Damian M Fulmer

Volume Light Rendering

2010-01-31T22:27:00.000-08:00

So I took a slight detour from my rendering plans. I dived into volume lights instead of writing that Blinn shader. I initially thought that it would be easy, but it really was not. I had a lot to understand about how the different shaders work together to make this work. In most other 3d programs my experience is that the volume light is a function of the light. However in 3delight this is not the case. It's a bit more cumbersome but I can sort of see why you would want to do it this way for one important reason, it's a volume in space and you can limit it much better and have more control over it, if it's separate. But the work flow to make it works like this:

1. Make a scene with a back wall and put something in front of it.
2. Make a light that cast a deep shadow.
3. Make another object, give it some geo properties so it is transparent, assign and interior smoke shader to it.
4. Make sure the volume object is bigger than your back wall.
5. Turn on all the check boxes in the shadow map section in renderglobals

So yeah a convoluted, but worth it. No I just have to see about making it render faster because I'm sure my settings are not good. Time to look in to that step size parameter.

Soft area shadows from a single shadow map

2010-01-30T11:21:00.000-08:00

I knew you could create soft shadows from mulitple shadow maps and doing some averaging to blend them into a single soft shadow. But I didnt know you could do it with only a single shadow map. But Bertrand Bry-Marfing found a way and put the shader up on his site:

http://www.3db-site.com/html/renderman_shaders.php

So now I've been able to compile the shader and use it in maya with 3delight. I was going to try for something like this after I got the occlusion stuff to work but since he had the shader already I figured I could give it a go. It also works with deep shadowmaps !

I wrote a point cloud!

2010-01-28T17:17:00.000-08:00

I rendered out a point cloud from maya! I know! Exciting! So know I just have to make a shader that uses that to make an occlusion pass and I've succeded in step one of my renderman goals.

My next step is to create a blinn shader that willl bake out it's own lighting and shading into the point cloud so I can use that to start doing some fake GI bounces. This is all very exciting to me. I'm so used to ray tracing everything and having to worry about fitting things in to memory but now I will not really have to worry so much about that. I'll be able to render trees and grass and still have occlusion and some form of GI color bleeding, very fun. I should write a tutorial up soon.

3delight Passes

2010-01-25T21:13:00.000-08:00

Point Based Lighting very much interest me right now. As a Vray user I love it's fast raytracing which is really nice for setup and let the processors chew on it kind of stuff like we do at work. Raytracing car reflections is the best and fastest way to get jobs done. But when it comes to doing pretty much anything else, I'm all about the quick and good. Renderman seems to provide that. The only trick is you have to understand how to make it quick.

So I've got to the point where I understand that I need to make a pass that bakes out a point cloud for me to. This should be a pre-pass like a shadow map but it doesnt need to happen all the time but should be automatic enough so when I change a scene I can easily update it.

Now comes the tricky part. Using the point cloud to shade. I've seen examples as a surface shader and as a volume shader. But from how I think it should work, it should be a light shader to cast the fake GI back into the scene. Then it can be a AOV of it's own and separate from the shader calls for surfaces. But I'm not sure if that's how the volume shader works.

But my big curiosity is how you can shade the points in the point cloud with the surfaces on the object for color bleeding. Since I'm so new to this I think I see the code to do it but dont really understand it.

I think by the end of this weekend I need to make my own surface shader ( preferably with Fresnel fall of in reflection and spec with a gloss setting) and be able to make a point file and use it to make an occlusion pass.I'll have to learn about what 3delight calls sets to be able to make all that work.

3delight begins

2010-01-23T23:43:00.000-08:00

I'm finally taking the plunge and learing how to render in 3delight. I'm choosing 3delight over Prman primarly because it's cheaper ( and the first license is free). I also like the intergration better.

Pixar's artist tools are a bit too artist friendly for me. Every time I have messed around with them I seem to get more confused about what's going on. They tend to hide things and make things work without me understanding how they work. In my book thats a big no no. Becasue if something doesnt work I need to make it work.

They also have a shave and a hair cut workflow that I'm interested in. Hair, fur and grass are all things I would like to be able to render better and unfourtantly raytracers are not able to do those effects quickly.

It also allows me to use python in maya. Python is everywhere except for my main 3d package at work (3d max) so I'm going to be able to test the waters with out having to install and cobble together the blur python package for max, that I could never get to work at home. But that was just my experience.

Render Speed Comparison (2.49b VS 2.5) | BlenderNation

2009-10-22T19:18:00.001-07:00

via blendernation.com

So does this mean Blender is twice as fast as it used to be? Color me interested.

