Blog

Find out a little about me and my stuff - updates will be sporadic.

Monthly Update - November to December

Hey Hey! Start of the month recap time! Again, it is a monthly thing so there's a lot of words.

What I've done:

Not related to Taj Packs:

Work on D&D game campaign:

I've been going through the campaign, I think I'm getting somewhere but really I've only got the skeleton of the story. I have a document though with the ideas. I've been listening to D&D is for Nerds (great podcast and it reminds me of home) and I've watched the Critical Role Campaign Tips. I'm getting there.

Work on Forgotten Futures campaign:

Like I said previously, my campaign is being played with my Aunty and my Husband. I have two things to complete with this campaign before I feel I can run this campaign. The Main Bad Guy's stats and what happens if the Main Bad Guy actually catches up with the duo. I'm really hoping I don't accidentally TPK the group :/

TEFL Course and other things:

TEFL is coming along. I feel like I'm walking slowly through treacle but I am moving. To me, Grammar really makes very little sense. Being a native English speaker I think is making it harder for me to break this stuff down. But other than that, I've only got to understand Adjectives, Adverbs, Past, Present and Future; Passive, Conditional and other words. So yea, grammar is hard but it's something I'm working through. GO ME!

Related to Taj Packs:

Human character mesh:

Done! Here's the pretties.

Here's the Dwarf, Human, Tiefling and Elf (all complete). And the Orc character.

Second Candles Pack for Dungeon Magic Pack 2:

Ok so I didn't so this... at all. But I am going to say I replaced this with Orc Textures. Which are almost done. Just need to finish the hair details. I've found that you can have base colour as a Mix layer and the another diffuse map as a soft lights layer to add details like shadows and highlights.

So yea, that's cool. I just need to remember to add the layers together before I place it in game.

Dungeon Magic Pack 2:

Yup... this didn't happen either.

However, I've changed my Gumroad Shop and talked to Jimmy from Handpaintedtextures.com (who is on Gumroad and Unity <- Check them out!) about his shop and he is a very big inspiration for my work (along with Bitgem) And I noticed his Gumroad had a specific sized front image. So I took that idea and used it for my own stuff.

Ohhh pretty :)

Dungeon Magic Pack 2:

And I've made some stands for the characters to ... stand on. It's so that they look like little miniatures for a boardgame.

What I'm going to do this month:

This month I'm going to push myself to get the following done:

Barely anything!

I'm going to relax and enjoy my Christmas holidays. I don't even think I'll touch my laptop all holidays. Try and get out and about, explore Munich and Burnley just that little bit more.

I might even draw a bit more over this holiday season. We'll see :)

What I'm having issues with:

Keeping on track:

I've been combating this by making to do lists on my little whiteboard. And checking off the grand to-do list. I've also changed my calendar which involves the Freelance work, Invisibit work and TEFL work as well. I'm going to try to go heads down tails up kind of deal and get as much done as I can before the holidays.

So see you guys next year, Happy Holidays, Merry Christmas, Happy Ḥănukkāh, Enjoy Kwanzaa, Happy Hogswatch, or have a good Yule Time... time. Oh and Happy New year because I won't be posting until January.

Later guys!

Monthly Update Time!

Warning this post is long, with many images. Enjoy the shineys.

What I've done:

Ok. So what have I done this past month (or so)? I've had a few really productive days where I've finished up all zombie-like (it's the best feeling in the world for me). I've signed up with a TEFL course and am getting my Teach English as a Foreign Language qualification - which as far as I know is nearly lifetime qualification, so all in all a good investment. I had that job interview like I previously talked about and sadly didn't get the job :( but I'm still looking for more jobs and have steadily been applying to as many temp and part time jobs I can find. I've been working on my unpaid internship with Invisibit Studios. I've also somehow created skeleton of a company Bumbabee! Games with my husband and am making a game in his spare time (cause I seem to have a bunch of 'spare' time) - I even got to design most of it. AND I've managed to complete the following things:

Donate here:

Donations:

I've organised donations for myself. I finally have a way for people to pay me for stuff they like! So there's two options: Gumroad donations and Paypal donations. Every penny helps!

Scrolls:

Here's the scrolls showsheet. It comes with 3 scroll bases and 3 scroll ends to give multiple options of scroll types. I've placed it up on Gumroad. Take a look here, only $8 USD for the entire pack.

Potions:

The potions you've seen before but here's the showsheet and WIP shots anyway. Take a look here, $8 USD for the entire pack.

