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Miniatures & 3D Printing, Notes to self

House Framing (Geo-Nodes)

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Working on a House Framer using Blender’s Geometry Nodes. The goal is to have a node group that will generate all the needed geometry for the destruction of a house.

The basic frame is complete, but I’ve been staring at these nodes for too long. I’m going to step back for a bit, to research trussed roof construction and eternal cladding. Then circle back once I can get the new details working.

Geometry Node Group for a Basic House Frame

Gumroad to House Frames (Geo-Nodes)

Miniatures & 3D Printing, Notes to self

Using Geographic Information Systems (GIS) in Blender

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I am looking at the different options for getting GIS data into Blender and my perceived Pros and Cons of each.

Geographic Information Systems (GIS)

Links to different Blender Add-Ons involving the use of GIS (Geographic Information Systems) Data.

Overall, my preference is for BlenderGIS as it gives me the terrain with satellite imagery, and markers (ie cubes) for each of the buildings.

Notes to self

Roof Tiles in Blender

I’ve been playing with Blender’s Geometry Nodes for the last month to develop node sets for creating 3D prints and animations. Artisans of Vaul has an excellent tutorial on using geometry nodes to create Roof Tiles (See below).

Roof Tiles Using Instancing and Geometry Nodes – Designing a Fantasy Building for 3D Printing (by Artisans of Vaul)
My Adjustment to the Node Tree

The Breakdown

The only annoyance I have with the setup is the tiles sticking out over the edge. So I’ve adjusted the node tree to have a way to resize the end tiles.

In the image below, I grab the node that is the (X Tile Size + Tile Gap), then divide it by two. This gives me a half-tile size.

In the image below is the node cluster that selects the first tile of row 1, and the last tile of row 2, then repeated for each row.

In the image below the ‘Or’ (from above) to select the end tiles and scale them to 0.5 in the X direction.

Then the first tile of row 1 is moved over half a tile towards the centre, and the last tile of row 2 is moved over half a tile in the other direction.

The Blend File

Roof-Tiles-AdjustedDownload
Notes to self

An 18-month break?!?

From the midst of the storm of the last 3 years, I’ve had to pack a lot of side projects away while I focused on my job. So, a while ago I archived this website. Bring things back online it’s been 18 months since the last post.

Now, to pick up the pieces. Reorganise the parts into something coherent. Maybe a facelift. A continued imaginary exploration of the other worlds. Fantasy realms of the past, the all too near future of dystopian oligarchs, and an expanse of sci-fi stars stuck in an all too familiar pattern of human conflict.

Notes to self

Blender Camera-Notes

Part of moving my projects over Blender 2.83 LTS is collecting my notes on various topics, including cameras.

5 cool camera tricks in Blender 2.80, this covers some cool stuff. However, I’ll have to manual set up the cameras until isocam gets updated.

Isometric Camera

From the Isocam script:

  • The one, TrueIsocam called camera, is the mathematical correct isometric camera with the 54.736 rotation to get the 30 degrees angles at the sides of the rhombus. (54.736,0,45)
  • The other, GameIsocam called camera, is a camera with which you can render isometric tiles for a 2d game. Here we need a 60 degrees angle instead of the 54.736 one to get a proper stairs effect and a ratio of 2:1 (60,0,45)
  • Then there is the special case with a 4:3 ratio, which is button 3. You can also make 2D games with that one. The view is more topdown though as with a 2:1 ratio of the traditional game iso view. (41.5,0,45)

It’s worth noting that for TrueIsoCam, the X-Rotation Slot can be set to ( atan( sqrt(2) ) ) degrees.

Notes to self

Fantasy mapping

Ever since reading Tolkien as a kid, I’ve just loved the style of map that he created for Middle Earth. And this style has carried across to Fantasy RPGs. So when the opportunity came to create a map for The Tales of Tarya series, I jumped at it.

The Map of Litonya

This time I wanted to make a good quality digital copy for this project. YouTube came to the rescue with this excellent video on mapping from the Fantastic Maps Channel.

Drawing Technique

A short summary of the technique for mountains…

  • Use a CC-0 paper or parchment texture for the background layer (0).
  • Add a separate ‘lines’ Layer (4) for the mountain ridge lines and some texturing detail. Use the pressure-sensitive to control the thickness of the line
  • Add an Overlay layer (1), for the ‘Light & Shade’ on the mountain ranges. Use the pressure sensitivity to control the darkness.
    • Start by blocking out the shading of the dark side of the mountain range. Take your time to build up layers of darkness.
    • Add shadows to the light side for the ridges and valleys.
    • As you go reduce size to add more detail.
  • Another Overlay layer (2), for the ‘Light/Shade Detail’, but this time using the pressure sensitive to control line thickness.
    • Then switch to a white brush to add highlights to the light side, with the peaks being the brightest.
  • Now, a Color Layer (3), to add the colour details to the mountains.
    • Using a hard round brush set to a middle grey for bare stone, deep emerald green for Amazonian forest, or red for the Arizona badlands.

Combine that into a group I then proceeded to do the same for the coastline, hills, forests, rivers, cities/towns, and labels. So about 20 layers all up.

Near Future, Notes to self

Common People

Although, YMMV, I find this CPAF, because hidden behind the music are words that bite home with the cutting wisdom of the bards carving ideas into your mind. So, I’m filing this piece of forgotten ‘art’ under CPAF!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ainyK6fXku0

Pulp‘s lyrics fill a void only the poor can really understand, combined with a saccharin pop beat and the overacting god, otherwise known as William Shatner, on the album, “HAS BEEN” … No truer words spoken … elevates it too the next level with an almost act of piracy (or a cover for the uninitiated) by not signing! The sheer genius and greatness of this! Remix culture at it’s finest.