stuff travis likes

finished jeopardy!

2010-01-20T15:07:00.000-08:00

The past few months I have been busy getting a Jeopardy-type game ready for use in a class room. Here is the final result. It is xml-driven, meaning it is almost as easy as editing a Word doc to change the questions and answers. Since it is meant for class room use, it is designed to be instructor lead. There are buttons for 3 teams. Once a team buzzes in and answers, it is up to the facilitator to click the 'correct' or 'incorrect' question (based on a print out of the answers). Once the correct or pass button is pressed, it confirms the correct answer on the screen.

I replaced the classes questions and answers with some trivia I googled. Here it is, enjoy!

jeopardy!

new apartment!

2009-08-31T07:13:00.000-07:00

moving to a new place in the same building. it has his and his sinks!

two floors

and roof access! how soon can i recreate the dinner scene in julie and julia?

building a bike, day 2

2009-08-24T07:33:00.000-07:00

matt and i are (re)building a pair of bikes. we have been wanting to get bikes for a while and recently learned of an awesome co-op in northside called mobo. last tuesday, we went and checked out the place. it was too late to really do anything, but we just wanted to see how it worked.

we went back wednesday to pick out a bike and get started, but didn't get there until 6:30 (half hour after they opened. that meant all 6 of the workstations were taken. so, we just picked out our bikes and resolved to get there earlier sunday (they have a limited schedule there)

so, sunday we got there at 1:30, half hour before they opened. village green, a community garden is at the same location. i explored a little and found the biggest sun flowers i have ever seen. way taller then me.

after they opened, we went and picked up our bikes from the crazy mess of orphaned two-wheelers downstairs and got started.

i spent about half my time tuning the wheels, and then the other half building the crankset. The bike basically just had wheels and a detached seat, so a lot of the stuff (like the crankset) has to be found and assembled. here is the final crankset:

the most fun part was getting the ball bearings inside the thing. wish i had gotten a pick of that.

before i knew it, we had about 15 mins left to wrap up. it was just enough time to find the crank arms and tie them on so they don't get lost.

and here it is, after about 2.75 hours of work:

i hope to get at least the peddles assembled and attached and get the seat on next time. i don't know anything about any of this (good thing there are kind pro builders there to help out) but i anticipate the hardest part will be getting the gearing repaired.

we will see!

a desire named streetcar

2009-07-28T06:39:00.000-07:00

i recently returned from an awesome trip to san francisco. we were only there for 8 days but it seemed like we were there for a month, with all that we were able to do. there was an incredible exhibit of king tutankhamun at the de Young museum, and the most elaborate science museum i have ever seen, the california academy of science, san francisco.

when were were in the science academy, walking by the discovery tidepool and wishing the tickets to the planetarium weren't sold out for the day, i asked matt 'how is it that some cities have these awesome attractions and others don't?'

i am not a city planner, i have no education with this stuff, but it seems like attractions like this have to be expensive to produce, and probably rely heavily on tourism to maintain. i would think living in the city, you might visit a few times but the majority of the revenue would probably be from the 16.4 million visitors they get in a year. the 'catch 22' of it is you have to have these kind of attractions to attract those visitors, and you probably need the visitors to justify the investment of building something like that.

this is why i get so frustrated when i see progress being hindered in my home town of cincinnati. if you aren't already aware, cincinnati could soon have its own streetcar. but, not if some critics have their way. most of the critics question the funding. but the truth is much of the funding for the streetcar will come from sources only available for a big transit project such as the streetcar. the funding would not be available for other projects if streetcar is not built. the funding would simply vanish.

we need to embrace projects like the streetcar to keep cincinnati thriving. I have heard mark twain said, "When the end of the world comes, I want to be in Cincinnati because it's always twenty years behind the times."

whether or not he actually said it, that sentiment reflects a common view of cincinnati. we need to attract visitors and new residents to this city if we want it to flourish. if interested, here are ways you can help: http://www.cincystreetcar.com/support.html

am students and alumni demonstrate anticipation at the am bbq

2009-07-23T07:12:00.001-07:00

too much twitter, not special

2009-06-02T07:52:00.000-07:00

g1!

2009-06-01T05:38:00.000-07:00

i finally did it, took the plunge and invested in a g1 (a pair of them, actually).

a couple of months ago, i kinda decided it was time to upgrade us to some smart phones. the most obvious choice was, of course, the iphone. in fact, i was pretty much sold on it from all the hype. like many, the 2 year contract was scaring me away. we have stuck with cincinnati bell for our wireless for like 8 years, ironically because they don't have contracts. also, i learned that a new, better iphone was slated to be released just a few months a way. so, we waited.

while we where waiting, i checked out some other phones. i almost went with the nokia 5800 "exclusively" at cincinnati bell. this was attractive because there was no contract. in the end, i thought better of it because a) cincinnati bell was going to charge me more for it because i wasn't a new customer (whatever logic that is) and b) i have slowly gotten more disgusted with cincinnati bell over the past few years (even more so in the past few months) that i thought it might feel therapeutic to give them my walking papers. that's a topic for another post.

on another random iphone googleing, i came across a phone that seemed to be the first to give the iphone a run for its money. there are/where many touch screen smart phones that have come and gone, but none seem to be a match for the iphone until the G1: a touch screen smart phone powered by google. i was intrigued.

articles like this one really made the case for the g1. and, some of the drawbacks are no longer an issue, like the limit of 8gigs of storage: i just added a 16gig to mine for a cool $40. and the price: down from $180 i got mine for $140 and waived activation through this discount. amazon has it for under $100 (but then you have to pay an activation fee of $35).

the hardware keyboard and trackball more then make up for the lack of multitouch for me, but then i found a way to 'unlock' multitouch in the g1 making it a non issue. turns out, the g1 does have the capability but it is deactivated by the official firmware due to the lame apple patent. it took a little digging, but i was able to turn it back on (but just for the web browser, for now).

monthly, t-mobile is a little cheaper, but not much. however, that same discount up there gets you 10% off the monthly fees as well (that site doesn't have a discount for att). one big plus for att, at least in this area, t-mobile's 3g network ain't here yet. their standard edge seems to work ok, and wifi is always nice.

all of this was neat, but i kinda put the whole thing on the back burner as matt didn't seem to thrilled about the idea at all a month ago, so i let it go. then like last week, all the sudden, he starts talking about wanting a g1. i guess i bugged him enough about it back then that the seeds started sprouting in his head.

looking back it was kind of a whrilwind since he mentioned it on tuesday of this past week; wendesday we went to the t-mobile store to check it out, then ending up ordering 2 of them online that night; and they arrived at my door friday afternoon. to be fair, we checked out the iphone once more that same day, but side-by-side, playing with both there was no contest. the g1 is just amazing.

