Wash your hands

Link to youtube


Back again.  I have taken some time out to revise my portfolio and website and relaunch the business side of this enterprise.  I gave myself some personal projects and I will be publishing them over the next couple of days.  I will follow up here with some more behind the scenes work and explanation.  If there are some things among all this that interest you or you have some questions let me know here or any of the other social media sites.  

The updated website is www.dertypaws.com

One of the more contemporary projects was  'Wash your Hands'.
This was modeled, animated and edited in Blender. 
The structures were based on virus protein sequence data such as here
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/Structure/pdb/6Z43

The data was imported into Blender using the atomic blender utilities add on. This allows you to import the PDB data.  Had to play around with the import parameters to get the desired effect. 




After that the structure could be edited but for a virus where multiples were required it was not practical.  I went back to the sculpt tools and approximated the shapes.  The surface was created with textures.

The fluid simulation was a learning curve.  I had worked with the old fluid sim in Blender which was based on the particle system.  The mantaflow system is more powerful but complex.  Tweaking each parameter piecemeal was require and would be my biggest tip.  Make sure that the sim has recalculated after each change and review the outcome.  

After that was moving some cameras and editing the rendered movie.  

Unforeseen Circumstances

Nuclear Reactor

Well there you are.  
Had a plan.  
Was working through it.  
Knew it would be a tough ask but was giving it a lash and then...  

Yes a once in a 100 year happening happens.  
Now what.  


The virus has ironically not impacted much of how I was living.  I was mostly spend time working or practicing.  I had already cut my expenditure right down - no holidays , nights out  or  fancy anything.  
What it has done has hit the momentum of the work - it dried up completly and has picked up again - but slowly.   It has created a vast unkown  a calculated gamble that has now become it seems,  just become a gamble.  
For now I am in holding mode trying to figure out the next move.  
I am sure a lot of people are.  

So stay safe, stay healthy, hold firm.  This too will pass.

In the meantime the blog has taken quite a hit.  I was really busy trying to get as much work done as possible so not much personal work in the mix.
This gif is mixture of Blender and Photoshop - a combination  I have been playing around  with alot of late.  

Small Town

Small Town 

I started out with a small set of buildings and then added some more.  I finished it out but it would have been better if I planned from the start and ordered the tasks in an efficient way.  I did at one point max out the lights and my pc chugged in the later stages.  I would want to reduce everything to the minimum to render effectively.  It was well worth doing as a learning task.  I did some animations as well.  At ground level its a little rough around the edges.  

Sitka Spruce

Sitka Spruce

Had some time to work on personal projects this past week.  Where I live the agricultural land is marginal to poor.  Forest coverage in Ireland is one of the lowest in Europe.  There are historical reasons for this.  The government has been encouraging more forest to planted initially to redress this and now as a carbon offset mechanisim.  Sitka Spruce - not indigenous - was identified in the 60' and 70's as a fast growing conifer.  It has become the go to species for planting new 'forests'.  So much so that it now dominates the landscape - planted at densities that the land does not support anything else.

Still practicing in Blender 

  

Bouncing

Bouncing

Or you can watch it at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Efw70E7eIL0 ..



I am still working my way through Blender features and there were already alot to learn but it seems the devs have been adding alot more of late.  This animation was created using the cloth simulation and its pressure setting in Blender 2.81.  There have been a few tutorials on it.  One of the more comprehensive ones is a series by Chris Prenninger. It is a real timesink creating different effects and I have to budget my time at the moment.  

Happy New Year

Logs - ink

Happy New Year.  

Managed to get a post out before January closed out.  Have been busy working on paid work and a revamping of my portfolio.  I have let this slip alot these last 3 months which is not good as this is mostly a store of study pieces and experiments and this makes it obvious I have let both slip.  Well new year and a recommitment to keep this record updated.  

This is a study from a photograph in ink.  I finally manged to get a cartridge pen.  Up until now it I have used a dip pen.  It was nice to just work without worrying about recharging with ink.  

Merry Christmas 2019

Merry Christmas 2019

Níl aon tinteán mar do thinteán féin   -- There is no fireplace like your own.

(Open fires are for the most part illegal in new housebuilds in Ireland now.)



Winding down for the end  of the year. 

 Looking forward to a break - and time to recharge.  

Wishing you a Merry Christmas.