chrono

Ditto! It's both flustering and madding that it's taking so long for the 2nd DVD sub to come out.

Rodavan & others interested. Recently I was doing some internet research on how to go about making PS2 Tranformers: Armada textures. I've pretty much figured out alot of the basics, but needed my indepth pointers and well found this not so little treasure trove of PROFESSIONAL texturing points on using and making textures. http://www.cgtalk.com/showthread.php?t=77484

BLAH! TS totally sucks at animation, even simple stuff like this! Of course it doesn't help that there is only about 60 total pages on animation in the stinking handbook.... I made ALOT of changes and the only things that didn't get changed were the turrent model itself and the plane on which it sits. Everything's been tweaked in some way with the beam itself getting the most rework of all. During all of the changes I really adjusted the amount of particles that I had been using. Before I left all of the particles in the scene while rendering taking up hugh amounts of rendering & CPU time needlessly. Stuff you didn't even see on the screen. I ended up using all of those to give the beam a 'glowly' bit and had hoped to use those for light casting, which I quickly gave up on when a test render doing just that went over 15 minutes. This particular animation is finished. There are simply too many things TS won't let me do to make it any better. I'd have loved to do a clock-wise downward camera movement to a more interesting position, but the current render time is over 15 hours for a 3 second sequence. Anyways I think I'll try my hand at some Macross missile firing sequences next. Beam7.avi

Yep agree with that! Seriously though if you take into consideration that many of Lucas's ideas for "the Force" come from East & Central Asia then you begin to easly see the dualism that ALL the jedi/sith represent. Toss in a slight Western Space Opera twist and there you go!!! The Jedi represent both the community and the individual. He's for the community(society in general) by not going against the flow of it's culture and helping the community more at large then singularly. He's the individual because he must balance his 'spirit'(ki,chi,soul,whatever) with the demands of his body(ala Buddism). The Sith represent the individual because they feel they are above the community. It's funny because it's soooooooo anti-individual, and yet Americans suck it up!!!

I view cannon as "If it's not in the movie, then it doesn't apply.". Keeps things clear and clean. Besides the EU is alot of different writers playing in someone elses playground. So it's little more then fanfiction at it's most legal. Besides that quote was from somebody else's opinion, need for SW-fix continuance, and their need for all of the square boxs to fit in all of the round holes. Besides why need Battle Mediation when you have superior numbers, better training, and higher morale? Really BM is just more pet-theory justification, but done on a legal fanfiction basis. The Force just is. There is no White, Black, nor Gray. Those are all projected human viewpoints. It's interesting that people say that the 'good' jedi who use the force for their own needs(name a single 'good' jedi that hasn't used the force for their own purpose) aren't sith, when sith do exactly just that.

I had high hopes for this show, but after episode 2 I realized it's pretty much a hollywood version of Neon Evangelion with it's cyclic ways and pychobabble.

Gotta love things like this! People SOOOOooooo want to make the bad guys super evil titanic god-like power mongers(think DragonBall Z) and the good guys incredible heroes without equal skills that they'll make up anything they can just to get back that first RUSH of feelings that they got the first time they watched the movies. It's BEYOND silly sometimes. It was a personal victory because NONE of the people in the throne were directly involved with the battle taking place further within the DS2. The throne room battle was for Vader, not the rebellion. Not to save the DS2. It was cinematics all the way. If Luas wanted to be THAT heavy handed then why not have the scene in the movie to begin with? There's no real answer to that because unless Lucas writes it himself it's only guesses. Yes you can be a "central, powerful evil that had been the cohesive force to the Empire." without having cartoonish superpowers of near god-like levels! History is littered with them. The thing to do with Star Wars is to treat it like any other story. Enjoy it while it lasts. Feel sad that it's over. Move on taking with you something that betters you from it.

