Destiny’s Double Dare

Sitting in my sacred chamber, smelling the soft autumn rain drizzle outside. Waiting for my third coffee of the day to cool slightly in my hands. For the first time in a great while, my eyelids need not strain to stay up. For a Great Idea with initial caps has found me.

It found me twice before, but both times it was just an idea: filled with promise but no way to become reality. This time it approached me like a lover, flirting with my imagination. And suddenly, I saw the full path to completion. It all seems like destiny; at first I just made it up as a wild idea. The second time, just a few days back, it tapped my shoulder again, making me say, “could be neat.” The third time was a time of realization; I could do this and get away with it. It could be something really new and great, and not just an experiment that might or might not result in success.

Why Destiny? Because things came together. The new technology it required was made available and affordable only months back; I had now learned what I needed to see it through; it built on old skills I already had. It has it all, baby.

“But what is it?”, you ask in frustration. This I cannot tell you. For a man with a Great Idea is a man with a secret, and may he guard it well, lest he eternal damnation of his soul face wouldst.

OK, enough of the Yoda slash Wannabe Writer syntax. Suffice to say I’ve found a career goal to pursue that could lead to better days for me.

It might even take me to the Stars.

Shoot Me in the Head

Was looking for polygon modeling tips for Maya when I came across the site of this crackpot. Don’t worry, I didn’t read all of it, so I’m still sane. It only took about a few paragraphs before I realized it was a Dumpster of random rants connected by facts of dubious origin and “math” from an Amoeba’s intellect. Clicked on the inevitable End of the World prophecy…

“Did you really think that time is infinite? Well, it doesn’t really matter what anyone thought because truth is not affected by such idle theories at least. To think is not to know.”

To think is not to know, indeed.

Was shocked to see the guy had gotten a book published with this kind of nonsense. I have writing skills, so I have some novels that I’ve started and subsequently stopped due to lack of patience. Must be easier when you just let bullshit dribble out your fingertips. Promptly crossed “getting a book published” off my life goal list. What’s the point if tripe like this slips through?

I categorized this as humor for its albeit short-lived entertainment value. If I ever turn into one of these, please shoot me in the head.

Oh, and sell all your belongings now, you only have until 2012 to spend it. Bwahah.

Harvest Moon

Tonight, for the first time, I saw the Moon in a telescope. Mine, that is. I went “Aah!” in adoration. A perfectly round marble with a crisp white edge on the sunlit half and the other half in perfectly black obscurity. A diagonal border in its center. Along that terminator, sharp jagged edges of craters and mountains.

Fiddled around a bit with lenses, scanned the surface along the terminator. But I had to put in the lower mag lens again, to look at it in fullness. Such a nice rough marble.

Took stock of the major craters. Went in to look them up. Found out that Google Moon was a big letdown. The easiest one to find was Copernicus in Mare Insolarum, following the mountain edge from Archimedes (which was in shadow) over ridge of Montes Appeninus and Montes Carpatus. Copernicus is actually rather close to the (as some say, alleged ) Apollo landing sites.

Oh, such a beautiful half moon, and half an hour well spent. Pictures in a book can only convey so much. Why didn’t I do this 20 years ago?

Call me MELman!

Today saw a foray into uncharted terrain – wonderful MEL-land. Well, wonderful and taxing. I tried to bend my brain around a problem that other MEL tools didn’t seem to have solved – a proper backface culling toggle, regardless of what you’re doing.

MEL is the scripting language of Maya which allows you to customize it and create extra functions useful for 3D work. I was too impatient to get started to ask in forums, and Maya Help didn’t answer my specific questions. But by experimenting and finding a very few sources of info on the net I got an inkling on how to proceed.

I spent a good two hours on said problem until I broke it down into three special cases and “ignoring component mode”, since Maya can go into vertex or whichever mode without ever going into component mode. I finally cracked it, and added some (for me, and perhaps others) useful functions.

It certainly will help me modeling. I’ll have a think again tomorrow. If I can make it really good I will upload it to highend3d or someplace. It was a big relief when it finally worked flawlessly, and a very satisfying session of ‘coding’. Maybe I can have some fun with this.

Whipping Out the Sharpener

Today was cause for celebration. For I was trusted to create a 3D character and animate it for a five second spot in a TV commercial! Time to clean the drawing board I used for drawing cartoons. Nip half a dozen fresh, clean paper sheets from the 500-pack and get started! Oh yes, and whip out the sharpener.

It really was a lot of fun getting aquainted with the tools of old. I discovered that if I made the sketches twice the size of my old cartoon characters, I had more control. I really enjoyed myself, inventing middle-aged men of all shapes while listening to 70s music on original vinyl

I’ve done about a dozen sketches so far, of which half will be presented. But I think I will continue tomorrow morning, to see if I can’t conjure up another good one.

I won’t do any 3D until I know which one is selected by the client, but I will experiment with making cartoon style eyes look good when rendered. I can’t believe how good the timing of all this was, with me learning rigging just in time!

^ I use one of those, only smaller.

Great, kooky Russian 3D art

Been a fan of Alexander Krasovsky ever since his picture ‘My Compik’. A very different take on CG, where many strive for maximum realism or simplicity in real-life objects. Not so with Mr. Krasovsky. Instead, surrealism that surprises you. Very refreshing to see in this world where almost all CG artists seem to compete to make the best version of the same motives. Link added to the sidebar. Use your keenest brain cells to navigate the Russian site to the good stuff.