Arrggggh! Abandon ship, mateys!

This is more just news then actual progress, but I am giving up on the source engine. Lately, I've been going back and forth between giving it another try or just learning another engine. Over the past few days, processes would work, then randomly not work for no reason. So, despite my desire to make content for Team Fortress 2 and Left 4 Dead, I've decided that the headache required to succeed in that is no longer worth the trouble. I have no idea how Valve could have given us such an unintuitive way to create maps with a good conscience, but I will no longer try to make it work. So what am I using now? The unreal engine. I wanted to wait until I was absolutely sure that the process it uses is what I want in a workflow before I said anything to anybody. So here I am, feeling much like I learned to get around on a unicycle when I could have been using a bike the whole time. Silly me. Importing models is retardedly simple, navigation in the level editor is workable, and things actually work. No random errors, tons of programs I need to install, or lack of documentation. At least so far.....we'll see.

Also, my computer has frequently decided to randomly restart itself as of late. I'm working with my computer whiz friend to get it straightened out, though it doesn't affect my ability to work too much. More like a pain in the ass than anything really.

Some new projects might be in the works as well. Lately, I've been thinking about what to do after Chernobyl gets done. I've wanted to take someone's conceptual drawing of a complex object and translate it to 3D as a way to show off my modeling skills. I originally was going to approach someone on a forum and ask them to let me use one of their drawings, but Jake, the guy that was going to help me on the TF2 map awhile back, offered to oblige his drawing talent. We also talked about maybe doing a full level sometime in the future, but for now the focus is on the single object. Everything has been verbal so far, except for some preliminary drawings he's been doing. We literally started this last night.

What about Civil Protection? It's been put on hold for now, due to Ross moving to LA. He'll let me know when things are back on track, but I've got all my stuff completed that he originally gave me. When things get rolling again, I'll post something. Here's a link that explains his situation if you are interested: www.accursedfarms.com

Confused about what the hell I'm doing now? Here's a rundown:


Chernobyl: Currently learning workflows, programs, etc. Once things are figured out, I'll start cranking it out.

Civil Protection: Currently on hold.

Complex Object w/ Jake: Drawings are being made, talks are being had. Mostly preliminary stuff. The stuff I'm learning for Chernobyl will be applied to this as well as future projects.

Future level project w/ Jake: Mentioned, and that's it. Will be a future project.

That's all kids! DISMISSED!

New things in the mix

Hello all, I have some great news for you! I've on board for a new project that I'm very excited about. Barely any of you have seen this I bet, but I'll be contributing some content for a machinima entitled "Civil Protection". For those of you who don't know what a machinima is, it's basically when someone takes an existing video game's tools and content to make their own original movies. Ross Scott is the guy that creates Civil Protection as well as another machinima, "Freeman's Mind". His stuff is extremely funny, so I recommend that you check it out if you like anything associated with Half Life. He's at: www.accursedfarms.com. I think one of his videos got 500,000 hits on youtube, so my stuff will be seen by alot of people. Very cool.

So what am I contributing? I can't get into specifics until it's out, but I'll be contributing custom models as well as some custom character skins. Skins are basically the textures used for characters and models within the game engine. I'm not entirely sure when it'll be out, but let's just say that he's stepping up his game for this one, so who knows. I'll definitely let you know when it's nearing completion.

And what about Chernobyl? It won't take long to shell out the stuff for Civil Protection, and so I'll get back on track with it soon enough. I've got the base coloring for the textures done, and the normal maps for the models and environment have been planned out.I've learned a great deal about Zbrush 3, which has taken up the most time overall over the past month. There's still more to learn, but I can operate it on a level necessary to get stuff done for this project. Once I get my new 3 GB of ram installed, zbrush will be purring quite nice, as well as maya and photoshop.