Vola 3D models

Just a few Vola faucets and one shower system I did at work, to ensure some good quality models to use for our interior visualizations.

Roenneparken architectural visualization

So we just finished another campaign for some yet-to-be-build houses, in an area named "Rønneparken".
I did 4 interior shots, Anders did the exterior, and John did the bathroom. We did not have much more than 10-12 work days to complete it in, so we (and the client) are very pleased with the result. And in all fairness, I think it is a step up from Guldblommehaven, which we're told has already sold 10 out of the 24 appartments, (most likely) based on our campaign released only 1 month ago.

Here's a few interiors :

While we're waiting...

...for GTA4, here's a little video that shows one of the many reasons, why the GTA series is more than just average games. These guys got some mad skills.



- and I got the perfect opportunity, to test Youtube embedding on my blog ;)

More GTA4 stuff here.

Sidewalk rage pt. 2 : The workman's parking lot

Here's another great example of gross traffical inconsideration - the "workman's parking lot". Unfortunately it is not limited to workmen. Mailmen, delivery boys and regular drivers do it too.

Fair enough - if you have to unload stuff, you can take up part of the sidewalk untill your done, but when you're done you move the friggin car to the nearest REAL parking lot. And don't use as an excuse, that you have to constantly fetch stuff in the van. Just plan ahead, moron. If you need to lay carpets, you'll probably need your knife, your carpet tape, maybe glue, and your kneepads. Oh and the carpet of course. So bring it all at once. It's so simple, you could teach it to a jellyfish.

And mail/delivery services. I swear, if those people could drive the van into the office of the receiver of whatever-has-to-be-delivered, they would. But since they can't, they usually settle for the next best - parking on the sidewalk. But not at the broadest part of the sidewalk. Oh no - at the smallest. And if that happens to be even smaller because of garbage bins or the local florist's advertising signs, then all the better. It doesn't even matter if there's REAL parking 10 meters away, around the corner.
Twice in the last two days I've had to drag my bike out on to the road, between cars and trucks, to pass a mail van parked on the sidewalk. At the exact same place both days. Imagine if I was a parent with my kid in a buggy...

So you start to ask yourself : Do these people receive special training in being inconsiderate and ignorant?
Does MiB use workmen and delivery boys for neuralizer target practice, and thus make them forget what they were taught in driving school?
Is it a contest of some kind, awarding the most annoying parking of the month?

What the hell is wrong with you people? When I get rich, I'm gonna buy a Komatsu mining truck, and park it in YOUR driveway(s). Let's see how YOU like it...

*images copyright of someone else - if you don't want them here, let me know

ANT-roid

Project ID : ANT-roid (2004)
- relocation of an older piece

The ANT-roid (no it is NOT a spelling error) is made from a concept by Brian Prince. I've done some minor modifications to it, but I've also tried not to stray too much from the concept. Boxmodelling techniques were used, and the wires are placed
manually.

I have no idea what this robots purpose is, but I think it could be some kinda technician droid. Could be a drone operating a mainframe of some kind.













Full model




Head closeup


The Anti-grav/magneto drive...
- in lack of better knowledge of how stuff works, insert random techno-babble














Wireframe

Lego Racers - Bullet-time animation

Project ID : Lego Racers pull-back engine animation (2002)
- relocation of an older piece

Job-description :
A "teaser" for the good folks at Lego. Showing the core of the Racers - the new PullBack engine.
3D modelling, texturing, lightning/environment and animation (the cars are premodelled though). Some minor 2D touchups (for the still).

We had to figure out a way to illustrate the pullback engine inside the car(s). Used the famous "Matrix bullettime effect". Took a while to figure out how to do it right - but the answer was quite obvious.

- I should really redo the still, and add an occlusion pass.