More Potions:

These potions you haven't seen before. They were lots of fun to create. It's difficult to make a skull without a nose - but I think I pulled it off. You can purchase them here for now. I will be placing them up in the Unity Store along with the other packs as soon as this major pack is completed.

and a Closed Magic Book:

Originally I was going to make an open magic book and a closed magic book but the pack because quite large and I needed to collapse it down a bit. So here's the finished closed book. The writing is translateable but you don't need to actually know whar's in there. You can purchase them here. Happy shopping!

AND a scale:

I have realised all too late that I require a scale. Not an eyeballed scale - which is what I already have. A scale for Unity that is ideally something represented in Unity i.e 1m = 1 unit in game. So I've taken all of the current assets and I've re-scaled them to translate better into Unity. This is going on my checklist.

So yea, I think I've been rather productive this month. I've managed to get back into working and I'm loving it.

What I'm going to do this month:

uhhhhm.....
1. Make Models
2. ???
3. PROFIT!

This month I'm going to be:

Finishing work on Dungeon Magic Pack:

I'll be completing the Candles (Single) the Candles Chandelier and Candelabra, and the Skull (magical things always require skulls)

Sketching out creatures and objects from other Packs

I've been thinking about how the other creatures and characters look in my artistic vision. I have a few sketches already but when the other guys in my D&D group take charge (they have very strong character personalities and good ideas) I generally take a backseat and start sketching while I'm listening to the story - don't worry I'm absolutely listening and I definitely speak up when they do something my character wouldn't appreciate.

Making a Macro for folder creation with standardised naming conventions

I'm going to look up ways of making Macros in Windows - I used to have a program but I might look into macro recorders and see if they're a thing that Windows does. That would make my folder structure faster and definitely all the same. I'm also going to make sure my Asana page (which the company updated and I'm going to have a look at the new features) is up to date. I am working off schedule and it's becoming a small problem.

Finishing work on Human Character for Character Base Pack:

I'll be getting myself together and complete working on my human character model and 3D sculpt. Assuming I keep my motivation and my standardisation day (or days) don't take too long I will have at least started work on my Halfling character before Halloween.

Reviewing my work

There have been many things that I just didn't foresee being an issue with my process. Now I have to review them and find a better way. I'll be setting aside a day or two to really get this down so I don't have to do it again. Or if I do have to (to futureproof myself) I'm make sure it's much easier next time.
I'll be reviewing my meshes to make sure they are to scale (the characters are exempt from this due to the character rig I'll be making. They will all the same sizes and this will only happen when all characters are completed.) I will also be checking my colour palettes are solid and not to distracting. While I'm reviewing my art work I'll probably have to make a wiki to keep colours, techniques and ideas consistent. At the very least I'll be writing it down in my book.

Making another recap

I really feel that making recaps are important, and even though I don't work with anyone (at the moment) I should still write down in a slightly SCRUM style format. This should give me direction, motivation and a sort of checklist on what I need to do.

What I'm having issues with:

Motivation:

I'll definitely say I'm having issues with motivation to complete the character pack. I've got due dates for all of that pack and I'm procrastinating with working on other packs. I have a good reason for doing those packs but if I keep going the way I'm going, I won't be finished in time for my holidays. I am giving myself a working schedule and it's important to me that I maintain it. Starting work at 9:30 and finishing at 5:30 is important to continue. There are days that just don't turn out like that, but I do try to make the most of those days by updating social media, hanging out with contacts and friends or even just making sure I have food in the fridge/freezer for dinner and lunch.

Standardisation and Future Proofing:

I have to sit down and figure out a check list. Something I actually check every time I make something, not something I make and then discard =,= (I'm looking at you Past Kylie.) I have the skeleton of a system down. But I really need to take the time to make sure I create folders correctly, fill them with the appropriate files and make sure I back them up online. My main downfall is remembering to rename objects within the program i'm working on. Instead of Cylinder 01 and Cylinder 02 I should have Scroll_Base_1 and Scroll_Ends_A that sort of thing.

Ok, that's it. Time to rest up and then work as hard as I can tomorrow.

Kylie

Forever twirling, twirling toward the future.

Hey guys, warning long post ahead.

I've had to take some personal time off recently due to unforeseen circumstances but I'm back now and ready to produce some amazing stuff.

I've been back to the drawing board with my D&D Taj Packs and there are a lot more things to do than I thought. Initially it was just going to be a character pack but ever since playing 5ed I've been adding to the pack and it's grown monstrously.

I have plans to release the following packs: Base Character Pack, 2nd Character Pack, Travelers Pack, Base Dungeon Pack, Dungeon Magic Pack, Monsters Forest Pack, Monsters Dungeon Pack, Monsters Cave Pack, Animal Forest Pack, Animal Dungeon Pack, Animal Cave Pack, Village Base Pack, 2nd Village Pack, and a Village Street Pack. So a total of 14 packs - about 125 items in total.

