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Today I learned to not move things around in Edit Mode because it leaves the origin behind.
I meant proportional edit mode which is this thing;
I ended up using the "Grab" sculpting tool instead and I think it works better anyways.
Skill: Sculpting Lvl Up!!! 1-...1.5?
Also I finally learned (by accident) that the knife tool lets go of your cursor if you right-click. The knife tool scares me.
Anyways, this is what I've got so far: a Medieval well!
No materials, no renders, I'm still working on creating roof lattices (a thing I have no idea how to do) and properly linking materials so that I don't have to individually color in each row of blocks.
Re:Proportional Edit Mode, since I used Grab mode on my roof tiles, they look very good. However, the top layer of the well itself sort of looks okay at this angle but goodness sakes it looks like a mess from top down view. I need to practice more with proportional edit mode.
In Addition; 14w learned Modifier: Solidify!!!
...
I just now noticed that my right support beam is poking right out of my roof tiles...
I probably won't do any additional work this weekend but I will get back to it eventually.
As for lattices, I remember having had problems with similar things at some point but I figured out what to do. It's a bit involved so I made a how-to.
Note: That weird effect at the outer faces (z-fighting) can be fixed by moving those faces a little bit outwards.
Also, if you're going to UV unwrap something that you intend to duplicate (or apply an array modifier or something like that), you'll want to UV unwrap it before duplicating it. It shouldn't matter on that lattice since cubes come pre-unwrapped, but for other stuff it's a potential pitfall.
However, a lot of the advice about reference images misses the mark for me. A lot of tutorials say to keep "checking" your reference image as you work, but I think that's a bit much. It's a reference, not a direct copy.
The reason I'm looking into references is so I can get a feel of how rooms and spaces work for later solo work. The theory is I never needed such things when I worked in LEGO, so I don't need them now!
At some point I want to create an entryway with a double staircase for a particular sequence, and I realized that whilst I had some basic concept to work with my mind couldn't create the specifics from scratch because I'd never really paid direct attention to those sorts of sets before.
So in my head I wanted to go for the first option, but then there's the second one, and when I saw the third more modern style I really liked it too...
There's a couple of details that totally slipped my mind, like the chandelier, so I'm glad I checked.
However, there's very few choices for "Music Show Greenroom" that aren't just pictures of Fergie.
In addition, Googling "medieval well" results almost entirely in CG renditions. This isn't just Google tracking me, as one of the frequently searched options is "medieval well real".
Vaguely related; I thought that boucle was the parallel faux-tartan fabric that Chanel used, but it's actually the sewing technique and so now I can't google the fabric to use in clothing designs.
Unrelated: I think that having very artistic fingers would really give one a leg up in CG work when it comes to making humanoids, and frankly I only really have like... cutesy level artistic fingers, so we'll see how any potential non-vRoid humanoids come out in a few months...
Whether copying or not, unless one has photographic memory or something references are always useful, it's really hard for there to not be important details that we don't normally pay attention to elsewhere. Probably related: By the time I started I already had some experience with CAD programs, something I thought would help me with 3D modeling. As it turns out I had to unlearn much of the CAD stuff to relearn the art version of it.
And yeah, having artistic fingers is super useful for sculpting characters (or sculpting anything for that matter). It's the main reason I wanted to get good at drawing.
I understand that, but I always think that after the recreation stage, the next is getting pushed over the edge to see how you can function on your own. I mean, this probably takes years of work (and significant study of interior design at the very least), but still.
In interior design at least, a common practice is to have a "mood board" of ideas. Full spaces, different fabrics, etc. I am planning on developing a number of those at uh... some point!
Plus, I should probably not be wary of some copying because that certainly covers a lot of "I wish I could use this image/whatever but it's covered by copyright".
I was actually looking at the middle image there and thinking that at my current pace of work it would take like 2 weeks to complete. Plus I'd have no idea how to achieve those decent-looking bends in the metal frames.
In the same frame of mind, from what I've learned so far hasn't covered creating any plush or soft things, which will be necessary for couches, beds, and etc. I assume it's because I'm still in "Low-Poly" studies, and the presumed future "High-Poly" classes will help with such things.
