Notebook over, third pen approaching the same fate

(Art by fellow deviantArt member Transfuse)

Finally we got to poly week. Now I am learning what I really wanted to learn in terms of modeling.

Now that I'm in the U.K. I remembered I can buy some games for my Gamecube on ebay.co.uk and pay less for the postage charges. This is what I have been doing the last few days. Bidding and comparing prices. If all goes well I will have all the major Gamecube games during the next month. (the very top of the charts and some original -cheap- ones)

Today the I got the first one and it rocks. It hasn't got any scratches and really looks new. It's Metroid Prime 2: Echoes. I started playing the first one this weekend and I can't believe this got right past me when it was released. It is without a doubt one of the most beautiful, most intelligent and certainly one of the best games I have ever played. It really pulls you in.

I hadn't become this hooked in a game for a while. Neither had I cursed one while playing (save for Resident Evil 4). After it got extinct the Gamecube started to amaze me and I am loving everything it has offered me so far.

Demo or Die!

Well this may come as a shocking title if you don't know this sentence. It exists for almost every subculture so don't be offended by it. It just means demoscene is a pretty important thing for some people.

Anyway, free things are always welcome, right?

I recently found these DVDs called "Demo or Die!" and they are pretty good actually. It's basically a selection of demos captured in video that spans for five DVDs (so far, I bet bartman will make another one with the demos that were released in 2007 because some were astonishing). They are mainly PC demos. I would like some captures from other platforms because I don't have them. I know about emulators, though. It's not the same thing.

It's useful if you want to watch demos in a big screen or if you want to introduce someone to the scene. I recently downloaded all of them and the selection fits my taste almost perfectly.

...did I mention they're free to download?

Accents

Ever since I heard the first british person talking in my way here I thought "Well, I might as well try to mimic the accent so they understand me better" and sometimes I do. Just some words, actually. It must sound really weird for them. Some sentences have the accent right or partially right and some of them are way off, some just stray near the end - it really depends on the mood. So far I have been understood.

Let's hear my english in two months and see if it has evolved. Right now I can tell it's more fluid. I can speak way faster and pick the right words most of the time. When I can't fix a sentence I go back, like resetting it. It works.

Despite all my efforts to blend in, having three portuguese classmates creates some awkward situations where we start talking in portuguese to one another. Sometimes it's faster, sometimes the perfect expression for it is in portuguese ("foleiro" por exemplo!) and I believe sometimes we just need to hear some more people speaking in portuguese.

I asked a classmate how portuguese language sounds to them and he said it sounds like Russian. I guess it's the way we say the "R" or something.

[edit:] Well, I asked another classmate and she said it sounds nothing like russian. She couldn't find a language that sounds like portuguese but she said spanish sounds way different. She's amazed how we can figure out most of what they're saying.

Second pen is over

...tomorrow.

I thought it would be today but as this is "NURBS week" we reviewed something about NURBS I had already written about in the notebook. I don't find NURBS interesting and learning more about them is showing me that they are even less useful than I thought (because when you render them they are tesselated in triangles, so they don't look as smooth as a purely organic shape) and polygons make a lot more sense to me.

I have picked up the two models I was making after classes a couple of times last week. I simply can't complete them. I can't work on them on week days. Not after spending about seven hours a day in front of Maya. As much as I like the program and want do spend my life working on it, I can't do it all day, all the time. I really like the models and I would like to finish them and begin some new ones but it seems I really give out all of my daily awareness to the classes. I pay a lot of attention and keep asking questions and taking notes while doing what Gideon is doing in Maya. I feel like I have to take the most of them and this is the result. Brain drain.
When I get home I can't do anything that strains my brain so I have been watching Rurouni Kenshin and the X-Files.

I still hope I can take care of them in the weekends. At least the school projects we'll do in two weeks will be nice addictions to my portfolio but I still want to create some more. Also, the whole "Games" part of the course will have some interesting results.

Is this vandalism to you?

It's not vandalism to me.
(This is near Central Middlesex Hospital, London)

First pen down

When I got here and realized I hadn't brought a pen with me I borrowed one and took my notes. In the end of that first day as an Escapee I bought a pack with two and another notebook. One week and a half later the first pen is finished, the second one is at less than half and the notebook is more than half full.

Almost every page is filled with notes and small sketches to help me understand it when I look at them in THE FUTURE. I don't want to forget a thing.

This picture is what we see near the Lounge Room where we take our breaks and where the coffee machine is (who some people seem to love). There's a wii, a xbox 360, controlers and some games in an unlocked cupboard but we still haven't touched them. We talk about them all the time when we are there, mainly because the wii is always turned on and the screen is projected on a wall. Oh, what these guys do to tease us. Finding the remotes was too easy.

