NX-47

Cymro, that is excellent work... and I like the substitution of the Menu key for the Windows key.

I had a thought... in battle conditions, perhaps the letters on the keys could be red (for low-light conditions as used in real battle conditions).

__________________
Kira: Well, now that you have another pip on your collar, does that mean I can't disagree with you anymore?
Sisko: No. It just means I'm never wrong.

Cymro

Sure, why not.

The hardest part of making it was the fact that I had to make something like 100 separate keys lined up in a special way, and then any changes I wanted to make would have to be done to all of them. Imagine you have 2000 polygons and you have to select 500 of them individually with your mouse just so you can move them a mm to the left. Pain in the ass. I also had a not so fun time making appropriately sized holes for the keys to fit inside. Then I had to create a texture for it which was more tedium (Push a key, align the character, deselect and repeat). The near photorealism certainly is encouraging (and helped by the presence of texture), but I still need to work some more on the surfaces with bump maps and dirt etc.

__________________
"Let me tell you something about humans, nephew: They're a wonderful, friendly people - as long as their bellies are full and their holosuites are working.

"But take away their creature comforts, deprive them of food, sleep, sonic showers, put their lives in jeopardy over an extended period of time and those friendly, intelligent, wonderful people...will become as nasty and as violent as the most blood-thirsty klingon."

NX-47

So Lightwave doesn't incorporate the ability to group opbjects together, and manage the group as a single entity? What a pain in the ass.

__________________
Kira: Well, now that you have another pip on your collar, does that mean I can't disagree with you anymore?
Sisko: No. It just means I'm never wrong.

Cymro

It does, but you've got to select them first, and without selecting the wrong ones, which is hard cause it's 3D space and polygons can be covered by other polygons. The other issue is that some of the tools are designed to work with continuous polygons, meaning you can only use it on one part at a time.

__________________
"Let me tell you something about humans, nephew: They're a wonderful, friendly people - as long as their bellies are full and their holosuites are working.

"But take away their creature comforts, deprive them of food, sleep, sonic showers, put their lives in jeopardy over an extended period of time and those friendly, intelligent, wonderful people...will become as nasty and as violent as the most blood-thirsty klingon."

Bean

lol, still remembering those old Romulan ships you made LOL!

__________________
"I haven't faced death. I've cheated death. I've tricked my way out of death and patted myself on the back for my ingenuity. I know nothing."

--James T. Kirk

NX-47

Cymro, do you have a gallery of the stuff you've done? If not, then please indulge us/me. I think this shit is cool.

__________________
Kira: Well, now that you have another pip on your collar, does that mean I can't disagree with you anymore?
Sisko: No. It just means I'm never wrong.

Cymro

I used to maintain this site with my creations, but it's all early stuff that was really fucking lame (like the Romulan ships bean is referring to). It hasn't been updated since the first quarter of 2004, and I didn't really do anything else until I tried to build the Enterprise for ST(R), but never finished, and this is the first thing I've done since them. Most of what I've ever done Lightwave or otherwise (even music) has been posted on this board:


link
link
link

I'm essentially learning this shit in my spare time and my recent acquisition of a faster computer has helped.

As for the keyboard, I've been working on the surfaces , so it now looks like this:

__________________
"Let me tell you something about humans, nephew: They're a wonderful, friendly people - as long as their bellies are full and their holosuites are working.

"But take away their creature comforts, deprive them of food, sleep, sonic showers, put their lives in jeopardy over an extended period of time and those friendly, intelligent, wonderful people...will become as nasty and as violent as the most blood-thirsty klingon."

NX-47

I remember watching your work evolve on the E... I still think it was a cool experience, getting to watch your work evolve, as well as your skills.

That keyboard is looking beautiful. I'm still amazed how software can simulate depth of field, 3-d textures, and multiple light sources. Are you planning on adding some wear to some of the keys?

__________________
Kira: Well, now that you have another pip on your collar, does that mean I can't disagree with you anymore?
Sisko: No. It just means I'm never wrong.

Cymro

It is amazing, but I guess if you can work out a mathematical formula for why bed sheets wrinkle, it makes sense that we can do the same with light :P.

Yes, though I haven't quite figured out how I'll be doing it.

__________________
"Let me tell you something about humans, nephew: They're a wonderful, friendly people - as long as their bellies are full and their holosuites are working.

"But take away their creature comforts, deprive them of food, sleep, sonic showers, put their lives in jeopardy over an extended period of time and those friendly, intelligent, wonderful people...will become as nasty and as violent as the most blood-thirsty klingon."

Closet Racist

Are those Romulan ships worth sharing with us? I remember seeing them somewhere back in the Dark Ages of the Astrobar but it's been a long time.

__________________