United3dArtists Archive

Draise · Post by **Draise** » 12 Dec 2018, 17:26

Thought to publish up my blog posts also here.. since you guys are family.

[Blog] Flippity Flip

Animation Nodes tutorials sometimes leads to some fun pretty results. Improving my MG skills!!

clintonman · Post by **clintonman** » 13 Dec 2018, 16:51

Nice, is that a gif animation?

Draise · Post by **Draise** » 15 Dec 2018, 03:19

clintonman wrote: 13 Dec 2018, 16:51 Nice, is that a gif animation?

Yes, a gif I made from a video.

Draise · Post by **Draise** » 03 Apr 2019, 16:12

Before the tragic electrical outage in my home and studio this past week, I had a render with more than a few thousand geometry particles rendered with eevee in Bforartists Alpha 0.2.0 (well really a build I did with a later iteration). I gave one of my old secondary machines the render batch, and it did it! It could. #win

I have to say though, the architecture is not great for particles and when you get to +100,000 geometry instances on the particles, things grind.

I delivered this project though, and clients were happy. I even played with Hitfilm express to add some post motion blur, that worked - to a degree. I need to do more experiments.

Draise · Post by **Draise** » 30 Apr 2019, 14:53

Ive been wanting to document my weekly work and progress some time, sit, talk, reflect on what I've learnt and done to cement what I learn.. so here is one of them: the week 11 of this year.

Watch on Youtube in HD:

Or on Vimeo:

Draise · Post by **Draise** » 05 Jun 2019, 00:47

[Blog] Modeling is Relaxing
It's so nice to get back to it. I tried using Blender 2.8/Bforartists 2, but I was a bit.. rusty. I have a deadline, so best to zen model in something I know. So relaxing! I love pushing poly's.
Started getting back to creative work due to a client finally wanting 3D work! Yay! I have enjoyed deving some tasks for BFA2, but when it comes to modeling, the exposed tools in the shelf still make BFA1 feel that much more intuitive to a degree. I feel like I have to relearn everything in BFA2 when it comes to modeling. Layout, animation, rigging, and all else.. but modeling, GP, sculpting and some of the rest feels alien now. So.. for this project it will be BFA1.

Draise · Post by **Draise** » 06 Jun 2019, 22:32

Here are some of the modeling updates! Can you guess what the thing is?

jamesmc · Post by **jamesmc** » 07 Jun 2019, 05:11

rotating brush for washing cars or teeth

Draise · Post by **Draise** » 03 Jul 2019, 13:58

jamesmc wrote: 07 Jun 2019, 05:11 rotating brush for washing cars or teeth

Hehe, close. It was a fixed projector for logos, either in shop or bars. It has a lamp that shoots out the beam onto walls, can be seen by day almost - thus the head defelectors (the brush looking part).

Here is another one, what do you think this is?

Draise · Post by **Draise** » 03 Jul 2019, 14:00

[Blog] When you get distracted

- you stop and do a quick interior lighting setup in #bforartists, like me, completely unnecessary! #blendswap was kind enough to provide this sample. I still prefer the dynamic GI of #UE4 though..

Draise · Post by **Draise** » 09 Jul 2019, 14:46

[Blog] Solar LED project finished!

I was working on digitizing a product for a client, and made a video. It turned out quite well, now happy. You can check out a bit more on my artstation:

https://www.artstation.com/artwork/nQLVa1

Draise · Post by **Draise** » 24 Jul 2019, 16:41

[Blog] Clouds
I just discovered yesterday how to do volumetrics in Eevee with #bforartists, and well.. it's cool fun. I also found out a way how to get rid of the card shadow noise with a rendering workaround. I think... I will do a quick personal project now - maybe for the competition! Huehuehue.

MikomDude · Post by **MikomDude** » 24 Jul 2019, 23:47

That cloud looks pretty convincing! also a bit like a very fuzzy map of the world...

Still have to try out Eevee myself. Haven't downloaded 2.8 yet. Should make that something I look into in the future, although I'll be in Dublin over the weekend so not sure when I'll have time.

