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Quick update, a few more pics of my bmw m5. I'm pleased with how its coming along, slowly but surely...

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So the other day I thought to myself... I want to model a car... so I did.

I'm not that far into it and I've probably got quite a way to go on it, but at the moment I'm pleased with it and I havn't gone into rediculus detail...yet.

My aim in this project is to get some really nice final renders, hopefully using vray, and making a car body surface that is convincing. Part of me wants to do this as a saftey net incase I don't get a job after uni, and 3d car modeling is a big thing within the car industry. Who's knows maybe I'll be lucky enough to get an placement with one.

This blog's looking a bit dusty...

Ok I'm back, yeah I know it's been a while but I though I'd return to tell you what Ive been up with lately.

So we've finished our group projects and I can say I'm really happy with our final level. It feels great to finally see something finished after working on it for such a long time, 8 weeks I think. We set out to make a realistic and current version of the lecture theatre only with a an un-detonated rocket crash landed in it. For me it was hard to create clean textures that look good. With my environment project everything was grimy and messed up a bit so it was possible to use loads of photo overlays and custom brushes to create textures that look good, but when I have to make clean, untouched textures they just don't seem to look as good. I guess it's something I have to work on.


On the drawing side of things I've nearly finished my layout pad in which I was doing the Land Air Sea yacht project. I started with the Inuit culture an moved ton from there to dog sleds and eventually ice speeder things. I really love using markers and keeping things sketchy.

Black Hawk Down

This weeks film was a real treat since it's one of my favourite films. Black Hawk Down is about a mission that took place in Somalia, when the U.S. Rangers and Delta Force attempted to capture people associated with a renegade warlord. The mission goes horribly wrong when a U.S. Black Hawk helicopter is shot down and what was planned as capture mission turned into a rescue mission.The Film is beautifully directed by Ridley Scott. The way it is shot makes you think that every single shot was carefully planned out and shot, and this is evident in the special features disc. I'd really recommend everyone to watch the extras disc if you can get a hold of it. It shows the storyboarding phase well and all the preparation and thoughts that go into the film.

Black Hawk Down also features and A list cast, with the likes of Eric Bana, Tom Sizemore, Ewan McGregor, Josh Hartnett and William Fichtner, all of which attended a boot camp to ensure the all acted and moved like real soldiers.

The sound in this film is also exceptional, every shot, explosion and ricochet makes you feel a part of the whole experience, and at the end of the day, that's what it's all about.

I'm not going to go on and on about how great this film is, so I'll say one more thing...watch it and be blown away.

Michael is the Mann

This weeks film was Collateral. I've been looking forward to watching this ever since Mike mentioned it, and I have to say its one of my favourite films, OK so I've got a fair few favourites but it's still up there.

First of all I have to say that I love the looks of every Michael Mann film I've seen, there's something about them which gives them style whilst looking different from each other. Miami Vice was another good one which I think used the whole digital camera technique, not to mention Crockett and Tubbs are as cool as a cucumber with shades.


I think that Jamie Foxx played the part of the unlucky and stressed out cab driver well having his freak out moments and doing all he can to escape the situation without success. Tom Cruise also fitted right into the role, showing a cool, calm and collected hit man, who possibly couldn't be any cooler with a gun.

The clash of the very different characters is interesting, Vincent (Tom Cruise) living in the moment and improvising, which is what most of his hits come down to, whilst Max (Jamie Foxx) being a planner, having a schedule, just like with his limo company he is setting up.

The colours used in the film are also worth talking about, with it's acidic colours making L.A. a bleak and seedy looking place.

If you enjoyed this film you really must check out some of Michael Mann's others...

The Kingdom, Miami Vice and Heat

A different kind of horror

So after much wait our next film for Wednesday afternoons was United 93...and it left me pretty much speechless.

When I first heard they were making a film on the events of 9/11 I was disappointed. The thought of Hollywood cashing in on 9/11 is quite frankly disgusting, but after seeing it, I can say it was one of the most shocking, moving and nerve-racking pieces of film making I have ever seen.

I think that the fact that you already knew what was going to happen and you couldn't stop it, was what really made it effective. There are no A-list actors in the film, which I think is a good thing, since it makes it feel more real and that this was something that happened to ordinary people.

Knowing that this film was as accurate to real life as possible, even using the exact radio transcripts and people, made it hit home just that little bit harder.

This really is a film you have to see, I didn't believe it before I saw it, and it's true that you remember where you were when you first heard the news. I had just finished school, Geography sixth period, and was getting a lift home from my mum. I got in the car and she said "Have you heard....

Chasing my goals...literally

I can have the tendency to become quite lazy with my exercise. I know it's something very important in life, and since in mine I could spend five to six hours a day sitting in front of a screen (and that's just working) it seems like I should put more effort into it.

I usually go running for about 45 minutes at a time, down by the river and along to Abbey park and back, but I haven't gone at all this side of Christmas. I guess I'm quite lucky in the fact that I don't put on weight easily, but to me exercise is something that will make me feel good about myself.

Taking this into account it should be something I do more often, because I'm sure that it will show in my work. Well, enough talking, I'm off for a run!

BANG and the lecture's gone!

I have to say I thouroughly enjoyed working this week, it's been such a good change of working style. We have started our group projects to make Queens building into something special. We have started out well and have got the key component, communication.

Communication is key to the result of this project, with so many people working on it (ok, six) a breakdown in communication can prove disasterous. We've all been in the labs working together everday and are constantly discussing things, showing work, and building what I think is going to be a great end product.

One of my main tasks for this project is to research, design and model the missile that will have crash landed into one of the lectures theatres. I started well by doing a ton of research and have decided on the beastly, yet sleek Taurus KEPD 350 missile. It's a really nice looking piece of kit with amazing capabilities, which is great because it will be the the focal point of the room.

I have started by sketching the missile and testing out colour schemes for it using magic markers (which, by the way, are my new found love) and research all sorts of facts and statistics for it so that I can fully understand the object that i'm going to be creating, and to make sure it is believable that it is in this scene.

Today I also emailed the makers of the missile, Taurus Systems, to ask if it is possible to get some autographic pictures of the missile to model it from. This will make it a lot eaiser to model, and will improve the accuracy of it.

They managed to email me back within two hours, which I think is really decent of them, saying they would like to help us but will need to know the synopsis of the level. I will be emailing them back either tonight or tomorrow, but I am not sure whether they will like our scenario since the missile will be crashing into a civilian building after taking evasive action, but you never know.

My Environment

Heres a few more renders of my environment. I think some of the textures could use dirtying up, like the bricks for example, but it didn't come out very well when I tried, because of the tiling, Baaah Humbug.

To Start a fresh...

I have to say that I'm REALLY looking forward to starting work again. No, it's not that I've missed it or anything but the fact that I get to work on something new.

I always find that If I work on something for too long I will get bored, I suppose its inevitable and probably natural, jus like I prefere doing speed paintings that last about an hour rather than painting longer ones.

So I'm looking forward to a new challenge, notably the group project, because it'll give us the chance to combine our talents and create something really special.

I handed in my powerpoint presentation today, so i'll give ya all a sneak preview.