Durian, durian

The Durian Project, another open movie project by the Blender Foundation, is now opened for pre-orders.

Considering the significant quality jump between their previous open movie projects: Elephants Dream (The Orange Project) and Big Buck Bunny (The Peach Project), I'll be eagerly following this new endeavor. Looks like this time around they will be going for a action-packed fantasy setting.

On a side note, Blender is shaping up to be a fantastic production tool.

On another side note, The working title is making me crave for durian.

Trees of life

Recently I came across a simple but cool little app called ngplant designer, an L-system implementation that is programmed specifically to generate 3D trees and plants.

The app is simple enough and it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure it out. Just spend a few minutes with it and you'll be churning out trees in record time.

The resulting mesh can be exported as an OBJ file to be imported to the 3D app of your choice. The UVs are readily laid out so all you have to do is slap on the texture images with some minor tweaks to further tailor it to your heart's content. While it is perfectly capable of modeling leaves as well, it does slow down dramatically when you reach a certain level of branching, yet the leaves density is still not quite there yet. So I imported the mesh and used the branchs' vertices to clone cardboard leaves , duplicating to achieve the desired density.

The trees above took around 10 minutes each from ngplant to rendering in Lightwave3D, complete with textures and leaves

Transformers RTS?

After watching a trailer about a new Mechwarrior game in the making, I got my hands on MechCommander 2 (Which is free for download and legal, btw) to re-live the exhilaration of commanding those hulking mechs into battle.

While I was busy blowing shit up in the game, I thought about another robot-related franchise: Transformers. Then I thought: wouldn't it be awesome if somebody made a Transformers real-time strategy / tactical game.

Due to the limited numbers of characters in the franchise, I would imagine the gameplay to be similiar to MechCommander or even Warhammer 40K: Dawn Of War, for example:

• Instead of mining resources, the player capture resources points to call in more allies or equipment.

• No base-building. Installations, if any, shall be in the form of transformed robots that is mobile and capable of combat.

• Limited number of units per mission. Like a squad-based strategy or tactical game.
  

• Featuring battlefields in Cybertron as well as Earth, with differing priorities in the diverse environment for opposing forces.

• Active units can salvage parts from destroyed units.

• Diverse range of unit expertise, eg. Optimus Prime is excellent in melee fights, where as Ironhide is a long range expert etc. Skill points can be earned and distributed for each unit.

• Functional combat roles for the units alternate modes. In fact, some objectives can't be achieved without using their alternate mode.

That's all I can think of off the top of my head. I hope some big shot game developer would stumble upon this post and decided that he would go ahead and make it. I wouldn't mind if he decides to share some profit with me too :P

Tron Legacy aka Tron 2 - Concept trailer

Tron, the movie that inspired a generation of visual effects and computer graphics artists, gets the sequel treatment.

Watch the trailer in youtube or HD quicktime here.

Can't wait!

Miniature renders - Homeworld

For no apparent reason, I was overcame by an urge to do some miniature renders. So, I dug up some Homeworld 2 game models which were extracted from the game and converted by Fabio from Foundation 3D, place some props in the scene and rendered away.

Hiigaran Interceptor


Hiigaran Scout


Vaygr Bomber

For the uninitiated, Homeworld 2 is a space based RTS game released in 2003. Despite it's age, their ship designs are still one of my favourites.

Cameron Highlands Trip - Part II

They second day on Cameron Highlands started with an extended stay in the hotel toilet as I attempted to purge my stomach.

The first stop was at the same Jungle trekking site from the previous day, known as Parit Falls. For reason that I could not fathom, Phoebe was determined to venture deeper into the jungle, hoping to find the highest spot on the mountain that was said to overlook the whole of the Highlands. Of course, we turned back when the trail became dark, which was a perfect excuse because my stomach started acting up again. After leaving the site, we ventured into Brinchang and "accidentally" arrived at the "Big Strawberry Farm" (Yes, thats the actual name)

Despite what the name says, the place also feature a hydroponic farm.

You can actually go in and pluck the strawberries yourself, but it will cost you more than twice the price of the pre-packed strawberries which were just as freshly plucked on the same day.

More random flower shots.

Tomatoes (top) and Grapes (bottom)


Cacti. This place almost have everything except, sadly, durian.

We returned briefly to the hotel to stash the Strawberries we bought in the hotel fridge, and went down to Tanah Rata Town to have Chichen rice.

We went further up towards Tringkap and visited the Boh Tea Plantation. The road there was even more winding and narrow, with a hill on one side and a tea plant-filled slope on the other. Most of the time the road was just wide enough for one vehicle, yet it is a two way road. Unfortunately, after negotiating the treacherous trip to the entrance of the plantation, we were denied entry, so we had to go back where we came from and snapped pictures on the way. Nonetheless the view was pretty breathtaking, with tea plants spanning several mountains; You have to see it for yourself because photographs alone don't do it justice.

We also stopped by a fruit market and where the Malay fruit vendors speak cantonese, mandarin, Malay and English with equal fluency.

We called it a day and returned to the hotel, spending dinner time in the room eating cup noodles and peanuts.

The next day, we started our journey back early and visited the Sam Poh Temple which we thought went out their way NOT to be found. After a brief stopover which almost led me into a monk's room when I was looking for the washroom, we bid Cameron Highlands goodbye and swore that I shall never drive here again.

Cameron Highlands Trip - Part I

Last Sunday Phoebe and I embarked on a long overdue vacation trip to Cameron Highlands. It was to be a 3 days 2 nights trip and we picked Cameron Highlands because Phoebe has never been there and I have been wanting to enjoy a hot steamboat meal there in the cold climate.

My dad was raised in Cameron Highlands, but when I did visit the place when I was a child, I spent most of the time around my Grandpa's place in Tringkap, which was nice and all but in retrospect it was probably boring as hell , I just didn't know it then.

Anyway, we started our trip from KL, drove all the way to Simpang Pulai, had a quick breakfast and continued our grueling trip up the mountainous roads to our hotel in Tanah Rata via Kampung Raja.

We passed by Tringkap, so I though I'd visit my Grandpa's house, which has been vacant since both my grandparents passed away.


Random flower shots on the way from Tringkap.



We arrived at the hotel around 11am, but we could only check in at 2pm. To pass the time, we travelled by foot through a broken trail from the hotel to a jungle trekking site. We didn't go in far, but just deep enough to get a shot of a small waterfall.


Another random shot along the trail.

After that we took our lunch in Tanah Rata town and returned to the hotel to check in.

We stayed at Century Pines hotel. The building looks like a cheap flat from the outside but the interior was a different story.


The room we stayed in was pretty spacious, almost too big for a two person room.

View from the balcony.


Of course, I won't be a CG geek without sampling some textures whenever I can.

Unfortunately, I spent the better half of the day bedridden with stomachache. I'm not sure whether it was the food I ate or simply because my body couldn't get used to the climate. Nonetheless I was adamant that we have steamboat for dinner, so after a couple of quick fixes (courtesy of ENO), we finally managed to achieve one of the main goals of coming here.

The steamboat was nothing special. But enjoying a steaming hot bowl of food in the chilly climate was really something.

After the meal we returned to the hotel and I concluded the day with another round of staomachache throughout the night.

More pictures in the next post.

OPTIMUS!!

I bought this Optimus Prime toy look-alike-piece-of-plastic from Petronas, which costs a whopping RM 15.90 on top of a supposedly pre-requisite minimum gas purchase of RM 30.

Optimus Prime robot mode


Optimus Prime truck mode

Apart from the usual robot and vehicle mode, I discovered a few more intermediate modes.

Optimus Prime wheelchair mode


Optimus Prime wheelchair mode in a tunnel


Optimus Prime crossover mode in another film about sentient vehicles.

Vendor - Client relationship

This is too good to pass over. If you are running your own business or freelancing, you'd be throwing both your fist in the air and saying "SO F*cking TRUE~!"

10 things I learnt from Transfomers 2 (Spoiler Warning)

If I am a film critic, I will only need three words to describe every Michael Bay movie:

It was awesome

Before you label me a Bay fanboy, let me be clear that this three words does not describe the quality of his films. It is like a scientific term, like how humans are called Homo Sapiens and salt is called Sodium Chloride. A Bay film? It was awesome.

It was awesome because they are loud, they have MANY explosions (in slow motion, no less), they have girls in sex-ed out outfits, they feature top of the line US military hardware and they are all brainless fun.

They are all awesome because Michael Bay decreed it to be awesome.

Anyway, If you look close enough, you may observe some snippets of wisdom underneath all those mindless awesomeness in Transformers 2 :

1. Two years is enough for anyone to forget everything. For example, a giant robot free-for-all in a populated city.


2. In China, you can cover up any secrets with a "gas leak". Including A huge rampaging robot tearing down the streets in public.


3. If a hot, scantily clad girl is inexplicably attracted to a nerd and smells like diesel, she's a decepticon.


4. Old alien robots must ALWAYS speak cryptically even when they can give clear directions. Clues like "tip of the dagger" and "the three kings" are common replacements for "Petra, Jordan".


5. The US military can deploy tanks, marines, jet fighters and helicopters in a middle east country at a moment's notice, while the local military can only send two helicopters (and be shot down as soon as they arrive)


6. True warriors must always sacrifice themselves to hide the key to a world-destroying weapon, instead of destroying the weapon itself.


7. When you plan to kill a kid, always kidnap his parents and bring him to the site where you plan to kill him, for no apparent reason.


8. If you claim to be an agent for a non-descript government agency, even Navy admirals will listen to you.


9. Small decepticons make great pets.


10. Giant alien robots have balls. literally.

So there. Don't forget to catch this awesome 2.5 hour US army recruitment video in the cinemas now!