#hatboyproject mod

[hatboyproject]

BEHOLD! A MILESTONE HAS BEEN HIT! 

What better day than the day of jokes is there to post about my big huge giant Joker mod in progress? This video showcase shows off one of the three different ways of having this conversation (this one is the sort of Paragon path, I suppose, it’s being more direct and open.) All of the new lines have now been completely custom animated, and this branch is now complete. It is also the last video I will post here until I am working on a different scene. Dailies will be available on the YouTube channel, but only slightly more polished things where it comes to videos will appear here, from hereon out. All dialogue has been implemented in this scene and is functional, and only 10 custom lines’ lip-sync remain before the entire scene is feature-complete. The rest of the game had better watch out, because I am coming for it.

[hatboyproject]

From a Different Perspective

Been messing around a little bit with the flycam to get some coordinates for some nicer shots to break up the shot-reverse-shot monotony a little bit, and just... aww. I mean srsllyyyyy

thinking about editing the hair mesh to shorten the front a bit but I dunno, it looks pretty nice as is honestly

This one makes me legit mad because look at how much nicer the lighting is on that side, but because it's an animcutscene I can't properly edit the cameras in that bit very well without arcane blood magick wwhhyyyyyy

[hatboyproject]

Small Successes

Today I managed to change a few shots to custom angles I had chosen with flycam and it looks good, see below. Nailed down the rest of the missing audio and got that locked in place, eliminated all skipping issues, sorted out a lot of decent flow time between lines, did a few quick things to make expressions generally fit what's happening, introduced a Paragon Interrupt dialogue option.

This node was a boring carbon-copy shot-reverse-shot before. Now it's... I mean, the scene is mostly talking heads, but, variety and stuff, you know? Fixed an issue whereby a dialogue path wasn't unlocking once conditions were met. Found out I had fixed the issue in an inefficient and silly way because I hadn't used my eyes correctly. Decided... Ehhhhhh, it works, and nobody will be able to tell what a doofus I've been about it unless they open my PCC file and scour around. Well. And you, now. Now you know, too! But it's fine. Working on some body gestures tomorrow, gonna see if I can make it so Jeff occasionally like, looks away and breaks eye contact and stuff sometimes. I've some nice shots planned for that and whatever. Was low-key thinking about adding a secret slightly sappier version of one of the lines in this scene, if the player had chosen a particular softer line of dialogue earlier in the game... Because I'm a hopeless romantic and I like all the squishy romantic things and stuff. I'll see how I feel tomorrow. Meanwhile another modder who is cinematographer supreme has done a bunch of work on some of my earlier scenes and has made a lot of really lovely camera work. He has even changed a vanilla conversation that I altered slightly to happen in a different location and it looks killer.

[hatboyproject]

Bridge Conversation Edits

I am writing a lot of dialogue scenes on the Bridge at the moment for Hatboy Project and implementing them as I go. (Only a few more FaceFX things left in the Flux Bar scene and then it is feature complete!) Are there any conversations taking place in the Bridge that you'd specifically want to see? Any specific changes to existing conversations? Any specific additions? Bear in mind, dialogue is not so much a limit because I can splice audio and also use a synth, and this goes for both Shepard and Joker. Yes, I am making this mod for me, but I am also making it for you, the community! I want to hear from you other folks who wear the ballcap.

The romancing-him-version of post-Thessia conversation where Shepard tells off Joker for his joke in poor taste is now the longest conversation between them in the game so far

This touches on a little of the “I got you killed” guilt angle but not too much yet, more in the romance scene itself/Citadel probably, because it is possible to not get him to open up on the Bridge through dialogue choices

EDI is kept platonic throughout all this and edits have been made to account for that

[hatboyproject]

IT ACTUALLY KIND OF WORKS A BIT

The smoothest run yet! It actually kinda works! At some points watching this, I actually forget that I did this and it is a mod! ... And then some jank I haven’t fixed yet kicks in and helpfully reminds me. Changing some expressions and helping them to act with their eyes a little bit more has helped, but there’s a lot more to do. (This is just one available branch of the conversation.) I've made some (what I think) are pretty nice acting decisions with regards to Jeff and some things are working for Shepard, too! I particularly like her "Really?" line, I feel that's a lot more friendly and 'leading' than it was before. Much of Jeff's face in these nodes need a lot of expression changing because he's actually using Traynor's animation set right now for them because of reasons that are too long to go into, which makes his mouth go a little bit nuts - I think it kind of works for his eyes in some nodes though, so I'm gonna see what I can do to blend them when I get around to changing the mouth movements. I’ve also done some very minor camera tricks to keep their positions looking consistent across nodes, because they’re not. Oh also, the background music today is music I composed, called "A Difficult Conversation," you can find it on my BandCamp. (All of my music is free to download if you like it, just put £0 as the price.) At this rate, I am hoping I will have a release version of the mod in late April or early May. (I have to do the romance scene which is just as complex, and all the ambiences and associated romance dialogue trees in the bridge, though those will be much less work than this.)

[hatboyproject]

Received a lovely comment with some feedback on my camera work via YouTube, and I've made some changes in line with the suggestions. I have readdressed the pan up shot to their holding hands, and made the head movements smoother and more communicative. In the "dialogue wheel" shots I've done some dirty, dirty hacking but the end result is now that Joker's throat and/or shoulder doesn't take up a quarter of the screen and pop around when the shot should be focusing on her responses. I'm pretty pleased with the end result.

