Nick Everwood
- Account Type:
- member
- Location:
- , USA
- Member since:
- September 17, 2005
- Last Login:
- July 30, 2008
- Last Update:
- July 30, 2008
- Bio:
Skills
- Primary Skill:
- Intermediate Gamer
- Secondary Skill:
- Intermediate 3D Artist
- Tertiary Skill:
- Intermediate Director
- Summary:
- If you dont want to read my History, just scroll down to the bottom paragraphs. Thanks for readin this to begin with.
In 8th grade, I met one of the main CG artists from Starshiptroopers 2. He introduced me to the Maya 6 PLE. As the year progressed, my friend and i both grew more and more advanced on the PLE using our schools iBooks. For my 8th grade project, I decided on a topic which entailed creating my own army. I modeled some (very bad) models of guns, tanks, and airplanes. They pretty much consisted of warped primitives.
Then, when I realized that I would just die after my laptop was taken away at the end of the year, I started saving up for a new one. Three weeks after school ended, I was back in business with a new iBook. I only had about 1200 saved up, so I got a standard 14 incher with OS 10.4 installed. I still use it to this day, though with a major upgrade in RAM.
I kinda lost track of modeling in the that summer after I had realized that I couldnt use the PLE for the game I was playing, ThinkTanks. Then, at the beginning of my freshman year of high school, I discovered Wings3d. I was amazed at how easily I could make models. Again, I was disappointed that it couldnt export into the DTS format, but I figured heck, just keep modeling! I then opened up a small account on the3dstudio.com. I was hoping I would be able to sell something.
By now, it was mid-March. I was praying that I would sell at least one of my cheapo models. Unfortunately, Wings didnt have the rendering capacity, and I realized all of my models looked even crappier than they were in real life.
Out of depression, I stopped putting a lot of models up. I realized that if i wanted to sell something, I needed a better program. In order to get a better program, I would need money- Lotsa money.
Around this time, the ThinkTanks community was starting to get a little annoyed with BraveTree. We wanted TT2, or some version of it that was upgraded. A beloved member of the community, Piasono, made a thread of PTT called TT2- Rolling our own dice. He proposed we try to make our own version of TT. I offered to do some modeling if they could get me a good 3D program.
Unfortunately, the attempt fell through, and the thread was lost in the void of the General forum.
However, that thread opened my eyes to the fact that there was one of the best game dev teams right in-front of me. We had Scripters, Skinners, Modelers and Map Designers, all in one place. So I made my thread in the Modding forum in hopes that I wouldnt attract the numerous noobs, and told my idea for a game. Within three days, my team was put together.
After dealing with some financial problems at home, we bought TGE in Sept, 2006. There was still the problem of finding a good 3d program for Mac. I narrowed it down to either Cinema 4D, or Lightwave. I was leaning towards LW, just because they had used in in Serenity (Good Movie), but decided to wait and see which commercial version came up cheapest first.
And so i waited...
And waited...
And waited some more.
Finally, one day I saw Lightwave 8 for only $250! I knew I had that much money. Unfortunately, the auction ended when I was at school. I asked my Mom if she would bid on it for me. I came home that night very disappointed. She had decided not to bid on it because it was an older version. I was mad, but knew she was paranoid. God, I am so happy she did exactly what she did.
Turns out she felt so bad, she actually called Newtek to ask if there was a cheaper version available. She ended up talking with the chief of the east coast marketing something or other. He asked if I had considered buying the Academic version. My mother explained that I knew it was illegal to use the AV for commercial purposes. That combined with the fact that I was only 16 seemed to impress him a great deal. He told my mom to contact SafeHarbor and ask them for a Companion version.
I was happy to have the offer, but knew the companion needed a serial of another program like MAX or Maya. He responded with a we will let it slide.
WOOOOT!
So we contacted SH and they said they would also be willing to include a very good tutorial, making my grand total about $500. I knew this would drain my reserve money supplies, but I also knew this was probably never going to happen again.
So here I am now, still learning the ins and outs of Lightwave 9. I have made great progress on my game in that past month, and hope to have a good beta out by late March, 07. I am also helping my friends at school with space scenes and other special effects. We are even making a Serenity spoof called Tranquility.
My current abilities are limited, but growing. I can do basic UV maps in lightwave, and some good architecture. I specialize in space ships/scenery, and love to do large, Star Destroyer-like ships with high poly counts. I am decent in photoshop, and can do some good flash animations. I am chummy with Newtek if that means anything. I can script VERY little, but I am learning more every day.
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