Imagine telling yourself one day that a model you'd like to build doesn't need to be 100% accurate, and then the next day you go to the lot where that building once stood in order to measure the floor tiles that are still there...
So, imagine a tech startup selling canisters of clean air. Their production process permanently pollutes the atmosphere, creating the problem they're 'solving'.
Not nearly enough people will choose instead to drag those responsible out into the street and END them.
Saw a Blender hair grooming video on Instagram, and died a little.
The whole approach of pulling at IK strands, trying to get them to flow the way you want them to? I was doing that shit 25 years ago, and it sucked raw unwashed ass then.
Surely there's a better method?
He's a fellow artist, capable of drawing whatever he wants... but not animating it. And animation is expensive. If it would take me a month to animate, that'd be a minimum of $9k.
Instead, a machine gave him roughly what he wanted in 10 seconds, for free.
At least he's not posting it...
It's a "death by 1000 cuts" scenario.
Too much stress over too many years, trying to meet every-increasing demands. It's always "more, more, MORE; faster, faster, FASTER"...
also "start over", sometimes.
At some point, no amount of money was worth it. I associated the work with pain.
Without him saying as much, my friend generating videos of Daisy reads to me as "well you weren't making her move..."
Fuck me for having the desire to animate anything strangled out of me over the past several years...
Actually, I have no idea how long it'd take to properly animate her.
The core motion could take a month, if the rig were animation-ready (it's not). Cloth/boob sims, cleanup, hair grooming, shading, and rendering are complete unknowns.
I am just so, so tired, even thinking about it.
Another issue is that the motion wouldn't have been my first choice for Daisy. It's more like an OnlyFans model cosplaying as her. It looks like her at first, but it's not her. The personality and vibe are different/wrong.
...but it would still take me over a month to show how Daisy SHOULD move.
The videos... weren't entirely terrible, up to a point. The degree of motion it'd generated was surprising, but the things it got wrong made it kind of funny.
One of my issues is it took 10 seconds to generate something that might take me over a month to animate and render with Maya.
About a month ago, a friend shared something with me - some AI-generated videos based on a couple of my older Daisy images.
...he knows I don't like AI, but did it anyway. For his own personal amusement, but still.
That I have mixed feelings doesn't begin to cover it.
Power Girl showing off 🥛😘
The one I'm thinking of, I'm certain they've referred to animation as a genre many times...
Youtuber - has made it their job to watch cartoons, and give fairly in-depth retrospectives on them. Also cringes at the slightest hint of anything adult, as if their parents, grandparents, and Jesus himself might be looking over their shoulder & judging.
Way to box the medium in, sport...
This is part of why Blender might only ever be something I play with, rather use as a serious tool - it has lot of amazing features, and yet something this basic is broken.
And if something this basic is broken, then how can I trust that other, more major things won't be as well?
"Oh that's an easy fix, you just need to-"
Let me stop you right there.
In Maya, I don't have to do anything. When I parent one object to another, the child's position, rotation, and scale are always relative to the parent. No additional settings or tweaks, it just works.
Object 1, positioned away from its parent object.
Object 1's position set to zero, returning it to the location of its parent.
Object 2's location, away from the parent.
Setting object 2's position to zero does not match it to the parent's location.
New item on my list of Blender problems that shouldn't be problems.
I have two simple objects parented to an empty transform.
The first was parented to the transform at the origin. Transform was then moved & scaled. Second object added later.
The 2 objects' zero positions are different.
Just imagine them fleeing to those bunkers, sealing themselves away, and being so terrified about getting whacked that they can't even appreciate that "new bunker" smell. You can't buy entertainment like that, but it might make an interesting scented candle...
Also, you know there's more wealthy sociopaths bleeding the rest of us dry than just that one guy, right?
Why not inflict some anxiety on the people who make insulin so expensive?
The CEOs of Amazon, Facebook, and others have survival bunkers in Hawaii that HAVE to be grossly underused.
"Tech CEO's home attacked for the second time in days"
...okay well unless someone gets him in the next attempt, then imo it won't be "news".
Maybe his house is just THAT ugly, has anyone considered that?
A family friend died at 60, recently. No known cause, yet. He just... didn't wake up.
His job kept him active and fit. He'd earned enough to live comfortably, and was probably saving for a comfortable retirement. Life was good.
And then one morning, he didn't wake up.
In 13 years, if the market cooperates, I might be able to retire. I like to think I'll keep doing what I'm already doing, just without the stress of outside work.
I'd rather be retired now. Everyone around me is.
It's a long time to wait to live, and then I'll be 60.
How much time will I have left?
Nearly every morning, I go on my bike to try to clear my head, get some fresh air, and burn some fat.
It takes me roughly 75 minutes to do 15-17 miles. Depending on the conditions, I could be exhausted for the the rest of the day. Little if any progress on whatever work I've assigned myself.
Small games take 3-5 years to put out. 7-8 years for AAA. 2-4 years to make a film. All with dedicated teams.
Too much time spent thinking about how much time each task will take, to the point that the weight of it slows me down even further. More time slipping by, as the world moves on around me.
Now, I obsess over how much time any task might take.
An hour or two to draw an image. A week for a comic page. Days more to ink, color, and shade them.
Maybe a year to finish the story of Daisy's long weekend.
How many months to learn & retain 3D sculpting?
A week or two to rig a character.
One fairly recent game I'd worked on, I'd spent 3 years (on & off) sitting at my desk, being miserable & hating the work more & more each day. 3 years of my life spent working on a game that had no reason to exist. But, at least that one shipped.
I've worked on too many that didn't.
One of my nieces... her 25 years came to an abrupt end last year. She had only been out on her own for a few years, and she was doing good. She was just getting started, making a life of her own, and had a bright future... until she didn't.
25 years, gone in the blink of an eye.
Time feels increasingly... I don't know that "oppressive" is the right word, but it's the best I've got right now. It's difficult to explain.
"They grow up so fast" is something you hear a lot. Some of my nieces & nephews, I'm lucky if I see them once a year. COVID robbed me of 2 of those years.
It might help to get the brain to focus on something else, like white noise or calm music without vocals.
Other than that, I recommend drawing circles until something else pops into your head.
If you want to do so without feeling pressured, I recommend doing quick thumbnail sketches rather than "full" drawings. 10-30 second scribbles, maybe a minute. Not every idea needs to be polished. Some need to simmer for a while.
