2011 VW Golf GTI - Updates 16&17

New updates!  Reworked the door, plus a few more little things - mostly mesh tweaking and whatnot.
I'd been tweaking the mesh, trying to finish up the model, and I noticed that I'd overlooked the little inset on the bottom part of the door and area just in front of the back wing.  So after an hour or two of tweaking, more tweaking, remodeling and yet more tweaking, we have the results below:

Update #16

Remodeling the door... that handle is a real pain in the neck, but it (thankfully) seems to be working okay.

Update #17

New topology VS "Old" topology

That's it for now - I'm going to go clean up the mesh a bit more, there's a bit of potentially problematic topology above the tail-light, and I also have to figure out how I'm going to add in the petrol-tank's cover.

...and yeah, I'm saying petrol instead of gas or gasoline.  What can I say, I prefer the British terminology (we use British spelling in Canada anyway, so why not?)

2011 VW Golf GTI - Updates 13-15

Hey,

So I've actually started working on this again...I guess buying a second monitor (Samsung 23" LED) kinda helps get the motivation going again ;)  I've actually been blending on two screens and it's seriously awesome.  I have to admit, though, I did have to prop up the 20" Acer up a bit so it would sit a bit more level with the 23" Samsung :P

Update #13 - Topology Updates

Update #14 - Cycles Test Render

Update #15 - New Topology Updates (a lot of tweaking going on)

Having a new computer certainly helps - I can now display all the layers without any problems, and the viewport remains nice and fast.  The tower I'm using (that I've actually had for over a month now, forgot to mention it before) is a Gateway DX4860 with a 3.0Ghz quad-core Intel i5-2320, 6GB of RAM, Windows 7 Home Premium (going to have to upgrade to Pro eventually) and a nVidia GeForce GT520 - not the best graphics card on the market, but over 9000 times better than the Intel 965 Chipset in my laptop...

Oh, the GT520 also has 1GB of VRAM :D  Only problem is, a CUDA-based Cycles benchmark render (Mike Pan's BMW M1) takes 5 to 10 times longer than with just the CPU... going to have to upgrade that as well, maybe get a GeForce GTX570 to run alongside the GT520, or something along those lines.

Anyway, this computer is fast.  I mean, my trusty dual-core Toshiba Satellite laptop was amazingly fast back when I first got it, but this PC blows it out of the water... I still feel attached to the Toshiba though, so I'm lucky it's still in great condition - might use it for network rendering or something.

Anyway, that's it from me for now.  See ya!

Minor updates

Hey!

So, just a quick post - trying to get back into the rhythm of posting regularly.

#1 - So, as you may have guessed, I've started working on my upcoming website again!  ...well, sort of.  I'm trying to finish up some of the content and a replacement tutorial, and I'll also be doing a revision of a few of the Free Downloads.  If everything goes according to plan, I might be able to bump up their quality by a notch or two, or at least make them more interesting.

#2 - The Golf GTI, on the other hand, is pretty quiet... I guess you could say the project's engine is idling around 1000rpm at the moment.  I am still slowly chipping away at it, I've just been caught up in four or five projects at once... I never learn, do I? ;)

Anyway, I'm going to go try and finish up that replacement tutorial now - I've got the text version almost complete, and man, it's a lot more complicated than just recording a video, what with the snapshots and paint-overs and so on.

May the Blend be with you!

"Byte-scopic"

Hey Blenderheads,

I needed a small break form the Golf GTI and a couple of other on-going projects, so I thought I'd try my hand at creating a banner for BlenderNation :D

Was inspired by David Revoy's sketch of the Durian team  (http://www.sintel.org/) from back in 2009/2010 - more specifically Brecht van Lommel's portrait (he's the main coder for Blender nowadays, and he's dev-ed some pretty amazing stuff)

Made with Blender 2.61 - and NOT rendered with Cycles! =P

P.S.  Golf update hopefully coming in the next few days!

EDIT (26-01-2012) - So I got word from Bart, who runs BlenderNation, and unfortunately he couldn't accept the image as a banner, as it doesn't really showcase Blender's capabilities - Best of Blender, as he put it - and I totally understand and agree with him :)  He said he liked it, which is awesome (I kinda went "yay!" - I mean, he's one of the well-known Blenderheads out there), but he's right, it's a rather simple scene...nothing really impressive.  However, I learned a lot from the project, so it's still a winner for me...maybe next time ;)  Might even use this as a banner for here...hmmm
Anyway, it's in my Render Gallery page - I updated it last night, go check it out!

Blog Redesign!

Okay, so it's time for a redesign!  I'll be using a more standard template and getting rid of this horrible blue-and-orange...thing...going on.  I'll be using a new banner as well, which I'll see if I can whip up quickly... I'm thinking of using the NES render, since it's my best so far.

Yeah, I liked the blue-and-orange design back when I first redesigned, but now I've grown tired of it - I need something more up-to-date, you know?

Other news, I've got another Golf GTI update coming within the next week or so - I think it's nearing completion!

Stay tuned!