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

Thursday 11 April 2019

SIX WHEELS ON THE TRACTOR.

I've been busy doing lots of different tasks. I tested the Boolean modifier in Blender 2.80 and unless I hear to the contrary I think it works a treat.

 This is  MARK'S Peat wagon. I am trying to persuade him to switch to the Beta version of Blender as I find it a joy to use. Nothing wrong with this hole as long as it is not meant to do anything. I just had a bolt handy and it is quite a complex object for a Boolean difference test.
The farmers picked an old set of Cambridge rolls up the other day. They do require a little polish up but are doing a good job as are the twin rear wheels. Good job we popped tyres on them before I had a haircut.



A full restoration would improve them but for three days work a year it's probably best to keep patching them up.
After the haircut I felt like Samson it has sapped my strength. I suspect it would be a waste of time persuading the haircutter to come and view my Blendering.
This is how far I've got with my virtual murmaration. I got a bit further but the little sturnidae were flying backwards.
I just popped the colour on as I like colouring in. The bird is much better as I drew round half a picture, mirrored the result filled in the middle and then extruded it by a bit to give it some thickness. I will use it as a Boid particle. If it looks too thin I'll pop some loop cuts in and fatten it up. This will add a lot of geometry and I want to avoid doing so if possible as there will be a few thousand of them. I am not very good at rigging meshes but this one will do though it's far from perfect. In the final render you will just see a starling coloured bird not the rest of the rig or empties and the control object. I'll do two or three and stagger their key frames so they aren't all flapping together or at the same speed. The human eye is a pain for picking up repeating patterns.
Have a good weekend.
The whited out bit says Sturnidae were flying backwards. Don't know why Blogger has trouble formatting from time to time.

4 comments:

  1. Got really in a twist, trying to see my way around that first image, Adrian. Reminded me of the Penrose Stairs.

    The 6-wheeled tractor looks like a mean machine A job well done, I'd say.

    Looking forward to seeing the 'electric starling' murmuration!

    My best wishes - - - Richard

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    1. Richard, that is Marks fault. It looks far worse in wire frame which I have got used to. 2.80 as a magic view which is half wire frame and the edges/vertices are slightly faded as they get further away. It's just a matter of using such stuff until you get your eye in. I am hoping for ten minutes of murmuration for Tuesday. I got distracted today and installed animation modes hoping for more control. Boids were invented by a clever bloke in the mid eighties and each particle has a brain which can be programmed for proximity, flocking, or shoaling in fish. You can replicate geese following a leader. All sorts of this animal behaviour. the starling can be any shape the computer just recognises the shape you tell it to.

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  2. The new Starling shape should work well. Slight head movement will look more realistic, even if it wasn't part of the grand plan.

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    1. John, like all things drawing and rigging takes time to learn. I suspect I won't get much done today as I have found another stunning Add-On which I'm excited about. I have a short video on it so will try and get it uploaded before I go to do some horseing.

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