Grab Bag

Even when nothing shows up here for weeks on end, I’m usually busy in Blender trying to get better at it.

First I thought it wise to build a fire….

Actually, I’m just getting back up to speed with Blender 2.80, just released at the end of July….  Re-learned a few things about fire simulations during this run.

Animation practice is always on the agenda.  My walk segments are still a bit funky but they’re getting a bit better with time…

Then I got the modeling urge – the Northern Pike from my time in the North was the first up:

and then yesterday it was a squirrel – I started with a base model made of a few “metaballs” then sculpted the shape and some detail (feet and claws, etc.).  I then applied a decimate modifier to get the poly count down a bit.  I then experimented with the hair (4 or 5 separate particle systems for this one) and a hand-painted texture map to get the colours into it.  I then put a basic quadraped rig on it, quickly to be upgraded to a “Rigify” armature for animation.   This probably took 5 or 6 hours from start to where it’s at here but it was good practice to get back into a model with hair (still coming to terms with hair particle systems in Blender 2.80).

There’s always something to do in Blender, even if it’s just a glorified “video doodle”…