2013...blog revisited

It's been  about 4 years now since I've written...

...and am still at this -- pursuing this "Art." Of course, there weren't all easy days, but I couldn't back down just easily. So much I have lost, besides time - and certainly, there's that silver lining.

For sure, one thing I have learned -- what goes around, comes around. Though many instances apply to this saying with relevance in the course of my journey, I would rather mention the good ones.

Back in 2008, I had to leave the fellas at Lights&Shadows - the company which kinda jump-started my career in this 3d/CGi. It was all good when we parted ways, and I had as well developed a certain friendship with them beyond just work. And so, as I had left, I went about doing other stuff...thru ups and downs...and eventually setting-up Lucid Render. 

Lucid Render (or simply Lucid), is my first venture - of a "hobby" turned full-time job. It's tough. And being solo on it, does takes its toll and tires me. The joy of doing things for myself and yet the stress of "surviving" can be daunting at times..to the point of giving up...

...to cut the story short, I couldn't focus much on the "way I want Lucid to be"; and I have in a way missed the interaction with other artists. And destiny leads me, I end up back with Lights & Shadows.

...I come back, better, bolder,...a tad bit wiser perhaps. BUT in having still in mind - I could still be much better...

there's just to much to do, to work on..and yet to achieve.

Some of the latest stuff I have done

For Print

Yes, it's been awhile since the last posting here. I've decided to revamp the site, and get something out there - yes, something that can be felt and held in ones hands. For starters, I've already set to print some selected works that were done this year.

Badly Taken Photo

It's been ages since I've posted something here. Well, it's been a hectic year atwork, and some of my stuff seemed so 'typical'

It's kinda ironic, Photographers would at some instances remove "nuisances" and imperfections in their photos, while CG Artists would do otherwise.

Well, I'd also like to share a breakdown of this image. After some scrutiny, one can see the "mis-matches" ...taking away the magic. lol. Oh well...but my intent is to share some of techniques used herein.

This was actually post-processed from an earlier project. My intent was to turn an already rendered & post-processed perspective to a "photo-real" image. When I color-graded the CGi, it still just didn't look "correct". I gradually searched for images to cut-&-paste. So basically, these photo elements, (some of which were actually nice taken), was then adjusted to make it look "badly taken" as well. Once all elements were framed and in place, an overall color adjustment was done. Working on 2K resactually...then re-sized as such.

Summary of techniques that i used:

- slightly tilted horizon

- lens blurring

- lens correction + color fringing (to simulate camera aberration)

- color desaturation, with reference to other point-n-shoot digital photos that were "badly exposed"

- motion blurring (very slight)

- "familiar" composition -- typical to those street photographs at the corners

; somewhat breaking the rule's of composition which some random laymen wouldn't be aware of when taking photos.

Sun...down

Another Street Cam

Same project mentioned in the previous post. A different view, treated with a different tone.

And the elements breakdown

Here Comes The Sun

Presenting...a project I've been working on, somewhere in a small town (downtown) Sunnyvale, California. This was rather a huge undertaking in a span of almost 3 months. The model itself composed of nearly detailed buildings in 6 blocks, altogether with animated cars and people. It's great that the team managed to pull-thru. The project required creating Animation sequences and some still perspectives. Some of which can be seen here.

If there's one part about this project, that I'd like to touch on later - it would be procedural mapping. This project had a dozen textures and maps, which was rather overwhelming. So I figured, to cut-down on it and make it 'easier' by using procedural texture mapping. Anyway, I'll write more about it in detail in my later posts. Here's a 'snapshot' along a streetview for now.

Above is a view I composed myself,
all in 3D with some Photoshop enhancement.