I spent all day yesterday setting up my render passes and rendered my first frame at 8:09 last night. I have two computers rendering around the clock and tomorrow I am borrowing my dad's macBook add to my little "render farm."
OK, it's not really a render farm but I'll explain it all soon. I'll also explain all of my passes - and what a pass is for those of you that don't know what I am talking about - after the piece is up (and I've caught up on my sleep).
Sorry I don't have any images to show right now. It will all pay off if you can hold out a little longer. The project is due on Monday night so I will put it up before that - unless I am rendering up to the last minute and don't have time...
On second thought, I'll post the project on Tuesday morning afternoon evening after I wake up.
Well, if you must have something to look at, here is my final from my first semester in the program.
This is the third part of a series where I'm going through my process of taking a scene from the basic materials to the finished piece. Click here to start at part one. Part two is below this post or you can click here.
Once again, here's where we started:
(click on images to make them bigger)
In part one I researched real-world examples of what we were trying to create. In part two, I began the process of assigning materials to all of the objects in the environment and, in turn, assigned various textures to different attributes of those materials to control their color, reflectivity, texture, etc...
Now, I assigned materials and textures to my character's skin, hair, eyes, teeth, fingernails, and clothes.
Here's where I am now:
I still have to "dirty up" the environment to match the feel of the character but, for now, I have to get to lighting the scene. I have to turn the entire piece by the 14th of December and lighting & rendering will take a while. If I can get it lit with time to spare, I will go back and start to age the environment, starting with the pieces that will make the biggest impact. I also have to populate the shelves with plates, cans, condiments and stuff if there's time.
There won't be.
I'll do it after the semester is over to get it ready for my reel.
This is a continuation of an earlier post where I started going through my process of taking a scene in Maya from the basic materials to a fully finished piece.
To refresh your memory here is the scene we started with:
(as always, click on an image to see it bigger)
I did a ton research and found a lot of reference images that I liked and began the process of applying materials and textures to all of the objects in my scene.
Here is where I am now:
As you can see, there is still a long way to go before the texturing is done. Everything looks a little too clean and new. I have to add some dirt and scratches to everything and "bend and dent" the metal appliances a little. It needs a "lived in" feel.
I started to work on that with the copper stew pot and the rest of the pots. They have separate textures applied to modify their color, bump, specular color and reflected color. Here is a close up of the pot with just a straight material applied to it:
The next step, in addition to "dirtying" everything up, is to texture the character - his clothes, skin and hair.
Then I have to light the scene and render it out. So far, a single frame takes 90 seconds to render. The scene is 375 frames long. 375 frames x 1.5 minutes per frame = 562 minutes = 9.375 hours. That will increase once I add the animated character, camera moves, light refraction off of the metal...
Our friend Todd Stashwick has, of late, been living a geek's dream life. He has been a costumed/makeupped(?) demon on both Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel, a Vulcan on Star Trek Enterprise, Dracula on Supernatural, a terminator on Terminator: The Sarah Conner Chronicles, and a costumed/super-powered villain on Heroes.
There are trading cards of his character from Buffy and Angel. Pretty cool right? Right. But now the game has changed. He is in the webcomic for Heroes. You can check it out here. Apparently it's chapter 153 so you will have to catch up. Hurry, I'll wait. Although I have never seen Heroes (I missed the boat in the beginning and then it was too late to catch up) this looks really cool. We are going to have to get caught up fast so we can watch it when Todd's episodes start airing.
So, there it is, he is forever immortalized in a comic book. What is that you say? It's only a web comic? Well, I guess you didn't know that at the end of every season they print a graphic novel of the entire season's webcomic, did you? No, I guess you didn't. O.K. then.
So to sum up, for the slow ones in the crowd, there is nothing greater for a geek than having yourself immortalized in a comic book.
Except being made into an action figure.
Congratulations Todd.
Cheers!
Daniel
P.S. Somewhere in our apartment is a picture of me as a Simpsons character drawn by an actual Simpsons illustrator. It was given to me as a gift and I love it. If I could find it I would show it to you but right now I can not, for the life of me, locate it.
