SKYLAB CHAT

[DanaTA]

Hi everyone I enjoyed my restful day, and I hope Linda has been able to do the same, despite her broken foot. Surely sorry that happened, and hope that it's not painful.

And...auto correct is usually one of the first things I disable in browsers and text software....so that I don't have to compete with it while attempting to type. I don't do texting at all, so I've not had the issue on a phone. I always figured as long as email and IM was free, why pay to send text messages...Gmail does both nicely

Oh, I wouldn't pay extra for text messaging, believe me! I get unlimited text with Consumer Cellular. I think unlimited calling, now, too. And something like 5GB of data. I've yet to approach even half way to 1GB, though. I use my WiFi when in the house, and don't really use that much data anyway. Having the WiFi really helps, though. Diane uses more. She's always playing games on her phone, or listening to podcasts. Still, mostly it comes via the WiFi, so doesn't use up our data allowance.

I prefer using voice to send text. I don't like trying to type on the tiny, flat, keyboard of a smartphone! I see people doing it with both thumbs. But I'm a touch typist. And that's not possible with a phone. I suppose if I got a Bluetooth keyboard, that would work. But who would carry one of those around with them? Besides, I find auto-correct messes with text you type in just as much as voice text.

If you want to see some really hilarious auto-correct mishaps, visit DamnYouAutocorrect.com Every time I visit, I hurt from laughing so hard!

Dana

 

[DanaTA]

I always figured as long as email and IM was free, why pay to send text messages...Gmail does both nicely

I find a lot of people ignore email on their phones, but they'll respond to text messages readily.

Dana

 

[Linda B]

Ouch. I hope it heals up quickly. You don't have to walk much do you?

No, but it seems like miles to get from one room to another. Fortunately I had my dad's spare crutches in the attic.

 

[Linda B]

I find a lot of people ignore email on their phones, but they'll respond to text messages readily.

Dana

That is one of my sisters. Won't answer emails or even my calls, but send her a text and BINGO!

 

[skylab]

Hey Linda...good to see you online I know that what were previously simple trips from one room to another have now become strategic maneuvers. I can relate because of having good days and not so good days on the cane. A trip to the kitchen used to be like so what, just a trip to the kitchen....now I make a list of what I have to do while I'm in there, and attach things to a cord to hang around my neck if it has to make the trip as I go...haha. What a drag...micro-managing the simple things of life...but if it means saving trips, and energy, one suddenly become an efficiency expert Hope you're healed up and feeling better soon!

 

[DanaTA]

Hope you're healed up and feeling better soon!

Dana

 

[skylab]

Working on setting up an Abbey Road crossing. As I suspected, the Cross Road freebie will work. The textures are set up a little differently, so in order to get rid of the STOP lettering that shows in the area behind the VW, I just copied another section of the street further down, and zTran'd it back toward the area of the cross walk until the STOP was covered up. The rest will be filling in the scene with buildings, trees, and a street light.

 

[Terre]

Good morning.
Our original plan charged .40/ text so I hadn't bothered to learn how. New plan is different and it's the easiest way to keep in tough with my mother and brother. She can't spend much time at the computer and he hates computers. He's one of McDonald's top computer people and and has as little to do with them once he gets off work as possible.

 

[skylab]

Added a few free trees from Rendo, and will add a few more after filling out the scene.

 

[Linda B]

Can't wait to see that finished, Sky.

 

[skylab]

Hey Linda Having a lazy sort of day today, and just surfing around for city buildings and low stone walls to use as Abbey Road props. Then I'll work on the vehicles....they won't be exact of course, but close enough I'm explaining the steps as I go along, in case anyone wants to try it also. The 1963 VW Beetle I already had, from Rendo, but there are others out there, some for Studio.

 

[skylab]

Nice antique chest of drawers by Guderun, new freebie on ShareCG

 

[Terre]

Can't wait to see that finished, Sky.

Seconded.
How are you doing?

 

[skylab]

Well, we're getting a little closer to Abbey Road. I used the free Old Factory Wall on the left side, yScaled down a litte, and the free Brownstone Rowhouse on the right side, with three free Lamp Posts further down on the right. I had problems with the Brownstone Rowhouse showing (even though it's set up for Poser)....so I finally just dumped all the objects and textures into a folder, and treated it like an .obj import, and applied textures manually. I probably don't have it exactly right, but it's good enough for distance scenes behind trees. I have to continue on down the street, but I had to find a stopping place, and I'll need to check the alignment of everything before I can continue...and that will take fresh eyes. Then I'll hunt around for 60's vehicles, using freebies as much as possible, in case anyone else would like to try this.

