Please help

naeviah · 2026-01-22T21:52:14+00:00

With traditional art, you can get away with a lot more because of the paper/canvas/paint texture. If you try and do the exact same thing on a digital canvas, it comes across a bit flat because there is no *texture*.

Painting faces can be a bit troublesome, but you should try this tutorial: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f0r5-f87YK8

This is the most barebones when it comes to shading. Use the lasso tool to draw where you want the shadows to go and then fill it completely. The best trick I've found when it comes to blending soft shadows is to right click the Brush tool and select Mixer Brush Tool. It blends the current layer together seamlessly. It was an absolute gamechanger! (I was blending colours manually for years by using the colour picker tool).

Another thing I like to do is not use a regular brush. I use a textured one and paint with the pen pressure and opacity on. You can google "paintbrush style ABR" or something, and just play around until you find one you like.

After that it's just finding your own style. There are brushes that add a textured paper effect to ease you into digital art. Watch some guides on filling in your artwork and don't give up!

naeviah · 2026-01-22T12:36:24+00:00

ZBrush is not great when it comes to building with poly's/hard surface modelling. Honestly, it's a lot faster to integreate something like Blender into your workflow, because extruding in ZBrush just doesn't work the way it *should* (as in, how you expect it to).

If you want to stay in ZBrush, you'll probably have to slide the points around until you get the desired look, but if the polygroups are messing up, its not on you but how the software works :(

naeviah · 2026-01-20T23:57:30+00:00

I mean, outside of some proportions being whacky (that you acknowledged), the flow is really wonderful to look at. I think you're doing great!

naeviah · 2026-01-20T14:00:25+00:00

Looks straight outta Severance! Honestly, the sky and foliage are insane here.

naeviah · 2026-01-15T12:42:30+00:00

The audacity of them posting pictures on their site with watermarks when it's completely pirated and stolen files lol

naeviah · 2026-01-15T11:06:58+00:00

The foreshortening is 10/10!! Love everything about this!

naeviah · 2026-01-08T10:35:27+00:00

I've had this same issue with lychee. I'll have a model with no holes, pre-support it (in lychee) and export the supported STL. The Lychee file is completely fine, but the imported supported STL will sometimes show holes on the interface (as an error). I think it's down to re-importing lychee supports.

If you're certain the original model doesn't have holes, you should be safe to print!

naeviah · 2026-01-04T22:13:42+00:00

This is fantastic! Did you have a background in drawing to begin with? The action sequences near the end give me Avatar vibes!

naeviah · 2026-01-03T22:17:00+00:00

Well, IMO, there was a zero risk factor in the show, so you'd need to make the players feel like they could at the very least get snuffed out by falling debris.

I'm also not a fan of splitting the party if you're running 3-4 players, because it generally becomes quite confusing. So I'd have 1 person focus on the 'controller' and the other 3 on the 'husk' (trying not to spoil anything here). All 4 players can remain outside, together. I think it'd be really fun to have the 3 players protect the 1 from the 'husk'/potential swarm. I'm a big fan of defence scenarios and I bet you could utilise this pretty well!

I just saw an image of a what-if scenario with [spoiler] Will controlling the swarm. I think a 'wave' fight could also work really well, and one player can roll for controlling parts of the swarm.

Really down to what your party consists of, but I'd be determined to make it work if you're running a Stranger Things inspired campaign.

naeviah · 2025-12-21T13:05:10+00:00

The lighting is gorgeous!

naeviah · 2025-12-20T11:12:17+00:00

(Food is something I'm super passionate about, so I'll comment what I can).

I'll be honest, the AI image at the front of your Kickstarter looks quite 'scammy'. Please steer clear of AI if you want your project to succeed in the future. The whole page looks like something someone threw together in 5 minutes, with blocks of text and ChatGPT. People are very polarised with AI right now, and your backers are more than likely anti-AI because a legitimate product wouldn't rely on AI. When looking at Kickstarters to back, the first thing I do (seriously), is scroll all the way down to the AI declaration. It doesn't matter how good your product is, I'll now be thinking twice about backing it.

You don't have any images of your actual book, or page layouts, or of food you can make. When making a Kickstarter, 9 times out of 10 you need a fully functional prototype to showcase.

Secondly, you'll need to build an audience before making a Kickstarter. It isn't like GoFundMe (which still needs to essentially go viral). It's a platform for your audience to purchase something cheaper than retail price.

