Blend it all together

This year I made a switch to Blender 3D from Maya. Quite simply I was tired of looking for ways to make maya talk to external renderers just to get the look I wanted. Now I'm happy to say I'm glad to be learning Blender's other superb built in features too.

I was initially attracted to Cycles, Blender's unbiased renderer that is GPU enabled. Whilst I don't have a GPU enabled pc yet that is on the list for 2014. I am very excited to see the results of what I plan to shoot and matchmove, combined with what I can model and render in Blender.

My major headaches currently (as blender is known for its interface quirks), are getting materials looking the way I want, and understanding how, and becoming comfortable with all the rigging and animating tools.

Also I wonder if its possible to rig lattice modifiers with splines like a circle.
I could in 3DSMax....

A busy year - 2013

Well it seems Christmas is nearly upon us again and as regards this blog not much documented for the year.

As the year winds down I'm getting time to do a bit of spring cleaning in a number of ways.

I suppose since December last year I've achieved the following things, of which I feel very good, given my current financial ham stringing.

I got a Canon 50mm F1.4 FD lens that I have been able to do some great tilt shift photography stuff with, as well as a proper Canon 50mm F1.4 USM lens. The latter lens needs a repair folllowing a small accident that damaged the autofocus. I have also gotten 2 M42 to EOS lens adaptors and use one for a Russian Helios 44-2 lens I bought and the other for a fixed 500mm F8 hanimex lens a friend gave me. That aside I also got a 28mm F2.8 for next to nothing and a 58mm variable ND filter for the (currently damaged) 50mm USM lens. Finally in the camera department I have also got a battery grip for the Canon 550D and a magnetic screen viewfinder.

My CNC router aspirations are as yet incomplete but I have learnt much on both the electronics side (how to etch a pc board), and the chassis side and hope to complete my cnc in 2014.

This year also marked a transition from Maya to Blender 3D for me and I am enthralled with the possibilities that Blender offers now particularly in GPU rendering.

I've come to really love GIMP as a photo editor and slowly forage ahead in my android development learning.

That's all I can think of right now, but one thing is for sure. More posts will follow more regularly

time to MOVI it

Every now and again something comes along that changes, or seems to threaten to change the face of a particular field of work. This year at NAB the MOVI handheld gyro based camera stabiliser was such an item. It took me a little while to comprehend how it actually works but now, as usual, my improvising brain has had a look at it, and decided it a worthy pursuit to try realise for my own aspirations.

Where to start I asked myself. Then I remembered I had motors I removed form a bunch of old Compaq 80/20 tape drives. So right now I'm trying to figure out how those coils are wired and if they'll be suitable for my purposes.

Cheap Cheat

I've hacked apart an old 50mm F1.4 Canon FD lens. It works well so far its just I can't use it for video like I want until I have made a DIY variable ND filter which I learnt how to do yesterday on youtube. So now the. big wait is for payday yet again... Sigh.

I should clone myself

I sometimes wish I could clone myself but with a singular shared consciousness, because, I need more of me's doing things to realise my ideas. At least I got my skater dolly built and bought a helios 44-2 lens for cheap. Now to make a cinerails snaptrack copy....

I am so glad for small mercies and having a little work again is one such example. December 30th last year I finally acquired another Canon 550D. But that's now two models behind you say. Surely you'd want to have a more current model? Not really, I just fundamentally wanted the capacity to make my own films in HD and have control over the exposure and focus and all the creative elements. Well now finally I have that and i'm excited for the potential it gives me. Hopefully this weekend coming I can get a whole lot of second hand lenses cheaply, if things go well, and then the current interest I have in telling a story can go forward.