FA+
Shop
Annual Review
General | Posted 10 years agoHey everyone. First of all I want to thank everyone who wished me a happy birthday. You're very kind.
So, where do I start? I don't think I even did one of these for 2015. It's difficult to look back on the things I hoped I'd get done a while ago because I haven't done them. The reasons are usually sensible. Like I was busy elsewhere. I don't really want to retread old ground, but I also don't want to sift through all of those could-have-beens. I want to look forward.
I suppose I should at least tell you all where I am at the moment. I just finished a short animation here of course. It was fun. I'm currently working on a pretty big project just now. It's a commission, and I've been working on the characters for it. Some of them are almost finished, and I'll introduce them soon.
As for the future, well, I have a girlfriend now, and she's kind of getting into furry a bit. So it might be fun to play around with that.
I'm still not sure when I plan to overhaul things. Every animation project I do, there are things that are broken or not quite right, and I'm not in a position to fix them without some hefty R&D. It's frustrating, because I can see the errors right in front of me, but I'm powerless to smooth them over. When I attempt to, I often waste several hours and sometimes don't even make a dent in them. I suppose I have to accept them for now. I'm constantly caught between the desire to improve my characters and produce some work. I feel like I'm never comfortable with the pace of either.
Bit of a sour note to end on, but I can't think of anything else to write.
So, where do I start? I don't think I even did one of these for 2015. It's difficult to look back on the things I hoped I'd get done a while ago because I haven't done them. The reasons are usually sensible. Like I was busy elsewhere. I don't really want to retread old ground, but I also don't want to sift through all of those could-have-beens. I want to look forward.
I suppose I should at least tell you all where I am at the moment. I just finished a short animation here of course. It was fun. I'm currently working on a pretty big project just now. It's a commission, and I've been working on the characters for it. Some of them are almost finished, and I'll introduce them soon.
As for the future, well, I have a girlfriend now, and she's kind of getting into furry a bit. So it might be fun to play around with that.
I'm still not sure when I plan to overhaul things. Every animation project I do, there are things that are broken or not quite right, and I'm not in a position to fix them without some hefty R&D. It's frustrating, because I can see the errors right in front of me, but I'm powerless to smooth them over. When I attempt to, I often waste several hours and sometimes don't even make a dent in them. I suppose I have to accept them for now. I'm constantly caught between the desire to improve my characters and produce some work. I feel like I'm never comfortable with the pace of either.
Bit of a sour note to end on, but I can't think of anything else to write.
Still Alive
General | Posted 10 years agoQuite a few of my friends have worried about me for the past few weeks because I haven't been online at all, haven't even been using this computer. I'm undergoing treatment for a medical condition that's really draining me, and I've also been very busy with a non-furry project. Sorry if anyone has worried about me, I've just been so drained lately, figuratively and literally. It's a temporary thing though, and I'm not ill, just weak. The treatment is exploratory and preventative. You know, a stitch in time. But until it's over I'm going to be a bit slothful and errant.
What's a wing-it commission?
General | Posted 11 years agoI've seen them around but it's never been explained to me. It it like a commission but less formal or, what?
Thanks for your birthday wishes to me!
General | Posted 11 years agoI was surprised to see so many people wishing me a happy birthday. I really appreciate it, folks, so thanks again!
Happy Hogmanay!
General | Posted 11 years agoI wonder how many of you have clicked this journal wondering what hogmanay is - it's our word for the new year celebration in Scotland! I love seeing in the new year with a glass of Drambuie in my hand. Truly nectar, this stuff. It's a whisky liqueur, spicy and sweet, flavoured with heather honey and many spices. It's the same category of drink as Southern Comfort, though it has a more regal bent. Absolutely gorgeous!
Good drink and good company. Sláinte!
Good drink and good company. Sláinte!
Goodbye Robin Williams
General | Posted 11 years agoI'm going to snap up a blu ray of Mrs. Doubtfire before they sell out. He will be sorely missed.
So yeah. I'm back in the saddle.
