UV nodes on a Grecian Urn

The calyx model is done. I think. Now I just have to paint up the textures. Artwork, bump map, spec map. And render, of course.

Cheetah3D is growing on me. The best thing, right now, is that no operation caused it to crash or cause the object to become un-editable. And that's way ahead of Carrara on it's best day. The lathe operation puts out a clean UVmap and the built-in tools did a decent job of mapping the handles, too.

I agree with the manual. The bezier spline controls are not good. Better to make a spline in an illustration program and import it. My first take at handles was with a spline sweep, but I didn't like the resulting profile.

So I did a box model, dropped it on a symmetry tool, and then dropped that on a subdiv smoothing tool. All worked just as I'd hoped, with just a little learning curve involved. I think the software could end up being fast, once I put some custom hotkeys into it (apparently you can).

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Meanwhile an instrument I had in my wishlist went on open-box sale:

Yes; transverse flute, otherwise known as Western Concert Flute in C. Closed-hole, C foot, not the longer B foot. And, yes, it is pink. 

I fired up my camera because this is the last chance I am likely to have to attempt to play an unfamiliar family of instrument without any prior study. Yeah; that question has been floating around. My opinion is you can get a sound out of most plucked strings and hammered instruments, including percussion and keyboards. Single reed, a little harder. Double reed and brass, harder yet. Bowed strings, extremely difficult; yes, you can get noises, but not anything resembling the characteristic sound of the instrument.

That's the thing about the piano. Sure, a random child or small animal can't play a Chopin Etude, but when the press down a key, it sounds like, well, a piano. 

Turns out the transverse flute was tough for me. Apparently some people get the embouchure right away. Some don't. Apparently the book method is you detach the head joint and just play that for a week. Then you play the first octave until you are good with it. Then you move on to the second octave.

Five days and I'm playing scales but the second octave is not secure. A very breathy tone I'm not happy with. But as far as adding flute sounds to a composition -- yeah, I've got enough. I may work on it for a few more days but then it is back to the trumpet. Which, for all I may have said about it in the past, is oddly pleasing to play.