Posts by Section_Ei8ht

Hmm, I wish booleans in maya didn't suck.

Ouch! Something'll come up.

well, I'm going for dual citizenship. Gonna try Canada first, seeing as how its closer and all.

Its on a nurbs plane that is flat on the bottom and near the wall, the floor smooths up to meet the wall.

Theres also a white block at a 45 degree angle going from the ground to the wall from behind the camera acting as a light reflector because the lights are not on the objects. There's two lights pointing from behind lightblockers at the back wall, and the light is being reflected from the back wall to the light reflector. With Global Illumination and Final Gather, it makes a nice diffuse effect.

I thought maybe the grain on the ground was due to a not high enough GI or FG settings. I'll try out a few things.

Maya (and I think even 3dsMax) has something similar. When I made those chess pieces, all I had to do was draw half of the outline, and then use the Revolve Command, which created the final shape. The outline was parented to the shape, so to make any changes to the piece, I just had to modify the line and the shape followed suit.

The base for all the pieces was a cake walk because of that. Only took about 5 minutes per piece (except the details on the king, queen, and rook). The only one I couldnt do that for was the knight (obviously). I had to have a friend help me with poly modelling on that one. It came down to smoothing a poly mesh.

I guess if you look at it, the only downside is that Revolve in Maya only works natively with NURBS as far as I know. So if you want a poly object, you need to convert it from a NURBS object, which can be a pain in the ass, depending on how complex the object is.

thanks guys.

Thanks fetter, I was wondering why my ground was so grainy, I thought it might have been because of settings I needed to tweak in Global Illumination.

Havent really done much modelling at all. These would be my first real models that are worth showing off. Nothing really spectacular, just chess pieces. They were supposed to be used for a promotional video for a consulting company, but the company went bust due to internal conficts before I could finish it (at least I got paid).

Was ignoring poly count and rendering optimization, so its really nothing more than show. Just going for clean and smooth. Was experimenting with rendering tecniques in the end.

NURBS, Polys, Maya, Mental Ray

[Blocked Image: http://img440.imageshack.us/img440/1623/letsplay2bp.jpg]

Comments and Crit welcome.

Quote from SinisterSquirrel

America, home of the arrogant fucktards (also known as the George Bush administration). I wish I never left Britain...

Soon as I graduate from uni, I'm leaving. Going to try either Canada or the Netherlands. (unless the next president is someone like David Palmer [yeah, right...])

same problem. I just kinda stare at my list of games instead of playing something... I think I may have a problem.

nice!

Quote from sinarty

spread the love?

gotta spread the media before you can spread the love.

When I saw that I yelled "Jesus!" rather loud. Woke my brother up who is on the other side of the house. He walked into my room all pissed, I pointed at my screen, and then he said "Jesus!".

true story. (read: excellent work)

congrats to you mom. That speed limit sign in the background makes that photo, dont know why. Just think it would seem dull without it. whatever.

sex

A good theory, Izuno, but I really dont think Sony is that smart.

My getting it will depend largly on the reviews from fellow mapcorians.

from http://gear.ign.com/articles/700/700258p1.html

Quote

Sony Slips PS3 PriceFrench VP drops the big news.

by Gerry Block

April 5, 2006 - The word is out. Yesterday, Vice President of Sony Computer Entertainment Europe George Fornay let the PS3's European price slip. According to Fornay, the PS3 will cost between 499 and 599 euros. That translates to between $613 and $736 for us in the States.

Sony has been saying that the PS3 will be expensive for months now, and Fornay followed up his blunder by insisting that these price points are a quality deal for a Blu-ray player. Nevertheless, all previous attempts at selling videogame consoles at this price point have been rather dramatic failures, even when the systems incorporated 'new' multimedia features.

There may be some hope for lower price points in America. The European market generally gets screwed in consumer electronics, like the $299 iPod selling in Europe for 299…euros. That's a huge difference. Will we see the PS3 launch in the States at $499? Let's hope so, or else we'll be looking at the 360 to carry the industry for the next 5 years.

Sony has recently stated that Fornay was making completely personal statements and speculation, and that the announcement is in no way official. On the other hand, they said the very same thing after Sir Howard Stringer, President of Sony, let slip to Variety, of all places, that the PS3 would be delayed until this fall. It would seem that Sony executives need a refresher course in minding their tongues when speaking to the press.

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I haven't even saved up enough for a 360 yet, and now its approx $600 for a PS3? I'm not sure I want Killzone 2 or MGS4 that badly. Either spend about 600 for a console that I can only play certain games on (yeah sure, great is a Blu-Ray player, too, but in about two years people will probably be saying "what's blu-ray?" cuz lets face it, Sony cant market its formats [betamax, UMD...]) or spend around the same price for a PC upgrade.