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Mark Jenkins: Street Installations

2009-09-11T10:46:00.001-07:00

via ffffound.com

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BAD ASS MOTHER FUCKER

2009-09-10T07:40:00.001-07:00

via ffffound.com

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halo odst live action

2009-09-07T10:13:00.001-07:00

img3102.jpg (JPEG Image, 914x820 pixels) - Scaled (95%)

2009-09-02T07:02:00.001-07:00

via img123.imageshack.us

Dune + Legos = Win

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i can read - (via 9 0 0 0)

2009-08-29T18:19:00.001-07:00

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but does it float

2009-08-28T07:07:00.001-07:00

via ffffound.com

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let yourself feel.

2009-08-27T08:27:00.001-07:00

via vimeo.com

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Alex Hohlov

2009-08-25T18:28:00.001-07:00

via ffffound.com

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but does it float

2009-08-25T17:36:00.001-07:00

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name that movie :)

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Hey Okay » The More I Know

2009-08-25T13:00:00.001-07:00

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Untitled

2009-08-24T19:28:00.001-07:00

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8-bit trip

2009-08-24T07:43:00.001-07:00

Yves Marchand & Romain Meffre Photography - The ruins of Detroit

2009-08-24T07:39:00.001-07:00

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Mr. Squid is going on a picnic with his pet! on Flickr - Photo Sharing!

2009-08-24T07:03:00.001-07:00

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The Big Warm-Up on Flickr - Photo Sharing!

2009-08-23T12:23:00.001-07:00

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Hyllie Water Tower on the Behance Network

2009-08-22T09:09:00.001-07:00

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THEM THANGS

2009-08-22T09:08:00.001-07:00

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If You Could : Print Series : November 2008

2009-08-21T12:21:00.001-07:00

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CR2JKm4Kdpw84w8ykFE99jSxo1_500.png (Image PNG, 438x438 pixels)

2009-08-21T09:42:00.001-07:00

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DIGITAL DELIGHT | Online Portfolio of Niel Quisaba

2009-08-21T09:41:00.001-07:00

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but does it float

2009-08-21T09:40:00.001-07:00

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ocean

2009-08-19T19:10:00.001-07:00

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but does it float

2009-08-19T11:39:00.001-07:00

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i can read

2009-08-18T21:58:00.001-07:00

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now thats some good advice

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DumberThanPaint's profile - StumbleUpon

2009-08-18T21:50:00.001-07:00

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daily20selection051yx6.jpg (JPEG Image, 800x534 pixels)

2009-08-18T13:18:00.001-07:00

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Long-exposure shots in St Petersburg, Russia turn people into ghosts - Boing Boing

2009-08-15T10:46:00.001-07:00

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today and tomorrow

2009-08-14T19:28:00.001-07:00

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Art (3)

2009-08-14T19:22:00.001-07:00

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twentythree :

2009-08-14T06:51:00.003-07:00

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w44q.jpg (JPEG Image, 711x852 pixels)

2009-08-14T06:51:00.001-07:00

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Flickr Photo Download: #41

2009-08-13T16:20:00.000-07:00

Flickr Photo Download: #41: "

via http://www.flickr.com/photos/9333777@N03/3338800172/sizes/l/in/pool-1065270@N23/

:: andy gilmore :: design ::

2009-08-13T11:53:00.000-07:00

:: andy gilmore :: design ::: "

via http://kunstformen.blogspot.com/

faces021.jpg (JPEG Image, 500x375 pixels)

2009-08-13T10:48:00.000-07:00

faces021.jpg (JPEG Image, 500x375 pixels): "

via http://itscorykennedy.files.wordpress.com/2009/04/faces021.jpg?w=500&h=375

30 Beautiful Logos | Abduzeedo - design inspiration and tutorials

2009-08-13T07:14:00.000-07:00

30 Beautiful Logos | Abduzeedo - design inspiration and tutorials: "

via http://abduzeedo.com/30-beautiful-identities

i can read

2009-08-13T07:08:00.000-07:00

i can read: "

via http://icanread.tumblr.com/post/66211474

Geek Orthodox: Masters of the Universe Movie Concept Art!

