Helium. Node based workflows for 3dsMAX

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I’ve been doing a lot of MAX plugin research recently. One thing that keeps coming up is how cool node base workflows are. If I’m designing a procedural effect I want a mathematical sketch pad and thats what schematic views give me. One day I might make the leap to Houdi but at the moment I’m heavily invested in 3dsMax.

If your into designing your own tools the it’s worth checking out Helium. It’s free and has been used by a bunch of developers for there products. Notably Krakatoa’s Magma Flow editor.

There’s also the MAXscripted building generator by Tyson Ibele

So … at some point ( when I have the time ) what i’d like to do is a cutdown clone of superflow elements but based the Helium editor.

Tutorial #002 – Parametric Superflow from V-MOTION on Vimeo.

Timecode formula for spreadsheets

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Like it or not spreadsheets are just too useful. Having the right formula to hand can really make things easier. Plus for me writing a bit of code serves to alleviate the tedium of data entry.

This expression will calculate the difference between two timecodes and spit out the answer in frames. Each cell must written using 11 characters in the standard timecode format. e.g.    10:23:07:24

This version works at 25 FPS and will subtract the IN point cell ‘G4’ from the OUT point cell ‘H4’.

((MID(H4;1;2)*3600+MID(H4;4;2)*60+MID(H4;7;2))*25+MID(H4;10;2))-((MID(G4;1;2)*3600+MID(G4;4;2)*60+MID(G4;7;2))*25+MID(G4;10;2))

You can change the frame-rate by swapping the 25 for a different number.

How it works

The MID function simply grabs individual characters from a cell.

MID(H4;7;2)

Will grab 2 characters from cell H4 starting with the 7th character in the string.
E.g. It will grab 07 from 10:23:07:24

MID(H4;7;2))*25

07 seconds * 25 fps = 175 frames

Make space on your hard drive using treemaps

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Somehow the 60GB on my SSD is never enough for windows (sigh) and I’m always doing house cleaning to make sure it has enough free space. Treemaps help me visualise the data and clear out the biggest space hogging offenders.

I designed my desktop I opted for a superfast but small SSD drive for the windows OS and a big 1TB raid for everything else ( i’ve also another 200MB SSD for cache files and program files). VFX generates a bucket load of data. It’s important to keep on top of my house keeping.

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HDR Photography Equipment

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I take a lot of HDR images for vfx work. I’m on a quest for the perfect setup that’s super fast to use on set. Here’s the HDR photography equipment and software I’m investigating. I’ll add more as I find it.

Everything HDR hdrlabs.com

Control your Canon EOS with your Android device dslrcontroller.com. The specs on this look amazing. Frankly I’m temped to replace my iPad with and Android tablet just to try this out.

Mod your canon dslr firmware using Magic Lantern firmware.

Includes HDR Bracketing for stills and hdr video (which is just nuts frankly)

magic Lantern view

CHDK is a great project for Canon’s Point-and-Shoot cameras. CHDK gets loaded into your camera’s memory upon bootup and is a temporary change to the firmware.

It runs simple Lua Scripts. You can write your own or download them from the community wiki.

Try HDR_Fast_Shooter

Some links for auto bracketing exposures. Using software or remote control http://www.dslrassistant.com/

Control your camera using a scripting language HDRCapOSX

Expensive do everything dslr remote control promote

There’s also OnOne’s dSLR Remote for the iPhone … unfortunately you still need a laptop to connect to your camera and run the software. But it has some useful applications.

trigger Trap

Trigger Trap Produces a bunch of devices and an app for the iPhone that will trigger your DSLR in creative ways using various sensors and timers.

Indie Film

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Last weekend I joined up with a bunch of friends to enter the sci-fi London 48hour short film challenge. It was a pretty intense couple of days…. with sleep definitely optional. The schedule is nuts. Half of the 360 teams missed the monday deadline to submit the film. But we made the top 10 shortlist.

Backwoods from Ascension Productions on Vimeo.

Shot on the Panasonic af101. Outside with no lights and clouds rolling across the sky The camera team had to work hard to keep up with the changing light conditions. As a result some of the images were blown out. Maybe if it was a 12bit camera ….

I’ve been looking for a good indie film camera for a while now. After the rather disappointing release of the new canon 5Diii and the high price of the c300  I felt it would be next year before something suitable came a long. How wrong i was….

http://www.blackmagic-design.com/products/blackmagiccinemacamera/