Have you ever noticed how short work weeks seem to warp the time continuum? At least they do for me. I’ve had a series of short weeks back to back to back and this is the first week that will be relatively normal. I think. But it’s early so that could change for sure. Still, now that I’ve adjusted something that I didn’t realize was not right, I think I might have a chance of getting back into some sort of groove. I’m hoping for it to be a creative and productive groove.
I want to touch on the texturing thing a bit more. I noted in the last post that I need to re-think or re-evaluate some things. What I realized I needed to re-evaluate is my expectations when it comes to using programs designed for texturing 3d models. For
some reason I expected it to be very plug and play, one click, easy. I didn’t expect to need to learn a whole new layout, and a new methodology. Silly, I know. But I just didn’t expect that. What I have come to realize or accept, is that, to get really good custom textures, regardless of the method, I am going to need to put as much effort into understanding which ever tool I use for that, as I have had to put into learning and understanding the tools I use to create 3d models.
Keeping that in mind, I am still evaluating Substance Painter. It seems that this is rapidly becoming an industry standard for textures in games. This is because of the PBR shaders that can be created with it and can be used in the game engines, Unreal and Unity. PBR is physically based rendering (I think). I have only a vague grasp of the particulars of this and the significance. What I can share is that it means that the graphics in games will look even better and even more realistic. There are some other more technical things that make this important but I haven’t read enough to share all that. Let’s just say, it is considered a real game changer. No pun intended.
Keeping in mind the coolness of Substance Painter, I would still really like to try out Mari from The Foundry. I don’t know if it does PBR shaders too. It might. The Foundry seems to put out some pretty impressive tools so it probably does. What has kept me from trying Mari is the price and that it only had a 15 day trial. Thus the reason for checking out Substance Painter. So as I was scanning my Twitter feed last week I saw a mention of a non-commercial version of Mari which I had to look into, and, sure enough. The Foundry have created a non-commercial version of Mari for personal learning use. Nice. This might be the answer for me. I can spend some time learning it and deciding if it’s going to be worth it before I spend a big chunk of money on it. I may give that a shot soon. First, I will spend a bit more time getting comfortable with Substance Painter to give it a really fair evaluation. I already have it installed, and given what it can do, as well as it being very budget friendly it’s a good option. Add to that, Allegorithmic are having a sale until the 22nd, it becomes an even more appealing option. I just don’t want to rush to get it if it turns out I’m not going to even start to get comfortable with it.
Now, on to some actual art for this week.
I made a flower for the scene with the Worm Guy. I started out just 
trying some things to see how it was going to go. The first thing I did was to create one petal. When I created the petal the pivot point and center point were at the center of the object, which is normal. I wanted to make a bunch of copies of the petal in a full circle. I can do that using the rotate tool to create my copies but that will create the copies around the pivot point. So I had to move the pivot so that it would be a little away from one of the ends of the petal. Then I was able to create the copies in a nice circle. Cool. I also created the center section and the stem. Next, I need some leaves for the stem.
The other thing I spent some time working on was the Studio Sign. I know, it’s been a while since I worked on that. But I was on the phone and that’s always a good time to put dots on paper. I’m letting it sit a few days but I may have finished it. I’ll know after I spend some time looking at it. Sometimes, after a piece sits for a while I find that it needs just a little something else. So we’ll see. Here it is for now.
And that’s the fun for now. I’m not quite sure what I’ll be getting into this week. I have so much that I can do. The big challenge may be choosing.