i was sold on the totally awesome streetview compass mode. when you use the built-in google maps app and switch to street view and turn on compass mode, you can just move the phone around you and it moves the street view like you are standing there on the road looking around. it's no holodeck, but still pretty darn cool.

to sweeten the deal, all my google info still lives with google. so my email and contacts is fully accessible to me on the g1, but if i loose my phone or something it is still online.

the last bit i will mention is apps. there are tons of apps, and quite many are free. the ones that aren't are usually under $1 or maybe $5. so far i haven't purchased any and am keeping very busy with the free ones. i have spent hours a day finding more cool stuff to add to my phone, like twidriod, meebo, a wifi scanner, android arcade, caller id look up (automatically flags telemarketers) to name a few.

i was afraid i might run into some buyer's remorse (that is what the trial period is for), but after these first 3 days i don't see that happening. i am not going to say the g1 is better then the iphone for two reasons: the main reason is i never owned an iphone and i don't think anyone can make a claim like that for either phone with out owning both for some time, and the other reason is phones are very subjective. whatever i value in a phone might not be what you value. for me, g1 seems to be a better fit over the iphone. check it out, you might find it to be a better match for you as well :)

Bboy Joker

2009-05-06T07:17:00.001-07:00

something i learned today

2009-04-23T13:58:00.000-07:00

if you want to append variables to flash, and you have that annoying AC_RunActiveContent.js thing in there, you have to add it to that as well. like this:


...'allowScriptAccess', 'sameDomain',
'movie', '../audioplayer?totalslides=29',
'salign', ''...

in addition to the actual file name ("../audioplayer.swf?totalslides=29")

that was few hours of my life i will never get back

new game for wii fit!

2009-04-17T12:39:00.000-07:00

very excited about this new game that works with the wii fit balance board.

i've been using the fit for almost a week now, and overall very happy with it. but there is so much room for improvement. a bit thing is how there isn't any 'plan' built in. there are all kinds of exercises, but you have to select them all one at a time (no way to like set up a list of them and press 'go'). so, working out for for maybe an hour might have you spending about half that time going through menus and finding excercises.

EA SPORTS Active

this looks like it might have a little more structure to it and be more effecient. might need to go place a pre-order :)

wii fit, day 2

2009-04-12T20:38:00.000-07:00

this morning, i weighed in again. my body weight was down 2.5 pounds and, after another balance test, my 'fit age' was down to 27! obviously, the difference in weight is thanks to the difference in time of day, but what about the age?

a simple search on them internet pages explained that this age is calculated solely on how you perform on that exercise or test alone. it was a different kind of balance test today then it was yesterday, and i fared much better with it, so, my age was lower.

also found today an unlocked 2-person race mode (that i was looking for yesterday). you can race another person with a wii remote, but it only logs info for the profile that is logged in. not great, but still cool.

side note: i have to move the sofa to do most of the fit stuff, trixie decided i moved it for her:

wii fit! finally picked one up :)

2009-04-12T10:04:00.000-07:00

i'd been thinking about getting a fit since even before i received my wii. even after christmas they were still kinda hard to find (not that i tried very hard). yesterday i decided to go out and find one. the first store i went to was gamestop, and there was a sign in the window that advertised they were in stock! (and, they were having a 50% off sale on some other games of which i found ratatouille for psp for $9, i picked them both up :)

i like gamestop, i have a card with them and try to check there first before heading to bestbuy, usually. only drawback was they weren't able to offer any warranty. i need to find something, i'd hate to have another rockband incident :(

i did the initial body profile thing and wasn't to happy to see my 'fit age' was 42! no big surprise. it also showed my bmi as *cough*. anyway, since it doesn't account for muscle (only considers your height and weight) i think i will keep checking my bio-impedance scale i have in my bathroom.

after 'weighing in,' i went through all the available strength exercises. there were probably about 6 unlocked at the start. by the time i got to the lunges, i ended up stopping in the middle. at the end, i got 0 points for that one, and my 'trainer' said he knew i gave up in the middle. creepy :/

the last exercise i did was running. i thought this was cool, i didn't use the board at all. you put a wii remote in your pocket and run in place (like a pedometer, i guess). on the screen, you see a ghost of yourself and another mii in front. the idea is you keep a steady pace and stay behind her. it was awkward, to say the least. i kept getting warnings that i need to steady my pace. when i was done, i couldn't breath. it was all i could do to lay on the floor and catch my breath! my limited knowledge of physical education tells me this is not a good thing. i've read the rule of thumb is you should be able to carry a conversation during aerobic exercise. i am sure my uneven pace had something to do with it.

since this doesn't use the board at all, it would have been cool if this was included in either the sports pack that came with the wii, or the wii play game i bought (because it came with another controller). the wii fit game doesn't allow for any multi-player activities. it would be fun do have a race in real time. and it seems very possible, since you should only be limited by the number of wii remotes. there is probably a game out there that does this, but between the 3 we now have, seems like it should be in one of them :/

after i recovered from the jog of death, i tried a couple yoga poses. i did ok, but need to work on my balance a little (no big surprise there).

this later in the evening, before dinner. i was so worn out that no food sounded the least appealing. the last time i felt this way after exercise was the first time i did laps in the pool at the Y. crazy that i got as much of this buzz playing a video game.

i will not be turning in my gym membership any time soon, but the wii fit will be a fun tool to use on days i don't want to / can't get to the gym, as well as an over all daily reminder to be conscience of my overall health.

screwed over by "melody" of ruby tuesday in alexandria

2009-04-08T15:01:00.000-07:00

[rant]

so, i don't head this far south often, but today matt was craving ruby tuesday's salad bar (which is a really good salad bar, as far as salad bars go) and this was kinda on the way to class at NKU where he is teaching tonght. when we sat down there, i saw the table tent thing listing their happy hour specials and had the idea that we should get liquored up before class.

each time we ordered a drink, we pointed to that tent and read off of it. when we got our bill,, i thought it was a bit odd that all our drinks were full price.

i brought this to the attention of our lovely server, melody, and she pointed out that we had to order them at the bar to get the special. i explained my surprise that she hadn't brought this to our attention sooner, seeing that we had ordered from the tent advertisement every time. she said the bartender told her about it when we got our second drink. again, i asked why she didn't tell us this information she had learned from the bartender she said, to my face (i am not exaggerating), "when i tell people the happy hour specials are only from the bar, they get up and leave"

so, apparently, melody decided that it would be better to hold the truth from us and hope we don't notice then to come clean and risk us leaving (which we wouldn't have done, we probably would have just moved to the bar). and, it seemed she didn't just learn of this from the bartender upon ordering our second drink as she said, since she obviously has this come up before.

it was shady, and i don't think i will be going back there anytime soon (not like we went there a lot anyway)

so, if you are ever blessed with melody at the ruby tuesday in alexandria, be warned. or, even better, stay away from chains in general. it's better to support small businesses anyway :)

[/rant]

youtube video in gmail/gtalk

2009-03-27T11:24:00.000-07:00

i've been using gtalk in gmail for a while now. i like having chat without having another program open. today i got sent a youtube link, and this happened:

So, basically if you type in a youtube link and send it, it adds that thumbnail automagically and when it is clicked on, the video plays above. keeping everything in the same window. this is neat, i can see gmail growing into like a virtual desktop where you can do more and more from within the same window. fun stuff!

