First, a quick update on the car issues from last week. It is all fixed. It needed a new battery and a new starter and no tires, and no oil change. Got lots of miles until the oil change and tires in good shape just needed a rotate and balance. So while still expensive, not near as expensive as it could have been.
I got the urge to work on some 3D modeling so decided to start on the CrabbyPlant that I showed the sketch of last week. I figured I am going to want to animate it, or at least pose it at some point so I wanted to model it in a neutral-ish pose. So I started out trying to make the leaves straight up, thinking that would be the easiest for creating bones. It was coming along, I got the two inside most leaves created and started working on the next one out and changed my mind. I was having some trouble with that third leaf and I started thinking that maybe I should start from the outside leaves and make them all straight out flat. So far I have only one leaf done that way. Those are the pictures in this post, a couple with the leaves up, and one with the one leaf flat.
And then I had a whole flurry of thoughts, ideas, and possible solutions while in the shower. Oh, and on a day that I wasn’t going to be able to do much about them for many, many hours. A few things were solutions for some things I was having trouble with on my second project for my VR class. Most of those didn’t pan out but I still found a solution to at least one of the problems. The other thoughts were about 3D projects, including the CrabbyPlant. For the CrabbyPlant to work really well with an animation rig, it’s going to need basically a spline rig. Something where all the bones follow a spline. In the rigging tutorial I use there is an example of that for the spine of the character. However for CrabbyPlant, every leaf will need it and probably the stalk, not sure about the eye stems. For now, I’m going to model CrabbyPlant in pose and later I will will rework the plant so that I can rig it. I’m not sure which way will be best, with the leaves up or the leaves out. Guess I’ll figure it out when I get to it.
That solves the CrabbyPlant issue. Now I just need to get working on it. By the way that spline rig is the same rig I’m going to need to use for Walter the Worm Guy when I rework his rig. If I do him first, I’ll have a little more practice with it. Of course with 6 leaves and a stalk at minimum, I’ll get quite a bit of practice with CrabbyPlant as well. The other issue I’ve solved is Funkatmyer. I really want more than just the Snowman, Walter, and Sticks on the Holiday card this year. So I think I’m going to save out a file of Funkatmyer with a different name, so I don’t mess up the nice T-pose file. In the new file, I’m just going to pose him as I want him for the card and then I’ll give him some nice holiday colored clothes.
Like with getting back to CrabbyPlant, now I just need to get onto those items. Pose Funkatmyer, put together the holiday scene with everyone in it and get that all dressed up. I had thought I was going to have most of that done already but it is vacation from the day job and a little fun and relaxing has to happen in there. Also, I have the second assignment for my VR class to finish and submit. I’m down to one requirement that I have to get working right and then I may add an extra or two. That’s next up to be worked on. If I get it submitted then I think I might take Wednesday or Thursday, maybe both, and work on the holiday card stuff. At least that’s the plan. You might want to check back and see if that’s how things actually go.
