Bleep Blorp.

Wants to hang out with you asap, and is now free to do so!

Thu, 23 Jun 2011 03:39:11 -0400

Wants to hang out with you asap, and is now free to do so!

it's vfx crunch time; I'll pop up for air in about a month. Love and hugs :)

Thu, 19 May 2011 00:05:03 -0400

Final Destination 5 Trailer - One of the shots I worked on is at...

Mon, 09 May 2011 17:50:00 -0400

Final Destination 5 Trailer - One of the shots I worked on is at the 58 second mark :)

A really good read! If you play videogames and had...

Fri, 19 Nov 2010 13:36:00 -0500

A really good read! If you play videogames and had relationships, you can relate to this comic. Time is money!!

“A lot of us do it. Can you blame us? We’re just trying to be smart shoppers, especially during times like these. We like to make sure we enjoy our free time, and sometimes if we can get equal entertainment while spending less, we will! That’s just one of the many reasons why gamers are smart folks”

Read the whole comic here: http://www.4colorrebellion.com/archives/2010/11/19/time-and-money-go-hand-and-hand/

A quick design for a t-shirt for my Roller Derby team!

Thu, 18 Nov 2010 02:35:34 -0500

A quick design for a t-shirt for my Roller Derby team!

Amazing character editor in the works for Eve

Wed, 17 Nov 2010 21:29:31 -0500

Amazing character editor in the works for Eve

Using Primatte in Nuke

Fri, 22 Oct 2010 14:51:00 -0400

Here’s another list of tips for using Primatte in Nuke.

-Instead of using sliders to adjust the matte, use the “Operation” pull-down and key out the areas on each section, starting with “Select BG Colour” and working your way down the list.

-BG Colour: Get a single pixel key on the main greenscreen for the overall key-BG Noise: Do box selection to get rid of all the BG noise around the character. It’s helpful to bump up the gamma to really see what’s going on here.

-FG Noise: You want to select areas within the character you are trying to keep in the FG, so you get a solid core. Slam the viewer gamma down to make sure there aren’t any holes in the core.

-Spill Sponge: Control-Click select along any edges of FG meeting the BG to get rid of the spill.

-Spill(-): Use to remove spill within the core. This will not effect the alpha. ONLY use single pixel selections, no drag selections or it will mess up the colour space.

-Spill(+): Puts the spill back into the image. This works well if there are discoloured pixels from using Spill(-). Select only the discoloured pixels.

-Matte Sponge: Used to define areas that are to be 100% opaque. Which to alpha channel when using. Click and drag sections in the core to make it 100% opaque.

-Matte(+): Use to increase the matte core, good for wispy hair. Again, this is for finer adjustments only so only do single pixel selections.

-Matte(-): Good for softening the edges in a motion blur so the alpha isn’t so sharp. Drag+click is ok for this-Restore Detail: Pops detail back into the comp that was already completely transparent.

-Detail(+): Like “Restore Detail” only much more finer adjustments.

-Detail(-): Pulls detail very finely out of the comp. Good to crank up the gamma when using this.
-Fine Tuning Sliders: Whatever colour you pick, the sliders will operate on that colour.

-L-Poly(Large Poly)Spill: Only affects the spill, but not affecting the matte.

-M-Poly(Middle Poly)Trans: Affects the middle core of the matte will move in and out.

-S-Poly(Small Poly)Detail: This effects the outside of the matte. This affects the boundary edge detail of the matte.

Primatte Autocompute Button: Makes a quick matte for you based on math.

-Auto BG factor: Affects where the matte meets the black. Adds or removes detail. You have to press the autocompute botton again before it takes effect.

-Auto FG factor: Moves the core of the matte in and out from the edge.-Viewer checkbox: Shows you visually the polygone that is your key
Spill Process: replace with:

-Compliment: Replaces greens spill with magenta, bluescreen with yellow, etc -Solid colour: Use any colour you want to replace with -defoucused background: uses the BG as the spill and it’s blurred
Garbage matte: Make a roto node under the FG footage. Select output of roto to “Alpha” only. -In Primatte, check of “use mask” and select “rbga.alpha” as the input

Output Modes:

-You probably want to use the “premultiplyed” option for this step

-You have to colour correct outside of Primatte. Make a grade node below Primatte.

-Make sure to check the (un)premultiplyed by “rgba.alpha” on the Grade Node

-To add the BG, add a merge node to the Grade Node and plug the BG into it as well

Basic tips on using Keylight in Nuke

Thu, 21 Oct 2010 15:21:00 -0400

Using Keylight:

Tuning:
-Tuning adjusts the spread of the shadows and midtones, and highlights.-For the tuning tab, uses 0.18 for the midtones which works better with Nuke’s linear lightspace than the default 0.5

Bias:

Used with serious discoloured elements.

-Alpha Bias would work if there is too much red in the Key, pull the colour from the FG element

-Despill Bias: Sample the source image, not the keyed image. Fixes hair spill issues, on the edges.

Multipass Keying:
-Get a core matte from the FG element, then set it to “Intermediate Result” for export of Keylight node.

-Connect this as the Source of the other Keylight which is plugged into the BG-Key it and then select “Combined Matte”

-On the “Inside Mask” tab, enable the Inside Mask from the source alpha

-Use the “Inside Replace Colour” to fix any alpha issues when viewing the “Status” level

Forground colour correction:

-Add a Grade node after Keylight

-Make sure to select premult by rbga.alpha channel

-Add a merge node and connect it to the BG

-Now you can colour correct outside of Keylight prior to the composite.

