Instead of working on my project, I ended up mugging around my website doing unimportant things. What is it with me ?

Anyway...here's it : http://www.notionwerks.com/akirastudio/photoessay.htm

Thanks alot Gatchaman...needed some advice badly. Now all that is left is for me to have a little more discipline and spend some work on that sim cloth tutorial thingie...

I've also got wind from GV's website that Spirited Away will be shown on the 20 of Dec, same day as Lord of the Rings. Let's hope it stays that way.

blaue reiter, this wat i tink :
1)yupz, think bone is the best way to animate her ponytail

2)actaully i try out the tutorial for Simcloth but it is the rather easy wan, but i think it is definitely the way to go for clothes, and i think u can afford the cpu power. at the moment i havent look in detail for my clothes, but it is simcloth i ll be using (cos it s free, either this or clothreyes 3 , they r giving away free). i had good comments on Simcloth b4 and a fren demonstrate roughly to mi b4 using it for the oversized shorts of my character. as for whether it is a bad idea for skirt ah, can be done lah, with simcloth. or if u can settle for morphing between 2 or 3 targets, it s fairly believable that the skirt is flowing jus like u see jap anime looping a few keys, but u ve more variation still with morphing. tink u should just anihow make a skirt and do a few morph targets and try it out urself and see that it maybe easier than cloth simulation. but of cos not as impressive.
i still think u ll go for the simcloth look though. maybe u spent sometime figure it out? aniway it is like u learn 1 u learn all. the cloth sim softwares r more or less the same now, logic is same same lor.

3) CS u ll ve to spend time on it. no other ways leh. but the bending stuffs is unavoidable u got to go bck to tweak the model during rigging. and most problems r specific to the peculiar char design. many is brainless meticulous labour, like typing in weights vertex by vertex, no special tools or trick lor.
but main problem now is u havent fix down her design. for ur case, u ve clothings design to help out. cos some clothings types is easier to do than others. oso, u ve intention for her to change costumes in the story? so u noe abt what to do when modelling the joints oready? like more segments and stuffs like this? but even so, it is hard to noe during modelling. i m rigging my hand joints now, oso lotsa tweaking.
i dunnoe how i can help to teach u CS ... demo at ur place? but i m not very sure on biped too.

maybe u ve to give yourself longer time now ... unless u wan to scale down ur story. take it step by step, learn one thing first then the other, dun think u can hurry the learning part, kinda steep curve for u to digest so much 1 go. ever think of going bck on 2D? but if u push on, u ll learn more, whether u succeed a not.

blaue reiter, i just read the problems, gimme sometime.
but dun lose heart yet, i been thro that and under a deadline to deliver too. but it s more difficult for u now, cos u ve a fairly realistic character to handle for a 1st time.
gimme sometime to post : )

[ memento mori ] - updates

Since my last post on the head model of Nadja, progress have been little. It seems I've been running away from working on the body because there are so many problems that i'm facing !!! Gatchaman heeeelp me please !!! Some advice would be great...i've done a breakdown of the problems I have.

1) Animation of ponytail - can it be accomplished by just controlling it with a bone ? ( pretty much like an arm is controlled by the bone too ). Also, if I were to have additional trails of hair, ie fringe, etc, how would I animate it ? By morphing ?

2) Clothes - I've actually downloaded and installed a plugin called Sim clothes, the tutorial seems to show some really good results, but I haven't the foggiest idea how to use it. Do you think it'd be an extremely bad idea to have Nadja wear a skirt ? Because that would mean lots of work when she walks... How are you intending to do your clothes ?

3) Physique and biped...hahaha....haven't even touched these yet...i'm soooo afraid its not going to deform properly...and the animation part too...

ARRRGGH !!! So many problems !! Looks like you were completely right when you said 3D would be no less easier than 2D...I hate it so much because I have to learn so much technical jargen...technology indeed is the animator's biggest obstacle...dread dread dread...how i wish i could just do what I set out to do right now...animate the darn model !!!

Gatchaman, I believe its not necessarily so, although I got wind from my friend that there's a region 3 release for final fantasy on sale here, but I personally have not seen that. Many titles are shipped from the US and then sold here in stores, so its not neccesarily that only titles ordered from Amazon have this RCE feature included. The link i've included have got a list of dvds that comes with RCE, so maybe you should take a look.

so the FF dvd u got is from amazon, not the wans in local stores rite? that s y this problem?

DVD technical jargon

Hi folks. For those who have a multi-coded player or those who are intending to get one, pay attention to this.Yesterday I had just popped my Final Fantasy DVD into my player and was about to start watching it when the disc started reading but flashed a world map screen on tv indicating that there's this REGIONAL CODING ENCHANCEMENT ( RCE ) digital crap thing that makes viewing on my player not possible. Some of that regional coding stuff. So I thought. This dvd is busted. But I checked Amazon and they had a work around for it ( yippee !! ) aka as cheat code. Just use the control and press up up, down down, left right, left right, A, B, start. Presto !!

