Dwarves should never be dainty of fist, okay?

Hello blog. First applications have been sent off. It’s nice to have the website more or less off my shoulders, and no current obligations looming over me. I should enjoy it, as I’m sure it won’t last long.

I have been:

Researching.
Preliminary budgeting. Car research. Keeping an eye on the job boards.

Tying up some loose ends in my NWN2 work.
There is a large handful of character clothing and items that are unreleased or need to be updated, so I’ve gone back and done some of that. Unfortunately, it’s total drudgery. Small, manual tweaks, and then export. Ho-hum.

Not unrelated, here is a dwarf in a top hat and a gnome with eyeglasses. Incidentally —and a total aside— the gnome is the best proportioned character model in NWN2. Click for a higher res shot, and compare him to the dwarf, who has strangely small hands and feet. His limbs appear tapered-off, making him look awkward and kind of wimpy. Several other base models, including the human, have this problem too.

Anyway, I’m about ready to move on from NWN2, as far as personal projects are concerned. Not because the dwarves have small hands, but because I can’t muster much excitement for it, as a game or a modding platform at this point in time. I’m hungering for something a little more creatively indulgent.

Installed and played through Portal. Finally.
Pretty incredible little game. I’m sure I have nothing new to say about it, but I’ll say a few words regardless. Its greatest attribute is probably its austerity. There are countless points at which a lesser developer might have wanted to add more —perhaps a health meter, or more guns/tools, or mobile enemies— but would have only served to dilute the overall experience.

Oh, and this blog…
I made some minor tweaks to the layout, and added some favored links on the side, because that’s an easy thing to do. There remains much to do though, like add a link back to my portfolio page, since most people will probably come through that way. Php is tricky to figure out though — what can I say?

Ye Olde Grande Opening

Ladies and germs, welcome, welcome to this humble internet abode. You’ll have to forgive that I’ve not tidied up yet. Don’t you worry though — as soon as I’m able, I’ll strip out the unnecessary side links and replace them with obnoxious embedded flash widgets. If at all possible, they’ll also play startling ‘beep’, ‘bloop’, and ‘click’ noises on mouseover. It’s called Web 2.0, get used to it.

So, I’ve decided to finally make an update here. My portfolio website is complete, barring any errors or minor rewrites I may want to do. I implemented the fourth and final embedded video earlier, on the Clay Golem page. This one demonstrates some of the model’s combat animations. I had wanted to use in-game footage for the combat video, but decided against it. The game refuses to use the supplied animation “event” tag file, so combat hits don’t quite register correctly. Instead I just did a bunch of renders in Max and stitched them together as well as I could.

My resume is effectively complete (though I should perhaps provide a .doc version), so wow, now I just need to compose cover letters.

Oh, I also wanted to touch on what this blog is ABOUT in this here first post. My goal is to stay informal and succinct, because if I let the tone become too formal, I’ll spend too much time composing my thoughts and probably never end up actually updating.

It’s unavoidable that I’ll be making posts about games, so another goal is to confine any criticism to a constructive and respectful tone. There’s nothing to be gained from dismissing other peoples’ hard work, especially if I’m going to be making a career in this industry.

Aside from commentary, I’ll use this space to occasionally dissect and explore my own ideas and thoughts. Or maybe I’ll just post funny YouTube videos. We’ll see.