It’s always amazing and really cool, to come across something that makes a huge impact in better understanding something you’re working on. It can feel a lot like being hit in the head and having some mud knocked out. Things get a little clearer. I had this happen with the 3DS modeling this week even though I didn’t get much actual modeling done. Instead, I got a lot of sketchbook entries, mostly in 10 to 15 minute snippets.
The modeling stuff first. I’ll try to be brief. I’ve been watching a Digital Tutors course on ‘Rigging for Production’ in 3DS Max. I finished watching all 78 segments in the course. It was over 9 hours of lessons. As I finished up I decided that I should start the course again, once I finished, and use the character they provide and work a long with it. Then when that was done I would do the same again with each of the characters I already have created that I would like to animate. This would give me 4 full passes with it and I would hopefully start to really learn what I need to do. Good approach but as will a lot of things I do, I managed some scope creep.
The rigging course uses a character created in another course. So I decided I would go through that course. I watched the entire course, it’s only about 14 lessons and around 3 hours total so not too bad. At the end of the course you have a low poly character to use to 
practice rigging and animation. Awesome. So I decided I would do that first. Instead of using the character provided for the rigging course, I would follow along with the character creating course, and use the character I create for the rigging course. I figure this gives me even that much more understanding. This morphed a little. While waiting for our CPR and AED certification course to begin at my day job, I came up with this half silhouette that I think I will use as the design for the character I’m going to create.
As I was watching the course on creating the character several things caught my interest. The method used for creating some of the objects was one. I knew I could use keyboard entry to create the primitive and that sort of thing but I hadn’t really been using it. So I figured out where that was and what it looks like. I also knew that I could change the pivot in a variety of ways but hadn’t really understood the difference between say, local, global, and view. So I hadn’t been using them. It takes a little getting used to but really makes a difference. This alone has potential to make things easier. I also learned about a variety of other things that while I knew about them, I hadn’t really played with them or made use of
them. And the FFD modifiers, oh my. Awesomeness.
So at one point my head was spinning and I was so excited about everything that I couldn’t wait to try them all and couldn’t decide what to use them on first. And that’s when I discovered that suppressing excitement is super exhausting.
I have a feeling that by the time I finish the additional passes through these courses, and a couple of other ones I have queued that my approach to some of my existing projects will change. That is a risk when learning about things in the middle of a project, but often one that pays dividends in many ways.
Now to the sketchbook stuff. Really, I did a lot of them in the morning when I should have been getting ready for my day job. I just couldn’t keep motivated so I’d take a bit and sketch. One or two I did just before bed so you have a few here. Oh and then there is the one that I did while waiting for the movie Tomorrowland to start. Which I liked.
I think the entries from the sketchbook this week need a bit of explanation so, here we go.
I have this idea for a very brief animation about a bee and a flower on a porch. This was done with that in mind. I think the flower(s) will be Petunias. Or something resembling Petunias.
I started out this with thinking of the shoes and the legs. I wasn’t going to go much farther than that but for some reason I did and now this fellow looks like he’s holding up the spiral. A fun accident.
Sometimes weird things pop into my head as I sit down to draw or sketch and I’m trying to learn to just work with them instead of force something in particular. This happened because for some reason the handle on a metal trash can and how it was attached seemed interesting.
The combined thought of a peephole on a door that looks a little like an eye and a door knocker that has a shape of a nose was the general thought here. While it’s kind of fun and trippy, I think if I put a lot more thought and planning into it, I can execute the idea better.
Ah, coffee. The magic elixir that makes mornings easier. This is my small homage to coffee.
I have an project that I am working on for a client, it’s a fairly large project and will require
more than a few panels of art, and fortunately there is not currently a deadline, so I have plenty of time to work out ideas. This sketch is me working out some bits for an idea for one of the panels. What I learned most from it is that could really use better references, and actual physical ones would be awesome.
And as I posted on Instagram, this little gem I did while I was sitting in the theater waiting for the movie Tomorrowland to start. It was pre-previews as well. I’m not sure if I meant for it to be a bird or a fish so it’s either a bish or a fird. Take your pick.
So that’s the week. It’s the Memorial Holiday weekend here in the States so I, like a lot of people, have an extra day off. I tacked a vacation day on the end of that so I actually have two extra days off from my day job this weekend. Hopefully I’ll be able to take advantage of all that time and make lots of art.