Balloons

I made my first animation last night just to see how it all works.  Turns out it's not nearly as complicated as I had imagined it to be.

It's pretty simple.  The balloon is a tapered sphere with a tiny cone and torus added to make the knot.  Add the white material, duplicate both and make the other material black.

Then I put both balloons into an emitter, which is a tool that spits out particles.  After that it's simply a matter of turning the particles into balloons, adding wind and selecting a camera angle.

The background is black because I added an alpha channel.  The idea is that I can load it into After Effects and insert a background or other cool stuff.  I've never touched After Effects before, so the idea is daunting, but I'll give it a shot and post the results here.

Cinema 4D

In the time since my last Props post I have converted fully from PC to Mac.  Actually, it's a Hack-a-Mac, but it's virtually the same thing.

That created a bit of a problem.  For 3D purposes I trained myself to use Rhino 3D fairly well.  I liked the program, but there wasn't much support for it out there in the way of tutorials, user community, etc.  Not like with 3DSMax, which has a HUGE user/support base, but is technically kind of a mess.  The problem is that neither of these programs are available for Mac (a problem I've encountered more than once).

So I needed a new Mac-based solution - one with the ease-of-use and intuitive GUI inherent to Rhino as well as the online community of 3DSMax.

Enter Cinema 4D.

I've been playing around with it for about a week now and decided it was time to try my hand at a tutorial.  As easy as the thing is to use, there's still a bit of a learning curve.  So I picked the intro tutorial over at Greyscale Gorilla's site and here are the results:

(click to enlarge)

Basically, it's a 3D render of a bunch of randomized spheres.  I cranked up the anti-aliasing, saved it as a TIF, then ported it over to Photoshop and added a slight vignette and adjusted the curves.  Now that I look at it again I probably saturated it a bit much.  But I never was that good with curves.  Guess I need some practice.

So that's it for now.  I'll continue playing around with this software.  If I come up with anything interesting I'll be sure to post it here.

UPDATE:

The next tutorial was all about Gamma.  The idea is that the default gamma in Cinema 4D is set at 1, but most monitors are set at 2.2.  So you have to adjust your render settings to reflect this.  It all has to do with lighting and falloff, which as a result affects reflection as well.  Take a look:

You can see that it opens up the light quite a bit.  The decreased falloff increases the strength of the light over distance.  It also allows for more realistic color reflection.  Note that the reflected spheres are purple-ish in color. 

Keep in mind that there isn't an actual "light" element in the 3D file.  Everything is reflecting the background sky, which in this case is a simple studio setup with  a couple of kinos opposite each other.

Lazy Mary - Lou Monte

Download

This is a song that plays at work from time to time.  It always seems to put me in a better mood.  And anything that can accomplish that feat in my workplace deserves some appreciation.

Here's a blurb from Wikipedia:

"Lazy Mary," a remake of the traditional Italian song "Luna Mezzo Mare", tells the tale of a conversation between a young woman who wishes to be married, and her mother. The somewhat risque song mixes English and Italian verses. The two use double entendre to compare the occupations with the sexual appetities of the various suitors.

The original folk song has many verses, each presenting a different suitor.  The sexual innuendo is quite vivid - the fireman will hose you down, the butcher gives you his sausage...  You get the idea.   

Dean Martin did a big-band version of the song on an album of Italian love songs.  It's nice, but not as playful and bouncy as this version, which I prefer.  

Check it out in the player above.  If you like it I've provided a download link as well. 

WoW Character

I've gone back to playing World of Warcraft.  I didn't much care for Star Trek Online and onine gaming makes for a nice distraction while waiting on laundry to dry or trying to shift gears when I'm working on an idea.

So I rolled up a Horde character.  He's an Undead Mage named Murglak.  Here's what he looks like:

The helmet he's wearing is pretty cool.  The dish on top rotates and it shoots lightning.  Here are the stats:

• Electromagnetic Gigaflux Reactivator
• Binds when picked up
•  
•  Cloth
• Head 
• 44 Armor
• +15 Intellect
  +12 Spirit
• Durability 50 / 50
• Requires Level 28
• Item Level 37Disenchants into:
  [Large Glowing Shard]: 1
• Use: Channels a bolt of lightning and hurls it towards all enemies in front of the caster causing 147 to 167 Nature damage. The caster is then surrounded by a barrier of electricity for 10 min. (30 Min Cooldown)
• Sell 31 72

Not bad for a level 30.  Here it is in action:

Neat, huh?

Bullitt - Complete Score

How did I go so many years without seeing this movie?  And hearing this awesome score?

I love it when I find a little nugget of treasure like this.  It has existed my entire life and I never once knew about it.  Now I can't get it out of my head.

Lalo Schifrin underscores this film with a nice mix of orchestral jazz and lounge music.  This isn't any of that retro-fusion nonsense.  This is the real thing!  It's all very low-key and sets a nice mood for web surfing or...other pursuits.

The first two tracks are the most memorable in the film.  Track 1 accompanies the bizarre opening titles and track 2 leads into the big car chase.  There is no music for the chase istelf.  Only squealing tires and revving engines.

Lalo Schifrin at his jazziest!  Highly recommended.

http://rapidshare.com/files/383160390/Bullitt_-_Complete_Score.zip

TRON - Complete Score

Another item from the early 80's electronic front is the score to TRON, one the most original films ever created. The composer is Wendy Carlos, who uses almost the exact same set of sounds from A Clockwork Orange, which she composed as Walter Carlos. The effect meshes well with the ethereal landscape presented in the film.  AND it features Journey!

This is the remastered and complete score.

http://rapidshare.com/files/377491581/TRON_Complete_Score.zip

The P-Word

Definition - Something that never comes together.

Origin - After organizing meetings, parties, road trips and movies it became common parlance to say, "Sounds like a plan." Experience taught that if the word "plan" was uttered while planning such an event, the event would simply never take place due to unforeseen circumstances, or in many cases, lack of planning.

Usage - "Sounds like a P-Word."

Source - Unknown