Progress... sort of.

Ok so technically I have animated 12 seconds of animation since my last post, which is a good amount. The bad thing about this is that 11 of those seconds were animated pretty much right after I made the last post, and I've not made much progress since then. If I worked as hard as I did that day, I might have been able to do a few seconds of animation per day. As it is, I've only added about 1 second, for a grand total of 12 since my last post.

Besides the disappointing amount of work that I just described, I did get a ton of awesome hardware for Christmas. I got a 24 inch, 16x9 1080p monitor (now I can view my editing projects in fullscreen as I work on them!), a pair of pretty awesome speakers for said monitor, as well as a wireless, solar-powered keyboard. When I am not using both screens, I set up my huge monitor in front of my laptop, and along with the separate keyboard and speakers, I feel like I am on an entirely new system. It's pretty darn cool.

I still have a solid week left to try my best to be productive with Axis Mundi, so I hope and pray that I will be able to force myself to get some work done. It's not that I haven't sat down to do some serious animating... It's just that when I do I sit there watching what I have play over and over again, and I hardly ever add any new keyframes. If I ever do add any new keyframes, it only takes me about a minute, but then I WATCH IT ALL OVER AND OVER AGAIN INSTEAD OF TAKING THE NEXT MINUTE AND ADDING MORE KEYFRAMES. SERIOUSLY WHAT'S THE DEAL WITH ME?!?!?!

Filming by the book

Today I have been animating and filming according to my animatic. Here's me comparing my shot in RCT3 to my animatic, in order to make adjustments:

So yeah, that pretty much explains what I've been doing and will be doing until I get to the end of my animatic. Then I'll just make it up from my head as I animate and film.

In other news, I've received grades for the art and digital media assignments that I posted earlier. The art project (The December Render) got a 97.5%, and the animatic got a 113%. Although, I didn't really get credit for the extra 13%, because that's not the way that the school's grading system works. The professor just happened to have a grading scheme that can go over 100%, because extra credit is built into it. Obviously I didn't really need extra credit, though.

December Render

I can't believe that it's been more than a year since I started working on the model of the Pagani Zonda. But here we are, almost a year removed, and I have yet another "December Render" to share. Hhhmmm. March Madness and December Renders. I really enjoy all of these little traditions that I am slowly instituting here at Hard Core's Film Updates.

So, without further ado, here is the second official "December Render!!!"

Yes! It's all snowy and icy and watery! And stuff! I kind of half did this for fun, and half did it because I needed to make something for my 2D Design final. I printed it out on the super-nice printers at the Digital Media Center where I go to college at ETSU. The image is 4800 by 2700 pixels, which is exactly the right resolution to be printed on a 16 inch by 9 inch piece of paper at 300dpi. So that's what I did. The critique for my class's final pieces will be tomorrow, so I might add to this post or make a new one once it has been critiqued.*

Oh, and in case you weren't bored by the technical details mentioned earlier, here are some more to ensure that you get a healthy amount of bore-induced snoring today: The image was rendered in Blender using the Cycles rendering engine, using my GPU (A GTX 485m). It took about 12 hours of rendering to get this quality, which is actually very fast when you consider that there is virtually no noise in it. A similar image would never have cleared up this much in 12 hours if I rendered it with, say, Luxrender. So far Cycles is proving its self to be really, really valuable.

*I had the critique today. Nothing special, really. It went pretty well but people weren't drooling over it or anything. The class wasn't geared towards digital art, so I'm not surprised that not many people really "got" the image.

A scene from The Battle for Axis Mundi

So... I decided that I would upload something kind of out of the ordinary for me. It is a preview of a scene from The Battle for Axis Mundi. I don't generally like to upload "previews" of my stuff before it is done, but I felt like I should make an exception in this case. Firstly, because this preview is not using footage from the actual film. Secondly, because it has been so darn long since I started this thing, I feel like people should get to see some indication of what is in the works. The animatic takes place about 4 minutes and 30 seconds into the film. That's how long it is right now. So basically over the next few weeks I will be working on making the very scene that you see in this video. But in RCT3 with fully animated 3D characters. So go ahead and take a look at what I am talking about, and then I'll give you some more tidbits:

So yeah. Kinda basic, but you get the idea of stuff happening. You also may recognize my slightly Derpy drawings as the Warrior of Light. You also may see a creepy spiky dude that you have never seen or heard of before. I guess I am kind of revealing him here. Oh well. I don't think that it matters that much that it stay a secret. Since I have shown you a 3D model of the Warrior of Light, I might as well show you a picture of what this bad guy, who's name happens to be "Evil," looks like in the game:

Now you are officially kinda-half spoiled. But not really. Because the point of this film is the animation. And I haven't made anything close to these animations before. So hopefully you don't feel too spoiled. Given that this is the biggest update for Axis Mundi so far, I kind of feel a little let down. I was expecting to be like OOHHHH YEAAAHHHH CHECK IT OUT ITS AN ACTUAL VIDEO ABOUT THE BATTLE FOR AXIS MUNDI WOOP WOOP!!!1!!1!!

Maybe I'll feel a little more excited once you guys start talking about it. Wink wink nudge nudge.

New for me, old for... French people?

I just found a really interesting thread. This thread has only one reply. However, this thread also has to do with my machinima tutorials. Which makes it awesome. And in French. Derp... I mean, the thread isn't french because of my tutorials. It just happens to be on a French forum and I decided to mention that last.

This thread is kind of old, but it's new to me so that's why I am posting it. Here's the thread in butchered English a la Chrome:

And here's the French version for those of you who can read it:

Oh, and here's the link: http://frct3.forumactif.com/t1029-tuto-astuces-pour-creer-un-film-avec-rct3

I love posting stuff about people talking about stuff I've made. It makes me feel warm and fuzzy inside.

Chillin Vanilin

I worked on some music today, as well as the animatic for the next part of Axis Mundi that I am doing for school. I found this nifty little program called the "Vanilin MIDI Keyboard," that basically lets you use your computer keyboard as a piano that can play notes into musical software. I've got it working with Mixcraft, so we'll see where that takes us. Hopefully toward awesome music land.

Alignment Issues

Over the past week I've gotten 100 frames of animation done, imported, and filmed in RCT3, and about 100 more animated only. The second 100 frames are proving difficult to import, because there are two different rigs interacting with each other. In theory, this shouldn't be a problem, because I have technically done the same thing in an older shot. When I did it before, though, there was one complex armature and one armature with only one bone. Right now I am trying to import two complex armatures. They don't want to import in the same scenery file, so I have tried separating them, but there are major alignment issues that I have yet to fix. As I write this post, I think I recall that when I animated interaction between two models before, I imported them separately as well. So I should probably focus my efforts on correcting the alignment problems, instead of trying to get both animations to import in the same scenery file.

