Creating Blue River Canyon with Brian Lockett

Hey, folks!  Yes, it's been quite a while since my last post, but you know how life can be--so perfectly in your way.  Anyways, here's a video I created, a sharing of a workflow in creating a mid-poly canyon terrain using Blender and World Machine 2.

This is the first of three videos planned as a series, and all the stuff you see in the video comes in a zipped source file (available on the Downloads page here), released under Creative Commons Attribution 3.0.  This and other videos I produce will be found on the Sharetorials page.  Hope it helps somebody!  Later!

(Oh, and I want to make several updates later when I get some time.  But I can't today--Super Bowl Sunday!)

- Brian

Okay, Update: Life is changing on me fast!

Okay, here's a quick update on me.  I'm moving to New York in September, I've got to work my butt off the find a new apartment soon (because the lease to this current apartment is over on September 1), and this has been taking a lot of my time.  I've been so tired lately, staying up night after night working on this move and managing time for my projects.  I also got very sick during the last two weeks, so that's slowed me down a lot, too.  I was high with horrible headache pains for days, and though I'm much better now, I've still got a lingering cough with me.

Man, I was away from this blog WAY too long--longer than I attended.  There's some gallery updates I need to do later.  (Later because I need sleep right now!)  And I've had to scrap my sharetorial video because halfway through recording videos with the screen capture recorder I was using, the video would get all messed up and the audio goes off-sync.  When I settle down from this moving situation, and when I get my new computer pretty soon (a significantly more powerful computer than this computer I'm using), I will definitely give the sharetorial another shot.  (And I'll probably break down an buy Camtasia, because the free ones don't seem to do the job well enough!)

One thing I am very excited for is working hard towards acquiring a developer's kit from Nintendo.  That is a part of my plan as an indie game developer.  The Wii U next year will launch next year, and I'd like to get to work on my long-awaited game idea as soon as possible.  This console is a dream come true for my main game ideas!  And it's been my dream to develop a game for Nintendo since I was about 15.  I'm going to try to develop my games for the Wii U because I have ideas I'd like to do before someone else does something like them but don't do it as well as I plan to do it!  I have some killer ideas that I want to deliver as soon as possible!  I haven't been this excited for a console in a long time!  I also have plans for a Nintendo 3DS game.

Anyways, I'm going to stop making deadlines for updating my blog, since I never seem to keep up with doing that.  So just know that I want to come back to update my gallery, post another Post talking about my other websites in production, and give some news about my open-source program.  I just need to sleep!  And take care of other stuff concerning my moving situation.

Oh, and thanks for the 700 views so far!  I promise you, folks (esp. those who return to this page periodically), that I'm going to make make the waiting of my various "projects" worth while!  You'll see!  I want to include you in my process in going about some of these ventures.  I'll reveal more soon enough!

So I'll talk to you later.  Keep explorrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr...[Writer falls asleep at the keyboard]

- Brian


>> Be about others, and you will never be bored. <<

Just a little bit longer, folks, but check this out in the meanwhile...

Hey, guys!  Oy--sorry about the delay!  Ran into a few personal issues, and freeing up time has been crazy for me lately, but I'm back and running.  Anyways, I don't have much here to report just yet, but I did update my Downloads and Sharetorials pages a bit, and you can check out my uploaded Blender theme if you'd like.  I call the theme "Dream Blue" and I designed it specifically for my desire for a Blender color scheme that uses other colors than the dark gray scheme (which I think most 3D packages employ way too much these days).  This is just one of many themes I plan to design.  I want to keep them vivid and engaging, all while still being easy on the eyes.  Blue is one of my favorite colors, and is known to produce a calming and refreshing effect (and trust me--I need that!), so I used shades of blue together that relax me but don't make me sleepy.  I think it kinda looks like Daphne Blake's clothing motif from Scooby Doo a little.

I'm putting a lot of time in my videos, and I'm making more than one.  I had some issues with my screencasting software--like finding a free one that doesn't bug out on me!--but I think I've found a solution.  I am also working on a few scripts ideas for Blender add-ons, and these are some pretty neat ideas for add-ons that I'm working on, if I do say so myself.  And I'm still brainstorming some ideas for my software in development, which I promise you'll like if I can complete the thing.  Sorry I've been keeping any of you waiting, but I'm balancing a lot of things right now, so I hope this little bit of news shows some indication to you all that I'm working hard on my projects and will hold you just a little while longer.  Though, I must say, besides my coming work, there are a lot of things that I'm anticipating in the coming months that have got me really excited.

I'm looking forward to the release of Blender 2.58 coming next month on June 7.  I'm looking forward to end results of the various Google Summer of Code 2011 projects being done with Blender and Gimp.  I'm also looking forward to E3 2011, for news on upcoming releases for the Nintendo 3DS (which I'm just dying to develop some games for) and undoubtedly the event that will steal the show at E3 this year, "Project Café" (which, in case you haven't heard over the last few months, is the codename for Nintendo's next console, and Nintendo's really kicking butt and taking names with this one).  I've been following this project almost since day 1, and have been following the hints from Nintendo previous to this project's announcement, and I'm so glad to finally see some confirmations on this project, and that Nintendo will officially spill the beans about it at E3 this year.  (And Nintendo will be the first to present their baby, much to Sony and Microsoft's dismay!)

Some thing have been announced already, like the fact that the "Project Café" will debut sometime in Spring 2012, they're really pushing strong third-party support, and that the console will feature a revolutionary controller, but Nintendo is being careful not to have many leaks about their product.  But what they have revealed about the console, and what some rather third-party game developers and popular sources have been leaking and rumoring about the next-gen console from Nintendo, has me sitting on the edge of my seat waiting for Nintendo's official revealing at E3.  I'll just say this: as a lifelong Nintendo fan, I haven't been this excited about a Nintendo home console in a while!  You can trust this guy David Turnbull on his news, updates and discussing rumors about the Nintendo 3DS and "Project Café" (which, reportedly, many are tentatively calling the "Nintendo Stream" due to the console's special "streaming" controller scheme).  In fact, I recommend that you "Subscribe" to everything this guy David has to offer, if you care about this kind of stuff!  When E3 comes next month, there's gonna be a whole lot of awesome stuff to pique your interested throughout all this and next year (if you're a gamer)!  [giddy squeal]

Anyways, that'll do it for this one.  Be sure to Ctrl-click my links in this post and check them out.  I'll be back with more stuff pretty soon.  Later, and keep exploring!

- Brian


>> Be about others, and you will never be bored. <<


CORRECTION: I meant to say that the E3 show was on June 7, not the release of Blender 2.58.  That was a backspace error I forgot to fix when rearranging the sentences.