Back on track!

It's been a while since I've posted here and there's been a lot that's happened in the past year. Aside from the ups and downs I've come back to preparing for my first course in Animation Mentor in January. I can't express enough how elated I was to feel as if I had found "that place."

You know the group of people that I'm talking about. The point that you see their faces light up and who have as much passion and drive for the art of animation as you do! It doesn't have to be animation of course, but anything that excites you and gives you that rush of adrenaline while you extrapolate on the tiniest details that seem (to you) that they should have a Nobel prize! This is how I felt when I first took the online campus tour at Animation Mentor.

The staff (Jay and Jules) who hosted the tour were so relaxed and almost shared an animated presence. The enthusiasm you could tell was genuine and that; like myself, they loved the art of animation. It was truly unlike my previous schooling in animation.

Here I'll be posting more updates as school progresses and my experiences as well as links to my demo reel once school starts in January. Until then!

HTML5+jQuery+CSS3 Highlight Selected Nav Item

After looking around the net I found that there were a number of ways to highlight the current item on a navigation menu. However, most of them seemed to be very rigid and written for a certain HTML structure. After finding this, I decided to write a simple jQuery script that allows the UX (User eXperience) to display as expected while using HTML5 coding practices. Here is the code for the script...

Script

/******************************************************
 * Listen for click event and set nav item to selected
 ******************************************************/
 var $navSets = $('nav'),
 //var $navSets = $('#navContainer'),
 $navLinks = $navSets.find('a');

 $navLinks.live('click', function(){
  var $this = $(this);
    
  if($this.hasClass('selected')) {
   return false;
  }

  var $navSet = $this.parents('nav');

  $navSet.find("a.selected").removeClass('selected');
  $this.addClass('selected');
 }); // End navLinks.live / click

The setup is pretty straight forward.

HTML Code

<nav>
    <ul>
        <li><a href='javascript:void(0);'>HOME</a></li>
        <li><a href='javascript:void(0);'>PORTFOLIO</a></li>
        <li><a href='javascript:void(0);'>ABOUT</a></li>
    </ul>
</nav>

The beauty of this is that you can add as many items that you want in the navigation and not have to worry about the page that's being called via AJAX to avoid a page refresh. Also, the nice thing about loading content with AJAX is that you only load the content you want to. While this isn't really SEO friendly, it does make for a great experience for the user.

Zbrush 4R3 Notes and Update

Hey folks! I've got away from posting for a while, but I wanted to share some of the exciting things that I've come upon in the past few weeks.

Let's start with the latest version of Zbrush (now at 4R3 at the time of the blog post.) If you had purchased this then you may (or may not) have received an upgrade notice. If you did not then simply contact the support team at Pixologic and they'll get you all squared away. Now on to some of the things that I've found in the upgrade!

First off, the introduction of the Dynamesh is just incredible to say the least! It's much like working with a ball of clay without the concerns of topology for your characters. You can simply rebuild the mesh if it becomes stretched saving a LOT of time.

Of couse the other addition to this release was the Fibers. Once I saw the video tutorial for it I was blown away with how fast hair or fringes could be added to a sub-tool or to a character mesh. Not only can you add the Fibers now, but they have a few built in tools for styling the hair as well. It's quite impressive and I've included a quick example of what can be done with it.

FEATURED ITEM: Spotlight

------------------------------------------------------------------
Key notes for Spotlight:

Images must be imported before you can activate Spotlight. Once this is done, then you can use the following commands to access spotlight.

SHIFT-Z: Turn spotlight off and on

(While in Spotlight) Z: To turn off and on the Spotlight Dial.
------------------------------------------------------------------

As I get further along with the Spotlight tool I will post more information and a video detailing the process of movie assets. This will also cover using Noise Maker, Zspheres and UV Master. So stay tuned for some interesting examples!

Accessing GPSLocation data from images

There are a few things that people are unaware of and one of those happens to be the fact that images from cell phones contain GPS location data. What!?! You exclaim. Well, there are many social sites that do strip this information. Although we won't be covering that here, I will cover how to access this data using jQuery and the jQuery plugin Exif.

w00t! Let's get started on this...

