Flattr, not just another hand in your pocket
goplexian.com | animation, modeling, scripting - 2010-02-11 21:37:00

A founder of the now infamous "The Pirate Bay" has started a new project which is aimed at changing the way content providers are paid called flattr. While another hand in my pocket doesn't exactly thrill me, once I got all the details on this project it turns out this is something I would definitely use.

In a nutshell you put money into an account and that money gets distributed evenly on a monthly basis to however many projects or developers you wish to give it to. So you put in $10 a month, and you sign up to contribute to 40 projects, and at the end of the month each of those projects would get a 25 cent slice of the cake.

While nobody is going to get rich off my tiny contribution of 25 cents a month I'm sure there are some popular projects out there which will be flattred by thousands or even 10's of thousands of loyal and thankful customers, which when combined with other means of income from the project such as advertising and services, may actually add up to enough to make a decent living from, and I have a feeling that flattr will end up itself being one of them.

This is definitely good news for open source content providers, I hope the system catches on.

Modeling a Porsche 911 GT3 RS – part 06
Blender Tutorials Downloads Videos & Education - Blender Cookie - 2010-02-11 21:36:55

In this multi-part Blender video tutorial we are going to be taking a close look at how to model a Porsche 911 GT3 RS. Due to the nature of the car these tutorials encompasses a lot of techniques from both organic modeling and hard-surface modeling styles. A particular emphasis is placed on creating good topology [...]

http://blendercookie.com

Why nobody talks about Lua
goplexian.com | animation, modeling, scripting - 2010-02-11 21:20:00

Like many web savvy folk, I've known about Lua for a long time, I'm sure you've heard of it as well.

But is it just me, or does it seem like Lua never generates any buzz in the media? In the major tech news aggregators (at least the ones that I typically check) its always Javascript this, or Ruby that, or Python everything.

Yet when you look at what Lua's actually done and been used for in the industry it certainly seems disproportionate to the eerie silence it seems to experience in the blogosphere. Just for example I'm going to drop a few names now of commercial products which use Lua: Eyeon Digital Fusion, Adobe Photoshop Lightroom, Sim City 4, World of Warcraft, Warhammer Online, Escape from Monkey Island, Psychonauts, and this is just a handful, if you want to see a couple of exhaustive lists then I'm sure Google and Wikipedia can help you.

Anyway I'm not trying to raise a stink, I just think its an interesting question to ask because Lua is a real world language being used  by serious mainstream projects yet you hardly hear a blip about it, and I have no idea why.

I can think of only one thing which has happened in the Lua world fairly recently which was caught and discussed on the web and that was Google giving a Lua developer an $8k donation to work on the amd64 port of the Lua-jit.

I just happened to hear this morning of a new Lua project AiMa-Lua which will be implementing the code from "Aritificial Inteligence, a Modern Approach" by Stuart Russell and Peter Norvig as an example of good Lua coding for practice. I always like these types of projects, and I look forward to seeing the result.

In my opinion a better book couldn't have been chosen, it is essentially "the" book when it comes to this subject. I own a 1st edition copy and it weighs in at over 800 pages.

While it is expensive its one of the few books I'd say are actually worth owning simply for having such a reputable monster sitting on your shelf.

You can pick up your own copy of the behemothic Artificial Intelligence: A Modern Approach (3rd Edition) from Amazon.

Realtime for Jack
Blender Audio Development Blog - 2010-02-11 20:22:54

Yeah, the jack backend of blender is becoming useful with that done. Unfortunately the ring buffer used adds a little latency, so you actually can’t call it “realtime”, but at least you don’t get any xruns anymore, as the process callback of jack is now non-blocking and pretty fast. Moreover the latency added now won’t [...]

Mind map about 3d modeling for a lecture or presentation
Blender 3D Architect - 2010-02-11 19:45:22

From my previous posts on the blog, where I always mention my experiences on the classroom, you may be aware that besides my work with architectural visualization I also teach. I do teach Blender classes, but also work on classes about general computer graphics and multimedia design. For all those classes I use the same [...] Related posts:

1. Mind map of YafaRay lights for architecture One of the ways I use to organize my presentations...
2. Real time rendering with Photon Mapping and Gamma Correction If there is something that I always recommend to my...
3. Augmented reality for architectural visualization presentations How do you make your architectural visualization presentations? I have...

The Ian Report #483 - Bank Jobs & Getaway Cars
Ian Hubert's Posts - Project London - 2010-02-11 17:10:48

As always, every day that goes by is a day closer to release, and rarely has it felt so palpable!
Well, we may have just gotten bad news regarding sound
design, my landlady says she's going to kick half of us out, and it's raining like a soggy dog.

