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WWW.BLENDERNATION.COMBehind the Scenes: Nightfall CastleBehind the Scenes: Nightfall Castle By Alina Khan on November 26, 2024 Behind the Scenes Explore how Galazi, a self-taught artist from Taiwan, brought the enchanting Nightfall Castle to life, blending custom assets, clever lighting, and creative techniques.INTRODUCTIONHello everyone! I'm Galazi, a self-taught artist from Taiwan.My first area of study was film editing, and then I began delving into 3D.I started learning 3D from CG Fast Track, and it has been almost three years now.Currently, I'm focused on creating environment art.INSPIRATIONBefore I started creating this scene, I made an asset pack first.If youd like to, you can get this asset pack on my gumroad.When I started creating this, my initial idea was to try making a castle set in the mountains.However, I didnt have a clear direction for the actual creation, so I found this as a reference for my scene:PROCESSI used Blender to complete this scene, exported the video, and then made adjustments in After Effects.AssetsThe castle, mountains, and trees in this project were all modeled from scratch, while the materials and some foreground rock models were sourced from Poly Haven.MountainI sculpted some shapes of the mountain.Tree on the MountainAs for the trees, I used geometry nodes to distribute them across the mountains. The nodes:The trees in this scene were set up as 2D planes to reduce rendering time.LightingI used warm orange lighting on the buildings.Light Color: FFD596As for the blue lighting, I used it on the small village in the foreground.Light Color: 6FBFFFAnd always remember to add fog!If you want to see a more detailed production process, I have recorded a timelapse. Time-lapseRENDER: Nightfall CastleThank you for reading! I hope this can give you a bit of inspiration!About the Artist Galazi is a freelance 3D artist, currently focusing on environmental art. Links0 Comentários 0 Compartilhamentos 14 Visualizações
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WWW.BLENDERNATION.COMEmpower Blender Character Creator with Enhanced Auto Setup [$, promoted]Empower Blender Character Creator with Enhanced Auto Setup By Bart on November 26, 2024 3D News Reallusion, a leader in 3D animation and character creation software, announces a powerful upgrade to its free Blender Auto Setup (BAS), now optimized for Blender 4.2. This update allows seamless integration between Character Creator (CC), iClone, and Blender, moving beyond the constraints of FBX file transfers. The new "Data Link" feature ensures reliable bidirectional data synchronization. The free Auto Setup also includes automatic assignment of CC digital human shaders, advanced character editing tools, scene tools, compatibility with Rigify control rigs, and support for both Eevee and Cycles render engines.Data Link - Character & Prop Live SynchingThe new Data Link feature streamlines the process of synchronizing characters, poses, morphs, motions, and live sequences between CC, iClone, and Blender with a single click. This eliminates the need for exporting and importing FBX files, making the workflow more efficient. It also allows lighting and camera setups to sync from CC and IClone to Blender, ensuring visual consistency across platforms.For complex scenes like crowd simulations, the Send All option simplifies the process by transferring the entire sceneincluding props, characters, lighting, and camerasto Blender with a single click. Mocap and motion director recordings from iClone can also be seamlessly synchronized into Blender.Enhanced Character Editing ExperienceBlender Auto Setup auto-configures sculpt mode and the multiresolution modifier, making character sculpting effortless. Once sculpting is done, the one-click Bake & Apply function finalizes the base shape and sends it back to Character Creator. The proportion editing feature allows direct adjustment of the characters bone scale, offering precise customization options.BAS integrates hair spring rigs and cloth physics, enabling adjustments to cloth collision, weight maps, and simulation baking. For hair, it supports bone spring rigs, allowing tweaks to bone parameters and hair binding for more dynamic, realistic movement.Ultra-Realistic Digital Human ShaderThe Blender Auto Setup takes full advantage of Character Creator's (CC) Digital Human Shader, automatically generating optimized Blender material graphs for photorealistic rendering. These shaders bring characters to life with ultra-realistic details, supporting customizable parameters for various features, such as skin tone, wrinkles, hair, eyes, and teeth.Scene Tools and Support for EEVEE and Cycles RenderingTo streamline the lighting and