Now, as many of you know, I’m not overly eloquent.. I’m not a professional blogger like most of my counterparts.. especially when I get excited.. so please bear with me in this blog post as I rant and ultimately rave about why I’m excited about the next couple weeks..

First, I have to be upfront about this.. I’m going to be talking about Games.. that’s right.. What’s just around the corner?  Christmas.. and with that.. November and December have turned into BIG game release months.. there are several high priority titles coming out, like Skyrim, COD: MW3, Uncharted 3 and many others..

I, myself will not be getting Skyrim until it hits the “Greatest Hits” collection as I didn’t really enjoy Oblivion, I wasn’t going to waste 60$ on a game I probably wouldn’t like very much.  20$ however, I might part with to play.

The first game that has already hit the shelves but has me excited is U3.. We all know about Drake and his exploits.. th

is is the third game in the series, and probably the last unless Naughty Dog can come up with something SPECTACULAR for another sequel.  I would, however, love to see a live action movie try to be made (Yes, with Nathan Fillion in the role of Drake.. it’s a given).  I’ve heard this iteration of the game is a rehash of 1 and 2.. with a new story line.. For me.. that’s cool.. Uncharted is what got me into FPS games.. I’ve never been one to play FPS type of games, outside of the classics like Doom and such.  I resisted getting Uncharted for a long long time.. I bought it for a 9.99 special at Best Buy.. I figured.. 10$ isn’t so bad, and if I don’t like it.. I’m not out all that much.. Man I couldn’t have been more wrong.. The game was awesome, it lived up to the hype it got.. and it was one of the few games I have actually finished.. it kept me engaged enough to want to play it .. and had cut-scenes that, albeit there were a lot, weren’t overly annoying to the game-play.. gave you time to get a cup of tea or whatever.. Then came U2, and now U3.. I’m still in the process of playing U2.. so I won’t have a review of U3 until I get that finished.. And yes I will be getting Uncharted: Golden Abyss for my Vita when it’s released

Next on my list, and coming out soon will be the newest Assasins Creed, Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood.  Now as I said before, was never really into these types of games.. but Uncharted really did spark my curiosity for these games.. once again.. got the original AC on a special at Best Buy.. Same reasoning.. and let me tell you .. not only did the game blow me away, the visuals were breathtaking.. I love how it transported you back in time.. and made you almost feel like you were there.. I like it so much, that once again.. I actually finished it.. (or I have almost finished it, I can’t rightly remember these days).  I have also bought AC: II and have this third one on Preorder from our Gaming Overlords at GameStop, as they upgraded the “version” for free.  I’m really excited for this game, because not only did they add more and more content, the visuals are just getting better and better.. Once again, no review until I can get through AC and AC: 2.. yeah when I play series games, I actually play them in series..

Onward we go into my the next game that’s got me writting this post.  That would be, Zelda: Skyward Sword.  Now I’ve always been very vocal about my love for Zelda.. after playing it on the NES all those years ago (top down, 8 bit.. love it), I’ve always vowed I’d buy any Zelda game that was made.  And so far I have.. I just recently acquired Ocarina of Time: 3D and Twilight Princess.   Now will this get me to play my Wii more?  Only to play this and Twilight Princess.  Will this get me to buy a Wii-U?  Only and I stress only if there is a Zelda game that requires me to do so.. I do love Zelda, and that being said.. yes I had to buy the special edition with Gold Wii-Mote.. why wouldn’t you?  When Spirit Tracks came out (which I’m still playing BTW) I got a special Stylus from NOA, that was pretty darned cool. Now that I have explained my love for Zelda, I have to express my jealousy over Jimmy Fallon for getting this awesome pre-release of a link statue:
This thing is freaking awesome..and knowing that, I’ll probably never ever be able to afford the thing, but I do think it would look AWESOME sitting on my shelf.. I wish the Wii had a little better graphics chip-set, something that could do this franchise more justice than the blocky graphics, that I feel, are worse than the 3DS.. I’ll be definitely playing this (trumping all other games) when it comes out on Nov 20th..

