Blogs - chakotay02

And its once again been ages since I last made a post here. Over a year this time. Not that people actually read this, but for me its a nice place to list my thoughts.

Well, looking at my previous post I can see that I finished almost everything I had planned. I'm currently working on tons of interesting things as well. First off; I have not forgotten my Zion recreation. I've been working on that, though a lot less then I would have liked to. I contacted one of the modelers of the movie to ask for additional renders, which he gracefully accepted. So I managed to work out two more models. Including the most difficult one so far; the Vigilant. I just need the time to finish it and the Ganesha. I also created the dock doors and added some minor details to the dock as well. But when those two are done I've got 13 hovercrafts done. So just two more and I could update some of the old pictures.

Alright, besides that I've been teaching myself how to work with Terragen 2. Its a great program for easily creating awesome landscapes. I've been using it to create some awesome art. Currently I'm working on a photoshopped recreation of Republic City from Avatar: TLA. And speaking of Avatar. In 3ds Max I'm working on making a Total War kind of map of the Avatar:TLA world. I'm working on creating all the major locations and adding them on the map.

I'm also photoshopping a Halo inspired hall, a real-life Momo, a real-life Gorillaz island and I'm working on creating some Asian temple islands. That last one being a mixture of 3ds Max and Photoshop. And once again I didn't manage to work on Blast from the Future even though I'd love for that to be finished.

And speaking of things I didn't work on; Halo: Fleet Command. I really tried a couple of things and times, but Nexus is somewhat ... primitive and I'm just not that great with scripting. I'm not saying I'm giving up, but help would be highly appreciated. If not just plain necessary. I don't wanna give up on so much work done for so long, but right now it seems like I'm dead in the water.

Alright, that's about it for now. I've got a lot more planned, mostly photos, but first lemme finish up the following things:
- Ganesha
- Vigilant
- Avatar map
- Halo photoshop project
- Republic city
- Momo
- Gorillaz island

And after those are done I'll be working on:
- Warthog
- Vishnu
- New photos

And who knows what else will come by in time?

For now, ciao!
Abyssinian

Wow, its been a while since the last time I posted something here. Since then, a lot has happened and been done. Mainly photos though, so little that could be posted here. But there's also some H:FC work done.

I finally released the H:FC trailer, which was done with a lot of help from my friend, Old Dragon. I couldn't have done it without him. I did find it a shame that I had to release that update with missing the final Covenant model for now. Though she will be included in the upcoming update with the final UNSC models. Well, also for now. There's still the wildcard round so who knows which ships get added in later on. After this is all done though, I don't plan on adding any more ships. First I need to up the quality on some of the older models and their textures as well as getting them all ingame.

I've also got to keep up with creating hovercrafts for my Zion recreation. I'm currently working on the Brahma which is nearly done. After that the Ganesha and several more. I'll update the image I have on here again once I reach 15 hovercrafts and have fixed the gates.

What I'm currently cooking up:
- UNSC Infinity
- Brahma

What's on the agenda:
- UNSC repair/refit station (two versions)
- UNSC staging station
- ONI Point of no Return
- Ganesha
- Military hospital

On a final note; I would really like to work more on Blast from the Future, but I've just got no time for that at all. Hopefully once I've done all of the above I can make some time for it. That would be nice.

Today I've officially ended an era. I've released H:FO to the public in a final release. I just couldn't find the time anymore to work on it. My own mod, my many side projects, friends, school and work are just taking up all my time.

Now that its over, I can focus solely on my upcoming update for H:FC, which, hopefully, will be done around Christmas. I've got Old Dragon, an old friend of mine, to help me out with the trailer, meaning I'll have more time to focus working on the new Covenant models. I've finished modeling 2 already, but that means I've still got 3 more to go. Not to mention having to texture all of them. With about three weeks left, time is running short. I'll simply have to schedule in more time to work on it. I did manage to hardpoint almost all the ships that'll be in the trailer this weekend though, so hopefully I can remain this productive during the week. If so, I should be able to get things done in time.

I've also been doing a lot of things for my portfolio lately, which I'll have to put off for now I suppose. Which is a shame because I was working on something really nice and cool. But oh, well, I finished some pieces already.

