Melaka Indoor Swimming Pool

This is the new "heaven" I discovered in Melaka. Too bad I am only here for 2 months. =(

Finally.....FINALLY, Melaka has its SUKMA indoor swimming pool open for public!! It is a swimming complex with 2 pools: 1 Olympic-sized pool (25m X 50m) with 11 lanes and 1 diving pool which are 18 feet deep. Here you often find the state's polo team do their routine training. The complex is part of Stadium Hang Jebat, located in Krubong adjacent to the federal highway.This something new to me; indoor means independence of weather to go for a swim, be it hot sun or lightning storms. =D

Thing you might need to take notes:

The pool closes every Monday, rm3 per entrance, 9am-12pm, 2pm-4pm and 6pm-8pm. The water is not clear at the moment and its is very cold, since it is indoor. =D The only bad thing about this pool is that it would be off when there are competitions or training sessions going on. =\ Therefore it is vital to make a phone call to the POCs if you are not sure of it.

Somehow I still prefer the MPMB swimming pool, certain aspects. Because it has clear, warm water with a 12 feet deep-end for swimming and diving. And most of my swimming party are always there. =)

Crazy Geologist

Geologists are folks with crazy brains;

All of them are curiously trained.

They count the sand, grain by grain;

Memorizing rocks with stupid names.

They crush the rocks, again and again;

Just to discover fossils not known to man.

They dig the earth, hand after hand;

Hoping for oil to spill in the barren land.

Its the fact that never change,

that geologists are indeed crazy in the end.

....

Nah...just too stressed out and all this funny ideas came from nowhere....

So I wrote it down since it is funny. xD

I really hope that I could survive for these few final hectic weeks...

-BUT-

Here came the millions of tiny green bugs again that swarm the whole blocks in UTP.

Biting us, making us itchy, and dirty the floors.

SIGH~

The Driver and His Public Transport

Having a car is convenient; you can go tronoh makan nice food, no need walk to class, can go Ipoh hangkai every week, can go explore Ipoh, and some even said can pikat perempuan (tackle women). Yeah indeed, to those who never own a car in UTP, you guys might think tat having a car is something very honorable and enjoying. I would said it is true...but only up to certain extend. If you don't believe me, bring a car to UTP and you'll find what I said is true! And I bet, nobody would evr understand my feeling and the problem that I face.

Despite being a driver, which sent people in and out to main gate, Taman Maju, Ipoh, etc

You'll face another big dilemma, real BIG DILEMMA!!!

People would start borrowing your car. In fact, if they paid me the petrol money I would be more than happy to lend it. But frequent borrow doesn't sound pleasant at all, and that's the case! Imagine almost every 2 day on average (which now up to everyday) there would be someone come up to ask:"Eh, can pinjam your car?", "Can fetch me to bus station?" Here comes the hard and undesirable part to make decision: It is very difficult for me to reject their request neither to accept it!!!

IF i deny, then that's really bad (since most of them are my close friends, and with good reason to borrow), and I would seems to be a lousy friend for being "selfish", "inconsiderate", and"calculative".

--------------------BUT-----------------------

What if I borrow my car frequently to different people? It sounds more than making my car into a piece of public transport, which is even worse! (since you paid to ride a p.transport) and do bear in mind...whenever my car is in other hands, I have the reason to bear some unnecessary worries: crashing and summons. Not even to mentioned about the maintenance, which ain't you know that....

It need time? Money? Energy? Situations where it would fried you? Such as workshop closed on Sunday? Tauke go limteh? Need to wait so long!!! Just one word - TROUBLESOME! And there are so many parts to be spoiled: tyre would run out, so does the brake, clash, lubricant oil, car radiator, alignment, aircond gas, battery, etc. The more the usage, the more I need to service my car. So please do understand that I am trying very hard to cut down those, and even myself, I cycle to class EVERYDAY. in UTP, i used only my bike. =)

There are some "bonuses" too:

You'll start noticing some distant friend start to come close to you temporarily, you'll feel the "hypocrisy". Then off they go again once business is done. Then there is even a worse case where people actually took my car to Lumut WITHOUT my permission and NOT even informing me, then having my bumper CRASHED, then diam diam (keep quiet). This also happened to a few frineds of mine where people use their car full-heartedly without them knowing.

