Mesh to Metahumans

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I recently digitized us into metahumans because you never know what's gonna happen. I used Epic's Reality Scan iPhone app to take photos of myself and Kristin in the bathroom mirror. The hardest part was to get enough photos of Kristin before she started laughing...because I'm basically underneath her and hovering all around while she has to be perfectly still. Honestly I'm not sure how I did my own so well without moving.

The process is pretty smooth in UE5 after some learning. Couldn't quite get my real hair right for either of us so I went with some "alternatives".

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Sketching Wildlife at Yellowstone

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During our trip to Yellowstone Park this year, I enjoyed the change of drawing some wildlife. Bison are pretty funny and interesting creatures. I tried to simplify the shapes of these guys. I'm most happy with the two playfighting bison. I think that could make a cool painting or t-shirt or something.

We Floated the River - Procreate Sketch

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I floated the river in San Marcos with some friends a couple of weeks ago. This procreate sketch is from a photo of that day. I didn't bring my iPad on the tube and sketch it real-time. That would've been impressive. It might be cool to animate this with a floating movement

Sketch of Rufus on the Couch

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This beast will probably destroy our couch eventually, but it's fun watching him take up the whole thing and be comfortable. Prisma pencils with Tombow watercolor markers on paper.

Sketching Earthsworld Reference - Full Page

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I finished a pretty decent paget of Earthsworld portraits. Prisma pencil sketches with Tombow markers on paper.

Sketching from some Earthsworld reference

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Two quick sketches from reference. Prisma pencil with Tombow markers on paper. Trying to find the right balance and the right colors to use. Pencil lines still seem too dark.

Sketching Poolside

Some very rough sketches from the pool over staycation. Good practice, nothing I'm super proud of. Still important to share, I think? Pencil and Tombow markers on paper.

UE5 Disintegrated Parking Garage

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I built a new quick environment In Unreal Engine 5 to showcase my character rig. Put some colored lights in to make it fabulous.

UE5 Sequencer using physics

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I wanted to control multiple floating rocks with the same set of animation keys, so I could easily animate their movement synced to my original music track. I made this simple blueprint that enables physics to be controlled with the sequencer, making the rocks float upward or downward based on the music track.

This is the first time Ive just started making things in blueprints to achieve the desired effect, and succeeded. No tutorials guided me on this, I was simply using the tools available and got it to work. That's always an exciting moment. But then afterwards I get sleepy or hungry and stop working on it for months.

Drink-N-Draw Central Market

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Had a good time sketching strangers at Central Market. Didn't draw anything else I wanted to post. One's good, right? This is Timbow markers on paper.

Makeshift 2D Rig

I animated this sketch in After Effects with no additional plugins. It's basically a 2d image with puppet pins using parenting and a simple expression to make it a decent makeshift 2D rig.

The music is an original track I recently made in Ableton Live.

Sketching at the Farm

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Ami and I rode our bikes to sketch at a nearby urban farm with llamas, goats and pigs...didn't get the cow or baby goats this time.

Painting in Terlingua

This summer our family vacation was in Terlingua and Big Bend Park, TX. I'm not much of a painter of actual physical paint, but I have been wanting to try acrylic-goache. The sharp geometric shapes of the rock formations were very inspirational. I woke up every morning and either sketched or painted or both. I see a lot of value in painting with paint, but I'm much more inclined to pick up a marker than bother with the mess. I'm hoping to increase this frequency over time.

Right Side – Two new music tracks

Here's some more original music made in Ableton Live. I called this session Right Side because I moved my recording equipment from the left side of my setup to the right side. That's about as meaningful as it gets these days. It was a productive little session - I got two decent loops out of it. I don't think these are part of the same song, but maybe different parts of the same game level (soundtrack)?

Someday an up-and-coming dope rapper with no beats is gonna meet me and say "dude, where can I get some fresh locally-sourced hip hop beats?", and I'm gonna jump up and say "you are the one!"

Landscape Sketches from Imagination

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Here are some quick greyscale fantasy landscape sketches from imagination done in Procreate. I'm usually hooked on characters, but I want to be well-rounded. I'm representing depth with value – using some reference material to help me understand how it should look. I should do some widescreen ones.

I made a new track

Whipped up a new track in Ableton Live. Mostly virtual instruments with some actual guitar with the "parts-caster" my brother made for me.

Sunset Valley Sketch

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This is why they call it Sunset Valley. Great sky views. Procreate sketch on iPad pro.

Pluk - Two New Music Loops

I mentioned to my brother that I didn't like my Ibanez with complicated humbucker pickup and tuning. The next time he visited he showed up with a black parts-caster that was the PERFECT guitar for me, in style and functionality. I absolutely love it, although I wish it was a few pounds lighter.

These tracks are my first attempts at recording with this new guitar and my AXEIO input module. I like the thick, crunchy sound.