Allison Baldi

Life Drawing - Week 5

2012-03-08T10:29:00.000-05:00

Life Drawing - Week 4

2012-02-29T09:11:00.002-05:00

Life Drawing - Week 3

2012-02-17T10:09:00.001-05:00

For twenty minutes I had the ability to see things with my eyes and put them on paper.

Looking at the picture above it even I can barely believe these came from the same person,

but they're only about half an hour apart from each other.

And then it went away again. Back to practicing.

This guy does not have jumbo alien forehead, I need to work on my proportions.

Life Drawing - Week 1 & 2

2012-02-13T10:07:00.004-05:00

I'm taking a life drawing class at Tri-C with instructor Shirley Aley Cambell. She said we should keep all of drawings so at the end of the class we can say to her "ugh did I draw that" and she will say "Yes, yes you did".

Modeling a Mass Relay with NURBS - Part 1

2012-01-17T20:12:00.000-05:00

Most jewelry is too fancy and not nerdy enough, so I've been working on some models to get 3D printed and make into necklaces. While I normally use Rhino I wanted to try it with Maya this time and see if it's easier/ faster or prints better.

This tutorial will show you some NURBS modeling techniques to make the basic shape. Eventually I will follow up with tutorials about how to add details and export for 3D printing. If you have any trouble let me know and I'll see if I can help.

Part 1 - The basic shape

1. Create circles shaped to the rough outline of the ship. Lordess-Alicia on deviantart was very nice and pulled some images from the game for me.

You can use these images as reference by putting them into the sourceimages folder of your project folder then loading them for the appropriate views by selectign View - Image planes - Import image. This menu is in the top left of every viewport.

2. Make lots of mistakes lofting them together (skip this step).

3. Starting at the left loft curves 1-3, then 3-7, then 7-8. then 8-11, then the rest. To do this select the curves in order (right or left, but be consistent) then go to Surfaces - Loft. In my settings I had Parameterization set to Cord Length.

This image is a couple steps ahead, but it shows the basic idea.

4. Connect the first and second section together using the Attach Surfaces tool.

Set it to blend and the bias at .5. Then connect that piece to the next section.

The reason for doing this way instead of lofting all the curves is because it overcompensates and creates weird dips in the surface This way we keep some of the sharp edges, but they're not too sharp. It should look similar to the image above.

5. Boolean the circle shape out of the middle (mine was more like a blob that used to be a circle, but I think the correct shape would actually be a cone, need to test more).

6. Cut the model in half, duplicate, and flip so the boolean is also on the other side. This can be done by selecting two isoparms (one on the top and one on the bottom) of the model, then select Detach Surfaces. Delete the surface that does not have a weird circle shape cut into it.

To copy the boolean shape for the other side, group the two objects (the main object plus the new weird half moon piece) then go to File - Duplicate with special and mess with the scale settings until it flips correctly. Mine was set to:

Geometry type: copy

Group under: world

Scale: -1, 1, 1 (aka -1x, 1y, 1z. A setting of 1 will do nothing but -1 flips it. This may make your object orientation go crazy and tools might be backwards)

7. Fill in the hole on the back end of the long piece.

Select the curve that was use to start the loft then go to Surfaces - Planar.

Also fill in the hole in the weird \__ shape in the middle of the long piece. Then Boolean Intersect the new filled in piece with the long piece so the shapes line up.

8. Create a CV curve in the side view that goes over the very end of the long piece, it should match the \____ shape.

Project the curve onto the surface by selecting the surface and the curve, then select Edit NURBS - Project Curve onto Surface.

With the curves selected to go Edit Curves - Duplicate Surface Curves.

Use the trim tool to hide this area so it matches the reference.

9. Using the duplicated curve create a framework for this section by drawing CV curves (set to 1) to fill in the missing lines. The main circle at the end will need to be cut using the Cut Curves tool, you want to only have the shape left that matches the model.

It helps to have the model turned off and only the curves on by putting them on separate layers.

Then fill in these gaps using the Planar tool. Take a 10-15 min break to celebrate completing the top piece.

The weird trapezoid to the left is the curve used to cut into the object. It lines up when looked at through the side view.

This is with all the holes filled in using the curves stolen from the surface (they'll never know).

