3-D Max my own structure design

So here are my designs for our building design. using ideas from japanese, modern and spacey/futuristic architecture, as you can see from my intial diagram i have combined the 3 to make some kind of futuristic japanese battle space station. i have labled how i am going to assemble each section in 3-D max, and how i am going to edit/modify it.

so here, within 45 minutes i was to construct my design in 3-D studio max. I really enjoyed doing this however it did take awhile to incoorperate all the tools we had learnt to use in the previous hours, and although there are many thing i didnt manage to achieve (such as the correct shape for the towers, the cylinders going around the station etc) it looks similar to my design and in 45minutes of work i am quite pleased with it. I look forward to being able to do more with the software soon enough; below the image of my work however is a comparision with some "proffesional" 3-D structure model

As you can see the model is simple but well designed, of course it has textures (etc) and it doesnt really resemble mine (you cant find many 3-Dmodels of japanese battle stations...) it is a good example for modeling done very well and simply on 3-D Max. (please note there are many more impressive 3-D models across the web, however this is one of the few i could find actually done and described in 3-D max ^^

3-D Max - my first castle

Today we learrnt to add an editable mesh to our box, allow us to edit the Vertex's, Faces, edges and polygons of our shape. We then Created a modifery for the battlements and walls (Taper) to play around with the shape, we were then tasked with creating our own front wall/gate :) (quickly) below is an image of my castle enjoy.

 I really enjoyed using the software, and i can see how it is used to create proffesional models and characters and i really look forward to learning more, i will be uploading a castle we design in the future, i will compare it to this first one aswell. 

Mels work, desktop project mindmap

After looking at some examples from work in previous years, I signed up to "mindmeister" online, (mind mind making website, free). I set up several categories and added some images and detail to each, its not as complex as some as the ones from last year and i missed out a couple of things (such as font style), however i am happy with it and it has given me a few ideas ^^ below is the image (exported from the program)

***NOTE the image is not the newest and doesnt contain the changes mentioned below as of yet***

*UPDATE*
Added section about font, Various needed items (media suite words etc), and added a few more bits to the other sections ^^

Animation homework: Examples of Rollover buttons

In class we learnt how to make simple "rollover" buttons in Flash, bascially, if you move your mouse over one of these it changes, this can be colour, image, animation etc etc. Here are some examples i have found: (i have tried to link some, however it doesnt seem to work, so i will link the pages that use them ^^)

http://www.quackit.com/web_design/rollover_images.cfm

http://www.crawforddirect.com/roll.htm

another example (which I completely didn't think of screenshotting at the time) on my email, was an advertisment about university which showed a large pile of book about uni, if you moused over them, they would fall to the group in a pile and show text would show up :)

Stop motion homework

Stop motion definitions:
1. Persistence of Vision (explanation found at: http://animation.about.com/od/glossaryofterms/g/pervision_def.htm)
       "Persistence of Vision" refers to the phenomenon where the retina retains an image for a brief split-second after the image was actually seen, and lends itself to animation by fostering the illusion of motion when we view images in closely-timed sequence to one another. We don't notice the fractional skips between images because that persistence fills in the momentary gap to make the motion seem seamless.


2. Frame Rates (information found at: http://www.fastvideoindexer.com/knowledgebase/framerate.html)

      The frame-rate says how many images of a movie are displayed every second a movie is played. The higher frame rate a movie has the smoother objects move in the movie. You measure frame rate in frames per seconds (fps). Frame rate in game is the same thing. The only difference between movie frames and game frames are that movie frames are created as you play for a movie they are just recreated from a file.
      Frame rate is one of the factors affecting movie file size and quality. The update can be interlaced or non interlaced, progressive.

3-D first made character from my concept

Below are images of my own made character in 3-D studio max, we were giving an hour learning more of the tools and shapes, another hour then to come up with the concept for a character, and then using only Standard and Extended primitives create our character in 45 minutes, here is my spear wielding kitteh!

 I had fun creating my model, rushed a little bit and i didnt have time to add extra shapes for much detail but overall im fairly happy with the result for my first attempt at a real model.

