Been testing out VRay for a bit and it has started to really grow on me. I can spend more time getting the lighting and textures right instead of hunting down the noise demons that dwell in Modo's render engine. I really just hit render and let VRay do it's thing. Here is a outdoor study I worked on last night.
"Some places are better left forgotten..."
My band Trouble Cuts just released our first EP, give it a listen. Recorded by Pat Kearns at PermaPress Recording and mastered by the Talented Jeremy Wilkins , it sounds tighter then ever. Artwork and design by danklife of course!
Just posted a bunch of new stuff to the danklife portfolio and Behance, as Dr. Brule says, "Check it out!"
Little creative viewing time.
Being big fans of Hawaii how could we say no to doing some product renders for Maui Brewing? I simply can't. The fine folks at The Butler Bros reached out and asked if I could do some renders of their brand redesign and I jumped at the chance. Check out the full project here.
Posted some new animations of before and afters on Behance. Have some Nike Swim work and Nike Football / Soccer to check out. Enjoy!
Did some CGI set building for the fine folks at Kamp Grizzly the other week and it looks like adidas relased them out into the wild. Some fun, clean and simple sets.
Jeremy spent all day yesterday making us awesome new animations for the portfolio. Look for more updates to come in the following weeks.
The Conoco project made it to reddit and well, I just have to post the comments. ;)
Learning to say, "No" is probably the hardest thing to do in business and art. Here is some more reading up to help us all with that.
“Time is the raw material of creation. Wipe away the magic and myth of creating and all that remains is work: the work of becoming expert through study and practice, the work of finding solutions to problems and problems with those solutions, the work of trial and error, the work of thinking and perfecting, the work of creating. Creating consumes. It is all day, every day. It knows neither weekends nor vacations. It is not when we feel like it. It is habit, compulsion, obsession, vocation. The common thread that links creators is how they spend their time. No matter what you read, no matter what they claim, nearly all creators spend nearly all their time on the work of creation. There are few overnight successes and many up-all-night successes.
Saying “no” has more creative power than ideas, insights and talent combined. No guards time, the thread from which we weave our creations. The math of time is simple: you have less than you think and need more than you know. We are not taught to say “no.” We are taught not to say “no.” “No” is rude. “No” is a rebuff, a rebuttal, a minor act of verbal violence. “No” is for drugs and strangers with candy.”
The talented photographer Jamie Kripke brought me on board to help with some background rebuilds for a project documenting the new look of gas stations for Conoco Phillips. Really had to dig deep to build all these up. Lots going on here in the before and afters. Check them out on Behance or in the portfolio section here.
Great little article on managing creative output with work obligations. Good read.
“In order to get creating and avoid the instant gratification monkey, you may need to force yourself to get started. This is normal. Set a timer and make yourself begin working for 20 minutes, distraction free (no phone, no email, no social media, etc). If you’re not locked in when the timer goes off, step back, take a break for a few minutes and eat some string cheese. I find string cheese is pretty good at getting my creative juices flowing. Then go back and try again for as many sessions as you have time for. If you are truly in the zone when the timer goes off, ignore it and go as long as your feeble body will take you. Ride that wave to glory, my friend.
Most people aren’t able to do anything continuously without breaks. In fact, it’s been scientifically demonstrated that taking breaks is good for your creative energy. But even if you just get one rather unproductive but good-intentioned 20 minute block in, that’s still progress. And if you can get a couple chunks of work done every day (again, form a habit), you’ll be in better shape than most people who walk all the way to the corner coffee shop to write four sentences of their shitty screenplay about a vegetable who was raised by fruit, then goes on an epic journey to find the broccoli family that abandoned him as a child. Again, on the spot, you’re welcome for the idea.”
RIP.
Classic
Been a busy monkey here so I have not been doing enough of my daily CGI or postings here. Much apology, such sorry. But anyways, I recently did some CPG renders for Butler Bros out of Austin that came out really well. Getting the foil looking like that was fun to figure out. Check out the full gallery and read up on it at their site. Butler Bros Real Good Gum Campaign.
Photographer Ryan Unruh asked me to lend a hand with the post and CGI for a project with Camp Grizzly for Adidas. The concept was to have weather changing and swirling around the photographs of the product. We had less then a week to concept, build, render and composite these files. A bit of a hectic week but very happy with the results. Used Modo and a few particle sims to render out the FX and sweeps. Assembled in Photoshop. On Behance.
Client Adidas
Agency: Camp Grizzly
Photographer: Ryan Unruh
CGI and Retouching: Daniel Kopton / Danklife.
The new healing brush in Photoshop has been universally hated by any retoucher I talk to. Seems like Adobe listened "kinda" and gave us a way to roll it back with the newest Photoshop. Just have to get into prefs and a text editor. It's not as hard as it looks. The link will take you to the tech page.
Follow these steps:
Now I need a roll back to the previous liquify since the new one puts a 1 pixel grey border on anything I run it on....
Have some news on the music front to report on. In "Old News" a old band of mine called International Grey just had a EP from 2010 reissued which you can check out. A Post Rock project with keyboards and all that stuff. You can read a bit about the project in this interview with the Guitarist Jeremy Wilkins. Lots of dynamics and textures in this one.
But coming back to modern timelines you can here two new tracks I recorded of the new Punk project I am in called Trouble Cuts at Bandcamp. Power trio line up that has a lot of energy and hooks. Keep an eye out for our shows around town.
Fun simulation I have been tweaking on trying to get really clean. With some help from the Modo forums I was able to get it to look the way I wanted. Might be used by a record label shortly, we shall see if that comes to pass!
