Where I'm Going in 2010... (Professional Life)

The first post of the year is something we ask ourselves every year at multiple times (relationships, finances, personal lives, professional lives, etc...) is where we want to go, what we need to do, or what we want to achieve during this brand new year. I will attempt to ask myself this from a professional side. Later this week I will cover the same topic from another perspective.

I think it's clear for everyone by now that masteringMaya hasn't only been put on ice, but has been shut in the freezer for a long time. I often get the urge to simply pull up Maya play around in it in order to re-familiarize myself with the application and maybe run through a few videos. But I don't do it. I hold back for a reason: I need to concentrate on a goal that I need for my profession. Work before fun, I guess you could say.

By the end of the year, I want to have fully dived back in Web Development. I want to become comfortable developing Web applications like I was back in College. For this, there are specific steps that I personally want have to take.

Early Step on New Year Resolution

Before going on with my post, I'd like to thank everyone that supported me in the last week. It's been a very hard Holiday season, both emotionaly, and even mentally. I'm going through the occasional up-and-down phases, like my mom, but it's going relatively well.

After two days back at the office, I'm already on vacation again (two days for the new year, yay!). Since I'm off, I've decided to take one of my 2009 Resolutions seriously and take the first step into the right direction.

What are my resolutions anyway?

• Exercice more
• Improve my eating habits
• Re-design the apartment layout (tired of living in a cube and I need to start decorating)
• ...and finally, finish masteringMaya: The Fundamentals once and for all

I want to get MM:TF out of the way. I've been slacking on this for far too long (years!). I know that once I get on masteringMaya: Advanced Modeling that I'll be working on it non-stop, without much motivational problems. I want to model! Heck, I even believe that Project 3 is going to be very motivating for me.

So I removed the dust from my masteringMaya DVDs and continued from where I left off (which reminds me, I need to find a good video editor so I can edit and upload the Constraint exercice. I got the playblasts ready and everything. I saw Vegas for not too expensive the other day... I might go with that...)

I finally started the Project 2 Animation lesson. Before starting, I'm working on the starry-background for shot 2 (the backyard).


One of the other things I'd like to do in 2009, in Maya, is start and finish the classic Chessboard. It's a common exercice in many 3D Courses in universities and colleges. I did one in College (Strata 3D, rant on this scheduled for later), and I'd like to create one using the same principles but in Maya.

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!

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!

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.

ISP Problems

I don't want to go in one of my famous detailled rant, so I'll make this short. I may be hard to reach online or update anything. I've been having internet problems for almost a week. Technical Support was a bizzihizatch to go through*.

* On two occasions, I asked the technical support agent to open a trouble-ticket to send a technician over (on-site) to troubleshoot. The agent refused. My father works for them and I had to go through him to get a trouble-ticket open for me.

Technician called me today and explained things to me. Since my dad works for them already (phone technician), I understood what he was saying and I even suggested a few things. He didn't come because I moved back in december. Where I'm at now, they need more than a ladder to get to the line-taps.

It's working on-and-off right now. Better then it was. It's supposed to be fixed by Thursday.

---

About MM:TF - Only about 39 minutes of videos to go through before I finish Rigging the Alien lessons. Someone emailed me asking to see something about the ship rig. Video Capture's not working for some reason, but I'll at least take shots of both rigs once I'm done.

masteringMaya: Advanced Modeling - Arrived!

Very quick post to tell you guys that masteringMaya: Advanced Modeling arrived today. Thanks to Angela for doing all she could to fix my mistake (Postal (zip) Code).

This is going to be a good weekend for me to work on Maya Fundamentals. I'm going to be alone for most of the weekend (Steph has study group meetings throughout the weekend)... unless I get my hands on [PSP] Crisis Core: FFVII. I hope I don't get tempted to buy the game, or else Maya is going to hell for the weekend :P.

masteringMaya: Advanced Modeling - Ordered!

Today I ordered 3DBuzz's masteringMaya: Advanced Modeling. I know I'm not even halfway through The Fundamentals, but I did anyway. The main reason is that I don't want to be stuck because of the unstable, or unpredictable, situation I'm in right now. When I finish MM:TF and that I'm in no position to spend any money or caught moving stuff, or moving away, then ordering would have to be put on hold. Right now is the perfect time to get my hands on it... and I had $60 off for being a Member Sponsor (MS Point system).

It's ordered and the order has been processed. I'm just waiting for it to be shipped, then received. As you can see, I updated the little 3DBuzz Progress box.

masteringMaya: The Fundamentals - Rigging

As some of you may know, I've been working on rigging different parts of Project 2. I finished rigging the ship a while ago (with the exception of the Tractor Beam, that comes later) and moved on to the Rigging the Alien lessons. I just finished creating the joints of the Alien's body. There are fluxors to add, but the basic skeleton is done (not that it's any complicated ;) ).

