Distractions or Cool Stuff

Posted on January 30, 2015 by SusanG

It really depends on how you look at it.

So finally, the latest update to ZBrush is out. I was released on Thursday January 29. With the stated release being in January and it not being ready, so many people were worried that it would be pushed to February.

The new Zbrush is 4R7. It comes in both 32 bit flavor and 64 bit flavor. I’m looking forward to playing with the 64 bit version just because.

I has a bunch of new tools and tweaks and cool stuff and since I haven’t used it regularly enough to be proficient at it, I can’t even begin to comprehend how huge they are. However the new box modeling tools look really cool. Especially as a 3DS Max user.

I am anxious to get more proficient with Zbrush, especially with the new additions this time around.

Also released on Thursday were the Zbrush to KeyShot Bridge that works with KeyShot 5 and KeyShot for Zbrush that will work with Zbrush but not other programs.

The servers at Pixologic were getting hammered on release day. Just getting to the website was close to impossible for good chunks of the day. But things eased up in the evening and I was able to get on and update Zbrush and activate it.

I played around a little in it. Only about 5 minutes. I came up with a little guy that I Play_01292015think I’m going to develop. Not sure into what yet. But we’ll see.

He’s kind of cute don’t you think?

 

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Getting Started on the TKD Guy Project

Posted on January 23, 2015 by SusanG

Finally, I get a chance to start on the TKD Guy project. The whole idea behind this project is to model a Tae Kwon Do studio and a character who is learning Tae Kwon Do but with a bit of a twist. I intend for the character, and any others that may be part of the scene, to look like the wooden art mannequins. The idea is inspired, both by an art mannequin I have as well as my experiences learning Tae Kwon Do and taking class with many children. I think it will be a fun project. My intention is to not only model the character and the environment, I also hope to animate it all.

I expect, that this will likely take much longer than I anticipate, and you may be reading about if for quite a while. I think I need to revisit some animation tutorials and I’m not sure what else. I have not doubt I will get to learn a lot with this. Wow, animating a
figure and not just a camera. That should be something. And I really want to add a mirror but I thing that is going to cause the render times to really skyrocket. I cringe to think how long this may take to render. And I am really getting ahead of myself.

I did a little research a few months ago. I checked with my Tae Kwon Do Master, who runs the school, to find out how big the Dojang is. I wanted to use realistic dimensions. I didn’t want to make it unreasonable large, or unrealistically too small. Though now that I have
been in a couple of other schools, I can see there is a lot of variation. Still is was something close to the dimensions of my school that I have chosen to work with. I have also agreed to the enthusiastic recommendation of the son of a friend, the son is also a student at the school, that I include a pole or post, more like a vertical steel beam, in the model. I didn’t take the measurements of the pole, I made a rough guess and hope I am close.

So what I have modeled or started so far is the Dojang. I have the walls up, a ground, a primitive to represent the mat, and the pole. I have cut out the entrance and the two windows in the wall that we enter through. In general, all theses pieces started as boxes. For the wall with the windows and opening I added some edge loops do that I could then remove the faces to create the openings. Once I did this I had to close the gaps between the two sides of the walls. For this I used the edge selection option and then bridged the two
faces. I also used the setting I found when I was working on the dishes scene. That is the view setting that shows me the normals orientation. I was really glad to see that I got that right.

I have not added any lights to the scene at this point. I think they would be sort of and TKD_Guy_01222015aannoyance. At the moment I think I am better off to use the default light until I know what I will want or need. And until the modeling moves into the finer details. For now though ,here is what I have.

Once I got that done I decided that as this is meant to be an animation of characters and not just a great rendering of a Tae Kwon Do studio, I should probably get started on modeling my student character.

I found one of my mannequins so that I could be sure to get all the main pieces right. And I blocked it in. If I were using paper and pencil this would be just drawing the rough shape of the bits and then using those later to refine the look. In this case I blocked the shape in by using primitives and placing them in the basic configuration so as to look like the mannequin, once I have made significant adjustments. Mostly I am starting with spheres and cylinders, though the foot is just a box. There are slots in the joint pieces so I
suspect I will end up adding them as I get farther along. I paid no attention to scale for the moment. I just wanted to get the bits accounted for and then as I start shaping them I will adjust their relative size and position.