I've been making some custom FaceFX tracks for Shepard to use during the nodes she isn't speaking in - reactions and stuff mostly since, at the moment, she's a bit of a plank of wood whilst he's talking and that's boring and unrealistic and not very cinematic. She should smile in a couple places, look concerned in others, stuff like that. So I've implemented a couple of those.

Fortunately, now that I understand the basics of what I'm doing, setting up some cameras for the rest of the scene ought to be more straightforward.

Biggest challenge is going to be testing out the alternate pose I'd like them to have and whether or not I can get some kind of kiss going on that isn't the one that happens at the end of the sequence.

I'm not going to fight it too hard though, if I can't get it working in a few hours' worth of effort, then I scrap it and move on. I have things to do if I want this out the bloody door, and I do.

A person very near and dear to me who does music composition has started work with me on a theme to use. There will be a more filled out version of it for use in a trailer once this is all finished, and probably a piano only version to use in this romance scene. It'd be nice for Joker to have his own love theme. Like all the others in the game, it's rooted in G Minor. There's only a melodic sketch right now, but it's really, really nice so far. It expresses longing, bravery, and a sense of belonging, too... but is also little tender and unsure in some places; there's a gentle motif of stumbling sort of with touches of staccato, which I think is a nice acoustic aesthetic for how he walks. Can't wait to share it when it's a little more together!

No solid promises, but if there's a form of this theme that requires strings I do have a few of my own that I may be able to pull, to get it actually played at a College of Music here in the UK... I know that sounds a little nuts? But like, I know people, and stuff.

But, we'll see. ME music is heavy on piano and synth so chances are good it won't need it, but love themes usually benefit from strings.

For now... Cameras.

[hatboyproject]

Modetising

Thanks everyone for the kind comments in the tags and with reblogs! It means the world to me when my mod is put out there to other fans and I’m really excited to get it to a point where I can release it.Someone mentioned the idea of there being a market for this mod. This is an idea that has been floated to me a couple times by now, online and off. I have given it a lot of thought. To this, I will say:It is a labour of love. It is something I am doing because I love the games, I love the fandom, I love the fictional entity that is Jeff, and the fictional entity that is Shepard. The Hatboy Project and anything I do related to it will always be 100% free. There will never be any “different levels” of experiencing this mod gated by any cost. All you will need is to own the base game, a connection to the Internet, and a PC to play it on.When the mod is released on the Nexus, I will enable “Donation Points.” If people really like the mod and want to support its creation when it is released, then they are welcome to donate to it through the site.During the long road of its creation, I mean... if you want to support the time I invest into this, you are welcome to.

I set up a Ko-Fi thing, if you want, but please, feel no obligation. The project is proceeding as scheduled, I never really gave any serious thought towards this aspect of it when I set out to make it, and it does not depend on donations or anything else to succeed. I am not looking into making profit out of this. But, hey if you want to support my caffeine habit, which does actually help my efforts on this - With the UK in lockdown for a while longer, I like to go on a short walk every day to the coffee shop that’s still open and get myself something. I then turn that caffeine-based treat into work on this. It’s good to get a little bit of exercise and I always think best when I am moving and listening to tunes! That would be nice! But no pressure, please! We are all in a difficult place this year. Speaking of, I think I am off to get one. I am going to need some fuel if I’m going to rewrite the entire mod’s TLK and make and categorise custom String Refs for each node. It is exactly as technical and a pain in the ass as you think it is just from that sentence.

[hatboyproject]

Holy shit, you're doing the god's work! Thank you. I wanted to ask though if your mod will be accessible for both original and mele version of the game or just one of them?

Thank you for asking! The initial release is for the original ME3 game. However, rest assured, I will 100% for certain be recreating this mod for use in the Legendary Edition, but in order to start doing that, I have to wait for the updated modding toolset to be released, and for Bioware to finish its in-house patch cycle. Mods made for the original games will not work in Legendary Edition, as they are separate programs. Mods made on files from older builds of MELE will absolutely break a user's game, so it's best to wait until Bioware decides what the final version number is, and then we build on that. So, this gives me time essentially to go ahead and finish the OG ME3's initial release; one which I anticipate will probably be its only. When Hatboy OG is finished, it'll likely be time for me to start on recreating the MELE version, which is I'm sure where most of the userbase will have moved onto by then. With this in mind, and a view to getting Hatboy OG out the door sooner, I have stripped back several planned content ideas and will save them instead for Hatboy LE. (Things like the little quest dealing with his sister, some of the more in-depth EDI conversations, and possibly the date scene rest on the temporary chopping block, but I'm undecided on that at present because it's sort of a big deal to cut.) From my understanding of the new toolset, these planned content additions will be easier to create there because of some changes to the way things work under the hood. Also to look forward to is Hatboy content in LE2! I am in the early stages of planning this out narratively, but I would like there to be some kind of romantic... thing... to explore with him that interlocks with and modifies the content in 3. The reason I couldn't do this before now is that for long and boring technical reasons we were unable to inject new audio into ME2, but such things are possible in LE2.