Chris

Bollocks!!

Sun, 25 Jan 2009 14:37:24 GMT

Holiday 09!
June 4th to Los Angeles for 4 nights, June 8th drive to Las Vegas for 4 nights, June 12th fly to New York for 4 nights

I just realised E3 09 is from June 2 til 4th but it doesn't it look like it's open to the public :'( Maybe I'll try and sneak in after landing or something. Bollocks!! It's just I remember saying when I was a pickny that I'd love to attend the event one year, so close yet so far.. BOLLOCKS!!! Ah well, there's always TGS, I may have to strategically organise my holiday to Japan during that period.

Do any of you guys live around these places? I expect to catch up with Jae (Ayako) when I'm out there, last person I caught up with was Gary (Erusamu) last month as he's studying in London at the mo!

New build on this-serious.com

Sun, 07 Dec 2008 23:15:31 GMT

I've had a new build of my website sitting in the wings for a few months now, making minor tweaks every other week waiting for the completion of some new material to compliment the site, I sure aint finishing any new material any time soon so I've decided to make the new version live.

The design is cleaner and the content is straight to the point, no procrastination. There's a few browser bugs (IE6/7 and Opera) to resolve but I'll get round to those.

I might throw in a road map on the site so people know where I'm going with this and I may abadon this blog for development entries as I'm considering integration of a blog app for the site as I'm looking to chat about the gritty technical details. Which would leave this blog for err gaming, not doing much of that but man I'm loving GoW2 ;)

Sometimes I have to remind myself why I'm doing all this.

Gears of War II - First impressions

Fri, 07 Nov 2008 10:30:36 GMT

I jumped on the Gears bandwagon, I haven't even played the original but the pre-hype surrounding this product sold me, barely saw any footage or coverage though. The power of brand names eh!

I'm really feeling the gameplay! I didn't realise the targeting system was the way it is which makes it steer away from first persons a little more then I thought, it's good, this might sound strange but it reminded me of Time Crises at times. The cover system thing is a bit fiddly, I think once I get used to it I'll be ducking and diving with ease though. I like the reload system in this game, add's an extra layer of thought without being ridiculous. Weapon change system is console friendly.

I tried 2 of the game modes, I started co-op with a friend, good atmosphere so far. Not as hard as I thought it would be so far but the hardest mode needs to be unlocked. Horde mode was really good, we tried 1 map on the hard difficulty, 4 players. We got to wave 10 before I decided to sleep, I really like this mode, I don't even know how many maps there were but I hope they progressively add more.

By no means am I trying to be a games reviewer and thankfully searching my name on google no longer comes up with the dire reviews I wrote around 8 years ago :'(

Gaming

Tue, 14 Oct 2008 16:27:52 GMT

I rock! For I've completed not one, but two games this week! Force Unleashed and Halo 3 (took a year). I don't think I've completed a single game in at least 4 years.

Learning

Wed, 17 Sep 2008 21:26:42 GMT

Generally, I think I learn best when I make mistakes, sometimes this takes days -_-;

Another holiday in Greece

Wed, 10 Sep 2008 09:01:19 GMT

Album Facebook link. It was a good holiday, I was out there for 8 days. Though I did have my heart set on Japan this year, no idea when I'll do that now. Beaches, clubs, bars, restaurants, take-aways, water park, water sports, quad biking, mountain driving, SLEEP.

Next year is looking like one of the following:
Las Vegas
New York
US Trip around 16 states (3 weeks - which includes LV and NYC)
Hong Kong
Nigeria (home!)

New Job

Wed, 25 Jun 2008 20:46:00 GMT

I got a new job as a web developer. I can finally get my career in motion. It's a company called Design Motive and I'm grateful they're giving me a chance to work in this field.

For those who haven't seen 'Dead Fantasy'

Mon, 26 May 2008 11:27:43 GMT

I've only come across this over the weekend though I've got a feeling you've all seen this, it's the shit check it out, Final Fantasy vs Dead or Alive:

Dead Fantasy - Part I

Dead Fantasy - Part II

It's from the same guy that created the Haloid animation.

