Dan Laczkowski returned from Paris, France with a large collection of beautiful photos. I’ve seen many photos from Paris, but there’s quite a few shots in here that capture elements that I have never seen. His gallery has many many more photos here.

The push to tour Europe has gotten even stronger, if that’s possible.

What’s this on my arm? Aw nothin. Just a scratch. *cough* *cough* Really, I’m fine.

Below is a video that I recorded from Siggraph 2004 in Los Angeles. I finally put it online.

Tickets acquired and RSVPed for parties.

This calendar should give you an idea of all the parties I plan on attending. That’s right, I have my priorities in order.

After Siggraph, I’ll be attempting to get things organized in Vancouver before heading off to Burning Man.

Seems I was smart to purchase my ticket far in advance, because they are currently sold out.

Vancouver has a seemly infinite number of woodsy mountainous places to explore. I’ve hiked in Lynn Valley and up the Grouse Grind… but that’s really about it. My largest complaint is that I’m not sure where to go, or what I can get to via public transit. Lame excuse, I know.

Recently I joined an outdoor Meetup group and through that I discovered VancouverTrails.com. On this website you can even filter search results that will show you trails that are accessible via public transit! Awesomeness that has destroyed any excuses that I might have.

Who’s wants to go mountain lion hunting with me?

Here’s a couple I took while walking with Angus to and from Commercial drive.

Checkout the video.

Thomas the Tank Engine on Interstate 5 from verbal007 on Vimeo.

Cecilia and I went to The Whip for Jenn Brisson‘s art gallery showing.  As always, the walls were covered with dreamy/freaky characters. I couldn’t resist getting one to take home! I bought the red puppeteer in the middle.

The bus ride home was comfy. We both looked forward to catching up on sleep.  However, once home I realized that I forgot to pay my bill!!  I decided to take advantage of the non-rainy day we are having and rode my bike back to The Whip.

I stepped inside for less than 10 minutes, paying my bill and saying quick hellos to those that missed during my first visit.  I came back outside to see that my unlocked bike was taken advantage of.  No, it was just taken.

This is the second bike I’ve had stolen.  First bike was my mountain bike which I managed to track down (thief posted it on CraigsList.org ROFL).  My mountain bike sits in the garage and I primarily use a “beater” bike that I picked up for about $100.

My mountain bike was locked up, but I left my beater sitting there because I thought I would be in/out. Jeremy just stopping in somewhere quickly?  Hah… HAH!  Idiot.

Alone for 10 minutes.  Gah.

=================

Lil puppeteer trivia for ya. You know the plant in Little Shop of Horrors? Ever wonder how the lip sync of the plant looked so great?  I just found out that they would film the plant talking and singing in slow motion, 12 frames a second.  Later they speed up the film to 24 frames a second to return it to normal speed.  More info on Fast-Rewind.

1. Efficient use of effects. It’s not just what you can do, but how you use it.
2. Story with meaning.  In a time where films rarely follow their core message…   it’s refreshing to see an exception (including Pixar).
3. I was almost lucky enough to work on it.  Almost.  :\
4. Oh yeah, and it’s got aliens!

The film was directed by Neill Blomkamp, a Vancouver Film School graduate who is a VFX veteran from The Embassy, who directed the popular Citroen commercial.

Long story short, Neill was supposed to direct the Halo film, but that was put on hold (indefinitely?) and so Peter Jackson assisted Neill in turning his short film, “Alive in Jorberg“. into a feature film. District 9 was green lit with a budget of $30 million.

On September 29th I attended a Siggraph talk with Image Engine, where spoke on the making of District 9. Image Engine was one of a handful of studios in Vancouver that worked on the film.  While Image Engine focused on the creation of the “prawn” characters, The Embassy was working on the large robot and little critters.  Goldtooth Creative worked on some of the 3D user interfaces shots and WETA, since they were busy with Avatar, was only able to contribute to a few shot elements, including the mothership.

The original intention was to use prosthetic suits for the alien prawns w/ CG face overlays. Peter Muyzers recommended that Image Engine be allowed to create the creatures entirely in 3D. In the end, about 300 alien shots were created by Image Engine. The aliens were acted out by a grey suited actor and then replaced by a CG double, which was created in Maya. It was noted that the grey suit provided a great reference for lighting. Nuke was heavily used in the production as allowed for much of the CG lighting to be adjusted in real-time.

People at Goldtooth and Image Engine both noted how the use of the “Red One” camera sometimes produced warping of the frame during fast camera moves.  This was often difficult for the tracking software and forced them to fully recreate the scenes in 3D in order to do touchups.  The warping effect was referred to as the “rolling shutter“.

The 300 alien shots felt like a lot more. This and many of the other tricks, including filtering footage through VHS recorders, were testiment to Neill’s efficient use of FX. He understood that 3D is expensive and when some shots were pushed through the pipe, he was quoted saying that the cost was “a snowmobile or 2“. Like Fight Club, Neill used used FX to help tell a story, not a story to show off pretty effects. The crew at Image Engine expressed how much of a benefit it was to have someone directing that spoke their language.

I hope to see more movies like this and nearly everyone who’s seen it agrees. Would Neill be able to produce double the quality with 60 million? Anybody ready for a District 10?  We’ll see.

FXGuide has a very detailed breakdown that includes before/after shots organized by studio.

He told us of his new found respect for Walter and Wayne Gretzky and  mary jane.  Both of which seemed to have made Kevin quite emotional.

The most memorable event was when an audience member, Torrey, asked Kevin if he could help him achieve one of the items on his list of “Things to do before I die.” Specifically, Torrey wanted to know what it would feel like to stand naked in front of a crowd. Kevin certainly used this opportunity to it’s fullest. Someone even caught clips of the event, though the highlight was watching semi-naked Torrey (wearing Kevin’s coat) dive across the stage floor to catch a box of peanut Glossets with his hat.

Here’s the two clips I found:

and part 2 of “Show us your balls.”