Kuroto Robert's 3D blog.

Learning VRay and the use of the materials. (Glass, plastic, metal) - Post 2

2011-09-11T11:18:00.002+02:00

Made a bit more, added more things to play around with other type of materials. Not focused on lighting so far. I also see that my glass shaders aren't the best. Things are definitely off, maybe I made them too thick (most likely) but also I need to blend them a bit with the liquid inside the glasses.
There's not much to be told what I did as i basically did the same on thing, added a VRay Mtl and instead of making it use refraction I made it solid of course.
I do not have the best setup of light so things look a bit bland.

Learning VRay and the use of the materials. (Glass, plastic, metal) - Post 1

2011-09-09T21:12:00.002+02:00

Learning VRay and it's materials. Doing some glasses and very very simple lights. Gonna add some more stuff of course, want to try metal and plastic materials as well. See how well that goes.

These are just VRay Mtl materials slapped onto two glass models in Autodesk Maya (shouldn't matter which software you use though as these are VRay specific). I changed the transparency to full and the amount too. The glossiness is on 1 (which means clean glass), Refraction IOR is 1.6 for the glass as it is standard for glass surfaces. On the glass to the left I added a slight blue Fog Color. The one to the right has completely white color. I get a few problem areas mainly at the top and at the sides of the glass.
I'm gonna play around with the Fresnel a little (now currently locked to the Refraction IOR). The very tip of the glasses gets really black, could be because of the background but I better check my settings and the amount of Refraction and Reflection subdivs (currently 10 which should be more than I need actually, 4 or 5 would suffice I believe at the current setup.)

I have a very simple rectangular light just above. No settings changed there. I will prob later.

Progress on Eto.101

2011-08-21T21:48:00.002+02:00

I've finished the texturing (more or less, I bet I will need to do more work, in fact I anticipate that) on the ground for scene 1. I will do some normal or perhaps even displacement maps. I think I can get away with normal maps though.

If you're curious on my process or anything I have recorded it with screenshots. I took screenshots every 15 second then edit it together into a clip.

To check it out go to: http://www.youtube.com/RandomPolygons

New portfolio website launch

2011-06-28T22:26:00.003+02:00

Okay, I just wanted to write here to say that my new portfolio website is pretty much finished. At least it's okay for a launch.

Go over to www.kurotorobert.com to check it out. If you have any comments or suggestions I'm all ears. I want to make it better any way I can. It's not as cluttered as the last one I had and it pretty much only focuses on my 3D stuff instead of the websites and textures and whatever else I had on the last one.

I haven't updated the portfolio to as much of an extent as the last one either because I only want the best things I've done and not ever single thing.

There's also more stuff that I will be adding there shortly but for now, I released it the way it is now.

Hope people like it. Cheers dudies!

Corona shading update

2011-05-02T17:12:00.003+02:00

Okay. this is as far as I can go now. Time is up, I have to render it out. Once I have more time on my hands I might revisit this one and redo the textures and even add a background.

Still looking forward to any critique anyone might have. About the textures, the lighting, any errors and so on. I know it's not perfect but as I said, I've ran out of time.

Currently rendering out 360 turntable and it will take a few more hours.

Because keep in mind, I also need to create the reel and add other 3D work to it. I have to do all this before May 10th.

Well, keep being awesome dudies (dudettes included) and have a good time!

Cheers!

Corona base shading

2011-04-25T23:02:00.003+02:00

Done the base for the shading. Now I can focus more on the shaders and light. I did try using IBL (Image Based Lighting) but I don't have any good HDR images. I'm also using VRay, unfortunately I have just begun exploring it. I'm not at all that familiar with it. So it may take some time for me to get into it and get good results.

Time however is something I do not have. Oh well, let's see what I can come up with in the next week to come.

Currently this image is using the standard lights that comes with VRay (2 rectangular lights, 1 point light and one spotlight which is used as a rim light).

This was a very quick setup and this is not the final result. Well, I hope I can get into it tomorrow after work.

It's bedtime now however so I'll be saying goodnight to you guys!

Corona shading

2011-04-14T23:30:00.002+02:00

I've started to unwrap (though I don't think it really is necessary as I'm using shaders but what the heck, I might use textures in the future so why not. Besides figured I could use the training and experience working in UV Layout) and shade the Corona project. I don't really have anything fancy to show, these are just very basic and very simple shaders and basic light.

Hoping this weekend I'll actually get to unwrap and shade up the whole thing. And do a little more as well. Hopefully learn a lot in the areas of lighting and shading while working both with Mental Ray and VRay. I will try both and see which result I like the most.

I lied, now it's finished! -.-

2011-04-09T18:47:00.003+02:00

So yeah, seems like I forgot some really important part (the middle circlish thing). I showed it to a friend and he pointed out that it was missing.

Good thing I did, that's what you get for working on the same thing day in and day out. You miss things, even big ones like that. Beh, anyway, NOW the modeling is complete! Nothing more! As I said, I won't be doing the outer circle thing that's outside the image.

Now it's time for shading and stuff.

Cheers!

Corona modeling finished

2011-04-06T23:09:00.003+02:00

You heard it! Finally the modeling process is done. It took its sweet time. I'm not gonna do the outer rings that are outside the concept image. You can see bits and pieces of them but man, I'm so tired of modeling this, I want to jump into shading.

Maybe one day I will do the outer parts, but then it means I would have to make up a lot of it. I don't mind but I kinda wanna just do what the concept entails.

Anyway, finally it's all finished. Shading and lighting next, I'm looking forward to it a lot.

Corona update 2

2011-03-20T22:42:00.003+01:00

Just a small update. Not much else there is to say.

Corona update yet again

2011-03-13T21:27:00.003+01:00

I haven't been able to work as much on it as I would have wanted to, but here's a small update. I completed the podium or whatever you wanna call that spot.

Time to actually start with the left side, finally. Can't wait for this to be finished.

Cheers!

Corona: Right side finished

2011-03-06T21:12:00.003+01:00

Wee, finally I finished this one piece. It took it's sweet time. The left side doesn't look any easier either. Next however I'll model the pedestal. But not today, gonna take what time I have left to watch some anime and perhaps play a game (Battlefield: Bad Company 2).
Well cheers!

Corona update

2011-03-06T12:12:00.004+01:00

Hey there.

Two things, one I will post an update to the corona project. I hope to finish it now as soon as possible so I'll be working like crazy on this one.