General | Posted 11 years agoFeels good. I just finished a short animation and I'm glad to be making stuff, anything, again. It's time for a character update again. A massive undertaking that I've been putting off for years, but no more. This time I'm rebuilding my characters from the ground up as the current ones have accrued some really bizarre glitches and errors.
At present the hair system I'm using can influence the base mesh. I cannot fathom how an atmospheric effect can mangle geometry, but it's happening. Imagine drawing on a piece of wallpaper in your house somehow manages to shift the foundations of the building around. That's what's happening here. There are times when I load a scene, then another one, and the face mesh has caved in. It's startling, grotesque, and very aggravating. Like a furry with severe Treacher Collins syndrome. How can having a file open affect a new file to be opened? How can two different projects affect each other? This is the nightmare that is 3D Studio.
I am still using systems that were deprecated back when I was in college. I learned them in college, an undying legacy of bad habits. They plague me to this day. I am trying to unlearn them so that I can move on. I think I'm competent in all of the skills required to bring a character to life, but I want more than competency. I worry I'll never be happy though.
I also need to do more animation and less character building. But I want variety. I'm going to come up with some kind of rule that I make a character, then create so many animations, then repeat the process. Something like that may work I suppose.
At present the hair system I'm using can influence the base mesh. I cannot fathom how an atmospheric effect can mangle geometry, but it's happening. Imagine drawing on a piece of wallpaper in your house somehow manages to shift the foundations of the building around. That's what's happening here. There are times when I load a scene, then another one, and the face mesh has caved in. It's startling, grotesque, and very aggravating. Like a furry with severe Treacher Collins syndrome. How can having a file open affect a new file to be opened? How can two different projects affect each other? This is the nightmare that is 3D Studio.
I am still using systems that were deprecated back when I was in college. I learned them in college, an undying legacy of bad habits. They plague me to this day. I am trying to unlearn them so that I can move on. I think I'm competent in all of the skills required to bring a character to life, but I want more than competency. I worry I'll never be happy though.
I also need to do more animation and less character building. But I want variety. I'm going to come up with some kind of rule that I make a character, then create so many animations, then repeat the process. Something like that may work I suppose.
Free commissions for the first five replies!
General | Posted 11 years agoWhat? The date? Don't pay any attention to that...
The Annual Retrospective (remember me?)
General | Posted 12 years agoHi everyone. Long time no chat. I haven't posted a journal in over a year. I've mentioned in passing (wow, way back in 2011) that I was suffering from depression. Well I'm still trying to recover from it. It's a long story involving a lot of things I don't really want to talk about in depth. I've struggled for a long time and I probably will for quite a while more.
The problem is that depression makes you insular, and that's why I haven't posted in so long. I feel guilty because I feel like I've neglected my watchers. So I want to turn things around. It's been so long I won't remember everything that's happened but here are things that come off of the top of my head.
1) I'm single now. :(
2) I made a couple of new friends. :)
3) I ironed out just what I want to do with the furry framework that's been on the backburner for too long. :)
4) I'm getting quite a bit more content with my day job. :)
5) I've learned numerous skills to help beat depression, and I've learned a lot about myself. :)
What's on in 2014
1) New Framework
2) Four sexy scenes in the pipeline
3) At least four new characters of mine, hopefully up to eight!
4) Something for myself!
Let's have a good new year!
The problem is that depression makes you insular, and that's why I haven't posted in so long. I feel guilty because I feel like I've neglected my watchers. So I want to turn things around. It's been so long I won't remember everything that's happened but here are things that come off of the top of my head.
1) I'm single now. :(
2) I made a couple of new friends. :)
3) I ironed out just what I want to do with the furry framework that's been on the backburner for too long. :)
4) I'm getting quite a bit more content with my day job. :)
5) I've learned numerous skills to help beat depression, and I've learned a lot about myself. :)
What's on in 2014
1) New Framework
2) Four sexy scenes in the pipeline
3) At least four new characters of mine, hopefully up to eight!
4) Something for myself!
Let's have a good new year!
OI LADS, IT'S CHRISTMAS BONG!
