A Liquid State

Hey guys! Welcome back for another blog post! Sorry I missed last Friday's post. I completely lost track of the days of the week! I did a little traveling at the beginning of last week, so my Monday and Tuesday were actually Thursday and Friday. Oops. But while I was traveling I had the opportunity to look into Shopify from a designers perspective.

Shopify, in case you haven't heard of it is an online store host. If you've got a product to sell, you can sell it with Shopify. For instance I could have a CGWise store where I sell shirts and posters... That's not a bad idea actually... Anyway, they provide the platform for stores to have an online presence. They also provide tools to run your business and customize your store website. And all of this is done through a browser in an online user interface. Many customizations and tools are available for sale through their site, and some of them are free. In fact, you could actually run your store completely having paid no more than the very small cost of the Shopify subscription.

Every store uses what's called a Theme. Some of these are basic (like the default free one), and some are more elaborate. For me, it's Themes that make the experience interesting. It's the graphical representation of your store online. Or more accurately, it is the representation of your users experience, and your own, when using your store. And Themes are completely customizable, from basic editing of existing elements to the more advanced editing of code. Every Theme's code is open for you to explore and customize. Or, you can even make your own.

I see this customization option with some irony though. I have always kept computer programming as a hobby, to the point where I actively made the choice not to do it professionally. I had a hard time finishing projects, as I tended to get over involved in the graphical side of things. Having made that observation, I'm steering myself toward a graphical job. Now, as I sit here actively pursuing graphic design I find myself diving back in to the programming world. You see, the customization of Shopify's Themes is done with a scripting language.

Scripting languages can seem daunting, in fact some are almost as daunting as programming languages. But in the case of Shopify's scripting language called Liquid, it seems to fit quite nicely along side HTML. HTML, if you don't know is pretty much the basis of most of the webpages in existence. It's something that I played around with back in the 90's, but HTML itself has gone through a lot of changes. Coding in Liquid is like taking simple pieces of programmers code and putting it inside HTML. And it provides some pretty awesome results.

For me, Liquid is a synergy of graphics, user interface, and programming. It seems very natural. I'm quite looking forward to getting in to it. Shopify makes that easy to do too. Just sign up for a free developers account and you'll find there is a ton of material free for you to view and educate yourself. If you don't actually want to work from within the Shopify environment, they've open sourced Liquid, which means that it's freely available for anyone to use however they see fit.

All in all it seems that I am embracing all of my skills on my journey in graphic design. I think that's the way it should be.

--Charlie Griffin

Stick with me, and we'll get wise together. 
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Lord of the Flowers

Stranger on a Train

SIGGRAPH 2017

Hey guys! Welcome back for another blog post! SIGGRAPH 2017 was about two weeks ago now, and anybody who's anybody in the CG world is abuzz online and offline talking about it. I was unable to go, but I hope someday I'll get the chance. In the meantime, I can catch up via the Internet.

First, a quick refresher. What is SIGGRAPH? SIGGRAPH is a conference devoted to the exploration and endorsement of new technologies in the computer graphics industry. The name stands for Special Interest Group for Computer GRAPHics and Interactive Techniques. The conference itself is run by a group called ACM SIGGRAPH. This year the event was hosted in L.A. from July 30th to August 3rd. Next year's is planned a little closer to home in Vancouver. If you're wanting to go, mark your calendars for August 12th to the 16th.

With that little bit of information, it's easy to say "Oh, that's neat." And keep moving on. But you don't want to overlook this conference. It's the biggest deal there is in the world of CG. This year more than 16,000 people attended (according to Wikipedia), and you can bet that out of those 16,000 you would have found the industry's leaders. And only some of them were at booths or giving talks.

Blender was there giving a talk on Cosmo's Laundromat and the Open Source Pipeline they used for the development. Disney animator and legend Floyd Norman was there. In fact he was the Key Note, where he talked about his career and gave advice to young animators. More about his Key Note talk can be found at http://blog.siggraph.org/2017/08/disney-legend-floyd-norman.html/. Nvidia was there with VR trained robots, and Popular Mechanics brought their deep learning robot. UploadVR was discussing the VR theatre, and to top it off, Medium announced the first ever brain-computer interface for VR. And that's only a small sampling of the talks that were available.

As you can see, SIGGRAPH has a lot to offer. And like I said, the industry leaders are all there, so the time in-between talks, and after hours events are the other big reason to go. During these times, you won't just be at the conference, you will be bumping elbows with these leaders. It's your opportunity to talk to people from Pixar, Digital Domain, Nvidia, or Blender. You might find yourself shaking hands with the established giants, or the future ones. You might find yourself exchanging business cards as a dreamer, or in deep conversation with someone you only dreamed of meeting.

Even if you attended SIGGRAPH, there's no way to have seen everything. There's just too much amazing stuff going on all at the same time. So it's time to knuckle down and catch up on what you missed out on. I've got a lot more reading ahead of me, and I'm willing to bet you do too. Here's a great place to start: http://blog.siggraph.org/2017/08/siggraph-2017-news-you-need-to-know.html/

--Charlie Griffin

Stick with me, and we'll get wise together. 
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Eye to Eye

Country Sunset

Reducing Polycount

Hey guys! Welcome back for another blog post! This week I finally completed a major phase of the project I'm working on. So I thought I'd share some tips I learned from that.

As part of an assignment for my 3D course, I am to model a detailed building. So I selected a church. A nice one built in the old style. As it turns out I got more detail than I bargained for.

As you continue reading, remember I am using an Open Source software called Blender for my 3D work.

I decided the best way to build the church was to build all of the components from within edit mode. Everything I've learned up until now involved starting with a generic shape and making extrusions and manipulating vertices. I may have even encountered advice against adding primaries (cubes, spheres, etc.) from within edit mode. And yet, that's what I chose to do. As I'm sure you can guess by this point, that was my first mistake. The result was a whole lot of overlapping faces, random vertices in the middle of nowhere, lots of hidden internal geometry, and many hours of clean up. I now understand the value in modeling via extrusion. Another option would have been to build things as I did, but with everything created as a separate object and then use the boolean modifier to union everything together.

