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Despite deeper seeded political and religious issues, the renaissance was a golden era for the human race. Mankind made contributions to the arts that would last throughout history. The warfare and plague that had scourged the previous ages were past, and a new light shined on enlightened minds.

For the first time in years I feel like I've weathered the major storms of life, and am stepping onto the doorway of a glorious age. Often time's people look back on the past as, "The good old days," or a time when things were better, or they were happier. Not me. I'm looking forward to each new day with a renewed sense of purpose and inner-vigor.

Time to knock out some of my personal goals.

Along said course, I challenged a couple of my Co-workers/Best Friends/College buddies to get back into the swing of 3D modeling by making something really complex. A model that would be a shining piece in their portfolios, and proof of their abilities as prop/environment artists. I feel like I should live up to the challenge I've issued them, so I'm going to make it too. With just a few high-poly modeling tutorials in hand, and an account on Polycount, we're setting out to make the Ducati Monster 696.



It'll be a challenge, and will brush up a lot of sorely needed skills. I can't wait. Also, I'm going to be modeling it in 3ds Max 2010. I've been a 'Maya-guy' thus far, so this will be the first really complex thing I've tackled in Max, as well as my first experience with the new version. Double fun.

(I completed a similar project earlier this year, but it took me an entire month to get through... I'm hoping to get this done in about 1/4 that time... you can see the previous model at BraddMcBrearty.com)

As a side note, literally every time I open up Max I find another feature that I loved in Maya that they've brought over. (I started my career in 3D art using max, but it was version 4... so some of these advancements have probably been in for years, I just missed them while I was in 'maya-land') The specific advancement I noticed today was the inclusion of the 'Project' system. As long as I've been using Maya, you've had the ability to start each project off by making a project folder and populating it with sub-folders for all the different types of assets you'll be using. A nice neat way to work efficiently. I'm so happy to see it's made its way into Max.