Golly gosh! It's been quite a while since my last post, sorry guys!
I've been ultra-busy with my major project for 3rd year uni lately. The good thing about that however is that I have a bit of new design stuff to show. Awesome!

So apparently all this hoobla over my NES coffee table has caused quite a bit of publicity for me and it has come to my attention that apparently the Herald Sun is going to be writing an article about my coffee table in the Tech Liftout of tomorrows news paper (holy fucking shit! AWE-SOME).

Which gives me the perfect opportunity to upload a whole pile of design works and stuff now, so hopefully tomorrow when everyone in Melbourne reads the paper, some person in some design studio somewhere in Melbourne (dear lord please let it be some awesome studio like Qube Konstrukt or Iloura) will read my blog, see my current work and think "hey, this guy is cool, we should totally hire him or something!"

IF YOU ARE FROM A DESIGN OR VISUAL EFFECTS STUDIO IN MELBOURNE AND THINK MY WORK IS UP TO STANDARD PLEASE GIVE ME A HEADS UP! I AM LOOKING FOR WORK OR AN INTERNSHIP VERY SOON! RAWR!!!!
- I am currently in my third year of BA:Animation & Interactive Media (Multimedia) at RMIT University.
-I am proficient in Maya as well as well as After Effects, Adobe Premiere, Photoshop, Flash, Dream Weaver etc. etc.
-I am preferably looking for a 3D modelling job, since that definitely seems to be my strongest skill.
-I live in Essendon, about 20 minutes out of the city, I only have two days uni this semester, and once I have completed that (with flying colours hopefully) I will be looking for full time work in this field.
- My email address is khdownes@hotmail.com

Anyway, while I'm here, I better show of some of the stuff I have been working on lately. I'll put everything in chronological from most recent to least recent.
At the moment I am making a motion graphics piece about the history of video games for my major project for uni.
Here are a few of the models I have been working on which will be part of it (p.s. Most of these models aren't quite finished yet, there's still a bit more detail to add to them):
First up is an Enzo Ferrari which will represent the move to more realistic graphics towards the end of the piece:

Next is the Super Nintendo I modelled yesterday morning, I'm still trying to figure out how to adjust the luminance depth pass in Maya to create depth of field in after effects;

I also modelled a NES earlier in the week, there's still a fair bit more detail to add to this model yet:

Just a quick render of the Playstation 1 I modelled today (really need to figure out those problems with final gather that create the crappy smudge look around some edges):

Here's a little vinyl toy-style mario kart I made, he's only a simple model because he is only going to be on screen for a second or two:
That's All I have to show for my major project work so far, I've been working like 13 hours a day every single frkn day of the holidays doing about 25-30 models all up, but these are the only ones I've textured so far.

So, onto some older work I have done.
This was a simple little character I did for an animation project last semester for uni, his name is Derek!:


Last year we had to design a brochure for one of the classes based on a company called Ideolab, this was mine (that's my awesome motorbike there too, it took like half an hour to get the damn number plate off to take that picture!):

Here is a website I did for a programming project last semester too:
Here is some motion work that I have done in the past too!:
I did this last year for a motion graphics project, here is the youtube link: Visual Effects Project: Dream

This is a fun little short film that me and my friends made last year called Cops on Bikes, it follows two renegade bicycle-riding cops called Hannigan and Callaway as they venture to bust the biggest drug lord on the west side; Don Vido.
I can't say the story itself is all that crash hot, but it was a good chance for me to get to play with filming, lighting and editing etc. and playing with colour grading:
(here's the youtube link: Cops on Bikes)

And last of all, here are a few drawings that I did a while ago:
This is a T-shirt I made last year when my cousin Ben died, in memory of him:

And this is just a random drawing I had done a while ago about loyalty and friendship:

Ideas time!

Oh no! The evil Space Invaders have descended upon earth and they're demanding ideas for their....um....idea powered space ship!

Alright, so with the sudden overwhelming positive reception of my NES controller coffee table, I feel the need to outdo it (1UP it, even).
So I thought I'd ask the people of the internet for possible good ideas for future video game related furniture/artwork/creative things that I could try bring to life, and create more step-by-step/how-to style posts.

At the moment I'm thinking of making some sort of space invaders belt buckle using some of those wooden counting block things from primary school;
Perhaps paint them white or green and glue them together (using wire to connect the diagonal ones), and attach a belt clip to the back.

I've also been thinking that I need a better shelving solution for my video game consoles, I've now got 35 consoles at the moment, seriously, look;

bah ha! The Xbox takes up one whole shelf by itself!
And this photo was taken before I got my Famicom, Vectrex and ZX Spectrum.

I'm thinking I want some kind of modular shelving system where the shelves are made of individual boxes that stack on top of each other (like those Tetris shelves by Brave Space Design), and each shelf cavity has it's own power and AV plug, which all run back to a single output plug to the power point/TV.
That way, each console can have it's cords wrapped up next to it and still be plugged in, rather than having to run all the cords out to a power board where they're all tangled and shit.

So yeah, If anyone else has some nice ideas that they'd like to see possibly made, and explained how it was made, post it in the comments to here, and we'll all try to decide which one is the most ultra-awesome idea!

NES coffee table FINAL POST!! RAH!!!!

I've finally finished my giant NES controller/ coffee table/ storage box! Awesome!
The piece of glass that I had ordered arrived today, it looks super fresh.
Here are the photos of the final thing, with the glass on top:

You can see I got some tall clear rubber stoppers, which I stuck on the glass, so it doesn't damage the controller when it's sitting on top, and so it clears the height of the buttons:

And again, here are the pictures of what it looks like finished, without the glass.

And also again, here's how it opens up, to reveal the storage space inside, which I have already filled.

Look at the fun-vibes just radiating from Emily's face!:


Some people have asked for the blueprints I used to make it, so they can have a go at making one themselves (yay! I have inspired!).
I didn't really use "blueprints" for this, I basically just stuck my NES controller in a scanner and scanned it. I then printed it off so it filled an A4 page, and used that image to measure how far apart everything on the controller is.
The second half of these blueprints where are just a list of the pieces I needed to cut so I didn't forget.

One thing to remember if you try this, write a list of all possible tools that you might need.
The hardest tool to find for me was a 90mm Hole saw that I needed to cut the A and B buttons.
Take note that I have literally zero woodwork experience (my school never even had woodwork classes), besides the asteroids cabinet I made. However I did get a lot of advice from my dad and uncle about how I should do stuff (ie. like chiselling out the surface so the hinges sit flush etc.)


If you've just arrived at this post, here are all the previous posts I have posted with all the progress shots as I was making it:

NES coffee table
NES coffee table update 1: Bevelling the edges.
NES coffee table update 2: Making the buttons.
NES coffee table update 3: Making the D-pad.
NES coffee table update 4: Mounting the buttons.
NES coffee table update 5: Painting.
NES coffee table update 6: Wiring and final construction.

Here it is in action! zomg!: