Structure Going Down

Grumman Goose

2012-01-13T11:58:00.000-08:00

Hoarfrost

2012-01-12T11:29:00.000-08:00

You really have to look at this full size to see the ice particles. Yes, I actually named the sword.

Edit: Added cropped versions

Jaguar: Begin

2012-01-11T12:17:00.000-08:00

I'm not dead and I haven't given up Blender. I was just taking a break. Coming back with a start on a Jaguar.

Shield

2011-12-20T12:40:00.000-08:00

This might look familiar. The glass isn't clearing up despite the number of passes. I'm wondering if Luxrender might do a better job.

Sword

2011-12-19T13:39:00.001-08:00

This started out as an "ice" sword but I couldn't get the ice looking right. It basically looked like a fuzzy glass sword. In the end I switched to regular materials just so it wasn't hideous when I posted it.

Mark V: Cycles

2011-12-15T12:52:00.001-08:00

Tested the Mark V in the Cycles renderer. Not as realistic as Luxrender, but not as painfully slow either. A definite improvement over the Blender Internal renderer.

Kiddie Pool update

2011-12-15T09:05:00.000-08:00

Removed the funky grass and updated the dirt texture.
Added some rocks and pebbles on the dirt.
Added some stains to the wall and adjusted the color.
Moved the spigot into the wall.
Made the flowers on the pool less metallic.
Added displacement to the pool mesh (it was a bit too perfect).

Kiddie Pool

2011-12-14T13:35:00.000-08:00

Something I am working on. I had a plan with the Mark V helmet, but as always I was sidetracked. This stands alone in its own right. The grass is a bit dreadful, but I'm finding grass is a pain to do. I think I will avoid it in the future.

Mangler + Peacemaker

2011-12-13T13:19:00.001-08:00

I've been working toward this. I was sidetracked by Frosty, but that actually helped motivation a bit. The Mangler now has his hands on the peacemaker. Perhaps I should work on giving him proper clothes and a face. . .

Marshal Frosty: Final - No Really!

2011-12-13T11:14:00.000-08:00

Here it is:

Fixed the nose as the displacement map was thrown off when I changed it for the head.
Fixed the leather texture.

Marshal Frosty: More Changes

2011-12-13T06:56:00.000-08:00

I can't leave well enough alone. . .

Noticed some more issues last night.
There was some duplication of bumps on his head, body, and base. I removed them by using a separate displacement texture for the head and spinning the base around a bit. Using the different displacement texture for the head allowed me to adjust the degree of it, since it seemed a bit more drastic when compared to the body and base. I smoothed out some of the dips.

Because I rotated the base I ended up having to adjust the belt slightly to account for the different bumps. I also adjusted the buckle as the belt was traveling through part of it. I ended up making the end of the belt a little more narrow (flat) since it appeared thicker than the rest of the belt.

The kerchief was bothering me since it lay flat against him like a piece of paper. I added some ripples in the cloth to help.

I adjusted the textures slightly on the right arm as there appeared to be a little stretching near the fingers (twigs) and in the crook of the elbow.

And I managed to crash my system, most likely due to overheating since cycles is rather processor intensive. Nothing lost really, since I save after almost every change I make due to Blender's nasty tendency to crash at the worst times.

Marshal Frosty: Final

2011-12-12T13:31:00.000-08:00

I think this is the final image. I'll probably sit on it a couple days before submitting to be sure it doesn't need any more tweaking.

Changes:
I rebuilt the hat and gun models (gun is actually half a gun now - and less polys than the original Peacemaker).
Fixed the textures on the arms (and adjusted the far hand a bit).
Fixed the kerchief to be a little more square and adjusted the textures.
Fixed hat texture and added lace band.
Hat sits a little lower and a little more forward on the head now.
Darkened the leather texture.
Lightened the wood handle of the gun (still can't see the wood grain. . .).
Used sculpting to add dips where the coal, carrot, and sticks enter the snow.
Changed the snow texture to be more snow-like.

Marshal Frosty version 2

2011-12-09T13:27:00.000-08:00

Since I was told that Frosty looked like he was made out of towels I changed this texture slightly to make him less towel-like.

I think I'm going to rebuilt my props to submit this image. The hat is rather simple, but the peacemaker will take a bit more time.

Marshal Frosty

2011-12-09T11:55:00.000-08:00

This was created for the snowman contest over at Blender Cookie. Unfortunately, they changed the rules, after I already reached this point, to say you couldn't include previous work (which the PeaceMaker and the Hat are). I may go back and recreate those items as I kinda like this image, but I'm not sure it is worth it. Anyway, you can enjoy this image in the meantime.

