While I Decide

Posted on July 18, 2017 by SusanG

It was a busy week at the day job and then in the evenings as well. That means I didn’t get the chance to do some of the research and testing that I kind of need to do before continuing with Funkatmyer. I did manage to get a little study time in for the test for the day job. And that was about it until the weekend.

I don’t really want to push forward too much with Funkatmyer and I guess even Walter until I decide how I want to handle the Christmas card. That means that when I got to the weekend I wasn’t really ready to work on any current projects. So. While I’m doing my research and testing and deciding what I want to do about that I figured I’d take a moment to play with Blender and see what I can do in it now that I’ve had a little practice in other programs. Which I think has helped.

I have been taking stabs at Blender for a few years now. I’ve purchased some books and not gotten far with them and even tried following an online tutorial. I still didn’t have much luck. For me, Blender has had a really steep learning curve. However, in the last couple of years, or so Pluralsight (and possibly Digital Tutors before that) have created some Blender tutorials for specific processes like modeling, rendering, rigging and such. So far I’ve watched the relatively short course called “Your First Day in Blender”. This was great. It showed me a few things that I hadn’t grasped before and also pointed out a few really cool tools that I wasn’t aware were there.

So with a bit of modeling practice now and that tutorial done, I figured I’d try creating a character in Blender. I usually just create coffee mugs or teapots. No, really. I think that’s all I’ve ever done with Blender. So time to try something a little more complex. I decided to try a bi-ped humanoid character. Normally for something like this I would start with a sphere. This time I started with a cylinder. It was the method used in the tutorial I watched to create a weird worm thing so I decided to give it a try. It looks like it’s going to work out ok. At least so far.

One of the things I like with Blender is that for the end caps on the cylinder you can leave it as an n-gon and then go in and cut it yourself. You can do that in 3DS Max and Maya as well. However, I haven’t found where when you do that you can just go from vertex to vertex and if you cross and edge as you do that the program just creates any new points you need. It might be there but I haven’t seen it. Blender does it. With no fuss or muss. This is fabulous as far as I’m concerned. So, following the method used in the tutorial, that’s what I did. Then I went in and started shaping the head. I did have a couple of false starts. But finally I got the hang of what I was trying to do and I got the hang of moving around. Which is something. Another of the differences of Blender as compared to some of the other programs is the way it renders. The start scene includes a light and a camera and it uses the camera for renders. I didn’t feel like messing with that and trying to make sure there was enough lighting at the moment so for now, my images are all just screen shots. That’s why in some of them you actually see the wire-frame over the solid view. In the ones where you don’t see it it’s because I switched to object mode before I took the screen shot. It gives you an idea of how it’s looking so far. A couple of things that I want to do are to remove the left half of the object and then apply a mirror modifier so that I only have to work on the one side. And I may also add a subdivision modifier so I can see it smoothed out more. For now though, it’s coming along.

I’m going to have to make time to get my research and testing done this week, or maybe next, so that I can get on with Funkatmyer and then get to the Christmas card. This week will be a bit tight though. I have an opportunity to get to see and play with PlayStation VR. A day job colleague has it and has offered for me to come try it out, and she wants to see what TEKKEN 7 is like in it since it’s supposed to be VR capable/compatible, something like that. I’m probably going to make myself sick. I get Video Induced Motion Sickness with first person shooters and the last time I tried VR I had the same thing. So I don’t expect to last long but I get to try it. Also, I need to get my study done for that test for the day job. It needs to take priority so I will likely spend most of the week doing that. With luck I’ll get back to some modeling by the weekend again. Wish me luck.

 

 

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Doing Everything I Can to Avoid…

Posted on July 11, 2017 by SusanG

So that extra long weekend with the extra days off from the day job was nice. I had planned to use the time to work on the online class I’m taking and work on 3D projects and study. I got more than half way into the weekend and realized that things weren’t going to happen as I planned. I did get some relaxation time in which was good and needed. But the short week at the day job turned out to be a little stressful.

