redesigndavid.me

modCharSetup version 1

redesigndavid — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 06:34:41 +0000

First release of the modCharSetup (short for Modular Character Setup) for Maya is now available for download. Please peruse modCharSetup 101 to learn how to use it.

To download the file click here: modCharSetup v1.

To install, just unzip the download. Inside you will see a file named autoinstall.cmd. Run this file by double clicking on it. It will install and place all the neccessary scripts in their proper places. In Maya (after a restart, if autoinstall.cmd was invoked while Maya was running), just look for the command line. Make sure you set it to MEL, instead of Python. Type modCharSetup. Press enter. Anytime in the future you wish to run modCharSetup, just type the same command or turn it into a shelf icon.

The modCharSetup window should now appear. The last icon brings you to the modCharSetup category in this site. Please fill me in everything regarding your experience with the script.

modCharSetup (v1) 101

redesigndavid — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 04:54:08 +0000

modCharSetup
is a Maya Character Setup set of scripts that allows a rigger to automate the setting up of characters in a manner that is modular. Parts of the character are divided into multiple different parts that are independent on their own. Because of this, creating a character with more than two arms or even arms that aren’t connected to the body and instead to the head, probably, has never before been this easy. The entire suite of tools from the script is designed to allow a rigger to finish setting up controls within 30 minutes per character.

1. Create Placers

Step one is create your placers.

Placers allows us to input the positions of joints and controllers to Maya without necessarily creating them. Everything will be done automatically by the script.

You have three kinds of placers that you could use. Each of them representing a specific kind of setup. The first is the Three Joint Limb. The TJL, is the setup for most limbs. You would typically use this for your arms, legs and other similar body appendages with two segments or three joints. Hence, the name.

Usage: Click on the Three Joint Limb icon. Provide a name for the set up (e.g. rightArm or leftBunnyEar). Then position each placer created where roughly you’d like to have the joints created.

The TJL, when set up, is outfitted with stretch and an ability to blend between FK and IK. It will also have a “pseudo parent” that (aside from housing the attribute that controls the blending between FK and IK) allows us manage the joints and controls associated to the setup.

The next kind of setup is the X-number Joint Limb. The XJL is very similar to the TJL in that it too will have stretch, and FK to IK blending. The only difference is XJL allows you to have a specified number of joints you’d like to have for your set up.

Usage: Click on the X-number Joint Limb icon. Provide a name for the set up (e.g. tentacleA, dragonTail or antennae). Enter the number of joints you’ll need for the setup (e.g. 2, 5, 21). Then position each all placers created roughly where you’d like to have the joints and controllers created for you.

The last kind of setup is the Reverse Foot Limb. The RFL is again very similar to the TJL. The first three joints of the RFL works a lot like a regular TJL. The succeeding joints will form a control set up typical to most characters’ foot controls.

Usage: Click on the Reverse Foot icon. Provide a name for the set up (e.g. frontLeftHoof or leftLeg). Then position each placer created roughly where you’d like to have the joints created. You can also twist or rotate the bankIn, bankOut and ankle placers, so that the controllers would rotate properly once created.

2. Converting Placers into Setups

Once you’ve finished creating all your placers, modCharSetup now has most of the information it’ll need to generate your character. Your next step is to convert all the placers into their actual setups. But before you do so, it would be a good idea to save a copy of the scene, just so that you’ll have something to return to, if later you realize the positions you provided through the placers aren’t correct.

Converting placers into their respective setups is very easy. All you need to do is select any placer that belongs to a particular setup and hit the Create From Placer Icon. You can select multiple placers from multiple set ups, if you want. Executing the tool would convert all them automatically for you.

NOTE: Upon using the Create From Placer Tool, you’ll see that a bunch of new objects are created in the outliner. If you think it made your scene messy, please do not try cleaning up yet. Don’t even rearrange the objects’ hierarchies. Keep everything where they are for now. Each node created is important. If you follow the usage of the script all the way until end, you’ll see that the modCharSetup is well capable of cleaning up after itself.

3. Good Old parentConstraints

WARNING>>Huge Chunk of Information Ahead!!

Once all the set ups are created, you’ll see that modCharSetup created a couple of things for you. Firstly, on your screen, all your controls are created. Try moving your controllers (most probably IK controllers and pole vectors) and you’ll see that everything is set up. Reverse foot controllers all have the necessary attributes that make foot blends and foot placings possible.
Secondly, in your outliner, you’ll see what looks like a huge mess of transform nodes created but actually is very orderly. There are sets of transform nodes (or groups) for each entity (or set up) you created. When I say entity, I mean each time you created a set of placers and gave it a name, that’s one entity. Each member of that entity, will have the name you provided upon creation as the first part of their name.

So all the members of an entity will be considered one set.

In each ’set,’ there’s a transform node with name + “_skinJoints.” Like for an example “leftArm_skinJoints”. This node will contain all the joints that are for skinning and are associated to leftArm. There will be a transform node with name + “controllers.” Like for an example “leftArm_FK_Controllers”. This node will contain all the controllers that are for leftArm. There are other groups.

There will be a transform node with only the name you provided. This is a special node. We will call this node a pseudo parent. It is called pseudo parent because it is a fake parent. Move it around, rotate it. You’ll notice that it controls the set up that has its namesake. It acts like it is the true parent, even though, looking at the outliner shows it is clearly not.

Whenever we want a certain setup to follow a part of another setup, we make a joint from the other setup control this transform node, usually through a parentConstraint.

For a list of all groups, refer to the table below.

Name Style	Example Name	Description
name	leftArm	Your “pseudo parent.” Contains the FK-IK blend for TJL, XJL and RJL setups. Also serves as parent for them. You constrain this, you properly constrain the “entity”.
name + “_skin_GRP”	leftArm_skin_GRP	Where all your joints for skinning are found.
name + “_FK_Controllers_GRP”	leftArm_FK_Controllers_GRP	Where all your FK controllers are found.
name + “_IK_Controllers_GRP”	leftArm_IK_Controllers_GRP	Where all your IK controllers are found.
name + “_RB_Controllers_GRP”	ribbonForLeftArm_RB_Controllers_GRP	Where all Controllers for the Ribbon are found.
name + “_refJoint_GRP”	ribbonForLeftArm_refJoint_GRP	Where reference joints for the ribbon controls are transferred to.
name + “donotdelete”	leftArm_donotdelete	Where extra important stuff are hidden.
name + “donotdeleteribbon”	ribbonForLeftArm__donotdeleteribbon	Where extra important stuff specific to ribbons are located.

To do this, select a joint that you would like to serve as a parentConstraint target. Shift select the “pseudo” parent. Go to Animation Set–>Constraints–>Parent Constraint. Try it out. Do this for each setup you wish to be controlled by another. I’ll probably have a button for this in the future.

4. Ribbonize, Tie Ups and Hold Ups.
1. Create Placers

The Ribbonize Tool converts any number of joints and creates a ribbon control setup to live inside them. Ideally, the joints should be from the same hierarchy, but I’ve tried using this same tool to make ribbons spanning inter-hierarchies and still got to it to work. I’ll probably make distinctions in the future for this.

Just note, when you use the Ribbonize Tool, all affected joint hierarchies are transferred to another group called refJoints. You can still use some or all of them in your skinClusters. I wish I could offer a general rule, but these things really differ from case to case.

Usage: Select multiple joints from the same hierarchy. Execute the tool by clicking on it. Enter the name of the ribbon setup when prompted.

The Tie Up tool, as the name attempts to describe, ties everything up to create your character.

Usage: Select multiple objects from all the setups. Make sure at least one node is selected from each setup and no object outside your character is selected. Execute the tool by clicking on it. Enter the name of the character when prompted.

Earlier, I explained that all setups created by the modCharSetup are governed by “pseudo parents”. This is a very logical way to create our character. It is limited though in the sense that if there is nothing for the “pseudo parents” to connect to or follow, how then do we control them? That’s where the Hold Up Tool comes in handy. For setups that follow nothing else but the root of your character, you can simply select any control or joint belonging to that setup and execute this tool. You’ll be given a controller just for that set up.

Usage: Select multiple controllers from the setups you’d like to hold up. Then Execute this tool by clicking on it. Provide a name for your control when prompted.

More Information

The three tools–Ribbonize, Tie Ups and Hold ups–may be used in any order (after the setups have been created). But ideally, Tie Ups is held until last. Also notice that you could use Ribbonize and Holdups multiple times, but Tie Ups can only be used once per character.

5. Magic Controls

After using the Tie Up Tool, you are done. From this point onwards, everything we do would simply be additional stuff. They are bonuses of a sort. You could skip this part if you want, but let me tell you, this particular step is easy and the returns of which is most rewarding and impressive.

The entire idea behind these magic controls is that you’ll have a selection UI similar to the one described in “Fast, Easy, Flexible Selection UI.” To do this, you set up controllers that act in a way you’d like your extensions to.

An example of this is to create a curve. Group it. And make its group constrained to the persp camera via a parentConstrarint. Now where ever and how ever you move your persp camera, these controllers would always follow.

Then select the control curve you’d like to have an extension to, like for an example the head control, and then shift select the curve you just created that is following the camera and hit the Magic Control Button.

You’ll notice that the extension curve still follows the camera everywhere. But now whenever you select it, you effectively select the head control as well, as if they are one and the same thing.

Example Name

I’m Running Home

redesigndavid — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 03:30:05 +0000

Why do I run? One of my mentors once asked me, if I had the chance to know the exact time and date I’ll perish from this planet, how would I choose to spend those moments? I thought long and hard. Others offered their own answers. They go for the usual saying goodbye in the arms of the people they love.

My answer was non-conventional. I said before the appointed time, I’ll already say my goodbyes. After which, I’ll run–not jog, but run–as fast as I can. You could say run towards meeting my Creator. But my real reason is I want to deplete my body of all energy so that at the precise time of death, nothing He gave is wasted.

I wasn’t a runner then. When I gave this answer, I have yet to run my first mile. But the idea of consuming all earthly energy seemed to me a good way to pass away. Kick the bucket when it’s empty.

Running is physical, no doubt. But there is spiritual aspect to it that eludes many a philosopher’s understanding since time immemorial.

Take Dean Karnazes for example. Pissed at life, he decided to hurt himself. He ran. He was reckless with his body. Imagine using Krazy Glue to secure your blisters and and open wounds! The problem is, unlike us, the body doesn’t return evil with evil. The more Dean ran, the better he felt. So he ran more and became a better person.

Partly, the reason I started running was because I was angry at myself for failing at the one thing I shouldn’t have. I hurt the one person I cared the most about. I disappointed so many who care about me. They still love me, but things will never be the same.

I run because I want to go back in time and make the planet spin in reverse the same way Superman did in Richard Donner’s 1978 blockbuster. Or if not, maybe I could at least run back home to the people I love. Two thousand three hundred ninety one kilometers. I’ve run a hundred fifty-eight kilometers since I started in December, I still need two thousand, two hundred and thirty-three left.

I signed up for two competitions–a 16k Northeast Run and the half-marathon in Sundown Marathon. I entered myself not to win but so I could run the distance. It may seem dumb and stupid to think that by running the distance between Manila and Singapore, I’ll be in the home. But it was precisely my lack in resolution–strengthened in running–that started this my whole back slide. Running makes me tough.

Just like Dean Karnazes, I am angry at myself. I’ll run to my death if I have to. But one thing is for sure, I will not stop.

