Wk6 - Bit the Bullet... GoPro!!!

The spycam still hasn't arrived.  Grrr...

So... today I bit the bullet and purchased a GoPro today on my way to work.

Since the base unit was 340... I kinda walked away spending something like $700... woops.

It's awesome though!

GoPro Hero Motorsport Pack

So far, I've only shot bits of the lab and taken it to union court... filmed an interesting thing... the shaddow under the railing so that the shadows of people walk along the wall... I like this... might need to film more of it.

Wk5 - Mandelbox Render (3,800 HD frames, 24 days)

I've been rendering out a version of the Mandelbox in HD since I got Mandelbulber.

 It's been essentially rendering from 4/8 - 28/8...

Here are the 3,800 frames thus far:

Wk5 - Centre-Thru Render B&W

Just testing another idea for displacement maps...

Wk5 - Fly Thru for Displacement Maps

In an effort to generate nice displacement maps, I decided to do a fly-thru from the corner of a black and white mandelbox...



Textures I've played with so far:

Using the particle system, I can see that using such images will work nicely in creating some textured surfaces:

Wk5 - Brilliant Day of Meetings

Yesterday and today have been the best days yet.

It started with the meeting with Kit regarding particles, which was great but it didn't seem too applicable considering the direction I was taking with my "mandelbox-inspired" manually constructed model BUT...

Today I met/chatted with three people which helped me immensely:

1. Martyn - This was great, he helped me see that the work was about the fly-through, about technology and the awe you get.  He also suggested I look at David Haines & Joyce Hinterding's "The Outlands" and "Neo Baroque Aesthetics & Contemporary Entertainment" by Angela Nol.
2. Jack - This chat was invaluable - he made me realise that if I combine my objects with a particle system like Kit has shown me, I may be able to somewhat-generate an environment for my fly-through.
3. Lucien - Using particle generation from an object seems to give a certain amount of order in the randomness... that combined with Displacement and using Level of Detail might just give me what I want.  Mirrors are bad. :)

I have a renewed enthusiasm today.

Wk5 - Spy Cams look cool

So, I've been talking about attaching cameras to things and to do this, I need a small camera and a GoPro looks expensive... for $40, I'm going with a gamble.

This is the one I got... 2MP, MicroSD (with 8GB card) and Lithium rechargable battery!  Amazing.  If it only lasts one fall from a carpark... Win! :-D

Wk4 - Will the pieces come together?

So, using the objects I've created thus far, I've attempted to see what I could construct with them as building blocks... as a proof on concept for the creation of my model/environment.  This is what I've got so far...

I'm thinking at this stage that repetition is important... who knows...

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Wk4 - Maya Learning Curve

So, I've been creating shapes for my manually created object/environment:

My idea is that this will look like it is
 taking in the mist.

The arch is featured a lot within the Mandelbox.

This animates up and down whilst spinning.

I do have a few Maya topics/questions now:

• Camera angle/focal length

• Texture of surfaces

• How to fix a shape, eg. my platform.

• Mist/Fog generation

• Mirrored surface to create infinity?

• Can you have simple animation without keyframes?

Wk4 - Been sick but taking my spoonful of concrete

I've been sick for the past week with the Flu...

I've rescheduled my meeting with Kit for next week.  In any case, I also have a theory presentation to prepare.

In any case, no progress to report for the last week but determined to overcome the lack this week.

Wk3 - Exporing on my own. Lens Flare!

Last week was so frustrating going around in a group so today was brilliant.

The footage I got was so-so but I really enjoyed the afternoon wandering around obtaining it.  I'm so glad I had the opportunity to go out on my own.

My favourite shot was from within a plant next to an external air conditioner... the lens flare amongst the moving leaves was brilliant.  Need more of that.

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Wk2 - Maya Crash Course... Booleans are cool!

So, I had a bit of a crash course this afternoon with Kit regarding Maya and in particular Booleans.  Very nice.

The couple of shapes I've picked out for my constructed model/environment will need such ideas and using one object as a cookie-cutter, so to speak, will make it infinitely more helpful.

