Yo Frankie!

The Blender Institute has just released a new project. After releasing under the Creative Common two awesome Pixar quality short subjects Elephants Dream and Big Buck Bunny, the Blender Institute is now releasing Yo Frankie!, a fully free and open source 3D game under the Creative Common license, everything from the artwork to the code is freely re-usable and modifiable even commercially.

By running the game directly from Blender, you can even modify it and see what happens directly from the software, a nice way to learn how to do your own game.

MR Materials

MR MATERIALS is a really good site if you're looking for Mental Ray Materials, shaders, and textures for Autodesk Maya, Max and Softimage XSI. It also has good articles and tutorials related to Mental Ray.

You can go to the site here.

Renderwiki

Found a cool site.

Renderwiki is a website on native renderers found in 3d applications like Mantra (Houdini), and Mental Ray (both as standalone and Maya Plugin).

The site is very informative because it deals with rendering on both a theoretical and production level.

The site link is here.

Power Unleashed

Close to two months since we finished the short film, it's finally online.

Power Unleashed is a 4 minute short film for Roadrunner to showcase their special effects capabilities. Directed by Sid Maderazo, it is the story of a boy who aims to impress a girl through his powers, but unfortunately fails to do so as he still has to discover how to control it.

The short film can be watched in the following links:

High Resolution

Low Resolution

Loooong days.....sleepless nights....behind the scenes of the short...(minus the screaming and hair-pulling ofcourse)...

PART ONE - Concept and Development
PART TWO - Production Design
PART THREE - Cinematography
PART FOUR - Kodak
PART FIVE - Color Correction
PART SIX - Virtual Set
PART SEVEN - Cityscape
PART EIGHT - The Kids
PART NINE - The Tree
PART TEN - The Cathedral
PART ELEVEN - Ground Zero
PART TWELVE - Motion Capture
PART THIRTEEN - The Bug
PART FOURTEEN - Finale
PART FIFTEEN - Sound Design
PART SIXTEEN - Conclusion

License to Grill Recipes

I found the recipes from Rob Rainford's show "License to Grill" from the Discovery Home Channel. I just love to barbecue and it's one of my favorite shows.

I'll make it a goal to try one recipe at least once a week...

From the episode: Saturday Afternoon BBQ
Volcanic Shrimp with Dipping Sauce
Spicy Smoked Ribs with Pineapple Rum Glaze
Maple Lemon Wings
Greek Kabobs

From the episode: Poker Night with the Boys
Hickory Smoked Baked Beans
Brick Chicken
Steak Fajitas
Stuffed Oversized Shrimp

From the episode: Blackout Cookout
Chicken Drumsticks Wrapped in Bacon
Grilled Scallops with Apple Cider Accent
Salmon Kabobs
Grilled Vegetable Frittata
Smoked Veal Loaf

From the episode: 40th Birthday Bash
Smoked Mushrooms
BBQ'ed Peppered Mussels
Port Marinated Racks of Lamb
Port Marinated Chicken
Grilled Russets
Smoked Onions with Herb Caper Dressing

From the episode: Aerobic Marathon BBQ
Rotisserie Veal Roast
Caesar Shrimp
Polenta Kabobs
Mint and Cumin Satay with Spicy Peanut Sauce
Grilled Potato and Yams

From the episode: Wine & Cheese Party
Oak Smoked Lamb Chops in a Red Wine Olive Marinade
Creamy Squash and Sweet Potato Parcel
Honey White Wine Marinated Smoked Lobster Tail
Smoked Corn with Spicy Cheese Butter

From the episode: Caribbean Bon Voyage Fiesta
Passion Fruit Apple Sauce
Smoked Pork Loin
Grilled Swordfish
Caribbean Salad
Jerk Snapper
Rumapalooza Cooler

From the episode: Godfather Italian Feast
Tuscan Grilled Veal Chops
Lamb Loin with Rosemary
Grilled Squid
Grilled Pasta
Panzanella Skewers
Grilled Endive & Radicchio Salad

