Release

Took some time to work on a animation of the Raven skull. This is the first time I have animated anything besides a simulation in Houdini and key framing is much easier than in C4d for me. Need to practice camera moves and learn more about time ramping. Would like this to be way more slow motion but not sure how to go about that yet.

Quick Coffee Time Study

Just trying to spend more time with Houdini and Redshift this morning doing a quick study while having my morning coffee. Seeing what I can make in a limited time and just getting in the habit of it. Not anything fancy, just learning but I did come up with a nice little jack to object merge the particles out of the sim so I could texture and size independently.

Smoke Study

Revisiting a project I made when I was demoing Redshift way back in November. Redoing the lights and materials. Hopefully I’ll have the animation soon, the render keeps crashing on me at random spots.

The Beginner’s Guide to Intermittent Fasting

I have been doing this two days a week since the end of last summer and it’s pretty interesting what it does.

“I have been intermittent fasting for over one year.

I skip breakfast each day and eat two meals, the first around 1pm and the second around 8pm. Then, I fast for 16 hours until I start eating again the next day at 1pm.

Surprisingly, since I've started intermittent fasting I've increased muscle mass (up 10 pounds from 205 to 215), decreased body fat (down 3% from 14% to 11%), increased explosiveness (set a personal best with a clean and jerk of 253 pounds a few months back), and decreased the amount of time I've spent training (down from 7.5 hours per week to 2.5 hours per week).

In other words, I'm stronger, leaner, and more explosive even though I go to the gym less and eat less.

You may be wondering…”

Houdini PopNets and passing attributes

Trying to work more in Houdini but it is such a rabbit hole. It’s difficult for me to just make something quick in there without wanting to add more and more stuff into the scene. I have like three things I am trying to finish up between work, music and the difficulty of it I am not getting to them. I almost wanna go back to “dailies” and just set a timer for 30 minutes. Wherever I am at 30 minutes, hit render and just be done so I did something at least. Anyways, here are somethings I managed to get out today after playing with pop networks a bit more. Really fun once you get it working.

Sharenting and growing up in the Internet Age.

One of the things that tends to come out when hanging out with musicians my age and older is that kids, be it their kids or young people in general, just don’t seem like they “party” like we did. I like to point out that we did not grow up with everyone around you having a camera and not only that, but they can post anything for the entire world to see and it will never be deleted. Can not be deleted. For bonus points, lets also put your name on it, maybe your address and what kind of soap you like. Looks like you were looking up some stuff on google, lets just tuck that away in here as well. Yiiiiiiiiiiikes. I think we have yet to discover a new kind of anxiety about “Internet Permanence”. People who live in constant fear of doing something stupid once and it being frozen for all to see forever.

Anyways, great article on the Atlantic kinda about the same thing. But it’s kids finding all the stuff their parents have posted online about them growing up and they get kinda freaked out.

“But it’s not just overzealous mommy bloggers who construct a child’s online identity; plenty of average parents do the same. There’s even a portmanteau for it: sharenting. Almost a quarter of children begin their digital lives when parents upload their prenatal sonogram scans to the internet, according to a study conducted by the internet-security firm AVG. The study also found that 92 percent of toddlers under the age of 2 already have their own unique digital identity. “Parents now shape their children’s digital identity long before these young people open their first email. The disclosures parents make online are sure to follow their children into adulthood,” declares a report by the University of Florida Levin College of Law. “

Creating a Snowy Forest in UE4- Breakdown.

Really interesting break down by Leah Augustine on how she created this landscape in UE4. A lot of interesting solutions in here.

“When creating the snow textures in Substance Designer, I also created a detail normal of simple noise that I used in conjunction with the base normal. I found that when you use subsurface you tend to visually lose normal information, flattening out your material. Since I knew I wanted close up shots, I wanted to exaggerate the normals a bit more to counteract this.

