Scratch that
iaian7 » blog John Einselen, 22.05.07I should have known better than to be so optimistic. There have been three failed attempts to start the remote render, and just as many trashed FTP transfers. And yes, some of that was user error, thanks for asking. I’ll have it known I dislike Lightwave’s on-and-off support for files outside of the parent directory, and I also dislike folder caching in an FTP client. You update files, then can’t find them.
It’s 6:54 am… the current render hasn’t crashed yet… I’ve started a flat-shade-only backup render here in the studio… and I’m going home now.
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Fernage
iaian7 » blog John Einselen, 22.05.07Gaaah, it’s 6 o’clock in the morning, it’s getting light outside, and I haven’t been home yet. Still at work, waiting on renders and trying to finalize a scene so I can send it off to the render farm. The good news; I think the lighting is getting closer.
Still not really liking it, especially as it must blend with some rather picky greenscreen footage. For now, I think it’ll work… there will be adjustments later anyway, to adapt for the colours and crushes added to the final comp.
Eventually, the ferns will be rigged with full dynamics, and react to wind currents in the shot. I did a proof of concept last month, and it turned out pretty well. A little tweaking, and they should look just as wind tossed as the real thing. But that’ll come with time…
It’s 6:15 now, and security asked me to move my car. I moved it… but the parking lots are all blocked, so they told me to take it to the far parking lot. After this 10 minute journey, I’m back at my desk to finish 5 minutes of work, and then I’m going home.
Watching the sun rise is not all its cracked up to be. Goodnight.
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Sneak preview
iaian7 » blog John Einselen, 13.05.07Things are getting even crazier at work as we have just two weeks left to finish some major projects. I haven’t had much luck keeping the blog updated, but thought I might take a break and post a rough comp of the current matte painting I’m working on.
Using some of the trees I did for a previous matte painting, I forested my naked cliffs the other week. Not surprisingly, that’s when I discovered I could no longer live with only 2.5Gb of RAM, and finally got to upgrade! 
After a break from the environment stuff to deal with the live action greenscreen footage, I’m back working on the clouds, atmosphere, and lighting.
While it might not be all that interesting, I’m trying to document some of the techniques being used in the sequence. One in particular is the Lightwave expressions used to blend between two camera paths; not something I’ve ever had to do before, but the result is great for mixing CG camera animation and 3D track information.
Wow!
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Trailers
iaian7 » blog John Einselen, 27.04.07In 1998 the film Elizabeth garnered the quickly rising australian actress Cate Blanchett a golden globe award and a nomination for the Academy, well before her recognition in The Aviator or her global fame in The Lord of the Rings trilogy. I saw the movie a few years after its release, but unfortunately don’t remember much about it save that Cate Blanchett was wonderfully believable as the pale queen.
The film was not terribly concerned with historical accuracy, and one can safely assume similar liberties have been had with the sequel, but the strengths can live on as well; a general sense of the political climates, and great acting. Elizabeth: The Golden Age is the continuation of the story, and will most assuredly surpass it’s predecessor by the most grandiose of measures. Cate Blanchett, Geoffrey Rush, Clive Owen, and the incredible Samantha Morton all contribute.
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix has released a second trailer online, with far more scenes and characters. Worst Previews also links to quite a few of the behind the scenes clips.
On the foreign and indie scene we have a trailer for Once, the story of an Irish street musician and the woman he falls in love with. In the mystery / con games arena, there’s Fay Grim, being released simultaneously to both theaters and the HDnet Movies channel, a release pattern pioneered, of sorts, by director Steven Soderbergh.
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My weekend
iaian7 » blog John Einselen, 22.04.07Work has been crazy, as any of my friends probably know. Sadly, I can’t really discuss much of it, as things are very much a work in progress. I’ll try to keep you all up to date with what little I can, how’s that?
Saturday we had a shoot for the live action part of a current production. The director was able to get an awesome studio with full crew and great DP, and we shot in HD (1080p) on a sweet camera rig designed by the camera opperater himself. With a large greenscreen and phenomenal makeup artistry by Doug Henderson, needless to say, it was a fun day.
It really felt wonderful to get back into a production environment… I hope to get back to live action effects in the coming months. A lot of my recent projects have been solely CG, and while it’s fun, you just can’t beat the periodic exhausting weekend in a hot studio packed with expensive equipment!
