The outside is pretty much finished now. There are refinements I want to make to the exhaust at the back, like adding some scalloped grooves like what I’ve seen on some fighter planes. I want to concentrate on the interior of the cockpit now. This will be seen by a camera from the front and behind. It won’t be too sophisticated, because things like panels of lights and digital displays would be done in After Effects, not 3ds Max. In Max, I just need to do the geometry, and the lights and other displays would be put in later in post production.

What’s new? Well I added doors. Igor can just fly in and out, but I have to develop a stair system for the biped fellow to use to get in and out. The doors are rigged and can be easily opened and closed in animations.

Some windows were added, I wasn’t sure if they should be there or not, but my wife feels that they help break up the plain silver of the fuselage. I’ll leave them for now.

I added chrome rims to the headlights, though in the images below they are just reflecting a grey environment.

I reshaped the exhaust, but I only spent less than 5 minutes on this, and it will change, but just a little bit. As I said before, I’ll try to add some scalloped grooves.

Here is what I have (click the images to see the larger sizes):

Below: Same as above, but the left door is open.

Below: Front view showing chrome headlight rims.

I think this should be called a space car. It is a car, that can go into the air, and even space. It also happens to have the ability to do time travel. I’m not sure what this craft is called.

I had to bulk up the front so there was room for the wheels when they fold up. Even though it is in the future, it doesn’t have the ability to rotate the wheels as they fold up so that they take up less space. I don’t mind the extra bulk, it makes it look a bit more cartoony and gives it a funny character.

I still need to make a hatch so people (things) can get in and out, and make a proper exhaust.

Here are some progress pictures:

The wheels are rigged to go up and down:

This is a spaceship/car combo that I am making for Igor and Mr Nameless robot guy. It is a work in progress, I still have to make wheels and other details yet. The wheels will come down from the cylinders under the wing. There could be changes to the scale of the body and some other parts yet too.

Here is what I have so far after just a couple of days (click the images to see a larger size)

I have made a new character to be a kind of friend of Igor. It’s a robot, which so far has no name (any suggestions?) and will star with Igor in future animations. It’s a challenge to come up with a unique robot, there are thousands of robots out there in Google Images and beyond.

It’s not completely finished, I may add some things. The display panel on his chest has a retro look to it, and I’m sure the display will change to something modern. I haven’t yet decided to think of a design for the display, I just quickly put what you see in the pictures as a display. The main idea for the display was for it to somehow show visually when the character speaks, since the character has no mouth.

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LittleB and I were playing with the Unreal Development Kit this weekend. Well, more so LittleB, but I did come up with a small level. My focus was more on learning how to get 3d models from 3ds Max in to the UDK3 game engine. It’s fairly straight forward, I put a simple sign in the game with the Mad Violinist picture on it. You can shoot it, which I’m sure will bring pleasure to many! I hardly ever play computer games, but seeing a 3ds Max object I made go into a game engine was a big thrill!

I’ll back up a bit and explain what this is about, for people who aren’t with me. Many of the top video games on the market have been created using a game engine called Unreal Development Kit. This engine is software for creating game level environments, characters and weapons etc. This game engine is free to download, and anyone can learn how to create games with it. If you want to sell a game, then you have to pay $99 to Epic Games, and after you have earned $5000 revenue from it, you must pay 25% of your total revenue after that. Not profit! Revenue! Which means after advertising costs and other marketing expenses, you earn very little. Hey, you can at least know you can keep $4901! ($5000-$99) Making games and not selling them costs $0.

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Yesterday I posted “Meet Meline”, which is a short film with incredible detail. It would have taken forever to make all the stuff in the garage, and get the lighting and animation to look right. After trying to do 3d modeling myself, I can appreciate that it is a masterpiece.

However, it has one problem, and that is that it is French. This means it is kind of arty-farty and limited in it’s real entertainment value. I don’t care who that offends.

I’d prefer to see an animation that might be rough around the edges in comparison, but gives me a good time. It’s hard to beat Australian creativity, it is second to none. That’s why I present Kajimba!

An interesting thing about Kajimba is that it is made using Blender. Blender is software much like 3Ds Max and Maya, except it has a lot less features. BUT! It is free. Anyone is welcome to download the software free of charge, learn how to use it, then create entertaining masterpieces like Kajimba. It can be downloaded from http://www.blender.org/ . People often put Blender down, but if you go to the Blender website and see the gallery of things people have made, you’ll be like me and see nothing wrong with it. Since the code is open source, you can bet that Blender will improve a lot more in the coming years and eventually become a genuine competitor to 3ds Max and Maya.

Ok, made with Blender, but unlike Meet Meline, you’ll want to watch this over and over again.

Kajimba – snippets from Kajimba on Vimeo.

I’ve been pretty busy lately, but I’ll be updating a lot more regularly. Here is a link to an amazing short video I’ve been meaning to highlight for a while, but am only getting around to it now. Most people who are into 3d stuff would have seen this by now.

This video is called Meet Meline, and it is really incredible, especially as it was created by just two people, with no budget at all. Without exaggerating, it would have to rank along with the best of Pixar’s short films, for it’s great detail. It took two years to make. Anyone who knows how young children look around with their eyes would appreciate the great level of detail in this animation. It also has great lighting effects, and some interesting camera angles.

Here it is, for those who haven’t seen it:

MEET MELINE : THE 3D ANIMATED SHORT FILM (by Sebastien Laban & Virginie Goyons) from Sebastien LABAN on Vimeo.

I came home from work this afternoon and found an ad in the letter box advertising one of Optus’ new broadband plans.

$59.99 = 150GB (75GB Peak + 75GB off peak).

Well, I am paying more than $90 currently for 60GB (20GB peak + 40GB off peak). That 20GB peak is the killer for me, having to make 20GB last for a month. The evening time is when I use the internet the most. 75GB would be heaven.

I have been out of contract for a while, so I went ahead and signed up. From May 22, I will start my 150GB plan. Obviously I can’t download 150GB in a month. Very clever Optus, I am really paying $59.00 for maybe 80-90GB. Unless I can think of some more things to download!

I was asked in a 3ds Max forum how I made the roof of my Model T Ford, and could I perhaps even show some screen shots. Well I have done that. This won’t be of interest to most people, but for anyone who is searching for this kind of info, or wants to know a little more about how things are modeled in 3ds Max, this post shows how I did it. Some of the terms I use might only be understood by 3ds Max users.

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Here it is! Click the images below for larger sizes:

And here are images from all around.

My computer can’t do any more than this. The slightest move of the scene sometimes is enough to cause 3ds Max to crash. There’s a little more that should be done, like on my steam train, but that will have to wait until I get a more powerful computer.