[durgldeep]

whom abandoned us *sniffle* - so it's a good time to mutiny

rigging, first check (below): the "Rigify" gizmo generates about half size
(not a good sign); fix is, scale it by 2.56 (close enough); first try so no big
deal, will get there...

also the automatic rig is *extremely* sophisticated, ie. at least five
different weights for the left palm alone; overkill for a simple, multi-object
model...


-----------

Oops, sorry I missed ur post, samhell (site's been down for a while and I didn't stop to look)...

[whom]

Nah I'm still around but more in stealth mode though I guess, new page eh?


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tick tock...

[whom]

2.64 released, I am downloading now actually so haven't tried it yet.
http://www.blender.org/development/release-logs/blender-264/




....
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tick tock...

[durgldeep]

wow, that's spooky whom, can imagine the creature wearing it having two
mouths, ew (that is, if it's a mask and not the creature itself)... good one.

2.64, uh oh... can I stick with 2.63 for a while? You're gonna post a review,
right (so I know what to cringe about?)?

Finally cracked rigging, and it's soooooo simple (or at least now it is).
Didn't use the Rigify addon, did it manually (below). Rig looks the same as
the black wireframe, above, but without all the fancy stuff. Whole new world
(yet another one).

Next up: mesh versus bake, what's the right ratio (how simple can the base
mesh be and still be effective)? Pretty sure I can use a Sculptris mesh (for
the detail version), ie. am not fond of the *subdivide all* method...

Page 12, indeed.

[whom]

Nice rigging durgldeep and thanks.

You know first update since May with Blender, felt weird to download a new version. I rather they just slow down on the updates because it's too hard to grasp all the changes when they keep change things here and there all the time. This update feels pretty stable, they changed Cycles settings a lot, hmm need to look into that more.
Main reason for me with downloading this version was to try out the skin modifier.
...Couldn't change size on the shape though, hmm....


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tick tock...

[whom]

cloud generator.

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[whom]

Still working the elements, not entirely there yet though...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=igIQnIeEDyM



....
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[durgldeep]

lol whom, flamethrower! loving it
lots of good stuff there - u've been busy

still working on that green guy (above), joining pieces into a single mesh;
no idea how to make joints 'rig-friendly', will find out soon if it's a mess or
not...

extruded fingers and thumb; never thought I could simplify a hand to this
degree (below), never mind all quads; still needs tweaking (thumb's a bit
too small, palm's too long, etc.); this was the part I was dreading - done.


---------------

Been doing my research too, heh. Noticed the toes are a texture (and bump
map?) in this one (below), ie. am a stickler for detail but I guess not
everything needs to be modelled (*pout*).


Source: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YVEycgQl5_c

[durgldeep]

Not a bad tutorial (tho keep ur finger on the space bar/pause button, goes a
bit too fast (at least for me)):

Blender 2.6 Normal/Bump Mapping
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3D4AXXEuuio

One correction (update since Dec. '11?): short cut for camera position is
now [numpad]0, rather than "Ctrl+Alt+[numpad]0".

Bad lighting but the texture kept disconnecting from the object, somehow
(managed to save an image before it happened a fourth time). One day
someone will invent a device that does all this fiddly stuff for us?


--------------

121007 - Flashback, September 17, 2010:

[durgldeep]

Curve is still curving (intensity, specular, etc.) - and clothing (not as hard as I
thought).

Well, armour. "Bell" curiass (below;wip). Amazed they made armour out of
linen. And etc.

Armour: Shield, Helmet, Cuirass, Greaves
http://www.timetrips.co.uk/gw%20armour.htm


--------------

121009 - More about mesh deform ("blended normal maps"):

"We've got blended normal maps on him right now so you can see the
realistic muscle flexing. I would imagine that we've got one of the most
advanced systems for that in the industry right now."

God of War 3 Bonus Features - The Making of God of War III in HD Part 2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kmNXvBFBDQs

Point being, complex mesh deforms are likely in-house, custom made
programs?

[wiredgear]

You guys are doing amazing... I tried 3D along time ago... however, I just did crazy abstract designs.

Durgle, the character is looking better and better. Keep it up.
_________________
an.over.dose.of.oxygen

[durgldeep]

Thanks wiredgear. I tried 3ds max years ago (bunch of tutorials) but couldn't
get into it. Now there's stuff like Sculptris, which is idiot-proof (why I can use
it, heh). Not everyone's cup of tea though, for sure.