And two, I found out who the artist is for that drawing which I'm now realizing in 3D.

She's a Japanese artist named Isakawa Megumi. Her deviant art is: http://isamegu.deviantart.com/

Over there there's this image which she created. Thank you TinEye for your image search engine capabilities. That's how I found her. I uploaded the concept image and TinEye looked the web for similar images and eventually found her deviant art account.

So thank you Isakawa for that concept, it's obviously awesome as I now am trying to recreate it in 3D.

I'm back

2011-03-05T18:57:00.002+01:00

Yo, long time no update. Honestly, I've been having a rough time for a very long time (a bit more than a year), health issues and other personal stuff. I've just not had the motivation or will to do much 3D work because of that.

But now I'm back, I feel great and it's time I started to liven this blog up again a bit. I've been working on the Corona project for a few days now, I will soon post some updates (maybe later today or in a few days.

But I'm back! :)

Cheers!

Johannes Gotlén - Programmer

2010-12-17T08:17:00.005+01:00

Hey dudes, long time no updates here.
Sorry about that, things are hectic around here, haven't had much time for many things. Hoping I can get back to that Corona projects again very soon.

In the meantime you guys can check out a site which belongs to a programmer friend of mine. He's a very talented programmer and works (or will work soon) for some secret organization for a secret purpose which has to do with secrets.
Yeah, intriguing right? He's a fun dude.

This site is his personal one which he displays whatever goes on with him and projects he might be working on.

Johannes Gotlén: http://johannes.gotlen.se

So with that I'll take my leave. Hoping I can get some 3D up and running again to show you, whatever I'm working on right now I'm not allowed to disclose.

Cheers!
Oh and Merry Christmas everyone, along with Happy New Year!

Corona update 1

2010-10-03T16:47:00.004+02:00

So done a bit more. I've got very little time as of late so it goes slower than I had hoped. But I'm plugging away whenever I can.

Cheers!

Corona

2010-09-12T13:25:00.006+02:00

This is a project I've been meaning to do for a long time now. I actually need more portfolio pieces to show so this will be something I'll be working on for a while now. As I am more into hard surface modeling than organic I will put the Z model on hold for a while now.
I would have worked on it as well if it weren't for another project I'm doing together with a team. But that's just how things go. I usually don't have much free time and when I do I try to work as much on any given project as possible. Turns out it's harder than it seems.

Anyway, this is what I have so far and I'll also post the image I'm trying to recreate.
Cheers!

Z body done!

2010-08-09T15:29:00.005+02:00

Ok, here's the body of the Z model finished. I'm gonna post it up for critique see if anyone says anything. What I'm mostly am concerned with is proportions and the topology. Well topology only because I really want to study it and learn it better. For this model however topology won't be that important as I won't animate it or anything. Just making it look good is what's important.

I will be started with the head after this, once it's done I will reveal what kind of model I'm doing. Unless you guys will recognize it.

Cheers!

Just a small Z model update.

2010-07-30T00:43:00.002+02:00

An update for today. Didn't work much on it, just mostly trying different topologies, see which works best. Refines the torso a bit more though.

New model, long wait.

2010-07-28T23:56:00.003+02:00

I'm back after some hell raining down on me. Because of that I had a huge and long break from 3D. But not to get into details here's the work I'm working on. For now it's a female model, of course I haven't gotten far, just started but with time it will get more.

More info about this model will come later, I don't want to spill anything too soon.

Project Eto.101

2009-12-31T15:42:00.005+01:00

I've been working a bit recently more and more on my Eto.101 project.
I am texturing out this entire scene. This will be the point of measurement of how the rest of the environment will look like. Now there's still a lot more to do, but I wanted to show the current progress.
This is the Mihgo residence where the protagonist lived pretty much his entire life in.

My entry for contest!

2009-12-05T14:54:00.003+01:00

So, I think I'm finished, there's really nothing else I wanna do with it, more than of course adding more zombies, limbs, heads and stuff, but I unfortunately don't have time for that. This will be the entry I'll be submitting for the contest.
Now let's hope I win. ^_^

Preliminary shot!

2009-12-03T16:41:00.003+01:00

Ok, so I have a preliminary shot of the overall scene and the finished image. I'll post it up for critique and see what and if people say anything.

Zombie texture.

2009-12-03T12:52:00.002+01:00

This is what I have so far. Don't know what else to do. I am going back and fourth if he should be grayish like now or actually having skin color. Both look good and have their own distinct look. However, I'm leaning more towards gray is it's more 'spooky' that way. -_^

This is how he looks with color:

Zombie sculpt finished!

2009-12-01T14:30:00.002+01:00

Here's the final result of the zombie sculpt. Now on to texturing this fella.

Arms added.

2009-11-30T13:17:00.002+01:00

Ok, so the arms are finished and now only the feet are left. I'm not going to sculpt the legs as he will have pants on him. Maybe I just make something real quick like bumps and a bit damage in cause the pants will be torn, which I think I'll do.

Zombie body.

2009-11-28T15:02:00.003+01:00

Here's the body for the zombie, I don't know what to do about the seems yet but I have a few ideas.

Started zombie sculpt.

2009-11-27T20:14:00.004+01:00

EDIT: I may be finished with the sculpt, I dunno. I'll take a break and see if there's something more that needs to be done.

This is how far I've come with the zombie sculpt so far. Just keeping on chugging on. I plan on more damages areas, just haven't figured out how to do them yet.

Set texturing complete!

2009-11-26T22:03:00.003+01:00

By this point I think the entire set is completely textured, that is of course unless I find something that's wrong, get suggestions or I just add stuff and change my mind about something.
This is the last update for today though. Now I'm gonna eat chips and watch some entertainment!

Cheers!

Shed texturing complete.

2009-11-26T19:30:00.003+01:00

I think I'm pretty much finished with the textures for the shed. I'm using 4 different tree textures which I took to Photoshop and color corrected so they have similar color, with the exception of the bigger support pieces.
Next will be finishing up the entire scene with textures then on to creating a zombie character.

Contest progress.

2009-11-26T14:37:00.003+01:00

The UV unwrapping is a bit tedious, not at all difficult thanks to UVLayout (thank god for that application) but not so much fun.
Anyway, just posting a update on the process and potential wood texture. I will of course have more than just this one but just to give an example.

EDIT: Ok, the unwrapping is complete for the shed (finally, that was ... not fun. -_^). Now to the actual texturing of the boards.
Instead of creating a new post I'll just update this one with a new image.

