Mastodawn

This month, I want to practice #Blender3D. My goal is to learn basic techniques and get faster at sculpting, so I'm going to make a simple model each day in June.

To keep this from being a huge time commitment, I'll limit myself to about one hour per model, cutting all the corners I need to make that happen. Sometimes this may involve posting a model half-finished and coming back to it the next day. I'll think of it like a 3D sketch.

To start off the month, I sculpted the Angel, copying his 2D sprite. This took at least two hours, maybe three. Whoops! 🙃

#B3D #Sketch #SketchADay #Run3

player_03 Jun 1, 2023

Hey #BlenderCommunity, is there a good hashtag for beginners to use? I'm going to talk about techniques I tried, tutorials I followed and how well they worked for me, etc.

player_03 Jun 1, 2023

Tracing the image was pretty easy overall. I think I may try to use this method more in the future.

The wings were the hardest part, because the 2D images have never made it clear what's going on there. Are the wings three big feathers or many smaller ones that happen to clump up? Or something else that got simplified down to three curves? I decided to try three angular "feathers" that are larger than the 2D versions but overlap a little.

One downside of tracing is, since the 2D sprite wasn't T-posing, the 3D model isn't either. If I wanted to animate it, I'd need to redo the arms.

#Blender3D #B3D

player_03 Jun 2, 2023

Today I sketched a blueprint for the Factory (the Angel's workplace). This took way longer than planned, and isn't finished, and I still don't know if I like the design.

It was all quite informative! I learned about the "geodesic domes" addon, which I used to help make the central structure. I also practiced using the subdivision surface modifier with edge creases, and learned to use array modifiers to generate rotated copies.

The modifiers were the MVP, no question. They meant that even after creating an object with twelvefold symmetry, I could easily go back and edit it.

Not that twelvefold symmetry was necessarily a good idea. This is already a very busy campus, and so far I only made enough buildings to connect to four of twelve exit points.

#Blender3D #SciFiArchitecture #Sketch #SketchADay

player_03 Jun 2, 2023

Today's #WritingWonders prompt asks if you took inspiration from real-world places. Even though I'm not doing WritingWonders this month, I still took a look at a couple structures for ideas. However, none of them caught my eye. Too modern, too boxy, not sci-fi enough... I can't tell you exactly what didn't click, they just didn't click.

In the end, the design above is entirely my own.

That said, I later stumbled across this image of a Spanish particle accelerator that's much closer to what I'm looking for. It isn't an exact fit, but I could absolutely use some elements. And maybe I will! Whenever I come back to this...

player_03 (@[email protected])

Attached: 1 video Today I sketched a blueprint for the Factory (the Angel's workplace). This took way longer than planned, and isn't finished, and I still don't know if I like the design. It was all quite informative! I learned about the "geodesic domes" addon, which I used to help make the central structure. I also practiced using the subdivision surface modifier with edge creases, and learned to use array modifiers to generate rotated copies. The modifiers were the MVP, no question. They meant that even after creating an object with twelvefold symmetry, I could easily go back and edit it. Not that twelvefold symmetry was necessarily a good idea. This is already a very busy campus, and so far I only made enough buildings to connect to four of twelve exit points. #Blender3D #B3D #Sketch #SketchADay

People Making Games

player_03 Jun 3, 2023

In the Angel's opinion, the best orders are clear and practical. You should include a description (with pictures) of the style you want and how you plan to use the item.

Example of a good order: a table and five chairs, to be anchored to the floor of a restaurant.

Example of a not-so-good order: forgetting to mention that you want them to retract into the floor, so you actually need the chairs to be flat on top, or at least fold over.

#Blender3D #Sketch #SketchADay #Run3

player_03 Jun 3, 2023

So far I've finished 0/3 sketches in under one hour. But this one only took about two hours IIRC. Progress!

player_03 Jun 4, 2023

Here's an example of a clear but impractical order: "Four thin orange ribbons, each about 1.5 meters long, that trail in the breeze to help improve running speed." Because that's exactly what every runner needs: more air drag. But somehow the customer was happy with the result, so the Angel counts that as a win.

