BLOW ME DOWN.

 I have been using Blender for video editing for several years but always have trouble synchronising audio to the video strip. It all looks fine in pre- render then after the job is rendered the sound drifts off. I have tried everything or almost everything. This morning I have the solution.

There's a little box circled in red that among other things has an option for Av sync. Change it from non and the job seems to be perfect. I am a dumb cluck at times. I had an extra bowl of muesli to celebrate.
That's all back to filming the new combine. It should be starting work soon.

SEVEN SPOTS.

This post is for John at MIDMARSH JOTTINGS. A couple of times he has bemoaned the scarcity of ladybirds. I have never seen so many and these are what the combine has caught from a few acres of barley.

Here is one. It is standing in the dirty barley from the end rig. There are thousands more an impressive sight.

It is looking to be a successful year after the disaster which was last year.
I have got some video titles done and a bit of footage so hopefully a harvest video will appear in the near future.

WALL TO WALL WET.

Today I braved the elements and visited The Fife Heritage Railway It is a very interesting place but I struggled for photographs. I'll have to have another trip. "Forth" the 0-4-0 Saddle tank locomotive was in steam but I didn't wait to see it move. I get days like this when surrounded by interesting things I don't have the motivation to make the best of them.

I only took a 50mm lens so had to zoom in on this rather fine axle set in post production. The workshop come engine shed has some nice machinery but it all looked a bit small for the work one associates with rolling stock and locomotives. I did see a beautiful little Bridgeport mill, it looked in first class order but I didn't like to start messing with it.

She is a beauty, the star of the collection here and the only steamer. They do have another scattered about awaiting some serious money and many hours of work. I did wonder why they have cut a damn great hole in the back of the cab. It may be a dictum from the safety elves so the driver can see the chap coupling up. In the old days shunter's labourers were two a penny so I suspect lack of visibility didn't concern the cab designer. I think a camera in an old lamp shell would have been equally efficient and less agricultural.
I will go back as I do like the place and the natives are friendly.
The next post should be a harvesting video. The forecast looks good for this week.

SO FAR SO GOOD.

The new combine is performing well after a few teething problems. The pain in the arse New Holland has gone and the John Deere arrived and is working.... Was working, as I write this I see it has stopped but the engine and fan are still going. Newness wearing off I suspect as she is only twenty nine years old. It could be a belt as we didn't replace them all.... I suspect all is well and she is discharging grain.
 It's a new machine to here and discharging to a grain trailer on the move is a skilled job on upy and downy land. Remembering to retract the discharge auger when the tank is empty is beyond me.......It's stopped. I'm not going out as I am a sensitive soul and dislike vile language. "Bloody, Bastard, Poofy American Machine, Twat, Bastard again, and again. ......But she goes again the discharge auger was playing silly buggers or the driver was. It has to be full out to discharge grain. It can't have been the drivers fault as the driver is the boss...Please discount what I said about American poofy, twat, combine designers. The machine is built and the only thing we added was a stay bar to the transmission belt main pulley outer bearing. Probably didn't need it. It had two but three looked better. 

I do tremble at the problems post Brexit. When we are British, and Sovereign again and, as a consequence can't get bits for American machines, and twat civil servants are consigned to the dole and, normal grafters have to live life on ten pounds an hour like me and, we can hang Muzzie peados and negro stabbers. I have got the hang of the Oxford Comma. It's a bit silly but, fun.
Anyway enough tomfoolery.
Here she is in all her perfectness working really steep land.

Wonderful. Tomorrow I'm away to look at a steam locomotive in the rain and. Later  will get some video of this combine. Can we have an Oxford period or full stop?

THE FINAL LOAD OF BALLS.

I couldn't leave the blasted Helter Skelter alone until I had sorted the camera tracking job. After much brain ache and some rather naughty words I have managed to get it something like. I have also improved the design of the spiral bit.

 These are basic materials and if I can think of something to do with this thing then I'll pop a decent finish on it.

Richard said that he thought Blender a little complex. It is. This is the video editor, I am a fan and much prefer it to the Adobe version. It's also free.

Here is the short video of the camera tracking both the spiral on the Helter Skelter and the blue ball. There were times I thought it would defeat me.

That's all until I find something else to grab my interest.

SQUISHY BALLS EXTENDED.

This video shows how far I have got with soft body physics in Blender. I suspect it is as far as I'll take this but I have an idea for a talking head squishy ball with a mouth and eyes rigged with bones. Hopefully it will sing to music and talk whilst navigating an obstacle course all the while it's eyes following along with the action....This will be A-Level Blendering.

You will see that I got sidetracked again. I hate static movie cameras so decided to construct a helical path to mimic the helter skelter, it would be a larger diameter and then the idea was to get the camera to follow the path. So far easy peasy. I then pick one ball and make it the target for the camera. The computer kept saying no. I added an empty and parented that to my ball of choice and asked it to follow the empty. It did but the empty wouldn't stick to it's parent the ball. The computer said NO. I got fed up and only realised later that had I selected the ball before giving it soft body and collision physics it may have worked. There is also a parenting protocol, I may have selected the wrong one first. I'll give it a whirl as I enjoy this malarkey. I did find a wonderous thing called Camera Fly so good was it I spent ages playing with it and missing what I was aiming at. Much like a real camera. I felt quite at home.

Here is the movie, the commie ball wins, the right wing ball is second but gets stuck, the queer folk balls are four and five and the green one is where it belongs stuck almost out of sight.

Have a good week and I'll see you soon with a bit of combine harvesting.......God and the combine willing.

SQUISHY BALLS

This is not a complaint but a matter of physics. I've been playing in Blender again. Here is the result. 

The materials are all simple and I did check for funny normals but must have missed one in the bottom glass dish as I see a nasty black mark, I failed to notice it until the render was over and as the render takes a minute and twenty seconds a frame and there are over a thousand frames I decided I could live with it. There is also a seam line, I did notice that but it is the Bezier curve I used to generate the dish. It does happen but not always and I have yet to find the solution.
Have fun, Blender 2.8 release has been delayed again. It looks good in Alpha but I suspect a new GPU may be required.
Forgot to say this is 2K so can be watched full screen if you click on the rectangular box at the bottom of the video. The gear wheel thingy will let you select resolution.

SHOW TIME.

Today we went to Kinross show but before I get into that I'll post a couple of images from the Fife Heritage Railway in Leven.

 This is an old Barley Wagon.

They have several locomotives but as I called whilst passing they were all parked and jammed up together. This is a Ruston Hornsby shunter and is chain driven. It has air start and a donkey engine to raise air pressure. They have a proper open day on the last Sunday of every month so I'll try and pop down in a week or so.

Back to Kinross Show. I enjoy this event, no market stalls selling tat and plenty of room to wander about. 

 Bryony did well at whatever it was she was doing.

 This is Talisker and he did well as well but he didn't get a rosette, I don't know why.

This is Toby and I haven't a clue what he was there for, it can't have been to eat hay.

Plenty of machinery. This was the star of the show as far as I am concerned.

 One of about a dozen different sheep breeds being shown. These are Ryedales and are mainly bred for meat.

 Mother and foal.

These are all Clydesdale heavy horses, I like most animals but these are one of my favourites, such gentle, good natured beasts.

To finish here are two old fashioned photographs of a wonderfully old fashioned show.