Texturing and importing

So that model I was talking about. I textured it and imported it. Now I am even closer to filming some more. Thats's pretty much it. But I am going to try my best to work on The Battle for Axis Mundi as if it is a project for school, because I seem to be able to work pretty hard on those. I figure I ought to be able to have at least same amount of dedication for my own personal projects as I do for those that are assigned to me. Cross your fingers.

Storyboards and Photoshop

Unfortunately I have not actually filmed anymore for Axis Mundi since the last post, but I did work on it in a sort of round-about way. I had an assignment to sketch a 16 panel story board, so I sketched the scene that I am about to animate.

I also finished a project for one of my classes recently, where I had to replicate a photograph using collage techniques. There was an option to do it in photoshop, so that's what I did. The images on the left are my replications, and the ones on the right are the original pictures.

Notice the trees? They're from Crysis 2.

This second one is purely Google images.

There you go. That's what I've been up to lately. As usual, I need to get back on track and work more on Axis Mundi more often.

Yay 3D

So just now I actually made something in 3D! Yay! I love 3D! I should do this productivity thing more often. So anyways, it wasn't animation, but the start of another model. I know that I started another model around this time last year, and I only just finished it to the point where it can become a part of the film a few months ago, but I'm really thinking I'm not going to put as much time into this. In fact, I might even say that I am completely finished modelling it. Yes! I am completely finished modelling it. No if, ands, or buts about it. I will now simply texture it, import it, and film it! And there will be PROGRESS!!! MUAHAHAHAHAA!!!!!!

Vector Drawings

So I finally finished the drawings of the robot for my class. The lines were drawn in Illustrator and everything was colored in in Photoshop.

Still not more than superficial progress on Axis Mundi. I need to remember that post I made a while ago. There's no reason why I can't be working on The Battle for Axis Mundi as much as I can during my free time.

Cold feet

I got a good amount of the re-edit in Premiere done this weekend. That's about it, unfortunately. I feel like I am avoiding doing the animation that I need to do next, almost like my subconscious is panicking now that I actually have all of the assets that I need to get most of the film done. It's trying to find a way for me to get stuck on some minor detail, but there aren't any details left. It's an open road, I've got a full tank of gas, but my foot nervously hovers over the gas pedal. Almost like it is too good to be true. Hopefully writing this will help me overcome that feeling.

Frame by frame

So I got my walkcycle animation set up to be properly synchronized with all the particle effects and other RCT3 factors that I can't directly control (not always an easy task), and chugged out 150 frames/5 seconds of final footage! Woohoo!

It kinda seems sad that I am celebrating over getting just 5 seconds of my film done, but hey, at least I am making progress.

In other news, my college classes continue to be ten times more fun than regular schoolwork. Using Adobe Illustrator, I am tracing over the robot sketch that I posted a while ago. I'll post that when it is finished.

Productive Procrastination

So I just finished some really productive procrastination. When I was going to be working on a paper, I worked on the walk-cycle and got it to a presentable-enough-to-film-it level. And now I can work on my animations more this week, unless a boatload of unexpected stuff happens, because I just finished the paper! But I think I'm going to go to sleep now.

Practical animation

I remembered something I read a long time ago today. It had to do with computer animation. It was one successful animator's specific workflow (can't remember who it was). Basically, he animated the body first, completely ignoring the legs, and then animated the legs after he got the motion he wanted with the body. I remember thinking that it was a really good idea to try once I started animating stuff. I had forgotten about it until today. That's what I've been doing, and it seems like it might work. I've got the body animated the way I want, and I've only just begun to see if I can get the legs to follow along in a believable way, but I am hopeful. It really does make sense to do the body first, since shots in films tend to focus on the face/head first, the body second, and the legs might be included if the shot is wide enough, but they are almost never the center of attention. So why let them define your animation? Well, that's exactly what I had been doing up until now... I was animating the legs first, and it was making my character look completely weird. Even if I don't get the legs looking completely perfect, though, I think I will still be able to use this animation. The particular shot I want it for doesn't actually show the legs most of the time anyways (surprise, surprise!).

Animation and editing

Over the past few days I have completed and filmed 321 frames of animation for The Battle for Axis Mundi. It could have been even more than that, but unfortunately the new model's walk cycle has me a little bit stumped. I kept re-doing it and it kept coming out wrong, so I need to figure out what is up with that. I think part of the problem is me thinking that IK constraints would solve ALL of my problems. While it is true that they make feet stick to the ground, it's not true that they auto-magically make your animation look realistic. In fact, I think it is just as easy to make an unrealistic animation with them as without them. With IK it looks like your character is a puppet who has no muscles, and without them it looks like a person who's feet don't seem to care that two pieces of matter cannot occupy the same space at the same time (note however that well-animated characters don't necessarily give a second thought to the laws of physics either!). Overall though, once I get better at animating them, I think IK rigs will make the animation process a lot easier.

Oh, and since I was having such a hard time on that particular animation, I continued working on the re-edit in Adobe Premiere. The green-screening is SO much cleaner! Everything looks better than ever!

IK, You K, We all K.

I have now (kinda) figured out how to animate using constraints, including IK constraints. Makes a lot of stuff easier. For a while I was having a hard time getting the constraints to bake, but I've got it sorted. My first animation with my new model is now working successfully in RCT3, so I'm going to go to bed and then start animating and filming as much as I can tomorrow.

Sketching And Stuff

Good news/bad news time! The bad news is that I haven't gotten to work on Axis Mundi very much this weekend. I have been writing a paper for one class, and sketching a robot for another. The good news is that you get to see the robot!

It's a giant, inquisitive, nuclear powered, teleporting, exploration robot! Or at least those were the parameters I was given to work with. Hopefully I have adhered to them closely enough to get a good grade. Those little probe things are the teleportation part, by the way. The idea is that they can zap stuff into the compartment on the back of the robot, so that it can be studied by people inside.

The return of the Titanicus

So my laptop was returned to me on Monday, presumably with a new graphics card (Is there really anyway to know if it is a different one or not?). I'm really glad that it is back. The keyboard is so much easier to use. It's tactile feedback is insanely superior than the keyboards in the public lab. Oh, and editing in Premiere on my laptop is smoother than on the desktop workstations that my University provides. Yeah. It's an awesome laptop. That's why I named it "Principio Titanicus." (Don't ask me what that means, I just thought it sounded awesome.)

