Scribble's scribbles

[Sibyl]

Thank you for your thoughts, Donny. I do appreciate it.

Things will improve. They always do.

I really don't need to take a break from modeling. It's something I enjoy, immensely. I need a break from the Refit for a while and get to some of the other projects I would love to finish. Plus, I am on a deadline for my brother's model. He's visiting back to Virginia on the 28th and I need to finish modeling and then print his character in enough time to ship it to him in Colorado before he flies out. I really don't mind this project; it actually allows me to practice and perfect some of my newfound skills and tools.

Sorry for the rant, earlier. It was a conflagration of events. After that, I was reminded of Pink Floyd's "The Wall", listened for a while, had a good outburst of emotions, and I'm feeling a little better now.

I've also spoken to the person that was waiting for my model of the Refit. He really is just excited to get going on it and has the best of intentions. It all just got to be a bit much for me at this point. He's a great guy, and is one of the inspirations for me even starting on the Refit when I did (he provided me with a BUNCH of images of the studio model I'd never seen before upon request. I told him I'd give him my model when I'm done as repayment for those images.).

I've been dealing with depression for--well--ever. I was hospitalized for it for the first time in my, I think, Junior Year in HS. Maybe Senior. Horrible RAM in my head. Or I have a few bad sectors.

Oh, did you know that Microcenter employees will look at you funny and question your motives when you purchase pink filament in-store? Interesting. The cashier told me to have a fun time "drawing" and twisted his wrist as if using a pen on paper. Um, yeah...'fraid not. No "3d printing pen" here. They're no Ultimaker 3 Extended or Form 2, but I love my CR-10 and Wanhao D7.

 

[Cyfa]

I'm sure this is something that you already know, but it's so easy to internalise and think the worst of a situation/demand when depression is a part of one's life, that actually talking to someone about it (whether a third party, or whoever is perceived to be creating the demand) can be the hardest thing. It sounds like you've done the hardest thing, and I'm glad you're feeling better about the refit, as well as a bit better in general.
You do some marvellous work so I hope your life outside here gets a little easier so you can continue with it if for no other reason than for your enjoyment of it

 

[Sibyl]

Thank you.

I need to admit that my main stressor lately was my dad's health, and everything on top of that was the proverbial last straw. Unfortunately, taking care of my dad is no longer a concern, but now that transfers to taking care of my mom when she needs it.

I'm still numb.

 

[FormerLurker]

My condolences, Scribble. Being the one taking care of my own parents, I know a tiny bit of what you've been going through, though each of our experiences are different. Just remember there are friends here when you need us.

 

[fireproof78]

Thank you.

I need to admit that my main stressor lately was my dad's health, and everything on top of that was the proverbial last straw. Unfortunately, taking care of my dad is no longer a concern, but now that transfers to taking care of my mom when she needs it.

I'm still numb.

I'm sorry.

 

[Sibyl]

I reworked the pedestal and placed it where it should be under the chair.

I've been spending all the tired, long day on TOS Burke requests including a 1:72 miniature, so no TMP chair progress, today.

Just messing around:

Back to this image as I've had a request to build a couple of other chairs, but I'd also like to improve this one, as well as add the swivel to it.

Back when I was experimenting with other people's models in 3ds Max 1.2 (yup, I go back that far), I was looking at a simple scanline render of a tie fighter and I could've sworn that it looked like it was physically right before me. That's the thing; our eyes and minds trick us into seeing what is not necessarily there when we stare at something for too long. I stared at this chair and its corresponding reference images for too long, and I swear I cannot see any differences even though I'm sure there are some.

I would love to hear other people's opinions on how this chair (seat, base, 'n' all) could be improved to be as absolute a digital representation of a Burke Style 115 chair.

Any suggestions will be greatly appreciated!

 

[Sibyl]

@FormerLurker and @fireproof78, thank you. I truly appreciate your condolences.

 

[Pauln6]

Condolences . :-(

A friend at work has just lost her father too. It's an traumatic milestone in all our lives. I always remember a poem I was taught by a very wise woman many years ago:

If love is the greatest force in the world,
And God is Love,
How can love ever die?

And so we go on,
From day to day,
From year to year,
From life to life;
No curtain falls.

 

[Sibyl]

Thank you, I will accept your sentiment as intended.

As McCoy had said, "He's not really dead as long as we remember him."

Unfortunately, in this case, there are no Katras nor any Fal-Tor-Pan rituals to restore his physical being.

I will miss him dearly.

One interesting fact: when I went back to his room to visit with him the day he died we had no idea that it would be that quickly. The music playing on NPR (he was an avid NPR listener and supporter) was Jupiter from Gustav Holst's The Planets. The subtitle for Jupiter is "The Bringer of Jollity", which he was, for a great many people. He introduced me to The Planets many decades ago and I still have the vinyl record he gave to me way back then. It's because of him that I have such a strong appreciation for classical music, and orchestral music, in general.

 

[Sibyl]

I've been unable to do much art lately. It's pissing me off, but every time I open Max I just sit there staring.

