Well this didn't last long!

Prepare for a bit of a long one.

I started this blog with the whole intention of actually starting a project and finishing it.  However it has become quite apparent that this has not been the case.  I still have all the files for the project and they started to look good and the main character was almost complete.

So what happened?

Well quite a few distractions got in the way.  Some personal, some work and others from other interests.  The main culprit was Ingress.  A location based game from google where you fight for the control of portals in your area.  I’m not going to go into the detail of the game but I really started to get into it again and quickly gained 3 levels in doing so.  However due to a series of events I have now left the game as quite frankly its gotten boring and stupid.  There are constantly more and more badges being released to make it easier for people to level up and although that is apart of the game dumming the game down and making it easier is beyond me. E.g. They have released a new badge that requires you to hack at least 1 portal a day for a year to get the highest badge.  I’d rather the game be like it was when I first joined which made it a lot more interesting, strategic and in my eyes challenging.

Moving forward a little I gave Ingress up and have now moved onto having a mess around with a Raspberry Pi.  These are great little pieces of kit and being given one was awesome.  It’s only a Model B but I have already explored the possibilities of it being a desktop, hacking box, xmbc server and some other various os distributions.  I now have it running as a headless device where I am looking into controlling RGB led’s from its GPIO ports.  This is something that I have always wanted to try out and this little computer is now giving me the opportunity to do so. 

But what about some of the other projects I have started in the past?

Well these keep coming up from time to time and I do wish that something more had come about from them.  I had a good online store at one point but being not very good at marketing I could not make it work.  Luckily I had not spent too much in its setup but still would have been a nice thing to have running in the background.  The one thing that I am really disappointed in was my photography.  I put a lot of effort into it, learning, proper websites, full client viewing portal online store.  It was the business, quite literally.  I really enjoyed it but can’t put my finger on why nothing ever came of it.  Now that the weather is picking up again I would like to take this up again and see what sites there are out their where I can sell the images, either as stock photos or prints.  I am not sure yet.

Well that’s my mini rant over I suppose.  I will have to see what I decide to go going forward but at this moment in time I need to get a few things sorted in my head before settling down on just one project or projects.  I have a tendency to overcomplicate things (doesn’t take much) and I’m also not the most sociable of people with in this day an age it a very good skill to possess.

Quick Poll

The renderer issue is still playing on my mind and taking my focus off other things.  I was going to stick to the lesser one but I still prefer the other one.

So leave your preference in the comments:

 

Render 1 or Render 2?

 
Render 1

 

 

Render 2

 

 

Please vote for your favourite one as this WILL be used in the final animations!

That's all for now,
Jon

Decisions… Decisions

I know that I said I would put things on hold but I am keep to keep this moving and get something out and stick to my deadline.

So what’s the issue?, we want to see something!

So do I, believe me.  There have been a number of issues that I have run into and quickly trying to overcome without taking shortcuts.

1.       I am not an animator and all of this is pretty much the unknown.

2.       New terminology, new ways of doing things and a steep curve to re-learn the software again.

3.       Topology, I did not know how important this was until now and I keep having to be mindful of this which in turn relates to longer time modelling.

4.       Probably the biggest hurdle, what renderer to use.  I have the choice of having something that looks better but longer to setup and render or something that does not look as real, easier to setup and render.  As this is still very early on and I have a long way to go I think for the initial set of videos I am going to use the quicker renderer.  Not my first choice but I need to get something out and at least I know that it can be improved upon at a later date.

5.       Working on my own.  It is hard keeping up the momentum on a project like this when only doing things by yourself.  Not only because I do not have the immediate support to ask questions and bounce ideas off but also for sanity sake.  To put it another way I wrote the script in 2013 and only now looking at it to make it a reality.

So much for me downing tools for a week.  Now I have made a final decision as to which renderer I am going to use I can rest a little and speed up the process somewhat.

Sorry there is not much to look at but once the characters are complete I will be able to spend more time modelling the environment and props etc. which I should be able to quickly put together and show you all what I have.

That’s all for now.

Jon

When the going gets good.... Something stops you!

Well.  Things were picking up a little and great progress was being made.

However, something has come up and I have had to delay the project for a week.

More updates to come when things pick up again.

23/01/2015 - Lots of reading and toying around

It has become apparent that there have been a number of issues with the mesh as it is and is causing some heartache as I am basically trying to mend a broken bicycle wheel with glue and sticks.  It just is not working.

With that being said and the initial setback of yesterday I am starting again.  I have learnt a few tricks that will help getting back up to speed and I am sure that I can same some time in the modelling process and where possible to reuse some of the items I already have but I am not sure if this will be possible.

So to help me with this I am looking to create two identical models that are linked together.  This means that I can use one for all the animating, rotating squishing etc and the second one will remain untouched but linked so that I can edit this one and the animated one changes also.  This is a trick that i have found recently that works very well for the eyes.  As I am typing this I am not sure if it will work for the full mesh but it would work for smaller things like eyes etc.  But we will have to see...