Zombie contest: Modeling finished!

2009-11-23T23:55:00.003+01:00

Ok, I think I'm done with the modeling now. Time to jump into texturing and unwrapping.
Now I'm gonna go to bed!

Good night!

Entered a contest!

2009-11-23T22:58:00.005+01:00

Over at 3D Buzz there's a unofficial contest just for fun which I entered just to practice my skills with a deadline. I kinda need to see how I perform under pressure, so I thought this would be a nice challenge. It started the 17th November and the due date is 7th December, I joined today. So I did lose 6 days but there's still a lot of time left, about 2 weeks.

This is what I've made today. I think I might finish all the modeling today, what's missing are some debris on the ground. Other than that there's a character I will work on, a zombie and maybe some severed heads and such.

Teddy update.

2009-11-23T13:42:00.005+01:00

Ok, I think this is a wrap unless someone suggestions something or if something is off. I don't know what else to do on this piece with my current knowledge and I don't wanna spend a whole lot time on it. Just wanted to try out the fur as I wanted to do that for a long time, and now I have.

PS. I think I know what causes the 'non soft' look on the fur. It's not Mental Ray but it's the Physical sun. When I added a few normal lights and tweaked the sun settings I did get a softer look. But in the end it turned out I did like the more hardened look. ^_^
However, I did add two other lights to get a bit softer touch to it, not much, it's rather felt than seen.

Cheers!

Teddy bear update.

2009-11-20T21:37:00.003+01:00

I've added a few things to the teddy bear, like eyes, a bow tie and a cord on top of his head. I think 95% of the tweaking and modeling is done (I will make it a bit non-symmetrical). I currently am mainly concerned to make it look cuddly and soft, currently it doesn't look like that.
I noticed that if I use Mental Ray it gets this 'hard' look while if I render with Maya Software it gets more of that soft look (look at the previews post). If I don't find a way with Mental Ray I will need to combine them as I want Mental Ray for the eyes (dielectric material), the cord and the bow tie.

But anyways I need to do more tweaking.

-------------

PS. I finished the Halloween contest image a few days ago. Forgot to upload it here. Nothing special, I'm just glad it's over.

Teddy bear WIP.

2009-11-19T18:44:00.003+01:00

That's right, the title says it all. Once upon a time I did a model wanting to create a teddy bear, well I never finished it. So I re-did the everything and added fur. This is the WIP stage so far. I wanna see how far I can get this to look decent. I learned way way back when I did the other model that UV layout played a vital part of how the fur would be laid out. This time unwrapped the thing almost according to the real life teddy bear I have here with me, I just changed it a little bit as ease of unwrapping, not much but enough to make me happy.

Bee closeup.

2009-11-17T16:02:00.006+01:00

I figured I'd throw in this image as well. Just a closeup on the bee itself. It's not the best image but I'm far from being able to do very good looking renders. I tweaked this image in Photoshop after render. Not much to say, but I'm glad this is over so I can finish other projects. While I have cleared some projects up I will be studying lighting and rendering methods cause I badly need that.

Cheers!

Dielectric and Caustics render.

2009-11-16T16:27:00.003+01:00

I was playing and studying the dielectric material and caustics within Maya. Added some particles and a few fields. However, I totally forgot to map the displacement for the bubbles so they are static, when I realized I had forgotten it I was already too far in the rendering process. Basically what it would have done is the bubbles would change the shape a bit when going upwards.

Also, I didn't render from start to finish in one go. I stopped and rendered the next day, and too late I realized the bubbles actually changes places a bit. The rendering took several days for 400 frames, too long for me to redo and fix that. But it's something I'll keep in mind for the next time.

I basically forgot to bake out the particle animation which is why they changed places. A blunder I know. >.<

Bee final composition.

2009-10-31T00:53:00.004+01:00

I'm gonna end it here. I need to study up on lighting and shading a lot more in order to make this image look good. Currently I am just playing with lights not really knowing what I'm doing but hoping the result is good. Such method is not good to go by, it eats a lot of your time.
Thus, I'm gonna look for tutorials and other enlightment in this area so that I can evolve.

I will later post an image of the actual bee after I've redone some stuff. Just because I'm planning to send it to www.3dmodelsheets.com, but only if it's good quality of course which it currently isn't.

Cheers.

Bee update.

2009-10-20T17:43:00.003+02:00

I've made a rather simple scene to place the bee in. The bee is not finished yet but this is the general mockup. I'm playing around and trying to create a nice light setup, but for a novice like me it's hard. This is a quick post-image that I took to Photoshop (and clearly visible PS effects), this is not the final version, plus the final version will be higher resolution.

Basically I'm struggling with getting a nice environment so that both the bee and the background looks pleasing.

Pixar Intro Parody!

2009-10-20T09:43:00.027+02:00

Ok folks, this is the second time I blog about something that isn't created by me. But as with these things I feel they have to be seen by other people. This is a hilarious short about the Pixar's lamp intro. There's nothing that can be said so you just have to watch it.
Be sure to be seated before watching, or you might hurt yourself laughing otherwise.

This is made by these folks:
Writer: Dan Gurewitch, Sam Reich
Music & Sound Design: Carl Sondrol
Animation: Gloo Studios

Enjoy: http://www.collegehumor.com/video:1921845

See more funny videos and funny pictures at CollegeHumor.

Bee model update.

2009-10-13T16:15:00.003+02:00

I guess I continued to work on this model, I'm gonna post my updates for today. Gonna continue tomorrow or something, I'm going away for the rest of today.

Cheers.

EDIT: I added the two AO and wire images, as a request by a dude over at CGTalk.com. Because I did those I figured I could add it here as well. Just didn't wanna create another post for that.

Spontaneous model.

2009-10-13T13:06:00.005+02:00

Yo.

Today I was browsing the CG Society forums like any other day, then I found a thread where someone posted a link to a new site called www.3dmodelsheets.com. It's sheets (image planes) of various insects, animals and plants. Well, that's what I think it will be, as it's rather new there isn't too many things there yet.

However, I took a look at those sheets and when I saw the bee I just couldn't help myself, I modeled it out. It's still a WIP I think, I want to create real bee textures and such, and possibly work on it in ZBrush. I slapped on a temp texture just so that it looks a bit more pleasant than plain gray stuff (or AO/Clay render).
Well that's all I had to say today, I'll probably continue working on it.