February

Tue, 04 Mar 2008 08:08:00 GMT

Alicia Keys performed in the O2 Arena on the 29th, I had some decent seats, some of the pic's and vid's turned out good. I loved it!

I've been busy on other people's stuff, it's going to be like this for another 4-6 weeks I expect, after that I really want to put some focus on my own stuff. It's march and I've barely done anything new on 3D app's. Hopefully I can get good enough to enter next years Dominance Wars, it's a annual competition for low-poly 3D artists, but every time I check out the work, tons of talent.

Here is a screen of a winner from last year this thing is a very similar poly-count to the stuff I do, makes me feel like shit.

I didn't but any games in February ;(

January 08

Sun, 03 Feb 2008 12:26:11 GMT

Finally played a Wii, Driver, Wii Sports and some crazy game Wario’s Smooth Grooves, maybe that's the strangest game I’ve ever played. Demo of Devil May Cry 4 looks great, though it doesn’t feel any different to the original really, which isn’t really a bad thing.

I think I'll pick up Lost Oddysey next but things have been really busy with the job and the project stuff I'm doing with a few people, hopefully those get wrapped up soon.

I’ve pretty much wrapped up all my old work, too many mistakes, trying to salvage it seems like a bit of a waste of time too. I should spend a lot more time on concepts, which should minimise the time I’m spending f00kin about and free-styling stuff towards the end.
I’m not too fussed whether my work looks amazing or not yet, more like will it fit it’s purpose? And at the moment I can’t really say I’ve finished something that could be used practically.

The two models here have bad geometry in some areas, particularly the groin area. Posing / animating the legs will look off at times. Deformation is a bit off too on some arm and knee joints, moving the joints into extreme positions doesn’t give promising results. Areas like this I would prefer to resolve with my next pieces. Mind you there’s loads of games out there with flawed models, can’t think of any off head though :p

I download too much, just recently changed my broadband package so I don’t get nonsense like this again!

Reflection of 2007 Pt.2

Fri, 04 Jan 2008 10:22:40 GMT

Firstly happy new year to you all! Just writing on some bit’s I should have really just summed up in my last entry:

Graduation
Supposedly one of the best days of your life, I'm just glad it's all over but regret I wasn't focused enough at the time.

Job
I’ve been there 11 months and I finally enjoy it. I’ve also got 3 of my friends jobs here, and I’m earning more money now, huzzah!

My CG stuff
I tried to take a strict approach to my CG work at the start of 2007, but eventually I didn’t think I’d be breaking into any cool industries at the skill and pace I was going, so I’ve just be taking things very casually, fortunately I’m getting better artistically and technically.

This is the best bits I’ve done in 2007:

Low-Poly gaming models - The models are done I'm still working on the textures for both characters
QuickSilver 2007 Wallpaper (1920x1200)

Network Operations Centre - Gonna lose/improve the crappy ceiling lights and tweak other bits here n there.
NOC (1920x1200)

Compared to my Runa 06 model this is superior, I won’t go into many technical details but I’ll at least say Runa 06 used 34,464 triangles, Runa 07 used 5,545 triangles yet looks a lot better. I tend to learn quite a bit after each model too, so I should expect I could do an even better looking model. I take the knowledge to the next mode, I rarely go back as it involves breaking it apart, which could make things worse. Which is a shame because I've grown to like these model. Mapping helps loads, shame I stink at that.

I really need to track my progress though, that’s what this blog was supposed to be for, dur.

Reflection of 2007

Wed, 26 Dec 2007 19:55:15 GMT

This is a summary of the year, I got a new computer, some of the anime I've enjoyed watching this year, I watched some TV outside of Eastenders for once, the games I've played, 1 or 2 films I've enjoyed, fav music, a bit about my holiday and a work in progress screen of a personal project.

