Redgrass

I wanted to find some experimental maya work and found this on youtube:

baldwin storyboard

Review - Second Life Herald

The Second Life Herald (www.secondlifeherald.com) is the first virtual tabloid newspaper, or at least it claims to be. As an online publication it likes to claim many virtual firsts and some of them I'm sure are actually the case. At any rate, it is a source for news and trends in virtual culture, and also includes plenty of images offering examples of how the virtual community is modeling and representing themselves these days.

As a brief background, the SL Herald began reporting in The Sims Online as the alphaville herald. After thousands migrated to SL because of the lack of user created content in TSO the herald migrated along with them. Not to mention the fact that the head writer Urizenus Sklar got permanently banned from TSO servers for writing too many muck-raking stories that held Electronic Arts in a very critical eye. Its a long amusing story that they published as a book with the same title as the newspaper. Now in SL the writers roam around the different sims writing stories that give Linden Labs much of the same treatment that they used to give to Electronic Arts.

I find it to be a good sampling of trends in the virtual community if you're interested where that culture is going. It's especially useful if you're interested but find participating in SL yourself sometimes exhausting and time consuming. It does however have some flaws. They occasionally have a post where they feature an avatar is sexy spread similar to pin-ups in British tabloid magazines which I find doesn't contribute to their goal of creating serious discourse around virtual culture. Its also strange to have an "underground" journalistic voice without an established authoritarian journalistic voice to react against as you might in conventional press. As far as I know there isn't a virtual equivalent of USA Today, but the Herald here functions as a kind of virtual Chicago Reader. I have heard that Harper's has a base in SL but I didn't get the impression that is was that comprehensive, but more like a novelty for the real world. If there are any other SL publications out there that I'm not aware of please let me know.

Livia's Story Board

This is my story board. I think I might be concentrating too much on the top level of my project so I think I'll concentrate on the other aspects of my environment for now I think it's too bare. Ideas anyone?

A piece of Turqoise

I saw this image of a piece of turquoise and said "that looks something I could make in Maya". I'm attracted to it's organic shape and the light that bounces off it's sides uniformly. It looks like you could make it from a type of Phong Shader Material. I find the organic shape most appalling, but i guess that's my preference. The duplicability of something organic is much harder then symmetrical objects. So even when you're trying to remake it it still has a uniqueness!

Turquoise

2-D Cartoons in A 3-D World

Hey I wanted to share with you guys this cartoon a saw a couple of years ago. What does this have to do with Maya and 3-D ? I want to show how even though a cartoon might be in 2-D, I still think it can be relevant in our Industry. Don't worry about the story line JUST LOOK AT THE GRAPHICS. Mind you this movie is pretty old, you can tell it's like a 2-D image mixed with like some kind of 3-d effect. I guess I just think it's sad how now a days People just don't seem to care about a cartoon unless it looks like its popping out of a screen. But I still believe cartoons can be more then as relevant to the technology. I just know if a cartoon done in CLAY ANIMATION (like Nightmare Before Christmas) came out know one would care to see it because the technology used to make it is outdated. It would be good if animation could combine with idea from the past, I think that make a more interesting piece. Enjoy! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w74ZmiznzFk

storyboard - c. evans

Here is the storyboard for my virtual performance space. The basic narrative idea for the image sequence is the viewer starts at the center of the house, flies through distant and close-up perspectives of house right and house left, and then eventually ends up on stage from the performer's perspective. Ideally there would be avatars in the crowd and in the performance stations.

Storyboard - Arunan

"Spiropticity" is a city set in the not so distant future. The part I'm working on now is laying out the city in a medium scale, making up fractal buildings, some transit networks and a bit of the terrain /environmental features.


Its about spirals, optics and an urban environment that has been created by beautiful disorganization.

Here are some storyboard images ..

STORYBOARD_Maria

storyboard

a Cubic Tragedy

This short clip is sort of an inside joke for maya artists I guess. It's about this polygon woman who is trying to fix up her face by.. merging the vertexes it seems? Except it doesn't turn out quite well. I thought this was fun idea, especially if you're familiar with Maya, cause you know exactly what's going on.

--Story board--
I have a lot of catching up to do with my project, but here is what I have for now. For those who haven't seen it(most of you), I'm working on something different from the glass skyscraper I showed in class, which was my first idea.
To keep it simple, it's my idea for magnetic cubic modules designed to transform an existing space into something different. However, I may find a way to incorporate the tower into my final project as well.

Review: LORENZO OGGIANO

LORENZO OGGIANO
Lorenzo Oggiano is an Italian artist with very interesting audiovisual work. His Quasi-Objects series (2003-2008) are my favorites, he has a very subtle way of dealing with body and materiality. He is also a good reference because his works extends beyond the screen like his Sample-Kit (2001-2003).



http://www.lorenzooggiano.net/index.php

Review: Semiconductor

SEMICONDUCTOR
Semiconductor are two UK artists, Ruth Jarman and Joe Gerhardt. I find very interesting the mix between art, science and technology that this duo shows in his work. A great example of this is Magnetic Movie (2007), a desert laboratory where magnetic fields seems to come to life while a neutral woman voice tells us about the physical properties of these phenomena.


Magnetic Movie from Semiconductor on Vimeo.

http://www.semiconductorfilms.com/root/soundfilms.htm

They are presenting their work here in Chicago this week:

http://www.siskelfilmcenter.org/

Filmmakers in person!
Semiconductor
1999-2007, Semiconductor, UK, ca. 60 min.

Semiconductor (Ruth Jarman and Joe Gerhardt) have used digital technologies to create what The Wire calls "experimental meta-science fiction." Tonight's program surveys their career, including the giddily gorgeous glitch of A–Z OF NOISE (1999) and 200 NANOWEBBERS (2005), the elegant urbanscapes of THE SOUND OF MICROCLIMATES (2004), and an astonishing trip into the data archives of solar astronomy in BRILLIANT NOISE (2006), plus others. Various formats. (AB) Filmmakers Ruth Jarman and Joe Gerhardt will be present for audience discussion.

Thursday, October 30, 6:00 pm

Storyboard

Storyboard and XSI developers journal

Here is my storyboard for the fly through of my scene.

The link I provided is a developer's journal on Metal Gear Solid 4 and the use of Softimage's xsi software. It gives good insight on work flow and also other techniques used in developing the game such as texture techniques.

Link

Chinese Painting in 3D

This short animation blends the look of 2D Chinese painting, but achieves it with 3D modeling. At the very end it shows the wireframe, then model without texture, and then the textured view to show each layer and what an effect the 'cartoon' shader gives. Throughout you are aware that the animation is 3D, but it still keeps true to the style of Chinese painting. At first I thought it may have been a blend of 3D over 2D using After Effects, but as soon as the background objects begin to move, it is apparent that is not the case. Notice the texturing of the brush strokes! Absolutely beautiful!

The Empty Regency House

Kim Dearnley

(P.S. The floor no longer glows.)

ncloth maya

This video shows the possibilities we have to make cloth effects on maya. I personally think its cool, and how it can vary, i mean not just wind effects but also tearing, and just covering something with fabrics the wrinkles and the form it takes it is very interesting. check it out ....

new post - shameless self promotion

Soft Snowy Bodies

Here is the tutorial I've been using for Maya to help me with Dynamics. This particular one teaches how create "dents" in objects to create realistic effects on impressionable surfaces (I.E. something hitting snow.) Its really fun to play with and I'd recommend it to anyone who is just looking for a good time with Maya. Dynamics chug RAM like its nobody's business so I'd be careful before going crazy with it.

Check it here: http://www.digitaltutors.com/digital_tutors/video.php?v=534