League of Draven

Hey guys, i know a lot of you play so I thought we could exchange our handles.


McC1oud is the name, Nasus is my game.

Flash Camera Zoom Plugins

Does anyone remember how to zoom into a scene in flash with a camera, does anyone know the plugin to use please. cheers Symon

3D Diploma 2014

Hi all , here are the NSW TAFE website links for prospective students to register their interest for the 3D Animation Diploma course in 2014. Please be aware that you will need to click on the “apply now” button at the bottom of the TAFE NSW web page to register your interest. Please make sure you select the laptop option if you want to recieve the laptop next year.

11270 Diploma Screen and Media 3D animation and Digital Effects

Without laptop and software - https://www.tafensw.edu.au/howex/courseOfferingDetail.do?Command=offeringDetail&OfferNo=1229511

With laptop and software - https://www.tafensw.edu.au/howex/courseOfferingDetail.do?Command=offeringDetail&OfferNo=1229487

 

All the best,

Richie

Screamer Tutorial by Richie

If anyone is interested I found a great tutorial from Richie about how to use Screamer net, part of lightwave that lets you do Network rendering.
Here is the link.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x66tBf4Qfc4

Compared to the many guides and information this was the only one that was easy to follow and I managed to get it to work.
Im sure there is similar software or apps for Blender etc

Concept Art Website

Greetings fellow Earthlings, thought I might provide a link to a concept art website that might provide some inspiration. Artworks are posted by professional artists working in the entertainment and art industry, so it can show an idea of what sort of work is being produced. The website also has information about online art courses ranging from concept artwork to 3D digital modelling. The website also has information on the artists themselves and studios as well. Anyway it might be worthwhile.

Live long and prosper.


http://conceptartworld.com

Laptops: Metabox by Clevo options

I've been researching Metabox by Clevo laptops as Clevo has a good reputation for building powerful good value laptops. I've managed to boil things down to 2 major options: The Metabox P150SM and the Metabox P157SM.
The links will be to the store page as that's most useful.

P150SM
Key features:

• 8 Cell battery
• Full size keyboard (includes numpad)
• Good screen resolution (1920x1080). 95% colour gamut option
• Fast enough i7 mobile cpu with 4 cores/8 threads
• Nvidia quadro K1000m or K3000m graphics
• 4 Ram DIMM slots.

Cost with k3000m:  $2358 ($2457 with Operating system bundled)
P157SM
Differences between P150SM:

• More hard drive upgrade options (not many though)
• Different chassis visual style.
• Comes standard with 95% colour gamut screen.

Advantages over (for example) the lenovo ThinkPad W530

• Memory sticks are all 8GB making future upgrades easy: The W530 uses 4GB sticks, making future upgrades requiring you to repurchase sticks and throwing out the old if you want to get to 32GB.
• Keyboard is full, those numpads are useful.
• K3000M option available which is roughly 40% faster than a K2000M available in the lenovo option.
• Standard HDD capacity starts at 1TB. Lenovo starts at 500GB.
• Standard battery is 8 cell. Lenovo has 6 cell (upgradable to 9 cell for +$55)
•  Lenovo with stock configuration and k2000m is $2,349.00. The P150SM is cheaper considering it's advantages(more ram, more hdd, more battery etc by default). Lenovo configured to be almost similar (still no graphics upgrade and using 4 4GB sticks): $2,611.62 // although it still lacks a full keyboard on top of that.

17" Options
There are also 17" versions of those two laptops, the P170SM and P177SM respectively.  I am considering portability considerations in my recommendation though.

My recommendation
The P150SM as it has a more work focused aesthetic over the P157SM while only costing around $10 more (with the same technical specifications). Yeah, I think it looks better.

For people interested in ridiculous expense for ridiculous performance
There's the Metabox P570WM with K5000m workstation graphics and i7 3930K.
This monster comes equipped with the best nvidia mobile workstation graphics and a ridiculously powerful desktop processor. It's very heavy and the price without OS is: $5,488.00
It also has the capacity for dual graphics(although only ships with one), 3 hard drives and destruction of the earth.

