SmakStudios.com

Beer Bottle Musical Instrument

admin — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 18:28:58 +0000

Really cool musical beer bottles.

Original Source
http://likecool.com/Beer_BottleMusical_Instrument–Design–Gear.html

The Wilderness Downtown- and what it means for HTML5

admin — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 15:28:13 +0000

http://www.thewildernessdowntown.com/

This online video has been gaining a lot of attention since it was released yesterday. It utilizes google maps along with html5 compositing to put trees into your childhood suburban neighborhood, and create an eerie user experience that really meshes the songs content to your hometown.

Aside from loving Arcade Fire and they’re new album “The Suburbs” I really enjoyed this Chrome Experiment. I’ve been keeping my eye on Mr.Doob for about a year now, and have been loving all the new HTML5 experiments he puts onto his blog. But I’m still not sold on HTML5.

http://mrdoob.com/projects/multiuserpad/

The concept of HTML5 is good, that an open source format without restrictions can work on any browser, any platform, and not require a lot of additional content to be downloaded, and for objects to be tagged and trigger videos, or photos through those tags. The problem I’m finding is that a lot of HTML5 doesn’t even work on an iPad or iPhone. Even though Mr. Jobs is putting his foot down, and trying to kill flash. It still seems to run better than HTML5, and work on more platforms, and browsers.

http://www.craftymind.com/factory/html5video/CanvasVideo.html

I’m not saying HTML5 won’t be the successor one day. But it’s going to be a while yet. That being said, when it does fully arrive and is supported by all browsers, and platforms. How are users going to prevent pop-ups if they have so much versatility now. Think of pop-up ads and banners with HTML5, as “The Wilderness Downtown” illustrates, pop up windows can move around. There was even an HTML5 example of pop-ups playing ping pong.

http://stewdio.org/pong

As cool as this is, I’ve been victim to pop-ups before, especially in Internet Explorer Days. Just wondering how the users of the future will be able to prevent this intelligent pop-ups? Is the catch that HTML5 can’t have commercial pop-ups? Or will it get even more aggressive, and the user experience of web browsing diminish? Or am I getting too paranoid? Guess we’ll have to wait and see.

http://mrdoob.com/projects/chromeexperiments/depth_of_field/

Claritin Grass Hill Tests

admin — Thu, 26 Aug 2010 22:53:13 +0000

I have been working with grassy hills for a while for the SmakStudios.com website. After the package was redesigned I tried to merge the two scenes as a test. Video renders to come.

The ground texture is using an image of grass, and the same bump map to match that. This Render had too large of a bump, and not enough repetition of the texture on the plane surface.

Better render. I just had to make light sources for the hills in the back.

A Frustrating Expandable

admin — Wed, 25 Aug 2010 03:01:22 +0000

I previously had a post about a concept expandable, and I found this example to illustrate what I meant by one that distracts navigation, and creates frustration toward a brand instead of actually making the user feel comfortable.

Trident Splash – Concept Interactive Banner Motion Boards

admin — Tue, 24 Aug 2010 15:21:20 +0000

I’ve been working on a side project using MOGRAPH 2 to have objects fly in from outside of the web browser screen and land into a banner at the head of the page. The thing I’m trying to do differently is have the motion fly behind the page content. I’ve found it really annoying and frustrating when there is an expandable or rich media that is being intrusive and hard to close, when all you want to see is the latest news or content of a page. I will be finishing off the renders in the next couple of weeks, and should have an online version for people to try out. Enjoy the boards for now.

B2Pro Briese Modified HMI 2.5k

admin — Tue, 24 Aug 2010 14:43:44 +0000

While visiting New York in July, the guys at B2Pro New York were kind enough to have me into their space and check out they’re incredible set of lights and parabolic reflectors. I was dying to see the lights and the throw of the light and how it wrapped around the face and objects. Unfortunately I was shooting with a point and shoot camera so the quality sucks, but the quality and durability of these lights is hard to compare to.

B2Pro has modded the lights for the production environment, so it’s great for location, and studio.

The only thing I found is that you need a joy box for lights over 2.5k, and the HMI’s have a low buzz to them not uncommon with that form of light. So your audio guy should be aware of that ahead of time. The tungsten versions have a fan that can also be quite hard for audio, but B2pro has a remote to turn it off for when a take is happening.

Can’t get enough of these lights, beautiful quality of light just like a Elinchrom. Will be really interested to see what B2Pro and RED have up their sleeve. Definitely will change the still/motion shooter market. If your trying to be a still/motion shooter I highly suggest working with these lights.

-Scott

RED MX and Visual FX – a Case Study

admin — Tue, 17 Aug 2010 05:05:10 +0000

Utilizing the RED ONE with MX along with a 35mm Cooke iLens I was able to shoot and matchmove footage and then import it into Cinema 4d. In a few blog posts there will be some more renders, and beauty renders.

“Grey” ARRI ALEXA and Apple Color – Case Study

admin — Tue, 17 Aug 2010 03:44:18 +0000

“Grey “1080p

A hitman at the end of his rope, Grey lives the only way he knows how – by the gun.

Cast

Grey – Drew Zeran

Crew

Writer l Director: Andre Rehal
Cinematographer: Michael R. Brazeau
Editor: Drew Stevenson
Sound: Nadia Awad
Colour Correction l VFX: Scott McIntyre
1st AC: Cameron Stoltz

Tech Specs

Camera – ARRI ALEXA
Lensing – Cooke S4’s
ASA – 800 (interiors), 1600 (night exteriors)
Gamma – Log C
Edit – FCP
Grading – Apple Color

Links

andrerehal.com
michaelbrazeau.tumblr.com
drewstevenson.tumblr.com
smakstudios.com
arridigital.com/alexa
cookeoptics.com/
simvideo.com/

Website Progress Update: Composited Renders

admin — Mon, 09 Aug 2010 19:32:56 +0000

So these are rough comps of what the site will look like. The backplate is the master before color correction. This will be used as the matchmoving plate, that the hill scene and inside studios will be composited into. Right now the studio scene is not part of the hills due to render issues. Enjoy.

Did I mention the backplate was shot on RED MX?

Website Update – A Few Renders Before Compositing

admin — Tue, 03 Aug 2010 20:28:29 +0000

Front Lobby

Think Room / Server/ Online Suite

Production Studio

Studio Side Ciew

Online Suite / Mid-Render