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smagnusson

@[email protected]

Blender enthusiast and add-on developer. Trying my hand at screenwriting as well. Pipeline engineer at DreamWorks (opinions are my own, of course). Proud husband, father, and Christian. #b3d #blender3d #python

Note that some of my posts are auto-deleted after a couple weeks. That is normal. If you really want me to save a post for posterity, let me know :)

Avatar: selfie of me smiling, in a hat
Cover photo: CG render of Blender's default cube and X and Y axes, stylized like a painting

This profile is from a federated server and may be incomplete. View on remote instance

@smagnusson@graphics.social avatar smagnusson , to random

got to talk to someone about Discord news, , my slow process of migrating apps, platforms, and workflows over to it.

I felt so glad many of the apps I use on a daily basis are FOSS based. I'm no purist, and I don't think most can attempt it "cold turkey." But it has definitely simplified my computer usage. 🧵1/2

@smagnusson@graphics.social avatar smagnusson , to random

2.0 update for "Default Cube: The Game" Blender add-on. More Superhive exclusive character dialogues, a couple new haunt variations, and it now preserves of customized assets across updates, without the need to import/export.

You can check it out here: https://superhivemarket.com/products/default-cube-the-game

@smagnusson@graphics.social avatar smagnusson , to random

Video coming late this month. I've been busy recording videos for others' channels, family events, and a new "haunted" add-on I'm hoping to release soon.

In the meantime, as my backlog keeps getting bigger, which topics would interest you for a future video?

smagnusson OP ,
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@dbat haha no worries, I think not everyone realized it was multiple choice anyways 😄

@smagnusson@graphics.social avatar smagnusson , to random

Testing Light Painter for the Blender 5.0 update. Only had one bug: new sky textures changed, including removal of Nishita (at least the name) removal of Preetham and renaming of Nishita.

But it got me to appreciate the new sky textures. Stunning.

Blender screenshot: default cube + sunset
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smagnusson OP ,
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@Ronflaix ahh it was Preetham that got removed, Nishita got renamed (I had errors for both). I'll update the post to clarify.

@Ronflaix@mastodon.gamedev.place avatar Ronflaix , to random

Finished Control's main story. The game was really great.

smagnusson ,
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@Ronflaix I loved Control, such a fascinating world and characters. I need to replay it at some point

@demofox@mastodon.gamedev.place avatar demofox , to random

The world needs phreakers more than ever
https://youtu.be/oG5vsPJ5Tos?si=4ZWVgPLFuYpuVOLt

smagnusson ,
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@demofox dang, haven't watched this since I was a kid, need to rewatch.

@Ronflaix@mastodon.gamedev.place avatar Ronflaix , to random

Are Gefore GTX 1xxx retro now?

smagnusson ,
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@Ronflaix it's getting awfully close, at least 😭

@dbat@mastodon.gamedev.place avatar dbat , to random

Will Blender ever be official on Android?

smagnusson ,
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@dbat in their official post, they said they'd target Android next after iPad and iOS. So it might be a year or two before a beta, but that would be nice.

@smagnusson@graphics.social avatar smagnusson , to random

Question regarding static site hosting. I've been looking for options outside Pages. has pages but it's in maintenance mode due to lack of developers, so I'm not sure about adopting it long term. I have a account with pages, but it's kind of a pain to update. I'd prefer the " => pages" workflow similar to Codeberg or GitHub.

Any personal recommendations? Boosts are appreciated.

@NiwlCraft@mastodon.art avatar NiwlCraft , to random

[Thread, post or comment was deleted by the author]

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    smagnusson ,
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    @NiwlCraft it reminds me of how LinkedIn creators respond to comments, when they don't want to necessarily agree but still push the algorithm: "very insightful!" "something to think about." "thanks for commenting"

    @smagnusson@graphics.social avatar smagnusson , to random

    Sad to see this stuff around , especially since I've just started contributing to FOSS there (OpenTimelineIO).

