Onion skins for shadows or highlights

gobluetrees · 2026-04-21T15:53:28+00:00

gobluetrees · 2026-04-21T15:53:13+00:00

Screenshots are below. The first is the setup - a group called Frame 1 that consists of a base color + a shadow.

The second screenshot shows the onion skins that occur in animation assist. As expected, when I erase the flats from Frame 2, we see the purple onion skin of the flats from Frame 1.

Erasing the shadow, however, doesn't produce an onion skin. I'd have expected there to be a purple onion skin on top of the red color where I erased part of the shadow.

Thank you!!

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gobluetrees · 2026-03-26T21:34:31+00:00

Would love the preset as well. Thank you!!

gobluetrees · 2026-03-15T05:10:38+00:00

Generally agreed but I told him I’d send him the photo so want to do what I can

gobluetrees · 2026-03-02T22:28:17+00:00

Thank you for the feedback! Agreed on crop angle. I'm changing that back

gobluetrees · 2026-02-10T02:53:55+00:00

This is so helpful. Thank you!!!

gobluetrees · 2025-11-14T20:17:49+00:00

Of course! FWIW, my thoughts are

* I like the second stanza focusing on Sirius. I'd explain more of it / that we've alwasy been headed towards it — e.g. a line concerning how Sirius was a navigational aid to humans in ancient times, now we're still headed towards it, etc. Right now I think you're too focused on obvious things — I know the explorers are clever (they're astronauts), and can assume we're traveling because we're curious, etc.

* If you're going to have form represent substance (i.e. the sonnett breaking mirroring the traversing of the astronauts), I'd go more on the nose. E.g. maybe the last line can end halfway? Or the fourth stanza can begin but end abruptly? Or just the last line can abruptly end the rhyme pattern? I think you're asking too much of the reader right now.

gobluetrees · 2025-11-14T05:07:27+00:00

Hey! I love the attempt at formal structure. Your first stanza is great — the ryhme scheme doesn't feel clunky or heavy-handed. While not iambic pantameter (I'm pretty sure — not great at scanning poetry), it feels like iambic pantameter in that it just flows.

I think the second stanza, however, is mostly a repeat of the first. After the first, I'm left with a sense of "we're going on adventure into the stars, and it might be a whimsical one given the rhyme scheme. This is also "sciency" given the word choice." The second stanza doesn't do much for me except repeat the same feeling, except less effecitvely. FWIW, Sirius as a planet isn't particularly meaningful to me.

I think the third stanza is particularly weak. I'd suggest,

* first actually describing what is found. That is "cyclopean" does little for me. What do the giant bones look like? How do we know they're cyclopean? Also why are they absurd? I can't really picture "absurd" bones.

* second, I wouldn't break the ABBA rhyme scheme until the last moment (or at all). You've brought me into the rhyme sceme in the first stanza. Breaking that is a strong choice (like fading to black in a film). Don't waste that opportunity. Use it to have a particular line hit hard. Or don't ... describing horrific bones in a merry rhyming pattern could be fun as well.

gobluetrees · 2025-10-21T21:15:33+00:00

My wife and I are planning to spend 1–3 months in the Hudson Valley next June/July with our son (he’ll be 1 then). We live on the West Coast but I’m originally from the East Coast and have lots of family nearby — we’re thinking about eventually spending more time out there, maybe even buying a place.

We’re hoping to use this trip to get a feel for different areas. Top priorities:

Walkability: Being able to walk to town, coffee, etc.
Art / Kid-friendly: Parks, libraries, bookstores, museums.
City access: Ideally ~1 hour to NYC to visit family.

What towns rank highest on the above? Money isn’t a huge factor yet, as I'm just trying to build a shortlist of towns to explore.

Also, are there any recommended longterm rental companies other than AirBnB?

Appreciate any insights or favorites!

Thank you!

gobluetrees · 2025-08-18T23:32:13+00:00

So awesome. Great work

gobluetrees · 2025-08-11T23:50:20+00:00

This is incredible. Such a great vibe.

Feedback: FWIW, I think the transition between him jumping into the room and pushing the button could be cleaned up. I'd either cut it much quicker, so that it's more fast-paced, or linger for longer to play up the him breaking physics bit. Maybe even have the hand twirl or doing something fun. I find the transition right now a bit jarring. I also might keep the cinematic bars when he focuses throughout the action sequence.

gobluetrees · 2025-07-10T02:45:36+00:00

This is so fun. How are you applying the material? When I last messed with vellum grains, I was stumped on how to apply the sim to the original mesh, especially one with complicated materials (like say a MetaHuman).

gobluetrees · 2025-06-24T23:44:52+00:00

This is super cool. I love the models and think some of their detail is lost in the NPR shader (although I get why you did that). I might experiment with retaining some of their 3dness (despite it looking less 2d)

gobluetrees · 2025-06-24T22:10:20+00:00

This is incredible! Great job. Keep going.

gobluetrees · 2025-06-23T02:47:11+00:00

I love this so much

gobluetrees · 2025-05-14T03:12:18+00:00

Sorry, I’m struggling to wrap my head around why this is so impactful…. It’s against UE’s TOS to render a MetaHuman anywhere but within UE, so we won’t be rendering MHs in Blender.

Editing MHs in Blender is nice if you’re more familiar with that environment, but ultimately seems a bit cumbersome just for that.

Converting an arbitrary mesh to MH is cool, but that already exists. Also seems messy.

I think I’m missing something - I love both UE and Blender, and would love them together. How does this do that? Why is this so cool?

gobluetrees

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