I’ve been running 2 to 4 times a week for two months now. I started going to the gym on alternate days. I’ve dropped some pounds. But I’ve also killed parts of me that held me back. I look forward to running the minute I wake up. It keeps me going. Just a couple thousand more kilometers to go.

Even if it seems I’m going around in circles, one day I’ll reach home.

Pepsi Refresh Project

redesigndavid — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 08:51:37 +0000

Pepsi is doing an amazing campaign! Nope! It’s more than just an AD campaign. It is very altruist. I am very very impressed with them. They just went up in points in my book.

EACH PEPSI REFRESHES THE WORLD!!!

Just think of your own IDEA. Pitch it to them. If you win, they’ll give you the moolah!!! I’m thinking of pitching an animation story, they’ll fund us and we’ll work. Are you gonna join?? LOL!!!

What do you guys think??

The story has to be altruistic, as well. Maybe something that will uplift an entire generation to become better than the generation before it. It has to be meaningful. The story has to bite!!! None of those cuddly-duddley, cutsey-putsey, let’s-all-be-happy flics.

I’m not against being happy. I’m actually frequently happy. But we need to shove some sense into our heads nowadays. We can’t just stare at possibilities and potential, hoping good things would seep into our heads.

I sooo loooove
this campaign!!!!

I wanna be a part of it. You have any ideas?

I’ve always wanted to be a hero–a superhero, if I had the choice. This campaign may not make that fully possible, but it’ll bring me close to it. Let’s all do some good!!! Let’s all be a part of this!!!

No related posts.

UP for V Day

redesigndavid — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 00:44:08 +0000

Awesome art from a favorite movie, UP.

Ratatouille: Trips Back Memory Lane

We All Read

redesigndavid — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 06:29:05 +0000

I finished two books this weekend.

Not your typical reading material nowadays as the picture above would show.

The Long Road Home

Bedok Reservoir Runner’s Heaven

redesigndavid — Sat, 13 Feb 2010 16:12:06 +0000

Today, the eve of Chinese New Year, me and my friends planned a 12KM run that became just 8 but it was well worth it. Today is also the birthday of Kuya Ariel, the guy who out runs everyone almost every time we workout. We ran in his home turf, Bedok Reservoir. This made our run beautiful! No cars, no stoplights, scenic environment, clean air, classic sunset. I was first to arrive and my first impression was this place is runner’s heaven. Look at that!

The picture I gathered was from wikipedia. That’s how gloomy it could be with a storm threatening it. When I first saw it, it was close to sunset. It was breathtaking!

One round is about 4.3 kilometers. The tracks are covered with sand, absorbing most of the impact coming from your feet. This is great for most shoes. But I was using my lunar glides. These shoes are supposed to make it seem like I’m running on the moon. Running on sand sorta makes it look like you are on the moon, making the lunar gliders redundant. It was an effort for me to run on the sand. I had to run on the skirts of the track where the beaten grass lay.

I had side-stitches. I blame the super-dog I had an hour before the run. Next time, I’ll stick to yoghurt and/or fruit juices.

Wave and Buzz’ Potential Over Facebook

redesigndavid — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 04:37:59 +0000

Google will make sharing actually seem like sharing.

The problem with Facebook is for a social network that swears its business by the generosity of its members sharing things, Facebook is stingy. If you haven’t read my A Sad Decentralized Social Network and Loïc Le Meur’s My Social Map is Totally Decentralized but I Want It Back On My Blog, you’d see the importance of having your activities back where you want them. It’s the place where you live, the place you call home. Home-Sweet-Home-Page. Also known as your personal blog.

All bloggers would understand this. If you think about it, it is funny. You share your status updates using twitter, you share using Facebook. But blogger’s true personal profile should be on his personal site, not in a social network. The person’s membership to social network is a lot like a person’s membership to any group. If you are a member of your high school’s dance club, you know what I mean. Aside from the after practice pizza and occasional movie hangout, what you get is another set of friends–a.k.a. social network.

And just as what your parents have been telling you, you don’t befriend people just to become someone else. You are who you are. You becomes friends with people you have similar interests with. In a manner of speaking, Facebook is trying to define who we are by the limitations it’s own philosophies has set on itself. And we’ve seen this happen many times in the past. FB is trying to be better, sure. But what I don’t understand is, as it moves towards a certain direction, why must everyone else be dragged along with it.

For example, if I wanted to use a certain FB app, I would. Once FB decides to change some of its policies–it may be for the best, I’m sure, but who cares–if it breaks the connection with the app I wanna use. It made a decision apart from me that affects me. A very good example of this is every time FB updates their API, it breaks the connection with Flock. Flock is awesome! It makes surfing the web and socializing a breeze. And it’s been reaching out to FB since the day it started. But every single time they solve the code, FB changes again and the Flock team needs to run amok, rearrange themselves, just to best be able to fix things. It has been so bad, Flock Development Team decided to stop updating the code for the chat system that’s supposed to sit in your browser and accompany you where ever you surf. Their reason is FB changes the code for their chat so often it’s not funny, they’ll need a full time department just to be able to make both ends meet if they continue developing for it. Images from Walt Disney’s Chicken Little come to mind.

Skip to 7:30 to see what I mean.

This would never happen on my website. Because here I am the boss. If there is an app that I want to use, I’ll use it. If I install a plugin that breaks the connection, I’ll be the one to choose which one is more important, the app or the plugin. And that’s just talking about membership. Once you are member of FB, where do you view all your updates? In Facebook. Where there are Facebook ads side by side your own updates.

Not only is Facebook asking you to be a member of their social network and defining you. It’s asking you to leave your home, for-go your mailbox, go to the local community center to associate with everyone in the network so that you could see the advertisements on their site and earn them money. Bad. Bad. Bad.

Facebook is a bit of a prick!!!

What happens when you want to view your updates from a different website? Well, Facebook used to allow users to do this. They had RSS updates of Newsfeeds that could be sent and embedded into any website. It used to work nicely. Today though, the only updates you’d see would be “David updated his status,” and only if you click on it would you be brought to FB to see what David updated his status to. Bad. Bad. Bad.

I spent close to a month looking for and trying out the best set up to have all my online activities back to my site. FB was especially hard to set up. (I started with profilactic. But I quickly switched to FriendFeed because what profilactic’s etymology.)

Another horrible thing is whenever my friends or myself share a link from my blog. It would receive at least a handful of comments on Facebook, but my blog’s comments remain empty. Is there a way to re-import your stuff back from FB? Yes. But it is not easy. Definitely not as easy as how Google wants to do it.

Google Buzz will change all of this. Google has said often that it’s main business is the search engine and the small inconspicuous ads posted on search results. Everything else they’ve done are hobbies. That includes the online docs and spreadsheets that gives Microsoft’s Office a run for its money. Then there is Gmail and countless other things. All these products are simply handcrafted by Google to encourage users to use the internet more. That’s it. That’s generosity.

Google is Generous!

Watch the introduction to Google Wave. It is a bit long, but it shows Google’s idea of what a bright future would be for the Internet and everyone using it.

If you notice, it’s all about sharing. Unlike Facebook, you don’t have to share under Facebook’s terms and do it in their site. You could do it in yours. Why is this the future? Eventually, just as we are no longer confined by physical space, we won’t be confined by which website you are in. You should get your info and share your info. This goes against Facebook’s philosophies almost completely. They’ll need more than a profile update to withstand this wave.

Once this is implemented, Wave, I’ll be happy to have all the updates in my Gmail back in my website instantly.

In other words, Google Buzz (and Wave together) is about to bring our personalities back to people. No longer would an institution overlord it’s philosophies and ideals to the masses. Users would get to fashion themselves the way they want. It’s very similar to the industrial revolution in France and what better way to prove what I mean by showing a personal favorite song of mine that shows human triumph over oppression.

Cool huh?

The problem is Google with all its benevolence, is a bit of a boyscout. Just like Clark Kent/Superman, it is getting a little bit annoying to watch a superstar like Google play meek all the time. Cuz let’s be honest, Google is big. Facebook, even with what is has accomplished, is small compared to Google. Google is ubiquitous. When it comes to safe guarding my personal stuff, I trust no one else but Google. But Google won’t over take Facebook and the other sites overnight, not a week, fortnight, month, not even a year. It’s gonna start slow. Teach people to use and get comfortable with their products. Then before you know it, they are everywhere.

The only power-play Google has obviously got is embedding Buzz inside Gmail. That means a couple of things.

Gmail users are automatic Buzz users, no sign ups necessary.
Gmail users will be able to see Buzz updates every time they check they emails.
The 1.3 billion Chinese in China will have an alternative that is unlikely to be blocked by their government despite the qualms between the institutions. Blocking Gmail is more ethically wrong than blocking a social network.

But that’s a whole new story altogether. Maybe I’ll write about it in the future. In the mean time I’ll wait for Google to takeover so I could have all the conveniences they promise.

Dear JD, To Go Or Not To Go

redesigndavid — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 03:30:58 +0000

Today’s Dear JD comes from an aspiring VFX artist who is seemingly down on his luck, but may very well be approching a career opportunity that he might miss if his eyes are open.

Dear JD,
I don’t know if you would be able to help. My problem is weird. Someone set up an interview for me for a job I’m not prepared to do and definitely not what I’m looking for. I want to be a Visual Effects Artist and the job is for a junior technical director. I can rig characters, but not in the software they are using. Should I still go for the interview? Or should I start looking for an excuse.

Sincerely,
Stuck-Between-Two-Uncool-Places

When I read the letter, I remembered a clip from Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest. Elizabeth was trying to convince Jack Sparrow to change his ways.

Elizabeth Swann: There will come a time when you have a chance to do the right thing.
Jack Sparrow: I love those moments. I like to wave at them as they pass by.

Dear Stuck-Between-Two-Uncool-Places,

You think you are in a bad position with no where to turn to. It could be very profitable if you just look at it from a different angle. I won’t be against having the interview. Interviews go and should go two ways. It should benefit both parties. You could learn from the company and the industry as much as they’d learn from you if you ask questions.

But you should be honest. Don’t pretend to be good at things when you are not. Tell them you are proficient in rigging in Maya and although you are promised that the concepts are the same with the software they are using, it won’t take long for you to adapt, you still need to prove to yourself that you could actually do it.

If asked whether you want this job or not, you could say it’s not exactly what you want, but for an artist, learning is as much part of the job as actually creating art. We create and we grow. If we cease in any of the two, we cease from being artists.

Now for a Shakespearean quote: a coward dies a thousand deaths, the brave dies but once.

Go for the interview! It’s good for experience in being interviewed. Don’t back out on it. So what if you don’t get hired.

JD

This is a tricky quandary (as if there are non tricky ones). It’s a fine line between grabbing every opportunity to benefit you and drifting towards a future you do not desire. What may seemingly be an unexpected provision of food could easily be a mouse-trap. Extermination under the guise of benevolence. It’s dangerous. You have to be wise. You can’t just go head-strong onto everything. You’ll end up trapped. But if you remember the Brothers Grim’s Hanzel and Gretel, they only really ended up eating from the candy house when they lost the trail of bread.

What’s important is to keep a trail and make sure it is well protected. Stones worked for Hanzel and Gretel. We should use a path that’s gonna be just as solid. Something that doesn’t bend with the wind or follow the changes in the tides of the sea. With that, you can judge each opportunity that comes by you: to see if it’s there to bring you closer or farther to your dreams.