I finally got to taking the first practice test for the test for the day job. I didn’t do very well. I didn’t really have an idea of how I thought I would do when I started it so I wasn’t surprised or anything. I just didn’t do very well. I was quite a ways from passing it. So I know I need to do a bit more study before I sign up for the test. And now that I know that, I think I’m doing everything I can to avoid studying. Of course it’s like a lot of things. If I would just sit down and do it and get the test taken, it would probably take less time and effort that the time and effort I spend avoiding it.

What I did not avoid this week was working on Funkatmyer. It took me a day or two to get to him but I started, and finished his headphones. I started from a cylinder and did some extrudes and added some edge loops to get the basic shape of the part that goes over the ear. From there it was some point manipulation to adjust the shape and add some detailing. To create the strap that goes across the top I just extruded some faces from the top of the ear cover. From there it took some moving and rotating to get the bend before extruding again. As has become normal practice for me, I just modeled one side and then mirrored it over to the other side. There was a little catch with that this time. The last time I used mirror in this project I was mirroring the boot so I turned of the part to connect the geometry. It took me a couple of tries to turn the right settings back on. Here are some in progress shots. I didn’t really take any renders until I got the most of it modeled but there was still a little refining to do.

 

And here is Funkatmyer now all with his headphones on and also a bust shot. He’s ready for the next step I think.   

And the next step. Yeah. That’s a biggie. So here’s the thing. In addition to needing some materials, he needs a rig. I want to be able to pose Funkatmyer. For that, he really needs a rig. And normally, I would do both of the rig and the materials in Maya since I’ve modeled him in Maya. However. I think I want to use him on the next Christmas card. I am planning on using resources for that that I have already created in 3DS Max. I like the materials on the things in 3DS Max and don’t really want to try to figure them out in Maya. I don’t know how well the rig will move over from Maya to 3DS Max, or vice versa the materials from 3DS Max to Maya and Arnold. Though I don’t think the materials will play nice from what I can tell from some experimenting I did this weekend. So I have a little dilemma.

I finally opened up to have a look at 3DS Max 2018 with Arnold now the additional integrated renderer. The first thing is, I’m not sure I’m liking the new interface. I know things change and supposedly for the better, but given how much effort goes into finding everything in some of these programs, changing up the interface isn’t always a better thing. And I don’t like dealing with the Arnold renderer and the materials available for it. When I set it as the default, a significant number of the standard Autodesk materials come up as not being compatible. And figuring out the measly materials available compared to what was available with the Mental Ray renderer is a bit of an effort. So I’m a little disappointed. I can get Mental Ray direct from NVIDIA with a plug-in for 3DS Max 2018 so I will probably do that to see how it works out but I’m a little pessimistic about it at the moment.

The why this matters part of this gets a little involved. Suffice to say that I have come to realize I don’t like Maya as much as I thought I did. There are some things about it that I just don’t like. I suspect some if it has to do with familiarity and habit as much as whatever aesthetic is going on. So I was thinking of going back to 3DS Max but now with the Arnold vs. Mental Ray thing I’m not so sure. And then there is Blender. Which still has it’s appeal and with the tutorials that Pluralsight have it’s even more accessible than it was. And it looks like it handles a couple of things even better than Maya or 3DS Max do, and those are very appealing.

Ah, the things we come up with to avoid doing the things we don’t want to do.

Still it is an issue. How big of an issue is still to be determined and decided on. For now I need to get to that studying stuff so I can get that test done. Then I’ll figure out what I’m going to do. I suppose at some point we should discuss the advantages and disadvantages or whatever between and free open source application and the mainstream applications. Not today.

With Funkatmyer modeled now, come back and find out what I get up to next. His rig? The scene for Walter? Something else. Who knows.

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The Bird has Boots

Posted on July 4, 2017 by SusanG

Yep. I finished up the boots for Funkatmyer this week. I also finished reading my book for my test for the day job. Now to do some practice tests before I sign up for the real test. I also got started on the AIY project from Google and Magpi. And, I started building the Arduino robot.

It’s been a busy week. One other thing I managed to get done in there was to hook up my new to me PS4. That took a little more effort than most people would expect. I had to rearrange my cable and Xbox One connections and then I could plug in the PS4. And yes. I have managed to set it up and even play a couple of games on it. For updates on that you’ll have to go over to suguayproductions.com/sgp.

Back to art and projects.

