::: Rudra and things. These titles all sound the same...
::: Posted by Nick on Sunday, June 29 2008

:: I was going to post some headshots of 4 of the 5 characters of Rudra, but then Painter decided to be a jerk and crash while I was putting together the file. Normally I would use photoshop for something like this but all of the illustrations have been done in Painter. Oh well, I haven't designed the 5th character yet. I was planning on showing all these off with con-trast 3 anyway. So yeah here's a little update of sorts.

Most of the 3d work involved in the new site is finished. I finished the main site's transition animation and have set up the layout of each section. I've compiled a LOT of stuff I had never put on the site, especially for the sketchbook section. The illustration section will have a ton of stuff for 2008 seeing as how I've been drawing up a storm lately.

I finally decided to get myself a tablet PC. After a ton of hassle, a return, and time, I was finally able to use the thing. It's nice but the resolution is low (1024 native) and I just can't seem to get the color profile to the point where greens look GREEN. Cilvia, the quiet yet eccentric hacker from Rudra, has blonde/light brown hair. She was the first thing I really drew (other than a mrbot quickie) and when I finally moved her over to my main computer, her hair looked GREEN! So basically the plan right now is tracing my design into the tablet pc and coloring on my computer. I've messed around with a couple different styles and it looks like I may end up with your typical anime-look. I might post those head shots once the 5th character is done.

Ah I love to babble. Here's the rundown of Rudra:

Without divulging pages and pages of backstory, I'll just say that Rudra is NOT the matrix. In the year 22XX, Earth is running low on resources. Technology has advanced to the point where matter can be altered digitally. Only a select few cities on Earth have just recently began using this technology. However, this technology has been used to colonize Mars and is thought of a sort of experiment to be used on Earth more extensively. In order for this to work, a NETWORK has been established on Mars. People are tapped into the network at all times.

Shortly after the establishment of the Mars colony, crime started to run rampant and hackers began taking advantage of the many exploits in the system. A division of the Mars police taps directly into the network by means of a DNA connection. Agents tend to use such connections as eyelashes or arm hair to fully integrate themselves into the network and take care of the problems at their root. Unfortunately, those that were tapped directly in were victims of an incident that very few know about...

1. Zetch - 23: former officer of the [currently unnamed] agency. He was connected through eyelashes. After the blackout incident, he goes blind for a period of time until eventually coming back to work with his former partners. This "digital infection" in his eyes has allowed him to see into the network and control "threads" with limitless possibilities. The infection basically replaces parts of the body and creates a passage into the inner workings of the network.

2. Tomoa - 21: frontline officer, friend and former partner of Zetch. She was one of the few officers that did not suffer much injury from the blackout incident. However she went from fighting with daggers to fighting with accumulation claws. After Zetch's injury, she teams up with...

3. Siefer - ??: frontline officer. He lost his right forearm and hand. He also suffers from the largest case of digital infection. Essentially, his right arm still exists in the network so anything his digital arm touches will be absorbed into the network unless he can control it. Siefer has trained himself to control certain elements and can now manipulate the size of his already massive sword. He and Tomoa are the only officers left after the incident.

4. Cilvia - 19: A former intern of the agency, she has never even tapped into the civilian network. Cilvia sees everything for what it is. She is also a master hacker. She used to work with Zetch and Tomoa until their team broke up. Now she helps Tomoa and Siefer in their work. While sitting aside from the action most of the time, she has a keypad built into both of her sleeves. This allows her to defend herself or even summon creatures that she programmed herself. It's tough to describe this ability without going into more detail on Rudra. Essentially she manipulates the network the old fashioned way.

5. ??? - ??: This kid comes into the picture a little later on so lets just leave things at that.



::: this is why I can't have nice things
::: Posted by Nick on Friday, May 23 2008

::


It's 3:30 AM. I started this when I went to work at 8:45AM. Is 8 frames of animation so much to ask? :(



::: blarg
::: Posted by Nick on Sunday, May 11 2008

:: this

I left my notes in there and everything. There's one little animation in there that's about 1/4 of the way done. It took about EIGHT HOURS to render.



::: Rudra, Con-trast 3, and things
::: Posted by Nick on Saturday, May 10 2008

:: Well I learned a very important lesson about 3d rendering recently. Things like refraction and radiosity are BEASTS! My last site update hasn't been in a while (as per tradition) because I have been working on an efficient method of animating glass-like surfaces. Even as I type this, I am rendering a little 100 x 100 pixel image of a ball and it is suckin the juice out of my computer like crazy. My computer is pretty decent too. So as soon as I get this thing finished, I'll post another preview of the splash page. The pace should really pick up soon since I managed to solve some problems (while taking on new ones) that were slowing me down. There's one major distraction that is also slowing down the progress of the new site...

