I think I am going to do something that has to do witha broken heart or something… I’ve been gushing “heartfeelings” onto printer paper the last few weeks, and it’s hurting a bit right now…

So how better to vent than with a good piece that expresses me?

Talk to ‘y’all later!

As you should know, the original walker project got killed when my hard drive died. So, I am restarting it. I plan to use the exact same workflow as last time. I’m starting with the front toes section, then the heel, afterward I will make everything from the ankle up, adding hydraulics at every joint upon it’s completion.

As for Ubuntu, that Linux distribution– “distro” in computer nerd speak– 7.10, the version that is needed to run the latest versions of GIMP and Blender, does not want to work on my laptop, all of the text is showing up in squares.

Never fear! Windows is here! Yep, I do have Windows installed on my computer now, so I can use my laptp to some avail, and if I absolutely need to, I can revert back to Ubuntu 7.04.

Oh, and I found out what Ubuntu is:

Ubuntu is an African word meaning ‘Humanity to others’, or ‘I am what I am because of who we all are’. The Ubuntu distribution brings the spirit of Ubuntu to the software world.

So, happy Blending to all!

I hope you enjoy it!

Here 

My Hard Drive died two days ago, the partition that held all of my data, and the partition that help Windows XP, both got corrupted somehow. I’m running on a Linux Distro known as Ubuntu. To tell you the truth, I really like it performance wise for Blender, runs like a charm.

The bad part is that the only Blender file I didn’t have backed up, was of course, my walker project… WOW.

So, I might later on, restart the project, learn from what I did wrong, AND BACK UP EVERYHTING I HAVE.

I can not emphisise enough, back up all of your files in some way, shape or form, your HD will die on you at some point and you will regret not backing stuff up.

Don’t EVER forget Murphie’s Law:

If something can go wrong, it will.

I found a very nice document on rigging a character, all the way from the head, to the toes, even a master bone. This is a sub-section of the Blender Summer of Documentation (BSoD) site. There are sections on how to make materials, light things, animate, and even model! For some reason, this seemingly obvious web site has eluded my ever-watchful eye when it come to tutorials.

This tutorial is the result of about a month of intense work as part of the Blender Summer of Documentation. I created it with the hope of introducing many new users to Blender, as well as providing a resource for experienced Blender users.

Even if you’ve never heard of Blender before, you will be able to do this tutorial.

Enjoy!

-Ryan

Here is the Link to the site, there’s plenty to look at!

A lot of credit goes to Ryan on this amazing tutorial, I really hope this helps all you Blenderheads out there. It sure will help me!

Imperitor has a way that I find to be a good way of doing it, of course it is the common, static particle method. What I really like about his tutorial is that he also describes how to set the way the grass bends, and how to weight paint it, to help make paths and dry spots.

Thanks Imperitor!

Here’s a link to the tutorial, I hope you enjoy it!

Link

Sometimes getting our bone chains aligned can be tough and cumbersome. As you probably already know there is no Local coordiante system for bones in Edit Mode, so we only have the Global coordinates to work with. This is a good reason why you always be happier aligning your legs and arms at least to one orthogonal plane, the XY, ZY or ZX plane.

Here are some tricks to help you keep your bones aligned.

So, here’s the link to the blog, it’s made with wordpress!

Here

Happy Blending!

Texturing is going to definitely play a big part on the project too. When I get the chance, I want to learn how to UVW Unwrap stuff, so I can make some really cool textures for the joints and things like that.

Every separate shape is a separate object. I don’t plan to be joining any meshes together, since it is a mechanical character, separate objects tend to be more of a help than hassle, like with organic things. Also, if you haven’t guessed, I like hydraulics too, the majority of the ones in this project are placed to help aid the motors and servos in the joints. I did this because I know that a hydraulically actuated machine tends to be less accurate and more jerky in it’s movements.

So you won’t be seeing any hydraulic lines protruding from the pistons, but they aren’t just for looks. The idea behind them is to have a resting position, at which the fluid pressure is equal on both sides, and when stretched or squashed, they want to go back to neutral. The idea behind this is to make a rather bulky rig more believable.

So, I’ll keep you updated on this project for sure, in the next post, you should expect to see two legs!

So, I stayed up about 1 hour past my recommended bed-time, best choice, probably not. But I can at least sleep satisfied now that part of the project is finished, I can now rest assured, that if any more hydraulics need to be added, I can add them. Mind you, this isn’t even close to the Level of Detail (LoD as it will now be known in my posts) that I want it at, you can safely expect tubes, access panels, and the likes by the time it’s done.

What I’m really exited about is that the project is actually shaping together. I will admit, I’m getting a lot of inspiration from the game Battlefield 2142 for the computer, but that will mostly be on the movement and the upper body. Unlike the hallway, I’m winging it, I’m not drawing out any sketches, or things like that.

So yeah, I might wind up making my own page for this project in specific, it will be in a link at the top if all goes well.