Long time...
I haven't posted in a great while, I know. I came to the site and read my last post. Turns out, it's a good thing I left a 2% chance, because my photograph of Marissa won 1st place for 2D at Beadlemania! How about that?
The summer's been great so far. Almost over, but I wouldn't say it "flew by" as many people would say. It just went at a good pace.
I spent the first half at a camp I've worked at for several summers. I used some of my photography skills I developed (ha!) at DSU and took photos and created weekly camp photo CDs for the campers to take home with them. It was a fun experience, to say the least.
Then I had to come back (while camp continued on) to take a summer science class, since it won't fit in my last semester. Zoology. Great class, at least in the summer.
Today I head back to camp for the remaining days of the summer. Camp ends on Saturday. I know it will be the last time I'm there as a "paid summer staffer". But that's OK. I've made wonderful friends over the summers I've spent there, many of whom are involved in our wedding. So I have no regrets. I won't be sad that it's over, I'll rejoice that it happened, as one of my friends would say.
Beadlemania
I again submitted two pieces into Beadlemania. It's called Beadlemania because 1) Beatlemania is the term used to describe the era where The Beatles rocked (it still hasn't ended!) and 2) the College of Arts and Sciences is in Beadle Hall. Beadlemania is to 1) showcase student work over the past year and 2) award those pieces that are most outstanding.
Last year,
one of my pieces won 1st place for the 2D category. I'm 98% positive I won't be winning anything this year for my entries. (I left 2%; just in case it's a Cinderella story). It's not that the things I submitted weren't good...I just know they aren't as good as others' work. They judge tonight or tomorrow, but I'm not hopeful. One award is good enough, right? I mean, it'd be selfish to win another. Anyway, I submitted that picture of Marissa and my
Ping-Pong animation from last semester.
I submitted my Ping-Pong animation, as opposed to my exterior environment (see below) for many reasons. 1) For some reason, the DVD decided to stop working right when it needed to most. So, I didn't have time or $ to try to reburn it on a new DVD. 2) Since I lost so much time from the remaking of corrupted files, I had to sacrifice many artistic endeavors I was going to try. Here are a few of them:
- Every frame would have been black and white, except the flower would be in color
- This would require bringing in over 2000 "pictures" and outlining the flower by hand -- at least one more week's work
- I would have fixed the glitch in the animation of the flower, right after it floats in the air
- I would have made the trees sway in the direction of the flower's movement, to show it's a windy day and the flower just isn't a magical flying flower
- I would have done this to the yellow ribbons, too
- I would have focused more on the "back story"
- More focus on the yellow ribbons, support our troops signs, words on gravestone
- Confetti on ground -- suggestion a parade the day before
- Not even done this exterior and done the island from Lost instead
- Would have needed at least another 2 weeks, just for rendering time
- There are a lot of trees on the Lost island
- Trees take for friggin' ever to render
The thing I do like about it, is that I animated the camera as if it didn't know where the flower was going. Kind of like if a human saw it start floating away and wanted to film it...one just can't anticipate where the wind will blow. So I
am happy with that. Anyway, watch it. If you don't have anything nice to say about it...that's OK. Apparently, neither do I!
Busy, Busy, Busy!
I know, I know. It's been a couple weeks. I've been busy! To make a long story short, those 3D buildings I made...7 of my files were corrupted and I lost them. So I have been spending my free time trying to catch up and remake these objects. I haven't even started animating yet, and it is due in one week. I'll get it done, and it will be fine. It's just a lot of extra time I need to put in when I wouldn't have needed to normally. It has given me the chance to remake some geometry I needed to remake.
We're down to seven weeks of school left. Spring semester always seems to fly by faster than fall. I think it's because in March and April we have a lot of days off (spring break, assessment test days, Easter break) and those months seem much shorter because of it. Unfortunately, many more projects seem to creep up during these months as well! We always seem to pull through...
Tonight I'm involved in interviewing candidates for next year's Resident Assistant staff. I know a lot of the candidates, so it'll be tough. But we'll put together a great staff for on-campus residents next year!