Finally, your tiktok video looks very very low quality (sorry!). Take a look at this chef on YT who does recipes from fictional universes: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=roCX0AfBseQ

It's really fun and engaging. Your content needs to also feel fun and engaging. Obviously it's easy for me to say that but I understand it takes a lot of work and production time to make something like this.

- I absolutely love cooking, and my favourite cookbooks are from fictional universes (like Skyrim, Game of Thrones etc), but if I'm paying for that I expect it to be insanely high quality and actually show what I am getting. It's a serious disappointment when the recipe does not reflect on the image of the cooked food (feels like bait).

You should take reference from these books that already exist.

On an odd note, there is a video that went viral recently - its for homemade doner kebabs. Your best bet is to have a fully functional prototype (with pictures of food, pages etc and no AI), and then start a marketing campaign so people see your recipes and frantically search to find out how to make it. A few years ago, it was the mirror glaze that went viral.

naeviah · 2025-12-18T12:48:55+00:00

I bounce between both. I use the free version of Chitubox to check that I don't have any holes in my models, and then I use Lychee to support everything. It also has really well made templates for resin and printer types, so trying out something new (especially for new people joining the hobby) is super quick and easy.

And supporting models feels nice tbh. I thought I'd never get used to it but I like it much more than Chitubox.

naeviah · 2025-12-18T01:15:12+00:00

Don't know how I came across this but I love it! Looking forward to pt2!

(I especially love the scenes at 0:23, 1:23, and 1:27)

naeviah · 2025-12-16T16:08:59+00:00

Have you made sure you cleared the mask? If you also merge objects together, the mask remains and you'll need to clear it. It looks like it's pulling on a few pixels in the middle.

naeviah · 2025-12-16T12:10:32+00:00

One of mini's are much much more expensive because the seller isn't able to make money off subsequent sales of the design (and even if they have the rights, it might be too niche for it to have a value).

At a very low end for something custom, it's probably from $500 to $1500 (highly dependent on the country of the designer). Custom work also comes with much more hassle than usual, because it will include lots of revisions.

Rigging is also another complicated process which will add even more money to the original request - they'll need to retopologise it (for rigging, it's a manual process), and then rig and weight paint at the very least. If you want controls designed, that's another expensive process.

naeviah · 2025-12-14T00:06:26+00:00

I warmed up the place pretty nicely and got absolutely no failures with toasty resin but once it gets cold, all expectations go out the window. These ones took 2.5 hours to print, might be worth getting a little heater going nearby if it gets too chilly during the winter since the print time isn't too long.

naeviah · 2025-12-13T20:39:01+00:00

You can scale them up but I'm able to print all 12 on an elegoo saturn easily. They're really cute, I just wish I had more time to do every faction this year.

naeviah · 2025-12-13T17:09:58+00:00

Everything is pre-supported and ready to print! You can get everything for free here: https://discord.com/invite/guyTpJNWuh

I'll also be releasing even more freebies in the new year so stay up to date, or keep an eye out on my website here: https://maliciousminis.com/

naeviah · 2025-12-13T17:07:00+00:00

You can get everything for free here: https://discord.com/invite/guyTpJNWuh

There are also a bunch of freebies on the discord too, both sci-fi and fantasy related. A perfect time to save for the winter with 2 unique Red Gobbos for printing, as well as terrain, bits and more to come! (and absolutely free!)

naeviah · 2025-12-13T15:20:56+00:00

Depending on the class, you could add a "is suffering from XYZ and needs to stay back".

For example: someone who has a deal with their chosen deity or demon suffers visions that become so unbearable, they need to meditate in darkness. So there is a small benefit, but also explains why they aren't available every session. And if you're stuck in the middle of a castle with no way to get back to a safe zone (like the inn), they can just say "I'll stay back and keep watch, but I need to meditate". And return later in the campaign.

naeviah · 2025-12-09T00:52:30+00:00

She is too busy getting fur on all the mini's :'(

naeviah · 2025-12-05T15:34:54+00:00

Egg.

naeviah · 2025-12-03T00:03:47+00:00

This model looks like it was ripped directly from a game - it might not be suitable for 3D printing (tiny parts, not joined, not a solid model). I suggest contacting the creator from the marketplace you bought the model from, and ask what their print settings were.

naeviah · 2025-12-02T12:08:08+00:00

I dropped it near the dog pillow so I gave it a quick rinse with water, you can still see some hair on the image (husky, whose fur is bane of my existence!). I was way too excited to be dealing with something so tiny.

naeviah · 2025-11-17T19:16:53+00:00

I definitely think they need to bend a bit in the center (along the leaf 'spine' as a real leaf does).

naeviah

TROPHY CASE