Whitecliffe MFA works and Research Questions

This is one of the first posts dealing with my Master’s Degree blog.  This is a portion of the final grade rather than the final dissertation.  I look forward to adding commentary, images and musings about my research subject moving forward.

Hello world!

Welcome to WordPress.com. This is your first post. Edit or delete it and start blogging!

new blog

http://www.portergraphic.com/

This is where my new blog is going to be located.

It’s going to take me a little bit to get used to WordPress, but I am sure it won’t take too long.

I am hoping to have some new stuff to show soon.. as well as some thoughts about what I am going to be doing in the near future.

 

Thanks

-Porter

Times they are a’changing

Big changes coming soon…  Still no prospects currently in the game market, however I am working on some things that I hope will come to a happy conclusion soon.

Also I will be moving away from this blog space to my own in the very near future.

 

I have decided that if I am not an MS employee, then perhaps I should take my ramblins elsewhere.    I will post a link on here once I have the new site up and running.

I am also planning on getting the tutorials back running again.

 

Sorry for the delay in all this.  Job hunting has been my top priority, however I also want to remain active in the train sim community as best I can.  You are a quality bunch of people and lots of fun to talk with.

 

Thanks again for your support and interest. 

Something I never wanted

Well, as you are all probably aware, Train Simulator 2 is no more.  I wish there were a way to continue this effort but without a huge angel investment I am not sure something like that could happen easily.

I never wanted to stop working on something that I was passionate about or felt so strongly about how it would be received.  It was going to be awesome.

Once I figure out what I am doing and where, I will try and keep this thing more up to date. It’s been difficult to write on here with the knowledge that we were losing a battle, so I stayed away.

Now I should be able to go back to what I was doing before.. and that is tutorials for general art related stuff. 

If you have a tutorial on a specific subject you would like to see.. feel free to tell me and I will do my best to get one done.

Thanks for sticking it out and waiting to hear more.

-Porter

Really.. I am still alive

Things have been extremely crazy for me lately and we have been super busy. so sorry for the lack of updates.

I recently returned from Texas.  My Dad recently had a stroke so I was down there to help out.  Being out of work for two weeks is weird and now that I am back it has reminded me that I wanted to try and keep this blog up.

At first it was very easy.  I was ramping up into learning a new job, so I had frequent bouts of down time while waiting for my next indoctrination into the engine and tools, however now that I am up and running it’s hard to take time out to do anything else.

I apologize for not following through on the commitment I made on this site.

I am still going to release a demo of how to get the locomotives built and into the game just as soon as we release and I have had a month of recoup.

Hope everyone is doing well.

Wheel chrome

Some of the forums that I visit were talking about how the wheel chrome didn’t look quite right.  I had always intended to replace the default chrome and was ready to do so before the National Train Show. 

Well laid plans aside, I was unable to get the new chrome look into the game.  So I am going to show it here.

I am not sold on the way it looks now and I may have to go tweak it more, but this is the newest incarnation.

I am hoping that once we get the lighting model into the engine I won’t have to force the silver bands on top and bottom to be less bright.  We will see once we have that in.

Back from the National Train Show

I recently got back from the National Train Show where we finally had a public hands on demo of Microsoft Train Simulator 2.

I must say I am completely jazzed by the turnout and the feedback.  Below are a couple of shots from the show taken by Keith Thompson.  He is one of the guys on the team.  You may or may not know him.  He used to be the editor of Model Railroader Magazine.

 

In the top picture my back is to the camera and the bottom picture I am the one facing the camera talking up a storm.

The pictures were taken during a setup of the booth.  Vendors were coming over because we had the bass speakers cranked and the diesel engines were rumbling.  You could feel the vibration of the engine noise all the way across the hall. 

Soon I should be able to get back to more posts and responding to people in a much more timely manner.  Getting ready for a show is always stressful and busy and we have one more big one coming up.  Hopefully I can get back to doing tutorials and demos soon.

Private art

Every once in a great while I get to do my own art.  Being a lead is sometimes frustrating because you spend more time critiquing and less time doing.  I decided to learn ZBrush.  I have always puttered around with sculpting, but I spend so much time at the computer I really didn’t have the time or the space in my house to devote to sculpting.  Zbrush is great because it allows you to sculpt digitally and takes up no more room than the computer you already have.

Here are a couple of celebs I decided to sculpt.  See if you can guess who they are.

I had a great time doing these and I think I will be doing more really soon.. when I have spare time.

Thanks for looking

National Train Show

Hope everyone is doing well.  It’s been crazy here at work.  I have been crunching to get as much done as possible for the show.  If you are at the show in Anaheim be sure to stop by the Microsoft booth and say hi!

I found this link and wanted to share

http://www.darkroastedblend.com/2008/05/extravagant-designs-by-luigi-colani.html

Take a look at the model of a futuristic coal dust powered steam locomotive.  I wish that thing had been made.  it’s a great piece of art.