Sony announced a few new things this week at Leipzig 2008.  First of all, the PSP 3.0 is being released this fall, complete with a Playstation button.  No word yet on whether or not the new R&C:Size Matters bundle will be 3.0, though.  Also, the next PS3 is going to be a 160Gb system.  Normally, I'd be totally excited, were it not for the fact that it only has 2 USB ports and no backwards compatibility.  On top of all this, various rumors have finally been confirmed.  The Metal Gear Solid 4 80 Gb bundle packs are being discontinued.  The sad part about it is, they appear to be the last backwards-compatible PS3s for the forseeable future, and they're going away!

Now I see Sony's strategy in this, because I finally know what will make me break down and buy a PS3: the fear of no backwards-compatibility.  It was majorly effective, because I immediately went to the local stores after work to see if I could find one.  I went to three places before I finally found any.  When I got to Best Buy, I was shocked to see not one or two, but FIVE MGS4 bundles on the shelf.  Seeing this as a sign, I casually picked up the closest one, inspected it, and grabbed a Greatest Hits copy of Resistance: Fall of Man for $29.99.  It felt so rewarding to finally step out of that store with my recently-purchased PS3 in tow.

It's so shiney, too!

I've spent the past few days playing Resistance to try out the system.  It's far better than I imagened.  The story is really well written (not surprises, here) and it plays naturally.  After going through the first few chapters or so, I decided to try multiplayer, not expecting anything new or exciting.  Man, was I wrong.  Honestly, not a whole lot is different in Multiplayer mode than it is in the Campaign.  But I have to say, this is where the gameplay shines.  I never was that big of a FPS multiplayer fan.  I played Goldneye and Halo back in the day and had fun in competition matches, but it never really stuck with me.  I'd always get beaten badly and eventually not want to even touch the game.  This is totally not the case for R:FOM.  I still get my butt whupped by a bunch of people, but I just can't get enough of it!  It's so fun and just the right pace for me.

And MGS4?  I still haven't played it, yet.  Actually, I still haven't finished Snake Eater, yet.  I suppose I should finish it before I play 4, but it looks like Resistance might be a huge distraction from that.  Decisions, decisions, right? 

Well, I got back from SIGGRAPH on Sunday.  I could spend a lot of time re-iterating what I've said elsewhere about the conference, but I won't!  I was one of four people who were selected to report on new technologies, innovations, and other exciting news from a SIGGRAPH Student Volunteer's perspective for FireUser.com.  I posted daily blogs of the events as I saw them.  These posts are being featured on FireUser.com, OpenGL.org, and are supposed to go up on CGW.com soon.  I'm very excited to get this opportunity.  Here's a direct link to all of the SIGGRAPH blogs.

In sad news, I think my Call of Duty 4 disk is dead.

I bought my 360 off of a friend, but didn't see this problem until after he had already left for the summer.  The multiplayer runs with no problem, but the single player campaign only gets to the loading screen for Part 2 of the Prologue, and then displays the infamous "Unreadable Disk" error.  I'm going to make sure it isn't the memory or hard drive before I give up on it, but it's upsetting because I really want to continue the game.  Guess I'll either play multiplayer or Halo 3 if that doesn't work.

It seems that I've finally come to terms with the time I have left before SigGRAPH and graduation.  I'm more excited now than I'm concerned.  In my free time (not much of it, mind you) I've been designing breakdowns and other layouts for a physical portfolio.  I figure I'd look a lot more professional at SigGRAPH if I handed a potential employer my portfolio to look at while I got out my laptop to show my reel.  Plus, it never hurts to have backups.  I know more than most people what technical difficulties can do to a first impression.

In other news, I'm psyched that I get to see WALL-E tonight!  It's my dad's birthday, so we're going to celebrate by going the movie.  I've been waiting for this for a long time.  The lighting and shading in all of the previews just look amazing!  I just hope the theater isn't packed.  I try maintain my composure, especially when I'm geeking out about the CG, but it kindof ruins the movie for me when there's a lot of distraction.  I'm sort of weird that way.  I'll try to be good and not yell out, "Turn off your cell phone!  I'm trying to watch the anisotropic reflections!"  No, no.  That'd just give me away.

Wow.  Two posts in the same week.  Signs of the apocalypse?  'Fraid not.

I recently got fed up with my lack of lighting practice as of late and went on to CGSociety to get inspired, feel sorry for myself, or whatever.  I came across Jeremy Birn's Lighting Challenges and thought, why not?  I'll give it a go.  For those of you who are uninitiated, Jeremy Birn is a Technical Director at Pixar, (one of my dream jobs, BTW) the author of my Digital Lighting and Rendering textbook, and one of my heroes in the industry.  He's had a section on CGTalk's forums for quite some time, giving challenges quarterly with provided models to shade, texture, and light.  In the past, I steered clear of his challenges for two reasons:  1) I lacked confiedence and 2) I felt they might not be the best things to add to my demo reel, since they were not my own IP.  However, I'd like to think I've matured as an artist, lately.  First and foremost, an artist's work is his own and any criticisms he is given are only suggestions for improvement.  They're not there to tear-down the artist's existence.  Secondly, if you've changed something that someone else has made into your own piece, you shouldn't be afraid to show it.  Giving the original artist credit is promotional to both you and the originator.  I've been giving myself a hard time for too long with the limits of my concentration.  Lighting and surfacing is a post-process of sorts.  For this reason, I'm sort of limited.  I'd love to be pushing out piece after piece of original content every week or so.  The thing is, lighting and surfacing can only come after design and modeling.  I wouldn't call myself a talented modeler in any sense.  I'm decent at best.  It all comes down to one thing: time.  I'd like to just sit down and model every neat idea for a story or action piece I could think of, just so I could have an awesome, original demo reel to show for companies.  With my lack of modeling prowess, I'd have to work for months to improve.  I don't have the time to do that.  I've been thinking this through.  I have nine months until graduation and only one and a half until SIGGRAPH.  In that time, I could either become decent at a crapload of stuff (modeling included) and have no new reel, or I could work my ass off at a few things , have a reel of my best work, and get on-track for my dream job. (Lighting TD)  Don't get me wrong.  Modeling is great.  I appreciate every 3D artist that makes it his or her duty to be the knower of the edge-loops.  It's just not something that doesn't come naturally to me.  I'll continue learning more modeling skills as they are force-fed into me.  

So, long story short, I decided to join Jeremy Birn's Lighting Challenge for May-June.  The objective this time is to re-create film noir.  It's really fun.  I'm about halfway done right now and can't wait to try out some of his past challenges.  Anyway, I figure this at least gives me a lot of practice.  I'm less afraid of using other people's work to augment my own now.  I just hope that in the future, my potential employers will see it as my ability to work with what I'm given in a production sort of way, and not as a shortcut. (I'll try not to worry about it.  )

Well, it's been a while since my last post.  All I can say is that last quarter was my busiest yet.  I had my second RenderMan class, my first full-fledged Materials and Textures class, and my first compositing class.  Wow.  So much information.  Plus, all this helped me in my decision to stick it out down in Savannah until graduation.

On top of all this, I'm excited to say that I'm gearing up to be a SIGGRAPH Student Volunteer this summer.

I'm excited by all of this, but also I know that before I can celebrate, I have some work to do.  First up on my list is my demo reel.  I need to make a new one for SIGGRAPH as well as revamp my website and business cards.  Ugh.  It'll be fun coming up with new projects for this, but it's kinda frustrating.  I'm balancing all this and a full-time job.  Anyway, I hope I can be more punctual on my posts from now on.