I started watching this tutorial on world lighting, and I kept getting confused between textures and backgrounds and then images, so I managed to do nothing (but learn, I guess <_<).
Then I remembered the rogue plank of wood and I tried to modify it but the roof was inside a lattice and the lattice had caught the wood and I was constantly manipulating the lattice whilst wondering what I'd done wrong (I'd Ctrl+P'd at an inopportune time) so I basically had no idea why everything was even misbehaving so things got really weird and etc etc etc
So here we are again.
This song perfectly encapsulates how I felt before and after my three hours of work (well just the lyrics and not the part where I presumably break into dubstep dancing).
Oh, definitely, it's common for artists (not just 3D ones) to keep a collection of references that they can draw inspiration from. For that kind of line "tubes" work the skin modifier is very handy. You may also want to work on it as if they were laid straight over a flat floor, then use a curve modifier to have it bend over the stairs.
I've been playing with fire lately. I can now make a workable fire shader in Eevee, although it likely won't turn out better than simply using this one.
I think I did a pretty good job, though maybe I should have bevelled the wood slightly.
A camera/lighting tutorial suggested all I needed to do was change the clipping distance on my camera from 100 to 1000, but Blender no comprende sizes above 100. I ended up just changing the camera size to prevent the mass clipping I was experiencing.
There is a way to turn the background transparent despite what I've done with the world lighting, but I've completely forgotten what menu it was under.
In the tutorials I watched the rope was created by single-cylinder then loop-cuts then bevels then setting "Individual Origins" in the same object. Whenever I tried that I experienced my common problem with beveling, ie these mysterious "magic crystals".
These would actually look super cool if I was making a mecha or something. I'll remember that beveling the wrong way frequently results in super cool looking things.
As for ropes (and candles and the frosting line thing on cakes), I've always found it easier to create its transversal section using a few circle meshes, then use a screw modifier to give it its length, then a curve modifier to shape it around.
Alternatively, extrude the transversal section add several loop cuts and selecting the vertices on one edge, rotate it around its axis using proportional edit mode on linear and affecting all vertices except maybe the last ones. Then the curve modifier thing.
Total time: 3hrs
First of all; I realized that shadow-boxes are extremely easy to create using single cubes, but trying to extrude single faces in an object you've taken apart somewhat results in some weirdness.
I also realized how extremely useful sunlights are considering you can put them literally anywhere or even lose them inside a wall.
I really wanted to create some transparency at the windows, at the top of sconces, and with the shower but I ran out of time so the shower just has no full walls.
I think the cabinet in the middle could really benefit from more definition. I did alright with the marble top, but the little drawers and side drawer should have been extruded and maybe bevelled a little. The outline of the cabinet overall probably needs some extruding too.
There is a point light somewhere that's supposed to be the sun streaming out of a window but eeeeeeehhh I dun lost it (which is why the reflection on the right is so loud).
Mainly today I learned that Cylinders サイコ！！ they are your friends and will never ever disappoint you.
I didn't realize I was going for a nautical theme until some of the way in, and that mainly applies to the menagerie of items on the dresser anyways.
I used an darn it I forget... an ICO sphere (or the other sort of sphere), to create the plant, but I realized too late that I didn't rotate it so the leafy bits were in front and I hid my "hahaha magic crystal bevel" shame in the back.
I need to get better at the bend modifier. Maybe I need more segments to each object so the result doesn't look so blocky.
There's no toilet because this isn't LEGO Friends.
Anyways, here's the moodboard I used for this project.
The mirror is copied wholesale from the one image because I just loved it that much. I hadn't realized that I didn't include the picture I found where I wanted to have a light behind the mirror but then I realized I'd have to spend 90 hours doing the lighting/walls because I am not great at lighting yet so I left it for some other time.
Guess how sore my right hand feels!
a) very
b) quite
c) all
I need to set an alarm to remember to take breaks every hour or half-hour.
There's this thing called Animation Nodes, it's been on the works for ages. Despite the name, it's useful for lots of things besides animations. I never got the hang of, but judging from my YouTube's recommendations it's been getting significant attention lately. I think I'll work on learning it this weekend.