10. Creating the bottom piece.

Group all of the curves and duplicate special so it is flipped vertically. Line up with the bottom reference and do it all over again. (Or try duplicating the object, smush it into place, get annoyed that it looks like a lumpy mess, and admit to yourself that you'll have to just do it all over again).

Yay! You nowhave a half functioning Mass Relay! Don't turn it on until after Part 2 is written or you may end up in reaper space.

Notes:

• At some point you will need to delete history on these objects because they start acting crazy. I like to wait until the object is actually being crazy before I do this since it removes the ability to adjust the model using the curves.

• Save lots of iterations, possibly even one for each step, so if you mess up or delete history too soon you can go back one step instead of starting over. It gets easier to figure out where a good save point is the more you practice.

I'm sure there is a better order to do these steps and a better way to do this, and while I'm not quite happy enough with the results to get this 3D printed yet I am really happy to have finally built this model (after many many months of confusing my brain). Plus it puts another tutorial out there and hopefully that helps someone.

Apparently I've never thrown anything out

2012-01-05T16:01:00.000-05:00

Not a lot of posting lately, blah blah excuses, but I've been doing something useful for myself to make more room for art and I want to get as much done as possible before my life drawing class starts. Ever seen the show Hoarders? That is my house. It is also my e-mail, physical and digital records of my work, and pretty much everything I've touched ever.

For about 2 years I've been going through EVERYTHING and I'm finally getting to the point where I can actually function without planning what I have to clean that day. I'm going to continue doing this hopefully forever, but after enough is done I will have room in my life to make art whenever I feel like it.

Some numbers for science:

Number of houses holding my junk at one time: 5

(thank you kind relatives with larges attics and basements, curse you college for kicking me out every summer causing me to leave a trail of hoarding everywhere I stayed)

Chevy Malibu's of garbage taken to the trash: 9+

Chevy Malibu's of donations taken to Goodwill: 10+

Trash included precious items such as moldy grade school drawings, broken toys, and notebooks full of unfinished spanish homework. Donation items ranged from clothing I haven't worn since high school to about 3 garbage bags worth of stuffed animals (many of them beanie babies), and lots and lots of barbie shoes.

For others looking to remove massive quantities of stuff here is my workflow.

1. Pick one area to work on.

It is very easy to get overwhelmed at this first step. The piles are huge and it's taking over everything, but remember that you don't have to do it all at once. Just pick one thing. This can be as large as one room or something smaller, like going through all your clothes or even just one drawer. And it doesn't have to be something physical. I'm still working through my laptop mac side, laptop pc side, external hard drive, xbox, ipod, dropbox,… I think you get the idea.

2. Sort the items in this area into categories. If you feel compelled to throw something out go ahead, but the focus is on getting things into the best group.

When going through my clothes I made piles of short sleeve shirts, long sleeve shirts, pants, etc. There were also piles like "items I don't wear, but it would make my grandma sad to throw out" so it's not restricted to looks, sometimes it helps to group all the items associated with one feeling to figure out why you're really holding onto them.

Tips:

•I like to use large plastic tubs for sorting items. It's easy to throw everything into one tub, and if you need to make room in the house or you're not ready to go through the items yet you can put the lid on and store them away for awhile. I used to stock up on these after holidays since they go on sale, so hooray for hoarding?

•It also helps to have sticky notes and a pen for marking what is in the tub. I like to also write my plans for the items on the note.

For my computer I really had to think about how I wanted to store my files. It used to be everything was in a big folder called "My art", but then some things were in "animation", and others were in random spots all over the place. I solved my problem by making a folder called "Projects" and giving it very specific categories. So there is a folder for Animation, Crafts, Websites, etc and each of those contains a folder named after the project. From there I was able to see duplicate files and projects I didn't plan to finish. You'll have to figure out what works for you but the goal is to easily find your files, each of them should really only have one place they can possibly belong.

3. Go through one tub at a time and decide what you really need in your life.

This is the tough part, because if you didn't think you needed all of this you wouldn't have kept it in the first place, but there really is an advantage to having less stuff. It clears your space and it clears your mind to not have this burden surrounding you. Before you can get rid of things you really have to decide what it is you want most. For me I wanted to be able to come home and make art without having to clear off a table or delete files to make room on my computer for a render. It should be easy to walk into my home and live, no clearing seats on the couch and apologizing to guests constantly.

Questions to ask yourself:

•Is this item beautiful or useful? Is damaged too badly to repair? Is it safe to keep, or could this object potentially hurt me or people I care about?

•Am I keeping this out of guilt? Am I worried it will offend someone if I don't keep it? Is the object more important than the relationship with this person, or will I still have that relationship even if I don't keep the object?

•Is this something I have plans to "maybe use" someday? Do I have a lot of little mini projects? How much time (aka life) would it take me to complete all of these projects? How many of them are really essential for me to be happy and help me reach my goals?

•Do I find myself thinking "I could really use X right now"? Or is it only when the object is in front of me that I come up with uses for it? How many months have I had this object and never felt the need to use it? Did I even take it out of the packaging?

•Does this object bring me up or drag me down? Do I feel better about myself after using/seeing it? Or do I feel worse about myself?

•Do I own other items that serve the same purpose? Is there another tool that does the same thing? Is there another item from this person I care about that reminds me of them? Is there a higher res version of this file that I can use to save low res files? (This it where it helps to group similar items, rather than diving right in and trying to throw things out)

4. Sort unneeded items into groups based on where they will be going.

Not all items need to be thrown out, some can be recycled or donated. Goodwill has a list of what they will and will not take (I keep it posted on my wall), princessproject.org takes old prom dresses and gives them to girls who can't afford one, cdrecyclingcenter.org takes cds, and there are tons more. If you're wondering if an object can be recycled look it up, ecocycle.org has many different types of items. I keep a box in my hallway ready to go to Goodwill and a recycling station in the kitchen, this makes it much easier to sort these items.

Tips:

•After you have filled and closed a box use a sharpie and write "donate" on it. This will keep you from going through the same boxes by accident.

•Plan a day to take all donation boxes to your donation center of choice, rather than going each time you fill one box. A Chevy Mailbu can be crammed to hold many boxes and is also useful as a measuring device.

On rare occasions items can be used as presents, but this is a dangerous mindset to get into. All of us have items we don't really need or want, but we don't want some crazy person to have them, so we give this junk to our family. But that's not really letting go. It's better for everyone, including yourself, if you either keep the item or give it away to the correct place. A good way I've found to tell the difference between a good gift item and attachment is recognizing the first thought that comes into my brain when I look at it. Do I think "Debbie would really like this cookbook and I've only used it once" or "I really like this shirt, but it doesn't fit me anymore, maybe it would fit my sister"?

5. Continue to go through the tubs at your own pace.

After that it's a gradual process of going through everything and refining what you need, and it can take awhile so don't get discouraged. So much time was wasted from having all this junk around and it feels amazing to throw it all away. I'm kind of worried I won't know what to do with myself once I've gotten through it all, but I'm much more excited about actually being able to use my space and create new art and memories.

Pioneer Woman

2011-12-08T09:00:00.000-05:00

The Pioneer Woman

Tasty Kitchen

Pioneer Woman runs a cooking site with pictures of ever step in the recipe. The rest of her website has stories about ranch life, gardening, and lots of other things I like but seriously. Every. Single. Step. I cannot properly describe how much this helped me learn to cook and how awesome it is. Simple concepts I wasn't even aware of revealed their mysteries to me, and now I can successfully chop onions and create pie crust (though not without tears from the onions, it's very emotional). After I got past the amazing being able to cook part of her website I explored her stories and ideas, and it's all really good. I can't think of anything specific that was like "Yes! This inspires me to make art!" but her attitude is always positive and I cannot stop reading her site.

My favorites:

How to chop an onion

Bacon wrapped jalapeno thingies (My friends yell at me if I don't bring these to parties, I think that's good?)

Solace in the skies

Lighting practice

2011-12-05T09:34:00.001-05:00

I've been practicing lighting in Maya using Maxwell to texture and render. My goal is to create images that match professional jewelry photography (and get better at lighting). Still lots of things to work on, like render quality, but I'm not sure how much more time I'll have to work on it so posting what I have.

The models can be found on Turbo Squid here, here, and here. Everything is rendered in silver with a colorless diamond like texture for the gems, then in photoshop my files have curves and other layers to provide color. This way I only need one render per object and I can make whatever colors and combinations I want.

Rad shark woooosh

2011-11-28T12:05:00.001-05:00

It's a start

2011-11-15T09:00:00.000-05:00

These are rough sketches of some clothes I'd like to make (after my skill level catches up with my wants) but for now I'm getting the ideas out.

