The weather finally warmed up enough that I was able to make it to training (late as per usual because the time I would have to leave to get there on time is about when I’m waking up x_x but better late than never?). I fell into old habits and doing low stances after three months of not training at all is generally not the best idea, I was somewhat stiff and sore afterwards XD and then the following day we went on an 8km hike because yes.

It’s been a busy weekend with states competitions, following a busy week of training and preparing for states competitions. We had to skip roleplaying (for the third or fourth time in a row, previously people had been staggering being sick x_x) and there were 5-5:30am starts on Saturday and Sunday x_x as 14yo and I were getting picked up at 6am by the head coach. 16yo was sick for regionals and bailed out of states (because it’s been a weird year some people that missed out on regionals due to illness or quarantine were allowed to apply to do states and most were accepted, he now regrets doing so, told him to make up for it next year). 14yo had an amazing day on Friday; managing third on vault and beam, equal first on floor with one of her friends, and third all around. On Saturday were just there as cheer squad. My level 3 and 4 boys did pretty well on Sunday with all of them getting at least one medal.

I accidentally spent the entire week on UASG (or to be extremely specific, on those freaking dreadlocks >_<). I’m currently on my…6th or 7th iteration. I thought I’d be a smartarse and lay out the curve guides first (which I think I mentioned last progblog), and then followed up with experiments on whether I use the particle hair controls or the similar looking controls on the curve guides themselves to do the dreadlocks.

The slow and painful days are starting to become a habit I really need to snap out of. Both projects are plodding along and I’m kind of bumbling my way through everything else around them with varying degrees of success. AER After switching back to the colour map, I attacked the shape of the dragon tattoo, adding in these little belly scale segmentation things. Trust me it’s one of those tiny little things that you don’t notice when it’s done but that you would definitely notice if it hadn’t been done x_x

I’m not sure if the rererererereretopo (I have no idea anymore) is any better than the previous one. Probably a bit hard to see the original wireframe in black under the new white wireframe. My current problem is trying to work out how to connect the arms and if there’s enough polys there. I love the Contours tool. I love all the tools. Have I mentioned how much less horrible Retopoflow makes retopology XD

The plane managed to land (rather heavily by the sound of things) despite the dubious weather on Christmas Island, and we made it back in the appropriate number of pieces just in time for what sounds like a proper lockdown, it seems. Seriously though why do people insist on hoarding toilet paper. Well, one week extra planning I guess, and I have to reschedule two appointments. The extra planning time will be helpful as I will probably need to actually have a work schedule again so I can learn the nonsense I need to figure out this hive front end silliness.

As soon as Protective 3 had gone into cooldown, I started work on Acaedia, using Red and Zip to help with sizing. The Flyers (especially Dragonkin!) take up a lot of space and need a lot of space. I’m starting with the Royals’ apartment which is in the central tower. Each of the squares is 10x10m, the walls are 5m high.

Quickie because sculpt fixing is taking forever and I felt like doing something else for a little while. As I said in the last progblog, I had been intending on sketching Zara in a hive hoodie as I’ve drawn her in a steem hoodie previously, and then decided I should use her model instead. Some fixing was required and that had to be done anyway so it got done, and then I made the hoodie together out of a cube.

I thought I was pretty much done with Zara aside from wardrobe (which I can build out as I proceed through scripts) when I remembered that the goggles are an essential piece of kit as she’s blind in the light without them. Then I spent way too long staring at her for a bit before sending a screenie to Sprat asking if the eyes were too far apart. She confirmed that they were and that I should also maybe move the mouth up a tiny bit. So I did.

Yes, I did it again. Who would have thought manually doing the hair guides would look better and render a lot faster. I’m also using linked duplicates for the feathers but not sure how much that’s helping if at all.