People have been asking us when we were going to post our film "Marlena" online. For those of you who don't know, it is a short film we did back in 2006. Here it is...enjoy!
We actually shot this film over our wedding anniversary weekend. We had just bought our Canon XL-2 and were hesitant to spend more money on an anniversary trip. But then, in a stroke of genius, we decided that if we could turn the trip into a shoot, we could justify going. We chose Las Vegas and set out to write a film noir (perfect for Vegas) that we could do with just one actor and a one-man crew.
Over the next month, our story began to take shape during nightly brainstorming sessions on walks to the Santa Monica Pier.
"We can't go anywhere for our anniversary this year. We spent too much on the camera."
"What if we went out of town and made it a shoot?"
"We would have to drive."
"Santa Barbara? Wait, no. Vegas!"
"Perfect!"
"So what happens in Vegas?"
"Stays in Vegas."
"Stay on track...stop kidding around."
"How about noir?"
"That works. And in black and white, too."
"We'd have to shoot it in the hotel room."
"I have my old wedding dress. And we have a bottle of champagne..."
And from there the seed of a story was planted. We had been watching a lot of classic film noir and knew it had to be a downer. But what kind of downer...murder, kidnapping, betrayal? Things began to fall into place. Daniel's background as a wedding photographer inspired the use of stills. We also knew that we couldn't control noise in a hotel, so it would have be told visually, and remember, one crew member, one actor.
Luckily, we were blessed to have an amazing musician friend, Craig Henry, who in turn, had wonderful musicians in his circle. The music was an essential element that contributed to the success of our film, and we are eternally grateful for the work that they did.
We built the story around what we had available. We played to our strengths and interests. We planned ahead, budgeted, storyboarded and wrote a script. In the end our film cost us $1398 total. If you subtract the travel costs, it set us back $849.
Throughout 2007 and 2008 it was accepted into Reno Film Festival, Big Island Film Festival, Crested Butte Reel Fest and Sedona International Film Festival.
Everybody has stories to tell. A film doesn't have to bankrupt you. Get creative, plan ahead and you don't have to spend thousands of dollars. Good luck!
I thought that this was the best waya great waya good waya funny way a way to introduce you to "My Doctor," the Fourth Doctor, played by Tom Baker from 1974 to 1981.
I don't know where I first saw Doctor Who. It was probably on PBS after Sesame Street or Electric Company, or, most likely ZOOM, which I watched religiously (I wore my long sleeved shirt for every episode. It was purple and orange with white cuffs and I called it my ZOOM shirt), and it makes sense according to the years they were both on (Zoom ran from '72 to '78.) But I digress.
Where was I? Oh yeah! My Doctor - Tom Baker. Don't get me wrong, Christopher Eccleston was great and I was a little skeptical when David Tennant replaced Eccleston after one season, but I soon was saying Christoper who? Oh, I just realized that the last line looked like a joke (who, get it?, who? Doct... nevermind, it wasn't on purpose anyway.) But no, My Doctor was Tom Baker mainly because I was about 6 or 7 years old when I discovered him. Incidentally, I also discovered Star Wars at the same time. Thus, sealing my fate as a nerd, a geek, a science fiction freak, and all around dork forever.
So without any further ado, here he is, the Fourth Doctor:
Like I said, he has to eat too. If one of you utters the word "shill," comments will be turned off for the rest of the day. Don't ruin it for the rest of us.
I don't plan on using this blog for traditional movie reviews but I will post things that I think my world needs to know and this just needs to be said.
I saw Paranormal Activity tonight at a friend's house.
Hype.
That is all.
Cheers!
Daniel
P.S. - I want to say thank you to the host of the party for inviting me so I could see the movie without paying for it. I can now check it off the list. Oh, and the only part from the trailer that made me want to see it - - - isn't in the movie.
P.P.S - I DO recommend both Trick-R-Treat and Drag Me to Hell. I will definitely be watching Trick-R-Treat every Halloween and Sam Raimi's return to his roots in horror was as creepy and funny as I would expect from the man who brought us the Evil Dead series.