Anyways, hopefully I'll be able to work on Axis Mundi stuff more this weekend. Pretty small update, I know, but I just realized today that I hadn't made a post about my laptop being back.

"Swimmingly" <---How things are going.

My laptop is still gone (I sent it off last Wednesday), so I am about to head to the edge of campus where the Digital Media Center is located. I saved all my Axis Mundi files to my external hard drive, so I can continue to edit using premiere even though it is gone. And yes, I bought Premiere even though I have access to it through computers at school. I like to be independent, sue me.

Anyway, I have to say I am loving the workload as a Digital Media major. This past week the first 4/5 week work cycle completed it's first go-round. So far it is quite a bit easier than high-school. I don't have classes on Friday, which gives me extra long weekends unless I have papers to write, which I don't this weekend. So I'll be able to work! I think it's obvious that everyone wins in this situation. I get to go to college to make movies, and learn how to make better movies, and you get to watch my movies! Yay!

Yo dawg, I heard you like image processing.

So we put image processing in your image processing so you can image process while you image process.

That's basically the gist of Adobe Premiere, which is now my favorite NLE, bar none. I would say it was worth the $350 that I shelled out for it. I can now do the same video effects that I had to use multiple programs for (Ulead and Blender), in one video program. I also don't have to render any intermediate files, and the end result is - to my pleasant surprise - significantly better than before! And don't even get me started on the unlimited audio tracks. Ulead Video Studio 11 Plus only had 2. Yep, 2 audio tracks. And Premiere has an unlimited number. I love Premiere!!!

Logo Animation

I did another one of those one-day video projects. Last night I modeled and animated this video. It's a pretty awesome feeling sitting in class, knowing that during all the time you spend studying, something nice and shiny is being rendered for you back in the dorm. Anyways, the video features the logo for the "Edge Club," at ETSU. The Edge Club is basically where all the Digital Media people get together and have discussions about Digital Media awesomeness. The logo that they have for the club is this alien spaceship type thing, so I made it fly around and come to a rest in the logo. I used Blender for the video, of course, and Mixcraft to make the music.

Oh, and there's more info about the edge club here.

Cruddy News

I'm going to have to RMA my laptop. Again. A few weeks ago my graphics card wigged out, and it did it again yesterday. It's definitely dying; the symptoms could not be attributed to anything else. So I'm going to have to go a few weeks with out it. Again. If I weren't so frustrated, I'd say that I'm lucky that all of my parts are failing while my laptop is still under warranty.

Animation Weekend

I managed to make 240 frames of animation this weekend. Exciting times! Maybe the film will start really moving along now. And as far as the texturing goes, I am getting used to the way that it looks, and I actually think it is quite close to what I had imagined it would look like in it's final form. By the time that I finish animating this shot and film it in RCT3, I probably will not have any doubts about using it as the final texture. Sometimes I'm not sure whether it is good or bad when that happens. By "that," I mean the phenomenon where I make something, don't really like it, but I don't change it for a long time, (possibly because I can't [like this instance]) and then later on I decide to keep it that way just because I have gotten used to it. In the worse case scenario, that would be blinding myself to how cruddy a portion of work is, and in the best case, it doesn't really matter and by letting go of my perfectionism I save time. I hope this instance is the second one.

Clear to proceed

I am tentatively proceeding with the animating and filming of the rest of the scenes for The Battle for Axis Muni. The model that I was texturing is presentable, so instead of spending hours agonizing over how I can't get it's texturing to look better, I am starting to animate it. After all, I can always fix the textures later if I feel like they absolutely need to be improved.

Your News, Sir

A while ago I mentioned how a machinimator named CD5 was coming out with an awesome looking machinima called Greenhouse: Retaliate. Well, it's out now and it turned out just as awesome as it looked. Watch it here.

In Axis Mundi News, I have finished unwrapping my model onto the UV plane, and now it's time to start texturing. To help me kick-start this process, I've baked an ambient occlusion pass onto the mesh to give some parts it more depth. Hopefully I can add enough to that so that it doesn't just look like a boring typical-3d-model thing.

Complete Success

I totally just imported the model into RCT3. And it worked freaking perfectly. I am happy.

I know it must have been strange reading my posts. Since I have not given much away about this model, you've had to go on basically nothing. Sorry about that.

Anyways, it is now fully imported! All my test animations work perfectly. I just have to texture it and it will be complete. I love conquering stuff. Or rather.... I like at the end when you get to step on the back of your foe's head, smashing his face into the dirt, as you strike a badass pose and gloat about how great you are and how much he sucks.

It just came to me

I think I have figured it out. And I don't see how I could possibly be wrong this time. You can't have a vertex belong to more than 4 vertex groups. That's what causes the error. I think I need to add this information to my RCT3 Animation tutorial. I should be given a medal or something for figuring this out.

I will report back when I have configured the model properly to conform to this quirky rule.

Nope wasn't the X-mirror

I am so confused. Every time I think I've figured out what is causing the problem, it does something I was not expecting. The X-mirror thing was not accurate at all. The best guess I can come up with now is that its something about the way that the bone weights overlap. But its difficult to figure out exactly what the "rule," is, so to speak. At one point I thought that it was "Only adjacent bones can have common weight." But that's not what causes it alone; I did a test model of a segmented rectangular prism where weights from a grandchild bone overlapped with weights from the grandparent. It imported fine. I really hope that soon everything will become clear.

That blasted X-mirror

Today I worked on the re-weight painting as much as I could. At first it was working. I was periodically checking if it was importing as I went, and it was going ok, until one time after I painted close to the middle of the mesh, and then imported to test it. Then the old error showed up. I'm thinking that it must have to do with the X-mirror option in the weight painting. I might try just painting one side, then using that script that I actually thought was the culprit of the problem at one point to mirror it all at once. Ironic that it might be what turns out to be what saves the day.

The Wrong Solution, and Pure Awesomeness

Today I started classes. This semester is mainly General Education, but I do have one Digital Media class. And that was the first class I took today. And. It. Was. Awesome. The entire class was Pure Awesomeness.

In Axis Mundi news, I have about half of the vertex groups in my armature on a "White List." This means that they will not cause a failure in the importer. Then there are 2 vertex groups that I have on a "Black List." This means that if they are imported they will most certainly cause a failure in the importer. I have not classified the remaining bones. The good news - in fact very good news - is that when I clear the weight painting on a Black Listed vertex group, and then re-weight it, it imports correctly. This means that I've pretty much figured out how to fix everything and make it import properly.

