Well, another year past, and another AC is upon us. Ill be there, staying at the double tree.

If anyone wants to chill just drop me a line here and we can sort out contact info. Otherwise just look for the dude wearing body armor or one of the vests in my gallery.

OK people, I'm taking commissions for various apparel that I make, since I want to raise some money to offer new colors. I dont know how many will be interested but I assume it will be very few. I'm offering Utility bags (similar to Ammunition musettes), Vests, and Magazine pouches.

the colors I can offer right now are Black, Olive Drab, Ranger Green, ACU Camo, and Khaki (with OD trim).

Double mag AR15 pouches will be about $20
Musette bags will be about $40-$50 depending on the color
Utility vests will run about $150-$200 depending on the size and color.

For vests I will need your approximate size, such as medium, large, XL, etc.

If there are any custom items that you may want drop me a PM and we can work something out.

Where are you coming from?
NYC

What day are you getting there?
Thursday morning

Where will you be most of the time during the day/s/?
Wandering aimlessly, I don't tend to plan things until they're happening.

Where are you staying?
Double Tree

Who will you be with?
FailFerret, Kendall, et al.

Whats your gender?
Male

Can I touch you?
... Not unless you wanna buy me dinner.

Can I hang out with you?
Of course.

Can I talk to you?
Of Course

How can I find you?
Look for a Green Flightsuit. Ill probably be wearing one of the vests in my gallery. Otherwise Ive got some pictures of myself in my gallery. Other then that, Shouting "HEY ASSHOLE!" seems to work too.

Other cons I may go to:
Might go to FurFright, I'll have to see.

Is it weird that I'm actually upset that Billy Mays has died? I didn't care about Michael Jackson or anyone else that's died in this horrible month, with the Exeption of General Ed McMahon. hearing that Billy Mays died just came so far out of left field that my cold, granite heart actually feels some sadness. its certainly been a while.

R.I.P. Mr. Mays.

I spent the past 3 or 4 days working on an "advanced" (as advanced as nylon cordura and webbing can be) pistol mag pouch only to destroy it right at the end with a wadcutter. I really need better tools. you miss one detail and there is no going back. I dont even really care about the $20 or so worth of materials, But that was a whole lot of planning for no result.

In other related news, Ive designed a mag pouch with an integral quick pull system. It allows you to just pull a tab and pull the magazine right out of the pouch, with no magpull or other special equipment. Its a logical step from the regular magazine pouches Ive been making. I tend to favor pistol magazine pouches at the moment since the only clips I have lying around are from my old Beretta 96. Once I get some new rifle magazines I am going to start making pouches for the Ar15 series. fun times.

Borrowed from Whitetail

Where will you be most of the time during the day/s? Wandering. I dont plan much in advance.

Where are you staying? The Westin.

What day are you getting there? Thursday afternoon.

Who will you be with? Whitetail, Archiewolf, et al.

How old are you? 24

Can I talk to you? Sure.

Can I touch you? Can I deck you?

Can I hang out with you? Sure. I like to bullshit over some drinks.

How can I find you? Look for the guy with the gas mask and flight suit.

Other cons I may go to: Cant say.

Now that I actually have some time to spare, Ive made the second video tutorial for Maya. The videos are around an hour long and this time they go over the basics of using Shave and a haircut for creating fur on a canine head. It covers application, styling and a good amount of rendering. I still have to do some editting for some of the parts where i kinda sat there for a minute trying to remember what I was doing. It happens. anyway, the videos should be up some time tomorrow, hopefully.

This video does not cover fur texture maps because I forgot to do the UVs beforehand. Either way fur textures deserve their own video anyway.

Finally this session of classes has ended. Now I can finally get some sleep and work on projects other then school. I have a couple of characters I've been wanting to make so Ill finally be able to start those. I haven't gotten more then 6 hours of sleep a night in months now. I am sooooo looking forward to just sleeping the fuck in tomorrow. don't wake my ass until 12. I have a month until summer session starts so we'll see what i can get done in that time.

Also Ill be at Anthrocon again this year, staying in the Westin. So if anyone wants to chill and have a few drinks gimme a shout. I shouldn't be too hard to spot, just look for the gas mask.

So. I bought this nice little 375mL bottle of "Wray & Nephew Overproof Rum" earlier this evening when I had a few friends over. I usually pick up something for myself and a couple of things for everyone else....

You would think that the name alone would imply some sense of high alcohol volume, But apparently I'm that dense. Generally speaking, I tend to choose alcoholic beverages because of a low alcohol content, because I tend to become a bit rowdy otherwise. This particular rum had a large "63" printed on the front label.

Now, naturally, I just saw that and assumed they meant 63 proof, It was under the standard of 80 proof so I figured I was OK. I felt that 63 was an odd number, But I figured "Hey, whatever" and bought it. It wasn't until about an hour ago or so that I realized that "63" said "63%".....Most of the bottle is gone..... meaning Ive been drinking 126 proof rum all night. wow. First off I'm astonished that I can still see straight, more so that I can still type.