22/01/2015 - Major set back!

I have been looking back over the mesh for the egg and decided that I would like to add more detail to the eyes.  In trying to do this I have been unable to edit the eyeball the way I want \ need to.  I have also been unable to correct the mouth properly which is causing some grief.  In short it looks like I am going to have to model the eyes first then re-model the body.  This is quite a setback and I am hoping to hit the ground running and resolve these issues quickly and texture as I go.  So in short the look of the egg may change in the coming days.  Not sure if i am going to like it as I have come to like the one I have now.  I just do not want to take any shortcuts to make things easier for myself, otherwise what’s the point of doing this?

20/01/2015

Not much done on the model today but spent some time looking to see what to do next.  I can either go down the easier route and work on the materials or try and set up some facial keys ready for animating.  I also need to have a better look over my filing as once the initial model is finished I need to break everything down e.g.mesh only materials and textures only as per my filing plan which has yet to make it into this document.

The bullet will be bitten and I looking into animating the face and get the shape keys right for the test animation.  Looks like I will be taking a crash course in shape keys and lip sync.

19/01/2015

• Topology sorted in the most part but may need some little tweaks here and there
• Eyes in place (Do i really need eyelids?)
• Eyes now in place and work and track correctly, still unsure on eyelids yet.  Will be required for main animation but could be difficult.
• Upper and lower teeth in place
• Teeth now in position but need tweaking, may need to re-do them all together.
• Mouth closed slightly (This has been done however….)
• Slightly more complicated as I think the mesh around the mouth needs to be re-done.
• Slight loss of sanity and motivation

Need to:

• Facial shape Keys for phonemes
• Facial Rig for other expressions
• Eyelids
• Adjust teeth in mouth
• Blender Internal or Cycles?
• This affects - Materials, Rendering Time, Realism and over all time to setup
• After long deliberation I think I am going to go with Cycles to render the images.  The rendering times are increased significantly however the quality is going to be better from the off and will be more engaging for people to view than something that does not look too appealing.
• Additional To Do - Find lessons on Nodes!

11/01/2015

Final Egg shape modelled.  I have some eyes and a mouth but these need to be amended slightly before any rigging can take place.

Todo:

• Correct topology around eyes - minor
• Add eye lattice constraint
• Figure out a way to do eyelids
• Model inside of mouth
• Close mouth
• Give and label materials to key parts

Still Planning - But work will being shortly

Ok I have been going over everything again and again to make sure that I do not get in over my head too much and to try and set some realistic goals.  After all this is still sort of the unknown for me and there is a very steep learning curve to be able to model and render some models and then to leap into a full animation short.

So in line with this I have set out the rough time line as below:

1. January – I hope to have properly modeled the base egg and to have the eyes and mouth sorted.
2. February - I hope to have the model rigged and facial shape keys set etc.  I also hope to be able to begin animating the mouth.  I have found some tools to hopefully automate a lot of this.  A test video will be made of the eggs face saying a sentence.  (I don't know what yet).
1. This is more of a technical exercise and will “prove" that 1 I know what I am doing and 2 this could lead somewhere and may attract some assistance.
3. March – Beginning efforts will be made to being the work on the actual animation itself.  Whilst the initial video is online I hope to begin gaining an audience and getting it known.
4. Unknown release date planned as yet.

Although the above is very rough I certainly hope to have more or less of this completed sooner than expected and it probably will but as mentioned there is a lot to consider and a learning curve to overcome.  Have I ever mentioned that I have never modeled a human or even a face before??? 

I am aware that there has not been any actual “Content” as such yet in this blog but this is very much the beginning and there are a lot of thought processes flying around and sometimes you just need to let it out and vent a little.

Whoa not too fast!

I'm planning too far ahead at the moment and skipping some key steps.

I have spent some time over this Christmas period playing around with a few bits and pieces and generally getting a good overview of what I hope to achieve.  Not just with this initial project but how it can evolve and what else I can look into.

As previously mentioned I just hope that this is not one of those things that I begin and then for some reason or another decide to stop doing it.  I really hope that come the middle of the year I am still going this with some relative success.  There are however a number of creases to iron out which I am not sure on and I have also spotted that I have already skipped ahead in my plan so the reigns are being pulled back while I take an overview of the situation and aim not to being from scratch again but to take stock and refocus my efforts.

As part of this I will be reviewing the production process.  The process was taken from an example off the internet but I really need a process tailored to how I work and what works best with the software I am using.

If you have any questions about the project please let me know in the comments.  I am aware that some details as to what I am doing are a little vague but this is intentional as I hope not to give too much away until I am ready as the ideas are very still much in their infancy there is still time to tweak things and change its direction.