Starting in March 2020, I began a large stream project to model a comprehensive, highly-detailed Caterpillar 434E backhoe. Please watch the first stream (first 3 minutes of abridged version at least) for an overview.
It's a straight-forward project of building a complex model over an extended period of time. The spin on the project is that I want your help to accomplish it! If I build some parts and you build some parts, we will finish this thing much quicker. Plus the contribution format will include reviews, the potential of having your piece(s) assimilated into the final model. Not to mention large quantities of XP are at stake 🤑
NOTE: This is an involved project reserved for Citizen members.
The general idea is that I kickoff stages of the project via live stream, which is typically once per month. For the time in between streams, you choose a piece of the backhoe and apply what you learned from the stream to that piece. For example, the first stream covered initial block out. So between stream 1 and stream 2, your job is to pick a piece and block it out.
This is the repeating protocol for each Assignment Period (between-streams):
I will reply to this thread after each stream with a [big] assignment post denoted by a 📣 emoji in the title. There I will clarify instructions about each Assignment Period.
We will centralize our collaborative communication between the streams and this thread. Ask any and all questions pertaining to the Backhoe project here.
blanchsb Like a goober I have NOT tried E-Cycles. I absolutely should have for this project! Seems like a brilliant tool. Admittedly I don't know any colleagues that have used it though. Just high praise on twitter.
I should preface that being a teacher makes me very hesitant to user 3rd party tools (free and especially paid). It muddies the water when teaching to not use stock blender (hard lesson I learned years back) and I don't want to get hooked on a good tool I can't use when recording. Like retopoflow. It's one of the best retopology tools in 3D (not just Blender) and developed in-house and I don't use it at all because it would be so hard to go back to stock tools afterward lol.
louhikarme Thanks! We missed you on this project. You think you'll be available in April for the next collab?
@theluthier Last year was interesting, to say the least. :) I'd like to, though currently, April is looking really vague. Have to see how things are then. :)
Ooooooof. Yeah your explanation is spot on! I myself am an add-on junkie. That E-cycles carries a hefty price tag though and I just don't render enough currently to feel the pain. But when I do I plan on buying it.
I love Retopoflow. Another great tool in conjunction is Quad Remesher (makes using retopoflow more of a fun exercise because most of the mundane retopo parts are already done quite well).
Between fluent and hardops and boxcutter to machin3 tools and Serpens I'm a little addicted to working more efficiently.
However my SKILLS came from doing things the vanilla way and I appreciate you sticking to that teaching style. Yup I can agree with only teaching vanilla skills. Makes the playing ground fair for everyone and that's where the skills are learned,
In engineering I learned to do really stupid-tough math problems by hand for hours (and some of them took all week for 1 homework problem......thanks Advanced Dynamics for teaching me pain :P ) and then I leave university and everyone uses programmed tools because it is impractical to sell stuff waiting on an engineer with paper and pen to draw up the same equations every day.
The same goes with Blender. I just figured this would be a use case where E-cycles would probably shine.
Sorry for the delayed response ppfbourassa , hope it's not too late. I have added a file to the backhoe folder on Google Drive named dogtag, this one is from the puppy. There is another version on the top of the engine which is in a collection called dog tag in the engine file. Have a look and see which one you want to use. If I remember the only difference was the triangle, one is at the top the other the bottom.
One last excruciatingly long slow clap goes out from me to the amazing DOG POUND. What a project 👏
Shoutout to @jlampel for assisting with camera work, animation, and rendering power. Also shoutout to ppfbourassa coming through hard with his offer to help with video editing. Parker added all the sound effects and edited the credit sequence. 👏
I've been reading the Reddit and YouTube comments as well - I highly, highly recommend everyone do the same! IMO the confidence boost that comes from seeing those traditionally-tough crowds giving such positive reactions to something YOU helped make is not trivial!
What's really funny is people on discord who know me have already seen this and I had fans waiting for me when I logged in after work. I felt like a star.
My favorite Reddit Comment of the night:
I feel like this is the perfect intro to Collab2021
I just keep watching it. I don't even know how many times I've watched it today...
And sharing it, too!
Yup. Everyone I know has been told to partake. Even my dog.
My daughter has already watched it 6 times on her own and loved every minute.
Man, what words to use?? Incredible? Awe inspiring? Watching this and reading the reddit/YouTube comments....can't think of a better word than...special. We really made something special here, guys. Kudos, everyone. And special thanks, @theluthier , for making it all possible. 🙌🙌🙌
I keep thinking, so this must be how it feels to spend lots of time working on a movie or video game and then upon release day it clicks and people like it and you get all the love... but then I'm wondering, man what's on the other side of that coin? When you sink lots of time and work and then you show it to the world and it just doesn't click, your movie or your game sucks and everyone is trashing it, the feeling must be so so horrible. People put a lot on the line every time they try to put something out there, no matter what it is. If you create content for people to consume, you a badass.
