Blog Post #8 Argh I Almost Forgot
W. 10/30/2024
I didn’t sleep last night. I stayed up until like 2:30am working on the Studio and Seminar projects, and at that point, it seemed likely that I would sleep through an alarm. So I stayed up.
I had roughly 20 hours of work done in the past week to show for this Milestone (4), so I felt pretty confident during my presentation. I also had specific questions at the end— mostly about modeling— and I got some good feedback.
For Studio, I had forgotten to include the time spent on each task, but I managed to verbalize it. I’ll remember for next time. Adam and Dia critiqued my Rachel model. Key takeaway: work with specific references for each part.
I finished my overdue Totem Pole assignment tonight. I managed to UV it, bake it, and texture it in one sitting. That was pretty magical.
If I can submit my insect assignment by Monday, I’ll be caught up in all of my courses. Seems reasonable.
I played Final Fantasy XVI for about an hour and a half today. It is masterful. I’m playing on easy mode (so special attacks are pretty much keybound to the standard attack button), but it doesn’t feel droll. It’s cinematic, and I feel like I’m growing. Additionally, when I close my eyes, I can see Clive’s acrobatics behind my eyelids. It’s wonderful to know that I, until recently, could do that kind of gymnastics.
(Also, “Keybound”? A musical bloodbound? I’m making an updated Wanderer’s Guide to Dromknost, so I have the liberty to add stuff.)
Th. 10/31/2024
It’s Halloween. I’m not really doing anything for it.
I slept late. I don’t feel bad about it. I needed the rest.
I’ve been thinking. Planning isn’t going to help my oversleeping. I can’t think my way out of it— but, ironically, I’ve been thinking— and if I can identify what core needs my oversleeping is satisfying, I can replace the behavior with something more productive.
I played FFXVI another hour and a half today. I played it earlier (I just ended at 6:15pm), so that my roommate isn’t kept up by the sound of my button-mashing. It really is a spectacle. Spoiler: it was apparent that Clive was the Ifrit Eikon from the beginning, but it was an example of narrative irony, because Clive didn’t know that. Now he does. There was some really good voice acting this session. “I won’t let you... stand in my way!” This line was delivered pretty slowly, but it was filled with passion, and the resonance in the voice actor’s voice was evocative.
In this game, the Eikons are modeled after real-world legendary mythological creatures. It’s kinda sabotaging every other game dev by doing this; now, if we were to name any of our characters after one of those creatures— or even, any other mythological legendary creature— it would just appear that we were copying FFXVI.
F. 11/1/2024
It is 4:09 am, and I’ve been working on the Insect modeling assignment since 6pm last night. So, 10 hours? Wild. Here’s what I have.
I started on it yesterday at 6pm. I’ve been working nonstop. The only reason I’m taking a break is because Blender won’t let me zoom in to the seams for UVing it. It started by letting me mark seams easily, but for some reason, the viewport just won’t let me zoom in past a certain point. It works in Layout mode, but I need to be in UV Editing mode to, you know, edit UVs.
Sa. 11/2/2024
I figured out the issue with the zooming. And I did the UV, the baking, and the texturing. It started out just as a creepy spider, but it turned into the Nameless, the big bad from my favorite completed D&D campaign that I ran, years ago. For the texturing, I experimented with gouache and metallics, layering low-opacity strokes in different colors over a dark base. I had some trouble getting the angles of the renders right, so I sent the below image to Ezra for review, before submitting it.
Oh yeah, and it 1:24 am.
I went to sleep at like 6am yesterday, woke up just before 2pm, and I’m going to do the same tonight. I didn’t oversleep yesterday— like 8 hours— but I oversleep if I go to bed early— so, as I told my mum, I might as well play with the current rules instead of hoping they’ll change.
It’s supposed to look like an oil slick on wet asphalt. The left-most image is the POV of the Player Characters standing below it, atop the library of Elderville.
I dragged all of my tech stuff out into the hallway— so I can work late without disturbing my roommate.
Later.
I started watching Hazel Brown’s Realtime Hair Tutorial series, but I halted my progress after realizing that I don’t even know how to navigate in Maya. So, I watched about half of this tutorial— claiming that I could learn Maya in twenty minutes. I got the gist.