Project Eto.101 - Pre-viz 01

2009-10-12T12:11:00.003+02:00

I just wanted to put this up here just because. This clip here is a early pre-viz for the project codenamed Eto.101. It shows scene 4 at sequence 1. There's not much to actually see here but if actually care to understand a bit then you could check the storyboards I have posted here (it's part 3) this clip is about.

Anyway, there's really not much else to tell. I'm on another project right now so I don't have much time for eto.101 but as soon as I'm finished with that I plan to more seriously work on that.

Nexuiz 'Nexus' player model.

2009-09-19T14:43:00.003+02:00

To start things off, I've renamed this player model from Ivan to Nexus. The reasoning is that this model is supposed to replace the old one (which was the intention from the very beginning).
Now, there are some stuff that has happened, oh where to start, where to start?

I've continued with the animations and have created several new ones and even posted links to videos for people to see. However, it may turn out that I will have to redo everything again (I'm not sure I wanna go there). The thing is, Nexuiz is using a format called .zym for player models, but the devs wants to get rid of this format and introduce another .dpm. They are essentially the same and the workflow is very similar, however, dpm-format can have several influences (4) while zym only can have 1.
What this means is that zym can only have rather rigid animations, each vertex has to have it's own bone to 100%. The dpm format allows for smoother transformations for it's animations, resulting in a nicer look. Because I've animated with 1 influence I would need to re-paint the weights for the skeleton, and the animations will probably change some.

I've I'm lucky and find a good way to paint and distribute or copy those weights to other meshes I won't have to reanimate everything but just tweak the current animations so they fit better.
If I'm however unsuccessful I either will have to redo all of them or just let everything be 1 influence for this particular model, then in the future use 4 influences.

Only time will tell what will happen. I will probably step back a bit from this and while I re-evaluate the situation and the procedures I may work on something else in the meantime.

Animation test 3:

Animation test 2:

Sword scene finished.

2009-08-31T21:27:00.002+02:00

Ok, so I finally finished this piece. Not much different from the last image, didn't have much time to work on it and I just wanted to finish it anyway to jump on to other things.
Re-touched in Photoshop as well.

Sword update

2009-08-05T19:38:00.003+02:00

Hmm.. stuff happened, and then more stuff happened, before I knew it, I was creating a entire environment just to be able to display the sword. Ok, here's the deal, I wanted to create a simple background for the sword to be in, however, this simple background turned to become an even greater task than creating the sword. I have now for a few days been building and texturing it. Honestly, I don't know where I'll stop.

The sword however I believe is all but done, might make a few tweaks to the texture/bump map. It will all depend on the lighting I will settle for (which I haven't decided yet). I'm thinking of adding a few more objects into the scene before moving on to lighting. Anyway, I'll post two images, one of the handle of the sword (without bump) then a overview of the shot I'm going for.

Cheers.

PS. All is done in Maya, I used Photoshop to adjust the levels of the image above as it was too greyish and washed out. The plant and tree are paint effects I converted to polygons if anyone wonders.

A sword WIP.

2009-07-29T00:05:00.003+02:00

Yes, I'm creating a sword just for fun. I have only one reference image which I'm creating from, I'm gonna post the reference image after the model is complete.
Now, the whole modeling is done, (the materials are just temp, I just threw something on) and I'm gonna go to unwrapping it followed by texturing based of that reference image.

My first texture pack.

2009-06-17T14:03:00.003+02:00

As the title says, I am now releasing my first texture pack. There's not that many textures, 51 files with normal maps included, so around 30 textures (not all textures have normal maps).
The license is GPL so it's all free, use them however you see fit.

I give just a few examples of what textures are inside. The other textures I have released earlier are also included so not all are super new. Also, they might not be the best supreme quality textures but at least it's something, and it's free, so enjoy!

Link: www.kurotorobert.com/ai/freeStuff/ai_Texture_Pack_01.rar

Cheers!

Two more textures.

2009-05-30T16:00:00.003+02:00

Here's two more textures, I am providing normal maps as well but keep in mind that I have transparency (alpha) on the SewerLid texture and that certain applications might not support normal map alpha. If that's the case gimme a note and I can export them to .bmp or some other format if you need it.

Cheers!

License: GPL

Finished high poly version of weapon model.

2009-05-05T20:02:00.002+02:00

Here's the high poly version of the designed Nex model. Going soon to start on the low poly version, UV mapping and texturing. What else can be said?

Cheers!

Possible weapon model for Nexuiz (Nex).

2009-05-05T00:35:00.004+02:00

I've always wanted to create a new Nex model for Nexuiz ever since the current one got in, I never really fancied it. Recently a dude named 'NightRage' on the Nexuiz forums came along and posted some amazing weapon concepts, including a concept for the Nex.
The image planes he provided didn't fully lign up but I made adjustments as best I could. This is what I've done for today (made in a couple of hours), and hoping to finish it up tomorrow, that means the model, not talking about bones, animation and textures yet. This is the high poly version (I have started a bit on the low poly version but the rest will have to wait) which will be used as a normal map.

That's it for tonight, now I'm going to bed.
Cheers!

Tweak... tweak...tweak...

2009-05-01T20:53:00.004+02:00

What more can I say? I've sick and tired of tweaking but I want this model to be good, meh. We'll see what people say if they say anything.
Cheers!

EDIT: I changed the two first images, I updated the nose as well.

Male character update

2009-04-15T23:43:00.006+02:00

So, I have started to watch the 3D Buzz ADP (Advanced Digital Production) texturing videos and have started to texture this guy. This is a the very base, I will look into incorporating real skin as well, this is in fact my next step.
Just to throw it out there, I'm looking more for a stylized character than a realistic one. I cannot yet tackle a realistic look as I need more to learn. But I feel confident I can get it to look the way I want it, and besides, that is how I wanted this guy to look like from the very beginning. I like the stylized looks.

I'm going to explain the steps I took to get this far.
NOTE: There are seems and some other discrepancies I know, I will fix them so don't worry.

After the whole model was complete in Maya I brought it over to ZBrush and started to create displacement sculpting. Meaning I added more volume and details to make it stand out wherever I wanted, like making the muscles bigger or creating nipples and belly button. However, I didn't create a belly button for the simple reason, it will never show. :) Excess detail is just a waste of memory. I might even think of deleting the toenails as well as they won't show either.