So to kick off this stupendous and horrific adventure I've made potion bottles for the Dungeon Magic Pack - which are currently available on Gumroad. I'm going to start small and work my way up from there. I still have the Elf to finish and I should have that done by the 18th if my scheduling is correct (it might change if I get a call back from a job interview I had recently - yay \o/)

I'm pretty damn excited to see that after a bunch of time off, I've gotten back into the swing of things so quickly. This project is obviously something special.

I've also added a donations section to Gumroad with a wallpaper of 1920x1080 as a reward. I think I might change these to represent the items I've made when I have enough to create a scene.

I've got my internship work at Invisibit Studios go check them out. They're creating a little game with a robot called BIP. He's quite cute and I'm working on animations for him and his friends - along with a fellow colleague Chris Hill (who doesn't seem to have a website).

I've bought a commercial license for license for Photoshop and after a bunch of hunting I've got myself an N52te :D for really, really cheap (20 Pounds). It has made changing programs between Max, Maya and Blender so much smoother. But I will say, there aren't enough buttons for Blender - which is seriously shortcut heavy. But it is still a blessing for changing between programs. I even use it for Photoshop.

With this I've managed to get back into Maya animation. It's something I've been interested in but never took the time to learn. I'm quite comfortable with it all now and pressing play, going through the frames is much easier since I've bought this keyboard extension. I don't need to press Alt+. to go one frame to the right any more it's just a button press.

I've started streaming again! Sign up and follow for email updates. I'll post on twitter when I'm streaming @tajunshadow. I like how it keeps me focused. I'm even streaming for Invisibit Studios and my Maya experimentation.

Streaming is back Follow me for updates.

TL;DR:
- I've had to take time off for personal reasons. But now I'm back from Outta Space.
- Job interview last week and am waiting for a result.
- I've been working on my internship (with Invisibit Studios).
- Got a great review from Invisibit Studios
- Still working on my Taj Packs - 14 packs - about 125 items in total. Go buy them.
- Donations section in Gumroad. Please contribute - you'll get a wallpaper.
- Now can legally sell items made with Photoshop :D I own a commercial license.
- I think my designing has grown stronger with the Taj Packs project.
- I'm learning Maya animation. It seems to be going well.
- I've started streaming again sign up and follow for email updates.
- I'm more active on twitter @tajunshadow
- Hurray art!

Cheers guys!
- ShadowTajun

Tiefling Textures and Dwarfish Diffusing

Hey guys,

I've got the main body left to detail and that's about it (YAY!). Then on to detailing the Dwarf more.

Next week I'll be taking a step back and thinking about my process further, relecting on the process I've used and pulling together research on processes other people have used. I'm not entirely happy with the current outcome and I want to do it right.

I'll be practicing more with Normal maps and get a solid process down so I'll be doing some tileable textures during the week - at least one.

Diffuse maps and timetable adjustments

Hey guys, It's been a slow kind of day but I've eaten lunch, done a tiny shop and am now back to more texturing the tones for my Orc. The face is almost done (YAY!). Just the hair and one eyebrow left with the features. Then I have to go back to playing with the normal maps for the main body.

It's coming together nicely - but texturing had taken a huge chunk out of my timetable. I'll be adjusting my next time table before I start on the next character.

Animations will have to wait for another week. I'm going to go ahead with my previously made starting dates. The next character starts next week.

Normal Maps fixed and Eurovision

The normal maps are working (YAY!) - they need some refinements but it should be alright. Turns out I moved the height of the scuplted Orc in Blender so that the feet touched the ground and then I did my retoplogy. I exported the decimated mesh and placed it into Xnormal to fix that Normals issue.

Needs refining but it's only the main body so I might just need to re-export the main lowpoly body and put it through Xnormal like I did the orc features.

Now to play with AO maps and Diffuse maps more. Sadly I’m behind in my 3D scheldule, I’m going to have to go into ‘crunch’ this week. Maybe even work a bit on my birthday - we’ll see.

I could do all the ‘3D work’ by Tuesday as I predicted but there would be no rig or animations. Which I suppose I could add to the pack later. Not to mention I have to think over my Animation list. It's something I'm going to have to think about this weekend and solidify on Monday.

But now, Eurovision! Cause I’ve been working on a different project all day and I deserve a little brake time. Looking forward to Austraila's competing song (not a huge Guy Sebastian fan though) and UK's Electric Velvet - they're a great band.

Fan Art - Chester complete!

Chester the best furry little friend you're get in Don't Starve.

Don’t Starve Character Suite: Chester by Kylie Halley

Chester is finally complete. Here's the WIP and the final showsheet :) Happy days! 669 polys and two diffuse maps :)