Second Wind

Finally my internet is back running fully operational. What’s the first thing I want to do you ask?

Believe it or not, homework! Afterward, programming! This Discrete Math class has renewed my interest in programming and the technical aspect of the gaming industry. I want to program everything I can and get better as soon as possible.

The more I think about graduating and how close it actually is, (4 classes away!?) I suddenly am brimming with energy in doing the best I can and run as fast as I can past that finish line. It takes me back to my old high school days when I was in cross-country and jogged the endless amount of miles to reach the finish line. College has been nothing more than baby steps to conserve my energy, keep myself in for the long-haul, and learn as much as I can until I see that finish line. Suddenly the sight of graduation in October floods my mind with that reminiscent and powerful second wind that floods my body with so much energy that I launch forward running with all I have saved up as the words, “I’m the hero of my own story” reverberates louder as I draw closer towards the end.

Long Time No Blog

Every time I get back into this, it seems I get a little too busy to maintain the schedule I wish to keep.

Things I have learned since my lasts posts?

I seem to love overthinking.

I am very much an introverted person.

I am starting to get sick of relationships.

I like sitting in silence with headphones on that don’t play anything.

There’s a lot of people in this world who distract me when they shouldn’t.

 

With that being said there are a lot of people I really feel bad about having to let go of, not that they are stupid, but I find myself too concerned about their lives than my own. It’s not too late to focus on myself before someone takes myself away from… myself, ha. Which is where this lovely blog comes in handy and I seem to take for granted. There are wonderful benefits for myself here which I love to share. For those of you reading this, thanks for actually following me and reading my posts. If there’s one thing I learned and have been enjoying, it’s learning and realizing things about myself that I never focused on. I strongly encourage everyone who reads this to take a step back once in a while and analyze your own behaviors.

Enough ranting for tonight. I came on here because I am currently on Spring Break from school. (Finally some sort of break!)

My official graduating month is October

This class session coming up is surely to be a busy one. I’m so excited to be 2 more classes closer to graduating!

I’m going to bed now though. I will keep posting throughout this week until I start getting a bit more preoccupied with school, as usual.

Good night fellow bloggers!

Busy Busy Busse

It’s been quite a ride for me this session for me.

I’ve been working on DirectX, OpenGL, and a class that is dedicated to making me stress over writing once more.

Needless to say being the leader of a group definitely has me feeling much more responsibility and forces me to make sure I prove why I am in the position.

With that being said though, I can’t wait for this session of classes to end and another to begin. Mainly because I just want to graduate and learn other types of programming on my own spare time rather than as an outdated assignment.

I’ve decided that I will be writing on my Blog every Tuesday (for various reasons that help contribute to my productivity and provoke my thoughts with eagerness to succeed). Tuesdays are days I wish to be for myself and only myself. On these days I will typically lounge around and play video games with some working out and cleaning in between, but some Tuesdays I definitely find myself in the mood for much more intricate things like practicing my programming in XNA or Java or sculpting in Maya.

One of the things I have become amused by is that I have taken an interest in so many different things relating to game development and it’s no wonder why I am not well-versed (not yet at least) in any of them.

This session, upon using DirectX and OpenGL, I have found myself completely motivated to program more than I ever have because it’s exciting to figure something out once you understand what’s happening with each line of code. However, the downfall is that I feel I have a lot more to learn and once I am thrown something entirely different than what we were working on previously, I choke when I get the “stuck” feeling and it really sucks to not have as much time to focus as I want with all the “necessary cleaning” that needs to be done around the house. Still though, I am happy to be learning and glad I haven’t lost complete interest in programming.

 

As for blogging, well, let’s just say I am figuring it out as I figure myself out and I am glad to have it go hand in hand.

For now though, I should sleep. After all, it’s Tuesday ;D

See you next Tuesday!

Happy New Year!

Wow, I have never had such a busy break off from school and so much quality time with my SO.

Don’t worry, wordpress, I wasn’t neglecting you. I was just temporarily away from computing and online interactions, which to my surprise, felt so refreshing.

The Aquarium of the Pacific was a great experience and I was even more surprised to see frogs, my favorite animals on earth, on display there. After Xmas was through, I packed up and went up to visit my girlfriend for new years in Santa Barbara and spent the weekend there to celebrate with her and treat her while I was there. I also made myself useful and helped her landlord out with repairs, cleaning, and setting up her electronics before my girlfriend got home while getting a head start on my upcoming course textbooks.

