Free Martian

I have posted the current Blender 2.49 Martian Blend file for you to download on the Manga Gothic Media website. You can get it here Martian Blend file. Enjoy

March of the tripods part one

There is no natural reference from which to create a walking tripod, at least not on this world, so reference is a difficult thing. It's all in the mind and every adaption of this story has it's own way of walking. I personally am looking at a fluid, natural motion, almost graceful and animal like in it's movements, and the only way to achieve this is by trial and error. Rigging was the easy part, as really the tripod is the simplest of all the models for this production, animation however, well the next post will show the trial and error and you can judge for yourself

Blender 2.5 alpha is out, and cripes does it deliver!!

I'm not kidding. It's full of more pleasant surprises than I even thought possible. IK bones for splines (see right) improved bump mapping, smoke, fire, improved particles, modeling tool, faster and improved rendering, lighting, shadows... the list goes on and on.

It's an exciting time for this project, and my first order of business is the IK bones for Splines. Finally an improvement on the Tentacles for the martians. No more of this elaborate guess work or over stretching of the joints. Some might consider it an overhalu of work, for me I see it is a step forward to bringning you the best experience possible and I promise to do my best to be as every bit as good as the tools I am using.

Three Disks? Maybe even Four

Let me make no beef about it, The War of the Worlds is BIG project. I mean really big! You may think it's a long walk down to the corner shop, but that's just PEANUTS to this project, listen...

Okay Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy references aside, let me remind you that The War of the Worlds is a big project. But that in no way means your going to miss out on any of it. I have slated 3 disks for this project orginally, but the project has taken on such a life of it's own it's likely to take up 4 disks, and maybe even an extra CD for the soundtrack. So what will you get in these disks? Well bear in mind this is just the early planning stages, but here is a rough guide to what you will be paying for.

• Disk 1: "The War of the Worlds" The main movie, logging in a perhaps 2 hours long in two parts and with as many extras and Easter eggs as I can cram into one disk.
• Disk 2: "The Crystal Egg" The short 30 minute prequel to the the "War of the Worlds" including story boards and extras
• Disk 3: "The Making of The War of the Worlds and Behind the Scenes" This disk will cover the entire process behind the project as well as tutorials as to how the project was achieved, with special effects, texturing, modeling and animation techniques. It will also include an interview with the creator and hopefully the Blend Institute and the Soundtrack composer
• Disk 4: "Extras and files" From here you can access all the files used to create The War of the Worlds, including models, textures, animation files, as well as the Open Source Software used to create the film, including Blender 2.5 and GimpShop
• CD Soundtrack: The Official Soundtrack to the War of The Worlds
  

As you can see a lot of treats in store and we've only just begun, so watch this space for more information on the upcoming release.

Developer Meeting Notes: First official Blender 2.5 test build today?

Everyone is getting ready for the first official Blender 2.5 release. All indications are that this will be later today, or maybe tomorrow. Stay tuned!

Ton Roosendaal writes:

Hi all,

Most of meeting was about getting ready for the first official 2.5 test build, which should be released monday or tuesday.

Test build todos

• Special request from user: put back "emulate numpad" option. (Suprise at end of meeting, Brecht committed it!)
• Blender game player: is being patched with a 'stubs' C file, to solve all unresolved symbols because RNA API is using Editor and Windowmanager code. Needs solid solution. For after release.
• Meeting discussed open bugs. No showstoppers, but still enough work!
• Note: Campbell proposes to improve Python UI API names, they currently use too much of legacy C code conventions.
• First test build name: 2.5 alpha 0. After long debate! But there's a wide consensis to call it alpha, which is important too. :) Technically the release code is 2.50, next will be 2.51, hence the '0' or '1' behind the names.
• Builds are made by:
  Windows 32 and 64 bits: Nathan Letwory
  Linux 32 and 64 bits: Ken Hughes
  OS X 10.5 PPC 32 bits: Jan Devera (devroo):
  OS X 10.5 Intel 32 and 64 bits: Jens Verwiebe

Pending todos:

• Splash code (Campbell tries, Matt monday if needed)
• Splash design: A durian gfx is underway, will be last commit as usual
• Matt finished release notes

Other projects

• Brecht will commit tomorrow a new multires system, dumping levels as external files to the disk, freeing up a lot of memory. (And yes, bmesh future proof!

-Ton

The importance of Blender 2.5 to War of the Worlds

I cannot put enough emphases on how big a deal Blender 2.5.0 beta is to this project. In many ways the project was designed around the release of 2.5. It has more to do with it's feature list than it's new UI (which I'll admit I am both dreading and looking forward too). I am one of those artists which looks for features more than anything in a product and Blender 2.5 is set to break the roof. The War of the Worlds will eventually become a child dependent purely on the 2.5 release because of these features. Real time editing, new animation features, rumored automatic rigging, volumetric textures (can't underestimate this one) but more importantly an addition that means so much to the character of the story.

The Black Smoke. Yes I am going to admit to being very shallow here. The new smoke feature in Blender 2.5 is going to be one of the key tools required for the War of the Worlds project. In fact the Black Smoke is, perhaps, the weapon more feared than the Heat Ray. Before now, creating realistic smoke was the auspice of fine tuning particle emitters, but Ihave nevr been satisfied with the results of artificially "guessing" the frame work behind real smoke, and this is the core reason for Blender 2.5's imminent release. if anything I hope The War of the Worlds will showcase this feature to it's fullest. With fire, biological wepaons, cannon fire, hydrogen accelerator cannons, martian technology, etc, etc, you're going to see Blender's physics engine pushed well and truly to it limits.

Wallpaper for my followers

I thought is would be nice to give you all a gift from my work, to thank you for all your support. here is some wallpaper for your windows background. I hope you enjoy it