Have I given up?

NO WAY! I've been learning A LOT about Blender and even some of it's external rendering engines. The results have been AWESOME! Some of the images that come out of LuxRender are fantastic! They just take quite a while on my setup... :P Well... I do have some "almost finished" and "not so finished" renders to share. I've also been fooling around with new modeling techniques like using curves and "spinning". I'll post up what I have but remember these are ... doodles, in a sense.


This is the Jetpack that I started for the Battleoid. Looks pretty awesome here :D


This was my tutorial render, it was the final image I came up with following instructions from another site.


This is Suzanne (Blender's complex primitive for lighting / rendering checks) with a Diamond rendering setting.


Here we have just a simple glass ball.


Last but not least, The martini glass I learned to "spin" from a curve. This one wasn't rendered with LuxRender, this was done with Blender's own internal engine.

The learning never stops :)

Since I've been occupied with work, new side projects and just life in general things have slowed on my 3d Battleoid. I wanted to wait until things settled a bit before resuming work on it but I just can't seem to get away from this damn program. :D

I wanted take on smaller things like learning UV Unwrapping, Creasing, modeling using the subsurf modifier and more cool stuff.

I figure all this tinkering will help me gain more familiarity with the program. Also to discover what kinds of applications they can have towards the Battleoid.

What I have for you today is a something that I worked on for a bit... While, it isn't finished, I was proud of the results because it took me a short time to get this far.

Take a look. :D

Jetpack update :P

What better way to relax after working than to work on 3d modeling??? I can think of many alternatives. :P

However, my itch to get this model complete and behind me has inspired me to keep going. :) I've managed to get most of the "Jet pack thruster" portion roughed out. I still have to find a method of "cutting" or "carving" that I like so I can fill in the details. Well... that's about all the creative energy...actually... energy in general I have for tonight. Enjoy the pics, more to come soon.

Take a look below. :D

Overall Progress Snapshot

Just as promised, here is the over all progress of everything so far. So, I've got the hands, legs, jet pack and details then I'm through with the modeling portion. After all that is over I have to do the texture and material work. Then I'll decide where I want to go with it. All of that is in the future. For now, I'm going to enjoy how far I've come since I started. :) Enjoy!

Getting closer...

To completing the head! Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee! I ran into a bit of a problem whilst creating these shots, the cylinders kept producing a weird ... dirt patch I'll say... whenever I would render the image. I realized that it was due to not setting the cylinders to smooth (as opposed to solid, sharper edges). Rendering again produced the same results except it looked much smoother. I ran it through smooth (a separate function) which reduced the size a bit BUT gave me the look I wanted AND removed that weird "dirt patch" that plagued me. :P Regardless of the minor set back, I managed to get quite a bit done and I'm pretty pleased with the results so far. I'll have to put it all together like I did on Valentine's Day in order to get a better sense of scale and proportion. That's something I'll save for tomorrow; For now, take a gander at the pics and I'll catch you later.

Progress? Yes, you can "has"

In an attempt to cure my restless, in-between-consciousness-and-sleep mood, I started to work on the model a bit more. Unfortunately, learning from my past seems to be a weak point for me. :P I toiled and toiled until I finally got that look I've been going for. I'm certainly proud of how far this has come for me. Especially because I don't recognize myself as someone who can actually create something like this (as feeble an attempt it may be to you). Blocky, NES style models yes but not something that actually looks cool (to me). :p Well anywho enough blubbering... Check it out, there's more to come.




Here's a link to a gallery for Blender created art. If I ever got THIS good... you guys may be in for another mini-speech :D. For now though... baby steps.

http://www.blender.org/features-gallery/gallery/art-gallery/

Enjoy!

Been a while :P

Yes, yes it has been. I spent a great deal of time on distractions and work. :P Aliens Vs Predator (PC) has been sabotaging any productive inclinations I may have had. My social life has given me MORE than enough reason to dilly dally and of course the rapidly approaching deadlines at work have been keeping me quite busy.

Well, no matter, I'm back on track and started to flesh out how I'm going to model the battleoid's head. My main issue (if you look at the last update) is that I couldn't get the model to look both smooth and rigid at the same time. I THINK I may have found a solution to this issue. Below are shots of the prototype I've been trying this new technique on. While it still needs perfecting, I feel like I'm on the right path now. Stay tuned kids. :)