I wish I could draw » VFX

Another take on Predator

Spence — Sun, 14 Mar 2010 18:18:08 +0000

Robert Rodrigues is releasing a new Predator movie called, strangely, Predators. I was never a fan of the sequels to the totally entertaining 1987 original, but this looks like a fun ride.

Dog Boy Reviews Avatar

Spence — Sat, 27 Feb 2010 04:20:57 +0000

Really excellent facial animation work here. I’m not sure if this is an individual (if so, bravo!) or a studio trying for some kind of viral response.

SkyBoxes

Spence — Sat, 13 Feb 2010 21:37:25 +0000

Working on Skyboxes today.

Skyboxes are six images that are mapped onto a cube that follows the 3D camera around in a realtime 3D space. The skybox object is drawn first and then everything else is drawn on top of it. It simulates a big giant sky.

I’ll post a tutorial in a while, I need to get these done first:

A Paleontologists take on the critters of Pandora

Spence — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 22:06:14 +0000

Darren Naish, Tetrapod PHD fires off a really interesting scientists view of the creatures of the planet Pandora from James Cameron’s Avatar.

My 3-line Avatar review:

Spence — Sat, 19 Dec 2009 07:33:59 +0000

Best. Movie. Evar.

Avatar Designers Interview

Spence — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 05:50:18 +0000

A really excellent interview with several of the concept designers for James Cameron’s new Avatar. Super cool to see that Wayne Barlowe was on the team!

resurrecting the tumblr blog

Spence — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 05:50:07 +0000

There’s a need in my life for more complexity. So I’m starting a second blog.

VISICHUNK

Earth

Spence — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 03:42:22 +0000

Lot’s of talk back and forth about building planets and good ways of rendering them in the past few days. Here’s the latest Earth render:

We got the maps from the Blue Marble site over at NASA but the shaders are still not right in my opinion. Take a look at an actual shot of our Mom from space:

A giant version of this is available here and the Blue Marble mapping resources are here.

Stand Back! I’m going to try Science!

Spence — Sat, 10 Oct 2009 06:41:09 +0000

We’ve been working on a lot of new stuff – totally unable to find time to upload. Here’s a sample of some of the science-focused work we’ll be doing in the next year:

Electron Micrograph look and feel. This is spectacularly difficult to tune.

DNA Strand.

Mother Earth. May she continue to bear our weight.

TwitSpam

Spence — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 00:10:02 +0000

I have a search on the #VFX hashtag running all the time. It’s cool to see what other visual effects artists are doing. Occasionally, a studio will have all their employees fire off a tweet that points back to them, either through a direct link or just the inclusion of a hash tag. This is what some people are calling “Social Marketing”. I call it spamming and it’s rude.

So Stop it.