The model turned out quite nice, but even now while I'm working on texturing it, I'm still finding issues with the way the mesh is constructed. I found myself asking "How did I ever put this together in the first place?" It was a rather confusing mesh. Anyone who knows anything about 3D art can tell you that the more polygons (faces) you have, the slower the final render will be. So when faced with this confusing mess of a model, I knew I had to find a way to simplify it. But doing so manually pretty much meant building the church over again, while using my original model as the blueprint... That... would be... a lot of work. There had to be a better way. And guess what? There is!

Step 1 is to save your work! If anything goes wrong with the following steps, you can always revert to the original work.

Step 2 was to Remove Doubles. This involves selecting the entire mesh in edit mode first. Otherwise Blender doesn't know what you want to work on. I actually did this a lot during the modeling process itself, but if you haven't done this by the time your model is complete, then make sure you do it before you go any further.

Step 3 is to run the Decimate modifier. What this does is it reduces the geometry of your model based on a percentage. It's a fantastic tool, but be aware it can cause a loss of detail. 1.0 (aka 100%) means there is no reduction at all. Effectively, the modifier is not in use. While 0.0 is maximum reduction, and a complete obliteration of your model. There's still a model there, but it's an extremely ugly version of your original. I imagine you will almost never want to use the maximum value, but it's good to play with it so you know the limits. Of course, none of this is permanent until you click the apply button (and of course you can undo if you decide you're not satisfied after clicking apply), so feel free to adjust the settings to get the best balance of quality vs geometry. I dropped down to 0.89 before a noticeable drop in quality. And even then, it was minimal, as you can see in the screenshots below. This single step caused the largest amount of reduction, and accounts for almost all of the difference between the Hi Poly and the Lo Poly models. This step must be applied before proceeding to the next step.

Step 4 is to use the Limited Dissolve tool. Again in the edit mode, select the entire model. Then press X to delete, and in the menu that pops up, select Limited Dissolve. In the tools section on the left of the window (you may need to press T to bring it up), there are options to customize the Limited Dissolve parameters. The chief option to change here is the Max Angle. The default of 5 degrees worked very well for me. I played around with this, but ultimately settled on the 5 degrees being optimum. Remember, that as with the Decimate modifier, there is a potential of lost detail, so make sure you find the right setting for your purposes.

Finally, the 5th and final step was to remove the interior faces which are completely unnecessary for the rendering, as they aren't even seen. To do this, we once again need to be in Edit mode, but this time we need to ensure that no parts of the model are selected to start with. Then, open the Select Menu, choose Select All by Trait and and choose the Interior Faces. With all the interior faces selected, you can now delete them (X, then Delete Faces). In my case I found that there were some faces that were in fact still necessary, so I deselected them before erasing them.

Hi Poly Model (Before geometry reduction)  - Note the Face count in the upper right

Lo Poly Model (After all 5 steps of geometry reduction) - Note the reduced Face count

When I first approached the dilemma of reducing the geometry in my model, I wasn't sure how to approach it at first. I hope that this post will help you to deal with this issue in a more efficient manner than I did.

--Charlie Griffin

Stick with me, and we'll get wise together. 

Taking a Day Off

Hi guys! Welcome back for another blog post! Unfortunately, I have to disappoint. I'm traveling and so am not able to make the usual blog post. I'll be back again next week. Have a great week everyone!

--Charlie Griffin

Stick with me, and we'll get wise together. 

Fear, The Insidious

Hey guys! Welcome back for another blog post!

So let's address fear this week. Fear sucks. Figuritively and literally. It drains our energy. It cripples us. It causes us to make some less than productive choices. Sure there's healthy fear. You can find information all over the place talking about the healthy aspects of fear. Clearly, that's not the subject I'm writing about though. Since I'm talking about the "bad" fear, I have to say it's a good thing I'm not afraid of anything. At least, that's what I've told myself for years. 

When I was young, I was extremely afraid of spiders. When I saw a spider, I would scream my best "scream queen" scream and run as far away as I could as fast as I could. At some point I developed the idea that as a man I couldn't be afraid like that. I think the idea was partly macho, and partly reason. So I began to face my fears and overcome them one by one, until finally there was nothing left for me to be afraid of.

Here's the thing though. Fear is such an insidious thing, that I have been living in fear my entire life without realizing it. It's easy to identify things like fear of spiders, or fear of heights. I have discovered that it's possible to even be afraid of fear itself. It's also possible to be afraid of telling the truth, to others or yourself. You can be afraid of change. You could have both together.

I have been telling myself for years that I am a person who embraces change. I embrace it so well that every couple of weeks I change the direction of my entire life. Interestingly, this has the effect of creating a changeless environment, because nothing truly changes and I'm left with an unsatisfying baseline. The definition of progress is moving consistently in the same direction. The truth is I've been lying to myself. If I truly was to be a person to embrace change, then I would allow the process of change to take hold. Instead, I've been standing behind the shield of "I've lost interest..."

A few weeks ago I started this blog. Another one of my notorious changes in a predictable schedule of change. As usual, this was precipitated by a series of other changes. This time though, I started this journey knowing that I can't stick to anything. I embraced this enthusiastically and wondered how long I would stay interested. Last night, I almost backed out. I almost called it quits on the blog. Fortunately, I've made a commitment to you guys, and I have an awesome wife who reminded me of how important this is to me.

It's so easy to fall victim to this insidious thing called fear. As I reflected on this it occurred to me that fear is something that stands in the way of a lot of creative individuals. I've talked in the past, rather vehemently about motivation in regards to art. I've said if you've got something to say, then you'll say it with your art. I've said there's no shortage of ideas for people who truly look for them. I've said that if you truly have a passionate message then you'll be motivated to do your art. Hands down, problem solved. But that's not the entire picture is it? There's this fear that we have. Will our art be liked? Will it turn out the way we expect? Will it have the intended effect? Will it get published? Will it take time away from other things? What are we missing out on? What will our friends think? These questions are all hallmarks of fear, and there are plenty more. 

The only advice I've ever accepted about fear is the need to face it and overcome it. Every time I've done so, I've always been better for it. This is no different. The nature of this fear may not be so tangible, but it's still something that needs to be faced and overcome. The first step is naming it. The rest falls into place relatively easily as long as I continue to steer the course of courage.

