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Demo Reel 2010

redesigndavid — Sun, 15 Aug 2010 13:19:38 +0000

All the Different Blog Editors

redesigndavid — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 07:51:24 +0000

I have had this blog for more than a year. It used to be called redesigndavid.com. But I wasn’t diligent in making payments and I lost the rights to that URL. (I set up special services that would get me those URLs back) I digress. What I’m trying to say here is I’ve been blogging for more than a year, but I haven’t been updating the blog as regular as I can. There are reasons to this. Most of the time, I get too engulfed in work. Sometimes, it’s a book that absorbs my attention too much, it monopolizes every spare moment. Sometimes though, I’m just too lazy to login. For this reason, I had been testing different methods to make posts to your blog. An off shoot of this endeavor is the new and handy JD redesign Images. It’s my first attempt at making a plugin. Only later did I realize, it’s functionality isn’t so unique as I thought. LOL! I digress again. I’ve made many switches on my favorite blogging method. My least favorite is using wordpress’ default web based posting feature. It’s slow. Unintuitive. The only cool thing about it is oEmbeds. Basically, you just put the URL of the site where the embedded media should come from, and wordpress would work on it for you. That’s it. When it comes to web-based posting, I don’t think anything comes close to the ease tumblr does things. You just specify what kind of post it’s gonna be and it does the rest of the work for you. So I’ve tried using Flock, plugins like Scribefire, some blogging softwares on windows, osx and iphones. They all for short, somehow. Or maybe…

Notes On My Desk

redesigndavid — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 09:58:08 +0000

My grandma once said you can gauge the quality of the grey matter between your ears by examining the works your hands produce. It can be writing literature, drawing, or solving Math problems. If there is output, there is activity up there. And if there is activity, there is quality matter. I was looking at the notes I had on my desk. Scribbles and and markings that doesn’t surprise me. My desk generates about one rim of scratch paper covered in gibberish every month if I’m not careful. The notes mean zit to most people, but they mean conquered problems for me. Occasionally, I’d need a schematic that would help me understand an issue. Sometimes, I solve equations I need for my rig. Sometimes, they’re plain notes. Sometimes, they don’t mean anything. LOL! But I thought it would be cool to have the recorded on my blog too. They are little recordings of battles waged on technical issues, often ending in victory.

Beautiful Monsters

redesigndavid — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 09:28:33 +0000

The octopus is an intelligent animal. The video shows how next to the chimpanzees, these guys are pretty handy with tools. I haven’t had the chance to see these guys in real life. But I’d add it up to my bucket list. I am tasked to rig a monster with tentacles. I don’t have the privilege of revealing how it will look and frankly, I have no intention of doing so. The video is a research of how we want it to walk. It is a rigging challenge, something that warms the heart. The goal is to give the creature tentacles a blend between IK spline with “intelligent up objects” and a simplified ribbon that acts more like an FK. Then, each control would have dynamic parents, namely: Body, Up Parent, World. The body would be done using two parts. There will be a tiny body that simply house the connection between tentacles and then the head. Lips and mouth would be flexible. There will be a ribbon set up for the lips and the teeth within. Eyes would be squash-able as it extends, optionally. I’ll keep posting about it. For now, this creature resides in the heads of the artists that work in my office.

Most Original Burgers

redesigndavid — Fri, 09 Jul 2010 12:23:57 +0000

Do not fall for those crafty five dollar bills they are doling out to innocent passers-by from the escaltor (picture below). They turn out to be discount certificates for the worst burgers ever, from a resto that coincidentally goes by the name Most Original Burgers. I had “goodfellas.” Both my fellow victim and I agree that the bread is stale. The service was excruciatingly slow. And everything came in installments–one too many installments. And, the burgers were nothing special. If you are considering to eat here, heed my advise: This place has bad burgers and bad service. And they don’t come cheap. The only thing going for them? The five dollar bill that attracted us in the first place. They also try to distract you from the truth with a multitude of choices. But everything is obvious on hind sight. Am I ruthless for forming such harsh judgments on my first visit? Maybe so. But you can’t go wrong with stale bread. Stay away!

