Polska Brain Jelly

Just a quick update to document what I’ve been doing.  Mostly just grabbing reference material off of the Internet, images that I will use for modelling and so forth.  Blender seems like it will do everything that I’m wanting it to do so I don’t think I will have the added expense of Maya, and Google offeres a student rate on SketchUp Pro, so I’m good there (except it’s only a one year license, but still, it’s a heck of a lot cheaper than the full license).

Wow.  Looking for tips on character and vehicle designing in SketchUp I came across some of Justin Chin’s work.  Amazing. That’s the first word that comes to mind when I view his stuff. If I can harness a fourth of his dedication and talent I will be doing good.  You can check out the stuff he’s doing in SketchUp here.  It seems he is modeling his characters in SketchUp and then rigging them in Maya.  I’m going to have to do research on if Blender will do that, or I might be looking for some spare cash to get Maya.

I’m embarking on a new project.  Well, actually I’m revising a project that I put on hold a while back because I wasn’t satisfied with the way it was coming out.  I’m still commited to telling the story of Aftermath, but I wasn’t satisfied with the artwork I was putting out.  My skills had atrophied from years and years of non-use, and I just don’t have the time (or rather, motivation) to hone them back.  I’ve always been interested in 3D modelling, so I decided to go that direction with it.  I’ve been looking and experimenting with various programs, and the ones I’m seriously looking at now are Daz Studio, Bryce, Blender and SketchUp.  I really like the way SketchUp works, and the raw way it looks with textures in place.  I’m still experimenting, and I’ve got some books on order to get started.  I’m bascially going to use this site as my journal documenting my progress, that way I can look back and keep a record of how things are going.  It will also keep me motivated to continue, I hope.