It's time to face my fear of change.

It's time to face my fear of commitment.

It's time to face my fear of completion.

It's time to commit to this change of course that I have prescribed for myself.

--Charlie Griffin

Stick with me, and we'll get wise together. 
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Day Wisp

Radioactive Breakthrough

Community Challenge

Hey Guys! Welcome back for another blog post! Yesterday a friend was reminding me of the importance of community. So I thought I'd address that point in this post.

Tim Ferriss often says "You are the average of the five people you most associate with." That's pretty true I think. I have spent a lot of my life surrounding myself with people who created drama, and found myself always caught up in drama, whether it was theirs or my own. Eventually I decided I didn't want to be living a life of drama and I distanced myself from the people that perpetuated the drama cycle. Guess what? The drama died away. I haven't yet surrounded myself with the people that I would more closely like to be identified with, as I haven't met them yet. But what I do do instead is make sure that I'm regularly exposing myself to the kind of influence I would like. This means the books I read, the podcasts I listen to, the videos I watch. And this is OK... But it doesn't encourage me. They don't call me up to exchange ideas, or go out for coffee. They really can't, because they're not actually people, they're merely concepts being expressed through a medium. I can see that associating with the right people would make a big difference, and I can see the value of my friends statement.

But where do I find a community? How do I consciously build up a circle of friends and associates who embody what I would like to be? Well, for starters, I should probably be where they are. Then, I should probably get over the social awkwardness that is only in my own brain and actually talk to them. But what if I don't know if they're the right people? Well... I certainly won't know if I never try to talk to them. Sure, maybe I could find some people on line, get to know them through blog posts, social media, interviews. But when I see these people in real life I suddenly find they really don't compare to the fantasy I've built in my head. So really, my only choice is to talk to them. Nobody said reinventing myself was going to be easy...

Okay. So now I know that I need to talk to them. I also established that I need to be where they are at. But where are they? If I continue in the routines that I've set for myself, I'm never going to find that place. It's time for me to step out of my comfort zone and change my routines. So, I started by looking into the different conferences. I've heard that the best part of a conference is actually the networking and socializing that happens between the panel speakers. It's a lot harder to find conferences than I thought it would be. I kind of had to dig a little. It would have been easier if I hadn't been trying to localize things. I tried to keep my search specific to Canada. This rather excludes conferences such as HOW Design, SIGGRAPH, or the AIGA Design Conference. But I have found there are a suitable number of conferences which happen to be pretty much in my back yard in Toronto. I was only able to find conferences related to Graphic Design, and unfortunately nothing really in regards to CG. I'll have to keep digging for that one at another time. The short list I compiled follows:

FITC - Future, Innovation, Technology, Creativity: This conference already took place in April, but there will be another in 2018. For more info, go to: http://fitc.ca/event/to18/

DesignThinkers Conference: Hosted by RGD (Registered Graphic Designers), this event takes place November 7 & 8 at the Sony Centre for the Performing Arts in Toronto.For more info, go to: http://designthinkers.com/toronto (There's also one in Vancouver on a different date.)

GTA Photography Conference: This one is rather short notice. It takes place on July 19th, and is only a one day event. It should go without saying that this conference is specific to Photography. For more info, go to: http://gtaimaging.com/conference2017/

Design & Content Conference: Another one with short notice, this 3 day conference takes place July 17-19... And it's in Vancouver, so not quite on my doorstep, but I figured it was worth including anyway. For more info, go to: https://designcontentconf.com

It seems to me that there is probably a resource that I'm missing somewhere in regards to finding a community without going to conferences, so I guess I'm leaving that open for advice from the audience!

--Charlie Griffin

Stick with me, and we'll get wise together. 
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Country Roads

Web of Light

Melting Forest

Deadline Dilemmas

Hi guys! Welcome back to another blog post! Unfortunately some changes demanded my attention this week. My personal hero swept in and saved the day, which is super awesome! But that does mean that I'm pushing the line on that deadline again this week.

The thing is, when you have a deadline, you do your best to meet it. In many ways it's like a promise, you simply never break a promise. I've heard mixed opinions on deadlines. They generate stress, and subpar work. However they also push you to get work done that you wouldn't otherwise have done. Imagine saying to your children, "I'll build the swing set for you." That's a non committal promise. You're saying you'll build it when you get to it. In theory, your children might not need the swing set by the time you finally gotten to building it. Now, if you say "I'll get the swing set built this weekend." You've already begun clearing the space in your mental schedule to allow for the swing set to be built. There may be unforeseen circumstances that make it so you don't finish the setting set on the weekend, but you've certainly made every effort you can. It's similar at work. Recently I had a project with an arbitrary end date around a month in the future. Time went by and I plucked away at the project. I figured I had time. Suddenly I learnt that the project was due the following day. You can bet I devoted all of my attention to the project to ensure it was finished! This is the power of deadlines. They are a call to action.

But what about quality? Won't quality for the project suffer? Maybe. If you've over booked yourself it will, almost guaranteed. Ultimately though, the deadline encourages you to put your attention into the project sooner rather than later. In my opinion, the quality is actually likely to improve. You're not letting other things distract you. You don't start, then stop, then remind yourself where you left off. When it's been so long since you worked on a project that you literally had to deconstruct the project to figure out where you left off, it's often easiest to scrap the project altogether. I've done this, and for some I'm still mourning the loss, years later.

Of course, if you leave all the work till the deadline, you're not doing yourself any favours. In that case, the quality may suffer so much that you might as well have never done the project in the first place. Just because you have a deadline doesn't mean you won't procrastinate. You still have to actually put that focus into the project you've committed to. The deadline is an agreement between all parties that you will do the best you can to get that project done. Note that's "the best you can," and not "whatever you get done in time."

Does everything require a deadline? Well, probably not. But if you want to get something done in a timely fashion, set a deadline.

--Charlie Griffin

Stick with me, and we'll get wise together. 
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In recognition of Canada Day, and Independence Day I have a comparison between fast shutter speed, and slow shutter speed:

Happy Celebrations!

