20 Time Update 04

Due to a lack of an available internet connection yesterday, yesterday's 20 Time update is being posted today.

I continued to build the Tahnok character this week, as seen in this render:

Much to my relief, none of the other pieces needed to be fixed.  However, the model lacks feet and hand weapons (the feet need to have a structure added that will allow them to move and the weapons haven't been modeled yet).  I also learned that the Subsurf mesh modifier can be rather destructive at times, so I need to remember to enable it in the viewport when I use it.

Having nothing else to do on Tahnok at the moment, I then moved on to adding materials and textures to an existing set for an upcoming production (please note that I did not model it).  I haven't done much with it just yet, but here's a render of my progress:

Next time, I hope to have some updates from my fellow team members; I haven't decided if I'm going to start a new character model or if I'm going to stick to working on the set.

20 Time Update 03

Today I built part of a new model: the Tahnok character (it won't be needed for a while, although it will make a minor appearance as a background character at some point).  Although I was unable to finish it in class, here's a render of what I have so far:

Although I had originally expected to finish it today, I was delayed by the fact that the main headpiece wasn't scaled to fit with the rest of the pieces, so I spent valuable time on fixing that instead.  On the bright side, I learned about selectively applying certain modifiers to an object mesh, which in turn will help me solve another problem that I was having with a different model.  Next time, I plan to finish this character model and hopefully get some updates to work with from the rest of my team.

20 Time Update 02

Having encountered a significant roadblock while working on the Roodaka character (as it turns out, there are still quite a few pieces of the character that need to be modeled), I decided to switch to another model.  The first was a quick color/texture update of a mask prop that's going to be used in my team's upcoming animated short:

After I finished that, I added more pieces to a background character model; it isn't finished yet because its helmet piece still needs to be modeled.  However, this character is different because it isn't based off of an existing LEGO set - it was never given an exact form, so I constructed one of my own: 

In the meantime, the rest of my team is busy animating our first real short.  I can't give exact details on it while it's still in production, but I'll post the video here on my blog once we've finished it.

20 Time Update 01

This week, I started a new 3D model of the Roodaka character; I used a PDF of the instructions for the actual toy to assemble the corresponding digital pieces.  I ran into some trouble when I found that some of the pieces I had weren't up to the quality of the others, but I worked around that by simply not using those pieces for now (which I'll send to another person so that they can be brought up to the current standard).  I plan to continue working on this model next week.

A current render of the model's unfinished foot:

My 20 Time Project

For my 20 Time project, I'm utilizing an existing project (or rather, part of a larger project that some friends and I are working on).  My job is to produce 3D models of characters from the Bionicle line of LEGO sets (with a set of digital "pieces" modeled by other people) using the Blender program.  As for how this applies to my 20 Time, each day I will begin a new character model or improve upon an existing one (either by adding pieces, colors, or textures).

My argument against CIPA

                 I am in favor of removing the blocking software mandated by the CIPA, at least for high schools.  Although I agree that children do need to be protected from things that they aren’t ready for, I believe that almost all high school-aged minors are old enough to merit less of this “protection”.  When a blanket software like this is used, it inevitably ends up doing more harm than good to parts of the group that it’s being used on.

                Take the computer-related classes, for example.  If a student is working on a project in which specific images are required, but those images happen to be blocked by the admittedly overzealous filter, then they’re going to have a problem.  Because of that problem, the project could be delayed (if the student waits until they’re at home and the school day is over to find the image) or not completed correctly (if the student uses the tiny unblocked thumbnail image).

                The filter even affects teachers.  Last year in German class, my teacher had arranged for the class to Skype with a friend from Germany.  Unfortunately, the filter software caused Skype to malfunction and refuse to work correctly.  When a solution was finally found, it involved using a lower-quality application which was almost more trouble than it was worth to use.  This is just one example of the issues with the filter – I’ve seen it block teachers from doing all kinds of things that were actually related to the lesson they were teaching.

                With these issues in mind, I am not in favor of using the blocking software.  Using a “protect ALL the minors!” viewpoint when it comes to things like the internet is ridiculous.  In that case, why don’t you just ban any books with violence from all school libraries?  Or any book that mentions anything that’s even slightly inappropriate?  It would make the English teachers’ jobs nearly impossible, but that’s essentially what the internet filter does to computer-related classes.  High-school-aged minors (usually) have more maturity than elementary- and middle-school-aged minors, and I think the internet filter (or rather, lack thereof) should reflect that.

Hall Pass

My personalized hall pass.