Peter J. B. Lewis' Braindump

I’ve discovered the joys of CSS lately, so the site has been revamped slightly. I can’t seem be able to think of any kind of colour-scheme except ones that consist of varying shades of blue. Any tips would be gladly taken on board.

Going back to Bournemouth on Sunday after a long and relaxing holiday. This is probably the first time I haven’t done any work since my A-levels (ha!). I’ve forced myself to have a proper holiday so I can go back to University and regurgitate all my pent-up code onto a keyboard.

In the meantime I have been writing a small story, which isn’t so small any more. If any of you are interested in fantasy fiction (I hate that expression, but I can’t think of any other phrase to describe it) then check out the Prologue. Please ignore the disgusting and blatant use of CSS hacks, but do check out my HTML formatter script. I’m rather pleased with it.

I hope you all had a nice holiday!

Since I last posted I have been busy with my work at Bournemouth University. Until recently I didn’t have any set work to do, so I persued studies of my own and also some with my new colleagues João Montenegro and Johannes Saam. (On a side note, there are some photos further down the page.)

So far I have made a mostly-complete Maya to RenderMan converter which produces some cool output straight from Maya to RIB. Also João, Johannes and I have had many discussions on things like fast fluid systems and fast sub-surface scattering, though once I had my exporter to write I tended to only chip in my two-pence now and again. After we went over the theories they generally went off and actually did while I beavered away at the aforementioned exporter.

Some of the stuff that myself, João and Johannes have been working on:

There’s more stuff from João and Johannes.

These are some shots of the exporter’s capabilities:

Early days yet…

I know a Maya to RIB exporter doesn’t sound like much fun, but I can say that I know an awful lot more about RenderMan and Maya than I would have done if I hadn’t done it. I also know how much of a pain in the arse heirarchical subdivision meshes are. Ha.

I’ve also done a bit of Maya. I’m not great at it, and my first (and currently last) still work looks like this, but for a first attempt I don’t think it’s too bad. I’ve gone a bit nuts with the depth-of-field on it though. In addition, I’ve also had to create a very small animation. It’s not great, but please go easy on me: I’ve never done this before!

Finally, I think I may have thought of a decent Master’s project. I was thinking about a graphical front-end to RenderMan, including an OpenGL pre-vis, shader editing, importing from both Maya and XSI, etc. OK, this isn’t groundbreaking stuff, but it does help me get a job in the following ways:

• It demonstrates that I know RenderMan,
• It shows that I know Maya and XSI,
• It shows that I can make tools.

The ground-breaking rendering stuff I hope to do as part of my group project in any case. Or maybe just in my spare time. Who knows. I’m still not 100% set on the idea, but I am definitely more enthused about it than I am about any of my other ideas. Just… so much OpenGL… ugh…

Johannes (fore) and João (back).

Me (left) and João (right).

Gerard.

From left to right: Matt Osbond (right at the back), Ben, Gerard, Myself, João.

From left to right: Mya, Anil, Jed, unknown (back), Hasan (fore), unknown, Matt Osbond (back), Ben (fore).

Gollum guards our projector.

I wanted to mention that a friend of mine, Daniel Wright, has written an API for using a Wii Remote – or Wiimote, or whatever – on the PC using a Bluetooth dongle. He has named it WiiAction, but I don’t know if there’s a website for it yet. I will hassle him for one. This library is, frankly, totally awesome. Here he is on video to tell us all about it:

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.

Since I decided to turn to computer graphics in film instead of games, many people have asked me, “what exactly does a Technical Director do?”. Conveniently I have come across this description given by Industrial Light & Magic which was referenced from an interview with Beth Sasseen on ILMFan.com.

The original document details all the positions that are available at ILM and is certainly enlightening. ILM also recommends applicable books and even a list of schools and colleges, including Bournemouth University (though it’s listed as Bournemouth Polytechnic).

TECHNICAL DIRECTOR

Division: Industrial Light & Magic, Computer Graphics Department

Duties: Technical Directors (TD) work with direction from the Visual Effects Supervisors and CG Supervisors to create the look of computer generated objects and scenes. They are responsible for lighting, shading, rendering, some compositing and for creating the motion dynamics and look of simulated effects such as water, smoke, fire and hair. TDs work with other artists such as Character Animator, Rotoscope Artists and Compositors to bring the shot together. They must be familiar with the ILM render pipeline and be technically adept to identify and debug any problems.

How to prepare yourself/what we look for: Technical Directors typically combine strong computer programming abilities with visual arts skills. Qualified candidates have a Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science or Computer Graphics with at least 2-3 years production experience. A strong working knowledge of UNIX, C programming and shell scripting is necessary as well as knowledge of Maya, Renderman or proprietary high-end software packages. To gain the necessary production experience people typically begin as Computer Graphics Technical Assistants, eventually moving into an Assistant Technical Director before becoming a TD. Other ways to prepare yourself for this role include working on live action/CG integration project, spending time learning how to install CG characters into a plate, light it and applying shadows.

