What's the difference?

These images were created using the latest Blender3D software and rendered through its new Cycles rendering system.

This new system takes the light source that you provide and repeatedly bounces that light on all surfaces. The older Blender rendering engine wasn't quite that sophisticated.

That's right, these shoes have no laces. But, ooh they're shiny.

Hair and shoes.

Hair is the worst part of modeling these characters. Trust me on this, people. The. Worst.

For the record, I'm learning how to model shoes properly. These particular shoes have no laces. Get over it.

Back to the modeling stage. ( It's what I do... )

This is hard work...

Creating a 3D model based on a real live human being can be hard. Hard, I say...

I was having trouble getting the mustache to render properly. Grrr...

Still not looking the way I would like, but it's close. Maybe even close enough.

Support Your Local Fine Artist

1) It's very rare that I purchase a print of artwork from anybody, let alone post a shot of it on my website. However I am trying to find ways to show some support to those struggling in the field of fine arts. ( The internet may be part of the problem, that's a whole other conversation. )

2) Can my nails be any longer? Seriously, I'm not tall enough to have these crazy narrow Arsenio Hall-like fingers, am I? It's just weird. Okay, I'm done.

Animated clip complete

So my little experiment is finished. Although the image is way too grainy for my taste, I'm rather pleased with the results. Perhaps, I'll pic another clip to re-do starting tomorrow.

Caution: Animator Guy at work.

So, there is this 3 1/2 minute video that I animated and posted on YouTube last year. I named it My O7 Project. Since posting it, I've learned a few new tricks, became aware of a few new techniques and now I'm curious about how they would apply to that year old video. Here is the 14 second clip that I'm focusing on, today.

The woman dancing was supposed to be a caricature of Janet Jackson. It's close, but not a very good job. The face wasn't done well at all. The fingers are stiff. Her hair is the wrong shape. Wrong, wrong, wrong. The man at the keyboard was supposed to be music producer Jimmy Jam Harris. Again, I should have done better.

So, here's the plan. First; use a more refined armature underlying each character. This armature will control the fingers as well as the facial movements if necessary.

Second; rebuild each character to make each one a little more life-like. That includes the faces, the textures and the clothing.

Third; rework the poses and choreography. Although I like what I did in the first video, after looking over the original Janet Jackson video of which these moves were based on, I now believe I can work this better than that first animation.

Oh, did I mention that I already started the process? Here's how it looks thus far with only the Janet character.     

The United States Postal Service is dumb.

Why do they constantly leave my packages slumped beside our dusty old garbage can in front of the basement door? No one lives in the basement! I may sound like a grouch, but Oscar's name does not appear anywhere on these packages. If they have trouble getting someone to answer, U.P.S. will actually leave the package with a next door neighbor. The Post Office, however, leaves it on top of the garbage. Classy. I'm finding it hard to believe that there's only one lowly mail carrier who's been treating all my deliveries like common rubbish. But this has been happening for years, now. Do they all need in-service training to help decipher the difference between a mail box, a mail slot and a garbage can? Ugh.
Okay, I'm done.