Check it out in high quality: https://gfycat.com/dependentrigidbluebottlejellyfish
This was a ton of fun to make! I hand-animated each character in Blender and rendered it in Cycles. You can check out a side-by-side comparison with the original here, as well as a behind-the-scenes look here.
If you’d like to support my work, please consider clicking “Buy Prints” at the top of my Tumblr! Thanks :)
first i need to thank @headcanonsfromanelfblossom who beta’d the HECK out of this. this chapter was going to take a nosedive before she stepped in and gave me the idea to split it into two parts! name twin, you’re the mandalorian to my baby yoda. <3 <3 <3 beach episode will be coming up next!
Sicily, Italy
It’s another night of feasting and celebrating a bountiful harvest. Eric has nearly forgotten his troubles as his cup is filled with fresh mead and a plate of delicious food is set before him. Savory meat drenched in sauce, potatoes roasted to a perfect crisp and seasoned with the freshest spices that he himself had grown and gathered earlier. He grins in satisfaction and brings the cup to his lips, the sweet liquid just barely grazing them when the air rocks with a terrible tremble and the sound of deep groaning.
In the distance the scorching mountain of Etna glows menacingly against the starlit sky. Eric rolls his eyes at the dramatic work of Hephaestus, who’s always trying to show him up. He raises his cup once more for another sip, but on the table his phone lights up with a new message and all at once, his troubles return.
I’m here. Meet me. Now.
Eric coughs into his drink, sputtering as the liquid flies out in different directions, staining his clothing. A few nymphs puzzledly glance his way and he turns their attention away with a scowl.
“Eat,” he commands offhandedly, waving at the food as he stands from the table. At the other end of the grand table, Demeter watches her son curiously. Her hands begin to tremble, and she folds them tightly on her lap.
“Would he really leave again so soon?” She asks them worriedly, her eyes watching her son.“Persie-Poo?” She calls gently. He glances at her only for a second before he looks to Etna. Even Demeter’s watchful eyes miss the dark figure he watches slip away into a crevice of the mountain.
“I’ll be right back,” Eric mutters. “I just need to take a walk,” he adds, giving her a fake smile, one he knew that would ease her over and allow him to do whatever he wanted. He doesn’t wait for her approval and heads off. Each step he takes towards Etna fills his nerves with apprehension. How did he find him so quickly? Eric still didn’t have his story straight, or his next step worked out. He stops walking and turns his head back to his mother’s village. He takes a step back. He can run. Yeah, yeah! He can run and go- where the hell could he even go? Swearing under his breath, and against his better judgment, he continues on towards the volcano. His chest begins to tighten, and sweat begins to cake his skin when Etna’s shadow falls over him. Damn it all. He thinks he has a solid lie when he finally reaches the crevice, but when he sees red eyes, harder and deeper than the magma that flowed just behind the wall of stone, glaring at him, Eric feels his throat go dry.
“She’s still alive.” The voice is so rough, it nearly shakes the volcano. “You really screwed everything up now.”
Eric shakes his head, waving his hands as if to ward off the blame that was being flung at him. “It wasn’t me! Jerkcules and those two bone-headed Olympians showed up,” he explains quickly, his voice swelling with fear, “It’s probably not even her, you know-”
“Shut up!” The second man barks. Etna shudders around them. The cavern is dank and rich with the putrid smell of sulfur, while jagged bits of stalactite crack and tumble down. Eric flinches and breathes in sharply when a rough grip comes around his neck. “Don’t give me your damn excuses. It’s been twenty five years since…” He trails off with a feral snarl and shoves Eric away. The vegetation god tumbles back with a pained yelp. The hulking figure paces before turning on Eric again. “It is her. She won’t ruin this for me, not again. Now I have to fix up your mess,” he says furiously, leaning down. Eric swears he could feel the heat of the lava on his breath, as he spoke more lowly. “Go enjoy your last days of summer, Persephone. Be ready, as there won’t be any more waiting.” His warning is dark, and Eric knows he means it. Etna thunders once more, and Eric finds himself alone in the crevice.
He slams a thick fist to the wall and swears loudly, his voice echoing around the cavern. He hated this deal, he hated him, and how weak all of this made him. But if he was going to live, if Cherry was going to be spared...he’d deal. He’d get his revenge in the end. Right now, he just had to play along.