John Maeda

redesigndavid — Wed, 07 Jul 2010 06:37:02 +0000

I received a tip from a comment about a guy named John Maeda. I googled him. I learned that he is a TEDster. I’ve learned that just like me, he is into simple things. I wonder what he’ll think with my theme’s design. And just like me, he is also a programmer and a designer. I’m a huge fan of MUJI. And one of his mentors is the designer of MUJI. 20 minutes of googling, and I am a big fan. I want to know more about him. Watch his talk from TED.com. Read wikipedia’s entry on him. Visit his studio’s website. Visit his blog. And last of all, read his book, the laws of simplicity.

BLDGBLOG

redesigndavid — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 10:25:37 +0000

I have had this new fascination for the color white. Simple is soo beautiful! I’ve been blind to see the all the other pigments before white. And then I saw this BLDGBLOG website. It mirrors the simplicity I would want to have within. It is beautiful! And it’s a blogspot blog. My golly! And I realize, it is for architecture. Hmm.. Maybe, those who look for good structures, also look for simplicity. Like them, like me.

Prosthetic Technology

redesigndavid — Fri, 02 Jul 2010 03:01:40 +0000

So I just saw Repo Men last night. Prosthetic hearts and other internal organs being repossessed. Poor citizens with bad credit. My heart went out to Lady Gaga and her prosthetic leg (if you remember her famously debunked rumor about her leg being amputated for fashion’s sake). But not all prosthetic technology is bad. In TED Talks, there are at least two prosthetic based talks that just fattened my heart. Watch them, they are amazing! The first is Dean Kamen. He is an inventor. He is an inspiration to all scientists, programmers and other people of the like. Soldiers who’ve lost limbs in service face a daily struggle unimaginable to most of us. At TEDMED, Dean Kamen talks about the profound people and stories that motivated his work to give parts of their lives back with his design for a remarkable prosthetic arm. This is Aimee Mullins. Athlete, actor and activist Aimee Mullins talks about her prosthetic legs — she’s got a dozen amazing pairs — and the super-powers they grant her: speed, beauty, an extra 6 inches of height … Quite simply, she redefines what the body can be. BTW: The late designer, McQueen seems to like Lady Gaga a lot. They’ve been having lots of collaborations. Hence, when McQueen started making fashionable prosthetics for Aimee Mullins, Lady Gaga jumped into the band wagon. But it’s really Aimee Mullins who advocated the fashionable prosthetics.

Repo Man Review

redesigndavid — Thu, 01 Jul 2010 12:30:29 +0000

Repo Man is one action packed cringe fiesta. It’s not your typical movie. No clear cut heroes against villains. The stage is an akward future with hints of exaggerated present social ills. And the ending may have been predictable if it weren’t for the distraction the blood and violence gave. Those who live rigid, boring lives and who want to escape all the monotony may enjoy this flick. I’ve met an innocent looking petite or two who come alive when talking about Saw movies; this flick might be for you too. There were fight sequences that may have been pulled out from the movie 300. And the look of the picture is reminiscent of Fight Club, although instead of suburban New York, we are looking at computer generated futuristic cities, toned down versions from Minority report. Elements from 300 and Fight Club? Were they trying to get male audience’s testo levels up? Maybe. Problem is men don’t respond to cringe scenes. They pretend they have no reaction. Conventional girls, on the other hand, would take their cue to scream or to hug their male companions. Then, there’s the twist in the end that I will not talk about. It was a novel idea, repossessing artificial organs. It could have delivered a harder hit if they had given the story more focus. But the story was a little all over the place. It was a little bit of everything. Fight club, 300, man movie. Saw, petite lady thriller. Shymalan, you think you get it until the last minute, weird ending movie. Too eclectic for my taste. And I don’t mind eclectic, so long as it’s eclectic for a reason and with good taste.

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!!!

UP for V Day

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

Awesome art from a favorite movie, UP.

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.

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…

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.

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.

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!!!!

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.

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.

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…

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…

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.

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.

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. What Would It Feel Like to Hold a 10-Inch Apple Tablet (NYTIMES) Apple iTunes might get a web based edition this year Apple talks to recording companies about free streaming music service 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).

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…

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…

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!

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.

