BenjaminDBailey
Where art comes to life!
Some Friendly Help
Mar 5th
I often find myself stumped by the simplest of things. But luckily, I have friends. 
The most recent example of a friend pulling me up out of the ditch of reckless frustration is this: I’ve been working on a project for Kurv Studios, but I couldn’t figure out how to UV map an image onto my character’s shoe. Well, David Ward begin_of_the_skype_highlighting end_of_the_skype_highlighting came to my rescue by recording a little video tutorial for me, showing me how to add a decal to my mesh with UV mapping in Blender 2.51.
So here it is:
So I’d like to pass on a big “Thanks!” to David Ward for helping me out again. My pre-visualization project is almost ready to be recorded into video tutorials, so you’ll be hearing more about it in the days to come!
And my result!
As for daily news? I practiced driving for about an hour, and I was fitted for a tux for my brother’s upcoming wedding this March. And oh, that reminds me – I need to practice my duet for the ceremony!
Toodles!
HDR Images in Blender!
Dec 21st
Today I learned how to use an HDRi image as a World background in Blender, for use in creating realistic reflections. Using an HDR light probe angular map image, I was able to greatly improve my little object’s lame material into a stunning render.
Original
With HDR light probe angular map
With HDRi angmap and compositing
I hope to turn this little baby into a spaceship and animate a set of fly-by shots!
Here’s the node setup (for a different render of the chrome spaceship that looks like this. This other render took 4 hours and 12 minutes to render, with 15 motion blur render passes!)
Chrome spaceship node setup
This project was a branch-off of another project (in an attempt to re-learn IPO drivers) that I hope to return to soon, which looks like this:
Futuristic engine model
And while chatting with a friend over a Skype call, I modeled this fellow (still a work in progress, mind you!)
Head model (WIP) during Skype call with Trey Bowen
Christmas is coming on soon, and I’m done with my shopping for the family! Yipee! I even shopped for a few things for myself (shameful, I know.) Oh, and of course I have a lot more work to do on editing videos for the upcoming Christmas production by my church’s youth group. So, I’ll be onto that tomorrow!
Here’s the shepherd scene, fully edited (no audio on purpose.)
Shepherds – Christmas Production from Benjamin Bailey on Vimeo.
(You can check out my other videos for this production by browsing my Vimeo playlist.)
I’ve got more to share, but that’s enough for one evening! So long, folks! God bless and a merry, merry Christmas to you all!
-b
