Computer and masteringMaya Sprint

Well, the sprint wasn't that much of a success. I definately bitten off more than I could chew. I forgot that 40 minutes of video means about 2.5 hours of work. I had 13 hours to go... you do the math.

It was still an awesome experience. I managed to have an intensive Maya week and cleared a few hours more. I'll calculate the progress so far to update the tab on the right.

On another note, my computer will be leaving the apartment today. My friend is coming to pick it up.


There's no turning back now!

Diablo 3 Announced

That's right. For the last five days, there has been a lot of speculations about what the daily-evolving Splash Page on Blizzard's Website meant. Clues of Starcraft 2 mixed with WoW: Wrath of the Lich King... but Diablo fans speculated and insisted on Diablo 3 clues... they were right!

Blizzard.com
Official Diablo III Website
[Kotaku] Trailers and Gameplay

White Knight Chronicles Coming Financial Year 2008

This is one of the PS3 games that caught my attention before the PS3 launched. Level-5 working their magic on the PS3. During Sony's corporate strategy meeting, Shirokishi Monogatari (White Knight Chronicles) was announced to be released this financial year.

masteringMaya: The Fundamentals - Project 2 Sprint

I previously mentionned (and ranted) that I was selling my computer. I may have found a buyer. Being the type of guy that likes to be safe, I'm not confirming anything before the computer leaves the appartment—possibly this Saturday.

For numerous reasons, I decided to get a powerful laptop. Smaller size (I am in a smaller appartment), portability, power upgrade from this desktop - it wasn't a hard decision to make.

Something came through my head during the evening. I'm currently in the middle of project 2 of MM:TF on Maya 7 PLE... what if there are compatibility issues with my file and the more recent versions of Maya? I checked and there shouldn't be any issues... but that still gave me an idea...

What if I finish project 2 by the time the buyer comes to get the computer? A final sprint for the last 13 hours of this project. Stéphanie finished her classes for the year and I'm not supposed to do any overtime what so ever this week (except another hour, long story). I figure that if I can run through it intensively and pull an all-nighter Friday night that I can finish it. Thirteen hours of video, and maybe five to ten hours of work... I think this is possible.

I haven't been working on Maya a lot. A lot was happening at work and in my personal life. An intense sprint to finish project 2... very motivating!

My Life Philosophy

Imagine that you have a bank account that had $86,400 every day. It carries over no balance from day to day. Every evening the bank deletes whatever part of the balance you failed to use during the day. To really appreciate this account, wouldn't you take out every cent every day? Making the most of each dollar in the bank account so you don't lose any money?

Well you do have such a bank account - it's called time. We all have 86,400 seconds every day. If we don't make the most of it and treasure every second, you failed to "invest" in a good purpose in that day. Every new day, we get another 86,400 seconds—A new chance to do something good.

A few years ago, this analogy changed my perspective of life. It changed the way I live every day.

I just arrived from the movie theater with Stéphanie. We went to see Kung Fu Panda. There's a quote that rekindled this philosophy, my fuel for life.

Yesterday is history;
Tomorrow is a mystery;
Today is a gift;
That's why its called the present.
---Alice Morse Earle in "Sun Dials and Roses of Yesterday: Garden Delights" (1902)

Eleanor Roosevelt used this quote so much that she's sometimes wrongfully credited for it.

The quote and the analogy focuses on the importance of treasuring the present, the current moment in time of the very breathe you just took.

Official Award Picture

As promised, here is the official picture of the CPRS Award Gala from last week.


Myself, Marc Angers (ARP), and Lydia Dupéré

The picture is owned by the Canadian Press, explaining the small size (for you guys, I have the original) and the watermark.

Heads Up

Just a little head-up on why you haven't seen updates.

I'm still "recovering" from the hectic last week (with the prize and work). On top of that I think I may be catching the flu that my "honey" had two weekends ago.

There should be something posted, about anything, later this week. In the mean time, enjoy what was just posted on GamePolitics.com.

CPRS Award FTW!

((Written in the night of June 10^th))

A few weeks ago I mentioned that I was going to a very special event on June 10^th. It's time for me to let the cat out of the bag.

I went to an award gala with Marc Angers, ARP (my director (Public Relations) and Lydia Dupéré (Communications Manager). It was a national award ceremony hosted by the Canadian Public Relations Society (CPRS). We recieved the Bronze award in the Print Projects category.

I will have the official pictures in a few days. In the mean time, enjoy the only pictures of me in a suit.


Me before the event and group picture of Céline Cormier, Marc Angers, ARP, me, and Lydia Dupéré

This was a pretty exciting event and a prestigious award. The "crème de la crème" of public relations and communications attended this ceremony. The whole evening (including the Champagne Reception where I met a lot of interesting people) was an amazing experience that I'll never forget, and I have an award that will follow me, professionally, for the rest of my life.

This project was a lot of work. From the "embryonic" stage to design, then development, up to the release; a lot of people were involved on a lot of levels. It was a team effort and this won't be forgotten. Thank you Marc for this amazing opportunity.

It's now close to 11:30 pm as I'm writting this in the hotel room. Halifax is not that close to Bathurst... we still have another 5-6 hours to drive to get back home tomorrow.


My setup while this was written, and my souvenirs.

What are you Playing this Weekend?

I'm still at my parents this weekend. Portable consoles FTW!

This time I brought my DS. I randomly turned on [NDS] Rune Factory: A Fantasy Harvest Moon in the middle of the week and got hooked on it again.

If anyone wants a Chaos Blade, contact me ;)...

So, what are YOU playing this weekend?

masteringMaya: The Fundamentals - Alien Rigging

is now complete!

((Note: the two previous posts were published last night. For some reason, they appeared this morning with a timestamp from this morning... probably a little bug))

I finally finished rigging the Alien from Project 2 - The Abduction. This took a while with life and work getting in the way.

I attempted in the last few weeks to video capture the rig and comment over them so I could show it to you guys. For some reason, CamStudio doesn't like Maya. The Audio is perfect except when Maya is open. There are some serious sync issues that I can't even fix.

All I can do is show you the two Channel Boxes and let you trust me with this. You'll see in the Animatics that they do some pretty cool stuff.



Now that I'm done rigging, it's time to present to you the Alien. I never posted images of it when I completed the shading because I wanted to create a pose first. For that, I needed the rig to work.

Insomniac Games to Open Studio in the East Coast

Gamedaily.com - Insomniac to Open Studio in North Carolina

Insomniac Games is expanding, to the joy of those who dreams to one day work for one of the greatest developpers. Closer to me, and closer to "Booner999". In Booner's words: "Awesome Possum!"

[Wii] Spyborgs Announced

Those of you that usually read my Blog know that I usually don't post about a game announcement unless it really means something to me. Well, it does.

Two ex-Insomniac Games employees that were also Forum admins back in the days, are involved in the project. Mike "dodger" Stout got in Bionic Games as a Creative Director on an unannouced project... that was until earlier today. We finally get to see Mike's little "baby".

IGN Preview

Tony "Mr. Sunshine" Garcia also got in this project... but his origins are a lot darker, downright mysterious, and sometimes edging on gory. His programming abilities are out of this world, so it probably has something to do with that.

Spyborgs is a Wii exclusive action game that resembles a Saturday morning (or Adult Swim) cartoon, with mini-games as commercial breaks. We can expect "tongue-in-cheek" and offbeat humor.

The game features five playable characters, each with their own unique traits. "Bionic Games hopes that their Wii remote waggler will provide players with a dynamic and fresh gaming experience like no other."

If I had to describe the game in as few words as possible, I would use the words, "Volcano of Fun" --- Tony Garcia