Adventures in CG

fourteenwings

[bloop]

Stormtroper

What software do you use for creating patterns? Is it GIMP or is there a more appropriate software for it?

VRoid's UVS are excellently laid out so it's not a biggie but with non-VRoid clothes I end up having trouble over mapping clothes patterns such that they're not curved weirdly or anything.

I haven't touched VRoid in a while, I could finish up that Reimu from earlier but I'm currently not too interested in working on something that's not going to be part of some project.

Day 3: Whew, this was quicker than I expected, it's only been three days and I'm almost done, it's nice to know I can do these things without big setbacks.
Day 15: Gosh, why is this part taking so long, I want to finish it today so I can finish up the lighting tomorrow and if nothing comes up maybe I can render it the next day.

I haven't started anything for Christmas yet, either. I have a couple ideas but I'm not sure if it'll do for a full project. As soon as I finish what I'm doing right now I'll start on it, I better do so soon if I don't want to rush it.

fourteenwings

What software do you use for creating patterns?

I use Jeta Logo Creator, which I downloaded forever ago and have found to be super useful for basic image manipulation. It comes with about 500 preloaded pieces of free clipart that can be manipulated and combined in lots of different ways. You can also insert your own different images and edit them basically the same way as what's preinstalled.

Personally I just find it really easy to use. Like, GIMP has a steep learning curve and I am nowhere near the skill level required to do much with it.

[bloop]

Stormtroper

I use Jeta Logo Creator, which I downloaded forever ago and have found to be super useful for basic image manipulation. It comes with about 500 preloaded pieces of free clipart that can be manipulated and combined in lots of different ways. You can also insert your own different images and edit them basically the same way as what's preinstalled.

Personally I just find it really easy to use. Like, GIMP has a steep learning curve and I am nowhere near the skill level required to do much with it.

(Late, but...) Ahh, I see. Thanks for the info, that program looks useful.
I've sometimes wondered about logo design, I'm not really into it but I'm sometimes curious regarding how to go about getting that consistent "icon look".

So, Merry Christmas!:

I thought I'd do something besides a Christmas tree this year, unfortunately I can't say it turned out how I wanted, perhaps if I had put more time into it I could've made it look less plain. Oh well.

Edit: In hindsight I could've tried to replicate this, it looks like a much better method than what I used to do (tree simulator).

fourteenwings

The bug sooort of looks like a turkey leg but that's really great! The rug texture looks awesome.

Actually, Stormtroper, literally the best wholly new thing I've learned this year is 3DCG and I really should thank you more for like the ridiculously simple way you opened the door for me re:vRoid.

Stormtroper

Ahhh, it's nothing.
I should perhaps disclaim that the cloth textures are a slight modification of stuff I got from cc0textures.com
Oh yeah, I noticed the turkey leg thing after rendering, that was a last minute decision where I thought the bug shouldn't be flat, so I rounded it up a bit and it ended up looking like that.
Come to think of it, the image could've used more Gruul red and green.

Stormtroper

Uff, I stayed very late working out the final part of my latest work but I did it. It also think it turned out nicely so after much deliberation I braved up and uploaded it to my ArtStation account, the one I linked to you guys in PMs.
In the process of looking at how to go about uploading it I realized that, for a reason that's now patently obvious, there's no way anything most people can make (including my stuff of course) is going to look good in comparison to much of the artwork on the same subject matter that it's going to sit next to.
Nonetheless I feel I achieved something in uploading it, it's a breakthrough for me to get over my shyness and subject it (and by extention, me) to potentially harsh criticism. If nobody posts about how much they hate it, I'll consider that a success.
An immediate effect is that I began to be followed by what I assume are script-managed accounts.
I'm considering posting it in other places too if nothing comes up.

fourteenwings

Oh wow that looks pretty cool! The textures are great too.

Stormtroper

Thanks, I try.
As expected, it didn't make a huge splash on the 'net, though just having a portfolio is enough to drive me into working on whatever so I can fill it with stuff, I've already been working on the next big thing (and thinking about several other similar things to do).

fourteenwings

For a while I've wanted to make a building or fully city street inspired by these uh... less than LEGit "building blocks" sets that have been floating around all over Amazon;



I also worked on this forever ago and just never got around to shading, so I finished it.



I was warned very clearly that the Warp tool is Not My Friend if I have my 3D cursor in the wrong place, so whilst my arches came out okay, the donut-ey type shapes don't connect all the way around properly, they're off by several degrees.

Again, I don't know exactly how I've gotten this far with such a limited real reference of exterior design but this also feels lacking in several respects.

On the bright side, I've gotten much better at world lighting.

Stormtroper

I like that low-poly look in the second one. There's something I find charming about low-poly models, something I rarely get right.
I don't think I've ever used the warp tool, in cases like that I'd normally use either the curve modifier or the simple deform modifier.

fourteenwings

I have no idea how to get simple deform to work for curves.

Stormtroper

Me neither, I meant using either modifier to bend a long object into the shape of an archway. Like this:

fourteenwings

Ah yeah, I did that for my Halloween cave.

Stormtroper

I just learned about this addon for screenspace global illumination for Eevee, I tried it out and whoa, it's as good as it looks. Sort of, I'm getting artifacts on a test scene I made, but I still feel it'll really come in handy.
I'm not sure if it'll be useful in the project I'm currently doing (it involves drivers on material nodes), but I'll try. If not, I'll probably come up with some other project idea specifically to use that addon.

Stormtroper

So after several weeks I'm finally done. Again, it's on my ArtStation account.
Things went super smoothly at first, but the first pitfall was when I failed to come up with a way to rig the whole thing so that it'd behave in a mechanically accurate way (due to Blender having no concept of an object's speed and no easy way of referring to object properties in previous frames), so I had to essentially hardcode some object's movements, which meant lots of room for error.
Later I had a bunch of trouble with performance, after a certain point my PC became sluggish and it was a crapshoot as to whether a render would succeed. I could still render it in a different computer but that wasn't as easily accessible.
Finally, the usual problems that I only find about after rendering. Due to the fact that it's an animation and that it's from multiple views, it took me several rerenders/recompositing through just over two week, doing when I had the chance.
I did notice some stuff problem with the resolution and choppy video by the end, but ehh, I posted anyways.
I did learn quite a bit doing this, however, so perhaps it wasn't a waste of time, I just wish I could get done with these things without causing so much frustration for myself.