facing the android's conundrum

lunch time sketch. the inspiration

the more i listen to the new shins album, the more i like it. i don't have much to say today other than to complain about the wicked pains shooting through my neck regions. i would blame my pillow, but really i've been suffering the abuse of pillows for many years now. i often wake with the hateful daggers of having either slept too long in one position, or settling into the perfect position to misalign my vertebrae. quite sad really. regardless, i went to the gym at dawn's wincing threshold with the intent to allow torrents of sweat to cascade from my shorn head. leaving the gym in such a condition was much too unpleasant. i hate getting into my car as a human sweat sprinkler.

and there you have it. can i get a nap now?

knock knock knockin'

this is how i spent my evening.

inspired by a little squirrel we saw sunday after brunch.


yes, i brunched.


also, i need to animate more. much more.

"it is you, ichabod crane, who is now put to the test"

one of my favorite films for breakfast today! looking at it, i think i should have brought the round of his cheek bones down further, especially under his right eye. also, he shouldn't be scowling so much. the menace of the line was actually stronger because of the lack of a scowl. mr. lee actually raised his eyebrows more at the end, communicating the threat of the moment from a place that didn't really need the help of a physically angry expression. also i should have made the finger more exaggerated... and the silhouette could be pushed to be better and clearer. his pucker on the "oooo" of the line doesn't look tight enough. i would push that forward more and squeeze it in more i think.

don't let the bastards grind you down

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ok i did another one.

aunt mary says they have the darkness in their eyes

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being that it's friday, i thought i'd do a horrible sketch. i also desperately want some cookies. i don't see that happening though. i'll have to settle for some water instead. now i get to move on to modeling road signs and wee posts. how could i ever want to put that off?

last night i was sketching some buildings. "buildings for what?" one might ask if anyone read my blog. i'm recreating a town from a video game i played as a young whelp in the frozen tundras of idaho. i'll put those up when i get home tonight. or tomorrow when i awaken from my television induced stupor.

it's a cup

morning warmup... meh

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mercy's eyes are blue

this is moses. not that moses. i've recently joined the mudbox bandwagon, and there are treats on that bandwagon my friends. treats of great deliciousness. since this is my first foray into the delicious world of the digital sculpting, i started with a cartoony situation which is a character i was already doing for a friend (that's moses, but obviously not that moses). normally, i wouldn't put a bunch of muscle detail and stuff, but i figured, "why not? this is after all mostly practice." i'm sure i'll do a more realistic sort of anatomy study. or i might just watch television until my brain froths out my ears. right now i'm going to bed.

you'll notice that the models are "faceted" which means they're not smooth shaded. that's how i've been working, and i forget to turn on the smooth shade before i do a screen grab. it may be a good idea to model with smooth on though as i find that i get too noodley trying to grab individual vertices and push them around into pleasing topology. i don't know if that's defeating the purpose of sculpting in mudbox or if it is indeed a good idea.

if you're wondering why his body is all blocky and his faces isn't, well that's how subdivision surfaces work... i won't try to explain that here. all i'll say is that i've been noodling the face longer, so it's more finished and subsequently has been subdivided more than the body. i just started pushing around the body tonight, so i haven't gone any deeper than level0.

i intend to take him back to maya and animate him, but i still haven't decided if i'll model him nudish and put some clothes on him in maya, perhaps fiddle around with cloth (yikes), or mudbox up another version of him with clothes on. we'll see about that eventually, but for now i'll do his torso as if it were nude, and perhaps he'll have a really tight shirt on. or i may just through out all this detail for the animated version. who knows? i sure don't.