The top is all one piece and it could easily be worn with a colored long sleeve shirt underneath.

Ideally the pants are professional enough to wear to a slightly formal occasion, but secretly they have cargo pockets on the thigh. I hate doing that "I'm sitting down but I need to get my phone out of my pocket" dance so putting the pockets lower should solve this. The only problem is I haven't figured out is how to not make them bulgy. People shouldn't be able to notice that they are pockets.

This is a fancyish top that can be mixed and matched with different undershirts.

These are some of my better (but still terrible) drawings that these ideas come from. It seems to help to just get them out instead of thinking "no I'll do it later when I have time, then it'll come out better." I rarely remember those ideas and actually draw them, so I have a lot of scrap paper with these badly sketched ideas on them for me to finish later.

Most of my notes aren't even legible but just writing it down and drawing the idea as soon as I have it helps a lot when trying to remember it later, and it gives me something to start from when making a better drawing.

Ponies!!!

2011-11-11T09:00:00.000-05:00

This is how I feel when I draw ponies, BUT I CAN'T STOP DOING IT ALL THE TIME.

ABFS - Characters

2011-11-08T09:00:00.000-05:00

I started modeling a human about a year ago and then had a distracting life event (aka a wedding) to plan and that pretty much took all of my free time and energy. Now I'm back to modeling this character and while I doubt this is the best method or final result I am happy to be getting closer to finishing it. If it works for animation then I'm fine with it how it is.

Finished face, but no eyelids. The line is there because the two sides of the face haven't been combined yet, one is more of a placeholder so I can see how the face looks while I'm modeling. It copies everything I change to the other side and keeps both sides the same.

To do this in Maya:

1. Go to File - Duplicate Special. Click on the box.

2. Check Instance. This is what tells Maya to make changes to the model based on your changes to the other half.

3. In the Scale boxes there are numbers that should look like 1, 1, 1. These represent 1x, 1y, 1z. A value of 1 = no change to the scale of the object, but if we change that to -1 it will flip the object along that axis.

Try putting -1 into each box and click Apply to see how it reacts. It helps to have the pivot of your object along the edge (where it has the "cut"), this will help it flip more accurately and stay in the correct place.

4. When you are done modeling delete this object. Then open up Duplicate Special again and choose Copy instead of Instance. This will give you a clean model that isn't affected by the other side.

Yay eyelids! Also trying out eyelashes. Planning to use an alpha channel and create eyelashes as part of the texture, but I might also model a few. Not sure if this is the best way to model eyelids, those and lips always seem crammed in there.

This ear tutorial is awesome! No idea how I would have modeled this without it, took maybe 30 min. Hard to tell from this image but it looks much better smoothed. Shown to me by Gamma-of-two on Deviant Art.

Mmmmm apples

2011-11-04T09:03:00.000-04:00

My co-worker gave me a bag of apples so I drew a picture for him.

Oblivion attic home

2011-11-01T09:00:00.000-04:00

If you would like to lose hours of your life then please ask me to tell you stories about Oblivion, I'll even let you pick which of my 6+ characters you'd like to hear about! But right now this is about my elven thief character and her home in the Imperial City. There's only one house in the Imperial City and it's realllllly far away and annoying to get to, even with fast travel. So I built a hide away in someone's attic right in the market district. Now I can rob everyone whenever I feel like it then escape through the sewers, and it has a snack bar!

You can download it here on The Elder Scrolls Nexus, and if you find any errors or have suggestions please tell me. Still trying to make it better.

Location in the Imperial City, I still need to create a map marker.

Entrance ladder. Looks kind of silly, still looking for better options.

First view after stepping inside. Very cozy.

This area is good for storing things like clothes, books, and jewelry. Not really sure where you'd put useless things like enchanted armor and weapons.

My favorite potato deadra <3

Sleep in the luxury of Kavatch! But don't actual go to Kavatch, it's kind of dangerous and on fire.

Art zone, for the enlightened thief. One thing I would like to do for this area, if possible, is lock in the items and turn off gravity. If you bump, drop, or pickup anything in this area it moves the brushes all around. And since I used an alchemy ingredient as water (it's bowl shaped with a slight transparency) the brushes pop out and can't be put back in.

View of the room from behind the bed. There's a tiiiny spec next to one of the rafters left of the painting. That is a moth. He flies around and eats enchanted robes.

