Thomas’s Blog

I make great videos

Still alive.

Yes, I’m alive still, just not posted for a while. So, last i left off I was modding BC. Well, that’s why I haven’t done much movie making this year but, that’s coming to an end. There’s a new series in production:

Dark Abyss

Created by Chris, and named by me. At the minute, I’ll probably be doing most of teh VFX. Lightning is in my area along with some other nifty tricks. (Can’t do burn marks yet though). Chris should be doing some lightsaber work with me to.

I’m also the main fight Choreographer, a script writer, a director and one of the main stars.

Yes, I hear my brother going ‘Star Wars! What a surprise.’ (Scary that I know what he’s thinking lol.) Anyway, this gives me time to come up with some other effects (Such as thejump from ‘Quantum Leap’).

BC Modding is going well, I’m updating an NX class, making it suitable for the 24th century, and my python skills are increasing.

I’ve hit another TES: Oblivion frenzy, gettin a load of money to buy a house, servant, then join the mages guild and get me a staff!!

Well, before I leave, here are the two experts in lightsaber fanfilm and VFX (In my opinion). If you haven’t seen it already, let me introduce you to Ryan Vs Dorkman 2!!

Prepare to be blown away.

March 2, 2007 Posted by thomaswilcox | misc | | No Comments Yet

Modding

As I may of already said, I am working on modding a game called Star Trek: Bridge Commander. In my latest escapade, I have learned how to make shiled textures, and how to get them working in game. I have made 3 different versions, the second one being based on the first and the third one being an upgrade of the second, which looked bad in game. The new shield (Shown in the Screenshots) still needs a bit of tweaking so that it looks right, it kind of cuts off on the edges a bit.

Shield view 1Shield view 2Shield view 3

I can also create phaser textures but I can not get them to work in game yet :(

On a more positive side:

It’s just a matter of time :)

Hopefully I’ll be able to start ship textures soon :)

January 19, 2007 Posted by thomaswilcox | misc | | No Comments Yet

Modding

endeavour-bow.jpgendeavour-port.jpgendeavour.jpgOnce again, I have found myslef modding for ST:BC (Star Trek: Bridge Commander). This time though, It looks like the project will get finished. I have spent the last 3 days making a new ship, it’s been about 9 months since I last made a ship and my first atempt on Sunday went rather….. badly. So my second attempt turned into the ship shown.

As of yet, the ship still has no name.(Yet)

The software I used to make it is called Milkshape, but it’s only a 31 day free trial. :(

January 16, 2007 Posted by thomaswilcox | misc | | No Comments Yet

Is the British Language failing?

I had an interesting argument about with my friends. What about? Well, how to spell ‘Granddad’. It all started in English, where we were anotating a poem, and I noticed that one of my mates had spelt ‘Granddad’ as ‘Grandad’. Upon pointing this out, I was immediatly told that I was stupid and it has just one ‘d’. I argued, and slowly, more people sided against me. Even the English teacher sided against me. Yes, an English teacher! Mo-one would back me up, not even when I gave them the evidence, which is actually quite a logical thing if you follow it through. The evidence goes something like this:

Grandparent

Grandmother

Grandfather

Granddad.

So where does the idea that we drop the ‘d’ off ‘Grand’ come from in ‘Granddad’. Well, fortunatley, that’s easey:

America!!

Yes, that’s how they spell it G-r-a-n-d-a-d. ‘Grandad’.

Well, that’s wrong, and people in britain are starting to talk and spell like Americans. Why?

I’ll admit that I’m not the worlds best speller, Infact, I’m an awfull speller and you’ll proberbly notice that in my posts, but never the less, I always try and spell proper English.

I actually won the argument. After the first tow lessons of the day, we get breaktime, that lasts 15 minutes, the rest of my friends were informed about my objection to ‘Grandad’ and, as I had expected, they were stupid enough to stand against me. Out of all of my mates, I am the only one that is actually any good at grammar, actually, I think I’m the only one that cares. Well, two of my mates, Chris and Sam, decided that they would use Microsoft Word, as they were both in computer rooms next, to find out once and for all. After the third lesson, I came out for dinner, I was the first outside, and decided that if I got through the whole of dinner without it being mentioned, then I had won. Sure enough, Dinner cam and went. No mention. As I was in a computer room next, I decided, though I already knew the answer, that I would check. To not do so then go around saying “I told you so” would be completley stupid if there was even the remoteist possibility that I was wrong. Checked I did, and right I was. Infact, I even checked that the dictionary on Word was set to ‘English: UK’ and it was.

I went down to my next lesson, Science, and Chris was already there, now I begun to rub it in and satisfie myself. He didn’t bother telling me I was right because he knew I would never let it go. Can’t blame him though becasue he’s right.

I came home, and spoke to Sam on MSN later, he said he asked 23 people and they say that it’s ‘Grandad’. Well, I said ‘they can’t spell then’, to which I got a sarcastic, ‘Yeh, all 23 people can’t spell’. The fact is, heknew that I was right, at least 10 people, including my English teacher, got defeated by me. The blame was then passed onto the fact that Word is programmed by Americans so Word is wrong. Yeh, whatever.

