Cannon Fodder disk box...

During a recent clear out and tidy up..hang about that reminds me does anyone remember that show that used to be on in the UK many moons ago called Stoppit & Tidy Up?? Narrated by Terry, oops Sir Terry Wogan? No?... oh OK...as I was saying I was in my garage doing some "conversion" work... Conversion being the conversion of old stuff from shabby cardboard box to clean solid weatherproof plastic cube thing (with lid!!) when I found a box of 3.5" discs.(remember those?)

Wearing my techie geek hat as I often do when I find myself rummaging about in old boxes of tech, I often snap a pic or two of any notable finds along the way. I was happily snapping away (resisting at this point in the blog entry to type 'as you do') at lost treasures I'd forgotten I'd owned and came across this....

This is the very box I used to store all me Cannon Fodder art disks, demo disks and beta tests of the game. As you can see I never did get around to buying a proper box and used this bulk unbranded x50 disc cardboard box as storage complete with masking tape repairs to hide the mistreatment the poor thing endured over the years.
Now the question remains do any of these discs actually work since being exiled to planet forgotten about since 1993. Hmmmm I might have to set up an Amiga next weekend and find out... On further thought will any of my Amigas work long enough to test them out and/or(nerd mode) will the disks be damaged? Perhaps I'll leave it "as is" for now... 
Note: Will climatise them to the house temperature well in advance to avoid any of that funny electronics failure malarkey if I feel lucky as punks do...

Oh and I should also mention that the Podcast from my appearance on the most excellent Cafe Calcio radio show is still up if you haven't had a listen yet..It's 1hr long and yes the music at the start is part of the show.. (Yes Mum...)

I was on the radio I was.. last Friday to be precise @ 9pm..

So there I was last Friday having a cuppa tea when out of the blue at zero hour I read an email asking if I would like to be a guest on a football themed radio show called "Cafe Calcio" on London based Resonance 104.4 FM. The subject of discussion was 'Games' which for me meant only one thing,  Sensible Soccer!!!
What could I say?? 

I had a great time meeting the gang (in the pub) Chris Dixon, Chris Roberts and David Stubbs and fellow guest Daniel Tatarsky who's knowledge of Subbuteo was mind blowing to say the least which is probably why he wrote a book about it. (Amazon linky here)

The podcast is now up and you can click here to listen (there's a download link on there too)

The music at the start doesn't last too long so don't do what my mum did and think you're listening to the wrong podcast! ahh bless...
http://cafecalcio.posterous.com/cafe-calcio-ii-the-sixth-podcast-are-there-an

Not one to alarm but...

I've been wrestling with Blender in an attempt to make a 3D version of a Vernimb Sentry this week. So far it is starting to look less like a deformed plum and more like a video game character.

Once he is done I can then proceed with the exciting bit , the animation!! Oh and of course creating a bona fide 3D Blobbit too.

The sketch to the right is the literal version I did for the book I'm writing. They're a tad more serious than those seen in the game version that's for sure. It's exciting indeed!!

Original Vernimb
Sentry Sprite

Texturing phase 1 - 90% complete

Still a bit too clean to be accepted into the blobberhood but a few bits of dirt and grime should sort that out.. :)

Did I say that I really really like using Blender?

Elenin = Nibiru

Sketches of the teleport door and pad

Here we have two sketches... But not just any old sketches oh no oh no oh no... These are sketches of something that is in my book (yes that book!). These are sketches of a Blobbit repaired 'Matter No Splatter' transportation device. Usually these devices appear unbroken but sadly this one wasn't so lucky. But all is not lost as our hero Blarold Blobbit has made good using some wood, a couple of metal shoes and a rivet gun.Wowsers!  Will it work? Hmmm that's a good question... Only one way to find out and that's to see it in action in Blobbit iDash. Yay!!
(Now I must go and finish texturing it in Blender, chie de chie my luvvies!!)
Elenin = Nibiru

Oh joy of Joy Division...Texture Paint is jolly good.

I have discovered that the 'Texture Paint' mode of Blender 2.5 is indeed rather awesome!! I've been playing with seams and one of the most frustrating things I've experienced is shading up a nice texture only to find that one of the seams doesn't quite look right. But all is not lost, oh no!!  You see there's this rather nifty (not heard that word for a whole,'nifty' not 'rather') that lets lazy oiks like me paint directly onto the the model! Now it's no Photoshop or Gimp but it does have a smooth and smear mode which is fine and dandy for smudging out those bleedin' angular 'stand out like a sore thumb' joins!! YAY but no hay!!
Look no wires I'm flying!!

Cuppa tea now to celebrate my new best buddie in Blender 2.5..

Seams... but no Mrs Slocombe..

As a relative of newbie who is still learning the ropes with all this 3D modelling, texturing and animating malarkey (yes I'm so 2D I even have a travelator in my home instead of stairs), I have discovered that in order to make a UV Map fit like a glove without an obvious stretch or skew the right approach to unwrapping is required; to avoid pixel tomfoolery anyway.

Now just last week and a year I was getting a bit ahead of meself and thought I had it in the bag. 'Ahhhh' I said to meself as it become quite apparent that the art of unwrapping is indeed an art in itself (on a small scale, not that I'm comparing it to drawing and modelling, that would be like comparing decent choccy to that cheap muck you get off of Romford Market sometimes. Maya Gold for me all the way!). I digest...Careful thought on where to place those seams is important if a nice clean texture layout is required. Which it is otherwise what's the point...Yarse.. (Getting the hang of this me is...).. This is the concept sketch of something I'm 3D'ing at the moment....will post the final doo-dah once it's done..

This has been the ramblings of a solitude moi under-dubbed with a slice of WaveStar "Mind Journey" working from my space pod in near Earth orbit.. Si


Elenin = Nibiru I reckon...

Blobbit T-Shirts are now on sale!!!

It's that time again, that time when dreams of running a fashion empire start knocking at the door. Yes I've uploaded a couple of Blobbit related designs to my shop (Cool Blobbit Shirts)
I'll upload some pics as soon as I get a moment spare...   

 

>>>Cool Blobbit Shirts<<<

Knock knock

Who's there?

Updates are coming... (soon'ish after some sangria and Ron Trinidad)

I often feel obliged to write something here when there's nothing to write other than endless meandering dribbles of uninteresting facts about this and that. Today however I decided I would write something, so here's some text... oh hang on a mo.... I've already finished....Oops...

Here's a pointless sketch about arrows..

The wit that follows will astound, amaze and have you scratching something in bewilderment, hopefully your head but anywhere else is fine...(hang on again.. erm you really should have that looked at don't you know.. eww looks kind of... infected..doors over there... yep see ya...(phew)) 

 

I should remind you , yes you with the wild eyes, iPhone, you phone, we phone, who phone Blobbit is still going strong it's just on hold until Mark and I finish our contract jobs. Then it's manic dev time again.. yay taday tomorrow and last week!