Aw, Jeez… it’s been more then a year now? I swear I’ve was going to make another one of these posts at some point…
So, The last time we left off, I had finished making my adjustments to the hip area for a base that I had been given.
Base by Ash Tenrec, modified heavily by Prototype-1
Eventually though, I was going to need to move on to my own model.
And so, I started New PiLOT Design.
At first, it started off simple. I had just come hot off the heels of Furality Somna, and the Avatar Basics panel, and it seemed like a good time to apply the information given in that presentation to a actual project. Modeling it seemed to have taken around 2 weeks, and after that it took another week just to get the weight painting, tweaking, and UV mapping… to have it done.
UV Mapping was pain… And it wasn’t even worth it…
I never really took advantage of the benefits of UV mapping, nor did I really enjoy the process of UV Mapping. Granted, it was my first time doing UV Mapping, but for what I was going for, it made the final result worse then it could have been.
I used this model through to the end of the year, though as 2026 rolled around, I felt that a update was in order, or rather, a remodel.
Looking back now? NPD v2 was a bit of a sidegrade compared to NPD v1. I had switched from using full UV maps to a simple 2x2 Atlas, and put the Emission Detail into the model, even adding depth by insetting it a bit.
However… the changes done to the main torso felt like downgrades compared to v1, especially the Upper Chest. I had gone from a something good, to something a bit bland, and the details below shoulder height took a noticable nose dive in quality.
In Late May, I came out publically with v3 of the design.
In all honestly, I’m not really sure why I decided to dedicate a whole version number to this update of the model, as NPD v3 doesn’t really do much in terms of changing a lot, only addressing the issue I had before with NPD v2’s Front Upper Body, and not much else.
All throughout this time, I had taken issue with the Hips, and the idea that I had never really gotten it “right”. something was off with it.
back when I was creating NPD v1, I had consulted with someone else in the community about this exact issue, and eventually landed on what was seen across all 3 attempts of modeling myself, but when actually making the model, I never seemed to be happy with my work within that area specifically.
Throughout the process of modeling v2 and v3, I had a growing sense that I should ask someone to create a reference that was based off my modeling, with artistic liberties taken to improve areas of the design I myself couldn’t really nail down.
The only problem was finding a artist that not only would have a idea of what I am going for, but also someone who would actually be able to understand what a Pilot even was within the bounds of Terrors Of Nowhere, and by extention, FOX Universe. Oh, and Monatary Restrictions.
It didn’t take long after the creation of NPD v3 to eventually figure out who I would comission however.
Namu’s stuff really appealed to me, and as months went by I started to actually, fully consider the possibility of commissioning them for this new design. By October, I was ready.
After 2 weeks of time passing, casually discussing the details, talking about Pilots, and someone else then also talking about rhythm games and yuri… It was finished.
It only took a week for NPD v4 to be finis- hey what the hell
Is- Is that me?
yeah… In the wake of the discussion, the idea of having a version of myself that more fit within the FOX Universe had came up and been pushed as a seperate commission to be done, and even though this wasn’t my idea, it had a knock on effect of solving even more issues I never even considered.
You See, with previous designs I had made the shoulders too wide, a coniquence of never figuring out how the shoulders should connect to the arms, all thanks to a design quirk that never was thought fully though.
When I saw that namu had just… connected back the upper arm to the upper chest, I just decided that it was probably time to stop carrying foward that part of the design and use this new part instead.
And finally…
Personally, the difference between the previous versions and NPD v4 are night and day. While I’ve considered the “FOX Universe” Version of the model to be complete at this point in time, I think I still have a little more to go as fine tuning is concerned before I can finally say I am happy with NPD v4’s “Original” variant.
Aside from all of that, Welcome to my new website! this similarly took a week to make and I’m intentionally leaving it a bit basic for now, but in the future there will be more stuff to share, and more things to browse.
Eventually I will have the “TERMINAL” working, though the contents of it will be kept a secret for now.
Special Thanks to Namu for letting me commission them and working / clarifying things for me as I was modeling.
Go follow them on Twitter!
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