Draise · Post by **Draise** » 30 Jul 2019, 14:45

MikomDude wrote: 24 Jul 2019, 23:47 That cloud looks pretty convincing! also a bit like a very fuzzy map of the world...

Still have to try out Eevee myself. Haven't downloaded 2.8 yet. Should make that something I look into in the future, although I'll be in Dublin over the weekend so not sure when I'll have time.

I like volumetrics with eevee. I plan to make.. something with this today. When you come back, Bforartists has merged in 2.8, so it's a bit more... iconized like trueSpace - so it's less jarring to learn. I highly recommend it. It has all the same features. In about a week there will be a new version with all the latest of Blender 2.8 official.

Meanwhile, I have been experimenting with Volumetrics. Learning how to layer them and max out samples for smooth artifact free renders.

Draise · Post by **Draise** » 31 Jul 2019, 15:05

[Development] Task #927 Done

Bforartists: Video Sequencer - Move view properties from Header to View Tab - closed

https://github.com/Bforartists/Bforartists/issues/927

Just.. little things I do in sooome spare time. It's fun. Bforartists2 - Alpha 0.6.0 will be online soon.

Draise · Post by **Draise** » 28 Aug 2019, 13:53

[Blog] Reffing
Or.. referencing, it's a process I go through to feed the mind, the art, and other artists who may work with me. I use Duckduckgo and a firefox addon Search Preview. I get results with thumbnails and the results are somewhat purer - we don't use anything, just ref!

Draise · Post by **Draise** » 30 Aug 2019, 23:08

[Blog] Conceptualizing

I just got off a meeting with the client, going over the processs for this week while working on the game mechanics. All good! I've worked with Allon Kremer to conceptualize. We have been working on style guides to fast-track ideas. Later we'll make them.

To make efficient concept art, you gotta think of speed and not about quality, so that revisions won't be painful, and so words practically get made into an images. Then make art design sheets and color palette, later helps with concepts per prop/set.

[Blog] Art Style?

When a project begins, more often than not, the client won't know what he wants. So.. I try listen and connect and pitch styles.. without a large investment, getting a bank of ideas. Eventually an idea begins once I get the right artist to capture the idea.

clintonman · Post by **clintonman** » 31 Aug 2019, 01:34

"...while working on the game mechanics..."
Are you working on a game?

Draise · Post by **Draise** » 31 Aug 2019, 17:39

yehp! An app for an exhibit I have to deliver in the next two weeks.. gulp...I'm doing it in Unreal Engine, so.. concepts are picked up quickly, though it's a little terrifying that I have a deadline to do it all.

Here is another blog post on the topic:

[Blog] Spagetti Madness
I started delving into #UE4, getting core concepts with #Blueprints. It has been enlightening. I quickly picked up concepts I would only dream of programming in code within a few hours. It is still a bit chaotic, but now I'm functional. #gamedev #indie

MikomDude · Post by **MikomDude** » 04 Sep 2019, 23:32

It's a really cool project! It happens really quickly that you advance in the early stages of learning game development. I myself never thought I'd be able to learn any kind of program development but after a while, when you learn more, creativity will really push you to go further! Just don't let feature creep slow down your progress at it's very easy to pile up too much work and features when you realize you can do so much more than you previously imagined.

Draise · Post by **Draise** » 06 Sep 2019, 14:26

MikomDude wrote: 04 Sep 2019, 23:32 It's a really cool project! It happens really quickly that you advance in the early stages of learning game development. I myself never thought I'd be able to learn any kind of program development but after a while, when you learn more, creativity will really push you to go further! Just don't let feature creep slow down your progress at it's very easy to pile up too much work and features when you realize you can do so much more than you previously imagined.

I know how you feel, but adding the deadline and very clear client parameters has kept me in check. I can't wait to finish this. Will be a good showcase. I have 10 more days or so.

So.. here is an update!