I thought I had also figured out something even more elusive about this whole importing fiasco; the cause of the issue. Sometimes the cause of a computer issue is significantly more difficult to determine than the solution. In this case, I thought I had found the solution AND the cause of the problem, however during the course of writing this blog post I tried to verify my hypothesis and I got results that I did not expect. However, I think it is still worth including what I was thinking up until just a few minutes ago. The text in italics is what I wrote when I thought I knew what caused the problem. It still contains true statements that are relevant to Blender and describes what did in fact happen, it's just that the conclusion of the sequence of events is not actually what caused the importing error.

I'm pretty sure that the cause of the importer's problems with the vertex groups can be described by the conclusion of this sequence of events: At one point during my weight painting I accidentally painted without having X-mirror enabled. (This wasn't my fault, by the way, in Blender 2.48a the X-mirror option does not stay turned on between sessions. That's one of the very rare times I've thought something in the Blender interface is completely nonsensical.) I then proceeded to weight paint one side of the mesh for a while, without realizing that the painting was not automatically being done to the other side. Once I had completed a not inconsiderable amount of work, I realized the mistake that had been made. Of course I didn't want to have to do the same work over again for the other side of the mesh, so... (and here's the punchline).... I used a script that copied the weight from one side of the mesh to the other. More specifically, the script "Mirror Vertex Locations & Weight." I've never used it before, and while it was helpful, that's probably what caused the error in the importer.

So anyways, all this post really amounts to is me talking about a whole bunch of technical Blender stuff because going to my Digital Media class has gotten me more excited than usual about all things 3D, Blender, and Computer-y.

AAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH DigitalMediaexcitedblendidhfilmovifajsdfhaklehf.

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.

.

I probably need to calm down before I develop an aneurysm.

Even Closer

Today I successfully imported many of the vertex groups for the model. That means that some parts were deformed by the animation, and some weren't. I'm going to slowly add groups until I find the one (or ones) that are causing the problem. This post is very good news, because it means that there's nothing wrong with a good number of the weight painting that I did. So I can at least keep about half of my weight painting at this point. I'm hoping I'll just narrow it down further and further until there's only a couple of vertex groups left, and those will be the ones that are causing problems and have to be re-done. And then it's on to texturing!!!!

College

So I moved into college today. Besides that I worked a little bit on some music, because that's what I felt like doing after I got back from doing all the college things that I felt like doing. I have a little longer, so I might work some more on figuring out what is wrong with my vertex groups. We'll see how that goes. I will probably post immediately once I figure out what's wrong.

3/4 of the way there

So today I managed to get the Mesh, and all 64 bones (that's right, I said 64) of the Armature to import correctly into RCT3. But there is a catch. The importer will only accept the armature if I delete all of the vertex groups that correspond to all of my tedious weight painting. So, the model imports, but it is not properly deformed even though the armature is imported with it. The suspicions that I had a few posts ago have now been pretty much completely confirmed; it's the vertex groups. Now I just need to figure out what the heck is wrong with them.

Halfway there

Good news. I've successfully imported the mesh of the model that I am still not revealing. But only the mesh. I had to take off the armature, and replace it with one that was different. Why that should make any difference at all is very strange to me. But it supports my theory that whatever is wrong has to do with the vertex groups.

Importing problems

Ok, here's the deal. Two days ago, I went over the model that I have been weight painting and found a handful of mistakes and little things that I fixed. That was good. The day after that, I continued doing the same thing, as well as doing a little animation to test out the model in RCT3. That went well, too. The problem came, of course, when I tried to import the model into RCT3. It gave me the same ping that it gave the higher poly mesh. So to make sure that size wasn't the issue, I took a different model that imports successfully, subdivided the mesh a few times, and then imported that. This .modxml file was 12 MB in size, and it imported successfully. The model that won't import successfully is 5 MB. Clearly, size is not the issue here.

Now, at first this kind of made me regret going back to the lower poly mesh, since it wasn't the complexity that was the problem. However, it was so incredibly frustrating to weight paint the hi-res version that I think it is worth going back to the low-res version just to make the weight painting easier.

Back to our timeline: Yesterday all I did was try and figure out what the importer doesn't like about the model. The only thing I concluded was that since it can't be the size, it must have something to do with the vertex groups/weight painting. However, the Warrior of Light model uses vertex groups to define weights for the various vertices, just like this model. And there are no problems with it. I figure I just have to keep looking and I will find some strange thing that I did that causes the error. That's the nice thing about Blender. It's always something you've done. It may be frustrating, but you can always correct it. However, what's really frustrating is when a program malfunctions, and you have done nothing wrong. Then it's almost impossible to get it working right.

I'm looking at you CryEngine 2.

Call me Michelangelo

So I continued weight painting today. I am at the point where I realize there is no more to do technically (Every bone in the armature will deform the mesh pretty much correctly) but for some reason It doesn't feel like it should be done. I guess I will just keep posing it until I am satisfied that no more adjustments need to be made. And I probably should import it into RCT3 for goodness sakes. I keep saying I'm going to do that but for one reason or another it never happens.

A Lesson from the Ant

You lazy fool, look at an ant.

Watch it closely; let it teach you a thing or two.

Nobody has to tell it what to do.

All summer it stores up food;

at harvest it stockpiles provisions.

So how long are you going to laze around doing nothing?

How long before you get out of bed?

A nap here, an nap there, a day off here, a day of there,

sit back, take it easy - do you know what comes next?

Just this: You can look forward to a dirt-poor life,

poverty your permanent house guest!

Proverbs 6: 6-11

I just read this last night after I published my last post. Incredible how relevant it is. Of course, I shouldn't be surprised at this particular book having something relevant to my life... it's always relevant. But I thought it was striking how directly relevant it was to what I had just written, and that's why I am putting it here.

Painting, and a commitment

I hit the weight painting really hard today. Only about halfway done, but I'm doing it completely manually instead of creating the vertex groups from the bone heat of the armature. It's a fun challenge at the current resolution, but any more vertices and I'd be very frustrated. I'm glad I never spent this much time trying to weight paint the subdivided mesh.

I generally try not to make any promises when it comes to my filming schedule. However, I believe that most things in life are a balance. And I don't think that making promises about my filming schedule is an exemption to this rule of thumb. So, although I will not be stating anything having to do with specific dates, I think it would be good for me to announce that I will not be taking any breaks in work for the foreseeable future. I will not spend a day getting distracted by Minecraft. I will not spend a day benchmarking Crysis. I will not spend a day owning people in Modern Warfare 2 Multiplayer. I will not spend weeks taking a break from production to do "mental production." My work is engaging, has clear direction, and there is NO JUSTIFIABLE REASON (that's in caps to help me remember, btw) for me to not be working every chance I get. This is not me stressing myself. This has nothing to do with when I finish The Battle for Axis Mundi. But it's the season for work. And my work is pretty darn fun, so there's no reason I shouldn't be working.

