Just thought I'd post as I have my driving test coming up on thursday. Just say I am absoulutely crapping myself because I have thrown every single penny at it, apart from my bus fair to college I have spent money on nothing else! Basically I have been having a 1 hour lesson every week for the past 20 or so weeks, this week my test is on thursday, which was £60. Then because I want to pass that much I have booked a lesson for tomorrow (tuesday), then I have also booked a 2 hour lesson the morning of my test which is £40, then you have to pay the price of a lesson to use his car during the test so another £20.

So basically this week has cost my a total of (£60+20+£40+20)

=£140

£140 quid to get told I didn't check my friken blindspot or some other stupid reason for failing. Basically us learner drivers are being blamed for conjestion! Thing is most people are desperate to pass so they are just going to keep throwing money at it till they eventually pass, the DSA know this so therfore take advantage to make money!

I hate the world! Im now emo...plz feel sorry for me. (Wish me luck too please lol)

High polygon knife I have just been working on. Practice to create high density mesh with all the details in order to bake a normal map and apply to lower poly (realtime friendly) version of the same model.

Notice how each edge catches light, this is using high density sub-division modeling in order to create realistic edges and shapes. This process is where polycount doesn't really matter as this is only used to bake a normal map containing the high detail information, this will be thrown on a MUCH more obtimized lower polygon mesh, but will still obtain those smooth corners and details.

Basically I have been pretty abscent from 3D related stuff the past few months. The last few days I have been practicing hard surface sub-division modeling.

Whats that I hear you scream? OK well I will explain for anyone in GS8 if your reading this...

Sub-division modeling is the process of creating a basic 3D model and spliting it up into many segments in order for a modififer (Such as turbosmooth or meshsmooth) to sub-divide the segments into higher polygon geometry. This process ultimately results in very smooth life like results if done correctly. When you subdivide, your mesh will dramatically increase in polycount. So why would this be useful for realtime rendering in games I hear you ask? The answer is 'normal mapping'.

So what is normal mapping? Basically, a normal map is a generated or 'baked' image file which contains lighting information. This can be added to the low polygon game model to 'fake' lighting. Ultimitely this enables the engine to render the low polygon game model, but render the lighting from the original high polygon model. So your basically getting the ilusion of light from an extemelly high polygon model, but the engine is only having to render a low polygon. Normal mapping is MEGA important today, every and I mean EVERY modern game/engine use some form of normal mapping technique.

I will give you an example: Say for instance you have a screw, a very minor detail to many objects in the real world, and too minor to actually bother about modeling for realtime rendering. Before normal mapping came around, you would of had to add it to your diffuse texture because there was no alternative, this would look flat and planar. Nowadays, you can add the screw into a normal map and on the in-game model you will see the screw as if it was modeled into the geometry of the object and actually react to the various light sources within the game world. This is awesome because you can actually create an ubber detailed model without having to worry about performance issues.

Thought I would post about this because it's extremelly important if you want to get into next-gen modeling. However, try to learn traditional methods of game asset creation first off. This will help you learn and understand texturing light sources and such, although most engine render lighting in realtime nowadays, it's best to have a firm grasp on light sources and how light reacts with real life materials/objects etc...

Yes it's been friken ages since I posted, but this means I have alot of things to post! First off Modern Warfare 2? Let me just say WOW. This game has got to be the best FPS ever made, if not the best GAME ever made! Just to clear things up I am now a fanboy of CoD, I am actually a dedicated fan which has stayed loyal to the call of duty series since the very first game!! lol. Anyways, although the multiplayer has been added to slightly, the main concept stays relatively the same but with new maps. The aspect of the game which really stands out is the single player, hands down the best single player experience I have ever encountered! Awesome stuff and well done infinity ward for yet another awesome game! Now lets wait for Treyarch to make a crappy WWII spin off with the engine! ZzZzzz (please don't)

Anyway I am going to double post about the next subject (3D YAY!)

Just read about the new handheld device which is in development by Microsoft. By the sounds of things it's on its way very soon.

CLICK AK47

AK-47 model with camo paint. Inspired by Call of duty 4, obviously! ;)

Click Colt Defender
Click to see defender magazine/clip

M60 Heavy

Just some more I found. ;)

CLICK HERE

So I realized I have never posted any of my 3D work up. I decided to round a few renders up of weapons I have done. The reason I have done alot of weapon models is because In games such as counted strike source, you can export your own models so you can create custom guns and such.

This is a makarov, its a Russian soviet weapon which I made ages ago, but it's some of the only work I can find. All you see here is just a DIFFUSE textured model, so there is no rendered lighting or ANYTHING, the model lighting in the image is PAINTED into the texture itself in photoshop. The grip area took bloooomin ages to paint but was worth it.