One of my occasional hobbies is 3D modelling, which came in quite useful this year when I started a new degree in games programming. This is a still from a first-year piece I did, called "A Game of Chess".

The brief was to create a couple of simple models using three basic modelling techniques: lathe, loft and extrude. A short animation, a brief report - job done.

I admit I was a little carried away. The still is frame 4000-odd from 6,800... that's about 5 minutes of footage at 25fps. That was bad enough, but the fact that I added a soundtrack to the movie suggested I was rubbing it in...

I rendered this at 1600x1200 to be my new desktop background. ALL the models are mine; the textures I found on the 'net somewhere. All rendered in 3DS Max 8 using the scanline renderer and Gelato for the textures themselves.

Eh. Not too bad, I guess.