ABOUT ME

I live in a camper van with a West Highland Terrier for company.
My passion is creating images but it is a work in progress.
I am always willing to share what knowledge I have and can be contacted through the comments on this post or e-mail ADRIAN
ALL IMAGES WILL ENLARGE WITH A LEFT CLICK

Tuesday 23 December 2014

GORGEOUS. (23/12/14)

I woke this morning at three thirty, the rain was lashing down but even before daylight a friend was banging on the van. “Walkies time get up and out; Oh herbal tea man.”

We did a quick hour lap of the lake shore, the new cemetery and the woods. Not a drop of rain assaulted my person. The dogs had fun but couldn’t find Deer to annoy so after breakfast I went out birding. We sat for an hour or two; well I did the dogs buggered off with a couple of bearded collies for half an hour. Came back blathered they did and have both been under the tap for their trouble. Black they were.

_MG_1104    Foyers is a swamp. But it is 3oC so middling warm.

_V0G7646   See it is sunny. It doesn’t get better.

Now for my birding……I realized years ago that I am not a very good birder. I don’t do it often.

_MG_1130     This is a Dunnock. I think it is a Hedge Sparra. That’s what I was told they were. It could well be something else.

_MG_1117      This is a normal Tree Sparrow. Totally different.

_MG_1113       This is a Blue Tit much brighter.

_MG_1108           Mr Chaffinch. It wasn’t a bad morning to early afternoon. I saw a flock of Goldfinch and some Longtailed Tits.

_MG_1106        No Partridge no Pear trees but a couple of Tufted Duck. Mr and Mrs almost in the same shot.

Last night I spent hours learning what others know instinctively. I have to turn this logo into a 3D graphic before the year ends.

lnsblog orig      I snapped it. I deleted the rubbish , I polished it up by converting to B&W in Photoshop. I inverted as white backgrounds are good for vectors.I can colour it in again if I ever get as far as extruding all it’s bits.

lnsblog         I then sharpened to within an inch of it’s life and bunged it in Inkscape. Inkscape is a free Adobe Illustrator. It’s a vector programme. I then went to Paths> convert to a BIT MAP thingy. Fine so far. I saved it to my desktop as an SVG extension. I went back to blender and File>User Preferences and hunted and seeked everywhere for SVG. It was looking me in the face. I’m not used to a lack of Bells, I am on Ginger, lemon, nettle, whenlock, harlot and Manlku tea or some such hippy rubbish. Eventually I  found it. Loaded it and it wasn’t there. It was but I only found out because I accidentally twiddled the scroll wheel and zoomed. It was really tiny. I then got a file in Blender which had a million vertices. I got rid of loads of them by asking Blender to rid them. This morning I have found ALT C which converts curves to meshes. It’s only a month ago I wanted to do the opposite but I had forgotten. If I live long enough I’ll sort both birding and digital imaging. Maybe not the birding.

Have fun I hope you are ready. I’m not but Christmas will pass me by while I’m Blundering and birding.

PS. I didn’t know that you had to be in cycles render to use your GPU. It is pretty obvious but I am a Muppet. I have spent a week thinking my computer was getting buggered. I even priced up a new GPU when for some brain lag or Muppetry I hadn’t activated the one I had…….Silly me or silly Blender.

39 comments:

  1. Hi Adrian The ducks are Goldeneye, not Tufted. Good shot of the other birds.

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    1. Margaret, are they by gum. I thought they were at first but the white patch put me off. If in doubt I tend to go for the common ones. Goldeneye. They are really posh ducks. I'm not a hundred percent reliable with guessing what I've seen,

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    2. Just checked they is Goldeneye. A tricker for me.

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  2. So glad the skies cleared up for a moment so that you could take these lovely photos. I finally got the hang of it with the HTML on my blog re font size and color. I think it looks much better now.

    Mersad
    Mersad Donko Photography

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    1. Mersad, Your web site is spot on, I actually prefer to loose viewers. Not you but but silly ones.

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  3. Great shots of the birds, the poor old Blue Tit looks like it's about to get blown away in the wind

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    1. Wind is way down, If they are Goldeneye then I'll try to get closer.

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  4. Excellent bird photos as always (you're a better birder than you think).

