toddkumpf.tumblr.com

Mental Design...or something

Mon, 23 Nov 2009 19:03:00 -0500

One of the most important parts of design, particularly 3D modeling in my case, is how you think about a project. The way you develop and hold the information in your head will change your work flow.

What really got me into 3D modeling and animation was that it gave me to power to bring ideas to life. My overactive imagination would be responsible for conjuring up an idea and molding it into shape, while the computer software just does the job of bringing it into reality. Most of the planning and problem solving takes place in my head before I begin, leaving the act of creating it to a simple conversion from brain to computer screen.

I’ve attempted to describe this concept before, but was unable to find a suitable metaphor before stumbling upon the article below. Although it was written with a computer programmer in mind, the concept is exactly the same for a 3D artist or any graphic designer.

“A good programmer working intensively on his own code can hold it in his mind the way a mathematician holds a problem he’s working on. Mathematicians don’t answer questions by working them out on paper the way schoolchildren are taught to. They do more in their heads: they try to understand a problem space well enough that they can walk around it the way you can walk around the memory of the house you grew up in. At its best programming is the same. You hold the whole program in your head, and you can manipulate it at will.

That’s particularly valuable at the start of a project, because initially the most important thing is to be able to change what you’re doing. Not just to solve the problem in a different way, but to change the problem you’re solving.

Your code is your understanding of the problem you’re exploring. So it’s only when you have your code in your head that you really understand the problem.”

-Quoted from Holding a Program In One’s Head

The Sound of Epic

Sun, 15 Nov 2009 20:03:00 -0500

The Art of Advice

Tue, 20 Oct 2009 13:37:05 -0400

30 Pieces of Inspiring Words of Advice

I stumbled upon this yesterday and by the time I got finished reading it all, my mind and mood were in a new place. I love reading stuff like this, because it all just makes so much sense. It tells exactly the way life should be lived.

A Year of Time

Mon, 05 Oct 2009 19:48:56 -0400

Over the last year or so I’ve been putting together a time-lapse of Greenview & Grace. Eventually it will be part of a larger ongoing time related project I have brewing. For this particular segment, the idea is to slowly transition through an entire year at this location, which would include animated details like rain, cloud movement, leaves falling/blowing, environmental sound effects, etc.

This is just a rough compilation of some photos I’m working with. I’ll definitely be taking a new Fall shot when the trees really turn, and hopefully I’ll be able to get a nice thick layer of snow later this year.

ToddFX.com

Sat, 19 Sep 2009 21:57:00 -0400

There’s a bunch of new stuff up. One day sooner or later I want to update the whole style of the site, but for now at least the newest content is up.

By the way, it only took like a month for the “new look” here to fully arrive, but is finally here to stay.

Also check out http://chicago.toddkumpf.com.

The Look

Sun, 16 Aug 2009 23:23:00 -0400

I was never fully satisfied with the design I had come up with for the previous installment of toddkumpf.com, and never even got around to finishing it. I didn’t like the dark colors and messy layout, so I finally decided to revamp it all. I think this is a lot friendlier, and it will be much easier to manage as it’s being fed straight out of tumblr.com (blogging service). EDIT: Well, eventually it will be switched over. The new DNS information has to filter through the whole internet which could take 72 hours

Living Life

Wed, 05 Aug 2009 01:02:20 -0400

Living Life:

I like this article a lot.

3D Animation Reel

Mon, 27 Jul 2009 21:33:47 -0400

I finally got together a second reel concentrating on 3D animation. Now maybe I can grab the attention of Pixar or somebody!

Stuttering Forum

Fri, 24 Jul 2009 15:41:48 -0400

Stuttering Forum:

I’ve been spending a lot of time around this forum recently. There’s a lot of information and experiences being passed around, and being able to relate so closely to most of it is really inspiring as a stutterer. Also, I think this thread and this thread would be really interesting to a non-stutterer.

Sooner Than Later

Mon, 01 Jun 2009 22:02:00 -0400

I had initially planned for a lot more to be happening here. I tend to over-plan websites, and end up not having the spare time I thought I would. But now that I’m unemployeed again, I should be able to get things around here into shape and maybe get back into the blogging habit.

Test

Sat, 11 Apr 2009 23:41:58 -0400

From phone using tumbla app

I did this the other night as a VRay and AE compositing...

Sun, 05 Apr 2009 23:04:00 -0400

I did this the other night as a VRay and AE compositing exersize. I made it half way through the extended series while I worked.

This isn’t the final version, and an animation of the forging process is in the works. Click the thumbnail for an HD version.