Files you will need:

jQuery: https://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/1/jquery.min.js
Exif Plugin: http://www.nihilogic.dk/labs/exifjquery/jquery.exif.js

I've also included code from Robert K. Davis showing how to convert DMS (Degrees, Minutes Seconds) to decimal for passing to Google Maps.

I'm not a javascript guru and if you see anything that would make this function better then please feel free to comment on this post.

**NOTE: exifPretty() is used to gather a complete list of exif data contained within the image(s).


DMS to DECIMAL: http://www.codingforums.com/archive/index.php/t-9709.html

$(".img").click(function() {
                
                    var longitude = $(this).exif("GPSLongitude");
                    var latitude = $(this).exif("GPSLatitude");
                    
                    var latRef = $(this).exif("GPSLatitudeRef");
                    var lngRef = $(this).exif("GPSLongitudeRef");
    
                    // Let's make the object to a string to split on the ,'s
                    var a1 = new Array();
                    var a2 = new Array();
                    
                    a1=longitude.toString().split(',');
                    a2=latitude.toString().split(',');
                    
                    if(lngRef == "W") {
                        a1[0] = Number(a1[0]);
                        a1[0] = -a1[0];
                    }
                    
                    if(latRef == "S") {
                        a2[0] = Number(a2[0]);
                        a2[0] = -a2[0];
                    }
                    
                    // Alert all of out exif data
                    // alert($(this).exifPretty());
                    
                    /* Populate the fields with the correct data */
                    
                    // Latitude
                    $("input[name=LatDegrees]").val(a2[0]);
                    $("input[name=LatMinutes]").val(a2[1]);
                    $("input[name=LatSeconds]").val(a2[2]);
                    // Longitude
                    $("input[name=LonDegrees]").val(a1[0]);
                    $("input[name=LonMinutes]").val(a1[1]);
                    $("input[name=LonSeconds]").val(a1[2]);
                    
                    //$("this.form").submit(toDecimal(this.form));
                    
                }); 
            });

            /******************************************
            DMS to Decimal Latitude/Longitude Converter
            © 2002 Robert K. Davis [DMS to DEC /START]
            *******************************************/
            function convert(D,M,S){
                 var DD;
                 D < 0 ? DD = roundOff(D + (M/-60) + (S/-3600),6) : DD = roundOff(D + (M/60) + (S/3600),6);
                 return DD;
            }
            function roundOff(num,decimalplaces){
                 var decimalfactor = Math.pow(10,decimalplaces);
                 var roundedValue = Math.round(num*decimalfactor)/decimalfactor;
                 return roundedValue;
            }
            function toDecimal(f){
                 var LatDegrees = parseInt(f.LatDegrees.value);
                 var LatMinutes = parseInt(f.LatMinutes.value);
                 var LatSeconds = parseInt(f.LatSeconds.value);
                 var LonDegrees = parseInt(f.LonDegrees.value);
                 var LonMinutes = parseInt(f.LonMinutes.value);
                 var LonSeconds = parseInt(f.LonSeconds.value);
            
                 var LatDecimalDegrees = convert(LatDegrees,LatMinutes,LatSeconds);
                 var LonDecimalDegrees = convert(LonDegrees,LonMinutes,LonSeconds);
            
                 !isNaN(LatDecimalDegrees) && !(LatDecimalDegrees > 90) && !(LatDecimalDegrees < -90) ? f.LatDecimalDegrees.value = LatDecimalDegrees : f.LatDecimalDegrees.value = "";
                 !isNaN(LonDecimalDegrees) && !(LonDecimalDegrees > 180) && !(LonDecimalDegrees < -180)  ? f.LonDecimalDegrees.value = LonDecimalDegrees : f.LonDecimalDegrees.value = "";
                 
                 sendToGoogle(LatDecimalDegrees, LonDecimalDegrees);
            }
            
            /******************************************
            DMS to Decimal Latitude/Longitude Converter
            © 2002 Robert K. Davis [DMS to DEC /END]
            *******************************************/

Browser-Specific CSS Hacks

Browser-Specific CSS Hacks
Originally posted at: http://paulirish.com/2009/browser-specific-css-hacks/

