That’s a Few Things Done – August 9, 2016

Posted on August 9, 2016 by SusanG

There has been a lot happen around my place this week. Stuff in the studio and stuff in other places as well. Some of the projects are getting worked on and some of the art is getting worked on and I have pictures of both for you.

So. Projects. Quick update on the bathroom shower. I have decided to re-do the grout. I did a little test this week and found it to be in need of work. So that will be getting done though I did not start on it this week. Guess what did get started this week.

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Yep. I got started on the painting. I started with the window wall in the music room since it’s small. As is pretty normal, I think it took longer to tape it off than it did to paint. You can see what a big difference the blue makes when you look at these two pictures. The tan just didn’t have enough life and now even the amp looks ready to go.

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Of course, it looked so good that I had to paint the other end of the room as well. It’s a bit lighter but boy those guitars look a lot prettier against the blue than the tan. And there is an interesting effect of that lighter blue. It sort of glows when the light hits it right. It’s nice to have that sort of light bounce.

Yes the side walls will get paint. Sometime in the next couple of weeks. I will be painting the entry way first. My parents were awesome and came over to help. They taped off the trim and everything in the entry way so that it is basically ready to paint. I’m going to paint it the same color as the window wall in the music room.

As if painting walls wasn’t enough. And because after two days of that I was sore and needed some sit time. I did some art.

I’ve had ZBrush for like 4 years now and one of the things that attracted me to it was the FiberMesh tool and the grooming tools. All designed to make adding hair and fur easier ZBrushFiberMeshPlay_08042016_sm_wmand to make getting it to look right easy. In all this time, I have never once actually tried it. So in thinking about the little hairs I want on the Worm Guy, I decided I needed to try out FiberMesh. I put out a sphere, and masked it off and then added the FiberMesh and chose a color and fiddled with some settings and played with a grooming brush and cool.

After that I had to try out the Hair and Fur modifier in 3DS Max as a comparison. I wanted to know if one is going to be better to use than then other. So I put out a box and looked for the modifier. That was a little odd for me. It wasn’t where I expected it. But I found it and started fiddling with some settings and then added some color to the hairs, which didn’t quite work as I’d hoped. And then a3dsMaxHairAndFurPlay_08052016_c_sm_wm render. Not too bad. The interface for the settings isn’t nearly as intuitive and it takes work to get the hairs to have color. As far as how it looks it’s good. As far as the grooming, not as fun.

As I was thinking about this FiberMesh and Hair and Fur thing I started wondering if I could FiberMesh in Zbrush and then send it to 3DS Max. Logically it should work. It must work. I think I’ve seen some images that were done that way. So I tried it. Here is a sphere with FiberMesh that I sent from ZBrush to 3DS Max. It didn’t send any of the color over. I think because I didn’t save out any UV’s. I might want to figure that out. But I was able to get the model with the fibers transferred. So in 3DS Max I tried adding a material to the fibers and it worked. Again, not quite as I wanted. But it gets the job done for testing purposes.

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And finally, I got to work on that Gibson Guitar Head Stock painting. I mentioned that I felt I was to the point I needed to do the background so I could tell how much more I needed to work on it. So I painted in the background and just as I suspected, the black is not near dense enough.
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So I started working on making the black more dense. It’s really going to help.
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This Gibson painting is the first of a few more that I intend to do and while I have a couple of guitars I can use for reference, it would be nice to have a few that might be more interesting. I have a colleague at my day job that was a touring musician for a while and he was very kind to allow me to visit his home and take pictures of some of his instruments. I’m excited to get to work on some of the pieces that are likely to come from that photo shoot. As with the Gibson I’ll be posting pictures as I go when I get them started. I want to finish this one first.

And I should have another surprise, maybe two next week. I’ve got some stuff in mind to start and some stuff in mind to maybe try over. And more painting. Stay tuned.

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One Thing Leads to Another– August 2, 2016

Posted on August 2, 2016 by SusanG

No, this is not about the ’80s song by the Fixx. Though I like the song. This is about how a seemingly small project grows.

Last week I felt like I got tackled or at least swarmed by a pack of squirrels. I’m not sure this week was much better. In doing chores I found an issue with the sealant in my shower. It was coming off. I have these awful sliding shower doors and the sealant at the bottom of the track was failing. So I decided I needed to reseal that area and the rest of the bottom area of the shower where the tile meets the pan. This lead me to thinking how much I dislike the shower doors and that I should just take them out. And now I’m thinking, since I did take the doors out, that with everything all torn up and a few more things to do before I can use the shower again anyway, maybe I should refresh the grout. You know, scrape the old stuff out and put new in. One thing leads to another and now another.