2009-08-10T15:13:00.001-07:00

via geek-orthodox.blogspot.com

pure awesome art from the orginal he-man movie

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Porsche Speed | Fubiz™

2009-08-10T08:23:00.001-07:00

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another really nice project

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Porsche Speed | Fubiz™

2009-08-10T08:22:00.001-07:00

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really nice cg cars

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Marco Brambilla: Civilization | Motionographer | Motion graphics, design, animation, filmmaking and visual effects

2009-06-10T07:33:00.001-07:00

via motionographer.com

very strange and cool video

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ZBrushCentral - Cedric Seaut's Little Box

2009-06-04T18:07:00.001-07:00

via zbrushcentral.com

so that's how they do it, very important info

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422 South | Drain the Ocean - Nat Geo and ORF

2009-04-27T10:25:00.001-07:00

via 422.com

Some very cool terragen 2 animations that are pretty impressive.

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Bit serial adder image - Photos: The 10,000 Year Clock - CNET News

2009-04-14T13:04:00.001-07:00

via news.cnet.com

Awesome clock to last 10,000 years. Watch out Pryamids, here comes a clock!

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He-Man.org - Promotional - Posters

2009-04-12T22:29:00.001-07:00

via he-man.org

I must find more paitings like this.

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wall38.jpg (JPEG Image, 1280x1024 pixels) - Scaled (94%)

2009-04-12T22:23:00.001-07:00

via crocco.net

He-man does not make any sense, but this image is beyond even me to explain. How are Elephants associated with Skeletor? Also why are they in an African Sahara?

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Christmas can you feel it?

2008-11-21T22:15:00.000-08:00

Wall e en LA

2008-10-30T11:43:00.001-07:00

wow

In Line at erabus! Finally going

2008-10-12T16:41:00.000-07:00

Glad everybody is at work today.

2008-08-12T07:26:00.000-07:00

End of beer feet day 1!

2008-07-25T17:40:00.000-07:00

New Music: Pelican

2008-07-07T22:39:00.000-07:00

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

2008-07-07T10:06:00.000-07:00

Bush Tours America To Survey Damage Caused By His Disastrous Presidency

Put put @ 13 mile!

2008-07-06T09:58:00.001-07:00

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

2008-07-01T08:13:00.001-07:00

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

2008-06-30T08:44:00.001-07:00

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

2008-06-14T14:18:00.001-07:00

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

2008-06-14T13:55:00.001-07:00

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!

2008-06-08T11:31:00.001-07:00

Tiananmen Square, originally uploaded by Balakov.

I think more things should be done lego style.

very cool animation

2008-06-05T12:19:00.000-07:00

The bird and the earthworm from Jurjen Bosklopper on Vimeo.

Rendezvous with Rama short film

2008-06-02T11:26:00.001-07:00

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!

2008-05-30T18:09:00.001-07:00

Fry Render

2008-05-28T18:38:00.001-07:00

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

2008-05-27T21:48:00.001-07:00

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

2008-05-25T09:45:00.001-07:00

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

Big Buck Bunny Trailer

2008-05-25T09:38:00.001-07:00

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)

2008-03-31T21:44:00.001-07:00

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!

2008-03-22T16:49:00.000-07:00

Mental Ray is Stupid

2008-03-10T21:26:00.001-07:00

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

2008-01-30T12:38:00.001-08:00

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

2008-01-28T16:41:00.001-08:00

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

2008-01-22T10:01:00.001-08:00

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

Setting New Goals

2007-12-24T22:47:00.001-08:00

So the end of the year is near and I feel like I should set some new goals. I'm not really into setting new years resolutions. But they seem to fit very well into the GTD method. So I think I'm going to do things a bit differently by setting some short term goals and some long term goals. I'm not sure exactly what i want my goals to be. Dont get me wrong, I have plently of ideas. I just dont really want to share them with everybody just yet. I would like to set 3 short term goals 2 thing to have done by 6 months and 1 to do or have done by the year end. I'll probally start a list of thing on RTM and that keep it visable through out the year. Heres to keeping promises and a great new year!

Learning New Software

2007-12-23T21:38:00.001-08:00

Learning new software is kind of like meeting a friend for the first time. You know there is something about them that you think you'll like. But you know it's going to take a while to get there. Eventually it's going to happen. But along the way there are many bumps.
I've wanted to learn more about NUKE for a while now. I'm pretty familar with Fusion and after effects. I wouldnt consiter myself an expert but I can pull my own weight. But I feel like those programs can only let me be so efficent. I really want to take it up. Hopefully I'll be able to do that. I have an idea of how I'd like everything to work. But who knows how it'll work out. It's going ot be interesting.