Extreme Sheep LED Art

2009-03-18T16:57:00.001-07:00

Niños con cancer - asosiación afanoc

2009-03-04T17:58:00.001-08:00

don't need to understand the words to know what it is saying. what a cool short. this shows the power of pantomime. thanks to carlos baena for sharing the link.

Rainbow Road

2009-03-03T12:45:00.001-08:00

a touching tribute

rock band, a love/hate relationship

2009-02-25T21:56:00.000-08:00

this is just a rant, more about me having a need to write it than any delusion i have that anyone will want to read it. never the less, here it is!

the best purchase i have made since my actual ps3 is rock band. it is not my favorite game, lego star wars will always fill that spot in my heart, but it is a party favorite. there have been a few get-togethers where rock band as been a great hit.

this week, disaster stroke. i hadn't gotten the drums out in several weeks, and after i dusted them off and plugged them in, i realized the pedal had stopped responding. there was nothing visibly broken, no cracks or shorts in the cable or anything, it just didn't work.

i purchased it maybe 4 or 5 months ago at circuit city. i hate circuit city but it was on sale there, so i with with it. as annoyed as i am by best buy's pushiness when it comes to service plans, i wish circuit city had offered one. i didn't think about it until after i had completed the purchase, and eventually it was too late to add it on. so, there i was, way out of the 60 day warranty. sol.

as an aside, what kinda crap is it that a company can get a way with charging almost $200 for something and say it should only last 60 days?! something is very wrong with that.

anyway, as pissed as i was at electronic arts, i didn't last a day without my drums, i high-tailed it to my local best buy where i found the rock band 2 drums in stock. and, i asked about a warranty on this one before the nice best buy gal had a chance to offer it. i can now rock on!

andrew's birthday

2009-02-25T07:29:00.000-08:00

here is a video of andrew's birthday (this past saturday)

my colorcode (stereoscopic) image

2009-02-08T18:46:00.000-08:00

i found a tutorial about making a 3d image to work with the weird 3d glasses we got for the super bowl (yellow and purple, not red and blue). it ain't perfect, but it was fun to try.

'some assembly required' - blocking done!

2009-02-02T16:33:00.000-08:00

here is my blocking pass for my short for animation mentor, 'some assembly required'

there are lots of notes to sort out, updates to come :)

Cookies in Greece

2009-01-15T07:19:00.001-08:00

i wanna go to greece

mini tutorial: how i finally got green happy faces in azureus with two routers

2009-01-02T12:42:00.000-08:00

the holiday season, and more vacation days then i knew what to do with, left me with some free time recently. i decided to take another stab and improving my torrent download speeds. having two routers complicates things a bit.

if you are reading this and are in my situation (dealing with frustration of two routers), check out portfoward.com before you read any further. that site even has a page talking about working with two routers, but i was just not clicking for me. the rest of the site got me started though and it is full of excellent information. this post will just focus on explaining how i was able to finally put the pieces together. i am posting this in case anyone else has the same trouble as i did and might benefit from another point of view.

background:
i have two routers because my high speed internet comes in though the phone into a router with no outlets other then one port (it is not a hub). i will have up to 7 devices that need to be connected on a wireless network at any given time, so i have the phone router plugged into a wireless (and wired) router (it has wireless as well as 4 wired ports).

the first step was to set my first router (the one that i connect to first as i go out on the net, not the second one that is actually connected to the phone line) to a static ip. i did this with that router's admin page.

you can find your router's admin page by doing a tracert (in windows, command prompt) to an address like this:

tracert www.google.com

this returns a list of ip addresses and locations that your computer is taking to get to google.com. the first address is the first of your routers, that is where i set my static ip.

it is important to note that this is an internal static ip only for the local network, so don't be afraid you are breaking any rules with your ISP, this is not an external static ip.

you can check portfoward.com for instructions on how to configure your brand of router to a static ip. i may have been lucky there, because when i switched from automatic to static, it filled in all the fields for me.

then, i opened the opened the port for azureus to my computer running azureus. again, portfoward.com does a great job covering this. make sure your computer is set to a static ip as well, otherwise the port you open won't work when/if your computer gets a new ip.

this next part is where i had been stuck (embarrassingly, for years). i figured out where my second router was (the second ip in that tracert list) a while back, and i knew i had to open that same port there as well but it didn't click until recently that i had to open that port to THE FIRST ROUTER, not to the computer (i know, duh!)

so i opened the admin for the second router, opened the port and pointed it to the static ip that i set for the first router and, tada! green happies!

i don't know if this will help anyone else, but i know that if i had found a post like this a couple years ago, it would have saved me a lot of time. i hope it helps someone else :)

i am addicted to indymogul.com

2008-12-05T13:56:00.000-08:00

haven't updated my blog in a while. i have been working on my short, ready to return to AM next month to give class 6 a shot and try to finish this thing.

also busy with holiday good times :)

i discovered indymogul.com a while back and am a big fan of their backyard fx series. recently, i have gotten kinda obsessed. i am watching like every episode i can. they have some killer ideas and innovative ways of stretching a dollar. i think i might have found my next halloween costume :)

check it out: http://www.indymogul.com/backyard-fx/episode/BFX_20081020

there was also a fun one i found on their site about stop motion

scrambled egg monster!

2008-10-01T07:32:00.000-07:00

best comic book villain ever! thank you, alpha flight.

i haven't posted anything in a while and today, for some reason, i was remembering this from an issue of alpha flight i read a few years ago. it made me laugh, so i wanted to share that!

in other news, i am starting the final class at animation mentor this week, and that means my layout of my short is locked and i am ready to start animating. i will try to get my animatic from last term up here soon.

what's been going on with garfield this week?

2008-08-22T06:50:00.001-07:00

I know it has to be hard to come up with new content every day of the week (for what, like the past 30 years or so?) but this week's Garfield's have been kinda lame. here is today's:

Every other one this week has been along those same lines. Step it up there, Jim!

coolest thing cincinnati has ever done

2008-07-28T06:46:00.000-07:00

see that? that is the big screen that was added as part of the fountain square revamp a while back. know what is one it? the goonies! that's right, this past saturday evening we got to see the goonies on the (somewhat) big screen.

i just found out about this last week, but apparently all summer they are doing movie night every saturday night on the square. there are two features, they say the first is usually animated (but not this time, it was the goonies). it was a heck of a lotta fun. we brought our own chairs like the website suggested, but turns out they leave the chairs and tables out that are there during the day (makes sense) so most people were sitting in those (but my chair has a foot rest, so jokes on them). there were vendors there, including skyline (not really a fan) but i saw several families with off-site food (like subway).

it was kinda like a drive in, only free and you don't have to drive (and the movies arn't new releases, but hey, it's free!)

last weekend they showed batman begins, tying in with the release of the new movie.

next weekend the movies don't look like must sees, but i look forward to the iron giant coming up on Aug 30!

hell of a story

2008-07-24T10:50:00.000-07:00

i stumbled across this today on youtube

to me it seems to have all the elements of a great short story. i was really impressed with the editing and the music matching the changes in action. it's not animated, but it feels a lot like a cartoon to me :)

this is one of those things you come by once in a while that just makes you want to create!

found some cool animation

2008-07-06T19:29:00.000-07:00

MUTO a wall-painted animation by BLU from blu on Vimeo.

a brief history of storytelling

2008-07-01T18:37:00.000-07:00

I put together this little presentation based on Ed Hook's book and lectures. I was inspired by his overview of the history of Acting.

Here it is:

blender cloth goodness

2008-05-21T21:44:00.000-07:00

2.46 was released recently, lots of fun stuff including some improvement to cloth. it's a hell of a lot easier to use.

http://www.blender.org/development/release-logs/blender-246/

elephants can paint? elephiknow

2008-04-26T20:38:00.000-07:00

just came across this amazing video:

i guess they are trained to paint, but still, wow!

i met ed hooks!

2008-04-22T05:56:00.000-07:00

When I was debating on purchasing Ed Hook's Acting for Animators a while back, the feedback on the AM forum raved about the value of his information. Many people mentioned they had attended his workshops and detailed how helpful that face-time proved to be. However, they always seem to be held outside of the US, with the exception of the work he does for studios in the states. So, I wasn't holding my breath about being able to attend one myself anytime soon.

I've been getting Ed Hook's newsletter for a while now, and a couple months ago he mentioned for the first time ever he would be hosting his workshop in his home town of Chicago. Living in the mid-west, it is very rare that I hear about opportunities like this so close to home. There is always stuff going on out in the west coast area. So, it was awesome that there was an event like out here.

I posted a message about it at AM before the end of the term but didn't get much feedback other then from people who had already attended one of his workshops and were talking it up. There ended up being one other AM student there, and it was cool to get to meet him (good luck with your short, Pat!)

The workshop itself was mostly information I had read in his book, but it really sinks in when you hear it from the author. Ed was just a great guy to meet. He isn't an animator (he is an actor), but you can tell he has a great passion for the art. There were a few game people there and he targeted them a great deal with his concepts. Ed seems to have a genuine respect for the 3d gaming industry and wants it to grow and develop to the level of story telling you see in animation and film.

Ed emailed before the class and suggested I bring my reel and we would talk about it. I hadn't considered doing that until he suggested it. So, I did. The workshop went over like 30 mins or so, and everyone said their goodbyes. I was the last person there. I had brought his book with me and he was nice enough to sign it. I mentioned I followed his advice and brought my reel and he asked to see it. We ended up talking for like 45 mins! It was awesome to get his feedback on my work. I had some concerns about some of the acting in my shots and he helped me work though them. His feedback was invaluable.

I hope Ed continues to offer his workshop in this part of the country, I would definitely return.

i'm sayin 'nay' to naymz

2008-04-14T16:01:00.000-07:00

Anyone else fall for this yet? I did :(

After about 15 invites, I figured it was another linked-in and I should hop on. Later, I decided it is another linked-in and why do we need another linked-in? This site tries to offer linked-in but charge for it.

I kept getting these notices that were like "SOMEBODY checked out your profile, if you give us money we will tell you who!"

Then there is the points thing. They offer a high points tally like it is something to strive for. But who cares about naymz points? They need to reexamine their business model and try again.

Anyway, sorry to anyone who got an invite from me. I have deleted my account and chalking this up to a learning experience.

411 most cheap room

2008-03-23T20:20:00.000-07:00

Here it is, what all of AM has lead up to so far. This is my finished 2-person dialog sequence. first time with multiple characters and first time with multiple shots together (cuts). I know there is more I need to adjust before it is reel-worthy, but here it is as of the end of the last term of AM (before starting my short film).

Speaking of which, short film coming up! I have absolutely no idea what I am going to do, but I think I will think of something, some time, right? I hope :/

403 hollywood

2008-03-02T08:37:00.000-08:00

Started this at the end of class 3, finished it up in class 4

mytoons is blocked :(

2008-01-25T07:11:00.000-08:00

Well, I've been a fan of mytoons.com for a long time, but it looks like I will have to switch back to youtube for my animation hosting needs, at least for now. I just noticed were I work the site is blocked. It wasn't last time I checked, but it is now. I think even when it wasn't blocked before the videos didn't want to play so I guess some part of it was always blocked.

I think I work at a typical office; if it is blocked here it is blocked other places as well. Youtube is not blocked. I don't know why it isn't but I am not going to look the proverbial gift-horse in the mouth.

So, I guess my weekend project is to go through and copy everything here over to youtube (some of the older stuff is there already). I will probably keep both versions up, at least for a while.

Why am I posting this? I don't think many even check out my blog but here it is, for posterity :)

Review: The Bride of Frankenstein

2008-01-12T10:39:00.000-08:00

This is my review of The Bride of Frankenstein, as required by my Media Review Writing class at UC. For what it is, enjoy!

For the unteenmillionth time, I got to watch The Bride of Frankenstein. It never gets old. Every time I see it I notice something new. This time, I couldn't help but to start casting a revival in my head. I didn't get far, and the first one was obvious. Who better then Peter Boyle as the monster? I know, he already was in Young Frankenstein but he's perfect for it. My other casting would be Paul Reubens as Dr. Pretorius. Mr. Reubens might need a little aging, but not too much. Alright, enough fun, time to review.

For a man so educated he masters the secret of life itself, it seems to me that Dr. Frankenstein isn't smart enough to know when to give up. I would think after you created a monster who obviously has no hope of conforming to society, a society that will always fear and hunt him, you might be a little relieved that he is put out of his misery and move on. I might be persuaded to believe that his fixation is fatherly; he cares for the life he created and wants him to succeed and to be happy. But even before he finds out that The Monster survived, he is raving about how he can still master life, going so far as to reach for eternal life which makes me think his desires have little to do with the well-being of the life he created and are more related to his own megalomania.

The same could be said for his participation in the creation of a mate for The Monster. Does he do it for fear of loosing is bride, for his desire to do all he can to help his 'son' or just because he is obsessed? I think it might be a little of all three but mostly the last: he wants to see if he can do it.

I really feel for The Monster, as I am sure is the intention. He never asked to be created, he just was. He was thrust into a world that refused to understand him and, as is human nature, feared him. His quest for a mate ran into several obstacles ending up in disaster. He found the perfect companion in a blind hermit who lived in the woods, only to end up bringing destruction to the hermit's life. Then, when the 'perfect' mate was literally created for him, she wouldn't accept him. Every effort he made to conform, even going so far as seeking a mate, ended in disaster. In the end, he found is place. He felt he "belonged dead" and accepted his fate.

Or did he? IMDB mentions he survived yet again and lives on in yet another sequel, Son of Frankenstein. That's going right on to my net flix :)

If you have ran out of stuff to spend money on...

2007-11-16T10:37:00.000-08:00

This is the most frivolous item I have seen in a long time:

305 - first acting shot 'candy'

2007-08-26T07:35:00.000-07:00

Here is the first of 2 assignments for this term:

The assignment was open, just some little bit of acting. One suggestion was to show a contrast of emotion, so that's what I went with.

Tune in next time for some dialog!

First SIGGRAPH!!!

2007-08-21T18:32:00.000-07:00

I went to SIGGRAPH for the first time ever a couple weeks ago. School and work were crazy when I got back, so it took me a while to get into everything. Being a student volunteer was definitely the way to go. Not only did it save me the cost of admission, but I met so many cool people! A bunch of people from AM as well as other SV's from around the world.

My 3 roommates were from Montreal, Spain and Hong Kong. I also met many people from Germany and Norway. Most of our shifts we were just watching a door and chatting, I learned some German!

Here is a scan of my head I got at the Guerrilla Studio.

Fun stuff, so lookin forward to next year!

Summer, 2007 demo reel

2007-07-26T08:03:00.000-07:00

Here it is, some choice shots from my experience at AM so far:

I tried to put in my best shots, but not a lot to choose from just yet :)

subsurface scattering part 2

2007-06-11T15:28:00.000-07:00

I gave the sss another go, and experimented with getting stewie out of maya and into blender. Now I just have to get the rig...

subsurface scattering - aka, blender is 'incredible'

2007-06-09T15:42:00.000-07:00

I just found ouPublish Postt recently that blender now offers subsurface scattering. this is the effect that gives surfaces a warm glow in movies like the incredibles. i just played around with it for about 20 mins and came up with this render. the monkey on the right has the predefined 'whole milk' setting applied. the other has all the same settings, without the sss.

i hope to play with it more soon, skin should look really cool.

for fun, door pull

2007-06-02T08:39:00.000-07:00

this is a still from my current assignment where stewie pulls a door that won't open. i just thought this pose turned out well and wanted to render it out.

208 - gap leap

2007-05-30T17:55:00.000-07:00

Here it is, the second big assignment for Class 2 at AM.

108 - Strength pose

2007-05-29T18:15:00.000-07:00

200 update!

2007-05-14T10:17:00.000-07:00

Here it is, my first shot of class 2

I heard once that "Art is never done, it just stops at an interesting place" But, perhaps I am just justifying all the stuff that I see that I still want to fix. In any case, gotta move on for now or I will fall behind!

My mentor this term is awesome, really gets in to detail with my crits. And the Q&A's are more like lectures, he has a different topic for us every week.

I also took advantage of the featured mentor this week for the first time, Jason Schleifer from Dreamworks was featured. He explained much about Dreamworks, PDI, and Dreamworks Animation. Very fun stuff. I need to take more advantage of this resource, it's a very interesting perk of AM.

Diet Berries & Cream Dr Pepper

2007-04-27T17:34:00.000-07:00

If you haven't tried this yet, go out and do so as soon as possible. It will change your life.

That is all for now.

open source motion tracking!

2007-04-04T12:46:00.000-07:00

Ah, blender, my faithful friend. At times I get too caught up in my own life to give you the respect and attention you rightfully deserve. Sometimes, months go by when I can't find time to even so much as pull up a blenderartists thread. But, you are always there when I need you, popping up in the least likely of places.

Like today, when I was searching for information on camera motion tracking. Amidst the plethora of high-end, multiple $k software solutions, I find this information on motion tracking coming to blender! You continue to grow when I am not looking, and that is fascinating. The article says tracking won't be ready for testing any earlier then June, but I am not in a hurry. I will be there when you are ready!

'Till then, old friend, I will try to check in with you more often.

live traffic info on google maps!

2007-04-01T10:27:00.000-07:00

I don't know how long it has been there, but I noticed a button on google maps today labeled "traffic" I clicked on it and saw this overlay. After consulting the help docs, I found that:

Green: more than 50 miles per hour
Yellow: 25 - 50 miles per hour
Red: less than 25 miles per hour
Gray: no data currently available

As you can see, on this sunny, Sunday afternoon in Clifton, there isn't much traffic around my local intersection.

Fun stuff, thought I should share. If I have to nit-pick, it sucked that I had to consult help to figure out what I was looking at. Seems like they could have a key that appeared with the overlay to make that a bit easier. In any case, it's still pretty darn cool and google amazes me once again.

Say 'good-bye' to Disney DTV Sequels (more news on the John Lasseter front)

2007-03-30T07:33:00.000-07:00

An Animation Mentor classmate brought this article to my attention:

End of the Line

It details Disney's resolution to put an end to their Direct to Video sequels. It seems Lasseter is not responsible for the decision, but is backing it 100%.

I guess we never will get to observe the touching coming-of-age prequel about Silver's shape-shifting pet, Morph (yea, I made that up, but who knows what we would be expected to endure of this trend continued?)

class 1 reel

2007-03-29T14:51:00.000-07:00

Um, can i just say 'WOW'? I can't believe it is that time already. The past few months have been incredible, and quite the jump-start! The first several weeks were a little slow, but they got much more challenging as we got into overlapping action and then walks. It is now time to put together a final reel for AM. They say they archive our work to track our progress and for possible job considerations, so that might be something to look forward to some day. I wanted to go back and redo just about every one of these assignments, but that would take weeks. So, here it is:

My goal for the next term is to better manage my time. I will probably be working more, and I got pretty unorganized this term. I need to schedule time for my assignments as well as keeping up this blog and mytoons.com (if i keep them both, who knows)

Here comes class 2, body mechanics!

there may be hope for Disney yet

2007-03-05T12:23:00.000-08:00

In the form of Mr. John Lasseter. Over in the AM forums, this article was posted about Lasseter now being the chief creative officer of animation for the Walt Disney Company. In the past decade, Disney has taken a nose dive in several projects. I liked “Treasure Planet,” but most didn't since it was their biggest flop. I am also to see 2d has practically disappeared from the main stream, and, lets face it, the Parks could use some help too.

Lasseter intends to change all that, and he is just the man for the job.

"But since Pixar was acquired, Mr. Lasseter has been heralded as a latter-day Walt Disney, a cultural arbiter who can rekindle the spirit of Disney’s famous animation at its theme parks, on store shelves and in a theater near you.

