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Sep
26
2020

Fill the darkest night with a brilliant light

shooting star songpic

Too many gloomydoomers on my hive feed plus listening to Owl City: Shooting Star on loop results in fyn taking too long a break from retopo (this while mildly indfuriating is perfectly normal as fyn usually has to do what art brain says or bad things happen).

 

So this is my "it will be okay, keep going, you're doing great, we can make things better" because doing this kind of thing is easier than talking XP

so yes that's a self-indulgent selfie at the top

Sep
20
2020

September ProgBlog #3: retopo home stretch 2 the sequel

In the spirit of failing to do more in the same amount of time, I ended up having to clean out the art cupboard (a job I've been studiously avoiding for the last 5 years, I also bought a cube shelf for it that fits a bit more perfectly than I thought it would) and will over the next week or so probably have to sort out the rest of the crap that I've been putting off and should have probably done during covid except that I took the opportunity to go hard on this thing instead.

On the bright side the art cupboard looks organised now and I can't even share photos because trying to get photos off my phone is apparently incredibly difficult for linux.

Sep
16
2020

Super loose outline for pharmacy/biomed/biotech that spans as long as you want for homeschoolies

This was written for my 15yo who hates bookwork but has grudgingly accepted that that's how some things have to be learned.  It was written to squeeze in once a week but ideally should probably be done every day (he is trying at least XD).  If you're a bit more enthusiastic you can substitute the ORs for ANDs.

not sure chemicals are supposed to be mixed like that

 

Maths

Two pages out of each workbook

OR

one section out of each of the following Khan Academy courses:

Sep
12
2020

September ProgBlog #2: retopo home stretch

The last week has been more about trying to fit more stuff in, so work hours keep getting cut more and more and more (because apparently I shouldn't be cutting sleep for some reason).

And then on Friday my problem shoulder exploded (either pinched a nerve or it decided to become a frozen shoulder, I will find out which presently I guess) because I had the audacity to...stretch (literally all I did was stretch upwards).  By evening I was popping painkillers (I don't take painkillers because I have an irrational aversion to them) so I could run kids to places they needed to be, yesterday it was less bad and today it's less bad again but still there and still occasionally annoying.

Sep
05
2020

September ProgBlog #1: playing with retopo addons

Those twisty horns from hell are so-called because they gave me a hard time when I was sculpting, a hard time the first time I was retopologising and a hard time this time round too but I got there eventually.

retopo in retopoflow in Blender 2.8

I started off using speedretopo.

Aug
28
2020

August ProgBlog #5: insane in the membrane

It's the little things.

I keep getting told not to worry about the tiny little details, because no one will ever notice them.  I do sometimes (depending on how long I'm staring at something that I didn't make).  I'm reasonably certain that people might not notice the little details when they're there, but will definitely notice them or at least pick up something "wrong" when they're not.

Depending on the style of the artwork of course.

Or at least that's what I keep telling myself when I'm obsessing about all those little details.

And even if nobody else knows or cares, I know and I care, and in the end I'm doing this thing for me first and if anyone else likes it, that's a bonus for me XD

And this is why, gentle readers, I am zoomed in this freaking close fixing up the wing membranes.

Aug
21
2020

August ProgBlog #4: more fingers

Finally got done with the hands (or at least as done as I can be/am prepared to do).

I really hope I don't regret the decision to try and fix some of the more finicky things in the normal map later x_x

finished sculpting the hands (to some value of finished)

This is actually the right hand.  I usually work on the left side because I manage to get in my own way less on that side.  I am showing off the right hand because I had to hide the right arm so I could start working on the wings.

Aug
19
2020

July Homeschool Miscellany Breakdown into Educationese

I wrote July HS Misc pretty late at night and completely forgot I had told @bearone I would do this one (which is "the next one" from my last one XD) with explanations as to how our crazy shenanigans can translate into stuff to soothe the Education Department.  Was going to edit the original post but it got a bit messy and I started rewriting the entire thing so thought it might be somewhat safer to do a "companion" type post.  And I'll be somewhat recycling the photos from that post (though I think I'll just screenie the sets to make my life easier), so watch out for the fake wounds again.

Aug
16
2020

August ProgBlog #3: fingers

There has been some hilarity with some of my previous progblogs as I've shared the dodgy looking things that usually end up happening whenever I'm building (at least characters, I haven't done much else recently x_x)

Blender 2.88 sculpt mode annoying bumps in mesh that won't go away no matter what

The above screenie is not that dodgy, it's just highlighting those irritating bumps.  All I want is a perfectly smooth mesh but pparently there are vertices that just jut out for no apparent reason regardless of what I'm doing with autosmooth and the smooth brush settings.  I have wasted so much time on this that it's well beyond ridiculous.

Aug
12
2020

July Homeschool Miscellany

WARNING: there are fake wounds made of Vaseline, flour and red food colouring about halfway through this post.

Broke the habit!

For now.

My head is still all over the place and and trying to get and keep organised is presenting its usual massive challenge, exacerbated by the fact the children have been staggering being exhausted for no apparent reason lately (a possible reason is growth spurts, because they're lethargic and sleep a lot and suddenly they're bigger, especially the boys).

July was pretty cruisy but as everything is pretty much back to normal (I think we're still meant to be social distancing as the marks in checkout lines and the enlarged aisles in bigger stores are still present but seeing as we've never had community transmission ever more and more and more people seem to be forgetting/ignoring this) we've been doing more.

The garden has been doing fantastic and my little nephew keeps asking to come over so he can raid.