Where did I go?

Well, I've been busy with freaking schoolwork. I hate traditional school with a passion.

But besides that, I've been slowly, almost standstill-like, working on Ruiner, and a few other things.

My Birthday passed on May 17th, and the only gift I asked for was Maya 2008, and I got that... Plus three other great softwares. If you're in college, or anywhere between grades k-12 you can get great professional software at a discount price. The only downside is that you're not allowed to commercially use this software (for making retail games, movies, whatever). But this software is totally the same as the commercial counter-parts, the only difference is the license.

Check out the software you can get at student discounts at http://www.studica.com/.

But, I didn't know that Maya 2008 comes with 3 other software packages, in a "SuperPack". It comes with Autodesk MotionBuilder (formerly Alias), Combustion, Cleaner XL. If you're interested in learning about this software, look it up on the internet... I hate to sound so rude, but I don't have time right now to post info about the software. :(

Like I said, I'm short on time, so I'll talk about other news.

I was trying out new tools in Maya 2008 (my other version is 6.5), and I started modeling a base mesh that I plan on re-using for stuff. Then I exported to .obj into ZBrush to test some ZBrush tools that I'd never used, specifically Transpose. But then I started having fun with the sculpting tools, like I usually do in ZBrush. Here's the result:



I sculpted on a work in progress base model that is just that, a work in progress. There's no head, neck, hands, bottom half. It even had n-sided polygons at the bottom, which is why you see holes in the bottom of the geometry where ZBrush dumped those n-sides when it divided the mesh.

And I've had a mod idea that I've been concepting on for a while. I plan on setting up a mod team with a couple of local buddies of mine and starting within the next week, maybe. It's a great idea with a great plot and I can't wait to get started; I'll probably start a blogger specifically for the project. Whether it'll be public or not is still up in the air.

That's all I have time to update right now. Bye!

My Desktop...

Meh... I was bored. I'm running a 22" Asus 16:10 at 1680x1050, and a 17" ViewSonic at 1280x1024 in Dual View.

 

Hulu

Well, Hulu is this awesome website that I had been waiting on to go public for a few weeks. It offers free TV to Internet users from the U.S. (I'm not sure about others). While this doesn't have every TV show broadcasted on American television, it does have a crap load of awesome shows! Such as:

• The Office
• Firefly
• Family Guy
• Bones
• Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles
• Battlestar Galactica
• And more...

(The ones in Bold are my favorite shows.)

Both TV shows and feature films on the website have advertisements. The only thing that upsets me is that it's all not in HD. And the only HD videos they have right now seem to just be movie trailers.

You can even embed shows in your websites. As you can see here, I've added an episode from one of my favorite shows called The Office; Season 4, Episode 1 "Fun Run" :

Windows Live Software

Wow! I have to say, Microsoft is pushing out some amazingly neat Live initiative. I'm usually a big fan of 3rd party stuff, but jeez, this is some neat stuff!

First of all, there is neat new Live Mail software, I suppose it's meant to replace Outlook Express. I was using Mozilla ThunderBird before, and what I liked about that software is that I could check my regular e-mail and my g-mail account too, but my only disappointment was it was close to impossible to get your hotmail account on there, and I have one. But of course, with Live Mail I can check all three. It's got a really simple and clean menu at the top, RSS Feeds, and junk filters that start working well right away. It's got more features, but I don't really know all of them...

Another software I'm using is Live Writer. It does exactly as it says, but it's not Wordpad. Live Writer seems to be meant for blogs! It's really amazing! You would think that, since it's Microsoft, they would make it so the software only worked with their Live Spaces website, but it looks like they've worked hard so it works with pretty much every major and minor blogging site out there, including Blogger!

Right now I am writing my blog right here in Windows Live Writer. I have a preview of what the blog post is going to look like as I am typing, because the software looked over my webpage and understands it's visual settings of what it should look like. You can also program it to host images and video to an FTP server as you create your blog. So if you imbed an image in your blog post, then go to publish, it will go to your FTP and host the images in the blog post, then link them for viewing. There's more features, but I'm not 100% familiar with these neat stuff!

