I have had my new office setup for just about two weeks now and I’m finding an improvement I really didn’t expect. I’m cautiously optimistic that the improvement will continue. Though I did manage to do something that just about erased all the improvement so maybe I’ll just keep an eye on it and not say anything. It may be silly and superstitious but it is 2020 and that just about says it all.
I mentioned last week, the Adobe Max conference was held online. I found it to be really inspiring and even helpful. I am excited to use some of the new apps they have as well as learning more about the things I can do in the apps I have been using. That will all have to wait a little bit though. Not just because I’m still studying for a test. Also because I have to upgrade either the computer I use the Adobe Creative Cloud suite on, upgrade the operating system on that computer, or move it to the laptop. And I’m not ready to do any of that until after I pass my test.
I’m getting as tired of studying for the test as you are reading about me studying for it. I’m finally to the point that I have scheduled the test. I am running out of time slots available so I had to commit. I’m super nervous that I’m not well enough prepared. Though the practice test scores are staying high, the questions are starting to seem easy. That makes me worry that the test is going to be nothing like I have prepared for. So I’ll be doing my best from now until then to cover as much extra as I can so hopefully I won’t get completely blind sided when I sit down. Once it’s passed I hope to take a couple of weeks off before I start studying for whatever the next test will be. I think I have a better plan for it so maybe I won’t be dragging it out for nearly a year.
I do try to get in other activities besides just the studying and whatever day job stuff is going on. Some weeks it’s some analog art, some weeks it’s computer art, some weeks it’s music. It really just varies. This week I started a new pastel piece. I took a picture that struck me and was excited to get started on it, and then had to wait until I got home from the Dentist. That was a little agonizing. I’ve also started a digitized version of it in Illustrator. The pastel piece is much farther along than the Illustrator version.
In addition, I started a new piece in Blender. I was thinking of this aluminum Christmas tree that we had when I was a kid. We put it up as well as a regular tree. I was thinking it would be a fun piece to have in a scene or even build a scene around. Then I started thinking about how to make the branches with the aluminum curls on them. I happened to have a little free time so I sat down to see if what I thought the way to do it was going to work. Oh, did it ever. I’m really super pleased with how it looks.
To get the aluminum curls I used something I learned in the donut tutorial. The part for the sprinkles worked just as well for making one curl and putting thousands in the scene. The only thing I couldn’t get to work, and maybe it isn’t supposed to, is I wanted to use a similar method to put the branches on the tree trunk. I suspect, it won’t do it because I’d be using an object that already has a particle node on it to use as an object in another particle node. Sort of nested particle nodes.
Fortunately those trees didn’t have that many branches so I essentially manually placed them. There was some group copy, rotate, paste work that happened so not all of the placement was one at a time. I still need to create a base for it. While I remember what the tree itself looked like, and even the paper sleeves that we kept the branches in when in the box, I don’t remember what the base looked like so I’ll either do some research on that or make something basic.
It’s almost election day. If you are able to vote and have not voted please be sure to do so. It’s important.
It’s almost Halloween. It happens to be a full moon on Halloween. I think I’ll get snacks early and lock myself in my home. That seems like the safest bet this year.
The fun bit for this week is that both the Spark Animation Festival, and Bcon online are happening. The Spark Animation Festival is a Canadian Animation Festival. It is another one of the festivals that I have not heard of before. It is also one that even with it being online, it has a fee. It’s a very reasonable fee so I decided it would be worth it to check it out. I need to get into the catalog and see what films I want to see.
I have no idea what to expect for Bcon. I’m just happy to have the day off from the day job so I can watch it. And I get to find out what is in my comfort box. That will be fun.
I have signed up for the Zbrush Summit and the Autodesk University so those conferences will be coming up next week and the week after. It is definitely a busy conference season. Oh, NANOWRIMO starts next week and goes the entire month of November. I know at least one person who is planning on participating. To that person and anyone else planning on participating, have a great time. I’ll talk to you in December.
That covers the events for me. I’ve included some pictures, as I usually try to do. Even one of the aluminum Christmas tree.
