Zoobox: News

Zoobox

Lots of stuff
Wow! I hadn't realised it's been so long since I updated the site, shows what a busy year it's been; lots to talk about. Its been an eventful month during which I almost moved to London following an offer to join Hayes Davidson. In the end I was made an offer I couldn't refuse by my current employer, so I'm still with Nightingales but now in a dedicated 3D visualiser position with a team to recruit and build up. Sorry to the HD guys - it was a really close thing... (Turning down HD does have a certain perverse coolness about it - perhaps I should get a T-shirt made :D) I was also touched by the amazing number of friends that didn't want me to leave Cardiff - I was quite overwhelmed by the whole thing. So thanks guys - its good to know I have friends like you all :D Just finalised my bookings for Siggraph and the ArchiViz conference - all I can say is don't change your flight plans, I've been on hold for the last 20 mins while they make some changes but a very friendly woman on the other end so every cloud has a silver lining. See you all out there, I'm sure more than a few beers will be quaffed :D Finally I've got an internet connection at home (as well as cable TV) - its only taken me 2 years to sort that out. Now I have this I'm in the process of renovating the site and moving over from standard HTML pages to using Textpattern for content management. I can highly recommend this open source solution - its very easy to set up and very flexible by the look of things. Hopefully, you'll start seeing the results soon. Work on the MaterialConverter is still on hiatus but with my sideways promotion back into 3D and now that I have broadband at home I'm in a much better position to dust off the old code and finally get the thing finished. Theres a lot that needs doing to it to bring it back up to speed but I'm confident that the engine I developed 2 years ago is still good.
Matt @ 5/12/2006 5/12/2006 04:21:00 PM

Lots of stuff

Wow! I hadn't realised it's been so long since I updated the site, shows what a busy year it's been; lots to talk about.

Its been an eventful month during which I almost moved to London following an offer to join Hayes Davidson. In the end I was made an offer I couldn't refuse by my current employer, so I'm still with Nightingales but now in a dedicated 3D visualiser position with a team to recruit and build up. Sorry to the HD guys - it was a really close thing... (Turning down HD does have a certain perverse coolness about it - perhaps I should get a T-shirt made :D)

I was also touched by the amazing number of friends that didn't want me to leave Cardiff - I was quite overwhelmed by the whole thing. So thanks guys - its good to know I have friends like you all :D

Just finalised my bookings for Siggraph and the ArchiViz conference - all I can say is don't change your flight plans, I've been on hold for the last 20 mins while they make some changes but a very friendly woman on the other end so every cloud has a silver lining. See you all out there, I'm sure more than a few beers will be quaffed :D

Finally I've got an internet connection at home (as well as cable TV) - its only taken me 2 years to sort that out. Now I have this I'm in the process of renovating the site and moving over from standard HTML pages to using Textpattern for content management. I can highly recommend this open source solution - its very easy to set up and very flexible by the look of things. Hopefully, you'll start seeing the results soon.

Work on the MaterialConverter is still on hiatus but with my sideways promotion back into 3D and now that I have broadband at home I'm in a much better position to dust off the old code and finally get the thing finished. Theres a lot that needs doing to it to bring it back up to speed but I'm confident that the engine I developed 2 years ago is still good.

Matt @ 5/12/2006 5/12/2006 04:21:00 PM

Maxwell!
I've just started working on conversions for Maxwell materials for the MaterialConverter - its going well so far. I took me about 15 mins to add the base templates for the 5 Maxwell material types - this shows the power of the engine I've coded and how easy its going to be too add/change material definitions. New beta soon - watch this space.
Matt @ 6/02/2005 6/02/2005 12:57:00 PM

Poker night
Poker night looms and I haven't had a chance to practice - eek!!!
Matt @ 5/18/2005 5/18/2005 04:10:00 PM

Working late
Well, here I am working late in the office again for a big deadline. MAX is rendering @ the moment so I thought I'd spend five minutes updating my blog. So, what's new? To be frank - not a lot! My workload at the moment has been preventing me working on the MaterialConverter (apologies to all my beta testers - I will get back to it soon!) I'm too busy to have a personal life at the moment - I know, sad isn't it? - so, nothing new there either. Let's just say I'm working on it ;) On the finalRender beta front things have been a bit quiet lately whilst Edwin & co rewrite the main core - something which is apparently giving them problems as everthing is interconnected. Its a case of fix one thing break 10 others! Still, we have had some nice new toys to play with which I know you guys are going to like - think workflow. I really, ought to update this more often. I've been thinking about an fR related blog that would detail my daily fR usage - but I'm not sure how many people would read that. (Though come to think of it, who reads this one?)
Matt @ 5/17/2005 5/17/2005 07:38:00 PM

Working late

Well, here I am working late in the office again for a big deadline. MAX is rendering @ the moment so I thought I'd spend five minutes updating my blog.

