Wip On Blender

The donuts look great! I'm going to try it for myself now!

Grace,

Keep us informed of your works in progress.

If you want YouTube lessons I suggest the "Blender Guru".

Do not be worried about how hard it is. As you slug it out it gets very easy and quick.

adding, almost forgot, thank you for the compliment.

https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=4897060370353631&set=a.909425352450506

This is the donut mid stream.

3D packages are great for producing 2D art.

Yes they are. Care to give us a sample?

I'm a little disappointed David, I see no chocolate in that donut. Otherwise it looks really, really good! :-)

Kidding aside, it looks like a very time consuming learning curve, even though you stated that it gets a lot easier as you go. I'm wondering if similar results can be obtained now that AI is kicking into gear.

For me it has to be short cuts, I can't get bogged down on any particular image. My self, I have recently made some progress taking a second long and serious look at AI which I discounted at first and found it can be a very effective tool in conjunction with other software.

The quest is never ending though, more ideas than time for me, so I do what I can with what I got. Now it's outta the virtual world for the day and back to the handyman grind. :-)

Honest Mario, if I was not following lessons on the basic setup I would have opted for chocolate. I was disappointed as well.

The program is very broad based. The lessons cut through that with the 80/20 rule. Meaning learn 20% of the program you will use 80% of the time.

The other thing is getting used to the shortcut keys. When you get handy with them your time producing objects goes way down.

Thanks for the tip about Blender Guru! Haven't had a chance to watch any of the videos yet, but I will as soon as I get the chance.

David probably do so in the near future. Their was a lot on Scorpion Design; including the profile pic.
The teapot series where also original 3D. It is interesting that the teapot is a standard primitive in 3D Max and Blender.
I am planning in the near future to upload a number of SD images and put them in a special collection. About half of them started in a 3D package.

The blender Guru is an interesting guy. He has started a company known as Poliigon; where you can buy models, texture ..... .

It is worth noting that for those who find modelling in 3D packages daunting; you can buy models cheaply and render them where you like. The licencing does often limit what you can do with the models but not the renders.
One of the cheapest place to buy models is CGtrader.

Looks really good, David. Those donuts look like actual glass. There is a lot of potential there.

Grace,

Keep us posted.

WS,

Ah that SD, you, look forward to seeing more.

Poliigon has had over 1 million users. I found when I got just the Blender free download I began to search for things. I then joined something for $12 per month. I cancelled it during the trial period. There is nothing really needed.

Poliigon today is $28 per month. He has been around a long time. If people join and cancel cut the 1 million subscribers possibly in half. But at $10 or whatever up to today's $28 per month, he has made a fortune. You'd never know by how he is presenting the videos.

Andrew,

I learned later I needed to place the gloss on the edge on the glass alone. The gloss of the edge runs up the glass on the icing.

The entire thing produces very different very cool aesthetics.

Today's lesson was on texture painting. I added the outer ring of the donut. When the baker has the donut in the grease it floats. The baker flips the donut to cook each side more evenly. The outer center ring is less cooked than the rest of the donut. the center is not as long or as deep in the hot grease.

I am going to do one more lesson this evening. I will be doing lesson 9. It is still painstaking, but much easier now. I have reviewed these lessons a couple of times over first.

DB I myself cancelled my subscription to Poliigon..
Mind you I only wanted one thing which are the SBSAR generators; they are awesome.

https://www.facebook.com/photo?fbid=4900860089973659&set=a.909425352450506

This one looks and is very unfinished. There will be a lot more variation in the sprinkles. A few other tricks up our sleeves if you have not taken the lessons. The lighting as if in a studio will be done properly. Animation will be added.

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10158936079620847&set=p.10158936079620847&type=3

Turns out a friend from my childhood now living in Israel is winding up a three month class in Blender. This was his first project.

https://www.google.com/search?q=SBSAR+generators&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8#kpvalbx=_S-ADYvK9Mf6bptQP4LagqAM25

WS,

Thanks. Interesting tool. The jury in my mind is out on whether I use them or not for now.

adding, my imagination does not stop. I do have a use for them. Can I get a SBSAR for free somewhere else? Or do I need Poliigon? This is wanted purely for commercial purposes. I need license rights and royalty free terms.