Hello Mac, goodbye PC
I made the switch to an apple computer in July, I was brainwashed from those online apple commercials, months later I walk home from Regent Street with a £2000+ 17” Mac Book Pro. Intel Dual-Core 2.4ghz, 256mb GeForce 8600 GT, 4gb Ram, 120gb 7200rpm harddrive, 1920 x 1200 display. Most of the specs were at an additional cost but it was worth it. For that price I could have got an 8 core desktop but I like to be mobile. I have a drive partitioned to run Leopard 10.5 and another to run XP professional, I don’t care about Vista I rarely use Windows as it is. Mac’s are cool, if you got a Mac Book pro download Liquid Mac and you’ll see what I mean.

The below are more memorables than favourites:

Anime
Full Metal Alchemist - Watched the english version, great dub and very good anime. It even toyed with my emotions.
Samurai Champloo – Really cool but it was a bit weird at times
Naruto – I watched episodes 1–225 in about 2 months (27ish a day on average), but once I started watching it on a weekly basis it started getting whack. Because of this I’m going to avoid watching anime’s that drag on over 100+ episodes, the kids shows.

TV
Heroes – So damn cool, season 2 started weird but ended cool enough.
Eastenders – I’m not sure how many years I’ve been watching this but it started to piss me off

Games
Halo 3 – Fun! Shame I’m mediocre at it. Slowly getting used to using a control pad for FPS games.
Assassins Creed – I’m a bit mixed on this game (gets dull?), still a solid game though.
Zone of the Enders 2 – 4/5 years on but it still holds so much weight for me

Fillms
Transformers – Like most films revamped from some sort of medium in the past it was revised a bit but I think it’s for the better, the film was cheesy and entertaining, does it have to be any more than that?
The Layer Cake - Good, but I still prefer Snatch.

Music
I think most people outside of the UK won’t have heard of the genre ‘grime,’ but that’s what I’ve been big on since it started early 21st century, there’s finally some good artists emerging from the scene. Kano released his second album this year ‘London Town,’ maybe I’m bias but he’s one of the best lyricists out there. I would have probably never bothered listening to Amy Winehouse if I didn’t keep seeing her on the news every week, I was curious on how she sounds and she’s fantastic.

Socials
You can see what I get up to in Facebook. Rollercoaster on relationships, currently dating, it won’t last!
My holiday out in Miami in September was slick, south beach was beautiful and so were the woman. Though brief, Everglades swamp was an experience and the best ride ever can be found at Universal Studios (Island of Adventures) - Spiderman! Went on a crazy shopping spree so the holiday cost me around $6000. Though the weather was a bit too humid and it’s a shame the whole crew didn’t come either.

I’m going to post again since there’s more things I want to write down, here’s a work in progress pic of one of the characters I was working on

PS – If you do visit my site don’t laugh, I really want to re-develop but that will have to wait when I'm ready to replace all the personal content.

360 Elite + Live

Sun, 04 Nov 2007 12:46:04 GMT

I bought an Elite about 5 weeks ago, when Halo3 came out. I'm really shit at it but I've barely played it 2 hours anyway.

I finally setup my Live account (gamertag ckserious), I only have Halo3 at the moment and I'm no fun to play unless you like picking on small people.

Can I be lazy and ask people to post their gamertags? I'll ask on messenger if I see you there too

Um, e-bredrin link up

Sun, 26 Aug 2007 23:18:50 GMT

Met up with Sandy/Bader/Badraaw today in London! a few pics inside

All he's been doing is going to casino's so I'll show him a comedy club and maybe a night club next week, by the time I left tonight (early) I noticed his money was kinda stacking so good for him! He's mate won around £150 when I was there that was pretty cool. He's kinda keen to meet you John so I dunno if you ever swing by London, if so go through. Russta if you're about I might take him around Essex but we'll be in Bond St next Sunday.

I'm hitting Miami on Sep 3rd, I don't think any of you are near that region?.. If so give me a shout, I'll probably swing by Florida while I'm out there. I got someone showing me around when we're there so it should be a hype hype

:(

Tue, 06 Mar 2007 18:53:44 GMT

My new job isn't cool :'( Maybe I should have stayed a part-timer until I found something that's more me.

New New Job

Thu, 08 Feb 2007 20:56:08 GMT

I found another job so I don't have to take the finance one, it's in IT support.

I've found a small team I may want to get involved with as they develop their new MMO, that might be worthwhile experience.