Now then, I am really pondering whether my car had bring me more troubles than benefits. =/

Hmmmm.....

Shitty Timetable and Cafes

Having no other options, I have to kiss goodbye to my ever relaxing life....Seriously I am a lil dishearten by the time table this semester. Imagine that everyday you gotta leave ur warm and comfortable mattress early 7 in the cold morning and force that reluctant lids to open just a few cms...then barely grab a few bites of biscuits before going to class - late. (yea maybe I m not used to since last sem my class were all late...mostly 10am) But, there are little breaks in between my hectic, "lab-ful" classes before I could call it a day in 5pm. Problems often complement well with other problems. It had since become even troublesome and undesirable because the only available cafe is in Pocket D, far beyond reach from my academic block, and also far beyond my pathetic budget as a student. NO breads, NO biscuit nor simple economical take-away snacks is available, means you have no option but to queue up A DECADE to make an order. Would we have time for that? Even worse, the food prizes are getting more expensive, and still increasing!
Lets have a look at the very basic meals:

-1 toast bread
-1 scrammbled egg
-1 ramli chicken burger meat
TOTAL = RM4

-2 omelet eggs (rm0.64)
-2 small hotdog (rm0.60?)
-2 toasted normal white bread (rm0.30?)
TOTAL = RM5

-1 beef/chicken burger meat
-1 mixed vege (tesco beans n carrots n corn)
-rice
TOTAL = approx RM4.50


(PS: with those prices we could obtain a big chicken and a few vege and drinks in a normal cafe, and maybe 15 AA eggs!!!)


Other menu you don't even need to know since they are meant only for the rich international students and lecturers! RM10 fried chicken, rm12 beefs, rm30 burger? Locals (even with rm500/month scholarships) would find it financially burdened!For heaven's sake its our DAILY meals and in a long run, our wallet would bleed! How about those private students who need to pay RM138 per credit hours (excluding hostel and book expenses)? Perhaps they need to acquire the art of hibernation so that they no longer eating. Why would UTP make the Chancellor Complex such a "high-class" location? Yea, student may bring their own lunch box during academic period, but the issue is, we should be given other options instead of a single, "high class" cafe. Even with my own lunch box, gosh I would not wanna eat bread every single day! What else could I prepare other than bread? Pizza, Lamb-chops, Teppankaki, CharKuehTeow?

There is even a time where MINERAL WATER is NOT available in the cafe...therefore making the entire Chancellor Complex a mini-Sahara Dessert. I do bring my own water, but it would finished off by noon. Then I have to learn from a cactus to survive till 5pm. In fact I had to drink pipe waters sometimes. Maybe I should bring more water, 2 heavy bottles, or a big pail. Then I shall ask the camels how to carry them. Maybe UTP have to consider installing water dispensers. Having hundreds of lightings and running the IRC aircond 24-hours would be a pride, but what for having something which is nice to eat but not healthy? Nice to look but hard to use? How about the money and electricity which vanished into thin air? Students shall deserve better cafe and facilities because we paid for it (and our sponsors). Or maybe UTP really meant for those who are willing to pay.

"Badan Cergas, Hotak Cerdas"

Fantasie-Impromtu by Frederic Chopin

Music Sheet: Fantasie-Impromptu

Perhaps one of the most well known piece of Frederic Chopin is Fantasie-Impromptu in C-sharp minor, Op 66. I first heard this music played by one of my friend, and later on reminded me of an old classical "Tom and Jerry" film which used the middle part of this piece as background music. I real like its ending part, where it ends slowly with the left had playing a few notes of the main melody. I tried to play this with my piano but its way beyond my standard. First challenge came when I realized it has a unique tempo of 8:6, where each bars, right hand plays 16 notes while left hand plays a 12 notes. This means when your right hand hits 4 notes, ur left hand hits 3 notes. In addition, I am real sux in side reading since I had never attended any piano lessons, luckily I found a useful video in Youtube to help me recognize a couple of numbers of notes. Anyhow I could manage to play a few part quite smoothly with the right tempo. Hopefully I would seek some guidance from my friends. They are some of the most talented musical people I would said.