*
Lucy’s head pokes through the museum's break room door and spies Lucky slumped on the couch, her uniform wrinkled and messy. The wino goddess winces at the sight. “Hey, Charms,” she greets gently, walking over. The maybe-oracle looks up quickly, and nods in a silent greeting. “So, I hear it’s been a busy week so far,” Lucy says, trying to converse, settling by her.
“Cherry was right,” Lucky says with dry amusement, dropping her head back with a tired groan. “Everyone in Olympus, and their mother, wants to know if I’m really Tyche, or not.”
Minor gods, spirits, and all creatures between nymphs and giants had come to Lucky to make her acquaintance. Or kill her. Whatever they felt like at that moment. Fortunately, any attempts to kill her all backfired in ironic ways. Today hadn’t been any different.
Koalemos made his appearance and let his influence spread through practically everyone in the museum, mainly a group of teenagers who decided the best way to make a viral video was to climb the mammoth exhibits and throw priceless artifacts around. Lucky surprised herself with the strength she had to drop kick the stupid spirit out. But the damage had been done - she didn’t even want to think of all the meetings and paperwork that was about to come her way.
“At least it’s your birthday this weekend,” Lucy points out, hoping to change the mood. “Didn’t you have something planned?”
“I did, I thought about spendin’ the weekend in Aspen,” Lucky scoffs with a frown,. “But everyone I invited either declined or ignored me,” She slumps against Lucy. “My twenty-fifth birthday is shot.”
It was Lucy’s turn to frown. “Those are your mortal friends,” she says, shaking her head. “You’re gonna see how we party on Olympus. Much better than As...oh,” Her brown eyes light up, and Lucky catches a flash of neon colors swirling in them. An idea had struck. “Oh my Gaia, I got it,” Lucy snaps her fingers, a wide grin crossing her lips.
“What?” Lucky asks puzzled, tilting her head. Lucy doesn’t answer her right away and instead, pulls out her phone, her long fingers quickly writing out a text. “Luce, what is goin’ through your head?”
“Shh! Just trust me,” Lucy finally replies with a carefree smile. “Lucky, get ready- you’re going on vacation for your birthday.”
*
When Jamie got word that Lucy had spontaneously planned a surprise getaway for Lucky’s birthday, the love goddess insisted she handle the guest list and get some quick shopping in. That’s how Lucky found herself in Amphitrite’s Beach Shop, one of the thousands of department stores to be found in The Mall of Olympus.
“I like this one,” Jamie says, holding up a bikini set up to Lucky. Skimpy and shiny, Lucky knew it would not do in covering very much. She shakes her head and gives Jamie a ‘really now?’ look. Jamie pouts her pink painted lips and puts the bikini down. “That’s, like, the fourth one. You haven’t really, like, even tried any on,” she points out. “And we’re leaving, like, in a few hours!”
“Well where are we goin’?” Lucky asks, toying with the sheer fabric of a sarong, her eyes peeking over to the tall blonde. It’d been a long couple of hours of questioning and probing, and she almost had Jamie worn down to revealing the surprise.
Jamie perks up and picks up the sarong. “Cute! We’ll, like, go off this,” she says, quickly nodding. She begins to walk down the aisle but stops short and turns to Lucky. “Nice, like, try Lucky I’m not spilling the beans,” she says with the finality of a goddess and tugs Lucky along. “Now, try on this bikini, you have, like, adorable curves and you gotta show em off!” Jamie insists, pressing a bikini set into her arms.
When Lucky walks off to the fitting room grumbling under her breath, Jamie sighs and leans against the wall. “Gawds that was, like, close,” she sighs, dramatically pressing a hand to her head. Her phone chimes and Jamie smiles brightly when she sees the name A❤️💖 💝💘💗💞💕💓😍 pop up in a text message and their reply.
‘...fine I’ll go. Only for you.’
Jamie squeals. Now this trip would be a blast.
*
“Everyone is going to, like, meet up at my place,” Jamie explains between sips of her smoothie as she and Lucky wander down the sidewalk through town back towards her house. “We’re gonna leave from there,” she continues happily.
“To head off to…” Lucky prompts sneakily. She bites on the straw of her smoothie and waits for Jamie’s slip up. But she doesn’t respond. Instead, Lucky hears a soft gasp come from her instead. “Jamie?” She asks worriedly, looking up to her friend. Jamie’s eyes stay across the street, and Lucky follows her gaze.
