Stretchy Squares
June 6th, 2009Interconnect the Dots
June 3rd, 2009
The Boy with the Incredible Brain
June 2nd, 2009
I strung together into the playlist above parts one through five of the documentary “The Boy with the Incredible Brain” about Daniel Tammet, a high-functioning autistic savant and author of the book I just started reading called Embracing the Wide Sky.
Tight Rope Walking
June 2nd, 2009
Neurofeedback Update 5/30/2009
May 30th, 2009Today I had my fifteenth neurofeedback session at CSLC. I’ve noticed some positive changes in my mental disposition since I started, which I think warrant a blog post. So here’s a brief overview of how things are going.
For the first thirteen sessions, I trained on the frontal lobe, trying to inhibit theta and alpha frequencies and bring up beta frequencies (for an explanation of the different brain wave frequencies, see this wikipedia entry). At first, I didn’t really notice any immediate changes in my mental state. But as the sessions continued, I started to notice some changes that, at first, were difficult to describe. As the changes became more pronounced, I was able to identify the shift as an increase in clearheaded-ness. By that I mean my thought process became more coherent and organized. Understanding my surroundings and determining an appropriate response became more effortless. Focusing on the task at hand became slightly easier. Problem solving became slightly easier. It was a subtle shift, but still significant.
Today, I completed my second session working on the back of the temporal lobe of the left hemisphere, trying to inhibit delta, alpha, and hibeta frequencies. Two sessions is not a lot, but I’ve already noticed how it is starting to affect my mental state. If training the frontal lobe promotes clearheaded-ness, then I think training the temporal lobe promotes levelheaded-ness. By levelheaded-ness I mean a state of mind where the stress of everyday life doesn’t have as much sway over how you feel or think. If things don’t turn out the way you wanted them to, you don’t get too bent out of shape about it. It’s easier to accept things, good or bad, and still have a positive outlook. Shit happens, but life goes on. Perhaps a better word for it is equanimity. Since I’ve only just started training on this region, the shift has been very subtle, and I have yet to see how it plays out in the long run. But it has been noticeable.
Overall, I’ve been quite pleased with how this neurofeedback thing is going. I’ve also been reading some books about neurofeedback and the brain in general to help me understand how this all works, which has been a rewarding endeavor in itself. I recommend Mind Wide Open by Steven Johnson as a good, entertaining intro to neuroscience. A Symphony in the Brain by Jim Robbins is a good intro to neurofeedback and it’s history. I’m currently reading A User’s Guide to the Brain by John J. Ratey, which has some interesting stuff in it.
I’ll continue to write neurofeedback updates as I go. I’ve also got some other brain related stuff I’d like to blog about, but I’ll save that for a later date.
Update 5/13/2009
May 13th, 2009It’s been a while since my last update. School has been going well. I’ve started working on a few side projects in addition to my schoolwork. One is an effect for a film student’s film, the other is a short film of my own. I won’t reveal too much about my short film, except that it involves platonic solids and a giant brain. It’s only in the planning phase right now. I’m drawing out storyboards and such. I haven’t started animating yet, but I’ve got the workflow process more or less planned out. I’ll be doing most of the actual animation in 3D using Autodesk Softimage, then I’ll render out that version of the film and rotoscope each frame by hand in Photoshop and After Effects using my drawing tablet to give it the hand drawn look. I’ve begun playing around with this process doing very simple tests to see how well it works, and the results have been pleasing.
Speaking of brains, I’ve been going to a neurofeedback clinic for the past month or so, learning how to control my brainwaves. It’s been a really positive experience so far. This technology is pretty powerful and I suspect it will become much more common in the years to come. Since I’ve started, I’ve noticed that my thinking has become clearer and more coherent. Organizing my thoughts has become less strenuous. I recommend it highly to anyone who has any interest in such things.
Week 6 in Review
February 12th, 2009Monday:
Class: Practical & Digital
Presented my clip from Eternal Sunshine and my explanation of how it was done. My analysis was correct except for the fact that I didn’t guess that they used a motion control (moco) camera. I would post the clip, but I can’t find it on YouTube or anywhere else. Assignment for next week: Create a storyboard for the clip.
Class: Animation 1.
Made a bouncing ball in XSI using the curve editor.
Tuesday:
Class: Story Process 1. New teacher this week, same teacher from my storytelling strategies class. I like having two story classes, one with all animation students and one with film, game, and audio also. The two classes cover different stuff, so it hasn’t been redundant yet. We explored the free screenwriting software Celtx. Assignment for next week: Start writing a screenplay using Celtx.
Class: Lighting & Texturing.
Practiced lighting a scene. Introduced to 3 point lighting. Assignment for next week: Light another scene.
Class: Storytelling Strategies.
Turned in our first draft of our childhood story assignment.
Wednesday:
Class: Modeling 1.