Oooh an attic basement.

Classy downstairs room, great for parties.

SNACK BAR!!! But don't touch anything or it'll all bounce all over the place and fall down. How do you make food items respawn? I have stolen sooo many table settings and come back to food sitting on nothing (which I then stole again). That is what I want to do here so the food will come back if it's bumped or eaten.

Hanging out chair area. Not much good unless you download a companions mod since in-game followers won't even sit. They're all like "take me back to my farm" and "when are we going to reach cloud ruler temple?" Whine, whine, whine.

Filled with the fancy wines, plus Shadowbanish wine for people who like me that can't use up the last of a special game item and need an endless supply even though all it does is give you nighteye.

Shortcut!

Immediately outside the door above. I'm still looking for a good tower or items to create a vertical tunnel with ramps, that way you actually have to work your way down into the sewer and it gives a sense of space. Right now it kind of teleports.

Door leading back up to the attic. There is also a treasure chest poking out behind that barrel to the left, which I did not add. Sorry for ruining your treasure chest surprise Bethesda, my door needed to go there.

Plans for the future:

•Make a better entrance than the rope ladder

•Add some lights next to the storage area

•Create a vertical tunnel leading to the sewers

Put it on a t-shirt

2011-10-28T09:10:00.000-04:00

Fan art of my favorite Dragon Age character.

ABFS - Final Enviroment

2011-10-25T09:00:00.000-04:00

Yay the scene is done! Now time to work on characters.

Quick camera move showing the entire scene.

My goals: create animated blue lava, make the background dome and the main model blend into each other, get a rough idea of lighting and possible camera angles.

Needs: More input on all of my goals. Not really sure I'm happy with it as a final scene but I don't know what to do to push it farther. I also need to do a lot of research about the lighting and using mental ray.

Next step: working on the character models, touching up other scene elements (which are off for this preview), adding some more stars and junk to the dome.

Chris Flett

2011-10-21T09:00:00.000-04:00

Chris Flett

Ghost CEO

Chris Flett is a business coach with an amazing book titled What men don't tell women about business. He uses his coaching business to teach women how to achieve their professional goals, and writes a blog with free advice. I still fail at it all the time but his book has helped me so much with making fewer mistakes at work. As women we don't really get a lot of business training from parents or co-workers and his writing helps to fill in that gap. I think he's working on a second book but for now his blog is great for getting occasional reminders to suck it up and keep trying.

My favorites:

You ask, you get. You don’t; you won’t.

Is there an elephant in the room?

Question of the week: Competition and the role they play in your business.

Standard Issue Cerberus Bag

2011-10-19T10:28:00.000-04:00

Rough color concept.

Goals:

•Cerberus theme

•Comfy

•Small + manageable

•Clean and uncluttered
•Doesn't look like a costume
•Holds all of my things / encourages me to not bring things I don't really need

Chesty's Cousin

2011-10-17T09:00:00.000-04:00

Every year my local medieval fighting group, Pentwyvern, runs a weekend event called Harvest Feast. There's fighting and stuff but this year I made the prize for the coloring contest. It came out pretty awesome BUT ALSO DANGEROUS. When I picked it out it attacked me, then it pinched the cashier, then it got me a couple more times while painting so this thing is pretty vicious. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED.

Wax Stamps aka please give me a 3d printer

2011-10-14T09:40:00.000-04:00

Computers + Crafts = <3

Concept sketch with some notes about modeling. I also like to write down all of the steps for a project so I can get it off my mind and focus on the tasks in order.

NURBS modeling in Rhino.

Crazy dense geometry opened in Maya to test the stl file. It probably could have been less heavy, but I wanted to make sure it would print well with minimal reorders.

Cost and delivery time from Shapeways. The cost isn't so bad, but the time it takes to get the model makes it hard to test shapes as quickly as I'd like to.

Delivered prints! Since Shapeways requires a minimum $25 on orders I also got some pieces for another project I'm working on. This way I was able to test out the quality of the pieces without getting the whole thing done at once.

Sanded dowel rod and the 3D printed stamp.

Apply a thin coat of DAP and let both pieces sit until it is tacky.

Stick the pieces together and let them sit for at least a day to make sure it's dry.

