I deliver! But before I talk about it, see my friend Michael's video. It's thirty minutes long and compressed well to 36 MB split into three parts. Don't worry about slashdot effect. This server is backed by a dual OC-48 connection to the backbone of the internet. And anyways, these CSE majors need practice on how to handle a massive strike of dissent on their webservers. It's better to learn how to cope before it becomes a problem that costs you your cushy admin job, right?
This is a shout out to all you terrorist mod makers (like CounterStrike), if you're looking for a weapons modeler and skinner, I'm offering my services. ^_^ You thought I was for real, didn't you? This is probably the worst model/skin that you've ever seen, right? For two groups of you, this is not the worst that you've ever seen. The first group is those who have not seen any real weapons models. You should go to CounterStrike and check all the weaponry. The second group is those who strive to make their own models/skins and are not very good at modelling/skinning. You have seen works worse than this, haven't you? Your own. Well, I'd like to address this second group and have a peer discussion about how models can be done. It'll be today's lesson. First off, the actual modelling isn't very hard if you know what you're looking for. I knew that this model needed a T with a barrel, a clip, and a shoulder rest. So I did it just by simple extrusion. No problem, but the shape doesn't look very good. Well, a real life model would have helped. I didn't want to steal other artists work and I didn't want to look on the web, so I just thought (since I'm doing a comic) I can abstract it to what I want it to feel like. I kinda like the purple metallic look. I added lines just because I remember that there are divits in an uzi's frame to make it... *shrug* do something or another. So what's wrong with the shape? Well, the T is actually not a 90 degree T, but rather a 85 or so degree T. I took the pic at an angle so you can't see it, but it's there. Something similar that is pretty easy to see is the nose that comes to the barrel at an angle. Why? Because I didn't want the boxy look that most bad modelers get when they try to make it perfectly like the real-life model. Simply, that is not what an uzi looks like. But I went with it. Then for the texture, I just made lines that go around the body. Why? Because that is what I decided. Napoleon said it well when he said something to the sort of: "Doing one thing incorrectly is far better than doing two things that could be correct." Not only are there time constraints, but also conviction. If you are unsure and put half of your weight in true as well as false you are certain to lose. For example Roulette. If you put $50 on Red and $50 on Black, you'll get $100 back on the winner and $0 back on the loser. This gains you nothing except different chips. So you see, we have a dilemma. Do we want to take risks? Of course, walking out your front door is a risk. But do we want to go with a silly design rather than asking our viewers to choose between two designs? I'd say go for the silly design because I have never gotten an e-mail about JF that I didn't ask for.
Look at the filename and you'll see that this is Making Of JF # 99. Ninety-nine posts in 102 days (two of the three "days off" I made a page of JF, and one I celebrated the WTO protests). I think that proves my diligence. But where my diligence strikes is not always where I want. Diligence in Electromagnetism midterm studying would be helpful right now. But I have none of it. I think that is because the computer is my safe place. When things around me are falling apart, my computer is *usually* working. And if it isn't working, I can certainly spend fun time fixing it. I don't say that I'm a 21st century digital boy or nothing like that... I certainly enjoyed Tolkien's Lord of the Rings Trilogy. I might have liked it less well if I had downloaded it. But I enjoy things that I have downloaded far more than that I have bought IRL. Take Love Hina. Downloading it from the UW network was very cool. It was even fansubbed. Only Japanese people could watch it until the advent of the net and DivX video compression. But then I must compare Battle Angel Alita (bought IRL) to GTO (downloaded the first few books of a translated version). I really liked what I read of GTO, but it cannot compare to my favorite manga of all time, Battle Angel Alita. But now I'm faced with Gunnm: Last Order. The translation text is on the net while the books (in Japanese) are hard to find. I finally ordered the first two graphic novels through Animerica, but then I saw the first graphic novel for sale in my favorite store, Anime Kingdom. I had to buy it... I dunno why, immediacy perhaps. So in a month or so I'll have an extra copy of Gunnm Last Order #1 for anyone who wants it in the Seattle Area.
Who is Jav looking at? You perhaps? No, just the monster behind you. Don't look now, but you might want to take care of that... soon. What's this all about? You've seen this model fifteen times at least, right? If you haven't, shame on you, take a look. But this pose is from Scene 5 Page 2 or 3. I haven't decided which. It's definitely going to be on Floor 2 of Sensei's Dojo. [Plot hidden -->] He looks this way because he sees three well armed guys (with grenade launcher, uzi, and dual customized pistols). I think there are two things that you should know about this pic. First off, it's a pretty decent pose. You can almost see emotion from his face. You can almost know what he's looking at without having to see it for yourself. The only three things that are different from a normal pose in this pose are: jaw moved down, upper lip rotated up, and the angle. I'd like to comment on the more interesting of the three, though -- the angle. Why does changing the angle change Jav's expression? Well, I like to call it the midget effect. Hehe, since I'm so tall, I know all about it. When you are taller than most people, you have to look down at them to look them in the eye. They look like Smurfs, really. When people are shorter than you, you see more of their forehead, tip of the nose, bottom of the eyes, upper lip, and very little chin. When you are shorter than someone, you see more of the chin, lower lip, underside of the nose, eyebrows, and very little forehead. I'm exaggerating, but small differences make huge emotions. In this shot we see Jav from a small person's perspective (~5' tall). Just seeing his head tilted back gives him emotion that the otherwise would not have. So we see that an artist can manipulate an audiences senses just by using different angles. However, most comics are pretty rigid on angles to use. If you try to mess with the angle too much, you'll cut off a lot of your subjects. Then people get angry telling you that you suck at angles.