rendering process, Auto Setup includes 12 built-in scene light presets, enabling quick changes to different lighting environments. Additionally, with a one-click transition to Cycles render, users can optimize their workflow for both real-time previews in EEVEE and final high-quality renders in Cycles, boosting efficiency while maintaining visual fidelity.Advanced Animation and Control Rig IntegrationBAS ensures precise animation transfer from CC and iClone to Blender and generates a Rigify control rig. This feature allows fine-tuning of character movements with Inverse Kinematics (IK) and Forward Kinematics (FK), and automatically retargets motions. It enhances flexibility and control over animations in Blender and allows the rig to be sent back to CC or iClone for further editing.This revolutionary tool is available for free and can be downloaded by registering as a member on the Reallusion website. This release reaffirms Reallusions commitment to enhancing the creative workflow for Blender users, making it easier than ever to bring characters and animations to life.About ReallusionReallusion is a leading innovator of 3D animation and character creation software, renowned for its intuitive and powerful tools that enable artists to easily create high-quality animations and characters. With a mission to make 3D animation universally accessible and versatile, Reallusion continues to push the envelope of technology and creativity.Related resources0 Comentários 0 Compartilhamentos 14 Visualizações
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WWW.VG247.COMThe hunt is on: CD Project Red has finally started production on the next Witcher game (which probably isn't going to be The Witcher 4)About Time!The hunt is on: CD Project Red has finally started production on the next Witcher game (which probably isn't going to be The Witcher 4)Start placing your bets on that inevitable subtitle. News by Oisin Kuhnke Contributor Published on Nov. 26, 2024 That's right, folks, you can finally start counting down the days to the next Witcher game, as production has finally kicked off at CD Projekt Red.Now, don't get too excited as it's almost definitely still years away, but those of you desperately hoping for some Witcher updates finally have a juicy one: the director of the next Witcher game has confirmed that production has started on Project Polaris (the codename for the next entry in the popular RPG series). "I'm thrilled to announce that Project Polaris has entered the full-scale production phase!" wrote Sebastian Kalemba on his personal Twitter account. "With new challenges just around the corner, its the talented and hard-working people who make me believe we can together make the upcoming Witcher Saga a remarkable experience. No stopping now! Stay tuned for whats on the other side of the coin!" To see this content please enable targeting cookies.That last line is in reference to a photo paired with the tweet, which you can see above, of a few coins laying on a stone floor. Obviously if production has only just started on the game, we're still a good few years out from being actually able to play it. How many years? Don't ask me! Haven't the foggiest, but I'll cross my fingers for all you Witcher fans that it'll be sometime this decade at the very least (we've about five years to go until the next one, but we all remember what happened to Cyberpunk 2077, don't we).To see this content please enable targeting cookies. One important thing to note about this upcoming sequel is that it seems unlikely to outright be The Witcher 4. Next year it will have been a full decade since The Witcher 3 came out, and with game development taking so long a lot of games are designed to be welcoming to new players even if they are sequels (just look at Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom and how little it references Breath of the Wild). The voice of Geralt himself has even said the next one isn't about the series' mainstay protagonist, though he doesn't know who it will be about. Back when the sequel was revealed it even noted that it's the start of a new saga, so it's pretty safe to say this'll be starting fresh, more or less. I'm sure we'll find out more when CD Projekt Red is ready to show more.0 Comentários 0 Compartilhamentos 15 Visualizações