From the episode: Japanese Farewell Dinner
Grilled Miso Chicken
Grilled Bok Choy
Easy Japanese Salad
Wasabi Whipped Cream
Peking-Style Spit Roasted Duck
Smoked Japanese Noodle Salad

From the episode: Rock Concert Pre-Party
Proscuitto Wrapped Veal
Blackberry Smoked Pepper Pork Loin
Smoked Peppers
Asparagus Rafts
Grilled Sweet Onions
Scallops with Parmesan Crust

From the episode: Bar-Beer-Cue Celebration
Brew Burgers
Brown Ale Maple-Glazed Chicken Wings
Warm Potato Salad with Beer
Chicken on a Beer Can

From the episode: The Saucy Contest
Sweet & Spicy Mint Sauce
Lemon Honey Sauce with Garlic
Maple Mango BBQ Sauce
Apple Glazed Roasted Ham
Grilled Rack of Lamb
Grilled Drumsticks
Golden Mustard Barbecue Sauce
Wrapped & Glazed Turkey Breast

From the episode: Paint the Fence
Smoked Hot Dogs
Homemade Smoked Ketchup
Smoked Pineapple Carrot Salsa
Peanut Chicken Burgers
Lamb Berry Burgers
Portobello Cheeseburgers
Grilled Bacon Onion Wedges

From the episode: Taste of the Sea
Grilled Grouper & Almond Butter
Smoked Mint Trout
Grilled Tuna with Peach & Onion Relish
Grilled Salmon
Pasta Salad
Tomato BBQ Bread Salad

From the episode: Pool Party
Chicken Teriyaki
Onion Water Lamb Chops
Avocado, Grapefruit, Red Onion & Feta Salad
Smoked Spicy Turkey

From the episode: Hawaiian Luau
Fennel & Orange Salad
Luau Tropical Prawns
Sweet & Sour Sauce for Pork
Hawaiian Piggy on the Cue
Yams

From the episode: Mardi Gras
Blackened Catfish
Mardi Gras Cornbread
Creole Smoked Baby Back Ribs
Hickory Smoked Turkey Legs

From the episode: Superstar Celebration
Grilled Shrimp in a Peanut Sauce
Baby Potato Kabobs
Mushroom Kabobs
Grilled Chicken in a White Wine Tarragon Sauce
Grilled Gazpacho

From the episode: Surprise Guests
Grilled Polenta
Grilled Pear Arugula Salad
Grilled Haddock with White Wine Garlic
Smoked Haddock
Pesto Baguette
Mushroom Rice
Grilled Pineapple
Asian Grilled Shrimp

From the episode: Mexican Fiesta
Grilled Red Snapper in Corn Husks
Roasted Vegetable Quesdadillas
Grilled Chicken for Burritos
Smoked Guacamole
Smoked Salsa
Watercress Salad with Orange and Tequila Dressing

From the episode: Luna Eclipse
Grilled Chicken Tikka
Smoked Pork Tenderloin
Grilled Fennel with Anchovy Garlic Butter
Smokey Banana Salsa
Avocado and Watercress Soup

From the episode: The Engagement
Grilled Oysters in the Shell
Zucchini Crab Cakes
Grilled Lobster with Basil Mayonnaise
Arugula Salad and Dressing
Smoked Tomato Salsa
Chocolate Fondue with Grilled Pineapple and Pears

From the episode: Karaoke Slow Ribs
Whiskey-Glazed Smoked Spareribs
Spicy Grilled Beef Short Ribs
Smoked Rice
Asian Grilled Shrimp
Smoky Beans
Grilled Mixed Vegetables

From the episode: Mediterranean Dinner
Grilled Octopus
Lamb Kabobs
Tzatziki Dip
Grilled Fresh Sardines
Steamed and Smoked Artichokes
Couscous Salad with Grilled Vegetables

From the episode: Blind Date with Garlic
Roasted Garlic Mayonnaise
Trout with Proscuitto and Sage
Grilled Vegetables with Garlic Anchovy Dip
Wild Rice Pecan Salad
Nicoise Salad

