technonaturalist

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Blender Adventures Part 5a - quickie expression test

Tuesday, 11 November 2014 @ 10:09pm
Base modedl frowning

At 8yo’s request: ‘Make him frown!’ (all the bases are gender neutral)

Base looking slightly puzzled

Seeing something mildly disturbing

Base surprised

Shock horror! I could have opened its mouth more but I was too lazy to go back to object mode to show the rig layer to be able to grab the jaw controller

Blender notes - resetting shape key value to basis

Sunday, 9 November 2014 @ 10:36pm

To get a point that was moved incorrectly for whatever reason in a shape key and needs to be reset to the “Basis” position, from Adhi on StackExchange:

Use Blend From Shape:

  1. Select all vertices whose positions you want to reset,
  2. Execute Blend From Shape, accessible from W, Ctrl-V or Mesh > Vertices menu,
  3. Set “Basis” as shape key to blend from (by default),
  4. Set blend factor to the maximum value 1.0 (by default),
  5. Uncheck Add, so only values from “Basis” will be blended in, effectively reverting all selected vertices’ position.

Kind of wish there was a slightly less arseabout way to do it but a way is better than no way.

Blender Adventures Part 5

Sunday, 9 November 2014 @ 2:08pm

Still shape keying. Base is partially amused.

Rubberlips can almost smile!

So far I’ve got all of a left eye wink and a half smile. Once I got the left half smile right and figure out where the eyelashes go I’ll mirror those shape keys and then do some really basic expression parts around happy, sad, angry and surprise which generally use the entire face. Then make some phonemes with help from this useful phoneme shape guide someone had thoughtfully thrown at the internet.

Stuff the kids have said recently

Sunday, 26 October 2014 @ 7:44pm

7yo (about one of 9yo’s friends): He always chases me when I don’t want to be chased and doesn’t chased me when I do want to be chased! Boys are just like that!
me: It doesn’t get any better as you get older.

9yo (watching the Speed Racer movie): It’s really bad.
me: Why are you watching it then?
9yo: I’m just watching it so I can go “WHAT?!” at it.

Drupal 7 notes - Apache config

Thursday, 23 October 2014 @ 11:11am

/etc/apache2/apache2.conf - find the directory bits and make sure the /var/www one looks like:

<Directory /var/www/> 
  Options Indexes FollowSymLinks 
  AllowOverride All 
  Require all granted 
</Directory>

sudo a2enmod rewrite

sudo a2enmod headers

Make sure all the site configuration files in /etc/apache2/sites-available have .conf on the end (especially if upgrading from previous Apache and it doesn’t seem to be backwards compatible despite what the Linode library says).

Don’t forget to sudo a2ensite all-the-sites.conf

Blender Adventures Part 4

Monday, 13 October 2014 @ 9:26am

fyn can rig, though I’m sure I’m probably doing it horribly wrong. It’s a combination of rigging techniques learned in Lightwave and playing with the Armature modifier, with one tangent into using bendy bones (single bones with multiple segments) for the spine from the head down and then two bendy bones for neck and spine.

Scorpion handstand rig test

Had to put one more controller in to flex the spine in the right direction. The neck flexes one way (looking downward) fine but will not flex the other way (it’s jaggy in this pose, effects can be seen if you look carefully at the neck), adding another shape to control the flex like I did with the spine didn’t help and neither did my aforementioned tangent into bendy bones.

Home Ed Program and Booklist 2015

Saturday, 11 October 2014 @ 11:08am

It’s that time of year again and I’m doing it all in one post this time round.

10yo (Year 5) next year

9yo has been finding his yr5-6 maths book generally easy but some parts are challenging enough that I am going to keep one year ahead and see how he goes. He’s been pretty much on track with English, most of his challenge seems to be the tedium of writing full sentence answers and a continued reluctance to practise writing though his writing can be neat when he wants it to be. If he starts finding the 5-6 books too easy I’ll bump up to yr7 to see how he goes and back down again if that’s too hard.

More little things

Friday, 10 October 2014 @ 11:58pm

9yo displayed that he does have some organisational skills while we were playing Minecraft and he wandered off and said he had found some mines, then told me the coordinates so I could join him. He had made a book and quill to use as a journal (and would be less likely to misplace seeing as it’s in-game) in which he was writing down the coordinates of our bases and any mines he encountered (which would then be deleted once we’d finished exploring and digging them out).

Acrobat

Monday, 6 October 2014 @ 7:49pm

7yo: I’m an acrobat Mummy! I was born to acro!

Unexpected family history and a keyboard

Monday, 29 September 2014 @ 2:00pm

Recently we were at a nephew’s 3rd birthday party. Seeing as we were in the area we followed JJ’s parents back to their place as his dad had said he had a straight razor belonging to his grandfather that JJ might be interested in (seeing as he’s recently gotten into shaving with straight razors).

Examining the edge on a straight razor with a jeweller's glass

JJ showing 9yo how to examine razor’s edges. Or something.