OLD NEWS (aka Olds)

22.3.2012 - 19:57
I'm thinking about doing a rehaul of my website. Not a complete departure from the current style, but rather merging the subsites (Photography and Collections) into this one, maybe even dropping "Collections" entirely. I'm not sure how soon the rehaul will take place, but wanted to give a heads-up that things will probably change a bit in the near future.

26.2.2012 - 17:16
Updated my About Me section. Now that I've got my diploma thesis graded and have sufficiently refilled my personal batteries, job-hunting is in progress. I'd like to work on Games or VFX, but as it always is with any job: Everyone seems to like some working experience, which isn't something you have when you're just beginning... Weird, eh? Didn't anybody else start off with little to no *working* experience somewhere?

25.11.2011 - 20:38
Not much to tell, still waiting on the grades for my diploma thesis. I've had a class reunion recently, which was fun. How much and how little some people change! Humanity is a strange species, really.

1.9.2011 - 12:47
I'm a little sick and waiting for my supervisor to finish grading my diploma thesis, but that aside: My studies are finished. I've been archiving files and going through my stuff, deciding what to leave behind once I move out. I'll have to look for a job in the near future and move my natural habitat someplace else. If I weren't sick ATM, I'd do something more productive, but for now, soup and tea is on the menu.

3.8.2011 - 23:14
It's been a while since my last post. I've handed in my diploma thesis, but still have to learn a new course to finish my studies. I actually did pass enough tests, it's just that one technically doesn't count. It's obviously too difficult to mention that to me when prerequisites change and I specifically ask about it... But anyways! My short hasn't evolved much further because I've been busy with wrapping up my studies and going a little more outdoors for a change, so there's a lot more patience required until something sees the light of day. But it will: I definitely want to do another short after everything study-wise wraps up, because that's when I can take some time off and work at the PC for me, instead of for my career, which will take up most of my time at a PC once my career starts... So there. Short hasn't been cancelled, just delayed.

30.5.2011 - 23:15
Pondering a little more actively on a short: But a different one. Had a new idea which has somehow stumbled into my brain and I've been very active the last two days in figuring out how I might be able to translate it into scenes and a story for a short. As I've also been poving a little for a start-up company's logo, I'm slowly getting closer to accessing the "artsy" software more frequently in those short breaks from finishing my diploma thesis...

14.2.2011 - 18:09
Working on the short is going *really* slow... Well, to be honest, it hasn't made much progress except in my head. I'm writing my diploma thesis, so when I'm working on the PC, it's related to the thesis. I'm not too good juggling two scripts at once, so I'm designing and pondering the short's storyline, and save the scripting and modelling for later.

20.10.2010 - 15:49
Updated About Me to reflect the current situation better.

8.11.2010 - 22:15
Believe it or not, I've actually begun sketching a robot again, intending to model, texture and animate it. I'm not going to reuse the robot from Chasm, but instead want to create a new one, less complex modelling- and animation-wise. I'm not too sure how well he fits into my idea for that short mentioned some weeks ago, but we'll see. Let's just hope Pixar doesn't go wild with the same idea yet again.

5.9.2010 - 16:58
I have been pretty occupied with my diploma and several personal family issues lately, but I'm pondering about a small short movie again. Nothing with too high standards, maybe a chase or such: Just a clear-cut hands-on straight-ahead (nope, seems I can't come up with more combinations right now...) short. It may be quite some time until first WIPs pop up, but once I make up my mind what is going to be chasing what, I'll begin drawing sketches for design and storyboard. I noticed that planning helps a lot in getting things finished without too much sidestepping.

9.5.2010 - 15:40
Didn't do a complete redesign, but got rid of the flash. It doesn't work on iPhones and iPads, and Flash is a real CPU-hogger. And the new menu doesn't look that much different, does it?

13.4.2010 - 19:59
I'm thinking about redesigning my websites yet again, so that the different sections (Photography, Collections and 3D-Art) integrate better. For starters, I've only added my twitter-feed to the Entrance-Page. I'm not that kind of "twitter every little sh** that happens" kind of tweeter, I just leave silly remarks and notes every now and then for fun.