Well then, once the displacement sculpting was done I started to do some more fine details (like pores, wrinkles and stuff). These will be the bump map later on.
Then I exported this displacement map and fine details. I also created a 'feature map' from the displacement map and from the fine details map I created 'cavity map'. This is a function inside ZBrush and when these two are combined in Photoshop along with a base color it resembles a bit Ambient Occlusion. However, I think I'll later on bake AO into the texture anyway. I'll have to see how the real skin will look first.

Then I just went into Photoshop and started to paint some dark areas and lighter areas all over the body along with some very suddle change in color of the skin.

Well, that's that. I'll post more updates as this progress.
Cheers!

Meet Meline!

2009-04-11T00:20:00.012+02:00

Hey folks.

This time I won't blog about me, but in fact promote a bit the short 'Meet Meline' which is created by Virginie Goyons and Sebastien Laban. This is a amazing little short which has taken over 2 years or so for them to create in their sparetime. They have recently released a trailer for their short, sorta a teaser trailer as the original short is only going to be a few minutes at most.
Apart from that, they've been having interviews and even a book created specifically only for this project.
Needless to say, they've done a superb work and the outcome is stunning. This is definitely not something a 3D fan or artist should miss!

You can go to their website to read more about it:
http://www.meetmeline.com

You can also visit their production thread over at CG Society:
http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?threadid=400888

And lastly, do not miss the trailer:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OHx_E8KctdU

Nexuiz player model update.

2009-04-07T17:04:00.003+02:00

I believe that I now have fully understood the process or creating player models for Nexuiz, at least in theory. I have spent a lot of time orienting and reorienting the joints of the player model so that the weapon (and animation of the model) will correspond to the world of Nexuiz.
It was a agonizing process where I basically had to orient the joints, export it, compile it and test it out in-game. It took a long time (around 2 days) to finally get the perfect base position.
Note that this is my first serious rigging and animation project (I'm a modeler mostly) so I did learn about skeletons and stuff that you have to keep in mind. I of course had some basic knowledge, but now I understand this even more.

So, where am I at now? With the base pose done I am now creating animations, in this particular case the 'idle' animation. This is the animation that is played when you enter the game and don't move at all, so while your player is standing still it 'idles' and moves a little.
This is a fun process, I like animation. I'm almost done with this 'idle' animation and will soon try it out in-game.

Cheers.

PS. I might later (when it's done, might be a few days, depending how much time I get) upload a video or something to show the animation in-game, mostly to get feedback and such.

On approach to Nexuiz player models!

2009-04-02T16:11:00.004+02:00

Yay, I finally am starting to master that art! Unfortunately, the people able to create player models for Nexuiz wasn't that helpful. Sure, they helped occasionally but I had to pretty much go for a 'trail and error' approach.
However, in recent days I got a new energy boost from 'glennxserge' (on the Nexuiz forums) aka Joshua Mills (I think that's his name). He is also an experienced Maya user and popped in on the forums wanting to create player models. He also knows perl and thanks to that, he created a script which apparently is necessary for Maya users in order to get the bones correct for each vertices. The 'Valve SMD Exporter' for Maya messes that up :/

Anyway, Joshua shared his script with me and thanks to that I have been able to make progress. I will post up some images here but if you wanna read a more thourought explanation as to what I did you can go here (Nexuiz forums, that specific post).

BIG thanks to Joshua, I wouldn't have done this without his help!

PS. This model is not mine, it's not me who created it. A guy named 'Ivan' (from Nexuiz forums) created it and donated it to Nexuiz, he also created the textures, he's a great 2D artist as well as 3D.
However, at that time no one was able to rig it. Now it's been collecting dust on the forums but I always thought that that model was too good to not be included in Nexuiz. I personally took it upon me to somehow get it into the game. Now I'm finally making progress!

I tried getting into contact with Ivan to see if he wanted to give out some personal info so I could credit him properly. But I haven't succeed yet, for now he's only known as Ivan. :)

Teeth and tongue

2009-03-11T17:31:00.005+01:00

Today I've created some teeth and a tongue, now that I look at the gray image of the teeth I see that the ones in the back needs bigger indentions. But other than that they are done, it's not like anyone will ever see that well inside this characters mouth anyway. But it's nice to have something there just in case.

EDIT: I swapped the images for new ones, fixed the indentions.

Small update

2009-03-10T13:09:00.004+01:00

I tweaked the head and the legs. I made the head a bit smaller and the legs a bit longer. It probably is hard to see the difference unless you actually compare the two images. Oh well... I also made a few skin concepts, trying to make a nice looking skin.

Modeling done (hopefully)

2009-03-09T23:46:00.004+01:00

So, after a bunch of Nexuiz projects I really need to get back into the Eto.101 project and my portfolio.
So the past few days I've dove right into the character I'm making again and now after tweaks and stuff I think I'm finally done with the modeling. Keep in mind that this is my first character I've finished completely. I won't know what's wrong with it (if something is wrong) unless I texture, rig and skin him up then start to animate. I feel that I need that experience so no matter what now I'll be digging into texturing this thing.

Currently I just slapped on a simple fast skin shader in Maya on him and tweaked it just a bit. Tomorrow I hope to more seriously start working with him. I mainly want to get him unwrapped so that I can create a texture for him and bring him in ZBrush for detailed sculpting and creating displacement maps. This is also experience I need right now.
You can only learn so much from pushing and pulling verts all day long.

Anyway, cheers.

PS. He will be clothed so I'm not super concerned of what's taking place on his body. I will tweak his groin a bit though, I don't like that crease from the crotch.

DOM Points finished

2009-03-04T11:38:00.004+01:00

The domination points are finished. They have actually been finished for a while now I just haven't had time to post it here yet. But, that's what I'm doing now. They are also animated, logo rotates and hover up and down slightly and the rings also hover up and down but more radically, above and below the logo borders.

Cheers.

Team DOM point logos

2009-02-16T15:38:00.006+01:00

Here are the different teams DOM point logos. These logos were already appointed in Nexuiz meaning I didn't just make them up but they've been in the game since the very first release.

DOM points for Nexuiz

2009-02-15T16:32:00.005+01:00

I've started to create DOM (Domination) points for Nexuiz (next project will be Runes). Posted these up for feedback over at the Nexuiz forums (Alientrap.org/forum). We'll see if people have anything to say.
My favorite concept is concept nr4. Those rings will be transparent and hovering slowly up and down to give a nicer look to it. If there won't be much of feedback then I'm going to go with that concept.

