Spacecraft - Blog Posts
spitzer edit !!!
"So how about that cosmic eye candy, huh?"
(background uses Spitzer images from this website)
art update !
i was able to make some quick bday art for icesat-2 ^-^
happy bday icesat-2 !!!
this painting was made a while ago, but i dont know if i can get something done in time due to exhaustion :smiley_face_with_tear:
if i do get something done, ill make a new post for it, but just in case i wanted to say happy bday to a good earth sat
JUICE FLYBY
JUICE FLYBY JUICE FLYBY JUICE FLYBY JUICE FLYBY JUICE FLYBY
JUICE FLYBY
juice fl-
Webbposting
special appearance of LUVOIR ^^
"Six and a half" refers to JWST's primary mirror diameter. LUVOIR's would be more than double that of JWST should it launch sometime around/after the 2040s. By then Webb would be an Old Man
happi pride month
in case if i cant make art (just came back from vacation and im low on energy...rargh) i wanna pop in to add to this from my last post
dawn and kepler are lesbian-coded...that's really it lol (also kepler is non-binary coded woohooo)
may the kepler be with you
you cant have dawn without kepler and vice versa lol (you'll see why in june maybe)
Once upon a time...
Twenty years ago on this day, a new interplanetary explorer set out to complete her mission
Happy 20th anniversary, Rosetta. We're still cheering you on!
Silly sketches #002
the beloved goobers of my interests
Rosetta
Kepler
NGC 1499
Scorpius
Florida
California
Pennsylvania
Psyche
c a t
Art for a beloved helicopter
though you may fly no more, in our hearts you still soar
(made on the day of the loss of contact, Jan 25, just uploading late)
How I'm feeling right now
i feel silly
silly spacecraft voice claims
(2/2) * will add information at a later date, has some of the same clips from the other video
Silly sketches #001
context because i have so many sillies
Enjoying the people, has a good time: Euclid, Cassini, Voyager 1, Lucy, Compton, Dawn, Gaia, Herschel, Opportunity, Spirit, Earth Return Orbiter, CALIPSO
Silent/standing in the corner of the part: Hubble, Fermi, Voyager 2, Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, INTEGRAL, OAO-2, IUE, Mars Global Surveyor, also CALIPSO
Trashes the place, disables security cameras: Kepler, Chandra, Sojourner, DART, Juno, Mars Odyssey, Philae, also IUE
BLASTS MUSIC FROM THE LEAF ROOM (the big room with the speakers): MAVEN, Perseverance, IXPE, Spitzer, CloudSat, Psyche, also Philae
steals ESTEC sign from outside: James Webb, Swift, Ingenuity, also Psyche
got trapped in the CPTR (the room with the foam spikes): Curiosity, Rosetta, New Horizons, Landsat-9, OSIRIS-REx, InSight
knocked out on the golf course ragdolled: ICESat-2, also InSight, TESS, OCO-2, JUICE
READY TO BURN THE ENTIRE CENTER DOWN: Planck and Giotto
probably the last thing ill do in blender for this year, nothin' too big :P
It definitely was a good year in terms of development,and although i certainly did not make a bunch, i spent a lot of time leveling up my skills and i am ready to see what awaits me next year !
adding some facial features now
(i also made Dawn's bus color a little bit lighter since i had trouble with lighting because it was so dark and has no specular reflection)
What I'm going to work on for Dawn
November 6th, 2023 - started writing at 12:47 AM
*text marked with an asterisk indicates an update as of November 19th as I had this draft for some time)
(going to start logging more stuff, kind of practicing writing the dates even if it does that for me already :P)
Some unnecessarily lengthy and probably pointless context, you can just skip to the blue header
I worked on a LOT of my personified spacecraft. They just aren't here because I've been doing this since mid 2021, so they're on my DeviantArt account.
(I have a lot of fun posing. Not so much fun rendering for eons hehe)
But, it's almost 2024! And with the experience I gained since I started on the first ones (Perseverance/Curiosity; they used the same model) and a few other non-spacecraft, why not do it all again?
Honestly, really from scratch. Not only would it be difficult to add onto, change, or reuse previous content, but I also want to preserve the original files as they were + I work using procedural and manual rigging with Cloudrig now.
(There is an exception where I may use Perseverance/Curiosity (just the mesh parts). I updated them in 2022, and they also still share the same model. I archived their older models.)
I have practiced Cloudrig with Scorpius, who I finished not too long before I started working on Dawn.
Continuing on that, I decided to settle on a new land and began chipping away at Dawn. This time I've got a lot more considerations to keep in mind and I'm taking all the time I have.
In fact, she's not actually finished by the time of writing, hehe aren't I a little procrastinator /lh
so, what next?
WELL I'M GLAD YOU DIDNT ASK :D /j
1. Extra facial options for conveying expressions
The older rigs have options for stuff like creases and a sort of "tint". I call it a tint, but it is really just blushing. An important thing is that it functions as a color-changing mood indicator for intense emotions
Dawn, for example, would blush (or tint) yellow in a very happy state, or from platonic feelings
Then there's blue for an intense state of sadness
A new thing I could is stuff like. Agh I don't know what theyre called but yknow how angry characters may have those red lines to represent a vein, or scared/shocked characters have those pale blue/white lines around their heads???? whatever thats called, yeah I might do that lol
2. Closing/opening the eyes
A LOT of the eyes are done within procedural texturing. Her eyelids are not actually masked by any mesh. I currently have a few bones to close the eyes but they kind of crowd the layout and I don't really see a point in using them.
The eyelids are a texture via math nodes, and it is just a parabola. However, I am unable to get a more stylized curve without making things more complex
Before I reuse the rig itself in any way, I want to update the eyes so i can have a slider to toggle a hidden curve that I can use for the closed eyelids.
*UPDATE: THIS HAS BEEN ADDED
3. Possibly making the mouth more versatile.
This is something I am not sure is possible with my knowledge or just really in general? it probably could be but I may have to add in a lot more nodes and stuff.
The mouth is also done through procedural texturing. There are no actual image files used and all the shapes are solely from math nodes.
So my main problem is "curving" teeth so if I have a more curved mouth the teeth can kind of follow along, and it will look better. i may have to play around and experiment with vector stuff
4. making a pose library
As an animator myself, a pose library to add basic expressions and, more importantly, lip sync, is TOTALLLYYYYYYY NEEEDEEEEDDDD I mean I think you can apply poses mid-animation? I have soggy memory
5. Overall, making sure I can reuse the rig
Unlike the new rigs, reusing a rig and adapting it to a new character was a big pain in the antenna dish. With procedural rigging its much easier because the constraints will be aligned with what i tweak in the meta rig.
Because of that, i have to make sure that Dawn's rig is something that will not require too much tweaking when I get to reuse her rig for others. I'm working on Psyche, and by the time i can rig her, Dawn's rig should be good to go.
So again, making sure i have all of the above ready for reusing YEAAAH
November 19th, 2023 - finished writing/posted at 10:33 PM
