Would ya look at that, some new work of our’s just showed up in the wild, Nike Go FlyEase. Did some retouching and product swaps on this one. I’ll see if I can dig it up for the portfolio in a bit so you can see the build outs.
Epic Bought Artstation?
Wild, Epic Games just bought Artstation. I find what they are doing very interesting. Bought Megascans and Capturing Reality and now Artstation… hmmm….
And they made their learning portal free for the rest of the year.
“ArtStation Learning is free for the rest of 2021.
We’re also making ArtStation Learning free to all members for the remainder of 2021. ArtStation Learning is our streaming video service for artists. It features unlimited access to an ever-growing content library from industry professionals. Artists can expand their skills in a wide range of art topics and learn at their own pace. Head over to artstation.com/learning to get started.”
4-28-21 doodle
Just kinda wanted to riff on those tables that have resin cut out in them here. Tri-planer shader in Redshft came in handy while texturing the wood.
How Low-Rider Graphics Are Painted On Cars
This is pretty mezmerizing to watch. So many layers….
Doodle and notes and portfolio updates
I hate pinterest with the burning intensity of 10,000 suns. What a garbage site that spews out so much search engine spam on anything I search for. Good lord, try to google a CG technique and just see page after page of single linked junked with no info from pinterest. Anyways, just add this to your search to kill it.
-site:pinterest.*
The “*” is key as it kills EVERYTHING from that domain and they spew out so much crap just the “-site:pinterest” won’t clear it. Yeesh…
Two new portfolio pieces dropped on the home page as well. Some allbirds and some Nike both with CG elements.
And today’s doodle is a rehash of a older set for some EP cover art that got shot down.
Yesterday's doodles.
So I have been taking a bit of a creative hiatus / break for a bit to help with the COVID burnout and I opened Houdini for the first time since (checks blog posts) yikes, January. Was just messing around with some displacement and then the map box node to import the topo data on Mt Hood. These are the results of the stuff. I actually enjoyed the process and exploration of it again. Which was the goal of taking a break in the first place. Now I just need to update the portfolio….
Meh with a hint of Blah...
“At first, I didn’t recognize the symptoms that we all had in common. Friends mentioned that they were having trouble concentrating. Colleagues reported that even with vaccines on the horizon, they weren’t excited about 2021. A family member was staying up late to watch “National Treasure” again even though she knows the movie by heart. And instead of bouncing out of bed at 6 a.m., I was lying there until 7, playing Words with Friends.
It wasn’t burnout — we still had energy. It wasn’t depression — we didn’t feel hopeless. We just felt somewhat joyless and aimless. It turns out there’s a name for that: languishing.
Yeah, I can relate. Can’t get motivated to do diddly squat…
Files, a windows File Explorer replacment?
Windows File Explorer is kinda garbage IMO. How in the hell does it not have Tabbed browsing in 2021? Anyways, I found a program called “Files” that is a pretty solid alternative. Better looking UI, Tabbed browsing, all the usual shortcuts. Gonna use it in production all this week so I’ll see how it holds up. Looks promising though.
Little preview
Trying to get some new portfolio pieces organized and posted but not having a lot of time to set aside for that ATM. That said, here is a little before and after teaser that was fun.
Give the Drummer Some!
Great interviews here by J-Zone at “Give the Drummer Some”. More on this website as well. Give it all a listen!
Noedle - free texture maps!
Slack is talking about his new site for free texture maps, Noedle but the copy is where it’s at!.
“I always said the Earth was flat. How else could I have this beautiful Landscapes? Color, Normal and Displacement Texture to use on a flat surface.”
Pak on the frontier of NFTs.
Interesting interview with Pak on Foundation.
“As a creator who doesn’t self-define as an artist, I can only compare the crypto world with the design scene. There are many differences in intention, purpose, and value distribution. For a design production, the product* is generally assigned value based on how much time goes into the work’s creation, and the creator’s vision is substantiated based on their back-log of successes (aka their "portfolio"). The crypto space (specifically the #cryptoart space), on the other hand, can value ideas almost instantly. This valuation sometimes ignites the realization of the product*—which wouldn't exist in a traditional production world. In short, this scene makes some things* exist instantaneously.”
NFTs
We all know about Beeple and his crazy NFT sale at this point, but I am interested to see how this all shakes out. For so long now art and music has just been digital trash artist’s though out into crappy social media platforms for free and get nothing in return for creating their art. If it actually brings value back to creative pursuits I am all in. Checking out Nifty and Foundation ATM to see what the deal is. Will keep you posted on how it all goes.