3-D Studio Max - My first robot :D

This image, is of 3-D studio Max; you can see the 4 screens we use in this program for the 3-D modelling, We have used various shapes to create a simple robot, clone, manipulate, re-shape (etc), and then personalise it (i.e. my has spiky hair and is waving!)

enjoy :D

U19 - Desktop Genre Collage

Below is a picture of my "gaming genre collage" containing cut out froms the following genres: War, Sci-Fi, Horror and fantasy. all these images were cut out and collected from gaming magazines such as Edge. (i would also compare it to other collages however on the net i can only seem to find ones from other people, fan-made, not genre based, so i can't really compare no-related images)  Each genre has notable features showing which it is:

Sci-Fi: usually set in space, involving ships, aliens and planets

War: usually set in World War settings, or modern conflicts, or even creating conflict, the main feature being, "real" guns and real settings (usually)

Horror: basically a game that makes the player "squirm" weither it messes with you head, or makes you jump, or is just completely crazy, if it makes you scream inside, its horror ;)

Fantasy: (often) a fictional world/setting, usually involving monsters (such as orcs or dragons) swords, magic and often bright, vibrant (and usually unrealistic) characters and story.

In my opinion many of the games and genres mix and blent in various games, (i.e. crysis could be shown as war and Sci-Fi; or dead space is horror and Sci-Fi)

So in war we have games such as counter-strike, metal gear soild etc different types of war games (FPS and stealth) but war nonetheless (anyone who knows games will know that most types of gameplay can be made into each genre, with only some having difficulty).

In the Horror we have: Dead Space, Alone in the dark, Alien and Bioshock
In Sci-Fi:  Crysis, Too human, Fallout 3, Halo 3, Mass effect.
Fantasy: Final fantasy crysis core, heavenly sword, the witcher, soul calibur 4, fire emblem, guild wars, assassins creed, devil may cry 4, ninja gaiden 2, Prince of Persia.

As i said many games make use of several genres, however most seem to have an overarching theme; i.e. Mass Effect is set in a Sci-Fi setting, Counter-Strike is modern war, Alone in the dark is... a man... alone in the dark... scary...   and finally! the witcher is set ina fantasy world with monsters sorcery and the like.

(fantasy being my personal favourite, but i enjoy all forms of genre when its done well :)

3-D models: update

One thing i just found, and a game i cant believe i forgot! league of legends is a free... RPG-like, RTS-like... MMO-like game, its bascially Dota (popular warcraft 3 mod defence of the anicients) made into a real game, whilst the game already has a great style (similar to WoW but unique) they have announced in the coming year some major updates, especially graphics wise; below is an image of my favourite character newly rendered with some of the new things they have got out of their engine, enjoy :)

http://eu.leagueoflegends.com/board/attachment.php?attachmentid=5494&d=1284664508

also, visit
http://www.lol-europe.com/
sign up and play for free! (i need myself a good team "cough" ;) 

3-D models - Favourites etc

3-D is a huge part of gaming today (even though 2-D is hugely popular, and has been done really well in recent years i.e. Blazblue) There are 1000s of 3-D models are made for each game, 1000s of loveable and hateful characters and trash, below are just some of my favourite models, in cinematics or otherwise, why i like them, and there style:

1. Fire Emblem Radiant Dawn cinematic: Ikes model

http://purenintendo.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/10/fire-emblem-radiant-dawn-20071012111931227.jpg

This 3-D cinematic is from a Wii game, so even though the graphical power of the Wii is lack luster compared to its competition, it still delievers very good cinematic models, that are, not hugely detailed but show of character (expression,emotion etc) aswell as ,in this case, getting an anime-like style across

2.  Starcraft 2 Zealot Unit model (in-game)

http://www.starcraft2.com.au/zealot.gif

                                                      One of the many ground units found in starcraft 2, being an RTS unit, although there is detail it isnt lavished in it, as yourcommanding so many from so high, also considering the comparison from different spec PCs, you can have some looking very basis or very details, either way: the unit portrays the protoss race very well, the religious "zealot"/monk type look, golden armour very alien shape wise but with human similarities and to top it off lazer swords, concept art for these is amazing and the model has been depicted very well.

