Computing: June 14th 01:30pm
Media Studies: June 15th 09:00am
Geography (Resit): June 21st 01:30pm
Geography: June 29th 09:00am
Zero Hour
May 23rd, 2010Small Update
April 10th, 2010Haven’t had time to finish my work on my most recent project as of late, coursework’s been constricting the time i have to fuck about in 3dsMax. However, my Media magazine (all 8 pages of lovelyness) is all finished and has been professionally printed and is finally complete (Hurrah!). My computing project on the other hand isn’t, and I’m rushing to get it finished before the approaching final date.
The project still sits here though, and i promise one day ill get it finished. But, in a panic (or something) i seem to have deleted all of the texture files for the project, (this includes the custom UVW’s, the normal maps and bump maps for the desk, the GTX295′s textures, all of the Maxwell Materials used for stuff like the PC Case, the iMac, and the monitors). So if i wanted to start again, its about a days work recreating/hunting down those textures again. But! before i accidentally black holed the textures, i did get a quick cheap whore render of the PC case with the alterations i talked about last time.
So for now that’s the latest render of ze project.
My Media magazine will be uploaded here after i have received my certification for the course, just so the Examiners don’t go snooping on the internet, and find it all on here, and fail to notice this blog is owned by the guy who did the work.
OWN SOME NOOBS!
March 9th, 2010A Quick Update!
February 24th, 2010Here’s a little progress update on my 3D design work. I’ve been working away trying to get this finished so i can actually move on with my life.
Since the last update I’ve modelled myself a pair of lovely Dell Ultrasharp Monitors that are actually a sized up version of those below… i noticed they looked small when compared to the iMac, so i increased their sizes a little. Also I’ve had to painstakingly model my favourite PC Case of all time; the Silverstone TJ07, plus all its complex internals which include a pair of GTX295’s which are watercooled, a triple fan radiator at the bottom of the case, a motherboard of some description and a full properly set up watercooling loop… as I’m a sucker for realism, and i wanted it to look like it could actually work… unlike this fine example.
There is a few little nags left on my mind; the apple logo on the iMac in this render is too big and has been scaled down, the stand for the iMac needs shortening and bring forward, as you cant clearly see the curve in it, the valves on the watercooling in this render are red not grey and are now very obvious, the waterblocks on the GTX295’s are subtly hidden and are hard to see, which makes the watercooling loop look as if it doesn’t make sense, the radiator in the bottom of the case isn’t really visible, and i spent so much time modelling fans for it that i think i may have to illuminate it, there’s one face on the top of the TJ07 which isn’t playing nice with the lighting and will need correcting, the Pair of Dell Ultrasharps look as if they are facing the same angle, and look far too 2D for my liking…. and finally, the lighting needs correcting and altering.
Apart from that i think its taking shape, I’ve got a mouse modelled for the top of the desk, and i have a keyboard as well, however there textures need altering as they are blending in with the already dark texture on the desk.
Also… Connor’s and Bob’s blogs have been left untouched for a while now, so get commenting on their posts to make them post most stuff!
A little 3D Design work
February 21st, 2010Here is a little project I’ve been working on recently, titled ermm… well i have no idea actually. Anyway it started from me fooling about in 3dsmax and Maxwell Render to see if i could design a desk that was sort of a V2 of my current desk and one that in the future I’d love to own (and to get the god damn textures to align to the coordinates i assigned them to!)
After which I’ve worked on stuff for the top of the desk so here’s a render of the desk sporting a iMac (just because they’re sexy).
the fuzziness of the second render is caused by the rendering time being limited to 30minutes ( or Sampling Level 8 ) but currently a mammothly long ~10Hour render ( Sampling level 16 ) is being worked on which should be ready for tomorrow and hopefully be in perfect de-fuzzed quality (fingers crossed!)
I really need my own Server Farm
The next thrilling instalment of David’s Blog!
February 1st, 2010So it’s that time of the… well my blogs seem to be going out quarterly now, which isn’t very good, so yeah, it’s that time of the quarter again.
Recently I’ve had the sudden want to start doing something beneficial with this hunka’ junk other than hosting my very own [Gallery] or hosting other peoples [Blogs]s]s]. Reading Questionable Content fanatically lately has given me the idea to write my own web comic, seen, as I’m at least competent in Photoshop. But then I’d have to think up a varying group of people to write for and think up storylines or at least entertaining situations for them to be involved in, however I could go down the xkcd route and have individual situations on a one-issue basis (as well as completely baffling mathematics). But still it’s a helluva’ lot of work to produce a web comic, and currently I’m being crushed by coursework so it’s not really a viable option to alleviate my boredom.
