I Am A Perfectly Normal Spacecraft

moon sketch

sketch info:

Telescope: 6-inch Newtonian (reflector)

Eyepiece: 25mm eyepiece + moon filter

Time: 1:00 AM - 1:30 AM MST

Phase: Waxing Gibbous

Psyche (spacecraft) over Psyche (asteroid)

old stuff (ish)

blender nostalgia for meeeee

I miss em <:)

Around this time back in 2018, the retirements of the Kepler and Dawn missions would have been announced or they would have already run out of fuel.

The missions are so interesting and it makes me a little nostalgic to read about. They're really important (also in terms of milestones and science) and wanted to do some tribute art + share some music I did that I named after them!

I'm not the best when it comes to music (I have no idea what I'm doing or what to do next 99.999% of the time) and I'm pretty proud of these especially, so I'm glad they've come to remind me of some pretty special missions

Also get some spacecraft nostalgia! Check out these 2009 archives of the missions <:)

Dawn Mission Home Page

Kepler Mission

im the lil' astronomy nerd <3

added her thruster and made my first legitimate render of her

euclid pog

the comic of all time

What I'm going to work on for Dawn

November 6th, 2023 - started writing at 12:47 AM

*text marked with an asterisk indicates an update as of November 19th as I had this draft for some time)

(going to start logging more stuff, kind of practicing writing the dates even if it does that for me already :P)

Some unnecessarily lengthy and probably pointless context, you can just skip to the blue header

I worked on a LOT of my personified spacecraft. They just aren't here because I've been doing this since mid 2021, so they're on my DeviantArt account.

(I have a lot of fun posing. Not so much fun rendering for eons hehe)

But, it's almost 2024! And with the experience I gained since I started on the first ones (Perseverance/Curiosity; they used the same model) and a few other non-spacecraft, why not do it all again?

Honestly, really from scratch. Not only would it be difficult to add onto, change, or reuse previous content, but I also want to preserve the original files as they were + I work using procedural and manual rigging with Cloudrig now.

(There is an exception where I may use Perseverance/Curiosity (just the mesh parts). I updated them in 2022, and they also still share the same model. I archived their older models.)

I have practiced Cloudrig with Scorpius, who I finished not too long before I started working on Dawn.

Continuing on that, I decided to settle on a new land and began chipping away at Dawn. This time I've got a lot more considerations to keep in mind and I'm taking all the time I have.

In fact, she's not actually finished by the time of writing, hehe aren't I a little procrastinator /lh

so, what next?

WELL I'M GLAD YOU DIDNT ASK :D /j

1. Extra facial options for conveying expressions

The older rigs have options for stuff like creases and a sort of "tint". I call it a tint, but it is really just blushing. An important thing is that it functions as a color-changing mood indicator for intense emotions

Dawn, for example, would blush (or tint) yellow in a very happy state, or from platonic feelings

Then there's blue for an intense state of sadness

A new thing I could is stuff like. Agh I don't know what theyre called but yknow how angry characters may have those red lines to represent a vein, or scared/shocked characters have those pale blue/white lines around their heads???? whatever thats called, yeah I might do that lol

2. Closing/opening the eyes

A LOT of the eyes are done within procedural texturing. Her eyelids are not actually masked by any mesh. I currently have a few bones to close the eyes but they kind of crowd the layout and I don't really see a point in using them.

The eyelids are a texture via math nodes, and it is just a parabola. However, I am unable to get a more stylized curve without making things more complex

Before I reuse the rig itself in any way, I want to update the eyes so i can have a slider to toggle a hidden curve that I can use for the closed eyelids.

*UPDATE: THIS HAS BEEN ADDED

3. Possibly making the mouth more versatile.

This is something I am not sure is possible with my knowledge or just really in general? it probably could be but I may have to add in a lot more nodes and stuff.

The mouth is also done through procedural texturing. There are no actual image files used and all the shapes are solely from math nodes.

So my main problem is "curving" teeth so if I have a more curved mouth the teeth can kind of follow along, and it will look better. i may have to play around and experiment with vector stuff

4. making a pose library

As an animator myself, a pose library to add basic expressions and, more importantly, lip sync, is TOTALLLYYYYYYY NEEEDEEEEDDDD I mean I think you can apply poses mid-animation? I have soggy memory

5. Overall, making sure I can reuse the rig

Unlike the new rigs, reusing a rig and adapting it to a new character was a big pain in the antenna dish. With procedural rigging its much easier because the constraints will be aligned with what i tweak in the meta rig.

Because of that, i have to make sure that Dawn's rig is something that will not require too much tweaking when I get to reuse her rig for others. I'm working on Psyche, and by the time i can rig her, Dawn's rig should be good to go.

So again, making sure i have all of the above ready for reusing YEAAAH

November 19th, 2023 - finished writing/posted at 10:33 PM

JUICE showing Europa Clipper around Ganymede!!!