There is other Live Software stuff, and I encourage you to at least check it out before saying "Microsoft sux the uber big one and I don't want anything to do with them."

Then again you might have just said that and only read a few words from this blog post...

/. News 2

I received one of my DVDs. It was Chet ZAR's. I quickly opened the packaged and slipped into my drive, and was entranced by the tutorial that was making it's way through my skull and into my brain...
The DVD was great, and the techniques I learned were invaluable and I've already pretty much memorized all the important info. (Or at least what I felt was important.)
But I'm somewhat upset that my Keith Thomspon DVD hasn't come in the mail yet! They were both set at 2 day shipping, and were ordered on Tuesday. I received the Chet ZAR DVD on Thursday but did not recieve the Keith Thomspon DVD. And I didn't get it Friday or Saturday. So I'm looking forward to Monday, of course.
This sucks because Keith Thompson is not only a great artist, but the way he draws in pencil is very similar to the way I draw, or at least the final render (minus the painting) looks very close to my work. I don't mean in conceptual form, but in the look and feel of the penciling.
He also covers the traditional side of his art, he starts from a sketch on pencil and paper, then scans it into Photoshop and talks about how to clean up the image for Digital Painting. This is an important section to me. But of course it's not near as important as his painting techniques, which I'm excited to learn, because I really want to paint many of my concepts.
So I anxiously await Monday.

In news related to the development my mod Ruiner: We're getting very close to finishing up the work to release the first three levels of our mod. Things are really looking great and it's definitely fun working on the project. But to be honest, I can't wait until it's done; not just to see how people enjoy the work that has been done, but also because I really want to get work on some my own personal projects I've been constantly thinking about.
My personal stuff consists of things that I'd like to make in my 3D/2D programs, and take them into game engines. I've been thinking about working with the Unreal Engine, but I've worked with id software tech for such a long time that I may just use that. Many of the stuff I have in mind is environment art (even though I usually do characters), and a character (maybe more). It's all sci-fi that's been bouncing in my head for the past few months.
No matter what, I can't wait to get plugging away at those ideas.

/. News

I have some news I suppose. I just finished some work on a 3D character on the mod Ruiner that I have been working on. Development seems to be moving well with that mod, I'm pretty happy with the talented team I'm with!
I also just ordered a couple of DVDs to help me with my struggle to teach myself digital painting. Check it out:

This one by Chet ZAR: http://www.thegnomonworkshop.com/dvds/cza01.html It looks to be pretty promising in the way of painting some line-art purely in Photoshop, which is what I've been looking for. Most DVDs, especially at the Gnomon Workshop, seem to only do Photoshop and Corel Painter. I don't have Corel Painter, and I don't plan on getting the software, so I'd rather just stick to Photoshop for now.

And this one by Keith Thompson: http://www.thegnomonworkshop.com/dvds/kth01.html I've seen a lot of Keith Thompson's art in books that I own and at his website. He's a very talented artist, and the way that he pencil sketches looks strongly similar to the way I do it (purely coincidence), so besides him just being a great artist (which he definitely is), the similar drawing style attracted me to the DVD he created.

I'm counting the seconds by until these two DVDs arrive, I've been waiting to learn how to paint for quite a while (especially digitally)... In fact I've wanted to since ideas started popping in my head... So basically the moment I split into two atoms is the first time in which I wanted to paint.
I have more updates to post, but it's late and I have to get up tomorrow! So goodnight!

Welcome to 2008.

Well, here I am! I didn't post over the holidays because... Well they were the holidays and I spent them with my family! I hope you all had a fine Christmas and a Happy New Year!
I did have a pretty nice Christmas. I got exactly what I asked for.... *Drum Roll*... A Razer Boomslang Collector's Edition 2007. The Razer Boomslang was the first Razer mouse, and it was the original - the first - gaming mouse to ever hit the street. Originally, it was a ball mouse, it came out with 1000 dpi at first, and it was the only mouse with that much dpi. They later came out with a mouse with 2000 dpi, still just a ball mouse. It was the first true gaming mouse I ever used, and it was my favorite mouse mold. It was big, heavy (compared to most mice today) and it fit my hand perfect (I have big hands). No other mouse has ever fit me like the original Boomslang did.
I was practically at tears when I heard Razer went out of business, some time after the Boomslang became the most popular mouse on the market. The mouse soon became out-dated, optical mice taking over with dpi matching and surpassing the Boomslang. But I stuck to my old ball mouse. With my Boomslang ball mouse, I played Quake 3, Tribes 2, and Counter-Strike Source and I was very accurate, all thanks to my Razer Boomslang.
You can imagine how excited I got when I heard Razer was coming back, and bringing with it a new optical mouse, the Diamondback.

