Light sabers

And here's something I made goofing around, but never finished. So don't adjust your speakers, there's no sound...

Stars

Here are some stars (very similar to the ones seen in my Enterprise project) I'm testing for a CG short I'm writing and producing. It's an idea I've had for years. I have this unrealistic goal of getting nominated for an animated short Oscar. Whether that happens or not, at least once it's produced I can be rid of these images that are swimming around inside my head - ha ha.

Pale Blue Dot - well, maybe not quite so pale

The Earth below is a little better, though not perfect. I made it, the moon and the stars in Maya while I created the clouds in After Effects. I also did a small bit of color correction in AE to desaturate the blues - although I think more attention to color is needed here. The Earth and moon are NURBS spheres with high tesselation to get a smooth edge. The Earth's atmosphere is made with fluids. And the sunlight of course comes from one directional light. Although this is only a still frame, the Earth modelled here is fairly large - with XYZ scale values just shy of 4700 - in case I animate any camera moves with hero objects such as a starship (I've given a name to my pain and it is parallax.) This was rendered using Maya's software. Mental Ray produced an undesirable grid pattern on the planet - I'm not sure why. Have a click for a closer look...

Earth

Here's an Earth I made. Obviously I need to work on the lighting which spills past the horizon - but my main goal here was to create a realistic-looking atmosphere. I think this one is not quite right, but I'm getting there.

CG clouds

Here are some clouds I made in Maya using particles, a NURBS plane, and a lattice deformer...

Final project for Intro to Maya Class

Below is my final project for the Intro to Maya course I took. It needs more work, but this is the best I've done to date.

Very Rough Pre-Viz of Maya Class Project

The model needs a LOT more detail and texturing, the camera work needs adjusting, but here's a perfect example of how great audio can elevate a crappy video.

I LOVE Maya

For anybody who reads this blog, my apologies for the absence of recent film reviews. I'm immersed in computer graphics - possibly the coolest thing there is in the entire world, if not the Milky Way and neighboring galaxies. It's become an obsession. I listen to CG podcasts in the car, read CG magazines cover-to-cover, and am taking a class with a super cool instructor who makes it all look easy.

Above is a hand I modeled. It needs some more work, but it's getting there.

I'm pretty happy with how this light saber effect came out:

And here is a cool animation I made with a very simple effect:

And here is an UBER ROUGH Pre-Viz of a Star Blazers short I'm working on:

Anyway, this particular post will serve only those interested in learning CG. Below is a list of sites featuring references, tutorials and other CG related items. My inbox was getting too crowded with emails I sent to myself with the subject heading: "Check this site out too."

I promise there will be more film reviews in the future (and soon if the WGA strike happens this week!) Until then, here are some very helpful CG related websites for you aspiring CG artists in this or any galaxy:

Autodesk's community website:
http://area.autodesk.com/

Another good CG community website:
http://www.simplycg.net/

Texture a real person's face onto your 3D model!!!:
www.3dtutorials.sk/userimages/noesis/PhotoshopFacemaps/Photoshop_Facemaps.mov

Vehicle blueprints:
www.suurland.com
http://www.onnovanbraam.com/

Modelsheets and more:
http://www.animationmeat.com/

Modeling guides & Tutorials:
http://www.fineart.sk/
http://www.learning-maya.com/23-0-modeling-tutorials.html

Anatomy of a human being from planet Earth:
www.bartelby.com/107/

Medical images & illustrations:
www.mic.ki.se/Medimages.html#hematol
www.chiro.org/chimages/diagrams/ (Human Spine)
hon.nucleusinc.com/categorie...0&TL=512&A=1027

Boats:
www.modelismonaval.com/servi...arga_planos.htm
http://www.tutorialscentral.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=35&Itemid=30

Airplane blueprints and measurements:
avia.russian.ee/index2.html

Cars:
http://jpracing.racerplanet.com/modules/myalbum/viewcat.php?op=&cid=1
http://www.racesimcentral.com/

House references:
http://www.houseplans.com/

Smorgasboard:
qbranch.cottages.polycount.com/ref_links.shtml

CG Society:
forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?f=25&t=39710

How to render wireframes in Maya: http://www.konradbeerbaum.com/tutorial_wireframe.php

How to draw Bugs Bunny (traditional animation):
http://johnkstuff.blogspot.com/2007/10/heckling-hare-step-by-step-construction.html

Make an explosion in Maya:
http://72.14.253.104/search?q=cache:X5czZDppR24J:www.digitaltutors.com/digital_tutors/display_video_store.php%3Fvid%3D210+%22Fluid+effects%22+maya+explosion&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=1

Free sound effects site:
http://www.therecordist.com/pages/downloads.html

If anyone knows of a site featuring wireframes from Pixar films, please let me know.