"McCain called Obama to congratulate him, and Obama told the Arizona senator he was eager to sit down..."

Wed, 05 Nov 2008 02:21:00 -0500

“

McCain called Obama to congratulate him, and Obama told the Arizona senator he was eager to sit down and talk about how the two of them can work together.

President Bush also called Obama to offer his congratulations.

Bush told Obama he was about to begin one of the great journeys of his life, and invited him to visit the White House as soon as it could be arranged

”

- http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/11/04/election.president/index.html?eref=rss_topstories

Animated Graffiti

Mon, 09 Jun 2008 07:27:20 -0400

Never before have I considered the possibility of those two words being used together. The result is very cool.

Rendered By the Gods

Wed, 04 Jun 2008 03:51:00 -0400

This snippet from a conversation in class today makes me giggle. We were screwing around with our projects in Maya, and Jesse started talking about the dynamics of gravity.

Jesse - “Make gravity 9.7 and people start to float away, make it 9.9 and people get short and fat.”

Me - “Yea Earth has perfect attributes.”

Dereck - “It’s quite the render.”

Maybe I’ll edit my demo reel to this song

Fri, 30 May 2008 03:43:19 -0400

Maybe I’ll edit my demo reel to this song

Lacking Inspiration or Over Inspired?

Tue, 29 Apr 2008 03:11:52 -0400

Once again I find myself swamped with projects leaving little time left over for personal interests. I mean, I’ve had my camera for over a month now and the coolest thing I’ve done with it is film the cat - WTF! I really ~~want~~ need to make something with it.

One of my favorite past times is to listen to music and visualize something that might go with it. My friend Derrick writes some pretty trippy music, which would be perfect for a crazy abstract film project. Maybe something like this. But at the same time there are at least half a dozen 3D composites I’ve always wanted to do. Now that I finally have my own camera at my disposal, I’m so busy with stuff for school that it seems like I’ll never be able to get around to doing anything.

When I started typing this I had intended to cover something a bit more completely, but now I’m bored with it and am just going to go to sleep!

Automatic House will Save the World

Sun, 20 Apr 2008 04:25:00 -0400

The advanced technology yet simple concept of zeroHouse will be the way we live in the future. The house generates its own electricity with large solar panels which double as the rain collectors. Gravity is used to feed the plumbing rather than a pump, and it can and process all organic waste into compost which you could then use to help grow something. The rooms, lit only by LED clusters, are zoned out and have individual climate control. It monitors all of this subconsciously with a brain you can control from a laptop.

I can imagine a whole country or maybe even a new planet becoming colonized by a community who use this type of technology to live completely sustainable. Other than working for your food and an internet connection, you’d have no rent or bills to pay. Not having to work as much would mean you would be free to spend more money on luxuries, and have more time to relax. Sounds pretty nice to me.

Lolcat Haz Green Eyebawz

Thu, 10 Apr 2008 02:22:46 -0400

Animals are incredibly interesting. Having Molly around the house is great because she offers departure from the mass quantity of humans that surround us. What I mean to say is that it’s really nice having her perspective of life to observe and ponder, because we humans really take our species for granted. While it’s obvious that we have a far more superior noggin than animals like cats, I believe they possess just as much personality. I like trying to imagine what life must be like for Molly, and enjoy analyzing her actions and mannerisms. She’s also really purdy to look at.

Oh and here she is looking silly out of focus, and here she demonstrates caustics.

Rediscovering the Internet

Wed, 02 Apr 2008 22:29:21 -0400

Getting bored of the internet? Think you’ve seen it all? So did I until I stumbled upon a little plug in for Firefox called StumbleUpon.

After a quick register and install, you’re presented with a set of options and categories which you tune to suit your interests. Clicking the Stumble button will, according to your selected categories, take you to a random site, image, or video that you’ll probably enjoy very much.

You can stumble at your own pace, either taking the time to read every single discovery or quickly jumping around until you find something that really sparks your interest.

By designating if you like or dislike the content it brings you to (by clicking the appropriate button on the StumbleUpon toolbar), it does a good job of narrowing down your probable results to your liking.

In addition to having decent AI, the toolbar also has a persistent memory. Every time you tell it you like something, it adds that site to your favorites, which is like an everlasting list of bookmarks. You can access this folder of gems anywhere you go by just logging in to stumbleupon.com.

StumbleUpon is the Stargate of the internet, opening wormholes to wonderful far away places that you’ve never even thought about. It really is quite addictive and will soak up a lot of free time. This pretty much sums it up: