I can has Mac?

So I broke down and got a Macbook. It wasn't really breaking down as much as my Dell smacking me in the face and saying, "Ha, you fell for it! You're stuck with me, you silly, silly man!" But now, I've joined the herd of Mac people who would rather give up their firstborn than go back to fighting IT battles with their computers (not to be confused with the herd of people who went to Mac first, never used a windows based machine, but swears that Macs are better anyways.)

Let me back up a bit. 

A couple of years ago, I got a Dell Inspiron 1705E that has a lovely 17" display. Little did I know that the reason that Dell could offer this computer at such a low price was because they essentially took parts that they knew they wouldn't support anymore, threw them in and said, "Hey, a 17" at this price? We must be out of our bloody minds!". It turns out that WE, the consumers were actually out of our minds. 

About a year into owning the Dell, things started to act a little wonky. Another 3 months, then my soundcard went, my screen almost fell off, my keys got stuck, my DVD drive broke, my Audio-In jack bit the big one, and it won't connect to any network.

So to make a long story short, I'm now the proud owner of a brand spankin' new Macbook. So far, it's doing the job. The graphics are OK (I need to buy another 2GB of RAM. The display, while bright, isn't 17", but it'll do. It won't network with my Dell, but sees pretty much anything. I'm a huge fan of dynamic memory allocation (the cool thing that Macs do to give back ram after the program you're using is shut down. Windows doesn't do this). 

The main graphics program I use, Lightwave 3d has Mac versions (for everything except for the most current upgrade). My painting program, Artrage has a mac version. My 3d painting program, 3d-Coat has a mac version. I have Skype, Adium for all my messaging needs, and iLife, which comes with OSX (I have a hard time saying OS Ten, 'cus OSX sounds much cooler).

I'll be the first person, however to say that the claims that Macs "don't get viruses" is bullshit, and a pox on anyone who says different. While I haven't gotten one yet, (thank god), it's only a matter of time before I do. The only thing preventing Macs from getting viruses is that there are fewer people writing viruses for Macs. It'll happen folks, you mark my words.

Aside from that, I appreciate the stability (even though i've crashed it about 8 times now since I bought it from massive memory usage). I haven't had to fight with it since I bought it. It doesnt take 5 minutes to wake, and runs like I just booted it. 

Rendering my stills in lightwave happens pretty fast (even with interpolated radiosity activated). 3D painting flows a lot faster, unless i'm working with a very highpoly mesh.

All in all, i'm happy with it. I'm still getting used to the change from Vista to OSX, but with the help of a very good friend, I'm a lot more comfortable with it. 

Slowly Getting Back on the Saddle

I've been very lax with my project. I think it's because of poor planning. Last monday, however, I started doing my best to storyboard my graphic novel, based on an updated script.
I've been doing a quick sketch on index cards what I'd like page to look like, and then writing on the back of the index card writing any notes about the page, models that have to be made, and thoughts on each one.

Just to give myself a quick burst of motivation, I tried making the first page (or at least, page -1). Here it is:

This weekend, i'll continue working on my story board, spruce up the page above a bit, and set some goals/milestones so I can keep myself going.

Cheers.

Video Test

Two posts in one day?
You guys sure are lucky...


Video test for production diary:

A Blog A Day

For the sake of others, and for my own, I'm going to try to write a blog a day. I have never been very good about keeping a journal, but hopefully this will change. I just have to try to find out what to write about.

This past weekend was mostly good. I spent some good time with good friends who wouldn't let me be alone for too long at a time, else I'd start thinking about things that would hurt the mood and throw me into a depression again.

Jane and Kevin have been fantastic friends during this low point. Jane has been very good to me over the years, and it's good to have someone that cares for me so much back from her travels and local. Kevin has surprised me very much. I met him once years ago, and now that he's living in Stamford as well, he's been very good and calling me even when Jane isn't around, just to see how I'm doing. I've never been very close to guys, but Kevin is a great guy. He's someone that I can talk to, that doesn't try to throw the whole, "We're Dudes! Dude's don't have feelings! We're Butch and Spit and Fart and Belch and Check Women Out" mentality that I hate so much. They're good people, and I'm glad that I have them in my life.