I have also chosen to try to use the mirror feature again. I have only blocked in one arm and one leg. I am hoping to be able to model one of each and then use a copy with a mirror option to create the other one. I am starting to figure out how to work at least a little
smarter, I hope. And here is as far as I have gotten.

TKD_Guy_01222015b

As I looked at my mannequin and then at the rough block in of the same on the screen, I started to really grasp the size of the task that I have set myself. Because the Dojang feels large and sparse I had thought that it was mostly a matter of building a box and making some openings and not too much to it. On top of that, in my mind, all I am doing is adding a character, maybe two, to the room and they are just basic mannequins so the modeling seems quite simple. I now realize that it is not going to be as simple as it appears. At least I was aware that the animation part was going to be huge work.

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My Office, Where it is, Finished

Posted on January 18, 2015 by SusanG

It has been a while. But I now have the rough model of my home office complete. While I was working on the model of the original idea, a friend suggested that I move one of the large bookshelves out into another part of my home. After thinking about that for a while and her suggestion to mount the TV on the wall and move the tall file cabinet into the closet, I was able to come up with a layout that I think is going to work.

Before I get to what I did, I thought I’d share a top down view of the room as it started. ToOffice2014_011515a get this view I used the top view in my quad layout on my screen and I not only hid the ceiling, I also made in non-renderable so that it didn’t show up in the view. So here is what it looks like from the top, sort of like if I were using grid paper and cutouts. The door to the room is at the bottom and the window at the top.

To accomplish all of this, the base had to be removed from the TV. I also added a shelf below the TV for the cable box. One of the problems of the with the old layout was that the cable box and the TV are on the same remote but the two were so far apart that it took a bit of acrobatics to get them both to turn on at the same time. So a wall shelf just below the TV should help with that. I did move the tall file cabinet into the closet, so it is not longer in the view. I moved one of the large bookshelves out in to the entry way. Then I was able to bring another art table back into the office from another room. I also found a storage place for a small adjustable laptop table. I was able to shorten it and put it under the edge of the desk. Now it’s not in the way and is available to use when needed. Oh. And very important, I took the computer and hung it from the desk, so that it is no longer on top of the desk, it is under the desk which means, I have a nice bit more desk space.

Office2014_011815a

Here is a top down view of the new layout. Have a look. You can see there is a lot more floor space.

Office2014_011815cAnd here is what things look like with all that floor space. The door to the room is on the left and the closet is on the right. You can see the TV on the wall and the shelf below it with the cable box. You can also see the two art lights. The main art table is moved closer to the desk, which I hope will make it easier to keep up with Hangout messages while I’m putting dots on paper.

 

Office2014_011815d

This is the view of the room from the window corner. You can see the second art table that I have brought in. Also the small shelf didn’t move. Amazingly.

 

 

 

Office2014_011815e

Here is a view from the corner of the room where the desk is. It’s from where the small file cabinet and printer are sitting. The tall object on the right at the very edge is the tall art lamp. You can see the shelves and the lingerie chest on the far wall next to the window. The skinny bookshelf just had to be rotated 90 degrees to fit where I wanted it.

 

And here is the view of the room from the door. You can see the room has really opened up and no longer feels crowded.

Office2014_011815f

Most of these views have been taken with only the art lights turned on. This cuts downOffice2014_011815g considerably on the render times. Otherwise it would be another day before I would have the images I need for this post. That aside, I did get a render with the overhead light turned on and looking at the room from near the window wall and looking at the door to the room.

So the office model project is finished. And the office itself has been re-arranged to match. It is working out nicely. So far, the only real issue I’m finding is that the main art table and the tabor that is holding the art supplies I’m currently using are a little awkward. Fortunately, both are on wheels and can easily be moved as I find the right configuration.

That’s a wrap on the office.

Check back often, I’ll be getting on to that other project that I thought I was going to work on while I was doing this.

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My Office, This is Where it Starts

Posted on January 12, 2015 by SusanG

Here it is. The office is finally modeled as it was when I started this project.

Ok. To be fair this is a blocked in representation of all the furniture and important bits in the room. It doesn’t include all the books on the shelves, or all the other stuff such as knickknacks and decor stuff that sit on the shelves or the desk or other places. It also doesn’t include the stacks of paper on the floor that either need filing or shredding. But it gives a basic idea of all the stuff in the room. And there is a lot of stuff.