See the animation here (3.6Mb - 640x360 Quicktime)

(Forest of the) Aerofly

Project ID : Forest of the AeroFly (Concordus Insecticus)
- relocation of an older piece

I came across a funny picture at Human Descent, showing a fly with a engine instead of head and eyes. I thought this would be a nice challenge, so I started recreating it in 3D.
Obviously it got a little out of hand, and as usual I ended up with a scene of several million polygons. I REALLY have to learn to limit myself.
I blame the very detailed rotary engine, and the hairs of the fly, which ended up using more polys than I had expected. But hey - at least I now have a detalied rotary engine, for when I decide to do an older plane.

I've used a variety of techniques for this image :
Mesh/poly-modelling for the fly, wheels, legs, wings etc.
Loft objects for the leaves
Scatter to get hairs on the fly
And I've used a lot of time post processing the image in Photoshop.
I should probably say images, because i split the scene up into 3 parts, and rendered them seperately, with passes of Diffuse, Specular, Lighting, Shadow, Occlusion and Zbuffer. Those passes gave me a lot of extra stuff to work with in Photoshop.

Below are final images, as well as some misc. pictures from the process.

Final image


Final AeroFly (stand-alone)


Rotary engine - Made from a mix of primitives, splines with lathe/extrude and polymodelling.










Aerofly wireframe - Wireframe screendump - prior to adding the hairs on the legs.







You can buy the rotary engine at Turbosquid or the3Dstudio

Anthems to the welkin at dusk

Yesterday was Skt. Hans (midsummer or Sct. John in many other countries). There's usually a load of bonfires (which the constant sound of the fire engine sirens would testify to) and singing around these. I didn't take any pictures of bonfire action, but I did shoot this as the dusk fell over the city. It was not really as dark as it seems, but try telling that to a mobile phone camera...

3D sculpt-O-rama

I've stumbled upon some funny little free applications, for doing 3D "sculptures" in.
One is Scherk-Collins Sculpture generator which generates meshes from a mathematical formular, based on a set of sliders you can adjust. It's somewhat limited, but still cool. It exports to .stl and that is not so cool, because it takes ages to import into 3dsMAX.
Another (and my favourite) is the Topological Mesh Modeling app. (TopMod) of Ergun Akleman. It can load any .obj mesh, and you can work with that using a set of different tools. One of the coolest functions I've used (so far) is the crust feature. Shelling made easy.
Anyways - I've made a few sculptures, based on those two pieces of software. Still only just getting my hands dirty.


Steel Rose (made with SculptGen). Actually only the top part was done in SculptGen, but i thought it looked a bit like a rose, so I decided to work a bit with that thought.


A "knot" of some kind. Done in TopMod.


Same knot, with a different shader.


Steel vines. Done in SculptGen.

- all images rendered in MAX with Vray.

Oh ye old nordic god of thunder...

Sometimes you strike gold on the internet - and sometimes you strike out...

- my hero...

*image copyright of someone else - if you don't want it here, let me know

Leia and (gender challenged) Luke has arrived...

Jan's wife just gave birth to twin girls. Birth wen't well, and I take it they're all resting now. Big congrats to the entire family - heh, it's funny having to say that now. Family. "Say hi to the family...". "How's the family doing?"
I wonder what it feels like, being a dad. I'll have to ask him, but apparently it involves burning doona's in the dryer :P

"New" interactive Seed models

I've added a few more interactive Seed models - way down at the bottom.

[GAME] S.T.A.L.K.E.R.

I've been playing STALKER again. Actually - I've gone through the game once more. This is the third time in the 3 months I've owned the game - which says quite a bit about the game itself (and I guess a little bit about me as well).

STALKER has been on the way for what - 8 years? And for half that period, it has had the the label "Vaporware" stuck to it. But in spring 2007, the Ukranian developer GSC Game World, came through. And they came through with what I personally think is the most amazing renewal of the FPS genre since HalfLife (1).