Updated Fighter scene

2011-12-08T11:10:00.000-08:00

Added some barrels and a power generator. The scene was a little lacking, in my opinion.

Fighter Cycles Render

2011-12-07T13:42:00.000-08:00

Tested out Cycles on my fighter.

Mangler's new hat

2011-12-07T10:09:00.001-08:00

I updated the dismal hat that the Mangler was wearing.

Pocket Watch

2011-11-18T12:39:00.000-08:00

The Mangler needs a pocket watch to know when it is time to mangle another Manatee. Here is one rendered in Cycles. The brass material needs a little work. No black artifacts this time. I think they show up when there is heavy caustics.

Mangler

2011-11-18T07:52:00.000-08:00

I downloaded the male basemesh from Blender Cookie and then followed the rigging tutorial on Blender Guru. After that I added a couple low poly objects and set a pose. All in all, not too bad for a first go. The Manatee Mangler is happy.

Marbles

2011-11-15T08:31:00.000-08:00

Messing with Cycles again. Still having the same problem with black artifacts. I'm wondering if I am doing something wrong or if the program is just not mature enough. I removed the artifacts by hand in Gimp.

Lightsaber Emitter

2011-11-01T07:35:00.000-07:00

You couldn't see it from the previous render, but the lovely wire mesh that is wrapped around the Retro Death Ray was originally created for the emitter on the lightsaber. You can see it in the render below.

Of course, the lightsaber mesh is a simple object with two array modifiers on it to extend it in both directions. Wrapping it around the Retro Death Ray took an additional curve modifier and lattice modifier to get it to look right.

Retro

2011-10-31T13:41:00.000-07:00

I believe Flash Gordon would be jealous. 10 minutes in LuxRender.

Training Remote

2011-10-28T13:38:00.001-07:00

Just fiddling around. Made a training remote and lightsaber hilt.

Ranger Sword

2011-10-17T12:06:00.000-07:00

Half a month gone already. I've worked on various projects, but none of them to completion. Figured I could put this one up. Simple shaders, no nice textures.

Mark V: LuxRender Edition

2011-09-30T12:57:00.000-07:00

3 Hours.
Because I can!

With new and improved velvet stand. . .

Spyglass - v2

2011-09-29T13:15:00.000-07:00

Couldn't leave it alone. I found a place to use my lantern and made a logbook. This is about 3 hours render time with minor post work done in Gimp.

Everything is a bit too clean for my liking. I'm still muddling with LuxRender's material settings. It's slow going due to preview renders being slow.

Spyglass

2011-09-27T12:24:00.000-07:00

If nautical nonsense be something you wish. . .

Still stuck on LuxRender. I do like it.

RGB: Again

2011-09-24T08:07:00.001-07:00

Add another 15 hours or so of rendering and the noise is only slightly better. I won't force my poor CPU to keep chugging away at this one.

I did notice some color issues on the previous post. Not sure if that was caused when I added the logo in Gimp.

RGB

2011-09-23T06:50:00.000-07:00

It's been several days because I've been working on perfecting this scene. Also, since LuxRender is an unbiased renderer the process of render, make changes, render again, etc takes much longer. Add on about 10 hours worth of rendering for this piece (most of which was overnight) and you have the delay between the previous bulb and this piece. So I've decided that I hate/love LuxRender. The realism is awesome, the render times and workflow is downright painful. I'm trying to decide if I should give it one more night of rendering before I post it on the LuxRender site.

Luxrender: Test

2011-09-18T17:08:00.000-07:00

Decided to do a comparison with LuxRender. No funny black artifacts. A bit more setup work but the result is a bit better. This is only a couple hours on the render.

FYI: Firefox is showing weird colors in the full-size image on my system. I have to download it to see the true result.

Cycles: First test

2011-09-18T08:08:00.000-07:00

Downloaded a build of Blender with Cycles (unbiased renderer). This is my first test. Noticed I'm getting a large number of black artifacts the longer I let it run. Not sure if that is due to the renderer being in development, my scene setup, or my system. I removed them using Gimp.

Seascape

2011-09-14T13:03:00.000-07:00

Almost a month. . .
My excuse is that we bought a house and are still in the process of unpacking everything. Throw in painting, minor repairs, and the act of physically moving everything and that adds up to very little Blender time.

I created this for the underwater competition found here.

