Postman Pete

Pete of the Week

Yes, it's time for Pete of the week. Your host: Dave Lee Gardiner

Gold Member Award

I'm proud to announce a new award* for recognition of outstanding efforts beyond the call of duty...

This weeks an award goes to Andy;

Not only does it look like he is a closet modeller but also a PR genius - He has written an excellent editorial on Particle illusions website:

http://www.wondertouch.com/hilight_mediastation.asp

LINK HEALTH WARNING: Reminders of certain past projects may cause unwanted flashbacks



Well done Andy!

*Cash value 0.01p

Project Viper, Part 4

Found a little bit of time today to do a bit more modelling and this is the result:

Still some work to do constructing the rear engine details and underbelly, but it's all coming along nicely.

Project Viper, Part 3

Bit tired tonight. Hell of a day, so not much of an update. I've started on the wings and guns of the Viper.

The rounder tool in Lightwave seems to have changed slightly since the DVD was made, so trying to build the fins on the guns as shown results in an error message and Lightwave telling me it needs to close :-S. Ah well, I'll figure it out.

Here's the gun so far. Just an extruded disc with lots of Bevel and Multishift applied:



The wing is still a little crude and under detailed, so I won't be showing that yet. I was hoping to finish it off tonight, but my eyes are sore, so I'll call it a day.

Nighty-night,

Andy

Zzz...

Project Viper, Part II

So, that's Sunday afternoon gone but I'm pretty happy with the results so far. Last time I modelled in Lightwave was version 6 and now we're on version 9.3! It's acquired a few new tools since I last used it, like Multishift and Rounder, so modelling is far less painful than I remember. In fact, it's quite enjoyable!

Here's how she looks so far:






Guns & wings next, then the texturing. Stay tuned!

Andy

Oh my God! Andy's *GASP* MODELLING!!!

Yes, it's true! After all these years being happy in my animation and lighting world, I've decided to go back to my roots in 3D and actually model something again! With modellers at work and Turbosquid to turn to, it's been easy to avoid having to model stuff. But as I'm trying to keep on top of the game and - oddly - as I thought it might be fun to do, I decided to give it another bash.

As I'm nipping back to the beginning of my 3D dabblings, I decided to break out the first "real" 3D package I used, Lightwave. With Mediastation being primarily Max/Maya based, my copy of Lightwave has been languishing in the corner unused, unloved and acquiring a none-too-healthy looking layer of dust. Lightwave's one of the number one packages used in TV & film in the U.S but is virtually unheard of here in the U.K. I've no idea why, as it's a brilliant bit of kit. Straight out of the box it comes with more tools and plugins than you'd get with packages that cost twice the price and it's got one of the best renderers in the industry. It's been the primary 3D application used in such shows as Babylon 5, the various Star Trek series, Stargate SG-1 & Atlantis and the latest incarnation of Battlestar Galactica.

With that in mind and a recent request for "Battlestar Galactica quality graphics" from a client, I decided my first attempt at modelling would be something simple and fun to keep my interest going and prove the MS guy's CAN do "BSG quality" - So I'm modelling a Colonial Viper from that series.

As you will have gathered so far, my modelling skills are rusty in the extreme, so I'll be following along to Kevin Phillips' excellent Project Viper DVD from Kurve Studios

Here's what I've done so far; all 15 minutes of it!


A simple bit of box modelling and so far, quite relaxing and enjoyable.

More soon...

Pete of the Week

Whoa Pete, get a haircut! You're making a Spector-cle of yourself!