...

"Since taking over, Mr. Lasseter and Mr. Catmull have instituted a program to revive the hand-drawn animated short. 'The whole purpose is to get these artists ready for feature films,' Mr. Lasseter said.

"The day after he won a Golden Globe for 'Cars,' Mr. Lasseter and 13 animation executives gathered in Story Room 1 on the second floor of the studio in Burbank to hear an art direction pitch for a new short film featuring Goofy titled 'How to Hook Up Your Home Theater.'"

The article goes on to describe Lasseter's ideas for the company, including marketing arrangements with high-end organizations like Sur La Table and promotions like a “Ratatouille” -inspired, 'cheese of the month club' with Costco.

You don't want to miss He Runs That Mickey Mouse Outfit over at nytimes.com.

East coasters!

2007-03-01T12:17:00.000-08:00

This is a random post, move along :)

104 - 106: different weights, obstacles, and pendulum

2007-02-28T13:29:00.000-08:00

Wow, long time no updates. I have just been so busy with work and everything, I have had trouble just getting my assignments in, much less update my blog. So, after an afternoon of youtube uploading, here they are:

two balls - this assignment asked us to animate two balls with different weights. stu, again, makes a guest appearance.

obstacle course - a simple ball goes through an obstacle course, using some squash and stretch. stu supervises. this week we also had another stu pose to do:

pendulum, overlapping action - to demonstrate an understanding of overlapping action, we were given this model of a pendulum. stu is along for the ride.

107???? well, I really got behind this week because of some family stuff. I did manage to get it in on time, but it wasn't really as done as I would like. I will revise this week and turn it in a again. after my next crit, I will post it here.

103 - Bouncing ball and "Excitement"!

2007-01-28T11:18:00.000-08:00

This week we had to sketch poses of "excitement" and pose Stu in one of them. I did my typical crappy sketches and then Saturday, my Simplified Drawing for Planning Animation came in. So, I read it cover to cover and took another stab at my sketches:

Then finished my pose of Stu:

This morning, it was pointed out to me that it was hard to see if both feet were on the ground, so I ended up biting the bullet and doing some lighting to show the ground. I told myself I would never bother with lighting or anything other then animation, but maybe it was needed this time. I submitted both and will see what Sean (my mentor) as to say about it. Might have been a mistake.

Last but not least, here is my animation of a bouncing ball. We were to animate a believable ball bounce with the weight of a basket ball or soccer ball:

Fun stuff!

102 - final, and a note to any new AM students

2007-01-20T23:56:00.000-08:00

Here it is:
Could have worked on it for ever, especially since it is my first assignment. But I had to stop. I have uploaded at least 6 versions, all with tons of feedback. The AM community is indispensable in that way, I hope I can always find this level of feedback, even after AM.

In other news, I ordered the Simplified Drawing for Planning Animation. I wish I had known about it before. It seems to be more important to the first class then the other books (illusion, and 'the kit) but it wasn't listed on the public site. So, any one out there who is joining AM, GET THIS BOOK

ANYONE SIGNED UP FOR AM, GET Simplified Drawing for Planning Animation!

Before you do anything with the princeples of animation, or walk cycles, or anything, you will have to sketch and that is where Simplified is suggested.

12 hours till a new assignment!

102 - sketches and a pose

2007-01-18T20:36:00.000-08:00

I had my second QA last night. It was supposed to be Tuesday night but since it was actually 12:00 AM Wednesday EST where the mentor was (Florida), he got confused and thought it was actually Wednesday evening. Oh well, I am in the EST as well and almost missed the first one because of that. See, your calendar shows a big gray block for Wednesday and that sorta sticks in your head. We all make mistakes. We all waited till 1:45 AM and then most left, and of course he showed right after that. He apologized and explained and said he would try to get it rescheduled for the next night, which is what he did.

Really nothing much was discussed, I asked about the sketches that are due this week, as I am having trouble capturing poses with my stick figures. Here is what I ended up submitting today:

And here is the render of that circled pose:

That was after a LOT of feedback in the chat room, and there is still more I need to do to get it right. I am trying to get the best silhouette, that is why the angle is a bit different then my sketch. There is still a tangent where the left elbow is too close to the body. I still have time to mess with it some more.

On a related note: I worked on this a bit today when I was in the computer lab at UC (on my laptop). I saw a guy I had taken some animation classes with there in the past. He was really interested in what I was doing and I was proud to explain how it worked. Too bad I didn't have any new animation to show him yet.

AM IS AWESOME!!!!

first QA

2007-01-11T13:02:00.000-08:00

I had my first QA session with our mentor tuesday night at midnight (wednesday). Not much to report, mostly just introductions from my fellow classmates and trying to get everyone's cameras up and working. I got there at 11 pm, an hour before it was to start and no body was there. People starting coming in a few minutes later. We went right up till 2 am.

It was cool to hear my mentor, Sean McLaughlin, is from Columbus, OH, about 2 hours away from where I am now in Cincinnati. He talked about his work on Over the Hedge and his current work on Bee Movie.

I didn't realize that Jerry Seinfeld wrote Bee Movie. This should be very interesting, I can't wait to see it.

I wish there was more of an assignment this week, we really don't have much to do at all. Learn the site, watch the videos, post a bio, avatar, and a video journal, that's about it.

I want to make something move!!!

i wanna be like a grizzly bear

2007-01-07T14:15:00.000-08:00

Just a quick note, I got the keys to the kingdom. Today, the rest of the members site on AM was unlocked. After tracking down some guys I had been in contact with to add them to my buddy list, the first thing I did was watch the lecture for the first class.

It was amazing. Shawn Kelly and all the rest of the folks that spoke were so energetic and passionate. It was really inspiring. Alex Nussbaum, a former animator turned comedian, compared great animators to grizzly bears and it was beautiful. I can't do him justice, but basically a good animator evokes an involuntary reaction in the viewer. Not many other things can do that, except, well, being face to face with a grizzly bear and having to then change your pants. I wanna be like a grizzly bear!

I'm afraid to talk to much more about the lecture, they have been really cracking down on people sharing too much info. AM is great, well worth the $$$ and I don't want to f'this up!

Oh yea, our first model we got was stu!

UGH, I can almost TASTE it!

2006-12-31T00:47:00.000-08:00

Christmas was wonderful, the best part was it gave me something else to look forward to other then AM starting. I was distracted with my mindstorms enough to keep my calm for the most part.

I got a couple im's from some other new students on the 23rd saying they had gotten their log in info. I was green with envy! I didn't know were mine was, and just before I was going to try to email them, I checked my spam and there it was! It had been setting there since the 22nd.

Oh well. I am all signed up now. I have read all there is to read and watched all there is to watch. There isn't much there yet, just orientation stuff. I was hoping to get to view the Maya training videos I have heard so much about, but it seems I have to wait till class starts on the 8th for access to all that. For what it is worth, I have my avatar up there and somewhat of a bio, but they might be revised again before I get too far into the class. I choose billy for my avatar, I figure he is a good choice.

