This year’s holiday card is complete and available at:
I have left it blank inside so that you can include your own message for this season.
With the exception of last year, for the past 5 or 6 years I’ve created a holiday card and shared it and even posted it on my Zazzle site. I have had it on my list of things to do for this year and hadn’t really got to working on it. At least not that I thought. As it turns out. I have completed this year’s holiday card.
That aluminum Christmas tree is complete. I’m quite pleased with it. I even found a nice texture for the tree skirt. And I figured out how to add it and get it to look right. Without looking at a tutorial. I was so pleased with myself. I did have a few struggles. The cloth for that skirt was the first one.
I played around with the cloth simulation and the cloth brush a few months ago and thought I remembered how to use it. Apparently not. Well the brushes yes, the simulation, not quite. The reason for the simulation is that it makes it easy to get the cloth to drape properly as opposed to manually shifting each vertex. The cloth brush then lets you add some extra details, at least for how I used it. For other purposes it does so much more. To use the simulation you actually have to use animation so you can watch it drop. Then you stop it at the frame that you like how it looks. At that point, if you want to use it for a still image or to edit and sculpt on from there, you have to apply the cloth modifier. It ends the simulation and then makes it just another object basically. At least that’s how I’ve figured out how to use it. I may need a tutorial for it to learn more tips and tricks because I have a couple more projects that I think I’m going to need it for and I expect there is a more efficient way to work with it.
The other struggle I had was what to do about the background. For a while I thought about making a scene with cookies and a plate and some milk and maybe a small gift. Before I did that I wanted to create a really basic, plain scene. Nothing fancy, just something to showcase the tree. As I was working on that I struggled with the background. How did I want it to look? Busy? Plain? Light? Dark? I finally went for the product photo shoot look. I added a black wall behind it and adjusted the lights. It works great. And just like that, I have my holiday card for this year.
As soon as it is live on my Zazzle site I will post an announcement and a link to it.
After I finished the tree, I thought I would revisit the last card I did. I like the concept but the execution turned out not as good as I would like. So, since I was going to upload a new card, I thought I’d see if I could address a few things in the previous one and maybe upload a new and improved image. And of course, you know that isn’t what happened. As I got into the file in the newer version of Blender and adjusted the renderer to use Cycles, instead of Eevee which is what I originally used due to lack of information and knowledge, I started to see some serious issues. I suspect, the difference in Eevee from two years ago to today is part of why I see the problems now but didn’t see them then. And also the difference in Blender itself from two years ago to today. Which leaves me with the really unhappy prospect of possibly re-modeling a good portion of the scene.
As disappointing as that is, when I think about some of the many things I have learned this year I know I could do a much better job all the way around. So maybe it’s not such a bad thing. And, if I do it right, I might be able to use a slightly different way of combining models in a scene. And that would be way more efficient. But… I’m going to have to get more information on it.
How/why would I build my scenes a different way? Well, efficiency. What I have been doing is appending the models to the scene I’m working in. And that has worked out fine. Well for the most part. I append them and they become a part of the new scene and I don’t have to worry about any adjustments made to the original. There is a way, and I have known this from when I was using 3DS Max and Maya, to add your model into the scene in a manner that when you make edits to the original model it updates in your scene, or any scene you have it in. This can be really great, or not so great. If you make updates to it that don’t work in every other file you have it in, then you have a small problem. At least I think it’s small. Anyway, this is called Linking. I did see it in the menu when I added the tree stand to the tree, but I didn’t think to try it. I was just looking for how to “import” the stand into my scene. As I was listening to the Blender Today episode where they released Blender 2.91 Pablo talked about it. And small light came on.
What I’ve been doing for the last few years really has been to create a scene at a time and then if I could reuse some of the models from a previous scene I would by essentially importing them into the new scene. With the exception of the time I created a series of models, in their own files, of bows and gifts, I haven’t really just “created assets” for a library. That has worked fine up to now. But, as far as I can tell, that isn’t how a studio, game or animation, works. Each “asset” is its own file. So, with the mention of linking, and recognizing that some of my older work may need to be re-modeled, I am starting to think that it might be worth it to look at that and change how I work. Creating a tree in one file and decorations in another and a table in yet another, and then combining them all in a different file doesn’t take any of the fun away from modeling or building a scene. It just means working differently. That’s sort of what I started doing when I started creating the different sprinkles in the summer. I just need to continue down that path.