Anyway, lets appreciate what these great composers in the medieval time had done for us.

Other pieces which I liked is:
-Etude Revolutionary
-Moonlight Sonata
-Original Flight of the Bumblebee
-Rachmaninoff Prelude
-Hungarian Rhapsody

This is the video which helped me a lot for being a bad side reader. In case you have no idea what the software is, I let you know, its called Synthesia, kinda O2Jam interface which reads and translate MIDI files into graphical visualization.

Yundi Li playing Fantasie-Impromptu. Sit back relax and enjoy!

Same Fate... =.=

Me n my car share the same fate.

I got mild fever coz throat "pecah"....my car oso got "fever" coz radiator pipe pecah... =/
I wan go clinic but is Sunday so closed....my car wan go "clinic" oso but same thing...=/

me: HAIH~
my car: HAIH~~

My Beloved Mom: Pencil sketch...takes around 2 hours.

Yeah since I am sickish and I cant go anywhere I'd decided to do some "indoor" stuffs. But when I finished this portrait of my mom, I just realized that today is FATHER's DAY? Really ironic isn't? Maybe I shall give the drawing to my dad...as father's day present? haha...he would be contented maybe...=|

Anyway....Happy Father's Day!!!

CASFUMAL Food + Pulau Perhentain

The room I stayed in during CASFUMAL in Pan Pacific Hotel. Really a nice stay.

This holiday I really had a super fantastic vacation in Pulau Perhentian after my tedious but memorable event, CASFUMAL (Career Summit for Malaysian's Leaders) where in my life, I had lived in the very 1st 5-stars hotel and had enjoyed all the 5 star facilities albeit a whole day of tired workings. The event was held in KLIA PAN PACIFIC HOTEL. I really enjoy my stay in such a grand hotel. Its all FOC. However, what I wanna focus here is THE FOOD. It is literally a food heaven! I nearly went crazy as it was my 1st time to eat in a 5-stars banquet dinner buffet, with fresh oysters, smoked salmon, sashimi shushi, pasta, pizza, CHOCOLATE FOUNTAIN with all sort of desserts, cheese cakes, even some very expensive fish liver pate similar to the infamous "foie gras", and etc. (Can't name finish). The chefs there is ever ready to grill anything you want: steaks, salmon, etc. The Breakfast is also excellent, with a "gallery" of breads, cheese, (i tasted the blue cheese, but yucks), smoked bacons, grilled hams, Japanese breakfast, cakes, scrabbled eggs, served with fresh milk, coffee, etc... Some day I think I would return to this "Heaven", but RM90, who can sponsor me again? xD

These are what I had for a single dinner...damn full after that but the I would not forget this meal.

Chocolate fountain where I coat some marshmellow and fruits.


Non-Asian Friendly: This is the yuckish blue cheese. Didn't finished it all cause it is so pungent, bitter and taste a lil spicy. It is terrible because eating it is an acquired taste. Its like eating Durians for SE-ians, and eating Nattou for Japanese and Korean.

I real like the gym there, clean, ventilated, complete and modern.
Had a few heartful workouts here.

This is my temporary "office" or workstation. 2 laptops with a printer, some blades and siccors. Dun really like the solitary of the work. :(

-the 2nd nite of CASFUMAL-

I left and check out my room at 4am, leaving Pan Pacific to LCCT...
where my true vaccation starts!

I woke Robert and Ah Kok up, passed them my car key and laptop, so they would help me to drive my car back to my home. I felt real exciting that time, coz would be boaring a plane soon to Kelantan for the much anticiapted Pulau Perhentian trip. 6am I reached LCCT for the very 1st time, very crowded. The air planes are really small.

Ready to take off!
Air Asia is indeed cheap, with all its economical set ups.
The journey only costs 40 minutes.