So I got the boots for Funkatmyer finished. I finished adjusting the extra edge loops to smooth things out around the leg. Well, except the ones in the front. Those I used to  add some flourish or detail to make the boots more interesting looking. I selected all those really thin faces and extruded them all the way down and over the top of the boot. That gave a nice ridge. I did the same with the thin line of faces that was running over the toe part. That was a little trickier to get right though. The extra extrude did something a little weird but I was able clean it up.

 

 

I was having a look at everything in a render, trying to figure out why things didn’t look nice and smooth. Turns out I hadn’t set the smoothing setting in the Arnold render attribute for the boot. I found this out after I had already mirrored copied the boot over to make two boots. So I had to go set the smoothing to catclark and the iterations to 5 on both boots. Oh well. At least I figured it out. And now Funkatmyer has boots for his feet. I’ve got the ear/head phones that I want to do and then I think I’ll be ready for materials. I think. Unless I decide he needs more accessories.

 

 

So I got the AIY project started. I got the box with the speaker, the voice hat, the microphone and the raspberry pi controller all put together and buttoned up. Next up is to read the next steps first and then I think I’m to the point of booting up the raspberry pi and getting started. Here are some shots of the box.

I finally got started building the Arduino robot that I’ve had a kit for, for ages. I decided to go with the line following robot. I realized that while the test path that comes with it is just a circle, to really test it I can make my own path and that could be a lot more fun. So that’s what I’m working on. But man these screws and nuts are tiny. I may need a magnifying glass soon.

 

 

 

I’m enjoying the extra day off from the day job. It’s giving me a little extra time to work on different things. And I’m actually working on the different things. Sometimes in small chunks. That’s ok though. Doing things in small chunks can be just as effective at getting things done as sitting down and powering through the whole thing all at once. And sometimes it’s more effective.

For this next week, I’m thinking I’ll be getting back to Funkatmyer. He’s close to having his modeling being finished, if I don’t decided to give him more accessories, which I may do. And I’ll be doing the studying stuff. Both for the test and for the online class. I’m just over half way done with the online class which means I’m a little behind where I wanted to be. And I might get a little further on one or both of the other projects, the AIY and the robot. Of course, we know how quickly all that can get derailed. Come back and find out how it goes.

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Workin’ on the Bird Boots

Posted on June 27, 2017 by SusanG

So first. Confession. I didn’t spend much time working on the art this week. Not sure I can pin point the exact why. And I’m not sure it matters. I do know some of the why was studying. And that may end up being more of a factor even after I take the test for the day job. Rest assured I will try to fill you in and keep you up to date even on that stuff as it gets more interesting.

I am hoping to integrate the art and the new studying so that I can keep that up. I do still have ideas I want to share and things to make. For now. I’m still working on Funkatmyer. I got started on his boots last week and really didn’t get back to them until a day or two ago. They need a bit of detail. So I started out adding some edge loops and then trying to create a crease marking the place between the upper part of the boot and the sole. I also tried to add some thickness to the sole. I did an extrude to get a little more geometry with the thickness. From there I wanted some sort of tread. So I selected some faces on the bottom of the sole and did an extrude of those.

The extrude for the treads worked except some how I managed to get a couple of faces on the upper part. I didn’t realize it because of the direction of the extrude. Then I did a render to see how the tread was looking and these weird lumps show up. It took me a while to figure out the best way of getting rid of them. I finally just merged vertices to flatten it out and that seems to have worked.

Of course the render showed off a different issue as well. That was that the tread were being rounded off a bit severely. The fix for that is additional edges. I suppose I could have added them manually and it would have been the same amount, maybe less, work than the way I ended up doing it. So first I added edge loops at the bottom of the tread where it meets the ground and then at the top where it meets the rest of the sole. This keeps the edge from softening too much. And that helped except the were still rounding in the other direction. That meant more edge loops, that it turns out, in most cases carried all the way up the leg of the boot or across the top of the foot part. That’s what causes the sort of reverse crease look you see.

I’ve started to space things out more evenly to smooth out the rounded leg look. I’m getting there but have a little more to go. I haven’t quite decided how I want to do the part over the foot. I could use it to add some interesting detail to that part of the boot. So there is more work to be done on the boot before moving on. Now, with some luck and a bit of time management, I’ll get a little more work done and maybe get the boots finished this next week. I’ve got some extra time off so hopefully.