I did get some learning done. I remembered why is it that I was unable to get into Animation Nodes earlier, the thing is complicated enough as it is, and with the lack of good info/documentation/tutorials on it plus the undevelopment it wasn't worth the effort back then. Nonetheless one bad tutorial later I think I'm getting the hang of it.
I tried to make a Serpinski triangle:
Trippy fail-but-I-thought-it-looked-cool #1:
Not pictured: several accidental swastikas.
Trippy fail-but-I-thought-it-looked-cool #2:
Success!:
Though from the node tree you may notice that I don't know how to create recursive loops yet.
Inspired by this tutorial I also made lotsa spaghetti:
I couldn't think of a way to make it not anti-gravity, though I can lessen the effect by creating an extra spaghetti layer that follows the guide mesh's surface. The ghostly shading can be fixed by not using Eevee.
I can see why people have high hopes for this. Normally I don't like visual scripting languages (they get messy very quickly) but I recognize this is looking to be very useful, being a very quick and interactive way to do the equivalent of scripting.
It's as the old saying goes: All of life's problems can be made easier with linear algebra.
I noticed that the official site has like a giant manual and considering where my Blending skills are right now I was just wholly confused.
I really like Trippy Fail #1, looks like a background in some futuristic battle anime.
I haven't done much learning myself as of late, just working on a project;
Project:"Store in Miami"
Time:8-9hrs/3days
This is my Cycles image and there's a lot of grain in there. It was like this in my render window too, but I thought my computer was just failing to handle everything and it'd come out better in the render. This might have to do with all the lights I have in this shot.
Same shot in Eevee, looks much better.
I think the only thing really giving away the fact that this is beginner work are the mannequins. The arms just wouldn't come out right and I have to admit I ended up just doing separate objects and then joining them rather that attempting joints because no modifiers were coming out right.
The mannequin with the skirt on looks much better than the one in jeans. I think it's because pants require much more geometry than I was willing to give.
I think my camera is acting weird because I chose to build this in an L-shape on the axis (mainly because trying to do it in a V shape meant I had to remember to change the axis of each object I was moving about).
I wonder if I should have just copy-pasted the first mannequin, because I think it looks pretty good for like... five cylinders.
I really need to learn how to smooth edges without bevelling. I assume the key lies in sculpting but the sculpting tools still scare me a bit.
Honestly I was going to make hangers but I have no real skill with the bend modifier yet and I'd also made the top rail way too big and fixing it kept resulting in weirdness. I should have probably gotten rid of it and replaced it with a skinny cylinder but these are the sorts of solutions you have post-fact.
The background images there are things I worked on in Vroid.
I've been failing to assign images to objects at the correct alignment and that's all I managed.
For example, the three images on the wall (and the main feature of this whole build) here were all meant to be one image that carried over from cube to cube but that did not work out so I ended up just using different images all across.
I made two different lights because I thought one style would be odd and misplaced;
They lit up pretty well with emissions.
Might have worked in Cycles, but I'd have still had to add lights to the front because everything not a Sun light doesn't carry effects across spaces very well.
I have speakers everywhere because I kept thinking of the time I build Andrea's Accessories Store in LEGO Friends, specifically the line "It's not shopping if nobody is blaring Taylor Swift's 'New Brickmantics' at you".
I didn't realize till later that this is primarily cylinders again, with a few cubes (most prominently the building itself.
My moodboard;
I'm surprised that, with this, my final outcome was so dark and didn't even include the image in the background.
It doesn't get much better than the bevel modifier. There's also the bevel operator and in the case of objects with a subsurf modifier on them, the edge crease operator or manually setting up loops around the edges (both of these reduce the effect of the modifier on that edge, at high-but-not-max values it becomes a smooth edge).
There's also beveled shaders available online but they're not always easy to combine with shaders you'd use otherwise.
I just stick with the modifier.
I should probably get this out of the way anyways; what is Sculpting really good for that can't be done elsewhere? I don't want to run into some wall eventually, stuck because of my insurmountable fear of sculpting that I've nurtured like some part of my very being.
Dressmaker's mannequins usually don't have heads. Mainly, I had a feeling that learning to make even mannequin heads is a project separate from doing something else.
I should look into this.
That can't be done elsewhere? Hi-poly modeling: working with models with literally millions of vertices, where even if your computer can manage to work in edit mode with it (it wasn't made for that purpose) it just stops being feasible to move densely-packed vertices individually or in small groups.
More generally, sculpting is a lot like free-hand drawing: when sculpting you don't worry about things like face count, texture mapping or topology*, you just select a tool, click/draw on the model and something happens.
Perhaps it's easier to see by watching one of the thousand sculpting timelapse videos on YouTube:
When you feel like facing your fears: take a cube, subdivide it 5-6 times (real subdivision, not the subsurf modifier), go to Sculpt Mode and click around and see what happens, then experiment using different tools.
.* If you haven't already, you'll probably want to learn early on about topology, it can cause problems down the line when modeling or using a subsurf modifier so it helps to at least being mindful that it's a thing. Something like this:
First of all, I figured out transparency!
Next, my latest project.
Name: Atelier
Time: 5hrsish?/2days
I realize my facade theme might have been much, and I should have probably gone with a less stark color.
The outer shell was actually built as four separate cubes because I wanted to do a lot of work everywhere and single cubes don't divy up well.
I realize my windows maaaaaaay be a little too transparent.
An overview of all the real work. If you squint, you'll see some reused elements. Whilst importing/exporting these I learned that Blender exports the whole scene and not just the element you have selected, so that was annoying.
I guess I just have to build lots of tiny things for lot and lots of reuse.
The atelier has two floors. The main workspace and an area for entertaining clients make up the bottom floor. The top floor is an office-space.
The chairs are cylinders because my word I was feeling lazy by the point I finally got round to them. They look somewhat cool, but they could use a ton of finishing. The dark patch on the wall is meant to be the door, but I forgot that those not only have frames, but also tiny notches where you can see the split in the middle. Eh, next time.
Other side. Why yes that is the clothing rack from my store. Annoyingly enough, I'd used my MMD Textures tool on too many fabrics and so they didn't have the right nodes to transfer over and read filepaths, but I did a bit of stuff and it worked out.
Closer look at the workspace with a table and two standing fabric holders.
Outside view through the window because for danged sakes I figured out transparency!
Upstairs there's an area for working on new ideas, with a canvas and another set of fabrics, as well as a desk for business stuff.
The desk and chair are each a single cube. The desk is one object because I was not really feeling up to starting work on yet another cube so I just faked the laptop. There should really be a printer on there or something but as you'll notice I was very light on details everywhere. Probably why this didn't take too much time.
Another shot of the office area.
Moodboard;
Biggest ideas I cribbed off of were the exterior and the canvas, but the color-scheme comes straight from the image on the right.
I wonder if I should have gone with a darker overall scheme for the walls so everything stood out more...
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oh darn I forgot stairs <_<
(The difference between appending and linking is that modifying a linked item in the original file changes the item in every file it's linked to, which may be what you want if building an objects library.)
If exporting to .fbx or anything, there's usually an "export selected objects only" option in the export menu.
I said using Animation Nodes is a lot like programming, but I've been finding limitations that greatly change how you'd approach some issue that'd be straightforward in a programming language (algol ones, anyways), namely I'm finding it very hard to work with loops to do anything that isn't doing the same thing on each element of a list, for example
I can't figure out how to get the index of the smallest element of a list of floats.you can do that, but it's far from straightforward. Using boolean logic for anything other than setting a value is also kind of contrived.I tried recreating two addons I had made already, one to place objects onto meshes, that I never got around to finishing in good part because I didn't know what I wanted out of it. With Animation Nodes I'd say I got kind of far but the addon kind of tries to do too much (options and stuff) for it to work out.
The other addon I tried to make was the frill one I posted about on the other thread years ago, I remember that was a programming mess so recreating it wouldn't be a bad idea (though I hope I haven't lost it), however I couldn't even get started with it using Animation Nodes, I couldn't figure out how to make it detect border edges after trying out things using more or less every available node.
I kinda don't want to criticize Animation Nodes too much, it's inmensely useful for lots of things that it can do faster than scripting, and interactively so, it's just that it not Everything Nodes, as I was treating it a week ago. Nonetheless I think I'm used to them to the point I can figure out what to do with them as the opportunities come up.