That wasn’t the only case of that sort of thing happening. I’m preparing to paint my music room a new color, or colors as is now the case. That idea started as what color and what about doing different colors on two of the walls. It has now progressed to also painting the entry way and possibly the living room, or at least one wall in the living room. I think I want the squirrels back.

Speaking of squirrels. I found a great picture of a squirrel looking like he was about to tackle something. So I had to sketch it. Now I’m thinking of making it in 3D on the computer. I don’t know if I will t-pose it so I can rig it, or just model it in the one pose. But I think it would be fun to have, and use. Here’s the sketch.

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I’ve finally decided what I want to do about the background for the Gibson head stock painting. Or I think I have. I haven’t gottenIMG_20160730_111827_sm_wm to that part started yet. However, I did get some work done on the tuning keys so that they look better. There are a few other things to work on but I may go ahead and fill in the background. It can help to identify what needs an extra layer or additional attention to make it pop. This is how it’s looking now.

I had a conversation with someone this past weekend that helped to give me a little more perspective on things and that has me excited to be working on 3D projects again. Not that I’ve managed to get past the projects and squirrels enough to do it yet. But having some renewed excitement is helpful even if progress ends up being a little slow for a while. I do have to put my shower back together and there is the painting project. Still, I think I’m ready to start wedging some 3D work back in between other things. Check back to see how well I’m doing on that.

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Squirrel Chasing Again — July 26, 2016

Posted on July 26, 2016 by SusanG

Well sort of. Only part of the week was taken up with squirrel chasing. The rest of it was sucked up by extended work hours at the day job.

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I did find a way to get to work on some of the cool stuff before things got too crazy. I got a fair bit of the chrome worked up on the head stock painting. I’m still working on what to do about the background and I haven’t gotten to all those thing I mentioned last week. It’s coming along nicely though.

 

 

 

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I even got started on rigging the Worm Guy. I’ve got the body bones, a head bone, and bones for one of the antenna. I think, I was planning on doing some of the work first and then copying things over but now that I think about that, I’m not sure that it’s going to work. Looks like it’s time to pull out the tutorial.

I had thought, even with the messed up week, that I would pull out the tutorial over the weekend and start with the connecting and parameters and helpers and all that. That didn’t happen. That didn’t happen because the weekend was when all the squirrels decided to come visit.

 

 

One of the distractions was a shopping trip to pick up some things for my home including some frames. One of the frames was for the Studio Sign I’ve been working on. I decided it was finished and was ready to be framed. I thought about trying to find a frame and matte that would only show the picture. Then I thought it would be more interesting to show the markings and guides I used. So that’s how I framed it.

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I might have mentioned that I’d had an idea for something I wanted to create with Lego bricks but that I was going to have to order the specific bricks. The bricks came over the weekend. I happened to be on my way to the book store and then to see the new Star Trek 20160725_173258_c_sm_wmmovie so I didn’t get to play with them right away. When I finally got to play with the Lego bricks I made a Lego version of a Computer Bug.

Now that I know exactly which pieces I need, I ordered a few extra for this one, I’m going to order the pieces again and make a second one.

There were a few other adventures over the weekend, hanging pictures, moving furniture, prepping the shower stall to be re-caulked. Lots of fun stuff to get in the way of the cool stuff. Sometimes that’s just the way it goes. I’m going to try to squish a bit more cool stuff into this week. Check back to find out how successful that turns out to be.

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Maybe Time to Mix It Up – July 19, 2016

Posted on July 19, 2016 by SusanG

I think it might be about time to get out the pencils and find something interesting to draw. It’s not that I don’t have art projects to work on but there is something about working in pencil for me. It scratches some sort of mental itch. It’s much different from working on the computer or ink. I realized that I kind of miss that. I guess when I finish up this post I’ll see about fixing that situation.

I’m also thinking about drawing on at least one wall in the music room. I am thinking about repainting it first. It’s a sort of dark sand color, which is nice that it’s not white. But I’m a little over it. I’m thinking a light tropical sort of blue. It would lighten up the room. Then I’ll draw/paint some sort of embellishment over that. I have some time off from the day job at the end of next month, that might be a good time to start that. If I wait that long.

Of course, I have lots of other things I really need to get worked on and finished. The Worm Guy, or is he more of a Caterpillar, for one. Oh and that Halloween card. And can’t forget, it’s already July, I need to get to working on this year’s Holiday card. Wow. So 20160715_170219_c_sm_wmmuch to do and that doesn’t include the stuff I want to do with Sticks and who knows what else.

It was not a busy week in the studio. I managed to get very little done. I do have a new W.I.P. (work in progress) of the head stock painting. I’m not sure the photo shows it really well, and it is fairly subtle. Still I like the way that by just using a small point I get a different texture than using a large point and adding the smaller dots in between. It’s about time to start tackling the chrome and thinking about how I want to handle the background. The tuning keys still need a little work and I might try to punch up the gold lettering.