Some more delicious cakes

I once wrote a post about a videogame wedding from one of the Blizzard's guys but here are some more videogame delicacies I found lying around the internet. There's crazy people everywhere, but this is wonderful. Interesting-looking food is nice once in a while. I know I just said that but I think if I ate a slice of any of these I would feel like I was destroying a work of art.

A delicious work of art.


This one is a NES (Nintendo Entertainment System). Remotes and all.


If I identify this you'll probably feel insulted, so I won't.


Really cool Super Mario Mario Bros one.


Wind Waker cake featuring Zelda Gashapons on top. No, they are not eatable.


Detail on Tetra and Link gashapons.

Incredible Fallout "Bloody Mess" cake.

I have a few more crazy fanatic things about gaming in my hard drive, hang around if you want to see them. I just felt like breathing some fresh air into this blog.

First Week

Lisbon airport. The day was cloudy in order to give me a smooth weather transition.

Yes, this queue leads me to the place where they told me I had over 7 kgs of extra weight in my main bag. Luckily they didn't complain about the hand luggage until I was inside the plane.

This is what I saw during most of the trip.

This is what I see every morning. The bus stop is near the end of the road, to the left. Note the cars ride on the wrong side of the road here. I get confused all the time when I am crossing the streets. Some places have "Look Left/Right" imprinted near the sidewalk.

This is what I see if I look back. I am sharing this place with about 12 people but I still haven't met all of them. The ones I met were extremely nice.

The second time I saw the Biffas I had a camera on my pocket. Aren't they gorgeous?

As you can see today was my first trip do a near supermarket, Asda (not Asma!). It's near but I still have to get there by bus. See if you can spot some familiar brands. I'll explain part of the reason why the salt is there too, it's not that obvious for people who don't know what I am talking about. Notice the healthy-looking food.

Now I'll do the laundry for the first time in my life.

R.I.P. SegaWorld

A few years ago I was studying English in Azambuja. Every year near Easter (i think) they organized a trip to somewhere in the UK. Going there was not the main point of interest for me.

For me the coolest things about actually going there were:
-Travelling by airplane for the first time
-Checking if those English guardsmen weren't realistic statues with silly hats
-Having the chance of being the first person to meet the Loch Ness monster
-Spending a few days with my friends and colleagues in an informal environment
-Having the chance to go to SEGAWORLD!

Needless to say it would always be an expensive trip so I never went on one. The desire of going to SegaWorld came back every year. It faded when they chose to go to Scotland (happened a few times). I thought things like "When I grow up I'll go to SegaWorld once a year" because Sega was my favorite videogame company at the time (Nintendo was a close second) and I imagined all sorts of amazing things would be inside, like being able to play on the arcades for free or even Virtual Reality! It was my Disneyland.

I never saw pictures of it and I wasn't sure it actually existed but I trusted the guy who told me.

When the Sega Dreamcast was officially extinct the company still continued to develop games. It kept on making games and Sonic still popped up sometimes (most of the times I wish he didn't, but there were a couple of good games). It even went as far as joining Mario and Sonic in "Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games" recently.

In October I came to London mainly for London Game Career Fair so I wasn't here in a tourist trip. I got a free day before the flight but I used it to go to Escape Studios talk to Joseph and it led me to where I am now. I didn't check anything on SegaWorld but I hoped it was still there.

Yesterday I was beginning to face the weekend as some time to check this part of the city and I remembered to check it out on the internet. If you want to read about it ckeck here. Though I expected it to have disappeared by now some part of me wanted it to still be there. I never got to visit it. Neither did I ever have a Sega Console.

A series of tubes

The speed they teach at Escape (and I really mean teach, not just casually mention things) is nothing short of amazing. To have an idea of that speed check out this. It's the best way I can show you.

Internet in my room suddenly made me feel at home. I could contact with everyone without going to a payphone or using up my 20 minute breaks to check Gmail. Now you'll probably get more pictures if I find them interesting. I don't mean to turn this into a diary, though. I will still write some stories I think will be fun to read but I don't want to make this feel like a chore.

Ok, so fun things! I found out the teacher of the Games part of the course will be a guy who worked on Sony Computer Entertainment Europe (which has a studio in London by the way) and was involved in games like "The Getaway: Black Monday", "This is Football" and"EyeToy Kinetic". This is really exciting for anyone who likes videogames. I'm looking forward to it.

And thanks PRE for mentioning me in his blog (and consequently prt.sc)! You-ve tripled the views this blog has per day for a day, let's see how it goes from here. Thank you too, Google Analytics.

First Day

Yesterday I wrote about the arrival so today I'll write about the first day. For starters I woke up before the time and only had half an hour till the alarm clock would explode so I turned on the DS (I missed it, hadn't touched it for days) and turned on Chessmaster. Played about 6 chess games and lost them all. Hmm...I guess I hadn't played chess for a while too.
After leaving the house I felt like taking a picture and so I did. The sir who I am renting this room to appeared from the back and scared me, he looked amused.