Here's the newer version(same video type as before). I ran into more animating roadblocks than I thought I would. For example: the various pre-fire and beam glows would have to be post-opt'ed, simple light and color changes won't take and for some reason apply across all of the frames instead of a selected set of them, and rendering time is now around 9 hours!!! I also stopped the render short because the beam illumantion just doesn't look right at all! This maybe a one of those months long projects that only get worked on occasionally. Now that I'm really beggining(spl!bah!) to better understand particles I may try my have at a Zen missile launch or a simple Macross missile storm. Beam6.avi

All valid points. I can control the width of the beam, but only in a cone-like fashion and not like the shows without having to add a time consuming render element. I think that the width is also part illusion becuase of the glow during firing. I also can change the pre-fire particles, but mainly went with the will'o wisp style because it was easier. I'll try the lightning effect next using Meta-Particles. Thanks for the C&C! Now if I can just figure out how to animate the turrent.....

Well I've been playing around with this for several months now and need some feedback on it. Video in DIVX 5.11 Beam4.avi

Thanks for the close-up wireframe Mechmaster. That helps clarify things. What threw me was the lighting. Generally avoid this type of viewing angle because it washs out the details very easly. Try to angle the light for the best contrast, unless your using a GI dome(which is better showing off WIP details). I should've said chamfer not bevel, my mistake! Chamfering catchs the light better then a single bevel. Still's good!

Pretty good Mechmaster. Now go the extra couple yards and add a slightly bevel to the larger edges, especially the area where the 'T' connects to the pods.

People seem to miss read the fact that the PS3 has 512 meg of RAM and not just 256(the stats clearly state 2 different types of RAM). And yeah 512 isn't much these days.... for a computer! These are consoles and if I remember right the PS2 only had 8 meg or so. A hugh change to be sure! The X360 doesn't run at 9.6 GHZ it runs at 3.2 in parallel the same as the Cell does (though I'm sure their are people just waiting to overclock the X306). You forget that the Cell is a system of processors not just a single CPU. Same idea different process. Both systems will be easy to program for.

As near as I can tell, the Xbox 360 has more memory, more processing power, and better bus speeds. But the PS3 has an utterly insane video card. When did X360 get 512+ megs of RAM? The processing power seems to be the same 3.2 Ghz. Which is pretty damned crazy by itself! Not even taking into account that PS3's Cell isn't running at full capacity. The custom video card takes the cake though! TWICE the power of any of Nvidia's own cards and would take around 900-1100 bucks to buy all by itself. The REAL kicker is that Epic Games' Tim Sweeney(you know Unreal) says it's easy to progam for! Which was(is) the largest gripe that developers have had with both PS's.

Ok stop being a renderwhore cause your making me look bad! Seriously though where you gonna finish the feet?

That's not really true anymore given the fact that most games are now multi-consoled and few medium to large game studios solely make single console games. In the generation after this upcoming one(post PS3) Mircosoft will have bought up most of the console industry and have started to reduce japanese and euro gaming to a individual niche markets. You're delusional on both counts. I'd say roughly 66-75% of games are exclusive to one of the 3 major consoles. And MS taking the market over through buyouts is just absurd. They just can't afford it. ... Euro gaming is ALREADY a niche market, BTW. Not at all, because many of the studios that your talking about are studios that are parts of the consoles corp holdings. The independant med-large studios know that the money is made with thier game going out to many consoles and not just one. The small studios stay with a single console mainly because thier games just don't sell well enough to afford more employees to make the conversions. As for the Microsoft buying it's way to domination. Well history has already should what M$ will do to get what it wants. They spent billions getting where they're at today in the computer arena and they've spent quite alot(last quote I hear was over 2 billion) just getting into the console arena. What's a few dozen billion more towards concole domination or further console/computer hybridization? ... Yeah may bad on the Euro gaming remark! Ubersoft is doing really well with government protection now.

I've also found that 'realism' mantra impends game flow. Some systems never had it in mind to begin with or that try'ed to cover so many realism points with rules/charts that it bogged down everything. Of course I've aways gone by the motto "If it doesn't work, it doesn't get used."