General | Posted 13 years agoGame design quandary (Opinions please)
General | Posted 14 years agoSay you're playing a basic 2D platformer game. It's got all of the familiar tropes - collect 100 widgets for extra life, hop & bop enemy defeating, basic jump physics, bottomless pits, spike hazards and lots of platforms. Once in a while, perhaps within each level, or once every three levels, you encounter a character that looks similar to you. They're a non-combatant and they have a set of attributes just like you (maybe health, jump distance, speed, etc.) You're given the option to mate with them and spawn an offspring. The offspring has one primary trait from you, one primary from your mate, and one of four other traits which is randomly picked. Like this diagram here.
You've made a baby version of you, and if they survive through the whole game, you get to play as them on your next playthrough. You can have multiple offspring, but this has to bump up the risk somehow.
My questions are these - how does the offspring affect the gameplay? What do you expect to be able to do with your child after you've made them? Should they accompany you in the levels, perhaps shadowing your movements, or should they be abstracted out to some sort of between-level space? Should they be useful when they're dependent on you? If they're present in the platformer levels, are they vulnerable to danger? Does that turn the game into one big escort mission (which gamers tend to hate because AI is usually too stupid to survive on its own)? Can this be done without tacking on a peripheral mini-game?
I'm trying to create a game where there's some sort of impact like this. I want the player to feel like they've achieved something when they nurture a child to adulthood. I want to invoke emotions, like guilt over not being able to protect them, or pride when they watch their descendant scamper off into autonomy.
The setting doesn't matter, this is just a gameplay thing. I'm sort of stuck on what happens after reproduction. I'm trying to give it a meaningful purpose that can integrate it into the rest of the game.
You've made a baby version of you, and if they survive through the whole game, you get to play as them on your next playthrough. You can have multiple offspring, but this has to bump up the risk somehow.
My questions are these - how does the offspring affect the gameplay? What do you expect to be able to do with your child after you've made them? Should they accompany you in the levels, perhaps shadowing your movements, or should they be abstracted out to some sort of between-level space? Should they be useful when they're dependent on you? If they're present in the platformer levels, are they vulnerable to danger? Does that turn the game into one big escort mission (which gamers tend to hate because AI is usually too stupid to survive on its own)? Can this be done without tacking on a peripheral mini-game?
I'm trying to create a game where there's some sort of impact like this. I want the player to feel like they've achieved something when they nurture a child to adulthood. I want to invoke emotions, like guilt over not being able to protect them, or pride when they watch their descendant scamper off into autonomy.
The setting doesn't matter, this is just a gameplay thing. I'm sort of stuck on what happens after reproduction. I'm trying to give it a meaningful purpose that can integrate it into the rest of the game.
Happy Haggis Day!
General | Posted 14 years agoIt's St. Andrew's day today. I don't need a reason to eat haggis, but I'm looking forward to it.
Mechatronic Motion Capture
General | Posted 14 years agoHi everyone. Here's another update on what I've been doing lately.
For quite a long time I've had this idea that could speed up the animation process for 3D. I've envisioned a sort of, well... mechatronic pose bot. A robotic mannequin that you put into a specific position to create a keyframe. You see, keyframing is the most time consuming portion of animation, and I think having a 2D interface for a 3D environment (you know, a mouse interacting with 3D space) just doesn't cut it. It's an extremely low-fi interface, and it turns keyframing into drudgery. It can take me between 40 and 60 minutes to make a keyframe. I do not spend weeks and months building characters in 3D to have such a shoddy return on my investment of time! 3D animation needs to be more expedient if I'm to reap the rewards I've sown through so much pre production work.
Something I've noticed is that the hands are so complex, they're like two extra torsos hanging off of a bigger one. They need to be very accurately animated because of their intricacy, and I find sometimes I'm spending an extra 30 minutes making one keyframe because A hand has to grip something, or lie across another shape without clipping and so on. With that in mind, I'd like to create two of these "posebots" - one as a mannequin, the other as a hand. I'm going to build these from scratch, starting with the frames, then the electronic parts, then coding an interface for an onboard processor, then getting it to interact with Windows, and finally with 3D Studio. Did you know you can use a joystick for motion capture data? well, it'll be like that, only instead of just 4 or so axes, I'm going to need at least 64 in total. I've only dabbled in mechatronics before, this is a pretty huge project for someone of my understanding of the multiple fields.
