You know what's ticking me off today? Butts.

I recently went on a trip that had me sitting through the finest in Tacoma traffic. I hear rumors that Tacoma is enjoying a bit of a rebirth of late. Good for them!

I don't see it.

But that is not the point.

The point is, while idling through Seattle's smelly step-sister to the south, I observed five seperate instances of drivers tossing cigarette butts out their car window. I suppose it wouldn't have bothered me so much if it was nothing more than a string of random occurances. But, as it turns out, it is something as common as overcast skies during a Seattle summer.

Somewhere between the invention of the filtered cigarette and 5 minutes ago, an unwritten rule was established that gave smokers carte blanche when it comes to butt disposal.

Smoking at the bus stop? Flick it into the bushes. Smoking in your car? Flick it into the next lane. Smoking outside the bar? Flick it to the curb. Smoking at your buddy's house? Please place butt gently into tattered old Folgers can by the back door and wipe your feet before re-entering.

And just to prove this isn't something I am just making up, here is a little experiment. Go anywhere in downtown Seattle - hell, go downtown in any city. And once you reach Anywhere, USA, look around you. I bet my little brother's milk money that it will take you a mere seconds to find that first used cigarette butt - that seemingly little, innocuous yellow or white cylindar tucked in a crack, corner or crevice. In fact, I bet that image is so common that you never stop to think about how disgusting it is to have entire cities infested with the nicotine keepsakes of so many smokers.

Do all smokers do this? Of course not.

Well, at least I hope not.

Do enough of them do this to make me write a blog about it. You betcha.

Bottomline? It is awful habit. And by that I do not mean smoking. There are other blogs out there, I am sure, that will preach about that little doozie. I am talking about smokers disrespecting everyone around them by throwing their trash around as though it is their right.

It is not.

And it ticks me off.

Words, words, words

Nickity Steez's post about writing got me thinking back to my writing days. I wrote fiction and was also a published poet in high school and college. Though I wore combat boots, ripped jeans, a biker leather jacket complete with zippers and chains, and sported some seriously bright fuschia hair in high school (I refuse to show any of you pictures), switching to radical feminist t-shirts in college, most of poetry was surprising non-angsty.

Many artists seem to feel that writers are not, in fact, artists. I beg to differ. Art originates in the mind and words can inspire and create imagery just as vibrantly visual creations. If you are an artist of any kind and you don't read, you are missing out on an amazingly vast and fruitful source of inspiration. I have always been a consummate bookworm and I read for the pure joy of reading and letting my imagination run away with the story rather than consuming knowledge (not that that's a bad thing either).

In the fast, furious, stressful, high-pressure world we live in, reading what I call "brain candy" or "comfort books" is a great way to relax your mind, use your right brain a little bit, and decompress. I've converted many a non-reader just by making them read the first Harry Potter book. No kidding. Tony Morrison calls the engagement of an open mind with another open mind "the peace of the dancing minds".

End of soapbox/stream-of-conscious crap.

Steez at the Movies.

My calendar says it is June. I don’t believe my calendar. And it’s not just the weather. Shit just doesn’t feel an ounce like summer. Well, to me that is.

With another wet and (fairly) cold hand dealt to the greater Seattle area on Saturday afternoon, some friends and I decided that a Saturday-Rainy-Afternoon-Double-Show-Day-at-the-Movies Day was more than in order. It’s been, no shit, probably 8 (if not 9) years since I’ve done that last. If my memory serves me correctly, the films were first Boiler Room and second Pitch Black.

I would’ve killed to have been viewing those films today in exchange for the 2 movies we did select. First: The Strangers. The Strangers is the latest horror film to successfully not be as cool as its trailer. Most horror movie trailers look like trash, and you wonder “who watches those movies?” But others will sport a great preview and then utterly fail to follow through (a small number has the great trailer / film combo. Like “The Descent”). Whereas I didn’t like the movie, at all, I have been pretty intrigued with the story behind it, the director’s inspiration. Part real life experience, part Manson Family murders, part grisly random stabbing-crime from the 80’s. Hands down, the best part of the film was the music.

With some time to kill before the second movie, thanks in part to The Strangers having (I shit you not) a 79min run time, we ducked into a variety of theaters (after scaring children waiting in line for Kung Fu Panda). Sex and the City, 2 different theaters, 2 different points in the movie … Same result, us giggling at the fact we were there.

With the second movie still a ways in the future, we bit the bullet and subjected ourselves to 20 rounds of the same ads and movie trivia (I guess you can call it that). Thanks again, The Strangers.

20 minutes.

Showtime… Indiana Jones and the Crytstal Skull Thing That’s Actually an Alien Cranium!!!! With Shia LeBeouf AND that lady who was in the other Indy, because *oh dear, spoiler* it turns out that Indy is his dad! Whaaat!

Honestly, this movie was the biggest pile of steaming, gleaming Hollywood bullshit that I’ve cared to even look at in a long, long time. That’s really all I have to say about it.

In other, more hopeful movie news… I’m checking out M. Night Shyamalan’s “The Happening.” Don’t you let me down, Marky Mark. After that, we have some Hellboy II and most importantly… the summer’s true (sorry RDJ and Iron Man) heavyweight, “The Dark Knight.”

