Taking some time to unwind before my workout, I traced out the last few stickers needed to finish this set. Although I had the images from previous POV-Renders, they weren’t of a high enough quality. I’m not done with this set yet. But, it is close to what is sitting in my storage cases.
While digging around my site’s SEO this morning, I ran across these great videos from Jim Gierrie. Both depict his remake of Flywheel on a a TRS-80 MC-10. He had shared in a comment on my site, but I’d missed it given how busy last year had been. I love that Jim took the concept and made it his own, exactly the purpose of this site.
Nothing starts the year out better than a space shooter. The top of the printout was quite faded, so I wasn’t sure about ZTSXXSTZ when I started to type it in. But, once I got the first few bits working I realized I had something worth sharing.
While uploading my last render, I noticed that something was wrong with my Windmill. It didn’t take long to figure out what. When I’d rotated the top part, I must have grabbed the wrong rotation point. Easy fix, but I needed to do more then render it again. Time to play in Blender.
Starting the year off with new renders of old LEGO sets. Both of these are from 1976 and are great examples of the styles from that era. Trying out some different lighting techniques, I enjoyed rendering these as much as building them.
Last year is over, but it was one of my more prolific years for LEGO renders. I ended up sharing 67 renders on Flickr, plus a few other renders I did only for Mecabricks. I even have a few test images squirreled away I won’t be sharing. As we close out 2017, here are the last of the images from December.
Although may of my early programs were games, I spent a fair amount of time experimenting. December’s program, Slow Down, is one of my animation experiments. It is a straight forward sprite animation, with a twist. I used the ZX81 against itself to slow it down. If you’re ready, let’s dig deeper.
Trying to keep with my promise, here are my latest LEGO renders. Each is an experiment. I’m trying different techniques, or testing new ideas. Some work, and some don’t. But, that’s okay. Life is about learning and trying. Why shouldn’t my hobbies be the same? Let’s dig in.
Although I haven’t posted many picture lately, I haven’t been idle. Old, new, large, and small, I’ve been trying out a few different things over last two months. Of course, this was between working, running, and other projects. So, time to catch up! Here are five images to round our your day.
Back in 1983, Star Wars imagery flooded my life. With the release of Return of the Jedi that year, it only fueled the inspiration of my young teenage self. So, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that I would create games with that look and feel. Star Fight, this month’s program, is one such game.
There are a ton of windmills in Idaho. Mostly big ones for power, but you see a few smaller ones used for irrigation and wells. But, when I wrote this month’s program, I couldn’t remember any being around where I lived in Indiana. No matter. I still wrote a simple windmill animation, and today is the day to share it.
Browsing through my collection of ideas on Pinterest, I ran across a great vintage taxi set. At first glance, it seemed Mecabricks would have all the pieces needed. Yet, that wasn’t the case. A few key pieces were missing, which required some ingenuity on my part.
After upgrading to macOS High Sierra, I ran into a minor problem. Seems my WineSkin wrapper for EightyOne, my ZX81 emulator, stopped working. I have alternatives, but the screenshots I take from EightyOne are too nice to pass up. As luck would have it, there is a fix.
With the recent release of Blender 2.79, which officially supports filmic color and denoising filter. Keeping current, Mecabricks released the latest advanced blender add-in that supports it. Besides the above changes, it supports the Principled shader also introduced in 2.79. Adding all that up, it was time to do a little testing.
To date, most of my programs have been games and animations. It may come as a surprise that I also wrote a word processing program. Using a custom printer command, I designed a font that would allow you to use lowercase letters. Let’s explore September’s program of the month to see how that worked.
Portal was one of those games that game out of no where. Released as an add-on to the Orange Box, the Half-Life 2 box edition for consoles, the puzzler shined. Combining wry humor with entertaining game play, Portal gained a place in pop culture. In one of the more memorable levels, you are given a weighted companion cube. This heart embossed cube replaces the more generic ones used in early, and later, levels. Given a game filled with loneliness, the companion cube helps fill that void. Portal does such a good job of hamming it up, that it comes as a surprise when you must dispose of the cube to continue on. It’s heartbreaking, even if the cube is an inanimate object. As an iconic part of the game, I was excited to replicate it in LEGO bricks.
Tarantula, August’s program of the month, was part of a pair of games that made me think I was a game developer. At the age of fourteen, I didn’t let problems like the lack of a distribution channel tarnish my dreams. Although I didn’t make it into gaming, it’s still fun to look back on what could have been.
I was actually working on a different model when an idea struck me. Wanting an object to look abandoned and old, I grabbed a spider web and threw a black spider in it for fun. But, the web was too large, so I left it off to the side. Getting back to it yesterday, inspiration took a different direction.
Do you have those moments where you discover something and want to dig into it? Today was that day for me. Although what I found wasn’t new, I still want to share what I learned—that way I won’t forget later. In this post, I’ll walk you through what I found, why it’s broken, and what I did to fix it.
Wanting something interesting, I struggled to find a ZX81 program to share. Plus, it was getting close to the end of the month. Digging into my old notebook, I stumbled upon Missile Defense. Although short, I expanded it into a something worth playing. Let’s dig deeper.
I got around to logging into Myspace again today. I never really used it in its original incarnation. Truth be told, I wanted to know what it was before when my daughter signed up for an account. Although I’ve known that it was more of sharing space for music now, I hadn’t spent much time with it. That changed today.
I haven’t cranked out pictures as much lately. My intent was to work on my writing this month, but life and work intruded. Uninspired to write last night, I searched for something new to render. This cute little LEGO creature offered me a nice diversion.
July 4th is bitter sweet for me. I’ve always enjoyed the holiday with its fireworks and celebration. Food, fair and patriotism mix for a usually fun day. Yet, my wife’s mother died on the 4th, making it a day of remembrance and sadness. Time to find something to take my mind off it.
As June winds down, I find myself reminiscing about writing month’s program. 34 years later, I still remember the glow of the TV as it lit the notebook in my lap. Although I have fond memories of Tic-tac-toe, time isn’t as kind to it. Let’s dig in.
Each month I check to see what the latest LEGO mini build is. Since I don’t have a local LEGO Store, I often build and render them using virtual bricks. This month, I only needed to render it as as mathieub already built it. Yet, I decided to give it a little character.