Wednesday, December 31, 2008

When the Sun Sets

Here are more shots taken at Boardwalk, Thunderbird Resorts here in San Fernando, La Union.  Color corrected and merged with GIMP.  ^_^

(click to enlarge)

Delight

We were preparing for New Year's Eve then me and my mom decided to take a break and took this photo instead.  She was holding the wonder effects and me holding Akita, and together composed this shot.  ^_^

(click to enlarge)

Visited Panorama

YipeeEe! My first panorama ever! ^_^

This was harder than I thought but most satisfying. Thanks to my baby cam Akita, Hugin, and GIMP.


(click to enlarge)


Tuesday, December 30, 2008

Journey

After several months of not being able to visit one of the greatest spots here in San Fernando, me and my family have finally decided to stroll over. The place I'm referring to is the Boardwalk over at Thunderbird Resorts here in San Fernando City, La Union. Though only a few people has entrance there, it's an opportunity I wouldn't like to miss, since I would be having the subjects I want with ease and an absence of distraction. Here's a photo I took during the sunset, lying over the grass and crossing my fingers as I press the shutter button. I hope you like it. ^_^


(click to enlarge)


Monday, December 29, 2008

Meet Agatha

I don't remember posting any photos of Agatha (my PC) before, so I might as well take this moment to let you see her.  Be careful though, she's very picky. Just give her the dearest tender loving care and you'll be fine with each other. ^_^

Below are some of her pictures (click to enlarge):

Into the Light

I took this picture late last night after arriving home from a tedious club-dancing activity. The challenges I had to face was the low light condition, distant subject, shaky hands, and sleepy eyes.  But somehow I managed to overcome most of those. What I did was to mount my camera on top of our car, zoomed in, timed it up, and focused and click. ^_^

Thanks so much for viewing.  Click the thumbnail to zoom the image.

Saturday, December 27, 2008

Meet Akita

I present you, Akita, my new baby. ^_^ Agatha (my PC) and Akita has had no direct contacts yet, probably in a few days or so, I'll let them get acquianted with each other. She's the best Christmas present my dad has ever given me.  Thanks, dad! My thanks goes also to miss Junysel for letting me know of this and had been very patient and kind enough to spend time searching for and buying the item for me. Ohhh, I really am too excited to even compose a decent sentence.  Anyhow, I'm posting the photos of my new baby which you can see below.  I took them with my dad's vodafone which eventually became mine, adding to my dad's presents for me.  Yay.

So, what else can I say? Meet Akita, my new Fujifilm Finepix S9600 digicam. Enjoy.







Wednesday, December 24, 2008

Tablet Setup Successful

WeeeEeee! I finally got my Genius Tablet working under Ubuntu Interpid Ibex.  It was quicker than I thought.  In Windows, that would have taken me like an hour, figuring out this and that, unplugging, plugging, etc. I don't know why it happens and probably doesn't know how to workaround in Windows, but my tablet just acts abnormally. Whenever I'm in GIMP and I activate the device, my mouse (literally it's buttons) deactivates itself from within GIMP.  I dunno why though. O_o  I'm really into Ubuntu right now.  Hopefully, I could get the hang on using this device until new year.

Thanks so much to Felix Leong for his friendly and informative guide on how to setup the tablet. ^_^

You can find the post here > http://digitalbluewave.blogspot.com/2008/10/genius-wizardpen-with-intrepid-ibex.html

Below was a quick test I did.

And my GIMP screeny:

Monday, December 22, 2008

Mac VS Windows ^_^

Over the past few years, many have debated over the choice between Mac and Windows (why aren't Linuses on the list?).  I myself have been baffled by some astounding facts from each of the parties.  But well, it all boils down to personal preference, budget, and some nice short movie to catch your attention, so here goes (originally seen from reddit.com).



Kingsport's Second International Digital Art Show

I'm so glad I qualified in Kingsport's second international digital artshow held at Tennessee, USA last December 7 up to this day. I was the only artist representing the Philippines and felt so privileged that I have been.

You can see the entire list here > http://www.paraisoenterprises.com/DAS2008.htm

Sunday, December 21, 2008

Google Sketchup and Wine


Last year, I stumbled upon another free 3d application while browsing over randomly, looking for other Blender-like software that does the same, Google Sketchup. Though I would rarely use other 3d application other than Blender, this case is different. Since I would really would want to indulge myself into architectural designs and have been very interested with it since I entered 3D design, I might as well give it a try.