Domination has 4 different teams and each team have different logos. The thing in the middle in concept for is for the blue team, it will be a different symbol for the other three teams.

PS. Domination and Runes are two different gameplay modes, in domination you capture as many points as possible and try to protect them from the enemy to capture.
Runes is where you collect different 'runes' which give you different abilites, some might even cripple your abilites. Like one can make you do increased damage to enemies, while another one might slow you down if you pick it up.

Cheers.

Nexuiz ammo models.

2009-02-12T16:43:00.006+01:00

So I've created a few ammo models for Nexuiz, mainly the rocket ammo and machinegun ammo. Sorry I didn't keep you updated, things tend to go one way then the other the next second and time just runs away. These will be included in the next release which will be 2.5 (somewhere in mid-March I hear if everything goes accordingly).

I am doing a few more projects here and there but for now I will keep it to myself as I don't know if I am allowed to publish it just yet.

Cheers folks.

Updates

2009-01-14T13:37:00.005+01:00

Wow, if feels like it's been since forever I posted here but now that I actually come here I see the last post was just a little than 2 weeks ago, which isn't such a long time. I've totally become time impaired.
Anyway, that's the the reason why I post here now, but in fact I just want to show some things I've been working on.
Firstly, I have finished the flags for Nexuiz, actually they have been finished for a long time now I just haven't said anything here. The official design will be a flag with 2 cloths, then people wanting 1 flag and people wanting 3 flags both compromise.
Secondly, I've made a quick thing for Kojn/Kojak (a Nexuiz player) to include in his movie. The Nexuiz 'chikara' character along with some 30 sec countdown in numbers.
Lastly, I've created a skeleton model for Cubeowl (Brutail, another player and helper with Nexuiz) to use in a map that he is creating. He had a skull that I also had to reduce the poly count for as it was way too much. But I won't bring that up here as I didn't do that other skull model.

I am also working with machine gun ammo for Nexuiz currently, as well as documenting it (by recording my steps on video) so that other people might learn something hopefully.

Well, that's what I have been doing. Kojn wants another little thing for his movie which I will make today if I have time. I need to UV unwrap that skeletong model first which I anticipate won't take too long.

Cheers folks.

Body refinement

2008-12-28T14:44:00.002+01:00

I tweaked the body a bit and as a base it's almost complete. The hands and the neck still needs more tweaking and just a tad on the back. After this I will jump into the face again and finish that up and then go on to unwrapping this whole thing.

New head yet again

2008-12-27T01:03:00.005+01:00

Long time no post. I even forgot to wish you guys a happy Christmas and whatnot. I hope I remember to at least wish you a happy new year as well ^_^

Now then, I've redone the whole head from scratch again. I won't give up until I get the perfect results. Hopefully this head has a good future. We'll see what other people say.

Flag model update

2008-11-27T17:28:00.002+01:00

Yes, I've finally found a way to animate those stupid flags. After weeks and weeks of trail and error I finally found a way.
Of course I'm talking about the flags for the open source game Nexuiz. The animations are pretty much done, there's still a bit more things to be done but overall the hardest part is over. Now there's just a 'semi'-hard part left. But before I talk about that I need to know if that will be done or even can be done.
However, I don't believe it will be long now until I release these flags for everyone to see and enjoy. So till then I'm just going to keep you guys in suspense about the animations. Of course, you can still download the static flags and follow the thread I have over at Nexuiz forums but I'm not going to upload these half-done animated flags just yet. You'd have to settle for the static.

Cheers.

Portals model done.

2008-11-17T19:32:00.002+01:00

I believe at least. Unless someone has any comments regarding the texturing the models are done. I've put them up on the Nexuiz official forums. So now I'll just have to wait.

More textures

2008-11-14T14:43:00.004+01:00

That's right. Even more textures, these are a set. Btw, you can use them anyway you like, for commercial work, personal or even in GPL game or whatever. Consider these textures I make here as GPL. If they weren't GPL i wouldn't post such rather high resolution :P
I have these available as 2048x2048 as well. :)

Textures

2008-11-14T02:32:00.008+01:00

That's right. I'm posting some textures that I made. These are 1024x1024 including normal maps of course. It's good to have textures as you never know when you'll need them.

EDIT: I changed the normal map, the one with circles. I saw it was incorrect and so I fixed it so that the normal map really defines what's in the texture.

Nexuiz Portals model and DAC

2008-11-13T15:35:00.005+01:00

Hi there people.
Long time no talk here. At least if feels like that for me, and I bet it is. Will have to check the last date I posted something here after this.
But anyway, just to fill you guys in whats been happening. I've started to model a Nexuiz portals model. What this actually is is the following: Nexuiz has a gun which created two portals, one 'start' and one 'end' portal. I even think 'teleporters' are a better word but they are called portals in Nexuiz. You step into the 'start' portal and you're teleported to the 'end' portal. Now this works only one way, so you cannot step into the 'end' portal and come out from the 'start' portal.

Now that's the actual description. But be sure to check that portal gun out in game. It's actually called 'Port-O-Launch' that gun.

Aside from that, I also have updated the 3D Buzz competition scene, unfortunately Maya kept crashing when I was only halfdone with my entry due to insufficient memory. So I wasn't able to submit anything as I wasn't even finished with my entry. This latest image shows how far I actually got into the competition. But I will still finish this piece in my spare time. I don't want to give up on this yet :)

That's it for today guys. Hope my next post won't be so far along into the future.

Competition update

2008-10-23T10:53:00.002+02:00

Just posting images on the process.

Advancements.

2008-10-13T02:52:00.003+02:00

I've made further advancements to the DAC contest. Been busy like crazy with my portfolio lately (one thing is still not finished) but I found time to do the DAC. I need to concentrate more on that if I even want to be qualified as a contestant. There's some rules (not too hard to achieve but still), like showing people the progress of your work and explain the steps and stuff (or something like that). Anyway, I'm going to be, it's late and my ears hurt because of the headphones I have on and listening to Creed (while modeling).

Goodnight.

Portfolio update and contest.

2008-10-07T02:58:00.003+02:00

Man, been busy lately the last couple of days. To start things off. I have updated my portfolio site with added sections and pages. I embedded a javascript for the 3D Gallery instead of having it open a new window which I disliked a lot. Then I re-organized stuff and all which goes with that.