[Blog] May not look like much..
But it is much. It's a working prototype for dragging actors to a hotspot to delete or spawn, health tracking and event triggers. I really had to hit the ground of this project running, learning all the 101's of UE in record time. #ue4 #gamedev

Draise · Post by **Draise** » 12 Sep 2019, 15:38

[Blog] Lego Bits
I have been spending time working with Fernando Gonzalez to make bits for an educational game - and in making a modular game mechanic so I can churn out 3 levels really quickly. I have the hardware, 48 hours to finish.. and.. lot's of coffee. Let's do this. #ue4

Draise · Post by **Draise** » 25 Sep 2019, 23:50

[Blog] Concept to 3D
I have some tweaking on a game I made, but the process is done. We made concepts to 3D to game art - mostly sprites in a 3D world. It turned out great. Fernando Gonzales made this one as part of the team, nice one! Allon Kremer did the concept. #concept3d

Draise · Post by **Draise** » 27 Sep 2019, 13:44

[Blog] Terrain Party
To get quick scenery of choice for the app, I went to terrain.party and downloaded the terrain of choice. I then chopped it up with booleans and painted it with a modified satellite views. Quick terrain in no time!

Draise · Post by **Draise** » 30 Sep 2019, 15:58

[Blog] Not What it Seems

I made a small game run on.. something small, but putting in as much detail I wanted onto cards. I then optimized the game by just... dropping quality over all and upping textures. Viola, nice FPS with lots of detail. #bforartists #unrealengine #b3d

Draise · Post by **Draise** » 22 Nov 2019, 03:26

[Blog] Dense Black Foam
All this #nodevember wave has me inspired, so I made some dense black foam for a personal project of mine. Procedural things are fun, time consuming - and requires some thought - but it's nice to have it tunable to be artistic.

Draise · Post by **Draise** » 13 Dec 2019, 18:27

[Blog] Everytime

... I open up this little guy.. I want to finish him. There are things to smooth out, to work on, to rig, to animate... but he's waiting... waiting patiently.. =(

#needssomelove

AND

Big news. I have started to migrate and move work to Patreon. I have a small following, but a lot of ambitions and projects that will be useful to the artistic and cg community. I just need to organize myself, make these projects public, and get out there. So my first steps is by working on my website and financial model. More soon!

Patreon Post

Finis · Post by **Finis** » 14 Dec 2019, 03:37

Don't you have a small CG studio business? Is the Patreon thing an extra activity? I hope both work well for you.

Draise · Post by **Draise** » 14 Dec 2019, 04:19

It's pretty much me and whom I hire. I have my "studio" with a couple of computers, but I wouldn't call it a registered company paying taxes - so to get income I have to be an individual till I really am a real company to be called a studio publically.

Also... I am trying to diversify my income. Providing services is unrealiable and difficult, and it's not a passive income, so I need to branch out a little and also.. do more what I dream. I am not a huge fan of working for clients with projects that will never really be my own, though the work is enjoyable.

Finis · Post by **Finis** » 16 Dec 2019, 02:10

Work often isn't anything we like or want to do but it can be. You have the talent and motivation to do that. Essentially, you'll produce CG resources and your patrons will have access to them?

Draise · Post by **Draise** » 20 Dec 2019, 22:43

Yeah, the idea is around that. Make products and services around 3D and what I am good at, and justify having supporters to do so. Kinda like.. Mikom! I love what he does.

Tis the season. So.. thought to send a little post!

[Blog] Best Wishes

It's that time of year, of family, of crunch, of reflection and preperation for a new year. I actually like this season - and want to with you all the best.

Image: modeled with Eevee yesterday in #bforartists

Draise · Post by **Draise** » 14 Jan 2020, 14:54

[Blog] Reorganizing

I started sculpt january, did 2 days, hit a road block with life, and... then decided to reorganizie my studio. I have now have a vacant space right now for an intern! But... ah.. focus?

Finis · Post by **Finis** » 21 Jan 2020, 03:03

Nice and sunny! Is that some serious sound equipment near Marilyn? I like how the intern's stuff is lower than The Boss' stuff!

Draise · Post by **Draise** » 24 Jan 2020, 07:23

[Sculpt January] Day 3 - Nervous

I'm back to it, late.. but still!!! .. and just when I get comfortable, I have to move my studio again to an un-forseen unfortunate event... So I decided to sculpt this fitting image I have in my mind, a brain not stopping it's thinking.