I personally think that a detail normal and subsurface scattering is what helped achieve more realistic snow for this project. Subsurface, in my opinion, really brought it all together. It helps give the snow better highlights around the edges and creates the appearance of light shining through it. Subsurface can be costly, but it does make a difference .“

I tried making some snow in Octane and C4d and failed tragically. Will have to landscapes another shot at some point.

Behance.... huh, look at that....

Have not loaded up my Behance page in some time. Seems like my stats have gone a little bit nutty. Hello all you Behance peoples!

I need to do a round of portfolio updates soon I guess. It’s always a major pain in the ass to pull files and make before and afters…. wah, wah, wah!

Animated Last Post

Wanted to play with animating the last project I posted. It’s my first go at actually getting into a keyframed animation in Houdini. Everything else I have done has just been a sim. Actually getting into the POP network and keyframing it to behave how I was wanted was nice. Overall, Keyframing in Houdini seems pretty easy. No need for the Dope Sheet like in C4d to move keyframes.

Attributes / POPs from Images

Little daily render based off of a Nine Between tutorial, “Houdini Tutorial - Nodes Part 1: Attribute Nodes”. Rendered in RedShift. Might try to run a animation of it later. I can not recommend delving in Attributes and VEX sooner than later. This set up is shockingly simple.

Red Shift Layered Materials in Houdini

Just wanted to work on a quick daily messing around with layered materials in RedShift Houdini.

Did a bit of scatter of smaller spheres as well which I need to look into how to UV. Not too sure on how to use Particles in Redshift yet.

More Houdini and Vellum

Wanted to dive a bit into simulating with vellum so here is a pretty simple set up with a heart “balloon” type thing tumbling down some stairs.

Ran into issues with the normals flipping a lot in redshift but not the viewport. Still not really sure how I solved that issue, it just kinda went away as I was futzing around with nodes. Here is a screen shot of the Heart Geo node showing how the dynamics were wired.

Nothing fancy going on with Redshift at all but I am finding it a bit more interesting to use than Octane in Houdini at least. Not using it as much in C4d. But that is where I do “work work” and not just play with Ideas and Concepts. Now that I look at this screen shot, I should really have a Null in there…..

Houdini and Vellum.

Taking a break from learning more about Houdini’s attribute nodes to do a short study with the new Vellum solver. I did not simplify the geo in this model or tweak it. Just dropped all of it into one geo node and Houdini delt with it rather well besides a few pointed points. The animation never comes to a rest but like I said, I just plugged it in and let it rip. Using RedShift for my render engine and learning that now as well.

Moving forward with the new year, I plan on posting my danklife instagram imagery here with a bit more back story for two reasons. One, I can add the backstory and direct link to any tutorials or resources used in the making of. Two, instagrams compression officially sucks major shit. Good lord, it’s terribad. I guess part three would be to replace the dumpster fire the danklife facebook page as well.

Mystical by Neil Burnell

Really awesome series of photos here:

“Nestled on the eastern slopes of the West Dart river stands a wood of dwarf oak trees. Once you walk into the tangled web of trees you are transported into a mystical world of moss carpeted boulders, lichens of all descript, finger like oak branches, all engulfed in a wonderful smell of earth and age. For millennia this small, mystical, stunted woodland has been held in awe and for many fear. Tales of Druids, ghosts, the Devil and a host of other supernatural creatures abound, some dating back to the long lost ages before man could write. Many writers have described the wood as being “the most haunted place on Dartmoor”, others warn that every rocky crevice is filled with writhing adders who spawn their young amidst the moss and leaf strewn tree roots. Locals will never venture near once the sun begins it slow descent over the nearby granite outcrops for it is when the dark mantle of night draws tight that the heinous denizens of the wood stalk the moor in search of their human victims. So be afraid, very afraid, as the wagging finger of fate warns you to stay clear and risk not your mortal soul in the ‘Wood of the Wisemen’ “

Houdini and Redshift

Been wanting to shift more into Houdini and Redshift lately and this weekend I had a little time to test out some particle tracers. Houdini just gives so much more control then Modo or Cinema 4d when it comes to FX, the little details really make the difference. It is rather difficult to parse though. Not a easy switch at all.