Sunday I slept in. Quite a bit. Seriously, 13 hours of sleep can feel really good. Once I finally got up, I packed a simple picnic and headed off for the Indiana state park in Versailles. I purchased an out-of-state yearly pass, and started the wandering. Sadly, the “lake” and “dam” were hardly more than a pond with a wall at one end, but there were still quite a few people fishing at the bottom of the waterway.
The hiking trails were a bit better, though next time I may drive the extra distance to Clifty Falls, which is far more extensive. I’ve found that being a photographer can sometimes extend certain activities to rather arduous levels. According to the map I hiked about 6 miles, but it took over 4 hours as I had to stop every so often and crawl around in the dirt trying to get a close up of who knows what. I don’t even know if I like the shots very much, it seems I’ve gotten out of practice in the past few years. Hopefully this is something I can do more often through the summer, though perhaps in more northern areas. The unbearable summer heat has already begun in this part of the world!
Be sure to enjoy the parks as much as you can – nothing beats a good summer stroll.
Aw, that bit about summer strolls is just so true. I shore have been enjoyin’ the warm weather with walks to the dam every day. I’m a fixin’ to have a picnic with a brother o’ yours this weekend. I reckon I’ll see you in a couple of fortnights. Do take care, my dear cousin.
Over the years, I have enjoyed hiking in the parks as well as anything. Some have ledges to climb (or view, depending on your energy level), dams to see, gorges to explore, caves to enjoy, wild animals to check out.
A fun day may be Spring Mill Park, which has a lot of all the above.
I recently read an interesting article on Big Bone Lick State Park in Kentucky by Edwin Way Teale.
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House
iaian7 » blog John Einselen, 12.04.07Last year I kept hearing about this show called House and how amazing it was. While I don’t watch many “medical” shows (mainly Scrubs, back from when I was in college), I did eventually check it out. I must say, it’s funny as heck.
The basic premise of any episode goes as follows:
In the first 3 minutes, someone randomly drops comatose; cue the show’s (very nicely designed) intro. In the next ten minutes they set up the soap opera elements for the episode (is personA starting to fall for personB?) and start working on the patient. This must be interspersed with plenty of banter and offensively cynical remarks, along with at least one reference to House’s troubling addiction to painkillers.
At the 24 minute mark they’ve narrowed it down to probable causes and start saving the patient. At 29 minutes they’ve solved the case. At 31 minutes, the patient dies, and they have to resuscitate as the patient nears death’s final door. At 38 minutes House has a brilliant epiphany and saves the day (remember he first killed the patient, but lets ignore that and pretend he’s good at what he does). Then at 41 minutes, we have a random emotional scene to give the audience hope that beneath the caustic exterior, House really does have human feelings, when what he is really, is a very British comedian.
Season three seems to be doing a better job of bucking this template, but mainly by changing the specific times these events occur. Of course, the medicine of many episodes is somewhat suspect… I’ve found it interesting to read episode reviews regarding the medical accuracy, or more commonly, inaccuracy.
I have to say… I’m rather hooked; House has quickly made it’s way to my weekly watch list of shows. Oh, and a fun bit of trivia; in the episode that features Dave Matthews as a savant pianist, Hugh Laughie didn’t use a hand double at all… he’s really that good.
I don’t watch the show, but I heard that there was recently an episode that dealt with abortion in a rather interesting way. Did you see it?Way to go John! And congratulations on finally discovering my favorite show! Am I going to need to bring my seasons one and two up for Christmas this year, or have you checked them out already? 
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Another haircut
iaian7 » blog John Einselen, 1.04.07I’ve cut my own hair for years (usually 3am in the morning when I’m really bored), and figured it was about time to do it again last week. The sides of my head were starting to form weird shapes entirely unto themselves, and I dislike resembling fluffy clown wigs. Alas, starting earlier in the evening was not advantageous and I ended up with a worse-than-usual chop. Generally it’s hard to tell, my hair being so curly, but it was pretty bad.
Bad enough I had to even things up this weekend… I thought the 1” attachment on my hair trimmer would work well for the back (which seemed the most uneven). Well, it did, and since my tragically thinning hair was already about 1” in the front, I decided to cut everything to match.
Then I had to shorten the back a little with the 3/4” attachment so it wouldn’t look so long…
Eeih, I’ll just skip to the finale; the evening ended with a 1/2” attachment,
and I’m down to very little hair.
Cutting hair is akin to carpentry:
“You can always take some more off, but you can’t put any back on.”
It looked fine to me. Of course, I could only see you from across the lake. Its not likely anyone would’ve noticed, but now I MUST SEE...