Valheim - A Big 'ol Tips Megathread
I have been playing the ever-loving hell out of Valheim lately. It’s the most fun I have had in game in a long while. It just kinda does everything right and does not punish the player at any point. Highly recommend it!
I found a, “A Big 'ol Tips Megathread” on Reddit that has a lot of good ones though.
You can press the , and . keys to zoom the minimap in/out. You can Zoom all the way out and eventually see the entire map if you want.
Pressing the R key will sheath your weapons and shields, or anything you have in your hands. You will run faster if you have your hands free! Pressing the R key again will place the items back into your hands.
Press the Enter key to open up the chat box in Valheim. You can use some chat commands and emotes to communicate with your friends, (or enemies). Looking at you /challenge. [/s is used for a server-wide message and /w for whisper or close-pproximity chat]
Album Art Feature.
Got a little write up for some of my Album Artwork I did.
“Inertia by We Are Parasols is coming in hot with this rainbow orb! The art was created by Daniel Kopton . This feels like something I could see in a museum. It would make a great desktop background, too. A poster, even. Basically what I’m trying to say is that I love looking at this. The choice of using a bar code instead of text is bold, but I think it works well.”
The Mac Pro - a year in the studio
Interesting write up about using the Mac Pro in a 3d studio for a full year. They start testing it with Redshift and Octane at the end which is interesting. The USD previews are cool as well. The biggest thing for me is when they are caching a Houdini sim and can continue working in another program. My computer could not handle that for sure. But after being burned by the trash can mac, I don’t trust them to continue support for it. Interesting though.
“The Mac Pro has given us stability in complex workflows and enabled us to create larger, more detailed worlds than we have ever attempted before. We can animate more characters, paint larger textures and simulate more realistic effects. It allows us to work seamlessly across multiple applications simultaneously and we can continue to work while waiting for heavy tasks to process.
There is now more support than ever from developers. It’s great to see support for new technologies that take full advantage of the hardware like the Redshift and Octane GPU renderers and game engines like Unreal. Apple’s dedication to professionals and studio workflows is apparent with the integration of USD in the core of macOS.
The Pro Display XDR has given us the ability to work in the P3-DCI colour space for feature films and develop workflows for HDR which is something we can now offer to our clients with confidence.
We must address the elephant in the room, Apple silicon. We feel reassured that Apple has aided the transition with Rosetta 2 and noticed the cheeky inclusion of Maya already running on it in the announcement keynote. It’s also great to see the developers of the software we use announce support, like Chaos Group noting plans to support ARM based architectures with their V-Ray rendering engine later this year.”
Man, that is is freaking UGLY though……
Karan Gujar - DIORAMA.
Karan Gujar has created a lovely set of abstract landscapes on her Behance page, titled DIORAMA. The mood and simplicity of these is really compelling. I have been taking a sabbatical from most of my creative outputs lately but this series is kinda motivating me to create again.
Stanford study into “Zoom Fatigue” explains why video chats are so tiring
“The first cause for Zoom Fatigue suggested by Bailenson is the state of stressed hyper-arousal generated by excessive stretches of close-up eye contact. Unlike an in-person meeting, where participants will shift from looking at a speaker to other activities, such as note taking, on Zoom everyone is always staring at everyone.
The anxiety generated by a number of faces staring at you can be likened to the stresses of public speaking but amplified to a degree regardless of who is talking. Bailenson explains, from a perceptual standpoint, Zoom turns every participant on a call into a constant speaker smothered with eye gaze.”
I am not a fan of the zoom call. A) I have to do a hard search on everything in the studio to make sure nothing from another client is visible. B) I have to scrub my desktop if they want to screen share. Move their project to a seperate hard drive so and turn off all notifications in case a email or slack pops up. Which as far as I know, is really difficult to turn on in windows. It’s just too much of a risk for us here. And don’t forget, zoom calls are not encrypted. Then there is something about the video quality that gives me a instant headache. Conference calls are garbage enough, now lets add in shitty video with terrible lag, syc issues and bad lighting, YES! I WANT THAT!
Also, get off my porch. Ahem.
Larnell Lewis Hears "Enter Sandman" For The First Time : drums
This is a pretty fun thing to watch.
Music Friday
Snowed in pretty good up here in Portland, so snuggle up and listen to some tunes will ya?