Let this be a lesson though, always pay attention to what alcohol labels say. And even more so, when you open a bottle and you swear it smells like chlorine.... seriously, you probably shouldn't drink it. Unless you're Ukrainian. In which case you are impervious to all effects of alcohol and should proceed as planned. Then you must sit down with a small group of gasmask clad soldiers around a fire in the cordon area and play the guitar. This is mandatory.

Though I will say I am definitely saving the rest of this for the next time I make GOK for a party. Mwuahahaha.

I finally had some spare time to upload the last 4 parts of the M9 tutorial. These 4 are each about 15 minutes long, and one is 30 minutes long so its over an hour of video added.

http://www.sirkain.net/~brigadier/T.....m9_tut_14a.zip
http://www.sirkain.net/~brigadier/T....._handguard.zip
http://www.sirkain.net/~brigadier/T.....tut_handle.zip
http://www.sirkain.net/~brigadier/T.....t_bayolock.zip

I was going to make a canine head modeling tutorial for the second video, But I don't think I'm going to make it now, for 3 reasons.

1). The first one really didn't seem to interest anyone
2). It took a ridiculous amount of time to make.
3). I don't like wasting my time.

Maybe in the future when I have more time to devote to work that no one is going to look at, I'll go back and make some more videos. For now I'm busy enough with work and school that I would rather spend what free time I do have playing pool or going to the gym.

So now that the first video tutorial is done (It might take me until tomorrow to upload all the parts), Im taking requests and suggestions for the second video tutorial.

We can do a character this time around, or more mechanical modeling, Maybe UV mapping.

Anyway, If theres anything you want to know about just leave your suggestion here. Also, if you watch the M9 video, please leave a comment and let me know what you think of it.

OK, so ive finished the first portion of my first video tutorial tonight

I didn't really get too many responses from people as to what the preferred would be, so I just went with a bayonet. I promise the video will be informative even if you don't particularly like big knives.

Its 1 hour and 15 minutes long. I only finished the first portion, which is the blade. That means one of two things, either I'm a good teacher, or a bad modeler.

So, I'm converting everything to MOV format now which will take a little while, But Ill try to upload them tomrrow at some pont.

I'm just gonna ask one thing. if you have any suggestions after seeing them, please leave a comment. I'm doing this for you, people! and also because I'm bored.. but mainly for you!

You know, comments like "Your voice is stupid" or "Feck off, cup". The videos arent going to get better if I don't know what you all like and dislike, But dammit, you'll know how to model a blade by the time im done with you!

I should be getting the screen capture software soon enough, now that I know what software to use. So, that only leaves the question of what exactly the topic of the first video should be.

So, If anyone has any suggestions or something they would like to see modeled, just drop your suggestions here. Preferably for the first video it should be something simple-ish that can be realistically done in one or two videos. Ive never done video tutorials before and I don't want to jump right in with something too complicated. We can get to that eventually.

I was thinking at first just something like a knife or maybe an eyeball (theres so much you can do with eyes), but Id rather get suggestions for it.

Doesn't seem like too many people read these, But just in case, Does anyone know of any good video capture software?

I want to make some modeling video tutorials for some topics I think people will find useful, like modeling a basic canine head with correct ears and such , But I don't know what the best software for that would be.

I need something that captures sound as well, and is capable of a decent frame rate. Ive tried FRAPS in the past but it seems to suck real hard.

Any suggestions?

Well, 2007 turned out to be a less productive year then I had hoped, But I cant complain. Well, Happy new year everyone, lets see if 2008 can be a little better.

Ive been thinking about doing something like this for a while. In the coming semester its likely that Ill be helping teach a course in 3d animation, that being the case I'd like to test my ability to instruct others in the same fashion that Ill be expected to. Plus I'm curious to see if theres any interest in it.

I'm thinking of giving lessons in Maya to anyone who is interested in learning it, provided enough people are interested to make it worth spending the time. Im looking for a group of between 3 and 5 people, But theres wiggle room in those numbers. The lessons themselves will take place through VNC with voice through either Skype or Ventrilo, depending on how many people want in. So, you'll be able to actually watch my screen and ask questions and the like. At the same time I think people would be able to start they're own VNC server so I can check out their work if theres a problem, but thats optional and I certainly don't expect everyone to be running a VNC server.

Anyway, so if you ever wanted to learn modelling or 3d animation, heres your chance. I cant say for certain how long each lesson will run, But I think its safe to assume somewhere in "several hours" range. We would start off with a general introduction to Maya and a brief overview of its main components, then jump into basic modelling and animation. From there we'd go into basic character modelling, UV mapping, texturing, and simple rigging, etc, etc. Of course we can scale the difficulty if things are a bit too simple or too hard. This will all span over several lessons over several days, maybe weeks, It depends on how well I teach. I also cant absolutely guarantee a perfectly regular schedule since I work odd hours sometimes, But they'll probably take place after 5pm Eastern Time when I get off from work, though we can try to schedule around everyones available times..

Anyway, it should be interesting at the very least, so If you're reading this and you're interested, lemme know.

