tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-305839482024-03-07T02:00:34.930-08:00Pixelating!!Gus Yaminhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15647689413304993939noreply@blogger.comBlogger77125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30583948.post-51551266031817539412013-02-01T16:07:00.000-08:002013-02-01T16:07:24.975-08:00Digital "Tissue"<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4H3ydSucgofTD3YivG9H5mLrZ1yDGT1kCbGWmlNWhkcYSyCbwUf1kLqPDivJqAZKNW1KCqMpSjEhCgPW6GaLMPbIx5NRp2iK0dBjeBy65acjB4IZ1D_SRQD8jkNlQ4UFTAXQ1/s1600/tissue_featured-323x156.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="154" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4H3ydSucgofTD3YivG9H5mLrZ1yDGT1kCbGWmlNWhkcYSyCbwUf1kLqPDivJqAZKNW1KCqMpSjEhCgPW6GaLMPbIx5NRp2iK0dBjeBy65acjB4IZ1D_SRQD8jkNlQ4UFTAXQ1/s320/tissue_featured-323x156.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Weta Digital</b> discusses the inner-workings of their Oscar-winning pipeline for digital characters simulation, "Tissue".</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">From core musculature to fat, fascia and skin, a robust and multi-threaded simulation toolset based on finite-element analysis technology.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Very brainy topic, not a lot of pretty images and sequences, but fascinating material nevertheless!</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Via <a href="http://www.fxguide.com/fxguidetv/fxguidetv-166-weta-digitals-tissue-system/">FXGuide</a>.</span>Gus Yaminhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15647689413304993939noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30583948.post-35032160681878051372013-01-29T14:15:00.000-08:002013-01-29T14:16:26.924-08:00Wavelet Turbulence Wins Oscar<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Theodore Kim's seminal </span><a href="http://www.cs.cornell.edu/~tedkim/WTURB/" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">paper</a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> has been awarded a Tech Oscar by the AMPAS.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Abstract:</b> We present a novel wavelet method for the simulation of fluids at high spatial resolution. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The algorithm enables large- and small-scale detail to be edited separately, allowing high-resolution detail to be added as a post-processing step. Instead of solving the Navier-Stokes equations over a highly refined mesh, we use the wavelet decomposition of a low-resolution simulation to determine the location and energy characteristics of missing high-frequency components. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We then synthesize these missing components using a novel incompressible turbulence function, and provide a method to maintain the temporal coherence of the resulting structures.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">There is no linear system to solve, so the method parallelizes trivially and requires only a few auxiliary arrays. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The method guarantees that the new frequencies will not interfere with existing frequencies, allowing animators to set up a low resolution simulation quickly and later add details without changing the overall fluid motion.</span></div>
Gus Yaminhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15647689413304993939noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30583948.post-36808701933924931462013-01-03T11:47:00.003-08:002013-01-03T11:48:43.210-08:00January 2013<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-GjA15aM9pYxjnkdyh65trnCHEVP8HTX5sOG2Ys-sgbLmAVn6hm6XsX_LMAM7bRajRgiKmRMxs09WodU_HuHAofx3J1qh4hf6DgMABwcsk6FJ8_rVKGIP5eXlpkv38LSFa4-2/s1600/MorningFog.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-GjA15aM9pYxjnkdyh65trnCHEVP8HTX5sOG2Ys-sgbLmAVn6hm6XsX_LMAM7bRajRgiKmRMxs09WodU_HuHAofx3J1qh4hf6DgMABwcsk6FJ8_rVKGIP5eXlpkv38LSFa4-2/s200/MorningFog.jpeg" width="200" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: small;">Another Year begins, as 'foggy' and uncertain as any other.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: small;">Started off by resting, reflecting on the one that just went by.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: small;">Even with the fog, that keeps us from seeing but a few meters ahead, the Sun still shines bright!</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: small;">As for a New Year's resolution, why not aim more at setting my eyes on the hopeful light that scatters through the dense veil, instead of having my gaze too fixed on the desperate uncertainty of what I cannot see?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: small;">Happy days to you all! Keep your hopes on the constant light emitter, and dwell less on the blinding thickness of the Z-Fog. ;D</span>Gus Yaminhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15647689413304993939noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30583948.post-19869946142216284772012-06-01T15:02:00.000-07:002012-06-01T15:02:00.034-07:00Interview on ZBrush Central<div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">
