Oye geezer... I went to this presentation last night given by my friend Jordi Bares, and his colleague Jan Walter - both of The Mill. They were showing off the Mill's proprietary pipeline (which Jordi and Jan have developed) that allows a seamless rendering solution for XSI with not only Mental Ray... But PRMAN, Air, and 3DLight!!!
Anyway, the whole philosophy was really interesting, and a very appealing one because they have managed to alleviate some key technical issues - and I love them for that!!! You work as you would normally in XSI using Mental Ray, setting up the scene, gathering (or referencing-in assets) and working with the Render Tree using Mental Ray as your visualizing tool. Then as you approach final rendering you begin to make the hard decision about which elements of your shot are better handled by what render engine. Huh? Yeah, no kidding. You are about to "choose a renderer." And basically, (because I don't really understand how they did it) you don't have to worry about shader parity, or anything because they have developed a "set of 16 matched shaders" which will be nearly identical in all the renders!!! Anyway, the cool thing is that you can just work artistically, incorporating whatever tools you like (XSI, Massive, etc.) and the use this XtoR exporter to sort out your rendering issues when the time comes, thus alleviating the necessity of getting locked into a particular way of working from the get-go due to the fact that "you will eventually be rendering in PRMAN" (or whatever renderer). Pretty hot off the wizzle shnizzle. This was easily the most interesting rendering demonstration from a "pure user value" aspect I have ever scene.
Here's a link to some photos from the evening. As you can see the SOFTIMAGE XSI London User's Group isn't shy about admitting that there's a little booze fueling the creative fires. Not that that's out of place in Soho, UK!!!
Monday, January 31, 2005
Friday, January 28, 2005
Homer visits Winnipeg to save some d'oh!
I remember a late 80's interview with Matt Grenning about the "meaning of the Simpson's" where he said something along the lines of "Americans are stupid." He was surely being inflamatory, but perhaps this is a sign that the Canadians have not escaped the critical eyes of the writer either!
Homer visits Winnipeg to save some d'oh!
Tuesday, January 18th, 2005
Bartley Kives
ONE of the biggest Hollywood celebrities to ever visit Winnipeg got in
and out of town this weekend without being accosted by a single
photographer.
Simpsons family patriarch Homer Simpson spent a sizable chunk of
Sunday's episode in Manitoba, buying up massive quantities of one of our
province's most popular exports -- prescription drugs, which sell here
for a fraction of the retail price in Springfield.
In case you missed it, Homer, Grandpa Simpson, neighbour Ned Flanders
and convenience-store operator Apu drive up to a surprisingly un-snowy
Winnipeg after Mr. Burns cancels his nuclear-power plant's employee drug
plan.
Along the way, the Springfield residents pass an almost photo-realistic
Trans-Canada Highway East sign. Some playful Canadian on the Simpsons
writing team knew enough about Manitoba to tease the local geekdom with
a Gimli turnoff -- on the wrong side of the road.
Another road sign proves the writers have us nailed.
"Welcome to Winnipeg. We were born here. What's your excuse?" greets
Homer, Grandpa, Ned and Apu as they head into town. They quickly land
counterfeit health cards from a trio of hosers who promise "enough drugs
to make Regina look like Saskatoon."
Flanders also meets his Canuck doppleganger, who speaks the same
iddly-diddly language but scares Ned with marijuana.
"Would you like to puff on a reeferino? It's legal here, you know."
After loading up on pills of every colour, Homer and his buddies get
busted by Mounties on their way back into the U.S. Turns out Apu is
suspected of "expressing his faith" in public, a no-no in secular Canada.
The cross-border drugs are seized and the citizens of Springfield cut
off, leading Homer, Grandpa and a repentant Mr. Burns to fly a smuggling
mission to "somewhere In Manitoba."
