For the record Phil has run a profitable visual effects company. We may want to listen.
The science of Spherical Harmonics at Weta Digital →
By Mike Seymour:
Spherical Harmonics are an invaluable tool for production rendering, and also a common device used in games, but few really understand them and how they are used.
I love when Mike goes all nerd on us.
SIGGRAPH Previews 2013 Technical Papers | AWN | Animation World Network →
Jennifer Wolfe:
SIGGRAPH accepted 115 technical papers (out of 480 submissions) to showcase this year representing an acceptance rate of 24 percent (one percent higher than 2012). The selected papers were chosen by a distinguished committee of academia and industry experts.
Behind keyframes →
Thanks for the link Myong
Ice Nights - Alex Luger from Ray Demski →
I love the fact that these guys had to do something amazing and insightful to get amazing and insightful images. No greenscreens here.
Effects Corner: What’s the solution? →
Scott Squires:
Finding problems with proposals and criticizing is the easiest thing a person can do. How about people actually make suggestions of a solution?
I'll bite.
How about California enforces there own labor laws. How about the people who start there own visual effects companies follow the rules.
This really is about rules. Rules are set in place because some idiot doesn't have common sense. And the state or country has to say "sorry you can't enslave people, so here are some rules to follow".
It's easy to say what should be done after the fact. Anyone can do that. It's what we are going to do going forward.
I had a little birdy ask if we hated the studios. I said no. It's not the studios fault a vfx house agrees to the terms.
NAB 2013 Distilled « digitalfilms →
Have a look if just want the important stuff.
A Moon Rise Over Los Angeles as a Time-Slice, Time-Lapse, and Animated GIF →
Michael Zhang:
Earlier this month, Los Angeles-based photographer Dan Marker-Moore pointed his Olympus OM-D EM-5 and a 100mm lens (equivalent to a 200mm in 35mm terms) at his city’s nighttime cityscape and photographed the rising of a full moon.
I like how the color temperture changes as the moon clears the smog. Wait, that isn't color temp.
Fancy Monkeys - Scruffy Thinking - Scruffy.TV →
Scruffy.tv:
On this special That Scruffy Post Show Kanen sits down with Stu Maschwitz and Merlin Mann on their second visit to the show! They discuss delegation, dealing with email and to do lists, assistants, and working hard to make being lazy possible. Does it get better than that?
Some very smart stuff in here. Have a listen.
Photog and Kayakers Risk Life, Limb and 3rd Degree Burns on an Active Volcano →
DL Cade:
Socci and the kayakers paddled around and walked over molten lava flows as the surf instantly turned the background into clouds of water vapor. It wasn’t the safest endeavor, but it certainly made for a series of extreme kayaking photos the likes of which we’ve never seen before.
Some would say this is not smart. I think its awesome.