Last time, three crew moved to new VRoid models, and I said a new character should now take minutes rather than days. This week I tested that. Yui and Sato are the first crew members who don't have a story room of their own yet. Instead, they walk the ship. Both are invented characters, and their names and roles are provisional.
From VRoid to uniform
I designed both of them in VRoid Studio. Each one then goes through the same pipeline as Sora, Hayato and Yuki: their own shirt and trousers become the fleet's service dress, with the seams, closure, cuffs, shoulder boards and sleeve patch painted and built on top. Yui wears the women's cut, with a diagonal closure and silver piping. Sato wears the men's cut, with a straight closure and button-flap pockets, and keeps the sneakers from his VRoid model.
The only per-character work is a set of measurements: where the collar opens, how wide the torso is, where the pockets and shoulder boards sit. I measured both models first instead of guessing. Yui is a little shorter than Sora and about ten percent broader through the torso. Sato is about four percent shorter than Hayato and built almost the same. Their measurements are the earlier characters' numbers, scaled to fit.
The clipping check
The pipeline's clipping check plays every animation clip and measures how far sleeves and hands go into the jacket. Last time this was where most of the work went. This time both of them came back at 0 mm on all six clips, first try: walk, two idles, the salute and two seated poses. Their feet stay on the floor too.
Walking rounds
The Yamabiko has grown since the last log: there are now full decks of rooms to walk through, and they deserve a log of their own. Yui and Sato are the first crew to use them.
Each walking crew member has a round: a list of rooms on one deck, visited in order. They walk the corridor to each door and step through, spend a while inside, then come back out and head to the next room. Sliding doors open for them as they do for you, and they stop and turn to look at you if you come close.
Yui works on C Deck, among the gardens and the science rooms. Sato works on E Deck: the main concourse, the stores, the galley, the kitchen and the cafeteria. E Deck is the long one, with the tram, so his route keeps to the walkway beside the tracks.
Testing this turned up one fix. Yui's round took her across the garden on the walkway that runs through it, and the garden pond was sitting right on that walkway, so she walked across the water. The pond now sits to one side.
What is still rough
- You can't talk to them yet. They have no conversations written, so for now they walk past and look at you.
- Their names and roles are placeholders until I write their stories.
- I've checked them in stills and in a scripted test that follows each of them for forty seconds. I haven't played alongside them for long yet.
What's next
A first conversation for each of them, so they become crew you can get to know rather than people passing in the corridor.
Disclaimer
This is a work-in-progress development log. Everything shown is a prototype and is subject to change without notice.
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