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<a href="http://www.pixologic.com/interview/image-engine/immortals/1/img/im_scene4.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://www.pixologic.com/interview/image-engine/immortals/1/img/im_scene4.jpg" width="125" /></a></div>
I was interviewed by Pixologic on behalf of Image Engine about the use of ZBrush for the work we did on Tarsem Singh's "Immortals".</div>
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You can check it out at: </div>
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<a href="http://www.pixologic.com/interview/image-engine/immortals/1/" style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">http://www.pixologic.com/interview/image-engine/immortals/1/</a>Gus Yaminhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15647689413304993939noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30583948.post-77754559053528213892012-05-23T16:19:00.001-07:002012-05-23T16:19:43.368-07:00Siggraph '12 - Papers Preview<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">A bunch of interesting research coming through this year...</span><br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/cKrng7ztpog" width="560"></iframe>Gus Yaminhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15647689413304993939noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30583948.post-3688843978484538462012-05-17T09:28:00.002-07:002012-05-17T09:42:28.438-07:00Stitch Meshes - CG Woven Fabrics<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifZX4zJgykLVaBArF_j-l3VFgeiJcVSlCnAGOvEVUexWyatL1AZKAQWQkr9-MXGZMm__-nnW7LT9SMgtRJ7kjkjty0zj8OOrpGbGd6b0goNeaDc-WiwZMKG2hjrrGuSa4C9da1/s1600/StitchMesh_overview.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="88" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifZX4zJgykLVaBArF_j-l3VFgeiJcVSlCnAGOvEVUexWyatL1AZKAQWQkr9-MXGZMm__-nnW7LT9SMgtRJ7kjkjty0zj8OOrpGbGd6b0goNeaDc-WiwZMKG2hjrrGuSa4C9da1/s320/StitchMesh_overview.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">A tool for modeling knitted clothing with yarn-level detail. <br /><br />The simulations showcased in the video are mind-blowing, if you consider the complexity of the structures involved.<br /><br />The work is paired with Steve Marschner's "</span><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a href="http://www.cs.cornell.edu/%7Esrm/publications/TOG12-cloth.html" style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Specular Reflection from Woven Cloth</a><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">", also published this year.</span><br style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;" /><br style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;" /><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"> To be presented at SIGGRAPH 2012.</span></span><br /><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/NG5C_a6rxrY" width="420"></iframe>Gus Yaminhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15647689413304993939noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30583948.post-35032313915965512852012-04-11T12:01:00.000-07:002012-04-11T12:01:09.601-07:00The Art of Rendering<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Great article from FXGuide.</div>
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A good attempt at being thorough about the current state of rendering technologies out on the market at large.</div>
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Specially informative sections on RenderMan and Arnold.</div>
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<span style="color: black; font-size: x-small;"><span dir="ltr" style="font-size: 10pt;"><a href="https://mail.image-engine.com/owa/UrlBlockedError.aspx" target="_blank">http://www.fxguide.com/featured/the-art-of-rendering/</a></span></span></div>Gus Yaminhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15647689413304993939noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30583948.post-42868223512334705392012-03-28T10:21:00.000-07:002012-03-28T10:41:51.755-07:00Working "for free"...<div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">
<a href="http://www.webpages.uidaho.edu/%7Erfrey/images/220/Ecology/Industrial-Chaplin-Modern-T.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="154" src="http://www.webpages.uidaho.edu/%7Erfrey/images/220/Ecology/Industrial-Chaplin-Modern-T.jpg" width="200" /></a>Reading through this <a href="http://vfxsoldier.wordpress.com/2012/03/26/the-paying-to-work-for-free-vfx-business-model/">article</a> at <b>VFX Soldier</b> today:</div>
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<i><span style="font-size: small;">"New horizontal expansion includes government-funded Bachelors and Masters programs wherein <b>students pay Digital Domain to work for Digital Domain. (...)</b></span></i></div>
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<i><span style="font-size: small;"><b>So, if 30% of our labor can be free, actually paying tuition</b>,
but by your Junior and Senior year at the college, you’re working on
real firms (films), as part of the professional workflow, and you
graduate with a resume that has five major films, your name in the
credits, and more than just an intership level of experience, then
that’s the perfect kind of trade off."</span></i></div>
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While some may think this makes sense, I strongly beg to differ.</div>
