Claymod

I've got some more Claymod news. I finally have the texture generation working without ugly seams. I also got the UV unwrapping ('pelting') working with user settable seams. Those were two big areas that were consuming a lot of time, but now I can move on to other stuff. I have maybe 10 things left to do before it should be testable end to end. I'm looking forward to making some models with this thing.

Stuff

We saw Mission Impossible III this weekend and I'm happy to say it was really good. Much better than the last MI movie. I'm also happy to say that I'll be starting a new job next week. I'm psyched to be starting something new and also to be able to walk to work (the new job is right down the street from my house). My current commute of 1:30 each way is really taking a toll on me.

Now, if only Bella would stop sneaking onto the kitchen counter and helping herself to some cereal I'd be a happy camper.

Work continues on Claymod - I am just trying to work out some issues with the texture generation. Once I get those annoyances taken care of it won't be long before I can start using it to make some game models.

Modelling

I made my first real 3d model yesterday in Blender (and Wings3d). Well, I did some stuff for Quake2 mods a long time ago, but I can barely remember what it was. Modelling isn't as hard as I thought it would be and I am slowly picking up on Blender's voluminous list of keyboard shortcuts and menu tree. Some things still seem easier in Wings3d, but I'm sure it's just my ignorance of Blender getting in the way. One thing that I haven't been able to find in Blender is Wings 'Inset' command which is really nice for some things. I'll keep digging..

I still think one of the big problems with making 3d modelling intuitive is the fact that we are all using 2d interfaces on a flat screen to make 3d objects. The problem is, "How can you manipulate a 3d object with 2 dimensional input". Usuaully we end up only editing in 1 or 2 dimensions at once because of this but it's messy because you still have to deal with the rotation of the camera, etc. I think it might be a lot more intuitive if you could build your shapes in 2d before you move into 3d. Google's SketchUp kinda does this in that you are encouraged to draw the house layout then extrude it into the third dimension. Draw the door then inset it. Lines and rectangles are drawn on surfaces of objects as if you are working in 2d then you can extrude them to get new forms. All in all I think it works pretty well, especially for mechanical or architectural things. It's still problematic for doing characters and organic things, but I think that's where programs like my Claymod come in.