Once again, kind of lost. I guess this is happening because I am not taking the underground, I am using the bus. It's way cheaper.

Walked around for half an hour but got there five minutes late. The breakfast was already gone. Those guys ate a lot and I hadn't taken breakfast because they said there would be food. They presented us to the main people there and separated us into the appropriate studios. I'm in studio 2 with the rest of the Maya Core guys. To my surprise the first guy I talked to was portuguese (but I couldn't have guessed because he said his name is Perseus). He quickly introduced me to the other two portuguese guys in the room (a Miguel and another Manuel).
The teacher is Gideon and he's one of the most organized people I've ever seen. He really understands Maya and its logic and really knows how to explain things. I do not regret choosing to take the Maya Core as well because this first day already taught me a lot I didn't know. I could find lunch in a mall for less than 2 pounds which is awesome.

When I got there I realized I had forgotten to bring a pen. No, not from the room. From Portugal. I brought a notepad though. I thought this was ironic until I found a guy who only brought a pen. Ha!

After a while I remembered the school PCs have internet so in the last 20 minute break I started checking my e-mails. I stayed there an hour later than the end of the class just to answer what I could.
Got lost again returning home because I thought I had missed the bus stop and left a few ones earlier. After walking for a while a guy told me the better way was to get into a bus and do the rest of the way like that. It's really humiliating but it's what I did.


I am trying out a new approach, writing these posts at home and just copying and pasting them into the blog when I'm at the studios. I am getting really sleepy now, this was a really tiring first day.

Chapter 1 Begins

(If you can't see the picture clearly, it's a recicling bin that says "Biffas". It was one of the first things I saw this morning and I thought it was hilarious. If you are portuguese you'll certainly get this.)

Well, the trip was smooth but the real trouble started after getting out of the airplane. I had pointed out that the bags were overweight and we had to pay 45 euros extra in Lisbon just because of that. In London I had to wait an hour for the first bus out (missed it for about five minutes while I was calling my parents) then after an hour and a half (Luton is outside London) I got on the underground.

I must remind you that I was carrying one 27 kg bag in one hand and an overweight pilot handbag (a Gamecube and my laptop inside with lots more) in the other, plus one bag with water and plug adaptors for the electricity and I was climbing stairs! Of course after two hours I was already feeling my arms were quite tired and in the end I admit it, I screamed a couple of times just by looking at stairs. Today I feel I was on an Olympic rowing competition and won first place.

Oh, and I must say I was kind of lost for a while (wich didn't help at all - more stairs). Nevertheless I got home and...I'll tell you the rest some other time. I got pictures too but right now I'm at Escape and I have no way of getting them in here.

Preparing for liftoff

Tomorrow I'll leave for London. I am getting more anxious than I thought I would be. I could barely sleep today. Though this is a dream come true and a long thought goal, I am already missing some people and some places. Seeing a friend of mine hold her tears as I left and knowing she let it all out after I was gone really affected me.

Well, the show must go on. This is probably the best part of my life, the part where I can still choose paths. The part where I can still make my dreams come true. They have to understand it and I am making my best to explain why I'm doing this. It's the right time and I have the resources. I am escaping mediocrity and building a career I can be proud of.

Oh, and I bought a camera to record this stage of my life so prepare for a visual report too. I could post one of the few pictures I took to test it, but I think this one says it all.

WIP - Fanboy

When I decided I wanted to take this course and my parents supported me I immediately started learning the things they will be teaching me there. Why? Because I believe that a good warm-up is important and I want to be ready for everything.

My objective was to start learning Maya from scratch (for the second time, though I didn't know much in the first one) and to complete a 3D character that could be put into a videogame. I set a poly limit, drew a small sketch and started modeling.

Here's the sketch:
And this is the point where I left it (1750 tris):

And already close to Christmas I started the fan (and took off the lights):

There's still a long way to go, but I had never done something close to this. I had never layed down UVs, created a texture or even created a humanoid model. Painting textures is awesome, I really want to spend more time learning it.


I leave in two days, my posts will take some more time to appear here because I don't know what kind of internet connection I'll have (or even if I'll have it at home). Wish me luck.

Nintendo 64 kid

There is a slight chance you guys haven't seen this video so I'll give you the link here.

It's basically a kid who gets a N64 for Christmas and then starts going wild about it. Saying it is the best gift ever for him isn't enough for him. He has to shout, shake his fist to the heavens and even start a drum solo on the box.

I never had one.

This New Year's Eve I was with a bunch of guys who used to play it back then and they played Mario Kart and Goldeneye. I felt like a kid again watching them play, but the way their eyes shone as one of them found the cartridge of Goldeneye and showed it to them without a word made me absolutely sure this is the path I want to take.

Man, this video is just awesome.