I would like to thank to my room mate and Yun Huan for the time and effort for touring us around in Kelantan and Terrenganu. While in HanShen's "Kampung", we kinda linger around, playing with cow, spiders, going to river, climbing up a short coconut tree to pick some coconut, chop it on spot and drink coconut juice.

Well, I am not gonna said much for the trip in Pulau Perhentian. Pictures tell a thousand words:

Group photo: In front of the Beach of Teluk Dalam.
From Upper Left: Henna, Yun Yuan, Pei Fen, Feng Jie, Branson, Andy, Micheal, DG,
From Lower Left: Han Shen, Tom, Denson, Me

Playing with the cigarette: being a "Pai Kia" seems cool. Will consider...xD

The top-rated "pai kia".

Look at Micheal's Hand. Something fishy...

Aviator shades is cool. Haha. People said I have a police face, esp with this shade. Haha.

Snorkling is a norm in Pulau Perhentian. The water is crystal clear, being famous for the beautiful coral reefs which are home to many fishes.

Coolest pair of room mates? Hehe...

Another group pic with the cool boatman, standing in the middle.

In front of Han Shen's House. The elderly man in the middle is his dad. A very nice and generous person.
Thank to the stay!

End of my First Year Degree!!!!

This is the table I always use in common room. This photo was taken when I found most of the stuffs are there. When bored, I played the violin, or do some gym with Andy and Branson. I also love to draw stuffs while studying vector calculus...

My personal collection of rocks, I could remember each individual rocks where they came from. Of course, I knew all thier names as well.

From top left: a grey slate, propyritic gabbro, yellow slate, an arkose hornfles, banded marble, granite with inclusions, black quartizite, a schist, limestone with calcite veins, another feldspartic slate, a gabbro with quartz intrusion and a white quartzite.

Just a matter of seconds, I had already officially graduated from my 1st year degree in Petroleum Geoscience in UTP. In conclusion, my 1st year was quite fun albeit being busy, and had been learning a lot, especially in familiarizing myself with the earth sciences such as mineralogy, petrology, geomorphology and mapping technique. I would said that I had made myself fall in love prerry much with geology. I had attended few geological field trips as well, and I would say, it was a blast! By now, we are ready for more future challenge as a petroleum geologist, and we really are! I really love my course, all the subject which I had learnt and my course mates despite of races. Of course not forgetting my beloved lectures, especially AP Askury, Mr Jasmi, Dr Chow and Dr Zuhar. They are a bunch of talented and well dedicated professionals who lead us through harsh time. Real thankful.

My first year life doesn't mean academics on its own. It is also consist of V2A. Well, what is V2A? its the block which I lived in. What's so interesting about it until it had become part of my life? This is because I had spent most of my time there after classes. Nah...many of you out there who had not been staying in a dorm in a university might be interested to know more. How can we survived in such a seemingly inhabitable environment (with nasty toilets, stuck sinks and stuffed toilet bowls with plenty of unsinkings, rubbish-scattered floor, cat-infested corridor, heat-intense furnaced, a small room just enough for you to sleep, etc) Does it scared you off? Well, the answer is "bo bian lo...have to get used to it lor...xi guan jiu hao" Haha...However the good side of it is the bunch of funny people who eventually turn out to be my good friends, albeit all being labelled "lasap" or "lapsap", literally mean garbage in Cantonese, but is used to describe some funny behavior. Most of them are my EE (electrical and electronic engineering) friends. We hang out everyday in the common room, doing homeworks together, but also chit-chatting, playing at the same time. V2A was really a great place than holds lots of my memory there, and not forgetting the adorable and obident cat and her kitten, known as Jack and Branson:

The cat at the middle is Jack, Branson's mom. They are very naughty...now I kinda miss them. We always played with them, doing some mischievious stuffs with them. Hehe..

First Geology Field Trip - It was a Blast!!!!

Its me in the 2nd day of the trip in the Renyuk Waterfall, Jeli, Kelantan.

It had been a week since my return from my 4 days 3 night geology field trip all the way from Perak, Kelantan to Cameron Highland with A.P Askury and Dr Zuhar, along with several assistance which is very obliging. Basically it was a normal geology field trip that all the geoscientist out there had to go. Studying geological features and rocks through outcrops along the high way.

