Freedom? What is this??!: Taking a break over the break

November 30th

Because my laptop simply cannot handle the swamp scene right now (which is coming along wonderfully), and because I prefer to use the bigger computers for such things as texturing and lighting, I'm taking a break at the end of this wonderful Thanksgiving break to work on something that caught my eye last semester but that I just didn't have time to complete.

And since semester ends in two weeks, I best get my butt in gear.

11:55am

This tutorial should only take a couple hours at most, but with all the pausing and fine tuning that I do, it might take me all day.

12:11pm

The first three videos are introduction, what is causing our fire, and the science behind fire.

1:13pm

Creating the 3D container.

1:47pm

I've been distracted for the past 15 minutes looking at Christmas presents for family members. I'll letcha know when I resume.

1:59pm

Okay back to work. Currently editing the 3D container. There's a lot to be done and I don't remember it being this difficult. Then again, this is under the advanced category so whatever.

Can I just say that this guy has got to be my favorite. If something's important, he says "This is very important guys, pay attention." It's like he's dealt with people like me before. Love it.

3:22pm

This is taking longer than expected, but it should be done by Monday. I just cannot concentrate right now. I keep getting distracted.

4:42pm

Done with the first four videos. He moves at such a fast pace that I am constantly pausing and re-watching bits just to make sure I didn't miss anything.

Pretty much set up a lot of settings and stuff. Exciting. And almost impossible to remember.

5:16pm

On to video number 5, where we actually start scrubbing through the timeline and playing with fire. Woo.

That's actually what it's supposed to look like right now. Weird, yeah, but whatever. Even the render turned out similar to what was on the video. Not what I want it to look like, but it's fluid-y and is orange ish.

10:11pm

I know, I know, huge time gap. But I had dinner and played a game with my family for about an hour and then came back and worked some more. I'm still on video five, and I'm being extremely picky about this.

11:01pm

Almost done with video five, and I managed to fix something all by myself (without having to go back through the video and listen to the dude again). My laptop isn't acting like it's liking the files, though. So I'm really not sure how much I'll be able to do on this machine alone.

11:18pm

Looking at the next video lesson...it's about 15 minutes long. If it took me most of the afternoon/evening to do a 13 minute video, it'll take me a good solid 5 hours to do the 15 minute one. That's so sad. I should be able to work faster, but I can't.

December 2nd

8:36am

Okay. Picking up at video 5.

10:06pm

Got home about 30 minutes ago. There's no way I can get all of this done by the deadline. I'm gonna have to pull a couple all-nighters. I'm so close to being done with this semester (and I just tried to spell semester with a y...).

December 3rd

8:31am

Working on lighting up the door. Woo.

9:21am

Got the smoke figured out. Yay. And now I have class and stuff. And then more of this. I'm never gonna get done. It never ends.

12:57pm

...I have to redo video 5 because it didn't turn out like it was supposed to. People in Team Game Production are way too loud. Ugh.

3:09pm

FINALLY finished video 5. Ugh. It's not looking perfect, but it's something.