Once again I fell victim to the best laid plans curse. You know the one where you have these great plans to get several things done because you normally get home at a certain time. Except because you have planned on getting home at that time, nothing goes the way you planned. That was my Friday and it put quite a crimp in what I had expected to get done this weekend.
Before I get to that. Term 2 of my VR class has started and I’ve already jumped into the lessons. It’s not like the first term where we jumped right into making things work. We’re doing a bit more analysis and commenting so far. I had read some people complaining about it so I was a little concerned if I could stay interested. I do understand what the people with complaints didn’t like. I would like a bit more use and learning on the coding techniques and such as well. However, 20 some years ago, when I first studied VR we didn’t even think about where to put user interfaces or how far we might be asking our players to turn to see something and if that was appropriate for the scenario, or not. And since I’m already thinking about my final capstone project for term 3, I figure it’s better to know some of this and think about it early so I can design with it in mind instead of have to redesign or worse have a project that no one wants to experience.
And then there was Friday. The project for the day at the day job did not go well. We had everything so that it should have only taken a couple of hours. That is not at all how it went and instead of leaving at 1:00 pm like we normally do on Friday, it was after 6:00 pm when we finally finished. My plans to hit the gym, the bank, and then pick up some things for an event the next day all by 5:00 pm and then home to dive into my VR class, all gone. I managed to pick up what I needed for the event and that was it.
Thankfully I was able to salvage things some on Sunday. I finally got to sit down and 
work on one of the many things on my artistic to do list. My business card. Originally I had intended to create a set for SusanG Productions except I ran into some market research issues that need to be addressed before I do those. In the interim, I need new personal business cards with my blog address so I don’t have to write it on the back of the card I currently give to people. So I found a piece of my art to use and came up with a couple of ideas. This is the design I think I’m going to to have printed. Of course, without the water mark and replacing the smears with a phone number and email address.
Not only did I get the business card worked on, I also started adding the string, for the 
string of lights, to the Christmas tree model. First I tried using clay tubes in ZBrush to see if I could figure out how to get them placed around the tree. I wasn’t having a lot of success with that but it gave me an idea to try in 3DS Max. I used a spline in the shape of a helix with different size radii so it is cone shaped. I tried in just on a cone first. Once I saw it was going to work I tried it on the tree. Now I can move it into place by vertex. I can weave it over and under the branches just like I do for my own tree. There is still quite a ways to go and I may add a second string, possibly going the other direction. After that I will model some sockets for the bulbs and then I’ll model the bulbs. Of course lighting it will be the fun part. I have a feeling I’m going to have some long render times at that point.
For this coming week, in addition to getting the business card uploaded and ordered, I’ll be working on my VR class. It’s not likely to be as consistent as I want but I’m sure going to try. I have a few things it looks like I need to get done sooner rather than later. I also have some things I want to test for that capstone project. If all that goes well I might have some time that I can work on some modeling. Come back to find out how things play out.