Blender nearly broke me... again

The 3d modelling assignment of creating 2 rooms in a 1930s Birmingham flat I approached with pleasure.  Enthusiastically I researched furniture and fabric patterns of the period.  Merrily I printed out pictures of the type of stuff I was going to create, and happily I annotated what I liked and the importance of detail for authenticity.

When it came to actually modelling the items, however, I was as lost as I always had been.  By the end of an entire day's lesson, I had achieved only 3 walls and a floor and a squashed box for a fireplace.  Blender, I had forgotten, is a nightmare.  I left the class miserably, promising tutor Chris that I'd download the hateful program onto my laptop and go back to the first 3D guide: creating a wind turbine.

This I dutifully did and spent 2 days attempting to follow the guide with over 20 attempts, but without a tutor or fellow students there to help me I didn't get past the second page.  Eventually, the night before the next lesson, having googled "blender for idiots" and "very simple blender guides" and not even achieved a 3D heart - I was ready to call blender a day and admit defeat.  Whatever part of my brain required to 'get' blender was obviously missing...  I was a failure...

The next day I sat down in the lesson and tried again to create an armchair out of a box, and miraculously, sort of succeeded!  Inspired by this I carried on - I managed to model my fireplace to look like my 1930s one!  Before I knew it I was making the standard lamp and an art deco table!  Incredibly, something must have gone in from all those failed blender guides.

I am well behind everyone else in my class, but this process has been a torturous one and to have created what I have (I know it's not very realistic or impressive really) gives me the biggest sense of pride I've had so far this term!

That's all Folks!

Ah well, another term over.  All four module projects have been handed in this week which has brought some highs but also some pretty low points.

Monday - the radio show.  This went really well I think, mainly because I'd had the chance to practice the whole thing on Friday, so tweaked my script over the weekend and was more relaxed when I finally did it on Monday.  Would have liked the chance to hear it, but it was a relief to get it done.  Spent my hour's train journey home writing the report to go with it.

Tuesday, as I've already blogged was the completion of Website design.  Did my best, bit crap with the technology and the apple software, but still feeling quite good.

Wednesday was the completion of the Digital Graphic Design module - not so great.  Have really enjoyed this project - redesigning an old building and turning it into a cafe bar, and designing a graphics package to go with it.  Had done lots of research and lots of sketches, but nothing on photoshop because my 30 day trial had expired (gutted!)

The actual graphics package I handed in was not great.  As usual my computer skills let me down rather and I spent an awful lot of time not producing what I'd planned.  I felt like my final package lacked class and style and was incomplete.

I felt rather down by the time I left class on Wednesday, and more than a little exhausted, having spent 2 days not getting home till nearly 8pm, and knowing that the next day was the one I had been least looking forward to all along... the dreaded Blender completion day.

Blender

I could go on about how much time I have spent on train journeys with my laptop, sitting up in bed with my laptop, boring my children and anyone else who has come near me for the last few weeks about the horrors of Blender, but I think I've already covered that in previous blogs.

In the end the 1930s flat, although only one room was furnished, had a few elements which I felt a bit proud of.  It was a battle and I really don't feel, even now, that I have come anywhere near mastering the unbelievably confusing and complicated program that it is, but am so relieved to have achieved what I did and to have handed it in.

So... That's All Folks! (for this term anyway)

Long awaited TV Station website...

Phew!  And finally, after an incredibly long day of intense brain pain I am thrilled to present my TV website.  Not perfect by any means and I've spotted all sorts of mistakes, but but it works.



http://db.tt/bFoOQwMA

Web Design

Well, I can report that my website for the new TV station - is starting to look like a website!  The links all work to each of the 5 pages, and the Home page is looking pretty good.

The 'Facilities' page keeps the theme going from the Home page, but I'm awaiting confirmation of what the actual equipment is from Chris Headleand.  I was unuable to find a convincing photo of a studio film camera for this page, so instead used a cartoon image from google images, but it looks surprisingly ok:

I have contacted Ros Owen regarding a bunch of professional photographs taken in the studio and she has kindly provided me with a link to them and I will certainly use some of them on the 'examples' page perhaps, since I have nothing else for this page at the moment as the TV studio is not really up and running yet.  Will consult with Ian MacNeill as to where he thinks they would be most appropriate in a gallery format.

Looking at it, maybe it would be better to have the above picture as the backgraound image for the 'Facilities' page, similar to the way I have used Aaron on the desk on the Home page. Hmm... I've got a lot of work to do in the class before 5pm tomorrow...

For the 'Contact' page, I have inserted a contact sheet but I have the task of playing around with the style sheet and changing the text to fit my site (something I'm not looking forward to at all)

On the 'Location' page I have provided a link to Google maps and also found a nice picture of the college  to go next to it.

