Photo Blog - Singapore Cityscapes

Some of my impressions of Singapore:

Esplanade during a rainy day


Esplanade a.ka. dinosaur hide


Victoria Theatre and Victoria Concert Hall


Victoria Concert Hall


Shophouses at Emerald Hill, Orchard


Capitol Building, Stamford Road

(..really need to join some serious photography class soon.. this Nikon D40 affair is getting out of hand.. dang)

My House

3D Post No. 29 - Workstation Cheats

The task was to create a visual of a workstation area ASAP. By our office standards ASAP means NOW. (Like I was some 3D ATM machine..)

So the best I could do was to try and cut down editing and rendering time.

The good thing about workstation areas is that 3d models of furniture are simply merged from existing libraries. You only need to spend time building the perimeter walls, flooring, and ceiling.

As for the lighting - here's my tip: don't waste your time trying to put IES flourescent lights on each and every fixture in the scene. Flourescent-lit interiors are so evenly lit - coves are hardly noticeable. Plus there are very minimal highlights. My approach then is to just place 1 vray light on the ceiling. And the usual blue vray lights on the windows. If you want to add those cove effects then simply put IES cove lights where they are visible.

Next, render in low settings to speed the rendering process up, but use hires (approx. 1800x1200). Then in PS, apply a blurred effect on the ceiling (a new layer) and change that layer's blending mode to screen. It should cover most of those artifacts as a result of the low render settings.

Approximate time to complete this scene was around 1 hour, from start to finish. I reckon no faking-radiosity-scanline render (including editing and lighting setup) can beat that. Not at that lighting quality at least. Unless of course you are Montree.

Random Shots

Experimenting..

My New Nikon D40

Just got this recently.. I reckoned it was time for my Holga to get a digital partner..

Check out the review here.

Ruffa Fuffa

..and so apparently, Ruffa Gutierrez and her husband Ylmaz Vektas are on the verge of divorce. In an exclusive interview by "The Buzz" with Ylmaz, when asked to comment about Ruffa, he said, to effect, that she was a "traitor, like Brutus". When Ruffa was asked to comment on that statement, she replied - "Brutus? I'm more like Olive Oyl".

Er..

She could be right. Maybe Olive Oyl was the one who assassinated Julius Caesar. Hmm.. but I thought it was a guy so, perhaps it was Popeye.

Movie Review: The Host

It's Godzilla meets Little Miss Sunshine, King Kong meets The Flintstones. For monster lovers, this is one movie you shouldn't miss.. You can bet that Hollywood will do a remake of this, rake in bigger bucks while compromising the quality of the original (Remember "The Ring", "Infernal Affairs / The Departed" and "Godzilla" [i preferred Godzilla with the big tummy and zippers]). So before that happens watch the original :D





While googling The Host pics, I came across this image.. pretty neat :D

Will try to scout for a hires version. This should make a good wallpaper.

Mental Ray

Just a piece of my mind today - I've met a few 3D folks and they say Mental ray for 3dsmax 9.0 is faster than Vray 1.5c..

I want to learn it!

3D Post No. 28 - The Last Project

..from my last company in Manila before moving to Singapore. This was a massive reclamation project in China, it required a lot of design inputs (conceptually) from the 3D team. The designer just provided us with the masterplan and zoning, the rest of the details (architectural and extra-architectural) were a result of the team's creative (ahem) prowess. It pays to play RPGs such as Sim City back then, as long as you can construct a 3D primitive, all it takes is a neat architectural diploma (or perhaps none at all) to come up with our own building designs. Sometimes it helps that you aren't an architect at all, your mind is free from the boundaries of architectural conventions. Not that the concepts done here were spectacular at all, but with what i witnessed from the non-archi members of my team, they could eat the other mediocre architects alive.

The final rendering and details though were enhanced by whoever was left of that company, I just got involved in the early stages of this zone-the massing and general heights of the structures. I probably did only 30% of this bit, and there were 4 zones more! It was cool to see the unfinished completed - with a bang. Those guys are quite good.. at least I left the company in good hands. :D

3D Post No. 27 - Porsche Again -

Yeah it's Por-sche again.. Though this time I'm doing an animation. And I came up with this for the intro sequence:


First I took a 911 model and created a moving vehicle sequence, rendered in Vray and a little toon effect and some posterization, blurs etc etc - I wanted to achieve an anime look.

As the camera moves towards the front of the 911 the logo is isolated and then a little camera rotation, this sequence ends with the Porsche emblem plus the Porsche logo.

The rest of the walkthru is in scanline though..

3D Post No. 26 - Neo Classical Interiors Revisited

Hell.. It's about Time!!!

3D Post No. 25 - Interior Shots

Back on track - the 3D track that is. There are some uncommon elements incorporated in these 3d renders by the designer.. :p She added -

1. Horns

2. Shark teeth

3. Tribal Necklaces and Goat's Hair Hide

4. Cow Hide

[Thanks to Jucaro for some of the models. :)]

3D Post No. 24

Something's cooking..:P

Aqua Teen Hunger Force Colon Movie Film For Theaters

some movie..:p

DVD Review: Sneakers (1992)

"I really enjoyed sleeping with all you guys."

Redford. Poitier. Strathairn. Aykroyd. Phoenix (River, not Joaquin). McDonnell. Kingsley. What do you call this? A REAL dreamcast. That should be six reasons enough to enjoy this sleek and smart comedy caper.

Sneakers disguised as a techno thriller. Only, unlike movies which rely heavily on the technology ("Hackers", for example, was celebrating the advent of the 56kbps modem era. duh.), Sneakers reveals itself as an intelligent, engaging film with its unexpected twists and turns.

This movie is one great fun. Yeah!

Movie Review: Some Kind of Monster (2004)

This movie is a not your average rockumentary.

This is Metallica's story after their bassist for 15 years, Jason Newsted, left the band + the making of their chart topping (yet lowest selling) record (St. Anger) + James Hetfield's (lead man) rehabilitation for too much alcohol + the band member's egos which is all that's left of them + the finding of their new bassist Robert Trujillo.

Rottentomatoes gave it an 86% rating. What's not to like.. the lives of the band members are so engrossing, a bunch of egomaniacs and "refreshingly human".. well I've known that for eons already cos I WAS a fan. In fact I thought they were the biggest thing in music. The most radical, talented group ever. I remember banging my head to "Master of Puppets" and "Ride the Lightning" for years.. every single day listening to their records, stomping my feet mimicking Lars' "For Whom the Bell Tolls" while taking the FX ride from my house to work.. The thing is, no matter what they are, in the end it's their music that speaks the loudest. Literally and whatever-ly. Not their egos or their humanity. Just their MUSIC. Music that they did before half of that Black album came out.

I just felt sad for the guys though. They simply have lost their magic. When they released their Black album which ironically was their highest selling record ever, that to me was the start of their downfall. Their songs became too lame and too commercialized, James started to ACTUALLY sing and squeal when he used to have the grunt, Lars wanted to sound like Linkin Park, and the once essential Kirk decided to abandon his guitar solos.

And they cut their hair and started wearing Armani. WTF??

It didn't help that Lars rejected the advent of the MP3 era (which U2 embraced, and thereby making them my new favorites). I think if Cliff was alive he would've kicked their asses. Good thing Jason got out of the group. I wouldn't be surprised if Robert (the new bassist) left as well.

What Metallica doesnt realize is.. if they just continued what they did when they still mattered, they would definitely still rock. They never needed to change. They already shook the music industry with their own brand of metal. And I would still be a loyal fan. But.. I never thought I'd see the day when I would miss an album from them, and I did. I didn't buy St. Anger.

To the newbie, if you would like to watch a Metallivideo, might as well check out "Cliff 'em All". The best rockumentary ever. \m/

Metallica. Some Kind of Monster? More like Godzilla, the Japanese version. Pretty old and worn out.

3D Post No. 23 - Vray Toon

Didn't know Vray Toon came with the SDK package, i thought it was some separate plugin that functions the way the ink and paint material does in the default 3ds max settings.

Anyhow, got a chance to experiment with it, quite easy to use really. Just go to the environment settings in max and voila

The settings are pretty self explanatory.

So i experimented with one of my old stuff and here's how it came out:

Pretty neat. :) Reminds me of those old architectural rendering styles that we used to mimic in college.

Now here is something interesting -

We did a project in which the designer specifically wanted this effect, more of selling the concept rather than trying to do a photoreal, accurate rendering. In the course of developing the render, I always use a sampling of -1, 0 and super low settings (like .1 for my global subdivision multiplier) in my drafts. The designer surprisingly liked the effect (they sort of looked like brush - stroked filtered in photoshop) and the rawness of the image, that the final resolution was rendered using the draft settings. :)

Viva Vray Toon..

3D Post No. 22 - ..And Yet Another Porsche Showroom (aka Return to Scanline)

Just when I thought I've had enough, here comes another Porsche showroom.. Ech

The only challenging part in this project was setting up those standard lights. A pain in the fingers.. too many clicks..

3D Post No. 21 - Daylight Test.. Again

Here's another experiment in daylighting.. with a lomo effect and unreduced noise. A residential unit with a very small space.

3D Post No. 20 - Bedroom Night Render

This is the base render for the night scene. The previous one was post processed.

3D Post No. 19 - Bedroom - Day and Night

Day and Night Scenes - experimenting with different light conditions.