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Feb
15
2020

February ProgBlog #2: look at this beautiful thing!

LOOK AT IT.

rainbow keyboard

THE RAINBOW MOVES. I LOVE IT.

Jan
31
2020

January ProgBlog #4: fixer uppers

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.

Zara slightly adjusted face

Jan
25
2020

January ProgBlog #3: dark alleyways

Last night was an exercise in frustration.  There was a bunch of chores to finish up, and then all I wanted to do was some art and to hopefully get the progblog knocked out before it got too late.

Jan
17
2020

January ProgBlog #2: shenanigans, shenanigans!

Or: why fyn has a ridiculously comprehensive and detailed head universe.

Like all good stories, it started off innocently enough.  I finished eyebrows and eyelashes and did some super quickie expression tests:

zara-expression-tests

My lights are really close and pretty bright hence the intense reflection, if they're still too reflective under normal lighting conditions I'll have to fiddle with the node a bit more. 

Then it was onto clothes.

Jan
10
2020

January ProgBlog #1: really, really easing back in

I was optimistic and tried but as expected it took me longer to ease back in than I wanted.

And then I injured my right thumb cleaning the stove and had a couple of days where holding the pen was painful (but towards the end of Day 0 and yesterday I tried anyway, today was better).

Currently working on trying to get Zara's hair sorted.  Took me a bit to remember how to x-mirror around the 3d cursor and even then because I hadn't applied the transforms to the curves the mirrored copies were wonkered.  Which was fine as I only wanted the same number of guides on both sides and didn't want the hairstyle to be symmetrical, but it's a bit of work adjusting.

Dec
21
2019

December ProgBlog #3: winding down a bit

Even though we haven't gone away this Christmas and are only doing a couple of gatherings, I've still managed to completely fail to get anything worthwhile done when I have been able to do anything.  Last night I fell into a pit and after my computer decided to randomly crash (again) and I had to redo a whole pile of work, I ended up not even attempting the progblog and just crawling into bed to sulk.

Then today I played Pixelmon for most of the day with the kids and then youngest and I played Pokemon Go while walking my dog.

Work on the hair continues.

working on hair guides

Dec
13
2019

December ProgBlog #2: not much prog to blog :S

Most of this week has been taken up doing last second Christmas-related stuff that I'd forgotten (I'm pretty sure this is the first year I thought I better do a list for next year, in my defence it's the first time I've had to keep track of enough people to require a list), so work fell by the wayside a little bit.

I managed to start on the hair and rig the crest.

Avian crest rig

Dec
06
2019

December ProgBlog #1: kerbstomped by silly season

I shall do my utmost to keep up but this year silly season is seriously kerbstomping me x_x

And I don't think staying up late is helping that much but it feels like it is. 

We seem to be rigging all right, I did some big motions with limbs and turned her into a pretzel and here I was playing around with small expressions.

Zara minor expression test

Split the panels just so I could show the non-animators among us the puppet controls and the result.

It can probably be surmised that I finished all the naily bits but I'll show them off anyway because yes.

Nov
29
2019

November ProgBlog #5: and we're back

What is this 5 weeks shenanigans.

So pretty much trying to pick up where I was before I jumped back to do more retopo.  That texture baking tool in 3dC is a lifesaver when you're inept like me x_x The skin texture is now reasonable enough for in your face shots:

Zara's procedural skin texture

And an in your face Eevee render as close as the clipping distance would let me get (I'm not even sure I have many if any extreme closeups like this):

Nov
24
2019

November ProgBlog #4: bugger that density

After getting increasingly annoyed about how dense the mesh was becoming as well as general annoyance about having to do yet more rework and the fact that some things simply didn't want to stay square, I threw that idea through a brick wall and decided to just extrude the nails like I was originally planning and hope it wouldn't make a mess.

Which meant first trying to get used to the extrude tool (press enter first, then move it, then switch tools because pressing enter again doesn't drop it, I don't even remember which program that habit came from).

The nails didn't make as huge a mess as I thought they would.

3d coat fingernails