Learn new skills!

Good read by Paul H. Paulino about how learning traditional media really helped him understand and push his CG work. 

"During my lunch break I would bookmark all kinds of free tutorials I could find and at night I would follow them meticulously, trying to achieve the same result.

After a couple of months doing this, I realized that I wasn’t improving at all. I couldn’t solve problems without looking at step-by-step tutorials and I didn’t feel I was creating anything. The reason was simple: I wasn’t learning. I was copying.

I felt like I needed to do something different to learn things properly and master the skills to become an artist. Soon I realized that it wasn’t just about practicing, it was about knowing how to practice.

After arriving at that conclusion I decided to put my 3D studies aside and, instead, I began learning more about drawing and painting.

To be honest, that conclusion didn’t come quickly. I spent a long time observing, reading and studying successful stories from artists all over the world and I realized that almost everyone highlighted the importance of learning at least the basics of art fundamentals."

Hasselblad Acquired by DJI

The writing has been on the wall for awhile about the Hasselblad, here is a pretty good summery of what happened at Luminous Landscape plus a bit about what they think it means. Good read. I remember when Hasselblad made it so you could only use their backs and pros ran from the system into Phase One / Mamiya. Hassablad glass was amazing and I used one for a few years when I worked as a architectural / construction photographer. Loved that cam. 

"DJI now owns the majority share of Hasselblad. You heard me right. This information has come from numerous, reliable sources. Hasselblad, the iconic Swedish camera company, is now owned by the Chinese drone maker DJI. Sooner or later, this will all become public. Maybe now that I am spilling the beans, it will be sooner rather than later. It seems that everyone inside Hasselblad knows about this, as well as some distributors and resellers. You can’t keep something this big a secret for very long, eventually, it is going to get out.

What does this mean? Well, we can speculate all we want. I have been in this industry a very long time. I can imagine that many of Hasselblad’s employees are a bit worried, to say the least. It could be that a few of them are no longer with the company or are already looking elsewhere for employment. I am sure that DJI is going to come in and make significant changes. The investors have most likely arranged a share transfer program so that they will get some of their investment back. But what about the new X1D, the H line, and most importantly, the future of the company?"

Are you a “bricklayer” or an art director? Chris Do explains.

Good write up on Art Direction versus Design here. 

"To me, an art director has the very difficult task of (working either directly with a client or a creative director) to decipher the needs of a client. This could be going through a script, brief or conversation to understand what the design and communication objectives are. They have to relay this to the client, gain their trust and win the job in a competitive pitch situation.

There are a lot of interpersonal or “soft skills” needed to do this. They have to demonstrate an ability to ask great questions, remain objective, listen intently, parse wants from needs and convert vague language (e.g. “cool,” “organic,” “epic”) into a shared visual language. This is the first challenge and not everyone is cut out to do this."

End of Year Personal project Round Up!

Just posted a End of Year round up of more personal work to Behance if you wanna see what I have been up to on Instagram and in CG. Here are a few as well, enjoy!

Photogrammetry!

Been making some progress with photogrammetry lately. It's a lot of work but I am really enjoying the results. Been posting these to my instagram but I thought I would add something about how they were made as well. I am shooting with a Canon 5dsr, making the meshes in Capturing Reality, modeling the scene in Modo and rendering in VRay. It's sounds more complicated then it is honestly. 

This was my first go with a boot. Was pretty shocked at the results and that it snapped together this easily. Here are the original captures, the mesh cloud in Capturing Reality, the set in Modo and the Final render. I could not yet get the bottom of the boot on so it was hollow.

Second go was a vintage camera and the lens kinda messed upt the whole thing. I would like to go back and try to remodel this to clean it up. The details on the leather and all the dust made me happy. Hollow bottom.

Third time is a charm with a sculpture made by Drew Leshko (big fans here). This time I shot 430 images. Half with it right side up, half with it on it's back. I made two meshes this time and stuck them together in Modo to get a full 3d model with no hollow bottom. Really digging on this. 

Collective Podcast Ep 139

Been listening to this podcast a lot and this week is really good. Give it a listen if you are into creative theories. Collective Podcast Ep 139 with Mike Hill. 

“This week’s episode is a live recording from Industry Workshops event held in London this past August. We’re joined by video game and film concept designer Mike Hill, where we discuss the organic chemistry which goes into interpreting his favorite films, the rigorous process he goes through for creating his functional concept designs, and the psychology and careful consideration behind creating a powerful work of art.”
— http://www.thecollectivepodcast.com/#/139-mike-hill/

Pirate Party PDX

Trouble Cuts is playing a pirate party on Oct 1st. Come on out and party on a boat! Check out the poster I made for it.