In The Shadow Of The Moon

Director: David Sington
Rating: PG
Runtime: 100 minutes
Trailer: Click here to view
Release Date: September 7, 2007 (limited)
The Reel Man: 5 reels
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***MINOR SPOILER ALERT***
If humankind has a purpose, it is to explore and discover. From Magellan to Lewis and Clark, humans are driven as a species to, as one fictional Starfleet captain once said, "boldly go where no one has gone before." And there is no more awe-inspiring example of man’s quest for answers than NASA's Apollo space program. While the motivation to land a man (after all it was a boys' club back then) on the moon had very little to do with exploration, it is a triumph that also exists outside the politics of the Cold War.
With new interviews of the surviving Apollo astronauts, In The Shadow of the Moon relates through first-person accounts, the stakes, fears and discoveries of humankind's greatest achievement, peppered throughout with stunning archival footage. Looking back on their missions of the late 60's and early 70's, the astronauts are surprisingly animated, eloquent and even humorous - especially Alan Bean (Apollo 12) and Michael Collins (Apollo 11). Buzz Aldrin (Apollo 11) also delivers a big laugh when he recounts what he was first to do on the moon (hint: it rhymes with "kiss.") While one astronaut invokes the son of God (I'd like to see Jesus try and pilot the lunar module), I much prefer the presence of the more nondenominational, spiritual insights the journey impressed upon these men.
To the delight of conspiracy theorists who see it as a silent confirmation of the “truth,” first-man-on-the-moon, Neil Armstrong, turned down the opportunity to be interviewed for the film. His absence is a shame as it would be interesting to hear more from the Apollo 11 commander whose words (missing article forgiven) so perfectly encapsulated the real meaning of the mission. Perhaps it is just his reclusive nature or maybe he simply recognizes that the first lunar landing was not the accomplishment of one astronaut, but rather hundreds of thousands of scientists, engineers and other contractors behind the scenes, every bit as, and in many ways more, important than his contribution.
Our lives can be traced by the footprints we leave behind, and those footprints in the lunar dust left by a jury's worth of astronauts are profound ones to be sure. My father was there to watch the launch of Apollo 11, and I hope I am able to witness liftoff of the first manned (or wo-manned) mission to Mars.

The Pixar Story

Writer/Director: Leslie Iwerks
Runtime: 87 minutes
Release Date: August 28, 2007 (limited release)
The Reel Man: 2 reels
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I can write with some degree of authority about The Pixar Story. I have two subscriptions to animation magazines which I read cover-to-cover, I religiously attend the Oscar shorts festival every year specifically to see the entries in the Animated Short category, I dropped a thousand dollars on a CG course at UCLA Extension, and I am currently working on my first animated short film. Surprisingly, I found myself bored watching The Pixar Story.

With talking heads, behind the scenes video and enhanced photographs, the movie plays like an extended DVD-extra engineered to instill faith in stockholders. There is not a lot of new information here. Anyone remotely interested in computer animation is already very familiar with the evolution of Pixar, its triumphs and struggles, including its on-again, off-again relationship with the entertainment corporation headed by a gloved, but shirtless mouse seemingly suffering from a permanent overdose of Prozac.
In a small way, The Pixar Story is also guilty of the all too common crime in Michael Moore documentaries and Fox News reports: the half-truth. Of course, the subject matter here is not as important, nor does it try to be. But to instill a somewhat false sense of jeopardy, the film champions the "risk" Pixar took in hiring outside director Brad Bird to helm The Incredibles. It depicts his film, The Iron Giant, as a hand-drawn 2D animated feature… except, it isn't. Well, half of it isn't. In fact, the film’s title character is a CG creation rendered to look like hand-drawn 2D. Point being: Bird wasn’t so out of his element in the world of Pixar.
To be fair, the movie is not devoid of entertainment. There is a brief, but engaging segment in which an animator is given notes on a sequence from Finding Nemo where the clown fish appears to be on the verge of suicide. This part of The Pixar Story works to personalize the job of the animator and it adds a much needed, relatable human element that is missing from the majority of the film.
For those who know nothing about Pixar, this is certainly an opportunity to catch up, but I'd recommend instead watching Ratatouille which is still in theatres.