While I am trying to make a model for a possible Smash mod for Tennis Rosalina, I have to do something else first - restore, and potentially improve, the original Ultra Smash model!
I'm about 95% done with the texturing aspect. I'm done with placing textures on, but in regards to her jewelry, I'm still fiddling with the materials to make them look as pretty as possible. They aren't final yet but they give you an idea. The lighting is also extremely basic here.
I'm also thinking on doing some bump mapping on her clothes so you can see the cloth texture a bit better, like in the actual Ultra Smash game.
After that, I need to fix her rig up.
In case you are wondering why this is even a thing I am doing, a little backstory is required. Ultra Smash model ripping has started, but I heard that people were having trouble with getting Rosalina's model to rip perfectly, which is why it hasn't been uploaded to Models Resource. Someone had a pretty good rip though, that they ported into XNALara and MMD, and has been using them for these
dance videos in MMD.
So a user on these forums managed to port the XNALara file into a .DAE file (which can be imported in to Blender), and they sent the model and textures to me. However, they said they couldn't get the textures to remain working upon sending the file. Furthermore, the model was all one mesh (rather than having different parts of the body split up into their own meshes for easier and more versatile texturing, editing, and animation). And as you can see in that video, there was no "materials" on the model. Although the textures were there, the jewelry and what not wasn't shiny, like in the game, and the cloth of her clothes didn't look like cloth. Additionally, the model was built for the Blender Internal Engine, and not the Cycles Engine (the former uses CPU and is more basic, the latter uses GPU and is much more powerful and in-depth for things like textures, materials, and lighting).
So I set out for a couple of things:
-Separate the mesh into different parts
-Apply the textures
-Update the materials to be as close to the original game as possible, if not even better (merely using game screenshots and her promotional render as a reference)
-Fix up the rig so she can be easily animated, in versatile ways
-Potentially make a copy of the model with an even higher vertex count
As for what I plan to use this model for, aside from the Smash mod (which may even require me to tone it down in quality - not sure yet though), I'm considering possibly editing it to make a battle outfit or more fantastical costume or something like that. And I think I could put her in some environments and make some renders, maybe even some animations. In general though, I'll probably release it for others to use once it's done.
Doing this is definitely helping me learn more tricks in Blender, especially in working with the Cycles Render Engine. It's already inspired some other projects. So while some people may feel it's stupid that I'm doing something on Rosalina for whatever reason, look forward to the next project I will do - I won't say what it is, but I will say that I think people will more widely appreciate that one. The only hint I will give, is this:
It doesn't involve any of the characters in that GIF, but the GIF symbolises what I plan to do.
