[Carl2]

Freddy,
  After reading about what you are doing I went to Renderosity, so what are they actually selling there, I did notice that Daz is mentioned there.  In the meantime I use the age old technology in Haptek so I wish you luck.
Carl2

[Freddy]

Renderosity sell 3D models and stuff that works in Daz Studio and Poser. Also things like textures, objects such as plants and furniture, cars, poses for characters, lighting sets and so on...

I'm toying with exporting the figures from Daz Studio and chopping the head off, because at the moment I am only working on animated heads. It's held up because the OBJ (model type) importer for a coding library I use is not working with them. So I need to wait and hope something is done.

That's all to save me less work in terms of modelling, but I may have to model things myself in the end. I'm taking a break from it at the moment to wait and see if something gets done with this importer.

This is where I am so far if you missed it...two videos there : http://aidreams.co.uk/forum/index.php?topic=5760.0

[Carl2]

Freddy,
  Thanks for keeping me informed on your work, knew there was a lot to making characters, heard it takes years to learn enough about the software to build something.  Seen some of your work in the past and just finished watching the vids.  I'm still working with Haptek and see some of the problems you noticed ages ago.  Wish you luck, Maybe we'll be using your work with some version of Hal.  I should try your Haptek character program again, lots of things work better in Win 8.
Carl2

[Freddy]

Yes there is a lot to soak up, there's no easy way up the hill.

The guy that wrote the OBJ model importer is taking a look at the problem with textures. I'm hoping he can give it some time, just need to be patient.

But recently I have mostly been playing Lord of the Rings Online again since Christmas. Having a lot of fun in my virtual world. 

[Freddy]

Got some good news today regarding the avatar project. The guy that wrote the model importer has fixed the issue with the loading of textures. I can now load a Daz3D model fully textured 

I'm not going to do full bodies yet though, I will be decapitating her for now. Full body animation probably means going into bones and skeletal animation, something I don't know about yet. So for now I will just be using my morphing system for a head and shoulders.

I need to write some script to do all that, so I will be busy on this again soon.

[Art]

Cool!
Can't wait to see some test renders and STUFF!!!!!! 

[Freddy]

Hmm what am I up to ?

A lot of coding.

Learning a lot about 3D stuff. Messing around and writing some tools to defragment obj models.

And enjoying the pleasant turn in the weather here. 

[Freddy]

Trying hard to get used to a new mouse. 

[Art]

Come on Freddy, just pull it's tail off and enjoy the freedom! Cordless keyboard and mouse and haven't looked back in over 3 or 4 years.

Mine was the combination MK300 keyboard a Connect Mouse from Logitech. Batteries last an amazingly long time!! Months!!

Your mileage might vary!

[Freddy]

Yep I use cordless mice too, have done for years. The Logitech one I had lasted nearly five years but the right button has become faulty. Nicely they offered me a new mouse, but they don't have the old model any more so I picked the closest fit. Just three months left on the warranty - phew !

Five years is a long time using one mouse, it's surprising how used to it you get. I am getting used to this stand in, but it's hard to adjust, so hopefully the replacement from Logitech will be better.

[Art]

That's good news and a good warranty from a great company!

Yep, seems like we get "comfortable" with our "mice" after a time and they sort just Fit the hand nicely!
(almost like a mug of cold beer on a hot day!) - Now THAT's a fit!!

[Freddy]

Just had a great couple of days out with Dave Morton of GeekCaveCreations. On Monday we went around a ruined castle, an equally ruined priory and a nice church in more or less one piece.

Then today we went out fishing which turned out to be very fruitful for both of us.

Dave decided to catch all the big fish and he pulled in 9 very large carp. Whilst I had to settle for the small roach and rudd, but I was happy as I bagged 30 fish by the end of the day. And just to show Dave I can do it too; I did hook a lovely carp myself, so I was chuffed having earlier lost one which took my line out with a snap !

[Art]

Freddy,

You don't actually EAT those carp do you?

Here we had a standing receipe for carp. Scale & clean. Place on clean pine board. Salt & pepper, place in 350 degree oven for 20 minutes.
Remove fish from board and discard. Eat the board! Enjoy!

 

[Data]

Glad you both had a good time fishing, Dave must have a knack at it or something.

Dave came down to Brighton and visited us rabble too, much joviality took place. It was great meeting him. 

[Freddy]

Art, no we returned them to the water soon after de hooking them. I never considered eating carp, I never see it on the fish stall...

Data I think Dave definitely had the knack