Tuesday, January 31, 2012

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








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!

Saturday, January 28, 2012

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!

Wednesday, January 25, 2012

"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!

Wednesday, January 18, 2012

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!