10.3.2010 - 17:30
I've decided that just listening to music isn't enough. So last weekend I bought a guitar and have begun learning to play it. It will probably take some time until I'm good enough to consider playing when someone else is listening. But once I'm good enough, I'll experiment with Garage Band. Need a second possible income-source, just in case my whole "diploma/planned future career" doesn't work out. ;-)

2.2.2010 - 21:18
So, I hope everyone got into 2010 with as much fun as I did. An awesome New Year's aside, I've begun work on my diploma, have hooked tons of data onto my Macbook and am programming the end to all things 3D shape fitting. I hope. Am I aiming a little too high? Gotta aim high to achieve something good, I guess. Not that it's my experience, but it's what I've been told. :-)

15.11.2009 - 23:11
A few days ago, I installed Windows7 Professional 64bit on my PC, finally making use of my 5 year old 64bit dualcore processors. I bought those when 64bit processors hit the markets and it looked like a smart move at the time. Who knew that it'd take another 5 years for them to finally be of use, when other things in the digital soft- and hardware industry rush by in months? I've also managed to install my new Wacom Tablet properly, meaning that it now doesn't lag (after switching off most of Win7 Tablet-PC apps which were interfering with the standard "Just use the pen and it's pressure input for Photoshop" way of using a graphic tablet). Let's see where that gets me!

2.11.2009 - 0:31
Some good stuff lately: On Saturday, I went to a Lord of the Rings marathon: All three movies in one go. It was awesome, I had my friends around and we had a great time. Runic Games released Torchlight recently and I've been playing it a lot. Now if only Nevercenter would update it's Silo for Snow Leopard, I'd probably be showcasing some low-poly objects here soon. I'd like to try creating some content for a PC-Game. And I've got the topic for my diploma thesis, so let's keep our fingers crossed that fate doesn't have any additional "Bad Things" ligned up for me and I can finally finish my studies...

11.10.2009 - 10:16
As a Computer Science Guy, I tend to experiment and try out the various gadgets the WWW has to offer. Yesterday, I signed up for a Twitter-Account and got a small Widget for my Mac's dashboard. I'm not sure if I'll keep at it with the current pace of my tweets, but we'll see. That's what experiments are for: To see what comes of it. You can find my Tweets at Twitter.com/TimNikias.

4.9.2009 - 2:16
Added a new photograph to the Photo Gallery. It's a picture of a bench I enjoyed resting at with a friend when we went for a walk together. She's moving away now, so I guess we won't get to visit that bench that often anymore.

25.8.2009 - 0:24
And yet another late-night decision: You'll find my latest photographing efforts at Tim's Photography. I'll still keep and update photos in the NoLights-Gallery, but the ease of using iWeb to sort and present photos in bundles is better suited for larger galleries than uploading by hand.

22.8.2009 - 2:17
I've decided to put my DVD/Games/Books Tim's Collections online. I use Delicious Library on my Mac to keep track of what I own and what I've lent, and version 2 has a nice feature to export it to a website. I just had to customize the template a bit, the original design wasn't 100% to my taste. What's the use of having the collection online? Maybe a friend needs/wants to watch a movie, that way, he can check if he can ask me. Additionally, when birthdays/christmas get near, people can find out DVD movies I don't have. After all, I do enjoy DVDs as presents... *HINT* ;-) Note that the descriptions/titles are german in many cases. That's just what you get when you buy in germany. :-)

2.5.2009 - 23:52
Updated/closed the Chasm-Site, bundling all the information on the frontpage there and linking to the essential videos. Maybe one day my little robot will star in some other short, but for now, he's retired.

22.4.2009 - 0:40
Took a few photos during a walk, so please guess where you can find the new Photos? ;-)

11.4.2009 - 17:14
Yet again, a new photo in the Photo-Gallery. A couple of trees are in full bloom and as these things pass faster than you'd like, I went out today and took a few snapshots.

18.1.2009 - 23:50
And another photo in the Photo-Gallery! This time, a couple small candles, and thus the title: "Candles"!

7.1.2009 - 23:00
Happy New Years everyone! For christmas, I got a new toy: A Canon 450D, and proudly present to you one of the first images that are worth enough merit to show here: "Inbound". You'll find it in the Photo-Gallery.

13.12.2008 - 1:56
Uploaded a new version of the teaser to "The Chasm". Just rendered a new ending to reflect the new "status" of the project.

24.11.2008 - 16:08
I've officially benched "The Chasm". My short was meant to revolve around a lonely cleaning robot, which - to save a friend - risks everything. Now that I've taken way too much time to work on it (granted, not all of that time was due to laziness, but other occupations), Pixar beat me to it. I'm thinking about making a 3D-Comic instead, so I'm not abandoning the story altogether. Time will tell, though, things seldomly go as planned, Murphy's Law and all...

