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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Shaping the Tail

Posted on June 13, 2017 by SusanG

Back to more Funkatmyer the FunkyBird this week. Though not quite as much as I would have liked. The day job really took it’s toll. Lots of long days that meant I was out of steam by the time I got home and found I had little time or energy for working on much more than feeding myself. Or kicking things. Though, even kicking things was a struggle by the end of the week.

As I mentioned I still have studying to do for the day job. I can’t say that that got a lot of attention during the week either. But it got some at the weekend. My feathered companions helped out by insisting on my presence for a while. Some days there’s not much more to be done other than sit while they eat and fuss and preen. These can be good days, and excuses to get some studying in.

I wasn’t sure I was going to get to work on Funkatmyer this week. The way things were going I was sure I was going to run out of steam before I even got the file open. I finally got there though.

I decided that it would be a good idea to get his tail shaped so that he is more complete and ready to have more accessories. It helps to have the full base shape before adding accessories. What if I wanted to give him cargo shorts. Not having that tail added would make it a bit annoying. As it was I had to adjust his jacket once I added the tail. The jacket was cutting into the surface so I had to reshape the back side.

When I started to shape the tail, the jacket was kind of in the way. So I hid it from the view so I didn’t have to worry about it and I could get the shape just right. When I got done with the tail and was ready to reshape the jacket I got a little frustrated. In 3DS Max I can freeze an object so that I don’t have to worry about moving it or changing it’s shape or anything like that. I can also set things to an x-ray mode so that I can see through them. I’m guessing that one or both those options might be available in Maya, probably through a script, but I couldn’t find either. I didn’t want to accidentally get the points on the body while trying to select the points on the jacket that I wanted to move. And since the jacket points were inside the body where I couldn’t see them, that was a possibility. To see the points I used wire-frame mode. I’m not terribly fond of this because it puts everything in  wire-frame instead of just what you need. Of course, since I couldn’t put the body in x-ray on mode it was really my only option.

As you can see from the images, it worked out ok. I got the tail all done and adjusted the back of the jacket to lay over it nicely. I even added another light to the scene so that you can better see the back side. Without it that side was in a lot of shadow and you couldn’t see the tail very well.

 

Next up for Funkatmyer will be either the earphones or the boots. Not sure which I’ll go for first.

 

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Must Remember to Save More Often

Posted on June 6, 2017 by SusanG

Yep. You know it. I was busy working on the computer and the power went out and I had not saved my work yet.

That was exasperating. And to go along with the power being out for about 3 and half hours, which was bad enough, to make it worse, my carbon monoxide detector and possibly one of my smoke detectors, which are about a foot from each other, decided they
wanted their batteries changed. About 2 hours into the outage they started beeping. I managed to get one changed with a flash light only to find it didn’t stop the beeping. Since it was dark and I couldn’t remember how to change the other one, I got out the ear plugs. It was only for a little while longer but I wasn’t getting any sleep. Fortunately, the power came back on and I was able to take care of the other detector. It was also fortunate that it wasn’t too hot out when the power went out.

So what was I working on that I hadn’t saved yet? Funkatmyer. I was working on Funky’s jacket. I had gotten it separated out from the body and some basic tidy up work done. I took a quick render of it and was just about to hit the save when all the power went out. Here’s the render.

Given the time it was when the power came back on, I didn’t jump right in and try to either retrieve it from an autosave or re-do the work. I just turned on the computer, pulled up Maya, confirmed what I suspected before I shut it all down and went to bed. There just wasn’t any point in dealing with it then.

I did finally get back to Funkatmyer and his jacket. And the power stayed on. And I saved more often. I ran into an interesting and somewhat frustrating problem. At some point in the process of trying to get something to work, and I don’t know what it was, I managed to turn off the Undo Queue. Yeah. That thing that holds all your changes so you can ‘ctrl+z’ and undo back a step or more. Off. I found out by trying to undo something. It took me a while to find where to turn it back on but I did.