Hope that's helpful :)

Another laptop to check out...

Here is an MSI laptop that might be suitable, please keep discussing options and post any links to suitable laptops.....

http://www.pccasegear.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=1538_1544&products_id=23438

The matrix has you,
Richie

Laptops for next year

Hi all, please click on the links below to view laptop specs for next year. We are not locked into purchasing these laptops, we may find a more suitable laptop.

Lenovo
http://shopap.lenovo.com/au/en/laptops/thinkpad/w-series/w530/
Please look at the following options;

Option 2
ThinkPad W530 with Faster Processing

Option 3
ThinkPad W530 with Faster Processing and RAID support

Austodesk recommended list
http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/syscert?siteID=123112&id=18844534&results=1&stype=system&suite_group=111&release=2014&edition=2&os=8192&manuf=all&opt=1


A list of software will be up here soon......

Live long and prosper,
Richie

Female character design

Article relevant to the female character design.

http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2013-10/07/warface-joshua-howard

Perth Central Intitue of Technology Show reels 2013

I came accross this years show reels from Perths Central Institute of Technology. From accross the country, have a look what others are doing.

Timetables for Semester 2

Please click on the following link to view the timetables for semester 2

http://www.newcastlemediaandfilmschool.com.au/timetables/sem2_2013/idm_cetIV_sem2_2013_2.html

Live long and prosper,
Richie

Student Survey

Hi all, could you please complete the following student survey asap.

http://www.newcastlemediaandfilmschool.com.au/surveys/idmIV_sem1_2013.html


The matrix has you,
Richie

Bone Tool in flash

Hi everyone, bone tools in flash can come in very handy. Checkout some info on youtube;

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h814ob7nCxo

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pdzJKH0Stek

Live long and prosper;
Richie

Timetable Term 2 2013

Hi everybody, I hope you have had a good break because it's almost time to get stuck back into TAFE. Talking about time there is a new timetable for Term 2 (starting Tuesday 30th April), don't worry I will give you all a copy of the timetable on your return, but for now here it is;

Tuesday
10am - 12noon - 2D animation - Teacher: Richie
1.00pm - 4.00pm - Web - Teacher: Peter Delahunty

Wednesday
9.00 - 12noon - Creative Thinking and Work Effectively - Teacher: Mike Garrick
1.00pm - 3.00pm - Shoot Material for Screen - Teacher: Chris Davies

Friday
10.00am - 12noon - Storyboards and 3D Models - Teacher: Jos
12.30 - 2.30 - Audio - Teacher: Justine

Could you please let everyone you know of the new timetable changes, or just get them to check out the blog...

May the force be with you,
Richie

Happy Harry's HuHa 2 How-Tos!

Did I mention it's about animation with Flash?

Easter long Weekend

Hi everyone, have a great long weekend.

Adobe CS6

Join up to the Adobe Creative Cloud by the 5th April for $20 month for the first 12 months, and get all the adobe programs. Checkout the website;

http://www.adobe.com/education/products/creativecloud.edu.html?showEduReq=no

Life is like a box of chocolates,
Richie

Audio Test Preparation Guide

This is a not very inclusive guide on what I think you need to know in order to pass the next test. I give no guarantees to the factual accuracy of the information, but if I've written something wrong and you know the correct fact, well you're definitely going to do well. I also give no guarantee that this is even the complete set of topics the test will include.

You need to know what the following things are:

Samples / Sampling Rate

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sampling_rate

Khz

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kilohertz

Snap Shots 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sampling_rate#Audio

Bit depth

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Audio_bit_depth

Microphones

The wikipedia article goes into way too much detail, but here it is anyway: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microphone#Dynamic_microphone

Microphone Pickup patterns

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microphone#Microphone_polar_patterns
Omnidirectional
Cardioid
Hypercardioid
Shotgun are the main ones we need to know.

Types of Microphones

Be sure to describe the specific examples of microphones we have used in class, include the brand and model.

