Labyrinth for N64!

So I made a mock up of a game I've been designing called "Labyrinth". All the artwork is by me, and the game ideas too.

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Test animation with my "Frank" rig and my trombone model.

The title says it all! The render settings messed up (hence the LQ) and I don't have time to re-render it right now.

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Chacob Games

Hey guys, I just started up a new YouTube series on the F2P Urban Terror. Please like, comment, and sub!

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Desk render - 45 mins.

So we did an SMC (speed modelling competition - come join in at #smc on Freenode IRC!) today, modelling our desks/monitors/etc. Here's mine! Click to view the full image.

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Glowing intro

Here is just a simple screenshot of a video intro I am creating for me and a friend's YouTube channel (He's called Chay, I'm called Jacob... Chacob... we're so cool!) So yeah, it smokes, it booms, and it falls, and it smashes!

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A blend a Day keeps the doctor away!

So. As of today, I'll be updating the blog a bit more; I've started a collaboration with some friends to do a bit of creativity inspired work every day. We're posting over here: This means that I'll be working on stuff a bit more now, less sitting around and doing nothing! Here's the result of the first day. A really really quick one from me for today, but the point is I did it. I like this idea, I find it very motivating. Even if I did only do something small! I think I'll be uploading a YouTube video like this, as it's actually faster for me to do than create a whole new render.

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Just a new update to the blog theme.
Cleaner, slicker, and faster.
Enjoy!

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Sinopticon - review

Hello everyone!
I'm currently doing an Arts Award at my local college of art. I have to build up a portfolio of work to be displayed and marked, and if I pass I will achieve Bronze Arts Award, which is the equivilant to half a an GCSE. I can then go on to do Silver, which is equivelant to a an GCSE (or there about) and finally Gold, which will get me UCAS points!

There are certain criteria that have to be fulfilled, one of which is to write a review on an exhibition and get feedback on it. So, I'm going to write it here in hope that I get some comments.

The art exhibition I recently went to is set up in four different locations in Plymouth, UK, three of which I visited; Plymouth Arts Centre, Plymouth City Museum and Art Gallery, Plymouth College of Art Gallery and Saltram House, which I didn't visit.

The exhibition is called 'Sinopticon'. Sinopticon is (in brief), all about how Western art and culture has been influenced by Chinese art and culture - Chinoiserie. The name of the exhibition also tells you a bit about it; Sino, meaning China, and opticon, from optics, which is to do with seeing. Sinopticon is work from contemporary artists who like I said, are showing how Chinese culture, art, and industry are all part of our everyday lives.

Personally my favourite part of the exhibition was in Plymouth Museum and Art Gllery - sculptures of famous Western icons such as Darth Vader, Smurfs and My Little Pony that had all be changed for some Chinese influence. For example, Darth Vader's helmet had a Chinese pagoda (the multi layered shelter/houses) fused to the top, as an extension to the helmet that was already there.

The exhibition was not only sculpture though; there was photography, film, and painting/drawing all involved. However, some of the film was very abstract, and I struggled to understand it!

Unfortunately I wasn't allowed to take photos in the galleries, so I only have a few here that are from the Sinopticon website. Sorry about that!

Please let me know what you think in a comment!

Photos

and some other examples of Chinoiserie:

I hope to hear from you in the comments!

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RIP - Lucas Bode

This is just a short post, in memory of a great Blender animator.

Three days ago, on the 22nd of March 2012, a talented young 19 year old from Brazil passed away.

Lucas Bode was a talented 3D animator who was a member of the FluidAnims and StickPage animation community. Lucas was the first member to enter the RHG competition using 3D animation, rather than 2D Flash animation.

I spoke to him a couple of times, regarding stick animation in Blender; he was a great help, a nice guy to talk to, funny, and easy to befriend.

You will be sorely missed Lucas. RIP.

Lucas' DeviantArt: [link]
Lucas' YouTube: [link]

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Merry Christmas!

I'd just like to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas! I quickly whipped up this render for you, starting with Andrew Price's tutorial on snow. Don't complain, I know there are mistakes! Have a lovely day everyone!

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Large update!

So I'm going to be doing a large update, coming in a couple of posts; one today, one tomorrow, and so on. So basically, as I'm on Christmas holidays now, I can do more work in Blender. So my first update: A vehicle!! And finished, unlike my Porsche, sorry about that. I made this sleigh for a competition on blenderartists, where the theme was "Santa's sleigh". I decided, heigh ho, Santa needs a new sleigh now and then, surely?! Here is my "modern" take on his sleigh:




Some things I love about it, some things not so much....although as it's my first render using Blender's new renderer, Cycles. Cycles is a very nice ray tracing render engine developed by Brecht van Lommel, a developer of blender. Cycles is a huge step up from the Blender Internal renderer, allowing real time rendering inside the 3D view port! Cycles also makes use of GPU rendering, rather than just CPU, (which it can also do). Until tomorrow!

