You feel tired and hungry.

Would you like to sit down and eat some fruit?

The Fruity Feast

The fruity feast for the banquet beyond belief is nearly ready:



(And just look at that choice silverware ;-)

Scale Test

A quick character vs banquet table scale test:



Not too bad...

A Couple of New Models

A couple of new models for Area Two of World Two:


A goblet for the banquet table

and


A "dragodendron" plant for the "halls of horror" ;-)

Whoa! Back At It!

After a nearly two-month break to deal with some of life's pressing issues, I am back in the saddle with work in World Two. The below video demonstrates complete area changes (notice the use of the Mysterious Doorway) and the use of slopes (and hence stairs and ramps) to allow the player to access different levels of a world model. Along the way from Area One to Area Two you will also notice a beautiful tree that I recently modeled -- complete with foliage that you can see through at the right angles!

Now We're Talking!

The Proto-HUD:




The Mysterious Doorway:

In the Lab with Item #7: The HUD

The prototype not the perfection!

Test World Two

Test World Two is now underway. The goals for this world are 1) three distinct areas (Starry Valley, The Mountain Passage, and Monolith Beach) that are connected by specific throughfares, 2) findable items, 3) save points, 4) wandering creatures, 5) battles (turn-based tactical and line), 6) NPC interaction, and 7) a working Heads Up Display. In short, its a very short rpg wherein you take on the role of Starman and test out Ashton V's programming skills ;-)

Now...



just what in the hell (I mean World Two) is Starman looking at?

The Final Steps to Monolith World

I must accomplish three things before actually beginning to code Monolith World:

1) Learn water effects so that I can use ponds, lakes, rivers, ocean shores, etc;

2) Achieve better NPC control and interactivity so as to further draw the player into the world/game;

3) Learn how to use the Heads Up Display (HUD) orthographic projection so that the player can be given useful information in real time.

Progress on item #1 thus far:

A Picture from the Oza Go Tournament

Clicking the picture will take you to the Oza Go Tournament pictures page. The following picture is at the bottom bottm left.



(Yours truly in the left foreground.)

The Right Thing at the Right Time

The weekend at the Oza Go Tournament was fun and inspiring. It was great to meet up with and interact with friends that I have not seen in person for years. It felt like zero time had passed since our last meeting. I made it home last night around 6pm. Now I step back into the makings of "Monolith World", having found a couple of perfect images for the job:

The Game of the Weekend

I am going to put down my computerized 3D endeavors for the weekend and meet some old friends at UCLA for the Oza Go Tournament. I'll be competing as 25 kyu and will probably get knocked off pretty quick. One of my friends stands a better chance of staying in the battle for longer. Parties interested in learning more about Go or the Tournament can click on the picture below.



It should be a good time for one and all!

Test World Demo Video

The explanation of what's going on is in the video.

Good Prognosis

I went to Physical Therapy yesterday for my right arm problem and got a good prognosis along with permission to slip it out of the sling and to do all that I can with it. I am very happy to report that I am typing this entry with both hands! How very good it feels to have my right arm and hand back in action and back at the keyboard! Of course, it will be a few months before I have full range of motion back, and a few more after that before it regains full strength, but even now it is feeling better than just a day ago -- the semi-atrophied muscles and ligaments stretching out from the month-long hiatus of disuse. And, more importantly, it means that I can get back into the code and get back to work on the prototype to "Monolith World" and then get the show on the road with the actual game that comes after. I will soon post a short video of where the Test World was at when I had the unfortunate fracture back in December -- for continuity's sake -- and then go forward from there.

Welcoming Stella

Please welcome Stella -- she is complete with skin and animations. Starman joins her for the Signs of Nox, being those of The Night.



In order from top to bottom and left to right, they are: Puer, Puella, Vir, Mulier, Osiris Risen, and Mater Triumphans. Please be careful when practicing these on your own, if ever you dare };-)>

UV Mapping Tests

Testing to see if the UV Mapping is properly aligned.



I did a much better job this time around.

Mask

A step along the way during face-grouping in preparation for UV Mapping.

All Boned Up

Nasawoman is all boned up with (almost) nowhere to go. In the current picture, she is driving -- possibly a Mars buggy after terraforming has taken place.



The UV Mapping and Skinning is next.

One Small Step

Testing the stability of the Root Bone with one small step:

Ready for Boning

Nasawoman is finally ready for boning.