When Words Aren't Enough

Hey guys! Welcome back for another blog post! Sorry this post is so late! Life grabbed me and ran away with me for a few days...

So, the question I left you guys with: What is Graphic Design? Well, if you read the post at AIGA (http://www.aiga.org/guide-whatisgraphicdesign), then you read about posters, advertisements, branding, books, web design and a bunch of other stuff like that. On the surface, that is what Graphic Design is, and again AIGA's post is a very good summation of the topic. And it should be, after all AIGA is the American Institute for Graphic Arts, they are pretty much the foremost authority of Graphic Design. What their article doesn't cover though, is the subjective view on what Graphic Design is, as it is individual and... well... subjective.

If you've been following my blog you may remember I had a post about artists and the passion I feel they should have for their art.  (http://cgwise.blogspot.ca/2017/05/the-passion-of-art.html) Well, Graphic Design is Art. It is the means of communicating the message the artist is empassioned about. In this way it becomes a language, and it's a language which has been around since the dawn of time.

Cave paintings have been found that can be dated as far back as 40,800 years. That's more than 38,000 years before our Current Era(CE). It's long before people began recording history. Aboriginals have long been associated with body paint. Natives of North America would decorate their bodies for various occasions, but each color and symbol had a specific meaning. It was a communication, either to the wearer, other members of the tribe, other tribes, or even the spirit world. The ancient Mayans and Egyptians developed pictures to actively communicate and record various things. These pictures are now known as hieroglyphs. Modern writing evolved from pictographs to become the alphabets that we know today. Pictures have been used as a language, longer than history can say, and that hasn't changed to this day.

We do have a habit of viewing pictures as entertainment, which in turn leads us to make pictures for entertainment. We've got them hanging on walls, in books, on TV, in video games and comics. So many of us hear the adage that a picture is worth a thousand words, but we never stop to think about what words a picture is trying to tell us. In many cases now, even the person making the picture doesn't know what the picture says. It's merely a means to an end.

Graphic Design steps away from that trap and intentionally puts a message into the picture. We look at every element we use, from letters, to colours, to shapes and ask how we can convey our message. Absolutely everything created through the lens of Graphic Design is intentional. There are no accidents. But there is room for interpretation. That interpretation is just like the way we interpret the spoken word and don't always understand what the speaker meant. Sometimes there are unintentional messages in the work, just like there is in speech. And of course there's always the conventions of different cultures.

In short, Graphic Design is the art of  language as art.

--Charlie Griffin

Stick with me, and we'll get wise together. 
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Rosé Rose

Maple Leaf Gardens

Hidden Depths

Big Mistake

Hey guys! Welcome back for another blog post. This week I was going to look at Graphic Design and what it is, but it turned out to be a reflection on the most important lesson I've learned in life. I decided to leave it. Who knows, maybe it will help some of you.

When I was in high school I made a big mistake. I chose to stop learning. I had vague aspirations to be a teacher, or a computer programmer, or starting my own business. I settled on not being a programmer, because I didn't want to spend the rest of my life learning new technologies. I decided not to be a teacher (yet) because I didn't want to graduate, go back to school, graduate, go back to school, graduate, and finally go back to school again. I was offered a full time job, and I figured I had it made. I could have free time, and money at the same time! (Boy, was I wrong!) I didn't need university or college because I would probably go, and then come out to be flipping burgers, or do a job like the one I already had. I'm not saying that pursuing secondary education was what I needed to do. Where I got the education wasn't in question, the fact is I chose to stop learning. I think this is the same as choosing not to live. At least it was for me. I stopped living and let life happen to me instead. This greatly limited my opportunities, and my awareness of what is actually out here in this great wide world. My idea of work places was rather black and white. There was manual labour, or there was office work. And since I didn't want to go back to school, office work was nothing more than a pipe dream.

Naturally, as life continued to live me, I learned anyway. It's a rather unavoidable thing to do.  Eventually I made the choice to start reading about my interests. Not as a conscious act of learning, but because it was interesting. But of course, this meant that I was learning. I acquired a variety of skills and interests. It sounds rather cliché, but I think the biggest lesson I learned was realizing that there is so much in this world that I don't know. Now I have something of a hunger for learning, and an actual desire to go back to school. (gasp) Quite the turn around! After a lot of soul searching, personality reviews, failed projects, and ultimately a car accident that had me off work for a few months, this hunger eventually led me to Graphic Design. And also the realization that work environments aren't anywhere near as black and white as I've made them out to be.

So where am I going to go with this? Time will tell. I might take on the question of what Graphic Design is next week. The answer to that seems quite subjective, but until then AIGA has a fantastic article discussing the facts of this question:  http://www.aiga.org/guide-whatisgraphicdesign

I hope that helps!

--CGWise
       aka Charlie Griffin

Stick with me, and we'll get wise together. 
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Radiant Breakthrough

Fronds For Life

Micro Landscape

Technicolor Pathway

Do you want to see my entire portfolio? Or maybe you want to order prints? Now you can at:

http://cgwise.deviantart.com

Building a Toolbox

Hey guys! Welcome back for another blog post. This week has been a week of reference pictures for me. I've started a project which involves a building. There's a local building that I saw a few weeks back, and when I saw it I thought I should make it into a 3D model. So, now I'm tackling that.

I made a special trip out just to take pictures of the building. I spent around an hour walking around the building getting all the shots that I wanted; or at least the best I could do. Of course the difference in how it works in your head and how it works in real life is always bigger than you realize. And so was the building.

I was lucky. There is lots of open space around the building. But... since the building was so large, that wasn't as helpful as I had thought it would be. So, after taking the pictures, I've now spent my time stitching the pictures together.

The amount of variance in scale and lighting surprised me. The lighting of course, could have been solved by using last week's Exposure Triangle. I didn't know the camera particularly well, and was dealing with the sunsets imposing time limit, so I didn't take the time to figure the camera out. Also, given these pictures were purely reference, I wasn't too worried about it. It did create a marvellous example of how the exposure settings really impact the image, and it illustrated the potential hazards of leaving the camera on auto mode.

