Dancing With The Sunset

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You don’t need to be traveling to see great scenes unfold.

On my commute home one evening, I spotted Kara on the rings at the beach in Santa Monica. She wore a blue skirt and tube top as she floated in the air above the still warm sand. As she danced with the sun her hair could not keep up with the rest of her angelic body. Her body twisted and turned as the sun sank into the horizon. I found myself lost in her moves as I rode by on my bicycle. When I passed the angle where the sun was directly behind her I slammed on my brakes and skidded to a stop. I realized I had to capture the moment. Luckily I had caught her in her first run on the rings not knowing she would do a second run. This was shot with my iPhone with no zoom. I now keep my camera with me while I ride around on my bike.

Kara, thank you for doing what you do. Keep rocking the rings.

Howto: Export Vray for 3DS Max scene to Vray for Maya scene.

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This post is a bit more technical, and I’ll be scattering a few more in amongst my travel blog. I tend to try and automate my work life as much as possible, and this is a glimpse of what that is like. Hopefully this will help others since I couldn’t find a solution for this problem myself.

I’ve been playing around with Chaos Software’s Vray in Autodesk Maya lately and I really like it. We used it on Tron:Legacy at Digital Domain and it was amazing. I wanted to be an architect when I was younger and used 3D Studio Max in the late 90′s. I did a lot of cad work with Autocad and Intergraph, but 3D Studio Max was the first software I lit with. Boy did it blow my mind. I had designed a chair in a product design class out of a single sheet of 4′x8′ plywood, but I wanted to see it before I built it. Enter the world of lighting and texturing…

Fast forward many years…

I prefer Maya for many reasons, but mostly it’s because I learned it while working at Industrial Light and Magic on Lawrence Kasdan’s Dreamcatcher. We created a sprite system for the snow with some Mel scripting, a 3d snowflake, and compositing plugin that would read a particle file.


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Dissapearing Acts…

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Its been a while since I’ve posted, so I thought I’d provide a quick update. Where have I disappeared to? Well, frankly I got sucked into “Tron: Legacy” for 2 years.

Tron: Legacy Trailer

Then I had a dash of “Fast Five” and heap of “X-Men: First Class”

Fast Five Trailer

X-Men: First Class Trailer

After all that? Now what? Well, I’ll be directing a feature titled “Saint Ruby” this fall, and am developing a feature called “The Ranch”… more on those projects to come!

Burn On The Bayou now available on DVD!!

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I’m very proud to announce that a film that I edited and co-produced is now available for sale! From the Burning Man email newsletter:

Burning Man is proud and honored to share the story of the origin of Burners Without Borders – what is now a social phenomenon for Burners around the globe has its roots in 2005, when a group of Burner volunteers headed for the Gulf Coast to lend a hand after Hurricane
Katrina.

While many wonderful documentaries have tried to tell the story of Burning Man the event, this film is a rare look at Burning Man the cultural philosophy, and how the experience of Black Rock City inspired participants to give passionately of themselves in the wake of a devastating natural disaster.

“Burn on the Bayou” is a story that’s meant to be shared: if you’ve been before and had trouble explaining to family or friends that Burning Man is more than just an event, this film provides a fine example…or if you’re coming for the first time, it’ll lend depth to your understanding of the culture you’re about to experience. Check it out and let us know what you think.

Available now on the Burning Man Marketplace at:

http://marketplace.burningman.com/