Getting there
Teeth need to “ascend” more to the sides, other than that I’m quite happy with it! I’ll make a few more until its shapes and key parts are lodged within my own skull… Best results will be posted!

Following a tutorial by Jonathan Williamson, I practically completed modelling a nice human hand. I also animated it, but it will take some rework with shape keys to get the deformations right that don’t work too well in extreme position.
Hand Turntable
Hand deformation test
Updates will follow

I recently preordered the Blender Foundation’s new training DVD, “Chaos and Evolutions“, made by David Revoy, concept mastermind of the Blender Durian Project. It uses all Open Source Software, so this is groundbreaking!

Furthermore I ordered “Foundation Blender Compositing” from the Blender e-store, as Amazon won’t deliver. One of the major mysteries still left for me will be solved soon. I know it all in DTP software, but in Blender I must say I still have no clue.

– my hope of overcoming my greatest enemies:
- time (about 1500% faster renders)
- hardware (my computer sucks for rendering, and here I just had to invest into a GTX 285!)
- realism (I’ll be able, due to the first two in the list, to experiment with highest level physical unbiased rendering)
In a week or so I’ll be able to download the Beta (preordered it for 99€) that will count for the first full release (199€) too, so I’m REALLY excited.
There is already a Vimeo Group of Octane Render users that I, of course, joined immediately
Even greater times ahead!

Times are getting more exciting than ever! Qualysoft have hired me to improve the interface for the output management system of their sub product Infinica who are going to release it as “Workplace” soon. Also I get to refurbish their product “Document Designer” a bit through creating a new splash screen, and there is talk about creating a solid CI, like I did for Lifestyle Living a while ago.
I was/am required to apply both 2D and 3D skills – still a bit tough, but manageable to everybody’s liking. So I’ll have to stress out a bit during the next weeks, but that’s fine with me!

I am quite happy to have Warren Belfield as sort of my 2D-drawing coach! He provided me a lot of useful info that I haven’t seen coming up anywhere else – so I definitely will break my limits, quite soon I believe, with his help. He’s a true professional, so I consider myself lucky on that one
Following his advice indirectly I’m starting with a series of drawing human skulls to become one with facial proportions over time – looks quite fine already. I’ll update and show some pics soon. My motivation is breaking through the roof.

So far, so good. I started the new year off quite well:

-I contracted for an interface design that might help me get a foot into someone’s door
-I managed to get my misbehaving system up and running again (how long have I been waiting for and dreading this!!)
-I switched to Windows 7 x64 to finally make use of all my RAM, getting things faster and smoother as I can’t afford a new computer
-I managed to keep my desk tidy for almost 3 weeks now!!!
-I got rid of lots of useless, old crap
-I got all my boring, annoying work done so I can finally move on with my CG career for the rest of my few holidays

What am I planning, now that I got my shit together?

-I will get a GPU renderer so I don’t NEED a new computer necessarily right now
-I will scour through Adobe.tv to bring my skills back to top
-I’ll look into Lynda.com deeply
-I will continually catch up with all the tons of tutorials on Blendercookie
-I will continually categorize and weed out my thousands of photos
-I will try to buy ZBrush
-I will have to paint and draw more (this job is really getting to me….)
-I will at least completely plan out my first animated short
-I will put myself completely out into the web world to offer my services

So what’s gonna happen? I’ll post every item I resolved from this list as a self check and see how far I’ll get But right now I’m trying out the first item:

and see what comes out

I did this after a very good Youtube tutorial by Stephanie Valentin. Worked magic. It took a while to get the strokes right, but it was definitely worth it and easier than I had previously imagined. A good way of getting familiar with Photoshop painting techniques!

Trial by fire for my Wacom Intuos 4, and my wrist…

Painting the lips I applied knowledge and technique as with the painting before. Of course, things aren’t perfect, the shadow under the lower lip is too strong, but well… getting there. I was told to use some blue tones for the shadows here and there, which I will definitely do with the next 2D project I’ll take on.

The female face was done with a lot of love and patience, but it looks like an alien head with a british parliamentarian’s wig. Jesus luvz me anyway

Well, I’ll stick with the default headline here. I hope I’ll be able to update regularly, meaning, I hope I’ll be able to proceed quickly! So there you go – subscribe to my RSS, or follow me on Twitter, add me at Blenderartists.org, vimeo.com or whatever else is going to come up here over time! This blog will grow constantly, design, content, so be patient and check back every now and then.

Have fun with me messing around