Kidding. There's a particular sequence of numbers you have to enter. Check out their website here : http://www.dvdtalk.com/rce.html

Just to let you folks know so next time when you buy or order a DVD look out for this stupid RCE. If there's another region release for the movie, skip this troublesome thingie.

lord of rings ah ... wah like very very thick leh ... set a more realistic dateline like by time u reach 30s u finish the book :P

i oso heard good comments on harry potter books from my brother ... think it mus ve something unique and interesting abt it!

think the ponytail is a good solution, rather than a cheat. afterall we dun ve programming talents to solve the scientific stuff of hair moving ard. think the eyeball need not be a perfect sphere, it will fit better into the hollow that way. either adjust the hollow, or for me, i use x-form or ffd to change the eyeball to fit into hollow.but for my case, since i m using another hemisphere as the eyelids, i ve to apply the modifier to both shere and cant collapse them cos of a linked Xform below to control the eyelids opening.kinda troublesome. dunnoe how u do your eyelids, maybe for u it may be easier. also, a little comment on the pupils, i think even if she got big eyes,like manga babes, the pupils r never shown fully round (less in extreme shck expression). as in the top is mostly covered (or cropped, watever) a bit. unless she s supposed to have a 'staring' look.
really hope my comments are constructive wans ... and not fault finding : ) the overall look is getting better with the hair on, maybe u ll fine tune the face after sculpting the body! all the best manzzz!

I know this sounds pretty boring but I've actually gotten myself a copy of JK Rowling's Harry Potter : Goblet of Fire.
I was at the 2nd hand book store returning my last book and it was just sitting there on the shelf beckoning me to
pick it up. Thought I gave it a chance and see what the all the fuss is about - and it really is quite a nice break from
all the american novels that we read most of the time.

Anyway, Nadja's got hair now, albeit all tied up and neat in a ponytail *that's cheating !!* Darn...think i better get started
on the body...been stuck with modelling her hair for too long now.



Also...evil rei's got the pox !!! Don't stray too near !!

shan pls put more recommendations next time ... although i wont go read the book everytime :P
at least next time i wanna hou lian during conversation oso can throw a few titles ... ahha ... nah ... will definitely try this and the bus driver wan to be .... what ... book : ). see if i ll like.

Book of the week: The Comfort of Strangers, by Ian McEwan. blew me away man...

Sure is silent around here this days...Nahs must be really caught up with work...recently i've just shifted my
computer to a new room and apparently this seemingly harmless act have did my connection in for a few days
but i'm sure glad i'm back online. :) Anxious to get back to work on my model.

very quiet at halcyon realms ... blaue reiter bz on his modelling, shan s bz at werk, evil rei bz with army projects ... hmmmm ...
*gatchaman throws a stone from the rooftop, in the crouching tiger hidden dragon style, test water ...*

Hi folks...thanks for the comments and advice...i've made some adjustments to the model after seeing your posts. Now
continuing work on the ears, eyes and then the hair.

Of course...modelling is one thing...animating is another... *big bead of sweat rolls down forehead*

what stoopid thing u do? tell us so we can be entertained? esp for ppl like mi, sometimes afternoon in office wan to sleep?

great werk! but jus some things i note: there s an overall smoothing problem, some ll be ok with meshsmooth but problem areas like the middle seam and the corner of the eyes may stand out more (by the meshsmooth) instead. maybe got to go in to move vertice by vertice inwards for the middle seam. the folds above the eyes i dunnoe how to resolve cos i dun noe the faces arrangement.
i oso think the top of the cheek(ie, part below the eyes) need to be lift up until the eyeball is like partly in it (dunnoe how to say properly). but this will happen when u pull in the hollow for the eyes, takes sometime to adjust. if u cut out the shape of the eye and extrude it inwards, then it ll not affect the vertices ard the eye hollow, save some work maybe. u can still maintain the big round eyes thingee and have a 'fuller' cheek.
las is the part below the lower lips, either u can try turning the direction of some edges (subobject under edit mesh) , if not go in move the vertices concerned ... tat wan i tink meshsmooth oso cant help if dun tweak, esp next time u wanna do morph mouth shapes opening etc.
sorri say so much dun noe make sense a not, but aniway this is stage 1, probably u oready doing the same changes now. : ) but the basic form is definitely there liao! really impressive esp when u r werking under such limited timeline!

[ Nadja, model 1 ]

Guys, give me some feedback okie ?

blaue reiter, maybe u can find some hope in the elite naval diving unit :P

Dearest Nahs...I believed we had a conversation before on icq regarding the scuba diving course...and I'm sad to say
i'm neither financially capable of attending one nor is the Singapore army widely supportive of coral admiration during
office hours. Guess i'll have to wait for a while before those azure waters sweep up my feet. :(

HARLO everybodyz! Just got back from tioman and I can't wait to dive into its turquoise water again! It's beautiful for a place so surprisingly near Singapore. Last I checked Rawa Island is good too...but much smaller...
And one important thingy! I intend to go on a scuba diving course at the same school where my bf got his license...and I am looking for kakis!!! Interested party pls dial 98487059! hahahaa.....or just email me, icq me or leave a blog, whichever you're comfortable with. Snorkelling in tioman was an unforgettable experience...much to my chagrin I was stung by 2 jellyfishes...but the beauty of the corals couldn't stop me from diving in again and again, leaving the searing pain on my neck and arms aside! hahahaa
LUB IT!!!!