I’ll probably just showcase some more stuff on my Gallery, but I’m fast running out of ideas on what else I can publish on there, so I may have to rethink that.
Coursework on a whole is coming along nicely, and my Media Magazine coursework piece is gaining speed and looking rather good. Here are some screenshots of a few pages I have completed, obviously, I’ve had to watermark these and scale them down to prevent any dirty thieves out there claiming it as their own work. Here’s two articles I’ve written so far (well two incomplete articles) as well as the proof that I DID actually take that photo on the second article, showing the original image, and an edited version.
I have a model coming into College tomorrow who will do a few shots for my magazine, which i will probably use for the front page and a double spread advertisement or two. After which I just have the task of compiling it all together, finishing writing a few articles, and then getting the thing printed, as a double page spread is larger than an A3 piece of paper. So it will probably be sent somewhere to be printed professionally and hopefully at no cost to myself.
Quick note on exams; they’ve all finished for now (until my June exams I hope) and both my resits and my actual A2 exams feel as if they’ve all gone okay, so I’m hopeful that my grades have increased on my two Geography resits and my one Computing resit. Exam results are in March.
That’s all the news for now, if I complete more of my magazine ill showcase it here later in the week or sometime next week.
Big Changes
November 2nd, 2009This is more of a Site Info blog update, than a meaningless life update. so it may actually contain something interesting for once… wait, nevermind.
About 2 weeks ago whilst trying to update my Gallery2 installation to include my Goodwood FoS 2009 photos, Gallery2 decided that now would be the best time to throw a paddy fit that stopped me from updating it with new images at all. it seemed that if i tried to add images already on my local server that were bigger in number than 50, it would through a PHP/MySQL error that caused the operation to fail. After some sleuthing on FAQ’s and forums, and after trying many different fixes all of which failed to work i was just about ready to give up. Even a complete database/file wipe and reinstall didn’t stop the error from happening. Then i discovered that if i didn’t generate the thumbnails for the images i was uploading there and then the error went away, which was handy!
But having talked to my host to see if the error was due to a host-side MySQL variable, he recommended i change Gallery software and that i went with software that was more forgiving and less strict on things such as file locations and how files are added to the Gallery. He Recommended ZenPhoto Gallery, a piece of software that is known for being as powerful and as feature-full as Gallery2, but less bastardy. After installing the software and simply moving all my photos from one location to another (no re-uploads here!) the Gallery sprung to life simply and quickly.
So that was that, after which i added my Goodwood 09 photos, which had sparked off this whole thing as well as my French Alps 2009 photos from last week (which are prettyful). But, feeling like this new galley software could do with a bit of a spruce up, i embarked on some UB3R L33T PHP coding to make the Gallery seem like it was part of my own actual website, and not some after thought. So 2 hours of trial-and-error PHP coding later, and with a new understanding of PHP and come crafty Photoshopping tricks the theme update is complete!
Now it looks like its part of my website, as the theme is the same as my Blog theme and blends with the rest of my website effortlessly. I hope that i wont need to update it for a while, i will eventually grow bored of the white and blue theme that ive currently got on here, but an update to the Gallery’s theme should be a little more pain-free in the future.
2 Months Later…
October 19th, 2009[Grammar faggots read the last sentance!]
Well its been quite a while since i decided to thrill you all with news about my daily life… a whole 2 Months infact! (but you’ve probably already guessed that)
lets try and do this in cronological order…
Results!
They were okay i guess. As i stated in my previous post i thought i wasnt going to do well, but i did okay considering i’d been very lazy with revision.
Media – B (B in Practical, B in Theory) Not resitting
Computing – D (B in Theory, E in Practical) Resitting Practical Paper
Geography – C (C in Human, C in Physical) Resitting Both papers.
Physics – E (C in Coursework, D in Exam 1, U in “Exam 2) Not Resitting
Key Skills – Pass
General Studies – C
Overall i think i did alright in my Exams. however there are areas that i could dramatically improve on (Both Geography Papers, and my Practical Computing Paper) so I’m resitting in total 3 Exam papers, and the Resits are in January
Next… back at College, and I’m so glad i dropped Physics at the end of last year. probably one of the best decisions Ive ever made! no longer are Monday mornings depressingly horrible! So at A-Level I’m taking 3 Subjects, Geography, Computing and Media Studies. Also the new building is now officially opened, and Old Bede is no longer there, but I’ve gotten used to the modern-ness of the new building and now quite like it.
Finally (i think). Its now 4 days before i go to the Alps (Argentiere) with college, and I simply cannot wait! although is 17Hours on a bus there and back, were staying in 5 star luxury accommodation with Jacuzzis and Saunas and everything! Should be a good laugh and i’ll no doubt have photos of the whole trip up after I’m back (I’m taking my Dynax 5D), so expect some amazing shots of the Lodge and anything interesting.