Reading through several comments and forum discussions, I guess there's no stopping for now, I have to learn what I have to. And I found out it's fast, lightweight, and just so easy to use. So the learning curve wouldn't be that steep as learning any other 3d app for that matter. And then again, I'd be stressing the "free application" phrase since I wouldn't want to violate some rights and my personal mindset.

My workflow would probably be to model the general shape and structure of a building, house, object, etc. and then import it over in Blender for further tweaking. It wouldn't hurt to try new things, would it? 

But since I'm running Ubuntu on my machine right now, I might as well emulate the app on my currently running OS as though it was running on Windows, and for that I'll be using WINE.  So there goes, wish me luck and more fun! ^_^

Wednesday, December 17, 2008

Ubuntu 8.10 Ethernet Problem [SOLVED]

It has been two days of continuous suffering, frustration, and an almost given up struggle on fixing a problem that I have very little knowledge on how to provide a solution. Just recently, I decided on switching over to Ubuntu 8.10 Intrepid Ibex (for reasons I could probably be writing on another blog post), everything went well, from partitioning, installation, to boot loading... YET one of the most important features was missing: MY INTERNET CONNECTION, FTW! The problem begins after booting Ubuntu over in a partitioned hard disk, where normally the Ethernet LED would light up just when an OS was loaded, but to my surprise, after Ubuntu has been loaded, the LED suddenly turns off, and I really don't have an idea why.  I feared there might be a conflict with the distro and my ethernet card, or any other component that's responsible for my internet connection for that matter.  I've googled around my way on the vast world wide web and to my disappointment, found nothing but pure gibberish and technical specs (which I have knowledge of, but not quite) that haven't so far given me solutions.

And just when I was at the verge of deleting this OS, and trying out other Linux distro (which I would suspect be having the same problem), I tried once more to google my way around, indicating the most specific keywords possible.  This time, I really did specify everything.  So I did "ubuntu 8.10 realtek 8139 ethernet not working", and voila, just on the top of the list are links which doubtedly made sense, yet felt so uninspiring to me.  But well, it's something or nothing, so I did check out those sites and finally, yes FINALLY, there's the solution to my problem. I found out it's not Ubuntu that's making this wrong, but it's the chip settings themselves, or probably the setting which Windows initially did after plugging itself on to my system.

Just in case you wanted to know how I did solve the problem with my ethernet connection under Ubuntu, please pay a visit to both of these sites:

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=914785

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=538448

3rd Anniversary Present

Last September 21, 2008, I and my lovely girlfriend celebrated our 3rd year anniversary together. I haven't thought of anything physical to give her that day, so a week before that, I planned on giving her a CD containing a short movie I made. And so that's what I did. I never thought strip editing, transitions, etc. could be that time-consuming but very exciting. And I was so happy with how it turned out. ^_^

I looooooOoove her so much!

Here's the video I made for her, hope you like it too:



Low Quality



High Quality


Monday, December 15, 2008

Blender Physics Test

Following the Cloth Test I did last time, here's another series on the tests I'm doing. This is a physical simulation test done within Blender to test out how the bullet physics engine behaves in certain situations given a number of preferences.  Unlike Ragdoll physics or Euphoria, Bullet physics underperforms under some circumstances like real-life reaction to physics, organic bending, etc.  But Bullet Physics alone is a comprehensive and powerful physics engine, so much that it had been used several times already to make realistic games via the BGE (Blender Game Engine).

Below is a simple test I did with Blender's Physical Simulation via the Blender Game Engine, where I recorded the natural motion and collision to IPOs and later tweaked them over the IPO editor.  Added the corresponding materials, composited, rendered, and sequence edited. Everything was done inside of Blender, including the rendering.



Animation:



Low Quality:



High Quality:



Images (click to enlarge):




Scene Setup (click to enlarge):



Have fun! More tests to come. ^_^

Helping the Poor


hen I was in college, I never really have given much thought on how I would run my life after, on what kind of profession would I be pursuing, but time does fly fast, and here I am now blogging about an article I thought of years ago but was hesitant to write due to my state of mind back then.  Currently, I'm working as a freelance graphic artist and I never thought it to be this so much fun! Everyday is almost a new day for me, learning everything I can with every time I spend infront of my computer.  I earned money reasonably, made impressions, etched signatures, travelled distances, etc.  But that's just a means to an end, there's more to my life than just sitting here, earning money, and being happy and making others happy.