    I'll start looking at options. Thankfully I don't have many needs with automation, but I do need easy setup with custom domains, as that's how my website is setup. Self-hosting isn't an option at the moment, so I'll check forgejo and codeberg

    smagnusson OP ,
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    I have a now, for anyone from interested in following me: https://codeberg.org/semagnum

    I started mirroring some things and will update the extension repository and my website to pull from there over the weekend. Because of my extension repository + contributing to FOSS on GitHub, I won't just turn stuff off there. I'll have a transition period, probably through the end of the year.

    @dbat@mastodon.gamedev.place avatar dbat , to random

    Wow, the Dog Walk game by Blender Studios is charming and chock-full of love.

    smagnusson ,
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    @dbat I was expecting it to really be more of a graphics demo and nothing else, but the interactivity and animations made it quite fun.

    @smagnusson@graphics.social avatar smagnusson , to random

    A local I know teaches Blender to high school students. He recently made an intro to using Blender in a short guide. I got to review it; it's a great resource for beginners.

    Check it out; he also has some related videos on his new YouTube channel too.

    https://youtu.be/_H1NqMNNils?feature=shared

    @smagnusson@graphics.social avatar smagnusson , to random

    Believe it or not, I've been dipping back into . I had taken some online screenwriting courses + a 1-on-1 about a particular logline that I'm excited about. They seemed excited too, which reinvigorated me to re-draft what I have, maybe try to pitch it later this year.

    If there's any screenwriters, I'd love to follow and network.

    @smagnusson@graphics.social avatar smagnusson , to random

    As per family tradition, today and tomorrow is when we go over our budget and subscriptions. Just reviewing everything we've paid for in the past month gives me so much peace of mind in how we're doing financially.

    My parents still use checkbooks to do this, but it can be as simple as opening your bank app and checking the activity, to downloading your transaction history as a csv and making a nice spreadsheet of it. But don't let your expenses and income be a mystery to you.

    @smagnusson@graphics.social avatar smagnusson , to random

    I recently participated in a render competition on Discord. Since some there asked about my process, I edited a late-night video on how I rendered over 800 M&Ms in less than 30 seconds.

    https://tilvids.com/w/e5zdvK9YqkaveznQ399RcG

    smagnusson OP ,
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    I put the M&M .blend file on my Patreon for free, for those interested. I don't push my Patreon or Ko-Fi because I haven't committed to be active on either platform. I don't have the time to put stuff there AND share elsewhere.

    But if you're ever interested in supporting my Blender tutorials and art done in my free time, you can:

    • donate on Ko-Fi (no account required)
    • purchase my products or scripting course
    • support on Patreon

    All visible on my website in my bio: https://spencermagnusson.com/

    @Tearcell@mastodon.gamedev.place avatar Tearcell , to random
    smagnusson ,
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    @Tearcell "backfire" has got a whole new meaning 😆

    @smagnusson@graphics.social avatar smagnusson , to random

    I want to follow more creators specializing in any of the following:

    Share your favorite recommendations (or plug your own channels)!

    @system76@fosstodon.org avatar system76 , to random

    If you were gifted a System76 laptop, which laptop would you want and what distro would you use? Curious.

    smagnusson ,
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    @system76 any in the graphics series (Adder, Serval, Bonobo), probably Linux Mint since I'm not as familiar (but may experiment with other distros)

    @smagnusson@graphics.social avatar smagnusson , to random

    For Blender add-on beginners, CG Cookie published my short terminology guide (amazingly designed by Kyle Unzicker):

    https://cgcookie.com/downloads/the-blender-python-terminology-guide

    smagnusson OP ,
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    @dbat I don't think they'll add further to the doc. I do cover naming schemes for operators and panels in my course. But with operators, they've actually made it much easier.