Today I decided to play around with cloth simulation. It worked, but I'm pretty sure I could have made an armature-based animation that looked at least as good. (Not true of all cloth animations, just for ribbons/streamers like this.) More importantly, if I make an armature-based animation, I can actually use it in games.

#Blender3D #Sketch #SketchADay #Run3

player_03 Jun 5, 2023

I got a comment that yesterday's item (a set of ribbons) seemed rather non-industrial for the Factory. So today I figured I'd make something more mechanical.

Say what you want about the Architects, they know exactly what parts they need. Sometimes, that is boxes stuffed with extremely-shiny nuts and bolts. (No, they don't need the parts assembled, but thank you for asking.)

The order would actually include boxes of other sizes of nuts and bolts, as well as other types of parts, but my goal is still to get these "sketches" done in under an hour. I did better this time: it took less than two! And that's despite me stopping to look up how particles work.

#Blender3D #Sketch #SketchADay #Run3

player_03 Jun 7, 2023

Today I decided to revisit the table and chairs from June 3.

The problem was that the chair backs stuck up when the chairs were stowed. Quick fix: make the back detachable, fit it into the depression in the seat of the chair, and hold it in place with a magnet. Not a perfect solution (gotta be careful not to drop it), but the customer said to do it this way, so that's how it happened.

I'll be honest: I don't know what's going on at this restaurant. I just came back to this scene because it was a loose end to tie up, and I could get a bit of animation practice. Tomorrow I'll do something with character and/or plot relevance.

#Blender3D #Animation #Sketch #SketchADay #Run3

player_03 Jun 7, 2023

I tried vertex painting today, and discovered why it's less popular than texturing. I also ran out of time for posing, or to give him a jester hat, but at least I managed to draw a lopsided grin.

#Blender3D #CharacterDesign #Sketch #SketchADay #Run3

player_03 Jun 8, 2023

Hop.

#Blender3D #CharacterDesign #Animation #Sketch #SketchADay #Run3

player_03 Jun 10, 2023

I didn't feel up to putting effort into a model today, so this happened instead.

I don't know what it is, what it's for, or (if applicable) what it wants. I do recall how it came to be, not that I'll share.

Most likely, it's nothing of significance. But I don't yet know for sure.

#Blender3D #Sketch #SketchADay

player_03 Jun 11, 2023

I was going to model a whole new character today, but I got a late start, and then I got distracted trying different body shapes.

Background: due to gratuitous use of copy-paste, characters in the Run series have always been the same shape (slightly-flat sphere). And sure, they're aliens, maybe it's justified. Perhaps I could even turn it into a story about the difficulty of standing out and/or finding your identity when you look exactly like everyone else.

But I'd rather have a little more diversity. Not huge differences, but just enough that I can no longer get away with copy-pasting. (And I can still tell the identity story if I want.)

#Blender3D #CharacterDesign #Sketch #SketchADay #Run3

player_03 Jun 12, 2023

Meet the Digger, the third member of the Angel's small friend group. Shown here watching a week's worth of excavation collapse, knowing full well she could have prevented it with more shoring. (And knowing that the others are going to say "told you so.")

Process notes: I'm still experimenting with torso shapes here. Tried a new one rather than using either of yesterday's, but I'm not sure how much I like it. Or maybe the torso is fine and I got the eye wrong, I don't know.

Starting to get the hang of vertex painting, at least.

#Blender3D #CharacterDesign #Sketch #SketchADay #Run3

player_03 Jun 12, 2023

Today I played around with shader nodes and made a shovel. It's meant to look like it was cut out of a sheet of carbon fiber, though the texture is barely visible after video compression. (Rather than fixing my compression settings, I figured I'd just take a close-up picture.)

I don't think the shovel is actually carbon-fiber-reinforced polymer, because a sci-fi setting ought to have access to better options than plastic, but I can't deny that CFRP looks cool.

#Blender3D #Sketch #SketchADay #Run3

Carbon-fiber-reinforced polymers - Wikipedia

player_03 Jun 13, 2023

Thinking of different ways to move large items around the Factory. The standard would be a conveyor belt, right? Maybe as part of an assembly line?