I also drafted a new Druid subclass during a break. It’s called the “Circle of the Eternal Green”— it’s about becoming a warden of nature powerful enough to preserve it. It might just be my exhausted state— I’ll get into that next— but the concept doesn’t feel very clear.
My exhausted state. I’m concerned that staying up until the morning might be a bad idea today. My mind doesn’t feel sharp, and I’m trying to learn complicated new skills. I also am going to have a call with my aunt around 2pm (it’s her birthday)— but 2pm is when I woke up yesterday. Will I be able to get up early enough to be alert for the call?
Later.
It’s nighttime again. I’m going to be working on stuff for this Seminar project, but I got some feedback from Ezra on my spider model, so I’m working on that, first. I made the legs more angular, and inflated the joints. Now it looks even more disgusting. Zremeshing was getting rid of my surface detail, so I found this video on projecting detail from a previous version history onto the remesh. I’m waiting on the remesh to load, currently.
It worked! Now I need to re-UV it, then I can re-bake it, and re-texture it.
Su. 11/3/2024
I wrote a bit more of The Mongrel Sings. I have seven chapters drafted now. It’s 43 pages so far. If I write five pages a day through November, I can reach the 50,000 word count for NaNoWriMo. That’s roughly 166 pages.
It’s really weird, because writing Chapter 7: Like Birds, I had the idea of the martyrs who captured Algonale being unvirtuous— of really showing that anyone could be a bad person— but as I was writing, it quickly turned into those captors being slavers. And I had the idea of “deathdays”, where martyrs can know someone’s day of death. This interacts with the now existing slave trade; buyers can know exactly how long their investment will last.
And martyrs don’t celebrate birthdays; they celebrate the anniversary of the day that they will die.
And Jesus, sitting in a chair so much, for so long, is destroying my ass. I need to exercise— or do anything active— but I’m so focused on creating these works of art— it feels all-consuming.
Later.
I had to spend all night reworking the spider model. For some reason, the high poly model had four legs in slightly different spots from the low poly— but I only realized that after doing the UVs and the baking— so I had to re-remesh, re-UV, re-bake, and then...
M. 11/4/2024
I just finished and submitted it. It’s 4:34am.
It looks really good.
Tasks going forward today:
1. Write for NaNoWriMo
2. Re-sculpt Rachel
3. Worldbuilding assignment
4. Marvelous Designer tutorial
4.1. Find clothing references
5. Sculpt Alice’s stone arm
6. Oh, and, of course, class.
Later.
I had a cup of decaffeinated chai. I’m fasting, but since my last meal was at 1am, I’m breaking my fast at 5pm. I might breakfast a bit earlier. That’s a bit late.
RPG Maker MZ is on sale! And with the bundle of RPG Maker XP (the Ruby coding one), it’s actually cheaper than just buying MZ by itself— $42.
Later.
I finished Monkey Man (2024).
Later.
It’s been a while since I presented a piece in front of my Modeling class. I’ve been behind for multiple assignments— and, of course— going reverse alphabetical— I was last to be shown— so all of the critiques I heard before mine arrived— they all piled up like an unwholesome mess of bones carrying me down to a personal Hell of waiting.
But when it was my turn— after everyone else had gone— none of those other critiques were relevant to my work. Everyone really seemed to love it— Ezra included. All that worry— it was all for naught.
I think it helped that I had 1) sent him the first draft over the weekend— so he could see that I had improved upon it, and 2) I had a story. The choices that I made were all purposeful. That petrichor spyder, it had a narrative. Over a year of preparing and playing a D&D campaign— all of that interplay with my players and the months of writing beforehand; Elderville was the best campaign that I ever completed. And that spider— that model— it held all of that.
Later.
I watched The King’s Man.
T. 11/5/2024
I’ve been nocturnal for roughly the past week. Does that make me predator or prey? Am I a craven mouse scuttling from hidey hole to another— afraid of the light of the sun— or am I a panther? This morning, I watched Kingsman: Secret Service. I’ve been sleeping less— sleeping when the sun is up— but I fear that my extra time is overbearing upon me. I stay up all night— I start to work on a creative project— but for the past couple days, I end the night— and start the morning— watching a movie that I’ve already seen— that I will get nothing out of.
