tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26109776181866440902024-03-16T02:10:21.972+01:00blog.Habrador.comTrejdifyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10823875603546408418noreply@blogger.comBlogger268125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2610977618186644090.post-1956671385653055992024-01-03T19:21:00.000+01:002024-01-03T19:21:29.373+01:00Books I read in 2023<p>Each year I write a list of books I read during the year. This is the 2023 list:</p><p></p><ol style="text-align: left;"><li><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Go-Big-Count-Connected-World/dp/1414361378" target="_blank">Go Big: Make Your Shot Count in the Connected World</a>. Each year I read at least one book on selling and marketing because it's always good to learn how to sell and market yourself and your products. This year's book was Go Big which is written by one of the "dudes" from the YouTube channel Dude Perfect. They currently have 60 million subscribers and their content is basically trick shots. It turned out the book was more of a biography on Dude Perfect and the few advices it includes can be summarized in a single page, such as "get excited," "have fun," "think long-term," "own the idea." They are also religious so they attribute a lot of their success to God: "We do it because God has given us a platform, and we want to leverage it to help others." But I could pick up some new ideas so it was still worth the read. </li><li><a href="https://www.amazon.se/Leonardo-Vinci-Biography-Walter-Isaacson/dp/1471166783/" target="_blank">Leonardo da Vinci</a>. Written by the same author who wrote the famous biography on Steve Jobs, this book is about the guy who painted Mona Lisa. It was the second time I read this book - some books you have to read multiple times to really understand them. </li><li><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Engineers-Victory-Problem-Solvers-Turned/dp/0812979397/" target="_blank">Engineers of Victory: The Problem Solvers Who Turned The Tide in the Second World War</a>. A chapter is about how the air war in Europe was won. The author argues it was in part because of the P-51 long-range fighter. But out of the chapter's 130 pages just 3 pages describes how the P-51 was designed and developed. So if you want technical details you shouldn't read this book - but it works as a history book of ww2, and I learned many new details.</li><li><a href="https://www.amazon.se/Pursuit-Equations-That-Changed-World/dp/0465085989/" target="_blank">In Pursuit of the Unknown: 17 Equations That Changed the World</a>. Goes thought 17 equations, like the Navier-Stokes and Normal distribution. Each chapter presents a historical background and some applications. </li><li><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Making-Atomic-Bomb-Richard-Rhodes/dp/1451677618" target="_blank">The Making of the Atomic Bomb</a>. This book is a lot of book: 2000 pages on my iPad. Not only is it describing the making of the bomb itself - it is also mini biography on all the people (roughly 1000 men and 3 women) who came up with the theory behind the atom itself, including the physics experiments. The book could have used a few more pictures describing these experiments to make them easier to understand. It is also talking about attempts by other countries than US to develop the bomb: Russia, Germany, Japan, and UK. </li><li><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Hooked-How-Build-Habit-Forming-Products/dp/1591847788" target="_blank">Hooked: How to Build Habit-Forming Products</a>. Will try to teach you how to convince people to use services similar to Twitter and Instagram, but it's also talking a little about games, such as Farmville (the book is that "old").</li><li><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Shoe-Dog-Memoir-Creator-Nike-ebook/dp/B0176M1A44/" target="_blank">Shoe Dog: A Memoir by the Creator of Nike</a>. I have used many Nike products in my life, and I recall I was really happy when I visited Nike town in New York many years ago, but I knew zero about the company until I read this book. I even googled the co-founder who also wrote this book and I don't think I ever saw a photo of him. Anyway, this book tells the story of Nike from the 1960s to the 1980s, and the last chapter talks about what happened after 1980, including an answer to the controversy to outsource manufacturing of the shoes to low-cost countries.</li><li><a href="https://www.amazon.com/No-Logo-Space-Choice-Jobs-ebook/dp/B000FA665S/" target="_blank">No Logo: No Space, No Choice, No Jobs</a>. The first part of the book talks about how brands are taking over our lives - how kids want expensive Nike shoes while their parents can barely afford food. The second part of the book discusses efforts to prevent this from happening. Nike is often discussed in this book so you should read it together with "Shoe Dog."</li><li><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Simulation-Computer-Graphics-Robert-Bridson/dp/1568813260" target="_blank">Fluid Simulation for Computer Graphics</a>. The Navier-Stokes equations describes how a fluid behaves. This book summarizes papers on how you can simulate them in real-time (but maybe not in a 100 percent realistic way). If you read this book you get an overview of an area that can be overwhelming if you read the papers by themselves.</li><li><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Right-Stuff-Tom-Wolfe-ebook/dp/B00139XSBA/" target="_blank">The Right Stuff</a>. Tells the story of the very first American astronauts (including Ham the monkey). Neither of them landed on the moon - they were the first Americans in space and to orbit the earth. You also get to read about their pilot careers and the culture of having the "right stuff." It is very well written and it was the second time I read it.</li><li><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Skunk-Works-Ben-R-Rich/dp/0751515035/" target="_blank">Skunk Works</a>. The author Ben Rich worked at the Lockheed's "secret" R&D section called Skunk Works. He worked there from 1954 to 1991, so the book covers projects during these years, such as the first stealth aircraft the F-117. But it also includes some general history of Skunk Works.</li><li><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Seinfeldia-About-Nothing-Changed-Everything/dp/1476756112" target="_blank">Seinfeldia</a>. Is a book about the television show Seinfeld.</li><li><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Stella-Adler-Acting-preface-compiled-ebook/dp/B00CKNWAO4/" target="_blank">The art of acting</a>. Is a book how to become an actor. Although you have no ambitions to become a movie star you will most likely find the book useful anyway. We all need to act now and then...</li><li><a href="https://www.amazon.com/48-Laws-Power-Robert-Greene/dp/0140280197" target="_blank">The 48 laws of power</a>. Not surprisingly this book consists of 48 chapters where each chapter describes a way for you to get more power. To prove that each law works, the author provides several historical examples, from the ancient Spartans to modern filmmaker Ingmar Bergman. The book has got criticism for cherry picking - just because a law of power worked for some French king in 1578, it doesn't mean it will work for you. But these historical examples are interesting to read about, so you can always read the book as any history book. It has also got criticism because some laws contradict each other - you can for example not both recruit your enemies and kill them. But you should see this book as a cook book - you don't always need to apply all laws - you have to go with the flow. </li><li><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Catcher-Rye-J-D-Salinger/dp/0316769177" target="_blank">The Catcher in the Rye</a>. This book is supposed to be "one of the best novels of the twentieth century," but I'm not fully convince. The story is kinda dull but it is very well written so the book is a joy to read, but I will not read it again. </li><li><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Damascus-Station-Novel-David-McCloskey/dp/0393881040" target="_blank">Damascus Station</a>. Written by an actual CIA officer, this book is about a CIA officer and his adventures in Syria during the beginning of their latest civil war. Because it is written by someone with practical experience, it's filled with anecdotes such as if you book a room it should be above the fourth floor (to keep you away from car bombs) and below the tenth floor (so the fire truck ladders can reach you) making the book more believable. </li><li><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Wings-War-Fighter-Allies-Believers/dp/1524746320/" target="_blank">Wings of War</a>. Tells the story of the P-51 "Mustang" World War 2 fighter. The book starts with the design, continues with the struggles to convince the US Air Force to use it, and ends with a summary of the missions it took part in. There are some inaccuracies in the book. In the beginning the author claims Sweden was overrun by Hitler, and later the book says "while Sweden was technically a neutral country, it was occupied by Nazi Germany." I have no idea where the author got that from. It is true Sweden sold iron ore to Germany and allowed a few troop trains to roll through the country, but Sweden was never occupied. </li><li><a href="https://www.amazon.se/-/en/Melanie-Mitchell/dp/0374257833" target="_blank">Artificial Intelligence: A Guide for Thinking Humans</a>. Written in like 2019 by someone who works in the field the book gives you a summary of the current state of AI. It begins with the history of AI and continues with a summary of the current algorithms used in AI which are Neural Networks in various shapes and forms. The book ends with a chapter on "common sense" which is what the author believes is missing from the current state of AI. </li><li><a href="https://www.amazon.se/-/en/Andy-Greenberg/dp/0385544405" target="_blank">Sandworm: A New Era of Cyberwar and the Hunt for the Kremlin's Most Dangerous Hackers</a>. Sandworm was a hacker group responsible for hacking mostly Ukrainian infrastructure, but also the Maersk container shipping company. </li><li><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Artists-Way-25th-Anniversary/dp/0143129252" target="_blank">The Artist's Way - A Spiritual Path to Higher Creativity</a>. This is a book you should read if you are (or trying to be) a creative person . I've been a creative person for many years and I had never heard of this book until it popped up on TikTok. I guess TikTok is not a completely waste of time after all because this book was really good. It discusses everything from procrastination, art block, and failure. </li><li><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Creativity-Inc-Expanded-Overcoming-Inspiration/dp/0593594649/" target="_blank">Creativity, Inc</a>. Written by one of the co-founders of Pixar, Ed Catmull, I originally thought this was a biography on Pixar. But it turned out it's a management book on how to organize a company like Pixar from a creativity-point-of-view, so I was a little disappointed. The problem with management literature is that you can often summarize them in an A4 and so can this book. In fact the author is summarizing the book in the last chapter. I wish he had written a biography on Pixar and kept that last chapter to summarize the management part of the book. But the stories from when Ed Catmull co-invented 3d graphics and the stories from Pixar he actually talks about were interesting to read about! I think what I learned most from the book is that you shouldn't ask role-models what they would have done in your situation. "What would Steve Jobs have done?" He doesn't live in your industry in your current environment, so you will get stuck in the past instead of inventing the future!</li><li><a href="https://www.amazon.com/-/en/Neal-Gabler/dp/0679757473" target="_blank">Walt Disney: The Triumph of the American Imagination</a>. Tells the story of Mickey Mouse's creator. This book is very long (1600 pages on my iPad) and sometimes it felt the author included too many details not necessarily needed to tell the stor of Walt Disney. </li></ol><div><ol></ol></div>Habradorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16953931454438486425noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2610977618186644090.post-25632789797215335662023-12-05T17:06:00.000+01:002023-12-05T17:06:10.067+01:00Cybertruck Prototype vs Final Production Version - What Changed?<p>In 2019 I started making a <a href="https://www.artstation.com/artwork/WB9x5J" target="_blank">3D model of the Tesla Cybertruck prototype version</a> in Blender. Four years later, in 2023, Elon Musk finally released the <a href="https://www.tesla.com/cybertruck" target="_blank">production version of the Cybertruck</a>. Since I've studied every millimeter of the prototype version to be able to make the 3D model I thought it would be interesting to make a comparison of how much changed during the four years.</p><h2 style="text-align: left;">Exterior</h2><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilAXP8ShGPsUZ9DlkCGsDfEuZtKWUPCrH11Oq_qivW_nmMfX5Fk7dH35jtFFUsE6Vu8HMMyNL4_RlvYeLz_lQPpPqbmf8YikQEXZDKUQa8cH4gH5wa_uu05Mj2B_Acg3p8GqrlbeU8oSKG-RwAp0zqWeU8slRSUV5-gfIvqEcmqJ-1G3NBjjh_H-Wn2cI/s1920/cybertruck-front-side.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1080" data-original-width="1920" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilAXP8ShGPsUZ9DlkCGsDfEuZtKWUPCrH11Oq_qivW_nmMfX5Fk7dH35jtFFUsE6Vu8HMMyNL4_RlvYeLz_lQPpPqbmf8YikQEXZDKUQa8cH4gH5wa_uu05Mj2B_Acg3p8GqrlbeU8oSKG-RwAp0zqWeU8slRSUV5-gfIvqEcmqJ-1G3NBjjh_H-Wn2cI/s320/cybertruck-front-side.png" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_ZZXUbOhnA4GgsqkSe8VLwoLJi-ZihGkCjXMgqb66oOAjx3dzH2o-U4RH2Pr4UDJzLcT8xg-imwYrpoAd9p8ALmqA9zfrx1u2r6cCZHCXATywM1FAPQgJinfl66CE_mcLZHlqfy9mycXkME0FjdBdTxzszAikJJC0iIqpSAi0aITKhz1x25wuJVU4qxQ/s1280/Cybertruck-fremont-cropped.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="817" data-original-width="1280" height="204" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_ZZXUbOhnA4GgsqkSe8VLwoLJi-ZihGkCjXMgqb66oOAjx3dzH2o-U4RH2Pr4UDJzLcT8xg-imwYrpoAd9p8ALmqA9zfrx1u2r6cCZHCXATywM1FAPQgJinfl66CE_mcLZHlqfy9mycXkME0FjdBdTxzszAikJJC0iIqpSAi0aITKhz1x25wuJVU4qxQ/s320/Cybertruck-fremont-cropped.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><p style="text-align: left;"><b>Front bumper.</b> The black front bumper has become bigger and smoother, most likely to improve the aerodynamics of the vehicle. They also added a mudguard for the front and rear wheels attached to it. </p><p style="text-align: left;"><b>Front window. </b>Like the front bumper has become smoother to improve aerodynamics, so has the front window which is now rounded - it used to be completely flat (To be honest I think this is the case anyway - it is not rounded much to make it super visible). </p><div><b>Wheels.</b> The wheels are roughly the same as the prototype vehicle wheels - they added som threads to the side of the wheel. I thought they removed the aero caps because I didn't see them in the leaked photos of the production Cybertruck, but apparently it improves the aerodynamics of the vehicle by improving the range with a few percentages. The aero caps can also easily be removed during offroad driving to avoid mud getting stuck and aerodynamics is less important. </div><p><b>Windscreen wiper.</b> They added a windscreen wiper (apparently the world's largest), which is on the left side of the Cybertruck (I mirrored the photo above to easier compare them). I'm not sure why the prototype version didn't have a windscreen wiper. I think Elon Musk talked about using some other method to wipe the windshield but I guess they didn't work out - or the regulators didn't allow them. </p><p><b>Rearview mirror.</b> They added rearview mirrors. All the way back to the Tesla Model X, Elon Musk has talked about removing rearview mirrors because they are kinda ugly and instead use cameras, but current US regulations are making it difficult to remove them. But they are apparently easily removable I guess if the regulators are changing their mind... </p><p><b>Front lights.</b> The main light is apparently not the light bar (the big light stretching from left to right), the main light is the light immediately above the bumper. I don't recall seeing a light there in the prototype version. </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-nnntERSY9cCfWcS6hCZtJz9oXXyuXuj3BWwNqPYwLNNjJNVBlbGCdTVV-zyHu59eMlMWP9pfvKemJvLeV1PBXyvL1XtOq7qgLKgMIJcSVZJdnZC7NIcCZi0Gz3kdDNMbGM7i9htqkUV2SU-zJ4uid9c1j0_Bzj7gyrbjqiygB7eCFopZDjihYawYa2Y/s1920/have-you-noticed-that-the-tesla-cybertruck-has-sail-pillar-storages%20(1).jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1080" data-original-width="1920" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-nnntERSY9cCfWcS6hCZtJz9oXXyuXuj3BWwNqPYwLNNjJNVBlbGCdTVV-zyHu59eMlMWP9pfvKemJvLeV1PBXyvL1XtOq7qgLKgMIJcSVZJdnZC7NIcCZi0Gz3kdDNMbGM7i9htqkUV2SU-zJ4uid9c1j0_Bzj7gyrbjqiygB7eCFopZDjihYawYa2Y/s320/have-you-noticed-that-the-tesla-cybertruck-has-sail-pillar-storages%20(1).jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKAiND3YScpr2ErqqyPEXcHySIGIZG3gDKdof4mfJUpfO766ZFf10bt5krS1V6vZkjgu6Yd20-hiiQHCgh0yKJGi0YDhxqASaMJ4C0wI_JVxLjkvDWzov49dVX15iVPrZPMuanPRtHdR4fMFECw5y7QyYDdU8V5F0Bc2i35C6oXPomgRqNAj_SY48IN2Q/s867/cybertruck%20frunk.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="527" data-original-width="867" height="196" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKAiND3YScpr2ErqqyPEXcHySIGIZG3gDKdof4mfJUpfO766ZFf10bt5krS1V6vZkjgu6Yd20-hiiQHCgh0yKJGi0YDhxqASaMJ4C0wI_JVxLjkvDWzov49dVX15iVPrZPMuanPRtHdR4fMFECw5y7QyYDdU8V5F0Bc2i35C6oXPomgRqNAj_SY48IN2Q/w320-h196/cybertruck%20frunk.png" width="320" /></a></div><p><b>Frunk.</b> The frunk (front trunk) hatch has become bigger. In the prototype version the hatch was open above the light bar, but now the entire section above the bumper opens. I guess it makes it easier to load and offload your stuff? </p><p><b>Door handles. </b>If I recall correctly Tesla said early they would remove the door handles which were visible in the prototype version - and yes they are gone. You open the doors by pressing a button on the black list above the metal part of the doors. Removing the door handles has caused some criticism because people touches the metal part of the door opening the door which leaves ugly fingerprints clearly visible on the metal. You can open the doors without touching the metal, but I guess people's muscle memory prevents them from doing so. </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_3uKv6PQxnC5N_X7ycG-bLYCkjl1sT7Pyke9hbbcS4UXXF-JfB362J2-q4DhhyUSi3-42utnHdR6S2Dp0MAfZ2x4ZbN4bdQQ386u3rhSl9zDIWpRWCXcAI9DuK2iDn5-8EhYRrtFPdtr9Y2nL-q_Ndj1wgr39vEiV_XBKu1D7trnJFvwVB2JFbH8f1jI/s1920/cybertruck-side.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1080" data-original-width="1920" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_3uKv6PQxnC5N_X7ycG-bLYCkjl1sT7Pyke9hbbcS4UXXF-JfB362J2-q4DhhyUSi3-42utnHdR6S2Dp0MAfZ2x4ZbN4bdQQ386u3rhSl9zDIWpRWCXcAI9DuK2iDn5-8EhYRrtFPdtr9Y2nL-q_Ndj1wgr39vEiV_XBKu1D7trnJFvwVB2JFbH8f1jI/s320/cybertruck-side.png" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhubI5yFd2GKwDrIu9BBWty1-_qwYFPGMeBo-1x6vbY_sxhMDY9nJMjXYLMW9TUhllTNO6L3pEqaviSU7EcPtYxg_azFS9rV0GZxA2gq0ak8pDMW3SnfFuvXF4ZbnVt6TLVzsqVpwIUhg1OjD8zxYu-3dGQ3RTetw5CowY248M99XhfhGx0ZA_etCh5kww/s957/cybertruck%20side.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="470" data-original-width="957" height="157" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhubI5yFd2GKwDrIu9BBWty1-_qwYFPGMeBo-1x6vbY_sxhMDY9nJMjXYLMW9TUhllTNO6L3pEqaviSU7EcPtYxg_azFS9rV0GZxA2gq0ak8pDMW3SnfFuvXF4ZbnVt6TLVzsqVpwIUhg1OjD8zxYu-3dGQ3RTetw5CowY248M99XhfhGx0ZA_etCh5kww/s320/cybertruck%20side.png" width="320" /></a></div><p><b>Dimensions.</b> The production version Cybertruck is 5 percent smaller than the prototype (in all dimensions). To be honest when you look at the production version it actually looks a little more squeezed and people on Internet think it looks more cartoonish. </p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiM0UV8orxw4NODIvrblIvy8QkLR4Nob7Ri8Vhm-WGAhvc2kyzCZ3hXnz2_A21xWuO3FvMI2Cbj_KcgavtjWCvBFozJTipKvqFKE49jCZRicO-7y-kgOROJ_7I1rZrmmkkM06392hvYlbZodrtij81OACBLF2luaNeWI5051QDSpPjYstUioghocV4QpCc/s1920/cybertruck-back-side.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1080" data-original-width="1920" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiM0UV8orxw4NODIvrblIvy8QkLR4Nob7Ri8Vhm-WGAhvc2kyzCZ3hXnz2_A21xWuO3FvMI2Cbj_KcgavtjWCvBFozJTipKvqFKE49jCZRicO-7y-kgOROJ_7I1rZrmmkkM06392hvYlbZodrtij81OACBLF2luaNeWI5051QDSpPjYstUioghocV4QpCc/s320/cybertruck-back-side.png" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjtogsg9km160WLlquSvPZjTmCAYYEdp-Or5EoKZoh2yPMf-9E9RElaCOTQc7Njm0f84qxLNq2zWGEi2OjRHuYJyST4LgIpJ1I6vL8KtMrTHtZ85k9k0iVao8WcP_x9DX0tYcFDpp57Azjll4_Ovh31pd78JdFDFY7EW1B2ZcoBCaitd3LRV0ojaOyd6Wc/s1920/cybertruck%20back.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="931" data-original-width="1920" height="155" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjtogsg9km160WLlquSvPZjTmCAYYEdp-Or5EoKZoh2yPMf-9E9RElaCOTQc7Njm0f84qxLNq2zWGEi2OjRHuYJyST4LgIpJ1I6vL8KtMrTHtZ85k9k0iVao8WcP_x9DX0tYcFDpp57Azjll4_Ovh31pd78JdFDFY7EW1B2ZcoBCaitd3LRV0ojaOyd6Wc/s320/cybertruck%20back.png" width="320" /></a></div><p style="text-align: left;"><b>Rear bumper.</b> The rear bumper looks the same, but it now seems to be protruding backwards to outside of the main body. It also looks like they added something to below the rear bumper but it's hard to see.</p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjo0pCWEY3er_1DF8ZYSf9AQdoon0xk1WDToiu2oaNK8wnoBCfv7q-lXQsSLMjLR9DLl61pi5OGD5DH_XI0cFi1ac0ThpavJfSS9kvzZ473cIlV36qfhPdhyphenhyphenm5iCbsQGUVABetVHhsZ79swEa2t1EBhxAcYhqqNSW3lrJPmiAwiDfcn-ZWs-yuIxLWLTRU/s1920/cybertruck-trunk.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1080" data-original-width="1920" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjo0pCWEY3er_1DF8ZYSf9AQdoon0xk1WDToiu2oaNK8wnoBCfv7q-lXQsSLMjLR9DLl61pi5OGD5DH_XI0cFi1ac0ThpavJfSS9kvzZ473cIlV36qfhPdhyphenhyphenm5iCbsQGUVABetVHhsZ79swEa2t1EBhxAcYhqqNSW3lrJPmiAwiDfcn-ZWs-yuIxLWLTRU/s320/cybertruck-trunk.png" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8jpMblFIv8RchP_HWVQU8IW0sILyZwjAKTHDgPbqxoFFJRIszSLY5R9jV3sqGydFPhq0volYvK7InBncMs1csI_N1_h629Vc6VePt3TuwbNCCBmtqxY8Du_s5ofhKAzzZyW5CjpuYlotrIATCIB307dhy-4QjTiSP-BDAVnskR79ne00EDPwtLA_wZtc/s780/cybertruck%20trunk.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="515" data-original-width="780" height="211" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8jpMblFIv8RchP_HWVQU8IW0sILyZwjAKTHDgPbqxoFFJRIszSLY5R9jV3sqGydFPhq0volYvK7InBncMs1csI_N1_h629Vc6VePt3TuwbNCCBmtqxY8Du_s5ofhKAzzZyW5CjpuYlotrIATCIB307dhy-4QjTiSP-BDAVnskR79ne00EDPwtLA_wZtc/s320/cybertruck%20trunk.png" width="320" /></a></div><p style="text-align: left;"><b>Bed (trunk).</b> The trunk has become black, otherwise the geometry is roughly the same. Why the changed? Apparently Tesla talked with some potential customers who said they would spray line the metal in the trunk to not damage it. The stripes are now protruding out from the trunk, in the prototype they were intruding into the trunk. </p><p><b>Tailgate.</b> The corner of the upper part of the tailgate used to be a triangle, but now the shape is different. This also means the rear light, which used to be a single section, has been cut up into three parts. The tailgate in the prototype version could be extended down to the ground (we could see a Cyberquad drive up it to the bed) but I don't think that's longer possible. </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi49GDyt-OfFGNpxJM_Q-ku-AvICWuQ6pJk4x9MR53pF3UrfV7J545SIX5yUE3mHWA717uthG0S2tGLy0dtDWAmgQwXxAhd_ELrwMTopowJpzBSj5vPLSW3Tr86QfPQEhVfHxCfeoB7qwZ6uysW8BQN78rPhp8VtYrp8r4Qea4iETDGLlzZ7UqzCLkLFBU/s1920/have-you-noticed-that-the-tesla-cybertruck-has-sail-pillar-storages.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1080" data-original-width="1920" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi49GDyt-OfFGNpxJM_Q-ku-AvICWuQ6pJk4x9MR53pF3UrfV7J545SIX5yUE3mHWA717uthG0S2tGLy0dtDWAmgQwXxAhd_ELrwMTopowJpzBSj5vPLSW3Tr86QfPQEhVfHxCfeoB7qwZ6uysW8BQN78rPhp8VtYrp8r4Qea4iETDGLlzZ7UqzCLkLFBU/s320/have-you-noticed-that-the-tesla-cybertruck-has-sail-pillar-storages.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><p><b>Hatches.</b> There's still a hatch in the bottom of the bed. But there was also a hatch on the side of the bed shown during the Cybertruck prototype presentation. I haven't found any information of it the production version so I suspect it has been removed. I never saw it in a physical version of the prototype either. </p><p><b>Charging flap.</b> Was moved from behind the rear wheel to on top of the left-rear fender.</p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEha9dT7hrQKtyVrCIDMg_Vde9-S6AAtPqxvIKeOap7s1aU-2FGaNHO_car3F_rdco6TKA3YSga6zZMaKKR1jp2wM0jUyB1_vcIvf6M_c5T0lpPdBZYWzRqxF9dVM0J1iIpaiODO_tjuWvbNYcZaotG0mIuVDIiR39mfN6-leOGyk5V5Z95Y61AycAzuJJE/s1182/cybertruck%20black.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="591" data-original-width="1182" height="160" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEha9dT7hrQKtyVrCIDMg_Vde9-S6AAtPqxvIKeOap7s1aU-2FGaNHO_car3F_rdco6TKA3YSga6zZMaKKR1jp2wM0jUyB1_vcIvf6M_c5T0lpPdBZYWzRqxF9dVM0J1iIpaiODO_tjuWvbNYcZaotG0mIuVDIiR39mfN6-leOGyk5V5Z95Y61AycAzuJJE/s320/cybertruck%20black.png" width="320" /></a></div><br /><b>Color.</b> Yes it does come in black. I made my prototype version red because I think it looked cool. But apparently just black and stainless steel are the only currently available colors. <p></p><h2 style="text-align: left;">Interior</h2><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8Auanl61HIBf4YNlDuBmj_OuDGlhlsXGgOXd2kkQmzUDkUklk9Y0rGzI4L4JITvLkksf4NlpBi2rdkSctp_m1SfF5DkvoRqwOcJ_Wn6vhB9l8RtQY5cjKLwrjjgkTkgxiwfBgpPWMa9-e0ZAQToWrtWtul7-ux5u5FqaekBUCo7lRhj7NG3CfSGEM9f8/s1920/cybertruck-interior-steering.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1080" data-original-width="1920" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8Auanl61HIBf4YNlDuBmj_OuDGlhlsXGgOXd2kkQmzUDkUklk9Y0rGzI4L4JITvLkksf4NlpBi2rdkSctp_m1SfF5DkvoRqwOcJ_Wn6vhB9l8RtQY5cjKLwrjjgkTkgxiwfBgpPWMa9-e0ZAQToWrtWtul7-ux5u5FqaekBUCo7lRhj7NG3CfSGEM9f8/s320/cybertruck-interior-steering.png" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgiWyuDP6gh_h5cS_FCjvfPnxlSAu1GpEuCsGzWzBxAk1Lp3hkN6SKiYJILC_-whHrfQNTjtfxd6GP9qkS6NVHTjn5I9OhuNWM3LGfpjMxXEy8lvAKZoEojtZDwce5dROLOxFbYpLbBmwcm9Re2ZTGex4xLOciphc7_gWnizNSjLpCqzif8PaUi3u0iMIc/s1876/Cybertruck-Human-Meet-Machine-Desktop.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1474" data-original-width="1876" height="251" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgiWyuDP6gh_h5cS_FCjvfPnxlSAu1GpEuCsGzWzBxAk1Lp3hkN6SKiYJILC_-whHrfQNTjtfxd6GP9qkS6NVHTjn5I9OhuNWM3LGfpjMxXEy8lvAKZoEojtZDwce5dROLOxFbYpLbBmwcm9Re2ZTGex4xLOciphc7_gWnizNSjLpCqzif8PaUi3u0iMIc/s320/Cybertruck-Human-Meet-Machine-Desktop.png" width="320" /></a></div><p><b>Steering wheel.</b> The steering wheel is not round - but it is rounder than in the prototype. Also the cylinder connecting the steering wheel to the dashboard is now round - it used to be like hexagonal shaped. </p><p><b>Door interior.</b> Has changed slightly to become more minimalistic. </p><p><b>Interior rearview mirror.</b> Is now an actual mirror and not a digital screen in the roof. The physical mirror can be removed because the rear view is often blocked because of the cover covering the trunk (bed). The digital rearview mirror was moved to the digital screen. </p><p><b>Sun visors.</b> I saw no sun visors in the prototype version, but they were added to the production version. They are removable.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFrWJYbuYPmsx7P5fo9ud3AFWCcSz2EFQTMFadqnuEQv3viQudsumylcYEE6CR6mQQn58ePxRGjDSVgqXTa8S2-ejiJOMKrWzaua-96pYOKYS4M8Zyd8kddWDmp4W610ravqPgVn3zWzHEPc_UgF3j_T7s2c_9cokZPTinzeqhtAXhV61z2otzvxX96HI/s1165/cybertruck%20glovebox.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="572" data-original-width="1165" height="157" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFrWJYbuYPmsx7P5fo9ud3AFWCcSz2EFQTMFadqnuEQv3viQudsumylcYEE6CR6mQQn58ePxRGjDSVgqXTa8S2-ejiJOMKrWzaua-96pYOKYS4M8Zyd8kddWDmp4W610ravqPgVn3zWzHEPc_UgF3j_T7s2c_9cokZPTinzeqhtAXhV61z2otzvxX96HI/s320/cybertruck%20glovebox.png" width="320" /></a></div><p><b>Glovebox.</b> They added a glovebox below the front panel on the passenger's side. This space was empty in the prototype version.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiO3-49CnE38DO5mbP_kYTV39AVVS3wmrNH7oTMpSKpaYX-xOMYY2-ACB7Sc8tuZB6FjSvxRo73-KbXWzmfZlZVtWP4G-uxiW0_a5Yb3UFPH9O4nSpk3GMLtxYMUMgWVc82ar_hXhWzXEz2i6EBkg6KlTFZCNlIpRJbr2u5HjVXkzIbC8SCEwwzNNaKaOk/s1920/cybertruck-side-doors.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1080" data-original-width="1920" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiO3-49CnE38DO5mbP_kYTV39AVVS3wmrNH7oTMpSKpaYX-xOMYY2-ACB7Sc8tuZB6FjSvxRo73-KbXWzmfZlZVtWP4G-uxiW0_a5Yb3UFPH9O4nSpk3GMLtxYMUMgWVc82ar_hXhWzXEz2i6EBkg6KlTFZCNlIpRJbr2u5HjVXkzIbC8SCEwwzNNaKaOk/s320/cybertruck-side-doors.png" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJImUKyh27akDWws7HEe_oC6HuwEaoXH3v8IrL8ghzVCpGSVCE_Vvw4NWu_ibpG89V-tui2fmlttJCTU9Bxmw_s0INafuoWjTcE8yEXGQIEujTtydfptuU-mUGMgTNbmXXUwtru47hAbam-L1H_zRu79mQnkexUKT_8-GsXgbiHmj9wimg2lrP_TX-dXU/s1227/cybertruck%20beam.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="565" data-original-width="1227" height="147" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJImUKyh27akDWws7HEe_oC6HuwEaoXH3v8IrL8ghzVCpGSVCE_Vvw4NWu_ibpG89V-tui2fmlttJCTU9Bxmw_s0INafuoWjTcE8yEXGQIEujTtydfptuU-mUGMgTNbmXXUwtru47hAbam-L1H_zRu79mQnkexUKT_8-GsXgbiHmj9wimg2lrP_TX-dXU/s320/cybertruck%20beam.png" width="320" /></a></div><p><b>Beam.</b> There was a rather ugly beam in the prototype version located below the digital screen close to the driver. It looks like they replaced it with two smaller beams. </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhp4aQe9VXsd7c4G2Ldd0bB1lSiE10VlsL5pMJ9gQ-pEtGhn9oqSXjyQnO3HPCQ_OuAgpYOiiApYonxC-XbJhLODcLLJdCWnIv5P9eg1YfgOOSJ_fyopnmmzYNrmG_oD8HpXAQ5fzRuEkXKK11QjV8LGwhzIIY62EL3Mdwe1CKqa-b63iFFAH7Xc4RkKxs/s1920/cybertruck-interior-back.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1080" data-original-width="1920" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhp4aQe9VXsd7c4G2Ldd0bB1lSiE10VlsL5pMJ9gQ-pEtGhn9oqSXjyQnO3HPCQ_OuAgpYOiiApYonxC-XbJhLODcLLJdCWnIv5P9eg1YfgOOSJ_fyopnmmzYNrmG_oD8HpXAQ5fzRuEkXKK11QjV8LGwhzIIY62EL3Mdwe1CKqa-b63iFFAH7Xc4RkKxs/s320/cybertruck-interior-back.png" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-ZV2zxDxG_RNVniyq40XF-h289m6Ox5UXg5ON8J_Lyxh-Zrw61M-wjvEhE9OtJkGoB2vqphiSh-rJjWHLMjU3N-dQkFAPaJQoYqAyN5JSYx-ycQ2GMgAOGBnb4_rrv5fCRKiKLYGl4TbcfUykgUAJKkjPje7WnIbPwY5A7jhgbcuoil2fgB9dOW7ReII/s1289/cybertruck%20front%20seats.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="586" data-original-width="1289" height="145" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-ZV2zxDxG_RNVniyq40XF-h289m6Ox5UXg5ON8J_Lyxh-Zrw61M-wjvEhE9OtJkGoB2vqphiSh-rJjWHLMjU3N-dQkFAPaJQoYqAyN5JSYx-ycQ2GMgAOGBnb4_rrv5fCRKiKLYGl4TbcfUykgUAJKkjPje7WnIbPwY5A7jhgbcuoil2fgB9dOW7ReII/s320/cybertruck%20front%20seats.png" width="320" /></a></div><p><b>Front seats.</b> The back of the front seats were in the prototype made of some hard plastic material with rough shape. The back of the front seats are now smooth with paper holders like regular car seats. Otherwise the design of the seats look roughly the same.</p><p><b>Rear small screen.</b> The back seats have gotten a small screen in the center below the foldable seat. </p><h2 style="text-align: left;">Sources</h2><p></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XxOh12Uhg08" target="_blank">Driving Tesla Cybertruck: Everything You Need to Know!</a></li><li><a href="https://www.tesla.com/cybertruck" target="_blank">Tesla Cybertruck</a> </li><li><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wqcu0j3Wsys" target="_blank">My Cybertruck Experience!</a></li><li><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uefydJUbRhc" target="_blank">Tesla Cybertruck DRIVEN!</a></li><li><a href="https://www.artstation.com/artwork/WB9x5J" target="_blank">My Tesla Cybertruck Prototype 3D Model at Artstation if you want to see more breathtaking images</a></li></ul><p></p>Habradorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16953931454438486425noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2610977618186644090.post-25056672711643796482023-10-28T13:08:00.011+02:002023-11-06T11:05:28.245+01:00The miniature statues of Stockholm<p>Stockholm, Sweden is covered in statues and sculptures. Some are big and some are small. But some are even smaller than small - they are tiny and thus very difficult to find. This will be an overview of the miniature statues I've found. </p><h3 style="text-align: left;">Karlsson on the roof</h3><p>You can find this sculpture on <a href="https://www.visitstockholm.se/o/fjallgatan/" target="_blank">Fjällgatan</a>, which is a popular area to go to if you visit the Södermalm area because they view over Stockholm from Fjällgatan is very nice. This statue was the hardest to find information of. I tried to Google, but nothing was found. You can see that he's playing a VR game so I thought he was a tribute to all the famous game companies with offices on Södermalm. </p><p>But after researching another mini statue where I stalked the artists on his Instagram I realized <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/CmeY5KuppN2/" target="_blank">Kolodko Mihály</a> had created him. And the character is no one else than the famous Astrid Lindgren character <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karlsson-on-the-Roof" target="_blank">Karlsson on the roof</a>. If you look closely on the statue's back you can see he has a little propeller which real Karlsson is using to fly around. </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEib5gwi3f9CBvKAlgw-tX7aDK_vw4t5EG8iGJeiKRXC6H6bWveL-jHQlGKXwMjLyCywi1qCRD8T6Ml5Y_oRXWWJiiwAfna2GiMdWayy1jSboYp63Z7K7VyH4r9_R8BtwTL7Hj5P0c4ZRO7zIlznC_79rens2hvDtqT3GUqxJDcdlZ4ZcdHsFQIOPO2QGSg/s3000/karlsson-pa-taket.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3000" data-original-width="2000" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEib5gwi3f9CBvKAlgw-tX7aDK_vw4t5EG8iGJeiKRXC6H6bWveL-jHQlGKXwMjLyCywi1qCRD8T6Ml5Y_oRXWWJiiwAfna2GiMdWayy1jSboYp63Z7K7VyH4r9_R8BtwTL7Hj5P0c4ZRO7zIlznC_79rens2hvDtqT3GUqxJDcdlZ4ZcdHsFQIOPO2QGSg/s320/karlsson-pa-taket.png" width="213" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGkX98f-1HWtyLOZ7EwYZSg836qNsocA2rC6MmWTChDkDh6XFnCuFJJipDFl2fADU1ovW_zbLRFN83CSGfiyPmKFITmHHZRX2s7MvaOUnVCuqWILTrFB7fvn_c9m_6x_P0cUuKkHzW1CasGxTA6FKRc2wWSpzm00-hk8dMjl0i5eHE-IU5HENsJyZLhYE/s4624/PXL_20231016_152439909.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4624" data-original-width="3472" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGkX98f-1HWtyLOZ7EwYZSg836qNsocA2rC6MmWTChDkDh6XFnCuFJJipDFl2fADU1ovW_zbLRFN83CSGfiyPmKFITmHHZRX2s7MvaOUnVCuqWILTrFB7fvn_c9m_6x_P0cUuKkHzW1CasGxTA6FKRc2wWSpzm00-hk8dMjl0i5eHE-IU5HENsJyZLhYE/s320/PXL_20231016_152439909.jpg" width="240" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHD3PDoUumt-iISL26O29GYt_IPMhQ4xgRlWFqASBoQX_ex5Y8ejQ4dpG443F_GP-hU1RhvL3AiIGu467FVvQjSlIubnwmO_4f6z3QjFR7EC52rUYkDesQ2b7oyfagN9BOvtTM-H8LzcuesmTKrengeSG86VskdUTGjdOwEydHG7ScgCTs-yeq9Y7b3xI/s4624/PXL_20231016_152427242.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4624" data-original-width="3472" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHD3PDoUumt-iISL26O29GYt_IPMhQ4xgRlWFqASBoQX_ex5Y8ejQ4dpG443F_GP-hU1RhvL3AiIGu467FVvQjSlIubnwmO_4f6z3QjFR7EC52rUYkDesQ2b7oyfagN9BOvtTM-H8LzcuesmTKrengeSG86VskdUTGjdOwEydHG7ScgCTs-yeq9Y7b3xI/s320/PXL_20231016_152427242.jpg" width="240" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhi5HQWefXmh7G7C3WF_Ogm3LKtw4LFuTiEAKkaDh139TEQv_h_td_PaBUk70X7mKV7tqpb8R21H2wkcMo904yyLpLZdqu5Ltu3I55TcynCDIkvwBNrg7g2oHQH_oBwsUnXQMaJJv8eWBwJFNVtnWHMzEOr5HPRRvZLA9CM9UbY5atwSDTRT-Zg6lak2qM/s4624/PXL_20231016_152418188.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4624" data-original-width="3472" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhi5HQWefXmh7G7C3WF_Ogm3LKtw4LFuTiEAKkaDh139TEQv_h_td_PaBUk70X7mKV7tqpb8R21H2wkcMo904yyLpLZdqu5Ltu3I55TcynCDIkvwBNrg7g2oHQH_oBwsUnXQMaJJv8eWBwJFNVtnWHMzEOr5HPRRvZLA9CM9UbY5atwSDTRT-Zg6lak2qM/s320/PXL_20231016_152418188.jpg" width="240" /></a></div><h3 style="text-align: left;">Alfred Nobel</h3><p><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfred_Nobel" target="_blank">Alfred Nobel</a> was a Swedish scientist most famous for his Nobel Prize which is awarded once a year to top scientists from around the world. The artist behind this statue is the same as the Karlsson on the roof: <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/CI_LzqnBgAL/" target="_blank">Kolodko Mihály</a>. You can find the statue on the wall of the Hungarian embassy facing the Nobel Park on Östermalm. </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdWlMKL2DXebCBHZ-no70qBMdS7n-2BLk9fPquc9MRcj9WLty4Q82djuRtSa9lWMffrQAVRGJW9VAET7Sk2XF_wc9i4xJ8mIpjYfA52luqNHLbvRaeNn3TLJoyzOrZlu43L4Hxs_np3S9JG8HrWEBv3K1998NnZfhU1j10wiGnDPDxpi83czIHY2HhnVY/s4624/PXL_20231021_143528281.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4624" data-original-width="3472" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdWlMKL2DXebCBHZ-no70qBMdS7n-2BLk9fPquc9MRcj9WLty4Q82djuRtSa9lWMffrQAVRGJW9VAET7Sk2XF_wc9i4xJ8mIpjYfA52luqNHLbvRaeNn3TLJoyzOrZlu43L4Hxs_np3S9JG8HrWEBv3K1998NnZfhU1j10wiGnDPDxpi83czIHY2HhnVY/s320/PXL_20231021_143528281.jpg" width="240" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEheNKmTFUB6PvlBvdrNZljW7LEYp-GiGGIg9aavfVnfx8xAkiGCt3K7VN3sAPRyCeleCBF0JtGRV0hy9CU5X5H8szdd6_vEej4dGhyphenhyphentgMq6noPq16bOHbxXr8Id6vksNRAeWR3Lo3YOLTcvnDyd6W0aM_qFQ4Iw6b9AdG4Nre2NyXuo1E95E0yhj06Lfvs/s4624/PXL_20231021_143516030.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4624" data-original-width="3472" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEheNKmTFUB6PvlBvdrNZljW7LEYp-GiGGIg9aavfVnfx8xAkiGCt3K7VN3sAPRyCeleCBF0JtGRV0hy9CU5X5H8szdd6_vEej4dGhyphenhyphentgMq6noPq16bOHbxXr8Id6vksNRAeWR3Lo3YOLTcvnDyd6W0aM_qFQ4Iw6b9AdG4Nre2NyXuo1E95E0yhj06Lfvs/s320/PXL_20231021_143516030.jpg" width="240" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhG5RqokYceu4-hzieMYxnnFa9-otG_Nx8iyrIODRvcv7mCssEavfdq3XW3E2t36CaxxjoWVzefBrv_ve0H3YslYOvPtlQ7JT6UnIFsCW33XHf5qieU2GK-H1p-06HJtR88nImhin8lszI8EJmwpydlr56b7QkU8iShyphenhyphenj6KsovxBz0NXtpqLrqa8JjEfeg/s4624/PXL_20231021_143508835.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4624" data-original-width="3472" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhG5RqokYceu4-hzieMYxnnFa9-otG_Nx8iyrIODRvcv7mCssEavfdq3XW3E2t36CaxxjoWVzefBrv_ve0H3YslYOvPtlQ7JT6UnIFsCW33XHf5qieU2GK-H1p-06HJtR88nImhin8lszI8EJmwpydlr56b7QkU8iShyphenhyphenj6KsovxBz0NXtpqLrqa8JjEfeg/s320/PXL_20231021_143508835.jpg" width="240" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgbcBrzeRjeX35-79AQjYlKYPwGktLm4M4GnL5IrhyGxaSGbkZDf4-lJhYYl-dBpegnRnfHj1AJd7u8Q3AWleIOOKx4P8BjKnEQuAkiffjHVmj6Co_BJhc1D2vE_-K_fmC0M9gkDGQGxx6Q8Ds9oRCVGS54aA1HRzLWgGdApQwnCssvEWdfJ0J8b5Hdemg/s4624/PXL_20231021_143459108.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4624" data-original-width="3472" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgbcBrzeRjeX35-79AQjYlKYPwGktLm4M4GnL5IrhyGxaSGbkZDf4-lJhYYl-dBpegnRnfHj1AJd7u8Q3AWleIOOKx4P8BjKnEQuAkiffjHVmj6Co_BJhc1D2vE_-K_fmC0M9gkDGQGxx6Q8Ds9oRCVGS54aA1HRzLWgGdApQwnCssvEWdfJ0J8b5Hdemg/s320/PXL_20231021_143459108.jpg" width="240" /></a></div><h3 style="text-align: left;">Small Lion</h3><p>Swedes have for a long time used lions as a symbol for power, strength, and courage. Lion statues are easy to find in Stockholm, especially around the Royal Castle. But this lion is the smallest of them all. The name of the sculpture is <a href="https://www.stockholmkonst.se/konsten/konst-pa-allman-plats/litet-lejon/" target="_blank">Litet Lejon</a>, which translates to "Small Lion," and the artist behind it is Monika Masser. You can find the statue looking for its next prey at Kungsholmstorg, Kungsholmen. I haven't found any information why the lion is so small! </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYlxTo8yFXT3z1z2umckIrBIb02L_RzgcYjiGmJEys0Ijxxmz42_k9hT_HeizNMHZJgsYJ6UguJTXP_IG0CgRvo65h5AscehQcIo87g0PXJL4E_dFjMgvJDvwMYAefewJ_GZewrbxSvfaPX4LzOFhwHqYJfNPN5vT1jOK_ZvcBdlQ59WvhWF3_ITQM1lQ/s1920/PXL_20231001_122628882.TS_exported_1442.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1920" data-original-width="1080" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYlxTo8yFXT3z1z2umckIrBIb02L_RzgcYjiGmJEys0Ijxxmz42_k9hT_HeizNMHZJgsYJ6UguJTXP_IG0CgRvo65h5AscehQcIo87g0PXJL4E_dFjMgvJDvwMYAefewJ_GZewrbxSvfaPX4LzOFhwHqYJfNPN5vT1jOK_ZvcBdlQ59WvhWF3_ITQM1lQ/s320/PXL_20231001_122628882.TS_exported_1442.jpg" width="180" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0c5FojatofvZND-KjZnHOGKx0HZllRiiynwxiRePCplsIaMIXcHkXrbuImtvtR2GXsxSSjUhjk-FER1TszAnk59LjAiF6nHzTpsKB8FT7H1KvH6UWzBP3nZJOnjlZdHRKFASenM-jBXE69BG3GI6zVGOiuzUxtdcvAonU-nsGRF522m8SxkTD8i5rJhw/s3611/PXL_20231001_122707448~2.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3611" data-original-width="2711" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0c5FojatofvZND-KjZnHOGKx0HZllRiiynwxiRePCplsIaMIXcHkXrbuImtvtR2GXsxSSjUhjk-FER1TszAnk59LjAiF6nHzTpsKB8FT7H1KvH6UWzBP3nZJOnjlZdHRKFASenM-jBXE69BG3GI6zVGOiuzUxtdcvAonU-nsGRF522m8SxkTD8i5rJhw/s320/PXL_20231001_122707448~2.jpg" width="240" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTlTSlHGVmy86VXzNREukgshpANhWv_5moM-KWYJfki9gX9f1FOwlV-_sNdPYrLcujK1rz7JnMv4aPC0txHTlYcHXH1Fz3Rnj90aboMPAAOn5fAVBAsIZNAwF_iBUaGg9aavSlIXooZChzwobqN4XWYYac9YOh4pRQ43mlcHgeTmxPgqLPAJed1R05PwQ/s4624/PXL_20231001_122651803.