Renderman NUBIAN

Want to know why Papa John's Pizza won gold...

2006-06-23T21:38:00.000-07:00

Check it out, one of the smartest advertising I've ever seen.

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Macro Photographs of Insects

2006-06-23T21:33:00.000-07:00

Nice collection of highly detailed, vivid photographs of a number of cool insects, and a frog.

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The Most Amazing Birdsong Ever (VIDEO)

2006-06-13T20:40:00.000-07:00

The male Lyrebird impresses mates by imitating chainsaws, car alarms, camera shutters, and other sounds of the forest.

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Color Blending Codes

2006-06-11T14:40:00.000-07:00

Different ways to blend colors using code
http://www.pegtop.net/delphi/articles/blendmodes/index.htm

Animator vs Animation

2006-06-06T06:56:00.000-07:00

It's a struggle between a stick figure and his creator, using items on the Flash toolbar!

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Endangered Species photo gallery.

2006-06-04T10:18:00.000-07:00

Here's your chance to see some of the World's endangered animals. Photos and descriptions for all. There are some really neat creatures here.

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Worlds Fastest Growing City (pics)

2006-06-03T18:38:00.000-07:00

In many areas, it is not easy to see Dubai's sky without at least one crane in your view; Industry experts cautiously estimate that 15 to 25 per cent of the world's cranes are in Dubai. Some US$ 90 BILLION are on-going in Dubai alone.

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Build a Trebuchet out of Paperclips

2006-06-02T09:05:00.000-07:00

Build your own 3" trebuchet out of paperclips and throw balls of blu-tac up to an amazing 4 feet.

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Taking photos with a lens made of ice!

2006-06-01T08:44:00.000-07:00

Matthew Wheeler took his first picture through an ice lens in response to a challenge by Scientific American and CBC calling on listeners to light a fire with a lens made entirely of ice. Too easy by far - Matthew took it one step farther and started photographing the natural beauty of his surroundings through the ice lenses he made.

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Mona Lisa made from hundreds of computer parts

2006-05-26T08:24:00.000-07:00

Pretty cool and a longer lifespan than toast.

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A stapler that will NEVER run out of staples!!! (with VIDEO)

2006-05-24T21:13:00.000-07:00

I hate digging in my desk for staples when I run out. This little beauty from Japan would really fix that problem. The way it works is just amazing.

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Flickr group: Soviet Union Propaganda

2006-05-23T09:18:00.000-07:00

an extensive collection (25 pages) of Soviet Union propaganda and advertisement posters from 1917 to 1991. Flickr, once again, turns out to be an interesting resource.

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Racing at 6,786 miles per gallon (w/ pics)

2006-05-23T09:17:00.000-07:00

The winners of the marathon weren\'t the fastest but the most fuel efficient. Teams had to use the least amount of fuel after completing seven laps of the Nogaro Circuit in southwest France. The first 27 teams broke the 1,000-kilometer-per-liter (2,825-mile-per-gallon) barrier, according to officials.

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Family Guy USB Drive

2006-05-21T20:23:00.000-07:00

Inspired by the Homer USB Drive, Kevin recently made his own flash drive mod out of a bobblehead Quagmire. Armed with simply an Xacto knife and a desire to do some cutting, he created the coolest Family Guy toy ever. Check out his site for the howto.

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Soviet Architecture Never Built (awesome photos)

2006-05-21T11:37:00.000-07:00

"Although, ultimately, neither of these projects was realised, the plans submitted by the participants had a noticeable influence on the development of Moscow, and many of the entries have earned a place in this century's repository of project planning."

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M.C. Escher reincarnated

2006-05-21T10:08:00.000-07:00

Some mindblowing art by Rob Gonsalves - mathematician's delight
I would call it.

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INSANE Mosaic! Check this out... crazy.

2006-05-21T09:50:00.000-07:00

This is crazy. It goes on forever... please. I'm begging you. Check it out...

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Stunning Images - Amazing Imagination

2006-05-20T19:24:00.000-07:00

Kuteev (aka Kuteev Designs) shows off some truly amazing images. Enough text, let's look into the mind of an artist, shall we?

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How-To access your PC from school or work with a thumb drive

2006-05-19T13:50:00.000-07:00

A how-to that shows how to use a remote access program called UltraVNC and a USB thumb drive to bypass school and work PC restrictions. Also includes a pre-made portable app. setup for your thumb drive.

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An Arcade Lover's Dream Basement

2006-05-17T08:12:00.000-07:00

This guy transformed his basement into a huge arcade with over 50 games. Including Frogger, Lunar Lander, Pac-man, Space Invaders, Dig Dug, the original Pong, and even complete with change machines. I think anyone would want a basement like this. He's included all the links for where to where he got everything from.

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Great website showcasing visual effects techniques.

2006-05-16T21:10:00.000-07:00

This company has a great website showcasing its effects techniques. Just click on one of the different special effect titles to get a cool example. The Universal Capture effect is interactive!

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Bash Shell Shortcuts

2006-05-16T16:26:00.000-07:00

Bash, which is the default shell in Linux contains a whole lot of key bindings which makes it really easy to use.

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E3 Recap of Spore Information

2006-05-16T08:23:00.000-07:00

E3 was a blur of new information about Spore - but whoâ��s to keep up with it all? Lucky for you I compiled everything I could remember into one huge post here.

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Timeline of the use of CGI in films.

2006-05-16T08:14:00.000-07:00

Pretty cool actually...shows a cool evolution of technology in general, if you think about it.

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Microsoft sets to stop piracy... by sending in a rock!

2006-05-13T21:29:00.000-07:00

[Repost for another attempt to frontpage] Many resellers of Microsoft products have been receiving a special package from Microsoft. But instead of the usual marketing promoting spiel, many of them found a rock inside a nicely sealed package, a symbolism of effects of piracy in business. [pics in link!]

