Now I know I haven’t had enough sleep. I’m 37 years old and I just bought a Mr. Potato Head for myself. I’ve been struggling with the snowman idea and how it really doesn’t tie in with the bathroom environment very well. If I did it right, it would be a snowman’s bathroom with more creative objects that relate specifically to the character. It didn’t feel right, so I spent the evening trying to come up with something else. I was getting pretty frustrated when Mr. Potato Head came to mind: Walking to the mirror in the early morning, only to find his face is rearranged; testing the water in the bathtub wearing only a towel and a shower cap; ... more
June 2008 Archives
The Private Life of the Potato
The bathroom model is DONE
I’m officially two weeks behind, but finally this model is done. I might still have to do a wall to reflect in the mirror but I’m going to wait for that until I need it. Hopefully I’ve over-estimated how long it will take to texture the room or do the other models and I can make up some time over the holiday. I think I’ll redo the schedule and put off texturing until later when I’ve read more of my mental ray book. Tomorrow, character modeling!I’ll post the models to the slideshow tomorrow when I’m awake. Unless I won’t actually be awake again until Tuesday. This is going to be a 3-hour night so that’s entirely possible. ... more
Wall-e is the best movie ever made
Tonight was the first time since I went to the Viz lab that I came out of a movie wondering what was the easiest way to sell 2/3 of my stuff and get my cat to California. And it wasn’t just the beauty of the movie, which was astonishing; it was the story. I was so in awe of the originality of the art and the concept itself that I sat there dumbfounded well into the credits, almost forgetting to look for the names of my friends. I was ready to go work for Pixar — earthquakes, long hours and ridiculous cost of living be damned. I haven’t felt that way in a long time.But alas, here I am in ... more
I need three more days
And I don’t have them. I decided months ago to spend the next three days at Lake Bridgeport. I’m committed. I’m bringing the pot roast. I even bought sunscreen. And in three more days, at the rate I’m working now, I could have the bathroom model finished. But no. I made plans. And I even have to train my replacement for a couple of hours when I get back Sunday afternoon.Today I finished the blinds, shelves and bathtub faucet. I still need to do the sink faucet, mirror, light fixture, towel racks, towels, electric outlet, nightlight, toilet paper holder and toilet paper. Maybe a couple of bottles, soap and soap dish for the shelves too. And bathmats. See? I need ... more
It’s almost a bathroom
This weekend was an experiment in time management. Friday night, I thought I had the whole weekend to complete this model. I was really looking forward to it. But then I tried to start my car. Bad idea. Dead battery. After an hour of fighting an intermittent car alarm that suddenly couldn’t be disabled—apparently the one thing the battery still had enough juice to run — I finally disconnected the horn and gave up, knowing my Saturday morning was gone before it started. On Saturday I got up and with the help of a neighbor, pushed the car out of the driveway enough for him to try to jump start it. Didn’t work. So we pushed it back and waited ... more
Claw foot
I’m rather proud of this. ... more
I had to feed the cat anyway
More progress. This morning at 6:20 I took some shots of the bathroom with a cloudy sky outside. (And then went back to bed.) Tonight I did the night shots, some with the lights on, some with candles and some with just a nightlight. I downloaded a ton of stock photography for sky backgrounds and lighting references. I did a little more modeling on the claw foot for the tub. All the reference shots I took have been added to the work in progress page, and more will appear as I get them. None have been color corrected, especially since I’m going to do my own interpretation anyway. I have three out of six scenarios shot already — five environment ... more
I’m still calling it progress
I added two more movies to the inspiration page: Wall-e and Horton Hears a Who. It was interesting to see the uniform lighting throughout Horton compared to the different colors and temperatures in Cars and other Pixar work. I’m going to stop collecting references for now though. It’s done me a lot of good to collect all that work and put it together for comparison and analysis, and it’s given me a lot of ideas. But now it’s time to get back to the task at hand.Since I wasn’t able to get started tonight until 9:00, I decided this would be a good time to redo my schedule and finally decide on a character. I did both. The schedule is ... more
Your decoder ring has arrived
I’m a few days late in writing this but it’s probably for the best. It’s been a stressful, even emotional week and as I sit here in bed with my laptop I finally feel like I have enough of a grip on everything to finally put down the whole story. So here goes the Rendered Speechless Prequel, the post that explains it all.I quit my job last Wednesday. I have accepted a 6-month contract position with Collin County to work on their HUGE web site. Sound crazy? Well, it might be, and then again it might be the best decision I’ve made in a long time. I started looking a few months ago for a full time job because I ... more
Next time I’ll model a bed and crawl in
I decided after I finished the toilet model using subdivision surfaces that I would go back and redo the sink. It took about 10 hours to do that basin. It was still hard but I think it might be a slightly simpler surface now and it has some really nice round edges. So then I decided I’d redo the bathtub too. That was the easiest thing I’ve done so far. I simplified the poly model and then converted it to subdivision surfaces. It didn’t need much tweaking after that. It was done in an hour. I like all the models a lot better now, especially since I don’t have to worry about facets anymore. And despite the marathon session that ... more
