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May
08
2023

May ProgBlog #1: maybe tomorrow

I have spent the last couple of weekends deciding that that particular weekend would be the one where I finished the wings.

I did not finish the wings because it was so incredibly tedious and boring that my brain shut down on numerous occasions and I wasted a lot of time playing stupid phone games when this gigantic lump of cuteness overdose wasn't destroying my posture and exacerbating old injuries.

image 293

She loves curling up behind me on my chair.  The problem is she takes up this much space

Apr
19
2023

April ProgBlog #2

I'm still reasonably happy with how it looks given that they're polygons and I'm still internally screaming.

image 264

This is a great case for geonodes.  Sadly that's beyond my meagre capabilities.  I also had to fix a topology nightmare on the shoulder which I completely forgot to screenshot probably because I was trying to remember if I'd been drunk when I did it (spoiler: highly unlikely as I haven't gotten past tipsy for a very long time).

Apr
03
2023

April ProgBlog #1: the insidious GAPS!

That's not an acronym, just me screaming in annoyance.

The underside of the wing was the absolute worst thing ever as no matter how I moved the feathers, gaps kept appearing.

image 250

Sunday was a super slow day to begin with as the bigs and I were recovering from doing a show on the Saturday (they were more tired than me as they were the ones actually flipping out and stuff, I was just kind of trying to help direct as I'd been unexpectedly thrust into that role as the coach who had been supposed to be doing that job had unfortunately come down with something the night before).

Mar
27
2023

March ProgBlog #3: just ugh

That feeling when you're the only one that knows that you did stuff because it doesn't look like much changed at all.

That was a big part of why I decided to just let the streak break than try and push a late progblog.  The other reason was that all the other stuff was a huge fight (some of it physically fights, or at least shouting matches, but mostly just the usual struggle trying to keep on top of things).

image 266

Stupidly I missed a whole row in that screenshot, this is what happens when your naming system is descriptive enough but you forgot what you were doing.

I think the layering is somewhat working out better, and I managed to resolve some issues I was having on the hands.

Feb
14
2023

February ProgBlog #2: it'll all be worth it in the end...right? Right?!

At least that's what I keep telling myself as I'm internally screaming my way through laying out polygon feathers and thinking about how the curve/particle feathers were easier (even if I couldn't get them to look nice) and there will be more experienced people than me out there facepalming and headdesking or both like why the bloody hell did you go and overcomplicate it like that for when you could have just done {some technique I don't know about that does the same amount of work in less time with better results}.

This malarky is purely because I wanted to be able to assign materials per feather.

image 244

Feb
07
2023

February ProgBlog #1: tedium

I'm still trying to settle the other work stuff into my mix.  Like with the classes themselves, I need to get the timing right.  Lesson planning is still taking me a ridiculously long time.  I did find out I can do it in a hurry when I need to (last week I basically had a couple of hours to come up with one) but I like feeling like I'm being thorough.  My current thoughts are if I don't get it done when I had it scheduled for, I'll keep plugging away at it while I'm hanging around the gym waiting for middle child to finish coaching.

As a result of that and some other things including my brain randomly shutting down on occasion (sleep is yet another thing I'm completely failing at) and being distracted at the drop of a hat because putting the down on is extremely tedious and I desperately want it to just be magically done perfectly without having to spend the time and effort actually doing it, I once more didn't get much done on my designated work day.

Jan
16
2023

January Progblog #2

I am going to do the down in two systems and I am most likely going to regret it.  The big downy feathers (which aren't called that but I can't remember what they're called) were finished not long ago, they are topside and underside but they look pretty much the same.

image 223

The render actually isn't terrible at a distance.

image 222

Different story up close x_x I need to fiddle with the strand thickness and number.

Sep
05
2022

September ProgBlog #1

The  completionist in me is somewhat annoyed that I didn't get the September Powerbee.  I must have done it too early in the morning or something stupid like that (I did it around the same time as I usually do but my "around" tends to be an hour or so).

Oh well.

My parents have been over and seem to have decided to do a lot of tours this time round (probably because an uncle and his family are also over), and invited us out on a number of them.  It's been great because it's stuff we either haven't done for a few years or may not have had an opportunity to do so, and hopefully we've crammed enough stuff in to make up for the last couple of months.

Aug
22
2022

August ProgBlog #3: particle feathers and hair, oh my

I think I've finished the first light and shadow layers for the Eladrin. 

image 124

It went pretty quick, I don't know how long it actually took as while Toolsday is the day for it, there was a bit going on.

I was talking to Sprat about having difficulty with feathers (because I'm trying to do Zara's head feathers better) and that I didn't have a feather generator. Then it occurred to me to see if one existed and apparently one does.

Aug
15
2022

August ProgBlog #2: because I need more projects

I really should stop trying to push to finish things before going to bed because the times that it has worked is probably still in the single digits.

I decided to postpone the progblog because I've been so out of it I really hadn't gotten a lot of work done, partly because I just didn't look at my schedule and partly because I managed to simultaneously not know what day it was and know what day it was because of who had to be where by when.  All I had to show was stuff that has been seen before quite recently.

At least the reworks are getting faster? I might even finish this character this year, imagine that.