HDTR images

well, i stumbled upon an interesting photographic technique called High Dynamic Time Range images. Basically its just timelapse photography except you composite all the photos into a single image, with the photo of a certain time occupying a slice of the image.

Intrigued, i went out and did a small test of an hour. Too bad the evening was cloudy and there wasn't any exciting light so its a bit boring. This was taken in intervals of 10 minutes except the last slice which was hours later(after i played badmintona and had dinner).

Its quite an interesting method and i would like to explore it further.

Saying that, here is the result of my test.



Also, if you want to find out more and see other prettier pictures go to this link.

http://mkweb.bcgsc.ca/fun/hdtr/?home

This guy basically came out with the idea(although i'm sure someone else somewhere must have thought about it too). Other funky methodologies of photography include the "camera toss" which basically means that you set a timer on your camera and then just before it takes a photo, throw it in the air. The image captured on your camera would be while it was airborne. Although interesting results can be made, and it is quite an interesting method, i don't think its something that i take seriously. It takes the photographer entirely out of the picture and ends up being just random chaos. It reminds me of that lomography catch phrase "shoot by the hips", which means that you don't even aim, you just point and shoot. Because of the high contrast images and luck, sometimes you get nice results. I don't really like that way of thinking, although if you are really stuck with your normal photography, it could be a way of taking you out of that funk.

Another interesting method is scanner photography. The way the scanner captures images is sequentially from either left to right or right to left. The scanner also takes time to be able to capture the whole image, thus when doing an exposure, objects which are moving horizontally get streeeetched out while objects moving vertically get squished. Non-moving objects look the same. the results are really quite amazing if done right.

check out the inventor of this technique and his photos at
http://www.scannerphotography.com/

office politics

well...the office politics have been threatening to boil over and it really is. the power struggle between the 2 sides have had casualties on both sides. As for me, i'm just the pawn who wants nothing to do with the power struggle up top. I'd rather just do my work and have no stress about all these things, but unfortunately living in ignorance is just impossible. People use you for their own plans and you tend to get caught between. The best thing for me to do is just feign ignorance and play the dumb guy...heheheh.

update on my dante pic

well, i've kept on pluggin away at shading this picture. i've been busy at work though, so i don't have as much time to devote to it.

Weeelll....still no drawings to upload so i'll put up another photo i dug up.

I showed some of my photos to my overseas supervisor and he "really liked a some of them"(in his own words).

I just found out today that he will be leaving next week though! The disney project is truly over, and i have been selected to be in some "core team" to develop new projects that the company wants to sell/pitch for. The animation director made it sound so great to be in this core team but i think its not gonna be anything special. The technical director who i think is a moron is in this core team too so that doesn't say much about it i guess..hehehehe. I was really tempted to tell the animation director that i would not join this team if the technical director was in it because the i think that the T.D is incompetent. He doesn't really know much but uses a lot of buzz words and bullshit, just like the boss in "The Office".

When he first came in the studio he kept on talking about his 15 years of experience and stuff and that he was sooo good in animation that when a director saw his animation, he was so impressed that he wanted to cast the T.D in a movie! And he criticized our work habits, saying from 9am to 4pm we should be working, and then we go for a short meal and then work around the clock to beyong 12am....blah blah blah. Well, we(the animators) immediately hated him but i was willing to give him a chance if he really was that good. Unfortunately we found out that he is nothing but a poser who talks the talk but when asked to really do something is as effective as rotten banana. Somemore he criticized one of the hardest working animators who before he burned out was working till 1am everyday and came back weekends, saying if he didn't want to work hard he should work in "filem negara".

Well, as time went by his stupidity became more and more obvious and i had to pick up the slack and solve some of the problems that he couldn't. Although i got extra incentive(in the form of money), i really dislike the guy more and more. When i talk to him i feel like talking to someone who barely has an IQ of a child. When asked a real technical question, he just hems and haws and spouts off some buzzwords or says something like "oh, i really don't want to do something that i did 10 years ago". gaaaah! I have been complaining and complaining about him but the management keeps wanting to give him a chance even though he has not proven himself at all! I can't stand him, everytime he comes to talk to me i smile but what i am thinking in my head is "get away from me you stupiddumbshitgoddammotherfucker! I feel like my brain cells are dying just by talking to you!"

well...that was a little diversion...heheheh.

didn't do any drawing lately

havent been doing my drawing lately so i thought that i'd post a couple of photos.