More Mental Ray

2007-12-20T12:38:00.001-08:00

So seriously I'm starting to like mental ray for the first time in a long, long, time but then I find something that just makes me so mad. Mulitpass rendering, which is one of the most important things in production, just doesnt work in maya 2008. I'm not talking about those render layers. That's a whole other post. I'm talkin about rendering the beauty, and then saving files for all the elements that make up that render. Apperently the new mia_x material support it.. but because of how backwards maya is you cant get the passes out with out sacrificing a goat. Seriously who lets this kind of stuff happen. I wish they could just fix so many little issues in maya. How easy would it be to include backburner for maya? That should have been done day one of the buyout and it still hasnt happened. Crazy.

Mental Ray

2007-12-11T16:21:00.000-08:00

So the more and more I learn about mental ray the less I get
frustrated by it. Don't get me wrong I'm far from loving it by any
means. But there are a few features here and

core

2007-12-06T20:11:00.001-08:00

core, originally uploaded by natzke.

some very cool flash art... it would be great to paint something like that.

Broken Laptops and Living on-line

2007-12-03T11:13:00.001-08:00

This will be the first of a few post about how a broken laptop,
reading way too much about GTD and moving most of my digital life
online has not only kept me organized but has let me but has expanded
how I think about being organized and structure in my life and work.

This whole thing started earlier this year when my laptop's hard drive
took a break from working. My laptop was my digital life. It had my
email, my music, my photos, my movies and let me carry around large
files. It was great, I had everything set up just right and it was all
working smoothly. I had archived geeky nirvana and it was good. All
that was taken away when my laptop's hard drive ceased to function.

Now my laptop was not the latest or the greatest. It is a G4
Powerbook, dont get me wrong it's nice. But I really didnt want to
spend that much money to fix it and my warranty had already worn out.
With all that going on how was I supposed to get along? I had a tough
choice. Fix the laptop or find another way.

I choose to find another way. I realized that I could pretty much do
everything online. With a little planning ahead and the whole web as
an app thing going on. Tons of things are possible. On thing that is
probally important is that I have a lot of computers that I use all
the time. Two-3 computers at work, a couple at home and a few here and
there. Which means I didnt want to lug around a hardrive and I didnt
want to trust in a thumbdrive thats way to easy to forget someplace. I
really wanted something simple and something that would work
completely online.

The first thing I did was move all my mail to a gmail account. While
I've had a gmail account for a while. I never really saw the benefit
of it. I was perfectly happy using mail.app. Gmail checks all of my
accounts at least every hour. Which is good enough for me especially
since I dont think there is a way to change it. Gmail also lets you
respond as your account which is great. So no even though you are
using your gmail account, clients and everybody else does not have to
know.

Gmail is great as a store house of knowledge. It's much easier just to
search for the information than sorting through emails, trudging
through folders and conjuring from some strange mental state. It was a
bit of a stretch to let go of folders. After all I'm trying to
reorganize my life. How can getting rid of folders for my all
important in box help me be organized. The truth is that I spent too
much time organizing things that I really didn't have to. It's ok to
let the computers do the grunt work for me.

Now after you have moved all your email over what next? Bookmarks,
your list of places you've been things you want to read later and all
those things you should know more about you dont. While google has a
browser sync plugin ( that I do use) and they have a bookmarks app. I
mostly use Del.licio.us. Dellicous is just great for your own
bookmarks. Using tags to organize your bookrmarks makes a lof sense.
First of all you can orgaize by what ever system you like. The same
book mark can have mulitple tags so it can easily be in many locations
at once. So you can have tags for such things as "Home, Work, Linux,
3d, and whatever" so it's really easy to find everything about 3d even
if it has some linux stuff in it and vice versa. I know what you're
thinking, big woop.

This was my first experence with tags. So in the begining I tagged
everything very specifically. So after a while I started looking for
things again. But I couldnt find anything. I was being too orgainzed
again. It's amazing how many times you have to learn the same lesson
over and over, simple is beautiful. After a bit of reorganizing and
keeping most things to a few tags it's really easy to find what I want
at any time.

So I've talked so far about how I'm using gmail and Dellicous. Next
I'll talk about Remember the Milk, Google Calender and How GTD worked
for me.

IMified!

2007-11-23T20:57:00.001-08:00

So i've found this cool webiste/tool that let's you use a bunch of tools directly through your instand messenger. I'm actually writing this post on meebo right now. I can also "talk" to my remember the milk list or use my delicious links. I'm pretty impressed with how easy it is to setup and use. The only problem that I have right now is that the twitter widget seems to be down. But that should be fixed soon as they have just changed the twitter protocols.