So, what's new? To be frank - not a lot! My workload at the moment has been preventing me working on the MaterialConverter (apologies to all my beta testers - I will get back to it soon!)

I'm too busy to have a personal life at the moment - I know, sad isn't it? - so, nothing new there either. Let's just say I'm working on it ;)

On the finalRender beta front things have been a bit quiet lately whilst Edwin & co rewrite the main core - something which is apparently giving them problems as everthing is interconnected. Its a case of fix one thing break 10 others! Still, we have had some nice new toys to play with which I know you guys are going to like - think workflow.

I really, ought to update this more often. I've been thinking about an fR related blog that would detail my daily fR usage - but I'm not sure how many people would read that. (Though come to think of it, who reads this one?)

Matt @ 5/17/2005 5/17/2005 07:38:00 PM

Beta progress
I really am bad at keeping this up-to-date aren't I? Not much new - still really busy at work, more so now that I've started giving private 3D Studio MAX lessons on Saturday mornings. There really aren't enough hours in the day. Progress on the MaterialConverter is actually being made - just very slowly, apologies to my very patient beta testers. I'm going to make a concious effort to keep this a bit more regular from now on, so I may just dribble on about all sorts of unrelated crap, till then...
Matt @ 4/18/2005 4/18/2005 05:37:00 PM

Beta progress

I really am bad at keeping this up-to-date aren't I?

Not much new - still really busy at work, more so now that I've started giving private 3D Studio MAX lessons on Saturday mornings. There really aren't enough hours in the day.

Progress on the MaterialConverter is actually being made - just very slowly, apologies to my very patient beta testers.

I'm going to make a concious effort to keep this a bit more regular from now on, so I may just dribble on about all sorts of unrelated crap, till then...

Matt @ 4/18/2005 4/18/2005 05:37:00 PM

Stuff
My God its been a long time since I updated the site - life has been very busy lately. So what's the news? Not much really. The roadmap for the fR-MaterialConverter is obviously completely out of the window - I haven't had time to code for months now and that does look like easing in the next few months. I really need more hours in the day to do the things I want to do - add more tutorials, put up my gallery (finally!) and finish the various scripts. So, those of you still waiting for me to finish content - hang in there and thanks for doing so. Oh - and Happy New Year :)
Matt @ 1/17/2005 1/17/2005 10:27:00 AM

Stuff

My God its been a long time since I updated the site - life has been very busy lately. So what's the news? Not much really. The roadmap for the fR-MaterialConverter is obviously completely out of the window - I haven't had time to code for months now and that does look like easing in the next few months. I really need more hours in the day to do the things I want to do - add more tutorials, put up my gallery (finally!) and finish the various scripts. So, those of you still waiting for me to finish content - hang in there and thanks for doing so.

Oh - and Happy New Year :)

Matt @ 1/17/2005 1/17/2005 10:27:00 AM

Catching up
Phew, its been hectic since I got back from France - completely snowed under with work which has (literally) just eased off. Had a good weekend in London last weekend catching up with everyone from college, a few beers were quaffed and a lot of talk. It was good to see you guys, we must do it again and sooner this time! I also caught up with Gary, Sarah, Buzz and Charlie and little baby George :) - thanks for letting me crash your Sunday lunch :D FINALLY - I've started looking at the code for the MaterialConverter again. My roadmap is about 1.5 months out at the moment. I'm just about start the coding of the conversion matrices and hope to start the beta testing towards the end of Nov. I've cleaned the existing code and I finally have a UI on my version for the first time in about 8 months! (you think you've had it bad waiting for me to finish the code - I've been converting materials by command line all this time!) Got a quiet weekend coming up (first time in a while) so I've got some DIY planned - I hope to get my shower plumbed in, I'm getting really fed up with all these baths. Oh and I bought a new car :D A nice shiney MG-F (or my mid-life crisis car as Adam, my brother, has dubbed it - personally I reckon he's jealous).
Matt @ 10/13/2004 10/13/2004 04:51:00 PM

Catching up

Phew, its been hectic since I got back from France - completely snowed under with work which has (literally) just eased off.

