Takin’ a Small Break to Recover – July 5, 2016

Posted on July 5, 2016 by SusanG

I spent most of last week cleaning up and trying to recover from the trip to Florida. I went down to see my niece get married. It was quite an adventure and I returned with a gift from Florida. A nice allergic reaction to something. That, resulted in a short visit to an emergency room for some meds because there was no clinic open at 11:00 pm. It turns out that Prednisone and Benadryl are a really bad combination. Too jittery to sleep and too sleepy to concentrate.

So I did my best to keep busy but I didn’t really get to work on much. I built a few Lego kits. That was fun. I even ordered a set of just bricks to prototype something I want to build. I also put together a shuttle model from Meccano. It’s what I would call an
erector set but the brand on the box is Meccano. That turned out to be a bit of a pain. I think I may stick with Lego bricks.

Once I got past the meds and got some sleep so I could think again, I did a little work on that painting of the guitar head stock.  So I thought I would share some work in progress pictures.

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I even started working on the parts for the scene for the Worm Guy to sit in. I want him to sit on a leaf and I think I want a part of a flower to show. Originally, I was thinking I just needed to modelLeaf_07042016a_c_sm_wm the leaf but as I think more about it, I may need to model more of the plant that the leaf is a part of. I will also need to model the flower. Probably the whole thing. This might get tricky but there are a few things I think I can to do to make it look the way I want and yet not require a ton of really detailed work. I think. I guess we’ll find out. In the mean time, here’s what I got done on the leaf so far. I haven’t added any texture or anything, just some rough modeling.

Oh. Remember I was going to try out one of the programs for painting texture on models. I finally downloaded Substance Painter 2. I think it’s actually 2.1 for anyone keeping score. So, like a lot of people, I don’t always read directions for a program when I first start using it. I didn’t this time either. That didn’t work so well. I couldn’t figure out how to get my model into the program to paint on it. I had to go to the support documentation to figure that one out. It wasn’t really difficult, but certainly not drag and drop. It also took me a little bit to figure out how to move around wormguy_colortest_07042016a_c_sm_wmmy model so I could see what the painting looked like. I tried watching some of the tutorials but I wasn’t really into it. However, I was able to get enough out of them that I could figure out how to export the image/texture that I created and was then able to apply it back to my model in 3DS Max. I used the first version of the Worm Guy to test this out with so there isn’t all the cool detail to the model. I just wanted to play with the paint.

I’ve got the 30 day trial of Substance Painter. At the end I’ll decide if I want to purchase it full out or get the subscription which will get me a couple more things in addition to Substance Painter, or I could decide to try something else. I’m not sure yet. It looks like it will do what I want and need to do, possibly a little better than trying to do it with regular UV’s and Photoshop. But it may take as much work to really master it as it is taking to learn 3DS Max. The tutorials look like they are going to be helpful but so far they seem to get a little more technical with regards to the technology instead of just showing how to use it. Then again, getting the texture and materials right on a model can really make a difference. Perhaps I should expect it to take some work to get good textures for my models.

Well now, isn’t that interesting. I think I might need to do some re-evaluation of my expectations. Stay tuned.

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Back to the Worm Guy – June 28, 2016

Posted on June 28, 2016 by SusanG

Remember when I said I was trying to think of all the parts I wanted for both sides of the
Worm Guy before I split him and then mirrored him? That didn’t work out quite as planned.

I did the part where I got rid of the side that I hadn’t really worked on. Then I made a
mirror copy of the side I did work on. Then, I welded them together. This was a vertex by
vertex process. Once I did that I realized I hadn’t made his top teeth. No big deal. It’s
not like creating a whole mouth full of teeth. I just created the top teeth.

Of course I didn’t make them quite long enough so they were really stubby when I applied a smoothing modifier to them. When I tried to make them longer I found they were going to run into the bottom teeth. So the bottom teeth had to be angled back into the mouth a bit and then the top teeth had to be angled out a bit. Then I could make the top teeth longer and they didn’t look so stubby.

Ok, getting close to needing color or a rig. Oh! Wait. Eye balls. I want the eye to sort of
bulge out so it needs to be a little big and yet needs to basically fit the socket I’ve
created. So I created a sphere of a good size and then sat it in the socket. It fit but not
exactly. I needed to adjust the shape of the socket a bit so that it fit better around the
eyeball. I probably could compensate for that some if I were giving him eye lids but I have
decided not to do that. So adjustments had to be made. And then I needed to do the adjustments on the other side for the other eyeball. Well, shoot.

I didn’t want to try to duplicate the adjustments to the eyesocket. I knew they wouldn’t
look right. I’d end up with a psychotic looking worm. So afer all that work, and welding, I
decided to select one side and delete all the polygons and then do the mirror copy thing
again. No biggie, right?

WormGuy_v2a_06192016c_c_sm_wm

Well, it should have been no biggie. Apparently I didn’t get the selection of the polygons at the teeth right. I ended up with an extra one or two after the mirror. I found it as I was trying to weld things again. So I tried deleting the extras and really made a mess. I broke one of the teeth pretty good. With it all together I had some trouble trying to clean it up. I couldn’t seem to get some of the polygons out of the way so that I could really see what was going on. And since I’d managed to mangle the two teeth in the front, right next to each other, I had to fix both. Hmm.