I'm going to have dinner with my old friend Amy from my Umass days today. Amy's always been a sounding board for me, and me for her. She lives a few towns over, but we try to stay in touch as much as we can, even though I've been neglecting her a bit in recent months. Amy's family has been great to me as well over the years. Her mother said that anytime I would like Korean food, feel free to drop by. I wish I took more advantage of that over the years.
Hopefully, Amy and I can spend more time together, as she's been absolutely fantastic to me in the past.

Much to the dismay of my real hobbies, art and music, I've found a new one. Ladies and Gentlemen, Guitar Hero II is addictive. Those who are not READY TO ROCK need not apply.
With a great soundtrack, fun and colorful visuals, a guitar controller, dueling guitar functionality, and 'Tilt the Guitar to activate your super star rock out power' function, it's a good time for everyone. I picked it up last week, and showed it to my roommate, who immediately went out and got his own axe as well as Guitar Hero II: Rock the 80's for his daughter.

Check out this set list:

1. Opening Licks

• "Shout at the Devil" – Mötley Crüe
• "Mother" – Danzig †
• "Surrender" – Cheap Trick
• "Woman" – Wolfmother
• "Tonight I'm Gonna Rock You Tonight" – Spinal Tap † (Encore)

2. Amp-Warmers

• "Strutter" – Kiss †
• "Heart-Shaped Box" – Nirvana
• "Message in a Bottle" – The Police
• "You Really Got Me" – Van Halen^[3]
• "Carry on Wayward Son" – Kansas (Encore)

3. String-Snappers

• "Monkey Wrench" – Foo Fighters
• "Them Bones" – Alice in Chains
• "Search and Destroy" – Iggy Pop and the Stooges
• "Tattooed Love Boys" – The Pretenders
• "War Pigs" – Black Sabbath (Encore)

4. Thrash and Burn

• "Cherry Pie" – Warrant
• "Who Was in My Room Last Night?" – The Butthole Surfers †
• "Girlfriend" – Matthew Sweet †
• "Can't You Hear Me Knockin'" – The Rolling Stones †
• "Sweet Child o' Mine" – Guns N' Roses (Encore)

5. Return of the Shred

• "Killing in the Name" – Rage Against the Machine
• "John the Fisherman" – Primus
• "Freya" – The Sword
• "Bad Reputation" – Thin Lizzy
• "Last Child" – Aerosmith † (Encore)

6. Relentless Riffs

• "Crazy on You" – Heart
• "Trippin' on a Hole in a Paper Heart" – Stone Temple Pilots
• "Rock This Town" – Stray Cats
• "Jessica" – The Allman Brothers Band †
• "Stop" – Jane's Addiction (Encore)

7. Furious Fretwork

• "Madhouse" – Anthrax
• "Carry Me Home" – The Living End
• "Laid to Rest" – Lamb of God †
• "Psychobilly Freakout" – Reverend Horton Heat
• "YYZ" – Rush (Encore)

8. Face-Melters

• "Beast and the Harlot" – Avenged Sevenfold
• "Institutionalized" – Suicidal Tendencies †
• "Misirlou" – Dick Dale
• "Hangar 18" – Megadeth
• "Free Bird" – Lynyrd Skynyrd † (Encore)

Bonus Tracks

• "Raw Dog" – The Last Vegas (Winner of the "Be a Guitar Hero" Contest)
• "Arterial Black" – Drist †
• "Collide" – Anarchy Club
• "Drink Up" – Ounce of Self
• "Elephant Bones" – That Handsome Devil
• "Fall of Pangea" – Valient Thorr
• "FTK" – Vagiant
• "Gemini" – Brian Kahanek †
• "Laughtrack" – The Acro-brats †
• "Less Talk More Rokk" – Freezepop †
• "Jordan" – Buckethead
• "Kicked to the Curb" – Noble Rot
• "Mr. Fix It" – The Amazing Crowns
• "The New Black" – Every Time I Die
• "One for the Road" – The Breaking Wheel
• "Parasite" – The Neighborhoods
• "Push Push (Lady Lightning)" – Bang Camaro
• "Radium Eyes" – Count Zero
• "Red Lottery" – Megasus
• "Six" – All That Remains
• "Soy Bomb" – Honest Bob and the Factory-to-Dealer Incentives †
• "The Light That Blinds" – Shadows Fall
• "Thunderhorse" – Dethklok
• "Trogdor" – Strong Bad †
• "X-Stream" – Voivod
• "Yes We Can" – Made in Mexico

A few songs of note are Free bird, and Trogdor, Yes, TROGDOOOOOOR by Strong Bad.