Scale has been the true issue though. Because I was walking around the building, and always trying to include as much of the building as possible in the shot, I was not always the same distance from the building. When viewing the pictures individually, the difference is only noticeable if you're looking for it. Stitching them together digitally on the other hand, reveals how distant things truly are. It also revealed strengths and weaknesses of my software.

Some time ago, someone I respect declared that The GIMP was not for him and that he was going to use Krita. So I decided to try it out. I liked the ability to easily draw squares and circles and the like. That is definitely something that The GIMP is terrible at. However, in this situation I was wanting to scale a layer to match it up with another one. Krita seriously failed there, while The GIMP excelled. The GIMP allows for scaling to be done visually with the drag of a mouse. This makes it possible to scale the image within one operation. In Krita, the visual method did not seem to be available, so I had to adjust the height and width numbers, hope I was right, and wait to see the results.

In the end, I settled on using The GIMP. It was software that I knew, and it made my work flow easier. Now I know The GIMP is my preference, and I can shelve Krita for now. But don't take my opinions on software as your own. Try different software and find what works for you. I've been using The GIMP for years, and Krita just a couple of times, so my opinion is biased. But at some point, I'm still going to have to actually try Photoshop!

--CGWise
       aka Charlie Griffin

Stick with me, and we'll get wise together. 
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Holy Halo

To Blur or Not to Blur

Hey guys! Welcome back for another blog post! This week I found myself wondering about ISO. If you've been following this blog, you may remember I mentioned ISO during my Green Screen Adventure, and while I had come across advice about ISO, I had never actually had the chance to truly figure it out. That left me wondering what exactly ISO is, and what does it stand for? Until now, the only ISO that I knew of was the International Standards Organization, and that didn't relate to photography or video in any way.

I was wrong. That's exactly what ISO stands for: International Standards Organization. Specifically, in photography and videography, it refers to the international standard of measuring the sensitivity to light for film and digital sensors. In the case of actual film, each film was calibrated for a particular intensity of light. This was beneficial for capturing images in different situations from nighttime to daytime, from indoors to outdoors and everything in between. This also enabled more creative license on how pictures could be taken. When photography was in its infancy, the photographer needed to know everything about his camera and how the light entered the unit. It was a far cry from the point and shoot technique so many people employ today. Photography was something taken seriously by those using the camera. Those that practice photography as an art today, aren't much different. And the measurements and settings aren't any different either, they're just Standardized now.

So that's cool right? Some trivia to... well, what good is trivia? What does ISO actually mean? Well, to properly explain that, I should really get into the Exposure Triangle. It's pretty important, and the things in it are very closely related.

Naturally there's three specific things that make up the Exposure Triangle: ISO, Aperture, and Shutter Speed. Each of these things controls the amount of light that reaches your film, or digital sensor, but they do it in different ways.

The ISO is the amount of light that your sensor (or film) is calibrated to receive. (A point of note: The size of your sensor is arguably more important than the amount of megapixels. A 10 megapixel camera with a large sensor will take cleaner pictures than a 10 megapixel camera with a small sensor.) As I learnt with the green screen, the higher the ISO the more noise in the image, the lower the ISO, the cleaner the image. That sounds like a clear argument for always using the lowest ISO possible, but that's not desirable either. If you have your ISO set low, say 50 or 100, and you're taking a night time picture with no flash, then all you'll get is a clear picture of black. In other words, the clarity of your image depends on the amount of light available. If you're taking a midday picture, then a low ISO will work well. If you're taking a night time picture without a flash, then you're going to want a high ISO to be able to see details in the image. Things to keep in mind for ISO: How much light is available?  And how grainy do you want your image?

There's another word of mystery that I've been coming across: F-Stop. This turns out to be the measurement of Aperture, the second member of our Exposure Triangle. F-Stops are seen as things like f/16 or f11, and refer to the amount of light coming through the lens. See, the aperture itself is the opening of the shutter. When the shutter is more open, then more light comes through, when the shutter isn't open as far, then less light. It's similar to your eyelids, the more open they are, the more light comes in and vice versa.  Just like your eyes, if the aperture isn't open far, you don't have as much depth perception. This means that getting the cool effects like focusing on an object up close and having the background blurred out (bokeh) is largely dependent on your aperture setting. Conversley the aperture setting can be set so things in the distance are in focus, and so are things in the foreground. Thing to keep in mind for Aperture: How much focal length do you want?

The last element of our Exposure Triangle is the Shutter Speed. Simply put: How long is the shutter open for? This can be a tricky one to manage, because the longer the shutter is open, the more blur you're going to get. To counteract that you may want to use a tripod or an image stabilizer. The flip side is the lower the amount of time it's open, the more crisp the image is. For instance, when taking a picture of a bird in flight, if you have a fast shutter speed, you'll be able to see the birds wings frozen in time; but, if you have a slow shutter speed then the birds wings would be a blur. Things to keep in mind for Shutter Speed: Are you trying to capture action? Do you want blur in your image?  Do you have a tripod or stabilizer?

These three things together make up the Exposure Triangle, because they all affect exposure. This means that if you adjust one of them, you're likely to want (or need) to adjust one or both of the others.

In conclusion, the things I've learned from this is that my phones camera isn't as amazing as I thought. Now that I know about this, I just don't feel my phone camera is adequate anymore. :( Though, I have a better grasp on taking photos, using either my phone or an actual camera. I did take some pictures with my phone after reading about this. Here's one:

Reflection For The Day

By the way, since I mentioned it but didn't really explain it, an F-Stop is literally a stop in the sequential list of available aperture settings. Generally one F-Stop will represent double or half the amount of opening compared to the stop beside it. This is similar to the stops used for Shutter Speed.

I've only just scratched the surface of my photography learning. I recommend checking out my sources for further information.

--CGWise
        aka Charlie Griffin

Stick with me and we'll get wise together.

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"To learn and not to do is really not to learn. To know and not to do is really not to know." - Stephen Covey, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People
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Sources:
https://digital-photography-school.com/iso-settings/
http://www.brighthub.com/multimedia/photography/articles/72927.aspx

Inching Forward

Hi guys! Welcome back to another blog post! In previous posts you've seen many photos that I've taken. They've been edited and manipulated in a variety of ways, and so at the barest minimum, these count as CG. They're significance in regards to CG comes more from style, presentation, direction of the eye, and of course, they can be used as textures! Textures, of course, are in high demand among the CG community, and are a significant part of why I started taking pictures. I have some that I have kept just for textures, but the others, I played around and manipulated.

