Weekly Update #6 - Making some progress

Hi!

Finally this week was better in terms of programming, and while I did have to work on other things outside the house, and that left me with little time to do other things, I still managed to make some progress and figure out what I need to work on in the near future.

Before I start to write about what I did and the progress I made, I want to thank @fitinfun once again for all the support and for giving me the idea for these updates (I quite enjoy writing them and I get motivated at the beginning of the week to do things that I can mention here, and that helps a lot), so thank you @fitinfun!

Now, as usual, let's start with the coding section.

Last week I talked about how I got stuck on a challenge on FreeCodeCamp called "Record Collection", a challenge I almost spent a week trying to complete. This week started with me getting stuck on another challenge called "Profile Lookup".

Luckily however, the challenge was fun, and I enjoyed trying to solve it. I even got really close to completing it, but I did get stuck on one really small and simple part. Basically, a piece of code simply needed to be moved down a row, but once I figured that out, I got past the challenge.

Then, I kept learning about JavaScript, especially about ES6 (an update to JavaScript that added quite a lot of features to the language). While some of those features were confusing and it took me a little to understand them, I can see why FreeCodeCamp teaches them to people and how useful they can be.

One great thing is that I'm starting to get more and more excited about coding every day. When I stop a coding session that is usually one or two hours long, in just a few minutes I feel the need to go back and learn more, which is great.

I also feel a strange desire to learn new programming languages, even though I barely know JavaScript, like C#, but I stop myself from doing it and I just focus on what I must learn right now. When I'll be good enough at JavaScript and I'll be able to create a few projects and even get a job using that language, maybe I'll start learning something new. Until then, I have other things to focus on.

Anyway, because I didn't work on any coding project for a while, the last ones being the "pages" I created on CodePen, I decided to apply some of the things I learned about JavaScript in the past two weeks and create a simple system that will help me keep track of what I have to work on for my Blender project.

To put it simply, the next part of the scene (which I'll show in the next section) features two flat buildings (I guess that's what they're called), each having 9 balconies. My objective is to model objects for each balcony, in order to make those two flat buildings look like people actually live there.

But not only does that require a lot of work, since every balcony needs to look in a different way, it also requires a lot of planning. I have to come up with quite a lot of objects that I must create, and plan everything before actually starting to work.

To avoid writing down every object I need on a piece of paper, or on a random notepad file, I decided to create a simple local page on my computer containing a total of 18 buttons, one for each balcony, that, when clicked, will reveal the objects I must create for that specific balcony.

Here's how the layout of that page looks like until now:

It's nothing complicated, just a bunch of buttons that can be clicked. Below will be the text containing the objects I need to work on and, when possible, some images with objects or balconies that will give me a better idea of how everything has to look like.

The system is simple - once I click a button, the objects that must be on that balcony will appear below. When I click another one, the objects that would be on that balcony will appear, along with images, if I add some.

I made what you see until now using pure HTML and CSS, and I'll make the rest using JavaScript (if I can't do it fast enough, I'll just use jQuery). This will help me create something with the code I learned, something I can actually use, instead of only working on challenges. It's a good exercise and it will offer me a way to store my ideas for my scene without creating random notepads on my computer or filling pages on a notebook with random words.

That's about it. There's not much to talk about when it comes to coding, since most of the things I learn aren't exactly... exciting. Just pure JavaScript. I will start working on actual projects that I will share with you once I learn more, but until then, things will be somewhat "boring".

To keep this update fairly short, I'm only gonna talk to you a little about the next thing I have to work on regarding my 3D scene. This is, I think, the fourth and last part that I'll be modelling, and after this is done I'll probably start texturing everything and finish this big project.

Anyway, here's what I have to work on next:

It doesn't look like much right now, because, well, those are simple shapes with not much on them. Initially I just wanted some simple buildings that would be there to make the first part of the scene look good, but since I already worked on 2 other parts besides the initial one, I decided to take advantage of those two buildings and do something else with them.

The main idea is actually simple - the camera will remain as it is (that means that that is the general scene you'll see), and my main objective will be adding details to each balcony in order to make those flat buildings look like someone actually lives there.

The "problem" with this idea is that it will require A LOT of work. Since humans are all unique, their homes are also just as unique, and I cannot just create the same balcony over and over again, with the same objects. I have to have, more or less, unique objects on each balcony in order to make everything look as real as possible.

All that means that I have to come up with a lot of unique models that I will then have to add and place within each balcony. I won't be surprised if I'll have to create over 100 models, but quality requires some sacrifice.

I'll also have to make some small changes and add more details to the actual buildings, and fix some problems (like the flying trash bag that you can see between the buildings). And after all that is done, I'll have to texture every single model, which could take quite a while as well.

All in all, there's a lot of work to be done, and all that work will require quite a lot of time.

But since I actually need to share a finished "project", and because I also need to focus on making some money, I started working on a little "something" that hopefully will be done fairly soon, and maybe will even be included in the final scene.

I'm talking about this really simplistic workbench:

Obviously, this is still not done, I just did the really basic modelling, but once it is done, I'll see what I'll do with it. Either it will be a simple stand-alone model, with textures and everything, or I will actually add it to the other scene, even though it wouldn't make that much sense for it to be there.

Also, I'll be making something else with that workbench in another software, but I'll tell you about that once it's done, which should be pretty soon, if everything goes well.

Well, that's pretty much all I had to say about 3D modelling for now!

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Okay, that's all I have to say for this week.

Conclusion - I'm making progress, in multiple areas.

Coding goes well, even though I do get stuck sometimes trying to understand certain concepts and ways to solve different problems, but that's how learning a programming language works.

3D modelling also goes well, even though it does require a lot of time and, more importantly, inspiration. Once all the models are done, I'll start texturing everything, and then be done with this huge project. After that, I'll try to work on small things and share more 3D work with you.

I have several projects to work on, ideas and things I'd like to start doing,but right now I have to focus on what's important - learning how to use JavaScript well enough, finishing the 3D scene, designing things in Photoshop and publishing articles.

Anyway, that's all for this update, so, see you next week!