P.P.P.S. The antepenultimate David Tennant Dr. Who episode - "The Waters of Mars" aired on the 15th in the UK - we get it in December on BBC America. I just thought you should know.
There are two types of people. People who watch movies one time and one time only, and people who watch them multiple times. No judgment on those single-dip kinds, but I am happily in the latter category. I can watch movies several times, and in some cases many, many times, and still find fulfillment, enjoyment and occasionally, something new.
Some films are so layered that one viewing simply cannot scratch the surface. Every time I watch such films, it's like Christmas all over again, with new "gifts" to open and enjoy. In some cases, the same scenes, perhaps fully understood the first time around just continue to be a treat each time. I find this in comedies when the scenes are so well executed that they can make me laugh again and again. Or in dramas that ring so true that they make you cry with fresh feeling every time.
What is the secret? Why do some films hold up so well, while some just don't?
I would say that the distinction is difficult to define...but think of it this way...
Sometimes when you see a film you just know...you know it's the One. Well, one of the "ones". But you know.
Some films are blind dates. Your friend suggested it. Or another film was sold out and you went to it in it's place by chance. You may hit it off, you may not.
Other films you've had your eye on for a long time. You saw the preview, you waited and waited, and then you finally got your chance. With this much hype, it may let you down.
But there is that rare film that just fits you like a glove. It's like coming home. And when you find that film, you know that you want to spend the rest of your life watching it. If that happens, don't let it get away. Lighting may not strike twice.
Or it may strike dozens of times. In which case, it's not really cheating on the other film. Maybe you have an "understanding".
Let's just leave that metaphor behind.
The point is, the way I see it, some films are just a one night stand and some films are a bit like falling in love.
And that is what I wish for all of you. That film that you'll want to take home for Thanksgiving. To share with your family.
You'll want to...but let's face it. It may not go well. Maybe it won't be a good fit for your family. They'll embarrass you in front of your film. Someone will get drunk and then start talking politics. Things will be said.
I thought that for a few posts I would share my process of taking a scene in Maya from the default materials stage all the way through to a finished piece.
I should start by saying that I am still learning this process so somemanymostall most of the things I do could be done better and faster. I'm learning and this is part of the process for me. I find that when I teach someone how to do something, I understand and retain more of it.
Please note that this is not a tutorial, just a little peek into a process that I will try to keep brief, informative and interesting.
Here is the scene I am starting with.
(you can click on any image to see it bigger)
It's already animated but now it needs to be textured. That is the process of assigning "materials" to each surface that dictate things like its color, whether it's shiny or dull, its transparency and reflectivity. We also tell the software where the bumps, grooves and scratches are.
I start by collecting reference images to see real-world examples of what I am trying to create. I had some images from a headshot session with my friend Donna Jo and I also did a google search for "professional kitchen." Here are a few that I liked:
I just thought the colors and the lighting in this one were beautiful.
I love the copper pots in this one. A good reference for a working kitchen - scratches, grime, stains...
Jewell Rae Rules! I like the wood and steel look of this one. It's going to be my main reference. And, just for a little nod to the masters, I am going to steal the floor from Ratatouille.
Well that's where I am now. I have a lot of work to do so I better get started. Check back often as I will be updating this blog as I progress along.
The video below has so many things that I love in it that my head is about to explode. Scroll down and watch it and when you get back I should have calmed down a bit.
Back already? You didn't watch the whole thing, did you? Whatever, your loss.
All right. I've calmed down enough to explain why that dated looking video is so exciting to me. Where to start? I guess I'll just make a list of the things I love.
Star wars
"Making of..." videos
Computer animation
Star Wars
Special Effects
Videos with super old computers in them
Star Wars
Examples of computer graphics dating back to 1976
Videos that show us what it was like "Back then"
Star Wars
Film history
The history of computer graphics
Star Wars
Hearing someone saying things like: "That technology didn't exist so we had to invent it."