The ability for one player to play lead guitar and the other to play rhythm guitar, or one to play guitar and the other to play bass, makes for a fun time. I think the most fun that I've had was when my roommate (who's a pretty big, jacked guy), picks up the tiny guitar controller that looks like a ukelele to him, and rocks out to Mother by Danzig and sings along.
I'm waiting for Rock Band to drop in November as well though.

I don't know what the rest of my week is going to look like, but I have to keep busy. I threw on LW again last night and modeled something for my everything but forgotten story. I have to really force myself to get back into that, because as someone at the NYC Lightwave Group said, "If you don't do it, someone else will. Then where will you be?"

Making It All Work

3D art is not easy.
Putting together a single scene in 3D involves many different disciplines. As in many art forms, you first try to visualize what your end result should look like. This involves deciding the mood, the focus, the color scheme, the emotion and probably many other things I'm forgetting.


You build your models (which include principal actors or a focus), which involves an understanding of scale, spatial relationships, thinking in more than two dimensions, an attention to detail and understanding complex shapes.



Texturing objects involves understanding the physical properties of materials, how light reacts with an object, be it how color is affected, the mysteries of reflection, specular and gloss, light absorption, refraction, diffuse and other properties of light.

Laying out a scene involves, orienting and placing each object,
as well as a main camera, in order to match as closely as possible what you originally visualized. Understand space and scale and how the eye works in general is critical.

Lighting the scene takes into consideration not just your sun or moon,
but also the different properties of different man made light, as well as how light bounces of objects and in a sense, travels around your scene.

Animation, maybe the most popular of the disciplines, involves a strict understanding of natural motion, physics, acting, and concepts related to telling a story.

Each one of these steps is incredibly involved. Many books have been written by artists great and not so great, and many larger studios employ teams of people to handle each one of these stages.

I've somewhat wrapped my head around modeling, both hard-body and organic (although I could stand to get better), I understand the fundamentals of UV/Texture mapping, again, with much room for improvement.

However, there are the three other things that I'm still learning how to do.

Because of the fact that I haven't really attempted much animation, I'm saving that for last, but for the life of me, I can't figure out scene layout and lighting. I've bought books on lighting in the past, but most of it still alludes me.

Falloffs, intensity, the difference between the effect of an area light, an omni directional light, a linear light...

The difference between ray traced shadows and shadow map based shadows...

Global illumination, HDR imaging...

Then of course, there's layouts. What's the scale? How do you define scale in an image? What about the backdrop? How does the atmosphere and the time of day come into place?

I think that if i figure out the concepts behind all these things, maybe I can fly off this plateau that I've found myself grounded on for so long. I want to put things together, not just objects, but scenes. I want to put together little tiny bits of reality, one piece at a time. I want it to look damn good.
And I don't know what I'm doing wrong so far...

Getting Back To My Roots

Taking a break from cel shaded fantasty stuff, I thought I would delve back into the more realistic types of modeling. Inspired by god knows what, I thought I would try my hand at making a sort of futuristic, high quality, luxury hoverboard (i'm thinking honda or toyota, not sure yet).

Making something that's not bulky, but streamlined and sexy, as many luxury transportation vehicles are, I decided to go with spline modeling as opposed to poly or box modeling. This will allow me to 1) plan out the curves and contours before I start modeling, 2) keep everything sleek and sexy and 3) help me brush up on my high-poly spline modeling.







I'm going for a porcelain/fiberglass frame, with rubber bumpers/foot padding.
Things yet do to:
Finish modeling details
UV Map
Shade and Texture
Produce Particle Emitter effects
Rig with basic character

Dave Loves DAVE Loves 9.0

GEEK POWERS, ACTIVATE!

Ladies and Gents, you are now looking at one of the newest accepted applicant to the Digital Animation and Visual Effects School, affectionately referred to as the DAVE school. Lemme tell you about this place I like to call Heaven.

The DAVE school is located smack dab in the middle of sunny (and from what I hear, friggin humid) Orlando, FL. It's actually in the back lot of Universal Studios, FL. It features a slew of computer labs, motion capture green screen room, recording room, and some of the best instructors that a CG hopeful could ever ask for.

The DAVE School program runs for one year, and is broken up into 4 sections called "blocks". Each block focuses on a different levels of proficiency, starting with basic modeling and knowledge of Newtek's Lightwave 3D program, architectural modeling and rendering, character modeling and animation, bluescreening and compositing, and finally group dynamics, leading a team. During the program, aside from digitally compositing yourself into any movie of your choice, creating a good amount of portfolio and demo reel, you work with your team to create not only a half live action, half CG short film, but a completely full CG short film.

The instructors at this school are second to none. People here have worked on a variety of blockbuster movies, fantastic television, and more. They teach what they know, they teach what they love. These are people that left various studios, companies, and firms to teach people like me how to work together in groups like this, how to put together a demo reel, how to use what we have to create fantastic images and video.

Not only that, but after graduating, graduates can still use all the facilities that the school offers. Demo reel hosting, access to all new classes and new professors, access to green screen facilities, etc. All this for the low price of $29.5K. There inlies the biggest hurdle. Financial loans are available, but that's still close to $30,000.
Kinda makes me really think seriously about it. Not that I would ever miss this chance, but more like I would work harder at this than I ever have; ever at school, and ever at work. I have to put all I have into this. And I plan on it.

In other news, I just purchased the upgrade for my personal copy of Lightwave, bringing me up to version 9.0. This one has a slew of new advancements, and hopefully, It'll help me find my groove again, and get back to producing (and hopefully finishing) many many products before I move over to Florida.

Clock's ticking. Time to get to work.

Motivation

(fixed so that anyone can post)

So I’m a day late. Sue me.

It’s been a while since I’ve touched Lightwave 3D. I have no good reason as to the hiatus, except for the fact that I’ve been very busy. My full time job has been consistently taking precious hours out of my day, as well as hours away from sleep. The recent move that I’ve made, from downtown Stamford to North Stamford, was an ordeal, but is just about done. However, because of the lull, motivation is lacking.

Every now and again, I hit a motivational valley in-between the motivational highs that I usually find myself in. Lightwave is there, just a click away, but I have no drive to start creating. These times usually coincide with depression or frustration that can be attributed to the other facets of my life.

For the past few years, (has it been that long already?) I’ve been trying to put together a story, one that I’ve become very invested in, and passionate about. I’ve wanted to tell this story to the world, for no other purpose than to tell it. However, after constant rewrites, constant artistic changes, technical issues, and general time constraints, I haven’t worked on it in a while. Like a puzzle with missing pieces.

After a recent trip down to Florida to see the DAVE (Digital Animation and Visual Effects) school in the hopes to eventually enroll, I think I’ve seen a spark of that motivation that has previously been so elusive. Seeing groups of like-minded people working together for a common goal, to produce something out of nothing but hard work, creativity and talent, lit the fuse to the creative barrel of gunpowder sitting within my artistic soul. I’m just waiting for the bang.

In the meantime, to do what I can to self motivate, I’m trying to think of what would look good in my demo reel and portfolio. As of right now, I don’t have much that I’m proud of anymore; amateurishly laid out scenes and models, less than decent texturing, shoddy concepts. After seeing the work that my peers have created, it’s clear as day that I have a lot of concepts to brush up on, theories to remember, and generally a long way to go. A while ago, I picked up some books on fantasy art, as well as figure sketching. I think it’s about time that I picked those up again, and taken pencil to paper again and started trying to find what is lost to me now.

Until then, if you render, keep rendering. If you write, keep writing. If you draw, keep drawing. And as always, keep rockin’.