The Dorsoduro Supermoto was a bit of new ground for me. I’ve modeled a Supermoto before, but not like this, and not in Maya. The engine of the bike is largely exposed and that meant it had to look good, but I was also shooting for a reasonable polygon count.
A large number of key components are modeled using four sided polygons or “quads”, enabling them to be smoothed programmatically.
A while ago, I saw the I Love Sketch Video for the first time and I was blown away. I kept hoping that it would not be one of those university projects that us mere consumers never get to experience (see the Jeff Han demo with the large multitouch screen)
Recently I received an email from Seok-Hyung Bae (that was probably addressed to all the people who emailed him over the past year or so asking about the project) and it said that they’ve got a new paper out and that the I Love Sketch/Everybody Loves Sketch is currently in alpha form, and he’ll let everyone know when it’s in beta form.
More info can be found at the I Love Sketch Homepage: http://www.ilovesketch.com/
I really can’t remember the last time I got this excited about a piece of software, and if you haven’t seen it yet, I’ve embedded the newer video below for your viewing pleasure: Read More
This is a simple 3D icon that I made for one of the PreCentral.net developers (drnull). His original icon was great, in fact it looked just like this one. While I thought it was a suitable icon and I liked the message the RSS-wearing headphones conveyed, I thought that it lacked depth, and it looked a bit flat and plain when placed next to the other first-party icons on the Palm Pre.
I grabbed the RSS icon from Wikipedia and used drnull’s color scheme and design, but rebuilt the icon from 3D objects. Since PrePod is open source, I even grabbed a copy of the code and packaged it with my new icon.
After posting the icon on the forum, drnull said he would package it with the next release of PrePod. All in all, I had fun making it and I’m glad that my effort gets to live on as an application icon for one of the most modern, slick mobile phone operating systems.
Here is a screen capture of the icon in the Palm Pre launcher.
Most of us have held an accelerometer in the palm of our hand quite recently. Can’t figure out when? Still trying? iPhone. The iPhone and iPod Touch both use accelerometers to sense how they are being oriented. Need another example? How about the ever fun Nintendo Wii? The Nintendo Wii uses a 3-Axis accelerometer (in each remote) to sense how you are holding the controller. Read More
Recently I have been fiddling with quite a few open source applications, and I’d love to share some of my thoughts. Maybe some of you would like to try a few of these trinkets of freedom.
Ubuntu, which is a version of Debian Linux, is essentially a free and open-source operating system. No copy protection, in fact it is encouraged that you share the discs with your friends. The bottom line is that this is a free, popular (relatively), and powerful operating system that works pretty well on most hardware. There are versions for Power-PC and intel Macs, Intel and AMD based x86 and x64 systems, and I believe there is even a version that will install onto a Playstation 3. Read More
Recently, I was given a Maya 6 book. I thought it might have a few useful tips and tricks that were useful back when version 6 was all the rage. I was pleasantly surprised when I started reading it and found that the book contained a few really cool techniques and explanations.
I now realize that all the newest features of software usually dominates the newer books, but if you have the time and or patience, it pays to go back to the beginnings.
In this little screen-cast, I will briefly show how two of these tools, Align and Snap Align are useful to me. Read More
Many challenges come upon 3D artists, but doing photo-realistic compositions is all too familiar to me. At my previous job (EyeScreamAnimation) I was often given the task of lining up photos of empty construction sites or hillsides with 3D models for compositions like this one. In those cases, the model being lined up was usually a 3D building. For this project in my Advanced Visual Effects class, I chose to use my latest motorcycle model, a Kawasaki ZX-6R Ninja as the subject, and the school parking lot as the background plate. While it’s refreshing to composite a scene that’s not a building, I still feel that the image isn’t quite satisfying. The more I look at this image, the more reasons I list of why it is technically correct. While on the other hand, I feel that I am my own worst critic. Read More
Panoramic images can be roughly defined as: A wide angle Photograph or Illustration. These images are not simply captured with a wide angle lens, but usually the term refers to the stitching together of a horizontal sequence of images to form an ultra wide angle view of a space or landscape. The great thing about these panoramas is that anyone with a digital or film camera can easily capture and stitch these images by following a few simple guidelines. Read More
A post I made in January 2005 on a forum that’s now gone:
“I have decided to do a W.I.P. entailing a lot of atmosphere and a poetic nature … While exploring my artistic side, if I even have one, I’ve decided to model and render a scene containing no bolts, gears or tires. So, I give you the first render of my W.I.P. called ‘Awaiting Company’.”
The original scene had a lady wearing a hat at the end of the hall, and she was indeed awaiting company – a lover’s rendezvous if you will. I got the scene to a point where I was tweaking the lighting and making adjustments to the camera angle. Read More
My previous attempt at creating a 100% non-overlapping UV map was not very successful. Thus, I have substituted most of the UV map in favor of my previous technique of mapping – stacking.
Stacking UVs that have common surface properties such as black plastic, chrome, polished aluminum, can greatly reduce the region needed to texture in these areas. Additionally, you can stack symmetrical parts like headlights and turn signals. Read More
This carburetor model will be fed into a rapid-prototyping machine for use in a scale model. The carburetor will be used in a 1:5 replica of a ’74 TZ350 that originally raced in Australia. Some parts will be metal, some hand fabricated alloy, and other bits (like this one) will be created by rapid-prototyping. Read More
The thing about 3D models is that every time you add more detail, the model becomes more difficult to work with in your 3D application. This is especially true if you are animating the model.
The great thing about ZBrush is that you can import a low detail mesh, add fine details in ZBrush, then export those details to your original low detail mesh and apply them as a special type of texture: A Normal Map ← thats a link to a Wikipedia article with one image that says it all.
Here’s a preview video of the lip-syncing, audio, and camera movement. Read More