New FFXI Desktop

Been a long time.

Friend of mine over at Not Artistically Strong told me to get off my lazy arse and post some new stuff, so I guess I'll start with this latest desktop. I'm half tempted to put it on a t-shirt too, to elevate my geekdom to epic levels.

New FF11 Picture - The Corsairs

Corsair.
My new job on FF11. Been at it for some weeks now, and I've hit level 47. To celebrate my liking for the job, I felt it was time to craft a new desktop. Like the group image a couple of posts down, the Modelviewer, Metasequoia, 3ds max 6, and Paint Shop Pro 8 were the tools. I experimented a little bit with Lense Effects on the rendering, which I'm mostly satisfied with, though I'm most pleased with how even simple lighting can bring out the depth in the in-game textures.

An Unexpected Guest in Besieged

Date: 26th June
Place: Al Zahbi ~ Siren Server ~ Final Fantasy XI
Event: Besieged against the Troll Mercenaries (Level 8)

The shouts go up, about two minutes into the fight.

"Eidolic Qufeel Ja. {Found it!}"

This struck me as odd for several reasons;

1). We were fighting the Troll Mercenaries.
2). We were not fighting the Mamool Ja Savages.

So I headed over to the area around the Al Zahbi Chocobo Stables, where he had been reported. And this is what I found;

FFXI Group - March 2007

This is a little piece I've run together for a friend. It's a group shot of characters from FFXI, and it's the static group I am a part of. Mieck is the one taking it easy sitting down. Left to right, the rest are Draucent, Ignavus, Yumesama, Lexikatt, and Eriston. Oh, and Fenrir the wolf is there as well.

Tools were a combination of the FFXI Modelviewer by Phabin, Metasequoia, 3ds max 6, Paint Shop Pro 8, and POLUtils.

A lot of the base work is actually getting the models into the right poses, which takes a lot of searching through the Modelviewer animations, frame-by-frame. The sitting pose is actually a freeze frame of the Great Sword weapon skill "Ground Strike", whilst the raised Elvaan fist is actually part of the /angry emote. Next step is to get to grips with skeletons and rigging in 3ds max, so I can start doing some custom poses, and eventually, some animations. The work was done in fits and starts, and probably would have taken less than a day to complete, but a variety of factors (most notably FFXII which is consuming a lot of time), dragged it out over a few weeks.

Current Project - NX-01

I've always loved the ship designs from Star Trek. For me, the classic saucer/nacelle combo devised by Matt Jefferies just blows other spaceship design out of the sky. Next point is, I must be one of the only people who actually liked Enterprise, in spite of all its flaws, and mangling of Star Trek history. Suffice to say, I recognise that it wouldn't have been possible to do a Star Trek series without the Klingons showing up, or some of the other familiar faces. The thing I loved the most about the series, however, was the NX-01 itself.

I do not agree with this, for instance.

So, I've been busy on this project for about 3 weeks, now. Everything is being made from scratch. No meshes modified from pre-existing sources and no pre-made materials. Current file stands at 29,000 polygons, give or take, but heavy optimisation has yet to be carried out on the nacelles, which are very greedy triangle-hogs. It isn't an exact model. Some details are moved, some geometry is smaller or larger than the the "real thing". Some changes were made for ease, other were made for design reasons. I picture that this is the NX-01 at the mid-point in a ten-year lifespan, following a major refit and slight rearrangement of internal and external layout.

Opening Post!

I guess this is more like a collection of random thoughts on various subjects, rather than a coherent blog. The thoughts will range from games, via games, and back to games. Playing, designing, development, and enjoyment of games. Perhaps a bit of sci-fi on the side, as well. Besides all that, the primary reason for me creating this space is to showcase my 3ds max work in a way that allows me to comment on the development of the scenes and assets.

I have some practical experience in the field of games, both through my university course - Games Computing (Software Development) at the University of Lincoln in the UK - and my time as a games tester at Babel Media in Brighton, UK.


The name Mieck in the title is in reference to my Final Fantasy XI avatar, a Mithra by the name of Mieck on Siren server. It's pronounced ME-ECK. A bit like a cat coughing up a hairball, if you say it fast. In addition to the 3d work I'll include here, and the ramblings on games design, I'll also be keep a section on Mieck's progress through the virtual world of Vana'diel.

Ok, that's enough for now. Guess I better start actually setting this place up.