Academic Year 2007-08, Semester 2

Grades for the recently concluded term had been released. I’m honestly hesitant to post about it but since I’ve previously blogged some stuff about the classes I’ve taken, I think this should conclude it all.

The lowest was a 2.0 (85-87% equivalent) for Artificial Intelligence. It’s ok; it’s quite tough and I’m simply not artificially intelligent.

After the unfortunate outcome of two major exams in Philippine Literature, I managed to redeem myself for the finals by submitting a good reaction paper about a short story from our reference book. I chose to react on “Sa Karuwagan ng Pilikmata” which closely translates to “The Cowardice of the Eyelashes” after I was intrigued by the title. For this I earned a final grade of 1.75 (90%).

For Politics and Governance, I got a 1.5 (91-93%) which isn’t bad especially that the mentor was challenging who doesn’t tolerate any form of negligence. Read: a graduate from a reputable university specializing in political science and a grandson of a lawyer. I never thought that the subject will be interesting but it had been, fortunately, despite the thick references we had to use. We learned among others the issues behind the real properties of our political leaders, and the differences of slander from defamation, crime from felony, murder from homicide, constitution from law, and amendment from revision. I also enjoyed George Orwell’s “Animal Farm” as a recommended reading.

The second level of 3-D modeling course neither has been tough nor easy for me since I took a similar class last semester yet it is really laborious. Once again I’ve gone through a week of sleeping at two hours before dusk to accomplish the output. (Check out the slideshow). Nonetheless, the 1.5 rating as compared to the 2.0 last term is rewarding.

Credits to the various sources of jpeg images which were used in my 3-D scenes.

3D Cityscape

I had previously posted about the 3D class I'm enrolled in. By the end of the semester, here's what I was able to do. It may not wow an advanced graphic artist but I guess it isn't that bad for a first-timer.

3D Chessboard

I’m getting more acquainted with Autodesk® 3DMax and I’m able to work more easily with its tools. When I’ve just started, I spent the whole hour just to model an apple which was just a shape without any material to make it look real. Thanks to my patient instructor and supportive classmate who took the pre-requisite course for this.

After three weeks of working on the chess pieces, I look at my own work with amazement although I still failed to perfect the knight’s mouth and ears and the queen’s crown. Now that I know how difficult it is to make a spline cage, the more I praise the skill and patience of the creators of my favorite Sims 2 game.

My work just involved modeling and application of materials. No light effects or animation were added.