New

Tue, 30 Jan 2007 21:25:14 GMT

I got a new job!.. In finance

I finished an animation project a couple weeks back, 'Uncle G' so go check it out on my site if you haven't already, its only 2 mins. I tend to call work like that 'practice' this year I'm hoping to shake out of that mentality, be more proud of what I've done. Still so far behind though but who gives two-shits, I'm moving at some sort of pace. The site itself still needs tons of work though.

I think it's finished

Tue, 23 Jan 2007 17:43:34 GMT

Edit: Going for the ice, thanks!

Thanks for the replies, whether it was here or on messenger. I think they are finished but I have to chose one to submit. Ice or Horns.

Rules (whether you understand or not):

1. Image Size - The images should be no larger than 1024x768 and saved as jpegs.

2. Use any 3d software you like - If you can use Blender (www.blender.org) that would be preferred, but Max/Maya etc are all fine.

3. Within Polygon Limit - As stated below for each model. Counting triangles not quads.

4. No textures - Flat colours only. No blending of colours across a polygon, although you can use soft/hard shading.

5. No internal polygons or any polygons which face directly down - The camera in the game never drops below a horizontal view angle so any polygons that face directly downwards will never be seen. So therefore delete them. And obviously any internal polygons will also never be seen and so they should be deleted.

6. No intersecting/overlapping polygons - Any two polygons that need to meet up should meet vertex to vertex, never vertex to edge, and never have any two polygons overlapping or intersecting (cutting through each other).

7. Medieval/Fantasy Style

Any opinions?

Tue, 23 Jan 2007 10:47:16 GMT

Which do you prefer, Ice Throne or Horns Throne? Ice one is more complete then the horns, so it isn't exactly a fair comparison, they both comply to the rules (no textures, under 500 triangles, etc), I dunno if it looks a bit too 'blocky' but it's pretty hard for me to model something with 500 triangles -_-

I gotta finish this by tomorrow.

Edit/Notes to self: Mcclane reckons I should combine them, its feasible, the horns chair is just under 400 triangles so far and each ice spike is 18 triangles each, I'll try that a bit later. Mcc also reckons the horns one has more potential.

Edit/Notes to self: Aaron is swaying towards the Ice Throne, but sees the potential in combining them. Horns throne needs a 'central' piece. Makes sense, it wasn't quite finished. I might experiment with what I can put in the middle/behind it now.

Edit/Notes to self: Baz prefers the Ice Throne

More opinions welcomed

I gotta do Jonnys again because the weapon limit was 200 triangles, I kinda forgot at the time, because the other 3 had a 500 triangle limit. But check it out, its not even smooth as it is and I've gotta use less than half the triangle limit.. Dang.

test/task I was given

Mon, 22 Jan 2007 02:47:51 GMT

These are four 3D models I was asked to create, its for a game. Really tight polygon counts though, it's made it a bit tricky. There were several rules too, two of em stated: I'm not allowed to use textures (don't care, I'm not good at texturing) and polygons aren't allowed to intersect/overlap.

Weapon - Not a sword or an axe or something similarly obvious, use your imagination. (200 triangles max.)

Any suggestions? Most people say some sort of gaunlets. I wanted to do something flexible, like a chain/ropey thing of some sort. Of the four models it has the lowest polygon count and I haven't even started this one.

---
Treasure Chest - Do two versions/models, one with the chest open and one with the chest closed. (500 triangles max.)

I've done the chest already, it was easy enough.

---
Throne - Not a Kings throne, something more imaginative, perhaps the throne that another type of fantasy race would have, eg a skeleton throne. (500 triangles max.)

I started something with a beasts horn sticking out, I'm thinking to try a frosty sorta throne, I kept picturing a FF style Shiva/Diamond Dust sorta look..

--
Swamp Plant - Something that would grow in a swampy, dark, wet, region with a nice organic shape. (500 triangles max.)

Done this, it came out ok.

This isn't uni work, and I've just about finished Uni too, I won't officially become a graduate til later this year, not even sure if it was worth it since the way I divided my time was a bit fucked over the years.

Time waits for no one.