Here I'm trying to recreate the basics of a shape that appears in my first render:

On a side note: Kit showed me particles too but we're gonna have a followup lesson on those later.  I really shouldn't have dropped Maya after first year.  :-o

Wk2 - A reply from my new hero

So, it turns out that the reason I can't find a script to create a Mandelbox is because it can't be done.  Check out Duncan Brinsmead's response:

Hi Terrence,

You likely saw a presentation where I showed some mandelbox and mandelbulb renderings. I used a mel expression to create a mandelbrot texture but the 3d stuff was done by coding a custom texture for a Maya fluid node, which is not possible for users. However there is an excellent program for exploring the 3D mandelbox interactively here(source included):
http://www.ms.mff.cuni.cz/~kadlj3am/big/boxplorer/
Also www.fractalforums.com has lots of info on generating these structures.

I don’t think you will have much luck generating a mandelbox with a mel script… it is too much geometry. Not only is it too much geometry for a script, but too much to keep all in memory at once. The more typical way of doing it is through a volume render, which is what I did. I compiled in custom code in my local build of Maya, something users can’t do… and the fluid rendering does not have an open enough api to use for this currently. Basically as the ray is marching forward one evaluates the mandelbox  function at points to determine if they are in or out as well as what the color is. At no point are there any triangles.

At any rate I would post your questions on fractalforums.com. If anyone knows of good resources for this these folks will.

Duncan

Unfortunately, Boxplorer doesn't seem to work anymore but I still can't believe he even replied.  I'm soooo glad he did though.  Now I know for sure that it isn't possible in Maya.

But!  Doesn't mean I can't make something that is inspired by the Mandelbox...  Never give up, never surrender! :)

Wk2 - Mandelbulber & Other Cool 3D Fractals

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Modified Mandelbulb 1

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Wk2 - Red Stop Sign & the 80mm lens of evil.

Today was an interesting exercise for Riley's class... it was difficult running around with two other people when there is one camera... it was disjoined and far from relaxed and everyone had different ways of approaching it... the guy wanted to be more arty and needed a narative.  The girl was good but she dismissed her own suggestions.  After all that, the only thing that was kinda interesting was the red stop sign.

On a side note, some days I hate the 80mm lens, other days, not so much... actually no, I hate it.

Wk2 - Wherefore art thou Mandelbox Script?

I really am having no luck in finding script for a Mandelbox... I'm kinda losing hope.  Other than a few very old programs that can generate a Mandelbox (including some that once worked), I'm coming up empty, particularly on the Maya front.

I've even joined Fractal Forums in the hopes that they might know something... it's taking ages for them to accept my registration though...

On the off chance, I've decided to send the following e-mail to Duncan Brinsmead to see if he can assist:

Hi Duncan,

My name is Terrence Craig, you don't know me.  On the off chance, I was wondering whether you might have some script for the Mandelbox or Mandelbulb for Maya that you could share with me.  For once the internet is failing me.

Just for some background, I'm a third year student doing Digital Media at the Australian National University.  A lecturer of mine (Kit Devine) showed me your Mandelbrot presentation.  I found it very inspiring, particularly when you went into the 3D world of the Mandelbulb and the Mandelbox.

I'm hoping to make such an object for my major project this semester, tweaking the code so that it becomes somewhat unique then add atmosphere, etc and do a fly-through.  I find myself very disappointed though that I cannot find any scripts on the net that will generate such an object.  I can see that there are specialised programs for Windows but I'd prefer to use Maya, on a mac, due to the power and control it would provide.

My background is in programming but my experience with Maya is quite limited to date because my art works haven't required it  I'm not scared of MEL or Python though.

If you could assist in any way, possibly even pointing me to a resource to find such a script to generate those 3D shapes, I'd be extremely appreciative.

Thanks for any assistance you can provide.

Regards, Terrence.

Wk1 - Fractals, Maths & Music

I'm not having much luck in regard to finding some script to create a Mandelbox in Maya... I haven't given up hope yet though.

