It was a bit of a busy week. And full. And I have a few pictures to share.
After spending several hours trying to smooth out an issue with the teleports in my Maze project that I found when I viewed it on my phone. I then spent several more hours trying to get a customized splash screen to work, it would work in preview, just not in the final build. I finally tidied everything up, got my screen shot of it running on my phone, updated my read me file, zipped it all up and submitted it. Yay!
Next morning the alarm on my phone goes off and there is an email that says my project has been reviewed. Though I tried, there really was no point hitting the snooze. I got up to see what the result was. And the result was that it passed. I met all the criteria and got it on the first try. Oh Yeah! I got kudos from the reviewer, and from my mentor. I was beaming all day.
That’s got term 1 for this VR course in the books and I’m all signed up for term 2, just waiting for it to start.
The wonderful thing about having the project all done is that it freed up time to get to things I had set aside. Like working on the Holiday card. I did get to working on that. I figured out how to get Walter better placed in the scene. I put him on top of a present and set him next to Snowman. I even moved Snowman’s arm so it’s sort of around Walter a little. This was an improvement over what I’d been working with. However something was still off. I finally figured out that it was lop-sided. Too heavily weighted with stuff on one side. So I moved them all over so they are in front of the tree. Better. Time to work on the lighting.
I like being able to work with the default lighting and get good renders. However, it tends to be fairly bright and nondescript. I started with a nice omni light. It took a bunch of tries before I got it in the right spot. At first I had it too far away and since it over-rides the default light it can be a little dark but I was able to get it so it didn’t look like it was being lit from behind. I gave it a little yellow-ish tint to warm the look a little. It helped while trying to get everything set up. Though it was a little too yellow.
In addition to the one light being to yellow, it wasn’t quite bright enough. If I made it bright enough though, it washed out the scene. So I added another light. This one a directional light and I put it in front and pointed it at Sticks, Snowman, and Walter. This helped. It couldn’t help the sky though. It looked a little washed out. I fixed that and made it darker. But the lighting was still too yellow. I adjusted the color of both lights to tone down the yellow and finally got something nice and crisp. I think I might be ready for the camera.
Dad in VR
I was working on the card when my parents arrived for a visit. We were having cake and ice cream and better to split it among three than just one or two. But we had dinner first. After dinner and all the excitement of finishing my maze project we got my Dad into VR. I got the Oculus Rift on him and then explained how to use the touch controllers to click on the ‘First Contact’ game so it would start. Then there was some explaining of what to do. It was fun. That is one of the best first VR experiences, in my opinion. It captures the real fun of what it can be. And the robot is CUTE!
Dad still in VR
There were a few other things this week. After I submitted my project, I gave a copy of the build file to my mentor so he could try it. He said it took 9 minutes for him to complete. I don’t know what the goal of the project was, if there was one. The only guidance was to be able to spend a little time wondering around. I think I achieved that.
My new laptop arrived. It was my incentive to get my project submitted. I wouldn’t let myself start setting it up until that was done. It’s nice. It’s got some power and should be able to handle much of what I might throw at it. At least for a while. I haven’t put too much on it yet, a couple of basic apps like Chrome and Anti-virus. And Unity and Blender. I want to be able to take it and work in whichever room or even out, or at lunch. Thus the need for those items.
Next up! Los Angeles. It’s ZBrush Summit time. Happening this weekend. If you can’t go, pop on over to Pixologic and check it out. I believe they will be live streaming it again this year. It should be interesting and I expect, like last year, that my brain will be full before Friday is even done. Once I get back I’ll have a few days to work on the Holiday card and maybe even get it finished before term 2 of the VR course starts. I’ll also have time to start working out how to approach a couple of VR projects that I want to work on. And there is always more 3D modeling to do.