3.  screenshot of Okami (in-game)

http://media.photobucket.com/image/okamiscreenshot/nikuluffy/okami.jpg

                                                                                         Again another Wii game, okami show graphics are not everything and that the Wii can produce a beautiful 3-D game in its own right; okami shows a very colourful and arty style, that is often just simply gorgeous to look at, the character models are detailed, as is the world; beautiful 3-D art

4. World of Warcraft (screenshot and cinematic comparision)

http://i.thottbot.com/ss/s/56469.jpg

http://www.freakygaming.com/gallery/game_wallpapers/world_of_warcraft/orc_cinematic_art.jpg

Warcraft is a huge 3-D world,and although not the most graphically impressive it has a good near comic/fantasy style that allows such a huge player base, that (for the most part) love and enjoy this living 3-D world, but it isnt everything Blizzard (the makers) can do, below is an image from the game itself, next to a screenshot of the 3-D cinematic, showing that if they wished, warcraft could pack one hell of a punch in the graphics market, especially on the PC:





5. Dragon Age: origins (in-game screenshot)

http://www.pcgameshardware.com/screenshots/original/2009/02/zoomer1.jpg

Dragon age is a Multiplatform RPG fantasy game, making huge use of many many 3-D models and compared to most games the models faces are especially good and detials (a trait bioware are becoming very good with) most models themselves smooth for the most part (odd error with hair etc, showing nothings perfect in even the biggest of games) and give off a very good sense of each character and race, especially with the models size and proportions (i.e. elves,dwarfs and the other races are recognizeable and iconic)

well thats my list, i hope you enjoyed reading it as much as i enjoyed writing it in this lesson :) although some things in there are opinion, there is fact aswell, leave some comments and tell me what you think ^^

Lesson One: Crazy Town

Today after creating the blog and learning a few things about it, we moved onto try8ing out 3D studio max, Chris (our 3d teacher and personal tutor, awesome guy) got us to play around with the shapes and options, rotating, moving etc, whilst using the 4 different screens in studio max; everyone in the group just started playing around with shapes, making... towns? fun stuff and i can't wait to learn more about the software and really get to grips with it in the future :D

  "looks like... city..." - Rob Sykes

A bit about me

well im joe, im 17, a triplet and have a younger brother.

i love video games, anime, warhammer, my friends and take alot of pride in who i am ^^
as far as games go i love most genres apart fom sports or racing (go outside you lazy people!) some of my favourite games are listed below, along with one of my all time favourites :D

- Legend of Zelda, ocarina of time
- World of Warcraft
- Devil May Cry 4
- Dragon Age: Origins
- The Witcher
- Starcraft 2
- the Halo Series
- Dawn of War 2
- Super mario 64
- ninja gaiden 2
- Mass effect series
- BlazBlue
- Street Fighter Series
- Soul calibur 4
 the list goes on and on but one of my all time favourites is from a series of games that isnt too well known outside of japan by the name of fire emblem: this game is Fire Emblem raidiant dawn for Wii, its a grid like tactics game, with anime like characters and RPG like level ups, items and builds, below is an image and a trailer :) id reccoment this game and its pre-dessessor: Fire emblem path of raidance on gamecube

http://media.photobucket.com/image/Fire%20emblem%20radiant%20dawn/_Twilight_Vampire_/Fire%20Emblem/normal_Fire_Emblem_Radiant_Dawn.jpg

A clip/trailer for the return of the gamecube games main character, i love this moment in-game :D

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V2_H9KZWZeA&feature=related

The Beginning

Hello, this is me and this is my blog ^^

This year im starting a 2 year course in shipley collage for BND games development, this blog will be updated on a regular basis with the content i create on the course and who knows maybe a few other things; hope you all enjoy reading this as much as i enjoy the course;

Rememeber folks

"no matter how harsh the winter, the spring will always come"