In the case of our writer, it was very obvious it was just the fear of failing the interview that was preventing him from moving forward. This happens to a lot of us. We use our understanding and our intellect to justify our decisions to stay safe. I had to push our friend to have the interview because it is something that will benefit him regardless of the outcome.

If you are reading this, you should ask yourself the same question. Are there things in your life, opportunities that may benefit you that you take forgranted and then you back up your convictions with words like “it is not yet time, I’ve got other things to do or maybe next time?” No doubt, you may be right. But just to be sure, ask yourself this question: am I delaying because I’m scared of failing?

Then, allow me to give you the same quote I gave our correspondent: a coward dies a thousand deaths, the brave dies but once.

No related posts.

Officially Registered and Training for Sundown Marathon

redesigndavid — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 03:24:47 +0000

I am officially registered in the Sundown Marathon 2010. Whheeewwww!!!! Not for a 42 kilometer run. I’m not ready for that. I registered for the half-marathon. And even for that, the 5 months of running I’ve had might not be enough. Yes, I am scared. But I’ve always been scared whenever we venture into a longer than normal run. The initial fear makes the run special.

According to the McMillan Running Calculator–even though I haven’t run as far as 21 kilometers ever–if I do, I’ll be able to finish in 2 hours and 48 minutes (and 16 seconds). I could hardly believe that. I hope they didn’t just get my speed and use that to see how fast I’d be able to run my 21km. They are supposed to calculate my finish time while considering my definite slow down because of the distance.

I scoured the internet for a training guide. To date, we’ve got just a couple days over a hundred before the big day. 29-5-2010. That’s not much time. Things have to go serious. I found the training guide that best suites me. The ULTIMATE HALF-MARATHON TRAINING PLAN from Runners World Online. It has profiles for all sorts of runners, from beginners to seasoned runners.

It’s a nine week program. Rest days already scheduled in.

The only pre-requisite for 21km runners is weekly mileage of 30 miles. I could work my way up to that. And I’m gonna have to follow the nine week schedule exactly. This is a make or break thing.

The strict and detailed regiment is important for a beginner like me. I’ve no one to tell me when I’m over training or when I’m being too soft on my self. I remember when I had someone training me in weight lifting. He would give instructions, tell me which exercises to do. I would always respond with how heavy should I carry? The reply I would always get is whatever it is you are comfortable with. How I wish I know the answer to that question.

In the training routine from runners world, it’ll be easy for you to judge which profile you belong to. All you need to do is check your weekly mileage and how long have you been running. Once you’ve done that, you’ll see that for every profile, they have training routines that would allow the runner to have the best possible run he could have come race day. They’ve got speed workouts and endurance workouts. For advance runners, they have all sorts of different workouts that train speed, pace, endurance and I don’t know what else. In other routines in the net, I’ve seen Striders, Tempo Runs, Lactate Level Runs and etc…

Personally, I love the new jargon. Especially so because they could all be related to something all runners and non-runners have alike–LIFE.

CG or Non-CG?

redesigndavid — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 07:56:17 +0000

Look at this picture. Look at all the little parts. Answer this question.

Do you think it is:

a) a real photo of a tornado
b) a real photo a volcano
c) traditional painting at it’s finest
d) digital matte painting
e) a real photo of a man walking his dog
f) none of the above
g) all of the above

Okay, too many options? How about just answering this? Is this CG or not? Once you are sure of your answer why don’t you click on this photo to see whether you were correct or not . No cheating!!!!!

That’s Matthew Albanese’s work. If you’d like to know about his stuff, check this page out.

No related posts.

Choosing Your Career: Rigging, Animation or Something Else?

redesigndavid — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 08:40:04 +0000

This morning, on my way to work, I received the most unlikely email.

Dear JD,

I am [name with-held] an aspiring animator from [hometown with-held]. I have heard a lot about you and your work. You are just perfect. Currently I am studying one of your rigs, so I thought it would be better to seek your advice regarding my future career. I am in a dilemma trying to choose between RIGGING and ANIMATION for my specialization. I am interested in both fields. Please guide me!

Sincerely,
Dilemma-Between-Animation-and-Rigging

The compliments, however far-fetched, made my day. I remember what I went through when I had to answer this very same question. Rigging or Animation? I recall the first lines of Romea and Juliet.

Two households, both alike in dignity,
In fair Verona, where we lay our scene,
From ancient grudge break to new mutiny,
Where civil blood makes civil hands unclean.
From forth the fatal loins of these two foes
A pair of star-crossed lovers take their life,
Whose misadventured piteous overthrows
Doth with their death bury their parents̓ strife.
The fearful passage of their death-marked love
And the continuance of their parents̓ rage,
Which but their children̓s end, naught could remove,
Is now the two-hours̓traffic of our stage;
The which if you with patient ears attend,
What here shall miss, our toil shall strive to mend.

It’s a fair question. Rigging or Animation. Both lovers and haters. They have one goal in the end and as they work hand in hand, they are still world’s apart. Yet, one would not exist without the other. They are kindred souls.

Dear Dilemma-Between-Animation-and-Rigging,

I am very grateful for your compliments! They are a bit exaggerated though. I am, after all, mere human, trying to make an honest living doing my part in the community, occasionally (and sometimes often) stumbling, but always stubbornly getting up to resume the journey. I’d like to help solve your dilemma, although the key is too far for my reach. They are, however, easily within yours.

You are trying to decide between rigging and animation. Cliche as it would sound, you really need to look deep within yourself. Advisers would ask you to assess three things.

I reproduced those three things here so just in case you are faced with a similar dilemma, you won’t be caught off-guard.

Three Things to Assess:

#1 Your Skills and Abilities

This should include not just your current set of skills but also your ability to grasp new knowledge–your learning curve. You should try learning from both fields first. Give them both a try. Try to see whether you are more comfortable learning animation or rigging. Check out a tutorial or two. It’s very hard to choose between the two fields without testing them out.

Something you might want to keep in mind regarding the topic is the difference between the nature of the two fields. One is obviously technical while the other gears towards artistry. Although one may argue that they are still both an art (including myself, staunchly of course!) still there are huge differences that need to be defined. Both may require a lot of observation, true. But the observing part of rigging is a lot more like that of the scientific method. While observing in animation is the same kind the artists did during the Renaissance.

What makes both of them artistic is the fact that (this is arguable though) in both fields, to learn them, one must acquire a set of tools and techniques, much like an apprentice would in an atelier (workshop) during the renaissance. The art in rigging lies within one’s ability to choose which tools or techniques to use, which combination in which order, to reach the same end goal that animators strive for: to create the illusion of life.

Just like any other art, in rigging, you learn tools. But the tools don't do the work for you.

Having mentioned The Illusion of Life, you should read it. It will help you make your decision. Another book I would recommend is the Animator’s Survival Kit. When you read these books, try not to concentrate on the techniques just yet. There is a wealth of experience included from the authors of the books. You get to glimpse the kinds of lives they live and how and to what lengths they had to go through just to reach their status. Then compare it with the lives of scientists. That is if you have the time.

There is an interesting anecdote from A.S.K. about how both the author, Richard Williams, and his mentor in animation, Milt Kahl, after decades and decades of animating, being the select bests in the field, both still feel they don’t know how to animate yet. Mind you, they are both white haired at the time of the anecdote.

Very inspiring. But it also demonstrates another stark difference between the two fields. In rigging, technical as it is, if you know the answer to something, you know it. Just as if you know the answer to 10 + 10, you know it. If you don’t, no amount of contemplation or meditation could help. At the most, you might be able to get around a problem through research, employing a bit of alchemy here and there. But mostly the problems you’ll get would be of the type if-you-know-it-you-know-it-if-you-dont-you-dont.

On the other hand, in animation you try to mimic life. This falls under the same category of goals most creative endeavors would have. And because of that, there is a bit of subjectivity involved. What one might find awesome, another might find second rate. What would make one improve in this field is experience. And to get the most out of that you’ll need mentorship and practice.

I’m not trying to say that research is your sole driving force for rigging, while in animation it’s experience. Research and experience should compliment each other at all times. It’s just that in a technical field, research is your tool. In a subjective field, experience.

#2 Your Character or Personality

Everyone is unique! That's what Heroes is all about!

Once you’ve judged your strengths in regards to your abilities, you’d like to measure the results up against your character. Being good in something is only part of the game. I’m sure you’ve heard of the old adage: talent is overrated. Your skills would probably get you started in the industry. But what’s gonna keep you going is your character.

It doesn’t matter so much if you are exeptionally talented if you have no love for what it is you are doing, no desire to be the best in it. What usually drives a person to become better is the desire to be on top.

Specifically, what’s important is your character towards the two fields. Which one do you like better? Which one is more satisfying, not just to learn but to do. This is a very important question, cuz once you choose, you’d like to stick to that decision.

The best way to approach this query is to not look at things short-sightedly. It is very easy to say I want this now, and later (the same day) you’d like the other. Try to look at things in longer terms. Try asking yourself, am I willing to devote 2 years on this? In fact, I’d advise you to jump only once you could picture yourself doing something for a decade. Once you could answer that question, all of a sudden all your endeavors would be there to support your goal. If it is rigging you choose, learning animation would only be there to strengthen your rigging. In the same way, rigging might be able to give you an edge in animation. Whatever it is you decide, you must stick to it. Once, you go back on your decision, you’ll lose the number of years you’ve invested in your initial choice (maybe not fully, but partially).

#3 Your Environment

You are not alone.

This is the part I least like, so I’ll keep it short. This part deals with the practicality of the decision rather than the ideal. When you try to choose between the two fields, you’d want to be able to slant your decision to benefit from opportunities around you. In many ways, it goes against the things I’ve stated above. But because we all need to eat, we are after all looking for a job in the end, we can not completely rule out this important facet in the decision.

If there is a surplus of animation openings in the place where you want to work in (wow!!!), then it’ll be ridiculous to insist on going for rigging, especially if you are also inclined towards learning it.

Occasionally though, we can’t really tell the kind of opportunities we’ll get once the time comes. If you are gutsy, and in the first two pointers, your scores were biased towards a particular specialization, go for that. If you want to play safe, go for what’s immediately available.

If I were you though, I’d neglect this last pointer. You see, I’m a big fan of Alexandre Dumas. Read his books and adored his characters. I think my life as an adult is in more ways than one influenced by the books I’ve read. So although I recognize the practicality of things, I still operate in a way as if there is an author writing my life. One who is still constructing my character and thickening my plot. I make my decisions banking on the unseen provision my author made for me for what ever it is I’ll need whenever the time comes. It is a bit reckless, I know. I wish I could unlearn it. I even advise people against it. But that is who I am and who I am proud to be.

If you know me, you’d know that I eventually decided to spend my time on rigging. The decision behind that is a completely different story. This post is getting too long.

If you have a question to ask, you could send it to redesigndavid[at]gmail[dot]com. I’d be happy to help.

About a Not-So-Organized Life

Intelligent Running Calculator

redesigndavid — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 07:58:42 +0000

I saw this calculator for runners in McMillanRunning. You start by inputting information: the distance you run on average, your best time, mileage, age and gender. Then it’ll make educated estimates on how you’ll probably fair running other distances.

It’ll also give you a list of what pacing you should use in your workout runs, for whatever kind of workout you wish to use, to get the best results possible.