Windows Live Writer 2009

redesigndavid — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 11:12:16 +0000

I am not a fan of Microsoft, especially not for their software. But occasionally they do produce mildly fascinating products. Sadly, almost instantly, someone else would soon be able to take over the idea and dominate it, in terms of quality. Having said that and keeping in consideration the vastness of “micro”-soft’s empire, we have overlooked a corner. Due to its vastness, it has apps here and there, that if not challenged by passionate programmers, would be left to itself to germinate and develop into maturity, like any other. Windows Live Writer 2009 is one such app. An offline blogging app, I think, is so niche and important, I doubt any body would trouble themselves to write. Most CMS are server-ran anyway and this is how we have come to love and enjoy them, plus since browser driven is native, browser driven also gives the most possible control. This is all too true, except that an offline blogging app offers something pretty unique. A chance to be forced concentrate on content. A problem some would have. Including, yours truly. Since the inception of this blog, I have changed themes 20 times, added more plugins than I have posts, changed, reworked and updated certain functions, I feel that I am never gonna finished. This would be addressed if I could just tie one arm behind my back. And I’ll use Windows Live Writer to do that. Thanks softies! I would like to try it out and see if it could provide me with the necessary concentration I need. I beg it to make sure I will not see any button that fix change the way something looks cuz the artist within me wouldn’t be able to resist. Artists are untamable…

Check Out Straits Times

redesigndavid — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 17:48:29 +0000

I am on Straights Times. Do I feel bubbly. Don’t know. My belly still sags the same way when I am seated, so I guess it’s all the same to me. I had no chance to have a picture on the page cuz I was out with my darling the day the photographer came. But they called me and asked a couple of questions and viola. Cool to have a couple lines on paper on such a prestigious newspaper. The last time I was quoted by a paper I was quoted in such a bad light. It was for Video Games Live. I thought I said something smart. When I read the newspaper, I felt cheap. John Lui did an excellent job writing this. I actually believe what I said. LOL. Those two are students of mine. Francine and Gerald. They look cute in the picture smiling and all, but… but… but… in real life they are even better.

Panorama, It can be a small world

redesigndavid — Sat, 25 Jul 2009 04:14:57 +0000

I was researching on easiest solutions for image-stitching. Fell in love with this collection from flickriver. They were using an open source app called Hugin.

Chordless USB Thumb Drive

redesigndavid — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 18:12:52 +0000

Check my usb drive. Couple days ago I lost my fav usb pin drive. I was looking for a small simple usb replacement, when I remembered something I saw from the net that I’ve always wanted to have. At first glance, it looks like a torn usb chord. But when plugged, it registers 4 gigabytes of storage. To be honest it has higher chances of getting lost, but the idea of working on a pc with a torn usb showing is too irresistible, I had to work get myself one. I tried looking for it locally. Failed. Decided these God-given hands of mine can make me one just like it. Here it is.

About a Not-So-Organized Life

redesigndavid — Sat, 25 Oct 2008 13:53:21 +0000

Right. Now that I have an iPhone. One of the first things I do is make sure it could help me organize my life. Cuz it should. To be organized was one of the gazzilion reasons I bought the device. So here’s what I did the soonest I had the chance. I went online on the iTunes store and had a app-downloading binge. Don’t worry! I was on a free-app only diet. And still I was surprised to find a lot on my plate. And a lot of organizer-apps is something you don’t wanna have. From no help, I now have a hand-full which means I am in a bigger mess than to begin with. From simply looking for a place to start organizing my messy schedules and piled up to-do lists I am now faced with he dilema of finding the best app to do this for me. If someone could help me, I’d be most appreciative. To make matters worse, as I try out app after app with no results, my colleagues who view the iPhone as a “white elephant” think I was simply playing. It doesn’t matter that I was copying schedules of the classes I’m teaching on the device or fixing notes or organizing everyones contact profiles, pioneering devices like the iphone has yet to earn the respect of the office culture just as the blackberry has had in the past. And it’s not much because of what it lacks in function, and more because of what advantage it has over it. Having games like EA’s Spores or Galcon (a personal fab), games one would choose to show off over less interesting to-do lists or scheduler apps, discredit the sensitive image of the masterpiece. But hey! What else can we do?…

There is always a first.

redesigndavid — Sat, 18 Oct 2008 19:59:33 +0000

There is always a first for all things. This blog though is not my first. It might even be my fifth if my count is correct. The others ceased from existance because I did not have the time nor energy nor luxury to sit down in front of a computer and put my thoughts down. Dont worry. No major heart-ache loosing them. Cuz half the time, all I write about are apologies for not being able to post and promises to post some more. This time should be different. I got myself an iPhone. Installed an app that makes blogging convenient. Imagine blogging while on the bus or on the train going home or work whenever and whereever inspirations catches you? Now, I’m not saying I’ll be posting things religiously. I promise never to promise. All I’m saying is if this new technique works out right, I won’t need to promise anything at all.