Thats about it for another few weeks. ignore my sentence structure in this post, i totally cant be arsed with grammar today… or any other day
Brief Update
August 19th, 2009Lets make this short and sweet before i go to sleep
- Summers nearly over, I’m yet to find a job or start learning to drive
- Results day is now Tomorrow (20th) which I’m still freaking out about
- Bandwidth usage on my server has shot up 2 fold this month. no idea why
- Back on Vista due to Windows 7 using the Default Audio outputs differently
- College Starts again on September 3rd i believe, that is if ive passed
- Goodwood 09 photos are still not on my Gallery, i will fix that next week
- I’m ACTUALLY looking forward to college, hopefully my results are okay
The results of my Exams will be found out at about 10:30am on Thursday (20th). Hopefully i have done well, or okay, or at least passed. Resits i don’t mind, i just want to have passed my exams.
Media – passed already unless somethings gone disasterously wrong with the filming
Geography – Horrible exam, will probably need to resit to improve my grades, i cant see my exam results being too good
Computing – Horrible Practical paper, will probably need to resit and revise on the questions on Pascal.
Physics – Exam seemed okay, compared to the exam i did in January. Hopefully should have got a E 0r above in this, (anything above and i would be Thrilled.)
See you on Thursday for either a celebratory drink, or a drink to forget.
Ive Managed
August 4th, 2009to “buy” me a copy of Nazi$ofts new Operating System; Windows 7. which was actually super easy.
Its generally an awesome improvement over Vista. Its Speedier, Simpler, Snazzier, and definitely more user friendly, so in my opinion it feels like a definite upgrade from Vista to Windows 7, probably even seems that way from XP to Windows 7. Notable improvements include having drivers pre-installed for you the first time you boot the OS up (and yes i mean just after you’ve installed it). This was incredibly impressive as i hate installing Chipset/Audio/LAN/Graphics Drivers when formatting, but they were there already, so a massive advantage over any previous OS. Also, the Taskbars changed, ‘WOAH!’ i hear being shouted by all the previous users of Nazi$ofts OS’s but, its changed for the better, in a massive way. no longer (from left to right) is it;
Start Button – Quicklaunch – Open Programs – Notification Area – Clock.
Now its…
Start Button – Tabbed Applications that are open – Notification Area- Clock.
Which is good. so now applications are grouped into single buttons, the button has the icon of the application, no text so no space wasted. Then when you click on the button, a sorta tab window opens and it shows all of the windows open to do with that specific program. so for things like MSN, you see your MSN main window (unless closed) and your currently open chats (and strangely an additional window with just your Display picture, that you cant close or that’s msn gone). Its the same with Explorer windows, so they’re grouped as well. but if your copying a group of files from one window to another, you open the tab on your taskbar and hover over the folder you want open, and it eventually pops up, Far simpler than accidentally hovering over 400 different windows in the taskbar.
There are a few quibbles with the new OS but that’s understandable, it being in a err un-released state. First off usually in Vista when you opened your Start Menu, and clicked on “Documents” it would take you to the ‘raw’ folder where you set to be your “Documents” folder, but now Windows 7 has some silly Libraries function which seems to group your Music, Photos, Downloads, and Videos all together. so Now when you click on “Documents” in your Start Menu it ll take you to the Library Location of your “Documents”. Its alittle hard to explain but that’s not really the problem. The problem is, that i (and 99% of the people i know) have a different layout option for different types of files, so in “Pictures” it may be set to “Medium Icons” and in the rest of the locations within “Documents” it’d be “List”, or “Details” or whatever. BUT NOW with this silly library function, if you open your library for your “Documents” and just set your “Pictures” folder to “Medium Icon” it has a fanny fit and set ALL of the locations within your Documents folder to “Medium Icons” even if its not within that folder. Basically when saying it Quickly, the View type you set in a Library is set for ALL of the locations within that library which is fucking murder! So to get around this you have to put a link to the ‘raw’ folder of your “Documents” in the Location bar along the side of the window which you click on for the problem to be solved, but its adding another step to a process that was simple in Vista and shouldn’t have Changed in Windows 7. Apart from that and the Msn bug explained earlier the OS is problem free (fingers crossed)
So thats my view on Nazi$ofts new OS; Windows 7.
Basically that’s it for this post, Ive ranted on enough. Will have to catch up on the SUPER EXCITING events that happen to me in my everyday life some other time.
PS: Dear Nazi$ofts Lawyers, before dropping a fucking court case in my lap for having windows 7 pre-release, do check out #4 here, obviously he is gloating, so deal with him first before attacking me =)