Skyboxes are six images that are mapped onto a cube that follows the 3D camera around in a realtime 3D space.  The skybox object is drawn first and then everything else is drawn on top of it.  It simulates a big giant sky.

I’ll post a tutorial in a while, I need to get these done first:

Modeled in Silo3D, textured and rendered in Maya, tweaked in Photoshop.

It’s been suggested that I include the text of this character concept so here ya go!

Kierie

She is a slight girl in her early twenties.  Some Caucasian and Asian mixed with Pacific Islander and South American Native.  Above average intelligence and an almost spooky way with animals – they trust her.  Extremely lithe and physically fit but not very big, she sprints and jumps out of harms way instead of bashing through it.

She comes from a bunker in the desert where her stratospherically wealthy ancestors, the Chay-Nee, stockpiled goods and renewable technologies against what they knew was coming.  She doesn’t know this, but while they were not the architects of the apocalypse, they share a large amount of the blame for it.

The roof of this bunker has been open to the sky for the past 100 years since the automatic systems kicked on and let the People out.  Until this “Awakening” moment, the People had been fed and housed by an automatic system of hydroponics and hidden vats of genetically modified growing muscle tissue.  One year after the roof opened, all the systems shut down, throwing the People into a long period of chaos and then finally tribalism.  They use the remnants of technology of the past in shamanistic ritual and have a meme of a “final use of technology” that will be used at the end of times.

She is armed.  All of the People are hunters and farmers.  Her weapons of choice are two short machete’s that she wear on the outside of each thigh.

While out hunting, a band of nomadic raiders found her hunting party.  Seven of the People against thirty raiders, they killed the raiders and hung their carcasses in a circle around their camp.  That night, while they slept, a thundering wind and bright lights came from the darkness.  Everyone was killed but Kierie.  She awakes in a strange forest, completely alone and has been wandering and hunting for two months – trying to find her way back to the Bunker.

VISICHUNK

This is an Augmented Reality game.  Not very fun but definitely makes you look like a moron.  A happy moron, but a moron nonetheless.

Cam and I left Santa Barbara after a yummy breakfast at Sambos (yep.  There’s one left) and headed down to LA.  Took a right turn at OxNard (I love that name) and rode PCH all the way through Malibu.  Checked in to the Historic Mayfair which is actually a bit shabby but cheap.  We scored a really cool room that has an outstanding view:

We bailed pretty early nd headed off to the show where we were greeted by a wall of light and sound.  It’s exhausting on the show floor.  In a good way:

All the booths are totally over the top.  How about one of these in your office?

This was pretty cool.  A little Wii game called Endless Oceans.  Although it would have been a snap to include some kind of environmental theme without sacrificing gameplay, this was about as close as I got all day to an evironmentally themed video game.  More on that later.

This tube thing was so cool.  I want this to be the entrance to my bedroom.

I don’t want this guy in there though…

Another cool design.  The PSP “alone chair”.  I’ll need some time in this after the show.

More photeaux later tonight.  I’m off to the south hall to see if I can find an iPhone developer.

More later – We’re off for a Sambos breakfast.

Some stuff from the show so far:

• Microsoft seems to have copied Sony’s Eyetoy product and industry wonks are falling over themselves.
• Bioware released a frakking AMAZING trailer that must have cost more than the original Star Wars movie to produce.

More updates as they happen.  Heading to the last Sambos in America for Breakfast tomorrow.