More On Walt Disney

redesigndavid — Sun, 30 Sep 2007 03:43:36 +0000

Our so called term break, which was actually 3 days with no classes that we still spent in school doing assignments, began and ended last week. I have long planned to further detail my gratitude to the man holding the hand of the mouse in the picture above but thought to reserve the endeavor as a task I shall accomplish during the break. Sadly I failed to do so because more pressing demands required my attention, like seeing my sister and chatting with her after 2 months of just momentary glimpses in the morning when I am about to leave the house and in the evening when I arrive and just about ready to retire in bed, and also there is nursing my soul who has just gone through the first wave of bullets in this “war,” which meant quieting my soul one notch down as opposed to the constant hustle and bustle in the everyday hyper school life. The speedy pace the school has undertaken for its lessons has made my stomach consistently upset for 2 months. I have learned manners of a civilized individual from my childhood. But I have never perfected that essential art of releasing gas discreetly now as never before. Now I do it so quietly, I hardly notice it myself. Sometimes I wonder if my excretory and digestive systems are making a fool out of myself. Right now, the second wave of bullets has begun. I know I have to finish this task overdue before the frequency of the bullets as they come peak to a level that will allow no more room in my life but the bare essentials. So here is that little bit of detail that should have accompanied the…

Deeds Rather Than Words

redesigndavid — Mon, 03 Sep 2007 15:25:07 +0000

by Walt Disney In these days of world tensions, when the faith of men is being tested as never before, I am personally thankful that my parents taught me at a very early age to have a strong personal belief and reliance in the power of prayer for Divine inspiration. My people were members of the Congregational Church in our home town of Marceline, Missouri. It was there where I was first taught the efficacy of religion … how it helps us immeasurably to meet the trial and stress of life and keeps us attuned to the Divine inspiration. Later in DeMolay, I learned to believe in the basic principle of the right of man to exercise his faith and thoughts as he chooses. In DeMolay, we believe in a supreme being, in the fellowship of man, and the sanctity of the home. DeMolay stands for all that is good for the family and for our country. Every person has his own ideas of the act of praying for God’s guidance, tolerance, and mercy to fulfill his duties and responsibilities. My own concept of prayer is not as a plea for special favors nor as a quick palliation for wrongs knowingly committed. A prayer, it seems to me, implies a promise as well as a request; at the highest level, prayer not only is a supplication for strength and guidance, but also becomes an affirmation of life and thus a reverent praise of God. Deeds rather than words express my concept of the part religion should play in everyday life. I have watched constantly that in our movie work the highest moral and spiritual standards are upheld, whether it deals with fable or with stories of living action.…

Ratatouille: Trips Back Memory Lane

redesigndavid — Wed, 29 Aug 2007 04:14:41 +0000

I just saw Ratatouille last Sunday with my classmates. I know we are quite late but please don’t bash yet cuz we saw the movie during sneak peak. The rest of Singapore will have to wait til Aug 30. I spent the equivalent of 500 pesos for my ticket and popcorn, but the movie was well worth it. Since I am gonna be one of the last to see the movie, maybe I should lead everyone to a trip down memory lane before I continue. Here are words to my favorite part in the movie: In many ways, the work of a critic is easy. We risk very little yet enjoy a position over those who offer up their work and their selves to our judgment. We thrive on negative criticism, which is fun to write and to read. But the bitter truth we critics must face is that, in the grand scheme of things, the average piece of junk is more meaningful than our criticism designating it so. But there are times when a critic truly risks something, and that is in the discovery and defense of the new. Last night, I experienced something new, an extraordinary meal from a singularly unexpected source. To say that both the meal and its maker have challenged my preconceptions is a gross understatement. They have rocked me to my core. In the past, I have made no secret of my disdain for Chef Gusteau’s famous motto: Anyone can cook. But I realize that only now do I truly understand what he meant. Not everyone can become a great artist, but a great artist can come from anywhere. It is difficult to imagine more humble origins than those…