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Understand this: I do not know of any other industry whose educational foundation is based on students paying to work "for free" for a related profit-making business.</div>
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The implications of that ripple through the ranks of candidates and employees alike. Imagine, from a strictly business point of view, the validated access to labor that (albeit less skilled) is absolutely FREE.</div>
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In essence, you are creating a grey moral zone where "labor that is profited from does not necessarily need to be compensated".</div>
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While, the "benefits" offered to entry-level candidates dying for a break into the industry may be appealing to them, think of what that means to the skilled, experienced workforce that's come before!</div>
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For the students, it may "make sense", but they cannot see further ahead where that decision will take the very industry they want to live from.</div>
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I find the argument that this approach is necessary to "protect" the jobs that would be lost to cheap labor markets like China and India quite disturbing. Yes, by "market rules", those jobs will go anyway because of the economical inequalities that undermine the illusion of a truly "globalized world".</div>
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It supports the sad philosophy of "averaging for the lowest common denominator", which is (IMHO) the worst thing that can happen for any industry.</div>
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Morally dubious? Well, it depends on your point of view right?</div>
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As with a lot of other things in this industry that has become so much of a "morally grey zone"...</div>
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For DD, it's a lucrative scheme of justifying cheap (free) labor, with the added bonus that once the worker rises to a skill rank higher that "junior", "apprentice" or "student"; they can be automatically dismissed before DD needs to start paying them as employees. And so, the cycle goes on. Blessed by "Wall Street morals".</div>
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It just strikes me as another cause for concern. This industry has transformed itself in its VERY short life span. Remember people: most of our jobs DID NOT EXIST back in the late 80's, early 90's!</div>
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Seeing these tendencies of averaging talent, skill, experience and professionalism (KEY ingredients for this industry) by the lowest common denominator possible, so the top of the food chain can pocket a few extra greedy dollars, makes me concerned about the place VFX artists will find themselves in another 20 years - considering how fast things changed in the last 20.</div>
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Just my two very sad cents. </div>Gus Yaminhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15647689413304993939noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30583948.post-7743305288223427382012-03-18T11:25:00.001-07:002012-03-28T10:25:23.763-07:00"PROMETHEUS" - Bring it ON!!<div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">
The anticipation buildup for this movie is unlike anything I've seen in the past two years...</div>
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Ridley Scott seems to still have some magic at his fingertips, and this latest trailer for "Prometheus" is nothing shorter than EPIC.</div>
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If this movie doesn't open up to some serious millions in the box office, I don't know what else can draw in audiences anymore!</div>
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To be honest, I think they are beginning to show WAY more than I'd want to see before hitting the theater... but I guess there's a good measure of "studio marketing machine" involved in that.</div>
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In any case, there you have it! Now tell me how on Earth would you not want to go see this movie?! </div>
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Evan Wallace is a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WebGL">WebGL</a> wizard.</div>
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Playing with the latest in interactive CGI tech, he gives you a refreshing look at the current state of CG technology, married to Web tech and faster graphics processing.</div>
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His work can bee seen on<a href="http://madebyevan.com/"> his website</a>, and some great "toys" are available for you to play with directly on your browser - like the <a href="http://madebyevan.com/webgl-path-tracing/">interactive path-tracing Cornell box</a>.</div>
