Day 17: Christmas flakiness!

Hey everyone!

I´m still being flaky, but now the internet is working again on my computer and Christmas takes its toll on my time...thus I´m still opening the UVs, but I´ve made some progress, I need the other hand and the head and then I can start with the rig!

Day 17: UV progress

Day 14-16: Being flaky...again...

Hey everyone!

I admit, I'm being flaky on my challenge again..somewhere in the middle there is always this point, where I seem to lose persistance...

Anyways, I struggle to continue (and that the internet isn't working on my Windows OS isn't exactly motivating ;) ) and made some progress on the UVs. Screenshot asap, some of the UVs look pretty strange, but it's all a matter of the learning process, isn't it ;)

Day 11-13: Computer problems, being annoyed and UVs

Hey everyone!

I did continue with my challenge the past days, but due to computer problems I can't use the internet on my Windows system at the moment and I'm working on Linux now.

Anyways, I worked on my model a bit more, got annoyed because I'm not 100% happy, the neck still has a rim where I attached it to the body (no idea why) and I decided to move forward, because modelling is a matter of practice and I want to see my model walk as soon as possible! Thus I started with applying and opening the UVs...totally forgot what a nuisance that is :D

Photo will follow soon!

Day 10: Braiiins...

Hey everyone!

I admit, I took a 3 day break from my challenge, first of all because my hand hurt, second because I was away on the weekend and third as well as most important: forcing me to continue these days would have meant killing the fun.

Anyhow, I´m back to tweaking my mesh, refining it and I attached the head today...alright, the neck and the eye sockets look really really weird, but I´ll try to repair it tomorrow. Otherwise I´ll just have a Frankenstein rabbit :)

Day 10: Braiiins....

Day 9: Merge it!

Hey everyone!

It was a very long day indeed...so I just played around a bit with the eye sockets (still not quite happy but good enough to let it be for now) and I´ve duplicated the mesh to make an entire body...well, not too bad, more tweaking tomorrow.

Day 9: Merging a body

Day 8:It´s a head!

Hey everyone!

It was a long day and I´m very tired...still I worked a bit on the hand and dared to duplicate my head mesh...Well, as usual I´m not 100% happy with the complete head. Only now all the mistakes become obvious and there is still a lot of work to do, before I consider the head as pretty.

However, not too bad for freestyle modelling without a template, I´d say. More tomorrow :)

Day 8: It´s a head!

Day 7:Modelling and attaching the hand

Hey everyone!

Today I continued to model the hand and eventually attached it to the body...I know, I know, it´s not the prettiest of them all, but I do remember my teacher in July saying that the hand is one of the trickiest things to model.

I did my best to try and achieve an animal-like hand, which is humanoid enough to animate it easily. I still have to figure out some meshes which went crazy during the merge to the arm, but that´s something for tomorrow.

Time for bed. Good night :)

Day 7: Attaching the hand to the body

Day 6: Body/Arm/Tail/Hand

Hey everyone!

I´m really tired already, so just a quick brush-up on today´s progress: I refined the body, got something that looks sort of like a tail :D and started modelling the arm and the hand.

The hand is still very very rough and too big. Looks like one of these gloves you get in hockey stadiums... :D

Day 6: Modelling the arm and the hand

Day 5 - Head/Body/Tail

Hi everyone!

I continued today with refining the head (still not quite content with the eye socket though) and working on the body and the foot. And I attached the tail! As the tail still needs some modelling you can´t see it on this screenshot ;)

Hope you had a nice Sunday! Tomorrow/Today it´s time for a fluffy tail and arms!

Day 5 - Finetuning head/body/tail

Day 4: "Me pasan cosas raras y no las entiendo" aka Modelling the head

Hey everyone!

Today I had a moment of "Me pasan cosas raras y no las entiendo..." ("Strange things are happening to me and I don´t know why...") and I had to laugh, because I said this sentence many times during my intensive course in July.

As I don´t have a teacher to help me now, I had to figure it out by myself and luckily it wasn´t a big problem, which messed up the head´s mesh. Seems like I really had duplicated some faces and forgotten about it, no wonder everything went crazy after inserting a new loop...but after deleting the double faces everything worked out smoothly.

In your face, Maya! Frankly, I´m a bit proud - figuring out mistakes by yourself is a good feeling, especially since I haven´t done anything in Maya until recently.

Anyways, this is as far as I got today with the head of the rabbit. The eye socket looks a bit weird, I think I´ll go over that tomorrow again...

Day 4 - Modelling the head

Day 3: Modelling continued

Hi everyone!

Started with the head today and made quite good progress until I wanted to start with the eyes..when I tried to insert some loops Maya went all crazy and the new loops I made weren´t smooth. Maybe I duplicated a face somewhere and forgot that...?