I will provided a link to the actual website when it's finished - ie after 5pm tomorrow, but for now, here's a great pic of the Creative Tech class in the studio with Chris Headleand:



The Scrumptious Cake Company

Finally finished the assignment in Digital Graphics, which was to choose a project close to our hearts (I chose my own semi-imaginary cake business), research  similar businesses, come up with a brief, develop a specification, produce mood boards and concept development sketches before the final posters created in photoshop.

As I've previously blogged, all was going swimmingly until I stumbled over my own techno-inadequate toes.  But since then I've downloaded photoshop's free 30 day trial and worked really hard at grasping it.  I also take my laptop on the train every day which gives me nearly 2 hours to work.

Two of the finished posters have ended up pretty true to my original sketches, but the one on the right is the one which I believe is the most effective, the simplest design and it came from playing with photoshop and trying different ways of creating a flying cake.

The design which follows the original sketch most closely is probably my least favourite, and my original plans to use  photographs of my own home made cakes I quickly abandoned when I realised the quality of the images was not good enough.

















Our next project is to produce a full graphics package for a local company, or the marketing design for a board game or turning an old building into a night club or retail outlet.  Rather fancy the nightclub... but that's perhaps just because I rather fancy going to one!

Almost fond of Blender!

Yes,  I am learning to have a certain affection for that horribly complicated-seeming 3D modelling program - Blender.  We've spent the last 2 weeks of Dr Hughes' lessons imagining we work for a 3D animation company with responsibility for finishing the sets for the animators.

With a link to a basic untextured monochrome 3D kitchen, the assignment was to make it look like a real kitchen, adding colour, texture and shine to the room and all the pots, pans and crockery in it.  

Some of the textures I used were built in to Blender, while some came from google images. The floor is actually the tiles from the corridor outside our classroom which I photographed and uploaded onto the computer.  If you look closely you can see my toes appearing in the pattern of the floor!

I made the bottles transparent and added lights under the wall units.  Spent a lot of time tweaking the image, adding and reducing shine levels and I'm really pleased with the final result.  The only thing (apart from the toes which I really should have photoshopped out) is the bread.  I couldn't work out how to apply a brown crust to the outside, so it appears rather underbaked!


Next Assignment...


For our next assignment we've been given the task of building a set for a 3D animation company from scratch.  It must contain at least 2 rooms, be fully furnished and have windows with realistic views of the outside world beyond.

We were all randomly allocated a location and decade our sets must be styled on.  Mine is a 1920s Birmingham flat, and I'm going to start researching it over the bank holiday as the weather forecast has sadly  ended all plans of camping trips with my family. 

Argh! I'm a computer idiot!!!

Last week went a really long way to making me feel that I'm not as clever as I thought I was.  Not very clever at all, in fact, and shockingly computer illiterate.

The second task to be done in Blender was to create a puddle in a street.  We had a set of instructions to follow and tutor Chris Hughes showed us how easy it is (if you know what you're doing) by creating a perfectly authentic-looking puddle with fabulous reflections in about 10 minutes.  The thing is to get an image of a paved or cobbled street taken from above, then a nice reflective image of a street at night above to wrap around it, and finally to create the puddle in photoshop with black patches on the street, then to add reflectivity.   It was a bit of a torturous ordeal, but in the end I created this:

Not a perfect representation of a puddle, but I'm very proud of it considering the 

hard work that went in to creating it!

Meanwhile back in the graphics class, we'd reached the stage of actually getting our designs turned into posters via photoshop.  And once again my computer illiteracy let me down.

By the end of the day my fellow students were producing wonderful designs and I was struggling with the most basic photoshop commands and had so many confusing layers to my unfinished and messy-looking poster that I felt quite miserable.  I left the class promising tutor Chris Headleand that I would download 'gimp' a free graphics programme similar to photoshop.

Gimp proved to be just as nonsensical to me, but I battled on with my ten-year-old son advising me and was half-way to completing a poster when I lost my layers toolbar and was unable to get it back whatever I tried so in the end gave it up til the next lesson.  

The next week we had the fun task of turning images of ourselves taken in the TV studio against the green screen into classic fairy tale film posters.  Again I struggled, but stayed at college late, determined to at least accomplish this task.  At last I was getting the hang of photoshop, little by little.  When I discovered I could download a 30 day free trial there was no stopping me.  I was awake til 3am working on this:

Snow White starring Liz Hutchinson with a fabulous body - (are those silicon breasts?!)

Looking back on the things I have produced this week it doesn't seem so bad, but I've been in tears of frustration because of my own inadequacies, and I've felt like throwing in the towel and abandoning ship more than ever before. It seems I'm an awfully slow learner.  I'm not sure if that's my maturity or the fact that I've never been really fast at learning new things, and not getting my head around the technology has been so very frustrating. 

 But I haven't given up, and I'm trying really hard not to get stressed or upset , because getting emotional is definitely a hindrance to learning,