Nap time...see you folks later

 

[skylab]

Free VW Beetle for use in Abbey Road project





...plus some Christmas stuff for Dani

Reindeer

Rigged Teddy Bear


...and other stuff by Guderun

Garden Bench

Big Family House

 

[DanaTA]

Since you wanted fresh eyes...there seems to be a break in the road and sidewalk, presumably where you overlaid the stop lettering. It's most noticeable on the right side. The whole thing seems to drop down a little and breaks the continuity of the road and sidewalk.

Dana

 

[skylab]

I thought the same thing...and kept trying to readjust it....but it was apparently not fixable, at least the way that I was trying to fix it. On the right hand side of each road seam, there is a darker place...I'm assuming a problem in the modeling. If you were to zoom in to each road seam, you'd see the same thing. So I decided to leave it, and inspect it one more time when making adjustments, but since the project is just for fun, using freebies so others could try it as well, I decided to not spend too much time on imperfections. By the time the figures are placed in the road crossing, it would likely not be seen. Actually the VW needs to be moved forward a good bit, as the figures feet need to line up along the crosswalk, and George's chin covers the left tail light of the VW.

Here you go...I did a screen capture, showing the dark corner on the right hand side of each road seam. If it were a simple alignment issue, it probably would show on the left hand side as well...but there's no indication on the left hand side. When inspecting the sections closely, it looks as if there's a piece of it that's uneven. After awhile I felt myself going cross-eyed trying to line up everything, so I thought I'd make myself take a break from it, until I had time to think about it

And to clarify what I mean about having to think about it....this is a wire frame view of things. The road doesn't change appearance in wire frame view. I've never encountered this before, or wasn't aware if I did. The road sections also have an unusual texture method that I've not seen before. So this is what I mean by possibly having to accept imperfections. The road and crosswalk is otherwise perfect for the project.

 

[DanaTA]

Yes, I see those dark areas repeated, but the dip doesn't seem to be repeated as well. I wonder if that dark area has something to do with reversed normals on the UV. Not that I'm an expert on that topic.

Dana

 

[skylab]

I thought maybe you'd say that...it's usually what goes wrong when there seems to be no explanation Reversed normals....they were enough to chase me away from ever wanting to learn modeling. They're like little polygon gremlins or something.

You can try downloading the Cross Road freebie from ShareCG. The first obvious obstacle is how to get the STOP off of the crosswalk. But then notice the corners, how some have a bent or bunched up appearance. At first I thought it was just me, and I just started laying road sections. But then it was the top view camera that revealed the recurring shadow...so I thought I needed to just spend extra time on the alignment. I still have sidewalk stuff to add....trash cans and such, and I need to pay attention to tree alignment.

I just noticed that the creator of the Cross Road has a website, offering the same freebie, and some explanation as to how it was created...but most of it went over my head

 

[skylab]

I'll attempt to illustrate for you why the alignment process has to have steps. If you start in the middle, you'll be making adjustments for the rest of your life...haha. In the actual intersection crosswalk, apparently this was created to be the parent....so any attempts to move it result in moving the whole street. So adjustments have to begin beyond the intersection. Here is the real problem area of alignment, and after much adjustment, I'm convinced will just have to be lived with. I've demonstrated this with a red arrow. With the camera centered over the stripe in the road, it looks pretty much correct, or close to correct....but shift the camera to the right, it looks off....then shift the camera to the left and it looks off in the opposite way. This is what I was getting eye strain over last night, and decided to give up, and rest my eyes before returning to it.

Dizzy yet, gazing at all those conflicting lines? Haha.... Imagine looking at it for several hours

So...I gave up on getting that spot corrected, and just continued on down the street with aligning the yTran in every section, which corrected the place that Dana was referring to. He didn't know that the real problem was at the crosswalk. Here's a render of the corrected yTran in the street. I still have yet to check the xTran and zTran...but I truly need a break from looking at all these lines. If I post a work in progress, know that it is just that...I'm letting you see it as it progresses, but it will have imperfections until I get the whole thing aligned. I share the issues as well as the good stuff, so anyone attempting to do this won't have to re-invent the wheel as they go, and may even figure out a workaround.

Here's the current work in progress render (not the final, okay), after the yTran street sections were aligned...and the best way to do that is numerically, setting each section at the same yTran setting.