Someone let loose a whole pack of squirrels near me this weekend and I had to go chasing after a few. I was still chasing one or two from earlier in the week so it has been an interesting weekend.
I made a point of seeing the new Pixar movie “Inside Out” on Friday. Really enjoyed it. It’s a great movie. I watched it as much for the cool animation as for the story. I thought both were really great. There was one particular spot, early on, the shots of the baby, were especially striking for their incredible life like look. I think all the emotions as characters are fabulous and a lot of fun. I got there early and had to entertain myself while I waited for it to start. Here’s what I did. Not too bad for such low light.
I was poking around to find out if there is a Makerspace in my area and found that we have a Hackerspace which turns out to be basically the same thing. They are way on the other side of town from me so getting there is a bit of a trek. Still they were having a 3D Printing 101 crash course on Saturday so after the Germany versus Sweden Women’s Wold Cup soccer game I trekked all the way to the other side of the world. It turned out to be really cool. If you ever watched the windows defrag program you will understand how watching little bits of melted filament print out on a hot surface to create something can be so
mesmerizing. That aside, Hackerspace was also a cool place.
I have a new computer coming that will be too big to fit into the hanging bracket that my current computer sits in so I will have to sit it on the floor. Of course, I don’t want to sit it directly on the carpet so I need something to put under it. I could just use a piece of plywood or something like that but I’ve decided to go a little further with it. I’ve decided to create sort of a flat cart for it. So first the wood, then it needs trim and wait, I can put wheels on it, oh and what about maybe a bit of a stopper to keep it from sliding off if the back when I push the power button. And, paint. It needs to be painted. You see how this went? So far I have the wood platform cut down to size, sanded and started painting. I’ve got the trim cut and a first coat of paint as well. I got this cool spray paint that makes a metallic hammered type texture. But I needed a second can because it soaks into the wood and it takes a really heavy coat to get the full look. So back for more of that. Once the paint is done then it’s just a matter of putting it all together. I did have a moment where I thought that the cool tools in Hackerspace would have made some of what I was doing so much easier and faster.
See, lots of squirrels. And that was just this weekend.
I made a trip to the art supply store this week as well. I really like the sketchbook I’ve been using and since it is approaching full, I decided I would go get a couple more before I had to use something else. I also picked up issue 81 of 3D Artist Magazine. I wanted issue 82 that just came out as it features “Inside Out” but it’s a UK magazine so we don’t get the physical copy in the US for a few more weeks. Still, as I looked through it I discovered that at least one of the tutorials I would be able to follow along with. I know that may seem a little strange, you’re supposed to be able to follow them but trust me, when it is so big a stretch it’s just not always reasonable. So to find that I could look at the project and know I would be able to do it and that it was no longer beyond me, that was cool.
And now to this week’s sketches, well besides the pre-movie entertainment.
Here are a couple from early in the week.
I finished the ZBrush course that I was watching. I think it may be the best course I’ve seen. The presenter was great and covered so much stuff. He made it clear enough that I felt comfortable getting in and trying to find and poke around for some of the new tools 
and techniques. Wow. I feel like it’s made a huge difference and I have only just started to get into a new project with it so can’t wait to see what I can do now. Remember that goal of completing 3 ZBrush projects before the end of September, I’ve been having trouble deciding what to do for the next one. Though, I think I might have come up with something. It will require using some new techniques that I haven’t used so far which I think will be a good thing. As part of that idea I used my sketchbook to start to work out how to tackle this knot and rope work.
This really just came out of the shapes that were building on the paper. I used not reference for this so while I know some of the proportions are a little off, I’m quite pleased with it.
Ah, Friday. Fortunately my Friday schedule is a little different from the rest of the week so it was no big deal that this gentleman needed to escape from my brain first thing in the morning, even before tea.
And then, after tea and some stretches and before the morning shower this lady knocked on my brain and asked to be let out into the sketchbook as well.
Friday was a busy sketch day as you can see, first these two and then later while waiting for the movie there were a couple more. I had hoped for more this weekend but as you read, the squirrels got loose.
Another week coming up and I have hopes and expectations that I will manage to chase off some of the squirrels and get more modeling done, possibly in both ZBrush and 3ds Max.