July 2010
9 posts
3 tags
GPU renderer report from SIGGRAPH
http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/news/2010/07/gpu-renderers-proliferate-show-newfound-maturity.ars
2 tags
Anonymous asked: Whats your favorite ice-cream flavour?
3 tags
How not to convince people your 3D app is still...
Invite Bill Shatner and Dick Van Dyke to sit in front of cheesy-looking virtual sets.
The wince on Bill’s face says it all. Sad.
3 tags
Auto retopology shown in 3D-Coat at SIGGRAPH
3D-Coat has always been a really good retopology tool but the newest version shown at SIGGRAPH has something special: automatic retopo. Many applications that do automatic quad remeshing produce results that are kind of useless because you can’t control edge flow, to get a nice, deformable mesh. 3D-Coat solves this by letting you draw guides for the edges to follow when the automatic...
4 tags
PTex at SIGGRAPH
Read my article on PTex at SIGGRAPH 2010:
http://arstechnica.com/software/news/2010/07/ptex-3d-texturing-becomes-a-reality-at-siggraph.ars
5 tags
Automator Services + command line = awesome
So I have been slowly updating my workflows to involve fewer programs and a big part of this is using the command line with Services and the customizable right-click menus in OS X 10.6 so a ton of things can be done within the Finder. Before you run away, take a look at how awesome it is to be able to click some files and add them to a render queue on the desktop (here I’m adding a bunch of...
1 tag
Gearing up for Siggraph
So I’ve got my ticket and my hotel for Siggraph 2010, where I’ll be reporting for my benevolent overlords at Ars Technica. Now all I need are the hard-hitting questions:
“Wouldn’t Next Limit be better at explaining the complexities of unbiased systems of light transport with a booth babe?”
“If I buy Mari (The Foundry’s texturing app used on Avatar), do I have to stick my hair into the box to...
5 tags
Friends with benefits: Importing Maya creases into...
I learned ZBrush before I learned Mudbox and, like many people, I found it an ass-backwards way of working at times. Let’s face it – ZBrush is a brilliant piece of software engineering but smooth workflow isn’t its strength. But, after getting tired of the file corruption bugs with Mudbox and realizing that ZBrush’s tools are far more advanced (try and do a quick melting wax...
6 tags
Using a GPU renderer for composition planning
The early composition stage is one of the things I still struggle with when working on a 3D rendering. Since I do still images, composition is a huge part of creating compelling 3D illustration. With editorial illustrations, like I’m working on now, making a nice images is only half the problem – you also have to worry about telling a story effectively. If your composition, framing and...