Now onto my RPG’s.. Many people know that I’m a WoW addict.. I have quit it several times, only to come back and play.. I have bought the special edition sets of the last two expansions, and probably will for the newest one that’s coming out.. I mean pandas.. who doesn’t love ‘em?  With that we come up to is Guild Wars 2.  Yeah Guild Wars was a good game, but there was something about it, other than loosing my install discs, that made me just not give with the world.. I’m not sure what it was.. but when I look at all the trailers for the upcoming 2nd version of the game, it makes me squee just a little.. it looks like it will be a lot of fun, and will fill my  need to try “Another MMO” .. I know, it’s not in the upcoming release window, it’s sometime in 2012.. but I just had to mention it.. I don’t know much more about the game than what I ‘ve seen in game-play videos, so I’ll reserve judgement until I get my grubby hands on it and give it a good play..

Now, I know there are lots of other games coming out.. Inlcuding BioShock: Infinate, and yes I own the other two, that will tickle me a little to play, but they don’t have my attention like the ones above do..

Now wait, you might be saying, if you are such a big MMO person, where is  your gleeful rant about Star Wars: The Old Republic.. Well let me tell you.. I have never been a Star Wars Fan, so the story line isn’t probably to my liking.. and I was burned with the Rift Preorder (yeah that game was not my cup of tea, every once in a while I re-activate and play and promptly cancel again), but I will be playing this weekend in the Stress Test Weekend, so I’ll be able to see if it lives up to all the hype that BioWare and Atari have been giving it.. I hope it does… The franchise is strong and needed a good game, the last few for the SW Galaxy (pun intended) have been a pretty poor showing..

We now that you have fallen asleep .. I shall return you to your regular scheduled day.. enjoy..

So.. Zelda Skyward Sword is coming out soon.. and I was thinking.. I need a new avatar (possibly a new tattoo).. so .. I fired up my good friend Cinema 4D and got to work..

Took me a couple hours with lighting (I was never good at lighting) and came up with this.. Glen Southern helped me with a few sticking points I had with looping the knife tool.. found out I shouldn’t ever make hard points if I want to knife..

I had lots of fun making this and hope to make more in the future..

Here’s a few renders, plus the wires if anyone is interested.. please contact me if you would like to use the image..

Hello again everyone..

It’s been a while since I’ve blogged.. and a lot has happened..

I lost a dear friend that I worked with at TCR… Most of you already know how I felt about him and the hard time that came after his passing.. I’m now doing some work at Theatre Cedar Rapids that he did whilst he was there.  I only  hope to be compentant enough to fill a fraction of what he did.

Now with that being said, there’s lots to come this year.  This Wednesday (Jan 19) I go and turn in my application to be a Volunteer Firefighter.. I’ve always wanted to either be a Vol FF or a Reserve Cop.. this is the only one the wife would let me try.. So, here’s hoping that I get accepted.  The Station is close to my house, but serves a township (as most volunteer departments do).  If, for some reason I don’t get accepted, there’s another Station up the street some more that I can try to apply at, but who knows if one drops me, both might.. Here’s hoping

Lots of development already in the new year, so hopefully I’ll have some more info to share on that front too.

I will try to check in more often and let everyone know about the Firefighter thing here in the next couple weeks.

Once again.. now that a lot of my work is clearing up, and I have some extra time on my hands I’m going to get dirty with 3D again.. I know I know.. I start and stop it all the time.. but I need to do something creative.. and I need to get creative.. and what better way?

So.. my friends have all given me lots of good ideas.. I know LW and Silo pretty well.. Maya has always been my favorite.. so I might try that again.. as well.. I’ve been hitting blender  hard lately, trying to learn the new layout and quirks in 2.55 beta.  As well, a dear friend of mine is also tutoring me in Cinema 4D.. Currently I only have the demo, so I can only do so much, but it’s an interesting program and I do like that interface..

Hopefully here soon, I can show some tests from blender and C4D and get cracking on making organics, which I’ve never been able to do in any program.

For the future, I’ll probably focus on C4D more than Blender.. Blender has a great community and well.. it’s free.. but I’m really waiting for it to come OUT of beta before I really start to hit it hard.. and the 2.4 interface, I just don’t want to learn it.. the 2.5 interface is much better and I enjoy it more..

That being said.. The next few weeks I’m going to be tinkering and trying to finish a project I have sitting on my plate..

If anyone has suggestions as to what “objects” (hard model right now only) I should try to do .. remember 1) I’m a n00b yet still.. and 2) I don’t have hours to do this.. so smaller objects would be appreciated, hopefully around the first of the year.. I’ll be able to devote a good portion of my time toward this endeavour.