Skip to main content
Jul
04
2022

July ProgBlog #1

After last progblog I decided to break from doing the Avian model and work on the Dragonkin one for a bit. First level of panic was that the proportions were really different.

That calmed down very quickly when I remembered…I only need the wings and everything in that area was proportional enough.

Dragonkin alignment

I technically do need the tail but I could just pull that one out if the existing one wasn't in the right spot and given the different topology of both models it may end up in a slightly different spot anyway

Jun
27
2022

June ProgBlog #2: because you know...instances

Gundry still has not budged.  I was supposed to do more work on him today but I ended up doing other things instead.  I also need to have a chat with my young friend and find out if we're still going along with...well I hesitate to call what we were working off any kind of plan, not even a loose and fluid one if this project is still going to go.

I think/hope I'm getting closer with the particle feather instancing.  Using two feathers (it's still technically one feather, the second one is a linked duplicate) and two vertex groups I've managed to get them to align the way I want, but of course now there's the problem of the shape is not quite right so I have to figure out how to get them to layer correctly.

Jun
20
2022

June ProgBlog #1: There was a gap

In that gap was a slightly unexpected new puppy (which I wrote a bit about in the homeschool miscellany) and covid (not worth the ridiculously excessive fuss and the frantic stripping of as much freedom as possible in that space of time that was made of it, wouldn't recommend the headache though). And then there was me figuring it wasn't worth the blog because there hadn't been much prog and trying to manage that and consistently failing as other things kept happening (not least of which comp season started).

After a lot of stuffing around, I eventually worked out there was something either wrong with the file or with the particle system that was making my curve guides not work.  A bit more experimentation later I found that recreating the particle system worked, and that NURBs paths no longer seemed to work but Beziers did.

May
18
2022

May ProgBlog #3: major schedule rejigs

Precious little got done over the last week on anything as I discovered a fatal flaw in my scheduling. I have roleplaying stuff scheduled for most of the weekend (currently only playing every other Sunday so I just use the time for extra prep and generally failing to catch up with all the writeups I haven't done yet, am starting up a new weekly game with my three regulars next weekend though). After roleplaying I'm supposed to be working on UASG.

This works timewise except that I should be doing the writeups straight after the sessions because that makes the most sense. Some writeups take longer than others.

May
09
2022

May ProgBlog #2

I've made zero progress on Gundry as there is a checkbox which I think I need to tick in Particle Edit mode to make the bake show up so I can edit it, and it seems to be a guaranteed crash.  So looks like at this stage unless the new hair system drops sooner than I'm expecting it, I pretty much have to go the curve guide/soft body route.

Which means trying to figure out why my curve guides refuse to stick to their bone hooks and putting up with hair flapping around in anime locks (which at least won't be too terrible for this project because it's kind of semi-anime anyway).

And after Gundry I'm just going to be stuck in general as I don't have descriptions of the other characters, and the only other one I can do I'm not sure if I'm still doing.

For the Avian base model I'm currently trying to make a particle feather that meets my expectations.  This is the start.

May
02
2022

May ProgBlog #1

Decided to try particle feathers following this tutorial on BlenderArtists. Got about this far in

playing with particle instances in Blender 3.1.2   playing with particle instancing in Blender 3.1.2

and realised that I will likely need different mapping on each side because of how the particles are distributing.

Apr
25
2022

April ProgBlog 3: The Infernal Hair Continues

I thought I was on my last attempt.  I was going to try a few more things, and then give up and make a million curve guides again and down the line nut out soft body on curves (I probably need to nut it out anyway).  

The problem I was having was that it seems that regardless of whether or not the emitter (the entire character model in this case) was set to be a collision object or not, the hair would clip straight through it when I got it to drop.

Zara does not have this problem, but she also has very short hair which I put a non-zero pin goal strength on because it sticks up a little.  This made it flop without cutting through the hair.  So I decided to try the same thing with Gundry but despite a miniscule number (0.001), I still ended up with

Apr
18
2022

April ProgBlog #2: INFERNAL HAIR

I feel like it's an eternal struggle getting hair settings right.

luscious unstyled particle hair locks

Sometimes what feels like a slight movement in your hand makes for a huge settings change. 

Blender 3.1 hair settings gone wild

Apr
11
2022

April ProgBlog #1: speaking of ridiculous things

Poor Gundry is copping a lot of flak for his amazing hair.

Gundry scraggly hair Blender 3.1

I was hoping that Blender 3.1 would have better hair physics (or at least actually emitter deflect) and I would be able to let it flop and bake before attempting to style it but no such luck.

deflect emitter still doesn't work

Apr
04
2022

Blender 3.1 notes: using texture maps for particle hair

First, set up the hair particle system with enough to see what you're doing.

image

In the UV Editing tab, create a new image and change the Colour Space to Non-Colour.

image 0

Save the image either with Alt+S or using the Image menu.