Friday Update #37 news

Welcome to Friday Update #37!

We'd like to thank all you guys for showing your support in this years MOTY Awards with a look at the Katon Goukyakyuu jutsu and after that an interview with one of our earliest modellers, you all know him as GodGundam!

We made it! NNK is in the Top 100 MOTY Running!. Here's your first look at Katon Goukyakyuu no jutsu!

To all of our fans, we couldn't have done it without you. And seeing our name up there has pushed everyone on our team into overdrive! Progress is being made faster than ever here at NNK and we've even implemented a few features we never thought would make it into our first release! (Which you'll be seeing in the upcoming weeks!)

You guys have been an incredible inspiration from day one and we want to personally thank everyone of you! Whether you've been here from the announcement of our project or if you're just reading about us today for the first time, we couldn't have asked for a better fanbase!

So now let's really make NNK stand out and be something special! Keep all those votes coming! Show your friends, family, and pets our project so we can get as much support as possible!

And this week's interview, GodGundam!

Ok, so tell us about yourself?

Well, My name is Marc McNally, Im 22 years old, and most of you all know me as GodGundam on the various forums. Most notably known for the ESF team, where I made pretty much 90% of thier character models for the latest version.

How long have you been following Naruto and do you only read the manga, watch the anime or both?

I started looking into Naruto about 6 months after it started to air. Everyone I talked to kept telling me how awesome it was, so i decided to see what all the hype was about. Ive watch all 200+ episodes of the original series and bout half of the current shippuuden story arc. I am currently caught up on the manga, though i read the manga long after the show, so i skipped around alot.

Are there any other animes you watch or mangas you read?

This Question is hard to answer, mainly cause I watch so many. I keep up with Bleach, Casshern, Tales of the Abyss, Kurogane no Linebarrel, Blade of the Immortal, Gundam 00 season 2, Michiko to Hatchin, and Kurozuko(sadly series ended after 12 episodes), and others. Ive seen so many others as well. I believe one of my first animes was back in the early 90s, no idea if any other people remember this one, Ronin Warriors (Yoroiden Samurai Troopers) was one of my favorite anime series when I was younger. It got me into finding out more on anime.

So how did you get into modding anyways?

I started modding shortly after the arrival of half-life 1. Browsing various sites I began seeing custom models people had been putting into half-life, which led to the finding of milkshape 3d. I started thinking, why couldnt I make my own models too. This led me to dmz and esf forums, I met Kama and Maverickzero (Keiha) there, where they had been pitching a gundam mod. So I made a very crude scythe model at the time for my app and they thought it was the best thing ever surprisingly. That one never really got off the ground and to surprise you all even more Kama actually didnt like me at all at first. Eventually after me bugging him with wip models for crits and stuff he gave in and weve been good friends since. Now he's my texture ***** ^_^. We moved from there to Ghp, but that mod had died shortly after. I remember one of my earliest decent models, I made spike spiegal from cowboy bebop for half-life1 multiplayer, first model I rigged and put ingame too. Never got to release him cause i still didnt know how to texture.

All this of course led me in real life to my high schools robotics team, where some irl friends of mine asked me to help them do 3d modeling for their animation for the team. This is how I came across 3ds max. I started out learning version 3, and stuck with the program ever since. This jump in program was huge for me cause it opened up newer and faster ways to make characters. It was alot easier as well with max.

And how did you end up at NNK and what exactly do you do on the team?

Well, It started with Kama repeatedly asking randomly for about a month to join the team. Then others soon joined him in the harrassment and bombardment of asking. I found out who was all on the team, pretty much all the esf guys I already worked with at esf, and soon gave in after that. Basically at the moment, I animate Kakashi mainly and do various other tasks for in game effects model-wise, like I animated sheets on a clothes line for one of our maps. Things like that, future realeases Ill be modeling characters however and animating them as well.

Are there any other projects you worked on in the past or that you are currently working on you would like to mention?

Well, Ive done so many, 90% of the character models for esf. I'm doing a few self projects Ive been posting on the forums, Like my Casshern Model and the PKE meter model from ghostbusters, basically for my skinning practice. Kama's and Mines Brolli pack is probably most popular of my projects. I remember when we released that pack, so much talk and excitement from fans.

Any last words you want to add to this before we bring this to an end?

I have to say, if you see something you want to do, go for it, I did and it took me places, met new people. Also, dont be afraid to learn new things, hell, 10 years of 3ds max and im still learning small things i didnt know, and new programs as well (photoshop, Zbrush). Keep with it and dont give up, in the end youll be rewarded for your effort.

Check back again next week!

- The NNK team