A few months ago, I taught a Python scripting workshop at my old school, Expression College, aimed at introducing students to the Python scripting language and using it in Maya. It was a one day workshop so everything was condensed and to the point. There’s no history of Python section or best practices section. The goal of the workshop was to get students familiar with Python so they could learn how to read and write basic scripts and also how to further their studies. I wrote a whole slew of notes to hand out to the students and ever since then, they’ve just been sitting on my computer…that is until now! I’ve ported over my notes onto my website and they are now free to view. You can find them here or in the Tutorials sections.

Is the Christmas Carol Train coming to a city near you? Find out here.

Also, here’s a nice review of the train tour:

A Christmas Carol was unveiled to the public at the Cannes Film Festival yesterday.  There was lots of coverage and Disney also released images and a clip from the movie.  My initial observation is that all the reporters and critics that saw the actual Cannes footage have a very positive reaction.  People that see the small streaming clip at Latino Review, tend to have mixed reactions.  I’d say trust the people that actually saw the Cannes footage as they have had a better look at the movie.

Higher quality clip

Rotten Tomatoes

Comingsoon.net

Joblo

Featurette

The past 30 days have been pretty exciting for me.  I finished my fund raising for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society by raising a total of $5260.  I flew to Rome and ran/limped in the Rome Marathon.  At times I felt like passing out but I finished.  It was a great trip that I was sad to see end but I had to come home sometime.  The pasta and gelato were both delicious.

Last week, I had some LASIK surgery done.  I’ve worn contacts for the past 14 years so I figured it was about time to be free of them.  It was a painless procedure and my eyes are still healing.  My vision is clear but text on computer screens is a bit hard to focus on.  But all is good, it takes a while for vision to stabilize after LASIK.  I can still drive and see well for the most part.  The best is waking up in the morning and being able to see the room around me.  I haven’t been able to do that in 14 years.

Work is still exciting and the work being produced always keeps me motivated.  I can’t wait until we release scenes to the public so I can show people what I’ve been working on for the passed year and a half.  Exciting times are coming!

Don’t watch this before going to bed.

This is really cool.

Yes, I’ve redesigned my site again. I’ve made it more open and made more room for content because it’s always about the content. Small tweaks are still being made. Stay tuned…because I know you’re all at the edge of your seat.

I modeled a head today!  I rig faces all the time at work so I thought I’d try modeling one.  I could probably add a lot more wrinkles to give him more character but I’m tired…I may work on him more in the future.  Can anyone guess who my reference was?

My blogging has been a bit on the slow side lately.  I’ve been really busy with work, marathon training, and moving.  Work is still really exciting.  Some image from the poster found its way online to various entertainment sites.  I can’t wait to see this movie on the big screen.  I think it is going to be great.

Yesterday for marathon training we ran 18.7 miles.  I’m a little sore but nothing too extreme.  Last week, I ran in the Kaiser Half Marathon in San Francisco.  There were thousands of people out running, it was pretty fun.  I found that running is a lot easier and a lot more fun when you do it with other people.  I leave for Rome in a little over a month to run in the Rome Marathon so I still have a little bit of training left to do.  In a couple of weeks, I’ll be running 20 miles, which will be the longest distance I run before the marathon.  In terms of fund raising, I have currently raised $4,350 of my $5,000 goal for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society.  I’m almost there, I can feel it!

I also moved to a new house closer to work.  It’s nice because it is 5 minutes from work and it has a pool and hot tub.  I’m still working out issues with the hot tub…like getting it hotter than 80 degrees, but hopefully I’ll have it all working fine soon.  The main drawback with the house is that the town is mostly full of families and retirees.  Not that there’s anything wrong with that but for a guy in his mid 20’s, it’s not exactly a prime location.  I’ll be here for a year though, so I’m sure I will enjoy having the pool in the summer when it gets 100 degrees.  After the year is up, I’ll probably move to the city.

During my daily round of internet scavenging for interesting news, I came across this music video which I thought was really cool and creative.  I now share it with you, enjoy!

Oren Lavie – Her Morning Elegance

I was able to make more progress on my personal project that I’m doing with my friend, Corey.  Here I’ve modeled and textured some clothes for my character as well as gave him some hair.  His eyebrow placement needs some tweeking and his hands aren’t textured yet but I think it’s a good start.  He could probably use a belt buckle too.  The clothing mostly uses just color, bump, and spec maps created in Photoshop.  The hair is using Maya’s fur system.

And here is a close up of the face after tweaked eyebrows and hair settings.  I think there is too much color variation in his hair.  He looks too much like he’s in a boy band.