updates
Ten Years of Counting Polys
April 1, 2008, 11:16pm CDT, by r13
Once again we have come back around to the First of April, the anniversary of the site. This time we find ourselves at quite the milestone; ten years. Ten years of the green and black. I can't begin to form a description of how amazed I am by this. I know every year I tend to get a bit more sentimental, but ten years... stunning. I don't attribute this longevity to myself. Long ago, the community took over the space station.
While the inmates were running up and down the halls, we're been working on some things off to the side. One of these as you can see is a brand new set of boards. This is all new tech. No more UBB. This is built on a new foundation so that we can build more functionality into the boards to allow us to do more things as we spend our time here. As some have noted, a new color scheme and design as well. The traditional colors of the boards had grown obnoxious over the years. So many of you were so nice to not say anything to me about it. Please realize that the boards are not done by any means. Things are a little broken here and there. We know, you've told us. We didn't go through all this just to stop now. Have faith.
One suggestion I saw that I was fond of was the idea of a logo contest. I've not going to look into the logistics of it right now. We've got to get the site all plugged in and working as intended. But in the meantime, I think it's safe to say you might ponder some sketches.
The best thing that I thought of today... I was telling a friend today, the site has changed the life of just about every person I know. That's just awesome. Cheers to all.
Silo in Linux? woo!
February 22, 2008, 9:50am CST, by bearkub
According to this thread, Silo is making its way on to the Linux platform. Not a whole lot of info available, but read the thread to get the idea.
http://www.silo3d.com/forum/showthread.php?t=13766
Happy Holidays
November 25, 2007, 4:17pm CST, by r13
Happy Holidays to all. We just passed the start of the holiday season here in the states. It still strikes me as weird to see Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas stuff all in the same store at once. Perhaps they'll all merge into one mutant holiday with 6 eyes and a funny hat at some point. Remember your loved ones this season. Give them a hug, even if they smell bad.
Video Trace
August 29, 2007, 11:16am CDT, by r13
Making models using video as the reference.
========================================================================
VideoTrace: Rapid interactive scene modelling from video
VideoTrace is a system for interactively generating realistic 3D models of objects from video—models that might be inserted into a video game, a simulation environment, or another video sequence. The user interacts with VideoTrace by tracing the shape of the object to be modelled over one or more frames of the video. By interpreting the sketch drawn by the user in light of 3D information obtained from computer vision techniques, a small number of simple 2D interactions can be used to generate a realistic 3D model. Each of the sketching operations in VideoTrace provides an intuitive and powerful means of modelling shape from video, and executes quickly enough to be used interactively. Immediate feedback allows the user to model rapidly those parts of the scene which are of interest and to the level of detail required. The combination of automated and manual reconstruction allows VideoTrace to model parts of the scene not visible, and to succeed in cases where purely automated approaches would fail.
Bioshock Art Book - download
August 14, 2007, 4:36pm CDT, by r13
"Bioshock: Breaking the Mold" is the art book for the game in a convenient to download pdf format:
Bioshock: Breaking the Mold
It's listed in 2 flavors; small [15megs] and large [75megs] and is at the polycounter friendly price of free. Get your copy before they run out.
Autodesk acquires Skymatter
August 6, 2007, 8:36am CDT, by bearkub
http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/item?id=9931455&siteID=123112
So, this is interesting. Autodesk buys Alias first and now Skymatter. Discuss.
Q&A related to acquisition (PDF)
Silo 2 is out! Rejoice!
August 3, 2007, 10:55am CDT, by r13
http://www.nevercenter.com/download/
Silo 2 has FINALLY hit the streets. If you got in and got the free updgrade, it's time to get downloading. If you didn't, you should free up some cash and buy this gem.
..why are you still here? GO GO GO!
Silo 2 is out! Rejoice!
August 3, 2007, 9:25am CDT, by bearkub
http://www.nevercenter.com/download/
Silo 2 has FINALLY hit the streets. If you got in and got the free updgrade, it's time to get downloading. If you didn't, you should free up some cash and buy this gem.
..why are you still here? GO GO GO!
CrazyBump Beta 3 is ready!
May 29, 2007, 9:22am CDT, by bearkub
Yike, almost let this one slip by due the holiday weekend! Mr Clark has readied his latest version of his amazing Crazybump application. Here is the info and the link to grab it!
Quote:
Crazybump Beta 3 is now up for testing!
new features:
-"Normals Mixer" blends normal maps together in 3D. This creates a much better result than a 2D blend in photoshop.
-Savable presets.
-Improved preview window.
-Preferences save correctly.
Grab the new beta from www.crazybump.com/beta/download.html
Maya PLE 8.5 is out.
May 25, 2007, 8:19am CDT, by bearkub
Well, once in a while my inbox does bring some good news and it looks like today was one of those days. A note from Autodesk says that they have released Maya PLE 8.5 and it is ready for your grubby little hands in both a nice robust Windows flavor or a more subdued, sweet Mac flavor. You have to register to use it and get the download so it's probably time to get moving to make it through all that tedious typing. Link coming atcha in 3...2...1...
http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/index?siteID=123112&id=7639525