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Gone are the days when people would look funny at you when you said "let's raytrace EVERYTHING!" ;D</div>Gus Yaminhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15647689413304993939noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30583948.post-74381884106025353742012-02-28T16:19:00.001-08:002012-03-28T10:26:02.401-07:00Brave New World<a href="http://www.fxitech.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/Cotton-Candy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="174" src="http://www.fxitech.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/Cotton-Candy.jpg" width="200" /></a><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue',Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">We hear news of <a href="http://www.fxitech.com/products/">FXI</a> preparing to launch the Cotton Candy, a tiny computer that looks like a USB thumb drive. The device, which can run either Ubuntu or Android 4.0, has a dual-core 1.2GHz ARM Cortex-A9 CPU, 1GB of RAM, and a Mali 400MP GPU that allows it to decode high-definition video.</span><br />
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And as our classical computer architectures shrink to sizes that were unimaginable 30 years ago, IBM reveals more details of its quest for the "next generation of computing".</div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue',Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">According to their news releases, IBM revealed that physicists at its Watson Research Center in Yorktown Heights, New York have made significant advances in the creation of “superconducting qubits.” Using a number of techniques, IBM explained that it has set three new records in its bid to reduce errors in elementary computations, while retaining the integrity of quantum mechanical properties in quantum bits. </span><br style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;" /><br style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;" /><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">In quantum computing, conventional binary bits are replaced by qubits, which can be 1, 0 or both. However, until now, qubits have been unstable: the pesky things tend to lose their quantum mechanical properties and go incoherent in a fraction of a second. </span><br style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;" /><br style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;" /><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">"The special properties of qubits will allow quantum computers to work on millions of computations at once, while desktop PCs can typically handle minimal simultaneous computations," the IBM researchers said. "For example, a single 250-qubit state contains more bits of information than there are atoms in the universe. </span><br style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;" /><br style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;" /><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">“In the past, people have said, maybe it’s 50 years away, it’s a dream, maybe it’ll happen sometime,” said Mark B. Ketchen, manager of the physics of information group at IBM.’s Thomas J. Watson Research Center in Yorktown Heights, New York. “I used to think it was 50. Now I’m thinking like it’s 15 or a little more. It’s within reach. It’s within our lifetime. It’s going to happen.”</span><br style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;" /><br style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;" /><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Let's keep watching. If things follow through as they are predicting, and no major catastrophe hits humanity in the next decades, we could witness a leap in computational power within our lifetimes that will be unbelievably revolutionary - to say the least.</span><br /></span>Gus Yaminhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15647689413304993939noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30583948.post-19858505648282932072012-02-06T12:21:00.001-08:002012-03-28T10:26:17.291-07:00Raiding the Lost Ark<div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">
Jamie Benning has made 3 ‘filmumentaries,’ as he calls them, about the original Star Wars trilogy. His efforts collate interviews and rare behind the scenes footage and photos in what are essentially the most detailed commentary tracks a fan could hope for.</div>
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Benning followed his Star Wars docs with <b><i>Raiding the Lost Ark</i></b>, which tracks the creation of the first Indiana Jones film, Raiders of the Lost Ark.</div>
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It’s a must-see for any Raiders or <b>Steven Spielberg</b> fan. No matter how much a viewer knows about the making of Raiders, I’d be very surprised if there was nothing here that is new, as Benning has incorporated everything from classic interviews to the minutia of little-seen production reports.</div>
