Journals
Shameless plug time!
Hi folks. I used to do stuff on this site. Now I don't!
Just a quick one: if you're at all interested in tabletop gaming, please take a look at my mate's Kickstarter campaign for EPiCS - a laser-cut, interlocking city system. I've been assisting with the campaign for a while now (I produced the video) and can certainly vouch for the quality of these things: they're utterly amazing to see in person.
Hi folks. I used to do stuff on this site. Now I don't!
Just a quick one: if you're at all interested in tabletop gaming, please take a look at my mate's Kickstarter campaign for EPiCS - a laser-cut, interlocking city system. I've been assisting with the campaign for a while now (I produced the video) and can certainly vouch for the quality of these things: they're utterly amazing to see in person.
So Invert-x is properly back, which means an obligatory journal entry to advertise that fact.
Invert-x, if you don't know, is a joint project between Penguinboy and myself in the form of a op-ed website for games and gaming concepts. We write articles about games and concepts we're interested in.
Until recently, we concentrated purely on the gaming world with our 'duelling article' layout (in which we posted an article each on the same topic, which would display on the same page, side by side). Since the redesign, we are expanding the types of articles we post and also expanding into films.
This redesign was a very, very long time coming. It necessitated the move to a new platform (we built the theme from scratch on Wordpress - nothing was salvaged from the previous version, aside from article content) and also introduced a complete overhaul for the Invert-x brand.
We're still working through some kinks and bugs (Wordpress can be mind-boggling at times), but we're pretty pleased at what we've got going so far. Pebs and I have a pile of new content in planning that we're itching to get going.
We're not gaming or film journalists and we never will be: we just write about things we find interesting.
Check out Invert-x.
Invert-x, if you don't know, is a joint project between Penguinboy and myself in the form of a op-ed website for games and gaming concepts. We write articles about games and concepts we're interested in.
Until recently, we concentrated purely on the gaming world with our 'duelling article' layout (in which we posted an article each on the same topic, which would display on the same page, side by side). Since the redesign, we are expanding the types of articles we post and also expanding into films.
This redesign was a very, very long time coming. It necessitated the move to a new platform (we built the theme from scratch on Wordpress - nothing was salvaged from the previous version, aside from article content) and also introduced a complete overhaul for the Invert-x brand.
We're still working through some kinks and bugs (Wordpress can be mind-boggling at times), but we're pretty pleased at what we've got going so far. Pebs and I have a pile of new content in planning that we're itching to get going.
We're not gaming or film journalists and we never will be: we just write about things we find interesting.
Check out Invert-x.
UPDATE: Now at 24fps with rudimentary colour correction and other effects.
It's (seriously) short film time! It's just over 2 minutes, trust me!
I totally made this! Would love to get some feedback on it as it has been quite a while since I've shot and cut video.
While I'm here, I may as well remind you that this competition is still going. Check it out and rate it as you wish (and by that I mean 'rate it five stars or get banned'). In case you've forgotten, this is the portfolio of my lovely girlfriend, Lesley, which has been entered into a contest.
It's (seriously) short film time! It's just over 2 minutes, trust me!
I totally made this! Would love to get some feedback on it as it has been quite a while since I've shot and cut video.
While I'm here, I may as well remind you that this competition is still going. Check it out and rate it as you wish (and by that I mean 'rate it five stars or get banned'). In case you've forgotten, this is the portfolio of my lovely girlfriend, Lesley, which has been entered into a contest.
TWHL! I need your help!
My girlfriend, Lesley, has entered a contest for her portfolio where the prize is a 3 month stay with 3rd Ward, an art and design centre in New York.
As much as I don't want to send her overseas AGAIN (we recently successfully got through a year in a long distance relationship), this prize is far too awesome to pass up.
So, what do you have to do? Simple: just check out this site and rate it five stars! There's no signing up or anything, but there is a time delay on subsequent ratings.
If you do vote, then you are truly awesome.
My girlfriend, Lesley, has entered a contest for her portfolio where the prize is a 3 month stay with 3rd Ward, an art and design centre in New York.
As much as I don't want to send her overseas AGAIN (we recently successfully got through a year in a long distance relationship), this prize is far too awesome to pass up.
So, what do you have to do? Simple: just check out this site and rate it five stars! There's no signing up or anything, but there is a time delay on subsequent ratings.
If you do vote, then you are truly awesome.
Oh man...new computer. I can finally run Episode 2 completely maxed out without it looking like retarded. Crysis should be a breeze too...
Hey howdy folks!
Haven't been here for a while...kinda feels like when you visit your old primary school and you're looking through classrooms. You're either thinking "Oh, the memories!" or "Glad I'm not here anymore!". Too mean? WHO KNOWS.
So, what's been happenin'? I'm asking you guys that question because I totally want to know. Well, not really, but feel free to comment away. As for me, many things have happened! Many, many things! I'm working as a graphic/ web designer now and I've got a huge backlog of different projects up my sleeve that need to be completed. One that'll be completed soon(ish) is my website redesign! Want to see it? Sure! In a sec!
Haven't been here for a while...kinda feels like when you visit your old primary school and you're looking through classrooms. You're either thinking "Oh, the memories!" or "Glad I'm not here anymore!". Too mean? WHO KNOWS.