So I was looking at the different methods of interfacing controllers with Windows. It turns out that game controllers can only support a maximum of 8 axes, or analogue inputs. That's nowhere near enough. I immediately started thinking "well, what if I daisy chained several devices onto a USB hub" or something, but that's way too messy, and the interface components I believe are too expensive. I then realised that 3D Studio actually supports MIDI for motion capture. It has 16 different channels, but it seems like it has a logical limit of 128 MIDI controllers, i.e. buttons, faders, knobs, modulation wheels, etc. The hard limit for my devices will likely be half of this, but I'm impressed. I have a MIDI keyboard with some controllers in it, so I should try to figure out how well this works and how expansive it is before committing. So far it seems like the solution I'm looking for.
I've got big, big plans on the horizon, separate from this, but I think I need to get this sorted before I can go into rapid production. To fund this mechatronics project I've taken on a commission. The commissioner is patient and polite, and this means I'll be uploading some stills and animations soon. I'm not sure how much of an investment this project is going to take, so commissions are open just now, subject to scope.
For quite a long time I've had this idea that could speed up the animation process for 3D. I've envisioned a sort of, well... mechatronic pose bot. A robotic mannequin that you put into a specific position to create a keyframe. You see, keyframing is the most time consuming portion of animation, and I think having a 2D interface for a 3D environment (you know, a mouse interacting with 3D space) just doesn't cut it. It's an extremely low-fi interface, and it turns keyframing into drudgery. It can take me between 40 and 60 minutes to make a keyframe. I do not spend weeks and months building characters in 3D to have such a shoddy return on my investment of time! 3D animation needs to be more expedient if I'm to reap the rewards I've sown through so much pre production work.
Something I've noticed is that the hands are so complex, they're like two extra torsos hanging off of a bigger one. They need to be very accurately animated because of their intricacy, and I find sometimes I'm spending an extra 30 minutes making one keyframe because A hand has to grip something, or lie across another shape without clipping and so on. With that in mind, I'd like to create two of these "posebots" - one as a mannequin, the other as a hand. I'm going to build these from scratch, starting with the frames, then the electronic parts, then coding an interface for an onboard processor, then getting it to interact with Windows, and finally with 3D Studio. Did you know you can use a joystick for motion capture data? well, it'll be like that, only instead of just 4 or so axes, I'm going to need at least 64 in total. I've only dabbled in mechatronics before, this is a pretty huge project for someone of my understanding of the multiple fields.
So I was looking at the different methods of interfacing controllers with Windows. It turns out that game controllers can only support a maximum of 8 axes, or analogue inputs. That's nowhere near enough. I immediately started thinking "well, what if I daisy chained several devices onto a USB hub" or something, but that's way too messy, and the interface components I believe are too expensive. I then realised that 3D Studio actually supports MIDI for motion capture. It has 16 different channels, but it seems like it has a logical limit of 128 MIDI controllers, i.e. buttons, faders, knobs, modulation wheels, etc. The hard limit for my devices will likely be half of this, but I'm impressed. I have a MIDI keyboard with some controllers in it, so I should try to figure out how well this works and how expansive it is before committing. So far it seems like the solution I'm looking for.
I've got big, big plans on the horizon, separate from this, but I think I need to get this sorted before I can go into rapid production. To fund this mechatronics project I've taken on a commission. The commissioner is patient and polite, and this means I'll be uploading some stills and animations soon. I'm not sure how much of an investment this project is going to take, so commissions are open just now, subject to scope.