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4624" data-original-width="3472" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTlTSlHGVmy86VXzNREukgshpANhWv_5moM-KWYJfki9gX9f1FOwlV-_sNdPYrLcujK1rz7JnMv4aPC0txHTlYcHXH1Fz3Rnj90aboMPAAOn5fAVBAsIZNAwF_iBUaGg9aavSlIXooZChzwobqN4XWYYac9YOh4pRQ43mlcHgeTmxPgqLPAJed1R05PwQ/s320/PXL_20231001_122651803.jpg" width="240" /></a></div><h3 style="text-align: left;">Iron boy</h3><p>He's called <a href="https://sv.wikipedia.org/wiki/J%C3%A4rnpojke" target="_blank">Järnpojke</a> in Swedish which translates to Iron Boy. You can find him in a back yard close to the Royal Castle in Gamla Stan. Of all the tiny statues covered here, Iron Boy by Liss Eriksson is the most famous. Tourists are crowding around him, taking photos while leaving candy and coins. Apparently rubbing his head and leaving him a gift is supposed to bring good luck to you. The locals around him dress him up in hats during winter so he's not cold and umbrellas in the summer so he's not getting too warm. I took his photos in October and you can see he already got a warm hat. </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkv9lDfQ8TE5JkyW1cUzVkphsK_0qeiauT0SIlC-3f2JilpWnGDqKbOmnChPKU-RlyKX9_7dlQ_h6Kez2UuFbUBADesFPSZS-mP7_6v9WX1mw6CJR90sdKzhI8mvJxZh_q8N2zDDVw3_D67sYI1vUC_8zb0TSJ6hiCfmWA1mAunFejtsGRujUvQf_KGtg/s4624/PXL_20231027_154707612.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4624" data-original-width="3472" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkv9lDfQ8TE5JkyW1cUzVkphsK_0qeiauT0SIlC-3f2JilpWnGDqKbOmnChPKU-RlyKX9_7dlQ_h6Kez2UuFbUBADesFPSZS-mP7_6v9WX1mw6CJR90sdKzhI8mvJxZh_q8N2zDDVw3_D67sYI1vUC_8zb0TSJ6hiCfmWA1mAunFejtsGRujUvQf_KGtg/s320/PXL_20231027_154707612.jpg" width="240" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPrU48r9ru7TDWYRXVEt8feBAl7Z1SPEe5w4sCKqkm97RIWGkNKAT4AuFwIhU9GLDhV3yFeJrLliIrq5XsXXJGPwxM6nsl0242NjJwsl6ypda4o6hR65vEl0XXoUX-go6xd3c8mNA3FfilYop6RmpKtqSp84JdbIgQxiK4Xx9i-uhQf-Q_DDyErj43lUM/s4624/PXL_20231027_154756712.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4624" data-original-width="3472" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPrU48r9ru7TDWYRXVEt8feBAl7Z1SPEe5w4sCKqkm97RIWGkNKAT4AuFwIhU9GLDhV3yFeJrLliIrq5XsXXJGPwxM6nsl0242NjJwsl6ypda4o6hR65vEl0XXoUX-go6xd3c8mNA3FfilYop6RmpKtqSp84JdbIgQxiK4Xx9i-uhQf-Q_DDyErj43lUM/s320/PXL_20231027_154756712.jpg" width="240" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJ9vGVHdgmAib3-JV-JHi6pR64TSINRR5PnHxzNhV06oqmPjtspIctcvdJU6tYeuf20dKnfP4BXP0_kHYALgcvOjmZ20i5NJTwuzmbvtSUd1YV7yDCA5zWcR-K5pbGCLCREmlAmZ1-ZX2_HyGT8FGTIdTCwvgHcjeKk2X4jaVkTYkxcp4zoVG3NCeq3sA/s4624/PXL_20231027_154837741.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4624" data-original-width="3472" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJ9vGVHdgmAib3-JV-JHi6pR64TSINRR5PnHxzNhV06oqmPjtspIctcvdJU6tYeuf20dKnfP4BXP0_kHYALgcvOjmZ20i5NJTwuzmbvtSUd1YV7yDCA5zWcR-K5pbGCLCREmlAmZ1-ZX2_HyGT8FGTIdTCwvgHcjeKk2X4jaVkTYkxcp4zoVG3NCeq3sA/s320/PXL_20231027_154837741.jpg" width="240" /></a></div><h3 style="text-align: left;">Limpan Lindström</h3><p><a href="https://www.stockholmkonst.se/konsten/konst-pa-allman-plats/limpan-lindstrom/" target="_blank">Limpan Lindström</a> was a famous teacher at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts school of sculpture which was located in the area in the 1930s. The artist behind the sculpture is Göran Strååt, and you can find it on Sergelgatan in central Stockholm. </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzvhr5bjFoi6jK6cIJlSrjexm1OmGS2UTYiQaH25iNEIF2krO593wrYgf3gEQdMBEH9-iE2wiezHz4lAp1yGPMQl_Was7drpFRqfI96_Nr0JonkEgSMgDwDUO8E40xbHZTI70BaL3SgLnLbgTRCYqXthyIvy6s23tyKFv0m-B2eXRr3yP2zqK5MQP1pKo/s4624/PXL_20231021_140847245.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4624" data-original-width="3472" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzvhr5bjFoi6jK6cIJlSrjexm1OmGS2UTYiQaH25iNEIF2krO593wrYgf3gEQdMBEH9-iE2wiezHz4lAp1yGPMQl_Was7drpFRqfI96_Nr0JonkEgSMgDwDUO8E40xbHZTI70BaL3SgLnLbgTRCYqXthyIvy6s23tyKFv0m-B2eXRr3yP2zqK5MQP1pKo/s320/PXL_20231021_140847245.jpg" width="240" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5LxqRIBaKDqZzuK3MU4aqN3eUy7vd9erv6PZVHDTNO-B1vmtO9uQky7sR8MQGy6aEi3s50r_f_Bd1QwY4LJMpKYslaDzenFFqpVox7ntGSKQSVUa7pK1lRd9epQTrEkRxvyaBb2XAMTjAL4vg4K1T-si9CRDK0I15MSWAhMf96BeoIjt8OwVjGnmXc7M/s4624/PXL_20231021_140838254.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4624" data-original-width="3472" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5LxqRIBaKDqZzuK3MU4aqN3eUy7vd9erv6PZVHDTNO-B1vmtO9uQky7sR8MQGy6aEi3s50r_f_Bd1QwY4LJMpKYslaDzenFFqpVox7ntGSKQSVUa7pK1lRd9epQTrEkRxvyaBb2XAMTjAL4vg4K1T-si9CRDK0I15MSWAhMf96BeoIjt8OwVjGnmXc7M/s320/PXL_20231021_140838254.jpg" width="240" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZfcH8Z4NAJT4_Tw6BBfY-nseIwuuFyrij9_7UAM8qdYWc1teaq5dVxBUZ8B8TRf1_zSx5DXAHckWFHcUdIeKAUXxZTRTuiHY_45uXZV6a5t4y7fGMNoP0xJdOBikc_OiIBoOe0zTrqEXgyGHlSNLaRfxqnJm5rFm6E3PgtJgVVxdh6SuSUcMTMXrcoJw/s4624/PXL_20231021_140854710.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4624" data-original-width="3472" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZfcH8Z4NAJT4_Tw6BBfY-nseIwuuFyrij9_7UAM8qdYWc1teaq5dVxBUZ8B8TRf1_zSx5DXAHckWFHcUdIeKAUXxZTRTuiHY_45uXZV6a5t4y7fGMNoP0xJdOBikc_OiIBoOe0zTrqEXgyGHlSNLaRfxqnJm5rFm6E3PgtJgVVxdh6SuSUcMTMXrcoJw/s320/PXL_20231021_140854710.jpg" width="240" /></a></div><h3 style="text-align: left;">Cannon ball</h3><p style="text-align: left;">In a corner of Stortorget, Gamla Stan you can see a cannon ball stuck in a house. I remember walking around Gamla Stan as a schoolchild with a tour guide who claimed this is an actual cannon ball fired in 1521 when a Swedish army tried to liberate the capital Stockholm from the occupying Danish army. The truth is that the cannon ball is from 1795 and was added a symbol to remember the Swedish siege of our own capital.</p><p style="text-align: left;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJU0rj95zzxdosAewVTBszM_9N0hdGJ9t1bNWzqbogX2BxZiujsVWmPmn-2JXwcHE6ZdHy99MlgHrVkawp8_pn6KXtKHvHvazoXMXdjiZdzUf6Ou_gT_eHdWpFcLz46KsM-YD8slMO1kh36dH-nTYTHrVNy330upVeIfKv77xEq5Dva1J-U4HbR_vwBLA/s4624/PXL_20231105_100744290.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4624" data-original-width="3472" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJU0rj95zzxdosAewVTBszM_9N0hdGJ9t1bNWzqbogX2BxZiujsVWmPmn-2JXwcHE6ZdHy99MlgHrVkawp8_pn6KXtKHvHvazoXMXdjiZdzUf6Ou_gT_eHdWpFcLz46KsM-YD8slMO1kh36dH-nTYTHrVNy330upVeIfKv77xEq5Dva1J-U4HbR_vwBLA/s320/PXL_20231105_100744290.jpg" width="240" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKGzFxj-0W_p-X0L4_W_Q2Hf76Dp-4cyMy2PX1q1uLcZ5Hk7e48kWNzZJgDLgZmKW5nL35cemDzFP83elWw0OS4-BvrqvW97DGz9JB0kJnjvdoeNVO5xouGyl_2LlJIsIEAPGGu3yBmS5ffHE-LfADWGPr-3d88AbhSUZAOXZU17z3oKw9kLarrmJLmBo/s4624/PXL_20231105_100824838.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4624" data-original-width="3472" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKGzFxj-0W_p-X0L4_W_Q2Hf76Dp-4cyMy2PX1q1uLcZ5Hk7e48kWNzZJgDLgZmKW5nL35cemDzFP83elWw0OS4-BvrqvW97DGz9JB0kJnjvdoeNVO5xouGyl_2LlJIsIEAPGGu3yBmS5ffHE-LfADWGPr-3d88AbhSUZAOXZU17z3oKw9kLarrmJLmBo/s320/PXL_20231105_100824838.jpg" width="240" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjE4wtOdUXMKOGdsPfiJOg97dnlIO8iumkoaeV0qmizloUBikMln6rRp1aM_am9YJ4gsuwYADc0rQBbscGOenW4oUqBOSDAgAivFWWoy-STCqMR9XIJ-KKPQTx-XrvGtiM3z4ELmr2qJIUVaD5kQ7n6wHuQyAllxozNBUnQ33L-MYmM9DLpcflCxZmocpQ/s4624/PXL_20231105_100841394.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4624" data-original-width="3472" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjE4wtOdUXMKOGdsPfiJOg97dnlIO8iumkoaeV0qmizloUBikMln6rRp1aM_am9YJ4gsuwYADc0rQBbscGOenW4oUqBOSDAgAivFWWoy-STCqMR9XIJ-KKPQTx-XrvGtiM3z4ELmr2qJIUVaD5kQ7n6wHuQyAllxozNBUnQ33L-MYmM9DLpcflCxZmocpQ/s320/PXL_20231105_100841394.jpg" width="240" /></a></div><h3 style="text-align: left;">Two hands</h3><p style="text-align: left;">This is an unofficial sculpture so the artists and the name are unknown. You can find them on Hornsgatan 4 very close to Slussen. </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_xKJ9xChXNm596P1lCpPsJYtMvmLxIqQzhtO_F8FPUtrQ9OHNKIZFjUkdLUBHTH2tRwQEt8kyzIM9DpmOSVlVijY7KeJWbp64pJ5DdAwBwDy2tCFL1sbERXT883q6n52rqVfrJpk2_k9_YejJmbXDFKl3HySd86tPqxPQXgrAMqcNjrk_bI9ACEHM068/s4624/PXL_20231105_094505137.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4624" data-original-width="3472" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_xKJ9xChXNm596P1lCpPsJYtMvmLxIqQzhtO_F8FPUtrQ9OHNKIZFjUkdLUBHTH2tRwQEt8kyzIM9DpmOSVlVijY7KeJWbp64pJ5DdAwBwDy2tCFL1sbERXT883q6n52rqVfrJpk2_k9_YejJmbXDFKl3HySd86tPqxPQXgrAMqcNjrk_bI9ACEHM068/s320/PXL_20231105_094505137.jpg" width="240" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6ybcqqhRIaq1UZhJ9gCFO-gpkfOVZ6C9C6NdIQKIRq7m3znw4N1IqFFtwtIHJo39apr8xvd563kmERW0Geqopa0gVK_N9QugNGiHFgBbe6kWf4akQ5rYQqyHyormrQH-rWE-an-VcWzj4uFfDVQeJpaJTtqgcvJvOqiZYD1VqKRaJ6b379vqjmk5k3-8/s4624/PXL_20231105_094609083.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4624" data-original-width="3472" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6ybcqqhRIaq1UZhJ9gCFO-gpkfOVZ6C9C6NdIQKIRq7m3znw4N1IqFFtwtIHJo39apr8xvd563kmERW0Geqopa0gVK_N9QugNGiHFgBbe6kWf4akQ5rYQqyHyormrQH-rWE-an-VcWzj4uFfDVQeJpaJTtqgcvJvOqiZYD1VqKRaJ6b379vqjmk5k3-8/s320/PXL_20231105_094609083.jpg" width="240" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPI9geNbbnomlJMykeJuiYK_mMRYw0im7bTuACn32kJxK2eLdjQHe43fQ6ZRPvbru35eZklLj6OcIFnTXibkfbhYm_9C5Kyvel-1TMpeIEdwHGweHGn8qctF8v99JcOyGlu-dwD8Q39Lhy2FzuGcyrfHtXjKpoNtG4ML-EV6U-LFHvdQiYoL3XirRAHuI/s4624/PXL_20231105_094455727.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4624" data-original-width="3472" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPI9geNbbnomlJMykeJuiYK_mMRYw0im7bTuACn32kJxK2eLdjQHe43fQ6ZRPvbru35eZklLj6OcIFnTXibkfbhYm_9C5Kyvel-1TMpeIEdwHGweHGn8qctF8v99JcOyGlu-dwD8Q39Lhy2FzuGcyrfHtXjKpoNtG4ML-EV6U-LFHvdQiYoL3XirRAHuI/s320/PXL_20231105_094455727.jpg" width="240" /></a></div><h3 style="text-align: left;">Lizard</h3><p style="text-align: left;">This is another unofficial sculpture, most likely by the same artist as Two hands. You can find it slithering on the wall at Hornsgatan 22. </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQeez0UuA0dSCvxeGml8ZMrCkY3wYKop37p1QasinJ6oSdqBsfUYLjC4G_2-bzS-bOUH1kzPFzjX9DJO5Ud5AS2EZixc49ey700pO76nFUke4nM3eyj0Vhc4eVT0ddZXwCXyyb5-nS6JnbvQp3_ADLMODpuS54xRqC1Ke5RJ-_FqMD1pzn0sH_4dNuA1M/s4624/PXL_20231105_094716370.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4624" data-original-width="3472" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQeez0UuA0dSCvxeGml8ZMrCkY3wYKop37p1QasinJ6oSdqBsfUYLjC4G_2-bzS-bOUH1kzPFzjX9DJO5Ud5AS2EZixc49ey700pO76nFUke4nM3eyj0Vhc4eVT0ddZXwCXyyb5-nS6JnbvQp3_ADLMODpuS54xRqC1Ke5RJ-_FqMD1pzn0sH_4dNuA1M/s320/PXL_20231105_094716370.jpg" width="240" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhg1ohZKKynh8QeCttQz0i8de6w69QBDOLGECLOL5gn8K7sRRlfg-pxZ7t7P-2PyuAcASheTIrFawFZCndfrPtcA5afSWtON0GqLoe2EvYMPCGxTL0MbD99hULgLXQfMSXJsWsiSMF_3xwIxH1Iw0eDKFnYyaUyVi8aNFL11osgIeuy217MFlE_YJ6dAgA/s4624/PXL_20231105_094742461.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4624" data-original-width="3472" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhg1ohZKKynh8QeCttQz0i8de6w69QBDOLGECLOL5gn8K7sRRlfg-pxZ7t7P-2PyuAcASheTIrFawFZCndfrPtcA5afSWtON0GqLoe2EvYMPCGxTL0MbD99hULgLXQfMSXJsWsiSMF_3xwIxH1Iw0eDKFnYyaUyVi8aNFL11osgIeuy217MFlE_YJ6dAgA/s320/PXL_20231105_094742461.jpg" width="240" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixbO1YXpwPhuFw9Ezob1kmtMTBL2t5ELv9kkN8uegMQk4sHJyMjftjpwsxtKrhFD0IANqv-9QTEyWUU6Z5GSIgCLVDRfCJnU1qDX2WffUIKE7w6xRxkIK-nKck-wgFA3cBQI9JF1whPJMsF5Tw3GRzTkd_4lGe04qY8xGxtOEN07SQoxX_oZCKCK_bBPw/s4624/PXL_20231105_094726826.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4624" data-original-width="3472" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixbO1YXpwPhuFw9Ezob1kmtMTBL2t5ELv9kkN8uegMQk4sHJyMjftjpwsxtKrhFD0IANqv-9QTEyWUU6Z5GSIgCLVDRfCJnU1qDX2WffUIKE7w6xRxkIK-nKck-wgFA3cBQI9JF1whPJMsF5Tw3GRzTkd_4lGe04qY8xGxtOEN07SQoxX_oZCKCK_bBPw/s320/PXL_20231105_094726826.jpg" width="240" /></a></div><h3 style="text-align: left;">Hand with coin</h3><p style="text-align: left;">Yet another miniature statue by the same artist as Two hands and Lizard. This is a little hand with a coin in it. You can find it at the stairs leading up from Hornsgatan to Hornsgatspuckeln. </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUbOjdVIsx_0aPtSu-svNDIcrbV-wiZJOWuTNfrZTkPf_ZX0QciBF-YrpoFnc_6LUWkNNqaz7p52z-oYiudJeXUG_nhloHSmQyv1g4G-w-cvYURwzQKue1-j-MysstRVGTHze85GuQsHRwSrDLE8xBHPujKqKUozPHgoIuIeTll2Hmj6K-qzQ3sRvfD34/s4624/PXL_20231105_095146666.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4624" data-original-width="3472" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUbOjdVIsx_0aPtSu-svNDIcrbV-wiZJOWuTNfrZTkPf_ZX0QciBF-YrpoFnc_6LUWkNNqaz7p52z-oYiudJeXUG_nhloHSmQyv1g4G-w-cvYURwzQKue1-j-MysstRVGTHze85GuQsHRwSrDLE8xBHPujKqKUozPHgoIuIeTll2Hmj6K-qzQ3sRvfD34/s320/PXL_20231105_095146666.jpg" width="240" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjOlaC3gdvQjq0AqYdBvPK25Y1ZDXhAMeqES7ckv6rcrUCSFavLmXRW2nHzB4oBZLndaS_I9GoJVu6DMJ3ANXXtYJm-AD8V5wDW_ttU_ej9AtMgHtKueOLOLwCs-DQezaYOBwogJCh5xxFMw506VyS6ZEhWBKneCqRDIVFhDPVelECDnA_H7W5PEpJKyM/s4624/PXL_20231105_095156705.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4624" data-original-width="3472" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjOlaC3gdvQjq0AqYdBvPK25Y1ZDXhAMeqES7ckv6rcrUCSFavLmXRW2nHzB4oBZLndaS_I9GoJVu6DMJ3ANXXtYJm-AD8V5wDW_ttU_ej9AtMgHtKueOLOLwCs-DQezaYOBwogJCh5xxFMw506VyS6ZEhWBKneCqRDIVFhDPVelECDnA_H7W5PEpJKyM/s320/PXL_20231105_095156705.jpg" width="240" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi78N6vqYll_EGjIK0wNUFR5fShlNluQrO60mq0wfuc7j5fUpjmdjTxzlwvGnOnbQvaOdjZM-ZMziAx6WXZ5MiPKYszpuPHLSkNeM5HBEELmnklF-R3ZTmssoTt0hMTCM_tq6Q5bZRAfRsIY3sLqCVqya2RwOdSdtARm-9A_DF2U3xngDTknogkXimrECk/s4624/PXL_20231105_095216451.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4624" data-original-width="3472" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi78N6vqYll_EGjIK0wNUFR5fShlNluQrO60mq0wfuc7j5fUpjmdjTxzlwvGnOnbQvaOdjZM-ZMziAx6WXZ5MiPKYszpuPHLSkNeM5HBEELmnklF-R3ZTmssoTt0hMTCM_tq6Q5bZRAfRsIY3sLqCVqya2RwOdSdtARm-9A_DF2U3xngDTknogkXimrECk/s320/PXL_20231105_095216451.jpg" width="240" /></a></div><h3 style="text-align: left;">Hands behind bars</h3><p style="text-align: left;">This is the last sculpture by the same artists as Lizard, Two hands, etc. The same person also made a rat, but it was stolen. You can find it close to Hand with coin. </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiG-qRdNM31ZTbRGyu9x30QSwJS_ySkh7bMQYVT6uSv5zW46q_yyLToqNyjQ8GKJrCDmg3gFBtD4fWr_V11Glvle1EeUjcjV3rKMdQQRBMOlW7PLvGI-qDRhVVgVM2LU9qFybFFJl3gkwI3qlH5ozpwDa_JJWO2lixsq9QJUODYSBQW82vUhAKunaOEKqE/s4624/PXL_20231105_095319838.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4624" data-original-width="3472" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiG-qRdNM31ZTbRGyu9x30QSwJS_ySkh7bMQYVT6uSv5zW46q_yyLToqNyjQ8GKJrCDmg3gFBtD4fWr_V11Glvle1EeUjcjV3rKMdQQRBMOlW7PLvGI-qDRhVVgVM2LU9qFybFFJl3gkwI3qlH5ozpwDa_JJWO2lixsq9QJUODYSBQW82vUhAKunaOEKqE/s320/PXL_20231105_095319838.jpg" width="240" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUo1fv371wh1rqem2t9nvyiwijJTUxW6RTkTWB9oaCz-FmxgvLm4cHy0W9-4JOxy73PMe1XZx6G77AFiV7EPBx60y55XPdG2SllxN2Nm-PLRikzS2gFuiX-DFMC3QVgTMV29IjfeKT3jbl1kdA1Ei9H4tgMp6ofwkh_A5yQNWQZWEQVKrXn-fA7v55pVM/s4624/PXL_20231105_095336582.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4624" data-original-width="3472" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUo1fv371wh1rqem2t9nvyiwijJTUxW6RTkTWB9oaCz-FmxgvLm4cHy0W9-4JOxy73PMe1XZx6G77AFiV7EPBx60y55XPdG2SllxN2Nm-PLRikzS2gFuiX-DFMC3QVgTMV29IjfeKT3jbl1kdA1Ei9H4tgMp6ofwkh_A5yQNWQZWEQVKrXn-fA7v55pVM/s320/PXL_20231105_095336582.jpg" width="240" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_1mXkAe5mmg_-igjsZC5g2e-5V_-v_wdk1yeXUwEx50zbPvbdCkFoJmuPcNuiIM_jAmq6IQZZRkvzcql8L_3hY5ZLmhgaEew2CH0zpvekAApq5jvJk4kOjABC8nlmY8SPdjQMSG_Lu-wy1FGVDd_YXoX77ePxgydnkQlrtAnx1IUxPera7sfRl-ywin4/s4624/PXL_20231105_095329097.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4624" data-original-width="3472" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_1mXkAe5mmg_-igjsZC5g2e-5V_-v_wdk1yeXUwEx50zbPvbdCkFoJmuPcNuiIM_jAmq6IQZZRkvzcql8L_3hY5ZLmhgaEew2CH0zpvekAApq5jvJk4kOjABC8nlmY8SPdjQMSG_Lu-wy1FGVDd_YXoX77ePxgydnkQlrtAnx1IUxPera7sfRl-ywin4/s320/PXL_20231105_095329097.jpg" width="240" /></a></div><p></p><h2 style="text-align: left;">Stolen miniature statues</h2><p style="text-align: left;">These miniatures are so small and thus easy to steal. Here are the stolen miniature statues I've found. </p><h3 style="text-align: left;">Midgard Serpent 2</h3><p style="text-align: left;">The Midgard serpent is a snake from Norse mythology. The Swedish name of the statue is <a href="https://www.stockholmkonst.se/konsten/konst-pa-allman-plats/midgardsormen-ii/" target="_blank">Midgårdsormen 2</a>. Why the 2? Because Midgårdsormen (1) was also stolen, so this statue has got the nick name "Stockholm's most stolen sculpture." I found an article behind paywall saying it had been found, but when I walked by to photograph it I couldn't find it. Here are some pictures found on Internet. </p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgd22VKHccw6ZwJDvNtMCaiEQKDQOCp3xm7-lyaI8sd5BMC6CNKdInPg_dD8Ih7YE8fXgTaEAHIw7Sr9qIXccgxEx8QNvYsgMeUcUpmCSJj559JZFzFH9_nmbncNDdtfCtLlGsZYJaTkd7bdYXCM6jvhu80vXUKJJlF9-nnC0feFRB2d-zsnBBXKe_NIl0/s800/midgardsormen-2.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="533" data-original-width="800" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgd22VKHccw6ZwJDvNtMCaiEQKDQOCp3xm7-lyaI8sd5BMC6CNKdInPg_dD8Ih7YE8fXgTaEAHIw7Sr9qIXccgxEx8QNvYsgMeUcUpmCSJj559JZFzFH9_nmbncNDdtfCtLlGsZYJaTkd7bdYXCM6jvhu80vXUKJJlF9-nnC0feFRB2d-zsnBBXKe_NIl0/s320/midgardsormen-2.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Photo: <a href="https://www.stockholmkonst.se/konsten/konst-pa-allman-plats/midgardsormen-ii/" target="_blank">Stockholms stad</a></td></tr></tbody></table><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpfFgJGvMu2N6oeVD5mUasxCL_aH5Ari1StTgviVgXNer997nmoVDqQqnBTrgwlQW_dvaDm0nbQi1pV9QohNDtsDIaUEIQTVP4SAetqQ8dOlis0B4_tFvMZA9NDh2f4lq_qz2ewntpgF7_K4-JHeT7NqjmBxBZGBlZYdTTbfJlHBVw8tsVTke0QpsfonY/s1354/midgardsormen-2-stolen.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1020" data-original-width="1354" height="241" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpfFgJGvMu2N6oeVD5mUasxCL_aH5Ari1StTgviVgXNer997nmoVDqQqnBTrgwlQW_dvaDm0nbQi1pV9QohNDtsDIaUEIQTVP4SAetqQ8dOlis0B4_tFvMZA9NDh2f4lq_qz2ewntpgF7_K4-JHeT7NqjmBxBZGBlZYdTTbfJlHBVw8tsVTke0QpsfonY/s320/midgardsormen-2-stolen.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Photo: <a href="https://www.google.com/maps/contrib/101875636075899882666" target="_blank">Mikael Nylander</a></td></tr></tbody></table><h3 style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Rat</h3><p style="clear: both; text-align: left;">You could for some time see rat when you walked up the wooden stairs from Hornsgatan to Hornsgatspuckeln. But it was stolen. A newspaper wrote an <a href="https://www.dn.se/blogg/epstein/2016/03/25/vart-har-hornsgatspuckelns-lilla-ratta-tagit-vagen-nagon-som-vet/" target="_blank">article</a> in 2016 asking where it went, but nothing has since been heard, so it has been missing for a while. This is an unofficial sculpture by the same artist as Two hands, Lizard, etc (see above). </p><p style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh57ovZhpI2Qmi1d1jozv2WvrIXQ9bT2pZZp_X7tvNtxVBG4SUfq9fEpJLAtzJHJgUdkUvVBfTdWSt_zf29Gr6WL2iYESrLD6L_i9oLl9mU20ih4szSQfcJM2dyWb6zIsMj9XkF4cI5_4qBPT_fH2amjchPOphViXBRlO8whl0tq3B8PCnYgDTxYnjA6eA/s800/7050455433_34ac2c7006_c.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="600" data-original-width="800" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh57ovZhpI2Qmi1d1jozv2WvrIXQ9bT2pZZp_X7tvNtxVBG4SUfq9fEpJLAtzJHJgUdkUvVBfTdWSt_zf29Gr6WL2iYESrLD6L_i9oLl9mU20ih4szSQfcJM2dyWb6zIsMj9XkF4cI5_4qBPT_fH2amjchPOphViXBRlO8whl0tq3B8PCnYgDTxYnjA6eA/s320/7050455433_34ac2c7006_c.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Photo: <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/72869172@N08/7050455433/" target="_blank">MjauMjauMjauMjau</a></td></tr></tbody></table></p><div style="text-align: left;"> </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjm_Tb2U_mYNTS_Gjx_3zbjMGsWgSgZ5oN_8iS5xbOl9jcT9XXu3uDKA1XBxBj1wNVP7dOYXgJ-xRJXUi6x3jm2DLwz7qCxC8WqsTW9bRvY4YvQfFzc7IMiSal9lld_Lrv6u5mdHNm4bh69nApyCAnXI0ZrmWW7TL-8Vxv_TjAFs1w3dm6fpEgCUZOEse8/s4624/PXL_20231105_095415415.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4624" data-original-width="3472" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjm_Tb2U_mYNTS_Gjx_3zbjMGsWgSgZ5oN_8iS5xbOl9jcT9XXu3uDKA1XBxBj1wNVP7dOYXgJ-xRJXUi6x3jm2DLwz7qCxC8WqsTW9bRvY4YvQfFzc7IMiSal9lld_Lrv6u5mdHNm4bh69nApyCAnXI0ZrmWW7TL-8Vxv_TjAFs1w3dm6fpEgCUZOEse8/s320/PXL_20231105_095415415.jpg" width="240" /></a></div><p></p><h2 style="text-align: left;">The end</h2><p>Thanks for reading and I hope you find them all. If you know of any other tiny statues in the Stockholm are, please leave a comment!</p>Habradorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16953931454438486425noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2610977618186644090.post-61618695198793638202023-04-19T12:44:00.004+02:002023-04-20T10:03:51.370+02:00How to implement colormaps like Rainbow and Viridis in code<p>I've been working hard on making my very own digital wind tunnel in the Unity game engine. It's based on a tutorial from the YouTube series 10 Minute Physics called "How to write an Eulerian Fluid Simulator with 200 lines of code." I translated the code from JavaScript to C#, and I open sourced the implementation here: <a href="https://github.com/Habrador/Ten-Minute-Physics-Unity" target="_blank">Ten Minute Physics in Unity.</a> </p><p>To simulate any fluid you need to study the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Navier%E2%80%93Stokes_equations" target="_blank">Navier-Stokes equations</a>. These are very hard to solve. In fact so hard they are a part of the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Millennium_Prize_Problems" target="_blank">Millennium Prize Problems</a> where you can win a million dollars if you gain some insight while solving them. Therefore you need to simplify them. But even though they are simplified you can still see the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vortex_shedding" target="_blank">vortex shedding</a> that's happening in real wind tunnels if you put a cylinder in them. I thought this was really cool because the simulation part is just 200 lines of code running at 70 fps on the CPU. </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3jz0y9h5gHseyDaeUtFHefyFMUcD26NlQoo-bl59Emjtzob5TGcLjj4if3_I3LvHolLzdmGxj6go9m8PCKilae4MZuFpuv2uP5f0t9zLs8-f7PZyoUuio5wGkeT_rGl6SM5-U2GgNqdQ8axirG5d2psPguTioOQCR5P2B0fve7tAb0i4pFtZJvb1_/s300/wind-tunnel.gif" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="169" data-original-width="300" height="169" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3jz0y9h5gHseyDaeUtFHefyFMUcD26NlQoo-bl59Emjtzob5TGcLjj4if3_I3LvHolLzdmGxj6go9m8PCKilae4MZuFpuv2uP5f0t9zLs8-f7PZyoUuio5wGkeT_rGl6SM5-U2GgNqdQ8axirG5d2psPguTioOQCR5P2B0fve7tAb0i4pFtZJvb1_/s1600/wind-tunnel.gif" width="300" /></a></div><h2 style="text-align: left;">Common colormaps</h2><p>I wanted to improve the wind tunnel by making it more realistic, by optimizing the code, and by making it look better. To make it look better I wanted to implement different colormaps. A colormap is basically a function that takes a value as input and out pops a color. </p><p>The YouTube tutorial I followed is implementing a colormap called Rainbow - also known as Jet or hot-to-cold. Matthias Müller, who made the tutorial, is calling it the "scientific color scheme." I'm using the colormaps to visualize the pressure field. The left image is the pressure field in the wind tunnel, and the right image is the pressure field in a bathtub filled with water. </p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzP1cY5PB5iXOzJ_VMdhly3zszfz0KYmF50C62uw8Pytzi_y0rYAwnuKihqRqVz-mcqJ241E1qTWWWwDmVb_xe-EHyzV7hqO0wDOSQwnNpBsbQDcJian9UdCRpLNvkUerqRkKTqHQaBYMyH9DsGgCHmMgXyEiSpFriShr12BY5YsU52kDjMTzn6xLB/s1780/colormap-rainbow.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="440" data-original-width="1780" height="79" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzP1cY5PB5iXOzJ_VMdhly3zszfz0KYmF50C62uw8Pytzi_y0rYAwnuKihqRqVz-mcqJ241E1qTWWWwDmVb_xe-EHyzV7hqO0wDOSQwnNpBsbQDcJian9UdCRpLNvkUerqRkKTqHQaBYMyH9DsGgCHmMgXyEiSpFriShr12BY5YsU52kDjMTzn6xLB/s320/colormap-rainbow.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Rainbow colormap</td></tr></tbody></table><p style="text-align: left;">You can easily identify the low pressure areas (blue) and the high pressure areas (red). The tutorial I followed came with code to implement the Rainbow colormap - but without comments. To understand the code I googled something like "How to implement the Rainbow color map." The results I found were not of code - but of hate: "Don't Use the Rainbow Color Map" or "Why you should use Viridis and not Jet (rainbow) as a colormap."</p><p style="text-align: left;">The problem with the Rainbow colormap is that it can be easy to misunderstand the data. <a href="https://www.domestic-engineering.com/drafts/viridis/viridis.html" target="_blank">Research</a> shows that "Physicians who use jet in diagnosing heart disease take longer and make significantly more errors than those who use decent colormaps." A good example why Rainbow can be a bad choice can be seen in <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZOyS8xm6W78" target="_blank">this video</a>. You can see that there's a distinctive border between the yellowish and greenish parts even though the yellowish and greenish values are very similar. </p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJX1WMh4oNbxhQnS6KEjtI4L59UbrCQ4pTxMn1t10fdH1Xi4AawYk_puGt0Mg_S2qbkpQeMiRF-1endrR2IgIQshbBPOlO00d7dKFw2YGCVyOXMzO8ANGvrr9tlsgbghUNt5CJDH4oVAUOigPOdEb5s51vtVj1fTIMEcQgvM4e_06-TJjZAuXuiJ6a/s1920/rainbow-map.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1080" data-original-width="1920" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJX1WMh4oNbxhQnS6KEjtI4L59UbrCQ4pTxMn1t10fdH1Xi4AawYk_puGt0Mg_S2qbkpQeMiRF-1endrR2IgIQshbBPOlO00d7dKFw2YGCVyOXMzO8ANGvrr9tlsgbghUNt5CJDH4oVAUOigPOdEb5s51vtVj1fTIMEcQgvM4e_06-TJjZAuXuiJ6a/s320/rainbow-map.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Why the Rainbow colormap can be a bad choice</td></tr></tbody></table><p style="text-align: left;">To improve the Rainbow colormap, Google came up with the <a href="https://ai.googleblog.com/2019/08/turbo-improved-rainbow-colormap-for.html" target="_blank">Turbo colormap</a>. It has smoother transitions between the colors while still having a high contrast between the colors. But Turbo can still be harsh on the eyes - like the Rainbow colormap. Again, red means high pressure and blue means low pressure. </p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkdlkiqghCS_mni_Q_TNKq1cQ1_Xdlly_m6pVuwH-AX22mtTFZK6ptHTRf7s0z9YJKnvfeTsQ-6ylWEn50EhjbVuJMNhCw7Wuvnld2wZIXzQg0x5bnpNlBTvDHSElXh-43jwyCXNY51kz-nTP6DgymMG68NOiJ8GWlPP6iFmXVtFHrP2BtUvEpHyxB/s1780/colormap-turbo.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="440" data-original-width="1780" height="79" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkdlkiqghCS_mni_Q_TNKq1cQ1_Xdlly_m6pVuwH-AX22mtTFZK6ptHTRf7s0z9YJKnvfeTsQ-6ylWEn50EhjbVuJMNhCw7Wuvnld2wZIXzQg0x5bnpNlBTvDHSElXh-43jwyCXNY51kz-nTP6DgymMG68NOiJ8GWlPP6iFmXVtFHrP2BtUvEpHyxB/s320/colormap-turbo.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Turbo colormap</td></tr></tbody></table><p style="text-align: left;">The simplest colormap of them all is the grayscale. If you use it you know the transitions between high and low pressure areas will be smooth. </p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrei6oZf4ppmxwMCHuzkb2fcyTUxiAiKVLZH4o6w2I64zYigV0MS8hnQNHt3zFkKTddg3oGTZa_Y75iBzrWItT-44OrQSOEUnViDpihq6iEitElOD6RyDeoFRLJ07MDDFXguVVHO9JhBY0tzcLsasttMa76M4QZn6XoiXewbwi5wuQhdZ09_Y8m9YF/s1780/colormap-grayscale.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="440" data-original-width="1780" height="79" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrei6oZf4ppmxwMCHuzkb2fcyTUxiAiKVLZH4o6w2I64zYigV0MS8hnQNHt3zFkKTddg3oGTZa_Y75iBzrWItT-44OrQSOEUnViDpihq6iEitElOD6RyDeoFRLJ07MDDFXguVVHO9JhBY0tzcLsasttMa76M4QZn6XoiXewbwi5wuQhdZ09_Y8m9YF/s320/colormap-grayscale.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Grayscale colormap</td></tr></tbody></table><p style="text-align: left;">The Rainbow colormap has been used for years. Then one day Matlab decided they had had enough of it and developed the Parula colormap. They even replaced the Rainbow with the Parula colormap as the default colormap in their software. They also decided they didn't want to share the Parula colormap with the world so it's not open source. But the open source community decided to develop their own colormap called Viridis as explained in this video: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xAoljeRJ3lU" target="_blank">A Better Default Colormap for Matplotlib</a>. Viridis is very similar to Parula, and looks like this: </p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyfLTrHCDEs5xMf_cXdUs1bYrOkX7-wQDZKOkfeXcNAH5hd-9iz9A0_M0kaZJK_RaaJb9gC-EqiL20wwBZs-r_iO1h_GEwFqNblBjb0_xDvdTu4hGA6j3TS_vELv0gNbKQB6gMd_pru6m8dAmYh5mwjNnNJs8MgTkm9FRXY4r_dS7asNTON6itjaqQ/s1780/colormap-viridis.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="440" data-original-width="1780" height="79" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyfLTrHCDEs5xMf_cXdUs1bYrOkX7-wQDZKOkfeXcNAH5hd-9iz9A0_M0kaZJK_RaaJb9gC-EqiL20wwBZs-r_iO1h_GEwFqNblBjb0_xDvdTu4hGA6j3TS_vELv0gNbKQB6gMd_pru6m8dAmYh5mwjNnNJs8MgTkm9FRXY4r_dS7asNTON6itjaqQ/s320/colormap-viridis.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Viridis colormap</td></tr></tbody></table><p style="text-align: left;">Another colormap developed by the same people behind the Viridis colormap (Nathaniel Smith and Stéfan van der Walt) is Inferno. This colormap is similar to a colormap called "black body" which is based on colors from black-body radiation but Inferno is supposed to be more appealing (<a href="https://www.kennethmoreland.com/color-advice/" target="_blank">source</a>). </p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7QLyb0PfKihkAfAV14tTqV3CZhTFY-j5iKbfwiZdD5BIVlDFYlPxAH_nRstx4dQqss_ZJ77Jl2yM8qiy8Knb85f4r-lGR7Mf3sH2WhU8qPblct8ffDiqQ8rejnBtaprghUcBKkycDAXWBoeXHD4IrdlLogb5EZh8hQw7OHlrHDcwA_kXbAMkr9x7g/s1780/colormap-inferno.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="440" data-original-width="1780" height="79" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7QLyb0PfKihkAfAV14tTqV3CZhTFY-j5iKbfwiZdD5BIVlDFYlPxAH_nRstx4dQqss_ZJ77Jl2yM8qiy8Knb85f4r-lGR7Mf3sH2WhU8qPblct8ffDiqQ8rejnBtaprghUcBKkycDAXWBoeXHD4IrdlLogb5EZh8hQw7OHlrHDcwA_kXbAMkr9x7g/s320/colormap-inferno.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Inferno colormap</td></tr></tbody></table><p style="text-align: left;">Yet another colormap by the people behind Viridis is Plasma. It is similar to Inferno but removes the lower black colors to make it more appropriate for 3D surfaces (<a href="https://www.kennethmoreland.com/color-advice/" target="_blank">source</a>).</p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdAmEO4cP5aM-Lz8JpjTkM-5stJiO_RoQRNrMuXHlQgbvJJKGU-DnbpzDj6ioMLYfv1BZZShT0kVhMdjdnoEI-HmhUXnlNA0c7ipXrnpTa5gS29PoqMrYns1MXalSAH-oKraGjNB4Zfb893EoszQqeU4PXXjwRfpS7xxRrQQ-tdEe-YepmwlstS6hT/s1780/colormap-plasma.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="440" data-original-width="1780" height="79" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdAmEO4cP5aM-Lz8JpjTkM-5stJiO_RoQRNrMuXHlQgbvJJKGU-DnbpzDj6ioMLYfv1BZZShT0kVhMdjdnoEI-HmhUXnlNA0c7ipXrnpTa5gS29PoqMrYns1MXalSAH-oKraGjNB4Zfb893EoszQqeU4PXXjwRfpS7xxRrQQ-tdEe-YepmwlstS6hT/s320/colormap-plasma.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Plasma colormap</td></tr></tbody></table><p style="text-align: left;">The last colormap I experimented with was Magma which is very similar to Inferno. I haven't found why you should use Magma instead of other similar colormaps. I you know, please leave a comment. </p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipkmV1NsjGnev7csv2iAlnfmJsbsYx63C8QWIHtAYJWefy0YThRDkZhRp3RJDnzNJzmW0PMp1oaQ57pJcQ4Lg6UV2GJNr4sj2bkmTHTNKnfW_lFzybFCp35Ien1wCi6v1GKd8vmpa9371F_WMz-qXXEVWuX4zspTqwNUH78Sh16-VOQIFXZcEvJyHO/s1780/colormap-magma.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="440" data-original-width="1780" height="79" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipkmV1NsjGnev7csv2iAlnfmJsbsYx63C8QWIHtAYJWefy0YThRDkZhRp3RJDnzNJzmW0PMp1oaQ57pJcQ4Lg6UV2GJNr4sj2bkmTHTNKnfW_lFzybFCp35Ien1wCi6v1GKd8vmpa9371F_WMz-qXXEVWuX4zspTqwNUH78Sh16-VOQIFXZcEvJyHO/s320/colormap-magma.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Magma colormap</td></tr></tbody></table><h2 style="text-align: left;">How to implement colormaps in code</h2><p style="text-align: left;">I've implemented these colormaps in C# and Unity, but you should easily figure out how to implement them in other programming languages. I'm also using Color32 so all my colors should be three bytes (red, green, blue) each in the range 0 → 255 (and also the alpha channel).</p><p style="text-align: left;"><b>Rainbow </b></p><div><p style="text-align: left;">After scrolling through the Rainbow hate I finally found a <a href="https://stackoverflow.com/questions/7706339/grayscale-to-red-green-blue-matlab-jet-color-scale" target="_blank">stackoverflow question</a> how to implement it. The basic idea is that you split the range into four buckets, and then you lerp between the colors blue → cyan → green → yellow → red by using a strength parameter. It looks like this in C# and Unity:</p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDcR4mQFP3c1kqn8ZxvBtvuWAvNt5LZgo25JUpDqpSOjhl9rxjVjUaQk1fjNwLjiRj7sjSZrhQUwsAJk8_M6lYq5o0-RmmIjN9WqJYkDww9de8CuazvosrSmc3B5gFxryah-eiaAAOgMNI8WVJNGUlagq76dKuj9dIpVeRmARdmnIXJzrLDF906XIi/s782/colormap-rainbow-code.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="782" data-original-width="707" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDcR4mQFP3c1kqn8ZxvBtvuWAvNt5LZgo25JUpDqpSOjhl9rxjVjUaQk1fjNwLjiRj7sjSZrhQUwsAJk8_M6lYq5o0-RmmIjN9WqJYkDww9de8CuazvosrSmc3B5gFxryah-eiaAAOgMNI8WVJNGUlagq76dKuj9dIpVeRmARdmnIXJzrLDF906XIi/s320/colormap-rainbow-code.png" width="289" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Rainbow code</td></tr></tbody></table><p style="text-align: left;">I think you could also use a lookup table which might be faster. You can generate the lookup table with this code. </p><p style="text-align: left;"><b>Grayscale</b></p><p style="text-align: left;">Grayscale comes next because we need it to implement the other colormaps. The secret is the InverseLerp to get a value in the rage 0 → 1. And then I inversed it because I felt that white should be low pressure and black should be high pressure. </p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhu3SDMw47kU3WRT3xf5GOhUaaE4zq0rHGoZaG4TSW8WWOUxXx6D2oBvXRrDwUavgps13E5NIrvJ_oHgkbDamU_ENI5lvAr1n3dLdPKmWVKX_ky0LIWKFK9gsOqesTW9KgE8rQgY1Ecjwa5xlgSkFm5Uw1f1H_6HvwO9yBHYJbkbBPqRVDgb4HlzQZR/s822/colormap-code-grayscale.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="271" data-original-width="822" height="105" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhu3SDMw47kU3WRT3xf5GOhUaaE4zq0rHGoZaG4TSW8WWOUxXx6D2oBvXRrDwUavgps13E5NIrvJ_oHgkbDamU_ENI5lvAr1n3dLdPKmWVKX_ky0LIWKFK9gsOqesTW9KgE8rQgY1Ecjwa5xlgSkFm5Uw1f1H_6HvwO9yBHYJbkbBPqRVDgb4HlzQZR/s320/colormap-code-grayscale.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Grayscale code</td></tr></tbody></table><p style="text-align: left;"><b>Turbo</b></p><p style="text-align: left;">To implement Turbo I used a lookup table from <a href="https://gist.github.com/mikhailov-work/6a308c20e494d9e0ccc29036b28faa7a" target="_blank">GitHub</a>. The array has 256 rows because a color can be split into red, green, blue where the red, green, blue can be in the range 0 → 255. To get a color from the table you need to find the index in the array based on the grayscale value. </p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhaRbadp3IYhySPSICOBm942IQqpLU8iKfBhz889Kd7R4x2hp5jKHYLqyXwQIhQkt7wLknZTKg7Rybp5nIsSGjcfFbZJ0iYyAMyA5q0GazVVSG-Sy6VWWK4aB8yMjr9qJgZzj3rdD2hGU2bopNIqx81rAmo_dXqbCBodarN8Mx8ljXz5E00M0B121IQ/s748/colormap-code-turbo.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="533" data-original-width="748" height="228" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhaRbadp3IYhySPSICOBm942IQqpLU8iKfBhz889Kd7R4x2hp5jKHYLqyXwQIhQkt7wLknZTKg7Rybp5nIsSGjcfFbZJ0iYyAMyA5q0GazVVSG-Sy6VWWK4aB8yMjr9qJgZzj3rdD2hGU2bopNIqx81rAmo_dXqbCBodarN8Mx8ljXz5E00M0B121IQ/s320/colormap-code-turbo.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Turbo code</td></tr></tbody></table><b>Viridis, Inferno, Plasma, Magma</b><br /><p style="text-align: left;">The lookup table for Viridis, Inferno, Plasma, and Magma can be found here: <a href="https://github.com/BIDS/colormap/blob/master/colormaps.py" target="_blank">GitHub</a>. The problem now is that the array is in the [] format while C# wants it to be in the {} format. Unless you want to replace the brackets one-by-one, you should copy the entire array into Notepad++ (or whatever text editor you prefer) and replace all [] with {} before copying the entire gaggle into Unity. Then the code is the same as for Turbo. </p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQrmjqvfo2-TODglnGFq-0Mp92E-vL6FbCsI1RvEHRzELU99310IuK9NaaVh98RkGDP26Z-KLJoVV2WB80I2TEvI41Mkw2tXINGjQp5-oNrLRBxumfs4KLGWSj9xRPLBqJ2Q5lyuugRZU05_n5h0szSuE9Q8_7dX5VNLqgIvSZ6dvRAYHMhFymXa_t/s780/colormap-code-viridis.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="564" data-original-width="780" height="231" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQrmjqvfo2-TODglnGFq-0Mp92E-vL6FbCsI1RvEHRzELU99310IuK9NaaVh98RkGDP26Z-KLJoVV2WB80I2TEvI41Mkw2tXINGjQp5-oNrLRBxumfs4KLGWSj9xRPLBqJ2Q5lyuugRZU05_n5h0szSuE9Q8_7dX5VNLqgIvSZ6dvRAYHMhFymXa_t/s320/colormap-code-viridis.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Viridis code</td></tr></tbody></table><p style="text-align: left;">As a side note I asked ChatGPT to generate code that can generate the Viridis colors without using a lookup table. It generated the method ViridisColorMap which I was really excited to try out. It turned out the AI lied - it had just generated the Rainbow colormap and changed the name of the method. But the method was different from the Rainbow colormap method I implemented, and that was at least a little cool.</p></div>Habradorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16953931454438486425noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2610977618186644090.post-83048665691451818562023-04-07T16:59:00.001+02:002023-04-26T20:04:43.763+02:00Bing Image Creator AI: An overview of art styles and materials you can use<p>The search engine Microsoft Bing has a new tool called <a href="https://www.bing.com/images/create" target="_blank">Image Creator</a>. This tool lets you create images from text by using an AI system called <a href="https://openai.com/product/dall-e-2" target="_blank">DALL·E 2 from OpenAI</a>. If you want a superchihuahua with a red cape, just type "superchihuahua with a red cape" and you get four images in just a matter of seconds (the more images you generate the longer it will take unless you pay Microsoft some money). No-one took a photo of exactly this chihuahua dressed in a red cape - it doesn't exist in real life - it was generated by the Artificial Intelligence.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiu2cEIt8N7Unrb4ZcRifyuFisn9xpBeYq4U4vHfQMJt9joDB4ly-_v8rXL8vtOx4-vTA1nWjV1HGB7KWVyD2OGWJSg8l2hkurdh-2iMAiECh5gLOrfSsJwwwgp7cZK43mVezthA3qHnpeLcUODxWRorzcpj0mIrnB0bPFCASX_xYUuTYTWMf42vyeo/s1024/sc-2.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1024" data-original-width="1024" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiu2cEIt8N7Unrb4ZcRifyuFisn9xpBeYq4U4vHfQMJt9joDB4ly-_v8rXL8vtOx4-vTA1nWjV1HGB7KWVyD2OGWJSg8l2hkurdh-2iMAiECh5gLOrfSsJwwwgp7cZK43mVezthA3qHnpeLcUODxWRorzcpj0mIrnB0bPFCASX_xYUuTYTWMf42vyeo/s320/sc-2.png" width="320" /></a></div><p><br /></p><h2 style="text-align: left;">Art styles</h2><p>The Image Creator tool can also generate images with a specific art style, such as watercolor or anime. But there's not an overview of which art styles are available, so I thought I would try a few of them and show the result here. To get a specific art style, you type "superchihuahua with a red cape, anime art style" so it understands which art style to use. The AI is smart when it comes to generate cool images - but sometimes it's really hard to make it understand what you want based on what you think you want. For example: "superchihuahua with a red cape, anime style" generated photo realistic images, so you have to experiment a little, but the general rule is that the art style you want should come last after a comma.</p><p style="text-align: center;"><b>2d art</b></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmv-ZBlFq06xvtE-k3Uc7qlx_6l4eITD_h1O4mh2gN1rrPMgqglDV3mhG-LlQzKzxf2eB4A5oZi8pjbH02UQ1u9FHsL5O2LDr5QqWPA_5o3kNj6nE3RhjifJ9ICEthpepe9d_02VNO8JWMlPO1KrJSKxl3y32s15rWyJnQe5i2f387IyoiCWGXECfW/s1024/sc-2d-art.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1024" data-original-width="1024" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmv-ZBlFq06xvtE-k3Uc7qlx_6l4eITD_h1O4mh2gN1rrPMgqglDV3mhG-LlQzKzxf2eB4A5oZi8pjbH02UQ1u9FHsL5O2LDr5QqWPA_5o3kNj6nE3RhjifJ9ICEthpepe9d_02VNO8JWMlPO1KrJSKxl3y32s15rWyJnQe5i2f387IyoiCWGXECfW/s320/sc-2d-art.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b>3d art</b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYGDyYjcu8rcSWBzHDlCUD844TUuiKHxfcCXW4it1vkpQdfIxQPu404D9WTsSpx8BcL-xsI0ybK4ORVrul_lqNCl29XVN5-QRnqv7pdW9ZSUgGkk7p5_q9hbvomJIqmNuOBEmYyLvjTl-94vjAviPcWSt31UWhmIHGslQ8SNnCy5fACeCA1lRyjp3n/s1024/sc-3d-art.