How I model things and build scenes is not the only methodology that I am changing. I’m also slowly starting to warm up to the cloud synching and saving of files. I have a local network connected drive that I can access from all my devices so you would think I would be using the cloud synching, like One Drive, and iCloud, and Creative Cloud, all over the place. I also use Google Drive so why not these others. I had reasons at one point, I don’t doubt, and now I suspect some of those were based on misinformation or a misunderstanding. I’m not sure. What I do know is that I am starting to come around, ever so slowly. What changed?
Well, as I finished up working on the tree project that I just finished, I started to get inspired to get back to work on the digital version of the leaf I did. I have something I want to do with it and I’m interested and excited to see how it turns out. And I’m just excited to work on it. Originally, I worked on the digital leaf on my iPad using Fresco. I didn’t pay attention to where it saved. I’m not even sure I had a choice. When I opened it on the iPad again, I found the option to send it to Illustrator on my desktop. That’s not where I want to work on it though. So I happened to open Photoshop in my desktop, and guess what, there in my recent items was my leaf from Fresco. I was able to open it from the creative cloud, in Photoshop, and I have all my layers right there and it’s ready for me to work on it. So I’m coming around to this thing about being able to access my files from anywhere.
I finally made my decision on my office software solution. I decided to go with Office 365 and to subscribe to it instead of sticking with one of the open source options. I have nothing against the open source options, and if I didn’t have the ability to pay for the subscription to Office 365, I would certainly be using one of them and donating what I could. Since I do have the option of using, and subscribing to Office 365, and more importantly, it has what I need and I am more familiar with it because I use Microsoft Office at the day job, it is the solution I have chosen. I think I’m going to be very happy with that choice. I’ve found a few benefits already.
It is the Thanksgiving holiday and weekend in the US. Mine looks a bit different this year than in years past. I imagine that is the case for many people this year. In addition to doing the food event differently, I have adjusted the time I take off from the day job this year. In the past I took the days of the week leading up to Thanksgiving as well as the Monday after. This year, I am taking the entire week after the holiday off from the day job. I’m looking forward to it. I have several projects and ideas I am either working on or ready to start and that seems like an opportune time to work on them. I might even get back to a book or two that I started reading before I got lost in studying for my test. I don’t have much of a variety of pictures this week so I’m including a few in-progress renders of the tree as well as what I finally ended up with. Oh, and an in-progress picture or two of my Mantis Shrimp piece. Enjoy.
It has been another full week. I have managed to fit in a lot of art, as well as some music, some injury recognition and treatment, a dental appointment, and a new computer arriving. I’m definitely ready for a weekend.
I’ll get the not as cool stuff out of the way first just because. While I have had luck and treatment for the elbow/arm injury, I haven’t gotten around to dealing with the leg/hip and have continued to do Taekwondo. I was under the impression that stretching and staying active would keep it from getting too stiff and losing strength. After a bit of a breakthrough in what the problem probably is I have finally come to understand that stretching is actually bad for this, and I need to rest it. I’m not happy about that. However, as I told my Master when I spoke with him, though I enjoy Taekwondo immensely, I can’t enjoy it nearly as much if I’m in pain. So, no class for a while. Which leaves me with even more time right now to work on other things.
I was moving right along with working on other things this week. Right up until the Dentist appointment. I’m one of those people that going to the Dentist is an exhausting experience. I like the people just fine, but the poking and scraping and drilling, and even the cleaning, leave me totally wiped out. And it’s even worse if they have to numb some portion of me. So if I ever tell you I would rather go to the Dentist instead of do something you’re suggesting, now you know just how much I do not want to do what you are suggesting.