Here’s some of what I broke.

WormGuy_v2a_06192016a_c_sm_wm WormGuy_v2a_06192016b_c_sm_wm

I figured out that if I deleted the new mirrored side and then just fixed the one side, I
would be able to get to the messed up polygons and I could just mirror over the fix. Then I
didn’t have to do the work twice. So that’s what I did. All better now.

WormGuy_v2a_06192016f_c_sm_wm     WormGuy_v2a_06212016b_c_sm_wmWormGuy_v2a_06212016A_c_sm_wm

As best I can figure, what’s left for the Worm Guy is color, a rig, and then pose. Unless,
of course, I decide he needs something else. I also need to build the scene I’m going to
sit him in. I think I’ve got something that will look really nice and cheery, I just need
to build it. Hopefully it will go smoothly.

WormGuy_v2a_06212016d_c_sm_wm

I am still planning on testing Substance Painter with the Worm Guy for his color. I like
that I can download a free 30 day trial for it. I was all set to do the download and decided that since I was going to spend the weekend in Florida for my niece’s wedding that maybe I would wait until I got back to do that. I don’t want to lose 4 days of my free 30 days. What can I say.

More to come on the Worm Guy, and who knows what else.

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A Lego Distraction – June 26, 2016

Posted on June 26, 2016 by SusanG

I like putting things together. I like getting kits and putting them together to build things. It’s part of what I like about 3D modeling in the computer. It’s a similar concept for me. As much as I like building things in the computer, sometimes I like to put things together in the physical world.

Lately that’s taken the form of Lego kits. It started with the ‘Mixels’, and then a car and
a motorcycle. Just the small kits. More recently I’ve progressed to some of the Marvel
Universe kits like the Hulk Buster and the Crossbones fight.

For my Birthday I bought the Wall-E kit. This was the biggest kit I’d bought, over 650
pieces. Just this last week I finally decided to start on it. I thought I was doing great.
Working along step by step, until, I got to step 50 something and found that I put a piece
in wrong. I put the piece in wrong back at step 20 something. Grrr.

Fortunately I didn’t have to take everything completely apart all the way back to that
step. I was able to limit what had to be deconstructed so that I could go back and turn
this piece one quarter turn to fix it. And, then put it all back and move forward.

It could have been much worse. There are over 170 steps in this build, at least it happened
early and I found it before things got too far along. After that it really started coming
together. It gets pretty addictive seeing it start to fit together and look like the
expected end result.

It’s also cool when you are building a segement that you aren’t really sure what it’s going
to be and then you get done and suddenly you recognize it. That happened with the first eye for Wall-E. I was building it and got to the last bits and realized it was his eye and I
thought that was so cool. Little delights.

I didn’t think to take pictures of the build until I was almost done but here are some
picture at the end of the build as I added his eyes and arms.

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And also a final shot.

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This was a lot of fun to build. There are a few more kits that I have seen that I really
would like to build. I think they would be a lot of fun. Some are really big so they may
take a bit longer.

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Putting Myself Out There – June 21, 2016

Posted on June 21, 2016 by SusanG

I generally hate to have my picture taken. I know I’m not the only one. For me, most of the time there is something about the way I look that I just don’t like. My eyes are too squinty or my teeth too small or my gums show too much or my hair decided not to cooperate. Any number of things. I hate to have my picture taken. So, you can imagine how bad I cringe and how quickly I change the subject whenever someone suggests I put my picture on my website or blog.

I would much rather post a picture of the Worm Guy, WormGuy_v2a_06142016b_c_sm_wm

or a nice Work In Progress picture of my Gibson guitar head stock painting,20160619_201503_c_sm_wm

or even my build of the Lego Wall-E kit. 20160619_213146_c_sm

All of that is so much more preferable to me than to post a picture of myself.

However, I have finally been convinced to do just that. Post a picture of myself.

After working on all those other projects this week I crawled through my files and found aMe_Chinese_sm picture of myself to share with you.

It’s not terribly recent. But it’s not too old, maybe two years. I was learning Chinese Calligraphy. My instructor took this. He had just taught me to write my name and I was concentrating very hard. What I found then and still find today, the most amazing part about Chinese Calligraphy is how precise the whole process is. There is a specific way to hold the brush, and you are supposed to sit a certain way and hold the paper down with the other hand a particular way. And the strokes are supposed to be done in a specific order for each character. And what was really amazing to me was that he could tell if I hadn’t done the strokes in the correct order. Enjoy the picture.

I suppose, now, it might be nice if I post the picture in a more permanent and maybe even more prominent spot on the site. I’ll work on that. I should be able to take care of that soon. That is provided it doesn’t send me off down the path of once again looking for a different theme. Which is something I keep contemplating so it could happen. I’ll try not to get too side-tracked before I get it posted.  Especially since I also have updates on some of the other projects.

I have news of the Worm Guy, though, not a lot. And there was the adventure of putting together the Lego Wall-E kit. That was fun. There’s not much to tell about the painting. Really, how much can you tell about putting dots on paper, or in this case, canvas board. And I’m starting to get excited about another couple of projects which I think I’m going to keep under my hat for a bit longer. Happy Summer!