Had a good weekend in London last weekend catching up with everyone from college, a few beers were quaffed and a lot of talk. It was good to see you guys, we must do it again and sooner this time! I also caught up with Gary, Sarah, Buzz and Charlie and little baby George :) - thanks for letting me crash your Sunday lunch :D

FINALLY - I've started looking at the code for the MaterialConverter again. My roadmap is about 1.5 months out at the moment. I'm just about start the coding of the conversion matrices and hope to start the beta testing towards the end of Nov. I've cleaned the existing code and I finally have a UI on my version for the first time in about 8 months! (you think you've had it bad waiting for me to finish the code - I've been converting materials by command line all this time!)

Got a quiet weekend coming up (first time in a while) so I've got some DIY planned - I hope to get my shower plumbed in, I'm getting really fed up with all these baths.

Oh and I bought a new car :D
A nice shiney MG-F (or my mid-life crisis car as Adam, my brother, has dubbed it - personally I reckon he's jealous).

Matt @ 10/13/2004 10/13/2004 04:51:00 PM

Chilled out
I'm back and feeling very relaxed. A good frame of mind to get back into coding for the MaterialConverter.
Matt @ 9/03/2004 9/03/2004 09:31:00 AM

On holiday
Well, I'm off on holiday tomorrow - my first 2 week holiday for absolutely ages and I'm planning just to chill, read a few books and drink some wine. Catch ya on the flipside...
Matt @ 8/16/2004 8/16/2004 09:15:00 PM

Minor site changes
I've made some minor updates to the HDR tutorial to add a few clarifying notes. Also look out for the forthcoming tutorial on baking GI for architectural animations - probably won't be ready until mid September, just thought I'd tease you all ;) I've also uploaded a couple of the scripts (see, I'm getting there... slowly).
Matt @ 8/02/2004 8/02/2004 05:58:00 PM

Roadmap for fR-MaterialConverter v2
Finally I've picked up the code again - I'm just getting my head around what I've already coded for v2. I suspect some clean-up will be required; once thats done I can begin creating the conversion matrices and beta testing of v2 can begin in earnest. I've set all the v1 bugs to resolved - I'm now considering that version as obsolete for the purpose of bug tracking. Obviously, I will be taking those unresolved bugs into account but many of them may not apply to v2. My timetable at the moment is as follows; End July - Begining August: Code clean-up End August: Holiday September: Conversion Matrix coding End Sept-Beginning Oct: Beta testing to start End Oct-Beginning Nov: Final ship of v2
Matt @ 7/23/2004 7/23/2004 06:54:00 PM

Roadmap for fR-MaterialConverter v2

Finally I've picked up the code again - I'm just getting my head around what I've already coded for v2. I suspect some clean-up will be required; once thats done I can begin creating the conversion matrices and beta testing of v2 can begin in earnest.

I've set all the v1 bugs to resolved - I'm now considering that version as obsolete for the purpose of bug tracking. Obviously, I will be taking those unresolved bugs into account but many of them may not apply to v2.

My timetable at the moment is as follows;

End July - Begining August: Code clean-up
End August: Holiday
September: Conversion Matrix coding
End Sept-Beginning Oct: Beta testing to start
End Oct-Beginning Nov: Final ship of v2

Matt @ 7/23/2004 7/23/2004 06:54:00 PM

All go
It's all go at the moment! Really busy @ work with a walkthrough. A little behind schedule at the moment, may have to do a few late nights to pull it back. On the positive side I'm using fR's Render To Texture support to bake all the GI and that seems to be working really well - I'll be using this technique in future I think. It's my house warming party this w/e - tomorrow in fact. Eeek!!! I still haven't finished unpacking all the boxes yet. Got a busy day ahead tidying up - especially the garden. Hope the weather holds.

All go

It's all go at the moment!

Really busy @ work with a walkthrough. A little behind schedule at the moment, may have to do a few late nights to pull it back. On the positive side I'm using fR's Render To Texture support to bake all the GI and that seems to be working really well - I'll be using this technique in future I think.

It's my house warming party this w/e - tomorrow in fact. Eeek!!! I still haven't finished unpacking all the boxes yet. Got a busy day ahead tidying up - especially the garden. Hope the weather holds.

