Assist CG a resource for open source programs and content

http://www.assistcg.com/

This site is pretty cool they are all about supporting open source products and have a list of the programs  you need to build an open source workstation http://www.assistcg.com/component/content/article/64.html as well as tutorials and textures take a look.

Enthiran (The Robot)

From Wikipedia:

Enthiran is a 2010 Tamil science fiction film co-written and directed by S. Shankar. The film features Rajinikanth in dual roles, as a professor and an android robot. The film's story revolves around a scientist's struggle to control his creation, an android robot whose programme was upgraded to give it the ability to comprehend and generate human emotions. The plan backfires as the robot falls in love with the scientist's fiancée and is further manipulated to bring destruction to the world when it lands in the hands of a rival scientist. How the robot is stopped from further destruction forms the rest of the plot.

After nearly a decade of pre-production work, the film was shot over two years beginning in 2008. Produced by Kalanithi Maran, it became India's most expensive film.

Oscar Nominations (It's that time of year again)

http://www.oscars.org/awards/academyawards/83/nominees.html

Actor in a Leading Role

• Javier Bardem in “Biutiful”
• Jeff Bridges in “True Grit”
• Jesse Eisenberg in “The Social Network”
• Colin Firth in “The King's Speech”
• James Franco in “127 Hours”

Actor in a Supporting Role

• Christian Bale in “The Fighter”
• John Hawkes in “Winter's Bone”
• Jeremy Renner in “The Town”
• Mark Ruffalo in “The Kids Are All Right”
• Geoffrey Rush in “The King's Speech”

Actress in a Leading Role

• Annette Bening in “The Kids Are All Right”
• Nicole Kidman in “Rabbit Hole”
• Jennifer Lawrence in “Winter's Bone”
• Natalie Portman in “Black Swan”
• Michelle Williams in “Blue Valentine”

Actress in a Supporting Role

• Amy Adams in “The Fighter”
• Helena Bonham Carter in “The King's Speech”
• Melissa Leo in “The Fighter”
• Hailee Steinfeld in “True Grit”
• Jacki Weaver in “Animal Kingdom”

Animated Feature Film

• “How to Train Your Dragon” Chris Sanders and Dean DeBlois
• “The Illusionist” Sylvain Chomet
• “Toy Story 3” Lee Unkrich

Art Direction

• “Alice in Wonderland”
  Production Design: Robert Stromberg; Set Decoration: Karen O'Hara
• “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1”
  Production Design: Stuart Craig; Set Decoration: Stephenie McMillan
• “Inception” 
  Production Design: Guy Hendrix Dyas; Set Decoration: Larry Dias and Doug Mowat
• “The King's Speech” 
  Production Design: Eve Stewart; Set Decoration: Judy Farr
• “True Grit” 
  Production Design: Jess Gonchor; Set Decoration: Nancy Haigh

Cinematography

• “Black Swan” Matthew Libatique
• “Inception” Wally Pfister
• “The King's Speech” Danny Cohen
• “The Social Network” Jeff Cronenweth
• “True Grit” Roger Deakins

Costume Design

• “Alice in Wonderland” Colleen Atwood
• “I Am Love” Antonella Cannarozzi
• “The King's Speech” Jenny Beavan
• “The Tempest” Sandy Powell
• “True Grit” Mary Zophres

Directing

• “Black Swan” Darren Aronofsky
• “The Fighter” David O. Russell
• “The King's Speech” Tom Hooper
• “The Social Network” David Fincher
• “True Grit” Joel Coen and Ethan Coen

Documentary (Feature)

• “Exit through the Gift Shop” Banksy and Jaimie D'Cruz
• “Gasland” Josh Fox and Trish Adlesic
• “Inside Job” Charles Ferguson and Audrey Marrs
• “Restrepo” Tim Hetherington and Sebastian Junger
• “Waste Land” Lucy Walker and Angus Aynsley

Documentary (Short Subject)

• “Killing in the Name” Nominees to be determined
• “Poster Girl” Nominees to be determined
• “Strangers No More” Karen Goodman and Kirk Simon
• “Sun Come Up” Jennifer Redfearn and Tim Metzger
• “The Warriors of Qiugang” Ruby Yang and Thomas Lennon

Film Editing

• “Black Swan” Andrew Weisblum
• “The Fighter” Pamela Martin
• “The King's Speech” Tariq Anwar
• “127 Hours” Jon Harris
• “The Social Network” Angus Wall and Kirk Baxter