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WWW.VG247.COMPath of Exile 2 is Diablo 4's first real competition, and I'm actually glad it arrives in a quiet period for Blizzard's gamePath of ExcitePath of Exile 2 is Diablo 4's first real competition, and I'm actually glad it arrives in a quiet period for Blizzard's gameDiablo 4 has reached a point where I can feel okay putting it down for now, and get excited about the next game like it coming out very soon.Image credit: VG247 Article by Sherif Saed Contributing Editor Published on Nov. 26, 2024 Diablo 4 has completed more than a single rotation around the sun. Since its initial release in June, 2023, Blizzard delivered several fundamental changes to its itemisation, levelling experience, difficultly options, and dramatically changed the structure of its endgame.The game received one full expansion, six seasons, and plenty of updates that managed to address almost all grievances players have had with it. In many ways, the Diablo 4 of late-2024 is altogether different from the one that came out in the summer of the prior year. Before it needed to do any of that, however, it was my favourite ARPG regardless, because even that often maligned launch version delivered on the things I care about most in those games.But its time for Diablo 4 to take a rest, because Path of Exile 2 looks to be the first game since its release that stands any real chance at luring in the formers casual audience - the majority of the people who play it.To see this content please enable targeting cookies. That style of action RPG; the isometric, loot-driven, grim narratives about worlds ending and corruption of longstanding faiths, thats my jam. I follow the ones I find interesting when they get announced, but end up playing them for far shorter than Id like because Im usually underwhelmed by the moment-to-moment of their gameplay, and Im inevitably driven back to Diablo.Earlier this year, at one of Diablo 4s roughest stretches since release, along came the 1.0 launch of Last Epoch. It was fine. It played well enough, but the focus was clearly on an endgame I never cared about or managed to stick around long enough to reach. It often felt like a game that goes out of its way to cater to every whim of its most dedicated players, introducing systems and solving problems that the majority of players wouldnt even recognise as such. It came and went, only managing to keep its most dedicated players around.And so, Diablo 4s reign was once again unchallenged, and all the work Blizzard put into the game clearly made it the favourite ARPG amongst the loudest players in the ARPG community. But that reign is about to threatened by the arrival of Path of Exile 2. Diablo 4's first proper rival is a real looker, too. | Image credit: Grinding Gear GamesTruthfully, I never saw the original Path of Exile as any threat to Diablo. The idea that it would leave any dent in the massive - casual - audience of Blizzards ARPG never really made sense to me; its like a YouTube thumbnail proclaiming the death of Call of Duty at the hands of Arma.Path of Exile, however, has been one of the most enduring out of all of them, so every year or so Id download the damn thing, and put about six or seven hours into it before I bounce off. I could stomach its limited inventory, comically large passive skill tree, unnecessarily complex gem system, and even how it handles item identification, but I could never get past how clunky and unsatisfying its combat is.The games developer, Grinding Gear Games, even recognised that as a shortcoming of its game, and attempted to change it some years ago, which got me to once again redownload it, only to quickly drop it yet again.I have yet to actually play a minute of Path of Exile 2, but from everything weve been hearing, seeing, and reading about the upcoming release, it sounds like GGG is finally going after the Diablo audience; the people who like satisfying action, a bit of loot, and the production quality of the big games.I watch and play a lot of ARPGs, so I tend to notice things about character movement, attack animation priority, heft and weight and all that more than, Im willing to guess, most people do. This is where I see most of the progress, and to my eyes, it looks closer than ever to Diablos combat flow - especially Diablo 4s. Path of Exile 2 is no less epic than its predecessor. | Image credit: Grinding Gear GamesNow, I know Path of Exile 2 is still going to be a far more complex game than Diablo 4. The developer recently spent over an hour going over features and systems, most of which were strictly made for the endgame, even though the early access launch build only includes a portion of the core campaign. It looks to be a more accessible game, sure, but Itd be silly for GGG to abandon its core audience now.I still see a few of the presentational issues Ive always had a problem with in PoE in the sequel, and I know Im going to want certain Diablo 4 features in PoE2 that most likely wont ever be mirrored. The difference this time, though, is that Im actually looking forward to playing; moving my character, interacting with the world, feeling that oomph of combat. Would that be enough to get me to look past all the complexities? I dont know.My own feelings on the nuances of combat aside, its hard not to see the release of Path of Exile 2 as anything but a marker of how healthy the subgenre remains. Were well past Game X existing solely to kill Game Y. I want, and love, both of them co-existing, and theres plenty of room for more games still. Secretly, though, I am worried I might become one of those PoE fiends who go into a tirade every time a casual onlooker mocks something in their favourite game. A tirade that almost always starts with, No, you dont understand.Path of Exile 2 releases on December 6 on PC, Xbox, and PlayStation.0 Comentários 0 Compartilhamentos 15 Visualizações