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1024" data-original-width="1024" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYGDyYjcu8rcSWBzHDlCUD844TUuiKHxfcCXW4it1vkpQdfIxQPu404D9WTsSpx8BcL-xsI0ybK4ORVrul_lqNCl29XVN5-QRnqv7pdW9ZSUgGkk7p5_q9hbvomJIqmNuOBEmYyLvjTl-94vjAviPcWSt31UWhmIHGslQ8SNnCy5fACeCA1lRyjp3n/s320/sc-3d-art.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b>Acrylic painting</b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhccBGsHO9o2kpOih2iwSRA0yJ9AbktdEs2j9u8CFZACsFeD9JMz5CxU-EYLWrBkrau5lvpDs_UKDBsESaQtd_mjUtwxdoswoohPGVnd7LNl4aqBlEMGTOVbgXBLhHeHd8BD7WTPd7uosW9PCV9aNb3_G5OiLvBsCEbkbxeSst5qv-f1ak04fj-daLc/s1024/sc-acrylic-painting.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1024" data-original-width="1024" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhccBGsHO9o2kpOih2iwSRA0yJ9AbktdEs2j9u8CFZACsFeD9JMz5CxU-EYLWrBkrau5lvpDs_UKDBsESaQtd_mjUtwxdoswoohPGVnd7LNl4aqBlEMGTOVbgXBLhHeHd8BD7WTPd7uosW9PCV9aNb3_G5OiLvBsCEbkbxeSst5qv-f1ak04fj-daLc/s320/sc-acrylic-painting.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b>Anime</b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMxTpJu-KkLbMNmCJODAn0UyghozSkpWucf0fHaybZ96dQ8-8YHAj5C6_zAMNtesYL31_lYAfWncUPcdej9u1Pm9I-0rovQdjZh3k_lmKRsxJiF5cTJ3AKMy20Rpi3CrSQREVAW9kg9Eb2aqdxsEuFYL-WG-T6y70Yq1XGKh6O63lCoUczSHCbtHWV/s1024/sc-anime.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1024" data-original-width="1024" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMxTpJu-KkLbMNmCJODAn0UyghozSkpWucf0fHaybZ96dQ8-8YHAj5C6_zAMNtesYL31_lYAfWncUPcdej9u1Pm9I-0rovQdjZh3k_lmKRsxJiF5cTJ3AKMy20Rpi3CrSQREVAW9kg9Eb2aqdxsEuFYL-WG-T6y70Yq1XGKh6O63lCoUczSHCbtHWV/s320/sc-anime.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b>Cartoon</b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVEVrD2OCPDlrvBmYZexR3lm8cLvA1kHjzcg2vQ-NVKEhW_aMe_yjPkqlBOzXezsWDfRjSnL5_zQJ2XJrIRGI4VqA-yjv41cZE4rNjI1TDXDs50k_Kc2b78WE2cRblaZJMaZbJSHY8WMZHH79GqnSB-tqLdW0egX-Rc7kVOb1xYWsfrerfNwYPTFBb/s1024/sc-cartoon.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1024" data-original-width="1024" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVEVrD2OCPDlrvBmYZexR3lm8cLvA1kHjzcg2vQ-NVKEhW_aMe_yjPkqlBOzXezsWDfRjSnL5_zQJ2XJrIRGI4VqA-yjv41cZE4rNjI1TDXDs50k_Kc2b78WE2cRblaZJMaZbJSHY8WMZHH79GqnSB-tqLdW0egX-Rc7kVOb1xYWsfrerfNwYPTFBb/s320/sc-cartoon.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b>Comic book</b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjD27sDFMfl8mv4VkGI0GqGIR1u6kdfXvcmug9s0KhNQiIv_YciPfsE-76V9YIItBku58I44E56gwK-EMwewAi2og4ZMjj3Cb1dl7_57_RqKK3imps2eATJugM0iHvHv-jERpyxxaG9DXUH5LAJdImgY_IJtUde9JCCnOOxLcsXCp0COXdEybE-gayw/s1024/sc-comic-book.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1024" data-original-width="1024" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjD27sDFMfl8mv4VkGI0GqGIR1u6kdfXvcmug9s0KhNQiIv_YciPfsE-76V9YIItBku58I44E56gwK-EMwewAi2og4ZMjj3Cb1dl7_57_RqKK3imps2eATJugM0iHvHv-jERpyxxaG9DXUH5LAJdImgY_IJtUde9JCCnOOxLcsXCp0COXdEybE-gayw/s320/sc-comic-book.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b>Cubism</b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitzV2tkuxQ_gBuNNfsuYIuazl2deog8dbgQ1nwCF8PIYrLe16tmzUT8Q1qkAIIg-OuBpbXtb_u8QJF5lE2qdsD_plJC-sS_sOzeduCsO0Xmky-eWG38WAdlKRg4nRm2qUbL1RiknxvJKhui_kFNzyTYXE6m1lDBuuitnkZ33_Hca_OxsVon4sVJj9O/s1024/sc-cubism.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1024" data-original-width="1024" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitzV2tkuxQ_gBuNNfsuYIuazl2deog8dbgQ1nwCF8PIYrLe16tmzUT8Q1qkAIIg-OuBpbXtb_u8QJF5lE2qdsD_plJC-sS_sOzeduCsO0Xmky-eWG38WAdlKRg4nRm2qUbL1RiknxvJKhui_kFNzyTYXE6m1lDBuuitnkZ33_Hca_OxsVon4sVJj9O/s320/sc-cubism.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b>Drawn with charcoal</b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGAsnkxcO0oHPZnuuIRS9-P6b5G9nFJlDO9_EsrOmXyvxWNsZ5xi9HS2FqwM5fMhsOgErt7iMBYQ4ZI2IP1_5_h2_c2P2Yx6u4fQXQXeYts_dJjqBhO13xmZ_Ly7-7W9_LqRovZkUVCpv8KC50ZQB20ATaxlyocihYJShKOm37G_X1eH_xgWvgBoeY/s1024/sc-drawn-with-charcoal.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1024" data-original-width="1024" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGAsnkxcO0oHPZnuuIRS9-P6b5G9nFJlDO9_EsrOmXyvxWNsZ5xi9HS2FqwM5fMhsOgErt7iMBYQ4ZI2IP1_5_h2_c2P2Yx6u4fQXQXeYts_dJjqBhO13xmZ_Ly7-7W9_LqRovZkUVCpv8KC50ZQB20ATaxlyocihYJShKOm37G_X1eH_xgWvgBoeY/s320/sc-drawn-with-charcoal.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b>Drawn with crayons</b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQSm4SaJWY8kdV4oae6RV93l_v3cOyenfpd6_QSaPlRCahhDbCMrEB0KXLQ7QK1vTbZ7Ot-oT-ZVrXZbEj0tWRm3uEuwkePr_yjN0x-jmkEOqp2dqgTiOkZ2fjeWyLSpl4CLc1GYba5kIsh5L0bm29l-KVrYkwaQ1mAr2DI_gHWuQuUqB8DlMyyEtd/s1024/sc-drawn-with-crayons.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1024" data-original-width="1024" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQSm4SaJWY8kdV4oae6RV93l_v3cOyenfpd6_QSaPlRCahhDbCMrEB0KXLQ7QK1vTbZ7Ot-oT-ZVrXZbEj0tWRm3uEuwkePr_yjN0x-jmkEOqp2dqgTiOkZ2fjeWyLSpl4CLc1GYba5kIsh5L0bm29l-KVrYkwaQ1mAr2DI_gHWuQuUqB8DlMyyEtd/s320/sc-drawn-with-crayons.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b>In the style of Andy Warhol</b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8ZaOtojF0ZUro-rQWbQg5BO0kxo7kAiQj9P2euSCxaV46sbe_rdHEefCbGBtHSW30LjoXVdGPOz9bRNqtInhL61uaALtjnUDvGPk8V5Hy-P3Tmnhsoyv4LPHLZO7Gv95FvU6omfMHKWCCeSrokIs9bRf0YuyZw3E6g8Gl5pozn8krf5tijduDeMCa/s1024/sc-in-the-style-of-andy-warhol.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1024" data-original-width="1024" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8ZaOtojF0ZUro-rQWbQg5BO0kxo7kAiQj9P2euSCxaV46sbe_rdHEefCbGBtHSW30LjoXVdGPOz9bRNqtInhL61uaALtjnUDvGPk8V5Hy-P3Tmnhsoyv4LPHLZO7Gv95FvU6omfMHKWCCeSrokIs9bRf0YuyZw3E6g8Gl5pozn8krf5tijduDeMCa/s320/sc-in-the-style-of-andy-warhol.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b>In the style of Leonardo da Vinci</b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgMfshBBDPg96AsAZqJTvsucyCERb4m7kdkeLc5wGUfdsT4q8335UbQ94Vy-XoBvDyo5YUWW85GzIxGb_S9R0cHxU-sDNvpQPlmcc5oo2CxAaRmLRsGJ2YGuY-FPacP5qUecLu3A4RKTcHq690W-tpz5BlrYuSFK0nM8e-Pn6KN_bxPQQDuiNABWdv/s1024/sc-in-the-style-of-Leonardo-da-Vinci.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1024" data-original-width="1024" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgMfshBBDPg96AsAZqJTvsucyCERb4m7kdkeLc5wGUfdsT4q8335UbQ94Vy-XoBvDyo5YUWW85GzIxGb_S9R0cHxU-sDNvpQPlmcc5oo2CxAaRmLRsGJ2YGuY-FPacP5qUecLu3A4RKTcHq690W-tpz5BlrYuSFK0nM8e-Pn6KN_bxPQQDuiNABWdv/s320/sc-in-the-style-of-Leonardo-da-Vinci.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b>In the style of Monet</b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYFzU9ubKBO1xNrTb5Zq8jJdWdwLOv46JQM65CkH5VzY_rKsiYWYsxxBm0be3OQPPlrjKrUhEfg7PQ3RwKWWcqqXKmXaX-55pg82z6FlyHNaEoRu6PJXYbjui1h1g38QKSWAcCws4hsV5YP4ibNAZbRQEHiapyXK3HToRNnuLpdFRapLSHK-mPO9bR/s1024/sc-in-the-style-of-monet.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1024" data-original-width="1024" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYFzU9ubKBO1xNrTb5Zq8jJdWdwLOv46JQM65CkH5VzY_rKsiYWYsxxBm0be3OQPPlrjKrUhEfg7PQ3RwKWWcqqXKmXaX-55pg82z6FlyHNaEoRu6PJXYbjui1h1g38QKSWAcCws4hsV5YP4ibNAZbRQEHiapyXK3HToRNnuLpdFRapLSHK-mPO9bR/s320/sc-in-the-style-of-monet.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b>In the style of Picasso</b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCSKq2Kd0JLrWOii2apda_o1cRgWWs0eXox6h1U8gP8AacZUNPIClWkNZ3g6vVSRUO3nc3M8Ts-SqDaQefTlPE5plkgkrfFTnsKqGvUzXqR0UwY8r4SPPm8z4YD0WSyOFw6aaCQm8aSH_xL2nCNSJcG9sKlkRvp5JpGYGpQj7JZs9FSle7cAurN3F0/s1024/sc-in-the-style-of-picasso.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1024" data-original-width="1024" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCSKq2Kd0JLrWOii2apda_o1cRgWWs0eXox6h1U8gP8AacZUNPIClWkNZ3g6vVSRUO3nc3M8Ts-SqDaQefTlPE5plkgkrfFTnsKqGvUzXqR0UwY8r4SPPm8z4YD0WSyOFw6aaCQm8aSH_xL2nCNSJcG9sKlkRvp5JpGYGpQj7JZs9FSle7cAurN3F0/s320/sc-in-the-style-of-picasso.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b>Japanese ink Painting</b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiV4HnQWA4nBMJz4RGJk6GizekTvk52gyTNn5Oki1i576Wd_P2vYtmYaPosh0rgW6Oem0gkCAFkPhas5Q-5gv0ixgXBkx-R2gQjNACLXyWETd1CoEn87ebH4Zqzg-TH7ZRwnLalOfvMduwWd08R-GNSxgwwqph55V9VhaUkUz94gXr1JCUnKCEm4Iuv/s1024/sc-Japanese-ink-painting.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1024" data-original-width="1024" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiV4HnQWA4nBMJz4RGJk6GizekTvk52gyTNn5Oki1i576Wd_P2vYtmYaPosh0rgW6Oem0gkCAFkPhas5Q-5gv0ixgXBkx-R2gQjNACLXyWETd1CoEn87ebH4Zqzg-TH7ZRwnLalOfvMduwWd08R-GNSxgwwqph55V9VhaUkUz94gXr1JCUnKCEm4Iuv/s320/sc-Japanese-ink-painting.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b>Manga</b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_oMx-kv-gBSLR3HyW2YfD3RL8iGA9MHp7udx69ny8aHHms2uh8ld9sn9aRzVPA4IFCcJ3w2RFiamGH-yRaaUtIZPN_8-zPuwVKqRKTwlxxqI44eGG7B5PqedjRWoY15xpRoEPBGrWgTomqQM6x03S1Rnoto-In_k2u323zjS5L8qE7OJK2uZRACWq/s1024/sc-manga-2.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1024" data-original-width="1024" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_oMx-kv-gBSLR3HyW2YfD3RL8iGA9MHp7udx69ny8aHHms2uh8ld9sn9aRzVPA4IFCcJ3w2RFiamGH-yRaaUtIZPN_8-zPuwVKqRKTwlxxqI44eGG7B5PqedjRWoY15xpRoEPBGrWgTomqQM6x03S1Rnoto-In_k2u323zjS5L8qE7OJK2uZRACWq/s320/sc-manga-2.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b>Old photo</b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixyLfyInNRTaU0QWoeOzrvKVLtCrXIBXksiMfOLDo1aPlooUVAsse-8VEkXA1UD1dnG2FD-4QZ6UYr3s3p3veQ9ZYGREYwVcrZiD0L3yBBvp7_u5YmHXZDrWKynixmdDDg23yxOCxApOTFHIWZGIx2_UKmn16sZ_IbYxbgIDgNLhoaL2htqPEGoiuQ/s1024/sc-old-photo-style.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1024" data-original-width="1024" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixyLfyInNRTaU0QWoeOzrvKVLtCrXIBXksiMfOLDo1aPlooUVAsse-8VEkXA1UD1dnG2FD-4QZ6UYr3s3p3veQ9ZYGREYwVcrZiD0L3yBBvp7_u5YmHXZDrWKynixmdDDg23yxOCxApOTFHIWZGIx2_UKmn16sZ_IbYxbgIDgNLhoaL2htqPEGoiuQ/s320/sc-old-photo-style.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b>Pencil art</b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8MW_SdhLcMixAyA-5hV4AmVBoQCHLiGUdTg22wHcjfvFRAkzML0d3IjhQyqkar2bFdwbtSpxHU137WseMG4aVzB_AXkRC9efQG1l-4O5kuhruJwbWfqyd1pvwGOQWOH3342Btsw6oc8LEy55FnHSngtEqtISwTp7faJSflS3OfXQf0zkIIIGaoxDS/s1024/sc-pencil-art.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1024" data-original-width="1024" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8MW_SdhLcMixAyA-5hV4AmVBoQCHLiGUdTg22wHcjfvFRAkzML0d3IjhQyqkar2bFdwbtSpxHU137WseMG4aVzB_AXkRC9efQG1l-4O5kuhruJwbWfqyd1pvwGOQWOH3342Btsw6oc8LEy55FnHSngtEqtISwTp7faJSflS3OfXQf0zkIIIGaoxDS/s320/sc-pencil-art.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b>Pixel art</b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0lPbD0O4u95eVuc7gsvtTSN4Oy0iGqBvLhWjWAuZmpnRnpS-Dd54vDhyrbjVLGJwgwggh1l3KEZMGh61Fqe-Rg4_DebH4dm5DyEQigDilTdxZ6UqGeGEsDy7VxkgtzAQ2DoZn1RBth9oDmu-knh3E8LtPDrfgmH-GROFGtUtOVeU8y-Ytv9GBLnV-/s1024/sc-pixel-art.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1024" data-original-width="1024" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0lPbD0O4u95eVuc7gsvtTSN4Oy0iGqBvLhWjWAuZmpnRnpS-Dd54vDhyrbjVLGJwgwggh1l3KEZMGh61Fqe-Rg4_DebH4dm5DyEQigDilTdxZ6UqGeGEsDy7VxkgtzAQ2DoZn1RBth9oDmu-knh3E8LtPDrfgmH-GROFGtUtOVeU8y-Ytv9GBLnV-/s320/sc-pixel-art.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b>Pop art</b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhu0ZKRlBZMJqaOlbSzo-0C0AFXK5QIMZyIisa-wlohM-yn5IxQxMKwnwES9DWApmCMKo1KC6nIhmxbQo4JNSPH356SaPHzCafnL4GXvq22wyG3sBC7k_vk6kIwbXBeV2gkuLRlexoMv-MEXPdVtFV9NYcOnX9cprHIHxgm2uEht4qgD9-gGuWATo7n/s1024/sc-popart.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1024" data-original-width="1024" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhu0ZKRlBZMJqaOlbSzo-0C0AFXK5QIMZyIisa-wlohM-yn5IxQxMKwnwES9DWApmCMKo1KC6nIhmxbQo4JNSPH356SaPHzCafnL4GXvq22wyG3sBC7k_vk6kIwbXBeV2gkuLRlexoMv-MEXPdVtFV9NYcOnX9cprHIHxgm2uEht4qgD9-gGuWATo7n/s320/sc-popart.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b>Renaissance</b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYsoLmDJPCuaob5hkKAZKg76IV-pfIaCRG3SUyNVjsXXAgWsHIdcoRJK5pjAVIuwaNQDMVwOwg1_SoUkXDyujwauUeKZZMwLvjVEcR38pO1UokXdWF1lh85UKETChU_4QBZVnSqNY8S-LZhRXBVN_qPpuXJ0UY8vro7BJ33qar-02nqj0-bD-qT0dp/s1024/sc-renaissance-painting.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1024" data-original-width="1024" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYsoLmDJPCuaob5hkKAZKg76IV-pfIaCRG3SUyNVjsXXAgWsHIdcoRJK5pjAVIuwaNQDMVwOwg1_SoUkXDyujwauUeKZZMwLvjVEcR38pO1UokXdWF1lh85UKETChU_4QBZVnSqNY8S-LZhRXBVN_qPpuXJ0UY8vro7BJ33qar-02nqj0-bD-qT0dp/s320/sc-renaissance-painting.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b>Surrealism</b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWLz_5kYvEtRgsnfteeKGEwyCIiz5Ay5icWBWzjfkozcn862v2pPMYJW2DEN5gdis9F-uUJfuVgUL38zdKAaS3hCQxp3E_17ByDlEGAaFBStyo-yxsQhLsWFvj2scSm51zHZox8oEu3Mt7v3UieBY0eY3o82fad7YXvHSy3sOnKzWZx2jJx-OYAc9y/s1024/sc-surrealism.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1024" data-original-width="1024" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWLz_5kYvEtRgsnfteeKGEwyCIiz5Ay5icWBWzjfkozcn862v2pPMYJW2DEN5gdis9F-uUJfuVgUL38zdKAaS3hCQxp3E_17ByDlEGAaFBStyo-yxsQhLsWFvj2scSm51zHZox8oEu3Mt7v3UieBY0eY3o82fad7YXvHSy3sOnKzWZx2jJx-OYAc9y/s320/sc-surrealism.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b>Ukiyo e painting</b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjs9wRLzh0hg5lo37I4yK7DVyi54mjFtjb5XR4dP9Tz1CpGhR66J4gH_9SQhhPDsL6fBmi2j9-buHbtMzn3IaNHB8SqWuMJ5zhpBZNzCu_jmOWMSiohZFyngyzfWW0-d6Ls42V6JG8QXGfZQ2cCmXqB5YguoZI84iI3BqeIU1Sm4ewjCxnQDn8BwVEM/s1024/sc-ukiyo-e-paintings.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1024" data-original-width="1024" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjs9wRLzh0hg5lo37I4yK7DVyi54mjFtjb5XR4dP9Tz1CpGhR66J4gH_9SQhhPDsL6fBmi2j9-buHbtMzn3IaNHB8SqWuMJ5zhpBZNzCu_jmOWMSiohZFyngyzfWW0-d6Ls42V6JG8QXGfZQ2cCmXqB5YguoZI84iI3BqeIU1Sm4ewjCxnQDn8BwVEM/s320/sc-ukiyo-e-paintings.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b>Voxel art</b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEis1F2TlKmXQiWcIARYVqanDDRJBXy5v3mqSPDJw2V175H0amAplMYrjge17DCKPMf_R0J2TQOCcQfAInU_ckuXQFFuNR_MRDImZ0NUkV0po8z20ryHc9o_OiSSMgv-esh9whSNQsfyxYW0lkgkF3HP0Kqh_iyXzfQBqZTlQcRruq7Rz25_20_VXLQi/s1024/sc-voxel-art.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1024" data-original-width="1024" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEis1F2TlKmXQiWcIARYVqanDDRJBXy5v3mqSPDJw2V175H0amAplMYrjge17DCKPMf_R0J2TQOCcQfAInU_ckuXQFFuNR_MRDImZ0NUkV0po8z20ryHc9o_OiSSMgv-esh9whSNQsfyxYW0lkgkF3HP0Kqh_iyXzfQBqZTlQcRruq7Rz25_20_VXLQi/s320/sc-voxel-art.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b>Watercolor</b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9EoFJi_N4Yd-PqAjbMXMRfG-GDbDzKrm-ODjEhJdSM2KPRU-J9QHkNv-4Kxnf3-Ec4UPyfmR0M2Q-GbAO_IO7xrhr3jtQ-IcjzXHmokd2NNvF42R8YAehU85Bwd981gQqrQcYOTuym3fyr5WYimV9EMnCf9GPfcO6T8x6UKnc46EIraEBJBS0eCdN/s1024/sc-watercolor.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1024" data-original-width="1024" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9EoFJi_N4Yd-PqAjbMXMRfG-GDbDzKrm-ODjEhJdSM2KPRU-J9QHkNv-4Kxnf3-Ec4UPyfmR0M2Q-GbAO_IO7xrhr3jtQ-IcjzXHmokd2NNvF42R8YAehU85Bwd981gQqrQcYOTuym3fyr5WYimV9EMnCf9GPfcO6T8x6UKnc46EIraEBJBS0eCdN/s320/sc-watercolor.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b>Banksy</b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWg0ZEvJ1hTZEwhxdYy_bjbrwlD-0welPU3IA5FMG2FRXewSzCbABdHz47p5COL4kyHWvVyHNGFEFzgdYMCxFyBkU3dx0U2K8tk_LIXyPUR0GEA_lQVnKAe5k4x7pmtuJS2QyvfSfU95AiB5lRhnMgKwJUHQjFGURv7I5sxjnGJj-YRfyMLaJWA8OM/s1024/sc-banksy-style.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1024" data-original-width="1024" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWg0ZEvJ1hTZEwhxdYy_bjbrwlD-0welPU3IA5FMG2FRXewSzCbABdHz47p5COL4kyHWvVyHNGFEFzgdYMCxFyBkU3dx0U2K8tk_LIXyPUR0GEA_lQVnKAe5k4x7pmtuJS2QyvfSfU95AiB5lRhnMgKwJUHQjFGURv7I5sxjnGJj-YRfyMLaJWA8OM/s320/sc-banksy-style.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><p><br /></p><h2 style="text-align: left;">Materials </h2><p>If you get bored of the art style, you can generate chihuahuas made out of different materials. To get a specific material, you type "superchihuahua with a red cape, made of gold" so it understands which material to use. If you ignore the comma then only the cape will be made out of gold, so you have to be as clear as possible or it won't understand what you mean. If you only want the chihuahua to be in a specific material you type "superchihuahua made of gold with a red cape."</p><p style="text-align: center;"><b>Glas </b></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwCokg3SqbgxgYL6eQdTnpzF-dE7h9u6N3hJtyuMY3kOwi43PwE8N_YW11NjdQBfIWevoDUD1V96oMHfPdJrstknMDrVcoWnGQVymLHTAnUwIZ36SyQpKU_wCdMEGTMHj0iHfb5nisMUUW3CFyEWoU3e2r_c6qL_35DmBRL0uVJG3nCG8wPjtzIDp5/s1024/sc-mat-glas.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1024" data-original-width="1024" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwCokg3SqbgxgYL6eQdTnpzF-dE7h9u6N3hJtyuMY3kOwi43PwE8N_YW11NjdQBfIWevoDUD1V96oMHfPdJrstknMDrVcoWnGQVymLHTAnUwIZ36SyQpKU_wCdMEGTMHj0iHfb5nisMUUW3CFyEWoU3e2r_c6qL_35DmBRL0uVJG3nCG8wPjtzIDp5/s320/sc-mat-glas.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b>Gold</b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrdnxWJ2-0vTivHmZR4mCYpYI_KAMBfeznkHeNo9G13-Qm6vI5PZkr1kdbgdwJG2YalexrjJdJ9EBtpcexbP1AZi1P3ts7gllyToLHIH19GlOGVOjmnGp0FoXjbzRdl6ogey0yYMvq8vKxI9gcXa1xFFPiQ7fRlca1wQhfBgV8Ml7j58i5ePZqbn2G/s1024/sc-mat-made-of-gold.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1024" data-original-width="1024" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrdnxWJ2-0vTivHmZR4mCYpYI_KAMBfeznkHeNo9G13-Qm6vI5PZkr1kdbgdwJG2YalexrjJdJ9EBtpcexbP1AZi1P3ts7gllyToLHIH19GlOGVOjmnGp0FoXjbzRdl6ogey0yYMvq8vKxI9gcXa1xFFPiQ7fRlca1wQhfBgV8Ml7j58i5ePZqbn2G/s320/sc-mat-made-of-gold.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b>Ice</b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYn4YfOU9f0jHFSAH8WwG02V-gTuHqvdrCL56NCkNiacfWlM3g1aqTIqtwDaitpaqpnyMvqRxP9w-nTch2veCbA9id91HzQiO1BBg0FyAlbqGkWNu2lkCyimtTuPw5P6k0rh6lOIkdfFoUg8V9ZFeJ8qgsou80nJJHNgguJ7zgNMenFNR1BU7uKDdg/s1024/sc-mat-made-of-ice.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1024" data-original-width="1024" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYn4YfOU9f0jHFSAH8WwG02V-gTuHqvdrCL56NCkNiacfWlM3g1aqTIqtwDaitpaqpnyMvqRxP9w-nTch2veCbA9id91HzQiO1BBg0FyAlbqGkWNu2lkCyimtTuPw5P6k0rh6lOIkdfFoUg8V9ZFeJ8qgsou80nJJHNgguJ7zgNMenFNR1BU7uKDdg/s320/sc-mat-made-of-ice.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b>Marble</b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizaURlmzKonxmXhxHjUqcpwkR9fkktkdAv9j5LXE9z6W-naMj0jBqOAOwC8rwagaLGrsw4VotNhPT_70mDOiCpGof_M7qB89RNmg7-HfM1Gb3BXbDVKAbzItClsuWAFvQwcyIXWw0FMYEP2YESonBeVYP1QnfxPEf4mdN9iSEerKip8jpF9W61XUS6/s1024/sc-mat-made-of-marble.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1024" data-original-width="1024" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizaURlmzKonxmXhxHjUqcpwkR9fkktkdAv9j5LXE9z6W-naMj0jBqOAOwC8rwagaLGrsw4VotNhPT_70mDOiCpGof_M7qB89RNmg7-HfM1Gb3BXbDVKAbzItClsuWAFvQwcyIXWw0FMYEP2YESonBeVYP1QnfxPEf4mdN9iSEerKip8jpF9W61XUS6/s320/sc-mat-made-of-marble.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b>Pasta</b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKOWenKBaww3ei8aTZZ8chLeIlOjLfIAShtW2CqG2vSHolTJO5AJKqcugJb8q94Hf74voYsw2LbBgeEpHfoJBGsyL-IHQ6iuV1-VwUawLoFoy3-WIeNf3liWUnUpXtkD9VtBBlliQvrXJCJpve5oeccWsRJMp37kiu-F6Fq7sxPmgvajhn54GqHAh6/s1024/sc-mat-made-of-pasta.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1024" data-original-width="1024" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKOWenKBaww3ei8aTZZ8chLeIlOjLfIAShtW2CqG2vSHolTJO5AJKqcugJb8q94Hf74voYsw2LbBgeEpHfoJBGsyL-IHQ6iuV1-VwUawLoFoy3-WIeNf3liWUnUpXtkD9VtBBlliQvrXJCJpve5oeccWsRJMp37kiu-F6Fq7sxPmgvajhn54GqHAh6/s320/sc-mat-made-of-pasta.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b>Stone</b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWiBync97t3tHLaAIuPTQgqtpI9F6pUV--RWLf4PQv5WfpC7acwEwqM_h62Vdk2tjpZt6fH2ihaYmndeg2uZWsHkcal88IsouVn6HogpNW1zCOelQuKZyA9TGuCRG0PkUorN692G7kSHk6Ygx8-WXH00hCb_vLDBHIWv-Wi_iuHmMYAipp7CMvqh7h/s1024/sc-mat-made-of-stone.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1024" data-original-width="1024" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWiBync97t3tHLaAIuPTQgqtpI9F6pUV--RWLf4PQv5WfpC7acwEwqM_h62Vdk2tjpZt6fH2ihaYmndeg2uZWsHkcal88IsouVn6HogpNW1zCOelQuKZyA9TGuCRG0PkUorN692G7kSHk6Ygx8-WXH00hCb_vLDBHIWv-Wi_iuHmMYAipp7CMvqh7h/s320/sc-mat-made-of-stone.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b>Plush toy</b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzcqdcsZ4MVGKY9oum1r3NWiUquqe6DV-34u6eanS2aZwLAHVEHjm-gWmoR12wpt1NoW3eah3CVo8KbYX1Y7HuHJBTLbkfvOspBZZ_F0GN9D6ruX5fghV25ISLEAn_LHtaXnTWIb5ZFOj8lUsv3-9kLxBOmGGRULNf-6MYRfp_qkUsklzYi9SHPP9C/s1024/sc-mat-plush-toy.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1024" data-original-width="1024" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzcqdcsZ4MVGKY9oum1r3NWiUquqe6DV-34u6eanS2aZwLAHVEHjm-gWmoR12wpt1NoW3eah3CVo8KbYX1Y7HuHJBTLbkfvOspBZZ_F0GN9D6ruX5fghV25ISLEAn_LHtaXnTWIb5ZFOj8lUsv3-9kLxBOmGGRULNf-6MYRfp_qkUsklzYi9SHPP9C/s320/sc-mat-plush-toy.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b>Statue</b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkTJhctn5HbmijNmTDLhu6EHmLcdGKgqRnaAToDL_9t6LAFcon9GBfIMXsI7yyud8jaNpFVzStYOcx_ft7M-qAZBhsodxbhr2qswlV_v5g9P8Re4XSLJJ4XLC7lYXdhKmmYU_1t4PRodlMukCKNQRJmwfQB3iSBj4DJH88C225I7osK4u641F-j_rZ/s1024/sc-mat-statue.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1024" data-original-width="1024" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkTJhctn5HbmijNmTDLhu6EHmLcdGKgqRnaAToDL_9t6LAFcon9GBfIMXsI7yyud8jaNpFVzStYOcx_ft7M-qAZBhsodxbhr2qswlV_v5g9P8Re4XSLJJ4XLC7lYXdhKmmYU_1t4PRodlMukCKNQRJmwfQB3iSBj4DJH88C225I7osK4u641F-j_rZ/s320/sc-mat-statue.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><h2 style="text-align: left;">Endnote</h2><p>The Bing Image Creator tool is supercool and it can generate really good images. The drawback comes when you want to make changes to the image, such as if you want another camera angle. How do you formulate that in text? Neither is the tool good at generating text. I tried to generate images with the text "YOLO" in them - but none of the images had that text in it - the closest image had the text YOLE. I also tried to generate images of a Swedish fighter jet called Jas 39 Gripen - and not a single one of them was good. You train these AI tools by showing them millions of images, so it's understandable it won't understand some niche product if not many images are available. But the tool is free and you get what you pay for. </p><p>I'm glad I'm not a full time artist because these tools will replace some of their work. They can still paint images with text in them or if you really need a specific image, such as a chihuahua from a certain camera angle or a product of which photos is not available in great abundance to train the AI. </p>Habradorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16953931454438486425noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2610977618186644090.post-10791070273592765152022-12-31T08:10:00.003+01:002022-12-31T08:15:14.400+01:00Books I read in 2022<p> Each year I write a list of books I read during the year. This is the 2022 list:</p><div><ol><li><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Masters-Doom-Created-Transformed-Culture/dp/0812972155/" target="_blank">Masters of Doom</a>. This is a biography on John Romero and John Carmack who created the games Doom and Quake. It tells the story from their youth up until Quake III and Daikatana. This is a book I read almost every year (so I've read it at least 5 times) because it is very well written and motivational.</li><li><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Rock-Force-Paratroopers-Corregidor-MacArthurs/dp/152474476X/" target="_blank">Rock Force: The American Paratroopers Who Took Back Corregidor and Exacted MacArthur's Revenge on Japan</a>. The book is basically Band of Brothers but in the Pacific and a single battle: The battle of Corregidor, Philippines. A tip when reading history books is to walk around the places in <a href="https://www.google.com/maps/place/Corregidor+Caldera/@14.3850233,120.584495,14.04z/" target="_blank">Google Maps</a>. </li><li><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Project-Hail-Mary-Andy-Weir-ebook/dp/B08FHBV4ZX/" target="_blank">Project Hail Mary</a>. Written by the same author as The Martian (the Matt Damon Mars movie), the idea is the same: guy gets stuck in space and has to use science to not die.</li><li><a href="https://www.amazon.com/How-win-friends-Influence-People-ebook/dp/B09ST4JLBQ/" target="_blank">How to win friends and Influence People</a>. This is an old classic, but you can still apply the information from the book, especially if you are into community management! A point from the book is that you should avoid arguing with people. Sometimes you see on Twitter how people argue angrily with each other. The arguments generally end with them blocking each other, and they proudly show print screens they were blocked. What did they win? Nothing!</li><li><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Phantom-Major-Story-Stirling-Regiment-ebook/dp/B07D74ZL3S/" target="_blank">The Phantom Major: The Story of David Stirling and the SAS</a>. Tells the story of how David Stirling founded SAS (British special forces) during ww2. </li><li><a href="https://www.bokus.com/bok/9789188671257/den-svenska-enhorningen-storyn-om-spotify/" target="_blank">The Swedish Unicorn</a>. A Swedish book that tells the story of Spotify from the start up until around 2017. It is officially available for free <a href="https://pellesnickars.se/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/den_svenska_enh%C3%B6rningen.pdf" target="_blank">here</a> as pdf.</li><li><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Arsenal-Democracy-Detroit-Quest-America/dp/0544483871/" target="_blank">The Arsenal of Democracy: FDR, Detroit, and an Epic Quest to Arm an America at War.</a> Tells the story of how US transformed their industry into war production during ww2, with a focus on Ford and B24 bombers. </li><li><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Exactly-Precision-Engineers-Created-Modern-ebook/dp/B076FTNNXN" target="_blank">Exactly: How Precision Engineers Created the Modern World</a>. This is a book about the history of measurements. I say I'm 180 cm tall - but that's not true: I might be 180.42 - or 179.65 because it doesn't matter. But when you build a jet engine you need a more exact measurement.</li><li><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Wolf-Watchman-Niklas-Natt-och-ebook/dp/B07GNT9TWM/" target="_blank">The Wolf and the Watchman</a>. Tells the story of a made up murder in Stockholm, Sweden. The Swedish title of the book is 1793 which is also when the story takes place.</li><li><a href="https://www.bokus.com/bok/9789163339691/spegelscener/" target="_blank">Spegelscener</a>. Is a book in Swedish (the title can be translated to mirror scenes) written by a guy who once handed out the Nobel prize in literature, so he knows his words. It's a rather short book describing his adventures as a war correspondent in four wars.</li><li><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Wolves-Men-Barry-Holstun-Lopez/dp/0684163225/" target="_blank">Of Wolves and Men</a>. Is a book about the wolf and its complicated relationship with us humans. The book was published in 1979 so it's a little bit old. For example it started with saying that the wolf has been extinct in Sweden, which I thought was a typo until I looked it up on Wikipedia. It turned out the wolf was extinct but has since then been reintroduced.</li><li><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Gates-Fire-Novel-Battle-Thermopylae/dp/055338368X/" target="_blank">Gates of Fire: An Epic Novel of the Battle of Thermopylae</a>. If you ever saw the movie 300 you know what this book is about, so expect a lot of Spartans, blood, and death.</li><li><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Subway-Art-Henry-Chalfant/dp/0500292124/" target="_blank">Subway Art</a>. In the Swedish subway some stations are famous for being pieces of art. But this book is about more unofficial art: graffiti in New York subway system.</li><li><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Read-This-Want-Great-Photographs/dp/1780673353/" target="_blank">Read This If You Want to Take Great Photographs</a>. The title might sound like clickbait - but if you Google books to read on photography, this is the book being recommended first. </li><li><a href="https://www.amazon.se/Read-This-Great-Photographs-Places/dp/178067905X" target="_blank">Read this if you want to take great photographs of places</a>. Follow up to "Read this if you want to take great photographs." </li><li><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Read-This-Great-Photographs-People/dp/1780676247" target="_blank">Read This If You Want to Take Great Photographs of People</a>. Follow up to "Read this if you want to take great photographs." </li><li><a href="https://www.amazon.com/True-Believer-Thoughts-Movements-Perennial/dp/0060505915/" target="_blank">The True Believer: Thoughts on the Nature of Mass Movements</a>. If you ever wanted to start a movement to take over the world, this is the book you should read. I think you can also apply it to current mass movements like Bitcoin.</li><li><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Ordinary-Men-Reserve-Battalion-Solution-ebook/dp/B01G1F0F84/" target="_blank">Ordinary Men: Reserve Police Battalion 101 and the Final Solution in Poland</a>. Is trying to explain how ordinary German men could execute civilians during the Second World War.</li><li><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Superfans-Capture-Attention-Community-Following-ebook/dp/B09LRRQ1XF/" target="_blank">Superfans: How to Capture Attention, Foster Community and Build the Most Loyal Following You Could Ever Imagine</a>. You should read this book if you want to grow your social media accounts by generating superfans. It also includes a section on the negatives if you are popular on social media. </li><li><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Way-Superior-Man-Challenges-Anniversary-ebook/dp/B01NA993PI/" target="_blank">The Way of the Superior Man: A Spiritual Guide to Mastering the Challenges of Women, Work, and Sexual Desire</a>. I think this counts as a self-help book. I don't really need any help but it can be good to read one now and then and see if you can learn something new.</li><li><a href="https://www.adlibris.com/se/e-bok/brev-fran-nollpunkten-9789127152632" target="_blank">Brev från nollpunkten</a>. A book in Swedish telling shorter stories from the WW1 to WW2 period.</li><li><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Grokking-Algorithms-illustrated-programmers-curious/dp/1617292230/" target="_blank">Grokking Algorithms: An Illustrated Guide for Programmers and Other Curious People</a>. Is an easy read because it's filled with pictures illustrating different algorithms.</li><li><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Chaos-Making-Science-James-Gleick/dp/0143113453/" target="_blank">Chaos: Making a New Science</a>. It tells the history of chaos, so you get to read about the "butterfly effect," including weather predictions, pendulums, fractals, turbulence, and even the human heart. </li><li><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Practical-Genetic-Algorithms-Randy-Haupt/dp/0471455652/" target="_blank">Practical Genetic Algorithms</a>. Is about so-called Genetic Algorithms (GA) which are trying to optimize problems by mimicking evolution. </li><li><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Diary-Young-Girl-Definitive/dp/0553577123/" target="_blank">The Diary of a Young Girl</a>. Written by Anne Frank, this is a book most people know about. Here in Sweden most school children get to read the book (or watch the movie). I don't recall every reading it so I think I got to watch the movie, but now I've also read the book. </li><li><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Game-Development-Patterns-Unity-2021-ebook/dp/B096SXVNVP/" target="_blank">Game Development Patterns with Unity 2021</a>. Design patterns are solutions to common programming problems. These can be a little tricky to implement by just reading their description, so it can be a good idea to read how people have implemented them in their own projects. </li><li><a href="https://resources.unity.com/games/level-up-your-code-with-game-programming-patterns" target="_blank">Level up your code with game programming patterns</a>. Free book by Unity on design patterns.</li><li><a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Art-Fluid-Animation-Jos-Stam-ebook/dp/B017K485GE/" target="_blank">The Art of Fluid Animation</a>. Written by Jos Stam who came up with a clever algorithm to animate fluids. </li></ol>If you want to see all the books I've read you can stalk me on my <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/7233211.Erik_Nordeus" target="_blank">Goodreads</a> account. </div>Habradorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16953931454438486425noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2610977618186644090.post-32404531518459683222022-08-29T14:05:00.000+02:002022-08-29T14:05:08.894+02:00How to fix the Inconsistent Line Endings Warning message in Unity and Visual Studio 2019<p> A few months ago I decided to upgrade to Visual Studio 2019. When using Unity together with Visual Studio a warning message started to appear: </p><blockquote><p>There are inconsistent line endings in the 'Assets/name-of-script.cs' script. Some are Mac OS X (UNIX) and some are Windows. This might lead to incorrect line numbers in stacktraces and compiler errors. Many text editors can fix this using Convert Line Endings menu commands. </p></blockquote><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMicZJ7SBitA_OO5ypLb4-MEZLEriR6baXpTBmkUu7z_wRGuehsQVDZ-Bke0Lz21TWyxsJcv9kwy5PGtjKUBIPUMpshtF6hFFLkN1KTnvwqirhkI5euDWtw2YvbKZUexA3F1OwuqwUIjoZejB7VwdmjfByFnkozuEP2LafosfpNmKKHDy-lXZbCPG2/s1531/unity-editor-warning.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="361" data-original-width="1531" height="75" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMicZJ7SBitA_OO5ypLb4-MEZLEriR6baXpTBmkUu7z_wRGuehsQVDZ-Bke0Lz21TWyxsJcv9kwy5PGtjKUBIPUMpshtF6hFFLkN1KTnvwqirhkI5euDWtw2YvbKZUexA3F1OwuqwUIjoZejB7VwdmjfByFnkozuEP2LafosfpNmKKHDy-lXZbCPG2/s320/unity-editor-warning.png" width="320" /></a></div><p>If you Google the problem, people tell you to download Strip'em for Visual Studio. I had Strip'em installed on the older version of Visual Studio, which is why the warning message never appeared then. So when I tried to download Strip'em for VS 2019, I couldn't because only VS 2017 and earlier are supported by Strip'em. </p><p>To solve this problem in VS 2019 and later versions, you have to go to the script giving you the warning. In the bottom-right corner of the script, you see a box called <b>MIXED</b>, meaning that your line endings are mixed. </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4kijCkeSXEdzdAtf4eLG2A23Gn9vObcvfU_W_P-jloWABSRuT2-MvmYCNNeX4lbECUOZSvDC19Cy1hvckuZU-xdNFFXgrhEOU9JUuiiS3sdg4DI65Q4y7SpQnhdSwFfweo5VaKRjy398HNx76i6Lm84uw_ssXeWemlmeCZCR0urnhlsJT1NUTgCIS/s987/mixed-line-endings.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="664" data-original-width="987" height="215" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4kijCkeSXEdzdAtf4eLG2A23Gn9vObcvfU_W_P-jloWABSRuT2-MvmYCNNeX4lbECUOZSvDC19Cy1hvckuZU-xdNFFXgrhEOU9JUuiiS3sdg4DI65Q4y7SpQnhdSwFfweo5VaKRjy398HNx76i6Lm84uw_ssXeWemlmeCZCR0urnhlsJT1NUTgCIS/s320/mixed-line-endings.png" width="320" /></a></div><p>If you click on the box, you can chose between:</p><p></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><b>CRLF</b> - Windows</li><li><b>LF</b> - Unix</li><li><b>CR</b> - old MacOS ( pre-OSX Macintosh)</li></ul><div>To figure out which line ending you should use you have to go to the Unity Editor. Click on <b>Project Settings → Editor → Line Endings For New Scripts</b>. Here you can set the Mode to Unix, Windows, or OS Native. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhiGikBQ1wOk5D0lN5W1gBySOwm3TlXrPDcoe7V7JtZQ0twTT2-MriY5iTuxyNGbTZuEO_dMXdLJydS_rMpgNQYtr0rUtWBhRR6IENe0minL_Dq84iKEh1w3VdLvG8fL20sMM6IghJwsgcOq-VuKsqMSRV8_SeO8gEEWXOEfNBosHfj6DO-r35nWp82/s981/unity-editor-line-endings.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="756" data-original-width="981" height="247" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhiGikBQ1wOk5D0lN5W1gBySOwm3TlXrPDcoe7V7JtZQ0twTT2-MriY5iTuxyNGbTZuEO_dMXdLJydS_rMpgNQYtr0rUtWBhRR6IENe0minL_Dq84iKEh1w3VdLvG8fL20sMM6IghJwsgcOq-VuKsqMSRV8_SeO8gEEWXOEfNBosHfj6DO-r35nWp82/s320/unity-editor-line-endings.png" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div>I think Unix is default, meaning the little box in the bottom-right corner of VS should be set to LF. Now the warning message should have disappeared. Win!</div><p></p>Habradorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16953931454438486425noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2610977618186644090.post-46584398884385333382022-06-18T13:50:00.003+02:002023-06-10T17:37:15.480+02:00Render breathtaking images in Blender with these composition techniques used by elite photographers<p>Photo composition can be defined as "how a photographer arranges visual elements within their frame." We <a href="https://www.blender.org/" target="_blank">Blender</a> users do the exact same thing as photographers do with our virtual cameras. What if we can find some inspiration from the people running around with crazy expensive, physical cameras in pouring rain? Andrew "Blender Guru" Price himself argues that composition is one of the most important things you can learn as a cg artist, so you better pay attention!</p><p><b>Before you start</b></p><p>Find one thing in the image the viewer should focus on - aka point-of-interest. No composition can help a dull scene where nothing interesting is going on. I've here used Blender's default cube, so I want the viewer to focus on it. </p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3PNViVDSQ20rpMtlS4yp_GIF2udIBg-MMH9-6mm5W0QM0_wgHjw-0co02UXLOx3IM-UtdhCTpGo60SyX728M6e7uOrWF3szJ2FAVJwX-ZnQTaFSkm6TbYSnf5dxOe--nRGvw82vTs8wqsheuPlfHO3aFow7y82_ytm2Fk-_6VMmluvxOinbImCzGN/s1920/0.%20Default.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1080" data-original-width="1920" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3PNViVDSQ20rpMtlS4yp_GIF2udIBg-MMH9-6mm5W0QM0_wgHjw-0co02UXLOx3IM-UtdhCTpGo60SyX728M6e7uOrWF3szJ2FAVJwX-ZnQTaFSkm6TbYSnf5dxOe--nRGvw82vTs8wqsheuPlfHO3aFow7y82_ytm2Fk-_6VMmluvxOinbImCzGN/s320/0.%20Default.png" width="320" /></a></div><p style="text-align: left;"><b>1. Leading lines</b></p><p></p><p>Try to find some lines in the image guiding the viewer to the focus of the image. Here I've added a tiny road going to the cube, so viewers understand they should focus on the cube. If you find this confusing, there are some examples <a href="https://expertphotography.com/how-to-use-leading-lines-to-improve-your-composition/" target="_blank">here</a>. </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhC2nXIOKvU5HZV_wBSG4ZAhbd5fkHkfCCe8m079209cFbPFT7MP7XIcq4hIfc1MSqeRqu-KUqwkETwlBQZwRs1PPWJCxfpwLONr3W1pywQxRXaIrGik4uuwGBSklOUBJA5SnFRyqwAjQpGUiQRPw1OOAcMSptWnLDqZQ8j1Deqdrqg8YX2BBXd9TEo/s1920/1.%20Leading%20lines.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1080" data-original-width="1920" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhC2nXIOKvU5HZV_wBSG4ZAhbd5fkHkfCCe8m079209cFbPFT7MP7XIcq4hIfc1MSqeRqu-KUqwkETwlBQZwRs1PPWJCxfpwLONr3W1pywQxRXaIrGik4uuwGBSklOUBJA5SnFRyqwAjQpGUiQRPw1OOAcMSptWnLDqZQ8j1Deqdrqg8YX2BBXd9TEo/s320/1.%20Leading%20lines.png" width="320" /></a></div><p><b>2. Portrait or landscape? </b></p><p>I've avoided portrait mode because most screens are in landscape mode. But depending on the image you should also use portrait mode. This is the rule:</p><p></p><p></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>Use portrait mode if you want the viewer's eyes to move down-and-up when looking at the image.</li></ul><p></p><p></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>Use landscape mode if you want the viewer's eyes to move side-to-side when looking at the image. </li></ul><p></p><p style="text-align: left;">To improve the "leading lines" image, it's better to use portrait mode because I want the viewer to follow the road from the bottom upwards towards the cube. If the road had been coming in from the left (or right) side of the frame, then landscape mode would have been better!</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghmHai-pSaz6SG6kanUoTLCvH4Wkr5O7VGND49UAxguiCf0CgEafdYh8yFDxTrXKK_h6oqUVZH8qsQ__enuF_JIUT5FGh0kVxmbAps86xmFxZV-Sj2hmdnZo0fVXBtTaMqTsK_K0Xebzjc2WaVD8_PYDPIiTQcdSmjIRyZ4eOkLtwbZWn_5BGLWFpU/s1920/2.%20Portrait%20or%20landscape.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1920" data-original-width="1080" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghmHai-pSaz6SG6kanUoTLCvH4Wkr5O7VGND49UAxguiCf0CgEafdYh8yFDxTrXKK_h6oqUVZH8qsQ__enuF_JIUT5FGh0kVxmbAps86xmFxZV-Sj2hmdnZo0fVXBtTaMqTsK_K0Xebzjc2WaVD8_PYDPIiTQcdSmjIRyZ4eOkLtwbZWn_5BGLWFpU/s320/2.%20Portrait%20or%20landscape.png" width="180" /></a></div><p style="text-align: left;"><b>3. Framing</b></p><p style="text-align: left;">This technique is useful if much is going on in the image and you want the viewer to find the focus of the image. To help the viewer, you should put the focus within a frame, such as a within a window, between trees, or whatever you can come up with. If you find this confusing, you can find some examples <a href="http://photographyblogger.net/framing/" target="_blank">here</a>. </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjc68hjxPrgxDOeLm5DTmOJPDjza8zILN22SYuXpQu-ve-lU_iPpqGEoz_SXA1qImaYbU70vxV_978L77EU_Mff6AGphccGueRM2uDAxt3d9292QZ1khY_c3Z4TDJ1mXQ6NGA2kZ2UrPRVLWxuq51uD6z_7d-HAKeyj2CiZ7BUvgHcPYdWTIe-BJ8Vs/s1920/3.