A tall young man with messy blonde hair laughs along with a child who appears to be his daughter. A small girl, barely older than five years old, her own hair a mix of blonde and a shade of red. Lucky feels Jamie’s body tremble, and it’s then that she notices the gathering tears in her eyes. Jamie fingers twitch slightly, as if wishing to reach out to them.
The man’s eyes slide over to meet them. There’s a brief moment where he looks taken aback before a hard glare narrows his eyes. A stunned gasp leaves Lucky when in a flash, wings appear on his back. With his daughter in his arms, he gives Jamie one last long look before he’s gone in a flurry of white feathers.
Jamie swallows hard and closes her eyes, while tears stained with mascara glide down her cheeks. “C’mon,” she says, her voice too soft, too quiet.
Lucky shakes her head in disbelief. “Jamie, was...was that, um-”
Jamie doesn’t look at her, being careful to wipe her tears away. “Eros,” she confirms sadly. “It’s a, like, a really long story,” she says, a distressed expression settling over her. She takes a shaky sip of her smoothie and cringes. She tosses it away quickly into a trashcan. “Ugh, like, sorry,” Jamie apologizes, shaking her head with a sigh.
“Ya don’t have to apologize for anythin’,” Lucky replies gently, giving her a reassuring smile. “Ya don’t have to explain either if ya don’t wanna,” She adds.
Jamie nods, as they finally reach her house, pausing at the sight of another young man stepping outside. He was just as tall, his hair a mop of red curls and his eyes widened slightly at the sight of Jamie and Lucky. “Oh,” he says “Sorry, just swung by for the rest of my things,” he speaks mainly to Jamie, with hands full of bags of tools and other trinkets. Lucky tilts her head. Was this Hephestus? Not the image she had in mind. But then again, was anyone in Olympus really what she had imagined?
“It’s, like, okay Kyle,” Jamie says with a small shrug. “Did you get what you needed?”
“Not all of it,” Kyle says. “But I’ll come by later on for the rest,” He nods to the door. “I’ll see you around,” He finishes, walking past them. Lucky watches as the god of forges leaves, then turns back to Jamie with an amused but questioning gaze.
Jamie lets out a good natured huff. “It’s, like, a long story,” she explains, waving a hand. “To make it, like, short we’re not really married anymore. It’s, like, an act for Zeus. He thinks he’s, like, the best matchmaker or whatever,” She rolls her eyes a bit but smiles, walking into her house. “Enough though, everyone is on their way and we need to pack!”
Lucky doesn’t get a chance to ask another question before Jamie pulls her to the room. Through the whole afternoon, Jamie didn’t crack once like Lucky had hoped. It looked like it really would be a surprise.
*
Lucy is the first to arrive. Her bags obviously packed hastily and shoved into the back of her Volkswagen, as she adds in Lucky’s and Jamie’s. A pair of oversized sunglasses cover Lucy’s eyes, and a two sizes too big shirt that said ‘It’s Five O’Clock Somewhere’ with a pair of cocktail glasses below hung on her slender body.
“Operation Oracle Birthday Surprise Bash is GO!” Lucy declares loudly, shutting the trunk doors.
Jamie cheers, bouncing excitedly, clapping her hands. The skirt of her pink sundress waving with each motion she makes.“And I didn’t, like, ruin the surprise!”
“Proud of you, babe” Lucy nods, finger gunning towards the blonde. “Now we just need everyone else to show up so we can head out,”
Lucky tugs on the hem of the shorts of her sunflower print romper, pulling down her own sunglasses over her eyes. The same ones Lucas had lent her from before. “So who is all comin’?” She asks, looking to the two goddesses.
“Uh, Lucas, Isaac, Rylee,” Lucy lists off, she turns to Jamie. “Bee?” She asks her. Jamie perks up, nodding. “Bee, maybe Craig, and Clyde,” Lucy wraps up. Lucky pauses at Clyde’s name and feels her face warm, even with the sun hidden in the slightly overcast sky.
A loud and rhythmic beeeeeeeeep beep beep beeeeeeeeeeeep of a car horn echoes in the air and Lucas’s yellow Camaro screeches to a halt before them. The window rolls down to reveal Lucas’s grinning face, and another young man with dark hair, only instead of sunglasses, he wore a thick pair of eyeglasses, and did not copy Lucas’s happy expression.
“Bout time,” Lucy says, leaning against the Camaro. She waves Lucky over, and motions quickly to the second passenger in the car. “Charms, come meet Isaac, otherwise known as Artemis.”
