From now on I will be giving you an update into my modeling projects on a Thursday (atleast). So every thursday you can expect new renders or works. If anyone can think of a catchy title I can use every week I would be very greatful, I thought about ‘Project Thursday’, but don’t know.
Anyway, in the last week I haven’t got as much done as I would have been hoping for, however I have been playing around with a few textures, some which have worked, some which haven’t so it’s a bit up in the air at the moment, especially with all my other projects going on, however I still hope to get them all done, but it will be hard work, certainly tighter than any other project I have created.
My major addition is that I will be adding trees to my environment after all, it’s a debate I’d been having with myself as to whether it would work or not. It might sound dull to you guys, but it’s not always easy to add everything you want due to limitations, but I think the tree’s really do add a whole new dynamic to the project and the sacrifice of polygons is worth it. For the trees I will be using SpeedTree by IDV Inc which is an absolutely brilliant plugin for 3D StudioMax (or Maya etc..) and is a real dynamic tool for the gaming market, so much so that games have really taken to using it, these can be seen in “Project Gotham Racing 3″, “Saints Row”, “The Club” and “Gears of War”. Speed tree also allows real shadows from it’s leaves and normal maps applied to the trunk and leaves (though whether I will do this is another matter). You can see SpeedTree here.
I have modelled some more buildings but they are currently hidden until I find a better place to fit them in (not the best method I know..) On a side note, if anyone can get a picture of a building (preferably derelict/old shopping district in America in style) and would like me to model it, feel free to e-mail me it, for my e-mail address look in the ‘contact’ section in the upper right 
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Karl.
Well it’s Matthews birthday today, so happy birthday to him! Hopefully he has a good day.
I got him:
Cool Runnings (Classic!), The Princess Bride (Classic!), Rainbow Six: Vegas and some Mint & Tea Tree Shower wash (for nippy knackers on a morning, so refreshing!). Wish I had more money, but I am skint at the moment.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY!
Now leave a comment and wish him Happy Birthday too!
Do you ever find days are over as quickly as they have begun? It’s becoming annoying, especially as I have so many projects in for May and I can see it coming close. Anyway, I won’t bore you with little details like that!
A little update over the last 5 days:
Continue reading ‘Not enough hours in a day..’
Sorry I haven’t been around much, I am not dead (as McDaniel has been telling people). I’ve just been caught up in a whirlwind of coursework for both me and Matthew and Catherine whom I attempted to help the day before their hand-ins.
Anyway, as a little sorry I thought I should post a little render to show you how it’s looking. I hope to get a lot more done before the end of the day (as my PC is at Matthews house and he’s away all weekend in Edinburgh for his Birthday).
So…
I’ve been staying away from home due to an empty room from the imminent house move, thankfully Matthew put me up and I’ve been doing my University coursework sat at a table in his bedroom alongside him and his girlfriend (who also have project in, though theirs are a January hand-in and mine is a May hand-in). Aside from working until the early morning and getting up to late it feels like I haven’t gotten very far.
I am a very slow modeller at the best of times because I am a perfectionist, everything has to be distanced by specific numbers and not by eye. So far I am happy with what I have, I’ve also been playing around with the lighting system in 3D Studio Max 9 which leaves other versions of it standing. Whilst it’s not the most refined lighting system it’s pretty effortless to setup and renders quickly. For the final renders I will enhance all settings, but for now it’s perfect.
This post is mainly to let you know that I haven’t forgotten about my blog or that I’ve died, it is infact that I have been busy. Next week might have even fewer posts due to moving house and a severe lack of Internetage… suppose that means I really will have to get my coursework done.
Karl.
Went to go and see the new Greg Coolidge film yesterday, Employee of the Month. It was okay, nothing great and not an all out comedy like I thought which was a shame. A couple of moments made me laugh but I do find American humour very limited, so you see any jokes coming an absolute mile-off and I generally find the bits as filler jokes the funniest because they appear the more spontaneous, less scripted jokes and unfortunately this film was lacking them.
However… I recommend everyone see it purly because Jessica Simpson looks absolutely AWESOME in it.
I was also quite surprised by Dane Cook in it, who actually entertained me and that came as a surprise after trying to watch one of his stand-up comedy routines a couple of months back, but again, I have never enjoyed an American stand-up yet. There’s loads of faces in it you’ll recognize, most of which I am not fans of in movies such as Andy Dick (I like him in Less than Perfect), Dax Shepard (Not a fan but he was excellent in this) and Efren Ramirez (Pedro from Napoleon Dynamite who just seems happy to play the same character.. ugh). The film is certainly carried by Cook and Shepard, and for a change I enjoyed them.
Overall: 4/10
It’s just not original enough and nothing we haven’t seen already. There was potential for a lot more comedy, instead the film dipped into the stereotype pool and used those against jokes we’ve seen and heard a million times already. The acting was never going to be hamlet, but it is quite poor with only the main two being any good, but then again Jessica Simpson isn’t an actress… and she’s hot, so we’ll let her off I think, but she should have been given more lines. She’s the love interest of the film and she must struggle to have more than 30 lines of dialogue. Efren Ramirez just annoyed me, I’ve already seen him as Pedro, this time he was Pedro and Napoleon Dynamite in one, just without any of the comedy. Andy Dick is just annoying (again) but thankfully doesn’t have many lines at all. There was some excellent advertising throughout the film, especially from Microsoft advertising it’s Xbox360. Still, despite all it’s bad things it’s still FAR from the worst film I have ever seen and if you’re stuck for something to watch and want something that doesn’t require the old grey-matter to be ticking over double time then I could recommend far worse than this, so a 4/10 from me (though, without Jessica it might have been a 3 
).
On a side note, I found the trailers for the 2 new Billy Bob Thornton movies funnier than this, those films being ‘Mr Woodcock’ and ‘School for Scoundrels’. Hopefully these don’t end up another Bad Santa (Good trailer but abysmal film).
Well, it’s my 23rd Birthday today, now I just feel old.
I went out last night with Matthew, Catherine, Lee, Kat and Chris and had a really good time, so thankyou very much to Matthew and Catherine who were the ring-leaders behind it all and took me for a surprise meal and a game of bowling the proceeded to pay for everything I did, they are real superstars and I love them to bits!
Continue reading ‘My Birthday!’