From the episode: Parent's Night Out
Grilled Clams with Lemon Butter Sauce
Caribbean Rum Shrimp
Cajun Shrimp Love Sauce
Grilled Corn Salad
Scallop and Salmon Brochettes
Skewered Scallops with Prosciutto

From the episode: Charcoal vs. Gas Bocce Ball Tournament
Grilled Sea Bass with Mango and Red Onion Salsa
Spicy Barbecued Chicken Legs
Pork Tenderloin with Balsamic and Cherries
Barbecued Seafood Soup in Pineapple Bowl
Cabbage Salad

From the episode: Girls Championship Game
Grilled Stuffed Chicken
Grilled Pita Chips
Grilled Veggie Cornboats
Shrimp Salad
Blue Margarita

From the episode: Hole In One
Smoked Scallops with a Citrus Vinaigrette
Pernod Butter
Pernod Smoked Lobster
Pernod Rice
Rubbed & Grilled Stuffed Tenderloin
Roasted Baby Potatoes
Roasted Leeks and Carrots

From the episode: Toga Party
Smoked Corn on the Cob and Garlic Chive Butter
Marinated Lamb Sausage and Grilled Vegetables with Feta
Macerated Grapes
Half Naked Shrimp
Iced Oysters Off the Grill
Robbie's Toga Punch
Grilled Herb Pizza

From the episode: Garage Sale Brunch
Toasted Cinnamon Fruit Kabobs
Muffin Tin Barbecued Eggs
Smoky Canadian Bacon
Granny Smith Buttermilk Pancakes
Grilled Onion Hashbrowns

From the episode: The Block Party
Barbecued Oyster Kabobs
Spicy Chicken Wings
Grilled Antipasto in Endive Boats
Spicy "Tater" Skins
Margarita Shrimp
Peachy Sauce
Pork Tenderloin Kabobs
Cranberry Pineapple Sauce

Enjoy!

Interactive Lighting Systems

Think of it as Maya's IPR in steroids....

"In computer cinematography, the process of lighting design involves placing and configuring lights to define the visual appearance of environments and to enhance story elements. This process is labor intensive and time consuming, primarily because lighting artists receive poor feedback from existing tools: interactive previews have very poor quality, while final-quality images often take hours to render."

Lpics is Pixar's Hybrid Hardware-Accelerated Relighting Engine for Computer Cinematography. It's an interactive cinematic lighting system used in the production of computer-animated feature films containing environments of very high complexity, in which surface and light appearances are described using procedural RenderMan shaders. Pixar's system provides lighting artists with high-quality previews at interactive framerates with only small approximations compared to the final rendered images. This is accomplished by combining numerical estimation of surface response, image-space caching, deferred shading, and the computational power of modern graphics hardware.



Lightspeed, on the other hand, has been developed by ILM, Tippett and Stanford and MIT graphics labs. The system uses hardware shaders, but improves on Pixar's Lpics by supporting opacity, motion blur and automatic translation of Renderman shaders.

ReplaceEm

Probably the best string/text-replacement software around (and it's free). ReplaceEm, is a freeware string-replacing utility for Windows. At its core, ReplaceEm is essentially a text search-and-replace program. However, unlike the search-replace functionality of a standard text editor, ReplaceEm is designed to operate on multiple files at once. And you need not only perform one search-replace operation per file -- you can setup a list of operations to perform. If different groups of files need to have different operations performed on them, this is no problem either. And the best feature of all is that you can also specify a backup file for each file processed just in case the replace operation didn’t do exactly what you wanted.

ReplaceEm's official site and download area is here.

Maya MEL Resources

Just a few resources on Maya, MEL (Maya Embedded Language) and the API.

EwertB's back. Still one of the most comprehensive sites for MEL and the API.

MEL Wiki. The name says it. Its similar to EwertB's site except this one uses the popular WIKI format and discusses "elf" (MEL's "Extended Layer Format"), for UI creation.