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</div>Gus Yaminhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15647689413304993939noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30583948.post-2934382765640494882011-12-07T17:08:00.001-08:002012-03-28T10:26:25.092-07:00Timescapes<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="225" mozallowfullscreen="" src="http://player.vimeo.com/video/33110953?title=0&byline=0&portrait=0" webkitallowfullscreen="" width="400"></iframe><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span">Photographer/film maker Tom Lowe's been working on his film <a href="http://timescapes.org/">TimeScapes</a> since 2009, and has recently released a new trailer that shows off to stunning effect the <a href="http://www.red.com/store/epic">Red Epic</a> he's been filming on. Between the Epic and Canon DSLRs, all the shots are of incredibly high quality, filmed and edited at 4069x2304 resolution. Filled with stunning time-lapses and slow-motion photography, each frame is the equivalent of a 9-megapixel still image.</span></div>Gus Yaminhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15647689413304993939noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30583948.post-39292821908149100282011-12-02T16:40:00.001-08:002013-01-04T02:17:50.579-08:00StudioDaily on "Immortals"<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span class="Apple-style-span">More on Image Engine's work on "Immortals".</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span">This time, an article from <a href="http://www.studiodaily.com/main/news/headlines/Building-Massive-Environments-for-Immortals_13569.html"><b>StudioDaily</b></a>.</span></div>
Gus Yaminhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15647689413304993939noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30583948.post-64768092536625956462011-11-29T08:47:00.001-08:002013-01-04T02:06:04.029-08:00The Evolution of Internet Search<br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span">Google released a short video today highlighting some of its key milestones in search over the past decade. It’s both a fun blast from the past and a worthwhile reminder of how much things have changed over the years. </span></div>
Gus Yaminhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15647689413304993939noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30583948.post-61826694804197828112011-11-23T09:31:00.001-08:002012-03-28T10:26:53.268-07:00Image Engine Immortals<div>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5K_bU5DkQR_bw1F11FVRAiG2jqGkExcU6Uzrzo8pjyB5W_qnCC8DDj38fjMoMnErS6bpoHn2JNDAvaCpUCBKY_PrnT82_qD2pxrJ82jh7s5Mcnp5Ycm96U-Yx8JAjdWKHT3j4/s1600/immortals+1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="119" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5K_bU5DkQR_bw1F11FVRAiG2jqGkExcU6Uzrzo8pjyB5W_qnCC8DDj38fjMoMnErS6bpoHn2JNDAvaCpUCBKY_PrnT82_qD2pxrJ82jh7s5Mcnp5Ycm96U-Yx8JAjdWKHT3j4/s200/immortals+1.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span">FX Guide talks to Image Engine about the work on Immortals. Mike chats to vfx supervisor Simon Hughes and Executive Producer Shawn Walsh about the film, which was shot in Montreal.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span">Direct link <a href="http://media.blubrry.com/fxpodcast/media.fxguide.com/fxguidetv/fxguidetv-ep126.mp4">HERE</a>.</span></div>Gus Yaminhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15647689413304993939noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30583948.post-53785620029681575002011-11-16T15:11:00.001-08:002012-03-28T10:27:06.672-07:001 TeraFLOPs on a chip<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.xbitlabs.com/images/news/2011-11/intel_knights_corner_big.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="136" src="http://www.xbitlabs.com/images/news/2011-11/intel_knights_corner_big.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span">14 years ago, in 1997, Intel demonstrated the first supercomputer capable of achieving 1 TeraFlops by combining 9,680 Intel Pentium Pro CPUs.<br />Today, Intel unveiled the first chip based on its MIC (Many Integrated Cores) architecture: "Knight's Corner".<br /><br />It is a single CPU with <b>50 computing cores</b>, reaching <b>over 1 TeraFlops in one chip</b>. According to Intel, "the result is a fundamentally new architecture that uses the same tools, compilers, and libraries as the Intel® Xeon processors. </span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span">Intel already foresees a combination of many Intel® MIC processors surpassing the next big milestone: the <i>exaflop</i> barrier."</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span">As a frame of reference, a six-core Intel i7 CPU peaks at 109 GigaFlops.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span">1 GFlop = <span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 16px;">10</span><sup style="line-height: 1em; text-align: left;">9</sup></span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span">1 TeraFlop = <span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 16px;">10</span><sup style="line-height: 1em; text-align: left;">12</sup></span> </span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span">1 ExaFlop = <span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 16px;">10</span><sup style="line-height: 1em; text-align: left;">18</sup></span> (that number would be read as </span><span class="Apple-style-span">"10 followed by 18 zeros"</span><span class="Apple-style-span">, or </span><span class="Apple-style-span">"one quintillion"</span><span class="Apple-style-span"> calculations </span><i>per second</i><span class="Apple-style-span">) </span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span">More at <a href="http://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/architecture-and-technology/many-integrated-core/intel-many-integrated-core-architecture.html">INTEL</a>.</span></div>Gus Yaminhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15647689413304993939noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30583948.post-2684026686113645742011-11-16T14:29:00.001-08:002012-03-28T10:27:27.822-07:00Nvidia MAXIMUS<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/_LagqqsVO28" width="560"></iframe>
