Michigan Man

Visual Effects with a midwestern sensability.

[jasonvfx]

On cell phones and texting

When given the choice between Facebook messaging and texting as a means of communication.. Always assume the later. Turns out people prefer it! Have a fantastic day.

[jasonvfx]

Source of some inspiration for me lately.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burma-Shave

[jasonvfx]

Things are starting to come together with my environment. Using Mental Ray in Maya. Textures are file based with procedural masks, and procedural. Using Vue 10 for the indirect HDR enviroment light. Still have some things to fix but I like the direction that it's going in.

[jasonvfx]

Intro to Slim Notes: to accompany videos provided by Escape Studios

As someone who is trying to become more comfortable with Renderman's Slim shading interface, there really isn't enough documentation out there. Those of you who have tried searching, like I have, know that Pixar is notorious for not publishing a whole lot of anything in the way of documentation, and the documentation that they do publish is either outdated, on the surface, or way over your (my head). That aside, Escape Studios was nice enough to provide some write ups and videos for Pixar on their website (and yes its free!). It's not a lot, but it's a good start. 

Anyway, to get to my point, I found three videos on an Introduction to Slim yesterday and took notes while I watched. So in lieu of my previous rant, I'd like to make my notes available to you. Yes, I am not publishing anything new, I'm merely regurgitating information from the videos by Escape Studios, but if you're like me more notes never hurt!

So without further ado, I give you the aforementioned notes...

https://docs.google.com/document/pub?id=1aVKpuJ5cqYlGCNpzZpI7wub02izYbS47yDSJANPQQ4s

which go with these videos (you will need to set up a free student account with Pixar to access the page) https://renderman.pixar.com/courseware/bin/view/Fundamentals/Introduction_to_Slim

[samspratt-deactivated20200724]

If you’re in Savannah, I’ll be giving my very first lecture tonight where I’ll be going over “my story” from my horribly awkward highschool years, to missteps in art school, to everything that has happened in the last 2 years since I graduated — filled with things I’ve never shared and hopefully...

[jasonvfx]

Saw an inspiring tag team presentation by the talented Sam Spratt and Colin Levy tonight. The creativity is flowing right now!

[jasonvfx]

For anyone that is interested in knowing more about what exactly happened, is happening, and what could potentially happen with the Digital Domain Media Group and all of its subsidiaries this is a good article from Mike Seymour at FX Guide.

For anyone that hasn't heard yet, Digital Domain is the Visual Effects company behind amazing works like The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Titanic, Apollo 13 and True Lies. Recently, within the last month, their parent company, Digital Domain Media Group filed for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy.

I wish the best for any artist who are currently working/worked at DD.

[jasonvfx]

Was looking for a high-res starry night sky to use in Vue, when I stumbled into NASA's 3D resources webpage. Pretty cool resource.

3D models

http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/3d_resources/models.html

Textures

http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/3d_resources/images.html

[jasonvfx]

People in the know have been hearing me talk about creating a time-lapse video for the visual component of my thesis. This video is obviously just one example, but it illustrates many of the things that I will be aiming to replicate in my visual for my thesis. Things like the pace of the sky, the jittery movements of the plants, trees and water, animating of shadows, etc... It's gonna be fun!

[jasonvfx]

Danxia Landform - China

[jasonvfx]

Some highlights of the meals that I made this week.

[jasonvfx]

Cool short about a teleporting house

Kind of reminds me of the TARDIS a little. Love the style, lighting and the pretty seamless integration of 2D and 3D.

[jasonvfx]

In honor of Sept. 11th here's a great article I read last night from The Atlantic.

As someone who doesn't live in NYC, I've never really been able to grasp just how massive the World Trade Center is/was. These photos show the construction progress on the new WTC buildings and also beautiful photos of the memorial as well. It's hard not to feel patriotic.

[jasonvfx]

Tri-colored tortellini, turkey dogs, cherry tomatoes, green bell pepper, mushrooms, onions, grape seed oil, balsamic vinegar, tomato sauce

[jasonvfx]

The State of the Thesis Visual

So this is where I'm at with my visual at the moment. Everything here has been done in mental ray. Couple of the key features thus far are a linear workflow and adepth pass for things like DOF and atmosphere.

It's hard to believe that I'll be done after this quarter.

[jasonvfx]

A cool voice over/animated short project that is crowd sourcing artists to create its content. Pretty cool. I think I'm gonna record one!

[jasonvfx]

New business card photo shoot. Actually I got them a few weeks ago for SIGGRAPH.

[jasonvfx]

Check out my updated design on my website! Currently there is not a Tumblr button yet, but it will be there soon

jasonvfx.com - website