Coming to a 3D handheld-console near you

So I just opened up Google Chrome and was checking the good ol' BlenderNation news feed on Blender.org, when I saw this:

http://www.blendernation.com/2012/04/27/nintendo-set-to-release-big-buck-bunny-on-3ds/trackback/

...just to explain just how epicly awesome this is to me, consider this following sentence.   My discovery of The Legend of Zelda - Ocarina of Time and other Nintendo games has very probably led to me doing what I'm doing now - being a total Blenderhead.  And now my one great passion/interest being (in a way) ported to a Nintendo system is something I was not expecting at all.  I seriously grew up with an NES and N64, and Nintendo's games remain my all-time favourites.
Not to mention it's coming to the 3DS, which is an amazing piece of tech - even though I can't say I've used it that much, I've completed Ocarina of Time 3D and the amount of detail and the quality of the graphics, not to mention the amazing 3D effect (galloping across Hyrule Field or fighting the King of Evil, Ganondorf, was even more epic than in the original, which was over 9000% pure epicness) was simply stunning.

...I'm really, really happy right now :D

All the geeky, geeky things...

So, I haz moar updatez for youz :D

First off, the Audi A5 Coupe.  To be perfectly honest, I haven't worked on it since I rendered that last WIP update, the model turntable.  I've been much busier with setting up Linux Mint (more on that later) and a bunch of other things like Minecraft, Star Wars Battlefront II, and Gran Turismo 5 :P  I'm planning on getting back to it this week, so keep an eye out (...gross) for those updates :D

So...From Freedom came Elegance, and from Linux Mint 12 came headaches and over six re-installations.  To be fair though, I love the interface and how the menus and so on work in Mint 12, and oddly enough it feels a bit more professional than Windows 7.  Maybe it's the absence of a few graphical flourishes Win7 uses, or maybe it's just that I'm expecting a Linux distro (aka distribution package/version) to be more professional since it's what they use over at the Blender Foundation in Amsterdam.  Who knows?
Anyway, about those multiple installations... they're all due to FAILs on my part.  Half of those fails were due to my crappy disk-partition management - deleting partitions that had the GRUB loader (what asks you which OS you want to use when you start up your computer) and therefore, I got GRUB errors that I couldn't fix by any method except re-installing everything.  So yesterday I finally got all my disk-partitions setup properly and Linux Mint 12 installed, updates installed and Nvidia GeForce GT520 drivers also installed - which means I also have my two screens setup awesomely.  I'll post a picture of my setup sometime :)
I'm still in the process of installing my essential programs, but hopefully I'll soon be regularly switching between Mint 12 and Win7 to do all my work :D

Yumm, minty chrome...

Two gaming-related updates too!  Yesterday I finally got my hands on...

Skyward Sword Celebration Project - WIP 06

Adding in some overlooked details to the expansion slot... :D

Still a few left in other spots (screws, insets, etc.) but I'm not sure how easy they'll be to add in.

Screws are fun to do though, I made some once for my 3D Magnemite so I'm very curious to try again with my improved modelling skills :D

Skyward Sword Celebration Project - WIP 05

some progress on the Television for the scene:

still the base mesh, but it's supposed to be a ~20 year-old 13" Emerson :)  it's picture quality is still super-good, thankfully.

Skyward Sword Celebration Project - WIP 04

New video tour of the project!


Skyward Sword Celebration Project Tour 4 - HD from MeshWeaver on Vimeo.


Also, check out the "Skyward Sword Celebration Project" page above - it's been updated!

Skyward Sword Celebration Project - WIP 03

Little update :D

SkywardSword celebration WIP 6 by ~MeshWeaver on deviantART

(not shown on the picture : all the plugs and cables for the NES.  the adapter heads are kinda tough to make, but quite fun too, since I really have to think about how I shape them, while still trying to keep the vertex count at a reasonable level.)

Skyward Sword Celebration Project - Cartridge Turntable

So as you can see, a turntable render of the NES game cartridge. Included in the video are both the default clay render turntable and a Wire version, for those of you curious about the topology :D

I also used Blender's built-in video editor for the first time to put this together :D  Went very well, and I definitely like the organization method - the various columns and things.

Anyway, here's the video.  Vimeo version is in queue for conversion - have to wait an hour before this 25-second video is converted, it's ridiculous.  Seems to me that the video conversion time should be judged by how long it is and the image quality...anyway, before I branch off again, here's the video, for real this time:

...I might have rendered it kinda fast, even though it was at 17 frames per second.  Maybe a slower animation would have been better, though the method I used doesn't really allow for much customization. I have to figure that out, there's going to be turntables of every object. :D  At least, I think...

Skyward Sword Celebration Project - WIP 02

(btw, the post is longer than this.  Click the "Read More" button to...well...read more :D)


Hmm, I've posted pictures about this on DeviantART more often than I post about it here...weird.


Anyway, I've made a lot of progress since the first post, considering it was at the beginning of July.  Lots of W.I.P pictures too, as you can see:



SkywardSword celebration WIP 3 by ~MeshWeaver on deviantART


July 25th

Skyward Sword Celebration Project - WIP 01

Hey Blenderheads, and non-Blenderheads :)

So I've started working on this project again.  I'd started it a while back (shortly after E3), but hadn't worked on it in a while.  I've made a lot of progress today though :


SkywardSword celebration WIP 1 by ~MeshWeaver on deviantART

then, the mesh for the...thing, is almost finished:


SkywardSword celebration WIP 2 by ~MeshWeaver on deviantART

...so?  :)

edit - now the "thing" is finished, btw.  had a few problems, such as the cord entrance, and then some joining issues (one of the pieces merged with another, and it wasn't supposed to, so that caused some pretty serious normals problems)...but all in all, i think it's done.  was fun :)  now I just have to make the rest of the darn thing...it's fairly complex