%20Framing.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1920" data-original-width="1080" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjc68hjxPrgxDOeLm5DTmOJPDjza8zILN22SYuXpQu-ve-lU_iPpqGEoz_SXA1qImaYbU70vxV_978L77EU_Mff6AGphccGueRM2uDAxt3d9292QZ1khY_c3Z4TDJ1mXQ6NGA2kZ2UrPRVLWxuq51uD6z_7d-HAKeyj2CiZ7BUvgHcPYdWTIe-BJ8Vs/s320/3.%20Framing.png" width="180" /></a></div><p style="text-align: left;"><b>4. Foreground interest</b></p><p></p><p style="text-align: left;">If you render an object, the image can sometimes feel empty. To make it more interesting you can place some objects in-front of the main object. This will also help the viewer to find the scale of the object. This technique is related to <b>Spatial relationships</b>, which also includes something happening in the background.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiE2_kIZC1Nn4G-Ig9BrEhOt5wRdO7QKDEYBYmHT_n3TnMFJxS-IRbSBr9wWw5zye4kSBLxd1wNJSzCkz-CoPrRZ2HbztZDl-ObltrVw8QSYZAvLxhafNb6FyJ4SqbO-qA4Cz7U3nBpmNE3pEn0JZAUtRX7ZOe6Q9DLQlhI1OOcDJWI55UidmeOqIbO/s1920/4.%20Foreground%20interest.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1080" data-original-width="1920" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiE2_kIZC1Nn4G-Ig9BrEhOt5wRdO7QKDEYBYmHT_n3TnMFJxS-IRbSBr9wWw5zye4kSBLxd1wNJSzCkz-CoPrRZ2HbztZDl-ObltrVw8QSYZAvLxhafNb6FyJ4SqbO-qA4Cz7U3nBpmNE3pEn0JZAUtRX7ZOe6Q9DLQlhI1OOcDJWI55UidmeOqIbO/s320/4.%20Foreground%20interest.png" width="320" /></a></div><p style="text-align: left;"><b>5. Getting close (and Distance from subject)</b></p><p style="text-align: left;">All images don't have to show the entire object. And if you want to show the entire object, you can often move the camera closer to the object to remove boring empty space around it. I think this technique is also called <b>Full frame</b> - or at least they are related.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjq-CSGOwTEwQ0WBvp755xD6LY0Jm9nz8dnnWvnvTJLXnwSELBC8xNiznk1KFlQl65O6Rsz7cl5vo9iw_iauWRWqDjQ-2Emee5CUove31gpSOORKylvdZY3XVY4E1LQErI57CpVs4OBoV2KxqI5UciXk7voUIcLkMbnwEBDdTlSYCy_76KWshGc7ZM7/s1920/5.%20Getting%20close.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1080" data-original-width="1920" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjq-CSGOwTEwQ0WBvp755xD6LY0Jm9nz8dnnWvnvTJLXnwSELBC8xNiznk1KFlQl65O6Rsz7cl5vo9iw_iauWRWqDjQ-2Emee5CUove31gpSOORKylvdZY3XVY4E1LQErI57CpVs4OBoV2KxqI5UciXk7voUIcLkMbnwEBDdTlSYCy_76KWshGc7ZM7/s320/5.%20Getting%20close.png" width="320" /></a></div><p style="text-align: left;">The opposite of Getting close is that you walk far away from the point-of-interest. Now the viewer will understand the context surrounding the point-of-interest. </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFJg2O7n9l3p3FUuE3JpNgsq2Obqb0nJ4g9h5OYkyGOlQ8qlBxLOcbgPGDGcDtcr5x8i6tKVhhdE3_TKw3H9jQe1_Anc6cvv-R0s269Zhfp3igHdobwI62Pl7shk_gU-2tdgy_0lSR9W2UGodR2f6S1hKajpDKG0yd8VnhQv8sJJH6cIEPp0HcDAsU/s1920/5.5%20Distance.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1080" data-original-width="1920" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFJg2O7n9l3p3FUuE3JpNgsq2Obqb0nJ4g9h5OYkyGOlQ8qlBxLOcbgPGDGcDtcr5x8i6tKVhhdE3_TKw3H9jQe1_Anc6cvv-R0s269Zhfp3igHdobwI62Pl7shk_gU-2tdgy_0lSR9W2UGodR2f6S1hKajpDKG0yd8VnhQv8sJJH6cIEPp0HcDAsU/s320/5.5%20Distance.png" width="320" /></a></div><div><p style="text-align: left;"><b>6. Symmetry (and Shooting at 45 degrees)</b></p><p style="text-align: left;">Order can be beautiful and not boring. The idea is that you mirror the focus of the image along the vertical or horizontal axis. The cube has been mirrored along the vertical axis. This pattern is often used when taking photos of religious buildings because the resulting image feels both powerful and calming. If you find this confusing you can see some examples <a href="http://photographyblogger.net/symmetry/" target="_blank">here</a>. </p><div><p style="text-align: left;">Without knowing it, I accidentally recreated another composition technique called <b>Shooting at 45 degrees</b>, which gives a photo 3D qualities. If you show more sides of an object, the viewer get a better understanding of its shape. </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjt0V6ZzmiOgzRtWJyVnjIApE1gcDUwX73SU5OOB7h9ROnSo7YjRhKVH6pDoDIEIbdmbJNXr1i4ogzPZnrEQQeChXLs9YoOxOFgszcHsIFknXaftPISLS-YrDj1g1DH4hNPmLKCMkRaZI1Ox20H_4eAwZIf0-y89--VwtVfFmO-P6DXk8DPOEXV7EX9/s1920/6.%20Symmetry.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1080" data-original-width="1920" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjt0V6ZzmiOgzRtWJyVnjIApE1gcDUwX73SU5OOB7h9ROnSo7YjRhKVH6pDoDIEIbdmbJNXr1i4ogzPZnrEQQeChXLs9YoOxOFgszcHsIFknXaftPISLS-YrDj1g1DH4hNPmLKCMkRaZI1Ox20H_4eAwZIf0-y89--VwtVfFmO-P6DXk8DPOEXV7EX9/s320/6.%20Symmetry.png" width="320" /></a></div><p style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><b>7. Rule of thirds</b></p><p style="clear: both; text-align: left;">This composition technique is so common that Blender has it built-in into the camera settings. Place the focus of your image where the lines cross. This will discourage you from placing the focus of your image at the center which can be boring. A technique related to the rule of thirds is the <b>golden ratio</b>. </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGuoce5FDk2BccNdEd4YiY1mcCoOMb6nAmUnvmfyeZJb_rxj2AbOl-TGBavqymmGUgffcqTJqeht-RYGS_BN-hT1eDV22TsYgFOtL-jSUevnuEZ11U6fohxgspg6rxKRH6D9Ar55SZ1HWUwd3e95gFd4Y0dA436eVITl7S9PeJe0vyRYoY8IyqyByN/s260/blender-rule-of-thirds.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="260" data-original-width="208" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGuoce5FDk2BccNdEd4YiY1mcCoOMb6nAmUnvmfyeZJb_rxj2AbOl-TGBavqymmGUgffcqTJqeht-RYGS_BN-hT1eDV22TsYgFOtL-jSUevnuEZ11U6fohxgspg6rxKRH6D9Ar55SZ1HWUwd3e95gFd4Y0dA436eVITl7S9PeJe0vyRYoY8IyqyByN/w160-h200/blender-rule-of-thirds.png" width="160" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjim7Rsm8W9qVRNABOmRLhItJnQQf-fCcLz2Tw2U0CIud68VsTZVt5uFHvDSMEPogLteFAPnH-4iR7PzzZD5J3UQLZV17YyMoT_9zWc5dFNCRkzQt9I9kJ3A_51jY_EpTuBRg_g1MRxwDiv4jmwUwfaGXcFysiYHBtSP7Q8WuYkQ1WrvkSvuCJEBde5/s1920/7.%20Rule%20of%20thirds.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1080" data-original-width="1920" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjim7Rsm8W9qVRNABOmRLhItJnQQf-fCcLz2Tw2U0CIud68VsTZVt5uFHvDSMEPogLteFAPnH-4iR7PzzZD5J3UQLZV17YyMoT_9zWc5dFNCRkzQt9I9kJ3A_51jY_EpTuBRg_g1MRxwDiv4jmwUwfaGXcFysiYHBtSP7Q8WuYkQ1WrvkSvuCJEBde5/s320/7.%20Rule%20of%20thirds.png" width="320" /></a></div><p style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><b>8. Make every inch count</b></p><p style="text-align: left;">Squeeze as much as you can into a single image - but also make sure all parts add something to the image.</p><p style="text-align: left;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgyVQz2uGTyGgWJrq7oaFnEeycLunOgB1i17DJDj6ZtaazFCodIsLm3BKm_wo2ornZ3ctowFl8ZhFtF48s70ebvdcgiETs0hM2SYTUqdH3pmVFHhJDXdiUwFFsGjSquB2HAhKk_We6hYYM9gHQC1PPyao-pwjSBEMd9-hJcZLOfvVTr2qZLZ59zibpQ/s1920/8.%20Make%20every%20inch%20count.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1080" data-original-width="1920" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgyVQz2uGTyGgWJrq7oaFnEeycLunOgB1i17DJDj6ZtaazFCodIsLm3BKm_wo2ornZ3ctowFl8ZhFtF48s70ebvdcgiETs0hM2SYTUqdH3pmVFHhJDXdiUwFFsGjSquB2HAhKk_We6hYYM9gHQC1PPyao-pwjSBEMd9-hJcZLOfvVTr2qZLZ59zibpQ/s320/8.%20Make%20every%20inch%20count.png" width="320" /></a></div><p style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><b>9. Visual weight</b></p><p style="clear: both; text-align: left;">This one is more abstract. In Sweden we have a word called "lagom" which means not too much and neither too little. You have to use your common sense to make sure not too much and neither too little is going on in the image. </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBe7_BqTesVpqXefCBVVM3ilfV3_xU3fyHqrBVA4VQPneCJgFNZpDKabRpI6BbE8Q17JDzM_Z8erXwCj00npGsIDvCUEMYHQ1LEe9_7njVHl7vR0DP9tVr8Yd-MC4B8LAKQl3glRNGjhq9abmfxxCDd1y9Gjn7D0Og7FwqTIycZQAbGSldJ5FxA9hD/s1920/9.%20Visual%20weight.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1080" data-original-width="1920" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBe7_BqTesVpqXefCBVVM3ilfV3_xU3fyHqrBVA4VQPneCJgFNZpDKabRpI6BbE8Q17JDzM_Z8erXwCj00npGsIDvCUEMYHQ1LEe9_7njVHl7vR0DP9tVr8Yd-MC4B8LAKQl3glRNGjhq9abmfxxCDd1y9Gjn7D0Og7FwqTIycZQAbGSldJ5FxA9hD/s320/9.%20Visual%20weight.png" width="320" /></a></div><p style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><b>10. Ignore the rules</b></p><p style="clear: both; text-align: left;">In the end all these techniques are just recommendations. If you break the laws in photography you will not be thrown into jail - but you may make a really good image. The saying goes like this: </p><p style="clear: both; text-align: left;"></p><p style="text-align: left;"></p><blockquote><i>Good photographers follow the rules - but really good photographers know when to break the rules. </i></blockquote><p></p><p></p><p style="clear: both; text-align: left;">I recall a funny scene from a documentary on photography I saw. A photographer saw a lynx in his garden. Since this animal is very shy, the guy imagined a photo of a lifetime, so he ran out, without shoes, and chased the lynx, and in the end he took a really rough photo of it. If he had, instead of just taking the photo, spent time trying to figure out which composition technique he should use, there would have been no photo because the lynx would have been long gone.</p><p style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><b>11. The rest</b></p><p style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Other composition techniques I haven't recreated with cubes include:</p><p style="clear: both; text-align: left;"></p><p></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><b>The golden ratio.</b> <a href="https://twitter.com/eriknordeus/status/1513425538085539840" target="_blank">Some</a> say you shouldn't "fall for advice about mystical spirals and perfect compositions that only work by moving and stretching the spiral after the fact." <a href="https://expertphotography.com/golden-ratio-vs-rule-of-thirds/" target="_blank">Others</a> say this technique should be used if you have some movement in the image. But if you look at the examples in the latter link, you can see that the golden ratio is indeed being stretched to fit the content of photo... </li></ul><p></p><p></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><b>Pyramid.</b> The weight of the image is at the bottom, and then the weight decreases the higher you go. </li></ul><p></p><p></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><b>Horizon lines.</b> There's no rule where to place the horizon. You have to use common sense. A recommendation is to place it low if you shoot weather. </li></ul><p></p><p></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><b><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lead_room" target="_blank">Lead room</a>.</b> If you take a photo of a car driving forward, then make sure you have some space in-front of the car. You should also leave some space in-front of a character in the direction the character is looking. </li></ul><p></p><p></p><h2 style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Endnotes</h2><p style="text-align: left;">How do you know the photo you took or the image you rendered is good? According to <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6XVLf3JvPCU" target="_blank">Marc Riboud</a> you have to wait 10-20 years before you actually know! </p><h2 style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Sources</h2><p style="clear: both; text-align: left;"></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Read-This-Want-Great-Photographs/dp/1780673353/" target="_blank">Read This If You Want to Take Great Photographs</a></li><li><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O8i7OKbWmRM" target="_blank">Understanding Composition</a></li><li><a href="http://photographyblogger.net/the-rules-of-composition-in-photography/" target="_blank">The Rules of Composition in Photography</a></li><li><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-gvkHoCjuSI" target="_blank">Top 13 Composition Pitfalls and How to Avoid Them</a></li><li><a href="https://www.amazon.se/Read-This-Great-Photographs-Places/dp/178067905X" target="_blank">Read this if you want to take great photographs of places</a></li><li><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Read-This-Great-Photographs-People/dp/1780676247" target="_blank">Read This If You Want to Take Great Photographs of People</a></li><li><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=upxY8U1XPB0" target="_blank">Photography Composition: Thinking Beyond the Rules</a></li></ul><p></p><p></p></div></div>Habradorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16953931454438486425noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2610977618186644090.post-11812705326278975752022-03-15T20:54:00.018+01:002022-08-28T11:26:35.985+02:00Adventures making custom LEGO designs<p>I needed a project to get my mind off the Ukraine-Russia war, and I also follow a Twitch streamer who has a new interest in building <a href="https://www.lego.com/" target="_blank">LEGO</a>, so I was inspired to make my own LEGO design. Last time I built anything LEGO related was when I was a kid (except for some LEGO building in engineering school to learn Lean production). But these days LEGO is not only for kids - but also for adults. When you look at some new LEGO design boxes they are actually labeled 18+ even though there's no nudity/violence in them:</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEigJCs0FwU1MPeROPzaB764G8B6ofYHR-027awVp08GxbuL6OoWoAgP-Sqc68xkKyX5et_5etAuzxe3re9mvWozVxplNnstK9J0Ilt7dJJUHSXu2r7WikoVeCP2Bj2HoIhZLEwcEWIqAaviITy2Zbd-xR4rBVdRy4tf_TOAWYaLd3BSrFCS90YBCkqV=s241" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="209" data-original-width="241" height="209" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEigJCs0FwU1MPeROPzaB764G8B6ofYHR-027awVp08GxbuL6OoWoAgP-Sqc68xkKyX5et_5etAuzxe3re9mvWozVxplNnstK9J0Ilt7dJJUHSXu2r7WikoVeCP2Bj2HoIhZLEwcEWIqAaviITy2Zbd-xR4rBVdRy4tf_TOAWYaLd3BSrFCS90YBCkqV" width="241" /></a></div><p style="text-align: left;">People have them as decorations like a painting on the wall. Moreover, if you have an idea for your own LEGO sculpture, you can submit ideas to LEGO and other people can vote on the ideas: <a href="https://ideas.lego.com/" target="_blank">LEGO Ideas</a>. And if your idea gets selected you can actually make a little money from it depending on how successful it is. I have no idea how much you can make because according to Google that is a secret! </p><p>LEGO is and always has been very expensive. So my plan is to experiment with digital LEGO bricks. When researching the area, there are multiple software you can use - I even think LEGO has its own. The one I picked is called <a href="https://www.leocad.org/" target="_blank">LeoCAD</a>. The reason is picked that one is because you can export your models from LeoCAD to <a href="https://www.blender.org/" target="_blank">Blender</a> to make them prettier. I have explained this process in more detail in an earlier article: <a href="https://blog.habrador.com/2022/03/make-leocad-lego-look-good-in-blender.html" target="_blank">How to make your ugly LeoCAD LEGO models look good in Blender</a>. </p><h3 style="text-align: left;">Original design 1: South African Stream House</h3><p style="text-align: left;">The first design is a house:</p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiuJI_9s1ACzVKIHRWdWpkMA4370KIiQoEJhM-DlsoRIhQps2T9rrCAlKYEP6kZGBIxAG2QFigqZurIBDY8yLAmv1aB3cf1C5xj7Cig6ERXF_5GdqN4TGx19RTjxfV4mUXZqSP8qJ06tX59b6Y9weO6PKjSodizKPJG0iJKMIAwVs7wpkYCXaaFVU0E=s1920" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1080" data-original-width="1920" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiuJI_9s1ACzVKIHRWdWpkMA4370KIiQoEJhM-DlsoRIhQps2T9rrCAlKYEP6kZGBIxAG2QFigqZurIBDY8yLAmv1aB3cf1C5xj7Cig6ERXF_5GdqN4TGx19RTjxfV4mUXZqSP8qJ06tX59b6Y9weO6PKjSodizKPJG0iJKMIAwVs7wpkYCXaaFVU0E=s320" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://eriknordeus.artstation.com/projects/o2QwBB" target="_blank">LEGO South Africa Ideas: Design of a South African House With Box Art</a></td></tr></tbody></table><p>This house exists in real life in South Africa and belongs to a Twitch streamer, hence the name "South African Streamer House." Some of the design is obviously made up because I have never visited the house, and it's LEGO so some simplifications have to be made. You can view making original LEGO designs as a puzzle: how do you find the bricks needed to make this LEGO object look like the actual object? </p><p>Why did I make this house? First of all, a lot is going on around the house. You can find all kind of animals, including hadada ibis, dogs, cats, frogs, spiders, snakes, mice, monkeys, and beetles. Secondly, they stream from their house so it is really easy to find reference images - and we all know how important references are when making an illustration! </p><p>In hindsight, some objects could have been improved (especially the computer parts and some chairs) but those are lessons learned I will bring with me to the next original LEGO design! YES, it was really fun to make it so I will make more designs! So this article will be updated as I add more designs!</p><p>You can find this project on Artstation: <a href="https://www.artstation.com/artwork/o2QwBB" target="_blank">LEGO Ideas South Africa: Design of a South African House With Box Art</a></p><h3 style="text-align: left;">Original design 2: Swedish student streamer</h3><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjtX4nWg3etDYMfnAS_2z_GNvldyqrB3JJqhpBkNLG2KMTJSnREUXJLMjWh4w8ZHYVMGcyH0fVkPDkJ0QoudHgs19KLmV5NgiaCpkqmVI-XBv3b4Ks-05AK5YAnOh1IaOMpVBQIvxaBTCpHZeuwUvGAomXajtaYWftShzsTSxTF6fOaLJSWg-nbxrsr=s1920" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1080" data-original-width="1920" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjtX4nWg3etDYMfnAS_2z_GNvldyqrB3JJqhpBkNLG2KMTJSnREUXJLMjWh4w8ZHYVMGcyH0fVkPDkJ0QoudHgs19KLmV5NgiaCpkqmVI-XBv3b4Ks-05AK5YAnOh1IaOMpVBQIvxaBTCpHZeuwUvGAomXajtaYWftShzsTSxTF6fOaLJSWg-nbxrsr=s320" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="text-align: left;"><a href="https://eriknordeus.artstation.com/projects/g8VGVe" target="_blank">Original LEGO design idea: Swedish student streamer</a></span></td></tr></tbody></table><p>Next LEGO design is also related to architecture: an apartment belonging to a Twitch streamer I follow. You can by now spot a trend: LEGO designs inspired by Twitch streamers. I follow many other Twitch streamers, so more designs will follow. But the other Twitch streamers I follow travel around, so they are not stuck in one house, making it more difficult to find ideas for dioramas. </p><p>This streamer is always streaming from either her kitchen or bedroom (and sometimes her bathroom for fake hot tub streams to troll the Twitch viewers who are actually interested in hot tub streams). So instead of making an entire house I just needed to make three rooms. By just having three rooms I could add more details to each room. So you can find details like cans of corns (these are a big part of the stream), vegan Nutella, Pringles, and a lot of veggies in her kitchen because she's vegan. </p><p>Overall I'm not as happy with the design as I was with the design of the stream house - most likely because all of the apartment's walls are white. But I learned a lot that I will bring with me to the next design! </p><p><b>Update!</b> I realized that the reason the apartment looks bland is because there's no ambient occlusion. Yes, I checked the ambient occlusion checkbox in Blender BUT apparently that checkbox is not adding ambient occlusion to the scene. To add ambient occlusion you can either use the ambient occlusion node or a post-processing effect. I picked the post-processing alternative because it is much faster. Now the apartment looks like this (I also added more realistic plastic material):</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLvug67phOYUIpz4SdZyUaJBMS-iUazT_HSXOEgOsLK3eO9dHVRJIXgcgoWPS2Imly-38o89cENENGx1b_5sojy3bnL8XVkrbfiFmk0b7ZfGnV2hJMBEnKODJHy2ysZ57MK9GmkuwE6Fd7crJDsBqarfWfMRo5ePqXfpML7hAffLdplKojs0KU71lg/s1920/student-streamer-front-top.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1080" data-original-width="1920" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLvug67phOYUIpz4SdZyUaJBMS-iUazT_HSXOEgOsLK3eO9dHVRJIXgcgoWPS2Imly-38o89cENENGx1b_5sojy3bnL8XVkrbfiFmk0b7ZfGnV2hJMBEnKODJHy2ysZ57MK9GmkuwE6Fd7crJDsBqarfWfMRo5ePqXfpML7hAffLdplKojs0KU71lg/s320/student-streamer-front-top.png" width="320" /></a></div><p>You can find this project on Artstation: <a href="https://www.artstation.com/artwork/g8VGVe" target="_blank">Original LEGO design idea: Swedish student streamer</a>. </p><h3 style="text-align: left;">Intermission: Learning how to make realistic LEGO brick materials</h3><p style="text-align: left;">After making the second original LEGO design I realized I needed to learn how to make more realistic LEGO materials. The first idea I had was to remake a LEGO set that exists in real life and compare it with the photos from the LEGO website.</p><p style="text-align: left;">The model I chose was this <a href="https://www.lego.com/en-us/product/1970-ferrari-512-m-76906" target="_blank">1970 Ferrari 512 M</a>. So I downloaded the instructions and started building it piece-by-piece in LeoCAD. Luckily all pieces except two existed in LeoCAD, so I had to make the missing pieces on my own after exporting the model to Blender. I also had to paint the stickers on my own because neither they existed in LeoCAD. After a million renders where I tested all possible material settings, light settings, environment textures, I came up with a render that looks very close to the photo you can find on the LEGO website (The left one is from the LEGO website and the right one is by me):</p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEha8ZJ0xKmnWO2st09de50loV85veKsm3x-1yUQRO8G10qxGFbU4-dWnTwj2vhPQWWnpR4xC0uSi8XJwFvOhnDylEBVFLqEaPYvWmwVRRLkQyyh0KjCeJI_4r0q3xlZG6Xxp8s6nK5EJYP561J3eXzDf7QYw7I_gz4XSkoEyDzBhHldEutq1VJbSFMm/s2560/ferrari-comparison.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="960" data-original-width="2560" height="120" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEha8ZJ0xKmnWO2st09de50loV85veKsm3x-1yUQRO8G10qxGFbU4-dWnTwj2vhPQWWnpR4xC0uSi8XJwFvOhnDylEBVFLqEaPYvWmwVRRLkQyyh0KjCeJI_4r0q3xlZG6Xxp8s6nK5EJYP561J3eXzDf7QYw7I_gz4XSkoEyDzBhHldEutq1VJbSFMm/w320-h120/ferrari-comparison.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://eriknordeus.artstation.com/projects/OmX5Dw" target="_blank">Learning how to make realistic LEGO materials</a></td></tr></tbody></table><p style="text-align: left;">Both models look very similar to each other! Perhaps too similar? What if the model from the LEGO website also is a digital model because it's way too smooth to be a real model! This is most likely the truth because I know IKEA is also using digital models because it's much simpler to make changes: <a href="https://petapixel.com/2014/08/28/flip-ikea-catalog-75-photography-see-cgi/" target="_blank">When You Flip Through an IKEA Catalog, 75% of the 'Photography' You See is CGI</a>.</p><p style="text-align: left;">To improve the Ferrari I vacuum cleaned Google on articles how to make realistic LEGO materials. The result was this pirate guy:</p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjggVO-NZ3fQKIG6wAv0MU9LLlQT17sDVVqC7kwxCWqWG1NYhK8SSNrblXstIXb87qzgpFWoHb0Pm1b-YGKZG7TsRyusoilQdqrNKmNvsVbg_r3O_8Z2tQq78Jh6HtlCpjDh38w3a5bxoG4p4CiYKUGDdp5RZS7HrX1hnblB86g5bceF6CJnNRjG6sl/s1920/LEGO-pirate-colors-hd.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1080" data-original-width="1920" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjggVO-NZ3fQKIG6wAv0MU9LLlQT17sDVVqC7kwxCWqWG1NYhK8SSNrblXstIXb87qzgpFWoHb0Pm1b-YGKZG7TsRyusoilQdqrNKmNvsVbg_r3O_8Z2tQq78Jh6HtlCpjDh38w3a5bxoG4p4CiYKUGDdp5RZS7HrX1hnblB86g5bceF6CJnNRjG6sl/s320/LEGO-pirate-colors-hd.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://eriknordeus.artstation.com/projects/OmX5Dw" target="_blank">Learning how to make realistic LEGO materials</a></td></tr></tbody></table><p style="text-align: left;">…and if you are interested in downloading the material, I'm giving it away for free here: <a href="https://habrador.itch.io/blender-lego-material" target="_blank">Blender LEGO material</a>. When I added the realistic material to the Ferrari car - no changes could been seen because the realistic details are very small and can't be seen from far away!</p><p style="text-align: left;">You can find this project on Artstation: <a href="https://www.artstation.com/artwork/OmX5Dw" target="_blank">Learning how to make realistic LEGO materials</a>.</p><h3>Original design 3: Cosplay streamer</h3><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgnjWkaV4xJfJmWyhxmugK5XJo9or-8SqREO2w5NiJqfKfit7sWXR-70o997lcbVqs908-pQO_bwr24NLcilMOiZttyNug7GoVqYda5wvpMc74CoTb7Dw74DbDT_YgRSGKP5N19u9xgOTQp6irYyS-DGHsHndULFxORwyICiqx7SdJ7-5MdcbzedAqM/s1920/cosplay-streamer-closeup.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1080" data-original-width="1920" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgnjWkaV4xJfJmWyhxmugK5XJo9or-8SqREO2w5NiJqfKfit7sWXR-70o997lcbVqs908-pQO_bwr24NLcilMOiZttyNug7GoVqYda5wvpMc74CoTb7Dw74DbDT_YgRSGKP5N19u9xgOTQp6irYyS-DGHsHndULFxORwyICiqx7SdJ7-5MdcbzedAqM/s320/cosplay-streamer-closeup.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://eriknordeus.artstation.com/projects/X1zbZR" target="_blank">Original LEGO Design Idea: Cosplay streamer</a></td></tr></tbody></table><p style="text-align: left;">Next up is the cosplay streamer, currently cosplaying Ciri from the Witcher series. She's also doing cooking streams, but after making two kitchens I had zero energy to make a third kitchen. Instead I focused on making the LEGO character look like the actual streamer - and not just the traditional LEGO standard smile and yellow color. </p><p style="text-align: left;">The second focus was to experiment with light settings. You can buy custom made lights to some of your LEGO products from <a href="https://www.lightmybricks.eu/" target="_blank">Light My Bricks</a>, so adding lights is not far from the truth. </p><p style="text-align: left;">I also tried to apply the material from the "Learning how to make realistic LEGO bricks materials" but my computer was too slow to handle it, so I will stick to flat surfaces for now. I think it might look better as well? </p><p style="text-align: left;">I'm extra proud of the LEGO office leather chair I made. If you click on the link to Artstation I've included images of it from different angles if you want to build it yourself!</p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMdUDtv7YqahmCXCp_-B_fcsYA9Jz0h1lyPxpqJqqJ52rCl_EiAVS9VYJq3l6WsxcITcwV7ydas9tOrr6vXhlv30JF48NFxYKTqiFVYQNQsuTST8TQ_M39FEObLgLKQCwn7V0E4aMyVweD7mkq32GbPhhvHyvv1M8O3dMWsbpco-sj91HFBJq8D90z/s1920/lego-office-leather-chair-with-character.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1080" data-original-width="1920" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMdUDtv7YqahmCXCp_-B_fcsYA9Jz0h1lyPxpqJqqJ52rCl_EiAVS9VYJq3l6WsxcITcwV7ydas9tOrr6vXhlv30JF48NFxYKTqiFVYQNQsuTST8TQ_M39FEObLgLKQCwn7V0E4aMyVweD7mkq32GbPhhvHyvv1M8O3dMWsbpco-sj91HFBJq8D90z/s320/lego-office-leather-chair-with-character.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.artstation.com/artwork/X1zbZR" target="_blank">LEGO office leather chair</a></td></tr></tbody></table><p style="text-align: left;">You can find this project on Artstation: <a href="https://www.artstation.com/artwork/X1zbZR" target="_blank">Original LEGO Design Idea: Cosplay streamer</a>. </p><h3>Original design 4: Dance streamer</h3><p style="text-align: left;">When making the South African stream house I was supposed to add a wall that wasn't perpendicular to the other wall. I had no clue how to make such a wall because LEGO bricks prefer to be perpendicular to each other. When making this LEGO design I added an angular wall by using hinges. This looks good from one side, but not from the other, but I think using hinges is the only solution. </p><p style="text-align: left;">I also experimented further with realistic lights. I've come to the conclusion that using spot lights instead of emission produces the best result! </p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXp4-s1Kj99G0Hi_dcx3G6pXPTI1g-TNdsxGwTkSmQ4l3OxzHp1VjQ4GezV4CJeUwTcUm8_ObT5CwyWyw3OuGVdSxDUAP5OJIdUyzE3t7FzxvOJkq92iIAyG7Z4a8X-LP4j4L31HFXw1lfixpn5j-83VFMlQmw5gB3IAmPAKzfwo5bY_iLBBQ91dpE/s1920/dance-streamer-closeup.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1080" data-original-width="1920" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXp4-s1Kj99G0Hi_dcx3G6pXPTI1g-TNdsxGwTkSmQ4l3OxzHp1VjQ4GezV4CJeUwTcUm8_ObT5CwyWyw3OuGVdSxDUAP5OJIdUyzE3t7FzxvOJkq92iIAyG7Z4a8X-LP4j4L31HFXw1lfixpn5j-83VFMlQmw5gB3IAmPAKzfwo5bY_iLBBQ91dpE/s320/dance-streamer-closeup.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://eriknordeus.artstation.com/projects/xYwPAm" target="_blank">Original LEGO Design Ideas: Dance streamer</a></td></tr></tbody></table><p style="text-align: left;">You can find this project on Artstation: <a href="https://www.artstation.com/artwork/xYwPAm" target="_blank">Original LEGO Design Ideas: Dance streamer</a>. </p>Habradorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16953931454438486425noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2610977618186644090.post-52137644102176213022022-03-15T12:48:00.009+01:002022-04-05T09:04:37.669+02:00How to make your ugly LeoCAD LEGO models look good in Blender (Tutorial)<p>I've recently made my very first own <a href="https://www.artstation.com/artwork/o2QwBB" target="_blank">Original LEGO design: South African Stream House</a>. Some parts of the work process were a little tricky to figure out, so this article we be a summary of what I learned. You basically want to turn your LEGO models from looking like this in <a href="https://www.leocad.org/" target="_blank">LeoCAD</a>:</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEg0CINQt64Pcvm7TCnZKSceyRafKmCl6coBDUJ1Y_NlulzVvlBjDEyHG8pAqUe_cJcWBylCyDpkDT2EpIAMd5bSd1Fqg3AQU_RJOVyNdzS1V-8C_aLzTXEkNmGkn1Zbmb_R2O4tUdSjJJrmLSuFk5vg7OyYvv693JmriXL71kwutexL9scREGjDt8os=s1193" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="783" data-original-width="1193" height="210" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEg0CINQt64Pcvm7TCnZKSceyRafKmCl6coBDUJ1Y_NlulzVvlBjDEyHG8pAqUe_cJcWBylCyDpkDT2EpIAMd5bSd1Fqg3AQU_RJOVyNdzS1V-8C_aLzTXEkNmGkn1Zbmb_R2O4tUdSjJJrmLSuFk5vg7OyYvv693JmriXL71kwutexL9scREGjDt8os=s320" width="320" /></a></div><p>...to looking like this in <a href="https://www.blender.org/" target="_blank">Blender</a>:</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEi3DyFGXxZI5SUZdkX9_9oKh7wzuWC7bWpzVJRPj3CjJY8Ax0a4_N1OUZQ8turV6LzuayqTKJCZiS885exjO8M9vywz8MHVOgu5GNKqEfwaVGFN6IvpTxa2Vekto51d3ujEGWYd-Na5qdUpoxL2Dq_U-Lk9eYGWBinqx1m1sPlY6TqMsd-Fn6QRMpU_=s1920" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1080" data-original-width="1920" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEi3DyFGXxZI5SUZdkX9_9oKh7wzuWC7bWpzVJRPj3CjJY8Ax0a4_N1OUZQ8turV6LzuayqTKJCZiS885exjO8M9vywz8MHVOgu5GNKqEfwaVGFN6IvpTxa2Vekto51d3ujEGWYd-Na5qdUpoxL2Dq_U-Lk9eYGWBinqx1m1sPlY6TqMsd-Fn6QRMpU_=s320" width="320" /></a></div><p>Let's get started. This article assumes you have some basic Blender skillz. If you don't, I think this guy's tutorials on YouTube are good: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/c/GrantAbbitt" target="_blank">Grant Abbitt</a>. You basically just need the following: how to navigate around Blender, how to scale objects, how to add and modify materials by using nodes, how to render out the scene to an image. </p><p>To experiment we are going to use this basic scene I made in LeoCAD : </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhMbLo2Rryk2Wc7g6wbuUStUd7zo9MMSdjsVFieRyawrd5AD1dq_Y18rQIhasCYc53TO8mYLflWPb2K30bSSWcCHnQPq7NUe8XLDt0HqkwSI0cgWTri6TD_mKjtoXNSwDwVnJABNZHlX_5S2yv9elpmhrH_A20tSgsSCwXgLC_lkM5oq38y-3YYNTPW=s925" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="751" data-original-width="925" height="260" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhMbLo2Rryk2Wc7g6wbuUStUd7zo9MMSdjsVFieRyawrd5AD1dq_Y18rQIhasCYc53TO8mYLflWPb2K30bSSWcCHnQPq7NUe8XLDt0HqkwSI0cgWTri6TD_mKjtoXNSwDwVnJABNZHlX_5S2yv9elpmhrH_A20tSgsSCwXgLC_lkM5oq38y-3YYNTPW=s320" width="320" /></a></div><p><b>Lesson 1.</b> Save often when using LeoCAD because it crashes often. </p><p><b>Lesson 2.</b> When exporting from LeoCAD to Blender, use COLLADA, which ends with *.dae. The reason is that then the LEGO bricks will be separated when importing the file into Blender. </p><p><b>Lesson 3.</b> After importing the LEGO bricks into Blender, they are very small. So you should make sure they have the scale of roughly 0.018. You can easily do this by selecting all objects, press S, and then 45, and they should have a scale of 0.018. Now it should look like this in Blender:</p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiCuaYfEh6nYCKOWmLOYz7ePP9c0vzffFQLvZvm4-Q_2f1K6lFmd33B4A2axpCWKUWfQYJ0NQnZUNyAkw9ihvE1BM0EWvzKak93d4vNYHcGRBCYJYrK0ywVodyiE3mrx-eFX0O_O7KkTuW-mh1-Tme-estMcxs_sD3dSz_3RhnKc7M6yytDithjjU7g=s960" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="540" data-original-width="960" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiCuaYfEh6nYCKOWmLOYz7ePP9c0vzffFQLvZvm4-Q_2f1K6lFmd33B4A2axpCWKUWfQYJ0NQnZUNyAkw9ihvE1BM0EWvzKak93d4vNYHcGRBCYJYrK0ywVodyiE3mrx-eFX0O_O7KkTuW-mh1-Tme-estMcxs_sD3dSz_3RhnKc7M6yytDithjjU7g=s320" width="320" /></a></div><br />I'm using Cycles renderer (which you will learn soon why you have to) with 128 samples, Adaptive Sampling set to on, and OptiX denoising. <p></p><p><b>Lesson 4.</b> Use an environment texture. You set this in the Shader Editor and then you select world. There's a node called Environment Texture, and then you pick one of your choice. You can find some here: <a href="https://polyhaven.com/hdris" target="_blank">Poly Haven</a>. I'm using a cloudy one, which is recommended if you want a neutral scene. The strength is set to 2. </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgSEngkpq8daTxvpbWhKLVt-MYHiHa-X5cC5pTx6-SRjyKYgPnIQcVt9xjxprBIJ5_vbAt4HxqsV_zTzCxbprAzpu018vM-xr-HSc-m5lQpzflDQYXIps7eXbuKlQjpA6LPaGEMvfLz71lHUVZPWhc1sieU4rBVEMSa8DwRzy5JmAu3FxX4R7aCphif=s960" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="540" data-original-width="960" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgSEngkpq8daTxvpbWhKLVt-MYHiHa-X5cC5pTx6-SRjyKYgPnIQcVt9xjxprBIJ5_vbAt4HxqsV_zTzCxbprAzpu018vM-xr-HSc-m5lQpzflDQYXIps7eXbuKlQjpA6LPaGEMvfLz71lHUVZPWhc1sieU4rBVEMSa8DwRzy5JmAu3FxX4R7aCphif=s320" width="320" /></a></div><p><b>Lesson 5.</b> Add a light called sun to get shadows. I gave it a yellowish color and strength 5, and I rotated it so it's not just top-down. </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgG-qBAsscmXafrFNtaobggteWbSiy5YE0vPXg54HxD4-cF1AKsSiwWKAQtpWX-vCcZjs4dt-yfKltQ2PJKifOJXV092kYXo_lOD4IOrqxKkMcvLajG5rumM6wOLv-RFBFiYAX4M3azQ6Ot0SqCA0jchocKBtoFc4lAJjlsLR93EnqPNKi4R-e2FY8S=s960" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="540" data-original-width="960" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgG-qBAsscmXafrFNtaobggteWbSiy5YE0vPXg54HxD4-cF1AKsSiwWKAQtpWX-vCcZjs4dt-yfKltQ2PJKifOJXV092kYXo_lOD4IOrqxKkMcvLajG5rumM6wOLv-RFBFiYAX4M3azQ6Ot0SqCA0jchocKBtoFc4lAJjlsLR93EnqPNKi4R-e2FY8S=s320" width="320" /></a></div><p><b>Lesson 6.1.</b> When adding color parameters, use global values. All LEGO pieces are made of the same plastic material, so you want all materials to have the same settings - except for color. If make a change in one material, you want it to affect all other materials as well. To accomplish this you can use node groups. So create one material called like "Green," with a Value node connected to roughness. The value should be set to like 0.2. To make the roughness value global (so if you change it in one material, then all materials get the same roughness) you click on the node and press Ctrl + G. You should also name the node group to something clever like "Global roughness."</p><p><b>Lesson 6.2.</b> If you observe the image above you can see that it looks like the 4 bricks in the corner are one brick. The reason is that real LEGO pieces have a slight bevel to them. To create this bevel you can use a node called Bevel which you connect to the Normal input in the Principled BSDF. Blender will now create a bevel to each edge when rendering the image. This only works in Cycles. If you want to export the LEGO to some game engine like Unity you have to come up with some other way, like scaling each LEGO brick so they don't have the exact same size. This Bevel node should also be in a node group if you want to experiment with settings. I'm using a Bevel radius of 0.025. When creating the Bevel node group, it is very important to not connect the Bevel node to any Group Input, or the values will NOT be global. The input connections are automatically created when you create the node group, so remove those! The material should now look like this: </p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhK937fkEoE69tAp77NPf8yHc83MXIiVwDScFfhP_TlooC0zuyzz1VS1se05Lywz1dKMrNTD-FTIZ__M2buyyXJomJq5cg1G5Tc5wj6Z_WeaQOM0AnmTDP5kRAEydXsVEIoYMhvjlqe-b6vL7gdoCXp1h5_E5cVumMIR89Xn5gqy9-N7FD_rElXNlGW=s794" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="562" data-original-width="794" height="226" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhK937fkEoE69tAp77NPf8yHc83MXIiVwDScFfhP_TlooC0zuyzz1VS1se05Lywz1dKMrNTD-FTIZ__M2buyyXJomJq5cg1G5Tc5wj6Z_WeaQOM0AnmTDP5kRAEydXsVEIoYMhvjlqe-b6vL7gdoCXp1h5_E5cVumMIR89Xn5gqy9-N7FD_rElXNlGW=s320" width="320" /></a></div><p></p><p>Now if you give all pieces their own color, then the scene should look like this:</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEie3G4c7VHL_mTrqqqF4sz3x423sR3hTI67A2PrMEljRrNToT94wfsQZ7tYVLF8Fq8EW6OEHeSDk3uIPjKxeS1Yq9ea26aAgewJnGmCE3VWAGg6BonjltsLezv9xcUIQzdlefIerU6fzMnz1rwyZnew_qTk3XKGc8eDrlq0QVqWs4yBI65qbPbKUCK3=s960" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="540" data-original-width="960" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEie3G4c7VHL_mTrqqqF4sz3x423sR3hTI67A2PrMEljRrNToT94wfsQZ7tYVLF8Fq8EW6OEHeSDk3uIPjKxeS1Yq9ea26aAgewJnGmCE3VWAGg6BonjltsLezv9xcUIQzdlefIerU6fzMnz1rwyZnew_qTk3XKGc8eDrlq0QVqWs4yBI65qbPbKUCK3=s320" width="320" /></a></div><p style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><b>Lesson 7.</b> Add Ambient Occlusion. You can see that the image looks kinda bland. To make details pop out more you can add ambient occlusion, which is basically just shadows. You can do this in two ways: add an ambient occlusion node and multiply it with the color node, or by using post processing. The latter alternative is faster and produces a similar result, so I recommend it. This is a good tutorial on how to add it as a post processing effect: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=quFOa207syg" target="_blank">Blender | Ambient Occlusion Passes | Getting Started</a>. You can see that for example the inside of the cup is now darker! </p><p style="clear: both; text-align: left;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbacCSRmYaAjLp0SQKRcFzlR3_O-xXm2p4_bvguOBXZq6OzV_RZvEF3ny6r64st6cRfWzV7Tg9F2GS6QqVSP3mGX7_VmenyVH9Udhpzx6wSWHBwFlGip5PPCbDWMJeDzqiXaiEn68ZXqMyc6ZKdQlljiJzCn9uYiSqdbB4L1vT69d0yDoduGSenpog/s960/5-blender-lego-scene-with-ao-post-processing.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="540" data-original-width="960" height="181" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbacCSRmYaAjLp0SQKRcFzlR3_O-xXm2p4_bvguOBXZq6OzV_RZvEF3ny6r64st6cRfWzV7Tg9F2GS6QqVSP3mGX7_VmenyVH9Udhpzx6wSWHBwFlGip5PPCbDWMJeDzqiXaiEn68ZXqMyc6ZKdQlljiJzCn9uYiSqdbB4L1vT69d0yDoduGSenpog/w320-h181/5-blender-lego-scene-with-ao-post-processing.png" width="320" /></a></div><br /> <b style="font-size: x-large;">Win! </b><p></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span>…and if you want to make even more realistic LEGO, you should study these articles:</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><span><a href="https://stefanmuller.com/exploring-lego-material-part-1/" target="_blank">Exploring LEGO Material Part 1</a></span></li><li><span><a href="https://stefanmuller.com/exploring-lego-material-part-2/" target="_blank">Exploring LEGO Material Part 2</a></span></li></ul><p style="text-align: left;">…which I've implemented and you can download the Blender project here: <a href="https://habrador.itch.io/blender-lego-material" target="_blank">Blender LEGO material</a> where you can see this guy:</p><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGzgGScKCMdSMpGtCLNUwARV-nhsClDxVDdD_UK8eCcboHD24UOXg8B4ELvjQbFxGt41An3c_gNaSWhf3l4yIPN1DCDT6_w3FZ44ZguFMmAnhUYhFPu-Mgii-bcLa6LskOhVYIwfrZb241JZkgj4JNRr-yV6PXIEmACbqg9n2xsr_DnqIVvEd56mQM/s960/pirate-6-colors.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="540" data-original-width="960" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGzgGScKCMdSMpGtCLNUwARV-nhsClDxVDdD_UK8eCcboHD24UOXg8B4ELvjQbFxGt41An3c_gNaSWhf3l4yIPN1DCDT6_w3FZ44ZguFMmAnhUYhFPu-Mgii-bcLa6LskOhVYIwfrZb241JZkgj4JNRr-yV6PXIEmACbqg9n2xsr_DnqIVvEd56mQM/s320/pirate-6-colors.png" width="320" /></a></div><p style="text-align: left;">If you are going to use the above material in your own projects, make sure you apply the scale of each object, so scale should be 1!