However, the biggest news is that I entered a contest. It's the 3D Buzz - Digital Artists Competition where you have to create a digital image in the halloween theme. The image can be anything, even traditional paintings and photography as long as the end result is a digital image (i.e. just take a picture of that image).
I however, decided to stay inside Maya and ZBrush. I made a quick rough sketch along with some initial modeling. In the next couple of days I hope to have made more, depends how busy I'll get with other stuff.

Anyway, that's all the news I had for today, or tonight actually. It's 3.02 AM here and I'm hungry and sleepy. So, I'll say goodnight from here and see you next time.

Mouth update.

2008-10-02T17:33:00.003+02:00

Forget about what I said that I will do the body topology, after seeing work from Jackson Gichuki (aesis412 on CGSociety) I just couldn't resist redo the mouth even more. I suppose it was a good thing, do the things that you burn for at the moment before you forget it, right? Anyway, enjoy.

Mouth changes.

2008-10-02T14:26:00.002+02:00

Ok, I made a few mouth changes, especially to the corners. This is as far as I'll go now. I'm going to take a break from the head and redo the topology on the body instead. I'll post this image up for critique on CGSociety and see what people say. That's it for now. Next update will be posting images on the topology of the body.

Bought portfolio domain and webhotel

2008-10-02T13:04:00.004+02:00

Today I bought a domain that I will be using as my portfolio. I wasn't able to find a place for my server to be at so I had to go with a webhotel. I don't mind really, it is incredibly cheep and it will be up 24/7 so I won't have to worry about issues I had before.

So, from now on my online portfolio domain is going to be: www.kurotorobert.com
I had a different before but I didn't like it too much in the end and it was too much hassle to move that one over to the new provider.
When time permits I will be re-creating my portfolio from the ground up and add more stuff to it. Now that provider also provides a blog, however I don't know if I will be using that blog, as I will upload images and stuff and I have a limited space for that now. We'll see what I'll do.

Cheers.

Head and mouth

2008-09-28T16:25:00.002+02:00

I've re-organized the topology around the mouth and the jawline for this model. I was trying to make the mouth like a folding O (like an O folding in on itself). I've outlined with green color how that would look like. Hopefully I got it right and if it passes the critique along with the rest of the head, then the head would be done topology-wise and ready for sculpting. Note that the ears are ways of from being done.

There's more re-topologization that needs to take place on the body, I'll post more of those screens once that is done.

Mouth shot

2008-09-27T12:58:00.003+02:00

I did a close-up mouth shot as requested by a fellower over at CGSociety.
I'm kinda using this blog sometimes for a good place to upload images to showcase for other people. Just to keep you informed. As soon as I get another reliable place I'll be using that instead.

Cheers.

Continuing on

2008-09-26T14:36:00.004+02:00

Ok, an update.
I've been working on the Nexuiz flag for a while now and I have a new concept and made it ingame. I'm currently asking for feedback back at those forums. We'll see how it turns out.
Of course, it if I succeed in creating a good flag is still doesn't mean it will be included in a official release. It would be cool, but I won't count on it. It's just a model for those who like to replace their flags.

Now, I also have started to work on the character guy model. I'm going to post it on CGSociety forums to ask for feedback about the topology. I think the body topology could be better for animation purposes. But I'll see if what I get and if I can get by what I already have.

Nexuiz Flag - Texturing Done

2008-09-23T22:01:00.008+02:00

From Maya:

Ingame:

Finally the texturing of the Nexuiz flag is done, I've rendered it out in Maya and also managed to get the flag ingame with those textures on. It went a lot quicker than I thought. I thought I had to experiment and recompile and change stuff like a madman for days. But I don't think I spent even spent an hour for that. Good thing though.

Anyway, if you want, as good as, a complete step on how I did this you can follow the thread I have on the Nexuiz forums.

Nexuiz Flag Update

2008-09-16T17:35:00.004+02:00

The Nexuiz flag have now been unwrapped (was a long and tedious process) and I've started creating texture for it. The texturing process is at the beginning so nothing all that spectacular have yet happened.
I'll put this one up for critique and see what people say. Of course I'll need to do more work on it and I have some things planned out. I just wanted to give an update on where I am for now.
I've used a green color so that it would be neutral from either red and blue. And I provided both a black and white background so it would be easier to get the idea across.
Enjoy.

Update

2008-09-12T14:42:00.007+02:00

I've been doing a thing that I actually shouldn't. I played around in Maya with shaders and whatnot making a die. There was this tutorial on a die that brought up UV mapping and such. Now I've seen lots of such tutorials but never actually done a die myself. So I figured I'd make a quick die so that I will have it over with, but the process, from a simple 10 min fun thing, turned out to be a huge time consuming project. I didn't get satisfied with just creating a simple plane texture for a die and map it in Maya. So I started creating a simple shading network, but over time I added more and more stuff and in the end it just got a whole lot bigger. I almost put an all-nighter to finish it, but I wanted to get some sleep.
Now, the day after I still continue with the die. As of this moment, I am rendering a final image, but I've rendered out another image before this which I've been playing around in Photoshop with and make some comp work. And the result as you can see, is the image above.

Apart from this die thingie, I've continued with the flag for Nexuiz. Now I managed to get the flag into the game and the next step now is to UV unwrap the flag and create some textures. How I will implement the textures into the game I have no idea, I will have to go for the 'try and error' approach, along with asking for directions on the Nexuiz forums.
Btw, if you want to follow my work with the flag you can go here (Nexuiz official forums).

Anyway, hope it will turn out good. Till later.

Nexuiz Flag - Sev Concept, update

2008-09-08T21:33:00.003+02:00

I've updated the flag a bit, redone the stick and added a "laser stand" so to speak. The glow from the laser disturbs the glow from the Nexuiz logo, but I think it looks ok. Just have to put this up for critique on the Nexuiz forums.

I've tried exporting this to a .smd, but with the setup I did before it didn't work. I just have a hard time exporting to .smd from Maya. But hopefully if I use Milkshape and Blender, and go back and fourth from one app to another I can make it work. We'll see. When I imported a .ma file (Maya Ascii file) into Milkshape, Milkshape crash all the time. Perhaps my scene was too messy (hopefully) but if not I'm gonna try with different computers and different versions.

So much work to make this work. I hope I can get a hold of 'Doc-Pyton', a guy who made weapon models for Nexuiz and made them work. The best part is that he also is a Maya user, so hopefully he can help me a little. We'll see.

