Posts posted by Dr. Nexil
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"Steadfast"
Hello! This is going to be a bit of a lengthy post, so strap in.
My name is Dr. Nexil, some of you may recall seeing me around on these forums (mostly in this subforum) but so many of the people I used to know on this site have moved on to other platforms, programs, or even dropped Mine-imator completely. It's been pretty strange!
While MI 2.0 was in pre-release development I wanted to try and improve and invigorate myself in the program again after several years where I frequently used the software but rarely made anything I felt like posting. Wow, how far MI has come from when I began using it 9 years ago!
Back in 2018 I started making more renders/wallpapers than animations as Mine-imator became more of a hobby instead of what I spent all my free time on. Like many other users, I grew up. The amount of stuff I created slowly waned until around late 2020 when I basically stopped posting.
Then, MI 2.0 was announced and I decided it was time for me to really dig in again and see what I could make with more powerful tools and an older mindset. There's one animation of mine that I want to remake, and I figured the perfect way to begin honing my skills was to restart where I left off: Wallpapers. I knew I wouldn't get far if I didn't set a goal, so after a successful creation last December I made it my goal in 2023 to make one wallpaper a month for one year.
That brings us to today, December of 2023 and 12 (technically 13) wallpapers later. I'd like to delve into each one briefly and share some notes and behind the scenes about them now that time has passed. I'll also give a little rating mostly for myself based on how I feel about them in retrospect. On with the show:
SpoilerDecember 25, 2022:
Spoiler"Pleasant Present"
This render started out as a test to see what I could do with Mine-imator's new features. I particularly like the lighting in this with the pbr textures. The vex texture and model had recently been revamped and I thought it would be sweet to see an interaction with the similar looking allay.
Retrospect score: 9/10 - Great lighting and scene, very inspired. I'm very happy with this one.
January 25, 2023
Spoiler"Woodland Walk"
The first wallpaper after I made my goal for the year. This one was actually in the works for a few months, but I just was never satisfied with it until putting on the shelf for a few weeks and when I got back to it I was so pleased with the result!
Retrospect score: 9/10 - I'm really happy with how the fireflies and the sky turned out, and the lantern I made for this render was a ton of fun to make.
February 14, 2023
Spoiler"Happy Valentine's Day"
This one's alright, but I ended up refining the model for my OC Cassiopeia "Cass" on the left here that I ended up not liking the look in this render very much.
Retrospect score: 7/10 - The lighting could be better, and I can't help but not like Cass's model now.
March 17, 2023
Spoiler"Dancing"
This is the new model I made for my OC Cass that I like so much more than the last month's render. I referenced Bluey for the dancing pose:
I also loved this render so much that I made an animated gif for it!
Retrospect score: 9/10 - The lighting still could use some improvements but I just loved the scene and models.
April 21, 2023
Spoiler"When did everybody leave?"
Whew... This one I made to represent the feeling I felt after realizing most of the people and friends I met through Mine-imator had grown up and moved on. Especially with how little activity this forum gets as compared to a few years ago.
Retrospect score: 9.5/10 - This was one of the few times I really felt like I got everything right to express a feeling and it was a good outlet. Plus I'm glad I was able to achieve the atmosphere in the scene.
May 20, 2023
Spoiler"Cautious Encounter"
I wanted to show the custom models I made for Steve and mostly Alex, and I thought this scene was pretty funny.
Retrospect score: 9/10 - I'm really proud of the models and the fact that I was able to make a scene that told a story.
June 29, 2023
Spoiler"Alarming Ascent"
This is a wallpaper I had in the works before pre-5 of MI 2.0 released and had been shelved for months. I had run out of time this month for a render since I took a trip to Oregon for 2 weeks! So I needed to get something done quickly and so I brought this project back up and finished it finally.
Retrospect score: 8/10 - Not as refined since it was rushed a bit. The sky is bland and the lighting could be better, but I think the story in the scene is fun.
July 29, 2023
Spoiler"Peaceful Ponder"
This is my favorite of the whole bunch. I knew I wanted to make a render with rain and I thought this would be perfect. I had also updated my enderman OC Dr. Nexil model a bit.
Retrospect score: 10/10 - I don't know what I'd change if I had to.
August 31, 2023
Spoiler"Fundamentally Familiar"
I cut this one really close simply due to procrastination. I think the implied story is good but I needed to take a lot more time making this render better. It's just not very interesting as it is.
Retrospect score: 6/10 - I was pretty disappointed with this one. I rushed it and it needed more time to cook. The lighting needs to be better and the whole scene needs to be rearranged to be more interesting.
September 24, 2023
Spoiler"Ten Years"
This wallpaper is very special to me. This is commemorating the 10 year anniversary of me playing Minecraft. I wrote a bit more on the original post, but on the left is my first skin and the house is my first house from my first world.
Retrospect score 9/10 - Not quite sure what to improve, but this was the best I could come up with. Check out a version of this render I was considering instead:
October 31, 2023
Spoiler"An October Outing"
Besides being very similar in concept to the February wallpaper, I'm pretty happy with this render. I wanted to make a render this month with these 2 OC's I made a few years ago and revamped.