This is not good.

SO... for one reason or another, the Minecraft trial that came with my Humble Indie Bundle has not expired. And it probably won't ever expire, seeing as how I'm not letting it connect to the internet to patch itself. So now I have Minecraft.

Yeah. This is obviously not a good thing.

Should've done that earlier

So I finally did what I said that I would do a few posts ago. I tried to import the model into RCT3. Unfortunately, I ran into a snag. It looks like the RCT3 Importer doesn't like how detailed my model is. It doesn't give me any error messages, it just appears to begin loading the .modxml, deliberates for a good while, then hits me with a classic "ping!" with no accompanying message. I am guessing that it is just too big. So I'm thinking I'll just have to go with the base mesh that I modeled, instead of the subdivided one. Like I said, I think RCT3 would be able to handle the subdivided mesh, but I didn't think about the fact that it might not be able to get through the importer. That's OK, though, because I was starting to get a little overwhelmed with the weight painting of the hi-poly model. Hopefully I'll have an easier time with the lower poly version.

Do it right! Take 2!

Today I reviewed the edits that I described in the last post. The bad news is that I didn't like the way it turned out at all. The good news is that today I filmed and edited in replacement footage (Again. If you're counting, that's the second re-shoot/re-edit for this particular [very short] scene), and I actually liked the way it turned out. In fact, I was very excited to get this part polished up, because I never considered it properly finished in the first place. I just kinda pushed it to the side and told myself I would finish it up later. I guess I've done that now.

I continue to amaze myself with the amount of crap that I can write about making this film, even though it continues to be unreleased. But I guess I explained that in the last post, didn't I? I'm not just trying to finish the film, I'm trying to make the film something I will be proud of. Nevertheless, the fact that it is taking so long does weigh heavily on my mind.

Motivate THIS!

So it has been a few days since I should have posted. This is the post that I meant to write a few days ago. As such, it is slightly out of date. Meaning I haven't worked in the past few days since I forgot to write this on the 5th.

I worked on The Battle for Axis Mundi some; it was editing. I always feel like there is room for improvement with this film, especially with the editing. I want to avoid any shot feeling out of place. I want each shot to flow into the next, and for no shot to have unnecessary, gratuitous screen-time that says "Hey, I'm just too lazy to think of something else to put here that makes sense, so I'm gonna keep showing you this shot." When that happens, a shot that could have been awesome turns into suck. And I want to avoid that and other editing/storytelling mistakes. So I filmed some extra footage that wasn't too hard to do, but I hoped would make some stuff make more sense and flow better. Who knows if I succeeded? I sure don't, (to be fair I haven't finished editing it in, rendering it, and reviewing it) but I can only hope that if I tweak it enough, maybe... just maybe... I can create something that I can be proud of.

Using that thought as inspiration, I came up with this:

That's pretty much what I look like whenever I am working, and most definitely when I am editing. So yeah... that's actually one of the most relevant pictures I have ever posted. Cause' whenever I have an update, that is basically what I've been doing.

Rigging

Today I got into the meat and potatoes of rigging, i.e. weight painting. It's a lot more time consuming painting this model than with the Warrior of Light, because it has so many more vertices. But I really like how it is looking so far. I can't wait to get it fully rigged and textured; I think that there's a lot of creative stuff that can be done with the animation of this model.

Tweaked Out

Well, I may have alluded to being close to finished before, but now it is official. I am finished modelling the model I was modelling. Now I am going to import it into RCT3 to make sure it will work. It has a lot more vertices than the Warrior of Light model. That model has 306 vertices. The model that I just finished has 8,333 vertices before subdivision, (that means 8,333 is the number of vertices that I worked with by hand) and after one subdivision (to make it look a little smoother) it has 33, 679 vertices. Using those numbers, the new model has 110 times more detail than the Warrior of Light model. That shouldn't be a problem for the RCT3 engine to handle, because I have done crazy experiments before where I have hundreds of the same Warrior of Light animation going at the same time. It does lag a little bit, but nothing that would crash the game.

Here's an interesting tidbit: at one point I was considering doing two subdivisions on the model instead of just one. That would give the model 134,341 vertices, which is 439 times more detail than the Warrior of Light model. I don't think I've ever successfully had that many WOL models in one park before (although I haven't tried), so I decided to step it back a notch for performance sake. And honestly, when it comes to sub-surfacing, there are rapidly decreasing returns for each successive division, so even if it would run in RCT3, it's a little silly to have so many vertices define such a simple shape.

So yeah. Done with the thing I started modelling ages ago. November 2010... was it? ...Nope, just checked and it was..... 0_o....... October 2010!

That's right, the model that I just finished is the model that I first mentioned in this post.

Man am I ever dragging this film out.

Sniff

Hrmm... Well, I have been critical of CD5's movies in the past, but not because I thought his work was bad! It was because I thought his work was awesome already, but felt it could be even better. Anyway, this was what happened when I tried to comment on the teaser for Greenhouse: Retaliation:

I understand the feeling of wanting to block out negative noise. A while ago I joined the Blender Artists forums, and posted some stuff from Radical Racer's Run. For reasons I cannot understand (perhaps because I mentioned my model was based off of an old computer game?), the first reply was "So what you are saying is that you didn't make anything?"

I was incensed! So I decided to quit Blender Artists immediately, never to return. I just don't need that skeptical of a community. I understand if CD5 feels the same about me, but I still look forward to seeing his machinima!

Greenhouse: Retaliate

So yesterday CD5, a proliferant RCT3 Machinima creator, announced his newest project! It's a sequel to a machinima he released in 2009 called "Greenhouse." The sequel's name is "Greenhouse: Retaliate." Here's the thread about it on LGMC:

http://gulk.bplaced.net/forum/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=15&t=676&start=0

I am very excited about this as CD5 always makes great RCT3 films. Greenhouse was one of his best so hopefully the sequel will be even more amazing! This also energizes me to get working harder on The Battle for Axis Mundi. Knowing that others are creating RCT3 movies too makes me want to work more on my film and make it the best that I possibly can!

Here's to RCT3 film making!

Modelling Minutiae

I still haven't gotten the model imported into RCT3 to test it. I kept finding little things I wanted to perfect and that took up all my time. Not a bad problem to have if you ask me, because it ended up in me improving the model.

Oh, and for some reason I'm compelled to vocalize my gratitude for my awesome chiclet keyboard and laser mouse that I am using to create this blog post. I am blessed with stuff that I totally don't deserve for reasons that I don't understand.

