Just a little something
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Since I've been somewhat inactive of late, I thought it might be an idea to share something that I've made with a mate of mine for an assignment (last semester). The subject we made this for is New Media; the point behind new media is to make something that's interactive but not your standard type of interactive. One can make something in flash sure that's fun but it's not as unique as a something that uses an alternative form if input.
So the idea is to create an interactive that doesn't use your standard computer inputs, ie. Keyboard or mouse. Our original idea died, and we came up with this replacement idea rather quickly and made it in about 3 weeks. Now I'm just going to throw it out there that we had 16 weeks (plus another 3 which was a break between semesters) our idea was born week 16 and was basically created over the break. The idea being Soccer Pong, the unique input being pressure pads rather than simple keystrokes.
The construction (for those who are interested):
The pressure pads which were my portion of the project were rather simple to construct. Our teacher gave us a little USB device, which basically acted like the board that all the censors in a keyboard are wired up to (USB USB keyboard hack). Using that we simply wired up large buttons you could step on (pressure pads).
The USB keyboard hack output an electric current and when it was connected it detected it the same as if you held down a key on your keyboard, let go and when the connection is broken the keystroke is ended.
Based on how the keyboard hack worked it was a simple as finding a way to make a large key. To keep costs low I used rather simple materials, looking at the images below you can see that I used chopping boards as a base. I then used two pieces from a wire coat hanger, attached one piece of the coat hanger to the top and one to the bottom board, separated by a standard kitchen sponge, which kept the coat hanger apart until you stepped on the chopping board.
Then all I did was twist the wire around each piece of coat hanger, then I had me a pressure pad, I stuck it together with wood glue and we were set.
To make the pads I used:
- 8 chopping boards
- 3 wire coat hangers
- 4 Kitchen sponges
The flash game my partner in crime (Matt Smith) made can be found Here
I filmed a video but that'll I'll have to upload later.
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| 15 Aug 2010 - 03:24 by votekick |
General News
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Big changes on the horizon
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So I plan to redo my website as part of an assessment, two birds with one stone which is good. I get to put a fair bit of time and effort into making my website presentable and up to date once again. When i say redoing I plan to keep the design and feel fairly similar but change the structure a little, use a CSS style sheet like a real web developer that type of thing.
Among other things this will improve load times and as this particular project which is whatever I want, is a 6 week thing which works out as i think 200 hours of work. This website remake wont take that long especially as some of the design features I'm keeping rather similar. So I plan to do a bunch of 3D tutorials too, those of you who have been checking my site for updates... (There's a handful of you and i know these things) Would have probably noticed that i added a few sections under tutorials well i do plan to fill those up.
One of my main plans for the tutorials is that after my current course which is a rather broad multimedia course which doesn't focus all that much on anything, but is probably better than a specific qualification.
I move into a game design specific course, which does indeed use 3DS Max, I hope to simply get a hold of the briefs (which is quite doable) for the assignments that were done this year, and use them as a basis for some of the more advanced tutorials which would be a good way to show competency for certain aspects and hopefully speedup my finishing of that course too.
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| 13 Aug 2010 - 00:56 by votekick |
General News
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What im upto since its been quiet.
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So I've not said all that much recently so I thought I might as well start with I'm not dead. I've gotten a few emails from people inquiring about my Gmod models, specifically the unreleased ones which are unfinished and wont be released unfinished.
AvOn assures me that nothing new has happened but its all in one hit so I don't know why its happening.
Firefox had an update just yesterday and it did something with my settings and essentially broke the internet. Some issue about proxy settings and my initial assumption was Virus, however Comodo turn up nothing, and Mbam concurred
Turns out it was my proxy settings in firefox or something (Whatever it was I couldn't even look at my router)
So fixing it was basically a matter of going;
Tools->Options->Advanced->Network->Settings
At the top of that window gave me Configure Proxies to Access the Internet flicked that to no proxy and was set.
Note: I did have to close firefox and right click and run as administrator.
Boring shit aside; in respect to modelling, I had the bright idea of finishing my dragon model from a while ago... which I shortly after opening the max file decided to start again
Old one is here
Note the errors around the horns that would have taken he ages to fix hence my decision to start over.
Finished first semester in my course, and I'm working on a thing for one of my uni subjects, New media. the name doesn't explain much but basically make something interactive that doesn't use the standard inputs, ie. Keyboard and mouse. So... world cup is interesting everyone, we went with soccer pong.
The mechanics of this being that we're going to make pressure mats using foil, and a layer of foam between the foil, connect both pieces of foil to our little USB whats-it which simulates keystrokes, every time the mat is stepped on it registers a keystroke, so A and D for one player and Left and Right for the other. Two keys easy simple pong. Get a projector overhead and direct it at the floor and its now a little more entertaining.
I'm working on a game in Unity with a mate of mine (same guy who I'm partnered with for the above thing) Would be cool to have a demo for people to play but not just yet.
I think that's enough crap for people to read and realise they've just wasted a few minutes of their lives that they'll never get back.
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| 25 Jun 2010 - 01:25 by votekick |
General News
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More tutorials soon...ish
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Well, it would appear that given I have a fair understanding of 3DS Max, for my TAFE course, instead of make whatever the first assignment was supposed to be. I get to make tutorials for use. Starting with the basics rather than what I've done here on my site is explaining certain things like compiling, and certain things you need to do to get a model into 3ds max as well as some weapon model type stuff.
So now I'll be making tutorials covering the basics and so on and so forth as part of my course work which works well. Which of my current tutorials i can submit as part of my tutorial set I don't know but it will be worth a try.
I will be adding the new tutorials to my site and keeping the current format so that anyone who might want to start modelling for themselves may find that looking at some of the basics to be easier than just watching me make something specific.
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| 11 Feb 2010 - 20:33 by votekick |
General News
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When being bored gets the best of you.
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I've been messing around with 3ds max a bit recently and suddenly felt like creating Bender. It seemed like an easy idea but then it occurred to me, how would i make the eyes work. I plan to rig him to move, and the arms do that already.
The arms look a bit odd but that's mainly because its 3D, you see the episode of the Simpsons when Homer is 3D towards the end, looks odd because that's not what your used to. Anyway, other than adding the eyes and the 'door' on his torso, the upper body is done. Just pointing our the fingers look odd because of where they're pointing.
I'm also trying out a new way of displaying images, rather than linking the direct image and having it open in a new window you can open it and have it overlay over the current page, this would be bad for people with slower connections but the size of the images shouldn't cause that much delay. For example the above picture is only 123KB which granted is 15 sec with a dial-up connection but then you'd still be letting the rest of my site load if your using dial-up.
Also HAPPY NEWYEAR! Though since I'm in Australia, the rest of you are probably still in 2009, guess that means Australia is in the future 
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| 1 Jan 2010 - 03:40 by votekick |
General News
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My Gallery Page... FINALLY!
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So I decided it was about time I started organising my gallery, since I couldn't manage to find myself a content management script that worked as I would have liked. Instead I am manually making the pages and so far the main gallery page is done and I then plan to add more content as I finish adding the information, rather than just adding the content as images I am adding information as well.
This information would include why I made what ever you may be looking at, why I chose to do certain things or highlight what didn't work out. You can find my gallery by clicking the gallery link above or click here.
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Small update
I've done Flash section, animations and games, and I've made a start on the 3d area, only 3 pages but a fair amount of typing justifies taking a break.
Animations
Flash Games
3D models (for games)
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| 23 Dec 2009 - 14:54 by votekick |
General News
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