For an example of the results, check this out.

Ending Sprint

redesigndavid — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 05:08:19 +0000

Yesterday’s run was a short one. Just 8 KM for our team’s usual Tuesday night 12+ runs. We decided, to ensure the future of our running endeavors, we needed to first secure another endeavor we have in life, specifically the endeavor that finances our running, our daytime jobs. And as much as we enjoy running–in fact, continually adding the numbers every week–we’ve been going home later and later on Tuesday nights. Not a very good thing, considering we pride ourselves for setting good examples for our fellow country men.

Our decision was not an all reduction policy, though. Dropping our 12K Tuesday to just 8 is really just part of the story. Our Tuesday nights was redubbed, “maintenance night.” Eight kilometers, we think, should be enough to keep the blood flowing until our “New Day of Reckoning,” Saturday. That’s when we go for kill. And because we our not bound to stay at work til after 7pm, we could start early. Maybe before the Sun is down. My excitement does not waver one bit.

Last night, knowing our run was a short one, I left no reservations. On multiple times, approching intersections I saw the blinking green man. I’d normally slow down and allow myself to wait for the next one, resting a little bit. Last night, I always ran for it. Sprint! A couple of times, in fact, the red man appeared while I was right at the middle of the road. But that’s fine. Civilized countries give pedestrians more lee-way than others.

And towards the end of the last kilometer, I decided to speed up. It was the first time I realized how much energy I had left. So I gave it my all, sprinted for about 200-300 meters (after about 7 kilometers already) top speed. It was so fulfilling! I was so happy for myself. I finished with an average pacing of 7 and a half minutes per kilometer. I’m so so so happy!!!

Colored Animals

redesigndavid — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 08:19:40 +0000

I stumbled upon this book called Chroma: Design, Architecture and Art in Color (Glasner, Barbara; Schmidt, Petra (Eds.)). They talk about color. Nothing but color. To be honest I have yet to open the book. But I like what I see so far. The goal of the book is to show how important the role of color is to a designer.

In other words, color shouldn’t be an after thought. It should be an integral part of the design. Most of the time, when artists learn to design in schools, the first parts of the classes is to use the graphite pencil (a color less medium) and they start designing. They make sure proportions are correct, shapes are right, positions precise. They even add in texture and value when there is time. Once all these are laid out, only then do they think about color.

The photos I stole of oddly but beautifully colored animals came from the book, but I got them from we make money not art. I love that site. They are honest. The same way I want to be. Look at that cute little rhino. Now remember, color is an integral part of design, not an afterthought! Happy designing!!!!

First Colored Shoes

First Colored Shoes

redesigndavid — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 07:53:07 +0000

This morning while wearing my socks I saw all the shoes I had. They were all either grey, black, or black and white. The first ever pair I bought since I’ve been staying here in Singapore that has color are my new Nike Lunar Gliders. That it over there in the picture above.

I bought the pair specifically because my 80kg weight was giving me hell when I run. I was using PUMA’s, 173 gram shoes, LIFT. It was light. Really light! But I needed cushioning for my running. I spent 3 days in agony, my feet’s soles felt bruised blue, learning the lesson. I bought my new runners before the pain in my soles left and not two days after that I was back on the road running.
LIFTs were never really designed for running. They are more street-fashion shoes, I think (don’t quote me on this, I’m really unsure). So when my feet were crying in pain, the Nike’s ad came to mind, “actually, it is rocket science.” Their ads were all men and women running. It was a beckon call.

They did not disappoint! Lunar Glides are wonderful!!! My only qualm is the cushion I get from the shoes subtract from my leg’s power. This was made apparent when I saw that my fastest run 10k+ run was the same run with my LIFTs. But I’m never going back to them, not even for short runs. The soles lack the necessary profile to provide grip on the road. When I’m walking, and the surface I’m on is ever so slightly slippery, I look like a kid trying to learn how to skate. It’s so funny. I have to take really small steps really slowly, otherwise I end up all over the place.

In a poetic point of view, pain acted as my catalyst to better shoes. They have color now. They slow me down, but it’s better this way. I am protected by better cushioning. Life is about keeping yourself protected. It’s so much better this way.

The Long Road Home

redesigndavid — Sun, 31 Jan 2010 14:13:25 +0000

I just finished John Grogan’s second best-seller, The Longest Trip Home. It was no Marley and Me but the book had similar bio-rhythms. I read for 2 weeks, laughing most of the time, and only in the last two days reading the last quarter of the book, when the story started winding up the two weeks worth of invested stories, did things change and every page was a tear-jerker. I remembered my family, especially my Dad, most of whom I only see a couple of days a year.

Marley and Me was similar. For the better part of both novels, Grogan would continually regal you with stories, casting his fishing lines long, as long as it takes. Then, right when you least expect it–usually when you can’t wait for the next laugh trip you’ll get–he gives those lines a quick effective tug and you are hooked.

Then he reels you in. All the comedy he put in was an investment. He was setting you up (almost mischievously). He was making sure that as certain events happened in the end, you’d know the emotional significance. When robust people change or even passaway, you feel it. He doesn’t need to write when is is sad that it was sad because you know it’s sad. You know because you know the characters intimately. You’ve been spending the last two weeks laughing at them, and sometimes with them.

I was being reeled in these last two days and wheeew! What a story!!! Now, I understand.

For the rest of the books I’ve read and most of my reviews of them check out my goodreads profile.

Me, Marley and Me

January’s Ending Note

redesigndavid — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 17:05:39 +0000

This will probably be my last run for January. I’ve a total of 88.24 kilometers of running logged in runkeeper. I have a student who used to do 40km a week. My golly! Will I ever be able to do that? I’ll aim to.

I was aiming to increase my speed when I ran this evening. I jogged for about a kilometer then I bent forward and sped. I thought I was running my fastest tonight. But when I checked, my fastest average was still the first run I had this year. I wasn’t expecting that. That run was the run that almost debilitated me from walking for three days. But it was also one of the most spiritual runs I’ve had. I felt like dying so many times but there was a source of energy that continued to overflow through me. And when I arrived home, there was an email from myself. It was no coincidence. There is a conductor of life’s orchestra.

Why Do I Run?

redesigndavid — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 03:56:39 +0000

On the last kilometer of my first 13k run, my vision began to dim, the tips of my fingers were numb and prickly. I was dragging my feet like dogs who want to take a leak on a fire hydrant. The sidewalks were empty but for me. I was denying the pain my legs were screaming about. All of a sudden, a kid no taller than my belly button, ran out from no where, cut my path then ran back behind me.

The kid had a smile and a look of mischief on his face. Half, he wanted to race me; half, he only wanted to show he could run faster. I didn’t look back to see where he went. I knew there won’t be anyone there. The kid, after all, was just a figment of my imagination. Or much rather, a part of my childhood’s memory. I was that little boy, once upon a time, and my role today was of my dad when he was training to run a marathon.

It actually happened. I don’t remember how exactly, but it did happen. My dad was doing rounds around our village and my mom brought us out to walk to the grocery. We saw our dad running. We cheered him on. I dashed to his side, raced him and pulled back when I got in front to end my three second lead.

In my immature mind, I thought I proved once and for all that I could run faster than any man on earth. Twenty years later, things have changed. My body has changed. Running takes effort now. Gravity is no longer a friend but rather an arch enemy constantly trying to get me. Twenty years later, I learned that life is a constant struggle to move forward.

Life is no 100 meter dash. The difference between a 7 year old and 27 year old is that at 7, all you think about is your future. At 27, you worry about the past and the future at the same time. Sometimes, it’s not so much the distance you still need to travel that makes it hard to waddle forward, but the quality of the first part of your run that weigh on you, preventing you from pushing yourself forward. The minute you learn to accept the difference between your life and your ideals, the moment you embrace life for what it is, you’ll be grateful to have the opportunity to move forward, the chance to run if you can. At 27, I know my life isn’t perfect so it gave me comfort to hope that one day maybe my son would also run with me to encourage me to finish the race.

To answer the question I posted as the title, why do I run? I run cuz my dad ran when I was little. He finished the marathon he was training for. At the finish line some reporters asked him some questions. One of the questions they asked was why he ran in the marathon. He said “I just had a bout with lung cancer and God has miraculously healed me. I’m running to show the world that God has healed me fully and completely.”

I run to achieve the same declaration with my life.

What’s Wrong With This Bear?

redesigndavid — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 10:46:30 +0000

What is wrong with this picture? Is it too the number of motion capture markers on the bear? Is it the pose of the bear? Is it because the top mocap point that should have been an apple? Is it the tummy of the bear? The grin?

Let me know. BTW picture was from yed3d’s blog.

Quickly Batch Mocap Conversion

redesigndavid — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 10:35:37 +0000

from blog.ubi.com

In my thrill in the discovery of the mother load of free motioncapture data, I downloaded all the animations, which were made up of ASF files (skeleton setups) and matching AMC files (motion captured animation). The total download was more than 2 gigabytes.

The promised 4 gigabytes might have been due to the multiple versions of the same data. I only downloaded one type. The type I could import into Maya, the ASF’s and their matching AMC’s filetypes. Converting these files meant using programs already made available by CMU from their website. There are two DOS executable files available for download. The first is asf2mel.exe which converts ASF files into a MEL script that builds a joint hierarchy for you. The second is amc2mov.exe which creates another MEL script that sets up the joint hierarchy just created to accept the animation contained in the second file, an MOV.

The commands to use the two files are easy to learn. To learn, just peruse the documentation page from MCU mocap lib. You won’t have a hard time. The only difficulty I had was the 2,500+ files I wanted to convert. I knew there was no way in hell I’d be typing commands 2.5 thousands times.

Instead I developed a batch sequence that would, in a sense, scan the its own folder for ASF files (files containing skeletons) and then scan the same folder for matching AMC files (files containing motion) and convert them, plus segregate them into folders. Took me about 30 minutes figuring the nine-line script out. But it was well worth it. The computer worked for me for the next three hours converting file after file.

If you downloaded a bunch of ASF files and AMC files from CMU Mo-Cap Library and you want to be able to convert them as fast as I did, you can download the script I made here. All you need to do is make sure the all the files from the zip are contained within the same folder where your ASF and AMC files are. Run conversionbatch.cmd. And viola. Sit and watch your subfolders populate and fillup with free mocap goodness. (BTW, neglect the other CMD file. movconversionbatch.cmd is being executed by conversionbatch.cmd as a nested command.)

modCharSetup version 1

Motion Capture

redesigndavid — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 04:54:56 +0000

I discovered a wealth of motion capture data from Carnegie Mellon University’s website that is free to use (commercial or noncommercial), convert and redistribute with no need for permissions.

Wait a minute… Carnegie Mellon… Why does that sound so familiar? Yes! It was host to one of the most famous lectures delivered in our time by mere human (The Sermon on the Mount, even minus the booming voice, doesn’t qualify). I am talking about “The Last Lecture” by Randy Pausch. It was made popular by Oprah. A book was also created to better spread its message. If you are about to watch the clip, make sure you’ve got something to wipe your eyes with, the air strangely dries up when Randy Pausch delivers his jokes.

I know Mr. Pausch isn’t solely responsible for the free motion capture data, but I am positive he is involved in one way or the other. This page hints towards my hunch.

