Trying to get just the right shot to show off the latest Donut project turned out to be a bigger challenge than I think it should have been. It would have been helpful if that was the only thing that was going to be a challenge in preparing things for this post. Unfortunately, it wasn’t. Getting the rest of the images ready for posting was also a challenge.
I guess, since I spent several days of the last week of my vacation working in Blender and making all kinds of progress and learning and figuring out how to do things, having the last bit of getting the images give me a little trouble is a small price to pay. And at least I got to pay after.
The latest Donut Project is done. I was able to finish up all the details and add a few fun bits as well. I was asked, when I completed the original Blender Donut Tutorial, about adding steam to the coffee. This seemed reasonable to me so I decided with this project I would give it a try. The fun thing about the Donut Tutorial is that in the beginning of the course, at the end of the first video of how to get around, you learn about a feature called ‘Quick Smoke’. He uses it to set Suzanne (the monkey head) on fire. It’s a fun demo and I didn’t really consider it as something I would be needing for the donuts. Until I was asked about steam. It turns out that this works just fine for creating steam. It takes a little fiddling with to get just what you want. And for some reason when I added a second instance of it, it took different fiddling to make that one work.
I’m not sure I really set out to finish up the project last week. It started innocently enough when I decided I wanted to see if I could add a valentine shaped sprinkle to the rest of the sprinkles. I created the valentine sprinkle months ago when I first thought of doing donuts for different holidays so I had it, I just had to get it into the scene. It was fairly easy to append it, then it required some scaling and rotating to get it to not overwhelm the donuts and to lay flat. Then, I had too many so I had to adjust how much of which sprinkles were going to be used.
From there I decided to work on the texture painting of the donuts. And then I did something else. And then I did another thing. Before I realized it I had most of the scene setup and most of the materials applied, and all the modeling done. I had one last thing. Applying the condensation to the inside of the cups. I know, this sounds like no big deal. And it’s getting to be less of a big deal. However, I am still not a fan of doing the UV unwrapping. It seems like it always wants to make me work harder than I think I should have to. Here is where I needed better notes.
In order to get the second material (the condensation) on just part of the cup, you have to unwrap the whole thing and then you can select what you want to apply the material to and adjust its position from there. That’s a really simplistic explanation of the point of the UV unwrapping and my notes on how to do it, weren’t a lot better. I was determined not to go back to the tutorial to figure out how to do the unwrapping. So after trying for a while to get it to work, I gave up and looked it up on the internet and found a different video that explained it. I didn’t watch the whole thing because I really only needed enough to get going.
The other thing I spent a lot of time figuring out was the steam. I think I spent 5 hours or so trying to figure out how to get it to look just the way I wanted it to. I had to figure out how to keep it from expanding from the whole cup and not just up the top. And I was trying to adjust the color so it was lighter, and also not as thick. I’m still in need of more experimenting for another project and I may figure out even more bits about it. I got what I need for now.
With all the pieces in place and materials applied it was time to do touch ups and set up the animation. My notes here were a little better and I was able to get it all setup. I made it a little longer than the last one but it still moves pretty quick. The render for all the frames didn’t take too long and the compositing was easy. I did go back later and try a different animation with more frames, and some camera moves to try to get a better shot of the donuts. But, it goes just as fast and with the extra camera moves it doesn’t really work as well as I’d like. It made my Mother a little dizzy. Oops. Oh well, look what I learned.
Once the render was done I updated Blender on the laptop to 2.90. I had already updated it on the desktop computer but I hadn’t really played with it. As I was trying to figure out the smoke/steam I tested it on the desktop to see if there was anything different in 2.90 that would make it easier to figure out. There isn’t.
There are other cool things in 2.90 like the cloth brush. Oh wow. It’s another thing that took a bit of time to figure out how to make it work so I could get an idea of how I could use it. The cloth brush is a really great feature on it’s own but when added to the cloth simulation it is amazing. I think my brain exploded with the possibilities. And yes, I have an idea for a project that it will be perfect for.
I haven’t quite decided which project I want to jump into next. Yes, they all involve donuts, and I have about three that are all jockeying for position in my brain. Since I haven’t decided, and I still wanted to make stuff in Blender, I decided to create some shaped sprinkles like the valentine one. So I did several of those. It was a fun exercise. I tried to keep them fairly simple and yet still look enough like what it was meant to represent.
As always happens with a project, particularly like this, I learned a lot. And I think I learned more by just trying to follow my notes this time. The biggest thing I learned, and it wasn’t specifically from this project, was that I need to spend time just trying out different things and playing around without worrying about making a final product every time. Just open Blender and test something out until I figure it out. And it’st ok to get it partly right and I don’t have to save everything. For instance, I realized that what I learned in creating the coffee cup could be translated to creating a wine glass. So I tested it out. I got a nice solid model of a wine glass, but I forgot to do a step at a certain point that was needed in order to get it to really look like a wine glass once I applied materials to it. Instead of worrying about it. I just deleted the model because, I now know, I can create it any time I want. I have the knowledge.
Spending time just poking at features and tools and such is a great way to learn. Unfortunately, when we are always thinking we have to be productive and create a “finished product” whatever that is, it’s easy to just keep the head down and do what you know. Poking around and fiddling takes time, that doesn’t look like doing anything more than, wasting time. And yet, without it, we don’t find the cool bits or learn the new thing that suddenly makes something so much easier, or more realistic, or any number of things. This doesn’t just apply to 3D modeling. It applies to art, music, make-up, programming, cooking, gardening, and all sorts of other things.
Vacation is over, and I’m back to the day job. It’s hard to say how that is going to go this week. I have a feeling though, that there won’t be a lot of time for work day study so I’ll be getting back to that in the evenings. I’ll still work some Blender projects in there. I’ve got too many ideas right now to not be working on at least one of them. I’ll work in some guitar time as well. Until next week, which probably won’t have near as much art to share, enjoy the pictures and the final video of the Valentines Donuts.