Salvage

Data Mining

Vimeo link

This started out as a commission but the client wanted to go in a different direction after the initial sketches. I think the fact I did the concepts in 2D threw them.  

For me if the final image is a still 2D image then the approach of using the photoshop sketches is stronger but I should have thought of the client who was invested in a 3D image wanted to see that format in drafts.  

Anyway I was left with a partially developed concept that I did want to finish.  

I had developed 2 colour schemes based on what I could see of their branding.  As the choice was now mine alone I went with the lighter one. 

I used a toon shader to keep the detail low for the data centre.  There is a toon shader built in for Blender but it only works with cycles.  To keep the lighting effects I wanted to stay with the Eevee renderer.  You can cheat a toon shader using ramps so I used a variant of MrTriPies method here 

I added some animations.  I added ripples following the tutorial by Gleb Alexandrov here .  This method uses the wave modifier, dyanmic paint and a particle system.  The major time investment here was in getting a material and lighting set up that would leave the data lake emissions  visible but still being able to see the ripples by reflection.  

The figures are on the basic metarig.  You can see the lighting ended up a little complicated but that is why I wanted to do the lighter scene as it is harder to control.  

Lighting set up

Footie guy

Sligo Rovers Fall guy

Been watching alot of Fall Guys game play and really liked the aesthetic.  

I did not buy the game as I was worried it would become a major time sink.  

What I did think would be fun would be to model some elements in Blender. For the player models I made one up in my home town football strip of Sligo Rovers (stripes).  Another model is based off one of the most popular snacks in Ireland - Tayto crisps.  The mascot looks like this.  

Mr Tayto

Tayto guy 

It was a fun exercise and the success of the game is based on the simplicity of the basic design.  

Footie guy mesh

Antibody test

Antibody test 3D Model

Full video is here    https://vimeo.com/445199206

Another instructional video.  This one is looking at the Covid-19 antibody test.  This test is not used for detecting cases.  An RNA detections system using RTPCR is used for that.  This one is useful for figuring out if someone was exposed to the virus previously and is really important when developing vaccines.  It can be used to assess the strength of the immune response or the efficacy of a vaccine candidate.  

It is made up multiple steps and I have made multiple 2D representations of this kind of method.  This is a 3D approach.  I have not seen many of these so it was a good exercise to model the assets out figure out camera angles ect.

Assets trials

Final models

To make it as efficently as possible I created one major scene and set up multiple angles to capture the important details.

Main scene with cameras

The cutting together of all the resuting scenes with text was a bigger task than I had budgeted.  Some of the difficulties could hve been overcome by shooting better.  All in all given the scale of the task  (the largest so far)  I was happy enough with the outcome

If you have any questions let me know.

3D animation editing

Driving to Work

Driving to work

Youtube video

A short animation trying ot some techniques and rigging.  Modeled a low poly landscape and set of buildings.  

Landscape modeled

Modeled two characters using the Blender rigify.  Gave a basic walk cycle to the security guard.  The thermometer was a child of the guards rig 

Guards rig

For the car  I used a driver expression and an emptys movement to rotate the wheels and the wheels were parented to the car.  

The car window movement was a shape key animated.

Car model

Everything was rendered in cycles.  The main action was slowed down during editing and the colour balance shifted. 

Pink sofa

Pink Sofa

Interior render 

Another 3D project.  This one was modeling a floorplan out in 3D.  The placement of furnishing was established which helped with scale. I took some time and populated the scene with props.   Rendered in cycles

Plate Fill

You tube video

This work evolved out what was going to be part of a larger project but as it developed began to eclipse it.  All completed in Blender 2.83.  The subject is a microtitre plate.  It is used in analytical laboratories to run tests.  This one has 96 wells.  It allows 96 reactions to be run simultaneously using very small quantities of reagents. 

 It would be on of the most common formats for running the Covid-19 antibody tests for research and diagnostics.  

They are usually polyproplylene or polstyrene and serve just as the assay container so not considered very exciting.  

The challenge was to make it feel heroic and to do that required some work.  

Tried a few different looks first then set up the animations.  

I used all the hard won fluid knowledge from the virus video to set up the fill.  

I used the clamp to constraint to move the camera along paths.  

I also added a music track and cut the edits to match and give a rhythm.  

This was a learning curve and a half but a really good challenge.   

  Lockdown concentrates the mind. 

I am streaming more regularly on Twitch  https://www.twitch.tv/dertypaws  and the bigger project is being worked on there.  You can catch me live or watch the VODs.