This guy is awesome. He’s like the Kris Angel of...

Tue, 19 Oct 2010 02:34:14 -0400

This guy is awesome. He’s like the Kris Angel of Germany…but instead of doing magic he does…visual effects? Damn he’s got nicer eyelashes than I do, jealous!

Minecraft: How to play Spleef as well as a tour of the Spleef...

Fri, 08 Oct 2010 19:58:28 -0400

Minecraft: How to play Spleef as well as a tour of the Spleef Stadium

sirmitchell: I hope its coming out on 360 as well. Can’t...

Fri, 17 Sep 2010 02:31:58 -0400

sirmitchell:

I hope its coming out on 360 as well. Can’t wait!

[ popculturebrain & gawkertv ]

My thoughts before I play Halo Reach

Mon, 13 Sep 2010 18:24:00 -0400

One thing I dislike about the majority of video game reviews is the lack of context. Lack of context to the history and the culture of videogames in general. Take Halo Reach for example. I can’t help but plot out in my mind all the Halo games in the past and how they relate to Halo Reach. Here are some of my thoughts on the past and present of Halo.

I originally bought the old Xbox just because of Halo 1. My friends and I would do 16 player Halo lans all the time and it was basically the next Goldeneye for us as far as the evolution of console FPS go. The single player campaign was equally as fun and something that open and at that scale at the time was unheard of. Still my favourite Halo game to this day.

Halo 2 comes around and is all like “oh hai, we’re on your xbox lives naow” so played a shit load of online Halo 2 with that. The matchmaking system was amazing at the time and really allowed you to show the world how badass you could be at Halo. The dual wielding was fun, but overall not as balanced as the original game. I really missed my pistol from Halo 1 in a big way. The single player was decent, but it didn’t really break any new grounds. I thought the additions of the Brutes to the story was rather boring in general, and the covenant always seemed more interesting. They just failed to keep it simple and the story gets very political and reminded me of long winded parts of the Phantom Menace.

Years go by and Halo 3 comes out too little too late. It is the game for multilayer what Halo 2 should have been with all the customizable gametypes, Forge, etc. The problem was by this point Halo was becoming less relevant and we oversaturated by Halo stuff by then. Soon after, COD 4 came out and changed everything for the console shooter as far as gameplay mechanics and customizable loadouts, graphics etc. Halo 3 didn’t have the best graphics by far and I always thought the campaign dragged on especially all the levels that involved the Flood.
ODST was ok, but should have been DLC for Halo 3 or just a $15 game. It wasn’t long enough for fun enough to pay $60 for. Firefight was pretty fun but it didn’t have a ton of levels and content to keep myself interested for long. It was barely Halo 2.5 for me.

Halo Reach beta. I played the beta and for me it was similar to the problems with Halo 3; it’s relevance in gaming has dwindled. Newer games like MW2 have changed the way we play FPS games, but Halo Reach has the gameplay and controls of a game from 2004. It’s still about tons of shields, “Halo jumping”, picking up weapons on the map, etc. They are trying to make it more relevant by adding in “perks” like jet packs and that shield thing, but they aren’t fully detail custom classes like modern FPS. It’s like a Frankenstein FPS with elements of old and new poorly put together. Something like “sprinting” should not be a special perk, it should just be a basic game mechanic already there. Even the graphics aren’t mind blowingly good, they’re just a bit more detailed then Halo 3.

I’m done ranting. Bottom line: Bungie needs to get with the times and stop making FPS’s that feel like they belong in 2003. I love the original Halo but Bungie really hasn’t innovated that much since then.

Nini-Chan Marries a Videogame Character: Part 3 The saga...

Wed, 01 Sep 2010 04:21:32 -0400

Nini-Chan Marries a Videogame Character: Part 3 The saga continues. What will happen next? Oh the drama. I’m off to PAX as of Thursday, so don’t expect another update till I get back on Monday. Have a wonderful weekend, and I hope to see you at PAX as well.

Nini-Chan Marries a Videogame Character: Part 2 Nini-Chan is...

Mon, 23 Aug 2010 20:44:33 -0400

Nini-Chan Marries a Videogame Character: Part 2

Nini-Chan is what you would call an eccentric dresser of sorts. This is part 2 of the continued story of Nini-Chan marrying Bridget. Check out last week’s comic for the start of the journey.

Nini-Chan Marries a Videogame Character: Part 1 There are days...

Fri, 20 Aug 2010 20:01:03 -0400

Nini-Chan Marries a Videogame Character: Part 1

There are days when Nini-Chan has good ideas, and this just isn’t one of those days.

Legend of Neil, Season 1, Ep. 1 -- The Beginning

Tue, 17 Aug 2010 20:09:21 -0400

Legend of Neil, Season 1, Ep. 1 -- The Beginning:

How have I never seen this before? Legend of Neil is this parody of this guy who ends up in the world of Zelda and he must fight he way out of the video game.

blehmeng: itemforty: contentpending: Goodbye.

Fri, 30 Jul 2010 12:49:17 -0400

blehmeng:

itemforty:

contentpending:

Goodbye.

Latest Nini-Chan is all about PAX. Let the drunken debauchery...

Wed, 28 Jul 2010 20:48:08 -0400

Latest Nini-Chan is all about PAX. Let the drunken debauchery begin!

This is what happens to you after you graduate from art school.

Fri, 16 Jul 2010 19:09:22 -0400

This is what happens to you after you graduate from art school.

Video

Fri, 16 Jul 2010 16:50:52 -0400