Lucky blinks and leans down a bit, peering to Isaac. He nods his head to her in a quiet greeting. He was someone Lucky could picture on the cover of a prestigious science magazine, not the goddess, uh, god of the hunt.
“Don’t mind him,” Lucas says, rolling his shoulders, leaning back against the seat. “He’s pissy I dragged him into this, but he needs to get out once in a while,” He finishes more pointedly, his eyes on his twin.
“Lucas, the more you speak, the more stupidity plagues us,” Isaac retorts shortly, his face is easy and his eyes barely narrow into a glare anyone would’ve expected. Lucas instead is the one to scowl and glare.
“They’re a riot,” Lucy chuckles, jabbing a thumb at them. Glancing over, Lucy’s eyes light up at the sight of two figures walking over. “Craig, Clyde!” She calls, waving to them. Lucky turns her head, and feels her heart jump into a flutter at the sight of Clyde. Dressed as casually as everyone else, an oversized gym bag slung over his shoulder. The few buttons of his shirt left undone, showing off his strong chest and-
Lucky squeaks when Lucy drags her over. “Charms, this is Craig. You might know him better as Morpheus,” she introduces. Lucky looks to the dark haired young man next to Clyde, who gives her a passive glance over, his periwinkle colored eyes narrow slightly. He was tall, and appeared to be fit, which was surprising for the deity of sleep.
“This is Tyche?” Craig asks no one in particular. “I remember her being taller.” He shrugs.
Clyde shakes his head. “Dude, you can’t even remember what you ate for breakfast,” He counters. Craig silently lifts his hand and holds his middle finger into clear view in front of Clyde’s face.
“Settle down,” Lucy drawls, rolling her eyes. “We’re still missing two people,” She points out, looking around. “Jamie, where’s-”
A loud rumble shakes the air, and the ground. With a blinding flash of light, the tall figure of a woman stands before them. She stood at the height Jamie and Lucy stood at in their half godly forms. Next to her, a more human sized figure stood by her boredly. But Lucky couldn’t tear her eyes away from the woman clad in silver armor, a red cape billowing around her, a long spear gripped tightly in her hand. A sharp looking helmet rests atop her head. From the shadow of her helmet, golden eyes stare down at them with an intimidating gaze.
“Bee!” Jamie calls excitedly. “Don’t, like, scare Lucky. C’mon we, like, gotta go!” She says, tapping her wrist.
“Hmf.” The woman’s voice rumbles. There’s another flash of light, and ‘Bee’ was normal sized, perhaps only an inch or two taller than Lucky. Gone was her armor, replaced now by everyday looking clothes; jean shorts, and dark t-shirt with boots. Her blonde hair is cut short and her spear now appeared to be a cane, with a point at the bottom, and still deadly-looking. Jamie flounces over, wrapping her arms around her pressing a long kiss to her cheek. The shorter woman finally smiles.
“That’s Bee, also known as Athena,” Lucy leans down slightly, whispering by Lucky’s ear. “The sleepy looking doll with her is Rylee, or Hypnos as mortals like to call her.” She stands straight, grinning at the stunned look that covers Lucky’s face as she takes in the two new goddesses.
“Athena…” Lucky starts in a soft mumble, and her mental gears go into work. “Jamie, is always textin’ someone named A on her phone,” She tilts her head when Jamie nuzzles her nose lovingly to Bee’s and finally the realization bell dings loudly. “OH.” Lucky gasps, nodding. “Wait-”
“Long story,” Lucy cuts off, waving a hand. “Jamie will explain sooner or later.” She says, bumping her hip to Lucky towards the Volkswagen. “Everyone pick your ride, let's get going!” She calls out.
“Jamie sure has a lotta explainin’ t’do…” Lucky sighs. “So um, hey y’all where are we goin’?” She asks hopefully, climbing into the Volkswagen.
Edit: I'm not sure if this is embedding properly, video link here
I noticed a couple of comments on my Supa Hot LiS gif when it was shared around, which dismissed it by claiming that it was motion captured (why would that devalue it as art anyway? 😅). Given that I spent a couple of months painstakingly copying the original material and still wasn’t happy with it, that was quite flattering! But it got me thinking, maybe I can do some DIY mocap without access to an expensive dedicated studio...