Condensor
Dynamic

Answering this question might help:
What do you do in an echoey location.

Audio Production

What to do when preparing to record.

First thing you do before starting recording?
Settings to use?
What's a way to keep track of audio files?

When going to mix sound files together.

What settings do you use?
What is time code?

You can find information on all of this in the handouts, I've linked some wikipedia articles as well for convenience.

Remember, this is more of a guide than a definitive max your marks advice. Post any comments on your thoughts or if anything was missed.

Brian Cronin Presentation to CCSF: Game Programming

This one is more interesting to people who want to be game developers but it applies to everyone to some extent.

Colour Scheme Designer

Colours are super important when designing websites, checkout a cool way to see colours that work well together;

http://colorschemedesigner.com/

May the force be with you,
Richie

CSS Tutorial

I found some nice tutorials on CSS, check them out at the following address;

http://www.csstutorial.net/

Oh, so they have internet on computers now! (Homer Simpson)

Let the debates begin

Are Macs better than PC's? Is gaming better on a console or a PC? I guess we will find out soon. A few tips to remember;

- Try and think what the other teams arguments will be.
- Support arguments with facts when possible.
- Use different techniques of creative thinking to form your arguments.
- Eat lots of chocolate.

May the force be with you, Richie..................

Week 4 in review: What we learned

Week 4 in review: What we learned

Hello, this is a summary of what I remember us being taught, it is intended to help people keep track of what's what and to allow them to catch up on anything they may have missed.

I am going almost purely from my head so if I missed anything just write a comment and I'll fix it up.

Tuesday: Work Health & Safety, Thinking Creatively

In Work Health & Safety we examined a short film: Broken(2003) and noted some of the real world hazards that needed to be addressed. We also watched a short animation (To This Day) and a ... interactive game about coworkers being a hazard to the well-being of other coworkers.

In Thinking creatively we continued to work on our short animations for youngsters. Storyboards should have been drawn and a decent idea should be formed by now.

Wednesday: Web, Cinematography

In web we started learning about CSS div tags being used to create a layout for a web page.

In Cinematography we learned more about depth of field and got a bit of an introduction to using a camera to set up a mid shot with both shallow, and deep depth of field.

Friday: 2D Animation, Sound, 3D

2D Animation had us continue the alien landing sequence by animating the space ship landing on a part of the planet. We were introduced to gradients in flash but it was mostly more practice in using the software.

Sound had us continue to test out the various microphone types. We also received scripts for a one minute audio production which is to include two voice actors and sound effects.

3D recapped story boarding, included some of the more obvious required information in documents(storyboards included). We also launched lightwave and started building a simple car using a technique called box modelling.

I hope this is useful to someone, if I missed anything or got anything wrong, just comment and it'll be fixed up.

Change of Room

Don't forget we are in GE03 (downstairs computer lab) today instead of FE11.....

Life is like a box of chocolates.........................

The Gnomon Workshop - Professional Training for Artists

 Gnomon's mission has always been to provide the highest caliber training that both educates and inspires, in order to help artists achieve their personal goals. Whether your interests are digital matte painting, character modeling, digital sets, vehicle design, creature rendering or maquette sculpture, the DVDs help artists learn from the experience of others in order to save time and improve skills. Techniques that have taken instructors years to master are available to artists in a format that is unparalleled in art education history. Customers range from high-school students who are just discovering the career opportunities that lie ahead of them, to seasoned professionals with decades of experience.


http://www.thegnomonworkshop.com/

Web class - div tags

We will start using div tags in todays lesson, checkout the following link in relation to the different selectors. http://www.digitalfamily.com/tutorials/css-selectors/ I will be covering the selectors in class, please use the link as a reference (just in case you forget)....

May the schwartz be with you.......

Melbourne Animation Festival

The Melbourne Animation Festival is coming up in June - Checkout the website http://www.miaf.net

Welcome to IDM 2013

Welcome to this blog, let's use this blog to communicate ideas, resources, info and all things digital. Live long and prosper......