This was the best vacation and time away from home and school I have ever had in a long time. I am not excited to be home, but it’s wonderful to know I have a home away from home.

There’s so much more to look forward to in this coming year. I don’t know where to even begin! One step at a time, of course, but so far it’s definitely a happy new year and I am grateful for everything I have had this past year and still have now.

Now it is time to get back to work. This session my classes include working with DirectX and OpenGL! From my readings, it definitely sounds like a challenge, but also very fun. The other class is about technology in society and culture. Let the games begin!

Old MMO Memories always come out of nowhere.

Just recently I have been missing Final Fantasy XI more. With the new coming updates of lvl 99 being launched, and one of my favorite and different pet jobs of all Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games being updated (Puppetmaster) how I wished it would (automaton [pet] casting buffs, separate cast times for each spell type, and attachment fixes) I have more reason to want to go back when it was one of the two jobs I looked forward to playing and was complimented on for being great at it.

Of course, I hadn’t found all this out until recently after stumbling upon this old flash file that just brought back such hilarity and amusement to my old memories of playing. Then I went to the old ffxi clopedia website to see where it is now since I have been gone.

The link below is the image I stumbled upon. I have a feeling that if I send this to my brother, who I shared an account with  for many years, he’ll probably just be filled with the same such memories that I am that made us fall in love with our old community of online friends from FFXI.

Who remembers when Ridill was one of the most sought after weapons in the game because of its rarity? I sure do. (The song is “Caramelldansen SpeedyCake Remix” for anyone who enjoys it.)

It doesn’t depress me to think these changes are being made now and “it’s too late” since I have long time quit.

What it does is remind me of where I have come since Final Fantasy XI Online. How I have grown as an individual. Anyone who has indulged in some extended period of an MMO as a teen growing up really has something to look back to. I made a lot of great friends in FFXI and I still connect  with them ever since then. When I say great, I mean literally they are now on my facebook and contacts in my phone and we talk here and there through texts, messages, and sometimes even calls. Here’s to having fond memories and great moment to look back to as I matured through high school and continued into college where I shall soon graduate with my BA and get myself out into the gaming industry.

The gifts are coming! The gifts are coming!

In an unrelated post to deter away from the other postings for a moment, I have been ever so excited for this coming Christmas and New Years Eve. I have so many things to plan for this coming year. I’m so excited to see my wonderful SO and spend some much needed quality time with her. ^-^

I am even more excited to go to the Aquarium of the Pacific. It’s been one of the biggest events I have planned in a long time and it’s sure to be an amazing visit. Especially because of how much my SO and I love aquatic life (she loves it much more than I do since my love of frogs can’t really compete.)

In preparation for this holiday season I have started running 2 miles a day and working out to look good for all the pictures I may appear in for the Xmas parties planned. I always notice that the moment I begin running again, my diet suddenly changes for the best. Cravings for water becoming insatiable and it just makes me feel so much better to have started this daily running and stretching plan. (Thank goodness for finally getting off my butt to set up the treadmill!)

When I am not running, doing chores, and sleeping, I am aiming to reach a specific point in the Maya design guide.
In the midst of writing this post, I realized that I forgot to take screen shots of the final lesson (salt shaker) I finished making that same night I posted Egghead inside Eggholder. So tonight I will be putting those up here after I boot up Maya and take those shots.

As my knowledge and experience of Maya grows I will be looking to model and possibly even animate a character my good friend Anthony Cofer (http://baroquemoon.blogspot.com/) has been working on for a little advanced practice. :)

Practicing in Maya

Here are some of the models I have been working on I mentioned in my previous post

My own little egghead! This proved to be a bit more difficult to me as time went on.

Starting Egghead

This is where I left Maya for months. I am glad I still had my original egghead so in the next picture I added to him (maybe tried too hard, but in the name of practice, I think it looks oddly good)

and lastly trying my hand at importing the two models together, it’s even easier than Unreal Editor was for me during my previous class.

Importing the eggholder into Egghead's file

Oh how I have missed Maya.

Granted, it has been a while since I booted up Maya and worked on Egghead, but I remembered exactly where everything was and I continued where I left off (with the exception of still being rusty in some aspects)

I’m excited to begin the next lesson in the guide. I am enjoying the basics so far. It does seem rather monotonous to follow the guide entirely through, but it is also extremely fun for me! I will have plenty of opportunities to create the objects I see in day to day life after I finish working my way through the basics of the guide. It feels extremely nice to not take short cuts either, even though it is tempting at times.

