[yframe url='http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z6pdYQtoq5w']

Besides the displacement mapping, I took the opportunity to explore lighting and camera motion. A single white light orbited the crystalline sphere in the first two loops, but I found that an animated light and camera was too chaotic for the third loop, at least for the number of frames I could reasonably render.  Instead, the addition of two weaker lights, one purple and one bluish-green, added more visual interest and helped even out the illumination without making it too bright.

Maya screenshot showing two views and the Graph Editor

Maya screenshot showing the "canyon" camera positioning

Camera motion is one of those things thats’s conceptually simple, yet tricky.  While I think I could still improve it more, it’s definitely improved over the first few iterations.  The camera simply moves along a path, with keyframes and the Graph Editor used to fine-tune the motion and control the camera angle.  The trickiest part was successfully navigating in and out of one of the “canyons” on the sphere’s surface without accidentally passing through part of it- something made much easier by using preview geometry to actually see the displacement-mapped surface live in the preview window. It was then a matter of balancing how much of the sphere was in view while keeping the camera from being either too static or moving too quickly.

Kdenlive screenshot- Crystal Abstract project

The final video is composed of 480 raytraced frames at 1080p, something which took a decent amount of time on Core2 Duo processors. (I used a Mac Mini and a 2010 13″ Macbook Pro for the rendering, since those are the fastest machines I have available to use…)  The video is only 12 FPS, something I’d really like to improve on later, but that’ll have to wait for a quad core rendering machine, or a lot more rendering time.  To composite the video, I used Kdenlive (www.kdenlive.org), a quite powerful open-source video editor that I’m wishing I had used earlier.  It did a great job of compositing all the frames, adding transitions, and adding music.

One final note: the music used in the video is “Picolescence” by zircon, a track from the always-wonderful OverClocked Remix.

Carbon Fiber v1 (1080p)

Something that popped into my head that I thought would make a cool wallpaper. It’s based off an idea I have for updating my portfolio site’s graphics- I figured a wallpaper would be a fun way to play with the graphics a bit.

This is a first version, and it needs more work, but I think it’s headed in a good direction. This was created using Inkscape after studying some online photos of carbon fiber. Next I’d like to try this in actual 3D using Maya…

Radia Demo Video 1- Whiteboard work

When I released the 1.1.3 update to the Radia LED Clock, I made new screenshots and a new demo video for YouTube to show off the new features.  Like the initial release, I first sketched out the basics of the screenshots and drew quick storyboards for the video.

The first video was created to show off the visuals of the clock and how to read time on it:

startup -> time display -> features -> more time display

(watch on YouTube)

The second video took a more utilitarian approach: Show how you use the clock in your workspace (with resizing, float on top, Live Icon), and the visuals will be shown off in due course.  Various times were selected to show the clock in different states while demonstrating features.

startup -> features -> options -> time display

[yframe url='http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f_i7tZiKEvo']

The resulting video showed more than the first one and was shorter as well- attention span is precious online.

Sketchbook p66- Radia Screenshots v2

Sketchbook p67- Radia Video v2

New gallery icons

I recently restructured my portfolio website, shrakner.net, in order to create a separate “Web Design” gallery. (Previously, these entries were mixed into a catchall “Other” gallery.) An icon was needed for the new gallery, so I took the opportunity to both create the new icon and refresh two others.

The gallery select page employs monochrome, silhouette-like icons, and I decided to stick with that format for its simplicity and elegance.  I used pencil & ink for sketching out icon designs.  The first few drawings used an Extra Fine Sharpie for inking, but I switched to a 90% Cool Grey Prismacolor marker for smoother application.  Final icon creation was done using the open-source vector graphics program Inkscape.

How to simply portray “web design” was a rather tricky problem- early ideas either looked far too “90′s” or were too technically oriented.  The final icon uses a stylized browser window, using the basic address bar & search bar configuration common to most desktop and mobile web browsers.  A brush signifies the artistic aspect of my web design skills, while the text surrounding it represents the technical background (HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and Flash).

The Design icon (for Industrial Design work) was one I was never fully satisfied with.  The gear was a clear representation of my often technically-grounded design style, but it was more a symbol of mechanical engineering than industrial design.  Since I often view Industrial Design as a process for bringing a concept to reality, I explored ways of showing the gear (a representation of final form and function) as coming from a concept or sketch.  The final icon, therefore, showed a drawing of a gear leaving the page and becoming real.

Finally, the third icon.  I had decided earlier to rename the “other” section to “creative experiments,” a term which better describes my intention for the gallery.  Previously, the “other” gallery used the silhouette of one of my old spacefighter designs, but it was just a shape to most people. My initial concept for the new icon to use something along the lines of an “experiment”-maybe a test tube or beaker.  As such an icon did not seem to fit in with the site’s general aesthetic, I pursued other options.  The final design direction I decided on started with my idea of the “creative spark” and developed into a flame inside an orb.

There is a fourth gallery- the “Artistic” gallery, now being renamed to Graphic Design and 3D.  Its easel icon does effectively represent the gallery, so while I will refresh it in the near future, it is sufficient for the time being.

