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!