Peter Lewis’ Portfolio

After seeing a colleagues path tracer I decided last night to have a crack at it myself. Unfortunately I’ve (deliberately*) lost my copy of Max, so I couldn’t set up any decent shots with all the effects that I would like. Expect images of effects such as caustics later, but in the meantime here’s path tracing with IBL:

Click for larger version (720×576)

The JPEG compression has mucked about with that image a bit, annoyingly. More coming as soon as I find my copy of Max and also when stuff finishes rendering. Path tracing is soooooo sloooooooow.

* I hate Max. I never expected to ever need to use it again.

It’s been a very interesting week so far. I have spent the last three days pretty much living in the computer labs. It’s so great to be able to talk to people who are interested in the same areas that I am. I’ve got to know a few of my classmates, and it’s good fun to have lengthy discussions about how crap photon mapping is, and how awesome Film A was compared to Film B. The course is all very relaxed, and still retains a professional and encouraging atmosphere. Hooray for Bournemouth! The first week of term is currently a big success

I have put up the reports for the Tong Ray-tracer and my final dissertation. It appears that more people look at this site than I thought, so I thought I’d put something up to keep people entertained… if you’re into that kind of thing.

Oh, and I’m really hating Visual Studio right now. It never does what I want, and what I want is generally very simple and I can’t see why there would be a problem. Currently it’s decided that it can’t find a library that I moved months ago (and have therefore updated the project settings to point to the new location), but it complains it can’t find the old one. I’ve searched the .vcproj and .sln for a mention of it and it’s not there. Microsoft: your IDE is definitely the best one ever made, but I’ll stick to gedit and a terminal thanks. They do what I say.

Eventually, anyway.

According to Jon Macey - our course leader for the MSc in Bournemouth - there is a Masters Degree show for last year’s Masters graduates being held by both the Moving Picture Company (MPC) and Framestore CFC on Friday. The details this show are thus:

NCCA - Bournemouth University
MSc Computer Animation, MA3D Computer Animation,
MA Digital Effects, Masters By Project in Computer Animation
Degree Show 2006

Friday 6th October
12.00 midday ~ 5.30pm

The Moving Picture Company (MSc Computer Animation MA Digital Effects)
127 Wardour Street, London W1F 0NL

Framestore CFC (MA 3D Computer Animation, Masters by Project)
19-23 Wells Street London W1T 3PQ.

The National Centre for Computer Animation will be staging its annual postgraduate degree show for 2006 at two venues this year; both within 5 minutes walk of each other, and we would be delighted if you could make it along for the show.

Featuring the work of over 50 graduating students, productions will be played back on a loop throughout the afternoon in the screening theatre. Refreshments will be available in the adjoining bar area and you will also have an opportunity to meet with NCCA staff and the graduating students whose work is on display. DVD copies of the show reel will be provided along with booklets containing the contact details for our most recent cohort of graduates.

My first week has been … odd. I’m currently back in Portsmouth for a few days to collect my bike and use the internet as my internet in Bournemouth hasn’t been enabled yet. My first day was so boring it nearly drove me to madness as I was on my own in the flat. Since people have now finished moving in over the course of the week, I feel a lot more secure about my sanity. Though, saying that, I am living with five girls.

I haven’t met many people from my course yet, but tomorrow a gathering is being held which should rectify this. I have met Gerard Keating, who used to work at Double Negative as a colour runner, and also Fraser MacLean, who used to work at Disney and was also a lecture at Aberdeen or Dundee… maybe both. My memory is quite bad.

Other than the usual moving house, meeting people, and exploring this week has been rather unremarkable. I’ll post up more news when I eventually get the internet sorted out.

Links: the Moving Picture Company, Framestore CFC, NCCA Forum thread, Double Negative.