Worked with subdivision surfaces in Maya, which was really confusing. Then covered textures a bit. Assignment for next week: Keep working on hand model, but in polygons, not subdivs. Also look for tutorials on the web.
Class: Oral Communication for Media Arts.
Discussion about what makes a good speech. Watched speeches from Hitler and Obama. Assignment for next week: Come up with ideas for our informative speech.
Class: VFX & Compositing.
Worked with instancing vs. duplicating, and other techniques to reduce the number of polygons in a scene to speed up rendering. Assignment for next week: Take more pictures of environments to place CG objects in.
Thursday:
Class: History of Computer Graphics.
Watched some videos from the Computer History Museum.
Assignment: Watch this video
…and continue reading Droid Maker.
Class: Storytelling Strategies.
Got into groups, read our stories, and gave each other feedback. Looked at this article and talked about structure. Assignment: Final draft of childhood story. Eavesdrop on conversations and record a few pages of dialogue. Turn in brainstorm binder and observation notebook.
Friday:
No class.
Ira Glass on Storytelling
February 9th, 2009
These videos were listed in the syllabus for my storytelling class as suggested viewing. They’re great vids, so I’m posting them here. Ira Glass does NPR’s “This American Life”, which is an awesome show.
Week 5 in review
February 6th, 2009Monday:
Class: Practical & Digital
New group of students this week. Things have been moved around a bit. Lecture on VFX stuff. Assignment for next week: Write a paper about a specific visual effect in a movie and how I think they did it. For this assignment, I’ve chosen a scene from Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind where Jim Carrey gets out of his car and runs toward the other end of the street only to find himself back at his car. He looks back and the street has been turned around, so he runs back only to find himself at his car again.
Class: Animation 1.
Missed this class because of doctors appointment. Assignment for next week is to work on the logo animation from previous class as much as possible.
Tuesday:
Class: Story Process 1. Talked about why Delgo was so lame, both story-wise and animation-wise. Lecture on character animation. Looked at the 11 Second Club.
Class: Lighting & Texturing.
HDR compositing, making 3D objects match the lighting of a photo, and appear to exist inside the photo. Projecting photographs onto objects as textures. Assignment: Take pictures of buildings to project onto 3D models.
Class: Storytelling Strategies.
Everyone brought in an object that had personal significance and told the story behind the object, which rolled into a discussion about the role that objects play in stories.
Wednesday:
Class: Modeling 1.
Played with blinn and lambert shaders in Maya.
Class: Oral Communication for Media Arts.
Everyone gave speeches, which were filmed and commented on. We got into groups and began brainstorming for our group pitch.
Class: VFX & Compositing.
Played around in Photoshop and XSI, adding CG objects into photos.
Thursday:
Class: History of Computer Graphics.
Watched a scene from Star Trek 2, created in 1982 by the CG people at ILM who later became Pixar.
Also watched some SIGGRAPH demonstrations from 2000. Important person to remember: Paul Debevec.
Class: Storytelling Strategies.
Broke into groups and created 3 story ideas, each one based on a predetermined object (dress, pen, old book). Each story had to have 3 acts: beginning, middle, end. We then shared our ideas and discussed how the ideas could be developed further.
Friday:
No class.
Week in Review
January 30th, 2009Monday:
Class: Practical & Digital. Learned about filming with miniatures.
Miniatures Tutorial from BandDfilms on Vimeo.
Class: Animation 1. Came up with a concept and storyboard for a flying logo animation for fictional company “Firestorm Entertainment.”
Tuesday:
Class: Story Process 1. Lecture on the importance of story in animation and visual effects, watched Joseph Campbel interview.
Class: Lighting & Texturing. Introduced to XSI’s Render Tree. Lecture on difference between real life lighting and CG lighting.
Class: Storytelling Strategies. CLOSATS (Character, Location, Object, Situation, Action, Theme, Sound).
Wednesday:
Class: Modeling 1. Turned in directors chair. Began working on modeling curtains and a stage.
Class: Oral Communication for Media Arts. Talked about public speaking. Students gave introductions and spoke in front of the class.
Class: VFX & Compositing. Worked on UFO thing with spherical projection. Learned what “Final Gathering” means.
Thursday:
Class: History of Computer Graphics. CG Historical Timeline. Watched “The Drifter” and learned about the special effects in that film. Watched a report on Ivan Sutherland’s Sketchpad from 1961.
Watched Ralph Baer and Bill Harrison play Pong in 1969.
Watched new fluid simulations.
SPH – I see waves from Thiago Costa on Vimeo.
Class: Storytelling Strategies. Turned in one page biography of fictional character based on a real person. Talked about characters. Watched Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog.
Friday:
Class: Jumpstart Speaker Series. Flashpoint CEO Howard Tullman spoke on entrepreneurship, what it takes to succeed as an entrepreneur.
