Jerry CGI+

Daily musings of a retired digital artist/designer/musician/party goer/etc.

  • Three week gap

    Been a busy month, and an eventful one.  My sister passed away on January 12th.  Lots of financial issues rising after a tough couple of months, and had to deal with a couple of curves.  Fortunately, I’m getting some support, and some payment for work to handle the needs.  So all has been covered, though there was a certain amount of jumping through hoops.

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    Also played some music at several places.  And I listened to some live music that was most impressive.

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    Life rolls on with lots and lots of details.

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    lightbulb1.2

  • 2010 – a start

    Ugh, the party was just too much fun last night.  I ended up playing music with five or eight people for most of the PM, and I bowed out from the lead at 11:30.  After that, there was plenty more fine music.  Food was great.  Wonderful way to ring in a new decade.

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    Not moving real quickly this morning, but neither are any of the other partiers, from the reports I heard.  Heading back to the site with makings for French Toast to continue the good times.

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    Did a couple of renderings before the end of the year.  Showroom and installed.

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    cuzz1

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    cuzz2

  • Shaking down Poser 8, playing in modo, and generally relaxing until the first of the year.  A little Illustrator, moved all Poser downloads from solstice to my download page, tidying up the hard drives after the big download, put up PoserD again, stuff like that.  Staying busy and being lazy at the same time.

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    66bug

    winter sunset-1

    Preview001

  • About to hit the road for the solstice party 90 miles away.  Lots of playing music.

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    First render from Poser 8.  Base shakedown, nothing new yet.

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    eepo1-1

  • NDA in progress of dissolving…

    Releases so far:

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    fireplace

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    armchair

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    toolset

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    lograck

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    fire

  • Cold night

    Out of the city and doing country chores, preparing for the first major cold snap (19°F) of the season.  The just now emerging fall colors will last a few more days at best.  Green to barren within a week.  So much for autumn.

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    I left Houston where there was a slight chance of snow, to outside of Austin, where it was expected to accumulate.  As it turned out, I saw two flakes, and Houston got accumulation of up to 3 to 4 inches.  Go figure.  But it suits me.  I hate the stuff.

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    Snuggled inside, lots of pillows, warm and cozy, working on more of that NDA stuff.  But it’s all coming out within a few weeks, by Christmas at latest.  I’m rather pleased with some of the team work.  It’s a fairly sizable project.  Lots of  little details.

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    Long johns and a wool cap are keeping me happy.  Without them, I’d certainly be grumping at the 26°F outside the window behind me.

  • Avast, the season

    Well, it’s my least favorite season coming to slap me in the face yet once again.  I was out in traffic on Black Friday.  It was heavy and distracted, but fortunately, there weren’t any wrecks along the way.  All in all, I’d as soon skip December.  For all its entailing idealism, the reality is that it’s a pretty lousy month to have a birthday.

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    Down in Houston for a number of reasons.  Took the day off today, for the most part, and got some much needed rest for the aching body.  I did some NDA stuff, lots of finalizing to where I won’t have to deal with it any further.  It’s ready to roll, everything I’ve started.  There are a very few more items to do, but I haven’t started them yet.  But today it was pretty light duty.

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    I did grill a couple of nice steaks today.  Nice dinner for a lazy day.

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    A couple more days in Houston, then I’ll be heading back to the NW and the Austin area.

  • Pant, pant

    Well, it’s been a rather busy two weeks, which is why there’s a gap in the blog.  Add to it a couple of poor or lost internet connections.

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    Lots of partying.  Lots of party prep too, huffing, puffing, and toting.  Lots of playing music with others, and lots of wonderful food.  I had a grand time.

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    But there is a body of work in there that I can’t show (NDA) until next month.  But I’m modeling and texturing when time permits, and I’ve completed half a dozen items.

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    Right now, it’s cold.

  • Nose down

    Been nose down in 2D and 3D work I can’t show in public yet.  They’ll make it onto my freebie pages in January, once they’ve gone public and the self-imposed NDA has been lifted.

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    Also going to miss the clean up party (emphasis on party) this coming weekend.  House sitting through Tuesday or Wednesday, which gives me a great window for production that I can’t express at this point.  But I’ll be at the main event the following expanded weekend, which is the important thing.