3D Exterior Scene
Right now, in 3D Modeling, we're working on creating an exterior environment. Our assignment was to create a town with at least 5 different buildings. I have made 4 houses, Post Office, Church, 6 businesses, a Bank, and still need to make a school. I also will have a cemetery. Then we need to create the terrain and roads, etc and animate it. I'll show you a few of my creations today. I don't have them in any kind of environment..just a black hole. So there is no special lighting or anything. But in a few weeks, I'll post the animation.
These first two pictures are of my small house. The textures were created in Photoshop (windows, garage door, siding), but the stone and roof textures were ones that we have in a stock of pictures. So they are not original. I won't go into details as to how it was mapped, but I really like the way these houses turned out. I spent a lot of time on them, and I think it paid off. I especially am proud of the curtains and lamp in the first picture. My thoughts with the interior of the house (although we don't make the interiors) was that it was split-level. So if one were to walk in the house, they'd immediately choose to go up one flight or down one flight.
This is another house I've made. I called it the big house. It's called that because originally, the square footage of this house was quite larger than the small house. However, once I started making the small house, it pretty much became the same size as this one. This house is decent. It will be better when I add shrubbery along the perimeter. It was the second building I modeled, and so figuring that into the equation, I'm still pretty proud of it.
This church is called St. Thomas Catholic Church. It was the first building I made, and I think it's pretty obvious of that. I made it before we were actually taught how to. Considering that, it isn't that bad. But because it just isn't at the same level as the others, it will probably be re-modeled and re-mapped as long as I have the time after creating the terrain and such. The cemetery will be next to this church and will have a gate along its perimeter. I'll have a sign in front of the church as well, I just haven't gotten around to making it yet.
I made 6 businesses, pretty much using the same model but using new textures and maps for each one. I have made Hair, Inc., Rausch TV Shop, Our Town Cafe, Hardware 4 U, Family Bakery, and Pharmacy. They all have a different brick pattern. I plan to put items in the windows for most of them (such as TVs in the TV Shop, or tables/chairs in the cafe). These I made fairly simple, since my houses were pretty complex.
I made this 1st State bank based off of the building I work in, with some creative liberty. You might have noticed some of the signs and ribbons on my buildings. My storyline is going to be somewhat patriotic-themed...basically when the animation starts, it will be right after a Welcome Home parade for local service men and women. I'm hoping to have some confetti remainders, although I think that rendering just one frame of confetti takes over a minute. So we'll have to see. I might need to use the lab as a rendering farm for this animation.
Anyway, that was your sneak peak.
Get Involved!
One thing that I love about going to school here, is that there's a way to get involved on campus, no matter what you're interested in. I'm interested in a lot of things...and so I've been involved in a lot of organizations. Below is the list of what I've done, outside of class and work, to get involved on campus.
•Resident Assistant (Emry Hall) 2 years
•Student Ambassadors 2 years
•Student Activities Board 1 year
•Drama Club 3 years
•Comedy Bytes Improvisation 3 years
•DSU Theater 3 years
•Freshman Showcase; director 1 year
•Student Senate 1 year
•Intervarsity 2 years
•Crossfire Worship Team 1 year
•Discipleship Groups 1 year
•Youth Group volunteer (West Center Baptist) 1 year
•DSU Concert Band 2 years
•Intramurals 2 years
•Emry Hall Council 2 years
If you have questions about any of these (or any other) organizations, just comment and I'll try to help! Get involved!
Personally...
This past weekend I got engaged! It's all very exciting. I met my fiance, Miles, here at DSU when I was a Freshman.
We were both very involved on campus, especially in theater. We were both members of DSU's improvisation comedy troupe "Comedy Bytes" and members of the concert band. My Sophomore year we started dating, and now we're planning a wedding!
I can't imagine my life without Miles. To think, if I or he hadn't chosen DSU, we wouldn't have found each other.
I guess my point is, choosing a college is sometimes more than just choosing a major or a location. It's also about choosing how you'll spend the next few years of your life and who you choose to be after leaving home and the people you decide to call your friends. I can happily say that DSU was right for my life.
Merry Christmas!
Please enjoy this very short animation I made for Christmas. If I had more time, I would have added audio. However, I didn't have more time. Merry Christmas!