All of these views are of the room with the lights that is usually use turned on and the overhead light off. I don’t usually use that light. The overhead light causes a little glare on the screens. The lower light in the room makes it easier to see the computer screens. It may not be best for the eye sight. I’m not sure. But it works for me.Office2014_010915a

So this first shot shows the door to the room on the left and the closet on the right. The main focus in this view is the desk with all the computer stuff on it as well as a couple of file cabinets and a bookshelf. On the wall are a black and a white dry erase board. Oh and next to the door to the room is the trash can.

 

Office2014_010915bIn this view we are looking into the room from the door to the room. You can see the window of the far wall and the closet. You can also see where the desk with all the computer equipment on it and the chair. The light wood color item on the wall next to the window is the art table. And the big thing blocking part of the view on the right is actually a small book shelf and a large bookshelf. Yes, there are two very large book shelves in the room and a couple of smaller bookshelves. You can also see the TV and the small file cabinet with the printer on top.

Here we are looking at the room from the corner between the closet and the window. The Office2014_010915cdoor to the room is directly opposite and you can now see both of the really large bookshelves. You can also see the small bookshelf that I noted in the last picture. The lavender colored item is a lingerie chest that I use to hold art supplies. It’s important. I have a few and they need a home. The short orange-ish item is another chest that holds more stuff. And right in front is the art table. Of course on the right are the file cabinets with the printer on top and the one with the TV on top. Also there is the desk with all the computer stuff on top of that. That bright purple item is a light on the desk. There are two of them.

And finally, here is how the office looks from the desk. Well, a little farther into the corner Office2014_010915dbehind the desk. Right in front is the desk with the computer stuff as well as the chair. Past the desk you can see the window on the left. Directly across from the desk is a small bookshelf with the chest and the lingerie chest and the large and small bookshelves. You can also see my art lamp. The big item at the right is the other large bookshelf. So you can see, from behind the desk, while it feels a little cozy, it also feels a little cramped.

So this is what I’ve started with.

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So Glad I’m Not Animating This

Posted on January 7, 2015 by SusanG

I’m getting close. The office model is nearly finished. Just a few more lamps to add. There is already a lot of stuff in this room it really doesn’t need anything else. But to get an accurate understanding of how bad it is and to make it better, I really need to put them in.

So off we go. Let’s add the two lights that are on the desk. They aren’t very big lights. They actually have a cone shaped lampshade on them and I considered creating the lamp in two or three parts to be more realisitic. That’s not really the point of this so I decided to go with s cylinder shape. I dropped in a cylinder with the right height and right diameter to represent them. Not a very difficult model.

Once the one lamp was in I decided it should have reasonable appropriate materials in relation to what it really looks like. The lampshade is a nice purple-ish color and the rest is a black metal. This is another reason that I thought about modeling the lamp in more than one piece. However, I learned a great trick with the Holiday Card project and this seemed a great opportunity to use it. It did take me a little bit to figure out how to use it again. The material id settings, though proved to be the best solution.

A bit better an explanation of what it took to use the material id and the selection id feature. First I selected my materials got them all setup the way I wanted. Then I assigned the materials to separate material id chanels. Then I went back to the cylinder and selected the faces that I wanted to have the lampshade material And under the Polygon: Material IDs I Set the ID. I did the same for the faces that I wanted to have the black metal material. I thought this would automatically assign the material. It didn’t show up. So using the Polygon: Material IDs section and chose the id I set the lamp Office2014_010615ashade to and then used the select id button. Then I went back to the material editor, selected the material I wanted and chose the assign to selection option. I had to do this for the other selection set as well. As you can see, it did let me get what I wanted.

I copied it so that I had the second lamp. As you can see though, it doesn’t really look like either lamp is emitting light. I turned off the other lights to verify. I was disappointed, I was really hoping that making that material a self illuminating material would take care of that. It didn’t so for each light I added an omni light in the middle at the height the bulb would be. Then I grouped each light with it’s lamp so that I can move them around easier.

This looks better. I know it’s a bit dark. It’s actually what the room looks like with just those two lights on.

Office2014_010615b

Wow. That one scene too almost 30 minutes to render. Holy cow. Of course with those lights and all the relective surfaces, there are a lot of Final Gather points to calculate.

Here’s another view of the room with all the lights on. This one took 48 minutes to render. With render times like that, I am so glad I am not animating a view of this room.

Office2014_010615c

And still two more lamps to go before moving things around. At least I know to go get coffee while I render those scenes.

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