Watched the anime feature Vexille two days back, and I had to try to re-create the awesome Jags from the show. Pure SOPs here, particles are the small bits falling off.
Wednesday, January 02, 2008
Saturday, December 29, 2007
VBLOG! Houdini Digital Assets - Distance Tool
Finally off the job and have some time off! Today I spent some time figuring out Mantra's DOF features, and I lacked a tool to accurately tell me the distance between point A and point B. Or perhaps there exists a tool and I missed it....
So, as with all things Houdini... BYOHDA! Or... Build Your Own Houdini Digital Asset.
I've left the file on Odforce, and the video can be located here:
http://www.alvinvfx.com/vblog/01/
Enjoy!
So, as with all things Houdini... BYOHDA! Or... Build Your Own Houdini Digital Asset.
I've left the file on Odforce, and the video can be located here:
http://www.alvinvfx.com/vblog/01/
Enjoy!
Wednesday, December 26, 2007
Tuesday, December 25, 2007
Just when you think Pizza in Singapore is crap...
Pizza Hut has been sucking for more than a decade; thick thick crust and razor thin cheese layers just have had it for me. The awesome service also helps me not want to visit there (can you smell the sarcasm?!)
Just came back from a lunch with a kaki, and it seems my sis ordered in pizza from sarpinos.com.sg - OMG, this has to be the best pizza I've had in a long while. And it easily rivals the pizza I've had in LA. Two thumbs up!
Just came back from a lunch with a kaki, and it seems my sis ordered in pizza from sarpinos.com.sg - OMG, this has to be the best pizza I've had in a long while. And it easily rivals the pizza I've had in LA. Two thumbs up!
Monday, December 24, 2007
LA in Panoramas
I used this really cool software called AutoStitch to create the following panos. Been real busy with work (hate 3ds max - I need houdini love!) so this automated stitching software comes in real nice. Props to the people who wrote it!
 |
| Last Week in LA |
Happy Holidays!
To anyone still reading this near deceased blog, Happy Holidays! It's Chrismas season and I can't wait for the year to roll by.
Right now back with Lights and Shadow working on a quick spot, after which I'll take a break for a bit. Was supposed to work on some H9 tutorials, but teaching a class is one thing, a video tutorial.... I can't get the same flow and momentum. I've put that off till after this current project.
Be back soon!
Right now back with Lights and Shadow working on a quick spot, after which I'll take a break for a bit. Was supposed to work on some H9 tutorials, but teaching a class is one thing, a video tutorial.... I can't get the same flow and momentum. I've put that off till after this current project.
Be back soon!
Monday, December 10, 2007
Practice Practice!
The last few days, I've been using 3dsmax, primarily because my current workplace uses it, and that I also need to use the most awesome FumeFX for the project.
FumeFX, is the most excellent Smoke/Fire fluid sim plugin for 3DS max, from the same people that brought us After Burn. I would say, from my newb experience, it is hands down the easiest and fastest way to get awesome looking fire and smoke out of the box.
In barely half a day of working with it, I already have a nice fireball working as expected, and the simulation is very, very fast. Not only is it fast, but it is super multithreaded, at least the help says it can scale up 16 cpus! The rendering is also absolutely, impossibly fast. My PAL res renders were running nearly 6 seconds a frame!
FumeFX and Afterburn are probably one of the 3 reasons why it's nice to have a copy of max lying around (the third reason, is the awesome Editable Polygons. THAT contains a very nice suite of tools for modeling stuff fast. NB: While so awesome, I wouldn't hesitate to go over to Houdini's SOPs anytime - proceduralism kicks serious ass, and I know it.)
Now the problem with re-learning software is that the keys get all messed up. Heck, I only figured out how to switch between Shaded and Wireframe mode barely 5 hours ago. What's worse, when I load up Houdini (Apprentice HD FTW!), I'm already exhibiting 3ds-maxism - I'm trying to rotate the viewport using Alt-MMB lol! While I only have 1 or 2 waking hours at home, I am going to dedicate them to figuring out more Houdini. Tonight's schedule is Character Rigging. Well not Character Rigging as per using the H9 Auto Rig, but just using good ol' bones and capture regions.
Enough blogging, time to give SOPs a good run!
FumeFX, is the most excellent Smoke/Fire fluid sim plugin for 3DS max, from the same people that brought us After Burn. I would say, from my newb experience, it is hands down the easiest and fastest way to get awesome looking fire and smoke out of the box.