/***** Selector Hacks ******/

/* IE6 and below */
* html #uno  { color: red }

/* IE7 */
*:first-child+html #dos { color: red } 

/* IE7, FF, Saf, Opera  */
html>body #tres { color: red }

/* IE8, FF, Saf, Opera (Everything but IE 6,7) */
html>/**/body #cuatro { color: red }

/* Opera 9.27 and below, safari 2 */
html:first-child #cinco { color: red }

/* Safari 2-3 */
html[xmlns*=""] body:last-child #seis { color: red }

/* safari 3+, chrome 1+, opera9+, ff 3.5+ */
body:nth-of-type(1) #siete { color: red }

/* safari 3+, chrome 1+, opera9+, ff 3.5+ */
body:first-of-type #ocho {  color: red }

/* saf3+, chrome1+ */
@media screen and (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio:0) {
 #diez  { color: red  }
}

/* iPhone / mobile webkit */
@media screen and (max-device-width: 480px) {
 #veintiseis { color: red  }
}


/* Safari 2 - 3.1 */
html[xmlns*=""]:root #trece  { color: red  }

/* Safari 2 - 3.1, Opera 9.25 */
*|html[xmlns*=""] #catorce { color: red  }

/* Everything but IE6-8 */
:root *> #quince { color: red  }

/* IE7 */
*+html #dieciocho {  color: red }

/* Firefox only. 1+ */
#veinticuatro,  x:-moz-any-link  { color: red }

/* Firefox 3.0+ */
#veinticinco,  x:-moz-any-link, x:default  { color: red  }

/* FF 3.5+ */
body:not(:-moz-handler-blocked) #cuarenta { color: red; }


/***** Attribute Hacks ******/

/* IE6 */
#once { _color: blue }

/* IE6, IE7 */
#doce { *color: blue; /* or #color: blue */ }

/* Everything but IE6 */
#diecisiete { color/**/: blue }

/* IE6, IE7, IE8 */
#diecinueve { color: blue\9; }

/* IE7, IE8 */
#veinte { color/*\**/: blue\9; }

/* IE6, IE7 -- acts as an !important */
#veintesiete { color: blue !ie; } /* string after ! can be anything */

/* IE8, IE9 */
#anotherone  {color: blue\0/;} /* must go at the END of all rules */

Creative endevors! w00t!

Again, it's been quite a while since I've written in my blog and a lot has happened. I've turned things around once again to be the most positive experiences and a lot of great things have come from it too! I was hired into one of the most amazing career changes that I could have ever asked for as a front-end Web Developer II at a well known national company. I can't say enough about the position and the people there. Right now I'm heading into the third week of work with no outside distractions. I thank God for guiding me to what I needed at this point in my life, for removing the distractions and for helping me to focus on what's really important. Being at my best for my family, those around me and for myself.

As for today, it was an amazing day. I was able to get some things done and my personal site is getting updated in the evenings again. Some of the new things that I've been focusing on with my site have been more Ajax, PHPx and Javascript while I'm still itching to get back into Maya and zBrush. I have some new character concepts that I can't wait to get to the computer. ;)

My goals and aspirations haven't changed and are still in focus. I renewed my lease at the end of last month for another year and I'm focused on living well within my means. A few of the things on my list are to spend more time with my family in New Hampshire and in California and to take two, one week vacations each year during the holidays. That would be the absolute best! A week with Kayla in Cali during Halloween and another during Christmas in N.H. to hit the ski slopes and snow machines!! Awwww yeah!! That would be so fun and I can't wait to get her out in the snow! ;) Lobster, steaks, crab, oysters... *sigh* Missing home already, LOL!

It's time to get back at to coding. I hope that you all have an amazing week and love ya all!

Cleaning up and getting ready for learning...

Well, the past few weeks have been pretty interesting and now things are finally getting settled. My words of advice are to not try to put too many things all in a short time period and still expect to get them all done. *smile* Although I always seem to work best on deadlines, it's not cool to place those with my personal life.

At least now the car is getting fixed and will be done tomorrow and I will be starting some new training with Jesse Sandifer from Green Grass Studios.  We had the chance to meet Jesse at the last ZBrush UG meeting and he was really a wonderful person to speak with. Very down to earth and he appeared to be an artists artist. So needless to say I have started working on some of my ZBrush work and trying to get more experience in the application. Given some time, I will be posting some images of my progress and new creations as I move forward.