Regardless of whom to thank, Carnegie Mellon infuses the same kind of generous spirit we adore in the Randy Pausch. An entire database worth over 4 gigabytes of motion captured data.

To be honest, I’m no mocap fan. But I do acknowledge a lot of its advantages. One need only mention one word. Avatar. After that movie, James Cameron placed “motion capture” on an even par with key animation, making it a worthy alternative.

The mocap data from CMU Graphics Lab Motion Capture Database would fail in comparison to the mocap of Avatar. But that shouldn’t be anything anyone should be ashamed of. It is usually through similar endeavors of research grants, unwavering toils and knowledge sharing, that technology is pushed to its boundaries and beyond. The CMU graphics lab probably more instrumental to Avatar than we think. What I’d give to be part of a similar endeavor.

Slow Running, Sure Running

redesigndavid — Sun, 24 Jan 2010 14:24:39 +0000

I had a slow and painful run today. The cross-training I did last Friday did more harm than good. Because the basketball court was filled with people by the time we got there, I did neither stretchings nor warm ups. Whenever the ball would go out of bounds pausing the game, I’d feel my leg muscles tighten. But I was stubborn. I neglected my own advice to my students “We are no longer young. Our bodies will be in-shock with the sudden activity.” Mine, especially. My legs have always been sluggish to start work and have been consistently prone to injury due to lack of stretching.

When I reached home, I iced my knees and my ankles while writing stitches. The next day I swathed them in a poultice of hirudoid and analgesic balm, sleeping most of the day to allow them rest. They weren’t really painful. I just wanted to take care of them. Part of their recuperation, in my quack-doctor mind, is to allow blood to flow through them or, in other words, allow them to have a light workout.

I ran a considerably short distance with a considerably slow speed. 6 kmh. I couldn’t go any faster because I knew I might re-injure my knees real bad. After about 3 kilometers, I could feel my knees performing better. So I let them. I’d up my speed for a couple hundred meters then drop again. I feel none of the slight discomfort I had before the run. I hope it’ll be completely gone by tomorrow.

I don’t mind slowing down. Maybe my younger self would have been very much frustrated. There were a hand full of runners who sped pass me like they were race cars and I was grandma on an old station-wagon. But I’m okay. I’m looking at a running lifestyle. A couple days of bad running is nothing compared to the life I’m hoping to have if I keep this up. The important thing is to never stop.

In a similar matter, there is another yearning for which I’m willing to go 5 (even 7, 8, 9 or 10) of rewardless years, not for penitence, but because it is worth it. I know. In comparison, when the answer comes from God, it will be beautiful.

Russian Go All Heaty to Combat Colds

redesigndavid — Sat, 23 Jan 2010 08:49:34 +0000

I was reading europeantrotter, a European travel blog and found something incredibly interesting. The Russian remedy to colds is something the Chinese (well at least in my understanding) would consider completely stupid. Now, I’m not trying to start a war between these two (once-)communist countries, so before you start your judgment allow me to share my findings.

I’m no expert, but in my understanding of Traditional Chinese Medicine, things are split into two competing concepts that need to be balanced much like Yin and Yang. When it comes to food, there is heaty and cooling. When you eat types of food that fall under the category of heatiness (like peanuts, pepper, ginger, soybean oil, red and green pepper, chicken, apricot seed, brown sugar, cherry, chestnut, chive, cinnamon twig, clove, coconut, coffee) certain symptoms start to emmanate. These include short temper, fever, constipation, sore throat, pimples outbreaks and mouth ulcers.

I’ve witnessed these from my classmates. I am a sucker for peanuts my entire life. One time, I brought a pack of Chocnut (a Filipino snack made up of peanuts, milk, cane sugar, cocoa powder–all heaty ingredients) so that my Singaporean classmates could try it out. Most of my friends declined the offer. Mumbling something about heatiness I didn’t understand then. One of them indulged himself. Took a quarter of the amount I had myself. The next day he couldn’t speak much because his mouth was bespeckled with ulcers. While I had neither pimples, colds or ulcers.

So, when my friends have colds, they stay away from heaty foods. But what about the just-as-effective Russian method of treating colds? According to europeantrotter, their remedies start with a

draft of vodka. If that doesn’t work, they add pepper and so..
vodka with pepper. If still it doesn’t work, they go for
milk with sunflower oil and then
vodka with chilli then maybe
they go to a doctor

What do you think of that? I think it’s not just cultural difference. It may have more to do with idiosyncratic genetics, just as Caucasians are more prone to skin cancer and the Chinese get nose cancer. To the Chinese, heaty foods prevent healing from colds and flu, to the Russians heaty foods aid them.

Stitches

redesigndavid — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 18:52:27 +0000

I was invited to basketball by some students. Since basketball could be a chance for me to crosstrain, I said yes. True enough, not ten minutes in the court I felt like giving up. My breathing was worse than when I run. But the game wasn’t the highlight of that night.

JZ, a good friend and student, slipped while chasing after a ball to prevent it from going out of bounds. He lost his footing and sent his feet flying forwards until his back hit the ground. His shin caught the sharp edge of a planter surrounding the court, scraping it and cutting deep in some places. He said he was fine. We continued playing while he sat on the bench and the rest of us were breathing our lungs out.

Before going home, JZ disappeared to clean his wound. He was gone longer than usual. And when he came back he said there was a cut that was too deep for mother nature to handle. For one, there seemed no slowing down to the blood’s profusion. It was obvious, he needed stitches.

Since it was too late by then to use any bus and/or MRT and he lived near my place we decided to take a cab together so he could go down to a hospital on the way. On the way, I told him a story.

An anecdote I know he’d be able to relate to was when I received the scar on my left leg. You see, on my left leg is a scar the shape of the letter i (in italicized times new roman, to be accurate). I received it when I was in grade 2.

I was playing with my friends. On this particular day, we were playing tag (touch-taya in Filipino) in parking lot where our school bus was. I remember maneuvering my way in between cars nobody caught up on me. I used to pride myself to have the fastest pair of legs around people my age so I didn’t want and would have done everything to prevent anybody getting me. But the labyrinth of cars I ran into placed me into a position that left me no choice but to run out into the grass fields right beside the parking lot.

Everyone avoided those grassfields. It was a no man’s land. There were vines that crawled crisscrossing the upward direction of the grass, making it impossible to run on, except when you jump like a gazelle.

I went in there, as a last resort, knowing noone would dare follow me. And just as predicted, my foot got entangled with some vines. I was falling forward. The only way for me to regain balance was for me to plant my left foot in front of me, but because it was trapped in vines, I fell on my left knee instead. Bam!!!

I stood up to inspect my patella. There was a slash right across it, going down like a samurai sword went through it, offering me a view of raw flesh. As blood trickled down my knee, so did the tears in my face.

The school bus brought me to the hospital. The nurses asked me what happened and I told them I fell on a sharp rock that cut through my knee’s flesh. They sew my knee up like a rag doll being repaired.

The next day, I felt fine. That afternoon though there was a stiffening in my knee. The next day, I couldn’t bend it at all. I was limping on one leg. When my dad saw me, he got angry. He didn’t want me to baby myself like that just because of a flesh wound. There was no reason for me to stop walking a day or two after my stitches finished with no complications. My mom had my knee xrayed. We all saw that there was nothing wrong with it, so we had a physical therapist help me bend my knee.

I remember the pain the first time the knee was bent. But I breathed in heavy and the succeeding bends felt less and less painful. I wish I could end the story here by saying the next day I was able to walk. I was able to walk, but the story is far from over.

On December 31st of that year, my sister and I were playing rough. I remember because we were waiting for the New Year playing tug-o-war. But instead of using a rope, we were using a stool. Somehow, the stool hit my left knee and on the place of contact emerged this huge towering bump, like an eye staring at you from an inch above the first gash. I felt horrible, partly thinking I might not be able to walk again.

My mom applied some ointment, but the bump didn’t disappear. It just decreased in size. Months (or was it years) later my mom saw that it really wasn’t getting any smaller, we went to a doctor. The doc said we should try hot compress. We did, the wound again didn’t get that much smaller. The doctor tried puncturing a hole on it, converting the mountain into a volcanoe spewing puss out. This didn’t help much either. Nobody knew what was wrong with my knee and much less how to solve it.

Finally, my mom asked the doctor to operate on my knee, just open it up. See what’s inside. You know what they discovered? A tiny piece of glass that was green in color. Looks like when I thought I fell on a sharp rock, it was actually a shard of glass. Something xrays wouldn’t have been able to pick up. Somehow, when my sister and I accidentally bruised my knee, it was a good thing. It was God-ordained. It is one of those things that God does that we don’t understand at the time but is actually for the best once we see the rest of the picture.

Paul coined the addage “thorn in the flesh,” I’m so happy I could say “the doctors once pulled out kryptonite from my flesh” and it’ll be mostly accurate.

It also explains why my knee stiffened the first three days after the stitches.

When I graduated from High School, our class advisor wanted us have a celebration including our parents. He made all our parents say a little something about us. Between my parents, my dad went first, but it didn’t matter cuz my dad thought of the same exact thing that my mom wanted to share about. They both wanted say something about the very event I wrote about here. Specifically, their guilt forcing me to walk not knowing I wasn’t acting when I said I could’t walk. I never heard them talk about what happened after we saw the piece of glass in my body. Frankly, I was simply amused with what happened. And not once did I ever begrudge them for forcing me to walk. In fact, I consider myself fortunate for having such an experience.

Often, I’d run into challenges and my common response is to tough it up. I see people fold under pressure and I couldn’t understand it. If we were to be logical, or we look at things in a medical point of view, my parents were probably not right in making me walk. But because the reason they made me walk was their love for me and their fear that I end up weak acting like a baby, I responded to their love and overcame medical science. That shard stayed in my body for months. It was only infected the first couple of days and the last couple of months (and it was only because of the tug-o-war my sister and I played).

Today, I still respond to their love. In fact, I respond to the love my family gives me. I’ve messed up lots on my own. I would have given up lots on my own if it weren’t for those who stood by me. God, who has continually loved me unfailingly despite my mistakes. My family and friends who accepted me despite my screwups and despite the disappointments I gave. Thank you all!!

As a last note (I doubt anyone, but someone, would read this far, if ever), God is the Great Physician. When he works on us, he doesn’t carelessly sew us up without checking inside first. He’ll make sure we are clean. He is probably cleansing us right now. But I believe one day he’ll start stitching things back together again, and this time he’ll use a thread that is stronger than anything we could ever imagine. And there will be no infections, nor complications, cuz that’s how He works.

VFX Students Batch 14

redesigndavid — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 09:50:33 +0000

Another quarter in the life of a 3dsense lecturer. I’m advising another set of students who want to specialize in Visual Effects. I asked them to blog all their updates (a discipline I, myself, am trying to learn) and to help them out I’m sharing their links here so you guys could encourage them or look at their stuff.

http://brainnivfx.blogspot.com/
http://nowayasway23.blogspot.com/

One of these days I’ll compile all the works of all the students who worked under me into a single page for the blog-o-sphere’s appreciation.

Quickly Batch Mocap Conversion

Snickers For Energy

redesigndavid — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 09:32:36 +0000

How’s that for a short 30 seconds!! This is soo cool!!! I’ll be running with snickers in my pockets next time!!!

Is it just me or does everybody notice the lack of shadows on the dust particles generated by the force of the feet?

Is it just me but the hunched bull’s left hoof looks oddly lit?