Foreign Language Film

• “Biutiful” Mexico
• “Dogtooth” Greece
• “In a Better World” Denmark
• “Incendies” Canada
• “Outside the Law (Hors-la-loi)” Algeria

Makeup

• “Barney's Version” Adrien Morot
• “The Way Back” Edouard F. Henriques, Gregory Funk and Yolanda Toussieng
• “The Wolfman” Rick Baker and Dave Elsey

Music (Original Score)

• “How to Train Your Dragon” John Powell
• “Inception” Hans Zimmer
• “The King's Speech” Alexandre Desplat
• “127 Hours” A.R. Rahman
• “The Social Network” Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross

Music (Original Song)

• “Coming Home” from “Country Strong” Music and Lyric by Tom Douglas, Troy Verges and Hillary Lindsey
• “I See the Light” from “Tangled” Music by Alan Menken Lyric by Glenn Slater
• “If I Rise” from “127 Hours” Music by A.R. Rahman Lyric by Dido and Rollo Armstrong
• “We Belong Together” from “Toy Story 3" Music and Lyric by Randy Newman

Best Picture

• “Black Swan” Mike Medavoy, Brian Oliver and Scott Franklin, Producers
• “The Fighter” David Hoberman, Todd Lieberman and Mark Wahlberg, Producers
• “Inception” Emma Thomas and Christopher Nolan, Producers
• “The Kids Are All Right” Gary Gilbert, Jeffrey Levy-Hinte and Celine Rattray, Producers
• “The King's Speech” Iain Canning, Emile Sherman and Gareth Unwin, Producers
• “127 Hours” Christian Colson, Danny Boyle and John Smithson, Producers
• “The Social Network” Scott Rudin, Dana Brunetti, Michael De Luca and Ceán Chaffin, Producers
• “Toy Story 3” Darla K. Anderson, Producer
• “True Grit” Scott Rudin, Ethan Coen and Joel Coen, Producers
• “Winter's Bone" Anne Rosellini and Alix Madigan-Yorkin, Producers

Short Film (Animated)

• “Day & Night” Teddy Newton
• “The Gruffalo” Jakob Schuh and Max Lang
• “Let's Pollute” Geefwee Boedoe
• “The Lost Thing” Shaun Tan and Andrew Ruhemann
• “Madagascar, carnet de voyage (Madagascar, a Journey Diary)” Bastien Dubois

Short Film (Live Action)

• “The Confession” Tanel Toom
• “The Crush” Michael Creagh
• “God of Love” Luke Matheny
• “Na Wewe” Ivan Goldschmidt
• “Wish 143” Ian Barnes and Samantha Waite

Sound Editing

• “Inception” Richard King
• “Toy Story 3” Tom Myers and Michael Silvers
• “Tron: Legacy” Gwendolyn Yates Whittle and Addison Teague
• “True Grit” Skip Lievsay and Craig Berkey
• “Unstoppable” Mark P. Stoeckinger

Sound Mixing

• “Inception” Lora Hirschberg, Gary A. Rizzo and Ed Novick
• “The King's Speech” Paul Hamblin, Martin Jensen and John Midgley
• “Salt” Jeffrey J. Haboush, Greg P. Russell, Scott Millan and William Sarokin
• “The Social Network” Ren Klyce, David Parker, Michael Semanick and Mark Weingarten
• “True Grit” Skip Lievsay, Craig Berkey, Greg Orloff and Peter F. Kurland

Visual Effects

• “Alice in Wonderland” Ken Ralston, David Schaub, Carey Villegas and Sean Phillips
• “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1” Tim Burke, John Richardson, Christian Manz and Nicolas Aithadi
• “Hereafter” Michael Owens, Bryan Grill, Stephan Trojansky and Joe Farrell
• “Inception” Paul Franklin, Chris Corbould, Andrew Lockley and Peter Bebb
• “Iron Man 2” Janek Sirrs, Ben Snow, Ged Wright and Daniel Sudick

Writing (Adapted Screenplay)

• “127 Hours” Screenplay by Danny Boyle & Simon Beaufoy
• “The Social Network” Screenplay by Aaron Sorkin
• “Toy Story 3” Screenplay by Michael Arndt; Story by John Lasseter, Andrew Stanton and Lee Unkrich
• “True Grit” Written for the screen by Joel Coen & Ethan Coen
• “Winter's Bone” Adapted for the screen by Debra Granik & Anne Rosellini