In barely half a day of working with it, I already have a nice fireball working as expected, and the simulation is very, very fast. Not only is it fast, but it is super multithreaded, at least the help says it can scale up 16 cpus! The rendering is also absolutely, impossibly fast. My PAL res renders were running nearly 6 seconds a frame!
FumeFX and Afterburn are probably one of the 3 reasons why it's nice to have a copy of max lying around (the third reason, is the awesome Editable Polygons. THAT contains a very nice suite of tools for modeling stuff fast. NB: While so awesome, I wouldn't hesitate to go over to Houdini's SOPs anytime - proceduralism kicks serious ass, and I know it.)
Now the problem with re-learning software is that the keys get all messed up. Heck, I only figured out how to switch between Shaded and Wireframe mode barely 5 hours ago. What's worse, when I load up Houdini (Apprentice HD FTW!), I'm already exhibiting 3ds-maxism - I'm trying to rotate the viewport using Alt-MMB lol! While I only have 1 or 2 waking hours at home, I am going to dedicate them to figuring out more Houdini. Tonight's schedule is Character Rigging. Well not Character Rigging as per using the H9 Auto Rig, but just using good ol' bones and capture regions.
Enough blogging, time to give SOPs a good run!
Friday, December 07, 2007
One Week!
It's been one week after I left the US from my SideFX Internship, and whilst I would love to regale you with stories, I am unfortunately recovering from a very bad cough. So bad, I'm under antibiotics, so I'm still suffering from post-antibiotics weakness.
Still, here are some thoughts:
a) Macdonalds: Good lord! Just a few months away, the Big Breakfast not only shrunk, but price went up! ?! Basically, that was the first thing I tried, as it's equivalent in the states, tastes too "chemically".
b) Terminal 3?! Duh!
c) Lavender. The color lavender. My flat is painted lavender. DUH. Who, I would like to know, is color co-ordinating all the flats in Singapore? Perhaps from the hubble telescope the colors would form some kind of meaning? I mean, come on, even the road signs are lavender....
d) RAIN! GAH! Even my fur coat is damp, and it's lying indoors!
e) My favourite food stalls in my market, as well as at the Beach Road market, have changed owners :(
f) MRT: Still as annoying as ever. Though I doubt I will live to see the day of Star Trek transporter technology.
I am now working with Light and Shadows for a spot, and unfortunately, due to some requirements I am working in 3dsmax (grumble grumble). Still, it's nice to work at the old office with the old kaki.
Some houdini house hire me pls!!! =)
Signing off, the half drugged Gallen Wolf.
Still, here are some thoughts:
a) Macdonalds: Good lord! Just a few months away, the Big Breakfast not only shrunk, but price went up! ?! Basically, that was the first thing I tried, as it's equivalent in the states, tastes too "chemically".
b) Terminal 3?! Duh!
c) Lavender. The color lavender. My flat is painted lavender. DUH. Who, I would like to know, is color co-ordinating all the flats in Singapore? Perhaps from the hubble telescope the colors would form some kind of meaning? I mean, come on, even the road signs are lavender....
d) RAIN! GAH! Even my fur coat is damp, and it's lying indoors!
e) My favourite food stalls in my market, as well as at the Beach Road market, have changed owners :(
f) MRT: Still as annoying as ever. Though I doubt I will live to see the day of Star Trek transporter technology.
I am now working with Light and Shadows for a spot, and unfortunately, due to some requirements I am working in 3dsmax (grumble grumble). Still, it's nice to work at the old office with the old kaki.
Some houdini house hire me pls!!! =)
Signing off, the half drugged Gallen Wolf.
Thursday, October 25, 2007
2GB of ram kicks ass!!!!
Well not as much as 4gb of ram, but that's like on my desktop PC back home :P
Just upgraded my laptop to 2GB, and boy, it's like I can breathe! Running a Houdini fluid sim whilst I type this, and I have my email and a few other tabs running. It's a tad late else I'd like to setup a more serious fluid sim... but oh well....
Go for it! Newegg rocks!
Just upgraded my laptop to 2GB, and boy, it's like I can breathe! Running a Houdini fluid sim whilst I type this, and I have my email and a few other tabs running. It's a tad late else I'd like to setup a more serious fluid sim... but oh well....
Go for it! Newegg rocks!