This is an old photo which i took with my cousin's camera.

This one is of the Queen Victoria Building in Sydney after a autumn shower.

Updated drawing

did more shading... i can only work on this piece in small bursts. i get cramps after 10 minutes cos i hold the pencil really hard. Also might be cos i'm using a technical pencil...heheh.

Drawing practice

well, my overseas animation director told me that almost 99% of the really good animators that he has worked with are excellent draftsmen... So, in order to improve i have decided to practice my drawing skills.

On www.cgtalk.com they have something called the Master Copy session where a master's work of art is used as reference. The reference this time was "Dante et Virgile aux Enfers" by William Bouguereau (1825-1905). This is not gay vampire porn ok! Its a respected painting by a respected painter!

Here is some info about him :

http://www.artrenewal.org/museum/b/Bouguereau_William/bio1.asp

Now with that disclaimer, i present the image.

Click to Enlarge

Andddd...here is my effort so far.... I'm not gonna be colouring it, just sketching on good ol' paper.

Click to Enlarge

Well......whaddya think? the composition changed a bit cos my paper was a bit narrower and i didn't want to make the figures smaller...(ok ok, actually i drew the 2 foreground characters first and THEN realized ah crap! composition doesn't fit!). I'm still not too good with hands and feet as well as the general leg area so still a lot to learn. I think it looks ok so far, i mean its pretty good for my standards. My usual sketch is more like:

Anyway, time to log off. see you next update! (by "see you" i mean literally the only 1 person to read my blog...heheh)

Back in kl

Its now 2am, and i got back from kl around 1am.

Copied my photos from my kuching trip and decided to post a photo.

So here it is:

another photo related update

2 years ago, i saw a photo which i found mesmerising in a small booklet of magnum war photography. It featured a soldier running with the camera in an "over the shoulder" p.o.v. I was instantly struck by it. At that time i was too cheap and thought the price of the book not worth it for only 1 photo i really liked. I have been haunted ever since, and have been trying to find out who the photographer was.

I berated myself for not noting down the photographers name so i could search on google but today is my day of redemption!

I joined the magnum website and did a few searches, my successful search used the keywords "combat running". So therefore i present to you the fruits of my labor...

Robert Depardon 1978
A Christian falangist



Woo hoo! Great photo, you can sense the kinetic energy of the moment as well as the tension of being in a life threatening situation. I feel a weight being lifted from my shoulders...heheh. i've been looking for this picture for sooo long! Yay for the internet!

Bruce Percy

I recently stumbled upon the website of a photographer called Bruce Percy.

He takes mainly landscapes but he has an incredible eye for colour and composition that his images just look different from other photographers.

Take a look at this picture: http://www.thelightandtheland.com/pages/fineArtPrints/cuernos.html

it looks almost like a painting... I really love this kind of photography

*I am thinking of getting a camera phone, probably a sony ericsson k750i, but i am wondering if i should wait for the w810i to be released. I really like the idea of being able to take a photo at any time, the epitome of street photography

*phew* just came back from a 2 day trip to the beach. Had lots of fun, but tired out.

I think i've rested up a lot this week long holiday, but i'm looking forward to going back to KL. I sort of forgot about my life there a little but now that the time of return is near, i am going back into KL thinking mode. Gaahh...too bad i gotta work on monday...if not i get my salary deducted. I already have 2 days of deductions because of the compulsory 2 day holidays for CNY.

my goofy smile

I've always known i have a real goofy smile. My eyes become slits and the corners of my mouth rise up in an unappealing way. This is mostly due to genetics, because my dad too has a goofy smile. Because of this, whenever i smile, i try not to overdo it so the photo turns out nice and doesn't have a clown in it.

Today taking our family photo though, my aunty kept telling me to show my "teeth" and some of the photos came out pretty goofy. Grrrrrrrr..... Good thing there are some other photos where i didn't listen to her advice. bah!

nuttiness

i played futsal today and had the ball kicked right at my precious stones. Collapsed in a heap and moaned a little then got right up. Could not run properly after that though...