Hey again! It's been a while, but I'm really pleased to finally bring you a new animation. :>

This one was, as usual, fairly difficult to produce. I kept running into issues and road blocks; problems with the weight painting, problems with the topology, and problems with the fur system. You may notice that I've redone the fur; I wasn't keen on the way it had looked before, and I wanted something that looked fluffier and had more convincing "tufts". So, after a lot of experimentation with settings, grooming, and trying various methods, I finally came up with this look -- which I'm really fond of!

You might also notice the texture's different. This is -- for the most part -- the texture I had originally had on the character when I posted my first animation back in 2019. After that I had decided that the texture looked too low resolution and ended up redoing it, but now I've come to the conclusion that I prefer the look of the larger spots that the original had.

The animation for this one ended up being pretty difficult as well, as the model itself deformed in ways that I hadn't anticipated when putting it in these kinds of poses -- primarily I had trouble around the shoulder areas, and the weight painting had to be largely redone. Additionally, due to the way the mesh is set up to use shapekeys for expressions, it seems to conflict with fur dynamics -- so still no simulated fur, sadly.

As this model is a few years old now, I'm in the process of making a new hyena character using the things I've learned along the way. As making a character is such a huge process, I don't have an ETA on that, but much of the topology is already done. With the new model I'm hoping to have better deformation from better topology, better-looking (and hopefully simulated) fur, a new and easier to use armature, and hopefully a better character overall.

Now, I don't dislike this model; in fact I love the way this character looks, and I'm really happy with that. However, whenever I try to animate him, I'm fighting the model every step of the way, always having to fix one thing or another.
So, that's what I'm hoping to solve with a new model.

ANYWAY! sorry about the wall of text, haha. If you're still with me, I also wanted to say that as of today, I'm launching a Patreon! As you can probably infer from my posts, 3d modelling and animating is very hard work. And if you really enjoy the content that I produce -- I know I do :3 -- and you want to see more, supporting me is really the best way to go. With your support, you help give me the drive to create more, and you give me the ability to produce better quality work.

As a patron, you also get access to progress updates, stills from upcoming animations, as well as early previews of animations, rendered in Eevee. At the moment only two tiers are published, with more on the way once more content becomes available.

Check it out over here: https://www.patreon.com/hiad

But if you don't really care about rewards or a monthly subscription, I also have a Ko-fi at https://www.ko-fi.com/hiadot

I'm also in the process of setting up a SubscribeStar, so once and if that goes up I'll be linking that as well if you don't prefer the above sites.

Thanks for your time :D