    As I was reading through I was thinking I wonder if he knows about the trace bitmap in Inkscape and then lo and behold you were explaining it. I do find it's worth playing with the result as it's usually a group of multiple paths so you might be able to ungroup and then select just one object (just keep dragging the top one to the side) to easily reduce the number of vertices when exported into blender. Have Fun :)

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    1. Ta Mark. You have to understand that I don't.
      It took me an hour to work Inkscape, I knew I wanted a Bezier whatsit. I am a quarter bright but it took me another hour to work out what to do with a SVG file extension and equate paths with
      On top of all that malarky my GPU was broke. Serous money. It isn't. It had got deactivated by someone, bet I was hacked. I am going to get to love this. I can get results. Now and again they are the results I expect.
      . It's not brilliant Mark but it is better than nowt. I don't know why but I too go Paths as a first choice. Alt C lets you mesh them in Blender

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    2. PS. I know how to ditch randoms and vertices in Blender. I didn't know it was possible in Inkscape. I only use Inkscape for copying bad curves. I can do it in Blender but it takes much longer. I love this stuff for passing dark days on. How do folk composite whole movies?

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  5. Good to see you getting into birding mode Adrian, you got some good shots.
    It'll be good if you can get back for some more shots of those Goldeneye, they're super little ducks. That 'tick' list must be getting quite long now?
    btw - I think your Tree Sparrow is actually a humble House Sparrow.
    Good luck with the logo, I'm sure you'll get there?...[;o)

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    1. Trevor, I thought they was something else. The little buggers swim about where I am not. It's a half mile wander to get where they are and then it's a half mile wander to get back where they were. By the time I get there they aren't.
      Bad birds.

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    2. Ps. Trevor what happened to LBJs I was thrilled to bits I'd guessed Dunnock. thrillder still it hadn't got s twig in front of it.

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  6. Adriaan very fine sunny days.

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    1. Bas, perfect and loved after so many bad days.

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  7. Well, the Goldeneyes and House Sparrow, tut tut tut. Never mind eh........ I love the Blue Tits.

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    1. I got Dunnock right Bob. That is a hard one. Sparrows are sparrows and ducks are ducks. I know you are expert but I just guess. I'll get a close up of the Goldeneye pecking an Otter. See how that makes you feel.
      They do have a Tufted duck look about them.....To an amateur,,,,say they do.

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  8. Love the Brits and their words. Blathered used like that is new to me, although to blather would be to talk on and on. We also could not use bugger in any form. 😸👍

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    1. John, I could have used caked or covered. The dogs were covered in muck.
      Bugger is pretty mild here although it means sodomy no one takes it literally. I guess some do but they deserve a big slap.
      I use Fuck off, or bugger off, in company but only if folk are taking the piss. You know, trying to wind me up when I have a serious snapping job on or I am singing my best.
      If I get really cross I say "Away to Feck with you."
      Doesn't make sense but it usually quietens the buggers.

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  9. Great you got some bird shots. Your mention of tree sparrers reminded me I haven't seen one for many months. (Look for white cheeks with a large black spot).

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  10. Thats more birds in a day than I've seen i a week. They seem to have been blown away here.

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    1. Graham, lots here, they must have blown this way.

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  11. Merry Christmas my friend, your Bird photos are wonderful, keep up the good work.

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  12. Now when it comes to the bird part of your blog, I get it. I'm pretty sure I don't get any of the graphic stuff although I hate to admit it. there's no muppet for you. I've got it all.

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  13. Well here's to hoping tomorrow dawns to a gorgeous day for you too Adrian. Happy Christmas from Far North Queensland x

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    1. Carol, the forecast is promising. You have a wonderful time.

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  14. Lovely blue skies and birds, especially the chaffinch.
    Merry Christmas Adrian,

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    1. Gillian, I was getting long overdue for a bit of sunshine.

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  15. Crăciun Fericit ! Merry Christmas !

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  16. I have heard that bearded collies are very randy buggers. Maybe you should get Alf and Molly checked over by a vet. They could have both been subjected to violent sexual assault in the undergrowth and may both be in a state of canine trauma. Season's Greetings!

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  17. YP, the Collie man was well pissed off. His dogs are bigger and much hairier. I bet he is still trying to clean them up.

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