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”…