Framework Update
General | Posted 14 years agoHi everyone,
The framework I've hand-developed needs to be updated. There are some patchy bits here and there, and I also want to grow into my new rendering capacity. Certain systems, especially the fur, are really dragging me down. The level of aesthetic achievement I can reach is determined by technical constraints, yet again. I'm kind of upset with the situation, but I want to move on. I want to produce art that's better than anything I've done so far, and for that I need to do yet more hard graft to realise the visions I've got in my head. I really hope I don't get into an endless cycle of barely producing anything because I'm barely ever content with what I can do during pre production.
Aside from aesthetics, there are some problems that gum up production. Problems that need to be neutralised if I'm ever to achieve the kind of throughput I want. I have pretty big plans. Y'know how I can only release an animation once or twice in a year? I want to increase that at least tenfold. Yeah, really. That's the kind of challenge I'm putting myself up against. I yearn to get more animation work done because my animation skill is not growing with all of the skills that are required during preproduction. Aside from that, who could say no to some more erotica?
The framework I've hand-developed needs to be updated. There are some patchy bits here and there, and I also want to grow into my new rendering capacity. Certain systems, especially the fur, are really dragging me down. The level of aesthetic achievement I can reach is determined by technical constraints, yet again. I'm kind of upset with the situation, but I want to move on. I want to produce art that's better than anything I've done so far, and for that I need to do yet more hard graft to realise the visions I've got in my head. I really hope I don't get into an endless cycle of barely producing anything because I'm barely ever content with what I can do during pre production.
Aside from aesthetics, there are some problems that gum up production. Problems that need to be neutralised if I'm ever to achieve the kind of throughput I want. I have pretty big plans. Y'know how I can only release an animation once or twice in a year? I want to increase that at least tenfold. Yeah, really. That's the kind of challenge I'm putting myself up against. I yearn to get more animation work done because my animation skill is not growing with all of the skills that are required during preproduction. Aside from that, who could say no to some more erotica?
LSD Dream Emulator
General | Posted 14 years agoAh, Valentines Day
General | Posted 15 years agoFor those of us who can't be intimate with someone, at least we can have the romantically themed pr0n.
Year of the Metal Rabbit
General | Posted 15 years agoIt's Chinese New Year today. Not just any new year - it's the year of the Rabbit! And the element is metal. So it's time to rock on my fellow leporids!
What emoticon have you never ever ever ever used?
General | Posted 15 years agoThis one right here ---> Admit it! No one ever has an excuse to use this! Even if you think you've used it, that was probably just a mistake. It's useless!
My birthday, plus annual roundup.
General | Posted 15 years agoHi everyone.
Today's my birthday, and I'm continuing the tradition of using these journals to reflect on the previous year.
January and February was a technological apocalypse. So many components failing at once, it's like I got all my bad luck at the same time. That really nixed my funds, and I found it difficult to recover financially from that.
In March I officially went into depression (cue mad as a March hare similie). It took around six months to get out of, and I think the antidepressants didn't help. It wasn't clinical depression, it was reactive from being continually unsuccessful professionally. The solution lied in trying to operate as an individual rather than a team of 30 people. The Pygmalion effect has it in for me (it's all self-inflicted though).
A few months ago I came to a resolution with my business, finally finishing development of a product. It hasn't been released yet due to some technical issues, but the IRS hasn't got back to me regarding the double tax treaty anyway.
I had to give up on mental ray. After the months of work I put into getting fur to work in it, I came to the conclusion that the scope I want to achieve (i.e. animations) can't be done with the technology I've got, in a reasonable timeframe. It's a shame to shelf this technology now, but it may be useful in the future, and I very quickly discovered and applied some workarounds to mitigate the loss of features.
I finished creating Brooke, and with her, the framework I've built up that allows me to recombine new characters with the same basic model. It took so long! But finally, I can usher in a new personal era of furry art. In mere days I updated Bridgett (who is now on version 3 if anyone's counting) in mere days, to work with the new system. There are some hiccups regarding merging her, but every single thing I do in 3D, without fail, never goes to plan. Ever. This is a no-fuckups estimate, but I should be able to create new characters in weeks rather than several months! My commission rates have therefore dropped a lot, but they're currently closed as I have trades for friends.
