Life of a 3d artist....

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Articles: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6

Evening walk
2008-02-11 15:01:00
I reached home after work at 5.30pm..damn i felt tired just because staring at the PC screen staticly all day in the office and listen to the same music soundtrack on my PSP really dimmed my mind and dried my eyes. Man i better get a new music uploaded to my PSP soon. 30 minutes quick nap and then woke up to turn on my PC, "pop!" ...!! a small sharp sound and burning smell all over the places under my feed, i've checked the switched and plug, troubleshooted and manage to find out that all fused electrical plug was almost at toasted state with terrible indicator of outer plastic case melt below the fuse capsule inside. I decided to drive all the way to the mall and grab me a new set of power extension and plugs to power my workstation..that will be after a bath and family dinner at 7pm. At 7.30pm i drive all the way to the Mall and grab a 5 slots in a row extension cord to power up my PC and external devices with much better surge and electrical burning protection at a cost of b...
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Its MONDAY again, get back to real life job.
2008-02-11 11:36:00
Sunday is over, it Monday all over again. Wake early in the morning by force, get change and head to the office. Your mood always remains shadows of Sunday attitude which mean totally feels like Sunday behind the table on the first day of working week...not only me including people around me too. In this field of IT work in the office designing websites and building online application is my field of work because building something new as a complete product for client user is something i passionate about...hey i'm building something. Just like making 3d models....but if you do the same thing all ver again you'll get bored..trust me some people died when they bored. hee hee.. I got the right jobs but sometimes i used too much skills and knowledge until theres nothing left to learn...and so at the end of the day the brain remain idle just the finger keep moving and click the screen. Its a scary zombified experienced. lol.Lunch break for me is an optional, for some people it is ...
More About: Life , Back , Real , Real Life

PART 29: Interior cockpit texturing
2008-02-10 17:42:00
Yawn*** i felt tiread already, seeing the clock now is 12.15am already time to get back to bed and recharge myself because later morning i have to wake up and get back to the office for normal work. Ok so today i just fninish up final touch up on texture work for the cockpit section of the vehicle. Its was a bit difficult work because this texture uses shared texture it mean more than dozen parts uses same texture location on a very small scale area just to save up some space for other parts to reside, gald it was a success work for today. Tomorrow that is Monday i should continue working on under carriage parts and and front hood engine compartment..that will be after i came back home after office work. This should be easy task since i'll be using back some old parts from 2 years old XENO....yeah...worth it. zzzz.....zzz... tired need to get back to sleep. G'nite.
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A quick snack
2008-02-10 07:45:00
Its 2.30pm...damn i'm getting pretty dizzy already, i've ask my little brother to help me order a box of Kentuck Fried Chicken 2 pieces. An hour later my snack food comes. I don't have repeated habit having fast food but only for today because all those mind boggling 3d work really drain off my body energy. A bite of tasty hot and spicy fried chicken enough to give me some morale boost and appetite to get back on the computer and finish up the models.
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PART 28: Photorealistic 3d texturing!! Pure texture work!
2008-02-10 06:31:00
Today is my happiest day of this month, even the 4x4 vehicle have not yet fully completed but after hours of heavy texturing work finally the white 3d meshes have changed into fully dressed stunning photorealistic models! Pure scratch made, no special 3d effect, lighthings or any expensive rendering, its just plain texture paint works, hours of sweat, sleepless nights and hours of mp3 music. I here present you the new vehicle models into my family of Supermoto XL Designs. Even texturing work is at only 60% at completion pont it still looks stuning. I'm happy and proud. Its time for internal texturing work.
More About: Work , Part , Texture

PART 27: Rear texturing work
2008-02-09 16:16:00
I've just 50% complete doing texturing work for rear vehicle models. Picture as shown before and after. Lots of decaling and shading work. Each side took estimated 10 hours to work on for the 2nd layer. Expected to have more than 300 layer for this texture models. I'm using old COREL tools for this texturing job. The models looks more alive and real after layer and layers of texture work.
More About: Work , Part , Rear , Supermoto