The video below shows a Star Wars "Making of..." video that contains special effects using Computer graphics on old 1976 computers showing us how it was "Back then" that shows a bit of film history, the birth of computer graphics, Star Wars, I guy saying "unfortunately that reality didn't exist", Star Wars...computer...history...Star...making...Wars...1976...of...computer...uuuuurrrggnnnghhhhhgggg. drooling.
This is Brigitte. Unfortunately, I came home and found Daniel slumped over the keyboard. His head had exploded so, I'm going to have to complete this post for him. He didn't apparently finish the list of the things he loved so I'll finish it for him.
Hey folks! (I am pretending that somebody is reading this - fake it till you make it, as they say)
Just a quick one today.
If you love special effects and always wondered how they do all of that awesome stuff, I have the show for you. Science of the Movies on Science Channel. Its second season started last night (Thursday). This episode is called "Zombies! Science of the Undead."
It really gets down deep into how they do it all and it covers a wide range of topics and skills. The host Nar Williams is a total film and effects geek. It's like watching myself (or most of my friends) when he goes into these studios and his excitement and sense of humor is what makes the show.
It airs Thursday nights at 8pm on Science Channel. Check it out!
Pixar's newest release UP came out this week on DVD and Blu-ray.
Let me start by saying that although this is not a movie review, it is going to come up in conversation (I'll try to keep it vague but it will come up). If you know what the film is about but haven't seen it, you should be fine. If you don't know what it's about and want to see it, watch it before you read this (but please come back). If you don't care what the movie is about, by all means, read away!
In the months leading up to the release (actually about a year from the first teaser - see below), I had been eagerly awaiting Pixar's new film (I have become kind of a Pixar freak but more on that another time).
And...this was going to be their first film in 3-D (mine too if you don't count Captain EO - and I DON'T count Captain EO). I had heard that this was their most emotional film to date and I heard what it was about - to try and keep it vague for those who are reading this without seeing the film - a man loses his wife before he can fulfill a promise he made to her and set's out to complete the promise. All great things, right? Right.
Then, on April 1, 2009, early in the morning, I got a phone call. The caller ID said it was my parents' house. When I answered I didn't recognize the voice on the other end. It was a pretty fast conversation:
Woman: Is this Daniel Erickson?
Me: Yes.
Woman; Hi, I am from the Santa Ana Fire Department. We are calling for you father. Your mother died last night.
And that was it.
Immediately, my thoughts went to my father. They had been married for 56 years. He has had two strokes and has limited vision. My mother did the driving, the cooking, paid the bills, washed the clothes, took care of their two cats... How was he going to get by now? Was he going to have to come live with us in our tiny place? Was he going to have to go somewhere with assisted living? My mind was spinning and, obviously my thoughts were no longer on seeing the new cartoon about an old man.
The next two months were tough. We were trying to get my brother and sister-in-law over here from New Zealand, figuring out my dad's living arrangements, trying to contact all of their friends and family (many of whom do not have e-mail and screen their calls), planning a memorial service:
Me: I thought you guys had made arrangements for cremation and spreading the ashes at sea.
My dad: Yeah we did.
Me: Where are the papers? Who is doing it? Who do we contact?
My dad: I don't know, your mom knew where all of that stuff was.
We found the papers.
I lived at my dad's place with him for the first month or so, coming up to Santa Monica to get new clothes, and attend classes when I could. Brigitte came down on weekends. If I had to come up for more than a day, we brought him up with us.
We still had no idea how he was going to get by on his own. All the while he kept telling us that he would be fine by himself and stop worrying so much. Nobody else was convinced.
What does this have to do with UP? you ask. Well, I'm getting to that. Back off.
One night, I got a call from a company that I had done some editing for in the past and they needed me for a job they were starting. They didn't know how long they would need me. Immediately, we had to figure something out. My dad couldn't come up with us (he wouldn't leave the cats) and I couldn't stay down with him any more. We all decided that we were going to give him what he was asking for and let him try living on his own.
