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Story Start (nsfw!)

Flames | Chapter Start

Flames | Page 103

Flames | Page 105

Don't forget to click the image for the full-size!

Bonus Shot of the Cute Couple!

Rejected Shots Here!

Caustic Process Shots Here!

No, they're not gonna bang in the jacuzzi! Don't be gross! >:V

(Be sure to click the pic to see it full size!)

So this is it.

I would put "The End" but it's not the end. It is, however, the nominal end of what I considered the first chapter. I still have a sort of epilogue / transition between chapters, though there may be a short delay before that next page as it involves another settings change...

Long ago, when I still considered Yeltsin "just" a side character, this was where the story left Yeltsin and Kean. Today, plans are more fluid but the pair fit nicely into other chapters' threads. But, that's something to talk about another time. Barring a slight deviation to try some R-type formats, this page proceeded exactly according to the page plan. I though I stood a good chance at getting it together by the end of August and even managed to have all the poses prepared in time for renders to make that date. But, I wanted this page to look as extra special as it feels to me. In my mind, it completion of Yeltsin's arc or at least the final assurance that his course of growth  completes happily. As was page 99, I realized it had the potential to serve as a final parallel to the moments shared between Rederick and Yeltsin back in the latter's apartment from pages 66 to 72, specifically to page 71. A contrasting parallel, at least. This page was so important to me, in fact, that back in 2023-ish, when my old computer started having those sudden-death shut-downs again after I had seemingly resolved them, I stopped development on the current pages to prepare poses for that final shot there and produced a "Just in Case" render of it. The poses used here are almost exactly the same and the camera angle is at least positioned almost the same, though I did make some alterations. More on that on the rejected shots, probably.

The stars are also derived from the same stars I've used in most the space shots, at least early on. Here they were updated with some newer dispersion parameters and given blackbody color temperature nodes instead of flat color values. Barring one two panels during Yeltsin's trip to the space station where they were slightly visible, the start typically don't show up because (as with start in real space photographs) the power of the lights (or sun) in the shot drowns them out. But, this realistic lighting model does produce their data. It was important to me that Yeltsin finally be able to see the stars on this station, so I very carefully lit and shot that last panel to ensure they would shine through. Technically speaking, for most of the pool shots in the comic I had replaced their shader with a plain black shader to cut down on hotspot generation (those stars really do cast light!) and save on memory/rendertime in an already very 'expensive' setting. Plus, the glass of the pool area typically blocks them out since it's usually shot at an angle. However, you can still see the truth of space in pages 7, 8, 9. Go ahead and try it! Take some of those pages and load it into a photo editor (or photopea) with an appropriate "exposure" function and crank up that exposure, usually to around 9 (or check out the pool area reflection in this one XD). Otherwise, you could check out this contemporary post on exposure values and renders which had the stars visible from before I decided on the stylistic white-out look for the darkened room meeting on page 7.

You can see the stars are always there, even when we're blind to them. That in particular, to me, is something of an important point for Yeltsin. Maybe for Rederick too.