D A L I F . C O M - 3D

Nearly there... nearly

nospam@example.com (Dalif) — Fri, 17 Aug 2007 08:06:57 +0200

Filing this under 3D as well, just for kicks.

I'm about to quit me job, ladies and in a broader sense gentlemen. That's right. Quit it. I'm fed up. Had enough. Sick of the very notion of going in to this place everyday. I've written my notice. Just waiting for the oppertune moment to hand it in. It's not gonna be pretty... I'm sure of it. It's gonna be met with, first of all, surprise. Then secondly it'll be met with slight anger, and all sorts of arguments will be put up. I'm prepared for all of them, and I don't really care about burning this particular bridge behind me. It's a shit bridge anyway. Sick of it to be honest.

What will the future hold for me? I dunno for sure. I've half typed out some applications. I'm trying out for a few gaming companies, altho I doubt I have any sort of skills they'll be looking for. Gonna stay in touch with a few of the blokes from this current job, and see if I can combine their forces with a few other friends of mine. Get a game going or something. That'd be pretty cool, to be honest. And that's sort of what I've wanted the whole way through. Make games. I'll be applying at a few hotels along the way as well. I mean, that's almost a surefire way to get a job (for me anyway).

Lastly, we got a new guy working with us the other day. He was hired as a salesman, but we all know nobody gives a fuck about our company, because our boss is a dick, so... he's gonna end up being another graphics artist in here with nothing but the most lame of jobs to do. I don't like him, of course. He's quite a bit older than me, which, as such, is fine. But he's just... I dunno what it is. He seems geeky in the non-cool way (yeah, there IS a cool way to be a geek). And he has his cell phone in a chord around his neck. So it's dangling in front of his rather large gut. Annoying! Sometimes he stuffs it inside his shirt, so there's a large sqaure outline of a cell on his rather large gut, poking through his shirt. Gaah. Also his beard is greying in an annoying manner, and his hair is combed back in an annoying manner. Hmmm... perhaps it's just me being fizzy with this job? Perhaps, but he's still annoying.. EVERYBODY IS!1111111111 It's quit time.

Another technologic era is coming to an end

nospam@example.com (Dalif) — Thu, 17 May 2007 00:26:23 +0200

Yeah.. I bought a new comp today. After having this bad boy I'm on now for just over 4 years, it's time to cave in, and fork out some dough for a new one. It's gonna be thousands of hertz of Processor goodness, coupled with some killer graphics, some nice memory and a spiffing case to keep it all in. Yup, the start of a new era. But I'm gonna miss this old one tho.. it's been like a brother to me. Always there when I needed it, and to be fair, I haven't had problems with it for years. It's the most stable install I've ever had. Runs like a doozy... most of the time. After a defragmentation of me old harddrives, I've gained like 40% speed back.

Anyway, the new box will arrive Friday, which means I'll be occupied for the weekend. I'm off work for 4 full days, and it's just needed bigtime. Just going to bed at night, and knowing I don't have to wake up at a specific time the morning after. mmmmm one of my favorite feelings in the world.

On a slightly related, but not really, note; I've considered starting to play poker, just so I'd have something to do when I was at home anyway. Online that is. But I'm not sure I'd enjoy it a whole lot. Also, when I get my new box, coupled with this new LOVELY monitor, hopefully I'll be able to do a lot more 3D modelling at home. And that's gonna be swell. Should keep me busy at night, I hope. I'll pot pics and updates on the gear, as soon as I've got it. Cheers!

The Goodbye Screen

nospam@example.com (Dalif) — Mon, 14 May 2007 19:29:23 +0200

I'm chalking this one down on a few categories just for kicks.

Anyway, I bought a new monitor the other day. So far it's been my 19" Samsung 930BF that I got for Christmas in '05 along side my old trusty Sony Trinitron 17". The 17" from Sony was the first monitor I ever bought while actually caring about what I got, and it's served me for 6 years now. It had a brief 1 year hiatus, where I thought I had lost it, but on the very day I was going to throw it out, I decided I might as well yank the backcover off, and have a look inside if I could fix the problem. Turned out, I was able to fix it afterall. Messing around a bit, I found a little fuse that I figured I'd try changing. Lo and behold, the monitor worked like a charm after that. But now, it's over... and I'm gonna miss it. Had some good times with that monitor.. good times indeed. Remember when I wanted to watch an episode of Scrubs, and the monitor played it for me? Yeah I remember too.. like it happened yesterday. Good times.