It Ain't Easy, being a Geologist in Field.
It is not kinda leisure trip which everyone is expecting. The weather is killing me; we spend hours spending under the blazing hot sun which nearly tear my skin apart. Despite that everyone was listening to our professor explaining about geological facts, swiftly taken down all the essence in a handbook. We have some compass and hammers in hand, just like other geologist to aid us in exploring. We also climb over the terrains to collect data (strike and dip of beddings and directions) and some rock samples. And definately photograph, though we are required to sketch each outcrop.

We had gone through cliffs side in highways to study sedimentary rock and igneous rocks, rivers to observe some drainage systems, caves to study limestones and Karstic structure, hot spring, and finally to Cameron highland's famous tea farm to study a few metamorphic rocks. The tea farm site is among the most enjoyable, with breathtaking environment and cool air.

Shitty Experience

What happen if you couldn't find a toilet while your bowel pressure is building up tremendously? You do not even have tissue papers for later cleaning task. So the answer is leaf. Luckily I found a small stream so I had forgotten about leaf. That is not uncommon or taboo while you are off into remote area. Its quite common. 101 survival skills.

Well, not too bad, at least, finally.

It was kinda satisfactory though, after a day of tired expedition with all the precious data and beautiful rock samples from many sites collected as my personal collection. I have produce some artistic sketches of geological outcrops, where I really like it. We had stayed over in some quite nice hotel (except the 1st one in Jeli, Kelantan). The stay is indeed very happening, with good foods and good room. The stay is very different with all my fellow GeoScience course mates. We do have some presentations and discussions with fellow lecturers about the trip of the day during the night. Really learnt a lot.

Beware of your Belonging

My friend nearly lost his precious 4 months old laptop, a 1 day old NEW camera, and an external hard drive: all due to a second of carelessness. He is sitting next to me in the bus while he realised this. He first inform me about this shocking news. This scene still playing vividly in my mind and I feel the anxiety in him as I had observed how his face changes - very dramatical and he nearly cried. Immediately we rushed down to stop the bus and get to ride in Dr Zuhar's car. The driver make a U-turn and after nearly a half an hour road taken through the town, we finally reach back the RnR in the highway, where he left his laptop, camera and hard disk. We ran there and, THANK GOD it is still there after nearly an hour!!! no body takes it. My friend was overjoyed as tears filled his eye. That day we had really learnt a very valuable lessons.

One of my sketches on limestone outcrop, crisscrossed with calcite veins. A rock sample is sketch below with a white vein of calcite.

In front of Gua Ikan, Kelantan

In front of Gua Ikan. From left: Robert, Ayu, Ruth, Aina, me, Kevin, Ee Juan, Ah Kok, Zaid, Mark and Amrith.

Listening to Dr Zuhar's explanation. This is in the 1st day.

My 1st Mouse Driven Digital Painting!!!

To date, this is my most superb artwork ever, which is also quite unexpected .

Everything here was hand-drawn, and digitally painted, including the background, without any references. The concept art of Mutalisk are of my very own idea.

All works are done solely by mouse.

I had never realized that Photoshop could be complemented with my drawing and painting skills so well that, it pushes me way beyond my normal limit! I had discovered myself many methods of painting in Photoshop, which is quite easy, effective and versatile. Though in the industry Corel paint is more well-known, as a freelancer Photoshop could be simply more than sufficient and user-friendly. You can still do well even without a drawing tablet.




Well, back to my paintings of Mutalisk, I would show you guys step by step how it was done. =)


I have drawn a Starcraft Mutalisk in a piece of paper (long time ago During a boring talk session in PLKN), and decided to colour it using Photoshop recently when I found that 2 years-old drawing. Therefore I have capture it with my K770i SE camera with low resolution, and that brings the drawing to stage 1 as follows:




_______________________________________________________________________________
STAGE 1 - Sketch

This is the enhanced version of the camera image. I use Photoshop to contrast the background and the lines of drawing, and make it clean. It looks almost original.


