Luminar Testing and leaving instagram

I went out and picked up the newest version of the x100, the x100 v the other day and just started doing some testing comparing it to the original. Right off the bat, the sharpness of the lens is so much better it’s kinda shocking. Also, with the camera I got a free version of Luminar and I am pretty surprised with that as well. Does a lot of interesting one-click solutions that don’t seem to straight-up break the images. It’s a bit chewy, but I’m hitting it pretty hard with some bad exposures and getting decent enough results for the average consumer.

At some point, I wanna write something up about me leaving instagram, but I just don’t have the focus or mental fortitude to dig up all the links on the evil crap Facebook is pulling. Suffice to say that they are stealing all your biometrics, actively promoting Trump in has tags over Biden and straight-up promoting Conservative views. That’s just for starters and all from the past month. Yeah, no shit. So they can eat a bag, I’m done. Need to just put something on there to explain it and point to the blog. Instagone.

Mazanita Landscape

Just tinkering around a bit with a landscape study done in Manzanita, Or.

Moon Hooch!

Kinda feel like everyone could use a little Moon Hooch in their life right now. And it’s Friday so Fuck It.

Landscape and a shift in direction.

i have been working mostly in Houdini and Redshift for a good bit of time but I started to feel that it’s just a bit too much for what I want to do. It’s taking a sledge hammer to kill a fly. I really enjoyed the challenge of it and all the stuff there is to learn but at the end of the day, was I making what I wanted to make? I kinda realized that, nope, I wasn’t. So with that in mind I decided to go back to playing around with Cinema 4d and Octane for a change of pace. It’s kinda silly how much easier stuff is to do. So here was something I was working on yesterday.

Yachats, Oregon.

Went out to Yachats, Oregon for some much needed decompression time a little bit ago and here are some snaps from my phone that I took while wandering around. Really beautiful place.

!!!!!DoomScrolling!!!!!

Turns out this is a real thing and just not me losing my shit. But I can say that since last Friday I stopped taking in any news, no devices are allowed in the bedroom, and I am severely limiting my internet time. It’s a harder habit to break then stopping smoking for me. It’s kinda insane. Anyways, here the article.

“So many of us do it: You get into bed, turn off the lights, and look at your phone to check Twitter one more time.

You see that coronavirus infections are up. Maybe your kids can't go back to school. The economy is cratering.

Still, you incessantly scroll though bottomless doom-and-gloom news for hours as you sink into a pool of despair.

This self-destructive behavior has become so common that a new word for it has entered our lexicon: "doomscrolling."

The recent onslaught of dystopian stories related to the coronavirus pandemic, combined with stay-at-home orders, have enabled our penchant for binging on bad news. But the habit is eroding our mental health, experts say.”


Abstract study

Was messing around with flip sims and impossible camera settings and came up with this piece that I quite enjoy.

Virtual Happy Hour Round-up.

Good old fashioned break down of some things discussed in our virtual happy hour.

Here is the full video that John Oliver used at the closing of his show. He ends with the last minute or so.

Here is something a bit more entertaining. The Queen is Not Amused tumblr page.

Behind the Bastards podcast. The one on Elon Musk is what I listened to first. Joe will probably love this.

FCC approves 100% foreign ownership of US broadcast stations. Why, hello Sputnik News!

Here is the DC Bishop’s response to Trumps stupid photo op.

Here is a cop beating up a cameraman that has Australia wants investigated. Second view from a different angle at 1:25.

Lastly, a link for Mark. I looked up screen sharing on the PS4 and it’s something we can do now. Never did it, but could be fun to have a beer and try it out one night.

https://www.playstation.com/en-gb/get-help/help-library/apps---features/playstation-apps---features/share-play-on-ps4-and-how-it-works/

Team Deakins

Holy crap, just stumbled onto a podcast done by Roger Freaking Deakins.

“Team Deakins podcast is a conversation between acclaimed cinematographer Roger Deakins and his collaborator, James Deakins. We start from a submitted question and end .... who knows where! We are joined on some episodes by friends and colleagues. Matt Wyman, friend and aspiring cinematographer, has been invaluable in working on this podcast series with us and joins in with some really good questions!”

Redshift Matrix study

Just wanted to mess a bit with Redshift in C4d and see how it’s behaving now a days. Used the RS Matrix to clone these out and the viewport was nice and snappy without any issues. Slightly burnt out on Housini ATM. Just kinda fired in general, but I don’t seem to have the brain power to dig into it. So, C4d it was today.

Some reflections on the protests.

May you live in interesting times, I believe the saying goes? Here is a round up of some videos that hopefully will put some of this in perspective for people out there.

Trevor Noah.

Killer Mike in Atlanta.

New Such Luck Video

Such Luck posted a new animation they created. Great stuff!

I do wish they would up their blogging game though….

Russian Espionage and Electromagnetic Fields: The Story of the Theremin

Fun write up on the history of the inventor of the Theremin, Lev Sergeyevich Termen.

“While living in America, the gap between Theremin’s two lives grew more dramatic. While he cavorted in New York with the likes of Albert Einstein, taught the theremin virtuoso Clara Rockmore and entered into a controversial marriage with the African-American prima ballerina Lavinia Williams, his espionage mission continued. This double life wouldn’t last long. The lead-up to World War II made Theremin increasingly nervous that his activities would be discovered, and in September of 1938 he fled the USA without even informing his wife of his planned departure.”

“Though the theremin’s influence continued to grow in the US, it had no effect on the life of its creator, who after his return to the USSR was caught up in Stalin’s purges and sent to a Siberian gulag. Theremin was lucky – unlike the millions who died in these labor camps, he was released after three months, as the Soviet war effort ramped up and the government realized they might actually need some of the scientists they’d banished. So officials rounded up Theremin and others and sent them to a sharashka, a prison where scientists from a variety of fields were forced to invent and research for the Soviet regime.”

Abstract render from photo I took.

Today’s little doodle I call “Drifted”. When I go to the coast I really enjoy taking abstract pictures of all the drift wood on the beach. I took this images and brought it into CG with some interesting results.

Off the Coast

Working more with BG plates today. I’ll call this one, “Off the Coast”. Used a photo I took this past summer.

Background plate study

Kinda had an idea to start doing my abstracts in environments so today I wanted to play with getting BG plates to work with the renders. Not sure if smoke helps or hurts though….

POPnet study

Just a doodle messing with a POPnet in Houdini.

No safe way for singers to rehearse together ...

Wow, this is pretty gnarly….

“On May 5th, an expert panel assembled by the National Association of Teachers of Singing (NATS), the American Choral Directors Association (ACDA), Chorus America, the Barbershop Harmony Society, and the Performing Arts Medical Association (PAMA) laid out a sobering vision for the future of public singing in America. The primary goal of the panel, according to NATS Executive Director Dr. Allen Henderson, was "to bring scientists and medical professionals directly to our audience, as those of us who run professional organizations do not have the direct knowledge ourselves of these complex issues."

In a presentation that sent shockwaves through the singing community, Dr. Lucinda Halstead, the president of the Performing Arts Medical Association and the Medical Director of the Department of Otolaryngology at the University of South Carolina, concluded that there is no safe way for singers to rehearse together until there is a COVID-19 vaccine and a 95% effective treatment in place, in her estimates at least 18-24 months away.”