Also that last paragraph really shows (even though its an opinion) how disorganized Sony seems to be.

I had an idea for a small hl2 dm mod where one player's only weapon is antlions, and the goal is to control the antlions for as long as possible. Every other player had every other weapon at their disposal (depending on the map weapon placement) and the goal is to kill the guy with the pheripods so you can get them and control the antlions.

Kind of a Halo Juggernaught style gameplay. I dubbed it Follow the Leader.

Jez, you got any room for an American refugee?

http://www.savethemusicfan.com (press page)

Quote

NEW YORK- Canadian based artist label and management company Nettwerk Music Group has joined the fight against the RIAA on behalf of consumers who wish to download music.In August 2005, the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) filed a complaint against David Greubel for alleged file sharing. Greubel is accused of having 600 suspected music files on the family computer. The RIAA is targeting nine specific songs, including "Sk8er Boi" by Arista artist, Avril Lavigne, a Nettwerk management client. The RIAA has demanded Greubel pay a $9,000 stipulated judgment as a penalty, though it will accept $4,500 should Greubel pay the amount within a specific period of time.

"Suing music fans is not the solution, it's the problem," stated Terry McBride, C.E.O of Nettwerk Music Group.

Nettwerk became involved in the battle against the RIAA after 15 year-old Elisa Greubel contacted MC Lars, also a Nettwerk management client, to say that she identified with "Download This Song," a track from the artist's latest release. In an e-mail to the artist's web-site, she wrote, "My family is one of many seemingly randomly chosen families to be sued by the RIAA. No fun. You can't fight them, trying could possibly cost us millions. The line 'they sue little kids downloading hit songs', basically sums a lot of the whole thing up. I'm not saying it is right to download but the whole lawsuit business is a tad bit outrageous."

Chicago-based Mudd Law Offices will take on the legal battle. Charles Lee Mudd Jr. has represented individuals subpoenaed and sued by the RIAA since the suits began in late summer 2003.

Mudd stated, "In an effort to combat the continued injustice of the RIAA's consumer lawsuits, attorneys, musicians and artist managers have joined forces to defend the interests of David Greubel and his family in the United States District Court, Northern District of Texas. Together, these parties hope to demonstrate the injustice and impropriety of the RIAA Litigation Initiative." Joining the litigation team will be Scott Lundhagen, an associate with Mudd Law Offices, and as local counsel, John G. Browning of Browning & Fleishman, P.C., Dallas, Texas.

The RIAA has issued more than 1,000 subpoenas to various Internet Service Providers (ISPs). These ISPs include commercial, academic, and private providers of internet service.

"Since 2003 the RIAA has continually misused the court and legal system, engaging in misguided litigation tactics for the purpose of extorting settlement amounts from everyday people - parents, students, doctors, and general consumers of music," Mudd stated. "In doing so, the RIAA has misapplied existing copyright law and improperly employed its protections not as a shield, but as a sword. Many of the individuals targeted by the RIAA are not the 'thieves' the RIAA has made them out to be. Moreover, individual defendants typically do not have the resources to mount a full-fledged defensive campaign to demonstrate the injustice of the RIAA's actions. Today we are fortunate that principled artists and a management company, Nettwerk Music Group, have joined the effort to deter the RIAA from aggressive tactics - tactics that have failed to accomplish even the RIAA's goals.

Nettwerk Music Group has agreed to pay the total expense of all legal fees as well as any fines should the family lose the case against the RIAA.

"Litigation is not 'artist development.' Litigation is a deterrent to creativity and passion and it is hurting the business I love," insists McBride. "The current actions of the RIAA are not in my artists' best interests."

"My family owes a huge debt of gratitude to Mr. Terry McBride and his company and artists they represent," said Greubel. "Further, every music fan, every citizen owes him gratitude for his courage to stand up and say, 'This is not right!' Anyone who has been involved in the legal system knows the feeling of being forced into a position they do not believe in, simply because they did not have the resources to have their day in court. Mr. McBride has stood up, and again said, 'This is not right!' Thank God for people like him." The RIAA defines itself as "the trade group that represents the U.S. recording industry" and its mission statement includes, "to foster a business and legal climate that supports and promotes our members" creative and financial vitality. Its members are the record companies that comprise the most vibrant national music industry in the world. In support of this mission, the RIAA works to protect intellectual property rights worldwide and the First Amendment rights of artists; conduct consumer industry and technical research; and monitor and review state and federal laws, regulations and policies."

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At least somebody's trying to stand up to the RIAA and tell them that you can't replace the word "consumer" with "criminal". I'm starting to like Canada more and more every day.