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WWW.NINTENDOLIFE.COMReview: Nine Sols (Switch) - An Intense Metroidvania That's Still A Treat On SwitchCaptured on Nintendo Switch (Docked)Scroll through the eShop any week, and under the new releases section, you are bound to find a Metroidvania, if not several. The genre is packed with so many games that few manage to break out. However, Red Candle Games' Nine Sols did manage to make a name for itself earlier this year on PC, and now that it has come to Switch, it is clear to see why.It fuses the intense, precise parrying system seen in Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice with satisfying skills, abilities, and upgrades that are all accentuated by strong sound design and visuals. While the worldbuilding and design didn't particularly grab us, its combat is enough to make it stand out when compared to its 2024 Metroidvania competition.As Yi, you are betrayed by your peers, left abandoned. Many years in the future, you are awoken by a boy, Shuanshuan, and revered as a long-forgotten hero. After recovering your strength, you disrupt a sacrificial ritual in order to save Shuanshuan and take revenge on those who left you for dead, and you (as the player) must set out to discover the truth of the land for yourself.Captured on Nintendo Switch (Docked)Described as 'Taopunk', Red Candle Games calls the world design a mix of cyberpunk and Taoism, the latter a philosophy and religious belief originating from China, where animals and humans live in harmony with the universe. This gives the game's narrative and art style a traditional, ornate aspect that didn't work for us as much as we had hoped.The two halves often clash rather than interweave nicely. For example, the futuristic areas, robotic enemies, and cyborg bugs sit alongside environments and backgrounds that feel at odds with these techy enemies. Additionally, an earthy, airy soundtrack that makes use of traditional Chinese instruments doesn't always work for a similar reason, despite it being rather excellent. Overall, the cyberpunk and Taoism styles just don't gel well, and a more focused design would have felt more memorable and engaging.Despite that, the art and animation here are fantastic, with incredibly smooth movement, well-telegraphed attacks, and clear visuals, whether it is the glint of a spear about to attack or the way Yi's cape flows after a grapple. The overall revenge narrative and Yi's character arc are one of the game's strongest parts, too, and carried us through those moments when the world design wasn't working.Captured on Nintendo Switch (Handheld/Undocked)Combat was also a huge part of what hooked us. Compared to some Metroidvanias, Nine Sols strikes an excellent balance. It isn't as finicky and precise as something like Hollow Knight, but it isn't a complete breeze either. Instead, the closest alignment is actually Sekiro, as mentioned. Nine Sols is a game about playing defensively, blocking and parrying attacks, only to then unleash powerful flurries or special abilities to destroy your enemies in one fell swoop.While this can be done through your main attack, you also have access to a variety of Talisman abilities through the skill trees. These broaden your options as you play. The first one you get, Qi Blast, allows you to hold down the 'R' button to dash through an enemy, apply a Talisman to them, and charge a huge explosion while they recover from their attack.It is all very stylish and extremely satisfying, thanks to some great sound effects, like the clang of a parry. It's also challenging, especially as you progress, requiring better parrying skills and timing from you in a natural way. Nine Sols' combat never feels unfair, but it is fairly unforgiving if you are new to demanding Souls-like combat. The 'Jades' upgrades available as you explore can help here a bit, offering passive buffs that boost your attack capabilities. These can include making you uninterruptible during a certain move, damage increases, or slight stat boosts. Even, with