This week’s computer art was limited to just messing around a bit. The squid was hanging out in my head sort of knocking on the brain wanting to be let out. And it wanted out in the form of a ZBrush sculpt. How about that. I started with a sphere and used the move tool mostly, and dynamesh. I had to use the smooth and inflate tools some too before starting a bit of sculpting on the head. I think it’s coming along pretty nicely. I’ve got no time frame for when I want this done so I will probably work on it off and on for a while until I get it the way I want.

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Moving along to thinking about what I need and want to work on next. With a little bit of luck and good planning, I think I might start rigging the Worm Guy. That could take either a really long time or turn out to be fairly quick. It’s really a toss up. It’s the first thing I’ll be rigging that I don’t have a direct reference for. I’m going to be winging it to a great extent. That’s usually how I really learn something though. I will have a need for something that doesn’t quite exist and so I find something close and then adapt it to fit what I need. Now that I think about it that way, I’m getting kind of excited to give this a try. Hmm…

Oh, I know there are other things to think about but the rigging thing is starting to really grow on me. Excuse me while I wander off for a while. I’ll get back to you.

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Changing Expectations, Again – July 12, 2016

Posted on July 12, 2016 by SusanG

Have you ever noticed how short work weeks seem to warp the time continuum? At least they do for me. I’ve had a series of short weeks back to back to back and this is the first week that will be relatively normal. I think. But it’s early so that could change for sure. Still, now that I’ve adjusted something that I didn’t realize was not right, I think I might have a chance of getting back into some sort of groove. I’m hoping for it to be a creative and productive groove.

I want to touch on the texturing thing a bit more. I noted in the last post that I need to re-think or re-evaluate some things. What I realized I needed to re-evaluate is my expectations when it comes to using programs designed for texturing 3d models. For
some reason I expected it to be very plug and play, one click, easy. I didn’t expect to need to learn a whole new layout, and a new methodology. Silly, I know. But I just didn’t expect that. What I have come to realize or accept, is that, to get really good custom textures, regardless of the method, I am going to need to put as much effort into understanding which ever tool I use for that, as I have had to put into learning and understanding the tools I use to create 3d models.

Keeping that in mind, I am still evaluating Substance Painter. It seems that this is rapidly becoming an industry standard for textures in games. This is because of the PBR shaders that can be created with it and can be used in the game engines, Unreal and Unity. PBR is physically based rendering (I think). I have only a vague grasp of the particulars of this and the significance. What I can share is that it means that the graphics in games will look even better and even more realistic. There are some other more technical things that make this important but I haven’t read enough to share all that. Let’s just say, it is considered a real game changer. No pun intended.

Keeping in mind the coolness of Substance Painter, I would still really like to try out Mari from The Foundry. I don’t know if it does PBR shaders too. It might. The Foundry seems to put out some pretty impressive tools so it probably does. What has kept me from trying Mari is the price and that it only had a 15 day trial. Thus the reason for checking out Substance Painter. So as I was scanning my Twitter feed last week I saw a mention of a non-commercial version of Mari which I had to look into, and, sure enough. The Foundry have created a non-commercial version of Mari for personal learning use. Nice. This might be the answer for me. I can spend some time learning it and deciding if it’s going to be worth it before I spend a big chunk of money on it. I may give that a shot soon. First, I will spend a bit more time getting comfortable with Substance Painter to give it a really fair evaluation. I already have it installed, and given what it can do, as well as it being very budget friendly it’s a good option. Add to that, Allegorithmic are having a sale until the 22nd, it becomes an even more appealing option. I just don’t want to rush to get it if it turns out I’m not going to even start to get comfortable with it.

Now, on to some actual art for this week.

I made a flower for the scene with the Worm Guy. I started out just Flower_07052016b_sm_wmtrying some things to see how it was going to go.  The first thing I did was to create one petal. When I created the petal the pivot point and center point were at the center of the object, which is normal. I wanted to make a bunch of copies of the petal in a full circle. I can do that using the rotate tool to create my copies but that will create the copies around the pivot point. So I had to move the pivot so that it would be a little away from one of the ends of the petal. Then I was able to create the copies in a nice circle. Cool. I also created the center section and the stem. Next, I need some leaves for the stem.
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The other thing I spent some time working on was the Studio Sign. I know, it’s been a while since I worked on that. But I was on the phone and that’s always a good time to put dots on paper. I’m letting it sit a few days but I may have finished it. I’ll know after I spend some time looking at it. Sometimes, after a piece sits for a while I find that it needs just a little something else. So we’ll see. Here it is for now.

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And that’s the fun for now. I’m not quite sure what I’ll be getting into this week. I have so much that I can do. The big challenge may be choosing.

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