February ProgBlog #4: I see colours!

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Still trying to get used to the schedule I set for myself. I'd love to say I'm getting there but I'm really not, quite the opposite in fact. I still want to kill problems and I still want to just finish whatever I'm working on at the time (which is always stuff that is going to take a long time because it's the nature of the beast, and less common but still more common than I like, because I've completely misjudged how long something will take) or also infrequent but still too frequent, something goes wrong somewhere like a computer crash or Blender acting up and I'll lose a pile of work that I then just want to get back to where I was before I stop.

Today was a js day (scheduled days are Monday and Friday apparently) and exactly nothing exciting happened, there was just a lot of me trying and failing to figure out how to save a resorted order (I have some ideas, and am also trying to get J to help).

The big art block (as in block of hours assigned to art, not the art block where apparently one can't think of anything to draw, I always have things to draw though I also tend to overload "draw" to mean whatever I'm doing at the time which is almost always 3d) was also pretty tedious, I got more hair guides done. The big art block happens during the day when I can fit it in and is dedicated to character work.

Those loose spindly bits are coming and going which is giving me some hope that I can get rid of all of them by the time I've finished placing all the guides.

The small art block (see above) happen at night (but they have so far been about the same size as the big art blocks x_x) and is dedicated to set and prop work. Currently I'm working on Acaedia. One of the previous progblogs showed that I was nearly done with the shape of the floor I was working on (and by extension the shape of the entire central tower). After I'd got all the rooms sorted out, in my infinite wisdom I am now going way overboard with linked duplicates, which in this particular case basically means I deleted all the room copies and will link dup instead of normal dup them like I did initially. But while I've just got a quarter of the quarters to work with, I've been cleaning up various parts of various meshes such as joining the floor and ceiling of each room into one mesh and deleting the internal faces, joining the thick part of the wall and the base it was sitting on to make a nicer flowing surface (I hope they connect up nicely when there's more copies),

and finding out through trial and error (mostly error) that I don't desperately need the subdivision surface modifier on the curved surfaces if I add more polygons, bevel the edges (which is actually an in-place extrude of the faces attached to the edges I want to bevel and then scaling and/or moving them slightly because I can't find Lightwave's equivalent of smooth shift in Blender, it's probably somewhere blatantly obvious) and use both smooth shade (which I tend to automatically apply to everything anyway, encountered awkward shading for the first time in all the time I've been using it with this model) and autosmooth.

And at any rate most of the walls are going to be covered in plants.

Also doing a little bit more texture work (hence the post title) which will get adjusted/added to as I keep gaining context (I'm the type that needs context).

The outside of the building is something apparently called "bonecrete" which probably stemmed from discussions with 16yo about using synthesised bone as a building material when I was telling him about how all the buildings in AER-verse had plants growing out of them (as in straight out of them, soil optional) but I wasn't sure what they were made of and he saw trying to figure out possibilities for building materials that would allow for that as a fun exercise.

Don't ask I do a lot of work much later than I should be. Also no I don't think too much about anything whatchu talken bout.

All the floors seem to be rammed earth (the texture of which I really need to do something about as everyone I've shown it to keeps calling it carpet) except for the bathroom, toilet and utility rooms which use polished concrete or something similar. I have no idea what the walls are made of, I thought I was making the rammed earth texture for the walls but apparently not XD

I told you I don't have any control over this thing.

I actually can't wait to get to furnishing (I'm sure I'll regret it once I start XD) but I want to finish the entire building first because that's how I roll.

And the advantage there will be I'll have a proper background to do my next animation practice which is two character choreo now that I have two characters XD

This post also appears on my blog.

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11 comments
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Wow! You are super talented. I have a hard time navigating my way around GIMP, but this is next-level!

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Thanks :D

If it's any consolation, I'm probably only using about 10% of the app, there is so much I have no idea about and more that I don't even know exists, and probably a lot of things I could be doing better/more efficiently.

And I also have a hard time navigating my way around GIMP ;D

Forever learning and getting better right :)

!ENGAGE 20

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You do know that the big studios have a team for each part of the process o doing something like this. I am crazy impressed at your modelling skills and above all staying focused on your project. The architecture looks cool will you use procedural textures to get rid of the carpet feel?

I wasn't to share this video with you in relation to your post about breedable NFTs. I haven't had time to play around with the demo yet but I thought it could be a cool way to bring the whole thing to 3d.

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Oh wow that thing is epic! It would open up a whole new universe for artists :D

and introduce stiffer controls for people like me who don't use ragdoll physics so much XD and also the topology made me cry inside

If Blender (or any given 3d app) was able to implement something like that it would speed things up immensely.

and I would still be crying about the topology XD

I'm still hoping someone else will pick it up (I did hop on aggroed's server but then social anxiety kicked in with the sheer volume of people there so I haven't spoken about it there where there are actually capable people) as I won't have the time or the coding ability especially for the back end for A Very Long Time (if ever).

Yes I am aware that studios have a team for each part of the process, I was originally going to try to get a job in one of them before I traipsed off into lala land to do my own thing (and also had kids and J decided he didn't like the actual hours that this kind of work requires) XD and J constantly reminds me of this when I'm having my meltdowns when I'm feeling inept ^_^;

I'm still fully convinced I should be animating by now

Also glad you think my modelling skills are good, I don't think they're that good and I know the building is very inefficient as far as polycount goes but at this stage easier on my brain is more important x_x (I'm sure I'll regret that later)

I'm using procedurals, I abuse them for everything I can (so far all the texturing I've showed has been done with procedurals except for the tattoos and scars, even the eyes are procedurally generated but I bought the thing for eyes from someone on Blender Market because I don't know how to do it).

Staying focused is pretty easy when you find that thing that you really want to work on and there are so many stories in this head-universe I desperately need either more time right this very second (ten years ago would be infinitely better but can't get that now XD) or a cure for aging to get them all out XD

!ENGAGE 20

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This is absolutely awesome, you have great skills

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Thank you :D

hopefully it looks even better when it's done :D

!ENGAGE 20

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