On other stuff, I'm almost done with an animation I've been working on but I'm having trouble turning it into a gif so as to post it here, and I should be sleeping, I guess it'll be tomorrow.
So neither of us forgets!
1. Turn the "Transmission" in the Principal BDSF up to the desired extent.
2. Click the side-context menu inside the node window and turn on "Screen Space Refractions"
3. If that doesn't work, go to the Render Properties tab and also turn on "Screen Space Refractions".
It's all I ever did with LEGO too.
Thanks! I'll keep it in mind.
楽しみにしています！！
I got into a winning streak on MTGA that I had to keep going.Anyhows, some would object to the idea that the end justifies the means but I had to take extreme measures so as to be able to share it here, thus I uploaded it on YouTube.
I made a Brownian ratchet!:
It's something I've tried to do ages ago more than once, though I always ran into trouble trying to get the physics working, something that I now know is because I was using object constraints instead of rigid body constraints because of course.
I wasn't intending to use Animation Nodes at first, but turns out it's a convenient way to create those spheres.
Now that it's done, maybe I should've made the animation longer.
Disclaimer: You may notice the particles/balls don't move in straight lines. I initially intended to move unaffected by anything besides bouncing but it looked terrible so I had them affected by a random turbulent force. I don't know to which extent that's a good simulation of inter-molecular forces.
Also I never managed to figure out how to make the vertical rope/weight play nice with the axle's rotation, as you may have noticed.
Stormtroper has learned skill: Rigid Body Constraint!
We all have to compromise our morals sometimes.
That's really cool and actually very smooth/pretty! I'm always surprised at how very pretty things look in Blender...
What you've done already is extremely impressive but even I know the urge to just keep on going.
Plus there's the language barrier and the pixiv account I've never used for anything other than looking at stuff plus plus I'm not sure what the policy on using premade patterns is so I'd need to start looking into drawing my own more often.
Speaking of, I was going to have my vRoid project have four female (Lady Star, Luciana Giga, Hayley and Shultz) and three male characters, but so far I've only worked on one male character and I didn't really do much with him.
Meet Norwegian/German aspiring model Theodore "Todd" Ludger!
He's supposed to be nice and kind. A newbie in the industry, and his "rival" is supposed to be another more experienced (though slightly younger) guy, but once again I forgot to turn off auto-blink and by George did he end up looking smug;
I'm seriously considering using this as an avatar sometime.
I don't recognize those poses, did you pose them yourself? They look cool like that. From what I've seen, the best way to do so is to know how they're drawn on 2D art, then paint them on a 3D painting software like Blender's Texture Paint mode.
There's also the cloth simulator but I've always found it painful to use.
Anyhows, to save some effort I suggest painting the shadows on a different lauer and reusing it on similar clothes, as with the mask I made earlier.
As for me...
I tried to recreate a certain MtG card but failed to get the camera orientation right (I think the artist used some weird perspective, but it could be my camera settings were way off).
I also learned to use the fluids simulator on the latest versions, I had tried to already but failed, however now I know it's because it works very wonkily with the physics cache and will often not update when you expect it to.
Besides those, I've been feeling kind of uninspired/unmotivated lately. Hmm...
Yeah I did. I always try to pose characters myself unless I'm feeling very lazy.
Ah, the camera. Friend or foe? Nobody knows...
thatfeel.sucks
Well I actually have started work on something I find oddly uncomfortable; performance stages. They're much different from interiors, they have to be less busy and yet eye-catching, so it's slightly uncomfortable for me in a way. The empty space makes me antsy.
So I tried my hand at a project:
Name: The Cathedral
Time: darn I forgot to set-up the timer plugin even though I downloaded it, but probably 2-3 hours
This was actually inspired by a scene from Magatsu Warheit Zuerst that I saw last week;
but also somewhat by the Chu Chu Ballerina stage from Aikatsu! Akari Generation entirely because that's the only frame of reference I have for this sort of scene.
Both inspirations I worked through memory alone because I felt to lazy to move stuff (ie literal jpegs) around.