Wednesday, October 24, 2007
Monday, October 22, 2007
Chocobo Tales for the Nintendo DS
WARNING SPOILERS AHEAD!
Usually when people buy a Nintendo DS, they would buy games to play. And I've bought a grand total of.... 4 games for the DS. Seems like I'm just too lazy to keep up with the latest and greatest to waste time. Cough. So a few weeks back, after playing Mario Kart DS day after day on the bus/mrt/us bus, I finally got somewhat bored at trashing the cpu carts. (NB, when I go online, I usually get trashed :P)
StarFox simply wasn't cutting it (completed it the first day I bought it!) and Brain Age was well... not my kind of game. So a trip down to the nearest Game Stop to hunt for games. Several that caught my eye included a new Mana game from Square, and some version of FF 12 for the DS coming out later this month, and.... Chocobo Tales (NB: I was on the lookout for the latest Link offering, but it wasn't there.)
Being such a yellow bird lover that I am, I pondered (quickly) between this and Mage Knight, and decided to send my hard earned cash over to the evils of Square Enix.
Chocobo Tales is definitely a kids game with the extremely, extremely cute graphics. Only probably dog pups and cat kittens could be any cuter. It's definitely running off the Final Fantasy III DS engine. Dang, I forgot FF 3. Means I bought 5 games to date, lol. FF3 kicks ass btw, but due to being and RPG, there is like.... Zero replay value.
Now where was I.... the game's graphics were yes, on the same level as FF3, but alot of the battle sequences and game challenges were done in a very artistic Crayon kind of rendering. Just imagine your kid sibling's crayon art come to life, and fighting. Combine that with a card game dueling battle system, and you got a definite winner.
Now a little problem with the game - I completed it all in under 11 hours! GAH! I then spent an extra 2 hours to finish up some minor side quests to rescue all the Chocobos that were captured. Geez. The game itself was less like a traditional FF game where there'd be random encounters all over the place and EXP to earn, rather, the fights are at pre-determined locations. As mentioned, the battle uses a card system, so by doing mini "quests" (aka Micro Games) you will get extra (not necessarily better) cards for use in battle.
Apart from the card duel boss fights, alot of the game revolves around participating in various Minigames, of which a win will give you cards, or an event that will further the storyline. In general, most of them are pretty straight forward to complete, but there are multiple difficulty levels of the same challenge, each yielding a different reward. Some are just plain luck based, which is *totally* annoying, to downright impossible to win. In fact, there is one microgame called "LeapToad" that I've never had the reflexes to even manage more than 3 seconds before I'm dead :P
Which makes me wonder how an 8 year old would fare.... then again.... 8 year olds are doing websites and hacking hardware nowadays so they'd probably kick my ass ;)
Controls are generally very good, and the music is extremely nice for an old FF retiree like me - I could pick out tunes from FF3 NES, FF6 SNES, FF7 and other tunes that I have heard but can't place. The final battle music has to be the best - I've been replaying that stage for the fun of it and the music. And the final battle HAS to be one of the more innovative fights I've every fought - you play Air Tennis with the final boss :P At least it's not Debarrier - KOTR - Win! (Yes I got to the final cave about lvl 40. So yeah it was an easy last boss)
Final verdict, if you are a FF fan, this is one to get. Just don't expect a gigantic storyline like the other FFs (the newer FFs are just crazy), you only visit an area about the size of perhaps 20 blocks (!!!!). I think only one boss, the 2nd, a golem had me fight the card duel with it about 5 times. Oddly enough, the rest of the duels I was just too lucky. Many times I was down to a few HPs, and I managed to cast a TetraFlare+ card, which basically kills off anyone in late battle :P
I'll probably keep this cart around for a few more days before selling it on ebay, or perhaps trade it for Phantom Hourglass if the tradein is worth it. Or I should get the GB FF6 and see what's the new dungeon about. Gah.
Usually when people buy a Nintendo DS, they would buy games to play. And I've bought a grand total of.... 4 games for the DS. Seems like I'm just too lazy to keep up with the latest and greatest to waste time. Cough. So a few weeks back, after playing Mario Kart DS day after day on the bus/mrt/us bus, I finally got somewhat bored at trashing the cpu carts. (NB, when I go online, I usually get trashed :P)
StarFox simply wasn't cutting it (completed it the first day I bought it!) and Brain Age was well... not my kind of game. So a trip down to the nearest Game Stop to hunt for games. Several that caught my eye included a new Mana game from Square, and some version of FF 12 for the DS coming out later this month, and.... Chocobo Tales (NB: I was on the lookout for the latest Link offering, but it wasn't there.)
