Time for an Update

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Well it's been a while since I did a post (sorry, been busy with school and some side projects) so here's an update for things that I've been doing recently.

In school I've been learning more about normal mapping and making good normal maps. The first project we had to work on was just texturing a pre-made hatch after we baked the normal map and diffuse map from it (Diffuse maps make it easier to select pieces from a model as they are baked out with the colors, so you can just select the color pieces you want to work on in Photoshop).

I ended up with this. So it's a concrete door (obviously would have hydraulic assist from the inside for lifting the door) and it's been open to the weather for a while

Next off we had to make some sci fi style props, A floor, wall and roof tile. Out of the three I did I like how my floors turn out the best so here's a viewport grab of it with the Xoliul Viewport Shader.
Basically the topic was sci fi for the new DAE building called The Level and I figured what better way to have a call out to gaming for floors than to have D-Pad style floors.


















Next thing we had to do was make 2 more props, same style but a simple and a complex one. My simple prop was stairs, not staircase in it's whole, but just the steps. This is what I came up with, this is a grab from UDK.

So this next one is the "complex" prop which was a sci fi Computer. I decided to make a projection style computer that would project from the red ball in the middle onto the screen between the 4 corners. The corners can be tilted like any regular screen as well. 

And finally, this is just me doing some concepting for the Chainsaw Katana project that I somewhat started a while back (but decided the original drawing I was going to go off of wasn't that great...so I'm making my own concept for it now).

This is just the hilt, but the throttle for controlling the chainsaw speed. I've thought about doing it more of like a gun trigger as well (which most chainsaw's are in) but thought this would look a bit more clean and neat when actually modeled. So it's more up the alley for a motorbike throttle, this would be the one turn able part on the hilt while the rest is quite static. Either way, it's a WIP.


Thanks for reading, hopefully I will update a bit more instead of so sporadically...

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Well, here's another post. I'm still not sure what to really put in these (I'm really in a crunch time for my exams right now) so I figured I'd list a few things that I will hopefully get to post about (or would like to)

-Some basic HLSL shaders would probably be fun (a geometry shader might be in there at some point too...although they are annoying...) probably basic diffuse, specular, normal mapping maybe some cube mapping.

-I might post some stuff about the A* Pathing that I used for the exam game that I'm making right now and how to go about doing the checks and the general way for 4 direction A* searching (8 isn't that much harder, just adding more checks)

-If I get the time I still want to finish developing my GUI for an inventory that would use some STL containers to make it switch between two "packs" etc.

Again, maybe some other topics people suggest.

I guess one of the projects besides my Exam Game that I'm making is a project I am starting tonight actually. It's based on this image that is floating around the web currently...The Chainsaw Katana.

 So I started modeling this in 3dsMax a lil while ago. I have the very bottom of the hilt done (had some issues on how I wanted to make it look compared to the picture so had to do it a few times before I was happy with it.) and a basic blockout of the hilt part (still debating on whether or not I should model the braids or just nDo it and then use the Normal Map for the textures as well (think in the long run it will be easier.

This is my project for giving me a much needed break from actual programming (still have to read my theory but hey, it's a work in progress).

Well thanks for reading, I'll probably add pictures later or in the next post.

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Here's the first WIP pic, just the hilt (haven't made the pull cord on the bottom or whatever the side circle thing is) gonna have to find some ref of chainsaws I think to make the next big piece believeable.
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