This day was largely consumed by modeling and fixing up some minor modeling errors I did in the previous run. Since I have been programming graphics and tools for the last 8 years almost, I am very careful about the state of the geometry. That there are no duplicate vertices and that my UVs are setup in a way that it creates the best distribution for mapping and consistent spacing. Making sure that my hierarchy is as compact as possible and the normals looking as they should.
I really like the new Modeling Toolkit that is now part of Maya 2014. It really makes a lot of the modeling tasks much easier and speeds up the workflow quite a bit.
What I was really missing when I was editing some textures was the fact that I am missing a Wacom tablet of sorts. Using just the mouse is like painting with a shotgun. It is very hard to control and the results are always disappointing.
A lot of the time this week was spent on sketching and re-educating myself on various artistic techniques, that have become rusty from the lack of attention I have been able to give it due to my previous programming job.
At least I have a somewhat accurate visual target of what I was hoping to see, better idea on how this will need to be tackled and what I am still missing.
I will need to brush up on my character sketches and painting skills in the coming days or week to be able to create the next set of items. Maybe picking up a Wacom tablet for Photoshop would not be such a bad idea, and maybe get a raised desk so that I can stand while I am working or just try to rig my current one.
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