Project Rudra (did I use to spell it with an H?) originally started out as designing a character that would be my showcase in character modelling and animation. A year later and it has become something more. Right now, the project includes FIVE characters that I hope to implement in a game. Zetch is of course the star, but I have finally settled on a design for the secondary character. I have a half-done color drawing on my computer from last night that I'd like to show off, but it's really rough right now. The drawing was done in Corel Painter without ANY prelimary pencil scans like I usually do. This is the second time I've ever done this; the first time being a drawing of MrBot that I never put up on the art page.

Tomoe (To-mo-ay) may have been partially inspired by the main character in Noitu Love 2: Devolution While she looks NOTHING like this character, the idea of a strong female character running all over the place and kicking ass is certainly present. Tomoe wears rings all over the place that eject blades that function as claws, among other things. Think of her like Wolverine's daughter if you have to. The Rudra universe itself isn't something I'm prepared to talk about until there's something to house it so I'll leave it at that.



::: 3.0
::: Posted by Nick on Thursday, April 10 2008

:: Here's a little update on the progress of con-trast 3.0. Mind you, nothing is final.





::: All better now
::: Posted by Nick on Sunday, March 23 2008

:: I gotta say, Total Choice Hosting has some awesome customer service. I had to format my computer last week and seeing as how I'm a forgetful idiot, I had no idea what my password was to access the site. They managed to reset things pretty quickly, but that reset also messed with my mysql database and made the site unreadable. All it took was another email and instead of pinpointing the problem like I asked, they just up and fixed it. Thanks again for all your help. Now the password is something I can actually remember and this shouldn't happen AGAIN.

I'd also like to thank my biggest fan for pointing out the issue to begin with. I have to wonder if someone feels that "robots.txt" is actually somewhere around here...

Concerning the major site upgrade, 2 things happened:

1. Smash Bros came out.
2. and this is probably more relevant, I will be working on a site for a little while. Right now, "con-trast 3.0" or whatever is mostly a bunch of thumbnails and concept drawings. If I gave the impression that this was going to be out very soon, I'm sorry. It really depends on what I decide to finish first: a Zetch animation or the new site.



::: an update of sorts
::: Posted by Nick on Thursday, January 17 2008

:: Hey kids! It's a good thing i check the status of my art page every few weeks or so because THERE WAS NOTHING THERE when i checked today. I had a buddy with some fantastic hosting to keep all my stuff from cluttering the limited space on my main host. Well I guess they don't like me anymore...again. Yes this is the same thing that happened LAST TIME my art page went down. Well after some mild research into alternate hosting, I decided to put it all on the big one. In the end, it didn't really take up nearly as much space as I thought it would. Long story short, everything's fixed now.

Oh but that's not really an update now is it? Here's some things going on right now:

1. redesigning con-trast (3.0) for (almost) full flash integration.
2. The Adventures of MrBot will probably never see the light of day again. I may actually delete it all to save on server space.
3. "Rudra" was merely a project name that I came up with on the spot when I had to name the file. The character's name is ZETCH. I managed to solve a few issues that have been bothering me for a couple years now and I'm finally getting close to the point where I can animate him!
4. Speaking of animation, I was thinking about making some short clips involving Zetch and MrBot interacting together. We'll see where that goes.
5. I plan on making a brand new section for the new con-trast called "sketchbook." I'll leave that one to your wildest imaginations!
6. Playing gallons and gallons of Persona 3 has inspired me to buy an Aigis figurine draw something. I'm still not sure if I want to make this into a big project with color and a background, but it may end up in the sketchbook...OH NO I SPOILED IT FOR YOU!
7. Posting anything on this page anymore may be pointless as it will probably be deleted as I'll have no more use for it on the new layout.
8. I like 8.



::: A christmas gift for the fan(s)
::: Posted by Nick on Thursday, December 20 2007

:: Many of you have clamored for it and I am here to finally deliver! Don't say that I don't appreciate all of you!





::: No Subject (i typed that)
::: Posted by Nick on Tuesday, October 30 2007

:: Even though I finished the major elements of the Rudra model weeks ago, I never really posted the results. I still have things to work on before moving on to textures (other than the hair that I did early on). I hope to get back into the scheme of things and finally get some UV maps going. Then comes bone rigging and whatever it is I end up doing with this guy in the end. I was thinking about some kind of interaction with MrBot since he's all rigged and ready to go. Alright, here's a little profile shot with a close up of the face.



I'm going to be honest. I'm really not sure how I'm going to do his weapon...



::: Art Section update
::: Posted by Nick on Monday, August 13 2007

:: The animation area of the art section has been updated with a 3D level I created last year using the Unreal Editor 2. As usual, I did everything outside of creating the clouds and grass used in the pictures for the textures. The level called for some extensive UV mapping along with copious "static meshes" that are essentially 3D models that can be placed anywhere within the editor. I had originally intended to have a MrBot action figure in the introductory area of the level, but he's a few hundred thousand polygons too many. Check it out!