In any case, we had our first DMM3 Meeting today.  We pitched our ideas.  Of course, now I feel like I've started down the Mandelbox track...  Alistair mentioned Michael Barnsley and Kit mentioned Tim Brook - Mathematics/Fractal Art.  Alistair also mentioned the Lindenmayer System (L-System on Wiki and Wolfram Mathworld)

Another thing that was mentioned was Fractal Compression and the failure of Fractal-based Music.  I wonder whether there is possibility of using such "music" as accompanying audio?

Update:
I went to Hancock Library and got a few books out by Michael Barnsley (Michael.Barnsley@anu.edu.au or mbarnsley@aol.com): "Fractals Everywhere", "Superfractals" and "Fractals in Multimedia".  His site, www.superfractals.com is also very interesting.

Wk1 - Mandelbox Test Render

Ever since watching Duncan Brinsmead's video, I've been fascinated by the Mandelbrot Set, and the subsequent Mandelbulb and the newest Mandelbox.

I found a very old program called Mandelbulber...  I rendered out something simple... not bad really...

For Reference:

1979 Mandelbrot Set (Benoît Mandelbrot) - zn+1 = zn2 + c

2007 Mandelbulb (Daniel White and Paul Nylander) - See The Unravelling of the Real 3D Mandelbulb for details.


2010 Mandelbox (Tom Lowe) See What is a Mandelbox for more detail, particularly the gallery.

Wk1 - Ideas for this semester

I thought I was very clear about what I wanted to do but as of today I don't know.  A friend of mine thought it might help if I outline the various ideas I had for this semester thus here they are:

• Animated GIFs - I like the ones with tension
• Light Bulb
• Smash TV
• Abstract video with a base of mundane/potentially bad, grainy footage processing it to the point of non-resemblance.  Using a combination of Nuke and FCP.
• Something programmatic - Porcessing or Maya -> shapes/fractals -> Mandelbrot set.
• I'd have to learn both, maybe too late in the degre to do this with the tools I don't understand.  What about Nuke though?
• Continue analysing things close up using actual video
• Video Animation -> Morph train to pieces to Bird.
• Koyanastazi for Canberra.

Wk1 - The lift door opens...

So, I spent the afternoon shooting inside the lift in the Music School building with another dude from the comp class.  It's ok footage but 1) it's yellow; and, 2) the lift has one door.  On the plus side, the fan was interesting to film.  Pfft.

Wk1 - Video Complementary 2

Day 1 of my last semester of Uni.

It was alright. Played with the 5D this afternoon. Mostly footage of the lift within the Music building.

I'm not really wanting to be here this semester.  I kinda want a semester off to be honest. But maybe once I stop doing full-time work as well I'll feel differently.  Here's hoping.

In any case, digital video with Riley should be good.  I'm still deciding whether I want to go with my original idea or not but I'm sure that will materialise as time progresses.

Options at this stage:

1. Video experimentation based on highly processed video footage to the point of non-resemblance.
2. Processed video (as above) mixed with experimental projection within Maya
3. Processing - Or at least something programmatic.
4. Animated GIFs - something I've been fascinated with and something I've been blogging under inspiration for a while. 

What am I going to do this semester?

So I got the camera out today... just thought I'd just shoot some stuff in preparation for the semester.  I got some footage of some porriage and out my window... I wasn't feeling inspired.  Oh well, another time.

Game of Thrones Opening Sequence

So, I started watching Game of Thrones tonight, up to episode 5 now and I can't get over how much I enjoy the opening title sequence.  Enjoy!

Complementary Video & Assessment.

So, after much heartache at the library computers and on my aging mac mini at home, I produced the following video for assessment today in my Video Complementary 1 class.

At the end, I was quite proud to show this one... it is probably my best work for the semester, in my opinion.  I guess my marks will be the proof of that.

Assessment was handled by Riley, Kit and Katie.  A nice, friendly bunch.  It think it went well.

My take on the feedback was that it was a polished piece (Riley), they liked obscurity of the object particularly when it seemed to breathe (both Kit and Katie were left guessing - thought it was skin and some other think like that) and they felt that the concept of exploring textures was valid and strong (Kit) and that maybe I should have used some of the surfaces from the earlier shoots, eg. ceramics (Riley).

It was nice to see Katie again.

