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.