Latest developments
July is a month of sad anniversaries for me - today would have been our 3rd wedding anniversary and later in the month is the anniversary of 'that day' when everything went tits up. On the bright side I'm settling into my new flat nicely (although my shower just broke...) and the house warming party is coming up - looking forward to that. I've been busy playing Magic so much lately that I haven't had a chance to do too much work on the flat, I need to spend some time just tidying things up before the party. Playing Magic seems to have taken over my life lately, seems like I've spent an inordinate amount of money on it. This is also the reason that things haven't moved on the scripts and site, I've been spending my 'free' time enjoying myself (for a change). I hope to get back to things on the scripts - particularly the fR-MaterialConverter - pretty soon. I'm drafting a MAXScript coding guideline for myself to keep my code reasonably clean - when I looked at the other day I had a hard time following my own code! Once that's in place I'll review the code I've written so far on v2, clean it up a little to conform to my new standard and then crack on with the conversion tables; it's still in the state I left it in - the 'engine' is working but I need to write all the conversion matrices for the various materials. Work is pretty busy at the moment - trying to fit in a large(ish) walkthrough before I go away in August. All that plus my normal workload of my IT support role.
Matt @ 7/14/2004 7/14/2004 02:46:00 PM

Latest developments

July is a month of sad anniversaries for me - today would have been our 3rd wedding anniversary and later in the month is the anniversary of 'that day' when everything went tits up.

On the bright side I'm settling into my new flat nicely (although my shower just broke...) and the house warming party is coming up - looking forward to that. I've been busy playing Magic so much lately that I haven't had a chance to do too much work on the flat, I need to spend some time just tidying things up before the party.

Playing Magic seems to have taken over my life lately, seems like I've spent an inordinate amount of money on it. This is also the reason that things haven't moved on the scripts and site, I've been spending my 'free' time enjoying myself (for a change).

I hope to get back to things on the scripts - particularly the fR-MaterialConverter - pretty soon. I'm drafting a MAXScript coding guideline for myself to keep my code reasonably clean - when I looked at the other day I had a hard time following my own code! Once that's in place I'll review the code I've written so far on v2, clean it up a little to conform to my new standard and then crack on with the conversion tables; it's still in the state I left it in - the 'engine' is working but I need to write all the conversion matrices for the various materials.

Work is pretty busy at the moment - trying to fit in a large(ish) walkthrough before I go away in August. All that plus my normal workload of my IT support role.

Matt @ 7/14/2004 7/14/2004 02:46:00 PM

Finally
Woohoo - I've finally been able to move into my new flat, it's been a long wait. Currently I'm in a confused mess of boxes and half-built Ikea furniture. But pretty soon I should be up and running and I can get back to all those projects that have been on haitus (fR MaterialConverter v2 anyone?). I've also just come back from 3D Festival in Denmark (how was that for timing?). Had a great time there again this year and met some very cool people and drank some very expensive beer (£5 a pint!!!!) - so thanks to everyone I met out there who made me feel really welcome. I was also inspired for my 3D images and more tradtional art techniques - and I had a couple of ideas for scripts (so watch this space). Hopefully, now things are more back to normal, site updates should be more frequent and I can get my gallery up and more of the scripts available for download.
Matt @ 5/10/2004 5/10/2004 12:42:00 PM

Finally

Woohoo - I've finally been able to move into my new flat, it's been a long wait. Currently I'm in a confused mess of boxes and half-built Ikea furniture. But pretty soon I should be up and running and I can get back to all those projects that have been on haitus (fR MaterialConverter v2 anyone?).

I've also just come back from 3D Festival in Denmark (how was that for timing?). Had a great time there again this year and met some very cool people and drank some very expensive beer (£5 a pint!!!!) - so thanks to everyone I met out there who made me feel really welcome. I was also inspired for my 3D images and more tradtional art techniques - and I had a couple of ideas for scripts (so watch this space).

Hopefully, now things are more back to normal, site updates should be more frequent and I can get my gallery up and more of the scripts available for download.

Matt @ 5/10/2004 5/10/2004 12:42:00 PM

Back to the MaterialConverter
I've finally managed to get back to coding on v2 of the MaterialConverter this weekend - now that I have a bit more free time things should move along quite rapidly (I hope). Still no news on when I can move in though... :(
Matt @ 3/14/2004 3/14/2004 12:42:00 PM

Homeless...
Spent the weekend moving all my stuff out, so now I'm homeless :( Hopefully it won't be too long before I can move into my new flat, till then I'm annoying my brother by staying with him :)
Matt @ 3/08/2004 3/08/2004 12:32:00 PM

First tutorial written
Site: I finally managed to write a tutorial - the first of many I hope. You can read it here. House: Still haven't moved yet, I'm awaiting a final completion date but everything seems to be going ahead (I hope) - the solicitors seem to be doing lots of things anyway :) finalRender Material Converter: Development on the next version has been slower than I'd like but its coming along nicely - it has a completely redesigned conversion engine which now allows for user-defined conversions. So, theoretically, you'll be able to create your own conversions and/or tweak the default provided ones. I have the engine working now so its a case of moving all the existing conversions over to the new engine (there are a lot of them so that could take a while). You can track my progress on the beta site.
Matt @ 1/23/2004 1/23/2004 10:32:00 AM

First tutorial written

Site: I finally managed to write a tutorial - the first of many I hope. You can read it here.