The only things you'll need for this are VNC client, Skype (or Ventrilo, whichever one we have to use), a Microphone obviously, Maya PLE (which is available here:
http://www.autodesk.com/maya-trial ), and the ability to not fall asleep when I inevitably start droning on about IK handles.

We need more renders here, people.

Ive decided that using lightwave was a bad switch from using Maya. Instead Ill be learning Houdini. I figure a step up is better then a step down.

Ive had just about enough of trying, and failing, to use Shave and a Haircut to produce acceptable results for short fur on my characters. The system just does not seem to be capable of rendering nice results when it comes to short straight fur. So, I'm switching my software focus from Maya to Lightwave to take advantage of the sasquatch fur system. It might take me a few weeks to readjust to the tools and conventions in Lightwave after using Maya for 4 years, But knowing that when I switched over to Maya in the first place, all I knew was Truespace and Milkshape, it shouldn't be too much of a problem.

But yeah. thats how fed up I am. Im actually switching my 3d software entirely.

If anyone reading this is familiar with Lightwave, drop me an IM. I could use the help.

Woo. Speaking of blowing the dust off shit, Seems about time to blow the dust off my journal here.

News: Ive finished the semester Animation course. It was very helpful technically, But stylistically speaking I don't think it helped at all. I came out of it with Black Mitten's debut animation, Which I will be posting as soon as I figure out how to convert DVD video to Flash. All in all I think It was worth it, even if It wasn't all I had thought it would be.

Ive upgraded to Maya 8.5 since the last journal. One of the perks of of my occupation is write offs, I suppose, But at least I get to keep up to date. Even if nCloth is pretty useless. .5 releases usually don't add much though so I'm not surprised

Ive been occupying my time working on the remaining weapons and some characters for No More Room in Hell, these include the National Guardsman I have in my gallery as well as those older flash animations I have up, to which I might add a few. Right now I'm taking a few days to work on an animation I had wanted to do a long time ago using the Citra I modeled and then never posted save for the World War One soldier variant. It involves fruit. Rolling, Dangerous, citrus fruit.

I'm offering free 3d work below.

Ive been looking to do some collaborations recently. because creatively Ive been a bit stagnant for a while. If any artists are interested just hit me up on AIM. We can work out the details, But it basically comes down to "I'll make a 3d model of your character(s)".

Some caveats apply though. Firstly, you need to be able to provide adequate reference in the form of a character sheet (front and side). I would prefer to work with people who are artists themselves because it makes the creative process a lot easier. If you aren't an artist yourself, I'm not going to create a character for you, However, if you have a sufficient amount of reference, then I have no problem working with you. Secondly, I'm probably not going to do anything explicit. I'll work with PG-NC17, But I do have a career to maintain, and theres no faster way to destroy one then by doing adult artwork. So since I like having money for food and heat, I will refrain from such. I hope you understand.

I'm not expecting a big response to this request. It would be nice, But I highly doubt anyone really reads these journals. Prove me wrong, folks.

OK, so, Im finally bored with Second Life. Time to blow the dust off Maya. Ive upgraded to Maya 8, But Shave and a haircut doesnt support it yet, so Im still using Maya 7 for rendering.

So, Ive got a whole bunch of new watchers. Unfortunately Im usually not paying attention so I havent been able to thank everyone, But just know I do appreciate the watches.

In other news, I might be starting Film School soon... who'da thunk...

So Ive gotten into Second Life, and Ive jumped right into building.

I'll be posting pictures of my work here, and if you see anything you like, message me either here or in game, because chances are its for sale.

Im also taking commissions for custom Avs. Right now Im too booked to take any more, But as I finish them, Ill update my status. I should be open for commissions again soon.

In the meantime, If anyone has anything in mind, you can still contact me to see if its something I can do, and to work out a round figure price. If you have previous examples of the character or item you want made, either 2d or otherwise, that helps alot as well.

Well, AC is right around the Corner. And I'll be there with the Pawspace crew once again.

I plan on outdoing myself on the booze this year. I plan to bring twice the liquor I brought last year. Thats alot of booze.

The Jack Daniels and SoCo barely got touched last year, so this year Ill bring more vodka and kahlua in their stead, Cause I kept running out of those last year. Im bringing Ouzo and Metaxa as well, even though I realize Ill probably be the only one drinking it.

In other news, I broke out the tablet tonight to draw my tiny, tiny avatar image. The first thing Ive drawn by hand in at least a year. At least I still remember how to draw fur, even if it does look a bit like concrete.

So I joined Second Life recently. But Im not entirely sure what one does there.

If anyone cares to contact me there, my name is Brigg Warf. Im on every now and then. I was gonna make an avatar, But I really dont have the patience to use primitives to make something I dont really care about. It took me years to learn proper modelling techniques, and to completely go back on all of that is something Im not sure Im willing to do.

I AM THE QUEEN OF FRANCE.



that is all.

Ive been trying to get a 66 frame animation into flash format so I can upload it here, but for whatever reason It refuses to not be unbearably choppy. So, Anyone happen to know anything about Flash, and particlarly why it would be doing that?