Recorded Replay of Portal

Here is my recorded replay of Portal. Until now, Portal and Portal 2 remain the most memorable games of all time--especially GLaDOS' dialogues. Her sarcastic comments and remarks are what keeps me replaying the games.

There are a lot of glitches in the audio which I can't find a way to fix. It seems the problem lies while exporting from Vegas Pro.

YouTube Channel | Portal Playlist

Chambers 1 to 15

Chambers 16 to 18

Hehehe... just can't resist clearing out all the junk in Room 16...

Chambers 19 to End

Launch of YouTube Channel

I have launched my YouTube channel as SilentGamer.

Here are my first uploads:

Video #1

Video #2

Favourite / Useful Software

Here's a list of my favourite/ useful software/online services I use which has helped simplify the execution of some tasks and I hope it'll be useful to you too. The items are listed in no particular order.

Dropbox

Dropbox is the main cloud storage I use besides Google Drive for storing my files online. I've been using it since I was in polytechnic. I like its simple web interface and its single-desktop-folder concept where whatever files or folders that are stored in the desktop-folder is automatically synced to the Dropbox cloud. This makes it simple and intuitive to use. I've also used Dropbox to share files with team members when working on a project.

I have tried other storage services like JustCloud but it didn't appeal to me although they provided better rates for their services. Firstly, the desktop-folder feature means that an internet connection isn't necessary to access the files. Since is syncs files from different computers automatically, I don't have to keep downloading and uploading the same file between them whenever there are changes. I just have to overwrite the file in the Dropbox folder, and the service takes care of ensuring other devices have the updated copy of the file. For the same reason, I sometimes use Dropbox as a pseudo-backup storage service for important files like the images I use for this blog, etc.

Secondly, by the time I discovered JustCloud, I already had a large amount of files stored on Dropbox and couldn't be bothered transferring them over. And the same reason goes for Google Drive and OneDrive even though they provide more free storage.

Thirdly, since I have been using Dropbox for a long time, I have managed to accumulate almost 30GB worth of free storage pace.

Google Drive & Google Docs

Google Drive is another cloud storage regularly I use too; mainly for Google Docs. I usually use Google Drive to store Google Docs documents, PDFs and images. While Google Drive currently offers more free storage than Dropbox, it didn't when it first came out, hence why I stuck with Dropbox.

CV-Mkr

I chanced upon cvmkr when I was looking for a quick to do up a CV. It's very intuitive and easy to use. You can add as many fields as you want and this online service will generate a CV for you in 6 different styles. You can choose to preview it and download it as a HTML or PDF document.

Here are what the 6 styles look like. It may not look fancy, but it's a good tool if you don't have the time to do a nice one.

Trello

I use Trello as my personal task organizer. I was introduced to it through a team member while working on a school project. I like its simple and intuitive design and controls. The free account has just enough tools for personal use like checklists, deadlines and labels. Trello also has a mobile app which syncs to your Trello account. Once you subscribe to a List or Card, you'll receive updates on any changes made to that particular List or Card.

While Trello is a pretty good app, it does have its flaws. One downside is that it doesn't yet have a way to mark a task as 'done' so deadlines will continue to show even though the task is done. While it doesn't affect me as I can always remove the deadline, it can be problem for teams. As of now, the only way to solve this is to have a List named "Done". Another thing I find lacking is the ability to create custom colours for labels. You're stuck with colours provided; like I had to use the same colour for the "Top Priority" and "Important" labels because of the limited colours. I sometimes use Trello to store important information like links and code. Hence why I have two separate labels. I use "Top Priority" to mark tasks and "Important" to mark notes. It would been cool if I could use a darker red to help distinguish between the two.

Below is a screenshot of my tasks. 

You can check out updates of requested features at the Trello Development Board.

Setuna 2

I was first introduced to Setuna through the lecturer who taught me 3D modelling. This is the second version of the software. Setuna is a screen capture software which allows you to capture a section of the screen which always stays on top other software allowing one to see the captured image's contents.

How to use:

1. Run Setuna 2 and you should see a dialogue box like the image below:

2. Click on "Capture". Your cursor should turn into a crosshair. You can press "Esc" to cancel the action. *Make sure the dialogue box isn't covering the area you want to capture.

3. Click and drag around the area you want to capture. Setuna 2 should generate a bevelled version of the captured area.

4. Now you can click on the captured image an drag it anywhere around the screen.

5. If you feel the image takes up too much space, you can double click on it to shirk it into a tiny square.

6. To remove a captured image, click on it and press "Esc".

Personal Name Cards

Name-Card Samples

Here are some name card designs I've been working on. The blue one is the old design while the purple one is new. The only main difference between the two is that the blue name card is targeted towards the game industry while the purple one is for a general position in the creative industry.

The blue name card's inspiration was drawn from video games. I was inspired by top-down shooting games, hence the yellow fighter attempting to chase and shoot down the grey fighter. I first drew the graphics from a top down perspective. Then I used perspective and distort mode of the transform tool to scale them so it gives a 3D-feel. I also added some shadows to emphasis the effect; though I didn't added it for the missile as I felt it would be too much. The main font I used was Raleway and Century Gothic for the phone number as I didn't like Raleway's uneven lines.

The theme for the purple name card was simple and elegant; hence the floral-like pattern around the card. I chose purple as it's my favourite colour. I added some pink to spice things up and make it more interesting. The pink also  The skills info was also significantly reduced. The pattern is from one of the custom shapes pack I downloaded a long time ago. I duplicated the shape and scaled and rotated it in various ways to get the desired effect. For fonts, I used Diavlo for the title and Economica for the info.