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<span class="Apple-style-span">NVIDIA Maximus-powered workstations combine the industry-leading professional 3D graphics capability of NVIDIA Quadro® GPUs and the high-performance computing power of NVIDIA® Tesla™ GPUs. Tesla co-processors automatically perform the heavy lifting of rendering or CAE computations, freeing the Quadro GPUs to do what they do best—enabling rich interactive graphics.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span"><a href="http://www.nvidia.com/object/maximus.html">Nvidia MAXIMUS</a></span></div>Gus Yaminhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15647689413304993939noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30583948.post-41790918920451424892011-11-16T10:35:00.001-08:002013-01-04T02:06:04.023-08:00Earth is AWESOME!<div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">
How can one not stare in absolute awe at the beauty of this little blue marble we live on?</div>
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Watch this in HD with full-screen ON!</div>
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="239" src="http://player.vimeo.com/video/32001208?title=0&byline=0&portrait=0" webkitallowfullscreen="" width="425"></iframe>Gus Yaminhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15647689413304993939noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30583948.post-50643188988060843002011-11-02T16:46:00.000-07:002012-03-28T10:27:44.630-07:00<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.ryansalazar.net/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/Katana-Logo.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="70" src="http://www.ryansalazar.net/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/Katana-Logo.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span">Katana is out.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span">The Foundry has finally released the first version on their website and announced ILM has already purchased a site license.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span">Katana was developed at Sony Imageworks and has been their core lighting and look development platform for a fair number of big productions.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span"> Paired with either Arnold or PRman, Katana is reportedly a tremendous performance boost for artists lighting and shading 3D assets and environments.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span">Katana is Linux-only at this point, and price is undisclosed at The Foundry's website. Trust me, this in not software for the "shallow-pocketed" and "faint-of-pipeline". This is a tool for studios with solid Linux pipelines and cash-fluent production revenues...</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span">For more details, check out Katana's <a href="http://www.thefoundry.co.uk/products/katana/">website</a>.</span></div>Gus Yaminhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15647689413304993939noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30583948.post-61940271271365172762011-10-30T15:26:00.000-07:002011-10-30T15:43:53.958-07:00Colour Bleed<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.cgchannel.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/110126_smear.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="111" src="http://www.cgchannel.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/110126_smear.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
Fantastic short by Peter Szewczyk.<br />
Watch from the <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/filmnetwork/films/p00ktwvp">BBC's FilmNetwork</a>.<br />
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<br />Gus Yaminhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15647689413304993939noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30583948.post-78595217581579307712011-10-30T14:27:00.000-07:002011-10-30T14:36:00.436-07:00Better White LEDs<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<a href="http://portal.acs.org/portal/binfetch/consumption?fileUrl=/stellent/groups/web/documents/article/%7Eexport/CNBP_022126%7E6%7EHTML_DC_TEMPLATE%7ESNIPPET_LAYOUT/34381-6.