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What creative projects have you been working on?
This topic is part of a series. It is meant to be a place for users to discuss creative projects they have been working on.
Projects can be personal, professional, physical, digital, or even just ideas.
If you have any creative projects that you have been working on or want to eventually work on, this is a place for discussing those.
Hello friends. Long time no gab. Work has been busy these past several weeks and that's really ate into my creative projects, but I have started and am working through several projects.
In January, I made a tiny mermaid out of yarn/thread. It was ridiculously small and so adorable, I'll probably make some more. I just loved how the body was stylized! I made a little shell locket to go with it but that was just a huge pain in the ass so I don't see myself making many more of those again haha. For those interested, here she is: https://www.instagram.com/p/CZhZeSKuvV8/?utm_medium=copy_link
I'm also doing a baby blanket for my brother and SIL's baby. Due date is in July and they're having a party in June so I've got some time. I've gotten a few of this squares done, but they're so crazy easy I love it.
I'm also trying to get back into writing down my writing ideas and writing more in general. Just a little bit as that's part of my goal this year. Not a lot to say about that one lol.
Im just looking forward to work calming down, it really puts a damper on me wanting to do anything during the week.
So, switching gears entirely from what I was doing in Dec/Jan with 3D printing and model making. I've had an idea for the last year or so to combine two of my favorite things:
and
Specifically, the Linkin Park song "Battle Symphony" and the character of Kaladin. Both deal with issues surrounding mental health, and trying to pick yourself back up and continue.
The end goal is to make a music video. So I've been thinking about it, making notes, gathering reference images and inspirational art, and storyboarding concept shots. Last summer I did a few concept shots. In the last week or two, I've started blocking out scenes in Unreal Engine using basic shapes and some free assets. So here's some of my test shots and experiments. Some of these are unlisted, but if you want to share them you can. I just didn't want random internet comments on things that are very clearly janky looking in some parts (like the spear animations, ugh).
All of these are tests or proofs of concepts, so they're all rough in different ways. But they've been useful as studies of different aspects. I've learned a lot about Unreal's Sequencer tool, as well as lighting and camera settings.
Dang - those clips look awesome. I like the artistic vision, and I respect your attention to detail (the spear clips look good too).
If you decide to finish, I look forward to seeing the music vid (however long it takes).
Thanks, I hope to keep making steady progress over the next few months. Some of my next steps include finalizing my shot list, commissioning some 3d art, and doing some mocap tests.
I edited it into the original comment, but I added another test yesterday - https://youtu.be/6KnmyTOe6Jo
Spent some time making an intro/outro sequence I can reuse on future videos, which was a lot of fun. It's something I've been meaning to do for awhile and I think really elevates the whole thing.
The movement is so fluid and fast. Especially that full spear twirl.
Are you controlling the character?
And did you design the movement/character, or was it an asset?
I appreciate that you’re putting so much effort into your music video. It's rare that someone has such a definite vision, and devotes themselves to such high quality.
Thanks for the kind words!
I pseudo-designed the character. I chose the look, but using the Metahuman Creator, which did all the hard parts of texturing, skinning, and rigging the model
The animation is purchased mocap animations that I adapted to the Metahuman skeleton. I like it a lot better than the first spear animation test, which has a more anime style movement to it that would look great in a game, but not so much for a cinematic style.
I've been working on making a physical planner using InDesign. It was inspired by my desire to start measuring my heart rate variability and use those morning measurements to pace/schedule my day, plus a post here on Tildes where someone shared their Pagan Planner they'd been working on. (Unfortunately I can't find the comment, or I would link it/tag them!) I based some of the design on a Passion Planner my partner has, as well as other designs around the internet, but the end result is pretty specialized because of how I'm using it.
The final piece arrived in the mail today (a half-size 3-ring binder), so I spent some time adjusting margins so there was enough room for me to punch holes (with my new adjustable hole punch!) and then printed out some pages. I'm pretty proud of how it turned out (imgur album link).
Now I just have to use it! 😅
The binder looks gorgeous! I hope you have fun using it :)
Do you use a 25 minute pomodoro timer?
Color me curious, what guidelines are you using to interpret Readiness scores from your HRV values?
Sort of? I use toggl to track things I do (including work, schoolwork, and healthcare appointments), and they have a pomodoro feature for the desktop app that I've turned on. I don't know a lot about the technique, but it seemed like a good rest interval. (I'm very bad at doing "just one more thing" and exhausting myself, haha.)
I'm using Elite HRV, which calculates a morning readiness score after you've used it a couple times. It sounds like it takes into account HRV as well as things like your usual baseline. I'm not sure what it'll do with me, since I'm chronically ill and it was originally designed for athletes, but I'll be checking how well all the morning data matches how I felt that day (and against that day's average stress according to my Garmin watch). I imagine it may take a week or two until I can actually interpret things to help me create schedules to properly pace my activities. (Plus it looks like Elite HRV needs time to establish a longer-term rolling baseline to be more accurate.)