I cannot recommend watching this video highly enough. Seriously. It’s great.

Please watch it.

So, I’ve started yet another little blog to talk about classes and projects. This time it is much more in-depth with a look at the basics behind rendering theory with a bent towards raytracing. Many of you may know the majority of what I do is real-time rendering. This blog will talk a lot more about raytracing and theory with less tinkering around with video cards and the specifics of hardware features. Hopefully you guys are interested in these topics.

The blog is a simple blogger account set up for this project. I’ll post updates here when I post something interesting there. Today’s topic is just about setting up the raytracing system with a good post about anti-aliasing, super-sampling, and a tricky technique I used to get some extra quality with decent performance.

Link: Pixolater blog

I have been waiting to post something on JUICE that has really grabbed me. This did just that. Simply amazing. It’s actually kind of trippy and almost makes you hear english for the first time. If nothing else, it gives you a new perspective on our language.

An Italian singer wrote this song with gibberish to sound like English. If you’ve ever wondered what other people think Americans sound like, this is it.

Thanks to my friend Nikki for the link.

Writer Evan Ratliff Tried to Vanish: Here’s What Happened

I read this story today and had to share. Very interesting stuff if you have the time to read it.

As my career has progressed, I find myself venturing back to the lands of lake effects in Western New York. That’s right, I’m going to be in Rochester for the majority of the month of January shooting a feature film. Perhaps this is a stupid decision considering the amount of exterior shoot dates scheduled but perhaps a bold one as well, considering this will be the first feature I will be a First Assistant Director.

The film is called Second-Story Man and is directed by Neal Dhand and produced by Discreet Charm Productions. It will be shooting 1/4/10 – 1/23/10. I’ll be up a little before and a bit afterward, so the opportunities to see me during shooting periods may be slim, but I’ll be certain there will be opportunities at some point.

Can’t wait for the cold gray!

Picked up a PS3 and Little Big Planet last weekend. Been rocking out pretty hard to the soundtrack, specifically this guy. The beginning picks up in a way that I hope makes you happy:

It’s a movie done by the guy behind Wonder Showzen and Xavier: Renegade Angel, so if you’re familiar with those shows, you’ll know what to expect.

The story behind the film is as follows…

“‘Final Flesh’ is a feature film produced in four parts: the script written by Vernon Chatman was divided up and submitted to four unique film production companies that work exclusively in the field of customized adult content. The companies’ shared charter is to produce a film that explores the writer’s chosen fetish – and with this in mind, Vernon wrote with demented determination, in order to push the definition of fetish into the realm of the cosmically absurd. Then he sat back to see what his charges would deliver. The resulting film is an epic narrative for our time. ‘Final Flesh’ is a surreal, apocalyptic ‘My Dinner With Andre’ – in other words, existential, sublime and ridiculous, featuring unmistakeably porno production values and shudderingly unseasoned porno actors and actresses – but no actual sex.”

The trailer below is arguably SFW, yet really bizarre.

I’ve always wanted a garden, but my lack of usable land kind of gets in the way.  I stumbled on the Square Foot Gardening technique a few months back, and that’s when I got excited.  I waited until a more manageable season to start, which, ironically, is the winter here in PHX.

The gist of the technique is to divide a small area into individual square foot sections, and within each “square,” you grow one crop.  Depending on the size of the crop, you can fit 1, 4, 9, or even 16 plants per square.  This allows you to squeeze an abnormal amount of plants in a very tight space.  It also lends itself very well to succession planting, which is much more useful for a normal person (unless you like the idea of 8 heads of lettuce maturing at the same time).

In the upper left square, I’ve planted some swiss chard.  It’s a 4 per square plant, so I’ve elected to hold off on some and only planted 2 so far.  Lower left will be some lettuce (4 per square, same deal as the chard), and upper right will be spinach (9 per square).  I’m saving the lower right for more lettuce, which I’ll plant in about 4 weeks.

I’m excited about some fresh lettuce, so hopefully it’ll go well, and I’ve got some pretty ambitious plans for spring/summer (corn and sunflowers!).

I’ll keep y’all updated.

I thought this was pretty incredible.

The guy on the bike is great.