Re character, not sure I agree, lol. Am still finding my feet. Gladly, Blender's
the last frontier (after Sketchup, Sculptris); design clunkiness should
disappear.

Thanks for stopping by.

[wiredgear]

The toes seem to be a bit roundy on the ends and the fingers are a bit fat. Thumbs seem perfect. Just my crit!
_________________
an.over.dose.of.oxygen

[whom]

durgldeep, now your getting somewhere, looks good.

fur testing...

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[durgldeep]

wiredgear, model's in ur inbox, please fix! - good eye; toes etc. are on
my fix list, yep; been back and forth between segmented model and single
mesh (for the body), some kinds of detail are last on my list atm but thanks
for the c&c, always welcome.

thanks whom, interesting fur test... and I remember your suggestion re
Roman stuff (way back), have finally come around to that again; God of War
jogged my memory, heh - but look (below), triangles! I feel so betrayed...

um, actually wiredgear secretly told me he's a huge 3d fan and is working
on a new project, watch this space!


Breaking Down God of War 3's Epic Opening Scene
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YZ6Th0FdHng
---------------

btw whom, Ctrl+F3 (Blender screen grab) gives me a black/blank png
(whether I checkbox "Full Screen" or not). Wondering if it's a known bug or
just my machine? No help in google/blender. Any idea?

[whom]

I know there was a bunch of known bugs after the release so they released a new version yesterday, did you download it? A 2.64a version. ctrl and f3 worked for me when I tried....
Actually I didn't realize that they changed the settings in cycles and thought there was something wrong with the path tracing, apparently you have to change the tiles.... hmm... still hard to adapt with the changes from time to time.....

Here's my screen, hey durgldeep lol I didn't know you could make a screen from Blender.
I am old school and still use paint for that.

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[whom]

Interesting regarding the triangles above, I guess they sculpt everything with a lot of details nowadays... especially poster material. Nice youtube clip, didn't know much about that game. I don't game that much you know, just look at graphics and stuff when it comes to games.
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tick tock...

[durgldeep]

Sorry, Blender just ate two hours of my work - don't wanna talk about it.

*moves on*

whom, didn't download 2.64 at all, no; still 2.63 here (*mutter*). Thanks
for the feedback re screen grab. Before naming/saving, if u uncheck "Full
Screen" (left side bar) it saves only the active viewport, which is what I
was trying to do (Alt+PrtScn resolution sux, need another way).

Old? samhell was trying to sell "old" too - I'm not buying it.

I'm not a gamer either, I just pick them apart; cool graphics/methods/etc.,
yep. Interesting screen grab btw; looks like cycles? I tried cycles render a
couple times (just yesterday), seems the lighting has to be maxed for a
clear image?

Um, here's what's left of my 'progress' shot (below) - *sniffle* - colour is
just blocked using vertex groups (not texture paint); will try to do a whole
scene that way, just to motor trough it (like what I started doing in
Sketchup)...



Edit: oops, just noticed the "specular" on the armour disappeared too
(when I moved it to another layer); fixed.
--------------

Hehe, here's my screen (manual capture). Notice the "timeline" is
missing? Or whatever it's called. I think every video/turotrial I've seen
they have the timeline open, all the while complaining about visibility, ie.
constantly resizing the side bars to make the image larger - close the
freaking timeline! lmao - drives me *crazy*

[whom]

lol yea I guess the feeling of being old is just a matter of mind, or hmm mind over matter? Anyway I felt old already at 20 so I guess one shouldn't listen to me.
your character is starting to look real good, you gonna use armature on the clothes or how do you solve that?
I assume you gonna rig the character.

I've been treading slowly with my learning curve lately, have had to focus on other stuff in my life but things look like they are gonna work out for the better hopefully.

Btw what did I say about Roman stuff way back? can't remember and I fear I do ramble way too much.


This is what I was trying to render before...

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[durgldeep]

[Sumaleth]

whom: is the noise in some of your images an artistic choice or an artifact of the rendering system?
_________________
Art Links Archive -- Artists and Tutorials

[whom]

Sumaleth, the noise from the rendering is usually a matter of a time issue, takes real long time to render the scenes without noise. I should add that also depends on the render engine, with path tracing the higher the samples value the longer render time.
Usually those are just experimenting renders so I settle for some noise, even in my 3d practise speed models.... Not sure if I'm lazy or just a busy man these days, hehe.

durgldeep, thanks for the reminder, hmm perhaps I should go through the pages in this 3d thread. In the experiments I have made this far cloth and props are difficult, There's the possibility to make them in the game engine for real physics, hence why I focused on the game engine. Still need more time with that. A colliding chain with physics is kind of hard to pull through. Usually they do that with scripts I assume.

Been messing around with particles today, they have a new feature in the compositor. "particle info", with it; it is possible to fade particles....
I have a video on my site too if you guys are interested.

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[whom]

durgldeep, holy shit you gotta look at this tutorial you gonna love this, the new toys in 2.64 is amazing. With skin modifier you can make an armature immediately on the primitive. Wonderful tool....
http://www.blenderdiplom.com/index.php/en/tutorials/item/100-blender-264-tutorial-skin-modifier


I made this alien real quick with that tecnique and managed to pose it real quick too.



..
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[whom]

got real excited about skin modifier, real useful tool when it comes to sculpting. Maybe now I can make something for my sculpting section.

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[durgldeep]

thanks whom - wow, u're on fire!

the skin modifier vid didn't work for me but this one did (there's always
another way, hehe) - and look, a timeline!

Blender Tutorial: Skin Modifier
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E4pSjOd94Lw

will check it out

also interesting re triangles versus quads; if there's any real difference at
all (someone pointed out that quads are actually two triangles, ie. four
vertexes any way you slice it); seems like the industry solution for
triangles is to up the processing power...?

lots to consider...
--------------

here's a start (restart) on the leg protection; not hard at all, really; just the
way u'd think to do it - but just do it, hehe; started extruding the leather
straps and realized this will work for scaled armour (and otherkinds) too...
the fabric sticking out the top of the belt looked better when it was hanging
down (as it will be again) - anyhoo, onward (still lots to do)...

oh, bit of a discovery: "mark seam" has other uses, such as a placeholder
when learning/sorting mesh (u can see I'm still experimenting - but gotta
move on too)...




--------------

Base mesh is done (though looking more barbarian than greek atm, heh),
moving on to another one. With the curiass in place, the cloth along the
top of the belt would need to be toned down a lot (so it doesn't poke
through). Likely Greek tunic next ("chiton"?), so I can try more complex
cloth stuff.

[whom]

durgldeep, Real nice character you're starting to get there. Texture and unwrap is a whole process for sure, I feel I got somewhat some sort of a grip around that if one can call it that. Everything with cycles made me have to re-learn all that....
Will see if I can make some more skin modifying tomorrow, Blender is starting to become real good though with all things said about the hard work to understand the updates it is all worth it in the end.

Experiment with particles and sci fi contrail. Damn used 2 million particles and I actually thought everything would crash. I wouldn't wanna try with 3 million....

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[wiredgear]

[durgldeep]

thanks whom, interesting contrail there (millions, eek; don't think I 've
done millions of anything on this machine...)... Have heard bits about
various differences, such as Shift+S is now Shift+A (wtf?), guess that was
the skin modifier demo (link above). Man, Blender's not hard enough to
learn, now they're changing shortcuts...

wiredgear thanks, hope you do try a bit of 3d (a bit more I should say (re
earlier 3ds max/abstract stuff)); harder than painting (I'd say) but has be
ur cup of tea too, I guess.

chiton's good enough for a first try; painted myself into a corner re design
'flow' (which is mostly set from the beginning, ie. hard to change it later);
will know for next time. Definitely gotta decide fabric weight at the outset
too (dictates level of detail). One subdivision...


-------------

Was gonna post to the "Blender basics" thread but, um, I guess this isn't basic...

[whom]

Skin modifier is a real useful tecnique for sculpting, in this one I made some test with setting up a more complex object and then posing it. Works pretty neat if you ask me. Still have some more things to try out before I try more finished objects.

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[durgldeep]

good one whom, glad the rigging issue is solved.

Looking at that tutorial again, seems like the posing issues haven't changed,
ie. vertexes simply rotate with the bone (no 'smooth' transition between vertex
groups); tho highly likely there's something I just don't understand yet re
vertex 'management', need to know more about weight paint (which is identical
to vertex paint btw, ie. have to hit the vertex directly or nothing happens).

Onward.