I didn't want it to be like... a church, so I mostly lifted the Chu Chu Ballerina color scheme instead. I have four lights just set on the main stage and man that was making Eevee wonk out real hard in terms of angles, but somehow Cycles worked out.
My 2nd floor windows look painfully amateur, and I think doors and windows are really going to be a learning curve for me. I also thought, insanely, that I'd set my windows on my plane rather than my door frames.
To be fair, I did set my windows on the giant door and was rewarded with a lot of Z-fighting I didn't notice until my renders were done.
No lights (only one and it's a default rig light). I wish I could have held on to this look more so the Emissions just killed it with their prettiness. I probably could have if I'd used a Sun Light turned way down (ie I just thought of this), but that would mean less colors.
Also, for my stained glass, I think I'll try using a texture and rigging emissions on top. I don't know if that's a thing that works, but I'll at least try.
I think overall this needs a lot of work, or even possibly just a rework from the ground up.
The most straightforward solution to the stained glass would be to create actual stained glass: create a plane, give it thickness, use the Glass shader (i.e. not the Principled BSDF shader), have it colored by whatever and have a sun light cast light through it. Unfortunately this will murder your render times.
However, what imo makes churchy glass panels look like churchy glass panels is not the glass itself, but the light beams/God light they produce, that means adding volumetrics (i.e. fog) to the scene so that the light that passes through the stained glass has something to reflect on. Unfortunately this will murder your render times.
There's also some light portal things used on windows to help with render times but I've never used them. Like this.
I've found good it useful to fake stained glass (and similar) by using Emission shaders on the panels. I also like to fake that sort of light streaks by creating its shape (in this case an elongated cube) and use an Emission shader as volume (i.e. set to "Volume" output instead of "Surface"), though I think I'm the only person who does that, whenever I see it being done it's either the real thing (like above) or it's done in compositing, like here.
In conclusion: interior lighting is hard.
Edit: Also, I tried using the latest Blender version (2.91) but it's crashing with an access violation error as soon as I try to run it.
Edit edit: Also, I tried the timer addon but it's not working properly, it's not showing up and on the console it recommends the release version instead (presumably that's the paid one). I tried another addon and it's not working either, I think for now I'll just keep track of time in my mind.
It is Cycles, after all.
I had been working on some stuff (mostly sculpting), I was halfway done but I wasn't convinced that it'd turn alright, I faced some problems and was certain there'll be more issues to come, so I kinda wanted to stop and move on to other stuff.
Part of the problem is my computer (that topic keeps coming up, doesn't it?), after a couple million vertices it kinda becomes a serious hindrance. A friend keeps telling me to buy another computer, but ehh, the longer I wait, the better/cheaper they get. And I found out that 2.91 includes a bunch of sculpt-related features that would've been useful if only I could run it.
Also, I seem to get unexpectedly good results when making bio-mechanical monsters (namely, MtG's Phyrexians), perhaps I should try my hand at that more often?
While making some crack pattern I got in the mood to try and create a stained-glass-like shader, so I did, unfortunately I didn't get farther than I did some other time I tried that I posted about eons ago, but I did get this effect that I thought looked cutesy:
Moreover, I also found that taking an image texture, moving it a bit, finding the difference between it and the original and using it as a displacement input makes for a workable engrave effect:
Without passing it through a displacement node (which sounds like it should be wrong but I think it looks better):
I also made a(nother? I may have made one before already) stencil/levels node, so as to make a texture use a limited amount of manually selected colors. I'd like to make it automatically choose suitable colors but I don't think that's possible.
Nonetheless I'm not satisfied with it, I ran into trouble making it based on difference in HSV rather than RGB and with RGB the results aren't as expectable as I'd like. In the process of writing that I thought of something that might've coused the issue, that wasn't it but while at it I found the real cause of the problem. Here it is fixed:The basis of the node group, putting several of these together allows for more colors:
(I don't remember if I posted about this already, but the other day I learned that on Eevee one can create a flat shader by plugging a color output into the surface input of the output node, thus not having to pass it through an Emission BSDF node.)
I really like the light engraved effect but the full on stencil is brilliant.
I should do some CG at all sometime soon.