That's not really true anymore given the fact that most games are now multi-consoled and few medium to large game studios solely make single console games. In the generation after this upcoming one(post PS3) Mircosoft will have bought up most of the console industry and have started to reduce japanese and euro gaming to a individual niche markets.

I've not been following to much of anything for several months now. Basically because most of the newer stuff is just so generic in story and art style. The intial Bleach, the first 50 chapters of it, story arc will be(ie IS) pretty sweet and it well balanced story and art-wise with solid and fairly goo music. The rest is straight DragonBall Z shiznit though. Wasn't too impressed with Mai-Hime because it's abit too cliche driven. The art style is OK but it's a little lifeless sometimes. GitS:SAC is so poor in quality that it's gagging and insulting to it's creator and his audience. EMMA isn't too bad, but you've got to have a slight maid fetish to enjoy it. (is gulity) Speaking of maids the He Is My Master title is rock solid and pretty funny for the most part. Call it a low brow comedy, but it's at less enjoyable for what it is. Tsukuyomi Moon Phase is another fun little title, gotta love the style and who ever thought up the mini-vapire neko SHOULD be praised! Tengo (ala TEN TEN) is very good and I totally can't wait for the second season. Even though it's story is slightly different from the manga it still grabs you somewhat because of it's drama.

Out of curiosity, what were these things? FV For, for me, Getter Robo(old manga & newer Armegeddon anime) has a clear cut and VERY violent militaristic style to it. Their was little touchie feelie to it. It was also drawn in a specific stlye that worked out well for it and it really helped to make it attractive. That includes the military musical themes that the anime had. They just seemed to use the 3 pilot theme more interestingly and more grittly. EVA, had the various teenaged angst, mysterious background plots, and violence that came out within the first episode. Frankly the style just doesn't grab me. The character designs are VERY run of the mill. The music is boring and the action..... well what action? Compared with anime that's now 10 years old it's just pathetic and comparing it to the action in the last Macross anime.... well that's just insulting. Once you understand that it's a story(yet again) about superkids, combiner robots, and mysterious superbeings. It's becomes old hat and something to avoid, unless your a fan. But theirs no way in hell I'll pay 30 bucks for 3-4 episodes of it!!! I'm not saying that some people wouldn't enjoy it, but I've got other things I can spend better time on.

Cyclops has always been pretty much a wimp, especially when he's compared with Wolverine. They didn't call him 'slim' for nothing. Gotta agree though that without Singer involved it's gonna feel like Terminator 3.

OMG! That's so tripp'n weird. I kinda like the insanity, but it does seem just A LITTLE LAME.

X-men less cartoony and darker? Oh that's funny. only way your gonna do that is if you do the Days of Future Past story. That's Terminator level gritty. X2 was pretty damned gritty for X-Men, and it was styled because it was so overthetop and little more then an action flick that NEEDED style not to be any lamer then it already was. Using the Juggernaut as the main villian is lacking and you are gonna have to have another villian behind the scenes manipulating him.... unless you destroy the character by giving him brains. Though using Juggie for X3 would work because it could help frame up the background for the Sentinels/Nimrods arrvial.

After watching episode 1, I've gotten the total impression that this is merely a blend between Getter Robo and EVA, but without the things that made them both individually interesting. Are their no more giant robot series that DON'T require superpowered kids anymore??? Not even worth stealing or even viewing a friends copy. Ranks equal the level of Pokemon for the most part.

Well I saw it today. ..... This is a pretty FLAT movie overall. Lottas imagery but little in the way of story or the humor I'd thought I'd be getting. The humor that was in it was dated, clearly so. Didn't like the whole love triangle part, mainly because it didn't really add much of anything. Well except to turn her character into a secondary character. I'm REALLY beginning to think that ANY book(s) not given 22-26 episodes worth of treatment will NEVER turn out great. It's beginning to worry me because someone might get their talentless hands on Issac Asimov's Foundation series and totally rape my childhood.