I don't think that's the right answer in this case, but I had about half an hour to work with, so I sketched it up.

#Blender3D #Animation #Sketch #SketchADay #Run3

player_03 Jun 14, 2023

Another way to move items is through a series of tubes. Think of those clear tubes Aperture Laboratories uses all over the place. Or think of real life pneumatic tubes.

Either way, I don't think this solution is very practical for the Factory. They want to transport items of all sizes, and pneumatic tubes work best for small items in small cylindrical containers that match the width of the tube. Plus they want at least one access hatch per room, rather than always transporting the item all the way to the other end of the tube.

In this animation, the container does not match the width of the tube, so it probably needs small wheels instead. And at that point, you might as well use a cart.

But hey, I can't deny that clear tubes look cool. So they aren't out of the running just yet!

#Blender3D #Animation #Sketch #SketchADay #Run3

Pneumatic tube - Wikipedia

player_03 Jun 16, 2023

Today I spent some time getting used to inverse kinematics. The hardest part was getting the arms not to poke into the icosahedron.

Will I use this? Not as-is, certainly. It strikes me as an inefficient way to transport items. However, with a couple tweaks it could be useful to hold items in midair. I'll definitely revisit the concept.

#Blender3D #InverseKinematics #Animation #Sketch #SketchADay #Run3

player_03 Jun 17, 2023

I was planning to redo my model of the Angel from the start of the month, but after starting I decided to pivot to a new character. I want to find the limits of what works before settling on any character designs. Otherwise I'll be limiting myself more than necessary.

I've talked a bit about these characters' bodies might change as they grow old. They might get lankier or stubbier, and I never settled on which.

For today, I tried the stubby version. The idea here is that the torso keeps growing, so the arms, legs, antennae, and face seem smaller in comparison.

#Blender3D #CharacterDesign #Sketch #SketchADay #Run3

player_03 (@[email protected])

Attached: 3 images This month, I want to practice #Blender3D. My goal is to learn basic techniques and get faster at sculpting, so I'm going to make a simple model each day in June. To keep this from being a huge time commitment, I'll limit myself to about one hour per model, cutting all the corners I need to make that happen. Sometimes this may involve posting a model half-finished and coming back to it the next day. I'll think of it like a 3D sketch. To start off the month, I sculpted the Angel, copying his 2D sprite. This took at least two hours, maybe three. Whoops! 🙃 #B3D #Sketch #SketchADay #Run3

People Making Games

player_03 Jun 18, 2023

Hat.

#Blender3D #CharacterDesign #Animation #Sketch #SketchADay #Run3

player_03 Jun 18, 2023

I mentioned carts as a possibility for moving things around, but what if said carts were also robots?

These were inspired by Kiva Systems' robots, but with tweaks. Partially because the Factory has different needs, and partially because I forgot what the robots looked like. (In case you're wondering why I linked to such an old video, Kiva has since been acquired by Amazon and no longer has any need to make promo videos.)

#Blender3D #Animation #Sketch #SketchADay #Run3

player_03 Jun 20, 2023

Yesterday I discovered how nice it was to have an already-rigged model on hand, so today I decided to make another. I remade my Angel model from June 1, taking less time and getting more done.

The old model is the greyscale one with the disappointed expression. The new model is the colorful one with the disappointed expression.

The Angel is capable of other expressions, and the new model is capable of rendering them, but I wanted a side-by-side comparison.

#Blender3D #CharacterDesign #Sketch #SketchADay #Run3

player_03 Jun 21, 2023

Did another rig today, this time for the Digger. I was going to do a whole animation of twirling the shovel around and then sticking it into the ground, but it turns out that managing the arms is hard enough for a single still image. Maybe some other day.

Instead of doing an animation, I tried a couple new things with the design.

#Blender3D #CharacterDesign #Sketch #SketchADay #Run3

player_03 Jun 22, 2023

So carbon fiber is supposed to be this tough but lightweight material. It got me thinking, there's another way to get items like that from point A to point B.

#Blender3D #Animation #SketchADay #Run3

Quintillion Games Jun 16, 2023

@player_03 This looks like so much to play around with!