March - Week 3

So this has been an incredibly busy week.  The news of a baby on the way has definitely taken front row to everything else in my mind... including homework.  I think the Lord is doing some pretty awesome work in showing us that He is going to provide for us through this and in growing a heart in me to be a more selfless man, even if that means spending a bit less time on school and a bit more time prepping for a new baby.  Everyday I feel like He's showing me what an awesome wife I have.  I have to say, I love the transition.

With that said, however, I'm loving class this month.  I've had a chance this past week to learn some new compositing software called "Nuke".  Without getting overly complicated, Nuke is a software that is used to combine one or more images/videos to give the illusion of a single shot.  It's been used on movies like "Avatar" and "Where the Wild Things Are" for previsualizations and panoramic composites.   

This week we were tasked with taking multiple shots and combining them into a 2 second animation.  The two shots above were modeled in Maya and then composited in Nuke for the video. The compression seems a bit rough on the video here so it may be a bit grainy and it's super short so you may have to try and watch it a few times.

More to come next week.  To my family: I love you guys... see you next month!   and to my wife: you're amazing, ... oh, and your nose whistle is cute.  I Love you.

March - Week 2

So, I have to say that this is my favorite project so far.  We have an awesome God, and I'm in awe that I get to go through this with such an incredible wife. I'm speechless...  

March - Week 1

So this month starts off my first look at compositing images together at school.  "Compositing" is really just kind of a fancy way of saying "cut and paste", but I want to dazzle you guys so I'll stick to huge, four-syllable words.

So far it seems like the workload is going to be a bit light.  Week one had us going through some exercises to get everyone familiar with Photoshop.  It has actually been a lot of fun, and because I'm lucky enough to already have quite a bit of experience with Photoshop the course has helped to refine some skills.

The first project was to take a picture and try to re-create it using the paint tools in Photoshop.  Nothing too spectacular but a good warm-up exercise.  In the end it came out looking a bit cartoony but, like I said, it was more of a warm-up exercise.

 Our second project was a bit more fun.  The idea was to take two images and turn them into one automobile add.  My wife and I recently traded in my truck for a tree hugging Prius in an effort to become granola eating, Berkley hippies, so it seemed obvious which car to pick.

For any fellow nerds out there that are interested, this was all done in Photoshop using masks to isolate the car, blend modes and burns to create the shadow, curve corrections and add noise to blend the car, slight lens blur on the background, lens flare for lighting effects, and a gradient adjustment layer to even out highlights, midtones, and shadows.  Oh yeah, and a bit of razzle dazzle..  

Looking forward to next week...

My March

So this is, officially, my first blog post.  The name of my blog should no doubt give away the fact that I have had good intentions for about six months but have taken my sweet time getting around to it.  Just want to take a minute and show my family what it is I work on every month at school.  I love and miss you guys.  Enjoy.