The year ahead is looking much better. Professionally and personally. My profession's looking up because I'll be trading soon. The framework I built will allow me to actually produce some art for a change! I'm also really looking forward to being able to create more characters - it feels like the main way in which I'm stifled by my medium. 2011 is looking great.
Summary
Bad Things
Forked out hundreds on replacement parts
Depression
Lost productivity due to depression (resulting in compound depression)
Gave up on mental ray (don't have a render farm)
Lost track of Flying Toasters Remake (I will return to this!)
Good Things
Survived a suicidal mindset
Finished my first product, however miniscule
Created Brooke
Perfected Rapid Workflow
2011 Opportunities
At least SIX new characters in the making!
More frequent art due to pre production shrinkage!
Professional victory!
Brooke & Shawn's Outdoor BJ animation!
Eva & Tachyon's romantic sex scene!
Today's my birthday, and I'm continuing the tradition of using these journals to reflect on the previous year.
January and February was a technological apocalypse. So many components failing at once, it's like I got all my bad luck at the same time. That really nixed my funds, and I found it difficult to recover financially from that.
In March I officially went into depression (cue mad as a March hare similie). It took around six months to get out of, and I think the antidepressants didn't help. It wasn't clinical depression, it was reactive from being continually unsuccessful professionally. The solution lied in trying to operate as an individual rather than a team of 30 people. The Pygmalion effect has it in for me (it's all self-inflicted though).
A few months ago I came to a resolution with my business, finally finishing development of a product. It hasn't been released yet due to some technical issues, but the IRS hasn't got back to me regarding the double tax treaty anyway.
I had to give up on mental ray. After the months of work I put into getting fur to work in it, I came to the conclusion that the scope I want to achieve (i.e. animations) can't be done with the technology I've got, in a reasonable timeframe. It's a shame to shelf this technology now, but it may be useful in the future, and I very quickly discovered and applied some workarounds to mitigate the loss of features.
I finished creating Brooke, and with her, the framework I've built up that allows me to recombine new characters with the same basic model. It took so long! But finally, I can usher in a new personal era of furry art. In mere days I updated Bridgett (who is now on version 3 if anyone's counting) in mere days, to work with the new system. There are some hiccups regarding merging her, but every single thing I do in 3D, without fail, never goes to plan. Ever. This is a no-fuckups estimate, but I should be able to create new characters in weeks rather than several months! My commission rates have therefore dropped a lot, but they're currently closed as I have trades for friends.
The year ahead is looking much better. Professionally and personally. My profession's looking up because I'll be trading soon. The framework I built will allow me to actually produce some art for a change! I'm also really looking forward to being able to create more characters - it feels like the main way in which I'm stifled by my medium. 2011 is looking great.
Summary
Bad Things
Forked out hundreds on replacement parts
Depression
Lost productivity due to depression (resulting in compound depression)
Gave up on mental ray (don't have a render farm)
Lost track of Flying Toasters Remake (I will return to this!)
Good Things
Survived a suicidal mindset
Finished my first product, however miniscule
Created Brooke
Perfected Rapid Workflow
2011 Opportunities
At least SIX new characters in the making!
More frequent art due to pre production shrinkage!
Professional victory!
Brooke & Shawn's Outdoor BJ animation!
Eva & Tachyon's romantic sex scene!
Adoptables! Get yours now!
General | Posted 15 years agoHey everyone!
According to the cult of personality, I can sell ideas to you, my groveling fans! Yes that's right - for the lowly price of £25 I'll give you the rights to a character that you haven't even designed! As a furry artist, my ideas are priceless. You will buy them and I'll become rich!
Buy your adoptable character instead of making your own before I become mega popular! I've only got a couple of thousand watchers now, but once I have 10,000 I'll be charging £2000 per adoptable character! What a bargain if you buy now, right? Buy the character from me and I'll never animate them again, honest!*
*Unless I feel like it.
Adoptables©®™ pat. pend. itoril 2005 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED UNTIL YOU PAY ME 2K MONIES!