I was then able to get back to making up Funkatmyer’s jacket. Mostly I added some edge loops and did some face extrudes to give some detail. I’m still deciding if I want to do anything fancy with the collar. Though at the moment, I’m leaning towards not. I may save that for another jacket later down the road. For now, have a look at Funkatmyer and his jacket. I’m not sure if I’m going to do any detailing around the arm holes. Still thinking on that one.

As I was working on the jacket I realized, I think I need some detail on the helmet. I think I might want to do it before I had his earphones. I’m thinking that will be easier. Of course, when I get to the boots, those are going to need some detailing as well.

  

I’m still aiming to get the scene setup for Walter. I’ve not done it yet. But it is next on the list. Oh, and I may be revisiting Sticks at some point. Someone pointed out something about him that I may decide to develop some of his look a little further. That’s a bit down the road though. Walter and Funkatmyer first and then I’ll see who is lined up to get worked on.

In the mean time, I’ll be studying more for that test for the day job. I have 3 more chapters to read and then I need to get out the practice tests. It could mean a little less time working on the art projects. It should be temporary though. If I can study enough and learn it all enough so I pass the test on the first try then I’ll have more time for the art. If I don’t pass the first time, I’ll have to get back to studying. No pressure right?

That’s all I’ve got for now. With some luck the power will stay on this week and I can get lots done. Check back to find out how that works out.

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Please Do Not Feed the Mondays

Posted on May 30, 2017 by SusanG

Yes, that’s a clue as to how last week went. It was crazy. The day job felt like someone fed Monday steroids and it took the rest of the week to recover. Things didn’t go horribly wrong, but the didn’t go terrifically right either. And some of that continued into Tuesday. I think Wednesday might have started getting back on track but it’s a bit of a blur so I’m not sure. I do know that one of my cute little birds decided to have a freak out in the middle of the night and it took two hours to get her treated and calmed back down so we could all go back to bed. That made Thursday really rough. I was so glad I took Friday off.

As you can imagine, a week like that didn’t lend itself to my getting to work on fun stuff. No matter how much I wanted to, I just didn’t have the energy, mental or physical. I did finally get to a few things around my home that I had been needing to do. I got all the stuff that I had put aside to donate delivered to the donate places. And I got most of the stuff that was left in the dining room from the Art room re-do, put away finally. I have just a small bit of stuff left. Progress!

Unfortunately the pet bird is still having some issues. I’m not sure what’s going on with her but she spent two or three hours on my shoulder having an epic preen Sunday night. That’s after spending a half hour cuddled up against my neck and cheek. She’s sweet
and loving but this was over the top for her. I’m hoping she’s getting better. I could really use some sleep this week. And more time to work on Funky and some time to work on the scene for Walter.

I finally got some time to work on Funky. Not much time mind you. I added an eyeball. I know that doesn’t sound very exciting or like it should be that hard. Really, it probably wouldn’t be if I would plan better. But the size and shape of the socket means it took a little bit of work to get it just right. Mostly it was about getting the overall shape to fit and then getting the center parts right. It may be a little difficult to really tell what’s going on here with it all still just the basic lambert material. Trust me. When I get the final materials added, and some better lighting, it should make a difference.

I also got to working on the helmet. There wasn’t a lot to do to it. At least not at the moment. I needed to cut the slot in it so Funky could see out. Though now that I think about it, I’m wondering if I should have done something a little different. Hmm.
Maybe something to think about for the future. Wow. I guess that has Funky basically done. Now to work on the rest of his accessories, besides the helmet. Currently I have planned a set of earphones, some boots, and a coat/vest type of thing. Oh. Wait. I just realized or noticed. I had meant for him to have little more of a duck tale than he does at the moment. I want to take that into consideration as I’m creating the vest thing, so it lays right.

There’s always something more that needs doing. At least until a project is done.

I’m still excited about getting things worked on, in spite of last week’s craziness. I have made some adjustments to my schedule and commitments and it should free up a few extra hours for working on fun stuff. It doesn’t mean I get away from the other stuff though. I still have a test to study for for the day job. I’m still making progress on that, though I think I might need to step it up some. I will do my best to keep things balanced enough that I can get Funky finished up and get Walter all setup. And sometime really soon I need to get my travel plans set for the ZBrush Summit. I’m planning on attending that in person this year. I did that in 2015 and it was a lot of fun and really worth the trip for all I learned. So I’m going to try that again this year. But I have to get the flight booked and the lodging set first.

That gets you are all caught up with Funky and the week I had, remember to come back and find out how things are going. You never know what might happen or how far I might get.

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The Bird Has a Name

Posted on May 23, 2017 by SusanG

This has been a busy week. And, Wow, productive. I’m pretty excited about it. I’m looking forward to more of this. I’ve got ideas and I’m getting them executed and, yeah. Just cool.

I could sit back and try to figure out what I did this week that makes it feel like it’s been so good but really, I’m just going to roll with it and try to keep it rolling.

I told you last week that I have an idea for my business cards. And I do. And now this week, with the progress I have made on the FunkyBird I am starting to get an idea for how to revamp the SusanG Productions website. I’m not completely there yet. But the idea is forming, it’s percolating.

I spent this week working on FunkyBird. I got the wing cleaned up and added the extra bit of refinement I wanted. It was a little too flat so I added some edges and made some lanes that I could puff up to look a little like bones going through the wing and the fingers. That helped a lot.

At that point I kind of wanted to see how he was going to look with two legs and two wings so I decided it was time to cut out the one side and mirror over the other with the leg and wing. I had to adjust his leg first though. I made it nice and chunky and it turned out to be a little too chunky because if I had mirrored it over as is, it would likely have fused the two parts of the mesh together. So I moved the leg out into a little wider stance so that the mirror wouldn’t cause it to get messed up.

With FunkyBird having matching sides I was ready to work on the beak. I thought about just doing half and then doing the mirror again and chose not to. I just worked on the entire beak, the whole thing. Just tried to keep the poly count low at first to make it easier to keep track of the vertices that I was moving around. Then I added more edges to help refine the look. It took a bit of fiddling. When I started out, and with such a low poly count, the tip kept coming out very rounded even if I tried to make it pointed. To get the point to stay I finally had to add more vertices, attached to edges of course. That, let me maintain the point and gave me more to work with to add even more detail to the beak shape.

 

Things were flowing so nicely that as I got the beak done up, I was right into getting a spot for the eye socket. I added some edges in a ring around the faces that I wanted to use to extrude inward and then once that was ready I extruded the faces into the head to create the socket. Then I selected the vertices that defined the corners and such and moved them around to make the shape a little more rounded looking. I’m not near done with this part. I’ll be working on it this next week for sure.

Someone said to me, a few weeks ago, that the WormGuy really needs a better name. And they were right. For that matter FunkyBird needs a better name. So as I was working on FunkyBird this week, I came up with their names. The WormGuy, turns out to be fairly simple, his name is Walter. Walter Worm. The FunkyBird, turns out he’s got some flare. His name is Funkatmyer Aviter. Funky for short. Yeah, quite a guy this one. He should be fun to continue to work with.

For the week coming up, that should be interesting. Of course the day job is going to be busy. We’re into the big project that involves a lot of my knowledge and expertise and for that matter will require a lot of knowledge transfer. The catch for the day job this week, is that I took Friday off. I’m extending my three day holiday weekend to four days. Just because, why not. As for the fun stuff. I’m thinking Funky is going to get some more work. I still want to work on that scene for Walter. It might be time to start on one of Funky’s friends. There’s this dapper looking Dawbry that’s interested in getting modeled. And then Squiddy might be ready to be fleshed out a bit more. Who knows what the week with bring. Come back and find out.

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