After loading up on more drugs, Homer offers to pay back his Canadian
co-conspirator by taking him to see the execution of a mentally
challenged prisoner, something that happens "four times a week" in the
U.S. It's a clunky line, but not uncommon in a show that often holds up
Canadian values as a model for a kindler, gentler America.
When the Simpsons visited Toronto in 2002, there was a barrage of
advance publicity. But with most of Canada's TV critics in Los Angeles
for the annual winter TV tour, there was no warning the most lovable oaf
on television was coming to our town.
The first time Winnipeg was name-checked by the show was during the
1995-96 season, when Bart, Nelson, Millhouse and Martin pull up
alongside a bickering family on a road trip to Knoxville, Tenn. After
the father tells his kids to stop fighting, Nelson hits him in the back
of the head, leading to the locally immortal line, "That's it! Back to
Winnipeg!"
Series creator Matt Groening, who has family in small-town Saskatchewan,
would later suggest Homer was born in Winnipeg. But his offhand comment
to a Montreal audience is not interpreted as canon by obsessive Simpsons
fans.
Homer visits Winnipeg to save some d'oh!
Tuesday, January 18th, 2005
Bartley Kives
ONE of the biggest Hollywood celebrities to ever visit Winnipeg got in
and out of town this weekend without being accosted by a single
photographer.
Simpsons family patriarch Homer Simpson spent a sizable chunk of
Sunday's episode in Manitoba, buying up massive quantities of one of our
province's most popular exports -- prescription drugs, which sell here
for a fraction of the retail price in Springfield.
In case you missed it, Homer, Grandpa Simpson, neighbour Ned Flanders
and convenience-store operator Apu drive up to a surprisingly un-snowy
Winnipeg after Mr. Burns cancels his nuclear-power plant's employee drug
plan.
Along the way, the Springfield residents pass an almost photo-realistic
Trans-Canada Highway East sign. Some playful Canadian on the Simpsons
writing team knew enough about Manitoba to tease the local geekdom with
a Gimli turnoff -- on the wrong side of the road.
Another road sign proves the writers have us nailed.
"Welcome to Winnipeg. We were born here. What's your excuse?" greets
Homer, Grandpa, Ned and Apu as they head into town. They quickly land
counterfeit health cards from a trio of hosers who promise "enough drugs
to make Regina look like Saskatoon."
Flanders also meets his Canuck doppleganger, who speaks the same
iddly-diddly language but scares Ned with marijuana.
"Would you like to puff on a reeferino? It's legal here, you know."
After loading up on pills of every colour, Homer and his buddies get
busted by Mounties on their way back into the U.S. Turns out Apu is
suspected of "expressing his faith" in public, a no-no in secular Canada.
The cross-border drugs are seized and the citizens of Springfield cut
off, leading Homer, Grandpa and a repentant Mr. Burns to fly a smuggling
mission to "somewhere In Manitoba."
After loading up on more drugs, Homer offers to pay back his Canadian
co-conspirator by taking him to see the execution of a mentally
challenged prisoner, something that happens "four times a week" in the
U.S. It's a clunky line, but not uncommon in a show that often holds up
Canadian values as a model for a kindler, gentler America.
When the Simpsons visited Toronto in 2002, there was a barrage of
advance publicity. But with most of Canada's TV critics in Los Angeles
for the annual winter TV tour, there was no warning the most lovable oaf
on television was coming to our town.
The first time Winnipeg was name-checked by the show was during the
1995-96 season, when Bart, Nelson, Millhouse and Martin pull up
alongside a bickering family on a road trip to Knoxville, Tenn. After
the father tells his kids to stop fighting, Nelson hits him in the back
of the head, leading to the locally immortal line, "That's it! Back to
Winnipeg!"
Series creator Matt Groening, who has family in small-town Saskatchewan,
would later suggest Homer was born in Winnipeg. But his offhand comment
to a Montreal audience is not interpreted as canon by obsessive Simpsons
fans.