</p><p></p>Habradorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16953931454438486425noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2610977618186644090.post-18157280841749711892022-02-21T13:32:00.002+01:002022-02-21T13:32:36.430+01:002022 status check on my open source projects<p>I'm the big boss of open source projects on <a href="https://github.com/Habrador" target="_blank">GitHub</a>. This will be a short update what's going on with them - and what should be going on. </p><p>When I started open source my projects I had no idea how fun it would be to see when people are using them - and learning from them. My goal is that my code should by as easy as possible for the users to understand by writing super clear code and comments because there's nothing worse than trying to understand code without clear comments. I wrote <a href="https://www.habrador.com/p/elonmuskbook/" target="_blank">a book on a guy called Elon Musk</a>, and I read somewhere that authors are the best at commenting code because they know how to express themselves clearly. And express yourself clearly is what you need when explaining code controlling for example path planning for self-driving cars.</p><p>I shall list all projects in order of popularity defined as how many stars each project has. A better way is to maybe define popularity as number of forks, but not all of them have any forks, so I will stick to number of stars.</p><p><a href="https://github.com/Habrador/Unity-Programming-Patterns" target="_blank">Unity Programming (Design) Patterns</a>. <b>704 stars.</b> A few years ago I needed to learn how to structure a larger Unity project. A way to accomplish that is to learn your so called "patterns" - because they help you to structure your code. It will still take some time to understand what the code you wrote one year ago is doing, but it will be easier. Some people hate design patterns! I think they should be used when you need them, when they make your life easier, and not when they make your life more complicated. So far, two people other than me have contributed to the project by fixing bugs and adding alternative versions of a few design patterns. <b>TODO:</b> </p><p></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>Add more practical examples showing how some programming patterns can be used. I've added some made up examples - not how I actually used the patterns in a real project. </li></ul><a href="https://github.com/Habrador/Computational-geometry" target="_blank">Computational Geometry Unity Library</a>. <b>553 stars.</b> This library consists of a various collection of algorithms, such as Delaunay triangulation, originating from <a href="https://www.habrador.com/tutorials/math/" target="_blank">a series of tutorials</a> I wrote on the subject. The main problem you will encounter when coding computational geometry is EDGE CASES. How will you find all edge cases? The answer is that you will not! So to find more edge cases, I open sourced the library so users can find edge cases for me! This is working. Someone helped me find a bug in the constrained delaunay triangulation which I had missed. <b>TODO:</b> <p></p><p></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>I have started implementing a mesh cutting algorithm, which isn't finished because it is slow and I got stuck trying to figure out how to make it faster. Maybe I can use DOTS? </li><li>There are also a series of algorithms I want to implement.</li><li>Users have found more edge cases I have to fix. </li></ul><a href="https://github.com/Habrador/Self-driving-vehicle" target="_blank">Self Driving Vehicle</a>. <b>160 stars.</b> This is one of the more popular libraries if you also take number of forks into account. The original plan was to build as much as possible of a self-driving car - but self-driving cars are complicated (we don't even have them yet - just attempts to make them), so the library consists of path planning for vehicles within an area of like 100x100 m. What I learned last year is that Tesla Motors is using something similar which they showed in one of their annual "AI Day" presentations. <b>TODO:</b><p></p><p></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>Refactor code to make it less complicated to understand.</li><li>Try to make it less memory intensive. </li><li>Add reversing for vehicles with one or several trailers attached to them. I have downloaded several reports on the topic. It turns out there's no simple solution to the problem, so it will take some time to implement. </li></ul><p></p><p><a href="https://github.com/Habrador/Unity-Ballistics-Tutorial" target="_blank">Unity Ballistics Tutorial</a>. <b>41 stars.</b> Unity has a built-in physics engine, but it turns out it is limited if you want to make something more realistic, like shooting bullets. Then you have to build your own physics engine, which is actually kinda simple when you know how - but not everyone know how so <a href="https://www.habrador.com/tutorials/unity-realistic-bullets/" target="_blank">I wrote a tutorial on the topic</a>. <b>TODO:</b></p><p></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>I want to implement automatic aiming. With simple ballistics you can easily calculate the angle you need to hit a target. But if you add factors like wind, it will become more complicated. I think you can used gradient descent to solve this problem!</li></ul><a href="https://github.com/Habrador/Unity-Boat-physics-Tutorial" target="_blank">Unity Boat Physics Tutorial</a>. <b>31 stars.</b> I originally thought this project would be more popular because thousands of people have watched <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Ec-gxpC-Ik" target="_blank">my YouTube video</a> showing it off. This was the <a href="https://www.habrador.com/tutorials/unity-boat-tutorial/" target="_blank">first Unity tutorial I wrote</a>. From that tutorial I learned that it is a very annoying process to update the tutorial as you improve your code. So the plan with the Unity tutorials is to provide a working solution to the problem - but maybe not the most efficient solution. If you want the most efficient solution, go and download the open source code. Providing downloadable code will also prevent you from having to reply to people who have problems implementing your tutorials. <b>TODO:</b><p></p><p></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>I haven't touched this code in several years, so I should upgrade it to latest Unity version.</li><li>I want to solve the problem of water wakes which I think people solve by using a render texture.</li><li>I want to learn how to make a more realistic water that also connects with the code used by the boat physics. The problem is that the GPU is updating the water and the CPU is updating the physics. The physics needs to know the water height at a certain coordinate, and I haven't found a solution for that yet because the CPU and GPU are not friends. </li></ul><p></p><p><a href="https://github.com/Habrador/Unity-Rope-Tutorial" target="_blank">Unity Rope Tutorial</a>. <b>27 stars.</b> Ropes and cables in games are difficult to make, and there are multiple ways to do them. But ropes are something you need to learn how to implement because when you know your ropes you can also make cloth, which is just connected ropes in a triangular pattern. <b>TODO:</b> </p><p></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>In <a href="https://www.habrador.com/p/tesla-simulator/" target="_blank">Tesla Simulator</a> I have added Superchargers - but you can't use the Supercharges to charge your car only because I have no idea how move the cable in a realistic way. I don't think anyone else knows either because there's a reason you never see moving cables in games and the only rope you see are grappling hooks, which is just a straight line so they are easy to make. </li></ul><p></p><p><a href="https://github.com/Habrador/Unity-Select-Units-Within-Rectangle-Tutorial" target="_blank">Select units within rectangle</a>. <b>18 stars.</b> When playing strategy games you drag with your mouse to select multiple units. I replicated this in a tutorial because the solution is simple when you find it. <b>TODO:</b></p><p></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>Someone complained that when you scale the UI to different screen sizes, the rectangle gets distorted. I think the solution to that problem is to not scale the rectangle? </li></ul><p></p><p><a href="https://github.com/Habrador/Unity-Custom-Tools-Tutorial" target="_blank">Unity Custom Tools Tutorial</a>. <b>9 stars.</b> Custom tools are something you develop when Unity's editor is not providing for the needs you have. <b>TODO:</b></p><p></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li> Tools are made to fit your needs so I don't think I need to fix something. </li></ul><p></p><p><a href="https://github.com/Habrador/Unity-Stuff-on-grid-Tutorial" target="_blank">Unity Stuff on grid Tutorial</a>. <b>9 stars.</b> When playing management games you snap building parts to the grid when constructing a house - this is what this tutorial is all about. TODO:</p><p></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>I recall that someone had an idea to simplify some calculations, so I should investigate that. </li></ul><p></p><p><a href="https://github.com/Habrador/Unity-Tornado-Simulator" target="_blank">Unity Tornado Simulator</a>. <b>8 stars.</b> No one has ever made a tornado game, so I thought I would give it a try. So I made a tornado but couldn't come up with a game idea around it. Anyway I learned a lot when making the tornado, including volumetric clouds interacting with the tornado. <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IlhdLQ5NU5E" target="_blank">People on YouTube</a> loved it, but for some reason I never open sourced the implementation even though it was just collecting dust on my hard drive. But this year I decided to open source it! <b>TODO:</b></p><p></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>The tornado is basically using particles. There's a bug somewhere that shrinks the tornado as it changes direction, and sometimes you can also see particles spawn at the wrong place. A better implementation would maybe be to use some kind of fixed mesh and some scrolling textures...</li></ul><a href="https://github.com/Habrador/Unity-Control-systems-Tutorial" target="_blank">Unity Control systems Tutorial</a>. <b>7 stars.</b> Control systems is how you make a quadcopter fly, and a Segway not tipping over, and they are also used in self-driving cars. This is a project I want to really update because control systems are kinda tricky and not popular around Internet, so I should find a market niche. <b>TODO:</b><p></p><p></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>The quadcopter needs an update to make it more accurate to how an actual quadcopter is working. Hint: add more PID controllers.</li><li>The PID controller needs an update with some knowledge I gained when adding a PID controller in another project. </li><li>Instead of a PID controller you can use a sliding-mode controller. I want to implement one of those and compare it with the PID controller. </li></ul><p></p><p><a href="https://github.com/Habrador/Earthquake-Simulator" target="_blank">Earthquake Simulator in Unity</a>. <b>1 star.</b> Many years ago I experienced a smaller earthquake in Greece. But earthquakes from distance are not that exciting to look at, which is why the project is not that popular. But it's still interesting to learn how to simulate how buildings shake in an earthquake from a knowledge point-of-view. The code behind the Tornado project is a modified version of this project. </p><p><a href="https://github.com/Habrador/Malik-Bendjellouls-Speech" target="_blank">Malik Bendjelloul's Speech</a>. <b>0 stars.</b> You can put other projects on GitHub than just code. I added a translation of a Swedish radio show where <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malik_Bendjelloul" target="_blank">Malik Bendjelloul</a>, who was the director of the documentary film "Searching for Sugar Man," talks about his life, future projects, and creativity. I recently added this project - it used to be a part of my portfolio but I realized it didn't really fit in there anymore, so I moved it to GitHub. <b>TODO:</b></p><p></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>I think the speech is very inspirational so I need to do some marketing to make it more popular. Searching for Sugar Man won an Oscar so I think an English speaking audience would enjoy it - I don't think the information is available elsewhere. </li></ul>I also have a few other very old open-source projects. I planned to delete them but they might as well continue to live on in case someone needs them! <p></p>Habradorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16953931454438486425noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2610977618186644090.post-22228730849413865342022-02-16T19:54:00.012+01:002022-02-18T09:10:28.864+01:00How to bake perfect hard-surface normals in Blender (2022 Tutorial)<h2 style="text-align: left;">Introduction</h2><p>I've been working on this Cybertruck model for <a href="https://habrador.itch.io/tesla-motors-simulator" target="_blank">Tesla Simulator</a>. The Cybertruck is a so-called hard-surface object, which is defined (according to Internet) as a modeling technique used to model cars, armor, machines, and generally non-living objects that have smooth, static surfaces. </p><p></p><p style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhOW43A6qSXaKWr4KzmGDkzJpl79MalnJ0WfD-dgMaiIGKd8sosGJz8YxML5zNWk8HKtzWbEs9fPHYUL8d0z6uwor_dfUfzrggAvsNj0B-gjBqYRN7N7aQn3U3x8u1no5cXM9iw8qmJiF-NPxx-2TG8rkKJFgBcMm421VzZ4OPAPvX-DBBsNDPCHTXi=s1920" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1080" data-original-width="1920" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhOW43A6qSXaKWr4KzmGDkzJpl79MalnJ0WfD-dgMaiIGKd8sosGJz8YxML5zNWk8HKtzWbEs9fPHYUL8d0z6uwor_dfUfzrggAvsNj0B-gjBqYRN7N7aQn3U3x8u1no5cXM9iw8qmJiF-NPxx-2TG8rkKJFgBcMm421VzZ4OPAPvX-DBBsNDPCHTXi=s320" width="320" /></a></p><p style="clear: both; text-align: left;">The Cybertruck above has way too many triangles to be put into a game (unless you want the game to run at 2 fps) so I have to simplify it. You simplify objects for games by removing triangles and then, to compensate, you bake a so-called normal texture to trick your eyes that the simplified object has more details than it actually has. This simplified object is also known as a low-poly mesh. </p><p style="clear: both; text-align: left;">I'm using <a href="https://www.blender.org/" target="_blank">Blender</a> as modeling software. Baking textures in Blender is always an annoying process if you have a complicated model - especially if you have a hard-surface object. I've earlier baked hard-surface objects and I always had to improve the textures manually because of artifacts. This has always been fine because you can't see the remaining artifacts from far away anyway. But it has always been annoying to manually improve the textures because it's time consuming. I've also been forced to add geometry to make better normals, which is not good either because the more triangles you have the slower the game will be. I remember baking the normals for this <a href="https://www.artstation.com/artwork/oA0RgW" target="_blank">Not-A-Flamethrower</a> object was really time consuming - and you can still see some artifacts if you zoom in.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><p style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhvosNZDczGLrUgUrT2Igmxp5q-yOKhppd4z8g-6SsmTjCCkOcLo36-1ku7S-j4kQbNW7heHFVWVwnpPohmUlsAUO9RNn6z9Bix4zsiavlFco8KLEaViEf9cwV4JKnW1B70pDAc_Il7YlGwAlIYZE3b64Byrfp3aNumyfJE40LsJnbRxDKfNYYpO2Vv=s1920" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1080" data-original-width="1920" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhvosNZDczGLrUgUrT2Igmxp5q-yOKhppd4z8g-6SsmTjCCkOcLo36-1ku7S-j4kQbNW7heHFVWVwnpPohmUlsAUO9RNn6z9Bix4zsiavlFco8KLEaViEf9cwV4JKnW1B70pDAc_Il7YlGwAlIYZE3b64Byrfp3aNumyfJE40LsJnbRxDKfNYYpO2Vv=s320" width="320" /></a></p><p style="text-align: left;">If the tiny weapon was time consuming - then how time consuming will it be to bake normals for the Cybertruck? I shrugged at the very thought of the baking process, so I procrastinated on it instead. But then I told myself to once for all learn how to bake hard-surface normals without struggling. Spoiler: there will always be some struggling because there's no simple solution to the problem. </p><p style="text-align: left;">By the way, this articles assumes you know how to set up nodes and cages to bake textures, so I will not go through that process as well. If you don't know how, I think this is a good tutorial on the topic: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9z2kOJiheZs" target="_blank">Baking Cavity + Ambient Occlusion Texture Maps | 2019 | Blender 2.8</a>. </p></div><h2 style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Cube</h2><p style="clear: both; text-align: left;">If you look for tutorials on the topic how to bake hard-surface normals, there are surprisingly few results. The few you find deal with the simple cube with beveled edges, which is a good start and will teach us the basics. But you will see that the knowledge is not enough when it comes to more complicated objects. So let's start by experimenting with the cube! This is the setup: you want to simulate the soft edges of the right cube on the left cube by using a normal texture:</p><p style="clear: both; text-align: left;"></p><p style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgde0_BSsLwdOIs3k8hlBINhEv218tEXL_L2CCNaQJF-ZcVTOiULHiWiDViM-HtH11znhdNewBHd0RHlku03T4vgxXQ0jmDZewcxvOrK1ic5DXLKv9d1kJCwc00QarBsUl0OM8okbm2-xLtuJrPugeWJNDNE5QG72R2SLxYKtQg4yi5TQ7ri27i6iRW=s1000" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="500" data-original-width="1000" height="160" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgde0_BSsLwdOIs3k8hlBINhEv218tEXL_L2CCNaQJF-ZcVTOiULHiWiDViM-HtH11znhdNewBHd0RHlku03T4vgxXQ0jmDZewcxvOrK1ic5DXLKv9d1kJCwc00QarBsUl0OM8okbm2-xLtuJrPugeWJNDNE5QG72R2SLxYKtQg4yi5TQ7ri27i6iRW=s320" width="320" /></a></p>The naive solution is to unwrap the left cube to get as few uv islands as possible because the fewer the better: <p></p><p style="clear: both; text-align: left;"></p><p style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjvlBWCNQE9QThuOpbYl_jOR3ZoScDDjQEge9sn2wmy7JR6dt5uxo7ZAvlrneFgI7s3plXYjk7AxrgrdCrOEkHcg62BH7mExAN-w4Q2aA-Y3OltHT2I-RyyfQyhNCMCjOXxOKMWNsYT9itwOuU9WUboBbeHLi_MCLsahKv9jZuchrzy1EaTJh7U0Icv=s500" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="500" data-original-width="500" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjvlBWCNQE9QThuOpbYl_jOR3ZoScDDjQEge9sn2wmy7JR6dt5uxo7ZAvlrneFgI7s3plXYjk7AxrgrdCrOEkHcg62BH7mExAN-w4Q2aA-Y3OltHT2I-RyyfQyhNCMCjOXxOKMWNsYT9itwOuU9WUboBbeHLi_MCLsahKv9jZuchrzy1EaTJh7U0Icv=w200-h200" width="200" /></a></p>But if you try to bake the normals (without a cage), you don't get smooth edges because an ugly line is visible on all edges. Right cube is high poly for comparison:<p></p><p style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhE4q5mmDGcZ23Z8g2-mw_2c3B8d6KA7QDWBpTlkwhiMVltkNWzimDfDw2UM-dj63dzTj720CZ1uJ1GlLVokfM_5AOtyOg1QNKy5wKn6H5gYaVxff6bYvzaGJiJ4P7YZDaIjHXJi3s5UGUgDIa2iD4LPS4vcm2LLL39JBAWRqcO4gQtFxxmxwR7Ljb9=s1000" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="500" data-original-width="1000" height="160" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhE4q5mmDGcZ23Z8g2-mw_2c3B8d6KA7QDWBpTlkwhiMVltkNWzimDfDw2UM-dj63dzTj720CZ1uJ1GlLVokfM_5AOtyOg1QNKy5wKn6H5gYaVxff6bYvzaGJiJ4P7YZDaIjHXJi3s5UGUgDIa2iD4LPS4vcm2LLL39JBAWRqcO4gQtFxxmxwR7Ljb9=s320" width="320" /></a></p><p style="clear: both; text-align: left;">So lets try to bake with a cage. The result is better but you still see an ugly line if you zoom in:</p><p style="clear: both; text-align: left;"></p><p style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhOW45IkdI5jsbydqy1mPAuLZ5-KacXuwMMejTGT_mD8BDmLVbxbhojY8ZzN2jkN_ZQFK_IzmnZOHDvWylpc3QR5KSUfyAcpSeOpufRtJzdy_4b2f4rb-2z04iTK4hP-dOEXEhexxdGXGdpfZwtvjo13mlElUZ2zthkEylDv2ifNExS5m6H6o6AX9YJ=s500" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="500" data-original-width="500" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhOW45IkdI5jsbydqy1mPAuLZ5-KacXuwMMejTGT_mD8BDmLVbxbhojY8ZzN2jkN_ZQFK_IzmnZOHDvWylpc3QR5KSUfyAcpSeOpufRtJzdy_4b2f4rb-2z04iTK4hP-dOEXEhexxdGXGdpfZwtvjo13mlElUZ2zthkEylDv2ifNExS5m6H6o6AX9YJ=w200-h200" width="200" /></a></p>But from the image above you can see that the line is not visible where you added a uv seam. So the solution to all of our problems is to always add a uv seam at each hard-surface edge. Yes you will get more uv islands but there is no other solution. You should also always use a cage. Yes cages are annoying to make because you have to make a high-poly mesh, a low-poly mesh, and now a cage: that's three meshes - but again, there is no other solution. This is the result where each hard-surface edge has an uv seam and a cage is used:<p></p><p style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjb7Yrqz5j2BgdBw4tQN7D8CFBWpxI4w-NxwyQ6C9UdJsNt0-lEKQ4R2bYEk4-4qFwh1SXbr1i5INgb7jEOz2gOPovyx30lx83sE49S1kKkesus_HWwWOjIdi1z4T0ZjYzyV-wdTt8yfgojs2FWEDzPMh_0mLsgMP-MVO8RjEYWgl2BDRcuKelT1V9d=s1000" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="500" data-original-width="1000" height="160" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjb7Yrqz5j2BgdBw4tQN7D8CFBWpxI4w-NxwyQ6C9UdJsNt0-lEKQ4R2bYEk4-4qFwh1SXbr1i5INgb7jEOz2gOPovyx30lx83sE49S1kKkesus_HWwWOjIdi1z4T0ZjYzyV-wdTt8yfgojs2FWEDzPMh_0mLsgMP-MVO8RjEYWgl2BDRcuKelT1V9d=s320" width="320" /></a></p><p style="clear: both; text-align: left;">...so the normal texture should look like this:</p><p style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEj5rkzY3xO5nJ7mctEuPYty8SC_wm3xGxZHdgBlsWD7VYw8OUz6fAYKciwYgY0QE_iQmaTXHfSki83UVL5HJXPm4XlWODR18IDYAcklC538ejtLDPj1eoAx9BAr0MPFH8dYC7VHp6lTLkHzry-SYhkoWN6-jjvDYf2e25SUWaGGaOjeVN2-TpWvOsnR=s1024" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1024" data-original-width="1024" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEj5rkzY3xO5nJ7mctEuPYty8SC_wm3xGxZHdgBlsWD7VYw8OUz6fAYKciwYgY0QE_iQmaTXHfSki83UVL5HJXPm4XlWODR18IDYAcklC538ejtLDPj1eoAx9BAr0MPFH8dYC7VHp6lTLkHzry-SYhkoWN6-jjvDYf2e25SUWaGGaOjeVN2-TpWvOsnR=w200-h200" width="200" /></a></p><h2 style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Cylinder</h2><p style="clear: both; text-align: left;">With knowledge from the cube, I set out to bake hard-surface cylinder normals, thinking the process would be easy. This is the setup: you want to simulate the soft edges of the right cylinder on the left cylinder by using a normal texture:</p><p style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjqG8kUZDJ4PqjkC-scgrvYKrLQqixnNX7HsTscVo1umishJmfUvDL-19fyWIIzCYB9MZVXXkBabV_u6I1BB08QgVsfAk265NDeq6dA7jNzX5LEsYrltNUDX9sXEmYLt8iZNKAGh2wJnF5ISDxLVO3gH2bjrF5EaZYlh4p9JeeH0syeMuBroxFBTjaM=s1000" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="500" data-original-width="1000" height="160" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjqG8kUZDJ4PqjkC-scgrvYKrLQqixnNX7HsTscVo1umishJmfUvDL-19fyWIIzCYB9MZVXXkBabV_u6I1BB08QgVsfAk265NDeq6dA7jNzX5LEsYrltNUDX9sXEmYLt8iZNKAGh2wJnF5ISDxLVO3gH2bjrF5EaZYlh4p9JeeH0syeMuBroxFBTjaM=s320" width="320" /></a></p>If you follow what you've learned so far: uv seam along each hard edge and baking with a cage, the result is this:<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiSylj4qCECULcLysKIn3YjtVaWoSeCByjx388YSaAwnQ34u0WM3djQdunwI5atSztRQrVio4kV4R5rMKRqjJ8n0Q2fLhQEGkgpPSds6YjMb2FZECLZZ330fUlpeEQWIjPlloBexs5vv3dKlezYnA5efdlqOKoRxn6VlLXn5VEhZVcZNJj4zmX0Jucf=s1000" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="500" data-original-width="1000" height="160" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiSylj4qCECULcLysKIn3YjtVaWoSeCByjx388YSaAwnQ34u0WM3djQdunwI5atSztRQrVio4kV4R5rMKRqjJ8n0Q2fLhQEGkgpPSds6YjMb2FZECLZZ330fUlpeEQWIjPlloBexs5vv3dKlezYnA5efdlqOKoRxn6VlLXn5VEhZVcZNJj4zmX0Jucf=s320" width="320" /></a></div><div><p style="text-align: left;">Depending on how you made your cage, you can see that you get this wave pattern, which is very ugly when you want a smooth edge. You can clearly see this wave pattern if you look at the normal texture you just baked: </p><p style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhqRbAKi4PPOreOedl1_KH1dQvqFo8qF8VSeBFqffw_2A-MVHu54eTD7Yex6CkXYrGZpSNcHWcISGv6pRzCbFweOFm4aDXpqLxp8CpdhfcBFiZuzTNLzOsSDrpw5zGleEdLw9j7Iot2phsl0a-qOqEGTQD-YrYBVi6skJLcalyXSu2VJQ90Y5lbAOew=s2048" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="2048" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhqRbAKi4PPOreOedl1_KH1dQvqFo8qF8VSeBFqffw_2A-MVHu54eTD7Yex6CkXYrGZpSNcHWcISGv6pRzCbFweOFm4aDXpqLxp8CpdhfcBFiZuzTNLzOsSDrpw5zGleEdLw9j7Iot2phsl0a-qOqEGTQD-YrYBVi6skJLcalyXSu2VJQ90Y5lbAOew=w200-h200" width="200" /></a></p><p style="text-align: left;">So what is going on? It took a while to find the solution, but according to people on Internet, the problem is my cage. The cage is too far away from the flat part of the cylinder. So to solve the problem you have to push the flat part of the cage closer to the surface - it should be right outside (left white cylinder is bad cage, right white cylinder is good cage):</p></div><div><p style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhJCmMqyP_eiVh-Acpz2YerQWQX0BVFug0_C4BLiDDOnSF3ZHFuAtw9R0MZnk87kpvvoxorv7qYk8-y1-R956t-S332qsu0ck9Dcg_Rn9B9cXIY__7bxHiQPEJXRa0qXZFYzAVwcpygSWUeukfI7sxWWAo_jn_jD_Akzmxq49uk0B2LcHP4jNQvur7A=s1000" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="500" data-original-width="1000" height="160" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhJCmMqyP_eiVh-Acpz2YerQWQX0BVFug0_C4BLiDDOnSF3ZHFuAtw9R0MZnk87kpvvoxorv7qYk8-y1-R956t-S332qsu0ck9Dcg_Rn9B9cXIY__7bxHiQPEJXRa0qXZFYzAVwcpygSWUeukfI7sxWWAo_jn_jD_Akzmxq49uk0B2LcHP4jNQvur7A=s320" width="320" /></a></p><p style="text-align: left;">...and if you bake the normals, the edge is now smooth:</p></div><p style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEj3yzmI0Bryn1bbR5hS0-pbeX19mmtq-vQD0nVZwrE0uHTlWiwm3LdcPEscGKFCPNkdf8PgG90llhMpan35MER2FuHeGDhVNg65gPcRGqYOEEJNhKNCSW1zDwPUqxhfWGUqlHS4XmnUvM8dzdhyNTrO_mzJxH4LqOJWW0E81S97fQWSCRwU0A1z-HwE=s500" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="500" data-original-width="500" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEj3yzmI0Bryn1bbR5hS0-pbeX19mmtq-vQD0nVZwrE0uHTlWiwm3LdcPEscGKFCPNkdf8PgG90llhMpan35MER2FuHeGDhVNg65gPcRGqYOEEJNhKNCSW1zDwPUqxhfWGUqlHS4XmnUvM8dzdhyNTrO_mzJxH4LqOJWW0E81S97fQWSCRwU0A1z-HwE=w200-h200" width="200" /></a></p><p style="text-align: left;">...and you can't anymore see the wave pattern in the normal map:</p><p style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhGRmhAvcDrHuEM0Qlg38rfJBuEa4nGhpJxvejUGIyjGU2pxt-mk2ufpXstlp7YtFehdUi2XaCF-omcLqUaOd44W9QRa3hiRRm00shogMaftxrLdscpNy0aaMpHQBVacfEuEvFboKYOfe2JlRrClnG2NmrWvPNyjiTPGjNbnIRmrxlYqDrFEP1oKEwJ=s2048" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="2048" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhGRmhAvcDrHuEM0Qlg38rfJBuEa4nGhpJxvejUGIyjGU2pxt-mk2ufpXstlp7YtFehdUi2XaCF-omcLqUaOd44W9QRa3hiRRm00shogMaftxrLdscpNy0aaMpHQBVacfEuEvFboKYOfe2JlRrClnG2NmrWvPNyjiTPGjNbnIRmrxlYqDrFEP1oKEwJ=w200-h200" width="200" /></a></p><div><h2 style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Cylinder with details</h2><p style="clear: both; text-align: left;">With the knowledge from the cube and the cylinder experiments I set out to bake normals for a <a href="https://www.artstation.com/artwork/r9X92m" target="_blank">Dogecoin</a> asset I made for Tesla Simulator. </p><p style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiao6Cicm70qH7FkOmkQoBkeYYHy6QN_6-60dj3USAIq-AjsnQwckw7lZeQTVlSgtxgB-ZOAjgbp_ltXGQODH3iJd42U3Gcj9sSeJ63lsuxWsLWugZzjO8sr9kWWUAsT-Ppx7FKfRr9s5uxDP-hwg3PKJEMAI5-SxmRlRCyyw5Ob79QPRdnDcBED5Tz=s1084" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="718" data-original-width="1084" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiao6Cicm70qH7FkOmkQoBkeYYHy6QN_6-60dj3USAIq-AjsnQwckw7lZeQTVlSgtxgB-ZOAjgbp_ltXGQODH3iJd42U3Gcj9sSeJ63lsuxWsLWugZzjO8sr9kWWUAsT-Ppx7FKfRr9s5uxDP-hwg3PKJEMAI5-SxmRlRCyyw5Ob79QPRdnDcBED5Tz=w320-h213" width="320" /></a></p><p style="text-align: left;">The coin is just a cylinder so I can just use the ideas I've learned so far! The answer is no! I've recreated a simplified version of the coin so you can easily recreate the problem. This is the setup: you want to simulate the soft edges of the right coin on the left coin by using a normal texture:</p><div><p style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiGO-F6PRWTy4d0PMsPaj-QA1o8tLidkhisF1wrtsl0O0lQW_pa-JAWdAR_bql9AoBF8n6BWM0OWd1fM74wjtfiPCwWcQ8WPmAwFTW0GAAiSBVVI0Oe8POii5SRjC89aMbfVzAwXuNyO38zZ6Fl0NpKrUQEByAUWWO10xHeZwVXp52HpQeEHHGMRF-U=s1000" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="500" data-original-width="1000" height="160" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiGO-F6PRWTy4d0PMsPaj-QA1o8tLidkhisF1wrtsl0O0lQW_pa-JAWdAR_bql9AoBF8n6BWM0OWd1fM74wjtfiPCwWcQ8WPmAwFTW0GAAiSBVVI0Oe8POii5SRjC89aMbfVzAwXuNyO38zZ6Fl0NpKrUQEByAUWWO10xHeZwVXp52HpQeEHHGMRF-U=w320-h160" width="320" /></a></p><p style="text-align: left;">When you bake the normals texture, the result looks like this: </p></div><div><p style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjdTxInGLlJ98s-CDOe0HLKDpyKHRstz8kBq5BqVitRmslsMol1KqrLYLMXTYpmmWbGGRHSY6-WHP-tZ1QyQ84zV6a7MySt3-M4dKYxo842BV_GZ-CdaYpDDSImA3_fq6ei9dXcK4lsdIYFguLAhgM5t0lVliW0zJXIPoxjhJ6dsNMqdxhRLLC55rwT=s1000" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="500" data-original-width="1000" height="160" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjdTxInGLlJ98s-CDOe0HLKDpyKHRstz8kBq5BqVitRmslsMol1KqrLYLMXTYpmmWbGGRHSY6-WHP-tZ1QyQ84zV6a7MySt3-M4dKYxo842BV_GZ-CdaYpDDSImA3_fq6ei9dXcK4lsdIYFguLAhgM5t0lVliW0zJXIPoxjhJ6dsNMqdxhRLLC55rwT=s320" width="320" /></a></p>...the normals of the cylinders at the edge on the flat side are distorted. You can see this more clearly in the normal map:</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEi8hoW0NyPeApXo9RBng_96HGpQmauZw8d-jxviuhLmT1CBwbCbBPtVDKe4CjXkR_t_8xVYO8tJ58DJnvV__Ff-gsolkOkP9CVgzJWuFMzsFJPyRvssZUrR6APyFWTdDJlET6xtLfZ36Tc5akfdU36eXLzPmOkQGPx5s_bLm-Zt-pER_-EJFnwmMUQx=s2048" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="2048" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEi8hoW0NyPeApXo9RBng_96HGpQmauZw8d-jxviuhLmT1CBwbCbBPtVDKe4CjXkR_t_8xVYO8tJ58DJnvV__Ff-gsolkOkP9CVgzJWuFMzsFJPyRvssZUrR6APyFWTdDJlET6xtLfZ36Tc5akfdU36eXLzPmOkQGPx5s_bLm-Zt-pER_-EJFnwmMUQx=s320" width="320" /></a></div><p style="clear: both; text-align: left;">The reason this happens is because you increased the size of the cage to be able to capture the geometry on the side. This will result in that the flat side of the cage increases, so the small cylinders will get distorted because the baking fire rays not top-down but top-sideways. So what you actually want is top-down normals baking on the inner side of the flat surface to not get distorted small cylinders, and top-sideways baking on the smooth hard-surface edge to capture the beveled edge. The problem is that you can't get both - unless you add geometry to the low-poly mesh, like this:</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEip1BviKVEnR6M_iKloK1uuAp1Mu9VFHf9EPLEz0VpNZQzTK8eIuBOqJvySsimTgL0PngNA1fob81lqArzXRLR8wkGWzuQmhQvfE-cxKjD_9MVO8A4IcL45fr4aZTQ3OBbw6lAvJEOYI5QrsuBEf25TrFqIHXm0P6dHKjjuX6JPfuQJs2IPrUL-0fEz=s1000" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="500" data-original-width="1000" height="160" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEip1BviKVEnR6M_iKloK1uuAp1Mu9VFHf9EPLEz0VpNZQzTK8eIuBOqJvySsimTgL0PngNA1fob81lqArzXRLR8wkGWzuQmhQvfE-cxKjD_9MVO8A4IcL45fr4aZTQ3OBbw6lAvJEOYI5QrsuBEf25TrFqIHXm0P6dHKjjuX6JPfuQJs2IPrUL-0fEz=s320" width="320" /></a></div><p style="clear: both; text-align: left;">...and when you create the new cage, you have to make sure that the inner vertices (the once you added) are only moved upwards (in z direction): </p><p style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiK_mC8RZbBxL4TVVff4PqNIMmkyZGhyHakacdAWifqCNLAbUFj2Ok54JT6tEmgFoi66y6cqBM8KffQYIh7GDHVeZeqDtYFvzJD9Wru7C1_LKer8WkQPJSjMSvMCb0fexCsm9qAcs1WPFy2fbeJJTsmNpKsh7129ymMoe_mAu9UoldxuKhZYIDyhz5-=s700" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="279" data-original-width="700" height="128" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiK_mC8RZbBxL4TVVff4PqNIMmkyZGhyHakacdAWifqCNLAbUFj2Ok54JT6tEmgFoi66y6cqBM8KffQYIh7GDHVeZeqDtYFvzJD9Wru7C1_LKer8WkQPJSjMSvMCb0fexCsm9qAcs1WPFy2fbeJJTsmNpKsh7129ymMoe_mAu9UoldxuKhZYIDyhz5-=s320" width="320" /></a></p><p style="clear: both; text-align: left;">If you move them in any other direction the normals will again get distorted. Now Blender will fire rays top-down to capture the normals belonging to the small cylinders, and top-sideways to capture the hard-surface edge belonging to the big cylinder. It looks like this from the side (the white arrows are the direction rays will fire to bake the normals):</p><p style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEggSwvVJmOE6AuR-dzogYzjEhXjJ-Nv81LMiPE9pGUD--S7MmlXDW9xZEbTFSfWFOy9kEHXMHTJsm2ywyocd6J5uGqdhop_6ahDaWqdXydRyMaly5_BPGNL53bAVysKSu_vaaTRiuI5VQ8YGyzPP7CFhFH5qzIypK-Bk4sIcgfljHvZc4ub7oQahQ80=s1000" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="500" data-original-width="1000" height="160" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEggSwvVJmOE6AuR-dzogYzjEhXjJ-Nv81LMiPE9pGUD--S7MmlXDW9xZEbTFSfWFOy9kEHXMHTJsm2ywyocd6J5uGqdhop_6ahDaWqdXydRyMaly5_BPGNL53bAVysKSu_vaaTRiuI5VQ8YGyzPP7CFhFH5qzIypK-Bk4sIcgfljHvZc4ub7oQahQ80=s320" width="320" /></a></p><div>With the new cage, the normals now look like this:</div></div><p style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhiV2GJpg6qwMTLv3g0fhR_s0sZJEEGAuxGp4dTHOqJ244ynVS4e2bLnQuo7HfRwlfsEY_6Ea_OW7IxVDLI23gj4rfbcfvRowlJJZX8GJyM87TU6m5txawG24I9PU53smQjEVqRYqgA2iFj8i2J2ZgzV6dfb6h-oXWi1EllSAjWvHIT-mXYmb3aiJ6J=s2048" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="2048" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhiV2GJpg6qwMTLv3g0fhR_s0sZJEEGAuxGp4dTHOqJ244ynVS4e2bLnQuo7HfRwlfsEY_6Ea_OW7IxVDLI23gj4rfbcfvRowlJJZX8GJyM87TU6m5txawG24I9PU53smQjEVqRYqgA2iFj8i2J2ZgzV6dfb6h-oXWi1EllSAjWvHIT-mXYmb3aiJ6J=s320" width="320" /></a></p><p style="text-align: left;">When you have baked the correct normals you can (at least in this case) remove the extra edge you added because it is no longer needed. So adding and then remove geometry is something you have to plan already when you make the low-poly mesh and when you unwrap it. </p><div><h2 style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Other tips</h2><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><p style="text-align: left;"><b>Use a larger texture than you need.</b> When making games it's common to use 2k textures. But when baking normals to a 2k texture, the result might be bad because the texture is so small. If that is the case, then you can try to use a larger texture, like a 4k texture, and then scale the texture to a 2k texture in like Photoshop or Unity. This can give you a better result. </p><p style="text-align: left;"><b>Align the uv seams parallel to the uv grid.</b> This may give you fewer artifacts when baking the texture. The reason is that your texture consists of pixels and the uv-seam is a line. If the line is not going along the u or v axle, you will get a jagged result, like this (left bad, right good):</p></div><p style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhFr7ZlPGMD0bVcg-HZpJmiw-p4W-GZBaZpbqcZdcOIE6-2nmX4EYmnNg_V7d72N9QNmUz_iWZxcrtaMRMFzYv_OCCCsEA7tltV-JjQrUtw1PLr1RGdDZIxz8i-WFZVisx8Q6uPEcGbXl8ptsfmS4kKBjL-xkVH3usNoG-IyE50B0SZyE3DJSWUyTM8=s812" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="812" data-original-width="811" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhFr7ZlPGMD0bVcg-HZpJmiw-p4W-GZBaZpbqcZdcOIE6-2nmX4EYmnNg_V7d72N9QNmUz_iWZxcrtaMRMFzYv_OCCCsEA7tltV-JjQrUtw1PLr1RGdDZIxz8i-WFZVisx8Q6uPEcGbXl8ptsfmS4kKBjL-xkVH3usNoG-IyE50B0SZyE3DJSWUyTM8=w320-h320" width="320" /></a></p><p style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><b>Example. </b>The naive unwrap of this shape looks like this:</p><p style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjJvo_lOz3aS3QrypycGrQtUWAcEeLlZGlhLkuDTbm6IvmqkHt3WtCPlKpQ4jdZaWFhCvyM-wyhzKFsO-Sn0BE4BtFmG9V5AOhdjfj59GFrmDyygCELbtUjE7nE63YleKqBWxovwm1AAWfw5HjXcTybGFno3Bm958b9JSvqNmP2B-PsOB0WRixzmocN=s1000" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="500" data-original-width="1000" height="160" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjJvo_lOz3aS3QrypycGrQtUWAcEeLlZGlhLkuDTbm6IvmqkHt3WtCPlKpQ4jdZaWFhCvyM-wyhzKFsO-Sn0BE4BtFmG9V5AOhdjfj59GFrmDyygCELbtUjE7nE63YleKqBWxovwm1AAWfw5HjXcTybGFno3Bm958b9JSvqNmP2B-PsOB0WRixzmocN=s320" width="320" /></a></p><p style="clear: both; text-align: left;">You can't improve the unwrap of the two circles, but you can straighten out the other shape. You can do this manually by selecting a rectangle (pick a rectangle that is sort of aligned along the grid), straighten that out along the uv, and then select that rectangle and unwrap it again by selecting "follow active quads." But this problem is so common that someone has made a free addon which simplifies this process: <a href="https://github.com/Radivarig/UvSquares" target="_blank">UvSquares</a>. The result should look like this: </p><p style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhbK4jqi0xjYlUXMJwZBtU5sw4Y4V15FJ9za77jFFYoJojzAaOcF5nsGRHfly-8Ia2ppm707gsFOn2ZTNjIEWN_nws3sGEBi5cy-F2idvmgWuLFXwZT7IgEFLQo4mz9TE5voL1Ee0BCsxMtUZzQTEWhoTB40_ZuTaLAamr5zb2Uo67QwKq66enSvyMt=s500" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="500" data-original-width="500" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhbK4jqi0xjYlUXMJwZBtU5sw4Y4V15FJ9za77jFFYoJojzAaOcF5nsGRHfly-8Ia2ppm707gsFOn2ZTNjIEWN_nws3sGEBi5cy-F2idvmgWuLFXwZT7IgEFLQo4mz9TE5voL1Ee0BCsxMtUZzQTEWhoTB40_ZuTaLAamr5zb2Uo67QwKq66enSvyMt=w200-h200" width="200" /></a></p><p style="clear: both; text-align: left;">As a bonus, if you straighten out as many shapes as possible, you will get a more efficient uv pack. The reason is that it's much easier to pack convex shapes than concave shapes! </p><h2 style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Summary</h2><p style="text-align: left;">This is a summary of what you should have learned:</p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>Add a uv seam along each hard-surface edge.</li><li>Use a cage, and the cage should be as close as possible to the high poly model but still outside.</li><li>When making the low-poly model, take into account how you will bake the normals so you can add/remove geometry to get a better bake.</li><li>Align the unwrapped uvs along the uv grid.</li><li>Use a larger normal texture than you need - and then rescale it to your needs. </li></ul><p style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><b>So have fun and good look with your hard-surface normals bakes!</b> Because I'm gonna need all the luck I can get when baking the Cybertruck normals. </p><p></p></div>Habradorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16953931454438486425noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2610977618186644090.post-62941312674937545832022-02-02T20:26:00.027+01:002022-07-23T15:30:54.698+02:00How to make your Artstation pages appear in Google search (2022)<h2 style="text-align: left;">Introduction</h2><p>I'm on <a href="https://www.artstation.com/eriknordeus" target="_blank">Artstation</a> because I've made art and Artstation is the place to be if you want people to discover your art! But Artstation is also crowded with art, so how can you make it easier for people to discover your art? The answer is that you want your Artstation pages to appear in Google search because that's what people use when they are in need of something: they google it! I also want my Artstation pages to appear in Google search - but I realized to my horrors that I couldn't find all my pages when I googled them myself. Not good! Why is Google not indexing by Artstation pages? </p><p>How can you check if your Artstation pages are in Google search? To figure out if a website is in Google search you can google the url to the website like this: </p><p></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><b>site:www.yoursite.com</b> and Google will tell you how many pages belonging to that website are in Google search </li><li>You can also google a single page belonging to a website like this: <b>site:www.yoursite.com/subPage</b></li></ul><p style="text-align: left;">What should you google to find out if your Artstation page is in Google search? You can't use <b>site:www.artstation.com</b> because it will tell you how many of ALL Artstation pages are in Google search (the answer is 8.6 million)! So what you should do is to Google each individual Artstation page which you can find if you go to your profile and click on one of your art pieces. It should look like this: <a href="http://www.artstation.com/artwork/oA0RgW">www.artstation.com/artwork/oA0RgW</a>, so google <b>site:www.artstation.com/artwork/oA0RgW</b> to see if it is in Google search. But Artstation also has another folder structure, so you can also Google <b>site:YourNameOnArtstation.artstation.com</b>, so I google <b>site:eriknordeus.artstation.com</b>.</p><p style="text-align: left;">Now if you realized to your horrors that you can't find your own site on Google what can you do? Once upon a time you could send individual links to Google and tell Google to index them - but that feature was unfortunately removed. And Artstation's help section won't help you in any way! So to make Google index your Artstation pages you need links to those pages because Google is powered by links! </p><p style="text-align: left;">But you might say your Artstation pages already have links from your profile page <b>artstation.com/YourNameOnArtstation</b>. That is true, which is why Google automatically adds some of your Artstation pages on Google. But that only happens if your Artstation profile is popular enough - otherwise Google might not visit your profile and discover those links because Google can't go through all billion websites in the world every single day. So what you need to do is to create your own links.