According to the cult of personality, I can sell ideas to you, my groveling fans! Yes that's right - for the lowly price of £25 I'll give you the rights to a character that you haven't even designed! As a furry artist, my ideas are priceless. You will buy them and I'll become rich!
Buy your adoptable character instead of making your own before I become mega popular! I've only got a couple of thousand watchers now, but once I have 10,000 I'll be charging £2000 per adoptable character! What a bargain if you buy now, right? Buy the character from me and I'll never animate them again, honest!*
*Unless I feel like it.
Adoptables©®™ pat. pend. itoril 2005 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED UNTIL YOU PAY ME 2K MONIES!
Happy Hogmanay!
General | Posted 15 years agoAre you drunk yet?
Mac and Linux users - your experiences with Silverlight
General | Posted 15 years agoHi everyone, I'm weighing up Flash and Silverlight for video playback. Maybe I'm just derping my way through interfacing with Flash, but it seems as though whenever I embed video I must use Sorenson's implementation of H.264 for encoding. It looks horrendous in my opinion, and I'm trying to see if Silverlight might provide better access to superior codecs like VC-1. I'm still looking into how portable VC-1 is as a codec, but first thing's first...
If you run a Mac OS or Linux distribution, and you've used Silverlight applications in-browser, have you ever had any problems getting it to run? It appears to work for IE, FireFox, Safari, Chrome and also Opera from my own experience. On Linux, I think it's possible to get it to work with Opera, FF and Konqueror (maybe chromium too via the chrome implementation - I'm not sure). I wonder if anyone's had incompatibility/poor loading/glitches or any of the sort.
If you have anything notable, please chime in.
If you run a Mac OS or Linux distribution, and you've used Silverlight applications in-browser, have you ever had any problems getting it to run? It appears to work for IE, FireFox, Safari, Chrome and also Opera from my own experience. On Linux, I think it's possible to get it to work with Opera, FF and Konqueror (maybe chromium too via the chrome implementation - I'm not sure). I wonder if anyone's had incompatibility/poor loading/glitches or any of the sort.
If you have anything notable, please chime in.
Happy St. Andrew's Day
General | Posted 15 years agoI'm not doing anything for it, but I'd be hanged for treason if I didn't at least make a journal about it.
Wha's Like Us? Damn Few And They're A' Died!
Wha's Like Us? Damn Few And They're A' Died!
Pornucopia and the entropy of the benefits of Mental Ray
General | Posted 15 years agoNote: tl;dr skim text is underlined
Mental Ray
For a very long time I've tried to learn working in a photorealistic renderer called Mental Ray. It offers such exciting techniques as sub-surface scattering, ambient occlusion and soft shadows. It felt like the next logical step, a whole different approach to rendering in 3D. I've got to the point where I'm fairly well versed in the techniques involved, but unfortunately a lack of hardware is yet again hindering me.
It started with horrendous excursions in different technologies for making fur and hair. This one wouldn't render reflections, that one didn't have the features, the next one didn't have the controls. And most of them wouldn't work in Mental Ray due to being atmospheric effects, which are unsupported. I ended up needing to switch to a 64 bit processor to generate the number of hairs in geometry so that they could be shaded.
One by one I schooled myself in how to use certain techniques, all the while working on a new character to test them out on. The render times climbing ever higher. I've just uploaded an image which took 2 hours and 51 minutes to render. This image has no shadows, no final gather, no global illumination, and no postprocessing. Adding all of that to a quality which is suitable would scale the production of a single image by a few more hours.
Adding on top of this is that the image has a resolution of HD 720p. I would like to create full HD images, which would be 1080p (a resolution of 1920x1080 to be precise). A luxury I wish I could afford is that of stereoscopic 3D - which doubles the number of frames that need rendering. At a framerate of 24 (a cinematic standard), I calculate that one single second of animation would take around 288 hours to render, or 12 days. A minute of animation would take 720 days or just under two years to render on a single, quad core render node. The shortest possible feature-length movie (40 minutes) would take almost 8 decades.