I have found that I can take pictures of landscapes and natural elements pretty well. At least in my opinion. But the best way to keep your skills sharp is to test yourself with new things, or things that you know are a challenge. So this week I tried a couple of new things.

I have found that taking pictures of animals or people is particularly difficult. I haven't yet figured out why, but I just can't find the pop factor with them. Below you can see one of my attempts in this. It's a better quality picture now than the original photo, but I can't really say it's something that I want to keep looking at. It's a cute dog, but really it's a "pass the eyes over, and keep on going" picture...

Branching out into a different form of digital manipulation, I decided to try out the Oilify technique. I'm quite pleased with these results, but they're still just nature scenes.

Into the Veil

Cloud Walk

Path to the Bright Side

Andrew at BlenderGuru put himself on a mission to improve his skills, and seems to regularly rekindle this mission. I have to give him credit for inspiring me to do the same. I can legitimately say that I wouldn't be the artist I am today if it hadn't been for him. So, while I sincerely thank him for this gift, I also call all of you to action. Look at your skills, whether it's art or otherwise. Are you the best in the world? Not likely...There's always room to grow and improve. So find the skills that are truly a passion of yours and work with them. Amplify them. Bring yourself to new heights. It's well worth the investment.

-- Charlie Griffin
                       for CGWise
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"To learn and not to do, is really not to learn. To know and not to do, is really not to know."

- Stephen Covey, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People

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Green Screen Adventure: Part 2

Hi guys! Welcome back to another blog post! This week, I'm going to continue the Green Screen discussion that I began last week.

So, let's just say the difference between having an actual green screen and not having one was like night and day. The way that a green screen captures the light is so very different from a sheet or a tarp.

As you can see, the difference between the sheet and the green screen is quite dramatic. Additionally, the way the green screen looks through the camera is very different than it looks to the naked eye! In the picture you can see that the green is very brilliant(though badly lit), however to the naked eye, the green screen looks like it's just a matte, unremarkable green. Don't get me wrong, it's still very green, but it's just green in a fabric like way. I don't really know how to explain how the green really appears when not being viewed that way, but it was possible to get this more dull view through the camera:

So, I set up the green screen, and that was great and all, but I still needed the answer to the big question. Would it edit? I shot my footage and popped it on to the computer. At first, I was not impressed. It was the best footage I had gotten so far, but I still had shadow problems. And when I tried to get rid of those, I was erasing my actress... So I changed the lighting and tried again. Same problem. Oh well, I was running out of time. I was just going to have to deal with the visual noise. So I continued with the edit, and other than the noise, the edit was going good. Until... I lost the project! My definition of not impressed changed a bit at that point.

I still had the footage, so I started over again. Surprisingly, having to start from scratch really turned out to be the best thing for the project. When I edited out the green screen, it actually went away like it was supposed to! Hardly any extra effort. So what was different? What had I changed between the original and the restart? The amount of shadow in my sample!

After that it was smooth sailing. I ended up with a good product and a good learning lesson.

Some tips I learned:

1) Use a non-textured, matte surface. Shiny surfaces produce highlights which are hard to key out. The general advice given if you have poor green screen footage, is to filter it multiple times. Having tried this, I can testify that the sharp highlights caused by a tarp do not come out this way. At least, not without wiping your talent from the screen.

2) You want your background to be as close to one solid color as possible. This way it's easier to key out without keying out the talent at the same time.

3) If the screen is dark, then find a way to light it up. Obviously, you need to do this without affecting the lighting on your talent. Depending on the thickness of the screen you can light it from behind, or from the front along the side, or the top. Do your best to avoid varying shades of green in your screen, and avoid shadows cast by your talent or anything else in front of the screen. Be careful to avoid "hotspots" if you're choosing to light from behind.

4) Obviously, a proper green muslin backdrop designed for this purpose is best.

 5) When doing the actual edit, it's best to select the darker areas of shadow when keying out the green. Doing so makes it easier to hit the right spectrum of green to get rid of the shadows.

One final bit of advice that I learned too late, and so didn't get to try: Lower the ISO setting on your camera as far as you possibly can. The higher the ISO, the more noise or "snow" you get. So in theory, the lower your ISO the cleaner your green screening will be. I didn't get the chance to film this way. So I can't verify the accuracy. However in a little bit of experimentation, I did discover that lowering the ISO resulted in a much darker image on the camera. So I guess if you lower the ISO, it's doubly important to pay attention to the lighting.

All in all, it was a rewarding experience, and I was glad that I kept the talent far enough away from the screen to avoid the spill. (That's the reflected light from the screen around the edge of the talent.) As it was, I had a fair amount of spill anyway. Unfortunately I had to shoot (and edit) multiple times, but now I know from practical experience what to do. The Internet can only get you so far after all. ;)

--CGWise
        aka Charlie Griffin

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"To learn and not to do, is really not to learn. To know and not to do, is really not to know."

- Stephen Covey, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People

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Green Screen Adventure: Part 1

Hi guys! Welcome back for another blog post!

So, this week I've been working on a Green Screen project. This was my first time working with a green screen, and I wasn't sure what to expect. When I was first approached for the project, I was a little intimidated by the idea. However, I embraced it as a valuable opportunity to expand my skill set, and promptly started researching it. The Internet gave me the how to's and showed how easy it would be to do. My mind was put at ease, my client was happy, and I was happy. I happened to have a green tarp that was still in the package, so I opted to use that. Again, the Internet told me that would work, and it would be easy.

I set up the screen, set up my lights, got my talent into the studio and recorded. Everyone was happy.

Then I fired up my trusty Lightworks and actually tried to do the edit. I was not so happy. I was able to apply the green screen effect, but I just could not get it cleaned up.