I suppose it all boils down to this; I need more time. Either no school or just more hours in a day would be awesome for these next three weeks.

In short; upcoming:
- H:FC trailer
- H:FC update with the final 5 Covenant models

Hmm, I have thursday off and I was planning on spending it modeling the final model for the upcoming update. After that I'll UV unwrap it and also make the variants. Then put a quick but decent texture on her. By that time I musn't forget to send CanadaMan a copy and once again bother him about getting his Beta :P He keeps forgetting which I can't really blame him for cause I forget most things rather quickly as well. :P I hope that this model gets a long way if not completed this thursday and then I hope I can post the update soon. I hope within a week or two.

Anyway, I had an audition for a voice actor today. Her name is Erin and she's awesome. I'll be writing a part for her in campaign. I could definatly use a talent like her. Unfortunatly there's still so much work yet to be done before I will start on the campaign. But its nice to know I can count on her to help out.

Then once again there's something that pisses me off bigtime. Before when I searched for Halo on moddb here at the mods section my mod Fleet Command would come up on the first page if you hadn't chosen a way to sort your search results. For some reason I've been bumped to the second page :/ And if it were for a decent mod or something I wouldn't mind that much. But I update once a month, have a number of followers and watchers and still there are mods that updated 2 years ago for the last time or the complete opposite and have just come into existance. What's the deal with this? I find it rather distasteful. I work my ass off to get a decent mod and I get bumped to the back? I know its not complete random sorting because I always get to the same location (the second page! :/ )

Then one more thing to bitch about. Where are suddenly all these Halo modders coming from and why are they all creating a mod of their own? Couldn't they have joined an existing mod and helped out? Did they really have to start for themselves? Don't get me wrong btw, I'm really happy there are more Halo modders. Its nice to expand the community, its just a little frustrating that I have had to do this mod completely on my own because no one was willing or capable to help out and now all of a sudden they're starting their own Halo mod? It sucks to be working on a mod alone now and then and you do need perserverance to keep doing it. Its why a lot of mods have failed.

Hooking into the previous piece is this. There's a new Halo mod right now for Generals called Halogen the resurrected mod. Now I think we all remember Halogen and would all like for its cancellation to have never happened, but, it did get a cease and desist. Still the people of this mod are using the old Halogen content to create a new mod (brilliantly indicated by its name) Now am I the only one who thinks that's just asking for trouble?! Not just asking, almost shouting. As soon as this mod gets big it'll probably reach the attention of Microsoft and they'll most likely step in. I know there are people over at that mod saying: "Ha, I'm a law-student so I'll help out if they sue" but what does he think he can do against a crack team of lawyers from Microsoft? Does this mod stand a chance if it goes to court again? No! The desist part of the order says it all really. Now I don't care if some people want to make a Halo mod for Generals, I encourage it, but use your own material and don't call it Halogen :/ Should this mod get cancelled again I can already predict that the exact same thing will happen as last time; people making a Halo mod will be afraid of cancellation or a lawsuit so basicly most Halo mods will die out and the modding community takes another hard blow. I just really hope that either this mod doesn't attract attention or it dies out (I know that sounds bad coming from a fellow modder, but I think I explained my reason for this quite clearly).

On my way home I had a certain thing on my mind. I've had about 4-5 people who tell me that they want to learn how to use 3ds max and photoshop to learn how to model and texture and not long after I've given them links to the programs, communication drops to zero and I don't hear from them again. Now I understand that people can be busy, but 4-5 people in a row isn't a coincidence (something I don't believe in anyway) but a standard. I think that in future cases I will need to somehow make sure people are dedicated to learn. Maybe by setting some requirements; they need to get 3ds max and photoshop on their own and have msn and/or skype to maintain regular contact. I prefer to get an update of whatever is being done from time to time. Besides, from First Offensive I've learned that regular personal contact can lead to good friends. :)

Urgh, I've just started my internship and its taking up a lot of my time :( I don't have as much time to spend on my mod as I'd like. Tonight I've helped a friend with modeling a house so that's another night that I couldn't work on my mod.