I can't render anything of quality with Mental Ray right now. I just don't have the money or hardware. I'm going to go back to scanline, and learn some workarounds (using translucency shader for SSS, creating a sky dome of lights for AO). The quality of my renders will hopefully be better than before, just not as good as I'd hoped I could do with Mental Ray.
Pornucopia
I've shared a vision with a few friends which I'd like to discuss now. Whilst creating the latest character, Brooke, I perfected a workflow which allows me to reuse some of the common data from one character in another. Some things such as geometric structures, rigging, mapping and morph targets can be carried on and this reduces the workload for new characters dramatically. I might be able to make new characters within a month or two instead of each taking several months. It feels a little bit of a cheat, but then again, there's no sense in reinventing the wheel, right?
For a long time I've felt stifled due to the time it takes to create characters. I feel as though the designing of this workflow will start a new age in my hobby, one in which I can express myself creatively. I want to have a number of character archetypes and components available. A sort of library of body parts that can be combined to make new characters. With it I can trade and do gifts for my friends freely.
Commission rates for new characters have dropped by 66% for the time being, though the service is closed due to stuff I'm doing for friends.
Mental Ray
For a very long time I've tried to learn working in a photorealistic renderer called Mental Ray. It offers such exciting techniques as sub-surface scattering, ambient occlusion and soft shadows. It felt like the next logical step, a whole different approach to rendering in 3D. I've got to the point where I'm fairly well versed in the techniques involved, but unfortunately a lack of hardware is yet again hindering me.
It started with horrendous excursions in different technologies for making fur and hair. This one wouldn't render reflections, that one didn't have the features, the next one didn't have the controls. And most of them wouldn't work in Mental Ray due to being atmospheric effects, which are unsupported. I ended up needing to switch to a 64 bit processor to generate the number of hairs in geometry so that they could be shaded.
One by one I schooled myself in how to use certain techniques, all the while working on a new character to test them out on. The render times climbing ever higher. I've just uploaded an image which took 2 hours and 51 minutes to render. This image has no shadows, no final gather, no global illumination, and no postprocessing. Adding all of that to a quality which is suitable would scale the production of a single image by a few more hours.
Adding on top of this is that the image has a resolution of HD 720p. I would like to create full HD images, which would be 1080p (a resolution of 1920x1080 to be precise). A luxury I wish I could afford is that of stereoscopic 3D - which doubles the number of frames that need rendering. At a framerate of 24 (a cinematic standard), I calculate that one single second of animation would take around 288 hours to render, or 12 days. A minute of animation would take 720 days or just under two years to render on a single, quad core render node. The shortest possible feature-length movie (40 minutes) would take almost 8 decades.
I can't render anything of quality with Mental Ray right now. I just don't have the money or hardware. I'm going to go back to scanline, and learn some workarounds (using translucency shader for SSS, creating a sky dome of lights for AO). The quality of my renders will hopefully be better than before, just not as good as I'd hoped I could do with Mental Ray.
Pornucopia
I've shared a vision with a few friends which I'd like to discuss now. Whilst creating the latest character, Brooke, I perfected a workflow which allows me to reuse some of the common data from one character in another. Some things such as geometric structures, rigging, mapping and morph targets can be carried on and this reduces the workload for new characters dramatically. I might be able to make new characters within a month or two instead of each taking several months. It feels a little bit of a cheat, but then again, there's no sense in reinventing the wheel, right?
For a long time I've felt stifled due to the time it takes to create characters. I feel as though the designing of this workflow will start a new age in my hobby, one in which I can express myself creatively. I want to have a number of character archetypes and components available. A sort of library of body parts that can be combined to make new characters. With it I can trade and do gifts for my friends freely.
Commission rates for new characters have dropped by 66% for the time being, though the service is closed due to stuff I'm doing for friends.
The difference between furry and baldy.
General | Posted 15 years agoMy characters are currently taking about 28 seconds to render without fur. When I put fur on, that goes up to around 12 minutes! Why do I have to have a boner for furries?!! Why?!!!?!!
