Archive for the 'Uncategorized' Category

13
May
09

A new cg podcast!

Hello people,

For years i have wanted to be involved in some sort of CG podcast. I and a few others started on that goal a year ago but it kinda fell apart.

But here we are, with the launch of CG Roundup.

CG Roundup is a cg podcast aimed at users and participants of the cg community. We are not looking to gloss over topics, we are looking to please people but we aren’t looking to upset either. We just want to have an honest and frank chat on news stories and topics that are we feel are important or current.

I could write more about this and that, but judge for yourself.

More later

-andrew

21
Mar
09

blast from the past!

Hey everyone, yet again its been a while. Actually in writing this post i have decided to re-think the way i construct these long awaited pieces of…

In the beginning when i made these posts i would set aside some time (usually a Saturday or Sunday) to think about the topic and bring the various pieces together. This would include recording videos, audio, gathering and editing pictures blah blah blah.

So the thought of writing a post is quite daunting. Now i will set aside time everyday almost to make these post so you can get them more frequently. Although the chances are it will increase post creation time, since its spread out over a few days.

Its seems now every post i write has to do with the frequency of updates. Im sorry but i feel the need to address this issue since i am getting more and more visitors every month even though im not doing anything to promote this thing.

I don’t post on forums alot now, except for odforce and the anatomy section of CGtalk (and then then, i think the last time was in January).

Ok, enough of that, whats cooking!

Like i said with the previous post, this one is dedicated to the modellers. Albeit isn’t on anatomy. (i will explain later)

First off, you might notice (unless you are using an RSS reader to view this blog), that on the right hand side of the screen there is an image showing what i am working on right now. I implemented this little feature the other day, not only for those who check back once in a while to see what i am actually upto but also something to look forward to in the next post.

Although i am going to dedicate seperate post to that image and its progression (very soon, in fact i am actually writing the post now :) ).

But untill then. I thought ai should compensate you guys with another video.

Another oldie but goodie

Again from the year 2006, recording on June 10 just before the England and Paraguy match in the World Cup i bring you a video i made in Wings3d, of an Ear.

This video, like the Angry Boy has been redubbed and recompressed for optimum quality.

I’m not sure how many people will benefit from this one though since practices has changed a little bit since then. This method of modelling is pretty much on the way out for high rez characters. Now i could sculpt an ear and retopologize it much faster.

But nevertheless i try to inject as much usefull information as possible.

For those of you on google reader on any other RSS reader that cant naively view vimeo videos here is the link

Timelapse Ear

and may i remind you guys and gals once again that you can download the source video if you register with Vimeo which is of course, free.

In other news

I have also uploaded the Angry boy video to Vimeo so those of you who currently reside outside the US and UK can also watch and download that video. I have also changed the original post that i uploaded that video so hopefully everyone will see it should they visit the blog on that particular post.

I have also been talking with two talented Houdini users, who heard my appeal for someone with some smarts in the area of Quaternions or other techniques that would help me complete that ball rig. One of whom is Eugene Rilley (aka Genome). You can check out his awesome website on the houdini/td/resources linkbar.

You might have also heard about the recent survey carried out by CGenie.com and that Houdini scored the highest when it came to Support of any kind. Yes, i am glossing over the fact that houdini didn’t win every catorgory which is to be expect. Although i think people should also be noting that in the “value for money” catorgory Houdini came a close second. Only being surpassed by a FREE piece of software known as Blender.

But overall Houdini scored higher than i think most would have anticipated. (including Houdini users)

and finally on the subject of awesome support.

I just want to give a HUGE shoutout to the crew at WordPress.com. A few weeks ago i sent them an email about an issue i had with this blog since the beinging.

When you would click on a post to view comments, and therefore isolate a sepecific post, the post info post would be squashed to the right hand side of the page. This of course would indent the entire post and make it pretty much unreadable.

After sending them an email about the issue we exchanged setting and possible solutions and if you havent already noticed, click on the title of the post. FIXED!

amazing. I hadn’t emailed these guys because i thought the issue would have been already reported. since the number of users of wordpress grows by the millions every month, let alone the amount of people who have this theme installed is probably over 100,000. I had even seen users on the wordpress forums bitching about this.

So here is the lesson. Stop bitching! or at least stop bitching with the wrong people and contact those who can make a difference, even if you think “oh I’m sure someone has already told them about this”.

Anways that is it for this post.

hope this wasn’t too long, but i take some pride in creating poorly scripted literature buried in pictures and other shiny things.

Next post?.. more on Athena.

03
Dec
08

Heads up. Im taking a break for a little while.

Hey there blog addicts.

Sorry to have left you for quite a while. (over 30 days)

Anyways as you know im taking a break. I was actually gonna just take the break and not tell ya but i know if i was reading a blog i liked and they took a break without telling me i would be pissed.

So, is there a reason… no, i just felt like it……. of course there is a reason, many in fact, one credible excuse is another thing im working on that looks set to be finaled and when it is i will post a short blog entry about it.

Project-wise though, what am i upto? Well there are two main things. working on the Bee and Sculpting (anatomy).

You might notice i am trying to take my sculpting ability to the next level and so i have started a sort of mastercopy. But the method of creating it is heavily reliant on the knowledge i have gained while reading the Atlas of Human anatomy for the Artist. Although it is a pretty difficult project I am enjoying it throughly and while i am making it i will also be making smaller studies.

As for the Bee. I recently purchased Houdini Apprentice HD. And have been going through not only the Fur walkthrough that was posted a few days ago but also some SOP and CHOPS stuff. I might also be making some pre-vis in the interim for the animation i have planned for the shot.

But I have alot of things i am trying to do at once and so from time to time i really have to dedicate all my energy into one thing, so for the moment i wan to get this study finished and then i will devote some time to the Bee project and other aspects of Houdini (you will probably see a lot of small projects/experiments/concepts).

But the other thing that has been taking up my time has yet to be revealed. I don’t want to build it up or anything but i think it is quite “special” in its own way. It will be coming out this month (i hope) and it should be something that the rest of you enjoy.

so until the model and this new “thing” comes out.

Keep well.

oh and happy thanksgiving for those of you who celebrate it.

-andrew

15
Sep
08

Nurbs and Polys : a new modelling forum

Yes, thats right, im pluggin another website.

I mean what are blogs good for if you cant. :)

Anyways nurbsandpolys.com is a new modelling forum. (which is soo needed since tweak and subd kinda went the way of the dodo). Obviously since this is new forum it wont have tons of post, but it already has a decent amount of posts and some work in the WIP and Final forum. You might recognize a few people there, even Pixar’s own, Neil blevins (sorry couldnt resist the name drop).

Nurbs and Polys

But being serious this is a place for hard surfaced and organic modellers (i am of course representing the organic peeps). I hope this place takes off and becomes a cool community. You will certainley find me there. Especially since i am Mod over there.

so i hope you like it and find it a cool new place to post work.




About this blog!

In a nutshell, this is where i update work and try stuff out. Think of it like a thread that never gets bumped to page 2.

There will be modelling, rigging, possibly some pre-viz updates ... basically anything i do related to cg will be posted here.

I dont update this blog as frequently as i would like, but one, the updates i do make are quite lenghtly and are packed full of useless goodness and two, this isn't the only place you can find me making a ripple or two.

and that is over at my podcast www.cgroundup.com

 

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