Guizhou - entry 5

Explanation of the falls...


On the way to the falls...



Behind the falls...



On the other side of the falls...





At the bottom of the falls, the photo on the right is a little soft unfortunately...


Am still fighting this very stubborn flu virus that has been plaguing me even before I left for my Guizhou trip. Grrrr.... =(

Anyway, have been slowly working my way through the photos and thought I'll add a bunch of them today. These are photos taken from after we had arrived at the Huang Guo Shu Waterfalls park.

There was a Bonsai and rock garden before you reach the steps that takes you down to the falls. I have a couple of shots from that location but they all include people in them and so I won't be posting those up.

You'll see photos that were taken as we approached the falls and then as we walk to the back of the falls and then out from the other side and back across the suspension bridge to get a more frontal view of the falls again. I was actually at the base of the falls from the other side too, after we had crossed the suspension bridge, but the two shots taken there aren't really that good. We were late and had to go make our climb back up so I didn't have time sadly and only managed two shots, of which one of them is actually soft. =(

The Bonsai and rock garden was nice enough but as I don't really appreciate Bonsai I didn't really want to spend too much time there was I was far more eager to get to the falls. I'll let the photos do the talking since really there isn't that much to say except that the falls were really cool and it was super neat to be able to walk to the back of the falls. The walk to the back of the falls was kind of slippery and there were no proper railings or handholds and since I wasn't wearing very good shoes, something I would come to really regret later in the trip, it was a little nerve wrecking at points. That said, I rather liked it that there were no proper handholds etc as this made it feel more real than if it had all these railings and handholds as that would feel like some overly safe US park or something. =)

Anyway, check out these pictures. =)

cheers

Guizhou - entry 4

I've been working on sorting out and touching up the tons and tons of photos I shot in Guizhou, China. It's going to take me a while before I get them all done and get on with the journal etc.

Anyway, I'm still sick. :( And that has impeded my progress somewhat. :( Still, I'll post up a couple more pix for your viewing pleasure. These are more pix from the view from the restaurant overlooking the falls.

I also included a shot of the signboard for the restaurant. If I understand the Guiyang guide, Xiao Ou, correctly, this whole row of buildings is scheduled to be demolished and new buildings built over them. So if you should visit Guizhou and the Huang Guo Shu Falls in the future, you may not be able to visit this particular restaurant.

cheers

Guizhou - entry 3

Okay, just a couple more shots before I go to work today. Wanted to put them in last night but got too tired and so they didn't make it in.

These are of the street outside the restaurant overlooking the falls. Unfortunately I do not know the name of the small town I was in.

I also included a zoomed in photo of the falls and the pathway leading to the Shui Lian Dong (the cave/tunnel) just behind the falls. If you look at the small white arrow on the pix you can see tiny people making their way to the tunnel.

cheers

Guizhou - entry 2

Okay, I've prepared some of the photos and will add to this lot when I get more done. Also, here it is a link to a wiki page with some basic information about Guizhou.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guizhou

These are a few pictures of the falls from the restaurant we had lunch.

enjoy

Guizhou - entry 1

I wish I kept a better log or a journal of my trip to Guizhou. However, I was down with the flu for the entire trip and my greater need for a good night's rest everyday won out over my desire to keep a better log of my trip. That is definitely one of my bigger regrets left over from the trip.

Anyway, I'll try and work from memory and I hope I get the names of the places and the sequence of events more or less correct.

I arrived in Guizhou in the early hours of the morning on a rainy Sunday morning on the 3rd of Dec. It was cold and wet and I was glad that I had carried my trusty winter jacket with me on the plane.

A total of approximately 140 people were onboard the Silkair plane I'd traveled on and all of us had signed up for this tour package. The agency split us up into 4 different groups and labled them A to D and I was in Group B and would ride the B Bus for the duration of this trip.

Since it was something like 3am in the morning, all 140 of us were quickly ferried to our hotel in Guiyang, the capital of Guizhou, to get some shut eye before the tour began in earnest.

To facilitate the movement of such a large group of tourists, the agency had decided to further group A & B together and C & D together and each of these larger groups will act as one tour group. They also decided to tweak the travel itinerary for each group in such a manner that the two larger groups seldom meet up at the same location. The only times I remember coliding with them was mostly in Guiyang where the hotel was bigger and the restaurants tended to be bigger too. Mostly, they were either there before us or we were somewhere before them.