Being such a yellow bird lover that I am, I pondered (quickly) between this and Mage Knight, and decided to send my hard earned cash over to the evils of Square Enix.
Chocobo Tales is definitely a kids game with the extremely, extremely cute graphics. Only probably dog pups and cat kittens could be any cuter. It's definitely running off the Final Fantasy III DS engine. Dang, I forgot FF 3. Means I bought 5 games to date, lol. FF3 kicks ass btw, but due to being and RPG, there is like.... Zero replay value.
Now where was I.... the game's graphics were yes, on the same level as FF3, but alot of the battle sequences and game challenges were done in a very artistic Crayon kind of rendering. Just imagine your kid sibling's crayon art come to life, and fighting. Combine that with a card game dueling battle system, and you got a definite winner.
Now a little problem with the game - I completed it all in under 11 hours! GAH! I then spent an extra 2 hours to finish up some minor side quests to rescue all the Chocobos that were captured. Geez. The game itself was less like a traditional FF game where there'd be random encounters all over the place and EXP to earn, rather, the fights are at pre-determined locations. As mentioned, the battle uses a card system, so by doing mini "quests" (aka Micro Games) you will get extra (not necessarily better) cards for use in battle.
Apart from the card duel boss fights, alot of the game revolves around participating in various Minigames, of which a win will give you cards, or an event that will further the storyline. In general, most of them are pretty straight forward to complete, but there are multiple difficulty levels of the same challenge, each yielding a different reward. Some are just plain luck based, which is *totally* annoying, to downright impossible to win. In fact, there is one microgame called "LeapToad" that I've never had the reflexes to even manage more than 3 seconds before I'm dead :P
Which makes me wonder how an 8 year old would fare.... then again.... 8 year olds are doing websites and hacking hardware nowadays so they'd probably kick my ass ;)
Controls are generally very good, and the music is extremely nice for an old FF retiree like me - I could pick out tunes from FF3 NES, FF6 SNES, FF7 and other tunes that I have heard but can't place. The final battle music has to be the best - I've been replaying that stage for the fun of it and the music. And the final battle HAS to be one of the more innovative fights I've every fought - you play Air Tennis with the final boss :P At least it's not Debarrier - KOTR - Win! (Yes I got to the final cave about lvl 40. So yeah it was an easy last boss)
Final verdict, if you are a FF fan, this is one to get. Just don't expect a gigantic storyline like the other FFs (the newer FFs are just crazy), you only visit an area about the size of perhaps 20 blocks (!!!!). I think only one boss, the 2nd, a golem had me fight the card duel with it about 5 times. Oddly enough, the rest of the duels I was just too lucky. Many times I was down to a few HPs, and I managed to cast a TetraFlare+ card, which basically kills off anyone in late battle :P
I'll probably keep this cart around for a few more days before selling it on ebay, or perhaps trade it for Phantom Hourglass if the tradein is worth it. Or I should get the GB FF6 and see what's the new dungeon about. Gah.
I bought a Zune
About a week ago, my Creative Zen Micro decided to give up the ghost. One day it was working perfect, and one afternoon, it just shutdown, never to wake up again :( And so the quest for an MP3 player starts again. I'm just going crazy at work without some music!
So I narrowed down my choices to the new Creative Zen, and the Cowon iAudio. Having tried quite a few mp3 players before choosing my Zen Micro (I like the warmth of the sound. Pair that with my Grado SR80s.... oooo low end eargasmic heaven.) The Cowon was chosen based on it's reputation for sound, and I didn't get a chance to try it out.
Today however, just mere hours ago, I was out doing my weekly shopping and decided to head out to Best Buy to check out if they had any MP3 players. Sad to say, they didn't carry either brand, only some lesser known brands, some Toshibas which were very nice, but extremely expensive, lots of Ipods that I ignored (no thanks, the last one I tried I wasn't too impressed), and.... Microsoft's Zune offering.