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="172" src="http://portal.acs.org/portal/binfetch/consumption?fileUrl=/stellent/groups/web/documents/article/%7Eexport/CNBP_022126%7E6%7EHTML_DC_TEMPLATE%7ESNIPPET_LAYOUT/34381-6.jpg" width="200" /></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Researchers are reporting the first use of a fundamentally new approach in the quest to snare the Holy Grail of the lighting industry: An LED (light-emitting diode) — those ultra-efficient, long-lived light sources — that emits pure white light. The new approach yielded what the scientists describe as the most efficient and stable source of pure white light ever achieved. The advance could speed the development of this next-generation technology for improved lighting of homes, offices, displays, and other applications, they say. </span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Soo Young Park and colleagues note that white LEDs show promise as a brighter, longer-lasting and more energy-efficient light source than conventional lighting, such as incandescent and fluorescent lights, which they may replace in the future. But scientists have had difficulty producing white LEDs that are suitable for practical use. Existing technologies produce tinted shades of white light, require complex components, and become unstable over time.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />The researchers describe development of a new, simpler white LED that is the first to achieve stable white light emissions using a single molecule. Their specially engineered molecule combines two light-emitting materials, one orange and one blue, which together produce white light over the entire visible range. In laboratory studies, the scientists showed that light production from an LED using the new molecule was highly efficient and had excellent color stability and reproducibility, features that make it a practical white light source.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />Their study appears in the May 29 online issue of the <a href="http://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/ja902533f?tokenDomain=presspac&tokenAccess=presspac&forwardService=showFullText&journalCode=jacsat">Journal of the American Chemical Society</a>, a weekly publication..</span></div>Gus Yaminhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15647689413304993939noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30583948.post-87598670273531073312011-10-26T11:36:00.000-07:002011-10-26T11:36:23.814-07:00Image Engine talks "The Thing"<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.deathfall.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=31930&d=1319042746" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="85" src="http://www.deathfall.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=31930&d=1319042746" width="200" /></a></div>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Watch FX Guide's podcast as they talk to Image Engine about the creature and environment visual effects work in director Matthijs van Heijningen Jr.’s The Thing.</span><div>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Jesper Kjolsrud, our VFX Supervisor for the show and Steve Garrad, VFX Executive Producer, talk about the challenges and accomplishments of working on this project.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Check it out at FX Guide's website <a href="http://www.fxguide.com/fxguidetv/fxguidetv-123-the-thing/">HERE</a>.</span></div>Gus Yaminhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15647689413304993939noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30583948.post-43154260410595350862011-10-21T11:14:00.001-07:002011-10-21T11:14:25.199-07:00Touchscreen Distinguishes Different Parts of Finger<a href="http://www.cmu.edu/news/stories/archives/2011/october/images/tapsenseparts_400x267.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; display: inline !important; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="133" src="http://www.cmu.edu/news/stories/archives/2011/october/images/tapsenseparts_400x267.jpg" width="200" /></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">By attaching a microphone to a touchscreen, the CMU scientists showed they can tell the difference between the tap of a fingertip, the pad of the finger, a fingernail and a knuckle. This technology, called TapSense, enables richer touchscreen interactions. <br /><br />More at <a href="http://www.cmu.edu/news/stories/archives/2011/october/oct19_tapsense.html">CARNEGIE MELLON NEWS</a></span>Gus Yaminhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15647689413304993939noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30583948.post-76276442409286841482011-10-20T14:54:00.001-07:002011-10-30T15:12:13.418-07:00Say hello to Lytro...<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://i.i.com.com/cnwk.1d/i/tim/2011/10/20/lytros.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="190" src="http://i.i.com.com/cnwk.1d/i/tim/2011/10/20/lytros.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Lytro has unveiled a little something it calls the Lytro camera - the world's first consumer light field camera.</span><br />
<a href="http://www.highsnobiety.com/news/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/lytro-light-field-camera-3-150x150.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://www.highsnobiety.com/news/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/lytro-light-field-camera-3-150x150.jpg" /></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Within the anodized aluminum frame, the friendly camera totes an f/2, 8x zoom lens which utilizes an 11-mega-ray light-field to power all that infinite focus magic. </span><br />
<a href="http://www.lytro.com/"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">www.lytro.com</span></a>Gus Yaminhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15647689413304993939noreply@blogger.com0