To Blend, or not to Blend? That is the question...

LOL! looks like we're gonna have a board full of administrators!!!

Lokmer, what are your thoughts on the Blender Board issue?

 

Well, I woudln't be an Admin, I just would want to see our choices for the layout and all that nifty crap. =) I'm gonna go mess around in Blender now.

-Melvil

 

Well, here's my deal on the Blender Board issue:

I can go either with EZboards or with Coolboards. I must say I like Audioguy's layout much better than other EZboards I've seen. The color scheme is much easier on the eyes.
My major feelings in favor of doing a coolboard is twofold: 1) the polls are pretty nifty, and 2) I've got a front door to the page so you don't have to remember a long ass alpha/numeric name to get in in case you're at another computer where it isn't bookmarked. (and of course, I like being an admin...hehehe)

On the other hand, EZboards has those cool emoticons.

So, I prefer coolboards but I can deal with EZboards no problem. But, if we do go the EZboard route, let's make an HTML page front door with an easy-to remember address. Make sense?

Hey, another thought here (this just hit me). Let's make a website just for our little user group, and have galleries of stuff we've done (plus a place to swap .blend files). We can set up a public FTP account on it (homestead has this option), and keep the loging as kind of an open secret. If someone logs in and tries to hose things we can just change the FTP login and PW. We could do the front page as just sort of a gateway, one link going to the forum and the other going to the gallery and a third going to a links page for all of our individual web pages. What think?
-Lokmer

 

Excellent idea Lok - I love it!

BTW I think the appearance of AG's board is random - it's different every time I check...

I'm still having problems with the Coolboard connection timeouts and stuff...

Anyway, that idea is CERTAINLY worth more thought!

 

How's this (just did the front page, nothing else so far)
http://blenderwars.homestead.com/index.html
-Lokmer

 

heh heh..nice one Lokmer. Now all we have to do is Blend the title logo into 3D! it's a great start...

Us guys are hopping all over the place at the moment. The sooner we settle the board debate, the better!

 

I've sent emails to Saeed and Melvil granting them full editing access to the site (so you can design your own gallery page, among other things), and I'd love to have Audioguy on board, but I don't have his email address. Audioguy, if you are interested, drop me an email at lokmer@bigfoot.com and I'll get you a login. As soon as we settle the debate of which board to use, I'll link it up on the site.
-lokmer

 

I've sent emails to Saeed and Melvil granting them full editing access to the site (so you can design your own gallery page, among other things), and I'd love to have Audioguy on board, but I don't have his email address. Audioguy, if you are interested, drop me an email at lokmer@bigfoot.com and I'll get you a login. As soon as we settle the debate of which board to use, I'll link it up on the site.
-lokmer

 

Hey, thats a great Idea! I'll come back later and talk about that, but right now I jsut have a question for Blender. Like in Audio Guy's animation, how would I add a planet like that? Is it just a texture, or something special? Thanks.

-Melvil

 

Melvil:

http://www.blendermania.com/tutorials/tutor/theiceman/genoimagemap.php3

Try that. That should help you get a handle on how it's done.

This rapid-fire dialogue is fun!
-Lokmer

 

Huh? Rapid Fire Dialouge? Meaining.....(fill in the blank). That sounds like a really cool Idea guys!

I finnaly got everything working, and I just finished my first animation! It looks good too. One more question for ya, how can I add an engine glow? Any good tutorials ya got up your sleeve?

-Melvil

 

Melvil, That is something I am still working on. I created one for the shuttle, but I wasn't real happy with it. I added a semi circle of vertices sticking out the back of each engine. Then assigned a halo texture to it using colorbands. I know that is kinda vague and probably doesn't do you alot of good. You will find that my ability to explain things is not the best. Any ideas Lokmer?

 

Depending on the size and shape of the engine, I'll do either halos on a mesh or static particles. For bell shaped engines like those on an Awing or a StarDestroyer, I'll create a particle emitter out of a piece of the engine (usually I'll just seperate part of the mesh). The material will have a deep blue color with 1 white ring with a seed level of 5. No texture assigned. The particle settings on (for example) my A-Wing engines go something like this:
Static
tot: 500
keys: 32
Randlife: 1.248
Face
Bspline
Norm: -0.592
Ob: 0.520
damp: 0.152
Rand: 0.688

When that's all done, use the force settings to get the glow to blow the way you want it.
I know it's a bit technical, but does this help?
-Lokmer

 

Hmm...Not really. =) Thanks for trying, but I didn't really understand what to do. Ummm...How about Blinking lights? If they are easier, maybe after I do them, the engine glow will be easier. =)

-Melvil