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Another Week — Weekly Update June 14, 2016

Posted on June 14, 2016 by SusanG

I don’t have a snappy title for this week. I didn’t have that snappy a week. It wasn’t bad. Just not snappy. I got zapped by allergies of some sort pretty good and spent most of the week feeling less than stellar. I did not let that get in the way of receiving my red belt at Tae Kwon Do. It’s easy to kick things and yell, it’s a little harder to concentrate on making things when you feel like you’re drowning and your head is pounding. Fortunately, all that started to let up at the end of the week and I was finally able to get some work done. Oh, and see a couple of movies.

This summer/year has a lot of, what look like, good movies coming out and some that have already opened. I’ve seen a few of those that are already out, Zootopia, Captain America: Civil War, X-Men: Apocalypse, that I can remember. This weekend I saw Warcraft and
Now You See Me 2.

I did like Warcraft. I can’t really rave about it. I enjoyed it. I might see it again just not in the theater. What I found most interesting were the Orcs and some of the rest of the cool art stuff. I have seen a couple of things on Twitter about some of the art and props and such for Warcraft. I think it would be interesting to read about. I know some of the crowd work must have been computer generated, I’m just not sure about the Orcs. I’m not sure if they were prosthetics or mo-cap. Maybe some of both. I liked the look of the Orcs. I thought they did a nice job. I really liked the tusks and the bands and rings in them. That was great.

Now You See Me 2 is the follow up to Now You See Me. It’s always a challenge to follow up such a well done movie with a sequel. I loved Now You See Me. I thought the ending was excellent. Very mind blowing. That doesn’t mean I didn’t like Now You See Me 2. I did. Very much. In fact, as much as I liked the first one and think it so well done, it is possible that this one has out done it. For me there weren’t any of those mind blowing moments, like in the first one, with an ending you just didn’t see coming. However, in the second one, the ending wasn’t predictable, and even adds a new twist to the first movie. I think the fact that I’m still puzzling over bits of it says a lot.

In between movies, and once I was finally feeling better, I worked on the worm guy again this week. I have something in mind for him and want to get it done so right now I’m focusing on getting him done.

I was ready to delete the half that I hadn’t put much work into and then mirror the other half over. I looked at him and thought about, if there was anything missing that I was going to need to add for both sides, or adjust for both sides, because if there was then I should do that before I do the mirror. I had a couple of things that needed taking care of.

First, I added an antenna. Ultimately, I’m going to want the antenna sort of bent over a bit and maybe at an odd angle, but I created it rod straight. I’m going to rig it when I rig the rest of the worm guy. If I do that, then like with posing the rest of the worm, I should be able to keep the pinching and stretching when I pose the antenna to a minimum.WormGuy_v2_06122016a_c_sm_wm

To make the antenna I used a cone with really small radii and made sure to have lots of segments for the length so that there will be more to work with for posing. I also made sure to have several cap segments so that there would be plenty to work with for the
top bud part. For that top bud part, I selected polygons and scaled them out and added and edge loop or two for a bit more control and shape. Connecting it to the head was a little tricky since I had 16 segments around and it was going into a quad. To get a nice flow I used the cut tool and created a few triangles to add a few more points so that many sides didn’t have to be condensed down to just 4 sides. I wanted to maintain some of the smoother look. It worked out.

WormGuy_v2_06122016b_c_sm_wmThe other modeling bit that I did was to clean up the bottom or end part of the ridge for the underbelly. When I created the ridge separation I did it along polygons so that very end bit was just a straight squared off segment. I manipulated points to make it a bit more rounded looking.

With those things done it was time to delete the other half. Because the worm guy is so tall I did this in segments so I could zoom in and not get more polygons than I wanted. This wasn’t too bad. I just did a window select of an area and then a delete, after I made sure I didn’t have extra polygons selected. The catch to this was the edge of polygons that were created when I did the extrude on the body to create the difference between the under belly and the rest of the body. I wanted to keep part of the loop of polygons so using a loop selection wasn’t going to be ideal. Since I knew what I wanted, I just selected them click by click and then deleted them. Here’s some of the edge selected before I deleted it.

WormGuy_v2_06122016c_c_sm_wm

WormGuy_v2_06122016d_c_sm_wmWith that, I now have half a worm guy. I saved it and then saved it to a different file before I do the mirroring and put it back together. The reason for this has to do with adding arms. Since I haven’t decided if I want to give him arms yet, this way I have the base. I can work on him without arms and see how I like him and then, if I want to go in and give him an arm or two on each side I don’t have to start over. I just add to the one side and then do the mirroring. Then I do all the other stuff I will now have to do for this guy.

Next up for the worm guy is to mirror the one half and then fuse him together. From there I have the rigging and texturing to do. I’m not sure if it will be easier to texture first or rig first. I’ll need to figure that out. And I’ll need to decide how I want to go about the texturing. I saw that Substance Painter 2.1 is out so maybe I’ll give that a try. I’m sure I’ll have lots to tell about that.

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