But beyond that everything's fantastic! I can literally count the number of remaining shots on one hand. It'll be interesting to watch the film over and see if there are any shots that we forgot about. I'm currently tackling a scene I've done twice before, but was never really all that pleased with (I was never able to get that great of a key), and since I had to create an establishing shot anyways, I figured I might as well re-work the key. It's lookin' good!

A lot of you have expressed interest in our distribution plan and marketing strategy, so I figured I'd take a moment to break it down. As you probably know, the Independent Film market isn't exactly booming right now, but we've found a way around this.

1st) We are going to rob a bank.

And... that's... well that's it, really. We're gonna rob a bank. True, there are risks, but hey! This is filmmaking! (Actually, it is robbing a bank).

"But," you may interject, "Will you also be distributing overseas?"

A very valid question, the answer to which will be obvious once you hear it; Phil will drive the getaway car.

I hope I've been able to clear up a few of your questions.

Ian Hubert
Writer Director

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Interested in giving a Blender presentation in Cincinnati?
BlenderNation - 2010-02-11 12:00:56

Ryan Finke is looking for a volunteer to give a Blender presentation/demonstration at the TechOlympics Expo in Cincinnatti at Sunday, March 7th. Ryan Finke wrote: Summary I am looking for someone talented at Blender who is willing to volunteer to lead a 45-minute presentation on the power of Blender (i.e. short live demonstrations, previous personal projects, popular open [...]

i.materialise Blender 3D printing challenge
BlenderNation - 2010-02-11 08:48:15

Design your own bookend in Blender and win a 3D print! The i.materialise team writes: Hello everyone, Today i.materialise together with BlenderArtists launched a 3D printing design challenge for Blender community. Here is an official announcement on i.materialise blog. If you you are a Blender user, you are very welcome to join the challenge [BlenderArtists thread]. Good luck and we hope to [...]

New Contest hosted by i.materialise
BlenderArt Magazine - 2010-02-11 05:08:11

i.materialise is back to present you a new challenge on Blenderartists. The product we chose this time is a bookend set.
Basically, you have a chance to design a figure which will be the essential part of your bookend set.

It can be pretty much any 3Ddesign, so let your imagination go wild!
The 3 winners, who will be selected by our jury, will receive a unique bookend set. You are able to submit your design until Thursday February 18, 9AM (GMT+1)

We will 3Dprint the model, so there are a few basic rules:

• The model needs to fit in a bounding box of 8cm by 8cm, with a height of 12cm (use Blender units as reference)
• Mind too small details, as 3Dprinters are not able to print those. As a rule of thumb, any detail bigger than 1mm can be 3Dprinted.
• The model needs to consist out of one piece (we will add a ground plate to connect it with the bookend)
• Don’t worry about file preparation for 3Dprinting, we will do that for you.

You want to join?

• Register on Blenderartists.org : http://blenderartists.org/forum/showthread.php?t=179003
• Submit 3 screenshots (top, side and plain views) of your design by using ‘reply option’

By joining

• You state that you are the sole author of the 3Dmodel
• You give i.materialise the right to use pictures of your design for marketing purposes.

Good luck guys! We hope to see many entries.
If you have any questions, feel free to post them.

使用(BlogPet)
CG系blog - 2010-02-11 02:25:37

きょうは、輪ゴムっぽい使用された。
だけど、ご無沙汰された！

*このエントリは、ブログペットの「輪ゴム」が書きました。

Dream Like Space Duck: He Can Fly!
3rD Movement - 2010-02-11 01:59:00

Alrighty, here is a character that came into being, I think just for the fun of it, I don't really remember, but I think he started just before the BWC (Blender World Cup) 2009 came around and took up all my modeling time. Its just a side project and I code named him 'duckpound' hehe.. don't ask me why. But anyway I thought I would share this creatures love for flight and his great outlook on life.

I did find it slightly difficult getting lighting in the goggles properly though, they have transparent lens and its a small area so ambient occlusion really darkens the inside of them.
He does have a rubber suit over top of his feathers (for aerodynamics of course) but I am sure there will be a few sticking out all over the place before he is complete. Any thoughts on this lanky spawn of freedom are welcome in the comments below ;)



PS. Ah now I remember, the goggles and the jet pack were 2 different smc's (speed modeling contest) and and sir duck here, was the character made to wear the goggles. YEAH!