update needed...

Well I've not updated for a while (thanks for reminding me warren ;) so straight to it:

First up I've posted a panoramic quicktime VR of the Botannical Gardens in Sheffield. It was created by taking about 18 shots around a central point on a hand digital camera. These were then cleaned up in photoshop by altering the lighting and levels and finally stitched together and imported into VRWorx where the quicktime movie was created.

Next up is a couple of HDR images that I have created for use. They are basically around 10 or 12 different exposure shots of a spherical object (the back of a dented ladle in my case) which are then imported into HDRshop and the HDR image generated. Download the first and second HDR images if you want to test them out in a 3D program.

Third up are some test renders of a bathroom scene I created especially to play with basic external single point lighting through a window. They were rendered using mental ray and after a lot of playing about with settings things started to make sense. Check them out (and the other bits) in the 3D section.

Next up is a test futuristic city scene I'm creating for a poster. For the first time I'm using render layers which basically mean you render different elements of the 3D scene out into layers such as a shadow layer, colour layer, specular layer etc. This means that you dont have to keep rendering the whole scene out every time you make a change, just the layer where changes have occurred. It also means you can import the layers into photoshop and play about with them to get a better effect than from the full render. Finally it means you can paint over areas in photoshop with new elements from photos or just hand painted things and this can give you a good final piece. Thanks to Jay and Steve from SimplyMaya for explaning and showing what render layers are about and how they can be used :)

I've got a few more things on the go but they can wait for another posting soon ;)

particles and dynamics...

Well I'm on the course at Leeds Met doing what I wanted. Got a few weeks to catch up on but its going ok so far. We've had lots of cool things to look into so far, panoramic VR scenes (which I should have some stuff to post on soon) and looking into particles and dynamic effects as extra work. I've just updated the 3D section with some example tests I've been playing with recently.
I've also been playing with Mudbox 3D, a new scuplting tool a bit like the sculpting parts of ZBrush but apparently a lot easier to get into. Again check out the 3D section for the first try with it on my Emperor Hadrian mesh and a second try as a freeform experiment.

no more course...

Well the specific course I was about to start this wednesday is not running. I got a phone call last week saying that it wasnt running due to lack of numbers and that they had screwed up as all the students should have been informed in December but were not. Not good when you leave a full time job ready for the course!
Anyways I'm still deciding whether to go for the 'alternative' course or whether to go back to work (maybe part-time) and enroll on a course at Animation Mentor (AM). I've spent quite a bit of time over the last few days reading AM student blogs and haven't found anything bad yet about the course or the way it is taught.

On a side note, dont buy a standard SapphireTech x1950 Pro card. The problems in one of my previous posts amounted to something on the card going pop and giving off that lovely metallic burning smell you sometimes get in PC's. Needless to say it was returned and I decided to risk going for the SapphireTech Ultimate x1950 Pro which has a Zalman top class fan and completely revised heatsink and the card is running like a dream - BF2142 and Call of Duty 2 fly along great.

wireless Windows XP 64 bit problems...

Ongoing from the graphics card problems I've (hopefully) sorted in the previous post I thought it might be useful to add some information about helping getting Windows XP 64 bit (often referred to as x64) up and running with a wireless connection.

I installed the system fine and then tried to get a Belkin F5D7050 Wireless adaptor running so I could use my current wireless connection. This is where I ran into problems. Basically the current drivers are not 64 bit compatible so you have to go through a convoluted process of finding out what chipset the adaptor has and then going to Ralink's website chipset page (who I presume manufacture the chips in most wireless adaptors) and finding the relevant 64 bit compatible drivers, for the chipset not specifically for the adaptor itself. Tip: the entries in the table on the page are links although that isn't very clear. After a lot of playing I still couldn't get it working so decided to try a WUSB54GS Wireless-G USB Network Adapter with Speedbooster. This again didnt have 64 bit drivers but some nice guy on the linksys forums has put some unofficial drivers for the adaptors on their website here.

