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.

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.

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.

SketchUp and Google Earth

Wow. I was honestly blown away when I discovered this combo. I have to take my beanie off to the guys at Google, they come up with some fantastic ideas. I'm talking about SketchUp and Google Earth. At some point SketchUp was obviously taken over by Google because its now toting their flag and much like their other products, is available for free download.

For those of you unfamiliar with SketchUp, it is a simple yet really powerful 3D modelling tool, mainly for use architectural design but can be used for anything really. Getting a good looking building together literally takes seconds, but here's the really cool part: Google's version allows you to place your building anywhere on Google Earth. This allows you to see your building right over the satellite image of your home, with all the contours and everything.

If you're really a contributing sort of person, you can upload your creation to Google's database, which I am assuming will one day replace the blandish looking, poke-your-eyes-out grey buildings they currently have in the program. I'll give this one 8 bananas, but only because it's not everyone's slice of pizza.

www.wheretostay.co.za

Here's another nice site I found useful in searching for holiday places to stay. The web interface is really nicely done and the site is so easy to use. The information on each resort is really good and up to scratch. I'd give this about an 8/10.

www.wheretostay.co.za