Sources . .

For a while now I have been collecting excellent designs, artwork and photos from Scott Lowther's excellent Aerospace Projects Review Blog.
Plans and so on for many amazing flying things I remember reading about can be found on Scott's site, including spacereaft. You relaly have to see some of these designs to beleive them.
 In other posts I have commented on how preposterous fictional aircraft and spaceships annoy me because they don't even look like they would work: well, if you really want to make something that at least LOOKS like it would fly, check out the designs here, from real Aerospace companies.  I have just become a sponspor for Scott and it's worth it if you are a fan of all that sort of thing: for $5 a month you get all the goodies, actually a better deal than paying for each item alone.

This is the RYNO and it is real. Yup. The only problem is that you can't drive it legally faster than a segway even though it is capable of a lot more. The bar at the front is so you can tip it forward and rest the bar on theground when it is parked. It runs on batteries and (of course) has stabilising gyros.
About the only thing more awesome would be to have a model that folded into a small, hand-carry package.  . . . . but then they are probably working on that right now.

Update April 2014

It looks like Google Drive is working fine as a store for my files so more will be going there soon.
Please note that all comments etc. should now be posted as comments here. I no longer use LiveJournal and Blender Underground seems to be gone.  I occasionally look around Blender Artists but if you want to see my latest work the place to look is Renderosity where my username is Prof_Null.  I still use Blender plenty but mostly it is for models that are then imported into DAZ Studio. IF you want help with using Blender or DAZ Studio, just ask, but remember I am still learning too.

My Blender Guides

I have now stored my Blender Guides on Google Drive. This is experimental, please note, but here they are.  They were made for use with Blender 2.49 but will still work with newer versions.

Basic Texture Painting Part 1 

Basic Texture Painting Part 2

Advanced Texture Painting
At the moment I have not found a better texture painting tool than Blender 2.49 which is what was used for the three Texture Painting Documents. This is not good: either I have not figured out how to do the same in newer software or it can't be done the same way. 

Profile Modelling
The Profile Modelling tute is still valid:  although the current version certainly a greatly improved bevel tool, the internal/external combination will still not bevel properly using the automatic bevel. 

Complex Corner Radius
There may be some "new, easy way" to make a radiused join between two pipes of different diameters but I haven't seen it. Here is how to do it by hand.

If you have comments or complaints about thesse please let me know and I will fix them.

The AT Transformer

Since I posted about the ATX competition a while back I thought it interesting to post about this: it prety much covers the ATX requirement but in my opinion  it does it better than my design or any of the competing designs presented by other Aerospace firms.
Here is the AT company's page.
The design has the following advantages:
1. Multiple lift engines so that failure of a few will not send the vehicle down immediately.
2. Simple flight control system: no helicopter type cyclic pitch controls, just a throttle for each engine.
3. Simple folding lift engines with a strong structure.
4. Big cargo capacity, larger than the ATX requirement.
you can se the idea came from quadrotor drones available but the idea is a darn good one.
I expect to see this design being manufactured for the military real soon now. 
Hats off to Advanced Tactics !

The Golden Android Completion

Well that's about it for TGA. I will do a couple of epilogue-type pages to finish off and the obligatory credits page (lots of fine print no doubt!) but the main story is done.

 It started out as an experiment and I am happy with the results (well, mostly):
- Organisation for a big project was tested and refined
- New models and content were added and their use figured out and proven
- I almost managed to eliminate zaggies completely (They are EVIL!)
- Despite not having a complete written script I made (I hope) a coherent story
- I pushed the system and software to the point where I had 22 characters in one scene and it all rendered fine (The dance scenes p.36)
- I learned a lot about lighting scenes and how to get acceptable results.

So what now?
I am still thinking about an animated feature  . . . . but probably the next work be still again - it will be scripted, and models/sets/props will all be found or made before starting as opposed to the casual approach of the first production.  This also creates problems of course: it might seem hard to believe if you look at the sites selling content, but there is a serious shortage of good content when you want to make something big. It's fine for a short or a small zoned story but when you get bigger you need more and more sets and props and there just never seems to be quite enough - you can't use the same actor, prop or set in different places. 

Then again there is quite a lot of what I regard as crappy models - things that (for me, at least) just destroy the storyline when they appear. I could provide examples but I don't want to annoy anyone else. Some of the models I used had problems which I either fixed or worked around but at least they looked acceptable.

Thanks for reading, if you have any comments or critique to offer I am happy to hear it.
Either post it in the comments for this blog or send it via any of my webpages - here, DeviantArt (see link previous post) or Renderosity (same).

Irena in Intercessor outfit (P.49)

The Golden Android

Just in case you haven't found it yet, here is the link to my current project, "The Golden Android", a graphic novel made using DAZ Studio 4.6 for rendering and some models made in Blender.

Most of the models are purchased but there is still a lot of work combining and modding them to get the required results: if I had to do it all myself it would never get done. Personally I like the people at Renderosity and DAZ who make all the content and provide it very cheaply - and you can even ask for models.

The layouts were done in a newish app called Acorn which has turned out to be very good and much cheaper than Photoshop yet it has the pen tools missing from PS that you need to do a proper job.

The link takes you to my DeviantART page, the content is the same as at Renderosity but at DA you don't need to log in to read the pages. On the other hand, no-one at DA seems to be reading it wheras at Renderosity I have a few regular followers.

Abby, looking annoyed on page 13.

One small detail . . .

Ooops, I forgot to mention in my previous post: my member name on Renderosity is Prof_Null: once you are signed in, go to the "Members" menu and use "Member Search" to find me.
There is a LOT of artwork there btw, check out the galleries, it just keeps coming every day.