Just a few months ago, I thought seriously on my own life and my future and thought even wider after that and realized a few hurting realities in this world, including this humble land I am in, the Philippines.  As you might have already known, the Philippines is one of the smallest countries, categorized being a 3rd world country due to irrational reasons that up to now hasn't baffled me but instead enraged my inner conscience.  Being such, I was so lucky to have experienced both the glories of life and the mind-sickening taste of life's downsides.  By glorious I mean living a prosperous life, having all those expensive toys, gadgets, etc.  That was primarily due to my dad being one of the most influential people in our place back then.  We've had so many cars, bodyguards, money, and the like.  I used to go to school with bodyguards with me because my dad feared those concerned enemies of his might kidnap me or something like that.  We went playing outside with bodyguards as well.  So probably now, you get the picture. But living that kind of life is a real pain in the ass, you can't move a finger without being watched by somebody.  You can't even eat a right meal with your parents, since they're always out on a business.  It feels good to have experienced those things in life, but that's when I learned at an early age that money isn't everything, that it can't actually buy you happiness because if it did, I wouldn't have been that lonely back then.  I wouldn't have been the bastard and bully kid I have been.

But everything that goes up will eventually come down, as in my case.  A couple of years after that, I was a teenager then, there I experienced one of the most horrifying and saddening truths of life.  The cars we used to have were gone, that includes the money we had back then.  I went to school not with bodyguards, but an undersized leather shoe which looked like it would be torn anytime then, a stitched bag, a couple of used pencils, shirts, pants, etc.  In short, we were so poor sometimes we don't have something to eat. Our room has had crawling cockroaches everywhere, rats running around, you name it.  And coming from a rich background, that would have been so hurtful for me to appreciate, but I didn't hold a grudge against that time of my life, instead I felt contented that I was still alive and breathing and thought to myself that there are even worse cases out there that I have to see and was lucky enough I hadn't been in their own shoes.  I used to cry for that kind of mishap we had been into.  So much that my classmates used to have the newer toys and school supplies while I've had the toys you'd get free from buying a one peso snack and having school supplies that have been given by other neighbors.  But the most important thing that we have back then was the family bond we had that was so firm and happy, despite the bitterness life has given upon us.

But as time went by, we used to learn from our own mistakes and here we are now, living an average and happy life, away from richness or poverty.  And those kinds of experiences has lead me into the right man I am now, contented and very happy.  Reminiscing those moments brings back the laughter and sadness in me. 


Through the travels I've been through, I've seen people experience an even worse state of living than the way we used to.  That brought a longing feeling deep inside me.  That's why whenever I can, I used to give the unfortunate kids on the streets some money they could buy food with and felt a gratifying happiness deep within me.  After years of thought, I finally decided, once I stabilize myself well enough, the poor would be one of the first few people I'd be helping, I know it sounds very ambitious but I'll try and I will.

There's nothing much more satisfying than making other people happy.  From this time on, I'll start running the course of life, not a race, but a journey.  A journey to helping the people who deserves to be helped.

Wish me luck on this journey.  ^_^

Friday, December 12, 2008

Blender Drum Sync

During my years of Blendering, I have never ever ever thought of synching a rock beat music (those that make me bang my head over and over) to an animation, probably just because it is soooooOoo difficult to do since it requires you do keyframe (not to mention motion capture) in a tedious way.  But while browsing over on fellow blogger's pages, I found this very awe-strucking and holy s***ing animation of a drum synch.  Yup.  It is.  Found this on digipintura.blogspot.com.  But for readability sakes, I'm embedding the video here as well, courtesy of DigiPintura and Wayne Berry (the creator).





drumsync : an experiment from wayne berry on Vimeo.

Cloth Simulation and Particle Interaction Test with Blender

Whew! What a very lengthy title, yay! ^_^

I was doodling around with Blender last night, reviewing Blender out of boredom.  Things like cloth simulation, particle interaction, forces, node editing, and sequence editing. Below you can see the animation, image strips, and my final scene setup inside Blender.



Animation:


Low quality (faster loading):


High quality (slower loading):



Images (click to enlarge):



Scene setup (click to enlarge):

Thursday, December 11, 2008

Chang Kai Shek Blender Workshop

Last November 29 I held a workshop for the students of Chang Kai Shek College in Manila, Philippines. I covered topics from the most basic (interface, 3D view manipulation, primitives, etc.) to some intermediate ones like character modelling, rigging, skinning, and character animation.

I started out with an introduction to Blender and it's current development state with a film viewing of Elephant's Dream just to give them an idea on what Blender can produce at the time. The workshop lasted for 3 hours, half of which were done with hands-on in Blender and the other on theoretical discussions. During every topic, I showed them some of the animations I did with regards to what I'm currently discussing. And lastly, to wrap things up and to conclude the workshop, we watched Big Buck Bunny.

It was so much fun teaching the students of Chang Kai Shek! Not only are they very attentive, but they catch up easily to what I was trying to discuss.

