Tina O'Hailey's Blog, page 2
May 24, 2023
Rig it Right 3rd edition update: first pass complete.
First pass through on Rig it Right for the 3rd edition is complete. I’ve gone through and updated any button clicking, images, workflows, etc. Only slight changes were needed and nothing broke! That’s always nice. I had one hilarious moment where I thought that something in the stretchy script wasn’t working – but the controllers 2012 and 2016 me made were just too small for 2023-reading-glasses-wearing me to see!
Right on schedule. These chapters will go to the tech editor for June/July review. I am in the last weeks of teaching Spring quarter. So, my brain will turn to grading and archiving until graduation on June 3rd. Then – I spend June and July working on updating the edgeloop section into its own chapter and adding a chapter on parallel processing and the memory profiler in Maya. Maybe, if I have time, I’ll kick around importing a rig into Unreal – because, that was a great suggestion! (No promises. It depends on my page count.)
Side note: Maya 2024 on the Mac M2 is behaving very well.
May 4, 2023
Book Signing @ Atlanta Writers Conference 5/5
Come see me at the Atlanta Writers Conference Book Fair tomorrow, 5/5 from 11:00 am – 6 pm. I’m one of 15 authors participating in the book fair there. Signing books meeting writers, agents, and publishers. Wait till you see my setup. Look for the caving helmet and you’ll find me. 
I’ll post pics. I’m also looking forward to saying hello to my publisher Reagan Rothe (Black Rose Writing) in person. After all these years. He’ll be on the Editor Q&A panel. They have zoom available too, if you aren’t in town. https://atlantawritersconference.com/schedule/
We’re at the Westin Atlanta Airport Hotel. Look at the schedule – a plethora of serious writing education going on. You can pitch to agents and editors. How they keep all the books straight in their heads, I don’t know.
April 19, 2023
Rig It Right – Maya 2024
The first steps in exploring edgeloops for the third edition of Rig It Right is to get Maya 2024. To do that, I needed to finally upgrade. The old Mac laptop was from the first edition of Rig it Right, had been dropped twice, had water poured on it once, had the battery replaced, three replacement chargers, a larger hard drive that interfered with the network installed, a network dongle so that it could see the internet, and a missing function key.
All of that, and the final straw was that Maya 2024 would not install on it. Sigh. But, then the announcement came that Maya would now support the Apple M2 Pro chip natively- so, time to upgrade and test. Never have I ever really used a Mac for 3d. But now is the time to do so.
My first clicks in Maya 2024 (while installing everything else I need to write/make art) was in the newly imagined retopologize feature. Oh yes, that is beautiful and puts out controllable edgeloops now. See hilarious video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ru2rks1rIT4 That’s about how I feel seeing the new tool. I’ve loved this thing since 2019 when it was just a hidden command. We’re going to put that right into the prop modeling class syllabus and test it out.
So, I didn’t get word count today – but I did get a little testing in on Maya 2024 and can’t wait to sit down and sculpt. I’m tossing around the idea of doing a twitch stream of me modeling/sculpting/rigging over the summer. I could pull some speed sculpts from it, I suppose, to use as class material.
I need a new unicorn sticker.
*Funding for the new Edgeloop chapter in Rig it Right 3rd edition received as a sabbatical from Savannah College of Art and Design 2023
April 12, 2023
Rig it Right 3rd Edition – update
I’m in Maya 2023, going through the book, and things are still very solid. Yipee! Finished the first pass for Part One of the book and nothing seriously broke. I caught most of the updates that occurred in 2018 already. Go, previous me! The simple models were fine and didn’t need updating really. They are clean quads, etc. Good. Next, a first pass on the biped.
Writing buddy: I do have a new writing buddy. I dog sit this one and he watches me write and I’ve taught him how to click. He can press the pad and click (sometimes when I don’t want him to.) But he has to watch everything I do on the computer and I’ve learned to type around him.