It went really well. We could relax our shoulders a little.
In my (slightly) relaxed state, I discovered that Up was coming out in theaters the following weekend (exactly 2 months after my mom passed away). Now my thoughts on the film were from a completely different perspective. Now this was a film about a man that has spent his entire life with someone and suddenly has to get by without her.
We went. We cried, as did most people in the audience. We knew that we DEFINITELY could not bring my dad to see it. We took him to Star Trek instead - which he loved. I know, I said that he has limited vision - if you must know, he has no peripheral vision, if we sit back far enough he can see the whole screen.
In the months since, he has been amazing. He pays his bills using online bill pay. He has an exercise bike that he is on everyday, listening to audiobooks on his iPod. He has lost about 40 pounds, and says his knees don't hurt when he walks up and down stairs. He also says that the new size 40 pants we just got him are too big. He wants an iPhone so he can go for a walk and when he gets lost he can use the Maps app to get home (I don't like this idea so much). All in all he's doing great.
So now here we are, the movie is out on DVD and I see it through a different set of eyes yet again. Now I see it as a film about a man who perseveres and manages to keep going no matter what is thrown in his path.
And I still don't know if I should show it to him.
It's an exciting day for us here at tower 26 films!
Brigitte just finished her first draft of the new screenplay she has been working on. She has until December to refine it before she shows it to her writer's group.
Also, as some of you know, to add to our current filmmaking toolset and keep up with the constantly evolving industry, I have been taking classes in 3d animation (CG to put it another way). It started as a way to be able to hit somebody in the head with a tennis ball or pelt them with rocks and has grown into a fully animated short in the works as I write this.
This semester I have been learning how to texture, light, and render CG scenes. I have been able to springboard off of my still photography and cinematography background and am having a blast! I guess my excitement is showing in my work because my teacher recommended that I apply to Visual Effects Society's Training and Mentoring Program.
Well, I just received my invitation to participate.
For those of you who aren't familiar with the Visual Effects Society here is how they describe themselves:
The Visual Effects Society (VES) is the entertainment industry's only organization representing the full breadth of visual effects practitioners including artists, technologists, model makers, educators, studio leaders, supervisors, PR/marketing specialists and producers in all areas of entertainment from film, television and commercials to music videos and games. Comprised of a diverse group of more than 1,600 members in 17 countries, the VES strives to enrich and educate its own members and members of the entertainment community at large through a multitude of domestic and international events, screenings and programs.
They have invited 60 students from 8 schools and I was lucky enough to get a spot.
This is just the beginning of the process but if I make it through all 3 phases, I will be paired up with someone in the industry that specializes in my area of focus and they will be available for guidance and give the push that is sometimes needed to take your work to the next level.
Here are some pieces I have done this semester (click on an image to see it bigger):
On the last set we were supposed to light a daytime scene and a nighttime scene. I was working on it around Halloween so I thought I'd have a little morbid fun with it.
Well, that's all for now. We should have some more up soon so keep checking back and let us know what you think about the blog and what you would like to see and hear about in the comments below.
It's been a long time coming but we made it to the bloggy blog of blog blogs. Blog.blog...blog....blog...blog. Such a funny word. blog
We are trying out new ways to reach family, friends, clients, friends of friends, friends of clients, clients of friends, clients of clients, clients of family, family of clients, family of friends, friends of family, family of friends (did I already say that one?), basically anybody that could benefit from the knowledge, skills and services we have to offer (or learn from our mistakes.)
Hopefully, we will have plenty of content, both here and on our website to keep you coming back and telling your friends, family, cli... sorry, getting a little carried away.
The plan is to update this blog often. Whether it's work we have completed, work-in-progress, tests, new technologies we are interested in, thoughts on the entertainment industry, work that is inspiring us, or just news that we have to share, we will try to keep it interesting, informative, educational or, at the very least, entertaining. We might even throw in a few recipes here and there.
We are also going to be re-doing our website in the coming months and we will let you know when that is ready for consumption.
Hope you find things you like and want to keep coming back for more.
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