Thursday, January 13, 2005
Sodaplay Madness
I just added a really cool art link to my sidebar under "Hella-Cool Art Links." Be careful, because Sodaplay is an amazing time waster. Whole hours seem to pass in mere nanoseconds. The incredible thing is... I don't even know how to describe it! A little bit of Flash and some physics programming I think? Whatever it is, it sure as hell qualifies for my sidebar!!! Try it! I did and I am still stunned!!!
Tuesday, January 11, 2005
Back To The Big Smoke... Again!
I am back in Soho to finish my work on Kingdom of Heaven. I should be on my way back to Vancouver by the middle of February, however, if all goes according to plan. So, it will be a short stay in England for me in 2005. There are just 6 weeks remaining for this production and it is beginning to feel as though we are in the final rush to get this pig through the pipe! It is not the most enjoyable part of the production as it is quite stressful, but at least we are firing on all cylinders and getting things done. It is a very fulfilling feeling when you know a project is on the eve of departure after a lot hard work and long hours.
I am exhausted at the moment though. Jet lag is the culprit. It is so much worse when traveling in this direction (west to east). Traveling home to Vancouver seems to not even affect me. You leave London say at noon, and arrive the same day in Vancouver at 2pm, after 10 hours flight time. You try to stay up as long as you can that first day back to the coast and that's it. The next day you're a little tired, but not really fatigued. Coming from Vancouver to London is a different story. I believe it has something to do with missing a whole day. Since arriving last Thursday, I have been regularly exhausted by mid-afternoon, but unable to sleep until past midnight, and then up like a light switch before 6am. This morning, instead of lying awake and failing frustratingly to fall back to sleep, I got up and went to the gym. I had to do something to break the cycle. I felt like a block of cement while there, but I think it might have done the trick. For the moment, I am even more exhausted than yesterday afternoon! Perhaps I will sleep through the night tonight! When will the insanity stop?
I am exhausted at the moment though. Jet lag is the culprit. It is so much worse when traveling in this direction (west to east). Traveling home to Vancouver seems to not even affect me. You leave London say at noon, and arrive the same day in Vancouver at 2pm, after 10 hours flight time. You try to stay up as long as you can that first day back to the coast and that's it. The next day you're a little tired, but not really fatigued. Coming from Vancouver to London is a different story. I believe it has something to do with missing a whole day. Since arriving last Thursday, I have been regularly exhausted by mid-afternoon, but unable to sleep until past midnight, and then up like a light switch before 6am. This morning, instead of lying awake and failing frustratingly to fall back to sleep, I got up and went to the gym. I had to do something to break the cycle. I felt like a block of cement while there, but I think it might have done the trick. For the moment, I am even more exhausted than yesterday afternoon! Perhaps I will sleep through the night tonight! When will the insanity stop?
Friday, January 07, 2005
Computer Graphics Year In Review
Click here for an interesting selection of highlights from the computer graphics community this year. It is a well rounded list of items that includes projects large and small, and also news items and hardware/software innovations as well. Click here for an article outlining which projects are in contention for the prestigious (yet ultimately meaningless) Academy Award for Visual Effects. Industrial Light and Magic once again leads the pack in terms of films recognised.
That's the way the Van-cookie crumbles...
I thought that this was a "classic" piece of Vancouver "news." Culled from the CBC today.
VANCOUVER - A British Columbia woman who makes and sells ginger snaps laced with marijuana has been acquitted of trafficking for a second time, after prosecutors failed to prove the treats contain cannabis resin.
Mary Jean Dunstan, also known as Watermelon, was arrested twice and charged with possession of cannabis resin for the purposes of trafficking.
But analysts who used samples of the resin police seized to mix and bake the same kind of batter Dunstan uses for her ginger snaps have not been able to prove the extract is still present in the finished product.
"The judge found a reasonable doubt at the end of the Crown's case as to what was in the cookie," said Dunstan's lawyer, John Conroy.
