Live Blogging Conclusion

Here is the post battle report of yesterdays Olympic edition Live Blogging.

Admittedly both Peter and myself were disappointed in how our live blogging materialized. We had ideas for more detailed views into our artistic processes, but we just haven't had the time. In addition to Peter working full time, the rare instance of being in THE Olympic city during the games has eaten all our spare time.

Speaking of disappointment, I lost my Therizinosaur's body last night. When I say lost, I mean literally lost it. Well my puter did. If I muck around with rigging there is a risk (due to an annoying glitch) that my computer loses model component information and replaces these with a cube. So reloading my Therizinosaur I was greeted with this...

It was a sharp reminder I NEED to backup models before rigging them! At least it was just one part! Last time I hit this problem it replaced EVERY single piece! Though I'd backed up that time.

So this is what my lost model looked like.

After "borrowing" Lillian's body, and tweaking it for about 20 minutes this what I replace my old model with. Overall I have to say I like this body better. It has a lot of subtle detail I've built into it over the years (the Lillian model is almost 3 years old!), that I didn't have to touch.

Still it is rather annoying I put the work into a new body, and to lose it right when it is finished... Oh well it could have been much much worse!

Onto the next big project. The Dinosaur Winter Olympics!

Live Blogging 10

We're now working with David Attenbrough's Life in Cold Blood on in the background.

Despite not the most productive day (in the sense of concentration), I'd say my Therizinosaur has turned out rather well.

A thought has just occurred to me here, looking at it now. That it has a very similar colour scheme to my Brachiosaurs. Oh well. It looked good on them, and it looks good here. That and most modern large herbivores are similarly coloured. Why not Dinosaurs too?

I initially played with posing, but this lead to a disaster... Which has not been resolved, and can not be satisfactorily.

I was in such a rush to show Bond how skeletons work in person I forgot to take the precaution of the ubber backup (which is to save a totally different version of the model), and the puter lost my Dino's body model. The rest of it is fine (arms, fingers, head) thankfully, but I've got no recourse but to rebuild or smash kit another of my models.

I'm opting to the smash kit, and Lillian's body has begun being distorted to replace my lost torso (I'm not spending another hour on a fresh rebuild... in good news the Lillian distortion has in 10 minutes produced a very workable replacement. I'll just need to spend a good 15-20ish more minutes on it, but that's better then starting COMPLETELY over).

So these pics you see here are the last glimpse of this version we'll ever get/see... (also making this post pointless... as at the end of the hour I have unprogress to report BEEP)

Peter update: After a bit of experimenting, Bond has come up with a rather cool photoshop method of colouring his drawing. I think the process has only begun, and there is a lot he can pull off with more layers. However the baseline colour results he is achieving already are quite impressive, and among the best in his already great body of work!

Live Blogging 9

The Olympics are finally over for today.

Have to say today was our second worst so far (yesterday being the worst). If not for the speed skating silver medal, it'd have been as bad as yesterday.

In addition to losing the Ice Hockey, we lost the women's Curling to China ruining our perfect winning streak. Oh well.

This has allowed me to really push away on my shading. The head is now done. Onto the arms and fingers next.

Peter update: Having gotten the pic into his puter, Bond is currently playing around with layering his drawing and whether it will be best to keep it black and white or to goto colour. Head over and help him out.

Live Blogging 7

Oh man... I'm on the edge of my seat!

Canada and China are tied at 5 in the 11 end (Curling version of sudden death overtime!), and two stones to go!

Been working on the body colour pattern this whole time. I'm kind of liking the orange with green spots. We'll see how it goes.

Peter update: Bond has made major progress. Finishing all his inking. He is scanning the drawing onto his computer AS I type this. I think the plan is to try to colour it entirely in photoshop. Hopefully I can help him with a few ideas there.

Obviously keep you posted.

Live Blogging 6

Live Blogging for ART Evolved continues.

Women's curling on TV. I can't have a break. Especially as China is winning... AHHHHHH!!!

Come on Canada pull some of it together tonight please!

Though we are winning Ice Dance... not that I count that as a sport myself.

Mr. (Mrs.?) Therizinosaur has reached the shading stage. Here is the prelimenary shader spread.

I've got a couple test undershades to choose from from. Anyone have any opinions?

Set 1

Set 2

Set 3

Set 4

Peter update: Bond has been crusing with no Hockey to distract him (that and I think he is working off our defeat). All of his Therizinosaur has been penned (which was a lot of penning). All he needs on is a back leg for the Therizinosaur.

We had a funny experinment to determine where this leg would go. I had to reenact slashing a Tyrannosaur with my hands to see where my legs went. In good news Peter wasn't too far off where he needs to be. So we'll see how it pans out.

Live Blogging 5

This is not good! This is SO not good!!!

