3D Made Easy - by oji zerobyte

OK the title sound a bit cheesy. I'll think of a clever one in the next post.

Meanwhile....
I'm trying to do a 3D primer for beginners. Just for fun and simply because i want to muahaha. And I'll be going to discuss bits & pieces, tips & tricks, tutorials, muscle-show or whatnots in multiple postings starting ....now.

Intro
I know a lot of would-be 3D artist or designer wanting to do 3D gets put-off by the complexity in 3D apps. Well, it IS complex. IMO (in my opinion), 3D is the highest form of digital artistry one can try to achieve - atleast technically. But then again, 3D can form your imaginations & dreams in a very realistic (or surrealistic) sense . So, that signifies complexity needed both in the applications AND usage.

Anyhow, all you need to get started is:

1 - a computer good enough to run things smoothly, obviously.
A good gaming PC would suffice. Bare minimum you need Pentium 4 3.0Ghz, 1GB RAM, and an Nvidia or Ati gaming video card. That's it. Ofcourse it could help TONS if you have latest rig like Intel Core2Quad, 4GB fast RAM, Geforce 9xxxx series GT 512DDR3, Raptor 10K hard disk...ok I'll stop. You get the picture.

2 - a 3D package of your choice.
Despite the myth that noobies believed, ALL the major apps are equal in ability - 3ds max, Maya, XSI, Lightwave - "the big 4", you can't go wrong with any of them. Secondary apps like Cinema4D, Carrara, modo, blender (free) are catching up fast and pretty good too.

3 - Dedication, Time and Coffee (or equivalent).
No lie here, you need a lot of Dedication, Time, and Coffee for learning 3D. Atleast a steady supply of either one for 3 months would suffice to get you on the right track.

Once you've sorted above 3 points, you're good to go, which prompts me to end this part and start thinking of a cleverer Title for next post.

Until then.....*sips coffee*

PS: the image at top of page was an old test render I did while testing out Brazil R/S new version at that time (1.2). Rendered with 3ds max + Brazil R/S v1.2 renderer. Spiffy isn't it? Well you can do it too if you drink enough coffee :)

Muay Thai Digest - Event for November & December

* This is an update to the Selangor event post.

There is a confirmed event in Kelantan on 17 & 18 November 2008. Fighters are still to be confirmed.

For December, the Fights might be held in either or all of this places:
• KL - Stadium Titiwangsa
• Selangor - Kelana Jaya
• Penang

Check Boxxtomoi for up-to-date info.

Bought a floor unit!

Yep I did it again. I bought a Zoom G9.2tt floor unit guitar fx yesterday. My mission and objective that day was to test out studio nearfield monitor, possibly buying one, but got meself in trouble testing out the G9.2tt at Chambers Music. It is shiny, sturdy, sexy, and ofcourse sound great! So I bought it. I'll get that monitor some other time :)

First of all, I've been checking out the Zoom guitar fx series for quite a while, targeting the lower range G7.1ut but that was out of stock. So I saw a bigger, sexier G9 on the shelf....just to test out the features and sound you know....

The G9 got TWO vacuum tubes (12AX7) - 2 actual physical tube! One is pre (input) preamp, the other is post fx (output). Since it got real tube, the warmth and organic tone - which is somewhat lacking in software emulations - are apparent once i turned up the tubes' knob to get warm saturation and solid state sweetness.

The amp & cabinet simulation was great considering the price range (RM1550). I haven't tested it extensively but it sound as good (or better when combined with the real tube preamp) than Guitar Rig 2 or Amplitube 2 software emulation plugins.

It have a lot of fx modules and 5 simultaneous configuration. Obviously, you can't beat soft-emus over the shear number of unlimited modules & configuration. But the G9.2tt is more than adequate for a lot of guitarist - both in studio/rehearsal and live on stage.

What i like about it is that the layout is based on hardware amp-head (aka preamp combo/stack). The topmost area housed a row of knobs. You get the usual Gain, Level, Bass, Mid, Treble, Presence. This can be tweak live, just like real thing while busy wowing the crowd :)

On the top left, you get the usual LED + screens. But there is another row of knobs beneath for editing the EFX module. This is also tweakable live - like having stomp-boxes and fine-tuning the [parameters...or simply playing with the knobs for special fx is always fun - like tweaking Boss Digital Delay's parameters creating dreamy out of this world fx :)

Oh I forgot to mention that it have 2 pedals. One is typically a Volume pedal, the other is Expression/Mod controller. The catch is, there is another sliding (horizontally) pedal on top of Pedal2. This is like having a Vector XY controller in synths!

AND ohhh, the respond time between changing patch is 5ms!!!! no more silence in-between patch! OK i will stop writing now and get back on playing it :)

SONAR 8 is out!

Oh man, these days software development is faster than human learning curve - or atleast for people in the mid-thirties. I still haven't completely toured SONAR 7's new feature...

