Yes, I landed myself into some trouble yesterday. It all started on Friday when a meeting notice came out for Wednesday of next week and it was from an individual that made me a little angry last week. Well, I wanted nothing to do with her and the meeting as I was and still am under the impression that it will serve no purpose. I, in my infinite wisdom declined the meeting with the statement “I see no use in this c..p” and she didn’t like it, reported to my boss, her boss and HR. Oh darn I guess I better watch what I say truth or not.
On another (Blender) note I need to change the head I am using with dynamic topology. The holes created in the mesh for the eyes and neck are causing problems and I need to close those off before I can add the eyes and finish the sculpting. I left my USB at work last night so I will get on this right now and report the results this evening or in the morning.
I was trying to work on my MacBook Air last Friday, I have used Blender many times while traveling using this computer but this time it failed me miserably. Regular modeling weather box modeling, mesh modeling has worked great but I have now found, do not model using Dynamic Topology. Wow, what a slow down.
Time for me to start looking more closely at the tools available at my fingertips when I start up Blender. While working on the Pilot character I was having trouble with the eyes as the orbital in the reference images creates an eye that would be a huge sphere which would not fit in the head. Now, watching the Introduction to Character Modeling course they make the same comment and the solution? Using the Lattice modifier, well damn I know about that. It is really time to start studying and practicing as I have said over and over again.
I started watching the Character Modeling Tutorial for CGCookie.com Citizen members this morning and so far have been suitably impressed. If you are a Citizen take the time to watch this video course (to use the new term instituted by CGCookie.com 4.0) by Johnathan Williamson.
Watching this video I was paying particular attention to the work flow and saw that what I have been attempting to do was close to on target although I did forget to work on the sweater, I completely forgot about that detail. The other two were the use of the skin modifier which I have seen in action but have never put to use and as a result was not a tool I thought about and second, sculpting, this is a tool I am very uncomfortable with and that being said, I did not consider this at all. I believe I will incorporate both of these to some extent with the character I am working on. I don’t know how but I shall try.
Another thing have been doing lately is when CGCookie.com presents a new course I will download all the videos, fire up Camtasia Studio 8.0 and add all the videos to a project. I then publish this project including markers for a table of contents and presto I have a directory of files I can easily transfer to my 64gig thumb drive and take with me anywhere. Try it out, it works great.
I have not had much time to post lately. Work is getting a bit hairy right now with systems testing and when I got home this weekend the last thing I wanted to do was get on the computer. I need to complete some training videos for the guys here and put that off as well. Stay tuned for more in the near future (tonight…..) š
This second round of testing is starting to take its toll, less than 4hrs a night sleep this week. No work this weekend so maybe some sleep is in order plus a little more blender. I worked on the head the day before yesterday and tried to recreate what I had completed at home when I get to work yesterday morning but for some reason I was coming out with bizzare results. I’ll give it a shot again this morning but for now here is a shot with a shiny metal Matcap.
Still working on the face and realized the reference drawings are not exactly good. By that I mean, if you look at where the smile ends in the side view and where the sides of the eyes are the facial proportions are not correct. If I keep modeling as close to the reference image as I have been, creating the eyes will be next to impossible. Here is a view of what I have so far but as with the hands I am going to try another approach and see what that looks like. This is definitely a learning experience.
Yes, I will be keeping all of the interim models as possible starting points for new models. More of an inspiration of sorts which means I’ll be keeping all the different hands, faces and when I do the ears (yes I am going to try the ears) I will keep them as well. I probably will not add the ears to the model as they will be hidden by the ear protection being worn but I will have them as a reference later.
I love using matcap in solid view. I learned about this function while working through Johnathan Williamson’sĀ hard surface modeling videos at CGCookie.com. Mesh modeling the head is proving to be a challenge and I found using the matcap in while in solid view I can very easily spot strange deformations in the mesh and at the same time have another view port open in edit mode pushing and pulling verities while watching the deformations disappear. Such a helpful tool for me to use and I had know idea what it was for previous to those videos. Here is a shot of where I am at so far.
I thought the hand presented some challenges for me and now it is on to the face. I purchased ‘Character Creation’ Volume 1 from CGMasters.net and in doing so as well as watching the first part I have decided to do the head/face using mesh modeling rather than box modeling. At this point, as I said before, this is my first try at a character an now, at the same time a first with mesh modeling. Let the fun begin! š
This evening I think I will take some time and watch Part 2 of the ‘Creating an Uber Shader’ series from CGCookie by Matthew Heimlich