Draise · Post by **Draise** » 24 Jan 2020, 07:24

Finis wrote: 21 Jan 2020, 03:03 Nice and sunny! Is that some serious sound equipment near Marilyn? I like how the intern's stuff is lower than The Boss' stuff!

I do have some sound equipment, including turn tables and 4 stereo channel mixer. I mix on the side. Funny thought on the intern! I guess that's why I never used that desk.

I have to change this all again soon though...

Steinie · Post by **Steinie** » 24 Jan 2020, 13:14

I knew it!!
Your a fugitive!

Draise · Post by **Draise** » 31 Jan 2020, 16:19

Looks like I don't have to move after all.

I've been working on doing dailies for #sculptjanuary but.. failed miserably. It's end of January and I only got to Day 6. So.. I'm throwing the rules out and will stick to trying to do dailies as often as I can in any way possible for discipline, speed and quality expression.

Draise · Post by **Draise** » 11 Feb 2020, 15:52

[Blog] Client Proposals

Lately I've been busy working on proposals, investing hours into "sales" to win a client with a showcase of what I can do for them. Most of the time it works - and so far... it helps a lot. But it takes some personal investment to do.

Draise · Post by **Draise** » 04 Mar 2020, 18:46

[Blog] Int-rim-sting.

Just finished modeling some rims, I have so much work right now..... which is great, but at the same time, I can see a lot of coffee and late nights in the near future. I may need to delegate soon.

Draise · Post by **Draise** » 06 Mar 2020, 22:43

[Blog] Aged Wings

I was going through my archives and found this little project! Some wings made in trueSpace. They were for a VJ system behind a DJ. They were really fun to do, and in record time. I loved trueSpace - if it didn't go EOL, I'm sure it would be amazing today.. #ts

Finis · Post by **Finis** » 08 Mar 2020, 01:19

Those are cool. Such a variety too.

Draise · Post by **Draise** » 01 Apr 2020, 03:23

Finis wrote: 08 Mar 2020, 01:19 Those are cool. Such a variety too.

Thanks finis. I love these kinds of things. I think it was really one of my last 3D projects in trueSpace, come to think of it... =,( Imagine if the last financial crisis of 2008 hadn't happened, I wonder where trueSpace would be today.

Anyway! Now doing rendering:

[Blog] Test Renders… A Ritual

I have been getting into the habit of doing test renders before delivery, mainly to give clients a chance to review – but more for me to iron out bugs. Blender doesn’t have a “show render result” toggle in viewport even in Eevee…. I miss this from 2.79 a lot….

Finis · Post by **Finis** » 01 Apr 2020, 03:41

Not sure about the "show render result". Using the dots at the top or maybe bottom in Blender 2.82 I see various viewport displays like wireframe. One of them shows a render in the viewport. In Blender style there are many viewport controls scattered around.

What is it syncing with?

Draise · Post by **Draise** » 01 Apr 2020, 16:29

It's a batch render script, so it loads the scene, syncs with the right linked data, then starts rendering.

The Overlays toggle is nice, but it doesn't show or hide "Hidden in Render" toggles. The "hidden in render" will then show in the viewport, but not on render.. which is annoying, because there is no visual feedback to prep to render till you actually hit render or check your outliner conceptually or routinely..

Finis · Post by **Finis** » 01 Apr 2020, 17:10

Still not sure what you want to do. As far as matching the viewport render to the final render there are several visibility controls available in the outliner including show in viewport and show in render. By default most are not active but you can activate the ones you want.

If you want to render what you see in the viewport there are render selections on the View menu.

Not saying this is as good as what 2.79 had. Just that there are so many controls for so many things there probably is a way to do it if you can find it. One of Blender's weaknesses is things are spread all over many panels and menus. If there isn't maybe you can write a script to do what you want.

Draise · Post by **Draise** » 01 Apr 2020, 22:48

Yeah... I think I might have to learn how to make an addon for this and add some rendering streamline workflows. Because yes, you could technically match the viewport visibility with the render visibility somehow in the outliner, then that would work fine - having a button to do that... but so far it's not like that.
The reason is.. usually my setups start to have thousands of elements in dozens of scenes in deep hierarchies.. and something can be missed oh so very easily, and you can only see it after you've rendered..

