Links and Further Reading
Links to interesting websites, blogs, radio, games, etc. A lot of it’s just cool/useful stuff I’ve found on the ‘net over the years.
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Personal
Hell’s Kitchen – My website / portfolio of mods and game design work.
YouTube – Baddieman – My YouTube channel
The Real World @ Levels 4 You – What is the Real World? The answer is out there. It’s looking for you and it will find you, if you want it to.
The Real World @ Moddb – Official TRW page at Moddb
Katana @ Moddb – Official Katana page at Moddb
Remedy /Alan Wake
Alan Wake – An intense psychological action thriller from Remedy, the creators of Max Payne.
The Official Alan Wake forums – Interested in finding out more about Alan Wake? Max Payne? Remedy? Or just want to meet new people and talk about games and stuff? Whatever does it for you, we have it.
The Alan Wake FAQ – The most comprehensive and up-to-date information resource on Alan Wake, brought to you by ADM and Morry.
Art / CG
DAZ Productions – DAZ | Studio is very underrated IMO — I guess because i) it’s new, and ii) it’s free. I ditched Poser for Studio a few years ago, and haven’t looked back since. Of course, you’ll get better renders in Max, Maya, and the like; but D|S has a quick, accessible interface, which is much more suited for casual / hobbyist rendering. With time you can get quite professional looking results; but as always, you get out what you put in.
DAZ are also leaders in developing commercial 3d human figures (Victoria, etc) for those, like me, who can’t model worth a damn (save for moving verts about a bit).
CG Society / CG Talk – Professional CG art website and forum. I’m nowhere near their level, but there’s tons of great information and resources available. Something to aim for.
Renderosity – One of, if not the biggest website for hobbyist 3d cg artists. Has an extensive gallery section and a MASSIVE freestuff vault.
Art Tutorials, Theories, and Book Recommendations – Superb resource for learning about any aspect of art – traditional or digital
Itchy Animation – Light Tutorial – Excellent tutorial on lighting
George Borshukov – Articles and SIGGRAPH papers on ‘virtual cinematography’ including how the photorealistic digital actors for The Matrix sequels were created.
Paul Debevec – Articles and papers on state of the art cg lighting / rendering techniques and theory, in particular HDRI and IBMR.
Steven Stahlberg – Hugely influential CG artist. Site has some excellent tutorials on shading and composition. I recommend his Human Skin Shading tutorial.
http://www.3dtutorials.sk/ – Many good CG tutorials here.
Los Angeles mental ray® User Group – Excellent (and easy to follow) tutorials on mental ray, and sub-surface scattering – I recommend the SSS skin tutorial with the gollum-alike character.
The Color Lab – There are more detailed sites on colour theory (on a scientific level), but I always find myself going back to this on. The colour scheme generator is particularly useful.
TV / Film
Derren Brown’s CH4 Mind Control Page – Lots of facinating information about some of the mind control tricks performed by Derren on the show, and a good ‘further reading’ section. I recommend the section on spotting the telltale signs that someone is lying.
[more coming soon]
Books
[My Books]
Games
[My Games]
Music
XMPlay – Very decent free audio player – can play almost anything you throw at it.
Highly Experimental – Excellent plugin for playing PS1/2 music
BBC Radio Scotland – Probably my favourite radio station at the moment – has lots of variety and doesn’t play the same stuff over and over. Each evening there’s a themed show specific to a particular music genre – rock, jazz, folk/world, country, classic, etc.
BBC Radio Five Live – Up All Night – At 1am Radio Scotland switches to Five Live for the night. The show ‘Up All Night’ goes on from 1am to 5am, with reports and discussions from around the world on a variety of topics — normally low key things, such as local events, rather than the major headlines. Has several weekly features, including Dr. Karl’s science phone-in and Cash Peter’s American TV round up. Also does the best coverage of the Super Bowl, and other one-night sport specials (e.g. significant boxing matches). For those grinding away the night, this is essential fuel for brain… …along with coffee, Caf-Pow!, Pringles …and more coffee.
Bob Dylan’s Theme Time Radio Hour – If Bob Dylan being a DJ for an hour isn’t remarkable enough; as the title suggests, each episode is based around a specific theme. [More info & Themes]
“The big ideas which form the intellectual agenda of our age are illuminated by some of the best minds. Melvyn Bragg and three guests investigate the history of ideas and debate their application in modern life.”
Intelligent discussion by people who know what they’re talking about — this is a fantastic radio show. Melvyn Bragg picks a subject, then invites 3 experts (usually academics) to explain what it is, and what we currently know about it. Topics include science, religion, history, philosophy, and culture.
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