Sabbatical: I received a sabbatical from Savannah College of Art and Design that will fund two of the new chapters going into this book. One chapter is on edgeloops and the other is on parallel processing in Maya. The sabbatical itself is studying model edgeloops and how they bend and animate. Then that result is compared to the drawovers done in 2d for animation notes. Inbetween, of course is the rig. At the end, I’ll look at making the rig fast in parallel mode.
Pixar: My first stop will be to visit Pixar and talk to some old friends, see what I learn on edgeloops there, and put it into the chapter.
I’m waiting for a new Mac with a M2 pro chip. Maya now supports that natively. I’ll be able to retest this first part of the book to make sure it is good to go in Maya 2024 and compare it to a PC. I’m curious.
Rabbit Hole: Speaking of being curious – I’m also sidelined by Welcome Home. I don’t see any hex or binary in there. Morse code, yes. Fun hidden things in images, yes. Multiple websites and layers, yes. I really don’t have time for that rabbit hole. I don’t. The use if “it’s” and “its” incorrectly to point to an image (which uses it’s correctly) that says phones are important and potentially there’s a code there in the dial, then the phone shows up in a hidden page (which you got the url by finding offset letters in the webpage and trying a million combinations and you could just write a script to run through them all if you gave it a minute) and if you click on the phone you get a recording that has morse code in it. Don’t have time for it. Gotta write a book, and finish up the spring quarter. But that image is cut off and I found the whole image in a wiki and who is Julie? And why does that image have the .png extension when it isn’t a .png? But it is office hours soon and I have to teach, then write more. Good job on that puzzle.
March 29, 2023
Rig it Right 3rd edition 2024
I’m happy to announce that I’ve signed a contract with Focal Press to complete a third edition of Rig it Right. We expect the release to be Summer 2024 (ish). How cool is that?
Sad news is that means I’m not writing a novel this year. Sorry, Dark and Darkness series fans.
What updates can you expect in Rig it Right third edition?
a NEW chapter on parallel vs DG memory management and what that means for our rigsa NEW chapter about modeling with proper edgeloops for rigging (Rule #1)Adjust sizes of images. Some got too large in the second edition. (hilarious since the first edition had too small of images)AR images – Can I reimplement that? Sadly, the AR feature using Aurasma was bought by HP and turned into Reveal – and then POOF. It went away. If I can find another free solution – I’ll put it in. But, maybe we’ve moved on from that functionality?Update models for rigs – they need some better edgeloops and layout for better skinningupdate skinning/binding methodsupdate deformersupdate blendshape methodsI’m sure there is more that I’ll discover along the way that needs updating. I’ve spent a good minute reading, listening, and testing methods so that I can simply explain multi-threaded processing and how using parallel mode in Maya effects your rig. It was there in 2018 for the second edition and I glossed over it waiting for it to stabilize.
Okay – now to start the journey of word count. I tend to update the blog after I finish each chapter, part of the the process: celebrating every milestone. Probably just me that reads these – but, future me loves reading what past me was up to.
Here’s to happy rigging!
….t
July 15, 2022
Dark Drink Book Launch party!
Friday, July 15, 2022
7:30 pm Central
https://www.facebook.com/DarknessUniverseNovels
Come sit by the fire with me and watch a sunset. Virtually. I’m having a few friends on the camera and we’re going to gab about…well, thrillers, drink recipes, and whatever else needs discussing. A chillax moment to just appreciate the end of this blog book tour and see if they are still speaking to me after reading my book Dark Drink. BYOB
We’ll be live streaming on FB. Just go to the page and throw your comments at us, hang out, enjoy the sunset.
Visit this page to join in: https://www.facebook.com/DarknessUniverseNovels
Friday, July 15, 2022 7:30 pm Central
Oh! There’s a giveaway too. See info below!
(Well, follow this link. It is suppose to give a preview but isn’t feeling it today.)
July 12, 2022
Blog Tour for Dark Drink by Author Tina O’Hailey
“…gripping and fascinating…”
—bluelivinlife
A picture of Author Tina O’Hailey and an image of the cover for Dark DrinkYou will find a lot of Drink Moxes and Recipes in this dark book. A lot with Moonshine. There is a number of #mentions #kitty #caver #tipsey on the search for the perfect tag. The story in itself is very dark and stomach turning, it bounces between past and present. We go Caving / Potholing with the characters. Some of which are Darren, Brandy Mercedez who has class and poise and a cat called Whiskers. The author describes the stench of death very well. It’s gripping and fascinating, if you are into eery thriller type stories, this is definitely for you.
Blog Tour DatesIf you want to read the blurb or purchase this book please follow this link: Dark Drink: An Absolutely Gripping Psychological Thriller Full of Twists (Dark Series Book 1) https://smile.amazon.co.uk/dp/B09VMBWVG9/ref=cm_sw_r_apan_RVTYQ4418JK7Q14MDFXQ
Dark Drink
“… unique…unlike anything I’ve read…a book I have devoured quickly…looking forward to more…” —littlemissbook6
Thrilled to join the blog tour for this one today.
Jude and Mercedez have kept deadly secrets from each other.
Jackson’s suicide haunts Jude. She burned all evidence of her brother’s depravity. One less monster in the world, right? Tech-savvy Mercedez is the last living witness to a teenage amateur horror film that ended with a gruesome death. She never told.
A viral video (thanks, Whiskers) brings internet fame —forcing flip-phone wielding Jude to choose between her job as the second female in the VP motorcycle motorcade or her mixologist hobby.
Global visibility brings naked vulnerability—someone has subscribed to Jude’s channel.
Missing neighbors found dead in side-by-side freezers, viral drunk “I quit” videos, spammed porn magazine subscriptions, snail mail severed fingers, sabotaged cave trips, cryptic social media comments, and stalking photos push the codependent friends over the edge.
My Bookish ThoughtsWell isn’t this just a cover that really catches…
View original post 121 more words
July 11, 2022
Tina O’Hailey – Dark Drink @rararesources @tohailey #DarkDrink #SharonBTB
A fabulous review – take a look!
Today I have Dark Drink by Tina O’Hailey on the blog on behalf of Rachel’s Random Resources. Thanks to Rachel Gilbey and The author for my place on the tour and the copy of the book.
Jude and Mercedez have kept deadly secrets from each other.
Jackson’s suicide haunts Jude. She burned all evidence of her brother’s depravity. One less monster in the world, right? Tech-savvy Mercedez is the last living witness to a teenage amateur horror film that ended with a gruesome death. She never told.
A viral video (thanks, Whiskers) brings internet fame—forcing flip-phone wielding Jude to choose between her job as the second female in the VP motorcycle motorcade or her mixologist hobby.
Global visibility brings naked vulnerability—someone has subscribed to Jude’s channel.
Missing neighbors found dead in side-by-side freezers, viral drunk “I quit” videos, spammed porn magazine subscriptions, snail mail severed fingers, sabotaged cave trips, cryptic…
View original post 445 more words
Tina O’Hailey: Dark Drink
Blog tour: day – I have kinda lost count. But here’s a great extract!
Today I’m taking part in the blog tour for Dark Drink. I’m sharing an extract from the book with thanks to Rachel Gilbey at Rachel’s Random Resources for inviting me on the blog tour and to the author for providing the extract.
Blurb:
Jude and Mercedez have kept deadly secrets from each other.
Jackson’s suicide haunts Jude. She burned all evidence of her brother’s depravity. One less monster in the world, right? Tech-savvy Mercedez is the last living witness to a teenage amateur horror film that ended with a gruesome death. She never told.
A viral video (thanks, Whiskers) brings internet fame —forcing flip-phone wielding Jude to choose between her job as the second female in the VP motorcycle motorcade or her mixologist hobby.
Global visibility brings naked vulnerability—someone has subscribed to Jude’s channel.
Missing neighbors found dead in side-by-side freezers, viral drunk “I quit” videos, spammed porn magazine subscriptions…
View original post 992 more words