Anyway, the 226BW 22" monitor from Samsung will pick up where old Sony left off, and so far things are looking splendido. Found out tho, that I only have one DVI and one VGA exit on my gfx card, so.... when I buy a new comp, I need to make absolutely sure the fucker has two DVI exits.. because running vga on a nice tft monitor just doesn't quite cut it.

I'll post an image later on, when I've decided it's time to yank up the old cam and snap a pic. Got around to vacuuming the place, and I must admit, it sorely needed it. So now that I have a new monitor for working with 3D, step 1 in my masterplan to better my skills have been completed. Step 2 is a little more daring, as it requires me to fork out quite a load of cash, but I daresay it's for the best. Step 2 is buying a whole new comp. I'll update you guys on the specifics later on. For now, I'm gonna marvel at this gem... crystal clear image, crisp colors and a sleek design. Yeah.. I'm happy.

More praise makes Dalif a working boy

nospam@example.com (Dalif) — Thu, 26 Apr 2007 16:00:37 +0200

Had another customer at the office today. A guy for whom I made 2 exterior shots. It was some buildings they want to build and sell up north somewhere. Butt ugly if you ask me, but then.. nobody did. So I just modelled them. As usual, Jakob had nothing but badmouthing left for the project. And while it was kind of ugly, and I know he's only joking, it was still nice to hear the client be very happy about it today. Had a few points he wanted to do, and then we talked about adding some more stuff... but overall, he was pretty happy. That's two strikes for Dalif.. let's hope he can go for the shutout.

On a completely seperate and unrelated note, I wanted to show off my recent tweaking of foobar2k, a music program a la winamp I recently installed. It's open source and has a lot of cool features. Special thanks goes out to Grue for giving me a hand in configuring it. It's not completely done yet, but I think it's pretty damn nice as is. Anyway, that's all for now. Enjoy!

Portfolio Upgrade: Borupshave

nospam@example.com (Dalif) — Wed, 04 Apr 2007 12:24:01 +0200

Just finished the final touch on my latest job at work. Check it out in my gallery, or go directly there by clicking here.

Work taking a step up

nospam@example.com (Dalif) — Fri, 30 Mar 2007 19:35:35 +0200

I've been complaining about work a bit on here before, I think. And with good reason (if I do say so myself). It's been about as much fun as a kick in the groin to work there the last 6months. And while it's still only beginning, at least I was assigned to an actual job the past week. One that was concluded for my part today. And the best thing... the people who were paying for the images loved them. They didn't have a single problem with it. I was amazed, and proud at the same time.

Jakob, my mentor in there, was doing the actual presentation. He's a good guy, but he has a habit of being too negative. I know he's joking most of the time, but when you hear your work is shit for the 5th time in a week, it still sort of gets to you. And yesterday, I had forgotten to correctly configure the cameras, when I send the pictures off our renderservers, so they were basically unusable today. Fair enough. So we had to go with the renders from the day before, that, while fine as such, weren't exactly how we had imagined them. But that turned out to work to our advantage. The people from the real estate agent were awestruck with the images, and the realism. I guess that's the cool thing about doing something that not a lot of people can do. They are almost always amazed by your work.

It took away a lot of the selfdoubt I, unfortunately, am prone to feel. When I looked at the images, I felt they were dull and boring, and just plain ugly. I didn't feel like I did them as well as I should've and that the others working there could've done them better. So hearing people being overly excited about my work, really gave me a confidence boost. It was damn nice, to be honest. And I couldn't help but feel a little gleeful towards Jakob. I never boast or gloat, but I couldn't help smiling and sort of wanted to say: see.. they did like them afterall. But I didn't. That's not my style.