A New Direction

2007-11-23T20:50:00.001-08:00

So I'm thinking that I dont want to just post things about 3d and rendering here. I would like to post more about how I've been organizing and simplifing my life. I've found alot of really good techniques and simple tools that really help me out. It would also be more interesting for me to post about this kind of stuff.

Who is out there?

2007-10-22T23:06:00.001-07:00

So I've been thinking of why I'm writing this blog or just about anything really. So I've come to one conclusion, I'm writing this for myself. So why do I keep writing on this? Well for me.. I think this keeps me honest with myself and it keeps me motivated knowing that I can see what I have been doing or not been doing for that matter. So I think I'm going to have to start being more specfic about the things I post. Smaller bits of knowlage tips and whatever that I can put up quickly here and there. I know I'm not the best communicator but it's a process I'm working on. So soon I'll start posting some cool max and maya things I know that hopefully you dont. I think I'll talk about batch render in max next mostly because nobody talks about batch render and I love it.

About Workflows

2007-10-17T12:45:00.001-07:00

So I'm thinking that are 2 main ideas in how I work on jobs.

Work to Done
Work ahead, test before finish

Now these sound pretty simple and pretty obvious. But I dont they happen enough. Testing before finals is very important. For everyproject I comp. I always have my comp setup right after my first round of test renders. Now I can evaluate my renders in my comp and see how and int what ways I need to change things. I can also see where is the best place for me to make a change in render or in comp?

Working to done is the ultimate time saver. If I'm working on project I always try to have specfic goals set up for me to work on. Usally I just writ them in a list on a small sheet of paper. Then as I get things done I just cross them off. Now I have something else to jump on to . So now I'm not wasting any time and I'm just knocking things off my list. It's a very good work habit.

NEW DEMO REEL !!!

2007-09-24T21:47:00.001-07:00

Well I'm sure excited about something. I have finally started editing together a new demo reel together. Wow it's been a long time for me to put something like that together. So long that Premere has come and gone for the Mac man that is a long time. I feel good about all the work I've done since last time I've put a reel together. Maybe this is just the sort of thing I need to do every year or so to reflect on the work I'm doing. It's been a lot of fun getting to this point. One thing for sure, I'm not going to let this amount of time go by with out doing a reel again. So hopefully with in the next couple of weeks I'll have something up on the site.

A-Dub

2007-08-26T14:30:00.000-07:00

Bye bye Siggraph 07

2007-08-09T18:25:00.001-07:00

Bye bye Siggraph 07, originally uploaded by mrloafbot.

Prentice is the man!!!!

2007-08-09T00:48:00.001-07:00

Prentice is the man!!!!, originally uploaded by mrloafbot.

Troy plays Tempest!

2007-08-08T21:24:00.001-07:00

Troy plays Tempest!, originally uploaded by mrloafbot.

John Knoll plays stars wars!!!!!

2007-08-08T19:15:00.001-07:00

John Knoll plays stars wars!!!!!, originally uploaded by mrloafbot.

Teapot!!!!!

2007-08-08T19:03:00.001-07:00

Teapot!!!!!, originally uploaded by mrloafbot.

Plasma Pong!!!!

2007-08-08T18:59:00.001-07:00

Plasma Pong!!!!, originally uploaded by mrloafbot.

Wens at siggraph

2007-08-08T18:49:00.000-07:00

Sorry I haven't posted today. The whole morning I was in a talk about
how they made the sand for spiderman and that was really sweet. A lot
of stuff about ri points and point clusters. It really got me thinking

Then this afternoon I taught my masterclass and that went really well.
Better than I expected, I got a lot of people that came up to thank
me after and I had to hurry it up in the end. I was worried that I
wouldn't gill the time. Hopefully I'll be able to do something like
that again .

Well I'm off to the Electronic Theater hopefully that be as good as
the one last year.

Vray 1.5 is out now!!!!!

2007-08-07T20:58:00.001-07:00

Vray 1.5 is out now!!!!!, originally uploaded by mrloafbot.

Autodesk user group party on the carrier

2007-08-07T14:41:00.001-07:00

Autodesk user group party on the carrier, originally uploaded by mrloafbot.

Vray booth is pretty nice

2007-08-07T14:34:00.003-07:00

Vray booth is pretty nice, originally uploaded by mrloafbot.

Autodesk booth at siggraph

2007-08-07T14:34:00.001-07:00

Autodesk booth at siggraph, originally uploaded by mrloafbot.

Where are our images? There where a bunch in the u