Anyways, I hope I can fix this tomorrow (or later today ;) ) so I can continue and work on the eye socket of the rabbit. Plus I tried out a new idea for the tail, but it looks a bit awkward I have to say :D

A screenshot of today´s progress:

Day 3 - Troubles with the head and a weird tail

Next challenge: 1 horita de Maya cada dia! Day 1+ 2

Hi everyone!

In case you´ve forgotten: There is this amazing TED talk where Matt Cutts talks about his 30 day challenges and how they changed his life. Inspired by this I already tried out one challenge, namely taking a picture every day.

For those, who don´t know the video, have a look at it here:
http://www.ted.com/talks/matt_cutts_try_something_new_for_30_days.html

After being flaky in summer, but still finishing my challenge, it is now time for my next challenge:

1 horita de Maya cada dia! 1 hour of Maya everyday!

Why am I choosing this as a challenge for me? And why did I write this in Spanish as well?

I did an intensive summer course for an introduction to Maya (a 3D animation software) in Spain this year. Shamefully I have to admit that I haven´t done anything after I´ve returned from Barcelona. I´ve had a bad conscience for months, feeling that I had wasted time and money for pursuing my dream of becoming an animator and not having the grit to pull through.

Thus, I have decided to put an end to these nagging thoughts of shame. Time to learn, to improve, time to do my homework and design the conejo (rabbit ;) ) I promised to my teacher in my course.

Let the games begin! Day 1 and 2 have already passed (and I didn´t only spend an hour, but about 5 in total already - totally forgot how much fun this is :))

Day 1 - Doing a character from a tutorial

Day 2 - Decided to model my own character - a rabbit

Being flaky...but still: FINISHED the challenge! Day 23- Day 30

Hello out there!

I know, I know...30 day challenges are meant to be completed in 30 consecutive days...but then everything happened so quickly, summer arrived, I was travelling the entire time, my GoPro was broken and took ages to repair etc. etc....lame excuses, I know.

However, I tried to finish the challenge by taking jump pictures in the various places I went to in summer. And believe it or not, I got the 8 missing pictures now! They are a journey through my summer...Barcelona, hiking, going to Tirol, Croatia and more hiking. It was amazing. Enjoy the tour :)

Day 23 - Prater/Vienna (35 degrees)

Day 24 - Barcelona

Day 25 - Croatia

Day 26 - Hiking in the Karwendel

Day 27 - Walchsee (Tirol)

Day 28 - Hiking in the Karwendel 2

Day 29 - Achensee (Tirol)

Day 30 - Hiking to a summit (Großer Mahnkopf)

Day 21 + 22: Going for a walk

Hi everyone!

Finally summer has arrived in Austria...more or less at least. Today it was raining again, but eventually the sun came out and you had this fantastic light, which is unique to that situation...time for a walk!

The other picture was taken in the Viennese forest, where I went for a walk with my boyfriend...in the back of day 21 you can already see the thunderstorm approaching. A great atmosphere to take a picture.

Day 22: A walk after the rain

Day 21: Walking in the Viennese woods

Day 16 -20: Rain/wedding/Go pro jumps

Hi everyone!

I´m sorry to let you wait that long, but I guess after being halfway through the challenge I sort of lost track...plus I had stress at work, a migraine, a wedding to go to and my birthday celebration...all excuses no one wants to hear, alright, alright. Sorry for being lazy, I´ll try to post photos more regularly like before :)

Some pictures were taken around 2 weeks ago. This was before the weather turned bad and half of Austria was flooded. Vienna was spared, but I hope that everyone, who was affected will be able to rebuild what has been broken.

I celebrated my birthday this week and I couldn´t´believe what I got as present: a GOPro. I´m still overwhelmed by its functions and features. Amazing new gadget to play around with...I guess you´re going to see a lot of photos in fisheye style on this blog :)

Day 20: Riding around Vienna by bike

Day 19: 1st GoPro jump!

Day 18: A rainy day in Vienna

Day 17: leaving Vienna to go a friend´s wedding

Day 16: Street jump

Day 15: Spittelau jump - Halfway through!

Hi everyone!

Unbelievable - we´re halfway through! Time indeed is flying...Today´s jump picture was taken in front of the Fernwärme Wien building. It was designed by Hundertwasser, hence the fantastic design with no straight lines. I love his works, they are just amazing.

Have a good Monday!

Day 13 + 14: A long day´s night

Hi everyone!

Hope you had a nice weekend! Mine was great, met a lot of friends, laughed my head off at silly jokes and even went running today...quite active weekend, I´d say.

I have to admit, I forgot to ask my friends yesterday to take a picture of me...so another self-timer one in my hallway :). And I completely forgot to take my camera with me when I went running, so I had to take an "emergency" jump in the street I live in...anyhow...a jump a day it is!

Day 14: Random street jump

Day 13: Hallway jump

Day 11 + 12: Home and party jump

Hi everyone!

