BrownGrafix

In Silico – a posse ad esse

Kind of a odd name for a video, huh? So what’s it mean? Well, the definition of the Dog-Latin phrase “In Silico” is: “done or produced by using computer software or simulation”. The definition of the Latin phrase “a posse ad esse” is: “from possibility to actuality”. Put them together and well, you get the picture.

And hey, thanks for your patience! As usual, this video took a significant amount of time to put together. I won’t bore you with the details, but just know that this is not an undertaking for the impatient! I hope that you’ll agree with me that the final product was worth the wait though.

On a technical note, this video marks my first attempt at rendering at 60FPS (frames per second). The standard frame rate that I’ve rendered to in the past has been 30FPS. Doubling the rate makes for an exceptional viewing experience as details stay crisper in motion. So if you have the bandwidth, I highly recommend watching the video at 1080p60 or 720p60. Most browsers should support 60FPS on YouTube now.

Enjoy.

Mandelbulb3D Animation: Dark Folds (2014)

After way too much procrastinating, TV watching, and just general laziness, I finally decided to put the finishing touches on this short animation this prior weekend.

Regarding this video: the hardest part was finding the right music to accompany the animation. I literally spent months listening to one sample after another of royalty-free music, looking for the one with just the right feel. Hopefully, you’ll agree with me that the time spent was well worth it. As usual, props to Kevin Macleod for his generosity.

Actual rendering of the animation took about three months, generating 14,200 frames that were ultimately squeezed into two and a half minutes at 29.97 frames/sec by way of Premiere’s time-remapping facility.

BrownGrafix is back! Again!

Well, once again BrownGrafix.com is back up and running.

About 3-4 weeks ago I made a colossally unfortunate mistake that resulted in the total trashing of the website. However, rather than recreating the site from (non-existent) backups, I took the opportunity to re-imagine and rebuild the site from scratch. I apologize for the resulting brief outage and truly appreciate your patience as the website finally emerges from the ashes of destruction.

I do hope you find the new look and feel (as well as the content) enjoyable and/or interesting.

Truman

POVRay Animations: Toy Robots (2014)

Earlier this year I had an idea for a contemporary take on the classic toy robot with the blockety head and flashing lights. When I was a little kid playing on the mean streets of San Diego, I had one of these required boyhood gadgets and I loved it to death, broken arm, legs and all.

Unfortunately while developing this project the POVRay code got a little too convoluted and I lost a little too much interest. Funny how that seems to happen a lot.

Here are a few brief animation tests I created before dropping the project.