Anyway, moving on... the next day, all of us crawled out of beds and made our way down to a not terribly wonderful breakfast before boarding our respective buses where our 8 day tour of Guizhou will begin in earnest.

The local guide who was assigned to Bus B was a pretty and young native of Guiyang who's family name is Ou and we called her Xiao Ou. I was actually quite impressed with her and she currently she ranks as the best local guide I've ever met on all the packaged tours I've been on. She's very knowlegeable and spoke well, spouting bits of information and poetry with aplomb. She also seemed to really loved Guizhou and seemed genuinely interested that we leave Guizhou with a good impression of the province. I liked her loads.

Our first destination is perhaps Guizhou's most famous and most visited of attractions. The Huang Guo Shu Waterfall is China's largest waterfall and although we were way past the rainy season, the waters that gushed from the falls were still plentiful and powerful. We had lunch at a small restaurant which boasts a spectacular view of the falls. And after lunch we made our way to the the Huang Guo Shu Waterfalls.

The Huang Guo Shu Waterfall, or the Yellow Fruit Tree Waterfalls (direct translation), is 74 meters tall and 81 meters wide (source: http://library.thinkquest.org/20443/guizhou.html). It may not be the largest, tallest or the most spectacular waterfall in the world but what the falls offer is the opportunity to get up close and personal with the falls. There is a Shui Lian Dong, a cave or tunnel, behind the falling sheet of white water and it is at the same time a most humbling yet most miraculous experience to be able to stand there and experience the relentless rush of the white waters over head, the wind in your hair and the constant and refreshing fine spray of water on your face and clothes. I was fascinated and although I have seen the Nigara Falls, albeit only from the US side, I was instantly in love with the Huang Guo Shu Falls. I felt like I could reach out and feel it's mystical power unlike merely gazing at it from afar.

Anyway, I'm rapidly tiring as my flu medication is beginning to make it's effects felt. So I'll end it here and add a couple of pix for your viewing pleasure.

cheers :)

My Guizhou Trip

I've just returned from an 8 Day trip to Guizhou, China. It's my first real tour of China. Previously, I did visit Shanghai & Suzhou but as I wasn't there to really see the place and I don't think I really saw enough of both Shanghai or Suzhou to make a proper judgement, I don't really consider that trip as my first real visit to China.

This 8 Day trip was with a tour company unlike my previous visit and it was to a not as yet terribly popular tourist destination in China. There were two tour packages on offer and my sis-in-law and her friend picked the scenic one. I was quite happy with that decision and was quite happy to tag along as I usually prefer scenics to the culture stuff.

I won't say too much now as I really only just flew into S'pore at 5am this morning and am smashed and in some dire need of sleep. Suffice to say that I really did enjoy this tour and is probably my most memorable packaged tour to date. Well, it's not like I've been on soooo many packaged tours since I toured parts of the US and HK by myself and all the other package tours happened so long ago I can't say I really remember them that much. Still, I don't think it can take away too much from my experience of Guizhou. I really like Guizhou right now and am really interested in the region and the other parts of Guizhou that I didn't visit.

Anyway, I'm in the midst of sorting out the photos and when I get a chance I'll post up some pix of the spectacular Huangguoshu Waterfalls and the other really pretty bits of Guizhou when I get a chance.

cheers

Maya Final Project

Hi all. Here is my final project. I'm going to include the two drafts before the final version of this project so you can get an idea of the journey this project took.

As usual I wish the final product could be better and I can see some problems with it as is. I actually think I might go back an tweak this after I take a short break from Maya and get a little bit of sleep.

Some of the animation is a little rough and the lighting is still not great. I should have modeled the main character a little differently and I know I messed up when I didn't model her default mouth position at close. I also didn't include a close mouth blend shape even after I modeled everything else and blendshaped the rest of the stuff. So I actually can't get the mouth all the way close with this project as of right now.

Considering how far I've come in the last couple of months, from knowing nothing about 3D and having to work and study at the same time, I'm actually not terribly displeased with my effort. But there is a small part of me which is a little bit of a perfectionist and that's the part that's really giving me a hard time about being completely pleased with my effort. Hahaha...

Well, I'll keep working at it and I'll keep on studying it and try and update this blog with a bits and pieces of my work in the next couple of months. I really enjoyed learning Maya and I'm really happy I decided to take this course.

Okay, enough from me. Here is Draft 1, Draft 2 and the Final versions of my project, all for your viewing pleasure.

cheers

Final


Draft 2