THE LITTLE PINK HOUSE.

This about how and why I enjoy 3D. I spend far too much time messing about in Blender, FreeCad and Photoshop. The latter are still supporting my pre-Cloud based programme and so they should it cost a thousand pounds and a bit. I don't use it for 3D as I find it a bit clunky, not as clunky as FreeCad but then FreeCad is not really competing it only does CAD. Blender will do everything after a fashion and most things perfectly adequately. This video was produced from start to finish in Blender with the exception of my voice over which was produced by some bits in my neck and modified in Audacity, then bunged back into Blender. The final file was compressed in Handbrake as it reduces the upload time by a good 60%.
If you decide to play with this stuff be aware that it is PhD level playtime. Telegraph or Times cryptic crossword stuff, not the Mail or Guardian, reading the latter will help as deciphering it's English and content is excellent training. You also have to be prepared for the fact that there is no industry standard for either navigation or selection.....If you are a bit shy or prim and proper then learn some really bad words, you will need them.
After years messing I'm still awed by some of the tutorials on YouTube, they are so slick. The following video of a simple shed took most of six hours and I don't think I'll be doing them regularly. When I say six hours I mean it took thirteen minutes lots of times.
This is a shed video. If you look bottom left you will see that I have installed ScreenCast, this tells you what I'm doing. It used to be installed in Blender.File.Preferences but now the Python script takes an hour to find and then a few attempts to copy it and install it. It too requires lots of special words.

I am not very good at this but if anyone has any problems following along then let me know and I'll help if I can.
Have fun.

KUNG FU.

No I haven't taken up the marshal arts, they look very dangerous to me but I did display great bravery as you will see later in this post. The autumn fruits are plentiful this year. Blackberries not so good but plums, apples, damsons, bilberries and pears are in abundance. 

This is what the mush looks like with rolled oats stirred in. I have been eating this once or twice a day for a month and it's not bad. As poofy food goes. Yesterday I decided to cook a steak, I felt a bit queer. I really went to town and made a peppercorn sauce and got some crinkle cut oven chips as a nod towards poofyness. Excellent it was with onions, mushrooms and courgette. Good job I waited till after my haircut or I'd have been chasing Bev round her salon the way I felt this morning.
It was near freezing on our first walk today. The cold helped but then the sun rose. I discarded one layer and decided to go to the Dragonfly pond. I saw two which surprised me. Twice, at this time of year. An Emperor and a smaller something else.

I really like this place as I can drive within half a mile of it on forestry track and it is always quiet.

 I spotted this on some, past their best, Rowan berries.

A Seven Spot Ladybird.....I've eyes as good as David Carridine.....When he was alive. I bet he was a Vegan.....He died up to their sort of tricks. Sausages for tea today before I turn into one of them. I did like him in Kung Fu and in the Kill Bill films but when watching the latter I only had eyes for Uma Thurman. A proper film star she is. Enough digression, you have heard my Uma fantasies before. They get stronger as I get weaker. It's not nice getting old. I think back to the thought of a twenty year old apprentice desiring a Hardinge lathe more than a fit hair cutter or Uma. No way. I'd have been ridiculed. For that to happen one would have to have been a Vegan. Suspect I may be turning in old age. More steak required.
 I sat around for a while hoping and praying for a Dragonfly to settle close enough for a snap and was rewarded with a first for me. Amazingly I have never got an image of a Glasshopper or a Clicket come to that.

Here it is in all it's Meadow Grasshopper stunningness. It needed stunning. It hopped here and there till I was dizzy so in the end, showing not a morsel of fear, I picked it up and told it to sit and stay. It did which is more than the dogs do.

I'm a happy snapper.

HAIRCUTS AND SEASIDE.

Yesterday the dogs had one of their tri-annual haircuts and tomorrow I will have mine trimmed. I go to see Bev and the dogs go to Kirsten just in case anyone was under the impression that we go to the same salon. What happened to proper barbers shops? I used to get my beard trimmed without some young lady moaning non-stop about bristles flying down the front of her shirt. I could also get my ear and nose hairs trimmed. These days I'm not allowed to hunt for the irritating bristles but I also have to do my own nose hairs. The country has gone to the dogs. 
Today I had a run into Cupar for the monthly shop and as the weather is clement after yesterdays wind and rain I decided to pop along to St Andrews. The dogs love the seaside and I enjoy seeing the posh totty from the university jogging on the beach. I ought to join the Liberal Democrats or the Perverts and Paedophile Party as they are colloquially known. I was going to wander up to the mouth of the river Eden to have a look at the seals but had forgotten the dogs leads so decided that what with the cost of their haircuts and Alf's recent vets bills they were too valuable for seal food.
Here are a few snaps for your edification. No posh young ladies I'm afraid as it was only about ten thirty which is a little early for students.

ST ANDREWS

LOOKING TOWARDS THE SEALS.

WELL GROOMED DOGS...For a few days.

I am working on a new video title. I played about with flags flapping in a virtual breeze a few years ago and thought if I can do that I could make virtual pages turn with stuff written on. With an Alpha channel it could make for a nice title and it is an interesting project.

Have fun.

TRYING.