_______________________________________________________________________________
STAGE 2 - Colour



As you can see basic colour is being filled into the a white "background layer". I have the original layer topped to the highest layer as "cover layer", with layer blending mode "multiply"


_______________________________________________________________________________
STAGE 3 - Toning

Once the base colour is being filled, more or less like the traditional painting, we begin to detail out the toning of the colour, with an imaginary light source. In Photoshop, the tools involved are "Burn" and "Dodge" tool. I start to tone the muscles and carapace to make them more defined.

_______________________________________________________________________________

STAGE 4 - Texturing

To make this Mutalisk look lively, I start to work on its texture, such as the muscle fibers, grunges and scratches in the carapace, blood vessels in its wings, etc. The textures are very fine and some are only visible when you zoom in. (click on the image to enlarge) The technique invole is also normal painting and toning to create the textures.

_______________________________________________________________________________

STAGE 5 - Reflections

Minor reflections is added to give the carapace and muscle look even realistic. Notice that the dark are also having thin white reflections as lining.

_______________________________________________________________________________

STAGE 6 - Finalizing and Cleaning Ups

At this stage it is sufficiently considered as completed. Change a little bit of the hue and saturations of the colour and sharpening all the edges which are initially blurry with pencils grunges.

_______________________________________________________________________________

STAGE 7 - Backgrounding

Finally I have decided to add a suitable background to this Starcraft creature. The backdrop which I had painted features the 2 moons of Mar Sara (a fictional planet in the Starcraft Universe.), as the Mutalisk roamed veraciously in across its atmosphere in high altitude, which subject the the Confederate's aircrafts in constant fear.

Retire from Events!!!

All the while my semesters had been very hectic. Apart from the "mandatory" academic schedules, my time is fully packed with events which I had joined (as organizing committee, not participant or delegate), such as EDX, SPE, CONVOFIAR, CHILDPRO, OCM, TOASTMASTER, CASFUMAL, ICC, etc. I went to meetings almost everyday, even until 12.00am. My life is full of schedules which had grabbed off most of my free time. Yea I do admit that organizing events are beneficial, but overdoing it is really unwise.

Well after reflecting deeply, I had made my crucial decision - I already had enough experience and moments to be treasured while organizing events and now its time for me to retire for the very next sem!!! Though I had been offered numerous posts in many events incluing HODs, even PD and APD, I had reluctantly rejected all of them. I am just a simple person who yearn for a simple but meaningful life. I want a peacful, slow-paced life with good quality:

Weekdays:

-study and do revision with own sweet time

-study with my EE friends everyday in common room (miss that)

-doing crazy stuffs with crazy peeps like Branson, Feng Jie, Andy, Alex, etc

-swimming is a MUST, jogging, workouts during evening

-cook good food (and they taste heavenly tasty after sport!)

-online and play some PC game before sleep

Weekends

-study whole day until tired and bored

-then go for sport to "unleash the boredom!"

-or play my violin, drawing and producing some artwork which I really enjoy

-and sometimes Sunday evening is a hangkai-movie-swimming-eatouts day in Ipoh!

We live uni life only once, and when we step out of the campus upon graduation to work, we'll again face the hectic life where you once had had before in uni. And this time it is until you retire. So why wanna make my life miserable by organizing too many events? Control yourself, Wei Di. Don't be too naive and blinded by the posts offered; those are just workloads that burden your life if you don't like it.

People might say that by organizing events you can learn to lead people, carried out task efficiently and it helped you when you stepped out there to work. Yea it is true but I am simply different. I am a person that is ignited only by passion and duty. Now I see my passion in joining events is dying rapidly so I can't afford to join anymore as that would results in irresponsibilities in me after joining. I can't anymore give out much commitment as last time as I did. I realized that I had changed. But when come out to work its different, because its my main responsibility and I will do whatever I can to please the one that pay me salary. (I am kinda $$-orientated)

Anyway do not follow what I said, as different people have different way of life. Some people simply enjoy to be an organizing committee, while some don't. I am just sounding out my personal feelings.

Tears of Mother Nature (Poem)

Tears of Mother Nature

The rain's falling like a million feathers;

with gentle rhythms sounds sweet to the ear.