</p><p style="text-align: left;">How do you create your own links? All links on the Internet are not of equal value: </p><div><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>A good link looks something like this: <b><a href="www.yourwebsite.com">Your website</a></b>. This link (if Google finds it), will most likely make the website appear on Google search. I say most likely because Google has other parameters it considers so it doesn't index whatever site. For example, you need text on the website or Google won't index it because Google is a machine and doesn't understand just images. </li><li>A bad link looks like this: <b><a href="www.yourwebsite.com" rel="nofollow">Your website</a></b>. This is bad because of the nofollow attribute. If Google notices the nofollow attribute, Google will not continue to that link and your website will not be discovered by Google from that link. Some websites, such as GitHub, adds these attributes automatically because Google can punish your website if you link to bad websites! </li></ul><p style="text-align: left;">How do you check if a link is good or bad? You can (at least in Chrome) right-click on the link and then choose inspect and a new window should pop up with the information. </p><p style="text-align: left;">If you can't figure out how to add good links somewhere, what's left for you to do is to create your own website, or a blog like this one, and create all the links you need. BUT make sure to not create a million blogs with links to your Artstation because Google may punish that spammy behavior!</p></div><p style="text-align: left;">But isn't this a chicken and the egg problem? You need links to your Artstation pages because your Artstation page is not popular. But if your Artstation is not popular, why would your blog be? How will Google find your blog? The difference is that you own your blog or website, and if you own your website you can use a Google tool called <a href="https://search.google.com/search-console/about" target="_blank">Google Search Console</a>. If you register your blog on Google Search Console you can tell Google to search your blog while going through all the links you have on it! Success!</p><h2 style="text-align: left;">Apply what we have learned</h2><p style="text-align: left;">Now will this actually work? Let's make an experiment by using my own Artstation!</p><p style="text-align: left;"><i>Notice that testing if every single link is in Google and link to it from blogger is very boring so make sure you listen to something cool in the background while drinking wine or beer if you are into that! </i></p><p style="text-align: left;">If I google "site:eriknordeus.artstation.com" Google tells me it has indexed 9 pages even though I have 14 art pieces on Artstation (so with the profile page I should have a total of 15 links on Google search). So let's link the missing ones from <a href="https://eriknordeus.artstation.com" target="_blank">eriknordeus.artstation.com</a> (❌ means not indexed and ✅ means it's on Google):</p><div><ol style="text-align: left;"><li><a href="https://eriknordeus.artstation.com/projects/o2xD1O" target="_blank">Red pandas</a> ❌</li><li><a href="https://eriknordeus.artstation.com/projects/X1PlR0" target="_blank">Twitch emotes</a> ❌</li><li><a href="https://eriknordeus.artstation.com/projects/JeEDRz" target="_blank">The state of public education in Colorado</a> ❌</li><li><a href="https://eriknordeus.artstation.com/projects/r9X92m" target="_blank">Tesla Motors Simulator props</a> ❌</li><li><a href="https://eriknordeus.artstation.com/projects/bKQawd" target="_blank">Low poly SpaceX Starship and Super Heavy rockets</a> ❌</li><li><a href="https://eriknordeus.artstation.com/projects/8e5l2G" target="_blank">The Golden Arrow</a> ✅</li><li><a href="https://eriknordeus.artstation.com/projects/oA0RgW" target="_blank">Low poly Not-A-Flamethrower game asset</a> ✅</li><li><a href="https://eriknordeus.artstation.com/projects/Bml0Oz" target="_blank">Stylized Visby Corvette</a> ✅</li><li><a href="https://eriknordeus.artstation.com/projects/oOoywO" target="_blank">Stylized Coast Guard helicopter</a> ✅</li><li><a href="https://eriknordeus.artstation.com/projects/DxyVWO" target="_blank">Art studies</a> ✅</li><li><a href="https://eriknordeus.artstation.com/projects/1nGK0Z" target="_blank">Zombie taking a bubble bath</a> ✅</li><li><a href="https://eriknordeus.artstation.com/projects/6aD905" target="_blank">Big Balloon - Simon Stålenhag fanart</a> ✅ </li><li><a href="https://eriknordeus.artstation.com/projects/oOmXxL" target="_blank">Disco Elf Corel</a> ✅</li><li><a href="https://eriknordeus.artstation.com/projects/xzrbm2" target="_blank">Butterfly elf Madeliefje</a> ❌</li></ol></div><p style="text-align: left;">One set of links ready, now over to the ones that you have to search for one-by-one - the ones linked from: <a href="https://www.artstation.com/eriknordeus">artstation.com/eriknordeus</a> (❌ means not indexed and ✅ means it's on Google):</p><div><ol style="text-align: left;"><li><a href="https://www.artstation.com/artwork/o2xD1O" target="_blank">Red pandas</a> ❌</li><li><a href="https://www.artstation.com/artwork/X1PlR0" target="_blank">Twitch emotes</a> ❌</li><li><a href="https://www.artstation.com/artwork/JeEDRz" target="_blank">The state of public education in Colorado</a> ❌</li><li><a href="https://www.artstation.com/artwork/r9X92m" target="_blank">Tesla Motors Simulator props</a> ❌</li><li><a href="https://www.artstation.com/artwork/bKQawd" target="_blank">Low poly SpaceX Starship and Super Heavy rockets</a> ✅</li><li><a href="https://www.artstation.com/artwork/8e5l2G" target="_blank">The Golden Arrow</a> ✅</li><li><a href="https://www.artstation.com/artwork/oA0RgW" target="_blank">Low poly Not-A-Flamethrower game asset</a> ✅</li><li><a href="https://www.artstation.com/artwork/Bml0Oz" target="_blank">Stylized Visby Corvette</a> ✅</li><li><a href="https://www.artstation.com/artwork/oOoywO" target="_blank">Stylized Coast Guard helicopter</a> ✅</li><li><a href="https://www.artstation.com/artwork/DxyVWO" target="_blank">Art studies</a> ✅</li><li><a href="https://www.artstation.com/artwork/1nGK0Z" target="_blank">Zombie taking a bubble bath</a> ✅</li><li><a href="https://www.artstation.com/artwork/6aD905" target="_blank">Big Balloon - Simon Stålenhag fanart</a> ✅</li><li><a href="https://www.artstation.com/artwork/oOmXxL" target="_blank">Disco elf Corel</a> ❌</li><li><a href="https://www.artstation.com/artwork/xzrbm2" target="_blank">Butterfly elf Madeliefje</a> ✅</li></ol></div><p style="text-align: left;">And now we have to wait and see if this produces a result! In the future you (and I) should write a single blog post to each art piece because Google likes those links more than these link roundups! </p><h2 style="text-align: left;"><b>Update: 4 days later</b></h2><p style="text-align: left;">When I now google "site:eriknordeus.artstation.com" 10 sites appear (previously it was 9). But the new page is NOT one of the pages I linked to, but a new one: the <a href="https://eriknordeus.artstation.com/resume" target="_blank">Resume</a> page (which I forgot existed, so a total of 16 pages should be shown in Google search).</p><p style="text-align: left;">When I check the pages I have to google one-by-one, this is the result:</p><div><ol><li><a href="https://www.artstation.com/artwork/o2xD1O" target="_blank">Red pandas</a> ❌</li><li><a href="https://www.artstation.com/artwork/X1PlR0" target="_blank">Twitch emotes</a> ❌</li><li><a href="https://www.artstation.com/artwork/JeEDRz" target="_blank">The state of public education in Colorado</a> ❌</li><li><a href="https://www.artstation.com/artwork/r9X92m" target="_blank">Tesla Motors Simulator props</a> ✅ <b>(now indexed)</b></li><li><a href="https://www.artstation.com/artwork/bKQawd" target="_blank">Low poly SpaceX Starship and Super Heavy rockets</a> ✅</li><li><a href="https://www.artstation.com/artwork/8e5l2G" target="_blank">The Golden Arrow</a> ✅</li><li><a href="https://www.artstation.com/artwork/oA0RgW" target="_blank">Low poly Not-A-Flamethrower game asset</a> ✅</li><li><a href="https://www.artstation.com/artwork/Bml0Oz" target="_blank">Stylized Visby Corvette</a> ✅</li><li><a href="https://www.artstation.com/artwork/oOoywO" target="_blank">Stylized Coast Guard helicopter</a> ✅</li><li><a href="https://www.artstation.com/artwork/DxyVWO" target="_blank">Art studies</a> ✅</li><li><a href="https://www.artstation.com/artwork/1nGK0Z" target="_blank">Zombie taking a bubble bath</a> ✅</li><li><a href="https://www.artstation.com/artwork/6aD905" target="_blank">Big Balloon - Simon Stålenhag fanart</a> ✅</li><li><a href="https://www.artstation.com/artwork/oOmXxL" target="_blank">Disco elf Corel</a> ✅ <b>(now indexed)</b></li><li><a href="https://www.artstation.com/artwork/xzrbm2" target="_blank">Butterfly elf Madeliefje</a> ✅</li></ol></div><p style="text-align: left;">So 2 new pages have been indexed! I've added new content to "Tesla Motors Simulator props" but I haven't touched "Disco elf Corel," so I tell myself the linking from this blog post worked. <b>Slow and steady wins the race!</b></p><h2 style="text-align: left;"><b>Update: 13 days later</b></h2><p style="text-align: left;">When I now google "site:eriknordeus.artstation.com," then 11 pages appear. It was previously 10 pages, and the new one is "Butterfly elf Madeliefje."</p><p style="text-align: left;">When I check the pages I have to google one-by-one, this is the result: <b>ALL PAGES INDEXED!!!</b> One of them can't be found by typing site:url - only by typing just the url in Google, but at least it has been indexed! This may be a takeaway: maybe it's better to just google the page itself without using site:url if you want to investigate just one specific page. BUT if you want to check all pages on a site you have to use site:url. I tried to type in the pages you find from "eriknordeus.artstation.com/..." individually without using site, but none were found in Google. </p><p style="text-align: left;">So I guess <b>slow and steady won the race</b>! </p><h2 style="text-align: left;">Update: 1 month later</h2><p style="text-align: left;">When I now google "site:eriknordeus.artstation.com" 14 sites appear (previously it was 10). Two are still missing but we are getting there!</p><p></p><h2 style="text-align: left;"><b>Summary</b></h2><p style="text-align: left;">For Google to index you Artstation pages, Google's crawling algorithm has to visit them from somewhere. Because Artstation is so big, it's easy for Google to miss your pages when visiting Artstation. To help Google discover your pages you need to create the links to your pages yourself. It's very important that you create these links on a page you "own," because then you can tell Google to index that page by using the <a href="https://search.google.com/search-console/about" target="_blank">Google Search Console</a>. When Google is indexing the page you created, it will automatically visit the links from that page to your Artstation pages and thus index those pages as well. This will not happen over night - it took me two weeks before my pages were indexed by Google. So have patience! </p><div><p></p></div>Habradorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16953931454438486425noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2610977618186644090.post-35583982277784199362022-01-27T15:40:00.004+01:002022-04-14T01:03:35.720+02:00How to make your boring animations more exciting<p>After I finish a piece of art I always make one of those spin around animations (I think they are sometimes called turntable animations). The basic idea is that you take a 3d model and rotate a camera around it 360 degrees so you can see all sides of it. While these animations might show the model they are also really boring to look at. For example this <a href="https://eriknordeus.artstation.com/projects/bKQawd" target="_blank">SpaceX Starship rocket</a> I made for Tesla Simulator looks like this (nothing interesting is going on here - yawn!):</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/JOpLyc9OOZw" width="320" youtube-src-id="JOpLyc9OOZw"></iframe></div><p style="text-align: left;">The other day I was watching an art critique stream on Twitch where <a href="#">DiNusty</a>, who's a game industry professional, went through works by artists and gave them suggestions on how to improve them. One of the art pieces he reviewed was a video of a game asset. What he said was that he really liked that the game asset moved, which is much more interesting to look at. So I've decided to from now on always add some movement or effects to all of my spin around animations.</p><div><p>I usually make those spin around animations in <a href="https://www.blender.org/" target="_blank">Blender</a>. Adding movement in Blender is really complicated because I don't have much experience of it. But I have experience from <a href="https://unity.com/" target="_blank">Unity</a> so I know how to make movements and effects like fire in Unity. So from now on I will make all spin around animations in Unity - not Blender - unless of course they are high poly models you can't import into Unity. Why not? The models are for Unity anyway so why not show how they look in Unity?</p><p>After some research I came to the conclusion that the easiest way to make a spin around camera animation in Unity is by using <a href="https://unity.com/unity/features/editor/art-and-design/cinemachine" target="_blank">Cinemachine</a>. I had no experience from Cinemachine so I had to learn it but it was kinda easy - you just import the Cinemachine package. Then you add a Dolly Camera with Track to your scene, and then you animate the camera to move along the track how many spins around the model you need. To make a video of the animation you can use Unity's <a href="https://docs.unity3d.com/Packages/com.unity.recorder@2.0/manual/index.html" target="_blank">Recorder package</a>. </p><p>So what effects can you add to make your boring animations more interesting to watch? One good talk on the subject (it's extra good because it's just 16 minutes long) is a video where they show how to take a very boring game concept and make it more interesting by adding for example camera shake.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Fy0aCDmgnxg" width="320" youtube-src-id="Fy0aCDmgnxg"></iframe></div><p></p><center style="text-align: left;">I recently made a very boring <a href="https://www.artstation.com/artwork/r9X92m" target="_blank">garbage container game asset</a> for <a href="https://habrador.itch.io/tesla-motors-simulator" target="_blank">Tesla Simulator</a>. The plan was to make a spin around video of it and put it on YouTube. But who would watch a spin around video of a garbage container? Maybe they would if I added some juice to the animation:</center><p></p></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/db3Kqh4btCA" width="320" youtube-src-id="db3Kqh4btCA"></iframe></div><p></p><center style="text-align: left;">So from now on make sure to juice up your boring animations and get them likes!</center><p></p>Habradorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16953931454438486425noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2610977618186644090.post-77416178160681241302022-01-01T12:21:00.004+01:002022-04-08T09:30:05.081+02:00Books I read in 2021 Each year I write a list of books I read during the year. This is the 2021 list:<div><ol style="text-align: left;"><li><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Grokking-Deep-Learning-Andrew-Trask/dp/1617293709/" target="_blank">Grokking Deep Learning.</a> Someone told me that this would be an easy introduction to Deep Learning. Apparently easy within the AI field means hard. The problem with the book is that includes a lot of uncommented Python code so sometimes it's a little difficult to figure out what's going on. BUT it is including code, which makes it easier to learn the theory of modern Neural Networks, such as CNNs and RNNs. </li><li><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Introduction-Neural-Networks-Java-Heaton-ebook/dp/B0013V23I2/" target="_blank">Introduction to Neural Networks with Java</a>. Is an "old" book on Neural Networks so the word Deep Learning can't be found. Because of its age it includes Neural Networks that are not so popular today, such as Hopfield Networks and Self-Organizing Maps, but also the traditional Feedforward Network. </li><li><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Head-First-Design-Patterns-Brain-Friendly/dp/0596007124/" target="_blank">Head First Design Patterns</a>. Design Patterns are common solutions on how to best organize code. Another good book on the topic is <a href="https://gameprogrammingpatterns.com/" target="_blank">Game Programming Patterns</a> which includes some of the same patterns but also other patterns. </li><li><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Cryptonomicon-Neal-Stephenson-ebook/dp/B000FC11A6/" target="_blank">Cryptonomicon</a>. Is a mostly made up story set in both World War 2 and in modern times (~2000s). You should read it if you are interested in code breaking (Alan Turing plays a small role as himself). </li><li><a href="https://www.amazon.com/13-Hours-Account-Happened-Benghazi/dp/1455538442/" target="_blank">13 Hours: The Inside Account of What Really Happened In Benghazi</a>. There's a movie with the same name and if you've seen the movie then the book covers the same events but there are more details added here and there. </li><li><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Dr-Space-Life-Wernher-Braun/dp/1591149274/" target="_blank">Dr. Space: The Life of Wernher von Braun</a>. Biography on the guy responsible for the World War 2 V2 rocket and later the Saturn V rocket that launched the spacecraft that would land on the Moon. </li><li><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Saving-Bravo-Greatest-Mission-History-ebook/dp/B07897TXBB/" target="_blank">Saving Bravo: The Greatest Rescue Mission in Navy SEAL History</a>. Tells the story of a very important aircraft navigator who crashed during the Vietnam war. Several people were killed during the rescue attempt, so the book is also trying to answer the question: how many people is it worth to save one man. </li><li><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Spitfire-Stories-Designed-Maintained-Iconic-ebook/dp/B0758BFBZ5/" target="_blank">Spitfire Stories: True Tales from Those Who Designed, Maintained and Flew the Iconic Plane</a>. </li><li><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Fundamentals-Vehicle-Dynamics-Thomas-Gillespie/dp/1560911999">Fundamentals of Vehicle Dynamics</a>. Is considered a classic book on the topic how cars work. It's easy to read even though you have to translate from the imperial system to the metric system to understand what's going on (unless you are into the imperial system). It was written in 1992 so it's a little outdated (you can't find a single sentence on electric vehicles) but some of the basics never changes, so you should read it before you start reading a more in-depth book.</li><li><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Go-Like-Hell-Ferrari-Battle/dp/0547336055/" target="_blank">Go Like Hell: Ford, Ferrari, and Their Battle for Speed and Glory at Le Mans</a>. If you ever saw the movie <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1950186/" target="_blank">Le Mans '66 (aka Ford v Ferrari)</a> with Matt Damon and Christian Bale, you know what this book is about because it inspired the move. I said inspired because the movie took some liberties to change what actually happened. </li><li><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Invented-Modern-Age-Rise-Henry/dp/1451645589/" target="_blank">I Invented the Modern Age: The Rise of Henry Ford</a>. Tells the story of the vehicle company Ford and the man who founded it. It ends where the book "Go Like Hell" takes over. </li><li><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Iron-Dawn-Monitor-Merrimack-Changed/dp/1476794197/" target="_blank">Iron Dawn: The Monitor, the Merrimack, and the Civil War Sea Battle that Changed History</a>. Tells the story of two famous, innovative ships that fought a series of shorter battles during the US Civil War. Is also including a shorter biography on a fellow Sweden, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Ericsson" target="_blank">John Ericsson</a>, who was the designer of one of the ships. </li><li><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Tom-Wolfe-Right-Stuff-1983/dp/B08N1432JH/" target="_blank">The Right Stuff</a>. Tells the story of Americas first astronauts - not the ones who landed on the Moon - but those who flew the first rockets into space, so it ends in the middle of the 1960s. This one was really funny to read because the author has a sense of humor.</li><li><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Liftoff-Desperate-Early-Launched-SpaceX/dp/0062979973/" target="_blank">Liftoff: Elon Musk and the Desperate Early Days That Launched SpaceX</a>. This is a book mostly about the Falcon 1 rocket - the author has squeezed Falcon 9, Starship, self-landing rockets, and astronaut missions into one chapter. The book is not including what Elon Musk was up to before SpaceX, which is good because that story has been told a million times. </li><li><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Dream-Machine-Untold-History-Notorious/dp/1416562966/" target="_blank">The Dream Machine: The Untold History of the Notorious V-22 Osprey</a>. Tells the story of the Osprey, which is <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tiltrotor" target="_blank">tiltrotor</a> that can land and takeoff vertically like a helicopter and then rotate its propellers to fly faster than a helicopter. It turned out it was tricky to build it (many people died). </li><li><a href="https://www.amazon.com/One-Soldiers-War-Arkady-Babchenko-ebook/dp/B008RZK5L4/" target="_blank">One Soldier's War</a>. Written by a Russian solider who participated in the Chechen wars.</li><li><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Last-Rhinos-Battle-Greatest-Creatures/dp/1250031699/" target="_blank">The Last Rhinos: My Battle to Save One of the World's Greatest Creatures</a>. One of my favorite books is The Elephant Whisperer. The same author has written this book and it's equally good. It tells the story of how the author is trying to save the last of the "Northern white rhinoceros" which despite the name is actually gray. </li><li><a href="https://www.amazon.com/First-Insiders-Account-Spearheaded-Afghanistan/dp/089141875X/" target="_blank">First In: An Insider's Account of How the CIA Spearheaded the War on Terror in Afghanistan</a>.</li></ol>If you want to see all the books I've read you can stalk me on my <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/7233211.Erik_Nordeus" target="_blank">Goodreads</a> account. </div>Habradorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16953931454438486425noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2610977618186644090.post-43881954673865407462021-01-01T12:37:00.002+01:002022-02-09T10:19:16.186+01:00Books I read in 2020<span style="font-family: "times new roman";">Each year I write a list of books I read during the year. This is the 2020 list:</span><br />
<ol>
<li><span style="font-family: "times new roman";"><a href="https://history.army.mil/catalog/pubs/104/104-7.html" target="_blank">Historical Study: German Tank Maintenance in World War II</a>. Available for free!</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "times new roman";"><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Physically-Based-Shader-Development-Unity/dp/1484233085" target="_blank">Physically Based Shader Development for Unity 2017: Develop Custom Lighting Systems</a>. </span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "times new roman";"><a href="https://history.army.mil/catalog/pubs/100/100-11.html" target="_blank">Omaha beachhead</a>. Omaha beach was one of the beaches where allied forces landed during D-day. It turns out much more happened than what was seen in the movies. Available for free! </span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "times new roman";"><a href="https://history.army.mil/html/books/090/90-22/index.html" target="_blank">U.S. Army Engineers, 1965-1970.</a> Available for free!</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "times new roman";"><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Volunteer-Story-Resistance-Infiltrated-Auschwitz-ebook/dp/B07K1NPQ2K" target="_blank">The Volunteer: The True Story of the Resistance Hero who Infiltrated Auschwitz</a>. </span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "times new roman";"><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Predator-Secret-Origins-Drone-Revolution-ebook/dp/B00IWVAA0Y/" target="_blank">Predator: The Secret Origins of the Drone Revolution</a>. </span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "times new roman";"><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Art-Fluid-Animation-Jos-Stam-ebook/dp/B017K485GE/" target="_blank">The Art of Fluid Animation</a>. Written by a guy who developed a real-time implementation of the Navier-Stokes equations called Stable Fluids, which is actually a simplified version of the Navier-Stokes but in the end he compares the results with real flow and they are similar.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "times new roman";"><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Disneys-Land-Invention-Amusement-Changed/dp/1501190806/" target="_blank">Disney's Land: Walt Disney and the Invention of the Amusement Park That Changed the World</a>. Tells the story of how Disneyland was built in less than one year.</span></li>
<li><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Stuka-Pilot-Hans-Ulrich-Rudel-Schiffer/dp/0887402526/" target="_blank">Stuka Pilot</a>. Written by a pilot who flew a Ju 87 "Stuka" dive bomber during World War 2.</li>
<li><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Devil-White-City-Madness-Changed/dp/0375725601/" target="_blank">The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair That Changed America</a>. Tells the story of the 1893 Chicago World's Fair: how it was designed, built, and operated. It also tells the story of a mass murderer who killed visitors to the fair.</li>
<li><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Ghost-Map-Londons-Terrifying-Epidemic/dp/1594482691/" target="_blank">The Ghost Map: The Story of London's Most Terrifying Epidemic - and How It Changed Science, Cities, and the Modern World</a>. Tells the story of a cholera outbreak in 1850s London - you can find some parallels to the corona outbreak.</li>
<li><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Architects-Intelligence-Truth-People-Building/dp/B0812B9X5G/" target="_blank">Architects of Intelligence: The Truth About AI from the People Building It</a>. Is a collection of interviews with people who are involved with the latest Artificial Intelligence algorithms, including Deep Learning. </li>
<li><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Other-Minds-Octopus-Origins-Consciousness/dp/0374227764" target="_blank">Other Minds: The Octopus, the Sea, and the Deep Origins of Consciousness</a>. Is a book about the octopus. </li>
<li><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Outnumbered-Facebook-Filter-bubbles-Algorithms-Control-ebook/dp/B07BT55135/" target="_blank">Outnumbered: From Facebook and Google to Fake News and Filter-bubbles – The Algorithms That Control Our Lives</a>. This is not a math book - it's a book everyone can read who's interested in the algorithms used by Facebook, Google, Amazon, etc. </li>
<li><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Elephant-Whisperer-Life-Herd-African-ebook/dp/B0050Q5WYS/" target="_blank">The Elephant Whisperer: My Life with the Herd in the African Wild</a>. The author, Lawrence Anthony, adopts a herd of elephants to his so-called <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Game_reserve" target="_blank">game reserve</a>, which is a large area of land where wild animals live safely and tourists can come and watch them. The book is not just about the elephants, but also about the general life in a game reserve.</li>
<li><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Thunderstruck-Times-bestselling-author-Larson-ebook/dp/B000JMKR4S/" target="_blank">Thunderstruck</a>. Tells the history of both the wireless telegraph and a murder that took place in London. Is written by the same guy who wrote "The Devil in the White City" which was also about a technical achievement and a murderer. </li>
<li><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Erebus-Story-Ship-Michael-Palin/dp/1784758574/" target="_blank">Erebus: The Story of a Ship</a>. Written by a member of Monty Python, this book tells the story of the ship Erebus which explored the south- and north pole during the 19th century. If you ever saw the television series <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2708480/" target="_blank">The Terror (season 1)</a>, you have already seen the ship Erebus and her sister ship Terror.</li><li><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Vengeance-True-Story-Israeli-Counter-Terrorist/dp/0743291646/" target="_blank">Vengeance: The True Story of an Israeli Counter-Terrorist Team</a>. Tells the story of what the Israelis were up to after the Munich terrorist attack. If you saw the movie <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0408306/" target="_blank">Munich</a> by Steven Spielberg, it's based on this book. </li><li><a href="http://gameprogrammingpatterns.com/" target="_blank">Game Programming Patterns</a>. Is a free book with common design patterns used in games. These are really useful as your game project grows. It was the second time I read this book and I still learned a lot so it's really useful. </li><li><a href="https://docs.google.com/document/d/1fAlf2MwEFTwePwzbP3try1H0aYa9kpVBHPBkyIq-caY/edit" target="_blank">Level Design In Pursuit of Better Levels</a>. Available for free!</li><li><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Days-June-Making-Modern-Middle/dp/B0042NKD4Y" target="_blank">Six Days of War: June 1967 and the Making of the Modern Middle East.</a> Tells the story of a six days long war between Israel and its neighbors. Half of the book is about the history of the region before the war. </li><li><a href="http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/33283" target="_blank">Calculus Made Easy.</a> Gives you a brief repetition of calculus which may be useful if you forgotten one or two things since you where in school. Is available for free!</li><li><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Wizard-Marc-J-Seifer-audiobook/dp/B00645MY1I/" target="_blank">Wizard: The Life and Times of Nikola Tesla: Biography of a Genius</a>. A biography on Nikola Tesla. </li><li><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Sid-Meiers-Memoir-Computer-Games/dp/1324005874/" target="_blank">Sid Meier's Memoir!: A Life in Computer Games</a>. Is written by the creator of the famous Civilization computer game series. </li><li><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Sapiens-Yuval-Noah-Harari-audiobook/dp/B0741F3M7C/" target="_blank">Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind</a>. Tells the history of where humans came from. It also includes discussions on religion, technology, and the meaning of life. </li><li><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Homo-Deus-Yuval-Noah-Harari-audiobook/dp/B01MYZ4OUW/" target="_blank">Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow</a>. Is the follow-up book to "Sapiens." The author argues that we have solved humanity's major problems, such as hunger, war, and medicine. In the future humans will instead create technologies so we can live longer, be more happier, and have more power. But if that happens will we still be members of Homo Sapiens, or will we be categorized as a new species: Homo Deus? </li><li><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Red-Phoenix-Larry-Bond-ebook/dp/B008LYZQ74/" target="_blank">Red Phoenix</a>. Tells the story of a fictitious war between North- and South Korea. </li><li><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Brief-Answers-Questions-Stephen-Hawking/dp/1984819194/" target="_blank">Brief Answers to the Big Questions.</a> Stephen Hawking is trying to answer questions like: "Is there a God?," "Is there other intelligent life in the universe?," "Will artificial intelligence outsmart us?" </li><li><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Hue-1968-Turning-American-Vietnam/dp/0802127002/" target="_blank">Hue 1968: A Turning Point of the American War in Vietnam</a>. The battle of the city Hue can be seen as Vietnam's Stalingrad. Is written by the guy who wrote Black Hawk Down. </li>
</ol>
<div>
<br /></div>
In Swedish:<br />
<div>
<ol>
<li><a href="https://www.bokus.com/bok/9789197664493/berg-och-dalbanan-jakten-pa-den-heliga-g-kraften/" target="_blank">Berg-och-dalbanan: jakten på den heliga G-kraften</a>. A book about roller coasters from a Swedish perspective. </li></ol>If you want to see all the books I've read you can stalk me on my <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/7233211.Erik_Nordeus" target="_blank">Goodreads</a> account.<ol>
</ol>
</div>
Habradorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16953931454438486425noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2610977618186644090.post-27989704951707232632020-04-22T14:09:00.001+02:002022-02-21T13:49:19.964+01:00Why you should use GitHub<a href="https://github.com/" target="_blank">GitHub</a> is one of many services where you can upload your code for version control. The basic idea behind version control is that code projects tend to become big and messy and version control makes the project less messy - especially if many people are working with the same project.<br />
I think it was last year I really started to use GitHub for my code projects. I had several years earlier tried to start using GitHub but I stopped because I think I felt GitHub was confusing to use and I didn't really need it. But last year I found <a href="https://www.sourcetreeapp.com/" target="_blank">Sourcetree</a> which is making GitHub less confusing to use (you don't have to memorize git commands). I also learned that GitHub has started to allow free private repositories - when I first started using GitHub all code had to be available free to everyone which is obviously not good if you are working on secret projects. So now I've put almost all my code on GitHub.<br />
<br />
If you are working with a team then you almost always need to use GitHub or some similar service. But why should you, as an individual user, use GitHub?<br />
<ol>
<li><b>Backup.</b> It's never fun when your computer crashes and your projects disappear into the darkness. To backup your projects you can copy-and-paste them into some backup software like Google Drive och Dropbox. This is working fine but can be a little annoying if you make many updates. With GitHub you can backup your projects with just a few clicks. You should still use another backup method because you can't trust GitHub - there's always a small probability that they will mess up and your code is gone forever, so it's always better to be safe than sorry. </li>
<li><b>Easier to experiment.</b> Let's say you want to experiment with an idea you have and this idea involves deleting some code. Now deleting code for experimental purposes is never good because the experiment might fail and then you have to recreate the deleted code. With GitHub you can start different branches, which will split your code into branches and you can easily change between each branch to compare the experiment with the original code. If you are not happy with the experiment, just delete the branch. </li>
<li><b>You don't need to be tech support.</b> What I've done lately is to publish some of my <a href="https://www.habrador.com/tutorials/" target="_blank">Unity tutorials</a> on GitHub. I earlier had this pedagogical idea that people will learn more if they read the tutorial instead of copy-and-pasting from GitHub. But people will sometimes fail, so they will e-mail you and you have to spend time trying to solve their problems. It's also much easier to update code through GitHub than to update the code you earlier copy-and-pasted into html. So publishing your tutorial code on GitHub will save you time and energy.</li>
<li><b>Free marketing. </b>Something I realized after putting my code on GitHub is that people also found my code through GitHub's search function - they didn't come just from the original site. GitHub has a small, but still adequate, analytics page where you see from where people found your code. So if you want people to find you code you should put it on GitHub because it might be difficult to make people find your code by just making your original site rank higher in the search engines. And if you link your Twitter account from GitHub you will also get a few extra Twitter followers! </li>
<li><b>People will test the code for you.</b> GitHub has this function where people can easily report issues with your code, which is really good because it might be difficult to test the code on your own. </li>
</ol>
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So how can you start learning GitHub with <a href="https://unity.com/" target="_blank">Unity</a> if you have no idea where to begin? I think this tutorial is a good start: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BlUldSuOgDc" target="_blank">Using Git with Unity Tutorial [2019]</a>. It will teach you how to use GitHub with Sourcetree. Atlassian, the creators of Sourcetree, has also created this online course: <a href="https://www.coursera.org/learn/version-control-with-git" target="_blank">Version Control with Git</a>, which you can go through in a few hours and it will teach you a little more than just the basics.<br />
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If you are interested in visiting my GitHub account you can find it here: <a href="https://github.com/Habrador">github.com/Habrador</a><br />
<br />Habradorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16953931454438486425noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2610977618186644090.post-90992025739066254102020-01-01T11:09:00.005+01:002020-01-01T11:09:42.684+01:00Books I read in 2019Each year I write a list of books I read during the year. This is the 2019 list:<br />
<ol>
<li><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Predator-Secret-Origins-Drone-Revolution/dp/0805099646/" target="_blank">Predator: The Secret Origins of the Drone Revolution</a>. Tells the history of the most famous military drone: The Predator.</li>
<li><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Fighter-Wing-Clancys-Military-Reference/dp/0425217027/" target="_blank">Fighter Wing: A Guided Tour of an Air Force Combat Wing</a>. A combat wing is a collection of different military aircraft organized to complete a specific mission. This book tells you about the different aircraft, the weapons, and the organization.</li>
<li><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Bomb-Hunters-Britains-Disposal-Afghanistan/dp/000737478X/" target="_blank">Bomb Hunters: Life and Death Stories with Britain's Elite Bomb Disposal Unit in Afghanistan</a>. </li>
<li><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Dawn-Like-Thunder-Torpedo-Squadron/dp/0316021393/" target="_blank">A Dawn Like Thunder: The True Story of Torpedo Squadron Eight</a>. Tells the story of a carrier based squadron of torpedo bombers during the battle of Midway and Guadalcanal. </li>
<li><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Designing-Games-Guide-Engineering-Experiences/dp/1449337937" target="_blank">Designing Games: A Guide to Engineering Experiences</a>. There are many books on how to make games, but this book is written by the game developer who made RimWorld. That game sold more than one million copies, so you better study the book. He wrote it before he made RimWorld. </li>
<li><a href="https://history.army.mil/html/books/090/90-28-1/index.html" target="_blank">Dust Off - Army Aeromedical Evacuation in Vietnam</a>. Tells the story of medical helicopters in the Vietnam War. Is available for free!</li>
<li><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Grid-Fraying-Between-Americans-Energy/dp/B01I5SY176" target="_blank">The Grid: Electrical Infrastructure for a New Era</a>. One often forgotten achievement of humanity is that we have electricity in our homes. But this system is crumbling because the system is old and will also change to be more environmentally friendly, so if you want to learn about the feature of how to deliver electricity, you should read this book. </li>
<li><a href="https://history.army.mil/html/books/090/90-15/index.html" target="_blank">Logistic Support</a>. Much has been said about the battles of the Vietnam War - but not what happened behind the scenes. To fight a battle you need ammunition, food, etc. How can you transport it from US to Vietnam in the best way? This book will give you an overview of the logistics behind the Vietnam War. Is available for free!</li>
<li><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wind,_Sand_and_Stars" target="_blank">Wind, Sand and Stars</a>. Is a memoir written by a french pilot who in the 1930s was flying mail across the french empire. </li>
<li><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Topgun-American-Story-Dan-Pedersen/dp/0316416266" target="_blank">Topgun: An American Story</a>. Is written by one of the founders of Topgun (and yes it is "Topgun" and not "Top gun" as in the movie). Despite the name, the book is not only about Topgun - it's a biography of the authors career in the US Navy. It starts with the Vietnam war, some Topgun in the middle, and ends when he commands an aircraft carrier. His basic idea is that the pilot is more important than the aircraft, so it includes some criticism of the latest aircraft in the US Navy: the F-35, arguing that a cheaper aircraft with a more skilled pilot would have been a better solution.</li>
<li><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Why-Did-Chicken-Cross-World/dp/1476729905/" target="_blank">Why Did the Chicken Cross the World?</a> Tells the history of the chicken. </li>
<li><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Gregg-Jones/e/B00GRLNHJC/" target="_blank">Last Stand at Khe Sanh: The U.S. Marines' Finest Hour in Vietnam</a>. Khe Sanh was a military airfield in Vietnam and this book tells the story of when it was under siege for more than two months. </li>
<li><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Colosseum-Wonders-world-Book-19-ebook/dp/B00NYWIT72/" target="_blank">The Colosseum</a>. Tells the history of the famous Roman amphitheater. The most interesting part is how little we know of what actually happened in the Colosseum. Not many sources exists, so movies have taken a lot of creative freedom. </li>
<li><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Babylons-Ark-Incredible-Wartime-Baghdad-ebook/dp/B003JH86L6/" target="_blank">Babylon's Ark: The Incredible Wartime Rescue of the Baghdad Zoo</a>. Tells the story of what happened to the Zoo in central Baghdad after the 2003 Iraq war. </li>
<li><a href="https://www.amazon.com/When-Thunder-Rolled-F-105-Vietnam-ebook/dp/B004ZZM3GK/" target="_blank">When Thunder Rolled: An F-105 Pilot over North Vietnam</a>. </li>
<li><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Worm-First-Digital-World-War/dp/0802145949/" target="_blank">Worm: The First Digital World War</a>. Tells the story of the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conficker" target="_blank">Conficker</a> computer worm which was a virus people thought would cause the end of Internet.</li>
<li><a href="https://www.amazon.com/We-Bought-Zoo-Amazing-Animals/dp/1602860483" target="_blank">We Bought a Zoo: The Amazing True Story of a Young Family, a Broken Down Zoo, and the 200 Wild Animals That Change Their Lives Forever</a>. With the longest sub-title ever there's no need for further descriptions.</li>
<li><a href="https://transportation.army.mil/history/publications/circle-the-wagons.pdf" target="_blank">Circle the wagons - The history of US Army convoy security</a>. Is available for free. </li>
<li><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Nine-Lives-Time-inside-al-Qaeda/dp/1982538511" target="_blank">Nine Lives: My time as the MI6's top spy inside al-Qaeda</a>. </li>
<li><a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Humble-Pi-Comedy-Maths-Errors/dp/0241360234" target="_blank">Humble Pi: A Comedy of Maths Errors</a>. Consists of several examples of where minor mathematical errors have resulted in big consequences. For example, ground crew confused the units of measurement when they put fuel in an aircraft, so the aircraft ran out of fuel and almost crashed (the fuel gauges were also broken). </li>
<li><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Surely-Youre-Joking-Mr-Feynman/dp/0393355624/" target="_blank">Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!: Adventures of a Curious Character</a>. A book about the Nobel Prize winner Richard Feynman (spoiler: he didn't want the prize). </li>
<li><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Permanent-Record/dp/1250756545/" target="_blank">Permanent Record.</a> Biography on Edward Snowden.</li>
<li><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Unity-2017-Game-Optimization-performance-ebook/dp/B076T4TW9G/" target="_blank">Unity 2017 Game Optimization - Second Edition: Optimize all aspects of Unity performance</a>. </li>
</ol>
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Books in Swedish</div>
<div>
<ol>
<li><a href="https://www.aef.se/Flygvapnet/PDF-dokument/Det_bevingade_verket/Det_Bevingade_Verket.htm" target="_blank">Det bevingade verket</a>. Tells the history of the Swedish Air Force. </li>
<li><a href="http://fokk.eu/utgivna-bocker/fokk-19-med-invasionen-i-sikte/" target="_blank">Med invasionen i sikte</a>. Tells the history of the Swedish Air Force 1958-1966, and how a war with the Soviet Union would have happened. </li>
<li><a href="http://fokk.eu/utgivna-bocker/fokk-24-obs-klubba/" target="_blank">ÖB:s klubba - Flygvapnets attackeskader under kalla kriget</a>. Tells the story of the ground attack part of the Swedish Air Force during the Cold War. </li>
<li><a href="https://www.aef.se/Flygvapnet/PDF-dokument/Viggen_Flyghistorisk_Revy.pdf" target="_blank">System 37 Viggen</a>. Consists of shorter stories written by people who were involved with the Viggen project, which was a Swedish military aircraft. </li>
<li><a href="https://www.adlibris.com/se/e-bok/svenska-hackare-9789113033440" target="_blank">Svenska hackare</a>. Gives you an overview of who has been hacking what with a focus on Sweden.</li>
<li><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Battle-that-Shook-Europe-Poltava/dp/1780764766" target="_blank">Poltava</a>. Tells the story of a famous battle between Sweden and Russia in the 18th century. </li>
<li><a href="http://fokk.eu/utgivna-bocker/fokk-27-pa-spaning-efter-det-okanda/" target="_blank">På spaning efter det okända - Bilder från kalla krigets ubåtsjakt</a>. Each chapter is written by someone who was involved in the 80's anti-submarine hunts in Sweden. </li>
<li><a href="https://weburn.kb.se/metadata/802/SOU_7265802.htm" target="_blank">Ubåtsfrågan 1981-1994</a>. The Swedish government set up a total of three groups with the task of analyzing the assumed underwater violations of Swedish waters that have been going on mainly in the 80's. This is the second group's report. </li>
</ol>
</div>
Habradorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16953931454438486425noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2610977618186644090.post-40382916391084341062019-10-21T12:56:00.000+02:002019-10-22T14:41:38.293+02:00Adventures making stylized vehiclesAfter making three stylized characters in Blender I needed to do something else. So why not learn hard-surface modelling and texture painting while making some stylized vehicles? The first vehicle is a US coast guard helicopter model <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sikorsky_MH-60_Jayhawk" target="_blank">MH-60</a>:<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLicvMmYJfDByCP1LVN05ETaR0gZh8cmf6KaHhBI40cbrRRtlBAwSBl_3mZQM7nJ1lO3Yyv-mhsruf7n8PdhQlovIeGdZapKV4hyUZ8b-EEggyLvGr1cs7VO1t9p7g2eQxA-vRkpYJ-Ug/s1600/coast-guard-heli-blueprint-with-name.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1600" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLicvMmYJfDByCP1LVN05ETaR0gZh8cmf6KaHhBI40cbrRRtlBAwSBl_3mZQM7nJ1lO3Yyv-mhsruf7n8PdhQlovIeGdZapKV4hyUZ8b-EEggyLvGr1cs7VO1t9p7g2eQxA-vRkpYJ-Ug/s320/coast-guard-heli-blueprint-with-name.png" width="320" /></a></div>
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The reason I decided to make this exact helicopter was that I had an old non-stylized model of it collecting dust in a folder, so I might as well use it and improve it. What I also wanted to learn was to add decals to a model. Decals are those logotypes and text and there are several ways to add them. When making games I think the best way is to paint them on top of the base texture by using Blender's stencil function. What you do is you have the texture with a transparent background and then you just paint it where it should be and Blender is figuring out how to add it on top of the base texture. The problem I discovered is that the texture resolution has to be high or the logo and text will become pixelated meaning that you can see the pixels and can't read the text. The helicopter's texture is 2048x2048, but because I realized this was a problem after painting the base texture, and I didn't want to redo it all, I had to cheat by using a 4096x4096 texture on top of the base texture or the logotypes would be visible. This is something I wanted to improve when making the next model.</div>
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I also decided to experiment with low-polygon characters with lower polygons than I had previously used. The stylized characters I experimented with before are still low-polygon but they take several days to make because you have to make a high-polygon version and then a low-polygon version, which is a process I talked about in a previous article: <a href="https://blog.habrador.com/2019/07/how-to-make-stylized-game-character-in.html" target="_blank">How to make a stylized game character in Blender</a>. A single of these lower-low-polygon characters takes less than a day and I think the result is still good if you are not looking at them very close:</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNXfj6wWLVps-daDtdCN8l6H7ULhlJ2h7oVA_2NVACnMrV9WiNszBIkui9B2V0fkNwm3q7Hm2YEh-iqgTSv9EKQkb2sMfphTUmLvQ4KcY0YDGmMHIp6e49PAfA8zTKo5GxVFJVtxj_nSY/s1600/coast-guard-heli-base-with-name.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1600" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNXfj6wWLVps-daDtdCN8l6H7ULhlJ2h7oVA_2NVACnMrV9WiNszBIkui9B2V0fkNwm3q7Hm2YEh-iqgTSv9EKQkb2sMfphTUmLvQ4KcY0YDGmMHIp6e49PAfA8zTKo5GxVFJVtxj_nSY/s320/coast-guard-heli-base-with-name.png" width="320" /></a></div>
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Next vehicle I made was a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Visby-class_corvette" target="_blank">Visby corvette</a> belonging to the Swedish navy:</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNxk2AhKOuAs0swhh-QnqvCc55VtjWWk9nZsZTAxiT__zPfPv2Q57324g7_8zPtbb2PJGAnn24-4PMt_JRlW8CDZIB8alvJgaCQxLp9YCLWEmcmajPZAZrd1L2u9_cK2aERWBN07qNgK4/s1600/visby-blueprint.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1600" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNxk2AhKOuAs0swhh-QnqvCc55VtjWWk9nZsZTAxiT__zPfPv2Q57324g7_8zPtbb2PJGAnn24-4PMt_JRlW8CDZIB8alvJgaCQxLp9YCLWEmcmajPZAZrd1L2u9_cK2aERWBN07qNgK4/s320/visby-blueprint.png" width="320" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFNPaDNhUws0vk3iq9MhTUQBo3DoNlTFynBqS7zNdJMnAlkhbx3MOuQJVd_ddPr9ur6wE09OpbTL9ZBSw6M2ATV-4ml1Dtmsf1FvOW0esbLd6c5KQ4Z-aYpIrxypnmVM1gXyTBu5J_Iuc/s1600/visby-perspective-front.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1600" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFNPaDNhUws0vk3iq9MhTUQBo3DoNlTFynBqS7zNdJMnAlkhbx3MOuQJVd_ddPr9ur6wE09OpbTL9ZBSw6M2ATV-4ml1Dtmsf1FvOW0esbLd6c5KQ4Z-aYpIrxypnmVM1gXyTBu5J_Iuc/s320/visby-perspective-front.png" width="320" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjig35Q6wIxNQtdxLcAHaP8zvgxxtzX-XjawJfQwyF2acbUnywC_rwm9OWC91VGrp1HAn5WDWx6JUoTCSLGJR9eNngjyo5OC9xeZZEC8lpS_6fSedYtdZ0exDm08GkMyUtyrOzEiPDyB7g/s1600/visby-perspective-back.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1600" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjig35Q6wIxNQtdxLcAHaP8zvgxxtzX-XjawJfQwyF2acbUnywC_rwm9OWC91VGrp1HAn5WDWx6JUoTCSLGJR9eNngjyo5OC9xeZZEC8lpS_6fSedYtdZ0exDm08GkMyUtyrOzEiPDyB7g/s320/visby-perspective-back.png" width="320" /></a></div>
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As said before I wanted to fit everything into a 2048x2048 texture and the easiest way to do that is to have as few UV islands as possible. This is the texture and you can see I managed to paint the logotypes and text on top of the base colors. The result is still kinda pixelated if you look really close, so I might have to experiment more to get a better result:</div>
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I wanted to put the Visby corvette in a scene, so I also made the <a href="https://saab.com/naval/underwater-systems/remotely-operated-vehicles/double_eagle_mkii_iii/" target="_blank">underwater robot rov called "Double Eagle."</a> It belongs to the Visby corvette and they lift it out with a crane to look for underwater objects such as mines:</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2IpiuD-6mYmUqsiODGO7mQNANYZlBVyQqOeQLBXTSjvjAvJ3QWQqiwnLE-8OmVOyu2H3ViERWuYajHQ3eV2zWNNPYxqNjNPOxeGm4nuMLcjLICJoyHUsD33XpM0kaQTjMYIsbHjrNj5Y/s1600/double-eagle-rov-blueprint.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1600" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2IpiuD-6mYmUqsiODGO7mQNANYZlBVyQqOeQLBXTSjvjAvJ3QWQqiwnLE-8OmVOyu2H3ViERWuYajHQ3eV2zWNNPYxqNjNPOxeGm4nuMLcjLICJoyHUsD33XpM0kaQTjMYIsbHjrNj5Y/s320/double-eagle-rov-blueprint.png" width="320" /></a></div>
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The final scene is a half below water and half above water. To make the light shining through the water volume I had to experiment with volumetrics, which is really slow to experiment with. The reason is that volumetrics is really slow to render so if you make a small change you have to wait really long before you can see the result of that change. But after a few hours I think the result is good:</div>
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If you want to see more images, I've uploaded them to my <a href="https://www.artstation.com/eriknordeus" target="_blank">Artstation</a> account:</div>
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<ul>
<li><a href="https://www.artstation.com/artwork/oOoywO" target="_blank">US Coast Guard helicopter</a> </li>
<li><a href="https://www.artstation.com/artwork/Bml0Oz" target="_blank">Visby corvette</a></li>
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Habradorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16953931454438486425noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2610977618186644090.post-14735527766007418282019-09-03T15:40:00.000+02:002019-09-03T15:40:49.452+02:00Book review: Babylon's ArkI clearly remember the 2003 Iraq War. The reason is that I did my military service at the same time as when US invaded Iraq and there was chatter that the Swedish army would extend the length of our military service because of a higher security risk. Now Sweden is far away from Iraq, so perhaps someone thought that Russia would use the opportunity when many US forces were in Iraq to cause trouble in Europe. Luckily, that didn't happen and the invasion of Iraq ended after a few weeks. But people would for many years still be dying in Iraq because not everyone thought the war had ended.<br />
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Fast forward a few years to when I was listening to a radio show where <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malik_Bendjelloul" target="_blank">Malik Bendjelloul</a>, a Swedish documentary maker, talked about his life. You can read a translation of it in English <a href="https://www.habrador.com/p/malik-bendjelloul-speech/" target="_blank">here</a>. In it, he talked about how he wanted to make a documentary about <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lawrence_Anthony" target="_blank">Lawrence Anthony</a>, a South African who was working with elephants.<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
"Lawrence had for the past few years tried to help a group of ferocious elephants, elephants that had destroyed surrounding villages and would now be put to death if no one embraced them. So for the past few years, he had for months hanged out with these elephants. And it led to that his entire way of looking at life on our planet had changed. The more time he spent with the elephants, the more he experienced his own inferiority. The human brain may be developed, but all of our other senses are embarrassingly undeveloped: our hearing, our sight, our touch. Researchers have still not understood how, but everything indicates that elephant senses function in a way that sounds like science fiction. For example, one has begun to understand that elephants can communicate with each other over incomprehensible large distances. Maybe over entire continents. Lawrence argued that he occasionally felt this communication. It had felt like the elephants had tried to communicate with him. He didn't want to talk much about it - in part because it was difficult to put it into words, in part because he understood it sounded a bit too much new age fuzzy. I returned to Sweden and thought it existed material for a good story."</blockquote>
But Malik Bendjelloul was also talking about one of Lawrence Anthony's other adventure: when he, just a few days after the 2003 invasion of Iraq had ended, traveled to the capital of Iraq, Baghdad, to help the animals at the zoo. I was really happy when I realized that he had written a book about it before he passed away in 2012. It's called <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Babylons-Ark-Incredible-Wartime-Baghdad-ebook/dp/B003JH86L6/" target="_blank">Babylon's Ark: The Incredible Wartime Rescue of the Baghdad Zoo</a>, and it's the best book I've read so far this year. There are some clips available on YouTube, but you should also read the book.<br />
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<iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/46fQBDfYAJo" width="560"></iframe></center>
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Not only did he rescue many of the animals at the Baghdad Zoo, but also other animals across Baghdad. Lawrence Anthony realized that another zoo existed in Baghdad, and it was called Luna Park. It was in terrible shape, so he decided to move the animals to the main Baghdad Zoo:<br />
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<iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/wDCM9yIlgf8" width="560"></iframe></center>
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Saddam Hussein, the former leader of Iraq, collected horses, and they also needed to be rescued. During the war, the horses disappeared because they were very valuable, but Lawrence Anthony and his team managed to find them and bring some of them to the zoo:<br />
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<iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/bx2xzsCLw0Q" width="560"></iframe></center>
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So if you want to read a feel-good book that I rated 5/5 stars on <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/7233211.Erik_Nordeus" target="_blank">Goodreads</a> you should read Babylon's Ark.Habradorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16953931454438486425noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2610977618186644090.post-34484424845613928352019-08-15T10:01:00.000+02:002019-08-15T10:13:10.634+02:00Disco Elf Corel - or how to make a stylized characterI finished my second ever character for games: a disco elf called Corel. Like my last character, <a href="https://blog.habrador.com/2019/07/how-to-make-stylized-game-character-in.html" target="_blank">butterfly woman Madeliefje</a>, I made it to participate in a draw-this-in-your-style challenge organized by Poopikat, and I also wanted to learn Blender 2.8. This is the <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/BznlkNCj-e6/" target="_blank">original concept by Poopikat</a>:<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4KXsadbU58u6FGxngo6j-9HT8CAkvNgt45XbVjl7pnOd-9-jN5ye9iSXwjuavq6-prm-uQYupkstkd4wpX2OW1r_uuF9ug6aOfNVxO2TJRKoRpUFpSRznfSe_mL1yVtz6iSP4xdnjz-w/s1600/_Corel-original.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="586" data-original-width="427" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4KXsadbU58u6FGxngo6j-9HT8CAkvNgt45XbVjl7pnOd-9-jN5ye9iSXwjuavq6-prm-uQYupkstkd4wpX2OW1r_uuF9ug6aOfNVxO2TJRKoRpUFpSRznfSe_mL1yVtz6iSP4xdnjz-w/s320/_Corel-original.png" width="233" /></a></div>
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According to Poopikat's description, Corel "has darker skin, Glow tattoos and white-ish blue hair with two big bows. I'd like to think of her as a water/snow elf if that makes any sense." I thought it would be cool to make them glowing tattoos, so I decided to make a 3d version of her in <a href="https://www.blender.org/" target="_blank">Blender</a>. I also wanted to improve what I thought wasn't good about my last character.<br />
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<b>Improvement 1: Face.</b> So I started with the old character. Most 3d artists use a basic character and change it to make it look more like the character they want to make because most human-looking characters have similar body shapes. Step one was to improve the face. I first changed her jaw bone to make a sharper jaw and I also changed her eyes. What I learned was that very small changes can change the look of a face. If you look in a mirror and then open your eyes slightly and stare at yourself, you only have to raise your eye-brows a few millimeters to go from just a "looking" face to a "staring" face. To improve this character I made the distance between the eye-lids and the eye-brows smaller to make a more concerned face like in the original concept. I also remade the size of the lips and I gave her an open mouth where you can see her teeth. The teeth are just a flat white surface because they are almost not visible anyway.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmDYMk0WdwJOaXgRpQCNPEZK7ogBnGOsZqM6nwPLLkzHVE3Plxh7nUgY5hjbOd2trit4Dn8UVQGD0UCsA3TBqCUS5QwRtgNxViQ_q63Jza1wUdgFdwRaxZ9Fg9tg_clptrhmvNFWYb7qM/s1600/wip-6.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="572" data-original-width="638" height="286" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmDYMk0WdwJOaXgRpQCNPEZK7ogBnGOsZqM6nwPLLkzHVE3Plxh7nUgY5hjbOd2trit4Dn8UVQGD0UCsA3TBqCUS5QwRtgNxViQ_q63Jza1wUdgFdwRaxZ9Fg9tg_clptrhmvNFWYb7qM/s320/wip-6.png" width="320" /></a></div>
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<b>Improvement 2: Body.</b> Madeliefje's body looked like a human body, but I wanted Corel's body to be more stylized. One artist I get inspiration from is <a href="https://www.artstation.com/carlosortega" target="_blank">Carlos Ortega Elizalde</a>, who's making characters with a slim body and large head. I think they look really cool. So I changed Corel's body to be smaller while increasing her head size.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhq6cRAD1qRXNk9h6oQNatReCLbsPyDBHjnU1vrvkmpfxycYQsuW4jLSHhT0KrBbf80HHWWjJ6bEIXWe66TZL3RT12UwGeSaFy2b6Lj_K7WQU-F-nxOtkvU61C8qYPMclJiylEs_YMCNr4/s1600/wip-2.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="827" data-original-width="490" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhq6cRAD1qRXNk9h6oQNatReCLbsPyDBHjnU1vrvkmpfxycYQsuW4jLSHhT0KrBbf80HHWWjJ6bEIXWe66TZL3RT12UwGeSaFy2b6Lj_K7WQU-F-nxOtkvU61C8qYPMclJiylEs_YMCNr4/s320/wip-2.png" width="189" /></a></div>
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<b>Improvement 3: Rig.</b> To make a 3d character move around you need to "rig" it by adding bones like a human has. Some people have this as a job, so it's not something you learn in an afternoon. I'm using Blender and a free add-on to Blender is Rigify which will generate a rig for you. I used a simple rig to animate Madeliefje and I realized I couldn't pose her the way I wanted because I couldn't rotate her hands. It takes some time to learn Rigify and you have to tweak the generated rig to make it fit your character, but because all human-looking characters move in the same way, Rigify will help you a lot once you learned it.<br />
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What I want to improve when making the next character.<br />
<ul>
<li><b>Hair.</b> Making hair for game characters is not easy - there's a reason most game characters have short hair or a ponytail. The reason is that big hair will demand many triangles, making the game slower and it's also difficult to animate a big hair. Corel's hair consists of many hair pieces you have to add one-by-one and the result is that you end up with a "stripy" hair and many triangles belonging to the hair pieces are hidden, so it's a waste of triangles. I've seen some characters where the hair is just one big mesh, so I might try to make that type of hair next time. </li>
<li><b>Cloth creases.</b> Corel is wearing a body-suit and to make it look more like cloth you have to sculpt creases. I think they were too small and you can't barely see them in the final model, so I will make them bigger next time.</li>
<li><b>Normal map.</b> To make smaller details on a less detailed mesh, you need a normal map. The normal map belonging to Madeliefje was so bad I had to remove it, but Corel has a normal map. This normal map generated some weird edges and I think the reason is that Corel is too low-poly, so next time I will add a few more triangles, especially around the legs. </li>
</ul>
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These are the final poses, with some inspiration from a disco movie with John Travolta. I added the smoke as a post-processing effect in Krita:<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiM3P1RdrSpkXSu8p6-e8fYcSdVIujXQfVqZYpbFCCZdI336tTXdscoREQ4j6vrq2JjfesbXT42e2Jjl4DL9c_o-dNOldq5WMWU6BD0uKadLnGdqCJmaUNI8CLZ1cwQvJLsZGq3g8MTmsQ/s1600/final-scene-bottom-pp-with-name.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1600" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiM3P1RdrSpkXSu8p6-e8fYcSdVIujXQfVqZYpbFCCZdI336tTXdscoREQ4j6vrq2JjfesbXT42e2Jjl4DL9c_o-dNOldq5WMWU6BD0uKadLnGdqCJmaUNI8CLZ1cwQvJLsZGq3g8MTmsQ/s320/final-scene-bottom-pp-with-name.png" width="320" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh34bp5Pr69W-KYSReY_CQPVDig6BvdtDifNn0iuu5hDWN4xXnaV212JyLAw6CgpKQ7vPmVQNrPwicfC4g40wXsA3URuxOTthE8qZAujM4d6y1frUOeSR3VZeF2fEMwMl0KX5Ewjlm9ddM/s1600/final-scene-main-pp-with-name.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1600" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh34bp5Pr69W-KYSReY_CQPVDig6BvdtDifNn0iuu5hDWN4xXnaV212JyLAw6CgpKQ7vPmVQNrPwicfC4g40wXsA3URuxOTthE8qZAujM4d6y1frUOeSR3VZeF2fEMwMl0KX5Ewjlm9ddM/s320/final-scene-main-pp-with-name.png" width="320" /></a></div>
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If you want to vote for her you can find her on <a href="https://www.artstation.com/artwork/oOmXxL" target="_blank">Artstation</a>.Habradorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16953931454438486425noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2610977618186644090.post-11414970792201084082019-07-23T11:59:00.001+02:002019-07-23T13:25:12.636+02:00How to make a stylized game character in BlenderI finished my first ever stylized character for games. Her name is Madeliefje and I decided to make her so I could participate in a so-called draw-this-in-your-style-challenge. This is a popular challenge on Instagram where an artist uploads an artwork and then the community will remake that artwork but with their own personal style. I didn't have a style because this was my first character, but I've always wanted to learn how to make a stylized character, so I decided to give it a go. Stylized art is the same art-style you can find in games like Fortnite. This is the original artwork by <a href="https://www.artstation.com/artwork/W2z3r2" target="_blank">Madeleine Bellwoar</a>:<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhsNos9-B0p6o__CNQJHWx3QpDG_L-WdorzXNU5QdngGcfn3vcCQk7IXA_Q-oS8K4JhdmnuQF_JX206aCYtiPDAmDApvKOWYg4aNDHW7faFu5H5z0-YFqyqbmFEnt3mkxKDjclWPSMSg1g/s1600/madeleine-bellwoar-madeliefje-by-maddy-as.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="838" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhsNos9-B0p6o__CNQJHWx3QpDG_L-WdorzXNU5QdngGcfn3vcCQk7IXA_Q-oS8K4JhdmnuQF_JX206aCYtiPDAmDApvKOWYg4aNDHW7faFu5H5z0-YFqyqbmFEnt3mkxKDjclWPSMSg1g/s320/madeleine-bellwoar-madeliefje-by-maddy-as.jpg" width="223" /></a></div>
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Now this was my first character, so to learn how to make a character in <a href="https://www.blender.org/" target="_blank">Blender</a> I found this tutorial: <a href="https://youtu.be/g8qbY70F8po" target="_blank">CGC Classic: Female Character Modeling</a>. And if you finish it you end up with something that should be a good start you can continue from to make it your own character. I wanted to make a stylized character and they tend to have bigger eyes and smaller eye-lids, and this character also has elf-ears, so I added that and ended up with this:<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjrmTkh3Pkp7M0JCrbhhPF7hRup5nxg4jpqTUb6I1UyBcDv-QTCS48oyHxT8QyuW10odR9O1dqRUwW50yV02LXtRfnRtginZO4Kc9nVwHt2Ly2_IgvhVcgz4xz2ujWVnN0GU0rI6F9QDGo/s1600/mad-wip-1.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="820" data-original-width="535" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjrmTkh3Pkp7M0JCrbhhPF7hRup5nxg4jpqTUb6I1UyBcDv-QTCS48oyHxT8QyuW10odR9O1dqRUwW50yV02LXtRfnRtginZO4Kc9nVwHt2Ly2_IgvhVcgz4xz2ujWVnN0GU0rI6F9QDGo/s320/mad-wip-1.png" width="208" /></a></div>
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Next up was hair. The original character has long hair, which is not a good idea in games because it's difficult to animate, so I decided to give her a pony-tail. Now there are several ways to make hair in 3d, but I needed to make stylized hair, and this is an excellent tutorial on the subject: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nn7mISvVzJk" target="_blank">How to Model Cartoon-Style Hair in Blender - Bezier Curves Tutorial</a>. I separated the hair into two major parts because it was easier to control with the bezier curves, so the pony-tail consists of three pieces which are not connected to the head pieces, but the missing connection is not visible because of the scrunchie.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjtyuB9zRjBHAXUNWtoozkBjRcXQRpqnxHO3uPOKbg2b-_RtFA5oE5KBhekqUgyXoKzy4sH5dKdSDhtBuxGAnDayd_ZS8slvqCJirV5S-LmABr5XdMqoATUJVY0Al371pHWUVqlvGEKtoo/s1600/hair-pieces.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="733" data-original-width="628" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjtyuB9zRjBHAXUNWtoozkBjRcXQRpqnxHO3uPOKbg2b-_RtFA5oE5KBhekqUgyXoKzy4sH5dKdSDhtBuxGAnDayd_ZS8slvqCJirV5S-LmABr5XdMqoATUJVY0Al371pHWUVqlvGEKtoo/s320/hair-pieces.png" width="274" /></a></div>
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To make good-looking eyes I found this tutorial: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nPK6JlWESM8" target="_blank">How to Model, Light, Texture, Bake & Rig eyes in Blender</a>. The eyes were actually the hardest part - or rather the appearance of the eyes in relation to the head. Stylized eyes are larger than normal eyes, but when you add larger eyes the character may sometimes look like the eyes are popping out of the head, so I had to spend a lot of time adjusting the size of the eyes, the size of the pupils, the position of the eye-lids, and so on. It was also fun to rig the eyes to make it easier to control them:<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlh6s2GPUwKwyfiPPtYjGoaRfU7b7mDi_ffoCHE5d35BPf_aSe1SpieIBEbTDQXRwM0meMXEhAUaOcySVyJ26MKAdRdiuquY1yca2a2gJRFHBVHtWwarO-11YBAyieCG_ZIgh4riAkPeI/s1600/eye-test.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="384" data-original-width="493" height="249" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlh6s2GPUwKwyfiPPtYjGoaRfU7b7mDi_ffoCHE5d35BPf_aSe1SpieIBEbTDQXRwM0meMXEhAUaOcySVyJ26MKAdRdiuquY1yca2a2gJRFHBVHtWwarO-11YBAyieCG_ZIgh4riAkPeI/s320/eye-test.gif" width="320" /></a></div>
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In the original image you can see that she's wearing a skirt, but skirts are kinda tricky to animate, so I replaced the skirt with pants. The idea behind the pants is that she has folded them up so I had to add many creases to the pants to give them the correct shape. Blender has a sculpting tool so I used a crease brush, and the pants were actually the only part I sculpted - the other parts were just moving one vertex after the other. Speaking of moving vertices, the top in the original image consists of leaves and the top was the most time-consuming part of the character. I first tried to sculpt the leaf-top with a leaf-brush but it didn't work. Then I tried to add the leaves with a particle system, but it didn't work. So I had to place all 300+ leaves one-by one:<br />
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We can't see the bottom of the character in the original image, so I gave her boots. And I also replaced her diadem with butterfly antennae, because the diadem I first made didn't look good. The main character is now finished. But I also wanted to make it game-ready, meaning reducing the amount of vertices by baking textures onto a character that looks the same but has fewer vertices, and then you end up with a texture sheet looking like this:<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0rX8_LP2bDjpWntKUmETCFWAQpmxybjnHEEzJFUE9nC9ODHvxn1AZ_pocKyHpDCgizQxt2a-5LSF3GWTCwb0x_4bUlmSnSfIpZF_uecxxZ1yu2M2XZB-kiw32JsWwIqV2xRXxPEcVELk/s1600/texture-and-wireframe.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1600" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0rX8_LP2bDjpWntKUmETCFWAQpmxybjnHEEzJFUE9nC9ODHvxn1AZ_pocKyHpDCgizQxt2a-5LSF3GWTCwb0x_4bUlmSnSfIpZF_uecxxZ1yu2M2XZB-kiw32JsWwIqV2xRXxPEcVELk/s320/texture-and-wireframe.png" width="320" /></a></div>
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Most of the ambient occlusion shadows in the above texture sheet are generated automatically by Blender, but I had to clean them up by vertex-painting. At the same time I also painted her lips and gave her face a slightly red color, so the entire skin is not looking the same. Most humans have a slight tone of red in the face, but also some yellowish and bluish colors, so you have to experiment with what looks good. An excellent tutorial on how to use textures baked by Blender to make stylized textures is: <a href="https://youtu.be/jRiSdYby6v8" target="_blank">Learn Sculpting by Creating Game Assets.</a> I also had to make a specularity texture, which tells which part of the character should be reflective, such as the boots, and which should be not, such as the pants. Then I rigged the character with a simple rig to be able to move her legs and arms to easier change her pose. This is the final result:<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPYuWmxPRMqlIiBzP51tkVPp26xCxNZ4ORQJFgUUQ8byocuJB-xVNzX2DTSVhv1aOLTRjGVJuNmSZmoRn2dygMaZyxdesbbNkwAPN-i4OT8KxJl4g7CiqrEKUcXTaGUJ8OCO6ZRS4MAQo/s1600/butterfly-360-gif-animation.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="338" data-original-width="600" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPYuWmxPRMqlIiBzP51tkVPp26xCxNZ4ORQJFgUUQ8byocuJB-xVNzX2DTSVhv1aOLTRjGVJuNmSZmoRn2dygMaZyxdesbbNkwAPN-i4OT8KxJl4g7CiqrEKUcXTaGUJ8OCO6ZRS4MAQo/s320/butterfly-360-gif-animation.gif" width="320" /></a></div>
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But the idea behind the original character is that she's responsible for growing plants during spring time. So I thought it would be an excellent idea to practice making foliage. I've earlier tried to <a href="https://blog.habrador.com/2018/05/how-to-make-stylized-witness-trees-in.html" target="_blank">replicate the trees from the Witness game</a>, so I had some experience, and I also found this video on how to make plants for games: <a href="https://youtu.be/XwnzQYr2oHI" target="_blank">How to make stylized plants and grass</a>. The basic idea is that you first make a high-polygon plant and then you bake the high-polygon model to a flat-plane. It looks like this:<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgf9Cti91P8zAfUT_iR92XkUGdK7vI57DrtlOCqSgcxSmKKXG6tA_gir-vdNW0fTuQXpY1n7_nuI-pa1XoiNqRAlnG5SRx6VW0yk-jA9DLi53Cb-Q1UsOt3pk6K5DIhL2Sa3GmEBDUFrVU/s1600/high-poly-to-low-poly.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="374" data-original-width="1017" height="117" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgf9Cti91P8zAfUT_iR92XkUGdK7vI57DrtlOCqSgcxSmKKXG6tA_gir-vdNW0fTuQXpY1n7_nuI-pa1XoiNqRAlnG5SRx6VW0yk-jA9DLi53Cb-Q1UsOt3pk6K5DIhL2Sa3GmEBDUFrVU/s320/high-poly-to-low-poly.png" width="320" /></a></div>
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And if you do some painting the texture will look like this:<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-a6K7nap9q90Uibd8wvHPqyf6lrDb11slX_Mg-KLekMjbVWpQugmgolxJfcV7RoOwZ_MEmcgPWZNi-9ZrR-9kI9ZL1rxrmnnwEnrr4lMQj-OqqRu8TydLRKYYIg1_Cqv8HfNQMnmjKF8/s1600/plants-final-diffuse.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1600" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-a6K7nap9q90Uibd8wvHPqyf6lrDb11slX_Mg-KLekMjbVWpQugmgolxJfcV7RoOwZ_MEmcgPWZNi-9ZrR-9kI9ZL1rxrmnnwEnrr4lMQj-OqqRu8TydLRKYYIg1_Cqv8HfNQMnmjKF8/s200/plants-final-diffuse.png" width="200" /></a></div>
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Then you cut the plane around the individual plants and move the vertices to make the flat mesh more three-dimensional. These flat meshes are called cards. The problem is that they look the same from both sides but it's generally not a problem. For example, you never see the bottom of the plant to the left so you never notice that the upper part is the same as the bottom part:<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGE7rCKzge015FhmiaLIuYZk6snOk9uXVk3mat4NXWZzJgCmg8A9QCw1YK4Vja0zP3DVpnerY0KbcrPPUo6MCbF5noEdNUorC8tcIH5rmvU8Qg4qBmT5VyHRh_voeOKlnzfzkmHq0Oh4k/s1600/low-poly-plants.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="394" data-original-width="669" height="188" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGE7rCKzge015FhmiaLIuYZk6snOk9uXVk3mat4NXWZzJgCmg8A9QCw1YK4Vja0zP3DVpnerY0KbcrPPUo6MCbF5noEdNUorC8tcIH5rmvU8Qg4qBmT5VyHRh_voeOKlnzfzkmHq0Oh4k/s320/low-poly-plants.png" width="320" /></a></div>
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To make a forest scene, you add a flat mesh with many vertices, and then you use Blender's weight-paint tool to give each vertex a weight, which controls if you want a specific plant to appear around that vertex. Then you use a particle system to place the plants, so you don't have to place each piece of grass by yourself. You can also use weight-paint to control the length of each plant. This will require a lot of painting and re-painting until it looks good and no plant intersects with another plant. This was an early test (the plants are smaller along the border and this is controlled by weight-painting):<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBYqzauwob2nx4V7l6rBLyCM0tmJ50K8N1eNuqaVy3hi2CLU4H4zYrRSFNenWP-Nqbw7Z9UbgUxo6TK1n8mctPfAJqpxESH660ji0ipYnWkj6GNM8x33nznHJ6n0DS2V3IVNn_S7ibcB8/s1600/scene-test-1.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="842" data-original-width="1217" height="221" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBYqzauwob2nx4V7l6rBLyCM0tmJ50K8N1eNuqaVy3hi2CLU4H4zYrRSFNenWP-Nqbw7Z9UbgUxo6TK1n8mctPfAJqpxESH660ji0ipYnWkj6GNM8x33nznHJ6n0DS2V3IVNn_S7ibcB8/s320/scene-test-1.png" width="320" /></a></div>
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In the original image you can also see there's some kind of stone-bench. So I googled for some reference images and ended up with this:<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilI97tylsTW0HOwovJdH5NISFB30zMUaUfZMSlopwE1lPNCpri_KnF4GA_mkMSCY8KDsu8SBSg-6sT9fkfrnxffoLvw1x8jHnHJ-v9x8hqwnyN5R-HzYddaU1ftA_ppshcb9IvPSvaivU/s1600/bench.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="755" data-original-width="902" height="267" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilI97tylsTW0HOwovJdH5NISFB30zMUaUfZMSlopwE1lPNCpri_KnF4GA_mkMSCY8KDsu8SBSg-6sT9fkfrnxffoLvw1x8jHnHJ-v9x8hqwnyN5R-HzYddaU1ftA_ppshcb9IvPSvaivU/s320/bench.png" width="320" /></a></div>
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I used a stone brush to paint the different colors of the bench and I think the result was better than expected. So I was a little sad when most of the bench in the final scene is hidden by the foliage, but I guess that's how it is. Anyway, this is the final render which took about 90 minutes for the computer to generate. <br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj30pt6UyyYGmH_x-S7vnMq9hhkLqh_xTg_SAh8g7Nj_oOzGbhiK-nFlZUrhbQ7ji_inGyQUSmZ5BD3KPoarGRtelHKFnv4niQtXu2lIOf_gpzME2fod6kFq1-dOxksZtodrAK1EeRJozI/s1600/final-scene-3.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1600" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj30pt6UyyYGmH_x-S7vnMq9hhkLqh_xTg_SAh8g7Nj_oOzGbhiK-nFlZUrhbQ7ji_inGyQUSmZ5BD3KPoarGRtelHKFnv4niQtXu2lIOf_gpzME2fod6kFq1-dOxksZtodrAK1EeRJozI/s320/final-scene-3.png" width="320" /></a></div>
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The time it takes to generate a final image is one of the struggles with 3d. Yes, you can generate images with lower resolution and quality which is faster, but sometimes you find something that bothers you in the image with the highest resolution. Then you make that small change and have to wait another 90 minutes for the new image to render. For example, I made some tests from other angles, so there were many 90-minutes of waiting periods. And I have just one computer and rendering images takes up almost all power, so even surfing the web was a struggle during the waiting times:<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiaGEbCrJyuk85UGP87RHZNiq2q_r0nPVugN1Q8mK-IlrNZQKi0rkWazTNIy_P12lTZelh6617JWX7lyUigRF3Dsm90-ToGeUiU7lAd0rmVPQMhZyvmylhyyG4jTZFFBuMJnsob87OYpDE/s1600/final-scene-2-modified.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1600" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiaGEbCrJyuk85UGP87RHZNiq2q_r0nPVugN1Q8mK-IlrNZQKi0rkWazTNIy_P12lTZelh6617JWX7lyUigRF3Dsm90-ToGeUiU7lAd0rmVPQMhZyvmylhyyG4jTZFFBuMJnsob87OYpDE/s320/final-scene-2-modified.png" width="320" /></a></div>
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But that's not it! In the original image you can see some greenish smoke. Blender can generate volumetric smoke, but when I tested it, it was difficult to control how the smoke looked and it would take like 5 hours to generate the final image with smoke, so it took far too long. Notice that this is not the same grayish mist you can see in the rendered image - it takes zero time to generate. Instead I decided to learn some post-processing in <a href="https://krita.org/en/" target="_blank">Krita</a>. This is an excellent tutorial on the subject: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B6bSxyMilHA" target="_blank">Post-processing for Dummies in Under 12 Minutes - Blender and Krita Tutorial</a>. And the final image looks like this:<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCmQ_aanerajJ4-aAyPDaoC6AA3Wyov9wn0p3EBZYsFj23Zcjr1N-aVqgYDN8xu3vYKFEkMoAb2kHkeQZvmFklk_rSd1mOE1VyIraBCsrB9jYpidLTND-6T_irHj9vr2kHRh_S3IOsL-4/s1600/final-scene-3-post-processing.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1600" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCmQ_aanerajJ4-aAyPDaoC6AA3Wyov9wn0p3EBZYsFj23Zcjr1N-aVqgYDN8xu3vYKFEkMoAb2kHkeQZvmFklk_rSd1mOE1VyIraBCsrB9jYpidLTND-6T_irHj9vr2kHRh_S3IOsL-4/s320/final-scene-3-post-processing.png" width="320" /></a></div>
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In the end it took some weeks to learn all these things, but when I make the next character it will hopefully be a much faster process.<br />
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This project is also my first project on <a href="https://www.artstation.com/artwork/xzrbm2" target="_blank">Artstation</a>, so go there and like it if you like it.Habradorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16953931454438486425noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2610977618186644090.post-52245917855208097982019-06-02T14:23:00.000+02:002019-06-02T14:23:51.633+02:00Why RimWorld sold more than 1 million copies<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<a href="https://store.steampowered.com/app/294100/RimWorld/" target="_blank">RimWorld</a> is a very popular management game where you run a sci-fi colony. On Steam, the game is described as:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
A sci-fi colony sim driven by an intelligent AI storyteller. Inspired by Dwarf Fortress and Firefly. Generates stories by simulating psychology, ecology, gunplay, melee combat, climate, biomes, diplomacy, interpersonal relationships, art, medicine, trade, and more. </blockquote>
The game has been in development since 2013 after a successful <a href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/tynansylvester/rimworld" target="_blank">Kickstarter campaign</a>, and was finally released in 2018. It has sold more than a million copies. At first glimpse, the game doesn't look like much because it's a 2d game and has no fancy photo-realistic 3d graphics. Why then is it so popular?<br />
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RimWorld is an indie-game by <a href="https://twitter.com/tynansylvester/" target="_blank">Tynan Sylvester</a>. If you play the game you can see he's doing everything he can to market himself: The sub-title at the start menu says "A story generator by Tynan Sylvester," and from the start menu he's linking his Twitter-account and a book he wrote about game development: <span id="goog_765083930"></span><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Designing-Games-Guide-Engineering-Experiences/dp/1449337937/" target="_blank">Designing Games: A Guide to Engineering Experiences</a>. It was published before RimWorld so you will not learn how he designed that particular game, but he used knowledge from the book when designing the game. He has also talked about the game at GDC 2017, which was published on YouTube not long ago: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VdqhHKjepiE" target="_blank">RimWorld: Contrarian, Ridiculous, and Impossible Game Design Methods</a>. If you watch the GDC talk you'll see he had help from multiple people for audio, visuals, and programming, so he didn't make RimWorld on his own.<br />
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Lessons learned:<br />
<ul>
<li><b>It combines manufacturing, survival, and social.</b> According to the Paradox Podcast, RimWorld is a fun game because it combines the games Factorial (manufacturing), Don't Starve (survival), and The Sims (social). In RimWorld you need to manufacture (grow and cook) food to survive, research new technologies to eventually travel home, and you also need to form relationships with neighbors, who for some reason are on the same planet, as well as form social relationships within the group, and build yourself a cozy place to live. </li>
<li><b>RimWorld is a story generator. </b>Tynan Sylvester explained in the GDC talk how he was inspired by the game <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dwarf_Fortress" target="_blank">Dwarf Fortress</a> - not the graphics, but how Dwarf Fortress can create stories. The player interacts with the game and stories emerge from that interaction. Some players will lose the game, which may be a story because some stories end in failures. This is also why there are no Steam achievements, which would break the story. The thing is that RimWorld hasn't come up with a story generating AI because <a href="https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2016/08/12/how-rimworld-generates-great-stories/" target="_blank">it's using a concept called apophenia</a>, which is a term that refers to the human tendency to detect patterns in randomness. What's happening is that the game "sends entirely random events the player’s way, and yet it’s easy to ascribe meaning to them," but people don't see it as random events. The characters have no facial expressions so you can't see what they feel, so you have to imagine it based on the situation. In the developer's book he wrote that "Medieval [another game] doesn't really track human courage or familial affection. But the human mind sees stories anyway, given the slightest of suggestions." But making a simple system can also result in trouble as real social relationships are complicated. For example, <a href="https://www.polygon.com/2016/11/4/13509622/rimworld-sexuality-problem-rock-paper-shotgun-tynan-sylvester" target="_blank">this article</a> has found that "Men [in RimWorld] are about eight times as likely as women to try and start a romance," so players can become upset at the game if they have other values. So if you implement a simple social system, be careful!</li>
<li><b>All characters in RimWorld feel special to you.</b> In RimWorld you have just a few characters: you start with between one and three, and end up with maybe eight to twelve. Compare this with other games where one character is killed and you don't really care about it. If a character in RimWorld dies, you have the option to build a grave and the other characters will be sad. If a person is wounded, you have to make the decision to treat the wounded or let the character die. If you treat the wounded, the character will use resources like food and medicine while the character is useless because the character can't work, so the other characters have to work harder. </li>
<li><b>The graphics is not distracting the player. </b>When I first looked at the game I thought it was made by the developers behind another management game: Prison Architect. But it's not. Both games were revealed at the same time so I'm not sure who was inspired by who? Basically the art style is a top-down 2d game and the characters are leg-less blobs (but you can still give them pants). The game is made with Unity (and Photoshop to make the art) and is using the built-in font style that comes with Unity. The UI boxes are just one color with a frame in another color. So it has no fancy realistic 3d-graphics, but the graphics is not ugly so the graphics serves the purpose: you can always see what's going on - even if you have zoomed out. Fancy visuals may sometimes distract the player from the story when many things is happening on the screen. Also making fancy graphics takes a lot of time - and time is also a limit so sometimes it's better to focus on gameplay - there are no animations in RimWorld. Moreover, many people don't have the latest computer so I suspect one reason the game is popular is because you don't need to have the latest computer to play it. Neither does it take a long time to download the game because it's just 500 MB. To make it as simple ass possible for the player to see what's going on, RimWorld is cheating: some objects that should be behind a tree are on the top of the tree:</li>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiuzRrpuzE8PS_KI-HHCt2p4G5xQxzQIktZN_KcNBYbSf0S2blf3Jo_AxLCGRbzfXRFWi3Ju9_dQnbElli3iDGTzoJYlhAlKas2BaMUfwQkgyIbyHkWKJIW-KTyWIq6GJa0z4G-t8GxSYc/s1600/rimworld-character-above-tree.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="459" data-original-width="541" height="271" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiuzRrpuzE8PS_KI-HHCt2p4G5xQxzQIktZN_KcNBYbSf0S2blf3Jo_AxLCGRbzfXRFWi3Ju9_dQnbElli3iDGTzoJYlhAlKas2BaMUfwQkgyIbyHkWKJIW-KTyWIq6GJa0z4G-t8GxSYc/s320/rimworld-character-above-tree.png" width="320" /></a></div>
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<ul>
<li><b>Don't throw away any ideas.</b> While developing RimWorld, Tynan Sylvester was saving all ideas he ever discovered in a document because ideas are easy to forget. If the idea doesn't fit into your current plan, write it down because the plan may change. He then moved these idea to another document which was the more short-term to-do list. </li>
<li><b>It's easy to learn RimWorld but difficult to master.</b> A saying in the game industry is that a game should be "easy to learn and difficult to master." For example, the game pubg is very easy to learn, but it's really difficult to get a "chicken dinner" (win the game). RimWorld has a short tutorial which covers the basics but nothing more. To learn the rest, the game has smaller hints that you can click through. Making a tutorial is a dangerous balancing act - you can't give the player too much information because then it becomes boring to play because it's fun to figure out some stuff on your own, so the game has a wiki as backup if you are stuck.</li>
<li><b>The game keeps you in the flow channel.</b> The flow channel is an important topic in game development, and it says that to enjoy a game, the tasks have to match the difficulty. If the game is too easy, you will be bored, and if it's too difficult you will not enjoy playing the game - so the game has to keep you in a channel where you will always meet challenges that matches your experience. For example, if you play a shooter: start with good gun which will become boring after a while → add harder enemies which will become boring because it's too difficult → add better gun → add better enemies → and so on. In the beginning of RimWorld, you have to start food production and build a basic shelter. But as the game progresses, and as you learn more, it becomes more and more difficult because some characters will be wounded and can't contribute, so you have to prioritize more and more: should you harvest crops or work on researching new technologies? When you have learned the basics you will realize that you don't have enough resources on the map you start, so you have to form caravans and travel the world to find more resources. So RimWorld becomes more and more difficult to play as you become more and more skilled. Yes, there are dull moments where no disasters (raids, solar storms, battery explosions, etc) are trying to kill you, but you know that you need those pause moments to prepare so you can survive the next disaster. </li>
<li><b>The weather system is affecting the game.</b> In an earlier article I was complaining about the weather system in the game Parcitect, which didn't affect gameplay in a noticeable way. But the weather system in RimWorld is really out to get you. If there's a lightning storm, forest fires can start and burn down your buildings and you have to hurry out with your colony and extinguish the fire. If it's too hot outside, your food will go bad and you have to build a cooler to freeze the food. Sometimes a sun storm hits you, which temporarily malfunctions the cooler, and you will be really worried that your precious food will turn bad. </li>
<li><b>Making a game moddable while developing it is difficult.</b> One great way to add more content to your game without spending time nor money is to let other people add it for you by making your game work with mods. The problem is that the code will change rapidly while developing the game, so a better way is to let people add mods when the game has stabilized, or people have to update the mods all the time which is really time consuming. <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Games/comments/4tm6i1/i_am_tynan_sylvester_developer_of_rimworld_ama/d5jb9xj?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x" target="_blank">This is what happened with RimWorld</a>: "many creators of bigger mods have given up trying to update their mods every time a new update comes out." </li>
<li><b>You are directing the characters - you don't control them like drones.</b> <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Games/comments/4tm6i1/i_am_tynan_sylvester_developer_of_rimworld_ama/d5iisxy?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x" target="_blank">It would have been possible to increase the control of the characters</a>. For example, if two characters don't like each other, then separate them. But that would also have been boring and made the interface even more complicated: "The goal of the game isn't for the player to be able to exactly restrict every colonist to do the exact optimal thing. It's to give a certain level of generalized control, and make the player accept some narratively interesting but sub-optimal interactions that might happen within that."</li>
<li><b>Addictive games have responsibilities.</b> RimWorld is an addictive game and to help people not forget about the time in the game, you have the option to enable a clock. I originally thought it would tell the time in the game because RimWorld has a night-day cycle, but it's telling the time in your time so you don't forget an important meeting.</li>
<li><b>Procedural terrain increases replayability if gameplay changes.</b> The basic idea behind the game is to build a spaceship and fly home. This could become repetitive. The goal would have felt repetitive if you had done it over and over again in the same terrain. But RimWorld has procedural terrain and different types of terrain: mountain, forest, jungle, desert, etc, so after finishing the game you ask yourself "Can I also do it in the jungle terrain?" But it's important that the terrain is different and not just procedural. I played the game Bad North which has procedural islands but the game feels the same after a while even though each island is different - but not different enough to change gameplay. In RimWorld, if you first play in a forest area and then play in the desert you need another tactic because you can't find trees easily in the desert. </li>
<li><b>Gameplay is more important than realism.</b> Why are there no toilets in the game? Would have been a great fertilizer? Why is there no water management? There are smaller lakes with water in the game, but for some reason you can cook food without ever picking up water? It first felt like a missed opportunity before I read a Reddit AMA. Water wasn't added because "colonists have a lot of work to do so the needs have to be a lot more lightweight," meaning that the colonists won't have time to eat food, wash themselves, and do some work because each day in the game is short. Some in the same thread argues they really wanted water management in the game. It's the same with ammunition - each bow has an infinite amount of arrows, so making ammunition would maybe take too much time? In the GDC talk, Tynan Sylvester explained that he simplified everything that wouldn't contribute to the story. It's not realistic to dig metal directly from metal-rocks and then use it directly to build a metal-chair, but adding parts between wouldn't have improved the game. </li>
</ul>
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<div>
What could have been improved:</div>
<ul>
<li><b>Annoying UI.</b> If you read through the RimWorld reviews on Steam, some complain the UI is not easy to understand. This is true: everything about the game is minimalistic and the UI is grouped in the bottom of the screen. </li>
<ul>
<li>A better way would maybe be to group the UI with icons on different parts of the screens, like Cities: Skylines or Parkitect. Text is sometimes better to use than icons, but after a while you learn what the icons mean, so it doesn't make a difference in a game. </li>
<li>Some UI elements, such as the UI showing which zone types you have placed in the game is not visible enough - they blend too much with the background. </li>
<li>Why are orders in the architect menu? </li>
<li>Why are build roof in the zone menu and not structure menu?</li>
<li>Why can't you see, when selecting which tasks a character should prioritize to do, if the character can increase its skills more than other characters when working with that task. You can only see current skills - not the "passion," so you have to click back and forth between the character's bio UI and work priorities UI.</li>
<li>When building for example a chair, you can change the material of the chair from wood to steel or whatever, and it took some time to find this menu because it's just a small triangle in the top-right corner of the chair icon. It should have been included in the tutorial because it's not obvious you can click on the triangle to change material. </li>
</ul>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0cwAQJfrw_6DvmKYwFYGCSWksJInXVbfo2B9nogRBw50aiegrNE03e9VSv0Gz2quAlns38j9LZIcaEVUyNqoY9uj8OfNyjaks77-ufEj3wH62yLJaeNlN-Df85bKK4dhMhR7xRhiqmws/s1600/rimworld-odd-triangle-ui-to-expand-menu.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1600" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0cwAQJfrw_6DvmKYwFYGCSWksJInXVbfo2B9nogRBw50aiegrNE03e9VSv0Gz2quAlns38j9LZIcaEVUyNqoY9uj8OfNyjaks77-ufEj3wH62yLJaeNlN-Df85bKK4dhMhR7xRhiqmws/s320/rimworld-odd-triangle-ui-to-expand-menu.png" width="320" /></a></div>
<ul><ul>
<li>When manufacturing, everything is basically text, so sometimes it can be hard to figure out what you are manufacturing. A better idea would have been to use text in combination with an image, so you don't have to tab out and google what it is. For example, what is an "ikwa"? The description is empty (this might be a bug because the ikwa has a description in another place in the game), so you have to tab out, google, and the first result is the RimWorld wiki, which has an image of a spear. </li>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhSqUfda1Vs2yZKOZy4oEsblRV5Yk4-hi1b9S7IDLBKirp-nge9DviMuUvn4fBjwjQHUqYzVJWzOSH6XGEG5fWV5nBduRkEHueUmvuiCEOd5JyFOB1tnLZ8JyFECS2X9QLXoRyUkP2sHc/s1600/rimworld-ikwa.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1600" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhSqUfda1Vs2yZKOZy4oEsblRV5Yk4-hi1b9S7IDLBKirp-nge9DviMuUvn4fBjwjQHUqYzVJWzOSH6XGEG5fWV5nBduRkEHueUmvuiCEOd5JyFOB1tnLZ8JyFECS2X9QLXoRyUkP2sHc/s320/rimworld-ikwa.png" width="320" /></a></div>
<ul>
<li><b>Odd behaviors.</b> Each character has some characteristics, such as being able to treat wounded, or grow plants. One of my characters could for some reason not carry items, such as transporting food from the growing area to the storage area. But on the other hand the character could cook food, so you could see him go to the storage area and pick up food and carry it to the cooking station. So why couldn't the same character carry food to the storage area? I could have accepted that some characters can't do high-tech research, but not being able to carry potatoes from the field to the fridge when it clearly can carry potatoes from the fridge to the cooking station?</li>
<li><b>Difficult to prioritize tasks.</b> A management game is all about prioritizing tasks so it has to be as simple as possible. Currently, you can tell a character to prioritize a task, such as cooking before cleaning. If you want to prioritize a certain tree to be cut you have to select a character and then the tree. But what if you want the tree to be cut by just one of the characters without you knowing which - you just want the first available character. This was solved in the game <a href="https://store.steampowered.com/app/457140/Oxygen_Not_Included/" target="_blank">Oxygen not included</a>, which is similar to RimWorld but you are mining up/down below the ground and not aobe the ground. What Oxygen not included did was that you can click on an object and set a priority to that object. So if you want a tree to be cut by first available worker, you increase the priority of that tree. In the game Settlers, you can prioritize which items to be hauled before another item, which is impossible in RimWorld. It's really annoying when you see a colonist haul a single joint while leaving the precious food to go bad in the rain. I think there's some built-in prioritization because you can see them build defense structures before all other structures, but I haven't found a way to change this prioritization. </li>
<li><b>Odd parameter values.</b> This is the same problem as Parkitect has: it's difficult to determine what makes a room beauty. In RimWorld you can place floors, sculptures, furniture, flowers, etc to make a room "beauty." But even though you have placed many of these items the characters are still complaining, and if you google you see many other people are confused by the same topic. Perhaps a better idea would have been to use the same system as in Cities: Skylines where you see clearly on a color-map where you need to add more parks. Yes, RimWorld has a beauty display, but it's confusing. For example, why has one part of the drawer a beauty of 1 and the other part a beauty of 3?</li>
</ul>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj47TCAtXKZ2Vrp7_QzGnDIwWlS-80cMLRP6ZDO3QIZWauaAXhSueQx3l5Q_jgEGCI7PVZ6xNaJiZommv53WmZR7dq9Txw4fw8DF7SnQYV6y1h3i03mQYVuA2lpxjrsG2JOtKPO8dNJ8H8/s1600/RimWorld+-+confusing+beauty.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1600" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj47TCAtXKZ2Vrp7_QzGnDIwWlS-80cMLRP6ZDO3QIZWauaAXhSueQx3l5Q_jgEGCI7PVZ6xNaJiZommv53WmZR7dq9Txw4fw8DF7SnQYV6y1h3i03mQYVuA2lpxjrsG2JOtKPO8dNJ8H8/s320/RimWorld+-+confusing+beauty.png" width="320" /></a></div>
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<ul>
<li><b>The storage area need a search function.</b> For each storage area you can set with a check-mark if something should be stored in it, such as food but no weapons. But sometimes it's difficult to find what you are looking for, so it would have been easier if you could search for it. It has a hierarchy, but sometimes you have no idea within which group something belongs. For example, where's the Luciferum checkbox? It's below Manufactured → Drugs. If you click on the Luciferum description it doesn't say anything about that it's "manufactured." So if the search function is too difficult to implement, then it should say in the description where the item is in the hierarchy. </li>
</ul>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjonClmmB2TI4NuvPyqcYubljvEXNpjQsBrnqoKAtlFORyrcFSBBPk6flOMzpmOg6sBi2zW-6y8yQQR39gl_yjCSm2uW1XylNEdOj5uCdenvRQjuieBQnl01qx0BAqaB9nuCtEdW-Q0sBI/s1600/rimworld-storage-menu.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="493" data-original-width="306" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjonClmmB2TI4NuvPyqcYubljvEXNpjQsBrnqoKAtlFORyrcFSBBPk6flOMzpmOg6sBi2zW-6y8yQQR39gl_yjCSm2uW1XylNEdOj5uCdenvRQjuieBQnl01qx0BAqaB9nuCtEdW-Q0sBI/s320/rimworld-storage-menu.png" width="198" /></a></div>
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Habradorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16953931454438486425noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2610977618186644090.post-2325210809172107312019-05-27T13:19:00.000+02:002019-05-27T13:19:04.933+02:00Why did you give the game a bad review after playing for so many hours?Sometimes when you browse Steam reviews you see a review like this:<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgborOEilAZTm2ZJmpwfrIKPNpvX4YpWoEOnvG-nnB7XIm2-d5-Pr4QbJJtB92HNrbtmLirhp9YWDEEhm-aZp1KMJ4-S950wIgO16GAylT-KQM5XomcOKhUUK6Rt8zjojXT5iMaNaHCVXM/s1600/cities-skylines-bad-review.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="585" data-original-width="512" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgborOEilAZTm2ZJmpwfrIKPNpvX4YpWoEOnvG-nnB7XIm2-d5-Pr4QbJJtB92HNrbtmLirhp9YWDEEhm-aZp1KMJ4-S950wIgO16GAylT-KQM5XomcOKhUUK6Rt8zjojXT5iMaNaHCVXM/s320/cities-skylines-bad-review.png" width="280" /></a></div>
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If you don't know Swedish, "Recommenderas inte" means "Not recommended" and the customer is not recommending the game <a href="https://store.steampowered.com/app/255710/Cities_Skylines/" target="_blank">Cities: Skylines</a> despite having spent more than 1000 hours playing it. You have to pay roughly 30 USD to get the base game, and how can you say getting 1000 hours of entertainment for 30 USD wasn't worth the money? Understanding this is also something other game designers struggle with. This is a tweet by a product manager at Paradox after their game <a href="https://store.steampowered.com/app/859580/Imperator_Rome/" target="_blank">Imperator: Rome</a> got bad reviews:<br />
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When writing reviews, gamers are not measuring the money they spend on a game in relation to the number of hours they play the game: 30 USD for 1000 hours of entertainment wasn't worth it! In Sweden, 30 USD is roughly three movie tickets and a movie is usually two hours long, so if you go to the cinema you get 6 hours of entertainment for 30 USD. So games are very inexpensive entertainment. If you thought the game was boring, why did you spend 1000 hours in a boring game? Maybe you thought the game would be funnier the longer you played? Some games tend are deep and you have to play for some time before you can give the game a review. But you can also find similar reviews of games like <a href="https://store.steampowered.com/app/578080/PLAYERUNKNOWNS_BATTLEGROUNDS/" target="_blank">Pubg</a>, which is a less deep game and you understand what the game is about in a few hours:<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPNJYp7uvkbKmJVLSz-JxXXf2Y9H5hEXlvVnub-PB1xIsi3_hY4HfbZ-iUmYEIuqbLk0GhyhRBZFCZZ3BhojdNF1xJ0Z5QuNrsNvnvJtneCHfxEh5FDSBzOXTqkZov3I2TGseYeLma63w/s1600/pubg-1000-hours-bad-review.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="238" data-original-width="356" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPNJYp7uvkbKmJVLSz-JxXXf2Y9H5hEXlvVnub-PB1xIsi3_hY4HfbZ-iUmYEIuqbLk0GhyhRBZFCZZ3BhojdNF1xJ0Z5QuNrsNvnvJtneCHfxEh5FDSBzOXTqkZov3I2TGseYeLma63w/s320/pubg-1000-hours-bad-review.png" width="320" /></a></div>
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What is going on? While reading the book <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Designing-Games-Guide-Engineering-Experiences/dp/1449337937" target="_blank">Designing Games: A Guide to Engineering Experiences</a> written by Tynan Sylvester, who also made the game <a href="https://store.steampowered.com/app/294100/RimWorld/" target="_blank">RimWorld</a>, I found "player's remorse." It's defined like this:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Player's remorse appears after a player spends time on a game that motivates him but does not fulfill him. </blockquote>
The player has enjoyed playing the game for 1000 hours but then felt empty - what was it all worth? "Why did I waste 1000 hours playing this game?" A parallel is television series. Many were upset with Game of Thrones after what they thought was a bad ending of the last season. "Why did I waste my time watching eight seasons when all I got was that ending?" I bet many people regret watching eight seasons even though they enjoyed all eight seasons except a few of the last episodes of the last season. People spent so much time analyzing what would happen - and to what use? But what would have been a good ending to Game of Thrones when everyone had so high expectations?<br />
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Another great discussion on the topic is this Reddit threat: <a href="https://old.reddit.com/r/truegaming/comments/9q4kxz/about_games_that_have_steam_reviews_like_this_100/" target="_blank">About games that have Steam reviews like this: "[100+] hours on record, Not Recommended"</a>, which also links to this article: <a href="https://medium.com/@caseyexplosion/sympathy-for-the-person-who-left-an-negative-review-on-steam-for-a-game-they-put-600-hours-into-a7f3a291dac9" target="_blank">Sympathy for the… person who left a negative review on Steam for a game they put 600 hours into</a>. To summarize, some reasons to why someone with a high playtime gives a game a bad score are:<br />
<ul>
<li><b>The developers could have updated the game.</b> Most games, including Pubg, are continuously being updated. So a user may have spent many hours enjoying the game before it was updated and the update made the game worse.</li>
<li><b>It could have taken many hours to really understand the game.</b> The more experience you have, the more flaws you will find. Some games are deep and you need experience to really understand the game. While it's fun to play the game when you are new, it's unplayable when you have 1000 hours of experience. </li>
<ul>
<li>Cities: Skylines: it takes a lot of time to build a large city and realize that it has flaws because it can't simulate enough population for a large city. </li>
<li>Pubg: if you are really skilled then each millisecond counts and then some say Pubg is broken because it can't always handle these milliseconds because of multiplayer issues. </li>
<li>No man's sky: you were promised an infinite universe, but it took some time for players to realize that yes the universe may be infinite but all the planets look the same, so what's the point of having an infinite universe? </li>
<li>Hearthstone (Reddit comment): "Ultimately it was the insulting "developer insights" that killed it for me. You realise many of the games 'flaws' were intentional decisions to leech more money from the player base (ie. Bizarre and poorly justified balance decisions that pushed you towards buying more cards)" </li>
</ul>
<li><b>The game is boring to play but you think it will improve the more you play.</b> You think it will be more fun to play if you reach the next level or upgrade to a better tank, but what if it never happens? You spend a lot of time upgrading to better tanks in the game World of Tanks, but when you finally get a better tank the game will force you to play with other better tanks, so what was the point? </li>
<li><b>You were addicted to the game.</b> What if you enjoyed a game so much that you quit your job and isolated yourself before realizing you were addicted to the game? Would you give the game a good or bad review? Or as a Reddit comment said: "I wasn’t just playing because I was enjoying the game; I was playing to level up and earn a lootbox, so I could get a chance at that elusive skin, and pretty soon I noticed myself continuing to play in spite of not enjoying it any more. I was playing compulsively." </li>
<li><b>The game never ends.</b> Neither Pubg nor Cities: Skylines have endings - you either start the game over and over again in a hunt for winning a match in Pubg or you build your city over and over again until you run out of space, so it's natural that a few people after 1000 hours wonder what the point of playing is when it never ends. </li>
<li><b>The pause button increased playtime.</b> Some people pause their games for various reasons, so having 1000 hours of playtime doesn't mean they played the game for 1000 hours. </li>
</ul>
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What if it's not the players who are to be blamed, but the review system. On Steam, you can either say the game is good or bad: thumbs up or thumbs down. You played the game for 1000 hours but in the end you didn't like it, but it was still sort-of fun to play it. Now you are forced to pick one of the options: good or bad. Sometimes it's useful with more options. Habradorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16953931454438486425noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2610977618186644090.post-87943173231968865152019-05-17T10:25:00.000+02:002019-05-29T10:36:23.923+02:00Parkitect - a management gameI'm currently working on a management game so I thought it was a good idea to play-test some other management games and try to figure out what I would have done differently. First out in the play-test series is <a href="https://store.steampowered.com/app/453090/Parkitect/" target="_blank">Parkitect</a> which is a game where you manage your own theme park.<br />
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Perhaps the most common management games throughout the ages are city builders like SimCity and theme park games. Parkitect is one of the latest in the series and was released in 2018 after some years of development and a successful <a href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1548960623/parkitect" target="_blank">Kickstarter campaign</a>. The players have rated it mostly positively on Steam.<br />
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Parkitect is made with <a href="https://unity.com/" target="_blank">Unity</a> game engine, which is the same game engine I'm using. It's running on a grid, like in the old days, so the entire map is divided into square cells, so you can't build curvy roads like you can in the game <a href="https://store.steampowered.com/app/493340/Planet_Coaster/" target="_blank">Planet Coaster,</a> which is another recently released theme park management game. But using a grid is not necessarily a bad idea because the game still looks good because they are not aiming for a realistic art style - more of a retro art style. The retro art style is also making the game run faster on my laptop, which is not the worst laptop but still far from the best. I saw a video of someone playing Planet Coaster, which has a more detailed art style, and that person had to stop playing the game because the computer couldn't handle all details even though the map wasn't fully built. You can fill the entire map in Parkitect and the game is still running fine.<br />
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Parkitect has a campaign where you play scenarios provided by the game developers. For example, your job is to build a theme park on a deserted airfield and you win if you get 500 customers or whatever the goal is. Each scenario has different goals, but it still feels like the goals are the same after you have figured out what to build to attract new customers. You are basically doing the same on each map: you are trying to make the park-guests happy. They want different type of attractions, they want food, they need toilets, they want the park to be free from garbage, and they want the park to look nice. After a while you have learned what you need to build to make them happy and then you build the same thing over and over again. So you shouldn't play it to get a challenge - you should play it because the game is relaxing.<br />
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So why isn't the game challenging? The game has a weather system - sometimes it will rain for maybe a day - and the temperature changes. But I haven't noticed that the temperature affects the customers because they happily ride in the fastest, highest roller coaster even though the temperature is around freezing temperature. Some indoor attractions are more popular when it's raining, but because it's raining for just a day you are never noticing the difference. Neither is the water turning into ice (I tried by dropping a guest into the water so yes you can kill guests) and it's raining even though it should snow. So I think they should have utilized the weather system to make the scenarios more different from each other. If you have a weather system, make sure it affects the game. In this image, the temperature is below freezing, but the game looks and acts exactly the same as when the temperature is 20+ degrees:<br />
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To make the guests happy, you need to make sure they can buy food. This is something I was really surprised they added to the game: they have "haulers" that will carry boxes of food to the small restaurants when they are out of food. Most other games assume that the small restaurants have some endless amount of food supply. The problem is that your guest hates to see these haulers so you have to build special access roads to the restaurants so they can deliver boxes without any guest seeing it. You also have to hide these access roads because the guests don't want to see them. So what Parkitect does is that they will provide you with a decoration map so you can see where the guests don't like the looks of your park:<br />
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I read through the Parkitect development blog and they are using ray-casting to determine if the decoration is low or not. In the image above, they fire a ray (which is similar to a laser) from the stairs and some rays hit the pink delivery box system, which is considered ugly in the game. So when I added fences around the pink building, the red disappeared. Anyway, the pink building is connected to the main warehouse through an underground pipeline system, which looks like this:<br />
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The problem with this pipeline system is that it's annoying to build because it's running in 3d and the heights have to be the same for it to connect. It's often difficult to judge at what height the pipeline system is, so you will sometimes need many attempts to make them connect. What I would have done differently is to have the pipes at just one height, like Cities: Skylines sewer system. Sometimes you have to build pipes above areas you don't control, but it could have easily been solved by allowing pipes below the area you don't control. <br />
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To make your guests happy, you have to make the attractions you build look good, so Parkitect has given each attraction a decoration parameter that can be low, medium, etc. So after you build a roller-coaster you have to use one of the several building blocks to make it look better. This is sometimes confusing. For example, this roller-coaster has low decoration even though I've added rocks, flowers, special fences, and space-style buildings:<br />
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The decoration suddenly turned to medium after adding this building in the middle:<br />
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This ride also had medium decoration:<br />
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So what's the difference? I suspect they are again using ray-casting to determine level of decoration and because the roller-coaster is larger it needs decoration not just at the entrance. But the problem is that it's kinda confusing for the player, so they should maybe have added some color map to show where on the attraction the decoration is low.<br />
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To make you guests happy, you have to build different types of attraction. I've notices that they complain if you don't have an attraction with high intensity, and if you build one you will get more customers. One odd behavior I've notices is that some attractions are not popular at all. For example, this ride is free but the queue is almost empty:<br />
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So an improvement could have been to tell why no-one wants to ride the attraction. In the image above, it has nothing to do with the type of attraction because it was really popular in another scenario. But now almost no-one wants to touch it even though it's free. And sometimes you see that your new expensive roller coaster is empty while the queue to the Ferris wheel is full.<br />
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The game gives you a list of what your guests like and don't like while visiting the park. Sometimes they complain they are broke, which can be confusing because you can add cash machines, so you are not really sure why they are complaining.<br />
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Another problem I discovered involves the absence of pathfinding. If you destroy a path while guests are walking on it, the guests begin to walk in a random direction hoping to find a path to walk on. But sometimes they are not finding their way back because they just walk randomly. A better way would have been to do some pathfinding back do the nearest road, which is doable because the entire map is a grid and you know which tiles are roads, so a flow <a href="https://blog.habrador.com/2017/07/why-you-need-to-learn-flow-field.html" target="_blank">field algorithm</a> would have been a fast solution.<br />
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To summarize: Parkitect is a relaxing game that's running fine even if you have an older computer. It has some game mechanics you can't find in other theme park management games. Some game mechanics are confusing and should have been easier to understand, and the game could have been more challenging to attract players who want more of a challenge after learning the basics.<br />
<br />Habradorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16953931454438486425noreply@blogger.com0