This is going to be the slowest week ever!

getting closer!

2006-12-01T09:49:00.000-08:00

I just put my enrollment packet in the mail. I requested my college transcript to be sent over a few weeks ago but haven't heard from AM if they ever got it. I guess they may be waiting for the check. It should be there soon!

Also, The Illusion of Life finally came! I ordered it early in October and it was delayed a couple months. I should count my blessings, as I have talked to others who have been waiting much longer.

This book is intimidating, it is so HUGE! I don't know where to begin. I forgot how big it is. It is different then the copy I remember from my childhood. This has the same wrap around image of Pinocchio, but the one I remember had like a full color background with a cell-like transparent sheet over it with the Pinocchio character on it (like an animation cell). I wish I still had that one, it is probably worth something. Oh well, I got it for the information, not for the cool cover design.

I love the image on page 10, opposite of the Acknowledgments page. It is from Snow White where she is presenting the box with the heart clasp on it. There is something 'Pandora's box' about it, and it seems appropriate for the secrets to be revealed in the pages to follow. But, that's as interpretive as I want to get or else I risk sounding pretentious.

Just one month to go!

the best story i have seen so far in the AM final shorts

2006-11-03T11:42:00.000-08:00

I have been on a bit of a quest lately to see what these cool AM students are working on as they wrap up their studies. Today, I came across the coolest storyline. Check it out for your self. The story applies to anyone who has worked hard to attain their dreams, because of this I think it will speak to many animation students who are doing just that.

I am really excited to see the finished product of this one. Check out the rest of the blog, there is an animated segment up there now.

another inspiring AM blog

2006-11-03T00:03:00.000-08:00

Anyone interested in animation needs to check out this guy's blog. He is finishing up his final short for AM, but if you think it not being done kept him from getting a kick-*** gig with a major studio, you are mistaken. Apparently he has the chops to impress the powers that be over at Dreamworks!

I wish I had found this blog sooner, his stuff is amazing, I love the sushi bit.

this just in

2006-11-01T19:46:00.000-08:00

My enrollment packet! Just came in, now to get my check in the mail...

Open Season, fitting title

2006-10-27T21:24:00.000-07:00

As far as studio premiers go, I think Open Season was a really great one for Sony Pictures Animation. It may prove to be 'open season' for studios other then Pixar and Dreamworks to be able to turn out some quality entertainment. Yea, the story is the same old "animals on an odyssey" we've seen in just about every other animated feature, but it wasn't terrible. There were some one-liners that gave me a chuckle

- Yeah, we'll need your nuts!
- And your acorns, too!

Yes, the story was acceptable, but the animation was amazing. Here is where I think the previews fell short. The fur on the bear was beautiful. The poses and extremes were top-notch. There is some classic stuff here.

That's enough from me, go see it!

fipper book madness

2006-10-27T11:42:00.000-07:00

I was reading about the history of animation in the 'kit, and he calls them 'flipPER books' and I think that sounds cool, so that is what I am going to be calling them from now on. Any whooo, check out what happens when you work too long on one.

a day in the life of Rick O'Connor

2006-10-26T16:10:00.000-07:00

So, I needed a break today. Work has been crazy. This 20 hour/week contract I have been working on has been more like 50 hours a week for the past few weeks. It is all good because with AM starting in a couple of months, I need all the 'ka-ching' I can gather. And, since I am not in classes this quarter, I have some extra time for the work.

In search of my latest AM fix, I check out the thread over at cgsociety. Nothing really new there. My next stop was a tab I had open from last night. It was on AM's site, were I had discovered their free articles. This particular article was very interesting. Written by Rick O'Conner, a lead animator over at ILM, walks you through a typical day. It was very interesting to read about the 'Willy Wonka' -like atmosphere of his workplace, as well as the ins and outs of his day.

After a full day of reference footage, storyboarding, and a long lunch of McDonald's and "Deadwood" on HBO, he heads off home around 7 to the arms of his four year old.

My chinese just arrived, enjoy the article!

http://www.animationmentor.com/newsletter/0905/feature_lead.html

i am IN!

2006-10-23T15:02:00.000-07:00

I got the Congrats email from AM today, welcoming me. The email from AM said the next step was compete the registration process on Nov. 30. Nothing about the deposit that I knew needed to be in by Oct. 25, so I called. It took a few hours, but I finally got someone who said the deposit email was going out in a few minutes. I wish the email had said something like that. I got voice mail every time I tried to call, so I am guessing they were busy with others when the same question.

Enough of that, I got the link, paid my $$ and now I am all set for Nov. 20!!!

This is a dream come true for me. I have wanted this for so long, and now I am so very close! I can't wait 'till I get in and see who my mentor is!

still waiting (on EVERYTHING)

2006-10-19T23:21:00.000-07:00

So, it's been a little more then a week since I took 'the test' and I still haven't heard anything about if I got in or not. I and emailed them soon after to ask if I would hear back in time to make the deposit by the 25 of Oct, but I've gotten nothing back.

Also, still waiting on the books from Amazon. The Animator's Survival Kit said it was in stock, so I emailed about the hold up. They were nice enough to bump up the shipping to standard and I should get it by tuesday! I am very excited. I've been working with djo and jonas with some basics in Maya and they both (as well as many others) talk up this book. I can't wait to test it out!

I've added a new blog (there are SO many good ones out there). Please check out Rebecca's Blog. She seems to be a very helpful presence over at cgtalk, and has some great examples of work out of AM. Anything to get my AM fix.

new AM blog added

2006-10-18T10:46:00.000-07:00

There are a LOT of AM blogs out there, it's hard to check them all out. As I am working my way back through the huge AM thread over at cgtalk, I see some posters more frequently then others. One calls himself "My Fault"

I checked out his blog where he talks about his ideas for his upcoming short. As an added bonus, he also a Venture Brothers fan! Check out his blog here, or in the links to the side of the page.

new links area / AM test

2006-10-12T14:42:00.000-07:00

I've started a new links area here for portfolios and blogs. I might split it up in the future, see how long it gets. Might also get rid of those other links, idunno.

In other news, I got my email about the test for AM! I did what I could in the 8 minutes they allowed. I got to answer 24 or 25 before it quit on me. I've heard the total is 30 but not everyone finishes. I should hear back with in 2 weeks. I emailed AM because 2 weeks would be 26, a day late for the Oct. 25 deadline for deposits to get this years rate. Oh well, I can only hope!

I've already met some cool guys that are waiting to start AM with me. Jonas and Joost who are from Germany and the Netherlands, respectively. It will be quite the international event once we get started!

google gets youtube

2006-10-11T10:53:00.000-07:00

I pulled up cgsociety today and saw an interesting article on the front page. Apparently, google has purchased youtube. I wonder how this will affect users like me who have content on both? I don't have much of a preference personally, though youtube seems to be more popular and have more interesting content. I started with google, because I like the idea of keeping all my content together. Google has my email, calendar, photos, timelogs, etc, why not my video? The only reason I started using youtube to host my videos is because google started having a 10 sec. minim for uploaded videos and some of my stuff was being rejected because it was too short. For instance, my bird flapping. Yea, it looks silly because it is so sort, but it is supposed to loop. Perhaps google getting youtube will allow both to combine into something better. Perhaps they will have new features, like looping!!!

Anyway, we will have to wait and see, i guess.

applied to animation mentor

2006-10-09T19:18:00.000-07:00

after about a year of debating, at 10:08pm last night i submitted my application to Animation Mentor. i spent about a week working on the essay part of my application. i am waiting to see if i get accepted, but everyone i have talked to (or read) over at cgsociety as said not to worry. apparently, no one has ever heard of anyone not getting accepted. i still have my fingers crossed that i hear back in time to get my deposit in for the oct. 25 cut-off for this year's rate.

also wanna say hello to D. Jonas Manke, he is also going to be starting at AM this jan. Check out his blog here.

another cool AM blog I came across is found here.

new blog backend - labels!

2006-10-06T11:50:00.000-07:00

I was going to update my blog, and was presented with a new blog editor that is in beta. I'm always a sucker for the new and barely tested (it's a wonder I still have all my appendages) so I am giving it a whirl. Brought to you by the brilliant minds at Google, the new blog features labels.

I wanted this blog to be about my work, and the work that I feel is done and presentable. There was no place for news, WIP's or just plain experimentation. The result was several unfinished pieces and some tests were cluttering up my blog. Now, everything can be filtered. Click on the label 'portfolio' to see my finished work and everything else will be filtered out.

"IIIIIIIIIIIIII love technologyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy"

another old maya render

2006-10-02T16:35:00.000-07:00

cubicles

2006-10-02T16:28:00.000-07:00

This was to be my entry for the 'journey' challange over at 3dsociety. I was going to have a guy at work for his first day. It was when I first started with Maya. I was trying to force myself to learn it. In the end, I just ran out of time. I wish I had just done it with blender.

unfinished venice scene

2006-10-02T15:58:00.000-07:00

This was from the Maya class that took last year. It fulfilled the requirements (and then some) but I wanted to go back to it and finish it. But, I got more and more involved in Blender and never went back to it. I am posting it here because it is one of the few projects I have done that I found a sketch and reference picture for. As you can see, I sketch almost as well as I model :)

introducing billy

2006-10-02T15:46:00.000-07:00

If you checked out my 10secondclub entry below, you billy, my little star. OK, he's not yet. But he wants to be and I am supportive.

But seriously, I am proud of billy. He is my first original character. He isn't perfect (his hands just have 3 bones in them) but I think he turned out nice for a first try. I haven't gotten a chance to go back and make him more sophisticated as I am working on a couple other new characters. But, I did what to take a few minutes to show more of his character. The 10secondclub thing was a great test, but I don't want billy typecast as a dark figure. So, here he is, flashing you his pearly-whites. Well, he doesn't have teeth really, but if he did, they would be white. As an added bonus, he works well as my avatar.

Enjoy!

new blogger home

2006-09-26T19:48:00.000-07:00

So, I really wanted to make my own blog work, but it became too much work to moderate comments. It was crazy how many spam comments I would get. I wouldn't check it for a few days, and when I came back there were actually hundreds of messages about enlarging your who-who, among other things.

So, I leave it to people better then me. Blogger has been doing this forever, so I'll deffer to them about how to handle the random comment from "asian beaver pornnxb" (what the hell does nxb mean anyway?)

Now I can focus on why I started this blog: to track my progress as an aspiring character animator and 3d modeler.

I hope you find something interesting. If you do, please comment!

'the ultimate evil' lyp-sync demo for 10secondclub.com

2006-08-12T18:55:00.000-07:00

Here is an entry I did for 10secondclub.com, based on what I learned in the tutorial I finished earlier.

New Character Animation

2006-08-10T16:14:00.000-07:00

It's been a while since I have been able to update this blog. A lot has happened in the world of Blender. A few months ago, Elephants Dream was released. This is an open source short developed in Blender. In developing Elephants Dream, the creators made lots of improvements to Blender and with Blender's latest release, there is a heap of new features. Additionally, there is all this new documentation coming out of Blender's Summer of Documentation that blows the existing stuff out of the water. I've learned a great deal from the existing wiki (noob to pro, etc.) but one of these new tutorials seemed to double my skill set in character design and rigging (not that I had much skill in this area yet anyway).

Check it out

Anyway, here is what I got out of it:

Thanks, Ryan Dale, you rock!

Room fly-through, Maya

2006-04-03T23:58:00.000-07:00

This is a fly through of the room I did. It is compressed for the web, and the frame rate is crap because I rendered it with raytracing (the refelectons in the windows) and that takes FOR EVER. This took about 6 hours to render.

Stereo Test - Maya

2006-04-03T23:52:00.000-07:00

This is a little test I did. I tried to make a stereogram. The idea is if you cross your eyes and make the two images one, you should see some depth.

It doesn't work as well as it could. I don't have much range of depth in this composition. I will try again in the future.

Project 1 (Animation II) - Maya

2006-04-03T23:45:00.000-07:00

Back to school! I was trying to get a head start on Maya before classes started. This quarter I finally get to take a class that deals with 3d Modeling! Animation II is the class I have been waiting for since I transferred to UC.

This is our first project, it wasn't even graded. It was just to get our feet wet. The assignment didn't even ask for a render, it was just to place some primitives. I decided to make the project into an exercise in glass textures.

The preview image shows how I composited two renders together. The only way I could get the colored shadows was to make the material clear. With them clear, you can't see the HDRI reflection. As far as I know right now, I didn't see any other way to have both.

Let me know what you think, thats what the comments are for!

Bird flying - Maya

2006-03-21T04:10:00.000-08:00

This is also from that same book, "The Learning Maya 6 Handbook."

It's supposed to loop, but, youtube, whatchagonnado?

Lucky Cat - Blender, Fireworks

2006-03-21T03:55:00.000-08:00

I've used Blender off and on for years, never did anything that great with it. This was me playing at school with Blender (gotta love that easy install, you can run it anywhere! Permissions, be gone!) I found it easier to use since I had been teaching myself Maya.

It didn't start out as a lucky cat, just sorta ended up that way. The minimal detail is sort of japonisme, so I finished it of by relearning UV Texture Mapping.

I'm most proud that this is an original of mine. No tutorial.

Room, Night - Maya

2006-03-21T03:26:00.000-08:00

This is my first full project in Maya. From start to finish, I used "The Learning Maya 6 Handbook."