So, what's been happenin'? I'm asking you guys that question because I totally want to know. Well, not really, but feel free to comment away. As for me, many things have happened! Many, many things! I'm working as a graphic/ web designer now and I've got a huge backlog of different projects up my sleeve that need to be completed. One that'll be completed soon(ish) is my website redesign! Want to see it? Sure! In a sec!
_>
Anyone who's had a look at my Journal every once and while will probably be familiar with the 3D project I'm doing. I started modelling in October 2007 and I'm finally animating. I've done just over 20 seconds of animation in about a week, so yay for progress!
A still shot from the first 20 seconds.
I'd give it all up. :>
Meet the cast...again!
Ok, what's changed...I've discovered a little texturing trick that allows me to put a glow around the characters. Since this is texture based and not light based, it has a relatively low hit on the render. It also matches whatever angle the camera is at, so it's very low maintenance as well. It's allowed me to remove the toon outline shader on the ghost as well, which did impact the render time somewhat: since mental ray couldn't render the outline as it originally was, I had to convert it to polygons. These polygons would then rebuild themselves everytime the camera moved (the shader matches the camera movement so you constantly see an outline: it's more commonly known as cel-shading), which added plenty to the render.
You'll notice that the colours are more vibrant this time round as well: I embedded my LCD screen profile with this image. I'll probably end up batch processing the entire animation with this colour profile, as it gives it a much more colourful feel. At least, on my screen it does.
Now, imagine this at a twilighty/night time setting, with cool cutout trees and clouds and stuff...
You'll notice that the colours are more vibrant this time round as well: I embedded my LCD screen profile with this image. I'll probably end up batch processing the entire animation with this colour profile, as it gives it a much more colourful feel. At least, on my screen it does.
Now, imagine this at a twilighty/night time setting, with cool cutout trees and clouds and stuff...
Meet the cast!
The ghost is done and rigged, the little guy with the glasses is fully modelled and ready for rigging, and the devil is still in development.
Laptop went in for repair yesterday, so I won't be online for who knows how long. I'm typing this from work, and I really shouldn't be!
I've been using the Opera Internet browsers for a long time now: since version 6 or 7. I've been a pretty dedicated user and anyone who knows me will know I'm pretty vocal about Opera's superiority over competing browsers.
Opera 9.5 was released yesterday and for the first time ever, it feels like they've taken a step in the wrong direction. The new skin that it starts with is, frankly, crap: it's messy, the icons are unclear and it generally feels uncomfortable. I found the original Opera skin and applied it, but even then I had to fiddle with the layout in order to get it as close as I could to the original version. Honestly, if you're going to make such an abrupt change, why would you completely ditch the previous layout and skin? Some people LIKED it.
The Mail and RSS are somewhat updated as well, with a better database system in order to make it faster to import and read. While I have noticed some speed boosts, the changes made to the GUI make it rather annoying and they didn't fix issues that should've been fixed ages ago. For starters, spam email still shows up in the Received folder: if it's marked as spam, why the hell isn't it seperate from the normal mail? RSS feeds are now more closely related to the Mail client. Everytime a new RSS feed comes in, Opera automatically opens the 'Feeds' section in the mail bar and doesn't close it. I access my feeds through the 'Feeds' menu in the top bar and not through the mail client, so all this does is make a mess of the mail bar.
See the Trash icon there? In Opera 9.2, the trash is shared by all mail accounts and the RSS feeds. If you emptied the trash from any account, it will empty all the trash. Now they've decided that's not good enough: you have to manually switch the mail account (using the thing under the 'Compose' button) and empty the trash for each account, including the RSS feeds.
Overall, Opera doesn't quite feel like Opera anymore. Perhaps I'm not used to it yet, but it seems to lack the stability that Opera 9.2 had. Not that crashes or anything, but it just feels...flimsy. I'm disappointed that they've changed stuff in Opera and not for the better. I only hope that other users feel the same way I do and barrack for changes in a future update.
Opera 9.5 was released yesterday and for the first time ever, it feels like they've taken a step in the wrong direction. The new skin that it starts with is, frankly, crap: it's messy, the icons are unclear and it generally feels uncomfortable. I found the original Opera skin and applied it, but even then I had to fiddle with the layout in order to get it as close as I could to the original version. Honestly, if you're going to make such an abrupt change, why would you completely ditch the previous layout and skin? Some people LIKED it.
The Mail and RSS are somewhat updated as well, with a better database system in order to make it faster to import and read. While I have noticed some speed boosts, the changes made to the GUI make it rather annoying and they didn't fix issues that should've been fixed ages ago. For starters, spam email still shows up in the Received folder: if it's marked as spam, why the hell isn't it seperate from the normal mail? RSS feeds are now more closely related to the Mail client. Everytime a new RSS feed comes in, Opera automatically opens the 'Feeds' section in the mail bar and doesn't close it. I access my feeds through the 'Feeds' menu in the top bar and not through the mail client, so all this does is make a mess of the mail bar.
Overall, Opera doesn't quite feel like Opera anymore. Perhaps I'm not used to it yet, but it seems to lack the stability that Opera 9.2 had. Not that crashes or anything, but it just feels...flimsy. I'm disappointed that they've changed stuff in Opera and not for the better. I only hope that other users feel the same way I do and barrack for changes in a future update.