I'll upload the pictures to the gallery when they're completely done. On a related note, I just got a note from my boss that I'll go up one notch on the pay-scale come April first. That's good news, if I've ever heard any :)

A whole new world, and I'm falling behind.

nospam@example.com (Dalif) — Sat, 10 Mar 2007 03:09:28 +0100

This comp I'm on atm, writing to you all my delightful and insightful posts, has been with me since spring of 2003 (roughly). It's been a good friend in my hours of despair, and helped me accomplish a lot of things. But sadly, I fear our ways may part in the not too distant future. Was introduced to a new program at work today, one that I had heard about, but never tried. It's called Mudbox, and it's an excellent, small and easy to use tool for doing fine tweaking and dynamic 3D modelling. I exported an alien hand I had been modelling to the program, and started getting things into shape. Made a somewhat realistic looking hand into a very true to life hand, with wrinkles, crinkles and curves and what have we. I was very surprised at how easy this program was to use. Now, my comp at work is a piece of shit. It's the worst comp in the entire company. Not sure why I ended up with it, but there we are. However, it was able to run this program and have me model the hand, with no problems. The same can't be said about my home comp. And since I can't hardly model anything in max on this comp either, it's nearing an end for my friend here. Sad as I am to say it. Now all I need is somebody/thing to finance a new comp. I'm gonna need a fast and powerful one, since I'm reading up on animation, and ideally will get started with that soon. And I'm also considering a larger monitor.. a good 22" widescreen would do the trick.

Oh the dreams...

Tossers

nospam@example.com (Dalif) — Fri, 12 Jan 2007 10:00:25 +0100

Damn other people can be annoying sometimes. I hate being asked to do something, that the person who asks me knows I've not done before, but still expects me to work fucking magic, and just allakazham a finished product up in 5minutes. I mean, sure I'll do it, because it's nice to try new things, and learn. But it's not nice when the learning curve is 5minutes, where it should be 2 days. And what really bakes my noodle is, when the guy who asks me to do stuff acts like it's the easiest thing in the world to do, and the only reason he isn't doing it is because he's busy doing something totally irrelevant and pointless. When everybody knows it's really because he can't do a damn thing himself.

But, alas, I managed to finish it, and I'll display it here later on, for the world to see. It's by far anything amazing, but it's the first one of it's kind I've done, so that counts for something. All great people had to start somewhere, you know :)

First day, new life

nospam@example.com (Dalif) — Mon, 02 Oct 2006 09:48:21 +0200

Yes! I am no longer a student of 3D, but a full blown 3D graphics artist with a job. That's right folks, today is "graduation". In other words, today I work for pay, and not for pleasure... ok that's perhaps not the best way to put it, but what I mean is, I work now.. work. For money. End of the month, I will no longer be extremely poor. I'll be a guy who just doesn't have a lot of money :)

It's nice to know tho, that from now on, things will improve financially. It may be hard, seing as there is a lot of work to be done, and I'm still not as experienced in 3D as I'd like to be, but again... life's a work in progress, is it not? And while I'm not a student as such, I'll hopefully never stop learning. And when I've mastered this particular branch we're mostly dealing with here, I'll ideally opt for different paths, like animation and moviemaking. That's there the real fun is.

Anyway, just a quick word, indicating that this day will mark the beginning of my "professional" life. This is the area of interest, I'll be dealing with most of my life. That's good to know somehow :) I'm gonna go out and have a few beers after work, to celebrate. Cheers!

Switcharoo

nospam@example.com (Dalif) — Thu, 28 Sep 2006 10:17:39 +0200

I was finally granted the right to a better machine at work. One that can render faster and more efficiently. I've used a decent, but still crappy computer for the last year now, and because I don't whine or complain much, it's been left as is. And I've not minded terribly. I don't usually mind when I'm not the first in line for new stuff. As long as mine works, I'm ok. But my co-workers, one in particular who whines a lot, got something new last year, so I decided I'd like to get something new now. Well not new, but better. I finally did two days ago, and now have the task to set it all up. That's fine as such, but damn... this comp I'm on now is set up almost perfectly, and there is no way I can transfer it all, without forgetting something or missing another thing. I hate that. Ideally, I could just copy the HDD and let that be it. But it's not the best way to do it. Thankfully, I found an extension for firefox, that allows me to transfer almost ALL aspects of my browser setup. Prefs, extensions, bookmarks, plugins, themes etc. etc... just transferred it now, and it it got 90% or so. So that's pretty cool. mIRC I can just copy over, gaim I'll prolly have to do a vanilla install. Ain't too hard. Total Commander the same, not much set up in there yet anyway.