I think I'll extended the ending... yes, that will work...

So, I've been thinking about the feedback from today...

I have an idea to fix it...  In the first instance, I'm gonna extend the ending to include product placement...   I'll post an updated version soon.

Major Assessment Over! Comments/Notes from VIVA

Had assessment today.

It was disappointing that I didn't get to show the lego winch I brought along or the prior Wii ad for reference for the other two but I think review went relatively well.  I felt much more confident after Chris's comment about it being mostly there... I needed the boost.

In any case, it was an hour ago now so it's difficult to remember everything that was said but my recollections are as follows:

Chris - It's mostly there, drops the ball at the end.  Need to see the product I'm selling.  Keep going hard at it, keep doing them.  Get it down.  Watch more ads, eg. watched video clips for a year.  I want a number of these by the end.

Kit - It felt like the 15sec version of the 30sec ad. I needed to go through the failures to learn (eg. long slow shots meant nothing at speed). Watch all the Nintendo ads.  Entry level work is usually doing roto.  Check out 'Motion Graphics Designer Showreel' to watch other people's work.  Be up on AE.  AE is used in commercial work, Nuke in Film - keep that in mind - it is only technology.  Organised to meet with Kit 10am Friday to discuss direction for next semester.

Alistair - Sound needs more base.  Get the ideas down before next semester starts so that I hit the ground running.  I'll e-mail him to organise to meet with him in two weeks to discuss next semester's direction.

Lucien - [ How embarrassing, I can't even remember his points. :-/ ]

Wii Ad 'All Play' - Render for VIVA

I've decided this is the render I'll use for VIVA tomorrow.

On a side note, why doesn't my Final Cut 7.03 at home have the Bloom video effect?  Very annoying... it seems the computers at Uni don't have the font that Nintendo uses while at home I do, yet at home I don't have the effect.  Jeez.

Inspiration June 8

courtesy of zzap

courtesy of zzap

Inspiration June 7

courtesy of zzap

courtesy of zzap

courtesy of zzap

courtesy of zzap

courtesy of zzap

courtesy of zzap

courtesy of zzap

Wk13 Wii Two ii's shot

So, the idea here is that after the various shots of the Wii, it will pan out and be used in the spelling of 'Wii'... I'm feeling hopeful that this might just work... I still need to reshoot some of the Wii surface pans.

Wk13 Macro Eye Shoot with David

Using the macro lens I got the help of David to help shoot my eye wearing my newest mask.  I'm feeling confident with this shot.

Inspiration June 6

courtesy of bigshoediaries

refer to previous

refer to previous

courtesy of zzap

Wk13 Blue-Screen Fail, New mask & Reshoot without Macro

I'd decided to stabilise a shot of an eye then using the tracking points of the panned mask, move the eye with the mask, making it look like it was originally with it.

I've decided that my idea to use a blue screen effect isn't working thus I made a new mask just for the eye shot.

I then decided to reshot the eye using a standard lens then zoomed with FCP and removed jitter... I'm not liking the pixelation.

I think I'll have to reshoot using the macro lens...

Inspiration June 2

courtesy of zzap

courtesy of zzap

courtesy of zzap

courtesy of zzap

Inspiration May 31

courtesy of zzap

courtesy of zzap

Wk12 Skin and Mask Pans (gave up on rig) & decide to use blue screen

The rig has been a continual disappointment.  I've decided to give up completely on it and just use standard tripod pans.

Thus I shot a lot of surface pans of my mask today... some of them look absolutely amazing.

In regard to the final shot, I've decided that I'll use a blue-screen effect.

decided to back the eye hole using some blue post-its.

Wk12 Eye Shoot with Diana

With the assistance of Diana, I've got some new shots of my eye for use in the blue-screen.

Inspiration May 30

courtesy of zzap

courtesy of zzap

courtesy of zzap

Wk12 Make Leather Stitched Mask

I've decided to make mask out of leather, I figure the surfaces will serve me well in a macro context.

mask pieces cut out

mask stitched together

Inspiration May 27th

courtesy of zzap

courtesy of zzap

courtesy of zzap

courtesy of malemodel.us