I've done a small amount of work on someone else's project, but I haven't been able to finish it yet.

Anyway, I've gone on a few expeditions in my basement and found some treasures from my past. Most were from my HS era and earlier.

Instead of double-posting the images, I'll post a link to my latest finds, but you can go back to the beginning of my thread to see others from previous excursions into the pit.

https://www.trekbbs.com/threads/wha...-have-you-dug-up-lately.294890/#post-12553303

 

[Atolm]

I've been in spells like from time to time. Hardships are not easily shrugged off, especially those that involve family...take it easy bro. Something will respark that warp core, of that I am certain. As always should you require anything, I am around, and we are all here for you.

On a side note: Most excellent drawings...I especially enjoy the one that looks like a smaller scoutship

 

[Sibyl]

Thank you. I'll get back to it soon...I hope.

Not sure what had inspired me to draw that ship, but I'm happy to have that memory return.

Thank you.

 

[Sibyl]

On another note, I'm also doing my research into building a Monster Maroon. I have no idea where to put costuming posts, so I'll just add these here. Although to be fair, I haven't actually created any of what's in these pics.

Yup, that's the real thing in the second pic.

The long bubble wrapped bit on the first pic is my silk-wrapped snaps to go between the chain sections.

Trying to decide between wool and cotton. Wool is accurate...but cotton doesn't shrink as much when wet (accidents--and weather--happen).

 

[Sibyl]

I actually did start modeling again, but my PC was acting really funny...my keyboard profiles were being screwy and jumping all over the place (I have several hotkey profiles set up for 3ds Max, one for each sub-object type, etc.).

I finally gave up and restarted my PC the other night and then walked away, eventually going to bed without getting back to it.

Yesterday morning I wake up to nothing on my screen. I move my mouse around and nothing...then I realize the lights on my mouse weren't lit. I restart my PC again and get a message that no operating system can be found. WHAT?!? Again, no lights on my mouse, my keyboard isn't responding (though it had lights). I tried another USB slot for my mouse, this time one directly attached to my mobo. Nothing. Restart again: no OS.

Shit. My mobo is fried.

After some panic, I was able to get to Microcenter to pick up a new mobo, but because of the age of my CPU (FX6100), I had to go for a new CPU, too. Oh, and of COURSE they've updated the technology for RAM as well, so I need to pick up some DDR4 memory (I had 32GB of DDR3, but could only get 16GB of DDR4 this time).

Anyway, I finally have a modern PC. My FX6100 was midrange at best when I got it. This time I have a Ryzen 7 2700X (still an AMD loyalist when it comes to CPUs, but NVIDIA when it comes to GPUs). Asus ROG Strix X470-F mobo (had to compromise there, as well, otherwise, I would've gotten a ROG Crosshair). And RGB G.Skill RAM. The processor came with a pretty cool looking RGB cooling fan, so I'm sticking with it for now. I should get a video of my full setup (keyboard, mouse, mousepad, mobo, CPU cooler, and RAM).

Back up and running again and I should have something to show soon.

Let's just say that I recently realized that all these pics of Burke 115 chairs I've been staring at all these years have been 103s. D'oh! I just need to get some more screencaps of TOS to get the triangles right. I guess mine are a little stubby. I traced a fan replica, and they were wrong. Oy.

To a certain person on Shapeways, I'm workin' on everything! I've just had a few setbacks recently.

 

[blssdwlf]

Bummer @Scribble about your computer. Not fun to have to fix that up but glad to see you're getting back into it.

 

[Cyfa]

Oh, gods... The words "Indistinguishable From Magic" spring to mind as I read your computer woes. I wouldn't know where to start! Glad you're back on track, though

 

[Sibyl]

Okay...several woes later, including not understanding how the new version of my keyboard software works with my old saved profiles, I have everything working again. I still need to reset all of my shortcuts in Max, but that will be easy enough (for real, this time!).

In the meantime, going back on something I had started in High School, I'm playing with something just to get back into the swing of things.

First, my sketch in around 1991-1992:

And a preview of what's to come:

The shape of the old sketch was a trace around a sticker at the time. I don't remember exactly where the sticker came from, but at the time I thought it was a nice "perfected" shape of the delta. I've since revised it.

As well, this is a 36-fret bass rather than a 24-fret (speaking of, I've never understood why most guitars and basses only have 22 frets.).

Now that I have an easy way to calculate fret positions, it's going a lot smoother than a couple of days ago when I was struggling to come up with a fast way of positioning them. Now I can do it almost instantly with any number of frets for any scale length (guitar, bass, uke, lute, etc).

 

[Sibyl]

Found what I believe will be the perfect paint for the body of this bass:

It's Matthews sign paint and will be lacquered over once cured. I hope to find a professional to do the lacquer job, the paint will need to be done by a sign shop.

Oh, the above image was cropped and adjusted for the fill on the body of my preview above.

 

[Cyfa]

Ooh, Shiny!

Well, sparkly, really, but still...

 

[Atolm]

SWEEET!