I decided, fine, the dictionary will prove it for definite, so I checked. This is the Oxford English Dictionary, and it has an American spelling. So, that idea wasn’t suggested.

But the fact that people in Britain can only speak/spell American English is rather disturbing. Especially when an English teacher gets it wrong, and our very own dictionary gets it wrong. So, why is this happening? I’ll point out now that I am not trieng to be offencive, or racist in any way shape or form.

The fact is, it’s because the Americans took the English language, and couldn’t be bothered to stick to it, or create there own from scratch. (This actually makes me think, What the heck did they speak before they chose a language? Sign Language?)

If the Americans hadn’t of taken our language however, this post would not be here for one of two reasons:

1) They wouldn’t of taken our spelling so ‘Grandad’ Wouldn’t exist, and

2) Thanks to them takeing our language, they saved us in the World Wars so if they hadn’t used our language, we’d probably all be under Nazi rule.

It’s also partially to do with the way people talk. They say ‘Grandad’ even I say it like that, but I know it’s spelt ‘Granddad’ and that’s the way I’ll always spell it and if I ever have any kids, how I’ll teach them to spell it. I’d need a girlfriend before having kids though :S

Screw that, I’ll keep my money.

Anyway, this post is becomeing a novel and my Tea is going cold so I’ll round it up:

The fact is, that people in Britain, are speaking and spelling in American, not British. I soon forsee that we’ll (well, they’ll(for I won’t)) Be saying ‘Zee-bra’ instead of ‘Zeb-ra’

January 12, 2007 Posted by thomaswilcox | misc | | 13 Comments

2007

Well, I’ve just started my final months of High School :D , not used to getting up early in the mornings though, didn’t get up in the holidays untill about midday, unless Dad was home, he was mean and got me up! Well, Whilst not being at school, I’ve played around on After Effects and can now do some new little tricks that are pretty neat. This being one of them: Energy Flux

I’ve also figured out (Accidently) How do reverse clips. Was Quite chuffed at that. I used a combination of that, and part of the Tutorial for the Energy Flux (Above) to create a nice lightsabre ignition with a nifty little flare. (for the first few frames, I digitally removed the blade:

Might get to doing a movie soon, if I can get any Ideas that is.

For now, that’s all, Feel free to post.

(No Spam)

January 10, 2007 Posted by thomaswilcox | misc | | 1 Comment

Transporter beam

January 2, 2007 Posted by thomaswilcox | misc | | No Comments Yet

Update

Time for another update, Christmas went well, got a nice new camera :D , Been playing about on after effects. I can now do lasers, and I’ve figured out Star Trek Transporters, though it still needs tweaking a bit.

January 2, 2007 Posted by thomaswilcox | misc, movies | | 2 Comments

My new PictureWell, I supose it’s about time I updated. Mock exams are over :D and now it’s just a few weeks to Christmas. I finally decided what I want. Xbox Live. Hopefully by then, I will either have Star Trek Legacy (Xbox360), or be able to get it very soon. The constant delays are getting annoying but there’s nout I can do about it apart from whine in bordem and no longer get excited about the release date.

Well, I’ve been playing on photoshop and attempted at long last to do a proper picture. (Below) The only thing that I haven’t done, is the ship, and the stars in the background, they were two different pictures which I stuck together, and then put the rest of the effects on.

December 10, 2006 Posted by thomaswilcox | misc | | 1 Comment

Second Blog

Well, this is my second blog. I decided to show of my photoshop skills through my Graphics project for tech. Unfortunatley, school doesn’t have Adobe Photoshop, instead, we have to use Corel Draw, 11. It’s good, but not really designed for making graphics in the extend photoshop is, so, I decided to try doing some of my tech work at home. I’m in my final year of High School, so, I’m now doing my major project in tech, I chose to make a board game. When I actually got round to practical, i started by making my box lid. This meant searching google for images (Rather hard to do when just about every word is filtered by the I.T. department.), once I had the images, i started to assemble the montage in Corel Graphics. The edges of the images were rather linear and blocky, so, my teacher showed me a way to blend them in. I didn’t much like the results, as every image now lost at least 50% of its full shot, and it was all in circles. So, I E-mailed the images home in lesson, brought my folder home, and began. My finished piece doesn’t look anything like the original. (Something that must of happened on photoshop:P) That set, it looks alot better, all it needs now, is to be e-mailed back to my school user area, then the final pieces added to it at school. (Logo, age range, barcode.) As I was looking for something to block, i decided to write about this, and show you all the finished result straight out of photoshop.) I’ll post the final final one later, with the logo.:)Graphics Project

November 16, 2006 Posted by thomaswilcox | misc | | No Comments Yet

My First Post

Today I set up a new WordPress blog. I’ll be practicing how you use it, but in future I hope to have lots of posts here, many of which will have some of my videos attached. Like this one:

November 11, 2006 Posted by thomaswilcox | misc, movies | | 3 Comments