I decided to try different backdrops. I tried a green sheet, and I tried a light blue sheet. Both came out looking virtually identical to each other, and rather grey. And neither cleaned up very nice. I changed the lighting so the sheet was better lit, and that improved things, but still wasn't great. Next, I tried a navy blue sheet, and that worked so much better! But... I still had to key it twice, and it resulted in an outline around my talent. I added lighting to eliminate the outline, but that caused too much variance in the colour, so I took it back out. I settled that the navy was best, made sure the sheet was as wrinkle free as possible, and the lighting was even. I was satisfied I had a very good screen. Unfortunately, after all of this, I attempted to chroma key the footage from this screen, and... disaster! The screen was now dark enough that I was chroma keying out shadows in the hair, and the pupils of the eye! I decided it was time for a real green screen.

I'll see how it turns out this weekend!

Recent Art

Hey Guys! Welcome back to another blog post! This one is kind of a bonus unscheduled one. 😊

Over the last few weeks, I haven't been putting much art up here. I would like to include art in each post, but the art I've been making hasn't correlated very well with the subject material. So here's some of the stuff I've put together over the last little while:

Experiments in animation:

The Oasis Windflower

A Bouncy Ball

A Rotating Canadian Penny

The results of a photo walk:

Historical Beauty

Sun Blossom

Tower of Babylon

Devouring the Sun

Steeple Odyssey

Pretty in Pink

And the beauty of the night:

Fully Through the Void

A Fantastic Night

Enjoy your voyages wherever they may lead you!

The Passion of the Art

Hey guys! Welcome back to another blog post! I've done a bit of reading, watching videos and listening to podcasts, and I'm noticing a couple of common questions out there in the world.

1) How do you stay motivated to finish a project and start new ones?
2) When do you know a project is done?

I've got some thoughts on the matter, but they are purely my opinion. That said, the first question kind of confuses me. Let's look at the term CG Artist. CG is really the lesser component of that term. That's why it can be shortened. That's why it's possible for some people not to know what it stands for. The second portion though is what holds the answer. Everyone knows what an Artist is, they're a person that makes art! But, what does an artist do? That is a question many people don't understand. If art can cover classical painting, music, literature or CG, then clearly an artist isn't just moving a paintbrush around. Ultimately an artist creates pictures. Pictures in the audiences mind. But, not just any pictures. I could describe to you the fibres of the carpet on the floor, they're gray and bristly. That puts a picture in your mind, but it doesn't matter. It has no meaning, no feeling. Now if I describe sitting on a crowded bus watching a mother feel helpless as her baby cries, that starts to bring up feelings. For some it might be sympathy, for some it might be irritation. Now we start to get involved in the mental picture. As an artist, that's what we do. With our chosen mediums we reach into your heart, mind and soul to elicit a reaction. It's our way of connecting to each and every one of you. Most say that art is a form of expression, but for an artist it's really our passion. You can't touch someone's soul without sharing some of yours.

People are passionate by nature. You can't stop us from expressing it. Sex is an obvious expression of passion, but it's really a small one. It takes place in a moment in time. But the love we have for our partners, that lasts for an extended time. So do our religious beliefs, and our political viewpoints. How often do you hear people around you complaining about things people are doing, or the state of global affairs, or even the weather? Every time we form an opinion on something, that's an expression of passion. Passion is in everything we do. For an artist, we choose to express that passion through art. Being that it's a passion, it's unstoppable, and so it's always there for an artist to express. So, my thought is that if you're having trouble staying motivated you need to ask yourself, why is it important to be motivated for this? Is it something that is truly your passion? Or would your efforts be best used on a different interest? Another good thing to understand is, are you doing this because you want to? Or is it because it's a job?

"Whatever you're going to do, be the absolute best at it. I think ultimately, it always works out in the end." - Ryan Flaherty (in The Tim Ferriss Show: #238: The Savant of Speed)

In regards to how to know when a piece is finished, that also depends on whether this is Your Art or your Job. If it's your job, then the answer is simple. Ask two questions: How close are you to the deadline? And is it good enough for the client? A deadline plays a very significant role in how the piece is planned, designed, composited, and refined. With the deadline in mind, you still have to make sure that it conveys the message and / or feeling that the client is aiming for. But the level of refinement can be cut short at "good enough." The other side of good enough though is, if you have a lot more time before the deadline, have you given it enough effort? If you've got the play in your schedule, feel free to improve the expression of the piece.

If you're doing this because it's Your Art, then it's all up to you. If you're getting bored with the piece, then you're not giving it your passion anymore. It's time to stop. Your passion for the project is ultimately your barometer for when you deem a piece complete. Does it tell the story you want to tell? Does it express the feeling you were aiming for? These are guiding questions, but your passion ultimately holds the bar.

May the Fourth be with you!

Hey guys! Welcome back to another blog post!

A long time ago, in a galaxy not so far away....

STAR WARS

MAY THE FOURTH BE WITH YOU

A BRIEF REVIEW OF CG

George Lucas created a masterpiece which would inspire millions of people in a variety of ways. Amongst the CG industry the Star Wars films are considered to have raised the bar on CG, especially early on. When Star Wars: A New Hope was released CG was not yet commonly adopted in the movie industry. When looking at the original films through the lens of CG, one might assume that most of the films were CG. After all, there's space ships, robots, laser fire, and... light sabers. And while all of those were VFX marvels in their own right, none of those were CG in the original releases. So where was the CG? In A New Hope, a Death Star simulation was used in General Akbar's briefing. This was done in CG and is credited to Larry Cuba. However Larry Cuba was not a one man team. You'll find that Dan O'Bannon, Jay Teitzell, and John C. Wash were also computer animators for the original movie of the series. Surprisingly, that is all for the original releases. Until this time in cinema history, there were relatively few examples of Computer Graphics, so while it may seem minimal to our modern minds, it was in fact revolutionary for it's time. Mr. Lucas has said in interviews that he was waiting for technology to catch up to his vision. In the 1997 rerelease, ILM(Industrial Light & Magic) was brought on board and many things were reworked and done in CG to bring the films closer to George Lucas' vision.

