Christmas is over, Im on winter break, and the new year is starting.

I havent been on in about 2 months now. I had a shit load of cramming for finals, research papers, etc. After that was christmas vacation. I spent it with my family/friends :)

Ive kept the modding to a minimum. Ive been kind of busy lately, and couldnt really find time for it.

My brother Exos (used to visit here) is currently working on a Resident evil mod. Its looking really well. Hes also been recruited by the Goldeneye source team (pending) for model animations/mapping.
On the side hes been learning the Unreal Editor for UT 2004. Since UT 2007 is coming and will be the first next gen SDK out, He thought (as well as I) it would be good to learn their old engine.

This leads me into my next statements. Ive watched him and listened as he learned. Ive come to realize that the Unreal Editor is far greater than Source. It allows for VERY detailed brushwork (can pretty much model in the editor using brushes!) some concepts from modeling are applied in the editor such as extrusion on faces, bevelling, etc.

Take the void for instance. Instead of it being a void, in UT you "carve" your map into the void. This makes leaks impossible.

another plus is the 3d view is RENDERED AND LIGHTED IN REAL TIME. This means what you see in the editor is what you see in the game. This allows for very complex and intricate lighting.

Compiles dont exist in UT. It compiles as you go. No slowdowns either. You simply hit play and jump right in.

There are FAR more aspects that are better than source. I suggest taking a look at it. Be warned though, alot of the mapping is opposite of what you have learned. Such as minus and plus brushes.

This is essentially how the UT 2007 SDK (using Unreal engine 3, same engine as Gears of War) will work.

A little fun fact. Xbox 360 marketplace now offers SDK kits for creating games on the 360! If you have your PC connected to the 360 via windows media center you can work on the game in the SDK and transfer it to the 360! Microsoft also allows you to distribute it over xbox live! (you must meet their criteria, but you can do it)
For anyone who wanted to mod on a console, here it is folks!
.....cough, ....only problem is, .......its 40 US dollars a month......cough.......

Dont think Im off the source engine. I will be working with both. I want to even learn more engines and how they work. :)

Currently im working on a generator model for Exos's mod team :)

Some more things:

FPS banana:

Alot of bad things are said about this site. If you actually went there you would find excellent modelers, mappers, texture artists, animators, mod teams, etc. Professionals left and right. Its not a bad site. Need to know alot of advanced techniques in any medium of modding, visit it. Dont just cast it aside. Its really a good site.

Nice to be back, although I wont be on often. :( But Nice to see the site still Pwning XD

Here are some doodles I did during my programming lecture on thursday instead of paying attention XD

I really rushed these, so please excuse the crudeness of them:

http://img243.imageshack.us/img243/8894/scan0001iu8.jp
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http://img183.imageshack.us/img183/6551/scan0002fl4.jp
g

Im also planning to do a total walkthrough VIDEO tutorial (split into parts) through the steps of modeling a face using polygon extrusion, setting up the UV map with some really awsome FAST techniques, Creating the skin for it in Photoshop from SCRATCH, applying the skin to the model, and finally exporting it and getting it in-game.

its going to be TEH AWSOMEZORBZ