Nexuiz Flag - Sev Concept

2008-09-08T15:11:00.003+02:00

I have modeled out a flag concept for Nexuiz. This concept comes from Sev, a guy in the community. I made just a few changes and took some liberties.
The flag is yet not comleted, not only is the texturing/materials on this flag incomplete, but also the stick needs more details. So far it is at 1906 tris. I'm trying to keep it to a minimum, and I bet if I really wanted to I could cut the details here and there to save polys. But I'll see what the other say about this first.

Zuriastrad made a very similar model to this one, but he didn't want to continue with the model so I suppose it now falls on me, if I can get some .smd exporter to work somehow.

More to come, stay tuned.

Portfolio back online

2008-09-07T15:56:00.004+02:00

My portfolio is now once again back online. That are good news, however I will be renovating that site for a while now. I don't like how it's build up and I've been looking at other peoples portfolio websites. Hmpf, suddenly all my time just went away.
Anyway, it's good to have a site again up though, now it needs to be nice and easy to follow.

The adress is: http://www.kuroto-robert.net

Head and ear

2008-09-07T02:23:00.003+02:00

I've started working on the head model again. I've been studying how to model ears as this is the first ear I've ever done. I've also re-made the mouth entirely, I actually messed it up before. I think if I get good critiques on this head topology wise and whatnot I will take it in ZBrush for the final touches. Reshape the head a bit and give it more character.

Finally done watching ADP videos.

2008-09-02T14:04:00.003+02:00

As the title suggest, I have been watching the ADP videos from 3D Buzz and watched them whenever I could to catch up to what's been happening. The good thing about this is that now I can also take up my ADP project again. Before I do that however, I will need to re-organize some stuff and figure out where I want to go from here on.

On another note, sometime next week I hope for my portfolio to be up and running again. But not only that, I will reshape the portfolio into a better visually representation of a portfolio and easier navigation. I will also need to update stuff on it and take away whatever I don't feel confident in, bad work with other words.

So, the ball is rolling again!

- Kuroto

My portfolio down

2008-08-12T12:47:00.003+02:00

Hi there. I come to you with the announcement that my portfolio site (www.kuroto-robert.net) is down. The reason is that the server needs to be relocated and we haven't found a place to have at yet. We think we have a place (the server is not mine alone hence 'we') but it will take some time to get it up and running.

In the meantime, this blog will serve as a summary portfolio.

One final

2008-08-07T19:52:00.002+02:00

This time I upload a final version of this which is a total clean without blood. Enjoy

A few variants.

2008-08-07T18:15:00.003+02:00

Just made two more variants of the checkered bloody texture. One which less blood and one with even more less. If for some instance one would want to add these together somehow.

Starting to learn MapZone

2008-08-07T16:16:00.005+02:00

Hi, a friend of mine showed me a program a couple of months ago which is called MapZone where you can create your own textures. This is a very good thing for me as I need to create my own for my 3D work but I never actually took time to learn it (didn't need any textures). But today I sat down and started to play around with the program and I see that it has lots of potential.
It is a procedural workflow, meaning you can go back in "time"/history and change things to get other results (the 3D application Houdini 9 also has a procedural workflow). This kind of workflow is very powerful.

Today I just learned the program and made a texture from a tutorial. Not much to show really as it is from a tutorial, but I wanted to do that anyway.
But the best thing is that MapZone is free too. That's some awesome stuff right there.
Well now, I'm gonna go back to eating my Ramen and chill while looking at some video tutorials where they create other textures from scratch.

PS. I'll give you these textures if you want to use them, they are not super high quality but if you can use them for anything that's great. I don't need any credit either as this was from a tutorial, I don't consider stuff like that genuine. Plus, I don't even know if I did everything correctly as the tutorial got a bit sketchy at the end.
I'll add a normal map too.

2008-08-05T11:46:00.005+02:00

This is a lock appliance I'm doing for a friend (don't know if it's ready yet). He gave me specific measurements (down to the millimeter, even halves of millimeters) and I modeled it out in Maya. He had measurements up to 50-60mm and that was too big for the standard grid size, so I took everything and divided it by 2. Then I could divide the grid if I wanted and have the specific units, as well as the Channel Box would display the correct numbers.
Took one whole night to model this thing out, then I just tweaked some edges and the overall wireflow. Later on, after getting some sleep, I slapped on a silver shader and rendered out with Mental Ray.

However, it doesn't end there. I rendered out two images, one grainy and one clean, then I comped and tweaked them in Photoshop. Lastly I took wireframe shots and comped them into the shots as well.

Nexuiz Flag Concepts

2008-07-30T13:05:00.004+02:00

I've created some concepts for the flags for the open source game Nexuiz. It's for the game mode 'Capture the Flag' of course. Whether these get chosen or not I do not know (probably not), other people have submitted their concepts and there is a quite good one.
The blue flag is a base concept by a guy with the nickname 'tZork' on the Alientrap forums (Alientrap is the team working with Nexuiz, and tZork is one of the devs). I just added some detail and other touches to it.
This is a work in progress (not so much to submit the concept, but more because I want to make a real model out of this).

So here are my concepts:

Another attempt at head

2008-07-28T13:30:00.002+02:00

So I have started with a new head from scratch as the topology might not have been the best. This head I'm trying to get as good topology as possible with minimum amount of detail. It's still a work in progress of course.

New head

2008-07-16T13:51:00.005+02:00

I've been experimenting with topologization and as a result I also got a new face. Well, I wanted to create a new face as the older one wasn't even near good enough. This one also isn't good enough yet but it's a work in progress. Also, I merged several views into one as that saves both upload space here and less images to click on. Instead you see everything at once.

Merged head and body

2008-07-12T16:31:00.002+02:00

So, now I merged the head and body for the model and this is the progress so far. I've tweaked a little the upper body and have yet to take a closer look at the arms and of course the lower body. The head is probably the last thing I'm going to take care of but we'll see what I feel like doing when I do it.

Updated the head - Part 2

2008-07-09T14:44:00.003+02:00

After posting this head on some forums and followed some crits I got I continued to shape it. There's some problem areas still, like the eyebrows, possibly gonna change the jaw shape and some other areas needs to be tweaked.

Updated the head

2008-07-07T17:34:00.003+02:00

Here's new pictures of the work in progress head for my model. Sorry it took so long to post anything, but I've been busy with other stuff.