The fun bit. The new computer arrived this week. It arrived about a week earlier than anticipated. That’s awesome in my books. I thought about waiting until the weekend to set it up but really, that wasn’t going to happen. It took hardly any time to disconnect the old one and connect the new one. And the introductory setup took less time and effort than I expected. I was able to get set up and functional that first day. I still have things I need and want to install to get everything available. For example, I don’t really have an office program yet. I have to figure that piece out. I will probably go with the Microsoft Office 365 thing. I just haven’t made the purchase and downloaded it yet. I can do Photoshop and Blender on the computer and I’m using Google Docs to put together this post so I can function. I’m quite pleased with it so far.
The other fun stuff. So before I got the new computer I was messing around in Blender. And decided to try to make a screw thread. This is something I have wanted to figure out how to do since I first started with Blender about 10 years ago. I wanted to make a salt shaker that had a screw cap on it that you could see the threading. I couldn’t figure out how to do it easily so I left it and hadn’t gone back to it. I saw Pablo Vasquez do something with it I think on one of his Blender Today shows and realized it should be really easy now. So I decided to try it. I looked up some videos on how to do it except they were either not very clear or they were using an older version of Blender and components that are not there anymore. But they did give me a big clue. There is a Spiral modifier. That’s the key. You also kind of need to get the shape right and a few other things. But the key is that modifier.
So first I made a cylinder with a screw thread. I was so excited by that. I felt so good. Then, I decided to try to create an object with the opposite threading, that it would thread into. That was the Boolean modifier. I had already figured out how to use that so I created a block and added the boolean modifier to remove the equivalent of the screw and it worked. That was so insanely satisfying that I can’t even tell you. And now I have what I need to move forward on yet another project, or two. Cool!
That wasn’t the only Blender fun I had this week. I pulled up my reference pictures and figured out how to model the stand for the aluminum Christmas tree. That was an interesting challenge. And another accomplishment that I felt really good about. It took me a few hours over a couple of evenings. I modeled the leg first and then had to make two more. Which is just a duplication function. But to get them in the right places required a little bit of math and some geometry. Yep. Who would have thought I’d be using my high school geometry to model a stand for a Christmas tree. Actually, I thought it was kind of cool. I used the same skills after I modeled the brace to go in between the legs to get the duplicates of that in place. That brace was a bit trickier to model to the right shape. And yet it was so cool for it all to come together.
The next step was to get the tree and the stand in the same scene. Which I did manage. It took a try or two. And it turned out that my stand was huge compared to the tree. Also, I needed to do something about locking in my transforms before I imported it, but I’ll just not animate it and I think it will be ok for now. I modeled the stand in a separate blend file that’s why I had to import it. Once I got things linked up right and then scaled correctly it was easier to move them into place with each other. And time to start decorating. I’ve got a hook and a little red Christmas ball modeled now. I just need to finish that part up. I’m getting close to having the whole tree part done. I haven’t quite decided how far I want to go with the scene. I don’t know if I want to keep it simple or if I want to go more elaborate. I’ll figure that out once I figure out the cloth.
I am working on a pastel piece of a Mantis Shrimp. I’m learning the advantages of pastel, and not really being able to do super fine detail. It keeps me from getting too caught up in the super super fine detail and getting bogged down in the technicality versus getting the essence of the subject matter. I’ve also figured out that, for this, if I’m careful, I can use the texture of the paper to help create the illusion of that detail. So I’m making progress. I’m excited about it.
It feels really good to have a bunch of projects that I’m excited about. The biggest challenge is getting to them all. I’m having that problem again where I will be working on something and look at the clock and realize that I have run out of day. The cool thing is, that even with all the art, I’m also working on some Christmas songs on the guitar. I started that Christmas Songs on Guitar course that I got and I like it. I’m past the lecture and up to the actual songs now. While he got a few things not quite right about the history of Christmas, I thought the part about how old some of the songs we sing and play are, was really cool.
In all that, I also did a few things for some learning I am working on for the day job. I’m busy and getting things done all over the place. I’ve even got pictures this week. Enjoy those. And check back again. We have a short work week next week and then I’ll be on vacation from the day job for a week so no telling what I’ll get up to in that time. Stay safe.
