Pictures January 14, 2012 @ 17:47

Les Ardennes 2011

Almost a year late, but I have to post these anyway. About 80 pictures, so watch the full album here.

On the Web June 22, 2011 @ 12:26

Talk About the Future

Let’s another link of this very good video on another website:

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Inspirations and Copies / On the Web June 22, 2011 @ 10:19

Seatbelts – Reich

I was listening to the Cowboy Bebop (Movie) soundtrack, Powder:

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And discovered it was heavily inspired by Steve Reich’s Desert Music (Movement 1):

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Code / Development / My Own Stuff May 14, 2011 @ 22:52

Ardor3D: Squad Interpolation

Just ported a spherical cubic (quadrangle) interpolation method to be used with Ardor3D‘s quaternions. I shamelessly ripped it, so I might as well share it:

    public static Quaternion lerp(Quaternion q1, Quaternion q2, double t,
            Quaternion store) {
        Quaternion c = Quaternion.fetchTempInstance();
        Quaternion d = Quaternion.fetchTempInstance();

        q1.multiply(1 - t, c);
        q2.multiply(t, d);

        q1.add(q2, store);
        store.normalizeLocal();

        Quaternion.releaseTempInstance(c);
        Quaternion.releaseTempInstance(d);

        return store;
    }

    public static Quaternion slerpNoInvert(Quaternion q1, Quaternion q2,
            double t, Quaternion store) {

        Quaternion c = Quaternion.fetchTempInstance();
        Quaternion d = Quaternion.fetchTempInstance();

        double dot = q1.dot(q2);

        if (dot > -0.95f && dot < 0.95f) {
            double angle = MathUtils.acos(dot);
            q1.multiply(MathUtils.sin(angle * (1 - t)), c);
            q2.multiply(MathUtils.sin(angle * t), d);
            c.add(d, store);

            divide(store, MathUtils.sin(angle), store);
            store.normalizeLocal();
        } else {
            lerp(q1, q2, t, store);
        }

        Quaternion.releaseTempInstance(c);
        Quaternion.releaseTempInstance(d);

        return store;
    }

    public static Quaternion divide(Quaternion a, double n, Quaternion store) {
        if (0 == n)
            throw new ArithmeticException("Divide by zero!");
        return store.set(store.getX() / n, store.getY() / n, store.getZ() / n,
                store.getW() / n);

    }

    public static Quaternion squad(Quaternion q1, Quaternion q2, Quaternion a,
            Quaternion b, double t, Quaternion store) {
        Quaternion c = Quaternion.fetchTempInstance();
        Quaternion d = Quaternion.fetchTempInstance();

        slerpNoInvert(q1, q2, t, c);

        slerpNoInvert(a, b, t, d);

        slerpNoInvert(c, d, 2 * t * (1 - t), store);

        Quaternion.releaseTempInstance(c);
        Quaternion.releaseTempInstance(d);

        return store;
    }

Will Perone, thanks!

EDIT: The previous version had a divide-by-zero problem, which should be fixed in the code above.

On the Web May 6, 2011 @ 12:02

Rain Town by Hiroyasu Ishida

What can I say? It’s just beautiful.

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And here’s another one he made:
Somehow, a lot of short animations nowadays seem to be all about running, chasing, falling, being chased. Well this one is no different, or is it?

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My Own Stuff / Pictures April 3, 2011 @ 23:18

Scooter Trip Pics

Two trips actually. One was to the north of Amsterdam, towards Marken. The other lead us to the Amsterdamse Waterleidingduinen (Amsterdam Waterworks Dunes), a nature area where much of our drinking water comes from and where fallow deers roam freely, which is rare in ‘City Park The Netherlands’. Definitely a place you might want to visit when you’re near and like to hike.

My Own Stuff / Personal / Pictures April 3, 2011 @ 23:06

Some More Tisse

Baby alert! Skip these pictures if you don’t like babies…

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On the Web April 2, 2011 @ 10:46

Pendule Short Film by Ruud Terhaag

Quite a while ago since a friend of mine made this graduation film. Still a very inspiring style and interesting take on how to combine video footage with computer generated imagery. Check out his other work on Vimeo as well.

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By the way, I made the music you hear at the start of the film :)

Development / Tips March 13, 2011 @ 16:07

Script: Connect Maya Nurbs Curves


This simple python script does not actually attach two curves.
Instead, it matches the first and last two control vertices to ensure continuity in translation and velocity.
Which ends will be connected is determined by selection order and curve direction.

EDIT: Ignorant me, I just discovered that Maya already has a built-in command for this: alignCurve.
Read the rest of this entry…

Tips March 4, 2011 @ 11:40

MP4 Files in Adobe Premiere

If you’ve used Premiere, you’ve probably had the problem of not being able to open MP4 files. “Unrecognized file format” or something similar.

The solution is simple: Rename the movie to change the extension to .mov and Premiere will import the file properly.