I admit it - I was a bit lazy and after a long week I decided to post Day 11 today...furthermore the battery of my camera was empty on Thursday so I couldn´t take a picture with that giant M & M costume person...well, maybe another day :)

The jump from yesterday was at a party of a friend of mine. She´s got a beautiful flat with a terrace where you can see all over Vienna. Perfect location for a jump photo!

Enjoy your weekend! :)

Day 12: Party jump on a terrace

Day 11: Home jump..never mind the facial expression :)

Day 10: Train station jump

Hi everyone!

It´s not the next morning until I´ve gone to sleep...this is "today´s" jump at the train station Westbahnhof. A long day finally comes to its end...

Day 6 -9: Hiking weekend/A rainy Tuesday

Hi everyone!

Due to a holiday we had a long weekend in Austria and I took the opportunity to go hiking...thus I disconnected for a few days from the internet and didn´t post a daily jump. However, I didn´t forget to take a jumping picture everyday :)

Day 9 - Back to Vienna: after a heavy rainfall

Day 8 - Second day of hiking around Türnitz, in hiking gear + waterproof clothing

Day 7 - Hiking in Lower Austria: At the Türnitzer Höger

Day 6 - Hiking around Vienna

Day 5: Campus jump

Hi everyone!

I study English next to working and as I had a class at the Campus Altes AKH (these surroundings once were for the general hospital..as they built a much bigger building for the hospital, all the language institutes of the University moved there) I thought I´ d take the time to take my jumping photo for today.

A very nice young mother agreed to help me - we had lots of fun trying several times to get the right jump. I like it, almost looks like I´m in a big hurry to go somewhere...

p.p.s.: The ad in the background was for the ÖH elections, which took place this week...no reflection of any opinion whatsoever.

Day 4: Courtyard Ghost Jump

Hi everyone!

Today was quite a long day and somehow my energy resources were very low today...I take that as an excuse for forgetting to take my camera with me during the day so I couldn´t ask someone else to take a photo of me. (Even though I passed by some really nice places to take one - I´ll keep them in mind, got a few more days to go yet ;) )

Anyways, this is a challenge I´d like to pull through and as an emergency plan I took another self-timer picture in the courtyard which is in the middle of the building where I live. I moved to this flat in September and I´m lucky to live now in one of those old Viennese buildings. They are popular for their high rooms (up to 3meters!) and a courtyard in the middle.

Eventually the photo turned out quite interesting, as my camera added a nice motion effect to the pic. Something different and not boring after all!

Day 3: Wieselburg jump

Hi everyone!

I work once a week in Wieselburg and as I was one hour early I thought I could take a minute to take a picture...No one passed and I got a bit impatient, so I just decided to use the self-timer option and try out if it works.

As you can see it´s a bit blurry, but it worked. It almost looks like I photoshopped myself into the picture, but I guarantee, it´s no fake. The jump is different and I appear much more relaxed. Completely different story if there´s no stranger behind the camera, who might think you´re a complete idiot to randomly jump around somewhere...

Anyways - just more of a challenge to relax even if you don´t know the person behind the camera. At the end of the day all that matters is a nice picture, right?

Day 2: University Jump

Hi everyone!

Day 2: a jump in the inner courtyard of the University of Vienna. An amazing place to relax between lessons: Lots of trees, sunshine and even some deck chairs...
Again, my expression is a bit tense plus I should vary my jumpstyle a bit next time, otherwise it gets boring :)

First official jump!

I proudly present - the first official jump of the blog. I do have to say it took me quite some time to overcome a sudden shyness of asking strangers to take a photo of you randomly jumping around somewhere.
Due to this I chose a setting, where people are more likely to pass by than rather than staying and watching while I try to jump around,
hoping the unknown photographer takes a photo at the right time.

This picture was shot at the Donaukanal - a green pathway next to the Danube, which is amazing to bike along and enjoy some nature in the city. The photo was taken by a very nice girl, who was obviously gifted with the feeling for the precise moment to press the shutter release. Thank you very much! I look a bit tense, but I guess that´s from being nervous of bugging other people to take a photo of you...that´s what I call an exercise in overcoming shyness!

A jump a day...let´s get started!

Hello everyone out there!

You´re probably wondering about the title...to explain how I came up with this idea let me tell you this first: I´m a huge fan of ted.com, one of my favourite videos is this:

http://www.ted.com/talks/matt_cutts_try_something_new_for_30_days.html

Inspired by his video I would like to take a 30 day challenge as well - I haven´t got time to write a novel in a month and I need to buy a bike first in order to bike to work, but I guess I could make time to take a picture everyday.

Matt Cutts took a random photo everyday, but I thought it would be fun to specify this to jump pics of me or friends of mine, if they´re willing to do it of course.

Let´s get moving - a jump a day keeps you fit and smiling ;)

For a start, this is yesterday´s jump - during a walk in the sunshine, while we were watching a thunderstorm approaching: