Reply To: Backhoe Contribution – Blanchsb – Exterior Loader Arms and Interior Chair

[Shawn Blanch]

@theluthier

MASTER OF LOOSE ENDS: Response
This one is a little wordy so good luck reading my yammering 🙂

I’m definitely interested BUT………I want to cover a couple of my bases before committing if that is okay. There are two main obstacles that aren’t deal breakers but I want to be up front about.

The ELEPHANT IN THE ROOM Obstacle: August 7 -18 I will be on vacation with limited access to do basically anything on my computer. I’ll be taking it with me because I consider blender a vacation all by itself but we will be busy doing other things most days. I didn’t want to commit to any ‘major’ modeling during this point for good reason because I won’t be around towards the end of the final week before the next live stream. I will need maybe a partner who I can hand this off to for when I leave. Someone just to check in on everyone during the last final sprint before the next live stream.

The SELF-INFLICTED Training Videos and Recording Obstacle: I really want to at least get a first draft recording of the things I have learned with Arrays and curves and their many practical uses and workflow choices (when to rely on deformation versus when you won’t want it, etc.) and I was planning on taking some dedicated time to tie up my own loose ends and gaps of understanding on curves and most of their many properties, tools, and options. And how using them with arrays and empties and much much more can help a blender workflow a ton. I currently have tried to narrow scope down in my introductory video but I feel like it can grow to more things which may make for a great course series, but I want to talk about that on your other post earlier a little more. I would love to give back to the community where I have gained so much. This does not have a time limit but it does have a experience/memory limit a little since my memory is really fresh on this stuff right now I fear putting it on hold may cause me to forget some hard earned lessons. I would definitely be willing to “cut a deal” though to get some “teaching/training and how to make my tutorial videos a little better” guidance in return for taking on the Master of Loose Ends Role haha. I could use some tips on good intro practices before the video starts and how to lay out what I want to train. I could cash in on this at a later date but I could definitely use some help in this area. Maybe just a half hour every now and then giving me critique on my videos and how to make them better (not looking for much really but I’ll take what I can get). Currently I just sit down and write a couple lines of what I want to cover and then hit record and hope it goes okay lol. That is neither professional or well planned, but I’m new to this and figured I will learn as I do more of them. I don’t mind re-recording topics later so that the content lines up more or issues get fixed. I’ll talk more about this recording/tuts business in your other response.

I can do support on the Master of Loose Ends from like a project manager standpoint. I don’t think I will commit to modeling any major loose ends (there can always be exceptions) due to my vacation but rather check to see who can do what to pick up any slack if we have some (which we probably have some folks who have moved on, which is perfectly fine). I’m hoping @adrian2301 could be a good person to help with some of the loose ends since that dude is on fire modeling all the extra parts already but I would want to weigh in on him and everyone else too. We still want this to be a fun experience and don’t want anyone overloaded since this is a community project. I know there are some members who have interest in joining our crew and this may be the perfect time to make some assignments. I could use some guidance to know which parts need additional effort (i.e. swing frame or others).

I don’t mind sending messages to member’s profiles and seeing where people are at with their own life/interest levels and looking over the model for collisions and other loose ends. That’s not a glorious job but I agree someone’s gotta do it and out DOG is worth it.

RIGGING THE DOG: Response. This can happen on the following month and maybe that would be for the best, but I wanted to comment here.

I feel like the rigging will be something that I would love to do, but it doesn’t necessarily have to happen during this next month/section. Maybe the following month would be better timed for rigging??? Also, I will not be heartbroken if Wayne takes this on, on his own. It’s an area I am interested int but not heart-set for. I just want more experience on this topic and felt I enjoyed figuring out the rigging process earlier during the block-out phase.

My current experience with rigging hard surface models is only what you have seen this far. I have some animation experience but it has been a while because my modeling needed a desperate level-up.

I learned a lot regarding animation and rigs when I first started my blender journey about 4 years ago and made some stickers on iOS iMessage. They were called Smashables and I made a teaser youtube video regarding their animations. It can be found here:

The rigging does not seem terribly complex on some of the bigger parts, but I could use some guiding commentary regarding if small parts should just be parented. The main hard part is going to be how the hydraulics dynamically slide and move around while also being constrained at certain sections where they have fasteners or clamps, etc.

I understand it may be something bigger than I realize. So I wouldn’t want to commit to rigging and Master of Loose Ends this month based on all of my other commentary. I’d rather handle the Loose Ends first.

Hopefully my comments make sense. And let me know. I am still very dedicated to this project.