these upgrades there is still a high skill floor.Captured on Nintendo Switch (Docked)These abilities expand as you progress and explore new areas (such as being able to jump on enemies that perform unblockable attacks to counter them). You can change these attacks by obtaining new skills, such as being able to hold down the explosion charge for longer to deal more damage. The skill tree is expansive, with options that actually matter. It's not too big, and the choices you make don't feel like small incremental stat boosts or tweaks. This provides a lovely sense of progression throughout and as you move from boss to boss throughout the 20-or-so-hour journey, alongside the traversal and exploration abilities you get when moving between each area.Speaking of bosses, they are often highlights and focal points in between combat encounters, as you would expect. From large knights, mysterious sorcerers, ancient samurai, and hulking techno-infused monsters, they make for inspired designs and really stand out from the rest of the game whether they are core fights or optional. The fusion of cyberpunk and Taoism tends to work slightly better in the boss fights, although not flawlessly. Nine Sols also takes another note from Sekiro's book here, allowing you to do anything you can do to a regular enemy to a boss. Whether stacking Talisman effects or stunning enemies out of unblockable attacks, this decision is the right one and creates an epic duelling atmosphere in every fight.Captured on Nintendo Switch (Handheld/Undocked)However, the map to get around these areas in New Kunlun isn't great. While the individual area map is okay, the larger world map that links areas and shows connecting paths is difficult to navigate and unclear on where and how to actually move between each one. While it doesn't outright ruin the experience, we did get frustrated fairly often when having to backtrack to a healing spot or the game's main hub to upgrade and buy new items. Those feelings quickly dissipated, however, as soon as we began fighting enemies again.Finally, it's worth mentioning that the game feels built for the Switch. Scenes are crisp and the visual effects look stunning, especially on the Switch OLED. The game manages to maintain that resolution while running at smooth frame rates, delivering fluid gameplay that never saw any distracting performance drops in our time with it.0 Comentários 0 Compartilhamentos 14 Visualizações
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WWW.NINTENDOLIFE.COMBook Review: An Unendorsed Anthology Of Club Nintendo - A Terrific Tribute TomeImage: Ollie Reynolds / Nintendo LifeThe My Nintendo loyalty program is pretty good, right? If you head on over to the rewards section of the service right now, youll find a host of interesting goodies to claim should you possess the required number of coins. These include a Nintendo Switch Online 2025 Calendar, a set of Super Mario Bros. embossed art prints, a Mario vs. Donkey Kong smartphone ring, and a Mario & Luigi: Brothership pin set. Thats good, isnt it?Yes, its good, but its not great. And by gum, if youve been a fan of Nintendo for a while now, then youll know that My Nintendos predecessor, Club Nintendo, was often great. In operation from 2002 (region-depending) until 2015, Club Nintendo offered up some of the most incredible, one-of-a-kind products imaginable. A golden Twilight Princess statue, a SNES controller for the Wii, a Year of Luigi coin, multiple CD soundtracks... It really felt like the sky was the limit for Club Nintendo, and were saddened that My Nintendo will likely never match its brilliance.Images: Ollie Reynolds / Nintendo LifeRather than just sit around and mope about it, however, we decided to check out An Unendorsed Anthology of Club Nintendo from Oscar Bown, revealed via Kickstarter in August 2024 and available exclusively via his eBay store. Clocking in at 400 pages on premium 170gsm archival paper, this is without a doubt the final word on Club Nintendo rewards, containing high-quality images of every product offered to members from its inception in 2002 right up to its closure in 2015.Now, we were sent the limited edition (44) of the book, but you can also opt for a standard copy for 33. Throwing down the extra cash will bag you not only the hardback book, but also a 2025 calendar (complete with key game anniversaries for each month), three custom postcards, and a rather lovely golden coin pin.Considering some of the bog-standard art books you could pick up for around the same price, An Unendorsed Anthology of Club Nintendo absolutely screams luxury. Its a thick, weighty tome with stunningly high-quality pages, a classy, minimal design, and not a whiff of poor image quality for the products