You do not need Poliigon. You can not get them for free (with the licencing conditions you need).
However the main source would be Adobe; who now owns all the software. It is a subscription model; but you get a certain number per month and the package contains the software need to produce them. There are two packages on offer depending on what you need.
Games texture also produce them; with various licencing options; which vary from relatively cheap to relatively expensive.
There is also substance share https://share-legacy.substance3d.com/ you will need to check the licences for them.
Poliigon might be worth looking again at (worth looking at the licencing carefully) the do subscription or credit packs.

What ever you use it is worth (essential) to download substance player.
https://substance3d.adobe.com/documentation/sp31/substance-player-2294742.html

This will allow you to import a Sbar file and modify it before extracting the texture. This might get around certain licencing issues.

If you adopt the Adobe package then you can download Substance designer and make you own. These could be used as you wish and even sold.

However; it is a very difficult program to use. Blender is much easier!!!

If you could give some indication of what you want to use them for; I could give other suggestions.

https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=4903212296405105&set=a.909425352450506

Today's work in progress.

Sorry WS I can not discuss my plans. The effect I was thinking of a few hours ago was minimally important.

I do not blame you.

...and I certainly do not feel any shame. LOL

https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=4904199536306381&set=a.909425352450506

Sprinkles and balls in a basic setting.


Note, the ball on the left up front in blue has a small grid pattern on it. I just went in and fixed the four balls on the file so they are totally smooth. That does not show up here in this half hour older image.

Off to bed it is late.

WS,

I had a hugely successful day. I left my lessons to the side. I went off the beaten track for materials and the shading editor. Found gold.

I wont get into what the gold is specifically. But gosh did I find a fantastic lesson on the shading editor. Far better than the Blender Guru.

My project design took a quantum leap today.

DB that is good; there is some very good stuff on the shading editor out there.

Mario,

It is possible to write Python scripts for Blender but that is not really any form of AI.

This is all the nuts and bolts.

Yeah, they are different applications. Maybe what I was wondering with that question I asked was more along the lines of will Ai some time in the future eventually take over the process of human intervention in the creation process?

But that's another subject/thread. Sorry, I was just thinking out loud.

Back to blender.

I do at some point want to give Blender a test drive.

 

Thoroughly enjoying watching your 3D modeling & animation journey, David — kudos!

I got into 3D modeling back in 2010, stayed with creating 3D imagery incorporated into 2D prints, for a while.

In 2012, I ventured into the realm of 3D printing. This article on my website features that first piece, and others.

https://carmenhathaway.com/3d-digital-modeling


~ Carmen Hathaway (back after a refreshing sabbatical)

Carmen very cool. Thanks for posting that More is more than welcome.

https://www.facebook.com/david.bridburg/videos/526002838754165

My mockup lessons complete. This was the final product from the lessons.

Nicely done David, Crispy kreme and Dunkin Donuts should line up. :-)

 

Very well done, David. She's accomplished? So are you!

Welcome back.

 

Thanks WS,SD/Martin :)

Thanks for the compliments.

I am beginning as of today to create an outline for my project.

I will jot down in order what I need to do.

I will study and restudy videos of the tools I need to implement in Blender.

I will slowly report on my progress.

I will be create a prototype first for one variation. Then I will be seeing how many versions I can create.

Over the course of the next year there will be a total of 4 variations with a consistent x number of versions.

The guts of the project will be infused with random control factors for the animations. This will breath life into each version as unique, along with each version having its own color scheme and an abstract output.

There will be other marketing traits baked in using the sound tracks.

My first deadline for the prototype? I might as well try for February 23, a week from now.

David:

I rendered my Deer & Snowman image at a large size. I always do test renders smaller. But as I get closer and closer to the finished project I render bigger.

I'm looking forward to seeing your next project!

Michelle,

I might render two frames at a very large size. Thanks for the idea. I need to see if I can find the technique to make it happen later on.

Talk about a good mind bender.

I am now setting up my first objects placing a material on them. In the process I can reference the Blender Guru's 31 minute video or a video on using the material that is 6 minutes and much more advanced.

The good thing is the Blender Guru's video now seems very slow. Yo! That was unexpected. Must be on the intermediate level now.

The Blender Guru's videos are for set up. YouTube advanced videos are for fine tuning.

Well upon further research my plans got set aside for the better.

