Work has been keeping me pretty busy lately, but I have started a new long-range project to help me hone my 3D modeling skills.  I started creating a detailed building exterior.  I figure that I can add to the model whenever I have time, and once I have one building done, I can start on another.  Eventually, I can have an entire city to use as background shots or even as environments for scenes.  Anyway, I’m treating it as a hobby, akin to building model airplanes, except my models are all in the computer!

Although you can’t tell from the image, I have finished three sides of the first floor I’m building.  I’m actually creating the building from a reference (anybody recognize it?  probably not….), so I need to snap a few photos of the fourth side before I can finish and start stacking floors.

I’ll post some updates once I have something that looks more like a tall building than a floating townhome.

I recently finished watching an anime series that I rented from Netflix.  The series, Vandread, turned out to be pretty good, was fun to watch, and had a very satisfying ending (which is a rare treat for anime).

The main characters in the show come from two rival planets. The planets are rivals because only men live on one, and only women live on the other. For reasons unknown, they have become each other’s enemy. Of course, through some twist of fate, some men and women end up on a ship together and are forced to share adventures.

The premise sounds a bit goofy, but the interactions between the characters make them likable and add humor to the show. I don’t want to give anything away, but the main plot of the story ends up revolving around a new, shared enemy that threatens both planets. It is actually that plot line which makes the series so good, rather than just a silly show.

Much of the show has a traditional cel-shaded look, but there is also a fair amount of clean-rendered 3D animation, especially in the space-fight scenes. The show does it in a well-balanced way that doesn’t make the 3D shots seem out of place. In fact, some of the 3D action scenes are very well done, especially given that the show was released around 2001.

It was fun to watch, and I definitely recommend the series.

What is irony? How about a burning fire engine, that needs the fire department to come and put out the flames?

The picture above was taken after a fire engine crashed into a building and caught on fire. Two hours later, the streets are still barricaded for a block in every direction. The building is missing a good section of that corner, too.

EDIT: According to the news, the fire engine was knocked into the building by a another car (I think the grey one parked next to it in the picture) that did not stop for the emergency vehicle as it crossed the intersection.

So I was reading an interesting commentary on the new Star Wars: Clone Wars animated series and it got me thinking: what is Genndy Tartakovsky, the directory of the (much better) original Star Wars: Clone Wars animated series, doing nowadays?  He also created Dexter’s Laboratory and Samurai Jack, plus was involved pretty heavily in the Powerpuff Girls series (in other words, he’s created a lot of great material).

His wikipedia page mentions that he formed his own animation company and they are working on a sequel to The Dark Crystal.  Honestly, I only know of that movie because The Crystal Method used a sample from the intro for their song Trip Like I Do (great song, great album).

Anyway, back to the point.  Although that new movie is his primary focus, a new production company has been formed, Frederator Films, which plans on first working on a Samurai Jack movie.  Genndy will write and direct it, and it will end the story of Samurai Jack.  For those that don’t know, the series never gave Jack a chance to get back to his own time and destroy Aku.  If you don’t know who Jack is or why he’s trying to destroy Aku, get your hands on the DVDs or click on over to the Cartoon Network site and watch some episodes for free!

I’ve been playing around with Maya recently and created this simple image to learn basic texturing.  The modeling is… well, there wasn’t really any modeling except for creating a few NURBS spheres and a flat plane.

But the textures are my own.  I created the one in the top-left first, to try different layering and bump map effects.  The green glassy one was a simple dielectric.  I’m quite proud of the marble one - I think it looks really good!  And I added the last one just to have a very reflective material in the shot.

Last year, Geneon announced that they will no longer distribute their anime to North America.  That meant that I could no longer get official dubs of two new anime shows I like, Hellsing Ultimate and Black Lagoon.  But I just found out that Geneon has found a new North American distributor for their works (it was actually announced a few months ago - I guess I haven’t looked in a while).  Funimation, a well-known North American distributor, will pick up the licenses for Geneon distribution.

Hellsing Ultimate follows the vampire Alucard, who is in service to a secret British military order, the Hellsing Organization.  The Hellsing Organization’s mission is to destroy monsters, such as vampires and ghouls.  The series (it’s actually an OVA, or direct-to-DVD series) follows the original manga pretty closely, which is why I’m a fan of this anime.  The original Hellsing TV series did not follow the manga after a few episodes, at which point the writing quickly went downhill.

Black Lagoon has been compared a lot to Cowboy Bebop, except the main characters are mercenaries and they are not in space.  I’m not saying it’s as good as Bebop, but it’s a good show and has some cool scenes.

Watch a lot of late-night television, like me?  If so, you’re probably sick of all those Enzyte commercials they show during every commercial break.  You know, the ones with the creepy “Smiling Bob” guy?  Well, you won’t be seeing Bob or his commercials anymore.

The owner of the company that sells Enzyte was sentenced to 25 years in prison for conspiracy, fraud, and money-laundering related to Enzyte.  Surprise: the product didn’t work.  Plus, he refused legitimate returns from customers and had a bad habit of overcharging customer credit cards.

Did you know you can actually buy a peripheral for your computer that allows you to use neural impulses to control your computer?  It can’t replace a mouse or keyboard yet, but you can create custom actions.  If if they can do that today, imagine what will be possible in a few years?

I found out a few days ago that Netflix and Microsoft have teamed up to provide downloadable movie to the Xbox 360. Netflix already allows its subscribers to watch some movies instantly through the Internet, but the service is only available through a computer using Internet Explorer. By providing the content through an Xbox 360, users can now watch movies instantly on a big-screen TV on their couch, instead of on a monitor at their desk.

I’m excited - there are movies in my queue that I could watch immediately, but I don’t like the idea of sitting in front of my computer for two more hours just to watch a movie. And since I already subscribe to Netflix and Xbox Live Gold, I will get the full set of new features for free.

I stumbled onto this bit of information on Wikipedia. Apparently, after work is finished on the next season of “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia”, the creators of the show (the three main male characters) will shoot a new pilot they have written. It’s titled “Boldly Going Nowhere” and it is kind of a spoof of Star Trek type shows, except it will focus on the everyday life aboard a starship. And there are rumors that Kurtwood Smith (Red Foreman from “That ’70s Show”) will play the captain.

Full information from Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boldly_Going_Nowhere.