Update bobupdate

It's been a while again, but it's been a good while now. Because normally when I don't post, I'm not doing anything. But now I've been working my ass off. Well a little bit anyway... I modeled the mech, textured it, modeled the antenna array, textured it, rigged the mech and made the custom UI for it. So YEAH BABY, I'm all ready to start animating. Isn't life wonderful? :D

Zen-VTM

First things first. I finished my Alien animation, lighting etc... the beast is rendering as we speak... or as you read and I type. Well as I type, because you're not reading this right now... but you know what I mean, right? No? Oh shut up.

So yes, the mofo is done, or as good as done anyway. I modeled my mech yesterday, did it in one go because if I had some experience in Maya, it was in polymodeling. So it went rather fast. Submitted my model and passed the assignment so all is good.

I started watching the texturing videos and yes, thank god, for the first time ever in the history of 3dbuzz the turned off all the crap they did not need. Like the helpline, timeslider, range slider, toolbox, channelbox... You have no idea how frustrating I found it to watch people model with all of those things on. You can't see anything in those tiny viewports. Now they're gone, I can watch the lesson in piece... Zen-VTM

Let's get ready to REEEEEEEEEEEEEEEENDDDDDEEEEEEEEEEERRRRRR

fff-yew... I'm done with project II. Well beside the fact it still has to be rendered, but that's all. So I'm happy. No more fucking alien to stare at from now on :) I don't anything else to report, I'll make more regular updates when I start on the mech.

But do take a looksy at my pink tractor beam of DEATH!(tm) though...

http://82.110.105.14/nielsvaes.com/MFC/pinkie.jpg

The whole kittenkaboodle

So obviously when you change something, it's going to affect the whole kittenkaboodle... whatever the whell a kittenkaboodle is. /me looks around... whatever

Soooo...animation is DONE. YAY. HOW fucking happy can a Belgian be? Well let me tell you. As happy as I am now. I actually finished animating yesterday, but I didn't update my blog. Now on to more fun stuff: lighting. I'm somehow falling in love with the whole hypershade/light/color in your viewport thing. I remember a time when I thought color in viewports was something that shouldn't be talked about among normal members of the human race. So now I'm either abnormal, or I've grown up. I opt to choose for the former. The whole lighting experience, from what I've watched, is so fucking cool. The videos are even more entertaining, mainly because Buzz and Zak tend to sing while waiting for renders to complete. Very amuzing, very nice. An oppinion shared by my mother also. I'll probably begin lighting my scenes tonight, or tomorrow, depending on what mood I'm in.

Random newsfact of the weekend: Broomsticks are the shizznack: http://today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=oddlyEnoughNews&storyID=2005-07-01T141652Z_01_L01363711_RTRIDST_0_ODD-CYPRUS-ROBBERY-DC.XML

I did it myyyyyyyyyyyyyy waaaaaaaaaaaaaayy

You should hear me sing that song under the shower, it's quite breathtaking.

Anyway, I was animating my happy ass off, only to find out my little alien ship didn't have a tractor beam. I kinda forgot to add it in. So I went back to the tractor beam videos and... well I couldn't care less about them :) Buzz started talking about controlling the curves and expressions and blah blah blah. So I was like "What the fuck? I can do it in 2 minutes, without any crap". So I thanked my lucky stars I payed attention in the Maya Architecture videos and made a very simple, yet effective, network.

I put some custom attributes on my alienControl to control the length, width of the top curve and width of the bottom curve. Then I connected the length attribute to a multiply divide node, multiplied the input with -1, plugged that output in the Ty of the bottom curve and voila. Then I plugged the width of the top curve into Sx, Sy and Sz and did the same for the bottom curve. Then I lofted the two suckers and voila... instant tractor beam.

I'm sure Buzz' way has its advantages, but why should I do everything the way Buzz does, right? I'm a unique snowflake, I'm special.

Other news includes: my DVDs arrived, my parents bought palmtrees to put near the pool, I ordered two expensive tickets to David Copperfield and I almost threw my BlueTooth stick out the window because the son of a bitch was acting like a fucking idiot.

oh and I got sunburnt the other day...

It wasn't me! I didn't do it!

I really didn't do it... work on my animation that is. I've got the snimation for my ship done for shot one. Snimation, hmm, cool word. I still have to work on the snimation for the other shots but I just haven't been able to do so. A lot of other crap going on, but I hope to get something done tomorrow or tuesday. It's been fucking hot, and no airco + heat = not a good working atmosphere.

Now we bounce to the left... and we bounce to the right... bounce bounce bounce




















bounce

Dooooobidoooodahdah...dahdahdahdooooobidoooooooooooooooo DAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH

It's been a while, hasn't it? And I don't even feel like writing right now, so... Submitted my animatics for project 2 (please read "project 2" in the voice of your favorite evil character) and I passed. They were a bit stiff... but hey, they were just animatics. I took a glimpse at the lighting lessons and they look very cool, can't wait to start on them. The paint effects videos were cool too, a nice little sidestep to have some fun. Haven't had the chance to make my SKULL OF ULTIMATE FUCKING DEATH(tm), but if I have a moment to spare here or there, I'll go for it.

Speaking of moments to spare, I played the Battlefield 2 demo. I'm torn between acting like an american soldier or sculpting a skull.

...


what's that?


The world needs my help?


Roger, sir!

Sorry guys... have to go... some incident in the middle east... :)