A couple years back I was convinced to try and get back into 3D modelling and some software was recommended to me. Being the Substance suite and RizomUV. I’m still blown away and amazed at these two in particular and how easy it is to learn how to use Rizom. Over decades I’ve tried a number of different UV mapping editors and I haven’t really managed to get my head around them. Many of them offer “fully automatic” mapping, but invariably just make a mess that is all but impossible to sort out. Simple models are fine, complex models are not. Rizom really does make all the difference. Very first time I have ever managed to make a full pelt UV for a model. That alone makes the cost of the software worthwhile. A very dear friend was running all manner of “how to” video feeds and questionnaires. Those helped hugely to explain some of the tools and methods to achieve good maps. While I might not be making “good” maps yet, I at least now have a clue how, and can manage to break up a model to make a UVMap that I can use. Substance makes a big difference in my world. I’m not great with things like Photoshop and making my own textures. All that painting and shit is just too much. It has taken a while, but I’m finally getting a handle on creating new and original textures in Substance and layering these to get a decent finish to a model. Love the whole idea behind alpha maps though I’m not sure how well they work when transferred to other software. Haven’t really tried that yet. My modeller of choice was Modo, but the price of that has shot through the roof and is currently way out of my reach so I haven’t been able to upgrade to the latest version. A shame, but hey, too bad right?
Unfortunately, while trying to learn how to do things inside Modo I made the mistake of asking somebody I hold in high respect for their opinion. An opinion mind, just their thoughts on how what I was doing looked and what they thought was wrong about it. They went off on a quest to show me how to do this in Substance. Not what I wanted. I said so. Suffice to say that didn’t end well and I was left feeling as though I was bloody ungrateful at not accepting the gift of a tutorial in substance when all I wanted was a bit of feedback. Go figure. It’s not a big deal, but I did respect and like this person a great deal. Unfortunately I am not comfortable now in asking them anything as I get the feeling they’re waiting for a deep apology that I’m not actually seeing I owe. Oh well. Life goes on right?
Life has a funny habit of breaking into happy fantasies with brutality. This happened over Christmas 2020 when my daughter was rushed into hospital for emergency surgery and treatment with Septicaemia, she was lucky and recovered but it was a very worrying time for us. Then my mother had a minor relapse. She somehow got an infection which moved into her lungs and she had to go into hospital as well. We were very relieved when we found out it wasn’t pneumonia and was treatable. Four days later she came home.
Finally this year my daughter finally has a diagnosis for her problems and a course of treatment which, while it won’t fix what’s wrong, will make life a bit easier for her. But, the real joke of this is the health service which failed her for 18 years with an arrogant twat in charge of the department treating her dismissing her pain and issues as “period pain” and “juvenile fantasist whining”. Well, that arsehole has been proven wrong though I am rather upset that we can’t seem to find a lawyer to sue the fucker. The other part of this joke is that while my daughter was registered with a Surgery while she lived with us, when she moved to her own apartment she had to find a new Surgery (General Practice). There are two in her area, both of whom are so massively over-subscribed they can’t take on any new patients. Even though the Borough Council has approved a massive housing build in that area of several hundred new homes. The original Practice wouldn’t let her stay with them, and the Practices in her area can’t sign her up. So, where she has to have a weekly injection in her bowel a nurse from one of the practices where she lives has to travel across my rock to her old GP to collect medication and then drive back to my daughter’s flat to administer the injection. This would be solved if a) the original practice just accepted that they can deal with her or b) one of the practices in her area allowed her to sign up. Bureaucracy however will not allow either of these solutions. So the farce continues.
Two years after I spent a small fortune buying software I’ve finally managed to sort out my life and other things sufficiently that I can now spend a couple hours a day fiddling on my computer. I renewed my Substance license because I just love that software, and I renewed my Rizom license because that software is just so good I couldn’t live without it. Unfortunately, I can’t afford the modeller license, so I’m left with an old version of that and the task of learning Blender to see if that can compete with Modo. I don’t expect miracles, but if it does what I need, it will be sufficient.
The only question I find myself asking is. “Is this actually worth it?” I mean, what am I going to do with whatever I make? I suppose I could go back to the old path and just give stuff I make away for nothing. Or I could find some store to dump it in with the chance of making a few pennies out of it. The difficulty here is that I am never convinced that what I do is good enough to sell, I just don’t have that confidence in it. The other difficulty is that I have been “away” from 3D and my old haunts like Daz for several years. I don’t care that nobody will probably recognise me or remember my handle, that really doesn’t bother me. What does is a return to the abuse and hatred I used to get from some of those who did sell their products. I gave stuff away free and was frequently accused of stealing food from children by doing that. Abuse doesn’t particularly get under my skin, I do have a thick skin developed from years of forum wars and general fights. But the relentless nature of the abuse does get to me, I got so fucking tired of blocking addresses and cleaning out my mailbox that it did get on my nerves. The language doesn’t I can give as good as I get, and I am not shy of fighting with people. The issue is that I just don’t see the point anymore. I’m not as passionate about 3D as I used to be. This is partly because the places I used to haunt seem now to just be homes for soft and hard core pornography. The styles and items for sale show a massive disrespect for women in general and people as a whole. Okay, if it didn’t sell well they wouldn’t make it, but come on. How many pairs of sheer see-through g-string panties and nighties do you really need?
Okay, that’s an age old argument and I should already be aware that money trumps decency every time.
The other issue here is seeing what people are producing does not encourage me to want to be associated with them in “that” store. Nor am I entirely comfortable giving free models away in the same environment as that sticks things into the same vein and I have already seen some of the horrible things people have done with my models in the past. Pornographers are one of the few creatures in the world who can still make my teeth itch and make me angry. And there are so many of them it’s depressing.
I don’t know what I’m going to do yet. I suppose the time to really make that decision is when I actually have something to make a decision about. Meanwhile, back to learning the craft – as that has changed dramatically over the last few years.
Sorry for boring you, take care, have fun.
