Ideas for Tutorials

Here's a list of tutorials that people have expressed interest in through my various videos on YouTube.  I don't want to do tutorials of things that you can do much better in following someone else's instructions, so that really narrows the list. :)

Lately though, I've had the oppourtunity to figure out solutions to my own problems, so there are a few possible tutorials from my recent videos that I can do that might help some people. (I know, it's all Tron).

-Tron Lightcycle - Light Streak
-Tron Lightcycle - 3D Compositing from Cinema 4D into After Effects
-Tron Intro - Texturing a City
-Tron Redemption - Texturing a 3D human model and import character rig from Daz Studio.

If you have happened to have seen some of my latest vides, what would you like to see explained?

Site change

It took a while to figure out what I really wanted this blog to be.  In the past, it's been a conglomerate of things I am working on and struggling with, sometimes a little too indepth and personal.  But from now on it's going to change.  Now this blog is all about things I am working on, passions, cool technology, and tutorials.

Yes, you heard right, tutorials.  I don't know if they are going to be recorded or text with pictures, but that's what I am going to start trying to include on my blog.

I'm hoping to turn this site into a destination for valuable information and insight into my journey in this digital realm.

A Choice

This past week I forced myself to choose between two projects because I just didn't have enough time to work on both side projects as well as important stuff like client videos and personal life time.  I chose to drop my involvement in the Star Wars vs. Halo cinematics because I didn't feel that it would have challenged me as much as the Tron film will.

I put together a sample video of the kinds of things I had been working on for the Tron film.  My first time using animation exports from Daz Studio, as well as a new lightcycle which you can't really see in this promo.  I also put together a pretty decently textured disc wars arena, in which I used to animate some characters.



I tried making my own character animations from video, but I am just not ready for that.  I desperately need a motion capture solution really badly.  I'm thinking about trying to employ a multi camera tracker solution since I have two decent cameras, but they are totally different from each other.  One shoots 30fps 720p, while the other shoots 60i 1080p.

First Paid Project

I got an email yesterday morning, someone had filled out and submitted (for the first time ever) my request form on my website asking if I would be interested in a paid project designing a 1 minute trailer for an MMA event in Antwerp Belgium.

Needless to say that I am ecstatic to finally be involved in my first paid project.  So far, it is going very well, he was very satisfied with the first preview video I sent him last night and there are only a few changes that I need to make for the next preview.

My first concern with the project was being able to provide test and preview videos, but protect them so that he couldn't just take them and run.  I ended up creating a watermark over the video so that he couldn't use it somewhere else without copyright liability.

As I get closer to finishing the project I am wondering how to go about payment and providing the final product.  I do have a PayPal account, so he should be able to provide payment easily there, the problem is when do I provide the final product, before or after payment?  Maybe half before, half after?  I am a little worried about this, I'm sure he won't feel comfortable paying before receiving, and I won't feel comfortable providing the product before payment.

It's quite a conundrum!