Working with UC Scout

Here's a clip of something I've been working on for the past few weeks (while filming a Holocaust lecture at the main UC Santa Cruz campus and helping record green screen footage for UC Scout's AP Biology online course)

AP-BIO-Polymerization from UC Scout on Vimeo.

Did I mention I love my job?!

Living Corpse wrapping up

Earlier this month, I was invited to watch a screening of an animated feature I worked on. I wasn't able to attend, but I was so excited that it's close to the finish. The screening took place at Real-D which could only mean that it was in glorious 3D. Hopefully it's shown across the country during Halloween time this year!

The movie is also featured in Fangoria issue #408. I need to find a copy!
article: Re-animation in Animation

Alice in 3D

Since I'm studying stereoscopic conversion right now, I did a quick test with painting depth maps to create a stereoscopic image. So bust out those Red/Cyan glasses to see it!

Software used: Texnai StPaint, Photoshop
Credits and original image

The Living Corpse

If you're wondering what I was working on for a couple of months last year, check this out. It's all I could show. It's based on an indie comic series about a conscious zombie. It's going to be in stereoscopic 3D and may be released later this year. Some of the scenes I have seen were pretty neat! Can't wait to see the finished product.

So here's the face I've been staring at while working last year:

I worked on the lighting and texturing in this particular shot. Also, I did do some textures for many of the characters and tested out some lighting techniques in a few scenes. We primarily used Lightwave. I also used Mudbox, BodyPaint 3D, Photoshop, and Modo(for minor UV fixes). My favorite part was working on the numerous zombies' textures and shading. They were so fun to work on!

The Vue Doo that I do

Some renders of what I've worked on for a project during my internship at Remnant Studios.


On the above renders, I used references of the landscapes in Israel. I combined the dry hills and the farmland steps.


I also did another scene, which was a night scene with a campfire and tent. But the tent wasn't textured and no campfire yet so it doesn't look very interesting nighttime.

What I've worked on

An example of what I worked on back in June for Remnant Studios. It's on their website here. Check it out!

Summer so far in Yoshi Island

Finally got Yoshi Island to look pretty sweet. I took a break from my internship to allow the computer to render out a spiffy camera shot of the island. Got about three seconds...too bad. And I'm still fidgeting with the light and render settings so there's no flicker in the tree leaves. No matter what I do it's always there. I try to look up what causes it and most agree that the solution is boosting up the quality and using a HUGE render farm. The problem is I have time to deal with.
Well this is what I got:

So, what have I been doing while away from the computer? Touring the Bay Area with my Dutch "sister" and COMIC CON!!! I also walked the walk at my graduation! and Comic Con! Went to a free Flogging Molly concert in downtown San Jose! and.....did I mention Comic Con? I got to see DJ Lance Rock with Plex and Brobee from "Yo Gabba Gabba!", MC Lars and the Aquabats in concert! I danced, screamed, sang, moshed, and skanked like there was no tomorrow. I got trampled on once while trying to pick up my new Aquabats shirt I dropped while moshing to a Yo Gabba Gabba song. It was crazy! I was able to take a pic and get an autograph from DJ Lance Rock and the human Brobee on my "There's a party in my tummy" shirt! It would be so fun working on that show. Saw a few panels; some really good(Watchmen, Wolverine- Hugh Jackman came in as a surprise after another panel and had the audience go crazy when he personally thanked the cretor of Wolverine who was sitting in the audience), and some I could care less about (The Day the Earth Stood Still and Max Payne). Alot more Comic Con exclusives being sold. Had to wait in line to get a ticket to wait in another line for Hasbro Toys. Lines for freebies got ridiculousulous. Had to play a scavenger hunt for getting a Batman and Joker Lego. Sign up, take surveys, play a video game, etc. for freebies. And of course the occasional chaotic crowds when they just hand out or throw the freebies. Nerds killing nerds....sad....but fun! Definitely going next year. Pre-registered at the con to avoid procrastinating until 4-day passes are sold out again. There's too much to share and pictures are worth a thousand words. So click for pics.

Yoshi Island

So, I've been learning to use Vue 6, which is a pretty cool program. I'm thinking of using it to make a better looking background to one of my old renders from my Texture and Lighting 2 class. Anyways, I was just playing around with it and one noise option for the procedural terrain made mountains that reminded me of the backgrounds in the Yoshi games and probably in the Mario games.

Above, is my first render. I thought the trees were too big. I wanted it to feel like a bigger island. And it seems a bit too bright.

This is a render of the other side of the mountain, which is why it's darker. Just edited the material/texture a little bit. I really like using Vue cause it's node-based and it takes me back to the days of Maya's Hypershade and Shake. Changed the trees to evergreen/fir, but it's still too big. It's hard to tell the scale of the trees when different types aren't consistent. And I'll put back the palm trees on the edges of the island. These are just high-quality test renders.
Well, there's a free Personal Learning edition of Vue on their site. Check it out here!