If you ever need to move firefox around, I'd suggest using this extension. Works like a charm.

Aye aye aye...

nospam@example.com (Dalif) — Fri, 22 Sep 2006 11:42:42 +0200

Sheesh. With my upcoming full time job approaching, life is busy here at work. I'm getting more and more text assignments, and 3D modellings and I'm working with people from different companies. It's best noticed here on Dalif.com with a lack of updates. While I've had several things to write about in the last two weeks, everytime I'd begun a post on here, I'd been disturbed by some real work, and had to abandon it. Because I'm scatterbrained, I tend to forget the funny and insightful comments I wanted to make. Even right now, as I'm writing it, I forget one of the three main issues I wanted to discuss today.

One was my lack of updates. The second is this whole controversy surrounding Madonna and her tour. I don't get it. I really don't. Perhaps it's because I'm not religious. Not by any means. I've discussed that before back with the Mohammad cartoons. And again with the DaVinci Code. And now the Catholics are up in roars again, because Madonna is seen on a cross in her stage show. What the hell? Why can't they just see past the fact that it's a cross. I'm not really a Madonna fan either, but I mean come on. She's an entertainer ferchrissakes. She's a pop star. So fucking what is she's on a cross? I mean, what difference does it make? But now, the Rev. Don Wildmon is getting his little gang of conservative middle american morale-nazis (The American Family Association) together, to put a stop to a special NBC is planning to show with Madonna, because it includes a controversial number in which Madonna
is seen hanging from a cross with a crown of thorns on her head. The Reverend Don Wildmon is appalled because he thinks she mocks Jesus. Again, I'm not a Madonna fan, but at least she has the guts to speak out about her views on religion and sexualism. She may have done some outrageous things in her past, but at least she's stood by them. Not like snivelling little oh-so-holy Catholics, who pretend they are working for a better America, and that they have the American Families best interest at heart, when all they really want, is personal promotion, getting their own twisted views forced down other people's throats all the while keeping their multiple skeletons in their respective closets. They are all a bunch of god damn (pun intended) hypocrites. Just the name "Family Association of America" gets my blood boiling. I can't stand this total devotion to a cause that will put aside ALL other arguments as blasphemy towards an entity that nobody knows for sure if exists, and a man who lived 2000 years ago. It's fanaticism, and it's not good for a human being to be a fanatic. Nobody is able to control it. And religion, while helping some people, sadly corrupts many others.

I don't remember what the third thing I wanted to write about was. Perhaps it'll turn up soon enough :)

Oh btw, I just remembered one more thing. Just a brief recount of my weekend. Went to my grandma's birthday party. It's an annual thing, but had been moved up one week from all the other years, which meant my grandfather couldn't be there with his wife (grandma and pa has been divorced for 40 years or so, but remain good friends), which was a sad loss, as granddad is always up for some fun and games :) And my uncle couldn't be there either due to a busy work schedule. To top it off, Tessa wasn't with me this year (for obvious reasons) so I couldn't turn to her for support. My mom was there of course, and that was all well, but the missing of the rest of the family meant I was so much more aware of being socialphobic. I think I managed alright through the night, but I'm just so bad a chitchat. I can't focus, so I tend to keep to myself, unless spoken directly to. The table I sat at, which had mom at it as well, was a fairly good table tho, with lots of random and idle chatter, which I always like. Good people there. And I had a talk with Casse over the phone, before I went back to out sleeping quarters where I was lucky enough to catch the second half of Donnie Brasco on telly. It was good to see grandma again, and besides from having to move a lot of heavy furniture (physical labor is never fun, no matter how much sugarcoating to apply), it was a decent trip. Would have been ace with uncle and grandad there as well. But hey, we can't win 'em all, can we? :) And there's always next year!

Drops of water

nospam@example.com (Dalif) — Fri, 16 Jun 2006 16:44:50 +0200

Been fiddling with those damn drops of water on my can of coke for a while now.. I've finally gotten them to look like water, which is nice... but they don't show enough on the can itself. They are hardly visible on the brigth red Coke can. Perhaps I should try the Dr Pepper one again, see if that's better. I put a few on the table (drops of water), and I hope They'll look better there. I'm rendering it as we speak, and you can view it later on in my gallery.