Why do I do this?
W. 11/6/2024
I woke up at 8:15pm last night.
It’s 4:42am currently. I wrote a bit for The Mongrel Sings. The odd thing is, I’ve been writing less— I think because of NaNoWriMo. I started writing this project a couple of weeks ago— just for the pleasure of it. But now that I have a goal of 50,000 words— 166 pages, roughly— I’m not enjoying it anymore. Or, at least, not as much.
I started watching Good Will Hunting.
Earlier this night, I was trying to sculpt Alice’s stone arm— but sculpting hard planes is, well, hard in ZBrush. And I’m anxious to do it in Blender. I have a bit of a creative block around Blender; it doesn’t feel like art— it also doesn’t help that I’m not intuitively good at it.
I had scheduled this night at the beginning of it. I was supposed to watch a Blender hair tutorial at 4am. At 4:30am, I was supposed to play a game.
I did resculpt Rachel. Something still seems off about her. I fixed her face, and fingers, and feet, and removed the fusion between her legs— but it doesn’t feel real.
I think I’m going to shower.
Yesterday morning, at 6am, I went on a run. It’s been months since I’ve been that active. I finished with some hills on campus, but I walked home. I was so winded, that even after walking all the way home, collapsing on the couch in the lounge— I was still breathing ragged.
I signed up for an MMA trial class for tonight. My mum is terrified that I’m going to get another concussion. But I told her— I said that I didn’t intend on sparring; I’m not going to get hit. I just want to learn how to throw some punches— and maybe spend some nights beating on a punching bag.
Later.
I ended up postponing my MMA class. I was too tired, and I wanted to get some sleep after class before my night.
I have my initial fitting for a fashion show in town tomorrow! I’m psyched.
I found these below references for the lancet window Boolean design that I’m going to model in Blender tonight— for Alice’s stone arm— the upper arm section.
Since the design is small, I think I’m going to structure the arch like the verdigris one on the left, and the circular window like either the bottom middle or the top right of the second image.
Something else that I’m going to work on tonight is the base GDD for my RPG Maker space pirate game, Crossed Stars. I’m going to define the base gameplay loop, the core mechanics, and the elevator pitch. And I’m going to download RPG Maker MZ and follow some tutorials to get started.
I watched this video on designing gameplay loops. For Crossed Stars, I have multiple gameplay elements that I want to include, but I don’t currently have a way to connect them all together in a satisfying loop. For example, there will be the Bounty quests— where you go to hubs to peruse the lists of bounties put out on various space criminals, you choose one, then you go explore the Soul Leak, following up on clues to track the bounty, ultimately engaging in spaceship combat with them. (Actually, that sounds pretty cohesive.)
But there are other elements that I want to involve, as well, such as the mining mechanic. To upgrade your ship, you need materials. To get the materials, you go out into asteroid belts and use your laser drill to mine ores, etc. from the asteroids. Then you can go to a hub to exchange the materials for upgrades. In-world, that is through supplying a mechanic with the resources, which they then use to make the requested upgrades.
But how do I link these two loops— the Bounty quests and the Mining operations?
And what about shopping? Any good exploration game has shopping. What about you use the credits that you earn from Bounty quests, or from selling excess ore, to go to hubs and buy stuff? What stuff should you be able to buy?
One idea I have is a gambling system. When you bring in a bounty, you get paid. You can choose to go to one of the many space casinos and engage in gambling games. How will I do that? I don’t know yet. But, essentially, you have the option to risk your payment to potentially receive a bigger reward.
Later.
I had an idea— two ideas, actually. We’ll do the more superficial one first. Two words: space drugs. At the space casinos where you carouse after a job, there are a number of illicit substances that you can partake in. And the long-term effects of that consumption is like an RPG; you gain status buffs/debuffs based on your progression of addiction.
Second idea. To link the mining/upgrading with the bounty hunting, you can either research the mark before hunting them down— and make preemptive upgrades to your ship to better handle the challenge— or your ship is damaged during the fight— so after, you retire to the mechanic and get some repairs done— and while you’re there, you might as well make some upgrades.