STALKER combines the traditional FPS elements, with a great storyline, non-linear gameplay (although there are major stories that has to be played), and a vast and varied environment to explore. In between the traditional FPS mayhem, it manages to squeeze in some nice RPG elements. You get to talk to all the NPC's, and you soon find out, that not only the major NPC's have quests. You can side with one faction, and battle another. You can earn goodies, money or befriend someone, by taking on side-missions of various magnitude.
This setup reminds me a lot of the GTA series, although still very different. But it DOES work amazingly well. And it adds to the feel of a non-linear game. It was not untill this, my third run, that I felt I had "been down that road before" so to speak.


STALKER takes place in the area around Chernobyl, Russia. Chernobyl where the nuclear power plant had a meltdown in 1986 (and in the game story again in 1989). You're playing the role of the "marked one", struggling to uncover your own identity after a heavy amnesia. From interaction with NPC's, you slowly start to uncover what seems to be a large government plot.


The environment is absolutely stunning, yet incredibly grim and depressing. Ranging from rural to urban, from sewers to industrial complexes - and then the vast open ranges, where you run into the occasional mutant dog/humanoid/something else, or just another group of STALKERS, singing coombaya at the campfire.


It is said, that GSC took several research trips to the the contaminated zone around Chernobyl and Pripyat, during the development. And you certainly get the feeling that those trips were a good idea. Everything feels like it was put there for a reason - if not else then for the reason of creating the right atmosphere. It matches my idea of a post-apocalyptic scenery perfect.


Unfortunately my computer does not quite run STALKER at the best settings, which means I had to cut back a bit on the eye candy. Even so, the mood of the game is just brilliant. And it spooks me a LOT more than DOOM 3 (which turned predictable after level 1) did. I'll be millimeters from a small seizure, when my girlfriend suddenly sneezes in the other room, while I'm crawling around in the sewers, looking for Strelok.


The industrial areas are my absolute favourites. They're not advanced sci-fi, and even if there are some creative liberties, for the sake of the story, it is believeable for it's time - bit low-tech and very human. Just running around the Chernobyl NPP, and inside the sarcophagus is enough to give me goose bumps. And when I think of my friend in Vilnius, Lithuania, who's living about 50 kilometers from a nuclear power plant of the same type as Chernobyl, I'm glad I'm just playing a game.




The AI of STALKER is quite impressive, and among the best I've yet encountered. Enemies will charge, evaluate, regroup (if in greater numbers), hide if outgunned, and wait for you to forget about them or till you get close enough for them to strike. Furthermore, the game world is never "dead" and just awaiting your interaction. NPC's will interact among themselves, battle eachother and the mutated wild-life of the zone, or team up for a song around the campfire.

You seldom get a one-hit-one-kill, and the weapons seem fairly to hard balanced. But you can protect yourself. Various protective suits (armour, radiation, chemical) will ensure safer passage through the Zone. In addition you can mount various "artifacts", created by the Zone's many anomalies, to your belt. These artifacts look like differently shaped (glowing, or bouncing) stones, and all have various protective capabilities. Most of them however also has sideeffects though. For instance the Droplet artifact will take -10 points of the hazardous radiation, but it will also lower your endurance with -18. So you'll be protected from higher radiation levels, but you'll only be able to run for a shorter period.

The weapons are many. Mostly based on various rifles and guns. But grenades, grenade launchers, and RPG's are also available. Some of the weapons have been modified for better effect, and it's just small details like this, that really add to the mood. You get the feeling, that someone with great technical or mechanical knowledge, has tinkered with a weapon, to increase it's firing range. You'll also be able to fit a selection of scopes to selected weapons.

STALKER uses a detailed inventory system, similar to those of traditional RPG's. You'll have to take into consideration what you need for a certain mission, because you can only carry so much. Carry more, and it will affect your ability to run and jump, and ultimately you'll be too exhausted or too heavily loaded to walk at all.
In your (permanent) stash, is also a PDA which functions as a map, diary and "notepad". It stores info from found PDA's, info about missions, the Zone and it's inhabitants (and oddities), etc.