With tonights progress in MM:TF, I crossed the 35 hour mark.

Various Updates

Just a quick posts updating you guys on what I'm up to.

I finally uploaded new photos on my Flickr account. It was kind of dead for the last seven or eight months. It was about time that I added stuff there. Some of the pics were taken months ago, but I didn't take the time to upload them. You can check out my Flickr account to check the new photos.

I also, unfortunately for masteringMaya and learning PHP/mySQL, got my hands again on Animal Crossing: Wild World. Regardless of how addicting it is, I put the game down today to do a bunch of stuff (Flickr, this update, later I'm continuing MM:TF). Just to give you an idea, tomorrow I'm getting Nookington's after only a week.

I also figured out a nice little project I could start in PHP and later integrate mySQL functionality as a refresher: A dynamic calendar generator system. I want to first come up with a generic Pseudo-Code that could work in most programming languages to generate the calendar and calculate various elements (days offset, days in a month, etc) without the use of PHP's date functions. I will use PHP's date functions when I create it, thought. I would later add a schedule functionality through mySQL. This is going to be a very nice refresher on a language I started learning a year ago and haven't touched in eight months.

That's about all. Still no news of what's going to happen to me at work. Fear not, I will update you guys as soon as I know anything new.

Slow Progress

I just wanted to update you guys on why I haven't updated my blog. In short: I've been busy at work and lazy at home. But, I'm coming back into the groove of things. I'm dedicating two evenings a week on masteringMaya: The Fundamentals (MM:TF) and one on the upcoming Python Xtreme 101 class on 3DBuzz.com.

My evenings are going to look like in college. By structuring/dedicating my evenings, it's going to give me the incentive to persevere. Don't get persevere wrong. I love modeling and programming, but I work full-time in front of a computer monitor. When I get home from a hard day, I don't necessarly want to get in front of a monitor for a few hours.

I did it before. I've had long days at work and came home to MM:TF. It's not so bad, but everything seems harder when you're exhausted after a hard day's work.

I really need to start programming again, and the Python Xtreme 101 class timing is perfect. My goal is to eventually juggle masteringMaya: Advanced Modelling and XNA Xtreme (101). I like programming and I would love to learn more, especially game programming. Volume 1 and 2 looks exactly like what I want to do. But for now, focusing on MM:TF, Python will do the job :) !

As you may have noticed, I added a little widget on the right side to better display my progress in the various 3DBuzz training that I'm (and going) into.

masteringMaya: The Fundamentals - Update

It's been awhile. I've actually been busy and lazy at the same time. My father's worship band has taken a break from playing in church while they concentrate on their album. I don't play on the album, so that gives me a break. Time I can take and concentrate on finishing masteringMaya: The Fundamentals.

I've given myself a goal on finishing the content, which (by adding a little pressure), adds a lot of motivation and incentive for me to go through it. I love Maya, but sometimes the temptation to just sit on the couch and play the PS3 is way to great. I'm a gamer afterall. I plan to finish MM:TF before this summer.

I've been spending the last few days on shading the Alien Ship. I finished adding shader glow to the ship.



I hope you like the color choice for the glow ;) !

There's only a few videos before completing the project's Advanced Shader lesson. Then it's on to rigging.

masteringMaya: The Fundamentals - Earth Done

That's right. After a PS3, the new Ratchet & Clank title, overtime at work, and so much more, I finally finished the Earth Shader for Project 2 of masteringMaya: The Fundamentals.



The current series of lessons is called Advanced Shaders and it's not for nothing. There's a few hours of work and three (somewhat) complex networks.



The Earth (top), clouds, and atmosphere Networks

Not having a simple file texture slapped on the sphere really opens up a new world of detail. No matter where the sun hits, on the night side of the Earth, city lights will shine through. The Earth also has added attributes for control over Mountain Height (controls the bump depth), Self Illumination, City Lights Intensity, Cloud Intensity, and Atmosphere Intensity. This level of control allows me to really tweak how I want my scene to look.

To show the complexity of those small details, I created a small demonstration.


Link to Video Page on Youtube in case the video doesn't load

I had a lot of fun making those Networks. But the lessons are not over. The spaceship and the alien still needs to be shaded.

masteringMaya: The Fundamentals - Fun

I love these lessons

This has been a pretty busy day of cleaning with Stef, with a big portion of the day being annoyed by the upstair neighbors taking care of two kids for a friend of theirs with the kids running back and forth, and back and forth, and back and forth for hours.

I still managed to go through all the lessons that are before we start creating the advance shaders for the project. I'm very excited. My goal is start and finish the earth by tomorrow night.

Tonight, in the lessons, I created a Toon Shader.



I know there's Toon Shading already built in the last few versions of Maya, but this Toon Shading was built from scratch and I have the Network to prove it.