Regardless of my comments, these photos are beautiful!!! Absolutely beautiful!!
They were taken from CG Society. Specifically this article.

Studio behind this awesome commercial is Unexpected and they used Krakatoa by Frantic Films for their transformation shots

A Dragon For Me

redesigndavid — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 08:06:15 +0000

My good friend and colleague, Alvin, agreed to build a body for this dragon so that I would have a model to rig. I’ve been looking for a monster that I could rig and proffer up to the creative crash community. Alvin insists that I place here that there was no treaty signed in this agreement. But allow me to add, that we just made gentleman’s agreement.

If you wanna see more of his work, go and check out Life Spill Dreams.

No related posts.

A Sad Decentralized Social Network

redesigndavid — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 07:20:45 +0000

A guy named Loic le Meur wrote an article and drew a graph about the pros and cons of decentralized social maps and how we could reclaim everything. The drawing, albeit its simplicity, opened the eyes of a lot of social network savvy users worldwide. I, for one, have been trying to deal with this problem this past couple of months (although the catalist to my search for a solution was something complete different). A clean cut way to see if you have the same problem I have, perform a google search for your common username. I ~~use~~ have been using redesigndavid since before the turn of the millenium. It means something to me. Google returns a couple pages worth of my online profiles from multiple web 2.0 platforms. That’s cool!!! That means I’m participating in the online community. But it is also a huge mess!!

Le Meur that although it helps to be scattered across the web when it comes to networkign, everything should still be consolidated to a page that belongs to the person represented by the many profiles.

He explains things better with this video.

His thoughts generated so much social mileage that a website was set up just to house everybody else’s social network’s graph. Check it out, and maybe upload your own graph, if you want to. I’m thinking of doing that myself.

Thoughts On My Sister’s Dream

redesigndavid — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 04:36:53 +0000

I love my sister’s dream. She has been my new confidant for the last couple of months. Her dream gives me new hope. It tells me there is strength and solidity behind the frailty of paper thin things. It is a source of inspiration and a chance for me to deny whatever creeping thought that says my prayers are impossible.

The picture btw is from Erica Marshall of Flickr. She calls it Heartbreak, but I’d rather it be called paint-break. Cuz it’s the dried up paint lacking primer that is breaking. And beneath is strength. A new heart emerges.

Confirmed! Apple Tablet

redesigndavid — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 14:10:27 +0000

Confirmed!! Apple’s new Tablet Computer and here is a picture.

I couldn’t resist not doing this. I must apologize. It was a prank that I myself fell for from a digg’d page. But just so that you didn’t end up here empty handed, let me give you a list of pages that might interest you.

Thanks for visiting!! Hope to hear from you!

Ujin Lee’s Dust

redesigndavid — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 09:34:05 +0000

I love these photos. They are so humbling. I don’t know why, something about the subject and the way the photo was taken. They are gorgeous. Especially the first one above with its Rose Vale/Cordovan sky.

Blogged with the Flock Browser

Reach Out

redesigndavid — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 09:08:00 +0000

I love this picture. It communicates how I feel right now. I sent two packages over to the Philippines and both of them got halted by the customs. These are two gifts. One of them was supposed to be a surprise. I don’t know how I could manage to get the person to come over the bureau of customs to pay for the taxes of the gift and then still be surprised. I’m gonna have to employ mind trickery to an nth degree. Knowing that’ll be impossible, instead I’ll just have someone (the recipient of the first gift) to pay duty for both. And I’ll reserve my water-balloon retaliation for later.

So something can’t reach out to you, you reach out to it. That’s what this picture tells me. This, by the way, is an actual concept design by Yanko Design. It is called Recoiling Socket In The Wall. I love Yanko Design’s subcopy: “Form Beyond Function” (italics are mine for emphasis).

Thoughts On My Sister’s Dream

Ten Days Left This January

redesigndavid — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 08:16:25 +0000

There’s still 10 days left for 2010’s January and already I ran close to 60 kilometers. Today will be a rest day. I know I earned it because I’ve been running 4 straight days. In fact, my joints are beginning to feel the tension. At the end of January I will probably end up with close to 80 kilometers logged. Tomorrow, I’ll consider doing some cross training or resistance workouts. But running isn’t just the only thing I have in 2010 that I am proud of.

Aside from the running regiment, I am proud I’ve [started doing/done] these things and I don’t plan to stop:

I haven’t had a drop of coffee (I can’t say caffeine, cuz some sport’s drinks have caffeine in its ingredients).
I’ve been spending less, much, much less! Normally, at this time of the month I start tightening my belt just to make sure both ends meet. When I say both ends, I don’t mean both ends of my belt, I mean both ends of my salary. Petsa dela peligro as my sister calls it (it’s Spanish for “months of danger”. LOL!! I have never been good in handling my expenses. But this month is different. I have numerous extra expenses this month. Like for example, when I lost my wallet and before it was returned I had to buy a new one. Another example is when my foot hurt like hell for two-three days because of the lack of cushioning my first pair of running shoes provided me, I had to buy new ones. Another unexpected expenditure was buying these 400 plus buck supplements for my mom (something she would repay, but need not to) and sending them over to the Philippines. With all these, I still don’t see the need to tighten my belt.
I’ve made awesome friends.
I’ve been continually looking for God’s footprints to lead my way.

These are things I did not plan on doing this year. I sat no time listing down my resolutions. I simply desired to renew a relationship with my Creator and all these followed. God is good. That’s all I can say. Life ain’t perfect but I am happy I’m here right now. If I had the chance I’d probably edit the story of the past year, but instead I’ll just rest in the confidence that He who wrote this story knows what’s gonna happen in the end.

How Much I Could Save If I Ran

redesigndavid — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 17:55:48 +0000

Click on the picture. Those pink markers are all the MRT stops from City Hall to Pasir Ris. If you look at the lower left part of the picture you’ll see that the total distance from the two train stops is just 17km. I was telling my friends that if we could run that distance we’d be saving about 1.46 S$ for each trip. One week and we could get a meal from McDonald’s. Isn’t that cool?? (I’m just joking, but isn’t it cool to consider?)

No related posts.

Addicted to Running

redesigndavid — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 17:14:34 +0000

I am now addicted to running. In between classes (and sometimes during classes), my mind drifts off to the last run or the next run. I love the feeling that comes after a good (and even a bad) run. I love the endorphin fix I get the day after.

BTW, Wikipedia says the term “endorphins”is a combination of two ideas bound together to form a word. The two words are endo- and -orphin. These are short forms of the words endogenous and morphine (note again: morphine) and together is intended to mean “a morphine-like substance originating from within the body.”

What can I say? My core’s girth may not be improving, but I was never in this for the looks. Partially, I wanted to be healthy. But what I am really in for one-hundred percent is the fix.

Some of the rewards I have gotten since I’ve started this regiment is this set of awesome friends whose company I’ve come to love and enjoy in equal levels as I have for running. They are God’s gift to me, in my times of need.

Today, aside from breaking our (my all-time) record in distance running (12 kilometros!!!!) we also realized that our bodies are so much more flexible now. It is the first time in my life that I could reach my toes with out bending my knees. In fact I am so flexible now that even though I was wearing 2 inch high soles (from lunar tech), I could still bend low enough so that my Proximal Interphalangeal Joints could reach the ground.

Tomorrow is a new day. I’ll rest. I’ve been running 4 straight days, my body was no longer performing in optimal levels today. I know I need a rest. Run lightly Thursday, Friday. Hard on Saturday. Sleep on Sunday. And then next week’s Tuesday will be awesome!!!

Google Docs

redesigndavid — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 04:47:41 +0000

I just love the way Google shows off their products. They came up with all these cool tools and gadget “as a hobby.” Their mainstay business is still their search engine; their main means of making money, ad placements. Everything else they do is just to encourage people to use the internet.

2010 The Year of The Flock

redesigndavid — Fri, 01 Jan 2010 08:53:09 +0000

It is 2010. We all grow older and supposedly wiser. Often, we move in one direction not knowing parts of our bodies are left behind. Important relationships are disregarded. For some, there is no alternative. For others, there is no will. And the biggest culprit of all is work. Our biggest excuse is that we are too busy.

This 2010, I intend to stay as connected to friends and family as much as I could. How I accomplish this feat has two-folds. First is understanding. Today, in the same way mothers still treat their 40-year-old children as babies, a lot of us still operate our lives as if we live in the 80’s. 90’s, if you’re lucky; 2000’s, if you are conscious. But 2010 alone is vastly different from 2009.

The collective genius of man has identified the problem: lost relationships. A cataclysmic shower of social networks studded the blogosphere and the rest of web2.0.

There was Friendster, then Multiply, then Hi5, Facebook, Twitter… etc etc.. a new problem surfaced. Multiple networks meant a new kind of clutter. If the goal is to connect and the means of which has multiple choices, you actually lose your choice. Your friends are everywhere. They’ve chosen different social networks. Often choosing one more niche to their lifestyle. A lot of times, they choose to have multiple networks themselves. If you insist on only using one network, screwing your chances to meet with friends from different networks, it’ll be like lockin up the front door to neighbors who just wanna say hello. On the other hand, making profiles on each network is such a huge hassle. Let alone maintaining all of them. Others recommend choosing networks that are only appropriate to your lifestyle. But if you really wanna connect, even this has its limitations.

Luckily, there is a solution to this problem. It is called wave. But wave has yet to be implemented every where. Forecasts says it’ll soon be ubiquitous. But until then, we are left with little bits and pieces of “sorta” solutions to this fragmented world. I wrote an article about this once. Today, at the turn of the year, I decided to switch to Flock and migrate all my addons from firefox.

What do I get with Flock?
Instant Updates from Important Blogs
I say “important” rather than “favorite” because it is important for me to be updated whenever important people from my life update their blogs. I’ve lost a connection once that I still wish to regain. I won’t be deprived of this one tiny little bit of joy.

Easily Upload Pictures
Last night I uploaded about 300 photos to Flickr using Flock’s easy image upload. I set these photos to private so you can only see these photos if you know my password.

Updates from Friends of Different Social Networks
need to visit
If you are lazy like me, checkin facebook every now and then is a chore. In some offices, having facebook in your browser sends a the impression that you are not doing your work. But FB is more than just fun and games. Companies build brands through networks. Using Flock’s cool Flock Sidebar brings all your network’s updates to you without you loggin in.

Blog Conveniently
I’m writing this blog using Flock’s Bloggin Tool. It sits right in the interface so bloggin is made easy.

Connect and Share
Just like bloggin, connecting to friends and sharing stuff is done using tools embedded in the interface.

The only caveats I see are:

Flock is still outdated by Firefox by a couple versions. I don’t think Flock supports HTML5, something they forecast to change the internet this 2010.
Flock’s Bloggin Tool only uploads photos into photo sharing services like Flickr and Facebook. Although I have profiles from both these networks, my blog has features that require me to upload my photos in my own server.
I use LinkedIn. And though I have the least updates in that network than any other, I’d still like to be able to see my LinkedIn updates side-by-side my FB and Twitter updates.

Other than that and until HTML5 is implemented every where, I’d be using Flock. Hopefully, 2010 would be a more connected year.

