Gym Rundown
Because of a running injury, I had knee arthroscopy last March. The surgery was a success, but now I have to strengthen the muscles connected to my knee and do some general conditioning before I can get back in the running shoes. I normally exercise either at home or outside, but I feel that working out in a controlled environment during the rehab process is the way to go. With that in mind, it was off to find a gym.
Here in Daly City, CA, there are plenty of gyms within shouting distance: each with their own rates and perks. I was in no rush, so I decided to sample a few gyms before making a decision. I tried four gyms, 24-Hour Fitness, Fitness USA, Planet Fitness, and The Fitness Core.
Tips & Tricks: More memory for 3ds Max
here’s a bitmap error that comes up in 3ds Max when using exceedingly large texture files or fairly long image sequences in the scene. The error usually brings up this window:
I ran into this error recently with a rig that’s using more memory than 3ds Max’s current threshold. I did some poking around the Autodesk forums and came across a solution that seemed to work. Read the rest of this entry »
GTA IV == too good
Wow! I can’t believe Rockstar outdid themselves. Good thing I finished up my latest project at work to alot for some free time to appreciate this gem.
Tips & Tricks: Animated Texture in 3ds Max
3ds Max is relatively new to me and I’m very much used to the way maya does a lot of things. To get an animated texture to work in Maya, you simply make a material and assign an image sequence or movie to it. Max also does this but there is a snag.
When importing an animated texture in either package, the default is to sync the texture’s animation with the scene’s time slider. For the particular project I’m working on, I need to to have the frames of the texture controlled by a control in the rig so the animator can play with it (the texture in this case being the pupil of a cartoon eye). Max’s bitmap has no way of reconnecting the active frame of the texture. There was once a plug-in to achieve this feature, but it’s not compatible with 2008. Running out of time, I came up with a ghetto solution that still does the trick.
Final Four Basketball
This Saturday was the NCAA Final Four. The games took place in San Antonio this year; pitting all of the top seeds against one another: UCLA against Memphis and Kansas taking on North Carolina. College hoops is always fun to watch this time of year, the fans are passionate, the players and coaches are intense, and even the cheerleaders are amped. The first game to start the day was UCLA Bruins against Memphis Tigers. Now, the Tigers are a physically intimidating team, they’re tall, aggressive, and have a good bench. The Bruins, on the other hand, are good on the boards and that goes a long way this late in the season. The game was pretty close throughout, but the Tigers pulled away in second half with a big run that resulted in Kevin Love getting dunked on by Douglas Adams.
The Incredible Hulk Game Trailer
I did the some of the rigging for this latest project from the talented Edge of Reality. A trailer was released this past week on Gametrailers TV showing Hulk doing what he does best.
Pirates of the Caribbean Online
Released: October 2006
Client: Disney
Software: Maya
I contributed to this MMORPG for the PC in late 2006 and a bit into next year. I rigged various NPCs and monsters for Pirates Online, including Davy Jones, Barbossa, and his monkey: Jack. Massive Black also worked on animation, models, and textures for this title.
If FREE gaming is your thing, give the game a try.
Titan Quest: Immortal Throne Box Art
Date Complete: October 2006
Client: Iron Lore Entertainment
Modeling: Barringer Fox III Wingard
Texturing: Jessica Hook
Copyright © IronLore Entertainment
This rig I did for Iron Lore around October of 2006 and was one of my first professional projects coming out of school. Since the character was only being used for still images, I kept the rig full FK skeleton and I focused the bulk of my time on skinning this rather high-res model. The armor is attached through a combination of wrap deformers and constraints where appropriate. Upon completion, the assets were given to Iron Lore, who posed and rendered the models for their ads, website, and game cover.
Tank Rig pt 1. (the rig)
The Goals
- Three-pronged project demonstrating rigging, modeling, and shading
- Robust tread system that dynamically conforms to terrain
- Secondary motion for the various parts
Read the rest of this entry »
Tank Rig pt 2. (the scripted UI)
Overview
The UI for the tank handles the process of creating, editing, and animating the treads across terrain. For creation, the user simply selects the geometry in the scene that acts as the terrain, and press the “constrain” button. Procedures are then executed that creates an array of geometry-constrained locators that the tread is later point constrained between. Also, a data-structure is inserted in the node of the tank’s controls to keep track of the geometry, the clusters driving the tread and the names of the locators.
