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.

Nearly there now. The only things left to make are the air valves for the tyres, the rear light and the roof. If Max still functions after that (with my RAM limitations), I’d like to add texture to the floor mat (to make it look more realistic) and add the small screws that screw down the brass plates on the floor of the front seat. I’d like to be able to add texture to the rubber part of the horn. It would be great to add extruded text on the tyres too (tyre brand), to give them a bit more detail, so they don’t look so smooth.

You can see from the images below that I have added more to the interior of the car. Click on each image to see the larger size image:

Today I made the leather black, and I also added the foot pedals and handbrake. I made a mat for the front floor, and still need to do one for the floor of the backseat. It’s been a battle, with Max crashing every minute. It’s pretty severe now, but it’s not too bad if I am just modeling new parts. It usually crashes when I am either wanting to add a material, or trying to orbit around the model, zooming in and out. Every time it crashes, it takes about 2 minutes to open Max again and load my project. A lot of time is wasted waiting around. Sometimes I get the program opens and it crashes just seconds later because I start doing either of the things I just mentioned. I need more RAM, but my two attempts at upgrading my RAM resulted in receiving dud RAM. After my 2nd refund, I gave up.

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I have added the horn and done a few minor tweaks to the body of the car and the seat. I still need to make more tweaks to the seat, but it’s mostly done as best as it will be done. Tomorrow I’ll experiment with making the seat leather black.

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I’ve added the seats, though I need to tweak them a bit to fix some problems. There are flaws which I could only see after rendering the images. There are other tweaks I need to do to the body too, but they are only small things. I also modeled in the back doors, and added some sort of trim around the car.

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Most of the front is done now, I haven’t made the horn, or the bulbs inside the headlights. I think everything else is done. Maybe a tweak or two might be needed at the end. I’ve thought of doing a number plate, but I’ll see, it would cover up some detail that I like to see.

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