tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-50252318206220560822012-02-16T09:44:11.990-05:00A web journal to chronicle my MFA Thesis for Visual Effects at Savannah College of Art and Design.David Lewishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18045519637392855532noreply@blogger.comBlogger91100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5025231820622056082.post-33680685628944144272011-05-16T00:26:00.000-04:002011-05-16T00:26:09.305-04:00

As you may have noticed the posts have been few and far between lately. Things have been extremely busy lately and for good reason. I have accepted a position with Dreamworks Animation as a Lighting Technical Assistant. The move to California and settling into the job has taken the lion's share of my time but things are finally starting to calm down so I'll return to development on SoftBox soon.

David Lewishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18045519637392855532noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5025231820622056082.post-64474861474686676292011-03-14T22:04:00.000-04:002011-03-14T22:04:28.088-04:00

Revised UI Progress UI upgrades The SoftBox UI has grown to include the new controls for Final Gather linked to those in the Render Globals. This was far easier than I thought it would be with the use of a simple command called "attrControlGrp()". This command creates a UI element but instead of taking arguments to set its design it only needs the name of a currently existing control. It

David Lewishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18045519637392855532noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5025231820622056082.post-44750970718251255672011-02-03T18:17:00.001-05:002011-02-03T18:41:37.979-05:00

The naming conflicts I discussed in an earlier post have been resolved to a hopefully fool-proof state. One procedure gathers the names of any object in the scene that matches a predetermined pattern. Doing so with ALL objects that match instead of just geometry ensures that if the user changes the name of the main light object without changing its constituent parts this will not conflict with

David Lewishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18045519637392855532noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5025231820622056082.post-42847779897855509812011-02-01T17:01:00.000-05:002011-02-01T17:01:22.351-05:00

Below is a short, work-in-progress list of references and resources for my thesis. Some are direct citations and others are general reference or for subject specific answers. This list will continue to evolve as I refine my paper and develop my interface. Previous Theses from SCAD Graduate Program The Desirability of Traditional Light Settings in Computer Graphics Software             Sparks

David Lewishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18045519637392855532noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5025231820622056082.post-49095553854438518962010-11-16T16:47:00.001-05:002011-02-03T17:49:56.321-05:00

I have finished swapping my MEL code over to PyMel and I must say I am thrilled with the new syntax. PyMel leverages Python's natural efficiencies and object-oriented nature to make for a fast, easy to write, easy to read language. It has reduced the volume of my code by 40% and will speed testing and development going forward. The main issue I'm dealing with right now is naming conflicts. The

David Lewishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18045519637392855532noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5025231820622056082.post-41989410729866219212010-11-12T20:18:00.001-05:002011-02-03T17:50:30.838-05:00

I had originally planned to build the entire tool in Maya's native MEL script since that is integrated into the package anyway. I had already written all the code to create a SB rig and prep it for user input when I spoke to my thesis topic consultant, Professor Ken Huff. He convinced me that Python and, more specifically, PyMel would be much better suited to the process and would better educate

David Lewishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18045519637392855532noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5025231820622056082.post-77494542932760043072010-11-11T18:17:00.000-05:002010-11-11T18:17:10.172-05:00

Below is my initial presentation for my thesis made at my candidacy review for the MFA program. The first section is repeated from my earlier post. Thesis Statement: A Digital Softbox Tool to Increase the Intuitive Use of Final Gather Techniques as Primary Lighting – SoftBox A real-world, studio-based tool meant to make FG techniques more accessible and intuitive and increase their capability

David Lewishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18045519637392855532noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5025231820622056082.post-46010801481539636572010-11-10T19:16:00.000-05:002010-11-10T19:16:07.063-05:00

A Digital Softbox Tool to Increase the Intuitive Use of Final Gather Techniques as Primary Lighting (SoftBox)   A real-world, studio-based tool meant to make FG techniques more accessible and intuitive and increase their capability to be used as primary lighting, particularly in an aesthetic role. The tool is based on traditional photography softboxes: large diffused light sources that are

David Lewishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18045519637392855532noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5025231820622056082.post-19708762458278908792010-11-09T23:09:00.000-05:002010-11-09T23:13:24.838-05:00

Hello,My name is David Lewis and I am in the MFA program for Visual Effects at the Savannah College of Art and Design. This blog will act as a journal for my graduate thesis, a central area for notes, developments, tests, etc. It is mainly for my own organization but for the moment I will leave it open to the public for posterity's sake.For more of my work including my reel, breakdowns, and

David Lewishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18045519637392855532noreply@blogger.com0