Edit: Updated image

Ice Comparison

2011-08-18T08:45:00.000-07:00

I was fiddling with the ice shader from the tutorial. That is it on the right. The other ice shader is unmodified and downloaded directly from the Blender Material Repository. I think I like the one on the left better but it took about 4 times as long to render probably because mirror is enabled on it. Regardless, both materials could probably pass as glass instead of ice and most likely would be mistaken as such. It would look so much better if the Blender internal renderer would do caustics. . .

Miner's Helmet

2011-08-17T13:03:00.001-07:00

Door

2011-08-16T12:27:00.000-07:00

For my love.

Edit: made the handle a bit larger.

Tree

2011-08-16T08:32:00.000-07:00

Needs a better background. Certainly not perfect. But it is recognizable.

Sword in the Stone: General Layout

2011-08-12T12:21:00.000-07:00

Bet you thought I had forgotten about this project. Well I haven't, and most likely won't, because it was the first project I ever wanted to do in CG. It runs through my head quite often. It's just easier to dream about rather than actually making it. Just laid out the scene a bit to get a general feel. Need a couple trees for fill. . .

1873 Winchester

2011-08-12T10:12:00.000-07:00

Another semi-completed model. I spruced it up a bit and slapped some pre-made textures on it. I'm not completely happy with it, but thought if I didn't put it up here it might never see the light of day.

Oddly enough, back when I was modeling it I went so far as to add rifling to the barrel. Perhaps this is the reason I can't seem to finish projects. . .I add detail that no one will ever see.

Dagger

2011-08-11T12:48:00.000-07:00

This one has been sitting unfinished for a while. . .yes, I have many more unfinished projects. No, you can't see them yet, so don't bother asking.

Ice

2011-08-11T07:34:00.001-07:00

Following this tutorial: http://www.blenderguru.com/how-to-create-realistic-ice/

Lantern: Render Test

2011-08-07T20:03:00.000-07:00

Low Poly P-38

2011-08-04T10:17:00.000-07:00

Yeah, it's been a long time. . .

Landscape

2011-06-26T20:11:00.001-07:00

Cart: Filled

2011-05-25T11:02:00.000-07:00

You leave your cart lying around for a second and someone goes and throws a bunch of garbage in it. . .

Cart

2011-05-25T07:34:00.000-07:00

Scenery object for the sword in the stone concept.

Devil Ray: Formation

2011-05-23T14:26:00.000-07:00

I don't know why I leave things in the state of almost-done. I find these projects and realize that if I had just spent a little more time on it I could have brought it through to completion. Anyhow, I was running through some old badly-named files and ran across this one. I had to adjust the lighting as there were some issues there then I dropped the render into Gimp and added a star field with a supernova. And just like that, with minimal effort I've got a much more finished product then the stage it was at. I'm kind of disappointed in myself that I let this particular scene fall by the wayside. As I look at it, I bet a better camera angle would improve this much more. Too bad I don't know what angle that would be (left almost-done yet again).

Sword and Stone

2011-05-23T11:48:00.000-07:00

Something I did a while back. It's part of a personal project idea I've had since I started with 3D. I should really get cracking on it. . .

Axe/Stump

2011-05-22T16:33:00.001-07:00

Axe

2011-05-22T12:04:00.001-07:00

An axe.

Hovercraft: Seat & Windshield

2011-05-15T16:00:00.000-07:00

HoverCraft: Base

2011-05-14T21:47:00.000-07:00

I know, I know - what happened to the ship? Well, I'm not motivated to work on the ship. Instead, I present a hovercraft. Needs a bit of work still.

Well

2011-05-03T06:19:00.000-07:00

Updates on the ship have been stalled due to a lack of motivation on my part. In the meantime, I present to you a well which I did a while ago and never posted.

Rocketeer: Helmet Texture

2011-04-24T14:25:00.001-07:00

Not the greatest texture, but it will suffice.

Rocketeer: Helmet

2011-04-23T22:02:00.000-07:00

Sudden bit of inspiration. Whipped this up today. May texture it tomorrow. Then back to the ship.

Ship: Rough Shape

2011-04-22T20:28:00.001-07:00

Ship: Rudder

2011-04-17T20:45:00.000-07:00

Things have been a little chaotic. Minor update this time, just added the rudders. Moving to the main structure next.

Ship: Anchor Alcove & Props

2011-04-13T21:00:00.001-07:00

Added the alcove for the anchor. Also added the props and supporting assembly. Still needs the rudders.

Ship: Hull

2011-04-10T20:55:00.000-07:00

Started a new project. This time it's a ship. Hull is coming along. Side view seemed to show the best of what it looked like.

