use in DAZ. This allows for more photorealistic renders compared to gaming graphics, so the UE5 would be similarly capable to Blender in that aspect. Before I upset any Blender enthusiasts with that though, let me say that Blender is absolutely the better alternative if I was only looking for a new way to animate in the future. But I don't need most of the other tools that Blender offers, like being able to build my own 3D props.
So given I can only decide for one new program, as I explained earlier, I'd rather learn a program that can do the things I need (animation) but also doesn't stop there. So I could use it for animations and someday could go beyond that and perhaps make my own little video game playing in the World Of Leah, or as I suggested in another post, have an interactive album viewable in 3D on your desktop PC or even VR goggles for example. Things like that would be possible, or let's just say there wouldn't be a limit on where to go with the World Of Leah anymore.
Conclusion
The UE5 would offer me possibilities for both the short- and the long-term. So I chose it to be the program I want to learn!
Now again, even these short-term goals are far away. I've watched and followed tens of hours of UE 5 tutorials and guides over the past 3 weeks and of course experimented with it by myself, too. By now I would say that I've grasped the basics of the engine itself. I didn't specialize in anything but wanted to see what all is possible and what effort it would take to learn it properly. It'd probably take months over months if I want to do more than just animations - and do it well.
This means, sometime down the road, not this year, maybe not even next, but eventually I'll have to take a break on the monthly album releases for a longer time and fully study the Unreal Engine 5 so that I can evolve this project into being more than "just" image albums.
This will be a huge step but nothing that I'll do immediately. I think it's good to plan way ahead so you guys know what you're paying and ultimately investing in, too.
The next big milestone will be animations. If I wanted to just learn how to animate in UE5 (without learning anything else), I probably wouldn't need multiple months off to do so but maybe only one. So this could be something that will be happening in the rather "short"-term, lets say sometime next year. After that I could try to include little animation-loops on top of the image albums and try to build up on that.
It has been some time that I talked about my goals with the World Of Leah and where this project is going. So know that I have big ambitions, even though it's still "just" albums for now.
Anyway, I hope this wasn't too dry of a read. I'll be start working on the new No-Nut-November album tomorrow and previews for Supporter Tiers & higher will follow shortly after!
TLDR:
- I chose the Unreal Engine 5 to be the program that I'll learn properly as an addition to DAZ.
- The Unreal Engine 5 will allow me to animate but also do much more than that. For example games or interactive viewable albums.
- This is all still long ways ahead. Sometime in the next year or two I'll have to take a longer break from making monthly albums and focus on studying the Unreal Engine 5.
- The next big (short-term) step would be offering Animation loops on top of albums. This could potentially start sometime next year already.
- Work on the No-Nut-November album will start tomorrow and previews for Supporter Tier's & higher will be posted shortly after!