So yeah, a little extra time off. The July 4th holiday is coming up here and as it is on a Tuesday, I requested Monday off from the day job so that I could make it into a four day weekend. Yay me. As always, I have about a hundred things I think I’m going to do with that time. It will be fun to see what I actually do get done.

Aside from working on Funkatmyer or even the scene for Walter the Worm, I could also study for the test for the day job. And I’m close to finishing the book so I probably will do some of this. I could also work on the online course that I’m doing. It’s a beginning Python programming course. It’s a prerequisite for some other things I want to take online so I will probably do some of that as well. Both the day job study and the Python course have end of July milestones or deadlines for me so those are a bit important. After that, I have a Raspberry Pi project I want to build. I got the issue of MagPi with the Google AIY project and I want to get that going. I also have an Arduino robot I think I want to build. Though for that one I need to decide if I want to make it walk, or follow a line. One of those will probably be next. Oh! And that same issue of MagPi had a project for Minecraft on the Pi. That could be fun as well.

Come back and find out what sort of tangle I manage to get into. If I get to the robot or the AIY project I’ll even try to remember to take a few pictures to share.

 

 

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Boots for the Bird

Posted on June 20, 2017 by SusanG

Things at the day job are still busy which means still more long days. That combined with the studying I need to do and there just don’t seem to be enough hours in the day. I’ve tried not sleeping to make up for that. It doesn’t really work out very well.

I did some studying this week. Both for this online class I’m taking and for the test for my day job. Some of it was fun. Some of it was frustrating and some of it was really satisfying. Because I was working hard to come up with some of the answers, I really felt like I had accomplished something at the end of the day. Even if I hadn’t solved the problem yet. When I would solve a problem, or even reach a stopping point in studying for the test, I tended to want to do something with my hands. So I built some things.

I got a little ‘frightened cricket’ kit from Robot Shop and put it together. It’s really cute. It’s solar powered so you have to take it outside. Once it’s in full sun it buzzes and bounces all over.

Another day I decided to put together one of the Lego Mixel kits that I have. They are good to have around for those times when you need something to do with your hands. Some of the Mixels are quite fun. I like this one with all its arms. And it spins.

I also got a kit for a motorcycle. Well, I could choose one of five to build. It’s from Meccano.  I have another one that I put together a few years ago. That one is all in metal. This one is metal and plastic parts. It turned out to take a bit longer than I expected, and I had a couple of difficulties. Those were pretty much caused by my not reading the picture well enough. There were a few times I had to stop and take some parts off and put them back on correctly. I got it built though.
Each time I was ready for a break I thought about working on Funkatmyer. He needs boots and his earphones and probably something else. So I thought that I should be working on him. But my brain was tired and I knew it would just be frustrating if I tried. It was late into the weekend before I got my head clear enough of stuff that I felt like I could concentrate. So I finally got started. I decided on boots. Right now they look a little like rain galoshes. Not very well fitting and pretty basic. I started out with a cylinder with enough faces so I would have options for detailing things. I extruded the bottom faces on the front side to make the foot part of the boot without trying to attach a section to the leg part. I also sunk the top of the cylinder into the leg of the boot so I have thickness. I did a little adjustment of the height of the leg from what I started with. And I got some shape into the foot part. Now I’m thinking about how I want the bottom of the boot to look. It could play a part in how I handle any detailing I do around the bottom. The rest of the boot is going to need some detail as well. So there is that to think about.

And yay! In spite of a long and tiring week, I managed to study and work on Funkatmyer. I’m pleased. I did think about working on the scene for Walter the Worm. I think that may take a bit more planning. There are a couple of things I might be able to work on while I’m doing that. It might even lead to some ideas on staging the scene. Hmm… Of course, none of that will happen if I don’t get things going.

There are so many things to do. So many things I want to do. And sometimes, just not enough time or energy to do even half of them. And I don’t know about you but I seem to find more of those things I want to do almost daily. Well, off to do one of the 25 things on the list of things I want to do today. I’ve already done a couple of the things on the ‘have to’ list. So this should be fun.

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