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Casablanca Coloured

It’s done…

I tried to make Ingrid’s makeup highlights match her lipstick colour. Also her earring reflects the deep sapphire i gave her eyes. Humphrey got himself a tanner skin tone and deep amber eyes. His hair is also a tad lighter than Ingrid’s. I darkened their eyebrows for contrast, dappled the hairlines and removed a huge swath of blown highlights from his jacket (the original was a high-key image).

Tell me what you think!

Gary :: Nov.23.2007 :: General, w00t!, CG :: 5 Comments »

Puffy

A few days back, for some reason (don’t ask) I ended up shooting directly into the sun with my polarizer on… ending up with a bunch of *very* washed out shots.

On a lark, I threw one of them into Photoshop and pp-ed the hell out of it - the result of which you see here.

Don’t view full. The noise will kill you.

Original after the break:
Continue Reading »

Gary :: Sep.18.2007 :: A thousand words, General, All the news that's fit to print, w00t!, CG, Photography :: No Comments »

Bright sunshiny morning to everyone!

Today, we’re going to learn to sing the happiest song in the world. That song is the Locoroco theme song, and I believe everyone should listen to it at least once a day for maximum mental wellbeing.

Blue zap button plays the song, thumbnail goes to official lyrics, and a convenient sing-along video is included below.

Happy fun times for all!

Gary :: Dec.02.2006 :: A thousand words, Entertainment, Music, Games, w00t!, CG :: 2 Comments »

You know, I’ve always wondered (seriously) who does the artwork for the Hed Kandi albums. A bit of Googling led me to Vault 49, a design firm based in New York, which seems to specialize in the wonderfully detailed, free-flowing vector/typography art found on the album covers. Not only that, they count among their clients the likes of Artful Dodger, Levi’s, GQ Magazine, MTV (no surprises here), Nike, Microsoft, Intel, VH1 Soul, Honda and Cingular. Oh, and Greenpeace too.

Their themes range from simple and elegant to downright dirty and industrial, but are altogether beautiful. Check them out here… you can even buy a print or two.

Gary :: Nov.26.2006 :: A thousand words, 1337, w00t!, CG :: 1 Comment »

I finally got around to re-installing Steam on my machine, and my goodness, I never expected to find active and populated TFC servers up and running in this day and age! Anyway, now downloading the client… will give it a whirl later. Good ol’ days.

Here’s some shots of HL2: The Lost Coast running on full (DX 9 codepath, might I add).. Note the “glare”, or “bloom” - or whatever you want to call it - from the hardware-based HDRI. Yummy. What’s next? Hardware GI solutions?

Gary :: Oct.12.2006 :: Entertainment, Games, 1337, Tech, w00t!, CG :: 1 Comment »

I pre-emptively postfixed my previous graphics card entry with a “Part I” because I didn’t expect everyone to be convinced by the Hitman screenshots, especially as the differences were very minor. Well, here’s two shots of what my BF2 looked like before and after the upgrade:


BF2 running on old settings.

ta-da.

To be frank, my old card could produce a similar rendering, albeit at 5 fps, and we’re talking about 800 x 600 here. The new one does it at 1024 x 768, smooth as butter.

Alex, please tell me you can spot the difference…

Gary :: Oct.02.2006 :: Games, Tech, w00t!, CG :: 5 Comments »

I promised to post back with more, so here’s more.

Upgrading from a GeForce FX 5900 (ripoff card which does not fully support the DX 9 codepath, at least in HL2) to a mid-range GeForce 7600 GT makes me warm and happy in special places. Here’s the lowdown:

There are many more numbers involved in a full comparison, for example memory bus size, in which I actually downgraded, but I’m happy enough. The new card has taken me from this:

This = okay, but not pretty.

To this:

This = THE WORKS.

…which mayn’t seem like much to the unaccustomed eye - but a world of difference to someone who knows what to watch out for. Check out the self-shadowing on the face, the house in the background, the colour of the kerb, the soft shadow on the ground, and the total absense of that horrid, unnatural reddish cast over everything. If more contrast is needed, perhaps consider the ugliness that is the lowest graphical setting:

This = OMGWTFBBQ.

A world of difference, indeed.

Gary :: Sep.25.2006 :: Games, Tech, w00t!, CG :: 5 Comments »

Here’s an amazing gallery of vector illustrations.

Gary :: Jul.30.2006 :: A thousand words, 1337, Tech, w00t!, CG :: 1 Comment »

You know them: Flickr, del.icio.us, digg, gliffy, YouTube, etc… So-called “Web 2.0″ sites, which harness the power of the masses to offer up everything from online productivity apps to photo albums..?

Someone was dreamy enough to wonder: what if famous logos were redone in the distinct 2D-with-colour-gradient style that for some reason seems very popular in the Web 2.0 world? Well, the folks over at yayhooray seem to have the answer. The submission thread currently stands at 22 pages long, and contains dozens of “what-if” entries, including some I particularly like (especially the Nike one!). If you have time to spare, I’d recommend that you have a look-see too…

Linky.

Alex! Sounds like fun for you and your mad Flash skillz.

UPDATE: Some of the logos can be found on flickr.

Gary :: Jul.26.2006 :: A thousand words, 1337, Tech, CG :: No Comments »

One of my mini-projects due as part of my ANI 240 course. Done simply to show that you understand the concepts taught.

This one uses GI, Final Gather, HDRI and caustics.

Gary :: Apr.04.2006 :: Tech, All the news that's fit to print, CG :: 2 Comments »