Structure Going Down

2011-04-10T09:38:00.000-07:00

About time I did the logo in Blender. I need to see how it comes out with the text wrapped around. You may have noticed that I switched fonts. I decided to go with a font that is free to use for personal AND commercial works. You never know. . .

Mark V: ID Tag

2011-04-05T18:03:00.001-07:00

Mark V: Update

2011-04-05T10:47:00.000-07:00

Just getting over being sick. . .

That made for very little progress. I've decided that I'm much too lazy to properly UV map the entire helmet. To be honest, the thought of it is rather daunting. I love modeling and enjoy texturing, but I despise UV mapping. So the helmet will remain as it is with the exception of the ID tag on the breastplate. I will UV map and texture that properly. No picture update at this time.

Mark V: Two Tone

2011-04-02T20:21:00.000-07:00

I fiddled with the materials a little to give it a two tone look similar to one of the references I am using. Unfortunately, I'll never get the weld lines in there with procedural textures. I'm going to have to start UV mapping. . .

Basic Material

2011-04-01T21:41:00.001-07:00

I grabbed this material off of the Blender Open Material Repository. Don't really care for the look too much but since I spent 45 minutes waiting for the finished render I thought I should post it anyway.

Mark V: Latch complete

2011-04-01T20:00:00.000-07:00

Finished the latch. Only modeling left would be a simple stand to place it on for the scene, but I'm going to start texturing first. Last clay render.

Mark V: Fixed Area and Safety Latch

2011-03-30T21:03:00.000-07:00

Added the rivet to the back of the air outlet. Added the safety latch, still need to add the connection on the collar.

Mark V: Inlet

2011-03-29T19:27:00.000-07:00

Added the air inlet and cable valves on the back. Just need to add the safety lock and the modeling work will be done.

Mark V: Minor Edits

2011-03-28T22:08:00.000-07:00

Another render. Minor edits this time. Softened the edge on the comm unit. Added the screws for the air valve. Narrowed the guards on the upper window. Also added and removed a couple edge loops to define the shape of various things better. I'm working on the valves for the back but I don't have them ready for posting at the moment.

Mark V: Air Outlet

2011-03-27T21:21:00.000-07:00

Added the air outlet valve. Just the two connectors on the back and the helmet safety latch left to go.

Mark V: Test Render

2011-03-27T16:00:00.000-07:00

Okay, finally broke down and performed a test render just to see how it would look. Basic material with no specularity, single hemi lamp with ambient occlusion turned on (16 samples). No more renders till I finish a couple more parts.

Mark V: Comm Unit

2011-03-27T10:25:00.000-07:00

Added the comm unit. More triangles in this model than I care to think about.

Mark V: Valve

2011-03-26T21:17:00.000-07:00

Added a bracket that I don't know the purpose for. Also added one of the valves. Just need to add the communications bulge and the left front side will be done.

Edit: I also connected the rings on the collar because I think it may make texturing easier with what I have in mind. In doing so, I beefed up the rings a little and smoothed them out.

Mark V: Faceplate Hinge

2011-03-26T15:38:00.000-07:00

I believe the faceplate is complete. Time to move on to the other knick-knacks on the helmet. Slow going at the moment, family is sick and I've been too tired to work on it in my spare time. Hopefully, things will move quicker this coming week.

Mark V: Wingnut Version 2

2011-03-22T19:58:00.001-07:00

It was a bit too small, had to make it bigger. . .

Mark V: Wingnut

2011-03-21T21:00:00.000-07:00

Latch is finished. Next up is the hinge.

Mark V: Faceplate Latch

2011-03-20T20:12:00.000-07:00

Mark V: Face Plate Progress

2011-03-16T20:48:00.000-07:00

Finished up the face plate. Need to add the attachment points to the helmet. Kinda tedious at the moment. . .

Peacemaker: Background

2011-03-16T20:25:00.000-07:00

Okay, had to mess with this again. Added the textured background and fiddled with the texture on the bullet and handle. Still not exactly how I would like it, but when I'm waiting about 10 minutes for a render it becomes very time consuming. . .

Mark V: Face Plate

2011-03-15T21:22:00.000-07:00

Coming along slowly. . .

PeaceMaker: HDRI Render

2011-03-15T20:22:00.000-07:00

Adjusted some of the materials and added HDRI reflections. It needs a bit more work before it will look somewhat decent, but I'm itching to get back to the Mark V. Just had a hankering to see what it would look like with HDRI reflections. If the render time wasn't so long for it I might work more on it.