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3D pixels from realtime video

2006-05-13T06:22:00.000-07:00

"MAKE pal Steve sent in this amazing realtime 3D pixel video (and source) for making your own, he writes - "I've been digging into processing the past month or so. I'm starting to assemble my army of programs, but check out a video capture movie of the newest thing I built."

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Slim: Basic Shading template

2006-05-10T09:55:00.000-07:00

To import in console type: slim ReadSlimFile "path/nameOfFile.slim"

slim 1 extensions pixardb {
extensions Sheldon ss {
template shadingmodel Const {

parameter color SurfaceColor {
label "Surface Color"
detail varying
default "0 .25 1"
}

parameter color SurfaceOpacity {
label "Opacity"
detail varying
default "1 1 1"
}

collection shadingmodel shadingmodel {
access output
display hidden

parameter color CI {
detail varying
default "0 .25 1"
access output
}

parameter color OI {
detail varying
default "1 1 1"
access output
}
}

RSLFunction {
void ssConst(color SurfaceColor;
color SurfaceOpacity;
output color CI;
output color OI; )
{
CI = SurfaceOpacity * SurfaceColor;
OI = SurfaceOpacity;
}
}
}
}
}

FedEx flights dodging thunderstorms (radar time-lapse)

2006-05-09T07:22:00.000-07:00

Radar view of FedEx flights dodging thunderstorms that are moving towards Memphis Int'l airport.

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MEL: Maya comand batch

2006-05-07T15:34:00.000-07:00

Command to cache particles via the shell quite cool indeed;

mayabatch -batch -file batchParts.ma -command "dynExport -path \"batchParts\" -f cache -mnf 1 -mxf 48 -oup 0 particleShape1;"

Added mel script:-
{

string $cacheParticle;
string $part[] = `ls -typ "particle" `;
for( $i in $part )
{
string $cmd = "getAttr " + $i + ".isDynamic ";

if ( `eval $cmd` )
{
$cacheParticle += $i + " ";
}
}

eval dynExport -path "batchParts" -f cache -mnf 1 -mxf 48 -oup 0 $cacheParticle;

}

commandLine when using mel script:-
mayabatch -batch -file "batchParts.ma" -script "C:/ParticleEffects/WaterFall/ssParticleBatch.mel"

M. C. Escher's Impossible Drawings become Actual Physical Objects

2006-05-01T06:41:00.000-07:00

It may come as a surprise for some, but many of the so-called 'impossible' drawings of M. C. Escher can be realized as actual physical objects; designed and built using geometric modeling and computer graphics tools

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C++ Reference Website

2006-04-24T12:50:00.000-07:00

C++ Reference website:
C++ Reference

Random Number Generation

2006-04-24T12:33:00.000-07:00

Have you ever used rand() or Math.Random() or System.Random or java.util.Random? You could do a lot better. Did you know that these use one of the slowest and least random algorithms available?

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What Is Good PowerPoint Design (w/pics)

2006-04-24T12:08:00.000-07:00

A great explanation of how to design better PowerPoint presentations that get the point across.

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Maya Api: Extracting attribute from node

2006-04-08T09:43:00.000-07:00

MFnNurbsCurve curveFn( curveObj );

MObject birthVarObj = curveFn.attribute( MString("birthTime") );
MFnNumericAttribute birthVarFn( birthVarObj );

double birthTime;
birthVarFn.getDefault( birthTime );

txt = MString("birthTime ") + birthTime ;
MGlobal::displayInfo(txt);

Maya Api: Converting MString to MObject

2006-04-08T09:19:00.000-07:00

const char *objName = c->GetObjName();
MSelectionList selection;
selection.add( MString( objName ) );

MObject curveObj;
MDagPath dagPath;
MString txt;

if( selection.length() )
selection.getDependNode(0, curveObj );

if( curveObj != MObject::kNullObj )
MFnNurbsCurve( curveObj );

Interesting blog spotted

2005-12-23T18:07:00.000-08:00

I just discovered quite out of accident a nice pixar fan blogger.
Luxor Blog
In there I found a link to this video interview with Rick Sayre where he talks about what it takes to be a td; a good mix of both visual and technical chops. Go to the end of the article to listen to the interview.

Quick Reference

2005-12-22T20:02:00.000-08:00

When I learn a language I don't bother learning every single code and every single function, but rather I try to remeber the style it is written in or the workflow of that language. I have come to realize, as a td knowing every language be it c++, perl, python, tcl, etc, is not possible. So your best bet is understanding the core structure and then going online and searching for how to do certain task on the web.
This is where quick reference sheets come in.... print them and keep them around.
Thanks to google I managed to keep bumping to the same links when I am looking for quick references, so I decide why not simply save google some computational time by listing it on my blog so here you go:-

Here is a link to a regular expressions quick sheet:-
Comes in handy when you want to attach different shaders to many objects in maya based on its name.
Regular Expression Quick Ref

Here are some quick sheet references for python:-
Python Quick Reference 1
Python Quick Reference 2

Here is a quick reference sheet for tcl found at their wiki
TCL Quick Reference 1

I will edit this post and add stuff as I find new reference webpages.

I got the internship!

2005-12-21T17:41:00.000-08:00

So I got the call from HR at Pixar and they confirmed that I got the winter internship at Pixar.
After a really interesting interview, they said they would get back to me and I was a little sad thinking I didn't get it, but lo and behold they called me a few hours later and they said I got the internship.
btw I want to thankyou to pj for the plug on his website..

My First Blog Post

2005-12-17T22:20:00.000-08:00

Well looks like I have just posted my very 1st blog.