Now the only thing about the Zune that caught my eye before today, was their advertisements. Motion Theory did the Birds ad - but I'm not sure who did this Phallic advertisement :P
The Zune itself was rather large, coming from a person using a Zen Micro for more than 2 years - the Zune is, from my estimates about 3 times as large. However, it makes up for it with a lovely, lovely large screen (perfect for showing off Demo Reels and tech examples hehehehe!) and a 30gb hard drive. What made me really interested in the Zune was the interface - it was just pure simplicity. No multi tiered menus to scramble through - I picked up on the controls instantly. Basic features that I required were there - Mp3 play back and some EQ controls. Didn't see any custom EQ settings like my (dead) Zen, but I don't use the custom EQ anyway.
I almost wanted to just drop my cash then and now (it was US199 for the Zune, and you'll need to add tax...), but I kept my resolve - giving myself the excuse that it used a custom USB cable - so therefore, it sucks. :P
So much said, I did not get a chance to try the sound quality. Would it at least exceed the last ipod I tried, and perhaps at least come close to the Zen Micro's warmth? Well.... I'll know in about a week!
It must be an act of Synchronicity - I was searching for the best prices to buy it. First hit was Circuit City - they had it for 149, and with tax just barely 170. I was about to change, grab my keys and head out, but again, I calmed down, and decided to read more reviews to see if it would suck. After a bit more searching (and deciding, after reading some posts about people using it with some Grados, and the Zune seemed to be driving them pretty well...), Amazon (duh) had it for only... tada! 129! WOO!
Still... keeping calm.... I was still trying to find something about the zune that sucks so I'd not buy it :P The software portion of the Zune seems to be a major down side, but hey, it's the same for my Zen Micro so I just kept going. And suddenly. Dun-dun-dun! This website, woot.com had the brown zune for 79.95! Granted it was a refurbished unit, but people who had bought it early reported the units coming in a pristine, like-new condition.
It was the brown version though, and while the price was right... brown isn't THAT appealing to me.... Nearly bought it but..... decided to hang out in some Zune forums :P And came across similar fantastic deal, for the black zune for 99 on sellout.woot.com
And that was it. No reason not to get it! So now I'm just waiting for it to arrive. If the sound quality is really bad, then this baby will go on ebay. Else I'll just enjoy it until they manage to create the perfect mp3 player :)
So I narrowed down my choices to the new Creative Zen, and the Cowon iAudio. Having tried quite a few mp3 players before choosing my Zen Micro (I like the warmth of the sound. Pair that with my Grado SR80s.... oooo low end eargasmic heaven.) The Cowon was chosen based on it's reputation for sound, and I didn't get a chance to try it out.
Today however, just mere hours ago, I was out doing my weekly shopping and decided to head out to Best Buy to check out if they had any MP3 players. Sad to say, they didn't carry either brand, only some lesser known brands, some Toshibas which were very nice, but extremely expensive, lots of Ipods that I ignored (no thanks, the last one I tried I wasn't too impressed), and.... Microsoft's Zune offering.
Now the only thing about the Zune that caught my eye before today, was their advertisements. Motion Theory did the Birds ad - but I'm not sure who did this Phallic advertisement :P
The Zune itself was rather large, coming from a person using a Zen Micro for more than 2 years - the Zune is, from my estimates about 3 times as large. However, it makes up for it with a lovely, lovely large screen (perfect for showing off Demo Reels and tech examples hehehehe!) and a 30gb hard drive. What made me really interested in the Zune was the interface - it was just pure simplicity. No multi tiered menus to scramble through - I picked up on the controls instantly. Basic features that I required were there - Mp3 play back and some EQ controls. Didn't see any custom EQ settings like my (dead) Zen, but I don't use the custom EQ anyway.
I almost wanted to just drop my cash then and now (it was US199 for the Zune, and you'll need to add tax...), but I kept my resolve - giving myself the excuse that it used a custom USB cable - so therefore, it sucks. :P
So much said, I did not get a chance to try the sound quality. Would it at least exceed the last ipod I tried, and perhaps at least come close to the Zen Micro's warmth? Well.... I'll know in about a week!
It must be an act of Synchronicity - I was searching for the best prices to buy it. First hit was Circuit City - they had it for 149, and with tax just barely 170. I was about to change, grab my keys and head out, but again, I calmed down, and decided to read more reviews to see if it would suck. After a bit more searching (and deciding, after reading some posts about people using it with some Grados, and the Zune seemed to be driving them pretty well...), Amazon (duh) had it for only... tada! 129! WOO!