Time for a Change

2011-03-15T13:08:00.000-07:00

I'm tired of the template I was using. I've decided to update to one of the newer templates. Haven't decided whether I'll stick with this one or not, but it gets me off of manually updating code every time I want to mess with something. It also adds in the links for older posts and better sorts the archives on the right. Hope the two people viewing this blog don't mind too much. . .

And, yes, I've managed to work briefly on the front faceplate yesterday. But due to limited time constraints (i.e. fussy children) I was not able to get to a point where it was even worthwhile posting an update. Hopefully, I can make some better progress this week.

Mark V: Side/Top Windows

2011-03-06T15:30:00.000-08:00

Just finished up the side and top windows. Saving the front as it is a little more involved. Also sealed up the interior of the helmet since I shouldn't need to cut any more holes.

Mark V: Basic Helmet

2011-03-04T20:45:00.000-08:00

I had to do some adjusting on the back of the collar as it wasn't quite wide enough. That didn't take too long. Just finished building the basic helmet with the cutouts for the windows. Still a long way to go on this part and due to the shape (and my lack of expertise) each little thing takes an extraordinary amount of time.

Mark V: Collar and Identification Tag

2011-03-03T20:40:00.000-08:00

Couple small updates that took much longer than I thought they would. These pretty much mark the end of working on the breastplate and moving on to the helmet itself. Extended the front-left bolt as my research pointed to that being longer because the air hose gets attached to that one. Added the identification tag (with rivets). Fixed the collar as it was not completely round. Also added the external ring and the threads for the coupling. One thing that will need to be added to this section is the dumbbell lock mechanism for the helmet attachment, but I think that would be best added once I have the helmet in place.

Mark V: Bolts and Rings

2011-03-02T20:33:00.000-08:00

Bit of an update on the collar. Still have a little more to do before moving on to the helmet itself.

Mark V: Collar

2011-03-01T21:50:00.000-08:00

I've started a new project I hope to see through to completion. This is the collar of a Mark V diving helmet.

Eye

2011-02-21T12:59:00.000-08:00

I've been working on the human head recently (with the help of a rather extensive tutorial. I find the eye to be rather fun to draw.

Radar: Gimp test

2010-12-27T20:13:00.000-08:00

I know, been forever since I've added anything here. Well, I finally did something. Fiddled around with this on Gimp and actually finished my first test before realizing that there were multiple tutorials on the subject lying around the web. I brushed up a couple of my methods while retaining others. Final result is below:

Lantern: New Elements

2010-09-24T20:25:00.000-07:00

Just working out the positioning of the scene. . .

Lantern: Distressed

2010-09-24T15:26:00.001-07:00

Lantern: Glass

2010-09-22T19:34:00.001-07:00

Stole the glass from the goggles. May have to tweak it a bit later.

Lantern: Model Begun

2010-09-21T21:24:00.000-07:00

Green Machine: Finished

2010-09-17T17:35:00.001-07:00

I'm done. Tired of working on this. . .

Green Machine: Stickers And Tire Tred

2010-09-16T16:38:00.000-07:00

Still needs:
Black sticker outlining on wheel cowl
Fix spec map for stickers

Green Machine: Wheels UV'd

2010-09-15T20:00:00.001-07:00

Green Machine: Sticker #1

2010-09-15T13:26:00.001-07:00

Green Machine: Basic Color

2010-09-14T20:12:00.000-07:00

Green Machine: Modelling Finished

2010-09-13T21:09:00.000-07:00

As promised:

Corona (Not the beer. . .) Power Plant

2010-09-13T12:39:00.000-07:00

I had a bit of a strange dream last night (not unusual for me) but one of the items stuck out in my mind once I woke up. It was some sort of experimental (and revolutionary) power plant technology that utilized a corona effect to power some facility on an alien world (later on earth). We'll skip aliens bursting from my stomach and all that garbage, it was merely window-dressing on my incredible discovery. So now I have recorded this wonderful technology in my wonderful technology journal (which kind of exists if you read it that way - no, you are not allowed to read it) and then created this wonderful logo to stamp on my greatest creation (of the past day or two)!

The Manatee Mangler

2010-09-12T20:38:00.000-07:00

I've been totally slacking with the green machine. I plan to finish up the rear axle this week (no games until I've done so). In my defense, I did add the flash element to the upper right of the blog. It pulls 30 random images from this blog, clicking on an image will take you to the post that contains it. I didn't do the lion's share of the programming for the flash item, but I did modify it to work with my blog. Right click on it and you can find the original author's website. In the meantime, here is a quick doodle I did of the Manatee Mangler (yes, I still toy with this idea among many others).

Green Machine: Rear Wheels

2010-08-17T19:28:00.001-07:00