Fri, 22 Dec 2006 02:13:08 GMT

I’m 24 today. I normally celebrate my birthday with a group of friends, this year I really didn’t feel like doing anything; ironically I’ve never had so many friends care about my birthday before. Work Christmas party is tonight so I’ll be going there, gonna chill with some friends before that. My girl is taking me out Saturday for a meal ;)

I got a 2 pairs of socks after my friend took the piss outta my ‘grandpa’ socks and a cool wallet since my current one is battered. I just got a DVD this minute I’ll open that in a sec. Another present or two I’ll collect tomorrow, I’m not expecting anything else beyond that.

It should be a good weekend!

Heres a piccy of the wallet along with a character I'm working on for a short animation, it's a bit of an digital thank you card for her myspace page I guess; I removed the message for this entry.

Excitement?

Mon, 18 Dec 2006 09:36:09 GMT

So far I've received two Christmas cards this year, one from play.com and another from a night club called Metra.

I figured I'd attempt to get a Wii but they are sold out, I'm only going to buy it from specific retailers, I'll wait a bit since theres no rush.

Character Modelling

Wed, 18 Oct 2006 15:23:46 GMT

I barely update my public journals but heres a little something. I've been working on this in the last few days, but I'm on the verge of scrapping it. It doesn't look like the original sketches anyway, so I decided to remix the old character I made about 2 years ago. I just wanted to use it as part of my future showreel (not anytime soon), but I messed up on the character modelling (legs and fingers mostly), making it very hard to animate with the style I've learnt to rig with. The character I did a couple years back wasn't my own rig, so this was my second crack at it. First attempt was a week ago on a character called Gymmy! A generic character used for students, I might show a bit of that later, that wasn't finished because I jumped right into my own character. The riggin on the legs is really fucked up so I can't move it realistically. I might be able to salvage it but meh, I like to move on from my mistakes anyway. I'm actually really happy with my recent progress, but its a shame I can't use this practically right now. I'm at least getting better at low poly modelling. I'm gonna put a bit of energy into texturing and lighting I think. I'm not really keen on learning stuff like cloth, fur, hair for now.

I might whip up some more poses and get a 3D background on it, the current background I made myself (unlike the martial arts student image I have) so everything is my own work here.

There are a few other stuff on the site I've never posted on, but the sites badly disorganised its embarressing knowing I've actually studied webdesign. But whatever, thats not my focus at all.

Preview of something I'll actually finish?..

Fri, 25 Aug 2006 23:33:59 GMT

I'm still on an artistic tip, I don't know what to call this except for conceptual art. Aside from other stuff I claim to be working on (like 3D environments); this is where most of my creative time has been spent lately. The pics are quite detailed, vector based, source files are high res, I just scaled em down for presentation. Proportions and stuff are just mock, its a good guess though. The pictures took 4 hours each on average, I'm gonna try cutting corners on some future ones though I'm about 2/3 through the workload I have. I've got some really good and critical feedback so far, stuff worth carrying unto another project. Gonna redesign the captain & crew with this more mature style.

I'm wanting to turn this into a lil intro or something, I need to do something with movement real soon, hopefully. I need to change the working title, I stole that from somewhere.. either a linkshell or some sort of gaming clan I used to be apart of, I can't remember.

Click for a larger version, which is still pretty small.

Student

Mon, 07 Aug 2006 17:08:15 GMT

Something I've been working on today, I just felt like messing around with something that involved texturing and backgrounds, the purple lower portion of the image is dreadful!!!! Oh well, by the time I realised it was too late to go back. The different variations was just adjusting the layers to see how it would look. It was a little rushed, but still fun and a minor accomplishment. I prefer the 2nd version, but I guess it would suite Solid Snake more or something.

Edit - The purple layer was meant to be nothing more then a blend to shroud the ground, I should pay more attention to what I do -_-

Edit - Made some tweaks but I'm done with this, I'll learn from the mistakes.

Edit - 10/08/2006 Tweaked BG again, didn't touch the character yet (7 layers), I keep saying I won't go back to this but I do, but I think I mean it this time, I could always try a new one with the same style at some point.

Version 2