themselves. Everything from the Club Nintendo GameCube pad to the final Club Nintendo 2016 Calendar has been meticulously presented with exceptional care.Images: Ollie Reynolds / Nintendo LifeDo we wish the book had included a few more bespoke photos of the products from Bown? Sure, a part of us does. But then we have to remind ourselves of the book's purpose, and thats to simply preserve each and every reward from Club Nintendo in as straightforward a way as possible.In that sense, its a resounding success. Every reward is granted its own page in the book (with a handful benefiting from a full two-page spread), and Bown has even gone so far as to include the region in which each reward could be obtained along with the required price in coins (a whopping 15,000 for that aforementioned Zelda statue).Frankly, its a remarkable book for Nintendo fans. Considering Club Nintendo has been dead for nigh on a decade now, owning a complete catalogue of every reward from the loyalty program in 2024 is an almost priceless privilege.Images: Ollie Reynolds / Nintendo LifeThats not to mention the bonus goodies included in the limited edition, either. The 2025 calendar is certainly basic in some ways for example, theres nowhere to make any significant notes or reminders but for something to simply prop up in the corner of your office desk, its really quite lovely. The three postcards depict illustrations of the original phat DS, the 2DS, and the GBA Micro, and the soft-feel quality of the card itself is second to none. Finally, the golden coin pin measures roughly 3cm in diameter, making it a fairly chunky little thing; perfect for pinning to your favourite winter coat or travel bag.If you, like us, miss Club Nintendo dearly, then Oscar Bowns hardback anthology of the services many, many rewards is the perfect way to pay tribute to a bygone era in Nintendos long, storied history. Flicking through and locating any rewards that you might have grabbed yourself in the past is fun enough as it is, but having a complete view of every reward from every region over the course of thirteen years is an excellent reminder of Nintendos unique flair for weird and wonderful products that we desperately wish we owned.Thank you to Oscar Bown for sending over a copy of An Unendorsed Anthology of Club Nintendo. The book is available to purchase now. You can check out Bown's official website for more of his design works.Let us know down below what Club Nintendo purchases you made back in the day.Please note that some external links on this page are affiliate links, which means if you click them and make a purchase we may receive a small percentage of the sale. Please read our FTC Disclosure for more information.0 Comentários 0 Compartilhamentos 13 Visualizações
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TECHCRUNCH.COMFigure 02 performing tasks autonomouslyRobotics startup Figure released a video update showcasing their Figure 02 humanoid robot autonomously performing tasks at HQ for a BMW use case. 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.0 Comentários 0 Compartilhamentos 15 Visualizações
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TECHCRUNCH.COMTrump considers naming an AI czarIn BriefPosted:3:10 PM PST November 26, 2024Image Credits:Michael M. Santiago / Getty ImagesTrump considers naming an AI czarIncoming president Donald Trump is considering naming an AI czar in the White House, Axios reports. Should Trump appoint such a policy person, theyd be charged with helping to coordinate federal regulation and governmental use of AI. Importantly, an AI czar wouldnt require Senate confirmation, Axios notes allowing them to get to work on the administrations goals faster.The AI czar role, which could end up being combined with a crypto czar role the White House is also reportedly mulling, would be complementary to the agency chief AI officers established under President Joe Bidens AI executive order. Trump, of course, could choose to eliminate those officers (and their offices) in favor of a more top-down governance approach.No names have been put forth for consideration. But Tesla CEO Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, the co-leaders of the extra-governmental org known as DOGE, will have significant input into who gets the AI czar role, according to Axios.Topics0 Comentários 0 Compartilhamentos 15 Visualizações
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WWW.AWN.COMHiroaki Kitano to Deliver SIGGRAPH Asia 2024 KeynoteThe Sony Group CTO will present his talk, Co-Creating Worlds with Game Designers, Animators, and Filmmakers on December 5, 10:00 11:00 a.m. JST; SIGGRAPH Asia will be held in Chiyoda, Tokyo, December 3 - 6.0 Comentários 0 Compartilhamentos 14 Visualizações