Alas! Time to Blog! (Where have I been!?)

So I realize I haven’t been posting as much as I originally intended to. I have been thinking about my blog for nearly day and night throughout the weeks waiting for myself to actually kick this back up and post all the work I have been doing.

Finally though, I have a small break from schoolwork and all the hectic crap at home to get back onto my blog and back onto Modeling in Maya. It’s been way too long, but I definitely intend to bring this blog to life as much as I can since it’s been too long.

This past session I have been working in Flash and designing levels in Unreal Editor for my classes.

Since my last postings on here, I have been going through Maya tutorials myself and also using their pdf guide to get myself familiar with the basics of Maya. I completed up to the Eggholder and have been dying to post those pictures. Also since then, I had received a laptop similar to the one I had been using for the past couple years, formatted the hard drives, installed windows 7 ultimate I received free from school, and re-installed all my design software and previous models.

It’s rough to think my last post was back during May. I feel almost embarrassed at how fast the time flew by during that time and to think I will be graduating in June of 2012! Oh where the time is going!

Nevertheless, I am prepared to spend much more time working on Maya and Programming games. I’ve recently downloaded XNA Studio 4.0 and connected it to our Xbox 360. More updates on that will come later

In my next posts later tonight and Friday I will upload the photos of what I was working on last and discussing what I will be working on next.

It’s been a while

I have noticed I am not really one for blogging my progress. I definitely am planning to use this to post more of my progress soon since I am doing a lot more 3D modeling and projects for my class and personal time. It’s quite unsettling wondering who might be reading these things, but I figure it is more embarrassing not having anything on these blogs rather than having them full of my progress.

Soon to come: Modeling in Unreal Tournament 3 maps for my GSP-340 class.

P.S. Here are my old pictures my instructor asked me to provide from when I started 3D modeling, my very first tank modeled off the top of my head with a very basic design. *blushes*

Along side this picture, I decided to paint it some arbitrary colors to toy with the texturing and coloring in Maya.

The wheels and treads I did individually. I yearn to script and animate more using these tools, but the basic ideas and concepts I did don’t encompass this because of how new I was to trying Maya out. Most people end up starting with 3DS, but I decided to use Maya on account I find its tools a bit more enjoyable for me. Practice shall very well make perfect once I spend more time playing with Maya in my spare time.

Getting a feel for my blogging :D

It’s a little rough getting used to the idea of blogging publicly, but here I am finally getting a little late of a start updating this. Better late than never, though, right?

It’s been assigned to me that I am to design and model a graveyard in Cinema 4D rather than Maya because the whole class is experimenting with Cinema 4D as well. I’ve had quite some fun figuring out the tools as a whole despite my other class grading me so harshly.

Here is my initial layout of my graveyard, though the process seemed to be quite grueling with how many different edge cuts and separate connections I had to make by hand from my lack of knowing Cinema 4D’s tools. I made one grave to work off of (upper right hand corner highlighted in brown in its own group category) to know how I want the others. In order to know what I am aiming for first.

After rendering the graves you can see the sample graves I have dug up using the extrude tool. I extruded inward first because it otherwise would have occupied another grave’s beginning edge. The buried grave is textured with a random dirt image from google to preview how I want the rest to look. Although I am not entirely finished with the shape of the filled in graves. They shouldn’t be too much of a pain to fix later on.

Below, is my final output, for now at least. Overall, this basic idea and layout of each grave took me 2 hours. I feel pretty accomplished for just a rough design and texture toy-around in the middle of the night. The cookie-cut graves that I made for this aren’t appearing how I wanted, but it will just take a little time to accurately chisel them the way I want. (The do look like candy-bars!)

More graves, grass, and textured ground

Soon to come, I am going to clean up this graveyard a bit more. By clean up, I mean demolish to a certain extent. My objective is to make it appear more abandoned and poorly maintained. Looking at this image tells me I might be better off getting rid of the texturing because it is inhibiting the hair tool from showing through the way I intend. I also have to organize the groups so the dirt texture follows underground as well.

My next images later in the week shall show my recent ideas for headstones, cast-iron metal gating, and some caskets to fill the area more while increasing the hair length.

The mortuary/morgue on-site (I believe that is what it would be called anyway, though my wonderful girlfriend has corrected me with some other term that I cannot remember at this time) is becoming rather difficult to find images of during the time frame we are making the game. Most morgues are in hospitals now, reference material I look up only seems to show the inside of a mortuary rather than the surrounding and outside buildings, but this is still not what I am looking for.