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.

I started off using speedretopo.

I initially had some confusion about how to use bsurfaces with it but got there eventually (something about being in edit mode on existing meshes otherwise it helpfully starts a new one). I loved the space and bridge tools (wasn’t smart enough to figure out the gridfill and gstretch tools, think I did work out when to use relax eventually).

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.

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

August ProgBlog #4: more fingers

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

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.

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)

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.

August ProgBlog #2: back to the grind

This is a really boring phase where things are super slow going but they need to be done to keep me happy.

Other people obsess about mesh smoothness and stuff in obscure places like the soles of feet right?

I’m kind of mostly trying to repair shapes but also seem to create a hell of a lot of dents before it will smooth out. I don’t know why that is. I guess the autosmooth gets confused sometimes.

July ProgBlog #2: minified progblog

I’m severely out of it. I’m currently struggling (and mostly failing) to not revert to my owlish ways.

I don’t even remember why I didn’t post the progblog on Friday.

Oh yes, I had an extra child (11yo had a friend sleeping over for the weekend).

I also hadn’t finished the tail at the time and I was sick of posting pictures of the unfinished tail.

Then I stayed up way too late last night because I finally finished it.

July ProgBlog #1: guess who's stuck, stuck again

If you are new to 3d, getting stuck and having to rework things using better techniques that you figure out later is perfectly normal (unless you’re a prodigy).

And if you went to some fancy school to learn stuff, experiment anyway because the stuff taught in schools is one way to do things, not the only or necessarily best way to do things.

I originally held off progblog on Friday because I got cool things from @bearone which I wanted to write about instead, but my computer and phone don’t want to interact properly (I can plug the phone in, tell it to trust the computer, the computer can see the phone and see all the photos and videos on the phone, but importing is flakey. Sometimes stuff will go in (including old stuff which it can’t seem to work out is old stuff which then ends up in completely the wrong date folder even though it’s supposed to be sorted by exif date which is shown correctly, at this stage I don’t even know how it’s sorting things but it’s absolutely not doing what it’s supposed to be doing).

June ProgBlog #4: and I would have gotten away with it too if it weren't for you meddling kids and your darned dog!

And by “gotten away with it” I mean “finished” and by “dog” I mean “dogs and cats” XD

I’ve spent this entire week ironing the tail. Also found this helpful setting

and turned it on after actually reading the tooltip while wondering what it did. I’d been thinking it would be helpful in high poly situations like this if stuff could just be rendered when it was actually in the viewport and smarter people than me obviously thought it would be a good idea too XD

June ProgBlog #3: I don't know either

I decided to go in a different direction and after getting past the face I reduced some polygons down the back and went onto the tail. I’d kind of moved the base part down the back in 3dC so it was pretty much attached to the butt like it would be in a quadruped which looks more awkward in a biped but that’s what they’re all going to be like and their body structures are somewhat unlikely anyway.

June ProgBlog #2: buttery

That’s what Blender sculpt mode feels like at the moment.

I don’t know whether it’s because I found some settings that make me happy or whether I finally got the polycount down to something Blender is happier with (got it down to 3.5M from 3.7M after I decided to reduce the polycount in the wing membranes using super light dabs with the clay brush and it’s been jumping mostly down as I continue reworking things and Blender remeshes everything I touch) or whether something has been going on under the hood as I swear every time Manjaro does a system update there’s a new version of Blender in there somewhere (this may or may not be a slight exaggeration).