Here is what the fonts look like.

Fonts used in Name Cards

Here are screenshots of how the name cards look like.

Game Designer - 2014

Graphic Designer - 2015

Downloads for Resume, CV

This post is for those seeking to hire me.

Click on the images or the links below to download the respective documents.

Resume + Testimonials

CV

Here is my resume for easy viewing:

Page 1

Page 2

Personal Website Up and Running

Screenshot of Website

I have finally got my personal website up and running. It was created with a free Wix account; hence the Wix ads.

The website's design was based on one of the default templates provided by Wix. The background image also came with Wix.

The colour scheme is a mix of the colours I used for my resume and CV drawing inspiration from the background. As you can tell, my favourite colour is Purple =D. The skill-pie charts were generated in Microsoft Excel, then I took a screenshot and edited it in Photoshop. I specifically chose a bright colour scheme for the pie charts so that they would stand out.

I've decided to split the Resume from the About page as I see them as separate items. The Resume page is purely work-related while the About page may contain unrelated information such as personal views, beliefs and past experiences. The Resume page also contains download links to my Resume and CV.

Developing My Own Brand

While working on other mini-projects, I decided to create my own brand to help standardize the fonts and colours I use while crediting the work I make.

I based my design around my inspiration in eagles. Hence the soaring eagle on the logo and the cursor based of the eye of an eagle. I used the pen tool in Illustrator to trace photos of eagles. The colours of the logo and cursor were taken from the the program's default colour palette. As for the background's colour palette, the colours were taken from one of the packaged colour palettes in Photoshop. I keep the artwork in Illustrator to avoid problems with pixelation. If I ever need them for graphics or printing, I would first copy a desired design into Photoshop. Then I would keep it as a smart object to retain its vector properties and resize it to a desired dimension.

The fonts I chose were purely out of personal preference. I chose a font from each main category: sans-serif, serif and monospace. The sans-serif font, Ebrima is the main font for this brand. The serif font, Book Antiqua is used when readability is important--especially for physical media such as books, posters, labels, etc., while the monospace (Consolas) font is used for displaying code. Consolas is my go-to font in programming environments and I always use it whenever it's available. I prefer Consolas over Courier New as I find the latter's serifs disorientating especially when look through lines of code.

SketchUp Models in Unity with Xml

« created with Unity »

I created an application with Unity which allows you to walk around and view the models I made in SketchUp up close. Clicking on an object shows more information about it. This information is loaded from Xml files embedded into Unity.

2 things to take note:

1. You need to download and install the Unity Web Player in order to use the application
2. The web player doesn't on Google Chrome at the moment. Use other browsers like FireFox or Internet Explorer instead.

To see the cursor again, press [Esc].

Here are some screenshots for those who can't use the application:

Playing with SketchUp

Edit 1: changed post Title
Edit 2: added weakness of SketchUp

Links: SketchUp Website | Download Page

Model examples

*Note: not to scale, not exact replicas.

All these models were done completely from scratch, drawing inspiration from the objects lying around on my desk.

Throughout my years in Polytechnic and University, I have been using 3DS Max for my 3D modelling purposes. But I wanted a much simpler software to use. So I decided to explore SketchUp further and see what its strong and weak points.

I first touched SketchUp during my Polytechnic years out of interest-sake, but soon stopped because I wasn't used to its ways of modelling. I was still used to the modelling-style in 3DS Max. The next time I used it was for one of my University courses. The lecturer wanted us to use it for the modelling purposes of the entire course. But due to heavy workload, I was unable to delve deeper into the software.

Now that I have time, I decided to give this software a try again and soon fell in love with its intuitive controls. I especially like its Follow-Me tool which makes a quick job of copying complex faces. This tool is best seen on the 3DS XL model. I first modelled out the shape of the side as a flat face. Then I used the Follow-Me tool to copy this feature around all sides of the model.

Simplified 3DS XL

Another feature I like about Sketch Up is the ability to paint textures onto objects directly without the need to unwrap UVs. For now, I have used SketchUp's default textures and colours to texture the models. I will explore how to make custom textures in SketchUp at a later date.

Although I have experience in modelling, I am by no means an expert at it. And I still feel I lack the knowledge and experience to make more complex models. Throughout my 5 and a half years of tertiary education, I only had 3 courses in 3D modelling.

However, as with every software, SketchUp has its weaknesses. One thing I found problematic is that the cursor doesn't snap to the axis lines (I don't mean the origin or aligning with the axis) when trying to draw a new shape or guide. Also, I haven't found a way to snap objects to other objects or the origin/axes while moving them. A third issue is that SketchUp doesn't automatically detect the centre of an extruded face and I have to find it using the guides. Another weakness is that SketchUp's measure tool and dimensions box only measure's up to 2 decimal places. Beyond that, it gives an approximation number. While not a big issue, it makes it harder to model accurately if need be. But, I am still new to SketchUp so perhaps there are solutions to these problems; but as of writing this post, I have yet to find them.

Here are some screenshots of other objects I've modelled in SketchUp:

Creeper Figurine

Monitor

Speaker

Water Bottle

Light Switch Labels

This GIF image above shows samples of what I did.

Here are some examples of the light-switch labels which I designed in Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator CS6. I used Illustrator to design and align the symbols and text because its vector properties allow me to scale them without pixelation problems. Then I used Photoshop to colour in the background and consolidate them for printing. The labels were then printed on uncut A4 sticky labels, cut, and pasted on the switches.


Below are some screenshots for easier viewing:

My Room

Guest Room

Print Layout Example