  • Autumn Central Texas butterfly hatches

    Central Texas has a fall butterfly hatch.  None of the species are large, mostly in the size range of quarter to half dollar, roughly wings about an inch across.  What they lack in stature, they make up for in numbers.  At times, you can’t drive the hill country highways without hitting hundreds of them, and you see hundreds of thousands of them swirling all over the highway in the eddy of passing cars.  The hatch is easily in the many millions, considering the wide area of the hatch.

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    A walk along an unmowed stretch usually sees a few hundred butterflies dancing all over the stalks, displacing as one approaches in sort of a wave. It’s a very beautiful thing in the light of the late afternoon sun,a magical ripple effect in the yellow sunlight

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    3D Commune closed today.  I pulled my stuff off the site weeks ago, so I’m exactly surprised.  But the lack of advanced warning is the big issue to many.

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    My sympathies to those involved.  Lots of people finding it rough.  Then again, people are always finding it rough.  Tighten the belt and trudge onward, like I just did the last couple of weeks.  Such is the cycle.  Life rolls on.

  • To Houston for Halloween and back….

    A business trip to Houston, a quiet seclusion for Halloween (Houston is not the place for Halloween on a full moon.)  Returned today to the last stretch of flatland before the climb up to the Edward’s Plateau.

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    All in all, a good time.  There was 25 mph on the freeway, thanks to limited visibility of the downpour.  You could see the car ahead of you, but not the car ahead of him.  That was some pretty radical rain.  And a few miles of Highway 6 in west Houston lost traffic lights.  But I grew up there.  I survived it to have several good evenings in town.

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    I got a bit of UV mapping done.  Now I can texture.

    But no previews…….. not on these….

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    And then there were the chocolate brownie walnut cookies I got in Giddings.

  • Misc renderings

    Just some stuff coming out of this or that studio in the last few days.

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    cargo2

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    chibiskull-1

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    Nothing noteworthy, just the sort of testing new stuff gets on a daily basis.  I always enjoy a good piece of 3D, and sometimes a bad one.

  • Mountain bike tut

    Played around with the modeling tutorial for modo 4.0.1 for making a mountain bike.  I discovered that there isn’t too much that I don’t already know about modo modeling.

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    I shaded it some and added a shadow catcher.  It still needs some refinements to the material zones, especially on the body.

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    bike

  • Nursery graphics

    Here’s an adaptation of a vector that I did back a few months ago.  It will probably end up being a logo for a vegetation supply.

    floral2

  • Pause for a breather

    Well, not a total pause, but an improvement in attitude all around.  Off the golf course and back at the garden (no longer needing the watering I gave it this last summer).  Attitude is remarkably brighter and happier.

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    Made some adjustments to vincebell.com yesterday and this morning.  Lyle Lovett is covering one of Vince’s songs on his new albums (the one that has Farmer Brown/Chicken Reel on it), and I got to make announcements about that and Vince’s upcoming benefit appearance.

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    Waiting on word about work.  Never a good period in itself, but certainly having the potential for good times.  Happy Tuesday is only a few hours off.

  • Rolling again

    Heading east tomorrow morning.  Purpose: accumulating cash for paying bills.  The rain is past and blue skies prevail and should for a week.

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    Just a little indication of what has been happening here in my spare time.  (I guess you can say I’m catching the Halloween spirit as it draws neigh.)

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    ringoandusa-1

    zp

  • Rain, rain

    Well, at the golf course again, and the lack of shingles definitely made its mark yesterday as a major storm-front passed through in the wee hours of the morning.

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    It started with the day before, putting aside a day of Photoshop touchup and climbing up on the roof to tack down the dislodged felt paper that the brisk southerly winds before the front had torn loose.  I corrected some of the chronic problems that had plagued the previous rains.

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    But the storm itself ripped up more of the felt paper (from the other direction) after I had finished up, and there was some major leakage.  Buckets, rags, towels, coolers, mops, and brooms all came into play during the downpour on insufficient sleep and a strained ankel tendon from the roof work prior.

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    So after the storm, it was cleaning up as much as possible, including laundry of the rags and towels.  I ended the day feeling less than optimum.