Writing (Original Screenplay)

• “Another Year” Written by Mike Leigh
• “The Fighter” Screenplay by Scott Silver and Paul Tamasy & Eric Johnson;
  Story by Keith Dorrington & Paul Tamasy & Eric Johnson
• “Inception” Written by Christopher Nolan
• “The Kids Are All Right” Written by Lisa Cholodenko & Stuart Blumberg
• “The King's Speech” Screenplay by David Seidler

Enter the Void

This is a very provocative film, so not for the weak hearted. It was very experimental and with some fascinating effects! It is still playing at the IFC Center in New York.

New Portfolio Site

I just finished my (first) website a couple of days ago. I haven't had a proper site until now. I'm still going over it and checking for bugs and other issues. Let me know if it crashes your browser or plays midi music in an endless loop.

http://anthonyschubert.com/

BAFTA nominated Animated Short “Thursday”

THURSDAY trailer from Matthias Hoegg on Vimeo.

The Making of Swedbank 'Under the Oak Tree' by Aardman Animation Studios

L.A. Noire Videogame trailer

There is something a little strange about how they made this. Maybe it's the motion capture or maybe it's because of the complex textures on the low poly characters. See for your selves.

My Latest WIP

This is the latest character I'm working on. Been having a hard time with the hair in-terms modeling decent geo to be textured well further down. This hair style is the 2nd modeling attempt, I wont really know if it work till UV it and texture it. In the mean time, any thoughts of the hair model would be greatly appreciated.

3D Printing

Here's a company that can print 3D models.
http://www.shapeways.com/

example:
http://cghub.com/images/view/71568/ 
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=23861&id=133202376716521

Getting Started with ZBrush Guide

Pixologic is giving away a 52 page PDF walking you through many aspects of ZBrush. Download the PDF here:
Getting Started with ZBrush Guide .

Template and Untemplate MEL Scipt

Here is a little MEL Script I wrote over the holidays. Save it as a Shelf Button. When you click it, it will template anything you have selected or untemplate anything that has already been templated. I find it handy when working on a scene that has lots of objects close together.

I hope it is useful. 

// Version 6 Template Untemplate Script //

//Creates a list of all selected objects//

string $list1[];

$list1 = eval("ls -sl");

//Creates a list of all templated objects//

string $list2[];

$list2 = eval("ls -tm");

//Goes through the list of templated objects and untemplates them//

for ($object2 in $list2)

{

select -r $object2;

toggle -state off -template;

select -cl;

}

//Goes through the list of selected objects and temmplates them//

for ($object1 in $list1)

{ 

select -r $object1;

int $template = eval ("toggle -q -template");

if ( $template == off )

{

toggle -state on -template;

}

else

{

toggle -state off -template;

}

select -cl;

}

Academy of Art Character and Creature Design Notes

A great character model sheet reference.

 http://characterdesignnotes.blogspot.com/2010/12/model-sheets-101.html

Some Works-In-Progress

Here's a couple 3D projects I've been working on --> feedback & critiques are certainly welcome.

The first 3D Illustration piece Im working on will be based on this painting by Ashley Wood:

Not sure if it would make any sense to make the same exact piece, but in 3d, or create a different scene, but with a similar execution. Either way, here's a couple of assets that will be included on the piece:

Robot (front side)

Robot (reverse side)

Thunder 5 Revolver (not really sure what kind of gun is really being used in the painting, but this gun I found on Google seemed just as sinister).

There's a couple other things, but I felt they weren't interesting enough to post as stand-alone objects, but things like grenades and a gun holster will be added to the robot's supply belt.

The geos are a bit heavier than I'd like, but everything that's modeled for the sake of ZBrush needs to have (almost) completely square faces, no stretched rectangles, or diagonally-extruded shapes, or else ZBrush doesn't subdivide the shapes properly.

Everything still needs to be UV'd, but then will color/texture everything in Zbrush.

Speaking of ZBrush, I got hit with a dose of nostalgia last week when my co-workers played a couple episodes of Rocko's Modern Life, so I wanted to try out ZBrush's modeling tools, including the ZSpheres, and this is what I have so far:

Shirt coming soon! For now, Rocko is an exhibitionist.

Also coming soon, a model of Christopher Walken's face --- but for now, observe Figure 1.1: