Itchy Animation's Light Tutorial

Lighting in 3D animation makes the biggest difference. That's my opinion. You can model the greatest looking Chinabean in the world but lighting is what really makes it magic. The best looking scenes in movies, 3D and otherwise, look that way because of the lighting. Getting great lighting is difficult though, especially if you don't know what you're doing. When it comes to lighting, I don't have a clue. That's probably why I found this lighting tutorial (http://www.itchy-animation.co.uk/light.htm)
) so interesting.

Itchy (or whoever the dude is who wrote the tutorial) really goes into the technical detail - getting you to think about all the light that makes up a scene. Its really in depth, I even learnt quite a bit about lighting in photography. Parts 5, 6 and 7 didn't exist when I wrote this, but I hope he will be adding them soon. It is a great read for any 3D artists, and maybe even photographers and artists could get something out of it.

AFI - Decemberunderground

Well, it really sucks to go back to work while everyone else is on holiday. Can't say I recommend it at all. Unfortunately I tried to get leave and it got booted so I'm here. Fortunately that does mean that I get to listen to the new AFI(myspace) album Decemberunderground , which we actually got for my brother but has some how landed in my car:), and it is fantastic.

Now I wouldn't ever go and get a "Best Of" AFI, well ... not again anyway. Their older stuff is really not great, actually crap you could say, bad, not good, generally not worth the time - but Sing the Sorrow and Decemberunderground - now there are two fantastic albums. They would definitely sit in my "Best Albums" CD rack (that is, if I was that organised).

It took a couple of listens before I really got into Decemberunderground, but that is standard issue for most new CD's I get. If you're not an AFI fan you may take a bit longer, they definitely have a unique style. Its hard for me to pick out my favourite track at this time, although 3 and 7 do stick out.

Summary: Its a pity that I didn't get to listen to it before I whacked out my pick for 2006 entry (If you've been watching Heroes you'll know you can't change the past). It would have definitely been a contender.

Whilst my brother hasn't heard his CD enough yet to know if he likes it or not, I on the other hand can give it a 9 out of 10. What a band, what a CD.

Awesome Astronomy Picture of the Day

Awesome, just awesome. Check it out here.

Deweirdifyer Plug-In for Gimp on Windows

If there's a software application worth paying for its Adobe Photoshop, but at around R4,500 its a staunch price to pay. If you're not going to be making money from it, its an even bigger burden to take on.

A much better option is to use The Gimp. It has all the most useful features of Photoshop, and is surprisingly powerful. All the graphics on this site was made with it and it is my free editor of choice. A really nifty portable version has also be made here. Unfortunately the interface does take quite a bit of getting used to and turns a lot of people away. Thats where the Deweirdifier
plug-in comes in. I found it whilst stumbling (surprise) and tried it out on my portable version. There was some tweaking necessary, so if you get stuck then let me know and I'll help you get it working. For all the simplicity of what it does (just adds a background window and groups all the windows together), it makes Gimp a whole lot easier to use.

I can really recommend this plug in to new Gimp users. 9 bananas. It'll get 10 when the bugs are worked out. Also its only for Windows users - I haven't yet found a Mac or Linux equivalent :(

True Combat:Elite

True Combat Elite is an entirely free game based on another free game Wolfenstein Enemy Territory. Both games are available for Mac, Windows and Linux and can be downloaded here.
Its a FPS (first person shooter) with awesome graphics and physics. No AI though :(

Also, the download process wasn't the best, in fact it was downright horrible - I had to try more than a couple of times to get the whole thing. It was pretty irritating, especially the AusGamers web site which didn't allow more than two download streams. Of course it was only after about 100Mb before they cut you off, apparently for no reason. Eventually I found a small side note spelling out the "Thou shalt have no more than 2 streams" rule. Forget about resuming your download as well. In the end I just got it from another mirror.

Remember to download the 200+Mb of Wolfenstein first, you need it to play TC:E. All in all its a download of 600-700Mb. Pretty big, but the free game is definitely worth it. 9 Bananatjies.

Either White or Nerdy

Got a great score on being White and Nerdy! I passed with 50% so I'm either White or Nerdy. Guess which one? Thanks Briany for the link. Check it out here, but make sure that you watch the Weird Al video first :D

Mike's Pick of the Year 2006

Credit for this one goes to my friend Rich. On Sunday we were trying to decide on our album of 2006. Last year's album was definitely Relient K's MMHMM (Even though it was actually released at the end of 2004), but this year there weren't any clear winners. So instead I have compiled a number of other categories which are listed below. I might add some more as I think of them but in the mean time feel free to add your own list of favourites from the year in the comments.
Here are my favourite things from 2006:

• Album of 2006

  As I said there were no clear winners. These two did stand out for me:

  • Thursday - A City by the Light Divided.

  • Goldfinger - Disconnection Notice

    Technically 2005, but we only got it this year :)
  
  And the closest to winning would be this one:

  • Further Seems Forever - Hope This Finds You Well

    Just pretend that Bye Bye Bye isn't on the album.

• Movie of 2006

  Cars (Disney/Pixar)

  This was a clear winner for me. Especially considering what a let down I thought it would be. I remember seeing the trailer for Cars before the Incredibles and feeling my heart just sink. We eventually went to see it just before it closed its run here and I was amazed. Great story, great cast and above all a fantastic looking movie. A real Pixar classic.

• Website of 2006

  BlenderNation

  There are many good sites out there, but BlenderNation stands out as my favourite. The site is constantly updated with tutorials, improvements, plug-ins and other interesting links, mainly aimed at a Blender users but useful for any 3D designers. Definitely my favourite for the year.

• Christian Event of 2006

  Casting Crowns Concert

  There wouldn't even be this category if it wasn't for this event. I cannot express how much I (surprisingly) enjoyed this concert. It was so refreshingly real. I'm really not into any Christian worship bands, but Casting Crowns have such a different approach to what they do. It gave me a real sense that Christianity isn't about expensive equipment and overhyped anthems, there was no need to have an AWESOME experience - or feel left out if you missed it. Great band, great concert.

Themed Fonts at TypeNow

Yes, I finally managed to update the logo on the page, and it only took three days to blog about it. If you're wondering, I got the Lego font from TypeNow. There's a whole bunch of really cool movie, game and band themed fonts there. Great for any purpose, especially themed events. I would read up carefully on the license before using it for anything commercial - They are free, but I would still be careful. Eight bananas.

Wii have a problem

Nothing really special about this site, it just gave me a good laugh. Check it out here. Its a site solely dedicated to the injuries incurred to household furniture at the hands if butterfingered, over enthusiastic Wii players.

For those who don't know, Wii is Nintendo's latest game console running in competition to Sony's Playstation 3 and Microsoft's XBox 360. The console comes with a remote that you can swing around to control your player. Wiihaveaproblem is a collection of what happens when the remote flies OUT OF CONTROL and the strap breaks. Its very funny.

Wikipedia's Entry on the Fine-Tuned Universe

I actually found this whilst reading about the atheist Anthony Flew. It explains the idea that life in our universe would not be possible if the constants (such as our distance from the sun) that govern it were changed slightly. If one of these were tweaked by even the tiniest amount it would be utter chaos. Well, more like utter nothing, but utter chaos sounds cooler.

As with most controversial topics, I prefer reading the Wikipedia entry over a specific Christian view, mainly because you get to see both sides' views. This isn't always true however. The entries on Wikipedia are written by the public and are subject to the bias of the writer. Keep this in mind whenever you're researching something there.

Be warned that this may not be everyone's chocolate moose, or even their chocolate yak, especially if the word universe sends you to slumberland. If you're like me however, this one is right up your milky way. I'd give it 8 bananas.

Custom Mouse Pointer in XNA Tutorial

Its been a while since my last pick - I've been really busy at work preparing for a new release so there hasn't been much time for browsing.

Today I came across this tutorial on getting a custom pointer texture in XNA. Granted, its not rocket science to get this right, but Mykre's Space does it so nicely. I have become quite a fan of Mykre's blog over the last couple of weeks, there are some great articles for all you game developers.