In other events on the home front, I found out that one can fix a washing machine with some twine, wax and patience LOL. Yes, it seems that I'm a regular MacGyver with some of these things when it comes to being able to save $50 + parts. Seriously though, the twine cost nothing and neither did the wax. Soooo, the end result was that laundry got done and I spent nothing to repair the washing machine. Seems like a win, win situation don't you think? Now for the kicker... as I used the last of the laundry detergent on the second load I realized that the OTHER bottles were in the car (Ack!) Now I have to wait until tomorrow to finish anyway. LOL, how's that for a kick in the pants?

Enough modeling and rambling for tonight. One more smoke and a puppy run before I'm off to bed. I hope that you all have a great time and look for some updates coming when time permits.

Finally doing it!

Well, I've been pretty busy these past few weeks and getting things cleaned up, throwing out a lot of unwanted stuff and packing up what remains to prepare for leaving this place once and for all. Don't get me wrong, Dallas is fun. I really just can't wait to make that move to the next step in my life and to see things unfold as they have in the past month.

Wow! It's only been a month. It really seems like so much longer than that. I've considered moving to Ft. Worth and have been keeping in mind a REALLY beautiful place downtown Dallas. ( Corinthian Bed and Breakfast ) I've had plans for this place for quite some time and although I know what I would love to do, I just have to be patient. I don't know, my mind has been all over the place recently and in a good way. Just feeling my heart and spirits lift when I see her. Since I know that there's a chance she'll read this I can't say the things that I've been thinking really. ;) Suffice it to say that every time I see her I never want it to end.

A lot of people have asked me too "Do you believe that this is the right one?" Well, to that all I can say is the times we're together I feel like everything stops around us. I'm oblivious to anyone and anything else while I'm with her. The ideals we share are very much the same, our music tastes, movies (Ok, so it doesn't include the really good horror flicks LOL!) I think that being two very artistic people we share a deep passion for our varieties in self-expression and that's a huge plus! We're both very passionate, affectionate, loving and I feel as if we've known each other for years. What more can I say?

Everything couldn't be better and feel more right. I wish the best for all of those who are looking for the right one for them and hope you find that one as I was able to.

First post for the New Year of 2010

Hey, hey!!! I know it's been quite a while, but so many things have been going on that I haven't had time to blog really at all. Sooooo... LOL, let's get started on this roller-coaster and see what's been going on.

Well, most of you know that I've been working pretty hard and keeping things going great. I can't complain in the least with how things have worked out. I've learned a great deal about myself in the past few months (Awsome! SAW is on Syfy!) and I've been slowly chipping away at my animation / film short. Along the way I've wandered from the film / animation due to real life events, but I have hopes that I can get the animation going again once I get settled in to the new apartment. Yes, I've finally found that living in the place that I'm at isn't really isn't going to be a place of creativity as I had once thought. So what about this new place?

The new apartment is really quite nice and more spacious than the one I'm in with almost 400 sq ft more while almost $20.00 cheaper. It doesn't sound like much, but the new place has a fireplace and washer / dryer connections. Finally no more runs to the public laundromat and listening to strange people asking me if I know that Satan is going to steal my sole (yep, live in an awsome area LOL!)

Short of the apartment, I've also met one of the most amazing ladies that I've ever had the chance of getting to know. *sigh* I don't know what to say and that's pretty rare for me LOL.... I was getting pretty settled in for the long haul of just me, my kids and work when all of a sudden I met the most intense, passionate, giving, talented and beautiful lady. I never thought that two people could have this much in common, nor have the same level of love for art, family and friends.

Yes, I'm sitting here smiling just thinking about all the various emotions and  how I feel like everything stops when she's there. It's the most amazing feeling to be so in love with someone and still want to be consumed with every breath and touch. I'm a very lucky person to have met such a person and I'm doing my best to take it slow so we can enjoy our time together. Perhaps this is the best way to build a great friendship / relationship... LOL, I know I'm no expert on that subject by any means, but I believe that she's the best person for me.

I'll try to post after the move and see how things go!

The Asylum of The East...