Canada lost :(

In good news the stress, and unwatchable nature of parts of the game caused me to work away on my Therizinosaur a lot!

He is roughly together. Arms, fingers, and all. I cheated and just copied the toes and converted them to fingers.

Peter update: He didn't get a whole lot done. Okay, really, he got next to nothing done.

However we now plow on full force with no distractions here on in.

Live Blogging 4

More Live Blogging for ART Evolved.

The break between the 1st and 2nd periods led to small amounts of progress.

However the Americans scoring, the Canadians getting a penalty, and the end of the 2nd consumed all in the last few minutes we're a little shell shocked.

Stressful!!!

Got the toes done, and the arms have begun.

Peter update: Poor guy. He might need to take a nap after Hockey (not that I will let him).

To his credit despite the tense ice battling play out before us, Bond got some work done this hour. His Tyrannosaurid is fully inked, and the Therizinosaur is next. Hopefully this hour.

Communication between the two of us is getting difficult. Not only are we constantly yelling at the screen, but our voice's are going hoarse from the effort.

GO CANADA!

Live Blogging 3

More Live Blogging for ART Evolved (just realized that I forgot to plug why I'm doing this... oops)

Hour 3 sees Canada winning Curling YEAH! A silver medal in women's speedskating YEAH YEAH YEAH!!! and letting America get a 2-1 lead in Hockey BOO!

This Hockey game is more then a bit stressful. The Canadians gave up the first goal in 40 seconds!?! They've picked up the pace a bit, but the left over Speedskating adreline is not helping me and Bond stay calm watching.

Here is the proof shot me and Peter Bond are indeed working side by side.

Oh yeah and there was this Dinosaur thing I'm working on.

Got an ankle and started on the toes to attach to it.

We've hit the end of the 1st period, so work should hit a stride... for 20 minutes.

Peter update: Can't draw... hockey. He's got most of his Dinosaurs inked.

Another slight pen issue.

Live Blogging 2

Okay.

The first proper hour has seen me tinker with leg. I'm not quite happy with it still. I'm finding there are not many good references for Therizinosaur legs...

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Oh crap! Live blogging moment to report. Peter looking over my shoulder tells me "hey good start on the leg. Where's the ankle?"

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FACE PALM! That explains it.

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In my defense Curling has gotten intense. Canada had a nice breakout in End 7 only to have Switzerland catch up in End 8. We're sitting in the middle of the 9th with Canada just ahead 5-4. EEEEEPPPPP

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Peter update: He has broke out the paper and pen beside me, and I can't find words to describe how cool it is to create art beside my long time friend and collaborator!

There was a slight drama with his fine tip pen earlier this hour. He could find plenty of blue pen, but not so much the key black.

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I joked he shouldn't buy the blue. He said I should just stick to watch Curling...

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Olympic viewing is hard, as there is medal women's speed skating competing with Curling. Right when Curling gives out we then have the big event of the week. USA vs. Canada Ice Hockey... so art may be secondary in some ways, as we're both proper Canucks :P

Live Blogging 1

Okay its officially on. Peter got home a little while ago, and so we can settle into art creation.

So here's where I'm at. Yeah not a ton of progress since an hour and half ago. Had to escort Lady R on a quick grocery outing, and the Curling is on.

We've discovered this Olympics, compared to anyone else we know, I am a rabid Curling fan. SO much so I get extremely stressed and distracted. Especially during stones 4-8 (or for you none curlers the last shots of a round).

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Currently here at the end of the 5th End, Canada is at 3 and Switzerland 1. However it is not clinched for Canada yet...

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Peter update: He is currently settling in after work. We've currently both by committee decided he should work on a piece he started last week. If he finishes that today, then he can start on a new second piece he has in mind.

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He also is getting distracted a lot... to tell me to chill out about the Curling!

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I predict thing will only get more intense for the Hockey game ;)

Live Blogging Begins Now!

Well it was a lot later then we'd wanted to do it, but me and Peter have finally got some time today to live blog.

Who knew that the Olympics would be so time consuming :P It also hasn't helped that Peter is currently teaching full time AND doing lots tutoring on the side.

So once Peter gets back from his tutoring of the day (he does it every single day of the week, what a trooper!) we'll be entering the first ever ART Evolved tandem live blog!

So every hour we'll be posting updates on our (and possibly the other guy's) work. These will begin in just over an hour.

Here is where my Therizinosaur currently stands. This is about 3 hours work so far.

As something of a point of interest from a few people (including) myself, I've been documenting the construction of this critter carefully. Every individual model tweak has been included, whether it was a good tweak or a mis-step. Here is where it is at moment. You'll have to wait till the project is finished before another animation (they are too time consuming for updates during live blogging).

Catch you during the live blog.