Playing around with POV-Ray animation. This is LEGO model 367 Lunar Lander. I’m trying to be a bit more ambitious with camera sweeps, using easing functions and launching the lander into space!
Promotional Windmill 1976
I finally got around to trying my hand again at animating some of my virtual LEGO creations. I decided to go simple and animate the vanes and a simple camera pan for the promotional Windmill circa 1976. And, to really get my geek on, I uploaded it to YouTube.
5865 Mini Dumper
This is LEGO® model 5865 MiniDumper, part of the 2009 Creator series. I thought it looked really cool and was curious how close I could get to the original by building a virtual one.
Halo Reach Music
Bungie just released the snippet of soundtrack for the premier trailer: Lone Wolf. The iTunes purest in me couldn’t live with the default no album art found image, so I created one! Here is the Halo: Reach album art at 640x640. And no, I didn’t bother to add any text.
Reflective Fun
I’ve been using Reflection.js for some time now to generate reflective category images. I did this mainly to avoid having to create the reflections by hand. However, it has always had a bit of a lag when generating the reflections. This can be a bit jarring at times, but I’ve gotten used to it.
Fixing Code
I really haven’t liked the way the code routine displays on my blog. It adds a lot of white space and generally looks bad. To make things a bit nicer, I removed the Code: message, set the overflow to auto instead of scroll, and I removed the extra breaks.
Avoiding Index
One thing that always bugged me with using scripts is that you tend to see the script name. For example, this site has always had an index.cgi and most PHP sites have index.php in the links. I find it tacky and many commercial sites don’t do this. I don’t want to change my software, so there has to be a way around this problem. The search is on!
Looking Forward
It has been almost three years now running on my current web site design. Sure I've changed elements here and there, mostly due to changing underlying software, yet it is starting to feel a bit old to me. The problem to me is where to start. Is it color? Is it it form?
So Long GeoCities, Thanks For The Memories
Well, as of today my GeoCities site of the last 12 years is no more. I’m a bit saddened as it has been a place of comfort, seeing me through different ISP’s and such. It is because of GeoCities that I use Yahoo! mail, even if Yahoo! then turned around and removed the best features of GeoCities. I still feel that GeoCities was killed many years ago by Yahoo! and that it was only kept around due to its legacy. I’m not surprised by its shuttering in these times of Web 2.0 and the emergence of the Social Internet site.
LEGO and ZX81 Geocities Content Moved
Yahoo! will be shutting down Geocities tomorrow, 10/26/09, which means an end to my old LEGO and ZX81 website. Although I hadn’t updated those sites much since Yahoo! turned off ftp access, Geocities had remained my presence on the web for almost 12 years. Sad to say, it will be sad to see it go.
Power Station
I was playing around with World Machine and thought I’d add the height field to my Power Station image. I think it really conveys the overall scale of the scene. I also added a better star field that shows up under anti-aliasing (best seen in large version). Note that the image has been color corrected and converted to JPEG using Picasa.
Getting Comfortable With iTunes Home
I had read a bit about the new iTunes 9’s home feature. Unfortunately, trying to use it is a different matter. First off, using it requires you to log into your iTunes account. I’m assuming this is so you can transfer your old non-iTunes plus DRM laden music.
Spammers Unwanted Again
Well, seems a few resourceful folks are still getting by my spam filter. Not sure if they are real people solving the Captcha or something automated. My guess is that it is real people. I'm seeing only a couple of posts on random articles causing me to go hunt down and delete the offending stuff.
21005 Fallingwater
I’ve finished rendering 21005 Fallingwater in POV-Ray. Only 3 new bricks needed to be modeled so most of the time was spent inputing brick positions. I like this angle as it really shows off the waterfall.
21005 WIP
I don’t normally post “work in progress” but this one is pretty large and I wanted to show off what I had so far. It may not look like much yet, but I’ve finished my favorite part of the 21005 Fallingwater model: the waterfall.
21004 Guggenheim Museum
LEGO has launched a new Architecture line and I have to note that they are pretty impressive. So impressive, that I spent some time on vacation modeling the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in POV-ray.
Fun In The Rain?
Well, seems my vacation has run into a tiny bit of a wet spree? While where I left roasts in 100+ degree weather, I’m enjoying a balmy high 60ish rainy day. I can take comfort in knowing that at least I’m not at work.
Road Trip!
Well, it is summer and the family decided to “take it on the road” so to speak. Our day started late as I still had to work, but we were able to get on the road around 1PM. I thought I’d snap a picture while driving through Utah and share it with everyone.
Structure Synth Fun
Ran across some interesting images built using Structure Synth and rendered in POV-Ray. Thought it’d be cool to try some myself. I was playing some of the demo scenes, exporting them to POV-Ray for a high quality render. The image looked like hair and made me think LEGO minifig! I’ll definitely need to try some other stuff.
Nearing the End of an Era
Needless to say, one of the many reasons I started Reid’s For Fun was because of Yahoo!’s neutering of GeoCities: removal of ftp and a paltry 4.2MB hourly limit. It was, however, my friend in the hey day of Internet growth and I am saddened at its (un)timely demise.
Ivy Lizard
Seems my lizard has been covered by some minor growth. I ran across this great ivy macro by hobBIT while hanging around the pov-ray.org forums and had to give it a try.
Weather Service Userbar
Between blogging about digital TV (it’s all over) and playing Halo 2 (finished campaign on legendary) I’ve been working on a new dynamic userbar. This time, I’m generating a weather userbar showing the current conditions and temperature.
Almost DTV Time
Well, less than a day left and the old NTSC-M broadcast signal will almost be gone. I say almost because a few low power stations can still broadcast and I’m sure a few places will get by. But, by and large, it’s all over for our old analog receivers.
All Ready for Digital TV, Are you?
Well, two days left and I’m good to go for the digital TV conversion.
Safari 4 Impressions and Disappointments
Okay, Safari 4 is out, showed up in my update today. I was a bit surprised as I thought I already had 4 installed, but it didn’t take more than a quick peek at my existing Safari to realize it was the non-beta version. Like a kid opening a present, I quickly cut out of what I was doing and hit the Install button. A short time later, I was ready to load the latest experience. That was when disappointment set in.