In the aforementioned interview, Beth had some interesting ideas on what should be in an applicant T.D.’s demo reel, which is invaluable information. I’ve decided to copy it out here for those who don’t want to go go trawling through the whole interview:

The role of the technical director is the finished look of a shot where CG elements have been integrated into a live-action plate. Given that is their mission, it would be great to see the entirety of the process: background plate, cg element that’s going to be integrated into the scene, other elements that will give it its sense of realism (explosions or whatever), subtle lighting and shadowing, realistic textures, etc. The finished look is what we’re looking for. Are the light sources natural to the surroundings or do we look at it and say “Oh, that looks CG.” Does it look as though the model is standing in the middle of a stadium where the lights are on for a night game, not allowing the subtleties of the shadows in the scene? Things like that. It’s always great to see the “before and after.”

Also, speaking of Bournemouth, I’m heading over there on Sunday. I’m living in halls for the first time ever (Cranborne House) though I have no idea what floor/room yet. I guess I’ll find out on the day. I’m split between anxious and excited, which seem to cancel out so in the end I don’t really feel anything.

I’m worried that I can’t seem to come up a good idea for my thesis. I have a few half-formed ideas floating around my head but nothing solid. I guess it’s because I’m not sure what the industry needs yet, or what’s possible in the time-frame… I suspect something will come to me while I’m there, but I want some back up ideas just in case.

Links: Industrial Light & Magic, Original Document, ILMFan, Beth Sasseen Interview.

My interview went… rather unexpectedly. It was very informal, so I felt rather awkward in my suit and tie. However, awkwardness aside I got a place and I’ll be off to start the course in October. 8 weeks and 2 days to go.

I’ve been sifting through the work that students have done at the NCCA and it really is impressive (You should check out the Top 20!). I shall link to a few websites of the some of the students on the Top 20 that I’ve stumbled across (I can’t remember how): Matt Birkett-Smith, Matt Ovens, Daniel Lim and Ben Jones. I hope a few of these people are progressing to Masters level, as it would be nice to meet some talented individuals who know the ins and out of the University. According to Jon Macey, the MSc course leader, only two artists are progressing to masters level from the BA.

This whole summer has been one long Wait. Waiting for results, waiting for jobs, waiting for Bournemouth to interview me. Now I’m waiting to hear from Bournemouth Accomodation services and waiting for information on my scholarship application. But October will bring an end to this monotonous holiday.

However, it’s my birthday on Saturday: One blip of sound in the otherwise silent sea of events.

Edit #1: Now you can actually see the links. Hoorah!

Edit #2: This whole Bournemouth thing, while exciting, is proving to be very expensive. I had to pay a £250 deposit to get on the course, the fees are £5,300, the rent is close to £4,000 and today I was disgusted to see that I need to pay a further £350 to get a place to live. So… I am most displeased. Hopefully this will be worth it in the end…

:(

Here we are in August, at last. I know it’s just after the middle of the year, but it always seemed like the middle to me… August brings days on the beach, occasional rain, lazing about in shorts, many birthdays (including my own, huzzah!) and a middle-mark to this enourmous haitus from Education. Unfortunately August also brings heat, and the heat brings with it sleeplessness, so here I am writing this at 4:30 am. I hate night-time, yet lately I have been squandering my day-time.

Below (link) I mentioned that I would be writing my reference for Bournemouth University. This is all done now and is, in fact, the main reason for this update: I have been invited for an interview there on Tuesday, so I’m hoping that goes well. Naturally I will post up here what happened for the small collective of people that read this.

On a related note, I am pretty annoyed (read: disgusted) with Teesside University right now. Before I continue, I must say that their facilities are brilliant, their lecturing staff for games programming excellent (with a few exceptions), and overall I loved every minute I was there. Yes, even despite Middlesbrough. However, what they excel in is let down by their totally rubbish administration. Not only did they forget my payment details for my rent (resulting in much financial aggravation which is still haunting me), but they refused to disclose my results (so I received them late), and I hadn’t heard anything about my Masters application for nearly two months. About a week ago I received an application pack for Masters through the post! Evidently they lost my application. However, no more than 20 minutes later I found out from a friend that they’d contacted him and told him all Masters were cancelled. Amazing. Absolutely amazing.

The power of semi-paralysed monkeys with calculators and typewriters will never cease to amaze me. They can send out application forms and use telephones. Shocking.

This is sad news in a way, though. Admittedly after the discovery that Bournemouth was a possibility, I had decided that it would be a better place to go. The reasoning behind this was simple: it offers the better course and that’s all that matters. Also, there was only a small chance that the one at Teesside would be running, so in the end I simply resigned myself to the fact that I will never go back to study at Teesside again. After all the mess I’ve been through with them lately, there was a time when I was overjoyed about this, but it’s really kicking in now that I will miss my friends and our escapades in Mordor Middlesbrough. Before I knew that I was choosing not to go back, but now that choice has been taken away. It sounds silly, I know, but there’s a small yet crucial difference.

Oh well… Always look forwards, I guess! Onwards, to Bournemouth! Arrr.

I got my results yesterday! I’m very, very happy. I got a First class with Honours, but also I got one hundred percent in my raytracing module. Holy. Crap. I’ll have to update my C.V. and also write my personal statement for Bournemouth today.

The toolbox has grown a bit. It’s now able to do HTTP content serving: screenshots and videos are here. The video’s quite big so I apologise for that.

Fear my elite After Effects “mad-skills”.