It's been a funny old weekend. I have been looking at DaVinci Resolve. It is virtually free and a very powerful video editor, it does VFX or after effects and has a colour grader. I downloaded it and installed it perfectly as far as I can tell but it won't open any further than the splash screen. I suspect that my NVIDIA GTX 660 GPU is a CUDA or two short of a full picnic. As I don't really understand what all the abbreviations mean I'm not in a position to be sure. What I am sure about is the fact that my task manager is a lying devil....It says the programme is running like clockwork. Little tinker.

I have made another video on colour popping in Blender. I really hope you like it and flood the post with comments saying so. If you don't then I'll just keep posting links to this post until you do. I write in jest, unlike a fellow blogger I'm used to rejection.
Here is Mondays offering, Click Bait totty included.

This will have to be watched on YouTube for it to be even remotely entertaining but it's up to you just as long as comments reflect the positive side of life. Remember I'll sqweem and sqweem and throw all my toys out of the pram if I you don't cooperate.

HARVEST.

It's been a funny old week, no internet for most of it and the electricity supply playing up. I have been messing about with some combine video but it got to the stage where I was taking three steps forward and two back so I decided to just stick it together as I've always done. Can't see Hollywood beating a path to my door but not to worry.

This is 2K so will play full screen.
Have a grand weekend.

SUNNY SUNDAY.

Lots of rain showers around at the moment but I did get out for a couple of hours yesterday without getting soaked. Anything to avoid editing video.
I decided to go and look for Crested Newts, the pond is easy to find as it has a sign identifying it. The newts are as elusive as ever.

Whilst scanning the pond for any sign of movement an Emperor Dragonfly flew past. I didn't realise they lived this far north but I am a hundred percent sure it was one. I settled down to wait for it to return and ten minutes later it did and settled briefly on a Bilberry. It never came back again. 
On we wandered. The fungi are starting to show and though these images could be sharper it's good to see them.

 Orange Peel Fungus

Fly Agaric.

These are in almost pristine condition and arranged fortuitously in order of maturity.

I'll have to investigate the sharpness. I guess the camera is set on something stupid.

That's all for now.

WOODS WALKING.

Thursday night it poured down. It's also getting a little chilly first thing in the morning. I needed some bread and other bits from the CO-OP and decided on the way back to explore another bit of the forest. Nothing much about but I was surprised to see a Green Veined White flutter past.
I'm hoping to get the Combine video patched together today. I wish I'd never discovered colour correction, it's an absolute minefield, an interesting minefield but it is never ending. 

 A good place for a wander but a bit heavy going.

The Rowan trees are always a grand sight.

 Fly Agaric.

Not sure.

I'll get out now as we are running late this morning. Have a good weekend.

GETTING THERE.

I have been persevering with video enhancement. I can now work the colour wheel thingies and much more besides but I'll just show you some Poppy flowers and a few fireflies. The fireflies want their motion and speed altering and they also need selective masking so they appear to fly behind the twigs and flower petals. This is getting interesting and it's all for free with Blender. The little glowing spheres are Boids. I used them years ago to emulate a flock of birds and had forgotten about them until I noticed the Bee fly into the shot so decided to muck about with them again. They would be better if I modelled a little fly or a big fly. It makes little difference in the virtual world. These are small to start with and then get larger as they approach the foreground.

 I think this video looks sparkling bright. I'm pleased I found all these posh controls to play with. I also found that the minute adjustments required can be achieved by holding down shift whilst shifting the controls. I haven't shown the editing software but probably will bore you to death with it as it helps get it straight in my mind.

I got some more harvest footage. I ought to be able to to get it all sorted and perfectly exposed and colour graded by Saturday. They are running out of space and could do with some carting away as I suspect the last three or four trailer loads will need drying. There may be room to shoot it on top of the heap but it looks marginal.

SLEEPY HORSE.

I have another video today, it is a bigger hotchpotch than I usually post and that is an achievement on it's own. The horse is called Talisker and for some reason was being tacked up in the field when he decided it was time for a snooze. I can assure you he is fine, just a very silly beast.
The tractor has been colour popped and for a first attempt it has worked, well nearly worked. It needs masks and they have to be tracked to keep just the red bits on the tractor and not red bits elsewhere.  It's PhD level Blendering, I almost got there before I was distracted by the horse.

Yesterday I was taking Talisker out to the field when he managed to get Molly under his feet. Moll was lucky and not best pleased. She was very angry and attacked his hoof. Bloody animals, it was chaos for a moment. Should have had some video of that.
That's all for today. I have a bit more harvest video to get and hopefully it will be done this week.

REALLY CONFUSING STUFF.

I have been filming the harvest here in Scotland and the footage is in need of a bit of a lift.
The following video is pretty self explanatory. I get sidetracked easily as there are all sorts of things to play with in video compositors. The beauty of layers in Photoshop and editing video in a compositor is that it is always reversible.
Before we get into the video and it's dubious quality I'd like to say four or six hands would be better than two for filming and sound recording. If I could stop my hands messing with framing and aperture whilst shooting it would be a massive step forward. I suspect it's my two hands that are the major problem.

I record voice overs at least three times as without fail the dogs will start barking or chomping their food on two of them and hard as I try not to say "umm" I can't help it. I also got my before and afters the wrong way round. Not to worry. It's just an idiot at play.

This is best watched on YouTube. It will show full screen with no bother.
Have fun.