CG work from "The Dresden Files"

Last year I did some visual effects work on a show called "The Dresden Files". Mostly character modeling of a fiery demon, and building a huge city set of Chicago for a push in shot right up to a hotel window.

Take a look at the demon model and the cityscape in my gallery. Most of the work was done using Luxology's Modo. The final demon was exported to Maya and texture tweaked at Sundog Studios. The city scape had several other composition layers not seen here, where I added fog, rain, z-depth information, and a helicopter for the background.

Portfolio - Dresden Files

Camera & Notebook Bags

I love my DSLR. I love my MacBook Pro. It's HARD to carry both and protect them at the same time. Heck, it's hard carrying one of them with all their accessories. If you have a passion for photography or mobile computing, which sometimes go hand in hand, then you may be fond of backpacks and shoulder slings like I am. Currently I use bags from Tamrac, and Naneu Pro. But I'm always on the lookout for a better combination of style and space.  So if you're in the market, check some of these out:

• Lowepro
• kata
• Tamrac
• Naneu Pro
• Tenba
• Think Tank
• Case Logic
  

There are some good bags to be had there. In some cases even combo bags that carry both your camera equipment and notebook all in one. Now, if you're a rugged traveler, and want to have that ULTIMATE protection for your expensive camera equipment, take a look at Pelican Cases. They make some excellent watertight rugged cases.

Linux Command line Tip: Install Media Codecs for Ubuntu

So you're new to Ubuntu Linux. You just got it installed for the first time, but you are wondering how to enable DVD Playback, Flash capability, MP3, Quicktime, and other popular media formats. Never fear, here's a command to get it all up and running.

Open up a terminal window and type:

sudo apt-get install ubuntu-restricted-extras

You will be prompted for your administrative password, at which point it will begin to download all the required codecs, making your Ubuntu multimedia ready.

Mac OSX's Preview - hidden jems

For the most part, there are certain workhorse applications I use daily, such as Adobe Photoshop & Acrobat for heavy lifting on my projects. That said, for most of my other regular everyday computer usage, I don't require the power and overhead of those applications. Enter Mac OSX's PREVIEW.

The Preview application does quite a bit more than just reading PDFs or viewing common image formats. Most users never bother browsing through it's menus. In actuality, Preview is a very versatile little program. For instance, without having the Adobe Acrobat suite installed, you can Annotate PDF's, Delete Pages, Rearrange Pages, even Merge PDFs.

Most importantly for me though, are it's image editing capabilities. From basics such as Cropping, resizing, and rotation to color/exposure adjustments, and Alpha Mask Extractions. For producitvity purposes, it's capable of doing many of these operations in Batch mode as well.

An added benefit to using Mac OSX's implementation of PDF in preview, is that you are not subject to the same recent security flaws found in Adobe's PDF product. Don't forget there's also PRINT to PDF built right into the operating system.

Stargate Universe - Coming Soon

The most recent sci-fi production I have been involved with, is "Stargate Universe". My role was to build (model/texture) the main spaceship for the show called the "Destiny". The Destiny is an Ancient ship, where the main cast is stranded upon. The ship hasn't been revealed yet, but here's a 45 second promo video from Scifi.com that gives you a taste of what's to come. The show will premiere on Friday, October 2 in the US.

Video after the Jump

Click to read more ...