2 pages

artcontrol.me

Artwork of William Mckee

Tagblender

Light Throw Tests

May 3, 2012 / / Comments Off

This week I’ve spent learning Java. It’s been fun and I feel I’ve made real progress with it. Aimed for at least 6 hours of it every day. I got to a point where I needed a break. I needed to do something creative. Not that Java isn’t creative, just need to get my visual art fix in.

I decided to get stuck back into Blender. I havn’t done anything in Blender for about 2 weeks and it was wonderful to get back into it.

Started a new project in it (I feel bad constintly starting new projects on it. But it’s all just a learning experience.

I want to take my life drawings into Blender and model and texture them. 

I took this into blender – splitting it into two image files and using it as reference on two planes.

This is the setup I used. Reference is very important – otherwise I just sit in Blender mucking around – and not get anything done. Using my own life drawings means I’m creating truly original models as well – no stock photos!

This is what I modeled. I tried to apply two legs to the figure but it just wasn’t looking correct – so kept with just a single leg. Guess the character can HOP along! Quick skeleton is applied as well – I feel more confident completing these models now.

To mix things up and learn something new I decied to not use lights but instead light with these three cubes. This tuturial was helpful to learn this technique:

I’d like to experiment with these effect further – maybe creating a texture on a surface then turn it into a light – could give some interesting effects. YEAH, LIGHT!

I’m not going to bother with a video for this – I’ve only rendered four seconds of animation. I’ll work on this further and upload when I have closer to thirty seconds of footage.

Robot Animation Tests

April 24, 2012 / / Comments Off

Ok. So I went Vincents life drawing. It had been awhile. Successful night, This post isn’t about life drawing though, blender update.

I’ve been a bit less motivated these past days to produce much. Tired and feeling generally down doesn’t help. The life drawing at Vincents was a boost. I plan to transfer this energy to Mondays class next week.

I made a car thing in Maya. It isnt much but better then what I did with my time at UCOL. There are also several angles of a walk cycle.

I’d like to do more cell animation. A weekly walk cycle could be a good challenge. Planning and ideas is needed for future Blender projects.

New Scene Tests

April 20, 2012 / / Comments Off

Spent most of today working with Blender. I mucked around with the scene but decided to start something fresh. I needed new inspration. I started a new project and here’s what I’ve done:

Some screen shots:

Walk cycle is in there- even if it’s rough. I know how to create actions and dublicate them – now I need to learn how to create multiply actions and ‘link’ them together. When I have something like that happening I’ll feel great.

I need to explore modeling further. I’m going to keep it simple with low poly modeling. Textures – create legit UV maps for my models, using my own artwork.

Learn more about Rigging.

More.

April Block Blender Tests

April 19, 2012 / / Comments Off

Didn’t end up going into TLC this week. Spent the day working with Blender and looking into game engines. Over the last few weeks I’ve downloaded several game engines – steam (which I used years ago with Count Strike 1.5), Unreal, Unity3d, and the Cry Engine. I’d like to get some good models/textures and animation done in Blender then look into importing these models into a Engine. But that’s jumping ahead too far. For now I want to focus on learning Blender further. Everyday I’m learning something new from it.

I’ve drawn a little – mostly just sketches with no reference. Done when in bed. I’ll upload them in a future post.

Long passageway. Used to make a long walk cycle and move various objects on the side. Need to improve textures and modeling on the overall scene.

This was a better camera angle then the one I ended up Rendering. I’m work in Blender with two windows systems.

Color sceme ideas. I’m going to keep with my color pencil insprations here – blue for negative areas. Figures and objects will be in reds and yellows. Having a color set will help the scenes flow together.

Finally, here’s the video:

Blender Animation Update

April 10, 2012 / / Comments Off

I’ve been up north so n access to the internet. Fun trip away, I did have my laptop with me and worked on a little Blender.I haven’t drawn. Next week I’m spose to be back in Wellington and I’ll have a model on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. Looking forward to it. I’ll like to keep the Blender learning happen this term. I had a good talk with Andrew yesterday with ideas of what I could do.

 

Here’s an render of recent blender animations:

The first 5 secs is the model recent work I’ve been doing. These models can be seen in another recent test. This time it’s less animated (just the camera), but UV textures have been applied. I’m still trying to understand how UV textures work. I found this video that was a great help:

Changing the mapping coordinates from Generated to UV was what I was missing. The texture was being rendered – but not correctly.

Screenshots of the animation currently:

Overall shot of my workspace. It’s a bit messy but gives me lots to work with.

This shows how I traced my drawings – lining a cube in front – then extrude, rotate, and scale. Working in a 2d plain.

These are not correctly UV mapped yet but I plan to fix them. I’m not sure where this is going but I’ll keep experimenting and learning.

 

Blender Animation Test

April 4, 2012 / / Comments Off

I did a scribble in Andrews a6 visual diary. It was the first time I’d used a pencil all holidays. I’ve mostly been spending my time with Blender – creating animations. I imported some of my artwork into the program and traced around it. I’d like to explore the idea of a 2d world further with the help of my artwork and blender.

Can you spot my artwork in amongst the mess?

Creature Modeling

April 1, 2012 / / Comments Off

Still no drawing. This must be the longest time I’ve taken a break from it for years. That’s alright. I’ve been keeping busy with Blender – most of my time is spent on it (I did have play Brick Force a little today though!).

Here’s what I’ve been working with in Blender:

A simple creature model. Bones have been added and attached to the mesh. It’s animating fine! It was great to get into using bones in blender, the weight paint tool is especially handy for this.

Red material was added to the model, but a UV map would be best.

I got sick of working with that model so created this, it’s the same idea but many more limbs. This one isn’t animated so much – only small movements like legs and the spring on the top of the head moving up and down.

Modeling practice. I’m not sure what this is – it’s just been extruded, twisted and scaled. Maybe it could be a weapon of some sort?

Large poly count in this one, I was working towards a face of some sort. Looks like horns.

I’ve been enjoying Half Life.

2 pages
Newer posts