    This morning, still with insufficient sleep, I climbed up on the roof and restapled the felt paper that the storm had dislodged, at least until the stapler jammed.  I managed to correct, at least superficially, all the big leaks.  It probably won’t survive another big blow, but it should withstand a sprinkle.

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    I just wish that I could get some sleep now.  I have other priorities with which to deal.

  • Aches, pains, stiff muscles

    The more one hurts after a party, the better the party was.  I’m hurting, so I’m happy.

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    It was a great party despite the rain Saturday.  (Friday’s rain died in its tracks before reaching me, so it was a show with no blow.)

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    I played a lot of music.  I ate a lot of good food.  I laughed a lot.  It was a very enjoyable party.  And I’m feeling it.

  • The Big Ones at Night

    It’s pretty amazing stuff, watching a large thunderstorm cell two and a half counties  (seventy, eighty miles) away.  Awesome storm, and it seems to be headed in this direction, though Austin and change lies between it and me.

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    It’s pretty ironic, since I spent all day yesterday creating a sky in Voyager and Photoshop on a long term project.  The real ones are more impressive, but you get to keep the created one.  Still… awesome is.

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    And in an hour or two, I’ll have some rather anxious dogs on my hands.  They can sense it coming.

  • Party weekend

    It will be a weekend of music, and I expect sore finger pads by Sunday.  (I haven’t played in a few weeks.)  I’m heading over a day early to help with preparations.  It should be fun.

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    Not sure who is going to be there as backup, but I’m sure that there will be plenty of people playing.  The only real questions are whether or not I’ll be leading or following most of the time, and how much it will rain this weekend (forecast is not optimistic).

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    I haven’t packed yet, but I’m in no hurry getting on the road.

  • Moonlit clouds

    I am facing a rather serious challenge, to achieve the effect of light fluffy popcorn clouds backlit by the moon.  modo seems the most likely candidate at this point.  It’s not going to be easy.

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    At this point, I’m thinking a spotlight with a tight cone and loose fall off, working in a tightly defined volumetric layer, with shader filtration to form the clouds.  Fun, fun, fun……

  • Multi-tasking

    Today was a truly multi-tasking day.  One of those tasks was this.  Note the shag carpet, another product of modo 4 hair.

    arfshag4

  • Marathon in the rear view mirror

    Just finished the final episode of Babylon 5’s season 5, including all the 2 hour special insertions.  As it usually is, it was inspiring, even though it was the CGI technology of a decade ago.

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    When I look back on the things of the 80’s and 90’s that inspired me to pursue 3D graphics, either beginning my pursuits or further encouraging me), a distinct list comes to mind.  Some are early CGI movies (Tron, The Last Starfighter, The Abyss, Terminator 2, Spawn, The Fifth Element, Dragon Heart) , some are TV shows (Babylon 5, Starship Troopers), some are 3D designers and developers (ISO, Eric Wegner, Kai Krause, and many others).

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    Looking back at a the state of the art a decade ago, I see very clearly what the last decade has brought to CGI.  In many ways, the advancement of tools has caused a revolution, and in other ways, a backlash.  Routine use of Photoshop in publications has drawn heat for representing too perfect a world for our impressionable youth.  Films now contain more CGI than people want to see.  CGI is now a hobby as well as a production industry, with many people entering the field with expectations of it to being much easier than it really is, often fed by visions they gain in digital gaming.  The hobbyist stores that expanded like mushrooms are starting to feel financial strain.

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    Yet CGI continues to advance, growing better and more efficient.  And for me, this is why it is important for me to keep in touch with those things in the 80’s and 90’s that inspired me to pursue the field.  It reminds me in the face of much of the backlash why I got involved with it in the first place.

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    But now it is time for me to return to end of this decade, carry that fresh charge of inspiration with me.

  • Arf arf…… pant pant…… arf arf

    Use of Fur Parametric Length Gradient to define hair shading, light at the skin to match, dark at the tip.

    arf

  • Rainbows

    There is a very vibrant double rainbow outside the window, a most glorious tribute to the sunset to the other direction.  To top it off, there are several dozen deer playing under the rainbow.  A wonderful way to say farewell to the day’s sunlight.