This solved the problem and got me online fast so thanks to the chap on the forum for making them available :o)
If I find any more problems/solutions then I'll post them up here.

graphics card woes...

It's been a long time since I've posted here - blame that on learning 3D Studio Max ready for my masters course starting in January.
Anyways onto the subject in hand - namely the sapphire radeon x1950 pro graphics card. I bought one of these last week for a new PC and seemingly installed it fine. I kicked up a couple of games and within 2 minutes of playing the screen went into standby mode (black screen, no signal message) and the fan on the graphics card spun up to full noise. After lots of searching and nearly sending the card back (RMA which I presume stands for something like return to manufacturer) I found the following thread with lots of information on the card and the problem: here.

The current fix: I installed Rivatuner (http://www.guru3d.com/ - then a halfway down the right column) and went in the settings and changed the fan settings from auto to 80% (just an arbitrary figure I picked). This basically means that the fan is always running at 80% of its speed. I then kicked up a few games on the highest settings and ran them for a while. Everything now seems to run ok and the crashes have stopped.
You can actually run the rivatuner software in your system tray so it might be an idea to have 2 profiles in the settings, one for desktop use where it is set to auto and one for games where you run the fan at a high setting (e.g, 80 or 100%). This is just so that when you are browsing on the net you dont have the fan belting out noise and wearing itself out prematurely.
Another tip for people who want to go further is to actually take the default fan off the card and add a custom one. Additionally you can buy little VMU (or is it VRM) heatsinks which can be attached to the chips on the card and help dissipate the heat that builds up. The only problem with doing that is that you will invalidate your warranty so I wouldnt realistically advise this unless you know what you are doing and you dont mind losing the warranty.

current work in progress...

In Italy I decided to model some Roman busts (heads) in 3D and see if I could make them realistic. The first stages of the first head I am modelling can be seen in the gallery and is based on a member of the Brutii family. The second will be the emperor Hadrian (of Hadrians Wall fame) and will also be shown in the gallery.
More updates to follow...

married bliss...

Well not much in the way of 3D updates recently as I got married and spent a couple of weeks in Sorrento in Italy. The place was fantastic and we did all the usual tours such as climbing Mount Vesuvius, Pompeii, Herculaneum (like Pompeii but smaller), Rome, Napoli (Naples to us), Positano (very scenic village built down a very steep area of coast) and more.
I've now got a few good shots of some of the Roman busts (heads to you and me) and will probably have a crack at modelling them in 3D. It should be a challenge as I haven't modelled a head for a very long time...

SimplyMaya success...

Well after a year's worth of SimplyMaya challenge competitions (each runs over two months) I've managed to win one!
The challenge was to create an animation cycle (looping, e.g, a walk or run) and/or an animation sequence. First I tried to create my own animation rig for a walk cycle which is used to control your character. After a month it wasn't working too well so I switched to a free rig called Lowman (version 1.2) and started on a punch sequence using movie reference of myself punching into the air. After a long time getting the main areas animated I then went into the Maya graph editor and spent ages upon ages simplifying and smoothing off every part of the animation cycle.
I was really pleased with the final result and was surprised to win in the challenge. Anyway thanks to SimplyMaya for putting the challenges on and encouraging people to learn more about 3D :)

animation updates to gallery...

I've just finished the latest SimplyMaya challenge which was to create an animation cycle/sequence. It's only the second animation I've tried but it was great fun! Check out the 3D gallery page for the results.

Plone howto's and quick help tips...

If you use or are learning to use Plone (Open Source Content Management System) and like me need to remember how to set things up again many months later then you might find my plone tutorials helpful. Each tutorial listed has at some point been encountered by myself. They 'may' apply to plone on Solaris, Linux (Suse) and Windows as I have installed on each of those systems.
Any problems, pointers or help then contact me via my feedback form