I've read a bit about bugs and issues with the game, but I've had no issues at all. Not one single crash, freeze, or odd behaviour. Maybe this happens more frequently with higher spec. machines running the "full monty". It seems though, that the recommended RAM specs of 1Gb is a bit too low. Some people report highly improves stability with 2Gb ram.

I think STALKER will definetely appeal to those who liked HalfLife. And it really goes to show, that you can create something worth the money, if your main priority is not technology, but story and gameplay. There's said to be 7 different endings to the game - 3 of these are "right". I've seen 2 wrongs and 1 right. The interresting part is, that depending on who you talk to, and whose lead you choose to follow, you may actually end up making a crucial decission - only halfway through the game. So pay attention, and listen to the word on the street.

With STALKER you don't feel like you've been ripped off, after just 5 hours of playing. It has a high replay value, and is worth every penny.

Additional screenshots at gamershell.

Read the blog of a young man, who was a kid in Pripyat, when the Chernobyl NPP blew up.

- just for reference : A google earth picture of Chernobyl NPP, with reactor number 4 encased in the sarcophagus.

And just to put things in perspective - another google earth image, showing Pripyat and CNPP in relation to eachother.
An area of 20-40 km's surrounding CNPP, will most likely never be inhabitable again, and the after effects of the radiation is still affecting animals, plants and humans.

Indeed a sad and catastrophic event. And although it is 20 years ago, it should never be forgotten. Hopefully the efforts of GSC will help people remember.

- and it is still a great game.

Rating :
(and then some...)

Run (toooo theeee hilllllsss)

But since there ARE no hills, and I don't need to run from someone, I just run... or that'd be past tense - I ran.
Last year I almost reached the end of a 12 week running program. I felt it was necessary to do SOMETHING, because I could hardly run 50 meters, to catch a bus. So I got started on this running program, and had about 2 weeks left, but then winter came - yes I know, poor excuse - the true athlete cares not for the raging elements. So I can't pin the label of true athlete on my chest. Big deal - I won't loose sleep over it.

But I was just out earlier today to see how bad it had gotten in half a year. And I was expecting to have to start from week one, day one. But Liv talked me into trying to skip a few weeks, and so we started on week 3, day 2. And I did it. Without coughing up pieces of my lungs. I'd really like to make it through to the end this time, so I'll try to pull myself together, and keep running over the summer.

Brave new world

My parents FINALLY caved, and agreed to get broadband instead of their old K56 dial-up.
The danish communication mogul, TDC, had an offer where you could get a 384/128 kbit line, for just about the same price as with the old dial-up. Although the price will rise a bit in 6 months, it will still be cheap then. And SO worth it. No more 10-hours-online-a-month-limit, no traffic limit and it is more than 20 times faster than the dial-up.
Do you have ANY idea how nice it is, when you, as the loyal son you are, usually take care of all the maintenance and now no longer has to be slave to an archaic internet connection?
Hopefully they'll start using it a bit more.

Oh - and kudos to TDC for making the installation progress so painless. It was actually a LOT easier to get the broadband up and running, than it was with the dial-up.

*edit* weeeeell hold your horses there.... Unfortunately TDC screwed up with the registration key for the security package that we ordered. It wen't inactive after 2 days installed, and they could not just send us another key, nooo - we had to either contact another department by email only, or re-order and re-install the security package again (the faster option). And the supporter who tried to explain this to my mother, apparently had very little patience with her. Thats not good customer service guys. Some people only know the very basics. Don't give them a hard time - you'll only spook them, and take away their desire to ever give foreign technology a chance again. So thats a few points removed from an otherwise impressive score board...

Constipated?

Extreme constipation? Or simply me and Anders fooling around with some chocolate chip chocolate cookies at work?

- sure looks like a real potty-mouth to me.

RIAA = Royal Incompetence And Arrogance?