Finis · Post by **Finis** » 01 Apr 2020, 23:49

Ah I see. 2.79 had a quick way to do that globally where now you must use scattered tools and search through many elements.

I've been thinking about how to organize the many "shots" in my Christmas short film in terms of Blender files, or scenes, or what. I'll formulate the question better and ask you about it later in thread for that.

Maybe there already is an add on or script for it. Other people probably want that 2.79 function back too so they might have made one.

Draise · Post by **Draise** » 03 Apr 2020, 15:29

Finis wrote: 01 Apr 2020, 23:49 Ah I see. 2.79 had a quick way to do that globally where now you must use scattered tools and search through many elements.

I've been thinking about how to organize the many "shots" in my Christmas short film in terms of Blender files, or scenes, or what. I'll formulate the question better and ask you about it later in thread for that.

Maybe there already is an add on or script for it. Other people probably want that 2.79 function back too so they might have made one.

Using scenes for shots is pretty good. Also binding your cameras to markers is a great way to do it in a single scene.

I might have to dig around different areas for different rendering addons, just to see. I know of another addon that binds sequencer strips to cameras - which is like editing your 3D cameras/scenes in a video editor. That too could be a method.. but easiest is just by binding the camera to a marker in the timeline.

Other than improving rendering, in my free time I try learn things for personal goals and projects.. like environment design, and to do that in Blender, Ineed a way to blend materials between objects (like mud rain splash back on rocks) to make things more natural. Here is a quick social post on it:

[Blog] Learning how to blend Mats
Every now and then, between clients.. I still got the curious technical learning drive to try figure things out.. like how to blend materials between objects by proximity and direction in Bforartists. Later.. in Unreal Engine.

Draise · Post by **Draise** » 06 Apr 2020, 23:57

[Blog] Making Quick Flags

Not really into cloth, but I made some quick cloth sims for a quick render. I really need to get into cloth more often, it's a lot of fun. I saved this one to my library.

Draise · Post by **Draise** » 11 Apr 2020, 18:18

[Blog] Mastering Polyquilt

I've been doing some retopology using Polyquilt. This is what Polybuild of 2.8 should be, it's such a great addon. The pre-highlight workflow is just so comfortable and fast.. and it's fun for strips. Highly recommend 9/10.

https://blender-addons.org/polyquilt-addon/

Draise · Post by **Draise** » 16 Apr 2020, 03:28

[Blog] Rendering Deliverables

I think I gotta post something daily here. I really should... I work a lot, on many projects, and I like to.. share. I want to share.. I must share.

Draise · Post by **Draise** » 22 Apr 2020, 19:09

[Blog] Can you take it?

Quick turnaround, fast renders, turntables, modeling to reference and measurements, design and hardsurface techniques? If you can, then freelancing is for you! <3

Draise · Post by **Draise** » 31 Aug 2020, 17:35

[Blog] Rocking it out with 10 nodes

Been obsessing with procedural rocks lately - checking out Houdini tutorials with Blender node alternatives. I can't budget commercial licenses yet - but the results have been quick and fun!

Just to prove that it's procedural, you can run the frame count or seed and.. new rocks! Also, the material has an edge detection that I will use and abuse from now on. #sverchok. I could use the modifier stack in nodes with #sorcar...hmm..

"But how!?" - you may ask.. well here is how. Simple trees!

Basically you generate a pill geometry, select random vertices, use them to create a convex hull, then instance the matrices of the many convex hulls over a random vector array. Then using the modifier stack, you can get the rock shape, add some musgrave displacement, then using edge detection and another musgrave - drive some materials. I like musgrave, it's in nature everywhere.

Hope you enjoyed!

MikomDude · Post by **MikomDude** » 01 Sep 2020, 07:52

That's pretty cool. I should check that out.

v3rd3 · Post by **v3rd3** » 01 Sep 2020, 12:38

Draise ... you are awesome...

bitkar · Post by **bitkar** » 01 Sep 2020, 14:51

Draise rocks!