Retrospect score: 8/10 - There's more tweaks to the lighting I'm sure I could do, but I'm proud of the posing I got with the characters. Here's those 2 OC's individual renders I never posted here:
Melon "Melony" Vine:
Harvest "Harvey" Patch:
November 30, 2023
Spoiler"Uh oh"
Here's another example of bland due to procrastination. I really liked this idea in concept but it just didn't turn out how I wanted. I'm sure in a few months I'll have an "Ah ha!" moment and tackle this project again.
Retrospect score: 4/10 - The lowest ranking even though it's one of the more recent, this project just struggled to get off the ground. It lacks interesting elements and I know I can do better. Here's an earlier (and maybe better?) version:
Final thoughts:
Overall, 2023 was a success in my book since I was able to produce a new wallpaper consistently even if the quality wasn't consistent. What I've learned after looking through all these is that I need to work on my lighting and visual storytelling more.
The future:
I'll be slowly chipping away at that previously mentioned animation, but this is the end of my "frequent" posts. I've become so much more busy that I realized I would when I was a kid just starting out making simple, cringy Minecraft animations after school. I'll still stop in but probably much less than I used to.
"Steadfast" is what I named this month's wallpaper, and it's the feeling I have looking forward. The unbridled enthusiasm from years ago has gone, but left behind is the steady passion for this blocky medium.
I'd like to give a warm thank you to everyone on these forums. From the old members who made my childhood, to the new members who upvote or comment on my posts, thank you.
Happy New Year!
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Here's an old tip (but still a useful tip) for fixing those shadows: Put all of your scene/objects in a folder and scale the folder by 5. This makes the lights smoother by giving them more area to cover. Mine-imator's shadow rendering isn't very accurate, especially at the edges of objects, so scaling them makes that edge relatively small compared to the object. You'll probably need to adjust your lights again after scaling, but the result is usually worth it to me.
I love the render by the way!
- Dr. Nexil
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This month's render is using some characters that I made 3 years ago and decided needed an update.
Say hello to Melon "Melony" Vine and Harvest "Harvey" Patch!
And if you're curious to see the original (terrible) designs:
SpoilerAnyway, Happy Halloween!
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Ten years ago today I bought a little sandbox game. I was 11 years old and had never really played video games but as a kid who was really into Lego this one spoke to me. I never realized how much of an impact this game would have one me.
After all this time, I'm lucky to still have my very first world. What you see in this picture is my first house. After digging deep through my old laptop I even found my first skin. I've made some great friends through this game and subsequently through Mine-imator. Thanks for the memories everyone.
- Dr. Nexil
- PigmanMovie, Aisu Uchibi, Yellowz and 9 others
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Haha, loved it! Always a treat to find myself as a cameo. Nice animation, looking good!
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On 6/29/2023 at 11:25 AM, Fox Miner said:
Well this is amazing... so much action! I love it!
Very cute too honestly...
but that shadow down there... that's the banger!
Glad to see the shadow get recognition, I tried very hard to make sure it made the final cut. Thanks!
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On 4/24/2023 at 1:25 PM, moniker said:
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Where is "camera aperture" at?
The anamorphic ratio slider seems to be doing nothing. Im using pre-4 btw. I don't like the colors after 2.0. Everything seems too bright or something, I cannot get the same color for the image as I got on the previous versions.
Things were renamed and reorganized in 2.0. For pre-4 it's still called "Blade angle". Anamorphic ratio works the same. If you aren't seeing changes with it then you don't have the DOF blur high enough.
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Hilarious!! I loved it!
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On 3/18/2023 at 5:55 AM, Fox Miner said:
WOW THIS IS AMAZING, look at that smoothness, all the lights an all, damn
And so cute as well, man this is amazing!
So simple yet so amazing...
What is she listening to tho? Cat?
Thank you!
I'm going to say she's listening to Chirp (my favorite track) even though it doesn't sync perfectly.
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Happy Holidays!
- Fox Miner, Jeo_Swift, Ludo Silver and 2 others
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On 11/21/2022 at 2:02 PM, moniker said:
And im trying to find the grid size for stuff, it's gone. Why did you move this from being next to what you are trying to modify? It's like, I want to move in increments of 16, then why not leave this where it was? I have to find this now somewhere else named "Viewport"? according to the changelog, which I cannot find. The "Snap to XYZ values to a grid" button was useful being next to what you want to move.
Top right of the viewport. I find it much handier to have these here as I don't have to select what I want to move to activate snapping. In fact, it's got a keyboard shortcut (F) so I don't even need to click anywhere. Big improvement if you ask me.
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The best part is that I can tell it's Hammond and Clarkson.
Great video!
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My little contribution for #DearNimi. I've been using MI for 6 and a half years now, unfortunately less often now than the first few years, but it's safe to say that my life would be pretty different without it. Thank you Nimi for all you've done with Mine-imator, and making this beloved software better and better every year. Also thank you for ModelBench, which made the model shown below possible!
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Phantom Phobia
in Wallpapers and art
Posted
It's been a minute since I've been here. Anyone still active? Anyway here's a render: