Personal milestones topic

[Gausen]

I got a position as researcher on a nuclear state company. But most importantly, my four year old son finally got into the pool at his swimming class .

 

[craigix]

Almost at 4 miles in 30mins now. Might crack it next time.

 

[laserbeams]

I finally graduated!


It took a lot of learning learning about myself - mostly learning my weaknesses by trial and error - but I'm glad that's over.

 

[Bosbeetle]

wow some very nice milestones indeed, especially gausens kid getting into the pool

 

[Bosbeetle]

I've got a job, but its not very permanent, next milestone will be a permanent job with a decent salary. (wishfull thinking )

 

[Blue Protoman]

I got into Hofstra, a $20,000 per year scholarship, and admission into the Honors College!


I'm still going to Stony Brook, though. Hofstra's more expensive, and its CS curriculum looks to be dry as shit.

 

[Bosbeetle]

Ah very cool, if you ever get close to cold spring harbor laboratories, remember bosbeetle has lived there for 6 months (not to mention the whole bunch of nobel laureates that did/do their research there )

 

[Blue Protoman]

I'll be sure to let them know, right after I acknowledge the receipt of my $3,500 a year scholarship to Stony Brook.

 

[Blue Protoman]

I just got into the Computer Science Honors program at Stony Brook! Kick ass!

 

[Prometheus]

Congratulations, BP! It's great to see you living up to your potential.

 

[Blue Protoman]

Thank you, Prometheus! I just wish I'd been doing this for a bit longer.

 

[Pickle]

My latest technical milestone has been able to learn OpenGL, including all the ports and my own fully 3D game polyhedra.


Its interesting when I think back how I can perceive things, for instance with OpenGL it seemed like a complicated thing to grasp. Now going through the work to learn it and use it, that perception seems over exaggerated now. It was only about 10 years ago I thought it would be cool to know how to write a windows gui app :rolleyes: .


I wish i knew now 10 years ago I think a lot of what ive learned is thanks to coming across the GP2X all those years ago.


So whats left on my list of technical mysteries? Writing a emulator, maybe someday I will do it. And then realize how easy it was and kick myself for not doing it sooner.

 

[mjohansson]

Finally something worthy of calling a milestone in my life, my 3D game renderer and editor is just about 100% done!


I never thaught I would be able to program at all a couple years ago, even less make a renderer with modern tech thats not ashamed of itself compared to industry standards. I guess it was really blind luck that I stumbled over the right c++ learning book (thanks piratebay) and that I had heard somewere that raytracing was so easy anyone could do it, wich turned out to be not entirely true... But I kept going and going, one problem at a time, and now finally today theres no more problems left to solve, or actually there is for some things I wanna do but thats other type of problems anyway. Now its time to chase a new milestone, the release of my first commercial indie game.

 

[Garrett]

A recent milestone: Learning to work with armature wire, and learning to make plushes with separated, posable fingers.

This is an outdated picture of my current project, which is a lot more complete at this point (all of the outer fabric layers are now in place, as are the head, gloves, and boots - you'll all see him when he's finished).

Hey Prometheus are there any resources you can list that give working with armature wire/plush making tutorials.. my other half is very interested at having a go at something like this..?


btw.. she's very impressed with your work so far (so am I) & has asked if you wouldn't mind posting some images when finished.. to help inspire her.


Cheers.

 

[Prometheus]

Hey Prometheus are there any resources you can list that give working with armature wire/plush making tutorials.. my other half is very interested at having a go at something like this..?

I haven't really used any tutorials, per se (I'm self-taught), but I'm happy to link to the pattern I'm using (I am still working on this; It just needs some outer decoration completed, and it'll be done - it's just finding the spare time to finish it up!).


The pattern is this one, which the author sells and sends via e-mail for a nominal fee, which can be paid via PayPal. I would warn that I've found that the pattern assumes very particular types of fabric, and that even using something similar will have incorrect results, so you would need to make adjustments via trial and error to account for this, as and when issues are encountered. It's possibly not the best choice for beginners, though some beginners do thrive on trying to make moderately complex things (hell, that's how I got started - the very first thing I ever made, when I was a kid, I completely winged the pattern and technique for; That's why my methods are possibly slightly unorthodox now, which is a big benefit because arbitrary rules for what's "right" and what's "wrong" don't impede how I structure and solve things, since I don't know them, if they indeed exist).


That said, if your other half already has some toy-making know-how, you can adapt many patterns to accommodate a wire armature, since using one just involves leaving enough room to fit the skeleton into place in the body before adding the stuffing, before sliding unstuffed pieces (such as limbs and the head) over the parts left sticking out. You'll need chopsticks to make the stuffing easier, this in mind (I keep a large pack of disposable ones handy partly for this reason). You then close things up from the outside using a ladder-stitch (also known as "the invisible stitch", amongst other names).


If no prior toy-making know-how is present, I do have a list of resources and have a few tips of my own to share, but the links are on my other computer and thus I don't have access to them right now. I will PM them to you later.


For armatures, it's really just a matter of making a "skeleton" out of a few strands of 2mm animation-grade wire (I use this stuff from these guys) cut to a few inches more than the required length, twisted together as much as possible (but not too much, as this wire does break if overly-stressed) somewhat like those old marshmallow Flump sweets that you used to see in the shops, and bent over at the ends (this is one half of why you need to cut the length - so that there's room to bend over an inch or so of wire to make the ends "blunt"; The other half of this is because you need to twist the completed arm "bones" around the spine a couple of times in the correct spot so that they stay in place properly) so that there's no sharp parts sticking out. Then cover the finished parts of the skeleton (typically, you'll make one wide piece for both arms, and another tall one for all of the spine, neck, and legs - you use more strands of wire for the spine, since you need to split two twisted pieces at the hips that match the way the arms are made, which will become the "bones" for the legs). It's also possible to make fingers with single threads of wire if you bend the ends over carefully and work them into the fingers, but this is quite fiddly and can be prone to breaking or slipping out of the finger-fabric (the latter being an issue that I've encountered).


One thing that the pattern I'm using doesn't recommend, but which I do since I've run into some small issues with wire-breakage with one hip, is to cover the completed skeleton with duct-tape once it's all been put together, but before you put it all into place. This won't prevent breakage, but it should make it a teeny bit more durable. I still wouldn't advise doing too much posing of the finished article, though - it's best for holding poses, really, rather than making loads of them on a regular basis.

btw.. she's very impressed with your work so far (so am I) & has asked if you wouldn't mind posting some images when finished.. to help inspire her.

Wow, thanks very much! That means a lot.


I'm certainly planning on posting images when it's finished. I've also kept a log of making-of ones, too, which will also be posted alongside the finished ones (should anyone want to see them, anyway ).


The pictures from earlier in this thread are *vastly* outdated, now - things are much, much further along at this point.

 

[DaMummy]

Dear Prometheus, will you ever be this good?


http://i.imgur.com/3COaH.jpg

 

[Prometheus]

Dear Prometheus, will you ever be this good?


http://i.imgur.com/3COaH.jpg

Dear DM,


Perhaps. Check your PMs and you might find out.