I think your haircut looks nice. You are so talented, Papa John.
I think it looks fine, too.
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Trailers
iaian7 » blog John Einselen, 24.03.07Stardust has finally released a full length trailer. I can’t remember much of what I read about this movie a few months back, but it struck me as something a little more original than other attempts at modern fairy-telling (the lack luster Brothers Grimm, for one). It will be interesting to see how this one plays out, but so far my hopes are riding high. Penelope also seems highly promising, plus stars the amazing James McAvoy (yeah, he’s Tumnus!).
“A comedy with great taste”, Ratatouille has a new trailer up on the official Disney site! This is one to look forward to; Pixar has yet to release a film that wasn’t brilliantly accomplished. This will be Brad Bird’s second film with the studio (his first being The Incredibles). This trailer grants a much better look into the storyline than previous teasers; brilliant rat, hard working chef, and a restaurant fraught with danger and suspicion. In the hands of Pixar, it’s a winner.
Sunshine (with the chilling Cillian Murphy leading) has released a new trailer. Starting a month or two ago with two trailers kept very minimal, dramatic, and coy, they’ve revealed little bits of drama, action, and mystery in each new release. The third trailer (well, the third one I saw) introduced the 2001-esque vocal computer, a mysterious extra crew member, and some truly harrowing action. This latest addition throws in the possibility of alien life. While certainly not playing out as heady as the beautiful Steven Soderburgh film Solaris, this could still be a deeper than usual SciFi adventure.
Oh, and I suppose I have to mention that Pirates of the Carribean released a full trailer. This time, in english (the russian version was online earlier, but I my russian is rusty and failed to be of any use). Wether you hate the series or not, this film promises action like none other.
Have you seen ‘The Wind that Shakes the Barley’? It looks like an intense performance by Cillian Murphy, though not as sinister as some of his other roles.
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Perilousness
iaian7 » blog John Einselen, 22.03.07Working in the studio after hours can be fraught with unexpected danger. Last night I very nearly fell for a rather humorous prank. Two days ago it started when some of the guys found my nerf gun (6 shooter!) and promptly lost all but two of my foam darts. No problem, I have more packed away, though I think I’ll save the backup ammo for when they believe me to be defenseless…
Anyway, I walked in last night to discover a pile in my chair made up primarily of my blue sweater… and electrical tape. Nestled neatly on the edge of the chair was my gun; securely mounted with half a mile of electrical tape, and rigged with twine running back to the wall. Pulling the chair instantly pulled the trigger and sent a velcro-laced dart singing past my shoulder… I fear I disappointed the devious fiends behind this trap, as they were truly hoping I would fall prey to the fatal blow. Er, foam dart.
Security had even been in on it too, as they had been relaying information on my arrival (I always call security before I come back to work at night) and tipped the culprits off when I walked through the door! How do you know if you’re ever safe?
Well, the gun was quickly repurposed to another desk (wherein it was camouflaged in a stack of papers and aimed to shoot straight through a roll of innocent packing tape) whose occupant would be arriving early the coming morning. This setup was better hidden, and the trigger hooked up to a string tied to the desk’s keyboard drawer. Barring ill tempers, we figured the next nerf gun trap will be linked via fishing line to a chair… they sink quite a bit when you sit down, and the ceiling is all pipes so hiding the projectiles won’t be an issue.
Fun times… man, I can’t image what it’s going to be like in another month when people are really going crazy!
DWhat fun! When the newness of Sami’s wailing slingshot monkey wears off, I’ll have to unpack my nerf gun!
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Website fixed!
iaian7 » blog John Einselen, 21.03.07After weeks of server issues and helpless GoDaddy support calls, Iaian7.com is back online. I must confess; even though there was little reason for suspicion (no coding had been changed before the performance drop), it seems it was a coding problem with my website. I’ve been using a plugin that uses favicons (taken from the website specified when posting a comment) to identify comments with a small image. This seemed to be working quite well for some time, but once you reach 5 or more comments on a single page, it dies… badly. Turns out the plugin author knew about this, and I just missed the announcement.
Thanks to the very helpful Textpattern Forum, I was pointed to a document that details troubleshooting of performance issues. It pretty quickly narrowed the search down to plugins, and I was greatly relieved to find my own were not responsible!
mediaboxAdvanced
The endurance that you and your coworkers have displayed is more than impressive, and quite humbling. Keep hanging on!