Mysterious Silhouette

Got to model some more today. I'm going to import what I have so far into RCT3 so that I can get a feel for what it looks like in the game engine. After I rig it, that is. I haven't textured yet; I want to make sure I like how the mesh deforms before I go to a bunch of trouble getting the UV mapping just right.

And now you get to see a small preview of this model that I have been working on for all this time:

Yeah, I know, you can hardly see anything at all, but I still don't want to give away the best parts of the film before it's done. I would suggest clicking on the image to view it in fullscreen. You should be able to make out more of the mysterious silhouette that way. Hope you like it!

One of those

You know those posts where I say a bunch of words but none of them ever tell you anything at all besides the fact that I am alive and working but who knows when the heck I'll be done? Yeah. This is one of those. Well, here it goes:

I've been working on The Battle for Axis Mundi today. Mainly modelling. Nope, sorry, not gonna give you any screenshots.

That was it. Congratulations, you may in fact be reading the most uninteresting blog in the universe.

Actually trying to make progress

Continued getting ready to proceed with filming today. I.E. getting RCT3 files onto my laptop that I need for filming. Of course, that didn't take very long; my main obstacle is still modelling. Soon, though, I might start texturing! Yes, it's getting that close! And after I finish modelling, texturing, and rigging I'll start animating the most important scenes in the film! Huzzah!

But for the rest of today I will be working at my regular job :(

Oh and I had a great vacation last week. That's why there weren't immediate updates after I said I was actually working :D. Yes, I'm actually going to start working now!

Back on track

Today I started working again. I think I was subconsciously waiting until I played Crysis 2. Now that I've gotten in all the game playing that I was anticipating, I can hopefully spend at least a portion of every day being productive.

Today I was primarily modeling. Actually, I was exclusively modeling. Why I correct statements like that with another sentence when I could just replace the original text is beyond me.

Looks like it's time for Crysis 2

Looks like I'm totally eating my words now. Crytek is coming out with a DX11 patch. This I knew already. The thing that surprised me was when they released more info about said patch, the list of changes included a high resolution texture pack and real-time reflections. Both of these things are significant improvements that I honestly did not think Crytek would go to the trouble to include. It basically shows that they actually care about the PC market. These are great features that will make the game what it should have been at release. When I heard the news I immediately ordered the game off of amazon. It should arrive Tuesday, one day after the patch.

Great, just more ways for me to procrastinate.

Please don't be mad at me...

Well, my laptop has been gone this week because it's hard drive failed. So I've been getting absolutely no work done while it's been getting it's hard drive replaced. Of course, it's not as though I was getting any work done before this incident, either.

Don't worry about my data, though. I have a complete system image backed up on my trusty external HDD, so I haven't lost a single hour of work.

Basically this doesn't mean anything to you. I haven't lost any progress, and I haven't made any progress. Why am I posting this then? Oh, wait, I went over that already.

Well anyway, I hope you're not mad that I've been in procrastination land this summer. I just haven't felt like working... and maybe that's totally lame and someday I'll realize how lame I am, but for now I feel justified in not beating myself up that I haven't "spent enough time" on my current project. And I hope you aren't mad about that.

My wisdom... or lack thereof

My plans for getting back into a productive schedule have been foiled for the time being. Getting your wisdom teeth taken out really stinks.

This might be one of my shortest posts ever. Oh well.

Not for your benefit

There's not really any updates for you. I'm just posting because I haven't posted. I never really plan breaks like this... they just sort of happen. I put off working for a few days, and it turns into weeks, and if I'm feeling particularly lazy, it can turn into months. Like it has recently.

If you were thinking that my lack of posting was because I was just working so hard on a project that I didn't have time to post, then you were the opposite of right. I was just being lazy. As of right now, I'm still not back into the swing of things. But I do hope that doing a blog today will help me start the process of becoming productive again. And that's why I am posting.

If you are somehow under the delusion that this blog is written mainly for your benefit, maybe this post can help you realize why you are so incredibly wrong.

4 Year YouTube Anniversary

Today I have officially been on YouTube for 4 years. I remember waaay back when I joined all those years ago... I was not necessarily planning on making a ton of videos. At the time I was into making games with Game Maker. It wasn't until I made the "Hugest RCT3 Crash on YouTube" that I really realized I wanted to ditch the game thing and primarily do videos. Man, I'm pretty glad I decided to do that. I just really love to share videos with people. I love hearing feedback. So I'd like to heartily thank every one of you who has engaged any of my videos in any way. If you've ever commented, rated (I guess that now it is "Liked") or even just ever watched any of my videos...

Thank you.

Oh, and here's basically the same sentiment, albeit in video form:

DX11 Confirmed for Crysis 2

Yep. I am happy. I'll now definitely be picking up Crysis 2. Once the patch is released of course.

Sorry for beating on you so much, Crytek.

Oh, and if you hadn't surmised it already, Axis Mundi is officially on Valve time.

Ending March

So this has been a pretty crazy March for me. I've not gotten to work on Axis Mundi much, but I think that's ok. Whenever I have breaks, I feel like I come back with better ideas for the film. It's refreshing. I'm not going to let myself feel guilty about taking a long time to make it. I'm sure that when it's finally polished and ready to go, it will be worth it.

This is the end of March Madness. We didn't break the record. Oh well.

Seeya next time.

Crylulz

I have been posting a lot about Crytek lately. Let's continue this trend, shall we? I saw something today on their website that is pretty hilarious. On their page showcasing the CryENGINE 3, they have the following pictures:

Typical beach scene from Crysis anyone?

Hate to break it to you, but the image of the faces that is used below is older than the CryENGINE 3 by just a few years.

These CryENGINE 2 pictures are being used to promote the CryENGINE 3. There are a couple others pictures that actually are from CryENGINE 3, and some completely pre-rendered graphics. Then there's this:

I would be willing to bet a ton of money that the nanosuit in the above picture is pre-rendered. It is waaay to detailed*, and matches too precisely with this other pre-rendered graphic that is on the same page:

I don't think it is very forthcoming of crytek to photoshop a pre-rendered graphic into an actual real-time screenshot, and then use it as promotional material for their engine. Talk about false advertising. I'm really more amused by this than anything. Crytek is giving me the Crylulz.

*Unless that's actually what Crysis 2 will look like when the DX11 patch comes out. Ha. Ha.

Haha.

A Fancy Post

I have decided that I want to talk about Fancy Pants. I will, from this point in time, assume you are up to date on the news about Fancy pants.

SO. It has been a while since I last thought about the Fancy Pants series. By "a while" I mean a couple of months. In those couple of months, I have experienced CaveStory. CaveStory reminded me that the best things in life are free. In those couple of months, I also saw Crytek sell out to the consoles. This reminded me of how even the supposedly "faithful" developer can betray its fanbase.