What can I say? Finally there is finally a version of Ivan out! I know it's taken some time (and countless hours of tinkering), but I have finally created the little guy. Many of you will (of course) notice the influence from the Tim Burton characters. I've thought of doing at least one character in this style, but this is simply because there are so many people doing this, that it's become really absurd to do another standardized model. So, this is really done for kicks.

The current model was created with the box modeling technique in Maya 2008 and converted to Sub-D. I'll update with the poly count later, but currently the model is rigged and the normals are corrected within the skeleton. IK handles are in place for the legs and reverse foot controls are next on the list.

To-Do List

1. Add controls for feet, hips upper body and knees.
2. Model head separate and add head rig.
3. Combine head to body rig.
4. Texture model.
5. Add hair to character and eyebrows.

Keep visiting back often for updates to Ivan and the animation.

Killing time...

Well, I created some more 3D stuff and been kind of bored and withdrawn recently. I'm just trying to find some inspiration to get some things going. So far it's been wondering about creating liquids in 3D space to make some of my renders more realistic. Course, when everything except the liquid looks real, it's kind of frustrating. :) So, I'm not sure what else to do. The options have pretty much been sitting on the couch and watching tv, working on the computer or sleeping. Not sure, but it just seems that nothing is interesting anymore.

Dallas is good from what I've seen of it. Course with the way money is tight all over, there is really a limit on what we're able to do. Eh... I wish I could write something a little more upbeat, but maybe the next few months with provide that. Who knows?

I've entered a couple competitions out there and I'll see what happens with those too. One is for the Mountain Dew Bottle Design and the other is for some liquor (not sure if I'm going to do that one yet.)

I've also posted some pics of the updated render though and if you'd like to give some crits they would be welcome. The image below is the recent render...



That's about it for now. The new job rocks and doing the same old stuff other than that.

Until next time...

A new career path

Well, we spent a good amount of time looking for a good job and like everyone, we have experienced a number of setbacks. What do you do? We did the head hunters thing and then from there we tried direct hire situations. Nothing was coming up and better still, money was getting as short as our tempers. As the old saying goes, "Money isn't everything" it really makes you sit and look at the people in your life that you have and let's you see what's the most important priorities. I'm really happy to say that I have two amazing daughters and a little boy who mean the world to me. Most of all, I have someone that I love very much and although things are bumpy from time to time; it's being able to know that with each rough spot we learn more about the other and can grow from it. Are we perfect? Hell no! I believe that we're perfect for each other though, but like anything in life nothing is for certain.

I recall what my grandmother used to say... "You're the luckiest SOB that I know. You can fall in a pile of crap and come up smelling like a rose just about every time." You know, I thought that she was just saying it, but the older I get the more I understand that I do have a good amount of luck on my side and I have to really embrace that. Case and point, just as Jeanette and I thought we would be out of money all together, we end up getting a phone call the very next day. The call was from RJ Byrd recruiting agency informing me that I would be getting a call from HR Smart in Richardson, TX. HR Smart heard the situation and agreed to take me on as a web developer! The most amazing part is that the people that I work with are amazing! Not to mention that the salary is more than I've ever made too! The client list as well are top name companies that led me to be a little intimidated at first, but really it's a great feeling to work on some of the big company sites. I haven't as of yet, but I can see that it's going to be very VERY soon.

So what does the future hold? Who the hell knows! I have a great life and I'm willing to take all the pot holes that come with it (that's why they make filler right, LOL?) Just need to take it one day at a time and as the late great George Carlin once said "There is no such thing as living in the 'present', you live in the immediate future and the immediate past!"

I finally found an old picture from about 6 years ago of my old 1967 Camaro. I have a few that are in a scrap book, but this was definitely one of my most prized cars ever. You can see a closer look of the car with my daughter in the drivers seat on my other pages though. I thought I would share since I know a few of you enjoy the muscle car scene. :)

Effects Corner

For those interested in learning about VFX have a look at http://effectscorner.blogspot.com/ for some great information from one of the great VFX artists Scott Squires. I'll add more here later, but please feel free to jump over and take a look at some of his work and podcasts on such techniques as rotoscoping.