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Kitchen scene!

Yes everybody, it's almost Christmas! I break up on the 15th Dec, (tomorrow for me), and I'll be able to do more updates over the Christmas holidays. Anyhow, as I haven't been updating, I thought I'd give you this!



It's nowhere near finished, as you can see, and there are a lot of problems with the render itself. I will post updates to this. I'm not going to put it in the old renders section, as it's not finished yet. Keep an eye open for more updates, there should be more now!
Till next time...

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I'm still here!

Yes, I haven't died, I do still exist! I'm really busy at the moment, which is why I haven't posted in a while. I'm currently participating in Google Code In (Google is your helper!) and that's taking up all my spare time. However, I will be updating more regularly now! Bye!

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Breadbin

Just a quick update: I've been participating in speed modelling challenges, hosted over in #smc on Freenode IRC network. Basically a load of people participate, and we all model the same thing. Then a thread is automatically created with the uploaded renders at blenderartists(.com) and people vote on them. Yesterday we modelled a breadbin in 30 minutes. Here is my result:

As to the car; I've done a bit of tweaking, and I'm going to be finishing the modelling and adding materials next! Hurray!

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Bouncing balls

Hey everyone! Sorry for the long time updating. As I've said in previous posts, it's difficult for me to update frequently whilst I'm still at school; Homework and afterschool activities take up my free time, as well as studying for my GCSEs. However, I have been doing a bit of work in blender, mainly with the animation system. As I (think) I've said in previous posts, I actually first downloaded blender so I could animate in 3D, but I got so mixed up with learning the UI and how to model, I never really animated at all! However, I'm now starting to animate more. I signed up for the 11 second club, and have already improved from when I joined! Over at the site they have these "Mini-Challenges", each week. Last week was a bouncing ball. Here are my 3 results. A special thanks to Staker for helping me :). Here are my three results, starting with the first, and then going to the third:

Number 1








Number 2


and finally

Number 3



I'm really really happy with my progress so far, and I will continue to get more and more advanced :D. Feel free to leave comments, and keep an eye on here, half term is coming up so I will probably be able to do more work.

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Side projects

So yeah, I took a bit of a break from the car, what with school work, and wanting to do something differant. Here's what I've done:








These are from a tutorial over at www.blendercookie.com

I also did a couple of other things that aren't worth posting up! Just tests, really!

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Porsche GT3 RS part 7

Okay, so I know I've not updated in a long time, sorry. But I've had lots of schoolwork recently, and now I'm doing a Saturday art's course at Plymouth collage of art with some friends, which is great fun but takes up my Saturdays. It's great fun, every Saturday for the whole year, doing subjects like Photography, Black smithing, glass work, graphics, drawing, etc.

Anyhow, I've finally updated the car. I've done the wheels, using the array modifier for the treads, mirroring the spokes to get them identical and subsurfing the whole thing. Here is a render of the whole car so far:



As I've done the wheel now, here is a close up of the tire and rim, nuts, spokes, etc.



As before, I will try and update as much as I can!

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Porsche 911 GT3 RS part 6

So yeah, I've done a lot to the car, and I've finally subsurfed it! I've added the windows, wing-mirrors, subsurf, head lights etc. Here is the mesh:(forgive the xchat icon at the bottom of the window, I just got hi-lighted)



As you can see, the mesh is a bit cleaner than it was before, and subsurfed, with smooth shading. I also have a render of it:



There is a differant material for everything glass, and the windows aren't shaded smooth yet. More soon!

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Porsche GT3 RS part 5

Hey! I've updated the car model as I said I would, this time with the spoiler and rear trunk/boot area. Next I'm going to add a subsurf, fill in the windows, headlights, and the wheels. Here are some photos:

First, a picture of the mesh.


It's a bit messy, but it'll do! Here's a picture of the rendered back, sorry about the bad lighting, I just circled the car with lamps because I'm lazy...

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Animation!

So, I was saying in earlier posts that I was working on blender wiki's character animation tutorial. I was, and now it's finished. Although the tutorial uses 2.49b, I used a mixture of 2.49b and 2.59. Here is the finished result:



Yes, lip sync could be better, but overall I'm happy with the result.

I've had my break from the car, so expect to see more soon!

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