And I just put two and two together now: the circumstances surrounding development of "The Fancy Pants Adventures" is the perfect storm for consolization/betrayal-of-fanbase fail. Just think about it. If the truly great games are free (CaveStory, the first 2 FP games) and even the faithful developer can go bad (Crytek seemed to care a lot about PC development), then the same thing could happen with FPA.

Now, there are a couple of differences that are important. Brad Bourne communicates with his fanbase. He does it A LOT. And that's AWESOME. If Crytek had actually communicated to its fanbase about all the stuff that was going to happen, then people may have been disappointed that Crysis 2 wasn't going to have basic features that Crysis had, but at least they would not have been mislead. And at the moment, there's no word about a DX11 patch for Crysis 2. Everyone from Crytek must have been instructed not to say a single thing, because there are no comments from any of the official outlets (e.g. Mycrysis.com). With Brad, however, there's no feeling of being shut out.

Hhhhmmm. I think I might be stopping mid-rant. But I felt like ranting some more. About stuff that doesn't really matter. 'Cause I don't have anything more serious to worry about. 'Cause for some reason, everything in my life seems to be going exactly how I want it to. Which is an undeserved luxury piled on top of my stack of already undeserved luxuries, which are all sitting on top of - and dwarfed infinitely by - the biggest undeserved luxury ever.

A Crysis Crisis

OK. I don't think that I'll be buying Crysis 2 if this is not fixed. I recently came across screenshots posted by a member of crymod. I'll get to that in a minute. First, take a look at these pictures of the CryENGINE 3 released by Crytek:

Wave propagation seems to be a pretty awesome feature, eh?

Like I indicated, I don't think that these screenshots look any better than Crysis 1, but I have to admit the screenshot below which - take careful note - is labeled as "Extreme spec," looks pretty darn good.

Now on to the deal breaker. The member of Crymod posted screenshots from the actual retail game of Crysis 2, at the "Extreme" preset (Which, by the way is all there is in Crysis 2. Only presets. No detailed graphics settings):

This screenshot looks NOTHING like the claimed "Extreme spec" that Crytek themselves released. Not only is the lighting less... well... good-looking, but the ripples don't have a fraction of the detail that the ones in the CryENGINE 3 screenshot.

The water ripple thing is (I think) a tessellation effect, which is a feature of DX11. Now, Crysis didn't ship with DX11. This would explain why the water looks so much worse in the actual game. Hhhmmm, why would Crysis 2 ship without DX11? Because the consoles don't have DX11; why bother to spend the effort to put something extra into a PC game that isn't on the consoles? The logical answer is: because it would be awesome. But Crytek apparently doesn't care.

Now, even if this is fixed in the future, serious damage has already been done, in my opinion. Crytek has gone and done exactly what they said they would not do! They said that the PC version came first, and that the console versions would not dumb-down the PC version. YET THIS CRUMMY SCREENSHOT EXISTS!!!!! Crytek clearly have their priorities straight. Just like every freaking other game developer out there, they put console development first. The version for the PC platform is an afterthought.

DX11 is now probably going to be included in Crysis 2 via a patch. Man. I. Freaking. Hate. This. Patch. SYSTEM!!!!! That's all there is these days!!! All of the PC releases nowadays are broken in some manner on launch day, and then we get patches that may or may not fix the problem afterwards.

Like I mentioned, I might still go for Crysis 2 if they update it with DX11. But even if they do, like I also mentioned, the damage has been done. I trust Crytek significantly less than before this debacle.

Man I love ranting.

My new schedule, and Crysis 2

Today I started my new job, so I haven't worked on Axis Mundi. I'm just too tired right now. But I'm not working full time, so once I get in a groove I think I can still be productive at my job and productive with my film making.

AND, in videogame related news... It appears that Crysis 2 does not really look any better than it's predecessor (graphically). Maybe it's unfair of me to say this when I have not actually played it for myself, but judging by the preliminary screenshots of the different graphical settings on PC, there is not really an improvement from the already awesome looks the CryENGINE 2 possess. I'm not totally decided yet on whether or not I should be shaming Crytek or praising them. We will see. If I am convinced to buy Crysis 2, then you will be getting my informed thoughts on the matter. And considering the fact that I almost made enough money to buy it at my job today, it is a very real possibility that I will be playing Crysis 2 in the future. That is of course, after I replay the first installment on my kick-butt desk-note that's the not actually the size of a desk-note that I'll hopefully be getting soon.

Good News Bad News

Yes, it's that time again. Time to relay multiple pieces of information in succession with the qualifiers of "Good" and "Bad." It's time for...... Good News Bad News!!!!

The bad news is two pronged:

1. I have not worked on Axis Mundi for more than an hour or so since I made my last post this March.

2. I have not yet broken my March Madness post count from last year.

Now, if you are an extreme pessimist, you may be thinking "What sort of news could even COME CLOSE to POSSIBLY offsetting this world-ending, tragic news?" Well, just wait and see. The good news all happened between my last post and now and is 3 pronged:

1. The day after I made my last post, I was able to overcome my musical creative block, and I made some pretty awesome music.

2. I got a job.

3. I found out that I got a full scholarship to college.

See? There was some good news after all.

Yeah. I get to go to college for free. That's pretty awesome, I must say. And what makes it even sweeter, is that I am going to college to study computer animation. This needs to be repeated in italicized, bold font. I am going to college to study computer animation. Basically, what I am doing now as a hobby will eventually become what I will study in school, and even get paid to do after I graduate. I can't really think of better news than that.

Frustration

I tried to come up with some music again today. Still couldn't make anything great. Maybe I'm not putting my heart into it or something. HHhhmmm. Or maybe not enough time. But it is hard to spend a bunch of time on work when you are in a creative slump. And not working just makes your slump worse. And your slump being worse makes it even harder to do any work. Hhhmmm. I think I spot a vicious cycle.

I hate those things.

A regular update

Today there is no review of an awesome game, nor rant about the random things flying around in my head. Today there is only this: that I tried to make music, and failed.

Of course, I will immediately be trying again. Or you could say that I am continuously trying, and so far I have not come up with anything. But I will come up with something eventually. There is, after all, a finite number of crummy melodies that one can make (for a given time interval). Eventually I WILL run out of them. And then all that will be left are awesome melodies.

Cave Story

So you guys deserve a post. Well, sorry to say it, but I didn't really work on Axis Mundi at all this weekend.

I was distracted by a video game...