I've got so many things planned and so little time to do it all in. First thing I need to do is complete some destroyed UNSC ships, a halfly-finished-Frigate and a new Frigate. There is some good news, Velo, the modeler from Homefront, has said he would model my Covenant CDJ Destroyer. He's a little busy for the moment, but after that, he'll help out. Which is really great for me as I already tried to make this model and failed rather heavily. I just seem to have problems with Covenant ships. Though hopefully I'll get beter at it, especially since the next 8 entries on my to-do list are Covenant ships. Granted, these will be easier models.

Another piece of good news, I contacted an old concept artist of First Offensive and asked him if he wanted to do some work for me. Which he agreed to. So I'll be getting a little more help. :) And then of course there's Tay, First Offensive's music artist. He produced some new songs and is allowing me to use them for my mod as well. I'll contact him and possibly I'll be able to include some in the next update.

After the destroyed UNSC ships are done, I'll start hardpointing some more units and contact Sebastien, the guy who offered to help me with the scripting part. Hopefully then the trailer can make some real progress.

I'm afraid that although I had three people who said they were interested in learning modeling from me, I've lost contact with all of them but one. And he is having problems installing 3ds max.

So, like always, there are plenty of plans, now I just need to make sure they actually happen. I hope I can release a new update with plenty of new items three weeks from now max.

That's all for now. Heading to bed because I have to get up early tomorrow. Hopefully this weekend will be more productive.

Ciao,
Abyssinian

Hmm, although I was kinda disappointed in my last blog as I believe people weren't that interested in my mod anymore, the last update received the largest activity since I started this mod. Quite some people watched the images and read the update. It was kinda cool to see. Although now I have to make sure I don't disappoint people with the next update. :P Though I'm kinda sure I won't. I should have two brand new Covenant ships done along with a piece of artwork made by me plus I'm going to be asking for feedback from you all on which two UNSC ships are the ugliest and you dislike the most so I might remodel them.

Anyway, I finished modeling the Ascendant Justice, but I'm not entirely sure if I like it or not. I suppose I'll just texture it and I'll see what you all think of it after the update and then decide on what to do. I'll start texturing her this weekend if all goes well along with starting on the second ship I'll present in the update; the CDJ class Destroyer. Oh yeah, I almost forgot, I'll also be adding a ship from Halo Wars that I hadn't made yet.

Anyone else seen the E3 presentation of Halo: Reach? It showed us that Halo: Reach will show us another Covenant ship, a corvette. It looks interesting but I might change the model once I model it as it has a weird ring underneath it that I don't like. And who knows, perhaps they'll show us even more new models. I've also seen a new drydock model so I'll also make that. I will still keep the shipyard I already have though.

That's it for now, just put my thoughts down here. Nothing special but it should give you all a little insight in what's to come.

Ciao,
Abyssinian

Hmmm, it might be me, it might be because I hadn't updated in a while or it just might be the fact that not a lot of people play Nexus but I had expected a little more feedback and comments on my latest update. I do wonder if people still find my mod interesting. I will of course still continue as I am mainly making this for myself (not to sound selfish but that is why I started it) but now I do wonder if I should continue adding updates here. Perhaps I should just drop this mod off here whenever its done and forget about this in the meantime. Idunno, I guess I had hoped to have more of a ... following, for lack of a better word.

Anyway, I guess I should also say something about what I've lately been up to for H:FC. I've finished texturing the Mako class Corvette and found that I only have three more ships to complete for the UNSC for me to have them all done. Although, having found an awesome not too long ago, I might add one or two more UNSC ships to the final list. After this I'll really have to focus more on the Covenant ships. I have a cool design for another Covenant Carrier, Battlecruiser and Corvette in mind, however, seeing as I already have two Covenant Carriers, I'm not sure I should still include the new Carrier. The thing with Covenant ships is also that I generally suck at modelling round shapes :P So they'll be more difficult for me. After these ideas have been completed, I'll start on the Ascendant Justice I think. It'll be the Covenant's largest and most powerful ship.

Hmm, I just remembered there are also some more civilian ships I still need to do. Perhaps I'll finish those before continueing with modelling the Covenant.

On another note, someone pointed out the other day that the CCS in my comparison chart is rather large and after checking Halopedia I noticed I had indeed made the CCS too large. So the CCS and the CPV will be a bit smaller on the next updated chart.