Christmas can you feel it?

Wall e en LA

wow

In Line at erabus! Finally going

Glad everybody is at work today.

End of beer feet day 1!

New Music: Pelican

Listen now on Last.Fm



What can I say about this band. I think they've opened my eyes to what Rock can become. Sometimes they can be soft and sometimes they can be hard. I found the band on last.fm which is probally one of the only ways I would have heard this band. I cant really imagine ever hearing them on the radio with three of the songs lasting around 11 minutes. From these guys you wish every song lasted that long.



From the opening notes this whole album seems like it could be a soundtrack to every movie I've ever loved. They are an instramental band, so comparing the to soundtrack music is not that far off the mark.I do enjoy soundtrack music so its' a big compelment coming from me. Like a good book this album can take you someplace else its some place far away from where are now and it's someplace you'd like to go to again. Give it a shot and let me know what you think.

Funny Bush Video from The Onion

Bush Tours America To Survey Damage Caused By His Disastrous Presidency

Put put @ 13 mile!

So the whole time I've lived in royal oak I have never been to the mini golf place around the corner. Me and Meghan finally went up and played. Then we went to The red coat and ordered some take out ( the only way to eat there, cause its too busy.) So we. Sat at the bar to wait for our food and Empire Stikes Back was on ! It was a great day.

Finished Rendezvous with Rama

I just finished RwR last night and I'm still thinking about the last sentence in the book. This has easily beat any other Clarke book I've ever read ( maybe I'll have to re-read 2001). The thing I liked so much about the book was the pacing. A few of the other Clarke books I've read had some teadious moments that I felt I had to get through and sometimes the pay off wasnt worth it. This book always had something going on. Reading it at night was a joy because each chapter added something and gave you something to look foreword to.

Caution: Spoilers!

Reading RWR was like looking up at the sky and feeling small. The conclusion of the book is that Rama wasnt sent to earth it was mearly passing through on its way to someplace else. What a small feeling to know that there are other life forms out there and they either dont know about you or dont care. It's quite an interesting look at how we might meet an other race someday. I rather like it because it takes our Ego out of the way. To the Rama's we just arent important. In every other sort of first contact kind of situation we are either the ones being contacted or attacked and in both situations we are significant.

There was a real sense of wonder throught out the book. Which was a real pleasure to read. Each character in the story added to perection of what was around them. Now not all the characters are well rounded or even fully explored. You mostly see the story from the captains perspective. It's that kind of wonder that would be difficult to capture on film. But in a book it's wonderfully spacious. That's the trick to 2001 is that the monolith is so foreign to us it's hard to give it a frame of reference. but in Rama we see things that are familar just in a very different place.

I would consider this to be the Clarke book to read and I would recomend it to anybody looking for a fun book. It's not that long and it reads pretty quick. So if you are so inclined, give it a shot and let me know what you think.

Strange Sky

Its either the end of the world or a sunset either way I am out of here.



But really there was an incredible sunset this saturday when me and Meghan where on our way back from an  Ikea run. She took some incredible photos with my phone. It was a relaxing day that both of us desperatly needed.

Star Craft 2

Because I havent been keeping up as much as I like on it. I found a cool video that show's what's know already.

WeGame.com - StarCraft 2 Videos

New Houdini Beta

Sidefx realeased a new beta of houdini with lots of cool new features for all those things cg artist have to do, but that are oh so diffucult to do or you have to buy a plugin to do.

One of the features I would love to try is their fracture tools to break up geomentry for explosions or impacats. It's something that I never ge to do at my job but I always think has to be so much fun.

Also they have some new volumetric tools for dealing with volumes. If you've ever had to deal with volumetrics before you know it can be a real pain in the ass. Is it geometry? are they particles? well houdini has some tools to swap between them and back again. Now that sounds like that's worth a look.

Check out their feature demo videos here

Tiananmen Square- in Lego!

Tiananmen Square, originally uploaded by Balakov.

I think more things should be done lego style.

very cool animation

The bird and the earthworm from Jurjen Bosklopper on Vimeo.

Rendezvous with Rama short film

So me and my friend Justin have decided to finally read Rendezvous with Rama. I'm looking foreword to it since it's probally the most "popular" Arthur C. Clarke novel I have not read yet. I just bought the book sunday so here is a very good short to wet the appetite so to speak.

Meghans New Hair!