The sky is echoed with rolling thunders,

with friendly voices of Mother Nature.

The air is fresh and ground filled with waters,

with aroma and essence that wets the summer.

Its the moment She nurture Her creatures,

with love and care that shower with her tears!

　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　

By Wei Di

29/03/2010

Making a Map for Warcraft III - an Overview

People really having much fun playing Warcraft Maps (such as DotA, The Three Corridors, Fight of Characters) but did anyone know how these Maps are created? As a Map maker, I am gonna explain a lil bit here so you guys could appreciate what people has done for you to play!

Well, to create a good map (game) with many original customizations, it is indeed a tedious project:

-it requires you a knowledge in programming (Jass script), or at least, basically, in GUI

-a knowledge in graphics editting (2D for Icons, textures, etc and 3D for models)

-a knowledge in sound editting (but doesn't seems popular among the community)

-a knowledge in terrianing

-AND good knowledge in gaming of course!

Scripting:

There are 2 methods where you can write your triggers:

*(triggers are the procedural codes that would be automatically be executed in response to certain events or happenings)

1)The GUIs (Graphical User Interface) for beginners- but has limited functions, and
2)The Jass Script- very powerful but need an advance knowledge in programming.

Therefore, I prefer the GUI method since I have not undergone any proper training in programming. All my knowledge is self-explored (since I have no internet during form 4 and therefore no web-based learning). Below is an example taken from a map that I have created during Form 4 (Legacy of the Damn):

A piece of trigger Written in GUI - simple. However if you did it beyond limits, it would be very messy, especially when you are dealing with 2 dimensional array variables.

Jass Scripts - I see stars!! Well it is very messy to untrained eyes, but would be very neat for pros as you can create variables of type both "local" and "global". So it is very powerful and have almost unlimited functions.

Texturing and Modeling:
This is another aspects of map making, where it enhances the art effects of the game. It requires you to a skill in
1) 2D graphic edittings - Photoshop to do texturing, Icons, LoadScreen, with alpha channel
2) 3D Graphic editting - 3D Max (Modelling, Animations, Particles, etc)

I am good in 2D Graphic editting, since my 3D skills is for LightWave and SketchUp, not 3D Max. Anyhow I do know some simple 3D editting for Warcraft III model. Well I gonna show you the 2 models (out of many) that I have customized in my map (Legacy of the Damn)

Left: My first editted model (Fozeron) , editted originally from the in-game LightningRevenat model. I had added some icy particles with the particle emitter. Right: The texture that I editted. Added a thin layer of snowy ice so make it look chilled.

Another Hero I edited. I change its particle colour from green to red, then add some flame effects on its head and hands. So the whole infernal is really ignited! The 4 icons below are his spells I programmed in GUIs (including art effetcs). The 2nd and 3rd icon is drawn by me using Photoshop. The right image showing Magma casting Lava Splash (3rd Icon).

Terrain Editting
Well this is another knowledge you need to have in Map-Making. But it is simple to create the terrain with the terrain editor in World Edit. Most people found it easy to master, however, if you are not a good artist, the map would look very fake and not natural. So its all instinct and intuition that u are dealing with! A map that is too empty or crowded is not good.

Another map of mine - the Jurassic Survivor.
Upper: A texture Wire-framed terrain.
Below: Rendered in-game previews, where I added in linear fogs, rain effects, and did all the terraining myself. Imported models including Dinosaurs, araucacia trees, palm trees, fern trees, grass, etc.

Sound Editting
Well most map-maker don't use custom sound for sound effects, since there are pretty much in-game sounds in the game's directory readily to be used. However if you chose to, it is another advance knowledge in MIDI editting! Though I do composed a few theme song for my map using Sibellious, but the file is too large for it to fit in. Plus, it is not so nice also. So I just simply download some track and put it in my map.


Well, I would say that making a truely genuine map with high quality is quite a tedious project. For me, where my modding team consist of only my brother and I, so the modding (modifying) process seems endless! (Plus I cant find any other map makers in Malaysia). Stuff goes even harder for me since my house have no internet connections that time; it also means that I had to learned the whole modding process through myself - explore exsisting maps, try and error, experimets!!! And mighty good thing I made it all!