A little realism in a CG world

I have been looking at getting the new ZBrush 3.1 program for a while now ever since I was told from some folks in the industry that I needed to have more complex models. My thoughts on ZBrush to start focused on so many people who didn't know how to model, were using this as a crutch. Sure! You can make some amazing images and models, but what if you get in a studio that only has Maya or XSI? Can you make the transition?

This kind of stems back to an animation professor showing me a reel of a student who received an internship at a studio in Dallas, TX. The models were amazing, but you could tell right off that it was ZBrush. His other models were ok, but they were the inside of a Yacht. Many extrudes, bevels and not really complex modeling. At this point, I thought "This cat knows how to manipulate models, but it doesn't appear that he can do so in the base 3D application." Maybe I'm mistaken, but from the looks of the portfolio, that's how it appeared.

Of course change is like anything, we all tend to buck it until we try out the new way of things and find that we actually like the new way better than the old. So, as my copy of ZBrush sits in transit, I wait anxiously to check out the posible options that I will have available to me in bringing my characters to life with that little bit of extra realism.

Mark this day in history!

Well, as most of you know, I just got done car shopping. I decided to go with a *cough* Ford. It's not my first choice, but it'll work until the 2010 Camaro comes out and I can afford it. All is well though considering it could have been a lot worse. Here is a pic of the new car from a magazine although I should have some pics soon of the car.

New outlook to bring the last half of the year

Well, as it turns out I was in a car wreck on the 4th. An 82 year old lady wasn't paying attention and ran a red light while catching me right in the middle of the intersection. Good things have come of this though, she is ok and I'm ok, but old people cars are obviously more metal than mine. Hers appeared to have minor damage as it's suprising since she went through a brick wall after hitting my car twice (in the front and then spun to get the rear). It obviously could have been a lot worse and as I said, I'm just happy everyone is ok and no kids were in the cars.
With that being said, here are some pics of the Camaro as it sits now.


A lot of good memories in the car, but from the sounds of it they are going to total it. I'll have to wait and see Monday. If they do then I'll be car shopping for another Camaro and see what I can find for a good price that hasn't been beat on.

More later.

Well, it's about time! The 2009 *sigh* Camaro is going to be hitting the streets in late 2008 early 2009. It's going to be REALLY nice and about the right time for me to trade in this one.
The new one is SUPER nice and indeed something that I'm looking forward to taking even a test drive in. If you want to see the prototype, have a look at the new Transformers movie.

New equipment for home

Well, I finally went out and bought a new external MyBox Western Digital external 1 Terrabyte drive to place all my animations and training DVDs on. I have to admit, the new drive is amazing and a nice addition. I think that I may end up getting a second 1 Terrabyte drive and start to get the drive space that I need. The config can be set to Raid 0 or Raid 1 (0 does not mirror the 500G drive, but uses both as one partition. So a smaller drive may be in order to hold documents and things that do not require a large amount of space. As you can see in the image, the blue circle is where the Terra drive is. Such a pretty sight to behold wouldn't you agree? So now it's time to get back to work and get some more things done here. Only two days to compile everything together and get the school work that I need to get done, completed. Wish me luck!

Chow.

Adobe CS3 Installation

Ok, well here's the story. While paying over $900.00 US for the Adobe suite I figured that I got a deal. I was unaware that it was going to be such a hassle and of how broke the installer is for XP Pro.

I installed disk 1 with no problems. Disk 2 required the Adobe 8 pkg to be installed. Upon trying to install it, the install hung, with no errors of course. I then installed 8 and went back to the install (note: disk 1 alone is about a 45 min install each time). It passed Adobe 8 and then hung on the next pkg. >.<

Not a problem, so I thought; I'll just call adobe. Blah blah blah... 15 minutes later of giving almost everything except my birth marks to them I was told "Oh, well it seems that this will have to go to technical support and they won't be in until tomorrow."

Let's recap... $900+ Adobe Master Collection CS3, 5 hours or troubleshooting the install, a call to an overseas "help" desk to wait until tomorrow? What!?!?!? So if you can wait for Adobe to get off their coffee breaks and stop playing with the cube toys, maybe we could have an installer that works for the amount of money that they are getting for their products. Hell, I haven't had this much trouble with an installer even from a freeware package!

Adobe, loose the interns and hire some real programmers that know how to make an installer that isn't broke before releasing it out to the public.