Stamped paper! The stamp worked well but it does have some issues. Since the material is bumpy I had to brush oil onto the stamp and let it drip before pressing it into the wax, otherwise the stamp gets filled with wax that won't come out. I also made two more stamps that didn't work so well. Their designs were too small and wax got stuck, but they did help me test the limits of 3D printing so I can make better models.

Parry Hotter

2011-10-12T09:00:00.000-04:00

ABFS - Lava

2011-10-10T09:00:00.000-04:00

Some tests for the lava. Since this a crazy space planet out in space the surface is formed by blue lava erupting from the core and cooling as purple rocks. Pretty to look at but the no air makes it hard to live there.

First attempt at lava using Maya particles animated along a path. The particles were set to
blobby surface with the intent of making it look like a flow of bubbly delicious lava.
Unfortunately it looks like a gross worm. Ew.

Lots of reference and some downloaded textures trying to make it look half cooled and rocky. This is also where I gave up on the real particles and modeled a plane following the curve originally set for lava flow, then animated the texture. Sooooo many tests of particle lava and they're all terrible.

One of many attempts to create lava using a modeled plane and an animated texture. Many, many attempts... This one had some potential as a still, but once it starts moving it looks ridiculous.

Pretty much the final lava aka when I finally gave up and moved onto other things. It still looks more like water than blue lava but I'm not sure what to do with it.

The final lava! Some changes were made after this render to reduce the conveyor belt effect, but it still looks better than the tube worm and floaty rocks. Particles and fire simulation were added to make it look hot and steamy.

Dinosaur friends!

2011-10-07T09:00:00.000-04:00

This is the internet. He tries.

This guy is hoping you will be his valentine before the meteor hits and we are plummeted into the ice age. Please say yes.

Cup Cake Birthday - Storyboard and characters

2011-10-05T09:00:00.000-04:00

It has been way too long since I've used Flash so I'm making a pretend e-card to catch up. This is my storyboard and some screenshots of the characters. Unfortunately I can't figure out how to upload swf files and I keep forgetting to convert them, so it'll just be pictures.

Doe Deere

2011-10-03T09:00:00.000-04:00

Doe Deere Blogazine

Lime Crime Makeup

Doe Deere runs her own make up company featuring bright colors and crazy fashion ideas. She is one of the first blogs I remember reading that gave more than just some insight into an interest or information to read passively, she really inspired me to try harder with my life. I didn't used to care about makeup so I wasn't drawn to that, but seeing her success and how she did it pulled me in anyway and encouraged me to believe I could do the same. It also helps that everything she makes is adorable and colorful, so lots of art noms too.

My favorites:

Dream big do the impossible

Be you

There's always a reason to smile

She also uses Formspring occasionally and has a lot of advice about following your dreams and being who you want to be, even when normal people think you're weird.

ABFS - Textured environment

2011-10-01T09:00:00.003-04:00

Fancy space scene with more developed textures. Some experiments with lighting but nothing final.

Grrrrrrills

2011-09-30T11:40:00.001-04:00

ABFS - First environment concepts

2011-09-29T09:10:00.001-04:00

Creating my own space planet and messing around with procedurals, particles, and mental ray.

Captain Clippety Clop & First Mate Mr.Christensen

2011-09-28T08:48:00.001-04:00

These guys are from my first Oblivion mod. I was kind of disappointed that the pirate ship expansion didn't feel very piratey, so I built my own. On my ship there were no humans but I had these guys as the crew.

The unicorn is named Captain Clippety Clop and he is very stern about keeping order on his ship. So stern that when I loaded up his first mate, Mr.Christensen, he let out a neigh of terror, stomped the mudcrab overboard, and continued on a killing rampage through the Waterfront District. It did not help that I had set his speed as high as it could go...

Lesson learned, if you are adding a unicorn to your mod lower its aggression and make it slow enough to catch.

This is the only political opinion you will get out of me, but that's ok because it's obviously the only right one.

Alarm clock

2011-09-27T11:16:00.002-04:00

My cat sees me as an elaborate food dispensing robot.

If I am out of the house and return home, then it is time for food.

If I stand in the kitchen too long then it is time for food.

If I have sat in the house long enough and start to look tired, it is also time for food.

If I feed her too soon at night she will get hungry in the morning and poke me before my alarm goes off, or start up a passive aggressive whine meow until I wake up.

None of these things ever resulting in her getting more food.

This is not an exaggeration. Most of the time she looks like a pillow with a face sticking out.