    The idname for operators is just category.your_name, with the category being anything under bpy.ops. For example, the object delete operator is object.delete. Note in the example operator that the class name isn't under any specific format. So long as you follow the bl_idname format, the class name can be whatever.

    smagnusson OP ,
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    @dbat oh the naming still applies for panels, I was just mentioning operators since that was in your post. Sorry about that.

    smagnusson OP ,
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    @dbat technically you can do that same convention with operators still. It's just that with a "bpy.ops" style name, Blender can generate that convention name for you. Panels aren't referenced any other way, sadly.

    This is a great reference for the conventions: https://b3d.interplanety.org/en/class-naming-conventions-in-blender-2-8-python-api/

    (the site is very old, but has good tips when it's still relevant)

    @smagnusson@graphics.social avatar smagnusson , to random

    If you'd like to contribute to Blender but aren't confident in your programming abilities, I'd highly recommend contributing to the Blender manual: https://projects.blender.org/blender/blender-manual

    It uses reStructuredText, which is readable similar to Markdown. You just clone, run make setup, and get started. Along with the issue tracker, they have a clear list of TODO's marked in the manual as well.

    @smagnusson@graphics.social avatar smagnusson , to random

    Light Painter has officially migrated to projects.blender.org for safekeeping and future updates. GitHub repo has been deleted.

    I initially was going to have it archived on GitHub for a while but I forgot I was going to 😄🙈 managing two copies of a repo can get complicated anyway.

    https://projects.blender.org/SMagnusson/light-painter

    smagnusson OP ,
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    @dbat I don't know of any limitations for it. But I would imagine some Blender admins can still see private repos, so don't do anything suspicious or space-wasting.

    smagnusson OP ,
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    @dbat ahh gotcha. I don't know where that quote is. I've contributed to the docs once a while ago (I need to contribute some more)

    @smagnusson@graphics.social avatar smagnusson , to random

    In light of , I'd like inspiration of website portfolios. Ideally showcasing images and videos, with captions. Bonus points for accessibility and minimalism.

    If you have a website portfolio, please reply and share it! Or boost so others can share theirs.

    For context, I want to revamp my own portfolio site. I love Pixelfed, but its portfolio layout just doesn't cut it for me. Since I'm comfortable coding my own, I'm looking into potential designs and layouts.

    smagnusson OP ,
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    @Gargron thank you! I like the variety in the grid layouts, works well while still working in mobile.

    @FediVideo@social.growyourown.services avatar FediVideo , to random

    YouTube has just changed its rules to allow hate speech against gender minorities 😞

    https://www.usermag.co/p/youtube-removes-gender-identity-from

    If you currently publish on YouTube, please consider putting your videos on PeerTube instead or as well:

    https://fedi.tips/how-to-publish-videos-and-audio-on-peertube

    Your audience doesn't have to be on PeerTube themselves. They can follow and interact with PeerTube from within Mastodon etc, and they can even follow PeerTube from podcasting apps such as Apple Podcasts.

    (via @taylorlorenz on https://mastodon.social/@taylorlorenz/114274955775553205)

    smagnusson ,
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    @FediVideo I'm on TILvids sharing Blender related tutorials. Let me grab a link: https://tilvids.com/c/spencer_magnusson_channel

    @smagnusson@graphics.social avatar smagnusson , to random

    Are there any web browsers that are NOT chromium that support PWAs?

    I know Firefox said they're looking back into it a few weeks ago for desktop. But I figure that'll be a while. Currently I'm using a base chromium fork for my desktop, but wondering if there are other options.

    @Tearcell@mastodon.gamedev.place avatar Tearcell , to random

    Took ALOT of refractoring and reworking , but now my Potato of a PC (RTX 980) can handle ALOT more bugs on screen at once and not immediately choke.

    Drastic improvement from hitting 10FPS with only 15 guys on screen for sure.

    Stress test of tons of fodder enemies attacking our heroic tank! We have a ton of bugs ready to eat you!

    smagnusson ,
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    @Tearcell great overview, thanks for sharing! I love optimization stuff like this, especially now that I'm tinkering with Godot.

    I read the "can handle more bugs on screen" and initially thought you meant code bugs, and I thought, "Mood" 😂