2010 in 3D

I have not posted anything on Blogger since I first created this Blogger account. The reason is that I do most of my online writing directly onto my website. But as time goes on, I am trying to keep my site less "personal" than "professional". As such, I have been considering sharing my personal side on alternative websites such as Blogger and Facebook.

For the most part I have been spending my time developing Webonizer in the last several years. Recently my partner and I have started the development of Webonizer 3... a complete overhaul of the Webonizer CMS. This version is a remake from the ground up--almost no code will be from the original Webonizer. The reason this is good is that Webonizer has been a continual project for almost a decade... and much of the code is built on old code... layered and layered into what is currently Webonizer 2. Starting fresh will optimize and streamline the entire codebase not to mention standardize the entire system.

In my spare time I have spent a lot of time working in 3D Studio Max and Mudbox. I recently discovered the wonders of Nurbs modelling (using nPower's Power Nurbs). I have also been remaking some of my old Counter-Strike maps. I remade de_tension for Counter-Strike: Source. I am currently remaking de_sacrelige (now renamed de_sacrilege); this map is my first being entirely developed inside of 3D Studio rather than inside Hammer (thanks to the Convexity plugin from Maple 3D).

One thing I want to plug is Pete Draper's Deconstructing the Elements with 3ds Max. That book is invaluable. What's more is that the book also gives you access to online tutorials that are easy-to-understand, practical and extremely educational.

I have also updated my design machines to Windows 7. Although I think Vista was much better than the popular media claimed it was... Windows 7 is really nice. When I updated my design machine I switched to 64-bit Windows and bumped up the RAM to 8GB. Now I haven't seen problems with running out of memory with tasks like complex particle systems.

That's it for now. We'll see if I "blog" again before a couple years pass...