January 23, 2006

Groovebox

Work is continuing on my modeling reel. For some reason I felt like I needed a product on my reel, so I chose my trusty Roland MC 505 as a subject. All the geometry is done and very precise (I measured everything with digital calipers). Pictured below is a rear view of the geometry with some procedural textures on it. The actual product has a lot of painted-on decals, so some texture painting will be in order to finish the model.

rear view of MC 505 geometry

January 12, 2006

Pixel Corps at the Apple Store

Yesterday, I headed into San Francisco for Macworld 2006. New Apple hardware aside, the show was not as exciting as others I remember attending in the past. The show could have just as easily been called ipod expo '06 as it seemed that a large portion of the booths were pushing ipod related accessories. I didn't have high expectations going in as most of the exciting stuff is now announced at Siggraph and NAB, but I still felt the show fell short.

The great thing that I did manage to see yesterday, however, was the Pixel Corps presentation at the SF Apple store (a few blocks away from the Macworld convention). Alex Lindsey of the Pixel Corps gave a very detailed presentation on shooting and compositing a subject against a green screen using a Sony CineAlta camera. I was simultaneously surprised and very appreciative of the depth that he went into. The image below shows me (I volunteered to be the subject) on the big screen at the store just before Alex demonstrated a quick test key in Apple's "Motion" software. He later went on to assemble a final key using Apple's "Shake" software.

Me at the Apple store

January 05, 2006

High Dynamic Range

Today I shot a High Dynamic Range lightprobe on my back porch using my trusty EOS 20D and a 2" chrome ball-bearing on a lightstand. I also shot video of a pedestal sitting on the porch where the chrome ball was mounted. Below is a 3d model of my head illuminated by the lightprobe that I captured. Tonight I hope to motion track the footage that I shot, and integrate my model seamlessly into the video environment. So much fun...Have I earned my nerd card yet?

Head Illuminated By HDR