(So the movie Gods, in fear that I was angry with my recent theater experience decided to throw me a bone … by rewarding my TV listing search with a showing of “Silence of the Lambs”.)

And that, is Steez at the Movies.

Feed Me.

Awhile back (say a year or so), it occurred to me that I’ve never had a legitimate creative pursuit. Furthermore, it occurred to me that whereas I can be a passionate person, I live my life without a passion that is unique to me. A driving force, something that I love. Because of this, I decided that I would delve into the world of writing, fiction specifically. After taking a class, trying to develop not only a hobby but to find and then increase my ability, starting a blog, and so forth ... I found that I often lack inspiration and let it all fall to the wayside. Working on not letting that happen.

My writing, I feel, is not something I'm particularly proud of ... But I think that’s because I have yet to find my identity (and I’m too harsh of a critic). One thing that I would like to discover, that would help my writing, my creativity, my livelihood is a way to translate (well) my brand of humor in a way that has an appeal for an audience.

I'm seeking inspiration.

Chomp-chomp.

Let me introduce myself...

Most of you know me as PM Extraordinaire :-) at DraftFCB, however, as some of you may know already, I am also a professional dancer specializing in bellydance and East Indian Bollywood dance. I am co-founder and assistant instructor/choreographer of the up-and-coming Blue Lotus Dance Co. Part of my responsibilities in the company is advertising and marketing so we are looking at different target markets and ways to reach our audiences in the Seattle area. The biggest market for what we are doing seems to be the large and affluent South Asian population in the Seattle Metro area. I am going to be working on some promotional designs so I may be asking for some opinions around the office as to the design and impact.

Here's our current web page although it's temporary until we can design and host a full site and domain for the company:
http://nalinidance.com/bluelotusdanceco.html

To the right is one of my original attempts (photography by Nick Chapman). I hope to keep you all abreast of upcoming public performances, I hope you can come see us sometime!

Andrea

more purple lighting!

RegnShoots_1
Originally uploaded by mostrostudios

Another really rough animation test. This is one of the many false starts over the past year or so as I am learning Maya. lighting sucks, animation speed is all wrong, animation itself is a little herky-jerky but there were a lot of lessons learned

flying stuff

DropShip_1
Originally uploaded by mostrostudios

This is an animation that will likely not make the first episode, It was done largely as a test -trying to figure out particle systems for clouds, lighting with refractive objects like glass etc. It was fun to create and didn't take too long to animate or render and it helped me understand how to break a scene intor layers and then composite them back together in Shake or Aftereffects

if obama looses...

i'm fucking moving north to vancouver!

btw... that's vancouver in the background

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oregon coast pre-jack

oregon coast post-jack

Delta-Schmelta.

www.flyderrie-air.com

A super-fabulous idea, indeed. I read an article recently that proffered, "If you ever wanna get a good and valid bead on the true pulse of the world, ask a comedian." What with our new world of fake news and sensationalism, I tend to agree. The darker, the angrier, the better. Too bad this here idea will never see the light of day.

Something To Mull On.

I was reading a bit of Wendell Berry over the weekend, and stumbled across this account of bravery. And I liked it very much.

To Know The Dark

To go in the dark with a light is to know the light.
To know the dark, go dark. Go without sight
and find that the dark, too, blooms and sings
and is traveled by dark feet, and dark wings.

Painting skin weights

blaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah,

that is how I feel today, just blah and it doesn't help that we have yet another cold , gray day here in Seattle.

So what have I been up to lately? Painting skin weights and creating blend shapes.

WTF is that? in order to create a 3d character you create a 'mesh' which is essentially the skin. Then you create a system of 'bones', 'joints', and controllers that mimic the movement of the human body or an elephant or a car for that matter. You then have to attach the mesh to that system so the bones and joints drive the skin. Maya has a push button for this called 'smooth skinning', you select the mesh, select the bones and hit a button and voila! The problem is that this system doesn't do a very good job of assigning which bone affects what part of the mesh. A mesh is a collection of vertices, and each vertex can be attached to several bones and joints which can make for very smooth and realistic looking skin as a charcter bends an arm or moves its foot or it can result in a mess. Maya's push button system results in a mesh. So in order to fix that you have to go through each bone in the rig and 'paint' how it influences the skin/mesh. It is a tedious, painstaking process that is so boring. It is somewhat rewarding when you rotate an arm or bend a knee and it looks like it should.

I spent probably 15 hours over the weekend painting skin weights for one character. And to be honest I am not 100% happy with the results. May have to go back and tidy up but for now I am moving on to the next character. Eight to do before I can actually start animating. ugh. but it has to be done.

The image is a screenshot of the process. In the image white means a value of 1 or 100% weight and black is 0 or 0% weight. So in this shot you can see that the jaw is not associated with the same joint that the head is. In this case I was painting the jaw so that it opens and closes without the mesh binding or breaking. Exciting stuff eh?

just after the 9/11 attacks

henry...

henry is becoming infinitely complex and interesting.

jack

when i was a small boy...

my father made me a wooden airplane. this one reminds me of it, though mine was golden with 12 gauge shells for jet engines.

first and jackson - seattle

this spring has been cold and rainy. it's june. where the fuck is the sun?

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jeanna gained 55 pounds with henry. here she is 151 pounds at 7 months.

kids are funny