Draise · Post by **Draise** » 12 Apr 2021, 23:29

Been a while since hanging out here. I have been mostly on Discord these days, the live aspect of a forum I enjoy a lot. Every monday we get one hour competitions in a server, and I do a #blenderroyale against other players. It's fun. I win some, mostly loose them.

Attached is todays one. With a bit more extra love.

Draise · Post by **Draise** » 12 Apr 2021, 23:31

Oh! And my rock experiments yielded results like these!

RAYMAN · Post by **RAYMAN** » 13 Apr 2021, 19:04

Those are nice ! I use photogrammetry for rocks as of lately! Learnt to make the scanned textures by the best pro out there for textures...Christoph Shindelar!He also makes the best textures for sale out there..!RD textures..used in Hollywood productions..!
You can use the free scansoftware for the purpose!
Meshroom

https://www.artstation.com/artwork/xJyJPE

Draise · Post by **Draise** » 23 Apr 2021, 21:09

I like the website! Yeah, photgrammetry saves a lot of work. I have yet to get into that scene and into using assets like that. I find.. it's kinda satisfying doing my own style similar and inspired by reality, but not.

I have bee publishing to my artstation lately, putting up my monday speed render and modeling. Here is one based on the word prompt: Chaos.

Finis · Post by **Finis** » 28 Apr 2021, 23:56

Draise is here! Are you going to experiment with Blender geometry nodes for rocks?

Draise · Post by **Draise** » 07 May 2021, 20:27

Finis wrote: 28 Apr 2021, 23:56 Draise is here! Are you going to experiment with Blender geometry nodes for rocks?

I do plan to. It not as capable as Sverchok for some things, but for instancing, hell yeah, it's capable. I will work it a bit.

And yes! I am still here. I have been more happy in Discord lately, it is like a forum but realtime.. so being here, having to write, upload with a dialogue, then hit "submit" is a bit.. feels clunky now. But i am still around!

[Blog] Trinumedia

[Blog] Trinumedia

Re: [Blog] Trinumedia

Re: [Blog] Trinumedia

Re: [Blog] Trinumedia

Re: [Blog] Trinumedia

Re: [Blog] Trinumedia

Re: [Blog] Trinumedia

Re: [Blog] Trinumedia

Re: [Blog] Trinumedia

Re: [Blog] Trinumedia

Re: [Blog] Trinumedia

Re: [Blog] Trinumedia

Re: [Blog] Trinumedia

Re: [Blog] Trinumedia

Re: [Blog] Trinumedia

Re: [Blog] Trinumedia

Re: [Blog] Trinumedia

Re: [Blog] Trinumedia

Re: [Blog] Trinumedia

Re: [Blog] Trinumedia

Re: [Blog] Trinumedia

Re: [Blog] Trinumedia

Re: [Blog] Trinumedia

Re: [Blog] Trinumedia

Re: [Blog] Trinumedia

Re: [Blog] Trinumedia

Re: [Blog] Trinumedia

Re: [Blog] Trinumedia

Re: [Blog] Trinumedia

Re: [Blog] Trinumedia

Re: [Blog] Trinumedia

Re: [Blog] Trinumedia

Re: [Blog] Trinumedia

Re: [Blog] Trinumedia

Re: [Blog] Trinumedia

Re: [Blog] Trinumedia

Re: [Blog] Trinumedia

Re: [Blog] Trinumedia

Re: [Blog] Trinumedia

Re: [Blog] Trinumedia

Re: [Blog] Trinumedia

Re: [Blog] Trinumedia

Re: [Blog] Trinumedia

Re: [Blog] Trinumedia

Re: [Blog] Trinumedia

Re: [Blog] Trinumedia

Re: [Blog] Trinumedia

Re: [Blog] Trinumedia

Re: [Blog] Trinumedia

Re: [Blog] Trinumedia

Re: [Blog] Trinumedia

Re: [Blog] Trinumedia

Re: [Blog] Trinumedia

Re: [Blog] Trinumedia

Re: [Blog] Trinumedia

Re: [Blog] Trinumedia

Re: [Blog] Trinumedia

Re: [Blog] Trinumedia

Re: [Blog] Trinumedia

Re: [Blog] Trinumedia

Re: [Blog] Trinumedia

Re: [Blog] Trinumedia