Still... keeping calm.... I was still trying to find something about the zune that sucks so I'd not buy it :P The software portion of the Zune seems to be a major down side, but hey, it's the same for my Zen Micro so I just kept going. And suddenly. Dun-dun-dun! This website, woot.com had the brown zune for 79.95! Granted it was a refurbished unit, but people who had bought it early reported the units coming in a pristine, like-new condition.
It was the brown version though, and while the price was right... brown isn't THAT appealing to me.... Nearly bought it but..... decided to hang out in some Zune forums :P And came across similar fantastic deal, for the black zune for 99 on sellout.woot.com
And that was it. No reason not to get it! So now I'm just waiting for it to arrive. If the sound quality is really bad, then this baby will go on ebay. Else I'll just enjoy it until they manage to create the perfect mp3 player :)
Sunday, October 07, 2007
Friday, October 05, 2007
Life Of Mann! Updated!
My ex colleague Josef runs The Life Of Mann, a monthly comic. Please check it out @ http://www.lifeofmann.com !!!!!
Thursday, September 27, 2007
Perils of learning an instrument without a guide.
So... lately it's all been about flutes and no Houdini. Well just so you know, after this post, I'm going for my bath, then it's back to Houdini :-)
But I just want to write about my learning experience thus far. Today, for the fun of it, I decided to pull out my flute's head joint by a couple of millimeters. And, lo and behold, what happened? The flute suddenly sounded so very more flute like (duh? A flute sound more flute like?), and, dang, Low C was now so much easier to blow, and today, for the danged first time, I was able to play the 2nd register all the way to A! WOOT!
Actually made it to the 3rd register C for a bit, but I didn't want to try it for too long, for fear of the wrath of my roomies and other apartment people =) Not bad for a 2 month old n00b.
The point is, if I had a teacher or someone, I'd probably learn a hell lot faster, and not figure out why my flute sounds like crap. Ah well, live and learn.
NB: I left my electronic tuner back home, so I had no way of finding out what position is A = 440, so there :P
But I just want to write about my learning experience thus far. Today, for the fun of it, I decided to pull out my flute's head joint by a couple of millimeters. And, lo and behold, what happened? The flute suddenly sounded so very more flute like (duh? A flute sound more flute like?), and, dang, Low C was now so much easier to blow, and today, for the danged first time, I was able to play the 2nd register all the way to A! WOOT!
Actually made it to the 3rd register C for a bit, but I didn't want to try it for too long, for fear of the wrath of my roomies and other apartment people =) Not bad for a 2 month old n00b.
The point is, if I had a teacher or someone, I'd probably learn a hell lot faster, and not figure out why my flute sounds like crap. Ah well, live and learn.
NB: I left my electronic tuner back home, so I had no way of finding out what position is A = 440, so there :P
Sunday, September 23, 2007
Rain and Flutes
So last night and today were a surprise, it was raining! At about 5 plus yesterday it was raining quite heavily at Santa Monica. And probably most parts of LA but hey, I'm not super man. I left the office about 9, and it had already stopped. However, on my way home, it started up again, and thankfully I managed to be within a 100 metres of my apartment before the rain started again. It's nice to feel the rain again, after being used to all the rain back home, but not with the freezing sea side breeze! Brr!
Anyways, so just another blog on my flute. I've been having the flute for a while now, but only practice when I am not distracted by work. Now I have been having a very hard time with the flute, and unable to get the low C to actually play. Yesterday, I received in the mail a book called "The Flute Player's Book", written by Mr Vernon Hill. I am not certain what level of flute player it is catering too, but the book seems to assume we already know all the keys combinations! Which kinda threw me off since I thought it was a beginner's book. Which I think it is - I mean, posture and how to blow?
But in any case, the 3rd chapter was about tonal qualities (the first two were about how to hold the flute and how to blow it), which struck me as quite odd. Why would we be developing tone so early in the game? Shouldn't we be able to like.... play at least an octave of notes before anything else? But the very simple exercise, aided greatly by the included CD, actually allowed me to play all the way down to low C!!! Dang, and that was with barely half an hour of work. I can't wait to see how the rest of the book is. I happened to get the Second Edition, it's a great spiral bound book perfect for putting on a music stand (which I don't at the moment have the funds to cater to). Five stars! Buy it n00b flute players!
I also have How To Play the Flute by Howard Harrison, it's a real nice guide to slowly learning the different fingerings for the flute, so I think both of these books in combination are pretty good. These of course, I read off Ms Jeniffer Cluff's homepage.
http://www.users.bigpond.com/vkhill/ (USA people, you can get it off fluteworld.com
http://www.jennifercluff.com/
Blog later, very excited right now and going to do more practice.