11.08.2008 - 20:45
Added the Making of to 'Radiosity'. Go enjoy the wisdom, if you like! ;-)

4.08.2008 - 00:29
A friend told me a couple of misplaced links, so I fixed those and noticed that another page has gone missing in its entirety... I guess I cleaned up a little too eagerly! As I'm leaving on vacation the tomorrow, it'll have to wait until I'm back, but a week or two shouldn't be that much of problem for you guys, I hope.

26.07.2008 - 10:47
The new design is finally going online. I need to check a few of the old images that I couldn't rerender and may be adding those to the appropriate gallery in the near future, but the site itself is finished. Hope you like it as much as I do!

14.07.2008 - 0:46
Updating the website is taking some time, as some images don't render properly on the first run and then some need refurbishing to render at all! Working through all the subpages of my site is also taking it's toll, as I'm not just copy-pasting all the content, but proof-read it all and rephrase clumsy passages. I've also rechecked and bugfixed quite a few Include-Files along the way, but everything shouldn't take THAT much longer. I hope.

27.06.2008 - 1:07
I'm letting my PC and Mac rerender most of the images of my gallery (as far as I still have the source, that long-ago-complete-system-crash comes to mind), as I don't like having tons of different watermarks on my images anymore... I'm rendering at 1600ish sizes, just to be on the safe side for future updates, and even with all the improvements in terms of hardware, some renders still take a day or two! Well, as long as it's rendering, I've still got an excuse to keep on working on the new design, but I hope to have it all reworked pretty soon. :-)

11.06.2008 - 14:07
Just a small sidenote that I'm currently working on a site-redesign. It's not that easy, scriping a complete rehaul and converting the pages, but it's slowly coming along. So, keep your bookmarks warned, some pages may move around and it'll all look different, but it'll still be my "No Lights".

26.03.2008 - 13:48
Yeah, it has been a long time since my last update. I have been ill with no idea what the issue was, and thus had a lymph-node removed to find out what I've got. And got a cancer misdiagnosis... Nothing bad happened, I wasn't treated for it, but those are very frightening and turbulent experiences to make.
But I've been back to thinking about my short and hope that I can summon the time and effort to get working on it again. It's time to get something new and creative done again, isn't it?

25.12.2007 - 16:29
Just wanted to wish everyone a merry christmas and hope you enjoy it with your family and loved ones! Closing the storyline my friend and I incorporated into the images we made for the advent calendar, we made a small machinima using the World of Warcraft engine. Currently, there's just a german version, but we're planning to translate it just for fun and feedback. You can see it here.

7.12.2007 - 22:39
Whenever I think I'll be getting back to Poving (at least a little), I just manage to start and finish one image, and then something happens, messes with my schedule and I'm too busy with tons of other things to do some proper "art". I did dabble at almost a handfull of small images over the last days, but as their content isn't as artsy and more a collection of small inside-jokes, they're not worth posting on my website here. However, if you're absolutely curious, go here and select the days 4 to 6, those are the ones I made so far (they're also in German, as I'm playing on a german RP-Server). There may be more coming, or I'll be doing Ingame stuff together with a friend (if you haven't noticed, it's World of Warcraft related), I'm not sure yet. And I, of course, have other things on my plate as well...

24.10.2007 - 16:55
Yeah, quite some time ago that I begun working on this image, but I'm finally finished. Go enjoy Directions!

22.8.2007 - 1:32
Another Early-Morning-Post... Just another heads up on the development of the current image. I added some background, stones for the path, and various other details. And still I'm not done... But it's fun working *properly* with POV-Ray again. After that Museum Project I was pretty burned out, but now my creative juices are flowing again. :-) I've also decided to buy a MacBook Pro (so I can dabble with POV-Ray anywhere! - Oh, and begin preparations for writing my diploma), but have to wait till Apple manages its shipping and actually sends some to Germany again...

9.8.2007 - 1:55
Yup, kinda early, 2 o'clock in the morning, but that's just the time I go to bed because it fits my working times... Anyways, I've been working on a new image. It's still far from done, but if you're interested, I've posted a WIP to the POV-Ray Newsgroups.Here is a direct link to the thread with today's final WIP.

10.7.2007 - 17:07
I've added a Warhammer section (which is actually Warhammer 40k). I've been assembling and painting them on and off for about a year and have finally gotten around to finishing the most minimal setup imaginable: a Commander and 2 Squads of 5 Marines. I thought I'd share my efforts here, as I guess this'll be a new hobby that I'll try to stick to.

