Since I started off my week last week with spending an entire evening reading a novel, and a good portion of the next evening finishing it, the week turned out a bit more successful than I expected. I had feared that with burning the midnight oil on Monday I would not be able to get anything done during the week due to being so tired, and yet that turned out not to be the case. I had just enough time between the day job and Taekwondo class or my work out that I was able to fit in an hour or so each night and make progress on several projects.
While I didn’t get back to rigging Sticks, I did get the stage or scene for his animation created. I needed the text of the name of the company created in 3d and in a manner that Sticks can interact with the letters. The first step was deciding on a font. Then I had to figure out how to work with them in 3ds Max and make them three dimensional. Though before I could make them 3d I had to figure out how to handle the spacing. First I created the text as just flat on the floor, as one object of text. This was to get the spacing. That was using the top view. Then using the front view I created each letter as it’s own object. That meant I had to move it into place and get everything properly spaced. That was a bit tedious. Once they were all ready I had to decide how to give them depth. I tried using the shell modifier but it did some really odd stuff with edges and points so I got rid of that. All I wanted to do was extrude the face out to add depth. So, I tried the extrude tool and it worked. Of course you have to make sure you are getting the front face. It turns out that I tried to select something not quite the front face a time or two. But it worked out. Here is a shot of how it will start out.
And here is a shot of how it will end up, which is going to be part of the logo. I say part because the other part will include Sticks and he’s not in the scene yet. I even used it to set up a sort of welcome or starting page for the website. It’s just something to get started. You can see it at: http://susangproductions.com
I worked on the pumpkin. I decided to try to make a jack-o-lantern out of it. I was successful at it though it took a few tries and I didn’t quite get what I wanted. I did learn a bunch of stuff that I will be using the next time I want to try something like that, with a hollow interior. I also didn’t quite get the lighting I really wanted. But I learned about compositing and how to get some of the different render passes out of ZBrush. It was involved enough that I will save that for another post this week, just about the pumpkin. For now, here is a picture out of ZBrush.
And also one of the composites that I did. I used Photoshop for that part but the painting and all the render passes came from ZBrush.
I worked on the alien a little as well. Mostly working out detailing and tightening that up. The alien has a name now, Greezbly, and a bit of a back story. I still want to give it a bag type of accessory in addition to painting it.
I started on the pieces for the winter holiday or Christmas scene. I want to do another card like last year and have been thinking about it for several months. I have a scene already sketched out that I’m going to work on creating with maybe an embellishment or two. Here’s one of the components so far.
I was going to start on it soon but a conversation with a co-worker at the day job prompted me to consider starting it sooner rather than later. That same conversation also prompted me to re-visit something I had thought about several months ago. Which is, putting some of the pieces I create up for sale as cards on Zazzle.
So, if you like the card I created last year and sent out through email, and would like a physical one for yourself, or would like to send some to friends or family, it can now be purchased from my Zazzle shop at: SusanG_Productions Store I am working on having the new card, for this year, available by early December.
As you can see, in addition to a bit of art work, this week, I opened a store and created a small web page. It was quite busy and successful I think and that was in spite of having to spend some time on Saturday working at the day job because it was patching weekend.
I have a couple more things to do before this post goes live. I will be taking down my Patreon creator site for the time being. I may put it back up at a later date. For now I will revert it back to just a regular account. So I will remove that link from this website. I am also going to be adding a link for my Zazzle store to this website.
As for this week, I will be writing a post about the jack-o-lantern adventure as well as getting back to rigging Sticks and working on the new Holiday card. Oh, about the Halloween project. I think, for this year, that will be the jack-o-lantern. I’ll work on
something more elaborate for next year. Just don’t forget to check back soon to read about the jack-o-lantern.