The left footage was my first test with a willing volunteer, done by painting a bunch of makeup dots on their face and filming them with a camera on a tripod, then tracking that in Blender and haphazardly applying it to Chloe’s face rig. Unfortunately it’s impossible to keep your head perfectly still while pulling expressions, and despite trying my best to stabilise the video you can still see Chloe Price’s facial features uniformly shift around unnaturally.
For my second test I followed this tutorial to build a rudimentary face tracking helmet, then placed sticky dots on my own face (using Vaseline to get them to stick to my beard!) and filmed it. Once tracked, I used animation retargeting to get a better result because my face doesn’t quite match Zavala’s. It’s still very amateur, but for an hour’s work it provides a fantastic base animation to then improve upon. The Zavala model was kindly extracted and shared by WinterPsycho, which I then edited slightly.
Both clips were rendered very quickly in Eevee, and I’m really excited to continue practicing this alongside learning traditional animation!
If you’d like to support my work, please consider clicking “Buy Prints” at the top of my Tumblr! Thanks :)
it’s st. patrick’s day which makes it jojo’s birthday! i was gonna write something but i’m exhausted so have headcanons instead
it’s jojo’s tenth birthday party and lucky is freaking out cause her first baby has hit double digits
clyde and lucky decide to make it an Event
they deck out the whole ranch and invite everyone
it’s unicorn themed. so lots of pastel colors, balloons, just everything. some horses even wear comfy cones that make them look like their unicorns
lucky cries every five minutes about jojo being 10 so she can’t blow up any balloons, so vivi takes over
only she starts crying too remembering how henri just turned ten as well
their husbands take over
jamie insists on baking the cake. she flies out to colorado just for jojo’s party and brings her boys.
this of course triggers something primal in the kids when they all get together and suddenly are up to No Good
lucy arrives with fireworks, cause she Knows her niece. but the firecrackers disappear.
lucas is not being a good influence at this party, like, at all. kinda tells the kids “maybe you shouldn’t do that...or well it could be kick ass if you did maybe”
he gives jojo her first guitar and she LOVES it
rylee is dozes off on the couch so she can not be held accountable by association for whatever lucas does.
cherry is not able to make it, but she still facetimes and jojo is ecstatic to see her aunt cherry and they geek a bit for a while.
somehow a firecracker ends up in the cake, and it explodes. chunks of cake everywhere.
this is all before the party even starts
also it starts to storm
the parents and aunts and uncles are over it by this point. lucky figures “NO this is still my baby’s party” and they move the party inside and just have a blast playing games, music, eating, and watching movies
then isaac shows up with all the Awesome gifts the kids forget everything
W&L Fulbright student who observed Ukrainian revolution to speak April 1
W&L Fulbright student who observed Ukrainian revolution to speak April 1
A Washington and Lee University alumnus who lived a year in Kyiv, Ukraine, as a Fulbright scholar observing the Ukrainian Revolution unfold will give a public lecture on “Ukraine in Crisis: A Witness to Revolution, War and Reform” April 1 at the university.
Isaac Webb, a 2013 W&L graduate, spent part of the 2013-14 academic year traveling in eastern Ukraine and observed armed conflict around the…
A chime rings through the shop, the soft jingle signalling a new customer. Lucky hurries to the counter, a bright smile on her face when Clyde comes into view.
Vivi peeks out from the kitchen door, a soft giggle leaving her lips. "He's here again Cherry-kins." Vivi looks to the other red haired girl in the kitchen. "5 o'clock, right on the dot."
Cherry smiles, taking care to get all the bread dough from her fingers and place the dough in a covered bowl before she glides over, joining Vivi and peeking out of the kitchen "I hope he is brushing his teeth. All those pastries and cupcakes must give him so many cavities if he is not."
Cherry stays by the door as Vivi skips back into the kitchen, heading to the store room "If we're lucky, they'll be together by next month!"
"Or sooner." Cherry murmurs, smiling softly as Clyde leaned onto the counter, asking for Lucky's number.
It's barely a minute later when a loud boom echoes through the shop, Lucky and Clyde jumping and looking to the kitchen door as Cherry turns quickly, just in time to see Vivi emerging from the store room.
"Well, whaddya know, I guess flour really can explode." She grins, covered head to toe in bakers flour. She shakes her head, a cloud of dust coming off her as Cherry sighs, grabbing a broom and starting to sweep the mess up.
"I could have told you that." Isaac's disgruntled voice echoes, as he tries to wipe flour from his glasses, also covered in flour, a less than impressed look on his face.