I'm a hardcore Razer fan, and I love the Boomslang.

The Razer Boomslang Collector's Edition 2007 is limited to 10,000 units worldwide; my Boomslang is number 291 out of that 10,000. It fits just like the original, but with some big technical and visual differences. The mouse it self is made from the same mold as the original Boomslang, but instead it has a titanium finish, laser etched Razer logo on the top, with lights on the bottom of the mouse and on the middle mouse button. The ball component has been replaced with Razer's 3G optical laser, 1800 dpi. (I was surprised it didn't get the Lachesis' 4000 dpi, but I only play at 1600 dpi so I don't mind.)
The mouse is awesome. And it is great to play all my games with. I do still, however, play with my Tempest Blue Razer Copperhead; I'm trying not to wear out the mouse feet on the Boomslang CE because you can't buy anymore, they come with some spares in the packaging but after you use those, that's it. Mine are already scratching against my aluminum Razer eXactMat =/. I love both my Copperhead, and my old sexy friend the Boomslang CE.

Also for Christmas, my parents got me Unreal Tournament 3, another gift I asked for. I originally got it just for modding purposes, as I played the demo and disliked it just as much as I disliked UT2004. (I hated that game!) But surprisingly enough, I'm really enjoying UT3!!! I do look forward to putting in some of my own custom models and textures and see how good I can make my assets looks, but for now I'm just enjoying playing the game. There are also some mods I'm watching and waiting for, like Renegade 2007, a Command & Conquer Renegade remake/better version mod for UT3, as well as some other mods.
If you haven't guessed already, I'm a pretty big fan of the classics, and the overall classic style of Quake deathmatch games. I still enjoy the old deathmatch and CTF games more than I enjoy anything else I've come across. That's not to say I don't enjoy those games, they are fun and all, but I just love Deathmatch, Team Deathmatch, CTF (especially CTF), not to mention one of my favorite Q3 mods, Freeze Tag! I do miss Assault mode in UT3 though, and that's what I missed in UT2004 (it wasn't the same as the first UT). The original Unreal Tournament was and still is my favorite of all time, I just loved assault; and my family and I always had awesome LAN parties playing UT (that was back when Broadband wasn't completely available).

So what are the games I'm playing right now? Well, I'm listing them here, the games I play most are listed at the top:

1. Enemy Territory: Quake Wars
2. Unreal Tournament 3
3. The Witcher
4. Gears of War for Windows (I just beat it, so consider this off the list.)

I wish I could post some pictures of my Boomslang, but unfortunately the LCD lamps on my Olympus Stylus camera are broken, and I have to get the money to send it in to repair it before I can really use it! I plan on posting some actual photos from my day to day life if I can ever get that camera fixed. I'd love to show off the gear I use.

Speaking of the gear I use, I'll list them here!

Razer Boomslang CE 2007 (# 291 out of 10,000)
Razer Copperhead
Razer Tarantula (keyboard)
Zalman 5.1 Surround Sound headphones

My gaming computer's Hardware (hand build PC):

Intel Core 2 Duo e6600
2 Gigs of OCZ RAM
Gigabyte MoBo
EVGA 8800 GTX
Creative SoundBlaster X-Fi Fatal1ty
Western Digital 250 GB Hard-Drive (I'm not sure of the RPM)
650W Antec power supply.

Oh, and one last thing, I found out I will be attending QuakeCon for the 4th time this year (4th year in a row as well). I started going to QuakeCon in 2005, and I just love it. I hope to be going with a group of people I know online to BYOC, and I'll make sure and bring my Boomslang CE to show off :D.