PART 25: Texture templating done! Next step
2008-02-09 05:05:00
After paint coating the models and photopainting the models body finally we got a clean basic texture templates ready for detailed texturering and decoration. But i have to put another step that is UV mapping first to map or wrap the texture on the models body meshes. This need to be accurately place properly. A good UV mapping will produce smooth proper reflection surface when shiny render are projected on real 3d scene generated by either game engine or the 3d program itself. On the texture there are 7 panels on the models need to be UV mapped. Normal modeler just simply mapped it using grid style, i'm however using point to point wireframe mapping which is 100% more accurate then conventional UV mapping with is good for variable texture sizing shift when other modeler try to convert this models into various texture size and resolution. Ok lets get on with it!...
More About: Part , Step , Texture

Looking for high resolution monitor around the house
2008-02-08 10:34:00
Before i proceed with the 3d & texture modelling task i decided to look around the house for spare monitor because I decided to work on 2048x2048 texture resolution for this new 3d models for UV and texturering work... and this current SAMSUNG monitor doesn't give enough screen desktop workspace size to work on it, ever since BENQ LCD blew up i've used various LCD and CRT monitor around the house. Well there are lots of choices of monitor around but everyone of them offer different feature which normal user or modeler took it lightly.For me CRT monitor always the best to work on high resolution texture and texture detailing works. However i can also use notebook but the problem is its on ATI graphics!..lame!...ATI gpu really bad at rendering, the colors are to much vibrant and unrealistic. I didn't say ATI was bad but its only suit for games graphics which more like something on Nintendo console or DS. Hey no argue, i trashed and toasted lots of cards and trust me this is an o...
More About: House , Monitor , High , High Resolution , The House

PART 25: Paint coating - stage 1
2008-02-08 09:50:00
This process similarly like add paint coating to a real vehicle except where doing in on modeler. This is crucial process and the most trickiest section among all 3d modelling task. ONE SMALL BAD MOVE AND EVERYTHING WILL BE SCREWED UP, So no mistake in here. Not all modeler know how to do it well, In this section you need a good skills on Photopaint or Photoshop program. Other than that you also need a good coating texture skills to create baked radiosity looks on the texture. In this process i only apply to exterior object and necessary parts only, Internal parts like cockpit, engine and accessories will be done by bump/plastic rendering via photoshop. So if you have crappy photoshop skill better sharpen it up. Time to fire up my COREL skills. If you do remember NEMIXIS models was also built this way too.
More About: Part , Stage , Paint

PART 24: Complete branding and frontal radiator intake grilling
2008-02-08 07:05:00
Ok! i've just completed adding branding emblem on front and rear also added front radiator grilling to add cool factor appearance of a 4x4 off-roader. Its time for to to go next step higher! Today should concentrate on texture rendering! Discover my secret recipe!...ooppss!
More About: Branding , Radiator , Grilling , Part , Complete

PART 23: Adding emblem logo
2008-02-08 04:34:00
Now its time to put the brainding on the newly created models.
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PART 22: At last! The plain beautiful 4x4 truck emerge!
2008-02-07 17:04:00
Success!!! After took almost a day work...the surface detaching and normalisation task has been completed! The smooth surface and true body line relevealed the true looks of this new truck design! Its looks wild and real Humvee killer! I was very happy today! very much happy indeed beause guided with no blueprint only use brain imagination imprint through hand movement on my mouse click the shape of new 4x4 truck finally caught my heart the instinct of design never fade, Finally i can proceed another exciting task that is "Detailing" and "Texture Rendering".
More About: Truck , Plain , Beautiful , Part , Emerge

PART 21: Surface detaching and normalization, normalised the ugly
2008-02-07 05:00:00
By removing the object 3d wireframe at this moment the models looks ugly with patches and unnormalised surface. Time for detaching and normalisation. This process is the most crucial stage of the model construction! Detaching surfaces and relink missing vertices to another surface to make up smooth linear body line and normalising the surface to create smooth vertex shading. This process is essential for high poly models, missing this process will end up having crumpled squash paper like surface on 3d meshes. This will take more time to complete the whole detaching and normalisation process because i'm dealing with hundred parts and surface. So be patient.
More About: Part , Surface , Ugly , The Ugly

Rainy day...a windows of time
2008-02-07 04:33:00
My mother arrange a plan for today holidays to go out for family and friends Chinese New Year festival visiting today. But its raining today and it doesn't looks like its going to stop until evening. The cold wind blew into my room and the heavy rain drops keeps on pouncing on the zinc roof making you feel wanna continue setback and take a good cold nap. Anyways i'm not going to get back for a morning nap again. Btw the rain give me a great opportunity putting a big windows of time for me to continue work on my models, today suppose to detach the surface and relink broken vertices to create smooth vertex shading/rendering thus duplicating half right side of the object. This going to be a long process since i',m dealing with enourmous 3d object in the scene. Hopefully before me and family out for Chinese New Year visits this will be done sooner.....i think i like christmas better..missed those present.
More About: Windows , Time

PART 20: Body mesh revision.
2008-02-06 16:50:00
Well i think thats about it for the early phase of the truck construction. I'm now checking for any missing meshes, defects or anything that is out of my design spec. If everthing looks ok and perfectly done on haf side of the body and parts meshes then we can continue to another phase of detaching surface for vertex surfacing finishing and created duplicate on half side of the body and parts. I can't wait to finish it up because this is the part where we can see the 1st drafted glimpse this unnamed super truck.
More About: Body , Part , Mesh , Revision

PART 19: Engine compartment
2008-02-06 16:39:00
Here is a simple meshing construction for engine compartment. The top inner layer hood have been constructed to cover up upper ceiling and the floor submerge down 30% from the top surface enough to place the visible surface of pre-made engine.
More About: Engine , Part

PART 18: Door Acessories
2008-02-06 06:53:00
Some internal work for audio system/speakers and door hinge. Very simple work. Just waiting to add texture to spice up the details soon.
More About: Part , Door

PART 17: Blevel the door
2008-02-06 06:49:00
Create width thickness of the door slabs and outer shell slabs.
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PART 16: Metal like ducted floor panel
2008-02-05 17:21:00
To make the interior looks more attractive and industrial off-roading looks i decided to add extra poly work on floor detail. Hole drilled metal style floor panel. It looks cool!
More About: Metal , Panel , Part , Floor

PART 15: The dashboard panels
2008-02-05 16:05:00
I made a pretty quick modelling on the essential parts inside the cockpit, mainly are dashboard components made up from basic shapes starting from ovalic surface for dashboards, tubular object for gauge meters, gear sticks, pull type e-brake knobs and etc. Others are foot pedal and rear view mirror. The other detailed will be rendered in texture work.
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PART 14: The seat construction
2008-02-05 10:50:00
Here's the seat design, i just wanna plain and simple to models and just looks good as stock design seat for a pickup truck style. Hoping this one uses less texture space and looks well rendered on plain DX8 style rendering in games..very at least.
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PART 13: Interior walls
2008-02-05 06:32:00
Back on my on PC again! This time my i'm free from tooth ache! Thank god and the dentist! I'm woking on making some interior models of the truck. The inner cockpit, i start making wall first. I cut out the exterior door, flipped the suface in and bludge inwards to make a proper hull and interconnect with other walls inside. The panels glass position remains unchanged. The floor and wall will optimised the use of low polycount so that it wouldn't lag much in games.
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No food for me today
2008-02-04 10:17:00
I didn't drive home straight, so i drive and park inside a shopping mall browse around the shoes shop for new pair of sandals, get to the office to pay my phone, internet and electricity bills. Just settle end of the months account payment stuff. Stomach was almost at "E" state, i suppose to go for lunch but in such state having a hollow root in my gum and a cotton wound slabs between my teeth and injured gum i decided not to have any meal for today till next morning wait until the gum wound recovered. The possibily of getting small chunk of food stuck in the pit of gum would is high so don't want risking another painfull sleep tonight. So i decided to take a walk around half part of the city to clear my mind and do some windows shopping. Who knows maybe i found something cool to buy and maybe gizmos for my PSP. Weather looks great today. Maybe its was god blessing on me after putting effort getting myself to the dentist and pull out the source of pain...the next thing sun ...
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Time to kill the pain! Dentist to the rescue!
2008-02-04 09:09:00
Pain! pain! pain!! errgghH!!! from 12am till 9am can't sleep! this time tooth ache got my left brain code red!. Critically brain damaging ache...i think its already reached the limit the tooth can't be saved anymore (but the doctors says it can but at a cost of pain) time to yank it out ASAP!. I took little breakfast and at 9.30am i head quickly to the city Dental Clinic for immediate tooth removal. Hours before reaching there i can fell my heart trembeling in fear, hand shaking cold sweat and mind getting worried. Metal hydraulic seats, the sounds of drills, pliers, tools, scaples, knifes, injection needles and the the dentist itself. Its like steping into Dr Frankenstien scary movie you know you're life is at stake. The pain and the blood ozzing out from the jaw. I can't imagine how freaky it was.. along the way there were two things switching in and out of my brain..."GO...yank out the tooth" or "NO, save your life, bail out and control your pain". This wa...
More About: Time , Pain , Rescue , Kill , Dentist

Morning till noon..out to the city!
2008-02-03 10:03:00
Today i just do my usual routine, wake up, brush teeth, bath, go to morning church prayer, back home to wash clothes, then go out for breakfast and enjoy the rest of the day out just like any single male do around the world. Anyways this sunday is just like any sunday except unexpected encounter in the afternoon...but later. Armed with PSP equipped with Go!cam (Chotto cam) camera i wen't off and head to the city. Lets start up with me having breakfast, i don't cook my breakfast on sunday so i just head to the town cafe and grab mouthfull of local "KOLO MEE POK" noodles and cold chocolate drinks. 8.55am... not much people around me, most of the shop owned by chinese probably out busy cleaning their house ready for chinese new year so things gone pretty quite around here. I finish up the noodles and sip my drinks pretty slowly while await for nearest mall behind me to open at 9.30am so i could go in to the game shop and grab some accessories for my PSP and HDTV cables for vid...
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Part 12 : Rear roll cage build.
2008-02-02 23:00:00
This trucks comes in two option.-a. With rear bed cover/canopy with back hatches-b. without rear bed cover...just equipped with rear roll cage.Earlier design you've seen the first option that is with rear bed cover/canopy hatch. Today another option with exposed bed equipped with rear roll cage. So i expect to have two type of truck design with 2 option.
More About: Roll , Part , Build , Rear , Cage

Happy days returns!...big plan this week
2008-02-02 08:27:00
Peek outside my house....bright windy hot sunny day!..Alright! its a brand new day for me! starting today i'm going to have a week of holidays from office work. A big plan to start the week full of usefull activity! Good, the weather is soo fine, sunny and hot! Reminds me being young at 12 jumping around with friend out into country side like Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Fin....their kiddy life almost similar to mine...that was in the past i hope i can relive that glories adventure moments. Time top grab out my bike and dash into the urban wilderness! ..best was to relief stress and refresh my mind so when i come back home i could design my models at ease tonight. Oh yeah this week i'm planing to finish off the truckm models as soon as possible so i could release is it quick and move along with 2 SDK models to be deployed at the website. Some third party user already waiting behind lines to port my models into various games add-on. Also next i will proceed with the release...
More About: Happy , Week , Days , Plan , Happy Days

Part 11: The vital appearance!
2008-02-01 14:35:00
Time is very short! i have to pump up the speed to finish up the design. Today i manage to design a more rugged appearance..macho and mad looking frontal appearance. Startup with headlights design and light case, the headlights are more mad like eye appearance much like old skool muscle trucks looks. Both top and bottom headlight are pretty similar in design except the lower ones are smaller more like act as fog lights. Headlights hull are deep inside the front case. The top hood in mid section meshes been dug out a ventilation hole direct into carburator for air intake design. I hope the new frontal design will be trademark for the next line of SupermotoXL super offroader. Well it took me more than 9 hours to think about the headlight design. That's what i get for having no blueprint to start with....everthing guided through my brain.
More About: Appearance , Part , Vital

Part 10: The exhaust port
2008-01-31 17:25:00
I've decided to design the exhaust which should be located below the front door cabin just behind the front wheel fender for easy fume exiting and more stylish muscle looks.
More About: Port , Part , Exhaust

Part 9: Side mirror
2008-01-31 13:59:00
Here the side mirror design for this truck. very simplified looks and much broad because that whats 4x4 truck meant to be.
More About: Part , Mirror , Side