Mental Mill

mental mill^® from Mental Images enables artists and other professionals to develop, test and maintain shaders and complex shader graphs for hardware and software rendering through an intuitive graphical user interface with real-time visual feedback - without the need for programming skills. Software companies can incorporate parts or all of mental mill in the form of software libraries into their own digital content creation and design products. Shaders are automatically generated in the MetaSL™ language and can be modified easily. mental images designed MetaSL to encompass the expressive power of all current and future shading languages and shading language standards. Complex cooperating shader graphs can be encapsulated into Phenomena.

mental mill supports CgFX, HLSL, and GLSL, as well as C++ for mental ray and RealityServer. Back-end plug-ins for other targets such as special purpose processors and other software renderers can be developed by third parties using the mental mill API.

For a video demonstration of the workflow, click here.

OpenEXR

OpenEXR is a high dynamic-range (HDR) image file format developed by Industrial Light & Magic for use in computer imaging applications.

OpenEXR is used by ILM on all motion pictures currently in production. The first movies to employ OpenEXR were Harry Potter and the Sorcerers Stone, Men in Black II, Gangs of New York, and Signs. Since then, OpenEXR has become ILM's main image file format.

OpenEXR's features include:

* Higher dynamic range and color precision than existing 8- and 10-bit image file formats.
* Support for 16-bit floating-point, 32-bit floating-point, and 32-bit integer pixels. The 16-bit floating-point format, called "half", is compatible with the half data type in NVIDIA's Cg graphics language and is supported natively on their new GeForce FX and Quadro FX 3D graphics solutions.
* Multiple lossless image compression algorithms. Some of the included codecs can achieve 2:1 lossless compression ratios on images with film grain.
* Extensibility. New compression codecs and image types can easily be added by extending the C++ classes included in the OpenEXR software distribution. New image attributes (strings, vectors, integers, etc.) can be added to OpenEXR image headers without affecting backward compatibility with existing OpenEXR applications.

Meshlab

MeshLab is an open source, portable, and extensible system for the processing and editing of unstructured 3D triangular meshes.
The system is aimed to help the processing of the typical not-so-small unstructured models arising in 3D scanning, providing a set of tools for editing, cleaning, healing, inspecting, rendering and converting this kind of meshes. The MeshLab system started in late 2005 as a part of the FGT course of the Computer Science department of University of Pisa and most of the code (~15k lines) of the first versions was written by a handful of willing students. The following years FGT students have continued to work to this project implementing more and more features.

HDRI Links

A couple of cool links from HDR LABS:

Picturenaut’s consistent multi-threaded architecture makes it the fastest tone mapper in the world.
Also linked to this site is SMART IBL. It puts optimized IBL setups on a single button again. On top of that, it represents a unified way of organizing your HDR collection into ready-made lighting solutions. Smart IBL is an open system, completely transparent to artists and developers - flexible enough to power an entire company pipeline, and portable enough to work in every 3d application. And most importantly, it's completely free.

Maya and Python Tools

Thinking of learning python for use with MAYA?
There are two good tools out there if you want to code in python and getting it run with Maya. One of them is PYMEL developed by Chad Dombrova of Luma Pictures. ymel makes python within Maya the way it should be-- readable, concise, and object-oriented. Pymel builds on the maya.cmds module by organizing many of its commands into a class hierarchy, and by customizing them to operate in a more succinct and intuitive way. The other is Farsheed Ashouri's mapy 1.2.1 an external commander for Maya. It has the following features:

• Use maya powerful programming language without using it's native script editor.
• Support for MEL and Python.
• Send your scripts with single hotkey.

Mapy looks at the script and based on the extension of the file, sends python or MEL commands to maya. The mapy website has tutorials on how to install and getting it to run with your favorite text editor.
Direct Download Links:
PYMEL
mapy 1.2.1

El Cabron's Blog Site

New year, new challenges.

Check out my good friend, El Cabron's' blog site. If you're a tech head, geek or just plain gadget freak, his blog site is a cool resource on the latest stuff in the hardware and software side of things (jokingly also about other useless things). 

Check it out!