Until I sat down to write this post, I had a really productive few days, especially artistically. I finished my leaf piece, did a quick vector art sketch in Illustrator, started a new pastel piece and started work on a new fun idea in Blender. I was on a roll. So I thought I would work on my post. That’s when I ran into trouble.
I ordered a new computer this week, and, I was going to tell you all about the thought process I went through to decide on what to get and why I was getting that. And I kept getting further and further into the reasoning and detail and it was getting longer and longer. And then I realized that I was really just trying to justify the purchase to myself because I thought others might care or judge me for said purchase. Because of that, I think I am on my fifth draft of this post.
I am looking forward to getting the new computer and getting it all setup. It won’t get me any more space on my desk but it looks like it will be about half the size of my current computer so it should get me some floor space. It will probably take me at minimum, a weekend, maybe a full week to get everything setup and working as I want. At least moving all my files over won’t be a big deal. I purchased a portable hard drive a couple of weeks ago that is big enough to hold everything and I’ve already got things copied to it. I even managed to do some organizing of the really old files as I went so I might not have as many copies of the same files as I did. I still have a few things that I have duplicates of I don’t doubt. For now, I consider it an improvement.
I have been working on some art this week. I finished the leaf pastel piece I was working on. I like how the leaf came out but I’m not quite as fond of the background. I think I originally just wanted to do the leaf but I didn’t want to the background to just be the color of the paper so I added some background to it. I may do the same subject again on a different color paper and just do the leaf without anything else to distract from it.
I’ve also started a digital version of the leaf. As I was working on the pastel version, a thought struck me about what I was seeing and I decided it could be really cool if I did it digital and then I could maybe put it on a t-shirt or something. So I’m working on it in Adobe Fresco right now. I’ll probably end up transferring it to PhotoShop at some point.
Since Adobe Max I’ve been getting many more emails from Adobe, mostly with links to tips and lessons on some of the software. I followed one and then another and found Adobe Live just as someone was talking about the current Illustrator challenge. At the end she said something about the next day the she would cover more of what the challenge would be and that it has something to do with breakfast. I don’t use Illustrator a lot. I go months without opening it. Though, that may start to change. Because. I found myself opening up Illustrator on my iPad and creating a vector art sketch of a breakfast. And there is more that I’d like to add to it. A bit surprising to me and also kind of exciting.
Now that the leaf pastel piece is done I can start on my next piece. I found this great picture of just the eyes and top of the head of a Mantis Shrimp that looks like it’s sort of peaking over the bottom of the page at you. I think it will be a great piece to do and even hang on the wall over my computer. I got started on that and have it blocked in and some basic detail started. It should be interesting to see how it goes. It may be one that I would be happier if I did it in colored pencil because there is some fine detail to it that could be difficult to get with pastel pencils, I’ll just have to see how it goes.
I haven’t gotten started on the stand for the aluminum Christmas tree yet. Though, I did start on another idea. It’s inspired by these plugs for the Aerogarden that I printed out. I got the top part started and figured out how to get the hole, and then realized I need to figure out how to get that to have threading for a screw so I will probably be doing that bit over again as soon as I find a tutorial for how to make screws and screw threads in Blender.
And finally, I started on the Christmas Guitar course. I can’t say as I’ve played much yet. The first hour or so is primarily lecture and preparing you for what you need to know. Like the primary chords for the songs, and the time signature, and even some history of Christmas music. Though, I haven’t quite made it to that video. It’s a start and a good way to get back into playing after having neglected my fingers for the last few weeks as I finished up studying for that test. Unfortunately, once I get out of the habit of doing something, it can take a bit of effort to get back into it. Especially when the other things I do are just as interesting and engrossing.
While it has been a busy week, I don’t have a lot of pictures to share. I’m planning on getting further along on a couple of the projects so I could have a bit more to share next week. It will depend on which squirrel I go chasing next.
That’s the thought I had the afternoon after passing my test. I now have my evenings no longer dedicated to needing to study for a test and I had to figure out what to do with myself. Getting time back is always great, like when a meeting is canceled at the last moment; however, when it is time back from an extended project it can be a little disorienting.