The R&R That Turned Into Something Else

The idea to take a small break from 3D modeling and play a decent amount of Final Fantasy VI got thrown way off course due to a power outage that lasted from about an hour after my last post here until about an hour after sundown yesterday. During the time without power, I finished Fianal Fantasy Tactics on PSP (which is one of the best games I've yet played, I think, and which I will give a full critical review to on this blog one day soon), made good progress on Final Fantasy Tactics Advance on Gameboy/DS, started Jeanne D'Arc on PSP, read a significant amount of Neil Gaiman's American Gods, and wrote up a detailed design and event outline for "Monolith World" (the working title of the first actual and whole 3D RPG that I will program using the current technology). So, even though the original plan for R&R was sent aspinning, substantial and satisfying progress was made elsewhere and I feel decent enough about that -- plus it's always exciting to play a bit of Urban Survivalist at home.

Ready for Boning

The Nasawoman mesh is complete and now ready for boning -- however, I'm taking the day off for some R&R with Final Fantasy VI.

Abject Shock and Horror

Imagine my abject shock and horror when I snapped the two sides of Nasawoman's face together for the first time and saw...



Patrick Stewart staring back. (On some level, it probably makes sense that a Nasaman would want his Nasawoman to look like Captain Jean Luc Picard in drag, but such a thing is definitely not acceptable to Starman.) Mission Fix That is now underway.

With Depth

The newly reasoned technique seems to work better than that used for Starman.

Without Depth

Progress on Nasawoman's face.

Nasawoman Bodyworks

Nasawoman's body is finished up to the point of final shaping adjustments -- which comes right before boning and animation.



Ahh... I long for the day when I finally sit down and work on non-mittenesque hands. After the plantworks though, after the plantworks....

A Quick Spin

After I give her the hand and foot treatment, I'll give her [a] head.

"Nasa-Woman" Begins to Take Shape

Applying what was learned with Starman to a female model.

The Funny Plate Got Screwed

A little over two weeks ago I fractured my right proximal humerus. I had surgery to install a plate to put everything back together and hold it all in place. Today I visited the doctor for a post surgery review. The prognosis is good (start physical therapy in two weeks and get a return-to-work review in four) and I feel happy to finally be "on the mend". The below 3D "sketch" is my portrayal of what the x-ray that was taken today shows. Yes, that's right: one rather largish plate and nine screws... a rather significant piece of hardware, if you ask me.

Welcoming Starman

The "Starman" model is finished. He celebrates with the following series of poses.



Which is LVX -- the Light of the Universe.

One Step Away

The model is now one step away from being finished. All that is left is to add basic animations (walking, running, jumping, etc.) and then drop it into the test world and call this learning experience done. And then its onto more "real" work -- in terms of putting all the pieces together into a game.

Out of the Lab

After a few experimental stabs at the complexities of uv mapping, and going back to fix a few bad/amature modeling mistakes, I have finally stepped out of the lab and have begun to put this guy's skin on.

In the Lab with UV Texture Mapping

Getting the base checkerboard material right....

The Bones Are In

The Sign of Shu (the Egyptian God who holds up the sky)

Updated Development Environment and Technology

The present development environment and technology for 3D worlds and RPG endeavors consists of:

* Workstation: a fairly high powered Gateway PC with dual core AMD CPU and NVIDIA GPU
* OS: Windows Vista Home Premium
* IDE: Eclipse
* Language: Java
* Game API: LWJGL and jME
* 3D Modeling/Animation: MilkShape3D
* UV Texture Mapping: Unwrap3D
* Painting: The GIMP

A Few Shots of a Model in Progress

Here are several progress shots of a model that I am presently working on:

A First Post & Greetings

Greetings! I'd like to welcome all of you to my new journal/blog. Herein you'll find a bit more of a serious view of the persona known as Ashton V.: the dreams, the endeavors, and those peculiar bumps in the night that we've all come to know and love. So, without further ramblings, here is a video that I shot for a friend about a month ago that demonstrates my progress up to that point in time with the jME 3D graphics/game engine and the Blender 3D modeling program. Presently, other subatantial progress has been achieved and my development technology has changed somewhat (which I'll recount later), but the following video stands as a good representation of the initial strides and bounds taken toward developing full-blown PC/Console targeted RPGs.