man1c-m0g

Crikey, I don't update this thing much nowadays do I?   Well, I am happy to report that BioRUST.com is growing well beyond my wildest dreams!  We now have over 100 tutorials, 150 downloads, and 6000+ registered members!    Who knows what the future will bring... well, except for increased bandwidth bills?  

The Biorust v4 design is now in the early stages of development.  It promises to be a departure from existing designs by being relatively light on the graphics front, and heavy on skillful HTML coding.  Yes, I'm still using tables... but until FireFox fixes its damned quirky CSS2 rendering, I refuse to sacrifice compatability for being fashionable.    Still, my new design has all the hallmarks of a very flexible design.  I'm really looking forwards to getting everything up and working!   Hell, I'm probably more excited about this than my forum members!

Arrrgghhhh, my poor brain! Well, after several weeks of active development I have finally finished the new interface for my design portfolio... which seems to be growing into something of a community recently! Anyway, the new design is 1000% better than the old one... but not because it looks nicer, loads faster, or fits more content on the screen, but rather because it displays absolutely perfectly in all modern browsers I can get my paws on. I'm still working on some of the sections, but its online for all to see now over at biorust.com Lemme know what you think. And don't ask for a new design anytime soon - this one totally fried my brain!

As some of you will know, my former webhosts decided to combat a virus on their server by nuking everyone's accounts AND all backups too. Not the kind of service I expect when i'm paying £10/month for hosting, i'm sure you'll agree! Anyway, a new host later, and despite many obstacles, some REALLY long nights & very tired fingers, the Biorust v2 design is now fully operational! Go and comment in the shoutbox before I feel the need to redesign the webby again....

Well, I tried my best, but it just wasn't good enough - I couldn't find the MAX models for Quake 3 characters ANYWHERE on the web! What makes this doubly annoying, of course, is that I distinctly remember downloading and using them before (for the GamingKingdom project), yet all the old locations are now full of broken links, or relaced with inappropriate content. Grrr! Nevermind anyway - I still completed the project, albeit with graphics pinched from screenshots, restricting my scope somewhat. Take a peek in the website designs section of the gallery, and I think you'll agree I found an ingenious way around the problem. In other news, I have 8 days off work ahead of me, so be prepared for more creativity coming your way real soon...

After many hours of sweat, blood, and tears, my first skin for Winamp (and my second skin ever) is finished!  I can scarcely believe how far it has come since the early days, and that its taken me a colossal 150hours to get this far!   Still, the result is definately worth it in my opinion, and i've gained a loads of knowledge on the Winamp3 skinning process that'll inevitably help me with future skinning projects. The only regret I have is that Brightamp is kinda heavy on the processor compared to some other skins (a result of all the alpha-smoothing), but its a very minor issue with modern processors anyway. Kudos go to Hippy, Boostr29, nkj, and all the other cool peeps who helped me iron the bugs out of the final version - you people are stars!   

Anyway, now that i'm free once more, what of future projects?  Well, after a week of rest playing UT2003 and Unreal2, I intend to design a splash screen for www.clanrsi.co.uk so that visitors can select between the Quake3 and UT2003 divisions of the clan. In true fashion for me, however, I'm gonna go a bit overboard and try to render a vignette action-style piece in 3dsMax 5.  The end result will hopefully be of poster-quality, and will get me one step closer to my ultimate goal - matching the talent of my creative hero, Rorshach.