The test I took, and passed, was for SQL Server 2016, it was database development. Because I took the test I did last year, by passing this test, I earned my MCSA. Which is a big deal in the computer human world. I admit, it really didn’t cross my mind to try to reach that until a couple of years ago. Those are not easy tests. And though I did pass, because they are so hard, and I felt so unprepared when I started answering the questions, I suspect there is something missing from my study strategy.
I am not the ideal role model when it comes to studying. I don’t tend to immerse myself completely in only that topic. I tend to work on it consistently and have some balance with other things, like Taekwondo, some art, and some music. So though my main focus these last few weeks has been studying for that test, I have done other things as well. And last week was no exception.
There were two conferences that I signed up for, one is still going on, so I watched some or all of those. The short one was the Bcon2020. That was more of a get together and it was great to see. The Blender community is really diverse and world wide. They are doing some really amazing things with Blender. I waited until the day to open my comfort box and then I opened it in the morning because I knew there was a t-shirt inside and I wanted to wear it all day. There was some other fun stuff too. The whole package was a great treat.
The other conference is a festival. It’s the Spark Animation Festival. Wow. That has been fantastic. I managed to watch all the entries that won something and there were some really good stories and animations. I think, at least in the US, most people think of animation as cartoons for the kids. And that’s too bad because animation really is an art form. And it is an incredibly powerful medium for telling really hard stories. Some of the stories told were of police brutality, domestic violence, the plight of a refugee, autism, and deforestation. And those are the ones I remember.
Another thing about animation that I think gets over-looked, again, at least in the US, is the rich history of animation in other countries. The US tends to dominate the commercial market with many of their feature length animations and because of that we don’t always think about other countries having their own culture of animation and animated story telling. So far I have seen a lot of animations from France. I have watched one from Russia. Also, Japan, Spain, Iran, South Korea, Canada, Ireland, the US, and more that I can’t remember. I like that. I like seeing that diversity.
One of the things I did as one of my breaks from study time was to finish up a sketch or drawing I have been working on in Procreate on my iPad. When I first got the iPad and Procreate I wanted something to work on that would give me good feel for what it was going to be like to really create in the software and on the iPad. I chose a Llama because of my nephew. Earlier this year, I had a stack of blank greeting cards that had these whimsical paintings of Llamas on them. My nephew was the recipient of several and I got a great response from him. So when it came to testing out Procreate on the iPad, I thought of him and the Llamas. I will say, it isn’t like drawing with a pencil or charcoal. It does take some adjusting. However, I think Procreate is a really good program. It handles well and behaves more or less how I want. There are a few things that I’m still figuring out. Working digitally requires some skill adjustment. The few things that I struggled or fought with, I think I’ll get worked out or I can find more brushes that might do the job more to my liking.
While trying to get the SQL stuff to settle properly in my head the Adobe Max conference triggered a mental tornado around what to do about my current desktop, and wanting to use the new Creative Cloud apps that won’t play well with my current desktop because it doesn’t have Windows 10, and then what about the other software I use and on and on. Nice little tornado. The apps will play well with my laptop because it has Windows 10, and I can use the iPad apps. So after much mental back and forth, I installed the Creative Cloud suite on my laptop and can now use the latest and greatest of the available apps. Yay. I also installed the iPad version of a few of the apps and gave them a test drive. I think I’m going to need some tutorials. The new Fresco is fun and so are Adobe Draw and Adobe Sketch. I made a fun snowman in one of them.
Yes, the saga of my desktop still continues. I had made a decision as to what to do about it and then did some research and talked myself out of doing anything at that moment. Partly because it wasn’t what I had originally been planning to do and I was having trouble letting go of that original plan. That was before the test. Now that the test is done, I’m once again looking at the whole situation and trying to decide what is really going to be the best for what I need.
I’ll be resolving the computer situation soon I don’t doubt. I will also be taking a break before I start studying for the next test. Just a few weeks. During this time I have a some projects I hope to finish, or start and maybe finish, and a class or two I want to finish, or start and hopefully finish, I also have some stuff around my home to get caught up on, and a few books that I want to read. So that’s the plan and this week’s excitement. Check back again. Oh, I have included a small group of pictures for your enjoyment this week.