06.5.2007 - 19:01
Added another entry in my Chasm-Diary. I also have one or two ideas in my head for another solo-image (i.e. not related to the short), but currently, I often lack the patience to move from idea to a solid foundation upon which the image can be constructed. Traffic on this website has decreased significantly, and I'm sorry that I didn't manage to be as active here as I was before... But I'm still alive and kicking, so don't give up on me yet! ;-)

22.4.2007 - 15:11
I've begun modelling one of the sets for my short film The Chasm. On a more or less daily basis, I add a small thing or two, slowly working my way to get at least a previz-scene with which I could begin tests for animating, lighting and an overall image-composition. It's going *very* slow for now, but that's also due to the good weather, other interests and being kinda burned out in all things CG due to the project at the university. That'll pass for sure, but thus, I can't announce yet when I'll be able to show something worthwhile. Still wanted to let my visitors know that I'm back up to something here. ;-)

1.4.2007 - 17:26
Yeah, this ain't an april fool's joke. I just thought I'd give you guys an update on whats happening lately: I've been very occupied with bringing the University Project to a conclusion, and hope to find out how much of it I may show online once its finished. As for my own POV-Ray stuff, especially my short film, things are at a stand-still currently, but I hope to pick up on that once I got back on track with my studies, which have also been neglected in favor of the project. Not much else to say, really.

25.2.2007 - 17:28
Edited the "Miss You (when you're gone)"-Page. Sometimes, copy&paste lets you forget that you actually need to put some new text in there.

4.2.2007 - 15:55
I've combined the various galleries and worked through the pages to give them all a unified look. The Making Ofs are now accessible either via the properly named links on the Gallery-Page, or via a link on the description pages. Of course, the descriptions for the images featuring a Making Of are rather short and to the point...
I've also removed a few of the older images that I personally find to have more personal than artistic value, so in case you're missing something, there you've got your reason. If something is broken, please tell me, though I did try to test all the changes, you never know if you've overseen something in 20+ pages...

31.1.2007 - 12:25
January has passed and I didn't manage to finish a new image. I've got one in mind, but I'm having a hard time nailing down on how I want it to look. Anyways, as I've been gettings lots of emails in regard to my "Rose" image since my site rehaul, I'm thinking about reorganizing my galleries once again: combining them and making the extensive Making-Ofs available from there, instead of its own sub-section. That should make it easier for Newcomers to find whatever image they're looking for.

1.1.2007 - 13:42
Happy New Year everyone! As with christmas, I hope you got to spend it with the ones you love and didn't have to miss anyone.

24.12.2006 - 23:37
I just wanted to wish everyone a merry christmas! I hope you have spent (or will spend it, timezones pending) it with the ones you love.

18.12.2006 - 18:22
Server was down yesterday and today, sorry for the inconvenience it might have caused. On the artistic side, I've had an idea for an image and have begun working on it, I hope to get it to a far enough state where it won't be abandoned again like the last one. I'm also pretty happy that my images have touched a few people, so much, that they want to use them as basis for their tattoos, covers for their new CDs, for cards when they propose to their girlfriend... Makes me want to get a little more involved in my art again. :-)

17.11.2006 - 17:57
Time flies... I've had a big workload of stuff to do lately, and things are slowly calming down. As those with a long-term memory might notice, I had mentioned making a new image somewhere: well, it got lost on the way. When I get an idea, there's a phase in which I have to start on it and develop it until I see that I'm getting somewhere, otherwise, it gets stuck and finally, dumped. I just don't tell things with my images that are out-of-date, to me, so... Let's keep our fingers crossed that I'll find something new to make.

5.11.2006 - 16:12
A new photo in the gallery, which I made on my lonesome way home. Check "Emptiness" out.

22.10.2006 - 15:32
Updated the Development-Section of RND: my particle system now has it's own subpage. I'll try to come up with a couple more examples that'll be included in the ZIP, for now, I've got two. :-)

16.10.2006 - 15:55
As you can see, I've made a major rehaul of my website. I figured it was time to combine various parts. My animations, for example, showcased some of my scripts, so I deemed it better to have everything wrapped together in R&D. For now, the animations are gone, as the R&D-Section isn't finished yet and only preliminary, but I wanted to change the design to see how it all works out. Over the next days or even weeks, I'll try to finish the remaining pages, but as time isn't something I've got in excess at the moment, I won't make any promises or commitment to self-set deadlines. Hope you enjoy the new layout!