Measure of a Man

redesigndavid — Wed, 13 Jun 2007 12:49:53 +0000

The other day, I bought a Superman graphic novel. I read simply to fly off to another world but a part of the novel brought me back home, even closer than how I was to begin with. At some point, Jonathan Kent died alone in the middle of the fields because Clark was out fighting for good. At the funeral, Clark was made to say a couple things about his father “Jonathan Kent taught me that the strong have to stand up for the weak and that bullies don’t like being bullied back. He taught me that a good heart is worth more than all the money in the bank. He taught me about life and death. And he showed me by example how to be tough, and how to be kind and how to dream of a better world. He taught me that the measure of a man lies not in what he says but what he does. Those are lessons I’ll never forget. The measure of a man lies not in what he says, but in what he does. After that passage and a message from a friend, I lost my voice. I’ve never been much of a person to speak for myself. There were many times in the past when people have said and thought bad things about me. I never and will never defend myself. In time, we will see who is right. If I be wrong, I hope I learn my lesson. But regardless, it is true you might be able to get a word in for yourself but only time could prove what’s right and what’s wrong. At this time, I am going through a seemingly endless array of tests. This is my answer: my life is my word.

SMRT and Bags

redesigndavid — Wed, 16 May 2007 23:54:24 +0000

The other day, I gave in. I went to Bonifacio High Street to check the laptop bags selling there. Here in the Philippines, I use a Samsonite knapsack to carry my laptop because I drive a car to go to places, but whenever I’d ride the MRT’s my back would sweat profusely. Since in the recent months to come, I will be forming close ties with the MRT’s of Singapore, this is unacceptable. If I didn’t change my bag now, I’ll be sick with pneumonia before mid-sem next year. I needed a bag that would not cover my back so it could still breathe. It needed I want it to be stylish and of course, it has to be tough. Along came Crumpler.They have bags for all your styled and practical needs. They have regular bags, messenger bags, laptop bags, camera bags and other small I-dunno-whachamacaulit-bags. I eyed this laptop bag called “Roll-O-Notes.” It was perfect for me. It was one of the last bags that was created in Australia making it a limited edition.

The bag’s features include (and brace yourself): Heavy Padding This baby packs a padded punch. You could use it as an egg drop if your egg is hard enough. It’s fully padded in absolutely all sides. Strong Velcro Velcro on this baby can hold an elephant in place, a baby elephant. Kidding aside, this bag’s velcro is so tough it’s certified toddler proof. Third LegWanna ride a bike or ride the MRT like me? Don’t you just hate it when your messenger bag sways to your sides and knocks of innocent bystanders in the streets? Crumpler has incorporated the third leg in their bags. Dupont Cordura Plus To ensure quality and toughness,…

Me, Marley and Me

redesigndavid — Sun, 11 Jun 2006 12:57:23 +0000

A couple minutes ago I finished a book that made me think about a question we each need to ask in the course of our lives. The book I read is a true story reenacted in my mental cinema about the experiences a guy went through being the master of the world’s most documented and ridiculous dog. The question it made me ask is ‘how I like my life to end?’ Asking such a profound question may seem far-fetched after reading a novel with such a shallow premise, true-story or not. But you would find that Marley (the book’s cute dog) has such human characteristics, that he gave every one in my list of top 10 fictional-characters-that-made-a-significant-contribution-in-my-life a good scare for their money. But don’t get me wrong. Marley ain’t your manicured pup. In fact, you can’t find a dog worse than Marley, even if you scour the whole world twice. But Marley acts like that imaginary friend we each keep secret in our hearts (aka conscience) that acts like a gentle giant with limited english. He made me reconsider things–mainly how I always wanted to die with a bang. I always thought becoming a hero and dying for my country in the same ways my uncle and grandfather did would be, in the words of the samurai, a perfect and honorable death. (Both of my uncle and grand pa are buried in the the Philippines’ national cemetery; both meriting an equal 21 shot gun saluted ceremony. Both equally engraved in my heart.) I wanted to follow their footsteps and translate their devotion in their missions to my life time pursuit. But reading about Marley and his unqualified love made me sense something missing. I’m not saying I…