Monday, September 12, 2011

Some Catching Up and Updates

I seem to have forgotten about this blog for a stretch of time, but I'm back and bringing everything up to date. First, I updated the SoundCloud link in my previous post, so the player is linked to my current version of the song. Also, here are some other things I've done to keep myself busy over the summer, both for school and for fun:

Summer B 2011 Class Projects:
DIG 3480C Project 1
This assignment was a "pig language converter" created in JavaScript. The basic idea is the user enters an English sentence, and the converter adds "-a" or "-oink" to the end of each word, depending on the word length. It then outputs the converted sentence. However, as per the specifications of the project, the converted sentence is printed to the console, rather than a pop-up window, so if you know how to open the debugging console in your browser, do that before launching the program.


DIG 3480C Project 2 (Final Project)
This was a fun but annoying project. The assignment was to create a game using the Processing programming language. There were certain features that needed to be included, but we basically could create anything we wanted. I chose to create a game called "ParticleMan", inspired by the song by They Might Be Giants. All the player must do is navigate little ParticleMan with the arrow keys to get to the green powerup, while avoiding his arch-nemesis, TriangleMan. One note when launching the game is I've found that sometimes the controls freeze the first time, so the page needs to be refreshed. I have been told this is an issue with the browser running my script, rather than an actual bug in my code. It's a really simple game, but enjoy!


DIG 4780C Final Project
For this intro 3D modeling class, we basically had one model that we worked on for the entire semester, submitting our progress at certain benchmarks. The assignment was to model any household object as close to reality as possible, at the end adding some "damage" to the model to make it even more believable. At first I had a nightmare of a time getting started, because the models I chose were far too complex for my level. Finally I decided to model a wooden skate statue that was in my house. It may have been a little too simple, even for my level, but I decided it was better to let it be a little too simple and make a quality model rather than choose something too challenging and have an awful or unfinished product. I was right, and my model came out quite nicely, and my attempts at texturing were successful with barely any setbacks. It was hard to take my "perfect" model and make it look old and moldy, but in the end, I still think it looks very nice.




Other Personal Projects:
Invader Zim Model
Being initially discouraged at my first 3D modeling attempts, I decided to get some practice by creating a model that I would be more interested in. Thus my Zim model was born. I took a few shortcuts on the trickier sections of the model, and I doubt it's properly made enough to be rigged for animation, but at least it looks nice.


"Maybe I'm Amazed" Covers Competition
Paul McCartney held another covers competition this summer, this time with the song "Maybe I'm Amazed". The team running the contest also got it better organized, with a more concrete voting system (which actually worked against me because part of the reason I co-won the previous competition was due to a discrepancy in the voting system). But regardless, I was very pleased with how this song came out, and I know it's a vast improvement over my previous entry, so it's nice to see how my skills have grown.


SoundCloud Projects
I added more songs to SoundCloud, including the audio for my "Maybe I'm Amazed" cover. I also uploaded two different versions of my "Calico Skies" cover, one "acoustic", and one with a full band.


Maybe I'm Amazed - Cover by Sweet Banana


Calico Skies - Cover by Sweet Banana



Calico Skies (Full Band Version) - Cover by Sweet Banana

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