New n3rd toys for me
11/25/09
Yay, I picked up my new tablet and keyboard from ncix this morning. It's the Logitech thin illuminated keyboard and the Wacom large Intuos4. I use a tablet a work regularly, but this is the first one I've owned. I was a bit iffy about spending $500 on a tablet, and I can't believe I spent $80 on a keyboard. Hopefully I can start working on some personal projects again. I haven't posted anything new in the portfolio section in a really long time. Here's what my new keyboard and tablet look like.
Manny Pacquiao vs. Miguel Cotto
11/16/09
Haven't posted anything in here in a while, and it's funny how my last post is about Pacquiao's last fight. haha. Manny pacquiao won his 7th title last Saturday night against Miguel Cotto. Pacquiao took his time for this fight, but still put on another dominating performance. His entrance music was Thunderstruck by AC/DC, followed by Eye of the tiger. Awesome! Cotto came out strong, but was knocked down with a right hook early in the 3rd round. It didn't seem to hurt him as Cotto finished the round strong. Miguel Cotto is known for his vicious body shots, but these didn't seem to phase Pacquiao. It almost seemed like Pacquiao was testing Cottos strength. This is definitely the most I've seen Pacquiao get hit in his recent fights. Cotto went down again late in the fourth round after a crazy left uppercut. This one hurt him for sure. After that, it was target practice for Pacquiao the rest of the fight. Considering how much punishment Cotto took, surprisingly he lasted 12 rounds. The fight was stopped in the 12th round by the referee. After the fight Cotto said "Manny is one of the best fighters of all time". Cotto is a good fighter, but like everyone else, was outclassed by Manny Pacquiao.
Pacman owns the Hitman
05/04/09
The only time I ever watch boxing is when Manny Pacquiao fights. Last Saturday night, the world witnessed the destruction of Ricky Hatton at the hands of Manny Pacquiao. That was two rounds of pure awesomeness. It was a little short, but I don't mind. Hatton went down twice in the first round, and was knocked out after a devastating left hook to the chin late in the second round. In my opinion, Manny Pacquiao is the greatest fighter the world has ever seen. Can't wait to see Pacquiao rock Floyd Mayweather. Here are some highlights.
Fast & Furious awesomeness
04/19/09
I finally watched The Fast & the Furious 4 last night. Bad acting, and super corny lines. It was awesome. "Now you owe me a 10 second car", "Nice to see you've gone with the times and switched to electronic fuel injection." haha so true Dominic Toretto, so true. I think it's the best one so far. Can't wait to see part 5.
I also saw yes man a couple days ago, and I don't know why, but I thought this part of the movie was super funny. I couldn't stop cracking up.
The Fast & the Furious 4
03/23/09
I've always been a fan of the fast & furious series. haha, I know, the movies are super cheesy, but they have a lot of entertainment value if you're in to cars. The Nissan Skyline (my dream car) is one of the featured cars in this movie again. Can't wait to see it. This will be in theaters on April 3rd.
Lamborghini Gallardo
03/11/09
Here's something I've been working on. Unfortunately my old computer can't handle this scene. This is making it really difficult to test out different lighting set ups as Maya keeps crashing. I've added some test renders in the portfolio section. It's not great right now, but I'll fix it once I figure out my computer issue.
Toon Render with Mental Ray
03/09/09
I was looking for a better way to render out a toon outline as I had a lot of issues with flickering and artifacting using the painteffects toon outline in Maya. I recently found out that you can render out toon outlines in mental ray using the contour options. It gives you cleaner outline. This article explains how to set up the outline. Here's a test render.
3vis presents an evening with Duncan Brinsmead's Brain
03/04/09
Please click this banner to learn more or visit Duncan Brinsmead's blog.
Last night I attended this event with a few friends. This was the first cg industry event I have gone to outside of school. This event was presented by 3vis. It was a demonstration of Maya 2009's new particle system, nparticles. There was also a presentaion from Craft Animations Animation Tools, Autodesk Mudbox, and the Softimage Cat plugin for 3DS Max. I'm a rookie in the cg industry, so I don't really feel comfortable writing about the software, but I will post links.
The event was hosted at the Caprice night club on Granville st, in downtown Vancouver. I didn't know this place still existed. This was a nightclub I went to a few times back in the day. I haven't been back there for about 7 years now. haha. Granville st. is known to be the rowdiest street in Vancouver on the weekends. On Saturday nights, it's common for Granville st. to be blocked off by police from cars due to all the drunken club hoppers all over the street. Not tonight.
Upon entrance we were greeted by a couple members of the 3vis team along with a bag of free swag. This included a free drink at the bar, 3vis t-shirt, a $500 instant rebate off your first 3vis purchase, and a sticky brain thing. I think it's one of those toys you chuck at a wall and it slowly crawls down. I thought the free stuff was cool beans considering the event was also free. It was a pretty good turnout it looks. Every seat in the place was taken. We sat in the back near the bar. That's where all the hip kids were sitting.
The first presentation was by Craft Animations Animation Tools. Please see this link. Their rep gave "from what we think" was a short profile of the company. We couldn't actually hear her. They played a video demonstration which cleared things up.
The next presentation was was for Autodesk Mudbox. Please click. Then the Softimage Cat plugin for 3DS Max. Again please read about it here. At this point the crowd behind us at the bar started getting a little loud and restless. I think a break in between would have helped a lot, but also it may have had something to do with the material. This pretty much automates the process of rigging any type of character and makes animating super easy. There's even preset walk/run cycles which you can tune to your preference. You can look at this two ways: "I'll do it the real way with my own animation skills." or "why should I spend 3 hours on this, when I can have it done in 3 minutes?" From the people I've talked to that night, it almost seems like someone with this package with barely any animation experience can pretty much smoke a one year animation student doing it the old way in a fraction of the time. A walkcycle anyway. I don't really know what to think, but I've always believed that it doesn't matter as long as the end result looks good. In a few minutes it seemed that half the people in there were not even paying attention anymore, and by the end of it, we couldn't even hear what he was saying from all the socializing going on. So I just grabbed another drink. Bombay Tonic, that's my usual drink. There's a little fun fact.
After this was Duncan Brinsmead's presentation of Autodesk's new nparticles. The crowd was still pretty loud, but within just a couple minutes, his presentation had everyone's attention. Please see this link or visit Duncan Brinsmead's blog.
After the presentation, there was a draw, and there were a few extra giveaways. We then headed to the nearest bar and drank some more. Overall I thought it was pretty interesting to attend one of these events. I'll definitely consider going more often. Seeing it live sure beats googling. More pictures from the event are posted here.
Chuck Norris t-shirts
03/02/09
A friend of mine stumbled upon these while googling. I thought they were pretty sweet. Need to get me one of these. hahahaha
Welcome to my website
02/28/09
Welcome to my website. This is my first website, and also my first attempt at a webdesign. Critiques are very welcome. My demo has been added to the portfolio section. I will have more content added shortly. Thanks.
