Annie-Mienai

⚠️ Gonna be updating the forum software this weekend, so be prepared for possible downtime. There will be a new layout after this though, see the blog post here for details: https://invisioncommunity.com/news/product-updates/45-introducing-our-updated-default-theme-r1198/

 
pssst, in case you missed my animation I posted last week: https://www.mineimatorforums.com/index.php?/topic/84944-something-for-the-girl-with-everything-hand-drawn-animation/
 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kppx4bzfAa
 

Dark mode when 

Hey fellas, gonna be dropping a fairly ambitious hand-drawn animation this friday on my dusty ol' Youtube channel, might make a topic for it as well. Here's a sneak peek... ?
 

It'll still be a while till the next dev update, but after releasing a new alpha containing the new UI in Mine-imator for the beta testers and getting some feedback, I've decided to cancel the 1.3 update and release a 2.0 update next year.
Make of this what you will.

Imagine beta-testing MI 1.3.0 only to make renders with hard shadows and baked lighting lmao couldn't be me, anyways:

M24 SWS Model (WIP)

Holy crab, there is snow everywhere!

anyone remember when i existed?
 
wait i was here since 2016?

really?
wow im old

Hey all!
Yesterday, I wrote an announcement regarding the surprise reveal of what was then going to be the new icon for Mine-imator going forward, and how the negative reception of it made me reconsider this design choice.
I took this opportunity to show you a different take on the icon, and judging by the overwhelmingly positive reactions, I think it's fair to say that we've got a winner on our hands! After a few minor tweaks and touch ups, I believe it's ready, waiting to be used once Mine-imator 1.3 launches.
But wait, what about Modelbench? Well, obviously I couldn't leave its icon untouched! After all, the goal of the rebrand is to unify both apps into one identity, so it's only natural to give it a fancy new icon as well! There was one challenge to overcome. What could we put in that colorful hexagon? Putting a bunch of cubes seemed like an obvious answer, but it just didn't look quite right... The Mine-imator icon had a 3D, Minecraft styled item inside that hexagon, so... Modelbench would have to follow that template, or else it just wouldn't work. But what kind of item should it be? What object is best suited to illustrate the modeling process?
What about a hammer? This was an idea from Nimi, that he had while we brainstormed. It could work, you can build stuff with one of those. The question was now, "what should it look like?". His proposal was a blacksmith's hammer, but I felt like it didn't fit the program's name too well. After all, it's called Modelbench, not Modelforge... (that would've been a neat name, though!) So, in the end, we settled on the good old claw hammer. And after a bit of quick rigging and tracing...

Here they are! The Mine-imator family now has its own set of icons! I hope you'll like it just as much as the one I've shown yesterday, and once again, please share any feedback you might have!
See you around!

Alright, I think it's best to just put all my thoughts in one place to make things clearer.
I didn't really expect that revealing the new icon in a joke post would cause such a reaction. I initially dismissed it because, to be honest, the icon is a low priority for me, as there's a lot of stuff that still needs to be worked on to get the upcoming update ready, which is also why I wasn't very open to feedback, as I would much prefer to focus on getting feedback about the UI. I realize that was the wrong approach to the issue, hence why I'm writing this.
Another reason is that the branding is a little different to how I planned it going forward. While currently, the icon and logo are sort of stuck together, I decided to separate it all out into three distinct bits: logo, icon, and mascots. I don't plan on changing that, they will remain separate.
What is going to change is the icon itself. A recurring bit of criticism about the logo is that it doesn't feel related to Minecraft anymore. When I designed it, I just focused on making it readable. I tried to make it belong with the rest of the branding using evocative colors and shapes, but in the end, it appears that it lost too much character and ended up less appealing. As we speak, I'm currently working on a first iteration for a new design, which will hopefully tie-in with the program and the game it's based on:

This new design is rather popular with the Mine-imator staff, and I hope it will be for the rest of you too. If there are any ideas or improvements you'd like to share, feel free to.
Lastly, I'd like to apologize for my unprofessional and rude attitude. The rocky launch of Modelbench made it clear that transparency was important when it came to wanting to change how people use your program, but I hadn't realized that the icon would've been part of that too. I'll be sure to learn from that mistake and I hope we can move forward and work together in this next big step in the history of Mine-imator.
Take care, y'all. ✌️

New shortcut coming soon!
https://i.gyazo.com/b2e6c5d3464e3ffb28e0e854ca95234f.mp4

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