I just bought a new Hard Drive for my computer at home, so I’m in the process of replacing my 80gb main drive with a 1tb drive. It will probably take a day or two for me to finish installing my OS and drivers. In the meantime, I’ve finally gotten around to adding another tutorial that I did a while ago. You can get to it through either my tutorial section or through the Houdini Exchange.

The tutorial is actually encapsulated within a Houdini file since the program actually allows one to write comments on each individual node. If you want to follow it, and don’t have Houdini… I suggest you download the free apprentice version.

Edit: Someone took the time to translate the description of this file to Japanese!

I had to redo the “ear” piece to be able to get it to follow the shape of the bottom of the helmet. Also added in the visor and the piping (which isn’t finished). Added some looping around the visor and the mouth pipe-type stuff so that it doesn’t lose its shape when subdivided. I also noticed that my subdivide was happening before my mirror rather than after, so I switched those two nodes, which should provide a better seam when mirroring the two sides

I need to build in the socket for the tubes into the ear piece to get a better look to it… make it look as though it’s a fitted piece rather than an intersecting one, and I still need to add another segment to the back of the earpiece and then some wiring (though I may leave the wiring until after I’ve got a start on the torso).

I just reworked the back of the helmet a bit to get the lines flowing where I need them. I’ll still have to work on that a bit. I also added an extra loop on the forehead so that I could get a nicer lip over the top of the visor.

Still didn’t make the adjustments that I said I needed to make, but I wanted to try and get the ear piece roughed in. It still needs some work. I’m not entirely sure how it connects since every image I’ve seen has the tubes blocking it… but I’ll figure something out.

Spent a little time trying to get the back of the helmet started, and adjusted the cheek slightly too.

Need to do some cleaning of the mesh on the back before I do the etching/wiring. Will work on that triangular section on the front a bit more too.

Only had 20 minutes today (had to spend my morning recalibrating the color on my monitor after upgrading my driver.

made adjusted the top of the helmet, and the cheek Hope to get a start on the back of the helmet either tonight or tomorrow morning.

I wouldn’t exactly call myself a modeler (though I am proud of the models I’ve done), but Sathe’s Iron Man model was just so damned inspiring that I’ve decided to start working on a model of my own.

I’m sure that it won’t go as quickly as Sathe’s, but hopefully it turns out as good.

I’m going to be using Houdini for this model, and for those interested: the plan is to aim for the Super Metroid Varia Suit, which in my opinion is how Samus should look… not the designs that Retro Studios did for the Prime trilogy.

Click to visit the Youtube page.

What else can I say? I mean… my head has already exploded. I can’t decide if I should practice harder, or play more video games.

I’m not a big fan of movie spoilers, but I think this should sufficiently count as “an interesting tidbit” rather than a spoiler. I just got back from Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (which by the was is a decent movie; light, fun, and entertaining) and I couldn’t help but focus on the An-2 that Indy and Louis Stevens flew around in.

I actually found it interesting because I had the same model of plane in my student film last year, and once you’ve researched something you can’t help but notice it when you see it. I also found this interesting since the film takes place in a very anti-communist time period, so it kind of… seemed odd that the duo was just galavanting about in a Soviet aircraft in their spare time.

Hello there! Many of you may have been here before, but are used to this place being known as Allegromation.com. You may also have been disappointed to have come here within the past year only to see that there have been no updates. Well, things have changed!

I was quite stubborn before about my web design, and did everything by hand. Whenever I’d update this main page, I would manually update this page, and then the archives section. Both of which was done in Wordpad first using html, tested, and then uploaded. It was a tedious process, and not very fun. It was unfortunately a process that made it more of a chore than anything else to keep the site up-to-date. The same was very true with my gallery section. Not efficient to maintain. As you can see now however, everything has been streamlined, and it should now be nice and easy for me to make updates!

And now, while I’m on the topic of updates… let’s give a brief update of everything that’s transpired since the *last* update.

– In June I began a very long process of re-finishing my guitar, which is *almost* completed.
– In July, I couldn’t stand being guitarless, and bought a bass.
– I saw both Symphony X and Dream Theater live in August. Both of which were great shows, and I’d have to say that the Symphony X one was a contender for best concert I’ve ever been to.
– I had the opportunity to help create a tutorial for 3D World Magazine in September, which made the cover as well. I also started doing indoor rock climbing.
– I visited Vancouver over the Thanksgiving weekend (Canadian Thanksgiving… October) and got engaged.
– In November, I gave a presentation to a Toronto audience on Fluid Dynamics in Houdini 9.
– December, I returned to my birthland for the Christmas holidays.
– I bought myself a Nintendo DS Lite in January despite my previous anti-portable-console stance. I also leveled up my cooking skills by learning how to bake bread.
– In February, my fiancee and I dined atop the tallest building in the world for a fancy Valentine’s meal.
– I can barely remember March due to a: a tight deadline that I had at work and b: being semi-delirious with the flu.
– In April, I managed to get Jeff Wagner to come see Symphony X. The show wasn’t *quite* as good as it was the previous time, but I gotta say this: Symphony X is awesome.
– In May, I celebrated being born thanks to a surprise party from Andrea (for those not in the know, Andrea is my fiancee).

Aaaaaand, hopefully that brief summary is enough to satisfy your pulsing need to know all things related to me. If not, feel free to look around the new site! There’s lotsa stuff to explore!

Also, since this is brand spankin’ new, If you catch anything that doesn’t work please let me know!