"If the cookies or the brownies or whatever ... have been made in a batter so nobody can identify leaves, sticks or stems through a microscope, then the only way the Crown can get a conviction for possessing a prohibited thing would be if they charged her with possession or trafficking of cannabis [alone], without adding resin or marijuana," he said.
Analysts are able to chemically detect cannabis in Dunstan's cookies.
Trafficking in cannabis is a more serious drug offence that could lead to a jury trial and carries a maximum sentence of life in prison, and Conroy doubts the authorities would choose that route over a few ginger snaps.
The resin-trafficking charge is a lesser offence that carries a lighter sentence.
"My lawyer and I are saying, like, if you can't prove it's there, how can you measure it?" said Dunstan, who hosts a Pot TV internet show when she's not selling the cookies at places like Vancouver's Wreck Beach.
She too doubts the Crown would opt for a more serious charge, given the kind of reaction she said she has gotten from her fans and drug opponents alike.
"The court of public opinion is not interested in paying their tax dollars any more, it's quite clear," she said.
The Crown is appealing her acquittal on the resin charge, however.
VANCOUVER - A British Columbia woman who makes and sells ginger snaps laced with marijuana has been acquitted of trafficking for a second time, after prosecutors failed to prove the treats contain cannabis resin.
Mary Jean Dunstan, also known as Watermelon, was arrested twice and charged with possession of cannabis resin for the purposes of trafficking.
But analysts who used samples of the resin police seized to mix and bake the same kind of batter Dunstan uses for her ginger snaps have not been able to prove the extract is still present in the finished product.
"The judge found a reasonable doubt at the end of the Crown's case as to what was in the cookie," said Dunstan's lawyer, John Conroy.
"If the cookies or the brownies or whatever ... have been made in a batter so nobody can identify leaves, sticks or stems through a microscope, then the only way the Crown can get a conviction for possessing a prohibited thing would be if they charged her with possession or trafficking of cannabis [alone], without adding resin or marijuana," he said.
Analysts are able to chemically detect cannabis in Dunstan's cookies.
Trafficking in cannabis is a more serious drug offence that could lead to a jury trial and carries a maximum sentence of life in prison, and Conroy doubts the authorities would choose that route over a few ginger snaps.
The resin-trafficking charge is a lesser offence that carries a lighter sentence.
"My lawyer and I are saying, like, if you can't prove it's there, how can you measure it?" said Dunstan, who hosts a Pot TV internet show when she's not selling the cookies at places like Vancouver's Wreck Beach.
She too doubts the Crown would opt for a more serious charge, given the kind of reaction she said she has gotten from her fans and drug opponents alike.
"The court of public opinion is not interested in paying their tax dollars any more, it's quite clear," she said.
The Crown is appealing her acquittal on the resin charge, however.
Thursday, January 06, 2005
Kingdom of Heaven
Here's a link to the official website for the film I have been working on as a member of the visual effects post-production crew. It is called Kingdom of Heaven, directed by Ridley Scott, and The Moving Picture Company is the sole visual effects vender on the picture, so we are all pretty excited. I have been doing technical director chores again (lighting computer graphics elements like armies, seige machinery, catapults, flaming balls of fire, etc.) like the last couple of gigs. I believe it is the most visually sophisticated project I have yet to work on and a few of my shots rival those I worked on for The Matrix: Revolutions in terms of brute force and complexity. The principle photography is nearly unanimously gorgeous, which makes lighting to "match the plate" a real pleasure. You can learn so much about lighting computer graphics well when you have such amazing source photography. As evidenced in the trailer, the film seems to borrow some of the "Ridley Scott look" of his previous films, which makes it feel a little derivative, but it works in this case, so all power to him! For once, I think the majority of "me mates" may actually want to see the work I have been doing... I don't think there was a lot of support for the toilings of the Walshman in the case of Alien Versus Predator! I have had a real blast on this one.
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