I thought the process was going to be something like the donut's process but a totally different object.

I began to do some research and my entire workflow got moved all around.

The Blender Guru teaches based on 80/20. You learn the 20% of the program you will use 80% of the time. He starts with beginner materials and works his lessons up into intermediate level lessons.

His lessons barely scrape what I need to do. Yet many of the things I need to do are lower level but widely flung out across the massive program. Much of this is going to be easier than I thought.

And that's the way the cookie crumbles, or donut rolls. :-) David it's all part of the journey.

I did take a look at the promotional video on Blender and all though I found it interesting I realized it was not something I would use. On the other hand with Ai I was making art or better said Ai was making art guided by my prompts right out of the box.

Learning the prompts is challenging and learning how Ai creates is a requirement to make better use of it. Also a journey, I feel though that I accomplished a great deal as well as understand that the rest now will come with practice and time, have to do a lot renders with all the variables to get the results I want.

I can't say I was excited about reading lines of code to learn, but I actually did.

Different tools pretty much same journey.

All I can say for now is @David my hat off to You man, this is some Kool stuff you are getting into.
Clean Professional spot on.
Carry On. Perseverance and Thought will get us far.

You Too @Mario, You are both leading the way to AI and the Metaverse world. Kudos to both for the example on tenacity.

Me going about my biz slowly but surely.

Till next one!
Rafael

Rafael,

Thanks for the word.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I have created my first objects.

adding actually there is a step here that needs doing to create a setting for the objects.

Next I create a rough idea of the lighting in the scene. Everything will be tweaked twice. Once for the prototype that will be a finished first verision. And twice again for future versions.

After lighting comes some compositing. I am going to subscribe to Photoshop for this. I need some imaging files.

Then all together the animation will be set up.

Rendering is going to be a breeze in Eevee. That might be a shocker to some. I do not need Cycles. Saves me a heck of a lot of time.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

On terribly sad note this morning an old friend died of Covid. He was Turkish. I worked with his family a long time ago. Some of the happiest days of my life. His widow reached out to me to let me know. The family had been back in Turkey for about five years. I thought of them often as they me.

The Blender Guru Andrew Price has a newsletter.

This video on the making of effects in Dune is really cool. At this late hour I can watch it all, but even the smallest bit of it is impressive.

My project and marketing have to pivot.

I had a mind full of cartoon images. That was after looking over all the offerings in the space. I was thinking join the culture.

The tools, the medium are the culture. Turns out my major tools are not cartoon like. Now there is plenty of high priced one off fine art pieces for sale in this space.

The marketing has been turned on its head. I need to see the common path of either a popular c'mon or a fine art exhibit for selling this. I am keeping the art and marketing as one effort and statement.

I have worked my objects into animation. I need to layer on a handful of effects. The prototype done at that point I can go into production. I estimate Friday this coming week I I can go into production. This adds about three days to my schedule.

Just solved a major compositing matter. All in all I woke up this morning with a solution and ran into a few more along the way.

Keep it rolling David!

Mario,

Looking at other videos. It turns out there are two better ways to begin down my road to my creative ideas.

The schedule is expanding right now, but in reality as I discover these things a better product will come out sooner.

Adaption is the name of the game. I know you are into music and if you plan on adding sound to any of your animations you might want to check dynascore, it's an ai desktop app that will custom create or adapt your soundtrack specific to your video. They have a three day free trial & no reg. required to evaluate.

I have not had the chance to look at it yet but it sounds really good as to the features and speed of which the task can be performed, I already use a program which is good but does not have the new Ai features this has.

Actually I will be performing as my own subtle voice over.

Mario,

This morning has been very fruitful. I have now a working set of ideas on how to set up my first object. How to fade a fine art result. How to create the fine art. How to seamlessly loop my video. I just need to know next how to add an audio track to an MP.4.

The complexities are on the expert level. The tutorials make it possible. My training over the last 6 weeks along with watching more lessons have my comprehension well into the intermediate level.

Tomorrow I shift fully into production. Giving myself time, I'd like to have the prototype/first version done next Tuesday night a week from now. The other versions will take time only to render. Meaning I might be able to render three versions per day.

When I go live sometime hopefully by late March if not earlier, I will post a link tree.

Till then it is lights out time to close this. There are no more previews.