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Hail to the bug fixers

Mike — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 02:53:57 +0000

The original reason I got into Blender was its stability. I’d been working with Maya, but bugs were constantly plaguing me. When I switched over to Blender, I finally could sleep at night, not worrying about the kind of crashing that would happen tomorrow, or the day after.

And while Blender had its limitations, that was fine. Limitations are understood, and can be planned for. Glitches, bugs, well not as much. Unless you read the bug tracker every hour.

Currently, 2.5 is still Alpha. And yes, in Alpha, its normal for some instability. But developers have really been stomping out a lot of bugs. Sadly, even though this is really important, the community doesn’t seem to recognize this.

It seems users either praise bleeding-edge features, or simply ask for more. No one seems to glorify the bug-fixes. So here’s to you, bugfixers. I’d fix them too, if I knew how!

Is “E-Card” Still a Hip term?

Mike — Fri, 25 Dec 2009 16:40:54 +0000

It was the hottest thing in 1999. Whenever I got an e-card, I’d eagerly await the download on my 56k modem. Then, I’d watch the slow, clunky animation, complete with 96kps audio crackling my speakers!

Anyways, I think “Animation” is an adequate term. Or maybe still e-card, let me know in the comments.

Merry Christmas 2009 from mikejamesbelanger on Vimeo.

If you guys like, I can share the 3d source files too. Just let me know in the comments.

Merry Christmas!

NLA – Damage Control for your Scene

Mike — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 18:13:26 +0000

Sometimes, I’ll be editing some animation, moving keys, deleting others, making new ones, etc. But unbeknownst to me, keyframes outside my view are selected too, and I’m messing those up! Of course, I’ll find out… when its too late!

That sort of self-sabatoging could be lessened, in Blender2.5’s NLA editor. Blender’s NLA edits only ONE Action a time – and I can ‘break up’ the character’s performance into multiple Actions. If I mess up, at least my damage is ‘quarantined’ in that one Action.

Managing Recorded Motion with Blender2.5

Mike — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 18:47:03 +0000

Blender 2.5 significantly improves on the ‘Record Motion’ feature.
Of course, it keyframes on every frame; so ‘Record Motion’ quick, but messy.

Fortunately, the NLA can ‘contain the mess’ into another Action strip.

NLA Layered Motion from mikejamesbelanger on Vimeo.

Gametree Online

Mike — Sun, 06 Sep 2009 23:54:19 +0000

I was ranting about lack of Mac games. Of course, there still aren’t that many, but Gametree does a nice job in providing many. Good on you Gametree – before you, mac versions of any games were few and far between.

More Life Drawing

Mike — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 23:47:13 +0000

Last night, at Blim.

Gary_Aug11_09

Life Drawing – August 4, 2009

Mike — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 17:35:53 +0000

The only one I drew that evening, that turned out, is this one!

Mac games

Mike — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 04:05:36 +0000

I avoid deviating from the main topics of this blog ( my work, animation, etc. ). But seriously, this issue has been driving me crazy – where are all the mac games?
We know for a fact that iPhone games are growing insanely fast, I always hear people on the bus saying ‘hey there’s an iPhone app for that, iPhone game doing this’ etc.
Most engines/SDKs I see, run on the mac, and use some, if not the exact same tools as a Mac game would. I’m thinking of straight Objective-C, Unity, SI02.
So developing on the Mac isn’t an issue – and the audience is there too.

And if people are willing to spend lavish amounts on an iPhone, the rate plan, AND the extra bit for the game itself wouldn’t there be some people that could spare 4-10 dollars for a Mac game?
Yes, Mac users are still a minority. But iPhone users are still outnumbered by blackberry/nokia/generic headsets, and iPhone games are exploding.

I don’t get it. I don’t like it.

Managing Camera Angles with Blender2.5

Mike — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 17:08:39 +0000

Blender’s brand-new Non-linear Animation editor adds a number of features/improvements over its predecessor. For one, it can help you manage
camera angles like you would in Final Cut/Premier. Note that there will be more
videos of usage cases to come!

Doll Re-Re-texturing

Mike — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 23:13:20 +0000

A few people on IRC pointed out some issues with my Doll texture, that I couldn’t let go. So I re-did a bunch of it.
This texture is more efficient, less space between the islands, smaller picture size. I re-did the stitching ( not UV stitching, but actual stitching ). too.
I did this one a lot faster too, thanks to me learning about displacement brushes. Does anyone know of any tutorials on displacement brushes? I couldn’t really find any – I just had to experiment.

Picture 4