I just read that in Utah and Florida, you can no longer just walk in to a second hand music pusher, and buy/sell music like you used to. If you sell, you have to show a valid drivers license, and submit to a thumbprint. Furthermore the store has to apply for a permit, and is obliged to NOT sell second hand albums within 30 days after taking them in. The store can also only pay store credit, and no cash to the seller. WTF?!?
Apparently a lot of music shops don't want to deal with the extra administration (understandably), and has simply just stopped selling second hand music. Admitted, the industry only gets their percentage of each NEW purchase, but aren't they the least bit interrested in people obtaining the music legally? Aren't they the least bit interrested in spreading the knowledge of their "products"? If you can't afford the full new price, and you're not able to or allowed to buy it second hand, then what are your options? RIAA are cornering people with their methods, and forcing people to take drastic measures, just like if you corner a wild animal, it will strike with ferocity as the last resort.
You start thinking that their REAL business plan is creating a demand, restricting the availability, and basing their income on insane law suits, rather than music.

Nice going, RIAA - it's just another nail in your coffin, and you're too blind to realize it. And you're punishing those of us who have loyally supported your industry for the last 20+ years. You build your empire on our backs, and when the walls start to come down due to your own gross incompetence, you stab us in the back. What do you honestly think that will do for your business, you mindnumbingly, stupid twats?

I'm all for the artists getting their piece of the cake. After all I was once a starving, heavy metal playing guitarrist myself. But this is just ridiculous. Ludicrous. Insane. Madness. Sparta.

Foghback Mountain

A little piece I did, shortly after the movie was released on DVD. My version of the movie poster features United States president, George W. Bush and danish prime minister, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, in a tender moment.

Salad fingers

Everybody loves salad, especially during the summer. So here's a few animated shorts about salad fingers...

Balled?

- yes I was slightly bored this morning. So sue me.

(apologies to the main subject - It's all good fun, and you're dead sexy...honestly)

Let's ride!

Some older work, relocated to polygonpoop :


Project ID : MAXforums.org "Let's Ride" workshop - low poly vehicles.

During autumn 2005, a workshop at MAXforums.org was launched. Under the name "Let's Ride" the participants were to make one (or as I did more than one) vehicle for a little minigame of the racing kind.
The workshop was launched by Ronan Hayes (Edge) and Timothy Hanslow (Timpa) - primarily to test some dynamics features for Edge's upcoming game "1944 D-day".
The rules were simple : Max. 4000 polygons (triangles) pr. car - make stuff breakable or detachable at will. Use whatever textures you need - up till a size of 2048x2048. Take advantage of the advanced shaders supported by the engine - as well as normal mapping - if you feel like it.

- I didn't. I decided to keep it simple.... and humourus. I've always been a fan of games like Mariocart, Crash Team Racing, Twisted Metal and the likes, so i decided to make my cars a bit toony.
I've also placed drivers in each of them, and they are as follows (from left to right) :

1. Monkey Pooh, driving the heavily modified VW Barndoor (Monster) Van - used for delivery of yummy crates of Monkey Chow
2. Ollie (from Vomic.com) driving a souped up VW Beetle.
3. King Pin-guin, driving the I Scream Truck

- they all conform to the 4000 poly limit, and they all use 3 textures at 1024x1024, with or without alpha masks (for windows etc.)

They were all made during a month or so, whenever I had a few hours to spare. These are also my first real attempts at texturing anything, based on a UVW unwrap. All in all it was a great learning experience - a great way to test some of my newfound skills, developing content for games, on a personal project.

There's TurnTool versions of each car available :

Ollie's VW Beetle
Monkey Pooh's VW Barndoor monster van
King Pin-guin's I Scream Truck

*TurnTool interactive scenes unfortunately only works with 32 bit version of Internet Explorer, and to my knowledge, none of the newer versions of Firefox or Chrome.

- or you can just have a look at the "turntables" below.