Now I have stop modding map and whatever I wrote here is just for some general knowlegde that I wanna reminisce and share with all the gamers. =) Someday, maybe in the holiday I would continue to complete all the map that I have made halfway. (Legacy of the Damn, Farmville, Pro Shooter, Underwater, Jurassic Survivor, etc)

Photoshop Tutorial #1: 3D Sphere in 5 Minutes!

Wallpaper of the day - Only 4 source images is used (the left 2 corundums and right 2 garnets).

The rest I did it manually in Photoshop, after discovering the technique of creating spheres

with shadows and reflection.

For most people, Photoshop is an image editing software where you combine 1 or more source images (photos, stock images, pictures from internet, etc), modify them, add in information and make them into a new piece of image. Or many people prefer to use Photoshop to retouch photos.

But now I gonna teach you to go beyond what other people normally do. I'll show you how to create images instead of modifying, and here is the 1st tutorial, one of the simplest.

TUTORIAL 1

3D sphere in 5 minute. Sound kinda impossible? I'm gonna unveil the mystery layers by layers so for those who are still new you'll know what is going on with the "Layer" feature in Photoshop, a very powerful gifts in graphic designing. There is no 3D functions, preset filters, or add-ons involved.

STEP 1

Not big deal. Create a grey circle like this. There are many ways to create a circle. I prefer to use the Pen Tool to create shape.

STEP 2

Now make it 3D. How?

This is the tricky part. You need to add tones to the plain circle using your mouse. I do recommend you to use the Dodge and Burn tool. Dodge is to lighten it while Burn is to darken it. The upper part should be brighter as light if reflected and the lower part, darker. To make it more realistic add a little reflection at the edge near the ground. Step 2 would just be a piece of cake if you are talented. =)

STEP 3

Now its time to add shadow. We add it manually.

Create a feathered-edge black circle. For me, I use the Brush Tool with large diameter and 0% hardness. And dot one on the canvas. Then proceed to transform it (CTRL + T). Compress the feathered circle into oval shape.

STEP 4

Place the shadow behind the ball so it look like this. Adjust it till it is right at the bottom of the ball. You are not done yet anyway, only for the 3D part. For skilled people this takes only 30 seconds. (by aids of shortcut keys, of course)

STEP 5

Copy and paste the 3D sphere layer so you have 2 layers (CTRL + J). Transform and flip the copied sphere vertically (along the x-axis) so it resembles the mirror image of the 1st sphere (Edit->Transform->Flip Vertical). Then adjust its position till they touch end to end at the bottom. Use Eraser tool (E) to fade the bottom part of the reflected sphere with uniform gradient. The eraser should be feathered, i.e. 0% hardness. Tada...you are done! Congratulations. Wait a second, maybe you want it to look metallic instead of a gypsum plaster?

STEP 6

Now get a source image. In this case I have took a picture. (Chancellor Complex of University of Technology Petronas) This photo would gonna be the reflected environment in the sphere. DONT use your photo else you wanna see how funny your face got distorted! xD

Use the liquefy filter to make it appear reflected on a spherical surface. (though I prefer to use warp transform) Then crop out the part. Place the cropped image behind the sphere. Then apply Linear Light mode to the Sphere layer so it looks like this. Repeat the same thing for its reflection and you are done!

DISCLAIMER.

I shall notify that all tutorials and materials that had been used here are very original. No other tutorials from other sites is pasted, nor referred. Every ideas are original.

"Cat"astrophe.

I woke up some 6am n feel some warm furry thingy near my leg. To my big surprise I come to realise that I have actually slept with a cat for the whole night! (ntg happen between us btw) Naturally I grab the nearest tool (broom) and whack it hard...chasing after it. It run real fast. But my anger drove me even faster. Until we reached the balcony where it's the dead end. Thx God I was conscious enuf 2 let it survived. BTW I casted my ulti - pour it with a big pail of water. It then drifted skillfully off the corridor like AE86.