It has been a while since I played a game that was this hard to put down. The game I am talking about is called "Doukutsu Monogatari." The English translation is "Cave Story." Man that is a humble name. The truth is that this game deserves more fanfare than ANY game that I have seen in the past 10 years. The creators of Cave Story have achieved something that is basically never seen in the commercial realm of video games: perfection.

Perfection might seem like a bold claim, but let me assure you that it is absolutely true. This game is freaking perfect. I cannot put it any more simple terms than that. The art direction is awesome, the game play is silky beyond imagination, the weapon/inventory system is intuitive, and the story is amazing!

The only real way that you can know what I am talking about is if you play this game for yourself. The game does not cost anything at all; Cave Story is freeware. Don't look at any screenshots, trailers, or any other stuff. Just play the game. It starts out without any indication of how awesome it will be. Just keep playing until you pass the addiction event horizon. You will be sucked in. You will not be able to escape. At least I can't. And that's why I didn't get any work done this weekend.

Go to http://www.cavestory.org/ and go to the "Downloads" section for the game. Also check out the "Game Info" section for a description and review of the game (even though you just got one from yours truly ;D).

Tongue Twister Tues.... Aw crap, it's Wendsday

I didn't get to do that shot yesterday. So that's what I did today. I did the shot that I said I'd have done by yesterday, today.

Try saying that 5 times fast, haha.

That's pretty much it... I can't give many details about the shot, except that it was pretty short, and required impeccable synchronization between Animated CSOs, and the fireworks mixmaster. We're talking an acceptable margin of error of 1 frame. And I got it in 2 tries. BOO. YA.

Post 2 of March Madness, COMPLETED!

March Madness

Well, it's that time of year again, whether I am prepared for it or not. That's right! It's time for....... MARCH MADNESS!!!! It's time for me to make a crazy amount of posts in one month! I have a feeling that I will break last year's record, considering how I am starting at the very beginning of the month this time. It may very well also help me make faster than normal progress on Axis Mundi, since I am having to post so much! I know it has made a difference today, because I got back to work today because it was the beginning of March Madness!

So, about said progress; as of the writing of this post I have finished one new (animated) shot today. I will probably get another one done tonight, though. Also, the last time I gave a length of time for the film was a while ago, so here's a new one: 4 minutes and 16 seconds.

That's about 36 seconds of new footage from when I made this post, which was the last shot that I did before I stopped filming to do Research and Development on the Animated CSO aspect of the production. So you could say that I have done 36 seconds since January 15th, which is pretty much when I was able to start animating.

Small Progress

I've been making small progress on The Battle for Axis Mundi over the past few days. It's really only a couple seconds in the edited film. I only did one shot today.... but it did take 12 tries to get the timing right. And of course I had to make the animation and particle effects to film in the first place. I guess that one shot per day is starting to be a typical workday for this film.

Victory

Spectacular news! Today I found out that the last RCT3 Crash montage that I uploaded to YouTube has it's audio back! I feel hugely vindicated. When the audio was initially muted, YouTube was pushing it's ridiculous audio swap feature. I was appalled! Replace my video's music with something other than what I intended!? Absurd! I would never give in! And now.... MUAHAHAHA! THE AUDIO HAS RETURNED!!!!!!!

Unfortunately, the video will probably never regain the popularity it once had, and should still have now, were it not for the audio being ripped out. Check out the YouTube insight for it:

Yeah. It was pretty much dead in the water once the audio was taken away. Who knows if it will make a comeback? Nonetheless, I am very happy that anyone who cares can once more watch the montage in it's full, precisely timed glory.

Excited

Today I got to polish off those 200 frames of animation I was talking about, and I imported them into RCT3 and filmed them. And.... oh man this film is gonna be awesome. I can't help but be excited at this point in the production. I guess that it's normal to be excited when everything is starting to come together.

Animating

So I got to animate some today. Got about 200 frames done in the couple hours that I worked. The frames aren't 100% polished yet, however. But it's really fun. I love how whatever I make in Blender appears in RCT3 exactly as it looks! I'm still getting used to how cool it is. Thank you Jonwil and Belgabor!

First Animated Scene

The past few days have been exciting because I have been doing the first animated scene in The Battle for Axis Mundi. The animation isn't too complicated for this particular scene, which is definitely a good thing as I am still learning the ropes of animation itself.

Although I have been getting some work done, some days are hampered a bit by me endlessly trawling through the sea of TV Tropes. If you don't know what TV Tropes is, then you should find out. It's Crazy Awesome.

The future is now

I feel really accomplished today. Why? Because I fixed all of the problems with my imported animations. The Warrior of Light is now 100% ready to kick Evil's butt. He is fully modeled, textured, and rigged, and, as of today, totally bug free. He looks EXACTLY like the peep I chose to play the Warrior of Light. I don't know if I have ever accomplished a goal this perfectly. It works exactly like I imagined. Speculation is now reality. What used to be the distant future is now the very real present.

Back in March of last year, I wrote an post that I entitled "The Future of RCT3 Machinima." By far, it has been my most viewed blog post over the last year (Good suggestion CzWorld!). In it, I talked a lot about Animated CSOs. Basically, I considered them to be the "final frontier" of RCT3 Machinima. At the time, though, I wasn't sure if it was possible to implement animations like I dreamed of doing. Today, I have confirmed that it is indeed..... very possible. The outer limit of what I thought might be possible, is now possible. It's the best case scenario.

Sometime this year, all of this ranting about how awesome animated CSOs are will come to fruition, and I'll release The Battle for Axis Mundi. In the best case scenario the film will be released this summer. Wait, I already said this was the best case scenario, didn't I? Well then, in the best case scenario of the best case scenario.

Back to work

So, since my Christmas vacation is coming to an end, it's time to start working on Axis Mundi again. What I am working on right now is adjusting the brightness of my WOL textures. They look great when I render them in Blender (see here and here) but they are too dark when they are rendered in RCT3 (sorry, no screenshots of that). I am also having a little trouble with my custom animations. Currently, whenever I import something animated, it's size changes to about 3 times what it should be. However, if the model is not animated, then it is the correct size. I have a theory about how to fix this that I will be attempting later today.

In Christmas present news, I got a pair of noise cancelling headphones, and a Blu-ray/DVD of Inception (great film!). I gotta say that I can't actually notice the noise cancelling in my noise cancelling headphones when it is turned on. What I DO notice when I turn it in, is an AWESOME bass boost, and a large over-all increase in the quality of the sound. This is some of the best sound I've ever heard, even outside of headphones. I used them to mull over a rough cut of The Battle for Axis Mundi, and they helped me catch mistakes in the audio that I missed on my computer speakers.