A Little Like Me

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5 minutes

Last week has been pretty busy, especially the weekend. Hence why this post is a day late.

This last week I’ve got back into Unreal and Blender in a big way. All the tutorials and time I spent learning the basics during lockdown last year have come in useful for learning / navigating other types of tutorials that I’ve been watching this week. Yoloing in to stuff that you have no idea how to do, at all, based off the back of a 10min tutorial is super fun.

This week I modelled myself in Blender using some reference photos, and then imported that file into Unreal Engine, rigged it, and made myself into a Metahuman.

It’s not great but it is good enough (I think). I need to work on the nose.

It’s weird, playing about with it in Unreal engine, every now at the right angle I’ll think “Oh hey that does look like me” but then it’s gone. Like recognising the features of someone you know in a stranger at a concert. A flash of recognition.

You won’t be seeing the *actual* meta human version of me in the final form anyway. So this weeks MVP is ticked off an a success.

I also scanned my face using an android photogrammetry tool (polyscan). Its fairly mediocre to be honest. I’ll finally scan myself with my proper 3D scanner this week I think.

The Blender tool I used was called Facebuilder and is 150 bucks a year. My demo runs out on Friday 🙁

Costs are mounting for the new show but I think it’s going to be worth it? Hope so, all this work is time not doing freelance work.

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Sadly my 2019 gaming laptop isn’t powerful enough to run Nvidia’s Omniverse ‘audio2face’ app. I had hoped to make it a key tool in the new shows workflow.

Does any one know if there are any other tools? I’ve applied for early access to the recently announced Omniverse Cloud App but I worry the wait might be a little long?

Does anyone following want to collaborate on some virtual production for my new interview/podcast? Unreal 5 based.


Permanently Moved

The Funeral

The 21 century has finally arrived in Britain with the passing of a crown. The Carolingian age has begun in the kingdom.

Photo 365

255/365

The Ministry Of My Own Labour

  • New Podcast Editing
  • A LOT of Unreal Engine Tutorials
  • A LOT of Blender Tutorials
  • Writing
  • Calls
  • Working on my Incredible Machines 2022 talk

Lol the list above seems way smaller amount of work than its felt.

Dipping the Stacks

Don’t be too quick to blame social media for America’s polarization – cable news has a bigger effect | Salon.com

Turns out that online news consumers are exposed to more opposing views, while TV news watchers rarely stray

Doomscrolling linked to poor physical and mental health, study finds | Mental health | The Guardian

16.5% of about 1,100 people surveyed showed signs of “severely problematic” news consumption, leading to greater levels stress, anxiety and poor health.

Facebook Engineers Don’t Know Where They Keep Your Data

The systemic fogginess of Facebook’s data storage made answering even the most basic question futile

Some Painful Questions We Ask Ourselves – by Sasha Chapin

discernment is good, discernment is hard

7 essential Japanese ambient and new age records

These ambient LPs from the 80s is their focus on enhancing, and shifting, existing environments. Rather than offering a reprieve in the form of an escape, many of these Japanese artists practised sound design as a way to complement or alter physical locations into spaces of serenity and stillness.

Reading

I finished reading His Last Command by Dan Abnett.

I ditched reading Nine Gates: Entering the Mind of Poetry by the poet Jane Hirshfield. The version I have is a poor quality PDF a friend sent me. I got so frustrated one evening this week that I impulse bought a hardback on eBay. Shipping was extortionate, should arrive some time in October – holiday reading, hopefully.

I’ve finished The Artful Edit: On the Practice of Editing Yourself by Susan Bell. Fantastic book. I’ve been recommending it to loads of people. 

I was given a copy of Creativity, Inc.: Overcoming the Unseen Forces That Stand in the Way of True Inspiration by Ed Catmull over the summer. It’s a book by the founder of Pixar. I’m about half way though. Super interesting.

Music

thejaymo.net Spotify Playlist

Horse Lords – Mess Mend

I have no context at all for Horse Lords at the time of writing. I see they have 2 albums and an EP out since 2014. But I was sent a link to this tack by a subscriber and told ‘Listen to this’. A single of their forthcoming album Comradely Objects.

If you click play on the track below, what you will find minimalist, strangely tuned string instruments, pulsating synths and tight percussing that blend and merge to create a hypnotic sound object. Like a rock and roll Terry Riley or something.

Weird, strange. Can’t wait to do the dive on their back catalogue. Excited to hear more.

Remember Kids:

They missed off board game geek

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