Cakewalk SONAR 8
Producer Edition - $619 US Dollar
Studio - $369 US Dollar

Watch the Youtube product vlog

It seem Sonar 8 is a much more efficient performance-wise (30% general performance gain) rather than laden with new features. Beside performance tweaks, which is quite a few, the one I like is the Dedicated Instrument track. It used to create 2 tracks for a virtual instruments which i feel a bit clunky to handle on large tracks. Now it's a single track. yeay! The Live Bounce sounds good too but i rarely bounce tracks but its good to know now its a single step action. On this line, with Anytime Recording you can now Arm track to record while track is playing, something Sonar users will feel like a removal of small splinter in the butt :). Most of the enhancements are previously minor irritation but now ironed out like the automatic Bus Inputs Quickgroup - no more adjusting ALL guitar tracks using FX Send 3 one by one. Cool.

Enough of the mediocre updates, let's move on to juicier new features.

Sonar 8 now include Beatscape - a loop manipulation and realtime triggering/performance. Maybe its something like Sonar's Cyclone which is already an excellent loop manip plugin. But seem it has more of a synth approach with filters and all. Cool.

Sonar now have a full Dimension Pro included. This is good since Dimension is an awesome sample/synthesis plugin. Also included is NI Guitar Rig 3 LE - wow this is avery welcome addition! Even though its only Limited Edition, GR3 will wet any axeman's tight pants anytime! Awesome amp sim modelling. We also see a lot more xx-64 plugins which started with the excellent LP-64 mastering plugins.

All in all, this iteration is not something to run-around-the-house-shouting about. New instruments can't really be called an 'upgrade'. It feel more like a beef-up rather than a version iteration. But I guess Cakewalk is concentrating more 'under-the-hood', tweaking performance and cleaning up codes for a better, stabler product - which is a VERY good point already. I just hope the performance tweak be as good as what on paper.

Muay Thai BoxxEvent in Selangor

There is going to be Muay Thai Championship in Selangor! Anyone/gym interested, please give this LINK a visit

Fallout 3

Got an awesome news - Fallout 3 is coming out this 28th Oct! (Xbox 360, PS3, PC). This post apocalypse dystopian game is beautiful! Based on the original gameplay PLUS a HUGE open 'sandbox' world almost like Oblivion, this going to eat some productive hour when it is out. Developed by Bethesda Softworks (maker of Oblivion, obviously), we can expect high quality imagery, sound and interactivity. Well, the gameplay demo alone blown my mind! Not to mention the story line depth etc.

Oji's Personal Muay Thai - pt.1

OK I will try to keep a blog on my journey back into Muay Thai. Above all I need to record my personal progress, not some oh-look-i-do-muaythai kinda thing. So yeah shut up you prick :)

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Phase 1 - Stamina & hardening process
First of all, I've been really out of shape! I started slow by stretching longer and then start to jog slow. I didn't go far - about 3-4KM only - man i was REALLY pumping and out of breath! A-pack-of-cigarette-a-day really show it's toll on me. My legs was fine, but my lungs & heart really need a work out. It was burning!

After that, did an hour or so of simple MT strike & steps. This is the hardening part. I don't really go for powerful strikes, just some technique and hardening the bones - particularly the elbow strike on mango tree (I need to get a punching back soon and banana tree is nowhere to be found so i can harden the leg/knee strike). Oh well some bruises are good for the hardening process. Anyway this is what was taught to me when I was younger :)

the left elbow. the right one has more bruises n bumps its fun to look at lol - but can't get a decent pic

Tomorrow I will try to do atleast 3KM without panting so much and ofcourse the hardening again...

Kickboxing Gym in Ampang

WARRIORS Kick Boxing
Found this gym in Ampang Point area - above Cash Convertor. I haven't got the time to check it out just yet. Most probably they teach Muay Thai.

Note to Mus Boxxtomoi
BoxxWARRIORS got a contender in Ampang haha. Just kidding man, I don't think this is a NakMuay gym. I'll check it out later

After raya & getting back on track

After raya hangover still lingered on even after 2 weeks! Still, work poured in right after the 1st week. Ahh boring cerita pasal keje....

Anyway...

I miss my MuayThai fix! Boxxtomoi is the usual haunt ofcourse and Mus posted a link to Abbas's awesome fight of Abbas Ahmedi (BoxxWarriors) vs Issei Shima (Japan) at the Singapore S-1 Championship. Awesome fight both of them and to Abbas, that classical Muay Thai elbow is inspiring! and that KO is SCARY bro! Thanks both Mus for the share & Abbas for a good show. I'll be looking forward to see you guys at the UM KawanBoxx meet-up.
The video link

For more news on Abbas and some more cool photos go HERE.

Other MT fix, is that Namsaknoi is Online at NSN Club MuayThai blog and also at Facebook + Facebook Group (just search Namsaknoi Yudthagarngamtorn). BTW, Namsaknoi has the best Wai Kru/Ram Muay i've seen! awesome show of art & prowess - and you should see his fights!

Back!

Hello Cyberspace! I'm back from Raya vacation. It was, as always a great time for me, and also a back-breaking time too - I had to pack & unpack my studio area (yes the whole studio room!). Since I set it up in the front part of the house, this need to be clear for a buffet-type serving area.

phewww! my hands are shaking for not touching my computers for too long. lol

Oh well, now i'm back...with a few more kilos too, I'm gonna make extra round of jogging & muay thai-ing tonite!