Below are the photos of the said workshop:

Wednesday, December 10, 2008

Visual Effects Test with Blender

During my past weeks of absence on the net, I have had a couple of adjustments to do, mostly physiological ones and some technical.  One of which is my workflow with Blender. While staying in Manila, I was so boosted up that I didn't notice time pass by and ideas emerge abruptly.

Basing primarily from my boss's idea and the storyboard I came up with, I tried to test my imagination's limits by pushing it further where I haven't tried before. This is for a preload advertisement for iMashups Web Technology Solutions.  All of which were done in Blender (for the animation sequence, models, and scene) and GIMP (for touchups).


Effects include fire, smoke, swirling trails, and gas fumes.  

Here's the initial VFX sequence:








Strips from the same sequence (click to enlarge):



And a screenshot of my scene setup (click to enlarge):

Bolt (Movie Review)

Walt Disney did it again. And this time, it's a whole new kind.

Since the history of film making and 3d animation, many have attempted to release and produce movies primarily intended for kids and family alike. And this has become the trend since then. And I have been one of those fans. But as I grew up, I learned about the technical aspects involved and started seeing things in a different light. Where some of the movies that amazed me before became a point of critique on my part. And up to this time, I can only remember two animated movies that has touched my heart and gave me some real life lessons to live on. "Kung Fu Panda" and "Bolt", both of which are inmeasurable and incomparable. But I'll take this moment to talk about the latter.

Bolt, unlike any other animated films out there, has a heart in its own. Sometimes, there are movies where it kept you laughing because you had people beside you to laugh with, or because you were somehow psychologically obliged to, but I tell you, when I watched Bolt, I was alone, and I kept laughing like a crazy monkey. It exceeded my initial expectation of the movie. On a technical perspective, there had been some glitches on how some characters interact, but that's beyond the point. The whole focus of the movies produced by these animation companies is the story, beyond anything else. And it did work, it did. This is the kind of film that will have you seated and make you cry with joy every minute of the movie.

The sound effects scores 10/10, graphics 9/10, and story 10/10. No movie has ever made me this happy and excited.

To those of you who haven't watched the movie yet, go buy your copy, or better yet, buy yourself a ticket and watch in on the big screen.

Until the next time I see you, Bolt.

Tuesday, December 9, 2008

Naruto Shippuden 86-87

This episode of Naruto Shippuden is one of the best I have ever watched! It's so packed with action and the scenes are just so unpredictable that probably even the greatest fan of anime couldn't tell what's gonna happen next. I love this episode. I love Naruto! Thanks so much to the creators and to the subtitle artists for providing us with the best subs and translation I have seen.

You can check out this streaming video to see what I was talking about > http://tailedfox.com/page-naruto-shippuden-86-87

New Devices!

I have been net-absent for about 2 weeks already and I'm so glad I'm back to normal. Though those 2 weeks seemed like eternity for me. It's like entering a magical room of learning where two weeks of learning would normally take a year outside.

Getting back home from a 7-hour ride, I'm happy to report some great news. First of which is me having a new Genius G-Pen 340 Pen Tablet, it's smaller than I thought, but I can compensate for the size for now, and I'm hoping my drawing needs would be much easier now since I won't have to carefully and steadily draw with my mouse. I also bought my self a new black a4tech keyboard, just got sick of my old whitish keybooard which ruined my computer dark theme for some reason and I feel much comfortable with this new keyboard, applying only a small amount of force avoiding having repetitive strain injury.

Until my next updates! ^_^

1st Filipino Blender Meetup Successful

Blender, one of the world's most powerful open source 3d application has indeed influenced nations around the globe, and with this regard, I would not forget to mention how this impact affected our country the Philippines. A year ago, we decided to put up an online community/user group just to gauge how much of the 3d artist population in the Philippines are among the Blender circle, and we were surprised to know that what we had initially expected was far beyond the actual data we had. And with this in mind, we started to propagate the user group with tidbits of information and possibly be one of the greatest resource of Filipino Blender 3d artists here in the Philippines.

And just recently, we planned and posted an article on the user group regarding an attempt to meetup with the members of the user group, if not all, at least. And the huge feedback was just awesome. Last 2008 December 26, this attempt of ours had been finally realized, we met some of the members of the community and was very happy with how the meetup went.

We were highly invigorated and energized that every member of the meetup were there to share their thoughts on Blender and open source in general. We discussed topics about the open source community, its history, our involvement in it, Blender as an industry tool, and other future plans which mostly involves Blending.

Until the next time we meet, PinoyBlender members! Below are the photos of the meetup: