HAPPY NEW YEAR.

A peal of bell. I would have liked to create something a little more uplifting and complex for the New year and may still have time to do so. This sounds funereal but is not intended to be. I am going round in circles or changes with this.
All the very best for 2019.

DING DONG.

Unless anything spectacular happens during the next five days this will be my last post before Christmas.
I have an idea for a New Year animation. The modelling I am confident with, texturing less so and using rigid body physics is all new to me and it is causing me to suffer brain fade. It is starting to encroach into Game Engine territory which I suspect will be way beyond me.

This is the first bell I modelled but I applied a sub-surface modifier prior to getting the model finished. I textured it with a rusty iron displacement map and added a bronzeish colour which shows promise, I could do with an antique bronze set of textures but they can be expensive and I don't know how to make my own. I am enamoured with this volumetric lighting which is what Blender calls it; I call it foggy. Why they have a default density of 1 when this is 0.015 beggars belief I guess it's just Blenders way of keeping me on my toes. If I test render at the default value then it's all black and it takes me a while to realise that it wasn't me being thick.

This is bell number two. I much prefer it. The materials are simple but you get the idea. I used the Screw modifier to generate the bell bit and for once I have experienced few issues with normals. It's perfect inside and out which has to be a first for me using a double skinned profile.
Now on to the animation malarkey, I expect a few naughty words and much perusal of the instructions at Blenderwiki.
See you after Christmas.

MERRY CHRISTMAS.

This is a subtle card for me. Possibly a little too subtle. I lost the tree lights and couldn't find where they had gone. I'll have another look and if I find them repost.

Have a great Christmas whatever you are up to.

A LETTER TO MY SISTER.

Dear Liz,

We went to bed at about sixish last night as it was freezio. Then the rain and hail started and I read most of a Whodunnit whilst it hailed and sleeted. It went quiet. I fell into slumber then Moll started yipping. Alf joined in. I used my special words but with little success. Moll had seen the snow and wanted out. It was three O'Bloody clock. I gave in and let them out to roll and frolic in it. I shut them out but had just got back in bed when they were yipping to come back in. They do look very white but were more than damp and thought the duvet the best place to dry off. Your duvet is still in it's bag till spring. If politicians had either children or animals they would not piss about with trivialities like Brexit.

Love A.

The dogs love snow. 

Moll thinking this is funny snow I don't sink in.

Alf has found his ball. Try and get it I dare you.

Just to add to my good humour I have plowed through a Peter May book called I'll keep you Safe his previous efforts kept me reading. Well written but a frustrating read. He's gone a bit PC but his heart wasn't in it. Lesbos and pooftas are a minority and not something I can relate to. Good job it was only £1.99p. I was tempted to pay about six quid for it. He would have heard if I had. Terrible book and rubbish compared to the Chessmen or Chesspeople or worse still chesspersons.

Have a good week. Sorry about the compositing but I've about had it with Blogger.

VERPISS DICH DRUNKER.

I thought for two seconds before using this title, it's a little rude and so is the attitude of the Fourth Reich to our un-esteemed Prime Minister. They never learn. I recognise she is a complete waste of space with the negotiating skill of a lug worm but have a little respect for the title if not the incumbent of it. It's the little people who suffer and bear the brunt of globalist ambitions. Westminster Bridge has ugly concrete and dead folk, children die**in Manchester and on it goes. We now have an EU army, as the French have found out it is to quell civil insurrection not to fight the naughty muzzies and Russians. The latter only have to turn of the gas to cripple western Europe.
I could go on and on.
 It is forecast to snow, I love cold and snow, -7°C this morning, sunny was about to happen on our first wander.  We walked and walked up to the Dragonfly swamp. No dragonflies but I did find an interesting lump of rock.

This isn't a cup stone or at least I don't think it is. Locally these are known as the staines. It was a drovers stop on the road between Perth and Auchtermuchty. Why they chiseled a cup only they know. There are other stones but they are just lumps of rock lying about. Can't have been an early incarnation of snooker played with a caber as the others don't have a cup. I guess early 17th century golf.

The dogs on the old coach road. It's in good fettle as the timber trucks use it.

Away in the distance is Dragonfly territory. I'm hoping to snap a few more next year, there are also lots of Grass Spiders so I'll hike my body out to try and catch an image or two.
 It was a dullish cool day for snapping but Photoshop can pull detail, thank the pixel manipulator programmers and Canon for a superb manual lens.
Have a good weekend.
* The children are just lost according to the gurning May. They are lost because a thick towel head blew them to smithereens. I guess they are down a drain after the pressure washing so perhaps she is right for once. 
Happen she thinks they will be found. Only an idiot could think that, a barren idiot bred from a man without moral fibre and the mate of a mass murdering doctor. How did we end up with it?

CHOICE.

The other day I offered the dogs two sticks. Wisely they ignored both and found an interesting smell to sniff.

I am sick and tired of living in a country run by self serving, greedy idiots. The politicians of whatever major party barring the LibDems all stood on an a manifesto saying they would honour the referendum result. They haven't as on the referendum there was no mention of a deal. 
I would leave then consider deals very carefully with the Fourth Reich. 
I worked in an industry where contracts were struck on a job and finish basis. I took the job after negotiating a price for it. If I was desperate for money I went in cheap. If I was flush then upped my price and asked for it to be paid into an offshore account. If through circumstance it ran over time then so be it. I took the hit. If I got injured as I did then that's life as long as I made sure I did my best and saved my crew I can live with myself.
I haven't voted for over twenty years, I used to go and see my prospective candidates at meetings. They day they stopped having those hustings. I stopped voting.
This is going to be fun.

CONTRE JOUR.

After a couple of damp foggy days the sun came out to play so after breakfast I buried a dead hen and off we went for a wander. Burying the hen is a waste of time as a fox will dig it up as soon as it smells it but it warmed me up and will make the fox work for it's dinner.

Loch Leven. 

Contre Jour.

This is French for against the day but means in English to shoot into the sun or light. I have seen a little of the revolting French on RT and I wonder is this the start of something more positive. The Belgians failed to storm the European Parliament which is a set back but not to worry. At least they had a go.

BARELY A CLOUD.

Monday dawned cold and clear which was a welcome change from the wet and windy weather of late. We had a quick trip to St Andrews and a walk on the beach. The tide was about half ebb so plenty of firm sand to wander on. I couldn't find the seals which as I had forgotten the dogs lead was probably a good thing nor did I try and reenact the scene from Chariots of Fire.
Tuesday my brother-in law and I went to Dundee. Dundee is a place I avoid whenever possible but a trip round the new V&A was overdue. It's an impressive airy building and the exhibition of ocean liners was most informative. Well worth the visit.
Here are a few snaps of the dogs on the beach.

It looks as if the weather is going to change back to wet and windy but it was good to have some sunshine.

EYEBALLS.

It's been a vile week, I have been wet more than dry and the only job I have managed to complete is a new tow hitch on a quad. I purchased the ball and Swan Engineering cut a beautiful pin hitch attachment on their laser cutter. It's a good job I measured correctly.
I have been messing again and started out making an alien to look at my alien plant then I got distracted with modeling eyes. It's more complicated than I imagined but I have spent a few hours playing. Here is the progress. 

I know these aren't snowman eyes but I have made a snowman for a Christmas card, I won't use these eyes you'll be happy to hear.
Have a good week.