House: Still haven't moved yet, I'm awaiting a final completion date but everything seems to be going ahead (I hope) - the solicitors seem to be doing lots of things anyway :)

finalRender Material Converter: Development on the next version has been slower than I'd like but its coming along nicely - it has a completely redesigned conversion engine which now allows for user-defined conversions. So, theoretically, you'll be able to create your own conversions and/or tweak the default provided ones. I have the engine working now so its a case of moving all the existing conversions over to the new engine (there are a lot of them so that could take a while). You can track my progress on the beta site.

Matt @ 1/23/2004 1/23/2004 10:32:00 AM

House for sale
Finally managed to get the house on the market. So now the house hunting begins in earnest. Not a lot else has happened since my last post - saw Matrix Revolutions (complete crap, but not as bad as Reloaded) and Kill Bill (absolutely fantastic and the best film - bar LotR - that I've seen for years).
Matt @ 11/10/2003 11/10/2003 12:50:00 PM

New bug tracking system
OK. I wasn't really getting on with Bugzilla so I've swapped to Mantis. All bug reports should now go here - http://beta.zoobox.co.uk/mantis/.
Matt @ 10/29/2003 10/29/2003 05:15:00 PM

Update
Well, it's been a strange month. Were to begin? Personally - It's a sad time. My wife and I split up just over a month ago, we've been together for 15 years (married for 2). This has been a traumatic event to say the least and is the reason for delays with the site and scripts, etc. I'm currently busy sorting out the house before I sell it - hopefully I can get it valued this weekend; I'm planning on moving to Cardiff eventually. Site - I hope to update the site and get all my scripts up for download during the course of the next month (at least that's the target). finalRender Material Converter - Work has continued behind the scenes on the Material Converter. Several bugs fixed and a few new things added. Public release of this will be in the forthcoming SP1 patch for finalRender Stage-1 which is due out shortly. Still working on the fR-Advanced --> Standard conversion though (those multiple highlights - grrr).
Matt @ 10/13/2003 10/13/2003 03:01:00 PM

Update

Well, it's been a strange month. Were to begin?

Personally - It's a sad time. My wife and I split up just over a month ago, we've been together for 15 years (married for 2). This has been a traumatic event to say the least and is the reason for delays with the site and scripts, etc. I'm currently busy sorting out the house before I sell it - hopefully I can get it valued this weekend; I'm planning on moving to Cardiff eventually.

Site - I hope to update the site and get all my scripts up for download during the course of the next month (at least that's the target).

finalRender Material Converter - Work has continued behind the scenes on the Material Converter. Several bugs fixed and a few new things added. Public release of this will be in the forthcoming SP1 patch for finalRender Stage-1 which is due out shortly. Still working on the fR-Advanced --> Standard conversion though (those multiple highlights - grrr).

Matt @ 10/13/2003 10/13/2003 03:01:00 PM

Time out
I think its fair to say that I've just had (still having) the worst weekend of my entire life! For personal reasons I'm taking time-out from most things so the site is once more delayed, as are updates to the fR Material Converter. Take care all.
Matt @ 8/31/2003 8/31/2003 05:26:00 PM

A short delay...
Now that the initial impetus of having no job is no longer there, there's been a bit of a delay in getting the site up and running. Finding the time to put pages together is proving difficult, especially with the continued development on the finalRender Material Converter. I hope to have all my MAXScripts up and available for download very soon though. I have been beavering away in the background though and Bugzilla is finally up and running (although not yet fully templated). I shall be using this to track development on all my MAXScripts from now on. On the finalRender Stage-1 Material Converter front I have been mainly bugfixing and haven't yet had a chance to fully implement the fR-Advanced --> Standard conversion that everyone wants (I'm still grappling with the multiple highlights issue).
Matt @ 8/17/2003 8/17/2003 08:22:00 PM

A short delay...

Now that the initial impetus of having no job is no longer there, there's been a bit of a delay in getting the site up and running. Finding the time to put pages together is proving difficult, especially with the continued development on the finalRender Material Converter. I hope to have all my MAXScripts up and available for download very soon though.

I have been beavering away in the background though and Bugzilla is finally up and running (although not yet fully templated). I shall be using this to track development on all my MAXScripts from now on.

On the finalRender Stage-1 Material Converter front I have been mainly bugfixing and haven't yet had a chance to fully implement the fR-Advanced --> Standard conversion that everyone wants (I'm still grappling with the multiple highlights issue).

Matt @ 8/17/2003 8/17/2003 08:22:00 PM