The story behind textures

Well after my tutor showed me how to add textures I've finally added textures to my scene. Now I originally did plan to search for them from the Internet. Then I realized that's naughty and not allowed. So I took them myself using my digital camera. Here are the textures I've used.

First the lamp itself using my very own lamp:

It's gray and made out of metal which is exactly what I need as a texture.

Next was the computer desk and naturally I've used my own computer desk which has a wooden texture.For the wall, yes you guessed it, I've used my own wall. It is painted over with blue (my favourite colour) rather than using wall paper.The last texture was tricky to get: The Moth itself. It would be extremely hard to find a Moth and take a picture of its body (and they maybe hiding for the winter). Taking a picture from a book might not have been allowed either. So instead I had to use something else and after some thinking I decided to use my face cloth.


It's the one on the far right I've used. At least it's brown...and hairy...

Also I've managed to work with the lighting and how to set the Moth on fire which means the animation is more or less finished. I should upload the video on the blog during the weekend.

A preview without a render

Want to know how my animation is going on? Here's a preview. It is not rendered nor textured yet. Despite what I've said in my last post, animating the moth turned out ok and as you can see, I've decided to give the moth a more horrible fate. It's the lamp that has giving me more trouble as it seems to have a mind of its own...

I apologize for the size and quality.

On the bright side...

I've finished my Flash design work. There's a bit of history with me and Macromedia Flash. It was one of the software I was taught in College. Unfortunately I've learnt to hate it with its complicated controls.

Going back to this program feels odd but my dislike in it has not changed. I've tired to remember the controls and techniques learnt from College so the design itself is not perfect. The image does look nice though especially with the black lines to make it stand out.

This does not look good here, um...

You probably have a few questions for me:

How was Christmas?

Yes I did have a lovely Christmas thank you.

How is work going on?

Well I have been trying to follow that tutorial. On the first try, the code worked but the shape wasn't moving correctly so I've deleted it and start again. But now every time I would try to input the code, I get this error message:

Error: Attribute already controlled by an expression, keyframe, or other connection

I have no idea how to fix it and I've been trying out different things with no result.

This is really down hearting as I was hoping this method would be the solution but it looks like I have no choice but to animate the wings manually myself...see this is way I dislike modeling because of complicated controls and problems like this.

The Christmas Season

I may be off university but I shall still be working on my assignment. I've managed to download a trail version of the 2011 version. It last for 30 days which should be enough time before the deadline. I've tried to get the full version but I can't access my student email for some reason which is required. But a trail version shall do for now

A Perfect Tutorial?

Browsing through the internet searching for tutorials, I've find a blog page that might be the perfect tutorial I need. It shows a technique called Expressions. From what I can gather, it allows you to animate a model without the use of keyframes. The example happened to be a bug with wings. I could follow that example to model my Moth. I have been having a little trouble trying to figure out how to create the Moth so hopefully this would give me a solution.

The secret behind animating the wings appears to be some coding that must be added in the expression editor:

lWing.rotateX = time * 10;

(With lWing being the name of your model)

This code controls the X Rotation of the model and the "*10" part makes the flapping of the wings faster which makes it easier to see.

To make the wing back and forth, you add this code:

lWing.rotateX = sin (time * 10) * 40;

(To make the right wing animate properly, add a minus sign in front of "sin")

You can find more details here: http://www.talino.org/tutorials/exp1/

I haven't tested this out yet as currently, Maya is still down but I do plan to download Maya at home so I can try it anytime (and so I can work throughout the Christmas holidays) where ever it's the full version of a trail version.

Another walk cycle preview

This is the preview of the improved walk cycle that I've done a few days ago using that reference I've posted earlier.