You can watch this little documentary on the topic here:
https://youtu.be/yMeSw00n3Ac

More recently Rogue One: A Star Wars Story raised this CG bar again by resurrecting an actor from the dead to play Grand Moff Tarkin. In this age, computers are often used to generate digital doubles of actors or their body parts. But the reason why doubles have always worked throughout film history is because they only have to look close enough to the original to be convincing in silhouette, or distance, or other camera trickery. In the case of Grand Moff Tarkin, there is no "good enough," it had to actually look like the actor. This is an impressive feat, and one that brings the art dangerously close to the uncanny valley. Perhaps ILM actually did overstep that boundary in this film. You be the judge. This is not the first example of bringing the dead back to life on film, but it is the most extensive. Other examples include films such as Gladiator, and 7th installment of The Fast and the Furious franchise. It's even been done in commercials.

Of course there has been SO much CG used in the Star Wars series. Much, much more could be ( and has been ) said on the topic.

Star Wars continues to be a trend setter, and promises to keep doing so. But more importantly it continues to have a huge impact on our culture and aspirations.

May the Force be with you!

Artistic Journey

Hey guys! Welcome back to another blog post!

This week I have been doing a lot of thinking about where I've come from artistically, and I've realized my journey is longer than I thought, and I have several influences to be grateful for.

My Mom was probably my biggest influence, but only in the way that you never really appreciate. It just doesn't stand out as a singular moment. Instead it was  just that time with Mom... But looking back at it, it's truly where I gained my appreciation for art. My Mom still maintains that I drew a lifelike rendition of a dog when I was 2 or 3. The story is completely unbelievable to me, especially since I can't dream of pulling that off now, some 30 odd years later. She always encouraged my artistic side, many times by giving me examples of what could be done. She was always better than me, but it was stuff that I looked up to. Through her I was exposed to painting, sketching, ink drawing, clay modelling, playing a keyboard, singing, dancing, acting, and writing. It was a very well rounded approach to art. To this day she still writes and still encourages me. My Step-Mom also had her own artistic flair. Right until the day she died she was always doodling whenever a paper was in front of her. Sometimes it was just swirls, sometimes it was flowers. She even had a tattoo of one of her doodles, which (to bring this full circle) was a dog.

When I think of the noticeable influences in my life though, the first to come to mind is my grade 8 art teacher. I HATED him. I could never do anything right in his eyes. And he was always telling me never to leave any white space on the paper. Even when the white space was intended, he would criticize it. At the time I hated him. Now, I think I can understand. And I appreciate the passion that he succeeded in building in me, even if it was a backward approach or maybe even unintentional. Now when I do my artwork I often think of him and his admonition. But I've come to understand it was never truly the whitespace that was the issue. It was the intentional use every space on the canvas. Anywhere there is white space is an area in danger of having not had attention. And in real life, things are rarely truly white. So in the words of my Grade 8 art teacher "Get rid of that white space!"

That same year I had a classmate who I held in high esteem because of his artwork. And he was good looking too which also contributed to his popularity. I however was one of the outcasts and so I never felt I could approach him. Somehow my Mom became friends with his Mom, so I wound up getting to hang out with him for a bit outside of school, but things at school didn't change. Unfortunately, I still didn't work up the guts to talk about his art. So instead we played video games and I had a missed opportunity.

As I grew through my teens I came across the adult magazine Heavy Metal, and I was blown away. Of course I'd seen comics before. I owned some Archie's and some Spiderman's. But this was a whole new level. The stories were pushed to the limits!The art was pushed to the limits! The colours! The thoughts! The details! Now I wanted to do this! How hard could it be? .... Well I don't think I really need to answer that... but in those magazines one artist stood out to me: Boris Vallejo. Whoo! He could paint! The beasts. The women. But more than anything: the presence! It was a piece of artwork that I could look at, and it felt like it took hold of me in my soul. And there was no way I could ever do that...

I continued to dabble and play. I had developed an interest in making video games, so I spent a lot of time at the computer, coding, and making sprites. I suddenly found that I could do so much more on the computer than I could by hand and it was liberating. I could make the images move! I was animating! But still I wasn't good enough to compare to anyone. Just a nameless boy in some hole in the wall of a computer room. Around that time I discovered 3DS Max. Unfortunately it was pirated, but it spread my horizons so much further. I endlessly enjoyed playing with the shapes and the reflections. Boolean objects were my play ground. Then for some reason I couldn't keep using 3DS Max. All this was before the Internet. But somehow I still found Blender. And I hated it! I couldn't figure out how to do anything. The buttons and menus from Max were all gone. And there weren't any Boolean shapes! I couldn't make anything with just primitives! Needless to say I didn't stick to it....Eventually I found Bryce 3D and Vista Pro, and they were fun to play with for a while. Made some pretty cool landscapes. I came across POV-RAY, and it blew my mind what that was capable of. But I had to manually code each shape and vertex... that was too much work...

Sometime after, I got married and had kids. My wife has a taste for art, and my kids have inherited it. My wife and I have now become their artistic role models. I aim to set a good example, and my wife's art hangs on our walls.

Eventually after the Internet became available I came across Blender again, and thanks to BlenderGuru(Andrew Price), I started to see the potential of Blender. I was actually able to make a few things! Andrew became my Blender saviour, and I would never forget it. I would however feel restrained by my own lack of focus and drift away from Blender once again. Recently, I made the decision to actually LEARN Blender, and not just play around. Naturally I looked up BlenderGuru. Andrew truly opened my eyes to the world of 3D this time. He explained how the program was merely a tool, and continued on to explain the elements of good art. Through his podcast I was able to get to know Andrew and his moral code of life. His views on Piracy are particularly influential. And more importantly his views on how to be an Artist are truly inspiring. I have taken many of his suggestions to heart, including writing this blog.

There have been so many aspects of my life which tie back to art, and so many influences, I don't seem to be able to list them all here. But reflecting upon this, it's surprising to see that I never really took art seriously. Recently I was in a car accident, and during my recovery I took the time to think about what I really want to do with my life. I decided it was time to stop randomly shifting through the sands of my life and stay on a steady course. I've gotten out of the sand and onto the ship named Graphic Design. Where will she take me? I'm not sure yet, but I know now that I'm the Captain of this ship. And I will intentionally fill the whitespace of my life.