Fry Render

FryRender

The world of 3d rendering is changing all the time. As much as it stays the same, it changes constantly. That's always what's been fun about it for me. Like now there are some very interesting renderers coming out. Fryrender is a unbiased renderer which means it aims for a simulation approach to rendering. Maxwell is another render that works in a similar fashion. I think the thing I'm most curious about these kind of renders is how much time can they really save me? Reality takes you only so far. Clients demand a reality with style. Stlye just doenst happen its the end of many changes and many descsions. I want to know how these kinds of renders will help me and the people I work for make choices faster. It's going to be a fun that's all I know.

Here is a quick video showing Fry render in maya:

Learning Blender

Blender 3D: Noob to Pro

So I've been pretty interested in messing around with Blender and some of you might wonder why. Well the first and most obvious reason is that it's free. Software is expensive there is no getting around that. We've all messed with cheap-o software before and the only one I remember enjoying is Infini-D or Raydream and both of those are from way back in the day. So Blender runs in windows and it also runs in Linux which is also something I would like to know more about. I can handle my own around an Ubuntu system and I can figure my way around a command line but I would not consider my self a pro. I wish I could but I know enough to know that I have a lot more to learn. So here I am. Soon I will buy a new computer that will take over the duties of my current home workstation. That computer will soon be a linux only, crazy fun linux box. I will mess around will blender and neat-o renderers like Yafray. Heck there is even a python script to render blender stuff in Vray! Now there is nothing wrong with that.

Nathan's Rabbit Rigging

It's been a long time since I've rigged anything. Maybe it's time to fix that.

Big Buck Bunny Trailer

It's seriously time to take a look at blender. I think its amazing the Peach team is adding features as they need them in production. I wish companies who made software would do things like that.

Making of the Computer Graphics for Star Wars (Episode IV)

Wow... never really knew anything about this. Very cool, it's funny that they tout the Real time animation.

Me and Meghan one year together!

Mental Ray is Stupid

Seriously, mental ray is stupid. Any renderer that doesnt put out elements or passes is just flawed. While the images it can produce are amazing and the demand is there for people to use it I have to think about how it's being used to understand the system.
In my world the "beauty" image should always be reconstructed in composite from the passes that made the beauty pass.  Also various matte and effect passes should be given to the compositers. Pretty much every other renderer allows for this. Vray, Renderman, Final Render, Modo, Fry, Maxwell and the list goes on. Seriously why is this so difficult for maya and mental ray. Max supports it right off the bat so to speak. I'm really annoyed with this "feature". Maya is the other good 3d app... this is a basic production feature and it doenst work? If the world is going crazy then this is one of the signs. Maya 2009 better fix this cause none of the updates for 2008 has inculding ext 2.
Do people just not care about rendering?  Yeah I know its diffucult, but everybody seems to love and talk about cg like it's so amazing. Even reviews of 10,000 bc are like "the movie is bad, but the cg is good" ? What does that mean. C'mon. I know I'm ranting but seriously autodesk and mental images should really kick it up a notch I'll meet them half way on photon maps, but passes are something they're going to have to do.

Zbrush makes me mad

So of all the programs I've really wanted to mess with Zbrush is the most differnet from the programs I know. It just does things it's own way, it's interface is it's own thing. There is a reason they call it a sculpting program and not a modeling program. So the learing curve is a bit high. But the payoff is so big. Because it does things it's own way it's so much better than things that have come before it. To not have to worry about uv maps and texture sizes right off the bat, or even model flows it's just amazing. While you still have to worry about those things, you dont have to worry about them in the begining, and you can change them later with out having to worry about losing any work. It's just amazing. 

Using Nuke

So I've been using nuke for a few things here and there. For some reason compositing under windows has always been somewhat under par. Dont get me wrong we all have a place for after effects but it just doesnt cut it for many of the more complicated things we have or would like to do. Nuke fits that niche very well. I would say it's a compositer that built for 3d people. it works the way I want it to. Except for intanced groups, nobody has that for some reason. But the way it handles everythign else is quite amazing. I can even comp up 2k stuff at home. The blows my mind. Now if only I could render out 2k at reasonable times I'd be all set. So until something else comes out and I change my mind. I'm going to keep using and learing more about nuke.

Vitalic - Pony

Slow Motion, Dogs and Lazers what's not to love about this?