Sketchbook pages:

p68- Design & Web icon work

p69- Icon work

p70- Web and Experiments icon work

p71- Experiments icon work

Radia Icon v (1.1.3)

On Monday evening, update 1.1.3 of the Radia LED Clock was approved by Apple.  The first public update since 1.0.1, it adds two big features that reviewers were requesting: “Float on Top” and “Live Icon” options.

“Float on Top” does exactly what it says it does- it keeps the clock window floated above all other normal windows on your desktop (other floated windows, esp. help windows, can still float above the clock).  ”Live Icon” is a really exciting feature which I personally find to be quite cool- it allows the Dock icon to update and show the current time, down to the second!  Besides just being “nifty”, it’s very useful for those with limited screen space- as long as you can see the Dock, you can see the current time on the Radia LED Clock.  You can even close the main clock window and the icon will continue to update!

Finally, graphics and optimizations.  Some serious optimization went into the Quartz graphics that drive the clock- enough to bring down typical RAM usage by 2/3 or more.  I also tweaked the minute lights- subtle changes, buts improved.  Also, the clock startup is now much more refined.  Before, the current minute light would appear, and then the rest of the clock would come up a second or so later.  Now, all the lights smoothly fade in.  This effect was something I had planned earlier, but carried with it significant RAM issues until I optimized the rest of the graphics.  The app’s icon has also changed- the addition of the Radia logo on top of the clock face should ensure there’s no confusion as to whether the Live Icon feature is off or on.

Thank you to all those who purchased my clock- I think you’ll be very pleased with this update.  And I’m hardly finished adding features.  Other requests and suggestions will be added in time.  At the top of the list: a true full-screen mode, for those who want the clock as a psuedo-screensaver, and a Quicktime X -like title bar that’s hidden when not needed.

Radia LED Clock

On January 6, the new Mac App Store opened- and my first app, the Radia LED Clock, was there for the launch!

View the complete app description, with screenshots, YouTube video, and link to the Mac App Store, on the newly launched DayForge Design site’s Radia LED Clock page.

Started a few months ago and worked on occasionally, this clock was inspired by some previous research (link to entry in my portfolio site).  I developed it mostly in Quartz Composer, learning enough Objective-C and XCode to wrap it into a program.

Screenshot of the working "Live Icon" feature-in-progress

Now, almost a week after its release, I’m hard at work at its first update since launch.  Two prominent suggestions from App Store reviewers and others are to make the dock icon update with the app, and to make the window able to float on top of other windows on the screen.  So the past few days have been crunch time to learn more Objective-C, and I can now say I have succeeded in giving the app a “Live Icon” that updates with the current time!  I have a few more fixes and improvements to take care of before submitting the update, but it is well underway.
The “always on top” option was one I wanted to add as soon as possible in an app update- it’s not always easy to leave a space for the clock as intended, but an “always on top” app makes sure it stays visible.  The live-updating icon did not occur to me before, but is another way of solving the problem- although there are some who keep the dock hidden, the Mac OS Dock is usually an always-visible bar that’s plenty large enough to see the hours and minutes, if not the seconds.

Recessed LED progress

As part of an app I’m developing for the upcoming Mac App Store [the Radia LED Clock], I needed a graphic of a recessed LED that would shine outwards.  While I knew the basics of how I wanted the light setup to work physically, I wasn’t exactly sure of how to represent that adequately as a 2D graphic.  So I followed the teachings of my Industrial Design education and made a study model.

Recessed LED- preliminary sketch

Recessed LED study model- unlit angles

Recessed LED lit study model

Recessed LED- four unlit wells (vector)

Recessed LED- vector graphic

The final vector graphics were made using Inkscape, a free, open-source vector graphics editor similar in function to Illustrator. For this project, I am creating all graphics using only Inkscape and The GIMP (free, open-source raster image editor like Photoshop).

A number of web programming projects have taken my time recently, as well as development of an app for the upcoming Mac App Store.  I will shortly resume posting my work, but there are some things that just need to be done and take priority.

If you’re reading this, thank you for visiting, and thank you for your patience.

Software rendered particles in Maya with post-processed motion blur.

(Previous version- hardware particles and video)

Further work on particle generation will probably still be done with hardware rendering simply due to its much greater speed, but final renders will be done with software rendering. I also found the wonder of this amazing Mac app by Tonio Loewald which will apply motion blur to an already-rendered movie: http://loewald.com/motionblur/.

My first lasercut parts since Tech, made through Ponoko.com.  As a test of using the service, I made a sheet with two different tower designs which fit on their smallest size stock, and had it cut out of 3 mm acrylic.  The first tower is a stylized version of Orthanc from The Lord of the Rings, which I had originally made at Tech using 2 mm acrylic and I merely scaled 50% larger.  The second one is more of a work-in-progress, the first time trying a new design incorporating translucent marbles to add color and extra visual interest.  While it somewhat works, it certainly needs a bit more development.