Almost finished

So I've gotten all the nubs made, now I'm on the control box. I'm working on the indicators, and the switches and blade will most certainly be done by next class. Texture and material as well. This will be easy as cake soon.

CURSED NUBS

I've got the process of making the nubs down, for sure. I had some troubles extracting the new face, but I got over them. Then, after extruding the nub, I'd duplicate. But when I do, The NUBS ARE SEPARATE. It's excruciatingly annoying, and I hate it. I've restarted 3 times now.

Crankin the Saber

I've got the hilt done. I'm working on whatever hardware it is on the side now. I've beveled all the parts, and the duplicating worked easily. All that really went wrong was the gaps in the parts, that I fixed.

I must be a Jedi....

'Cause I'm making this lightsaber. I've made all the parts I can out of curves, which is the emitter matrix, lens assembly, and the bottom hand grip without the little nubs. I'm beginning the hand grip bumps, but that will come Thursday. I can feel the force with this one.

Apophysis QUIZ!

I was assigned to use Apophysis 7x for a quiz today, and give a general description. In its simplicity, it is also very complex, whereas there aren't any brush  tools or shape creators. It appears as though it's run off of a pixel based format, and using mathematical data, takes these pixels and makes them a really trippy sort of image. It's a very mathematical program, able to produce very intense and crazy images. It can "mutate" your flame to make it easier to manipulate in the editor. It's just a click to adjust the positioning of certain points on the grid. Honestly. I'd use it every day to make crazy "nebulae" or other crazy space phenomenon. To start, create a blank flame. Now, got to the editor, and use your transform. After getting the desired shape, make a new transform, and continue to edit. Repeat as desired. If you feel your image needs some reshaping, go to the mutation box, and click some of the images. The results are rather impressive.

Lightsaber Pictures (research

Here's 16 pictures of Luke Skywalker's lightsaber. I would have more, but a lot of the pictures are the same ones over and over again.

Working with Photoshop...

Today, I was told to make a GIF of the 3 point lighting. I'm to use photoshop, which shouldn't be too hard. But it was. Yet, with some help, I now realize how easy it actually was, and how not smart I actually am. But, I've got a GIF! And it is AWESOME.

Still working

I've finished the battery! Now.... the body. This shouldn't be too  hard, or at least it wouldn't be with a higher resolution picture. However, it's no big deal, cause the body shouldn't be too hard to make. Unless there's too much detail for Maya to process, but I don't think that will be a problem.

Revisiting 3 Point Lighting

I learned about HDR pictures, and how to use them. Also how to create the mia material. A very laid back day, with almost nothing to write about. except this shape. I used the Chrome, Thin Glass, Stained Metal, and Something I like to call Gas Glass. Two outdoor pictures, and the blue one is of the sky.

Gettin' er' done.

Ok, so, I've been saying this for a while but I'm crankin' this thing out. I finally got the hang of what needs to be done, which is to build along lines and stuff. Get it down to exact points. With these facts in mind, and the video to  help, I've got this. For real.

Starting fresh

I was experiencing too much trouble, so I scraped what I had. Yet, with the fresh work, I'm working at a rate so much faster than before. I just have to stick to the tutorial and I'm fine. I've already caught up to where I was, so I think I can get this done quickly AND more professionally.

Crawlin' along

  I'm getting this thing done, I'm putting the setting dial in place now. This work is getting tedious, since maya doesn't want to do what I tell it to, and I end up having to do  simple things in a complex manner twice. Annoying. BUT, perseverance yields reward, and with the right dedication, I'll get this done.

Getting work done

I've finally begun to make some progress, I learned that in my haste to make the whole servo, I forgot much of the detail needed in one half. I've gotten the grid section risen, and the small glass-like panel is now in place. Now it comes down to getting the dials in place, and getting work on the actual phaser. Time to finish this.

3 Point Lighting, day 2

I got the points of lighting done, in a snap. I used spot lights for all 3 lights, with varying penumbras.. On the Key Light, I used a quadratic decay, with a HUGE intensity, somewhere close to 1000. On the fill, I used a quadratic decay, only the intensity was much more sensitive, so it sits at a 6. On the Back light, I used no decay, only a dropoff of 15 with a penumbra and very low intensity, 0.16. Then, I just fiddled with the shape and made it green and shiny, for fun.

Phasers make me angry

I've been working at this blasted phaser forever now, and it's extremely aggravating. I can't seem to get rid of some of the edges I need to, and it's really throwing off my symmetry. Plus, the software is just being plain obnoxious. Everything just does what it want to, and it's a true annoyance.

Curser this PHASER

Everything I've done has been in vein because of small bugs. I haven't got any new work done, because the blasted program won't extrude correctly. I've tried restarting, to no avail. WHAT COULD BE GOING WRONG?

Messin' with curves

After a long and not so tedious class of curves, I've managed to make this..... thing. I literally only made 5 curves, and extruded to meet them. I varied the levels of division, from 30-50. I tapered all the curves, and I moved the CVs. This was rather useful, even if I produced something of pure nonsense.

Not a productive day

The phaser is proving to be a nuisance, once again. As soon as I started getting forward progress, the software crashed. Then, after two crashes, I decided to try something different. I was working on extruding the edge of the battery, and I was going to mirror the geometry afterwards. Then, when I went to mirror, the bloody thing doesn't do it right. WHAT COULD BE GOING WRONG?!

Working on the Phaser, again!

After having been assigned it yet again, I've begun to work on the phaser. I've actually done pretty well, considering I'm doing a lot of this from memory. I'm crafting the servo/battery now, I expect to finish it by tomorrow. Then, I've got to get working on the rest of it and crank it out.

Lamp Lighting (Finished)

More rendering practice, getting the lighting down. I finished the lamp in less than an hour, working on the light effects. I put on the shadow of the table, making the realism better. I enjoyed giving the light its fog, making it realistic. If there's one thing I'm unsure of, it's animation. But then again, I was just animating three frames for fun, so practice is needed.

Shading an orange. (Finished)

Today, I gave an Orange it's texture and lighting effects. I learned how to use the Phong E shading, and create a bump map. Applying textures was rather easy, and I learned to import an image onto a shape. I'm also better informed as to how rendering plays a part in creating images.

Renderin' an apple (Finished)

Today was supremely easy. I rendered an apple, having used the Maya preset construct. After having given it color, I shaded it to look more realistic. I enjoyed giving everything it's respective textures, it was really cool. Perhaps with more training, I can make this apple look more realistic. 

10/4

Today was a pretty laid back day, I decided to take a quick break before getting started on the next shading project. I've decided to begin a personal project, that I may take up at home. I call it the Soul Reaver, based off the game. I only work on this when I have nothing to do, but it's pretty fun to work on.

Beveling!

A rather easy day, just working on Beveling. I had to bevel 10 cubes for this first project, each with varying degrees of beveling. In the top two pictures: On the top row, I beveled by changing the segment count. On the bottom, I adjusted the offset distances. Super easy.  In the images below: I beveled different edges of the cube separately, so first all edges, then the edges on the ends of the cube, then the sides, then no edges.

Finished Helemt, 9/28/12

Despite Wednesday's troubles, I got the helmet finished. I was actually really close to finishing, which surprised me. I worked steadily on through the day, crafting edge loops and splitting faces. It was slightly tedious, but I persevered and created a rough and smooth helmet.