Tessa wrote me yesterday, on msn.. and I replied, but she had left the comp. A few hours later, I send her a text. She had lost her phone right after we broke, and I wasn't sure she had gotten it back, but I took a chance. Turns out she had. We texted a bit. It gave me a warm feeling to know she's still out there. While I know she probably misses me a bit, it is still nice to hear it once in a while. You know.. just a reminder that it all matters a bit. Some people tell me I should get over those types of emotions... and while that may be the best solution, I'm not that kind of guy. Sure, I can be harsh and tough when talking to people.. I can see distant, even with people close to me. I can be snobbish.. and seem reserved. But I'm most of those things by choice. And that means I'm really a highly emotional person. And when somebody I've been attached to for 3 years almost on a daily basis... and felt... no feels very much for, interest, respect, friendship and above all love, goes away from one day to the next... well call me old fashioned, but that doesn't mean I can just put it down and walk away. I'm not that kind of person. and as such, it's nice to know that we care for one another... I think so anyway.

Oh well.. it's weekend now, and I have a nightshift tonight. It's the only one this weekend, as I traded my saturday one off for next Thursday, thinking I was gonna go to Tessa's birthday/graduation party. But, for obvious reasons, that was cancelled - at least for my part. So now I'm gonna go out drinking with mates instead. Sunday is still open. I have an offer to travel to a local island, Bornholm, to see the hotel that my dad and several other board members, bought some time back. Just a one day trip, to check it out. It's rather early in the morning tho, so I'm not sure I'll go. Depends on the saturday I guess :)

little o'dis little o'dat

nospam@example.com (Dalif) — Wed, 14 Jun 2006 23:49:48 +0200

Seem to have tagged quite a few categories on this bad boy, eh. Yeah well... don't go thinking loads of things are happening in me life, cos frankly they ain't.

But life does progress, however slowly, and I tag along. Yesterday and today I picked up a little slack when I decided I should model something that wasn't strictly connected with modelling apartments. But fortunately my mentors care little what I do, as long as it's 3D - relevant and good for practice. I decided to model a soda can, and I wanted to make it look really good and realistic, so I chose to try something new, altho something we'd be required to know later on; vray rendering for 3dsmax. So I modelled the can, which wasn't terribly hard, but still proposed a few hiccups. Adding material was tricky, but I managed, and the end result kan be viewed by clicking this link.

Besides this, most of my time is spend at home, messing with the server, listening to music and contemplating my life. Been listening to T. Rex - Children of the Revolution a lot lately. I dunno why, but the track just really touches something. It... Yeah I dunno, I guess it just sort of makes me think of the childhood I had... not that the lyrics makes any sense whatsoever. When I hear the song, I picture the 70s in my head, so that's not even relevant. It's just... it means something. Can't explain it.

The heat is pretty hardcore around these parts, and I'm sweating my ass off on a daily basis. It cooled off a bit today, during the evening, and they promised rain and thunder. Haven't seen any glitching yet tho, so perhaps it will be around come early morning. Would be nice to have the heat cleared up just a bit. Takes some of my concerns off my shoulders I guess. Bright side is, I've only got 3 shifts left at the hotel. One Friday, one next Thursday and one Fri. June 30th. Then that's it. No more hotel at night for me. Of course I'll have to figure out what to do instead. I might as well I guess, altho I'd fucking love not to work in the weekends. Frankly, I'm sick and tired of always having to go somewhere. And even then, it still seems like I never get anywhere. Funny how life is ironic like that.

Updates galore

nospam@example.com (Dalif) — Fri, 28 Apr 2006 02:31:56 +0200

Wow.. has it really been that long. Well I guess easter took its toll on me. Been working a lot lately, so I kind of got myself into a slack on this site. It is of course not my intention to close it down, so don't worry folks... it's merely a little lump on life's long straight line. Anyway, not really a lot has happened since before easter. But for updates on what has gone on, read along...

Continue reading "Updates galore"

I just can't stop

nospam@example.com (Dalif) — Tue, 11 Apr 2006 15:52:30 +0200

My third and final animation (for today). Inspired by Dolph Lundgren, the timing is once again pretty shit, but what the fuck... Enjoy
Continue reading "I just can't stop"