A brief respite from grading.

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As Twinkle Twinkle is to Suzuki musicians, so is a wooden shipping crate to CGI modelers. #Blender3D #design #practice

I have certainly made more complex scenes, but this time, I modeled each board, getting the grain of the wood at least plausibly right on each face, and placing each nail realistically. Following the workflow for creating game assets, I converted the completely realistic 3D simulation with 3D boards and nails into flat images. The…

As Twinkle Twinkle is to Suzuki musicians, so is a wooden shipping crate to CGI modelers. #Blender3D #design #practice

I have certainly made more complex scenes, but this time, I modeled each board, getting the grain of the wood at least plausibly right on each face, and placing each nail realistically. Following the workflow for creating game assets, I converted the completely realistic 3D simulation with 3D boards and nails into flat images. The…

Snowfall at the White House (Official White House Photo by Tia Dufour, Jan 7) Tweeted by WH on Jan 12

My social media feed was full of people mocking the White House yesterday for publishing a photo titled “First snow of the year!” on a day when Washington had clear skies and freakishly warm weather. What was the Trump administration trying to pull? Why would they publish such a blatant lie? It wasn’t a lie.…

Facebook paid Teen Vogue to run a fake article praising Facebook for “helping ensure the integrity of the 2020 election”

After FB crowed about this super-upbeat story, a notice appeared saying it was a paid editorial, and then the story disappeared. This looks very bad for Teen Vogue, and very bad for democracy. Read story on Boingboing. Similar:I’m still teaching journalism and my usual courses, but after 21 years I’ve stepped aside …I’m still teaching…

Feeling classy while I lose.

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Freedom of the press is not just important to democracy, it is democracy.

Freedom of the press is not just important to democracy, it is democracy. Some basic concepts: What is Newsworthy? Recent events that are unusual, nearby, have widespread/significant impact, or involve celebrities are more newsworthy than events that are stale, distant, have limited/trivial impact, or happen to average people. (9 min audio.) Objectivity: Traditional journalism reports fairly…

Picking up books for another term

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Volunteering at our local food bank

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Emily Dickinson Fun Page #literature #amusing #dashes

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Hitting the weekend with just 6 ungraded papers. #partylikeaprof

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#Blender3D rendition of the bridge of the æthership that featured in the musical #steampunk bedtime role-playing campaign I ran for my kids 2007-2012.

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Siblings gotta sib.

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Parent: “Why don’t you use one of your stress balls?” The girl: “They don’t like me.”

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Facebook exec erroneously cites The Lord of the Rings when comparing the social network to the One Ring

A Facebook executive, Andrew “Boz” Bosworth, recently defended Facebook’s policies about political advertising, which critics say rewards politicians who spend a lot of money pushing lies to the slogan-chanting, meme-sharing masses (including the ones in red hats and the ones with the blue hats). Bosworth seems to suggest that for Facebook to tamper with its…

To my daughter for 2020: “You shall prevail.”

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Wooden document holders. Pretty routine, but practice is practice. #Blender3D

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My son, volunteering at the local food bank.

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Stack of wooden desk trays with metal supports. #Blender3D. Normal map, glossy map; mahogany, walnut and beech variations.

My goal in trying to do an object each day is to familiarize myself with the workflow, so that I don’t have to keep looking at a list of instructions.

My last few #blender3D experiments with wood objects went so well I thought I’d try an object with two materials. The reflective nature of metal means I had to add a “gloss” map — I should probably have stuck with a single diffuse material. Lots of trial and error.

I realized I have turn off the “glossiness” in order to make the diffuse color maps. With four different styles of wood, with two different types of metal, the normal map, and the gloss map, I had a lot of do-overs, but I managed.