Anyways, so just another blog on my flute. I've been having the flute for a while now, but only practice when I am not distracted by work. Now I have been having a very hard time with the flute, and unable to get the low C to actually play. Yesterday, I received in the mail a book called "The Flute Player's Book", written by Mr Vernon Hill. I am not certain what level of flute player it is catering too, but the book seems to assume we already know all the keys combinations! Which kinda threw me off since I thought it was a beginner's book. Which I think it is - I mean, posture and how to blow?
But in any case, the 3rd chapter was about tonal qualities (the first two were about how to hold the flute and how to blow it), which struck me as quite odd. Why would we be developing tone so early in the game? Shouldn't we be able to like.... play at least an octave of notes before anything else? But the very simple exercise, aided greatly by the included CD, actually allowed me to play all the way down to low C!!! Dang, and that was with barely half an hour of work. I can't wait to see how the rest of the book is. I happened to get the Second Edition, it's a great spiral bound book perfect for putting on a music stand (which I don't at the moment have the funds to cater to). Five stars! Buy it n00b flute players!
I also have How To Play the Flute by Howard Harrison, it's a real nice guide to slowly learning the different fingerings for the flute, so I think both of these books in combination are pretty good. These of course, I read off Ms Jeniffer Cluff's homepage.
http://www.users.bigpond.com/vkhill/ (USA people, you can get it off fluteworld.com
http://www.jennifercluff.com/
Blog later, very excited right now and going to do more practice.
Friday, September 21, 2007
Visit to Method Studios
Got side-tracked by the material =) But today, as part of the internship program, the interns went on a visit to Method Studios, located just a shy 15 minute walk from SESI. Totally awesome place, and very nice people. We met with one of their CG Supervisors, Andy Boyd, ex-Framestore CFC. He brought us around, and let us see the studio as well as their current project. What's very interesting about the place is probably due to their length in the industry, they have a lot of old hardware around. For posterity, I guess? :-) How's an SGI Onyx 2 sound?!
Hair Material
If anyone actually sees this post, please please please check out the new materials in H9's Material Palette. They've all been vopified i.e. no more code, but visual layout of the necessary commands to generate a shader.
Why I'm so excited is because I learned (too danged late at that) about the Hair shader available in Houdini 9. It ROCKS. It's not the VEX Hair, it's not the Hair VOP. It's it's own shader inside the material palette. I am currently re-doing parts of my bunny, and worrying about how to tell people how to write code for that (I'm NOT a shader writer, even with how much I dabble in it). The Hair Material works perfectly, I love the highlights it catches, and the fur is just so soft and very real. Render times are pretty good as well. So... people who actually read this... explore the Material Palette!!!!
GW out.
Why I'm so excited is because I learned (too danged late at that) about the Hair shader available in Houdini 9. It ROCKS. It's not the VEX Hair, it's not the Hair VOP. It's it's own shader inside the material palette. I am currently re-doing parts of my bunny, and worrying about how to tell people how to write code for that (I'm NOT a shader writer, even with how much I dabble in it). The Hair Material works perfectly, I love the highlights it catches, and the fur is just so soft and very real. Render times are pretty good as well. So... people who actually read this... explore the Material Palette!!!!
GW out.
Wednesday, September 12, 2007
Haiz notebook getting slow
No updates recently, so thought I'd just pretend to blog.
I'm pretty much used to the speed of the computers at work (and the 4gb ram!), at home it's really a drag to do stuff. Gah! I need ram and one of those lovely Quadros we got at work. I've even had the chance to use two 23in lcd monitors at work, one called Picard, and the other called Riker.
I also recently sent my flute in for servicing, it's been a week and I'm *really* itchy to get back to practicing.
I also had lots of potato for dinner.
Weee! I'm blogging! Ok.... Back to Houdini.....
I'm pretty much used to the speed of the computers at work (and the 4gb ram!), at home it's really a drag to do stuff. Gah! I need ram and one of those lovely Quadros we got at work. I've even had the chance to use two 23in lcd monitors at work, one called Picard, and the other called Riker.
I also recently sent my flute in for servicing, it's been a week and I'm *really* itchy to get back to practicing.
I also had lots of potato for dinner.
Weee! I'm blogging! Ok.... Back to Houdini.....
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