The Librarian

redesigndavid — Mon, 28 Dec 2009 14:20:07 +0000

CreativeCrash link: The Librarian
Download link: The Librarian

Features:

FK-IK blend
Stretch
Ribbon Controls
Facial Controls
Smears
Proxy, Low, High Display Modes

Todo:

FK-IK Matching
Dynamic Parenting
More Cheek Controls

Credits:

rigged by me: John David Marte (http://redesigndavid.me)
modelled and textured by Nurulhuda Halim (rayzack[at]gmail.com)

Changelog:

1.0.1 fixed twist problems on right leg (Thanks to Christian Yamaya for pointing this out)

Managing Social Networks

redesigndavid — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 07:44:14 +0000

Aaargh!! I’m not really sure what prompted me, but I found myself last week looking for ways to combine all my social network profiles into one single, easily managed, profile/app/website. If you ever find yourself in a similar predicament, I beg you. Read this and take heed. Take no action until you hear me out. It is possible and I do hope you will have better success than I had but it is still better to start this adventure knowing what lies ahead.

Some of you may think, your only social network is facebook. I used to think so too. But boy was I wrong. Take this picture for example by Ludwig Gatzke. I took it off flickr (another social network, btw). It’s entitled “Some Social Network Logos”. SOME! There is a web-service [http://knowem.com] online that can be used to see how many Social Networks you’ve signed up for in the past. The idea is for you secure your username for all the other services available online, before somebody else does it for you. You could use their service for free only to check if your usernames are available or not for over a hundred other sites. But you could also pay them a hundred dollars so that they’d do this for you.

There are high chances, just as in my experience, that you’ve signed up for some sites and forgot about it the next day. Believe it or not, I had something like 25. About 15 of which should have been forgotten but they are still there. I’d consider them web-gunk.

A similar service using Adobe Air is also gaining popularity. It’s called nomee. I read somewhere that this service was originally intended to update fans of everything certain celebrities do online but it’s now open to the general-”more awesome”-public. What’s interesting about nomee is that they boast of allowing users to control profiles from 120 different social networks in just one app. I stopped using this cuz it was a desktop app that won’t work for me since I use different computers at home and at work.

There is also Minggl and Yoono, both firefox addons (I think they also have desktop standalone apps), that have special features that Nomee does not have, like leaving notes on webpages for other friends to uncover if they are also using the same addon. The social networks they cater though are no where near what nomee has. Less than 20 each.

Another service worth trying is friendfeed. Friendfeed was developed by the same people who developed GMAIL. Friendfeed.com is Genius! I thought I finally hit a homerun until I tried adding facebook, my primary social network, in. It was troublesom and I failed altogether. Probably one of facebook’s updates left FF outdated. The networks are not interacting together properly. Something you’d find odd if you knew Facebook actually bought Friendfeed.

So although I had issues bringing facebook inside friendfeed, I had no issue bringing friendfeed inside facebook. (Do you see the alterior motive here?)

This was when I realized that with the help of friendfeed inside facebook, FB applications are enough for my needs. I could have all or most of my other networks in one stream. I have runkeeper, linkedin, twitter, youtube, digg, goodreads and some other networks I couldn’t remember (again) currently.

And when it comes to easily microblogging for all profiles, another addon should be enough shareaholic. The interface is easy enough. And it records all your account information that it syncs between computers where you add it so information is not redundant.

I guess I stopped trying cuz it was too hard. I’ll just wait for google wave. I have an account already but I’ve yet to see it being used main-stream.

Bad Dreams

redesigndavid — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 15:32:20 +0000

I’ve been having vivid dreams this last week that unnerve me for days after waking up. The first dream ended with me dying. The second, with someone else’s death. I will narrate both dreams here, not to entertain readers, but rather to dispell their effects upon me (I usually lose opinions upon subjects after setting putting them in writing).

The first dream happened last week. It was a Wednesday or Thurseday, I am not sure. Probably even Friday. I was in the parking lot below our building. I was standing in one of the vacant parking spaces and in front of me was a guy with no hair. He was breathing heavy, making hissing sounds, staring at me, with dark brooding eyes. I said I was sorry. (Somehow I automatically knew I’ve done something). But his breathing became heavier and more frequent. I said it would never happen again. This enraged him even more. His face started to go red.

It seems funny even to myself now that I think about it on hind-sight, but during the dream my heart felt like a train in full throttle. I was begging the guy for forgiveness, I wasn’t sure what for, but his face turned dark blue and then even purple. I dropped to my knees and pleaded him to understand that it will never happen again. I cried I’ll go back to the Philippines. Nothing assuaged his anger.

By now he was already shaking with such fury. Then he took one full solid step toward me and swung his leg forward aiming for the side of my head. using my body as a giant tee. My ears reddened. But before I felt the blow, I woke up and discovered I only had 30 minutes to bath and commute to work (a total impossibility). I stayed in bed a bit more to wipe my eyes and face and try setting myself in order. I told my sister about the dream and I also said “just in case I didn’t return that evening, you know what description to give the police when they ask about my assailant.” She answered “yeah, I’ll tell them to look for a bald man with a face that turns red and then violet.”

I started walking to the bus stop. On the way I passed by the exact parking slot where my dream occurred. There was a car parked on it. A bluish-grey sedan. But then I remembered the details of my dream. How vivid the colors were. To even dream in color, I read once was not so common. I could see how the guy’s face shifted color. It seemed so real. OMG! Then when I saw Pacqiao’s fight the other day, my assailant looked exactly Cotto, which might just be coincedence cuz I never researched about the fight until yesterday. He was more confident in the parking lot than in the ring. I was doubly happy when Pacqiao won.

My other dream was this morning. I was in the backseat of a dim-tinted SUV with my mom beside me. In the shotgun seat was this lady that my mom was ministering to because she lost her husband. And although my mom was ministering to the lady in the shotgun seat, I knew somehow her words were also meant for me, penetrating me like how roots win-over against the ruined walls of fallen civilizations. I hugged my mom but I put my head behind her back so that she wouldn’t see me crying.

Somehow I knew that we weren’t going to the funeral of the husband of the lady in the shotgun seat. But rather where we were driving to was more connected to me than to anybody else. I knew also that they were bringing me to our destination and that the lady was only there for support. Curiously, I also noticed that there was no driver in the driver’s seat the entire time and that the windshield was tintless and it allowed the bright sunlight in so that I could only make out a few cars in the road ahead of us (I know what this signifies. I honestly saw there that was no driver.)

Though I do not understand the entire dream, I don’t even know where we were headed, I at least know that no mere human was driving my life. I truly believe this means that though things are painful, God is in control. The bright light may have been the shekhinah of God’s presence. I woke up unable to control my emotion. I let it out with much heaving and silent wailing. If I wasn’t late for work again, I would have laid prostrate much longer.

More Precious Than Silver

redesigndavid — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 15:04:43 +0000

This is my nephew. On the right side edge of the picture is my sister humming “Lord.. you are.. more precious.. than silver..”

No related posts.

In His Time

redesigndavid — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 00:42:34 +0000

I am a huge fan of songs like Voice of Truth (Casting Crowns), More (Matthew West) and similar songs. These bands are, in my opinion, forging a new stage for the same message that has touched billions of lives in all of history. But curiously, the songs that have graced my devotions of late are songs that are considered classic by today’s standards. They are songs that I grew up listening to during Sunday worship before I was tall enough to see the P&W leaders on stage. It is for this reason I learned the hand-actions from watching my mom and my dad as they sang the song.

Beautiful

Beautiful, beautiful
Jesus is beautiful
And Jesus makes beautiful
Things of my life.

Carefully touching me
Causing my eyes to see
And Jesus makes beautiful
Things of my life.

Beautiful, beautiful
Jesus is beautiful
And Jesus makes beautiful
Things of my life.

Carefully touching me
Causing my eyes to see
And Jesus makes beautiful
Things of my life.

The second song is sorta like the matured version of the same message. In my devotion, as I sing, this song most often becomes the continuation of the first song. I sometimes wonder if they really are the same song split in two because as one they are too beautiful.

In His Time

In His time, in His time,
He makes all things beautiful, in His time,
Lord, please show me everyday,
As You’re teaching me Your way,
That You do just what You say, in Your time.

In Your time, in Your time,
You make all things beautiful, in Your time.
Lord, my life to You I bring,
May each song I have to sing,
Be to You a lovely thing, in Your time.

I haven’t always been faithful. But by God’s grace and in His time, all will be created beautiful.

Flying-Fox v1

redesigndavid — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 05:07:42 +0000

An animators best friend is not a dog. Flying Fox is an animator friendly rig that allows you to squash and stretch according to a direction and a position that you choose. It will also allow you to shape the rig according to how you would prefer to draw it with the use of “super-controls”. Any pose is possible! It also has a tail and ears that work with the rest of the rig nicely. Watch the video to see how to use the controls.

Bouncing Ball

Tail

Ears

Partially Control Free

CreativeCrash link: FlyingFox v1
Download link: FlyingFox v1

Fast, Easy, Flexible UI

redesigndavid — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 09:55:33 +0000

User Interfaces has been around for decades. For a while we had been using text input UI’s. There was a huge following for the voice-activated UI’s. But the most prevalent and most used UI is the graphic UI. People have been reinventing it ever since it’s first conception.

So much so that it has been held in heavy regard that UI’s can make or break an OS; and we’ve seen this happen time and again. UI’s also make or break game consoles, even games themselves. I would even go as far as to say (without valid citations) that development for the, CG and UI, should have and have been going hand in hand. (This guy here, Renato Polimeno, has a list of UI’s he compiled from the web in his website.)So wouldn’t it be funny if our rigs would be using primitive UI’s? Aha! I developed a script that automates a system to create a UI for any Maya rig. The method is very promising, and I am here to share it to everyone. As a disclaimer, allow me to just say, the technology is old. I just developed new way to use old methods. As a testament to its simplicity a script could be written to automate the process for just 15 lines. It can even be shorter. But it is the methods behind that I would like to share here. Hopefully, you guys would appreciate it and start using it with your rigs. And since it is so easy, you might even consider adding UIs to rigs that you don’t own.

Here is an example of a UI that you could create using this tutorial as a guide. You could design your UI in any way you deem fit. Allow nothing but your creativity to limit you. The idea is that controls should be easily accessible at all times or at least much of the time. UIs are great but are hard to create. This method would make it easy.

There is just two basic tools that Maya already offers that we shall exploit to get the results that we want. The first is the parent command. The same procedure being activated whenever you press on the p key. The difference is we run it with flags to make sure it works on shape nodes instead of just transform nodes’ hieirarchy. We could therefore have extension shapes for any control.

The line to use is ‘parent -add -shape shapename‘. You can enter the command while an object where you want to add a shape name is already selected. You can include names, a name of a list of names of shape nodes you wish to add followed by the transform node you want to add it to, after the command to be explicit.

The next tool we wish to exploit from Maya, believe it or not, is blendshapes. Blendshapes allow us to make a base object shape blend into the target shapes. Normally, blendshapes are set to local mode, which means it will ignore differences in position, rotation and scale between the base object and target objects. For facial animation setups, this is what we normally use. There is another mode though, that has been forgotten for lack of a genuine practical usage and that is setting the mode to world. This will make your base mesh blend into its target mesh, taking into account any differences in position, rotation and scale. This is what we want and what we will use.

So in effect, what we are trying to do here, is 1) add an extension shape to the controllers that we want to be able to control. Then, 2) we give these extra shapes blendshapes in world mode. These extra shapes would then follow the shape of their targets, while also following their size, position and orientation. And true to the nature of any extra shape node for any transform node, clicking or selecting it would be just as if you selected the transform node.

If you prefer seeing a step by step for this tutorial, minus explanations, follow these:

Create a curves and shape them according to how you’d like your interface to look like.
Duplicate the curve. For this tutorial’s purposes, rename it to “duplicateCurve”, but you could give it any name you want so long as when I refer to a curve you duplicated, you know that it is that curve that we mean.
Get the name of the shape associated to the duplicate curve (we talked about this). Normally, it’s the name of the curve with the word “shape” suffixed to the it (e.g. duplicateCurveShape). In the Attribute editor, it’s usually the tab right next to your objects (transform) tab. In the channel editor, it is the name of the next section immediately after your visibility attribute/channel. In the outliner, if you click on display and turn on shapes, uncollapsing objects would reveal shapes associated to them.
Select the control you would like to add the extension shape to. Enter this command (sorry, there is no tool-based alternative to this.) parent -add -shape [shapename]; (e.g. parent -add -shape “duplicateCurveShape”; )
Delete the duplicate curve (e.g. duplicateCurve). Now if you check the outliner, under the control curve where you wanted to add a shape to, there is another shape. It is the shape you added. You successfully transferred the duplicate shape unto the control you are adding an extension to.
Select the shape node of the curve you created in step 1. This is best done through the use of the outliner.
Shift+select the shape node of the curve you added in step 4. Again, this is best done through the use of the outliner.
Go to [Animation] Create Deformers->Blend Shape.
Select the blendShape transform node.
Go to the Attribute Editor. Set all weights to 1.000. Set origin method to world.
Set the visibility of the shape you created to off.

Note: You can have anything happen to the curve you created. You could make it change shape with more blendshapes that are also driven by the control object. You could constrain it to the camera. You could give it set driven keys so that they would change according proximity of objects to each other.

If you would like to see a script, that does this exactly, run this:

global proc specialControls () {

$selectionList = `ls -sl -type transform`;$selectionSize = `size $selectionList`;
string $selListShapeEquivalent[];

for ($i = 0; $i < $selectionSize; $i++) {

select -r $selectionList[$i]; select -hi; $listOfShapes = `ls -sl -type shape`; $selListShapeEquivalent[$i] = $listOfShapes[0];

}

for ($i = 1; $i < $selectionSize; $i++) {

$duplicateObj = `duplicate -name ($selectionList[$i]+"duplicate") $selectionList[$i] `; select -r $duplicateObj; select -hi;$duplicateShape = `ls -sl -type shape`; parent -add -shape $duplicateShape $selectionList[0]; delete $duplicateObj; blendShape -origin world -weight 0 1 $selListShapeEquivalent[$i] $duplicateShape; setAttr ($selectionList[$i]+".v") 0;

}

Now, all you need to do is run the command specialControls, while having two or more objects selected. The first object being the control you’d like add curves to.

This here is another way of applying this method–taking it to the next level. It was an attempt (successful to my surprise) to emulate the same effect that Paolo Dominici had for his control free rig that could be viewed here. As a disclaimer: I did not intend the script to accomplish something like this. But it works! Check it out and see if you could think of ways to use it for other mind bogging creations.

These are the steps:

You’ll need to acquire a ready working rig.
Select the mesh. Apply a ‘duplicate special’ on it, making sure you have “Duplicate input connections” enabled. Make as many duplicates as the controls that you’ll have to replace.
These duplicates should react exactly like how the original was moving. Test this by moving controllers. Make sure the duplicates are following the original exactly.
Delete faces from the duplicates, leaving only faces that you would represent the control you are making. Make sure you have Construction history turned on.
Select the control. Shift-select the duplicated mesh (with deleted faces). Run the script.
Put the original mesh in a layer that set to Referenced.
Repeat steps 4-6 for each duplicate/control curve.

NOTE: In copying the lines of the code from my notepad, I somehow missed a line. $selectionSize = `size $selectionList`; It’s the second line of the procedure. Thanks to Johnny Z for pointing this out to me.

This tutorial also @ creativecrash.

modCharSetup (v1) 101

Little Warrior Rig

redesigndavid — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 10:20:12 +0000

Here’s my first try at rigging characters. I think it’s perfect for first-time animators. It’s a knight with his head hammered with a huge mallet forcing his entire body to fit inside his helmet. Haha! It’s actually a rig with just the legs. A bit of flexed added to the hair to add more dynamism to the overall rig. It’s good if you want to practice your walk cycles. I included mine as a video example.

CHARACTERISTICS:
(If you are not new to rigging, you dont have to read this part) Unlike some rigs that you get, you either can’t stretch legs or you can stretch them by sliders in the foot controls. I find that if you are just learning to animate, like me, having these limitations can be really troublesome. Aside from this, most rigs have knee targets that can get in the way especially when you haven’t mastered simple steps when animating. So I have rigged my own legs-only character.

Changing the direction of the knee can easily be done by the knee control in the attributes of the foot controls. Stretching the legs are as easy as dragging the knee far from the rest of the body. The common attributes like foot roll, banking, toe bending etc are all setup for easy controlling.

Tips:

Alt + right clicking -> freeze rotations easily allows you to level your foot controls.
You could always put your environments in the environments layer to make things easy for you.
Right clicking on the slider beside the numbers of any numerical input attribute resets the value to 0. It’s a lot easier and quicker than entering 0, especially if you want to reset a bunch of attributes in an already animated foot control.
Enjoy!!!

CreativeCrash link: Litte Warrior Rig

Download link: Little Warrior Rig

OH AND IF YOU WANT TO USE IT FOR YOUR ANIMATIONS, PLEASE INCLUDE MY NAME IN THE CREDITS. JOHN DAVID MARTE (email:redesigndavid [at] gmail [dot] com website: redesigndavid.me).

A Sedentary….. but non-Lethargic Life

redesigndavid — Sun, 13 Sep 2009 11:35:58 +0000

I was in the Philippines last week. I garnered a total of 9 people who commented on the present status of my mid-section’s girth. Method of communication varied. But they were mostly comic. There was one I knew working in a building I used to frequent in. When he saw me after 2 years there was a huge smile on his face.

With all conviction right from the pits of his stomach, he said “Sir!!! You became fat!!!” I said “Thank you for your honestly.” He walked towards me. Again, this time with even greater enthusiasm and his head shaking in disbelief, he said “you’re soooo fat!” Another occasion was when a tipsy artist from my girlfriend’s team walked some distance just to tell me my silhouette was bulging like a tadpole. I asked if it was obvious. He said no. I said “I don’t believe you. You walked some distance to tell me I was fat. Now that we are near you say it ain’t obvious?”

LOL!! My dad told me the same thing. My brothers and sisters told me the same thing. My brother in law told me the same thing. And they have good reason to do so.

I went from a size 32 to a size 34. My brother in law told me it’s our sedentary life to blame. I hate to agree with him but it is the truth. I haven’t been running in 2 weeks months. The time I used to allot for my running was given to extra projects I committed myself to. There is just one left and I’ll be finishing this week. I can’t wait to start running again. When the time comes, I could also start scripting again. While I was contemplating on how fat sagged on top my belt no matter how many times I tried to push it in, I developed methods to easily create GUIs for your rigs. But I don’t mean just easy, I mean real easy and effective. It’s so simple I wonder why no body thought of it before. So I really really wish to work on it before some body does.

Looking forward!

CGTextures.com: Texture Fetish!

redesigndavid — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 04:04:33 +0000

If you live by the quote ‘the devil is into the details’ and yet still believe in shops like ‘forests and trees’ (goto their site or a blog about them to get an idea); if you like grunge textures, earthy or industrial; if you are in love with iron oxide, peeling paint, or unperturbed weathering of any kind; if you look for beauty in the details and in the proportions; CGTextures is something you can not do w1thout.

It requires you become a member (I just registered 15 minutes ago) and it’ll give access to hordes and hordes of textures of all imaginable sorts. Some of the major categories are Animals, Bones, Brick, Buildings, Concrete, Doors, Fabric, Food, Ground, Grunge, Ink, Landscapes, Manmade, Metal, Nature, Ornaments, Paper, Plaster, Plastic, Roads, Roofing, Rust, Scrap, Signs, Skies 360, Skies Partial, Splatter, Stone, Tiles, Various, Water, Windows, Wood, Wrinkles, X-Rays.

As a CGartist, dealing with budding not-yet-professional artists still-learning-the-ropes-and-whats-good-and-whats-not, I’m sick to the bones of fake procedurally produced textures. Making CGTextures is such an awesome find. And the textures could be used for anything, royalty-free, so long as you don’t sell the textures and you don’t redistribute them (especially not as your own).

I made sure I did not reproduce them, that’s the reason I only posted a screen shot of some of textures from the plaster section, I think. Check it out!

No related posts.

BIT

redesigndavid — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 09:02:20 +0000

How would you like to have a rig that you could manipulate to your heart’s desire? Something with limbs that react like an accordion. In production, I believe, they call this ribbon spline control. It allows an animator to control a rig and make it bend to his wishes–almost as easy as drawing out the pose. BIT, the bending and stretching robot rig, can do this. It is fitted with with ribbon splines on each limb, body and neck (practically everywhere) allowing his accordion-like limbs to stretch and bend to your wishes.

Only downside is shin and arm guards. It’s a bit of a design flaw, cuz the appendage does not allow for a wide range of movement. But I rectified it with an extra controller (that occasionally has a mind of its own) that you could use.

CreativeCrash link: Robot BIT.

Download: robot_bit_v1.1

TODO:

demonstrate usage.
demonstrate script.
fix arms and shins controllers.

NOTES:

fk-ik blends are on the main curve.
toggles for ribbons and squash and stretch controls are also in the main curve.
smooth toggles are also in the main curve.
when you do use this rig, please please oh pretty please just add some credits. It would be largely appreciated.

POST SCRIPT:
The idea for this rig is not mine. We had students who were having difficulty rigging because of the nature of the movements required by their animation (they needed stretching and bending). During this time, I was working on a script (that I might release to the public soon) that needed testing. I decided to test it with this robot. This rig, with all its controls, took me a day to set up. Some minor fixes here and there a few days later. It was, in my opinion, a success, of course in the rigging point of view. I would love to be able to release the script soon. As of now, all it requires is intuitive gui, something that wouldn’t cater to yours truly alone.

CREDITS:
this was rigged by John David Marte [redesigndavid.me]
this was modeled by Teo Hui Wen

Moon by Duncan Jones

redesigndavid — Sat, 29 Aug 2009 14:04:45 +0000

I just saw Moon and I was surprised. I was waiting for some images to finish rendering before I could continue my work on a Saturday when I decided to look for something to watch. I’ve seen everything in the box office worth seeing and only had a vague memory of Moon’s intriguing trailer. The next showing was in 20 minutes and it takes 20 minutes to walk to the theater. I just went ahead and gambled my 2 hours. Lo and behold it was VFX driven. Lots of match-moves and cg/live stitching. And I noticed something I’m sure my students would be delighted to know: the logo of the company, and a lot of markers on the base’s are actually match-moving markers that they tried to incorporate into the base’s design. If you’ve spent a week at least cleaning up markers for a VFX shot, I’m sure you’d know what I mean. Anyway, story was compelling, VFX was respectable, concept was out of the box. Better watch it.

I don't wanna live on the moon