I really love working with Networks. I need to practice though. Maybe find some tutorials to just mess around with...

masteringMaya: The Fundamentals - Already?

Three updates in one night. Wow... I'm shocked (not really)!

I said but a few hours ago that I needed to get back on Maya. Well I did. I was continuing through the theory lessons for the Advanced Shaders in Project 2. While going through my first video in weeks, I made something that was just too cool not to be posted: A procedural-texture of an Eyeball...



It's simple, it's not perfect—but as a beginner, I like it ;) !

Uh oh...

It may take a while for me to update the blog with my Maya training. While working on the Advance Shading lessons of masteringMaya: The Fundamentals, I got contracted with a few Photo Retouching jobs. To make matters worst, I just got my hands on The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass... Damn you, temptation! Damn you!!!

masteringMaya: The Fundamentals

Basic Shaders = Done

With all the new games I played, the photo retouching job I had, and my bad back, I didn't have much time left for Maya. Stephanie recently got the flu, so she's been resting a lot. Yesterday I decided to whip up to 'ol Maya project and work on completing the Basic Shaders lessong. Lo and behold! Here's how the backyard looks shaded.



I realize some of the saturation is off, but I haven't yet started to properly light the scene. With better lights, there's going to be minimal tweaking to the shaders for them to look better.

I loved working with the ball shader (the beach ball). It doesn't look complicated, but there's a ramp (gradient) that's feeding into another (Ramp2 -> Ramp1). It's the first shader-network of the scene. This enables us to create the effect of the vinyl cap on both ends of the ball with perpendicular stripes between them.



The stripes Ramp feed in the red color of Ramp1.

I should be starting the Advanced Shaders lesson. This is going to be a lot of fun. I always loved Networks (Native-Instruments Reaktor <3). Expect a lot more updates then usual for this lesson.

masteringMaya: The Fundamentals and more

Backyard Update

With all the things that could slow me down, I finally did it. I finished modeling the backyard.



I should be starting to create the shaders very soon.

I mentionned things that slowed me down. There's Rune Factory: A Fantasy Harvest Moon, Planet Puzzle League, and Metroid Prime 3: Corruption just to name a few. I'm really surprised with Metroid Prime 3: Corruption. My Wii is finally getting some lovin'. I should be posting my impressions after playing through once.

It was also my birthday on the 7^th (yay! me!). Stef' knows that I love Micro-R/C stuff (things I can play with in the apartement in random moments of boredom), so she ordered a Air Hogs: Reflex for me. I can't wait to get it. I ordered myself a replacement PSP faceplate for the non-OEM Flatblack one that Geo gave me. The Flatblack is pretty cool (no finger smudges, yay!), but since it's non-OEM, the Analog Nub hole is not aligned with the Nub itself, so any thumb pressure "numbs" the sensitivity of the Upper vertical axis. I got the new Camy Pro Gear White PSP OEM-Faceplate since the Asterix white-one seems to be always sold out. Reviews are great for the Camy line of PSP Faceplate and tested to be true OEM, so this is going to fix my Analog Nub problem. I'll post pictures once I installed it (I first need to get it :P).

So that's pretty much it for now. Now that my vacation is over, that work is starting to become normal again, and that my birthday is passed. I just hope I won't be too stucked on Metroid Prime 3...

Back from Vacation

Boy, am I lazy or what...

I've been back from my vacation for a week now and I haven't updated my blog since. I didn't do much during my vacation. One thing I surely didn't do is work on Maya (I didn't take the time to update Maya on my Dad's Win Vista laptop). Although I did get my car fixed finally.

Anyways. To make things worst, I bought two DS games on Monday (I traded 8 games though). I got Planet Puzzle League (I missed Tetris Attack. This is as good and better), and I got Rune Factory. I usually don't like Harvest Moon at all, but hell is Rune Factory addicting.

Tonight I decided to kick my self in the rear and sit down to work on Maya. I did start to model the Set (the backyard) for Project 2 last Friday, but I didn't like the fence. It's a classic Cliché fence and I wasn't comfortable with it, so I decided to make my own. A modern fence.

I'm very proud of the result especially since I made it all myself. I followed some of the technique from the old fence (which I built and kept for the sake of it), but it's mostly my work. I found a design I liked and used it as inspiration while building my own. Here it is:

masteringMaya: The Fundamentals - Project 2 Update

Another Update
Just letting you guys know what how I'm doing with Project 2. I've been having a hard time modelling the Alien correctly. That's from being a beginner. The body is fine and the eye is, so far, just a sphere, but I had problems modelling the head correcly (with the Eyelid). I just could never blend the Head to the Body without having some bad pinching. Third time's the charm since I finally got it right. I'm going to stop for tonight since it's already almost 10:30pm. I'll continue the rest of the Alien tomorrow or whenever I can...