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Here’s today’s Pixels:

• Free Textures: Grunge Bricks
• Free EPS Files: 95 Amazing & Colorful Floral Designs
• Tutorial: Creating a Vintage Camera in Photoshop
• Tutorial: Using the CSTool Easy Cam in Cinema4D
• 100+ Maya 3D Tutorials
• Video: The Best of Solidworks World 2010

Also, I’ve added another addendum to the popular “Scientific Research in Second Life“, with the following call to action:

Also, if anyone out there meets this criteria, please drop me a line at [email protected] :Using SecondLife, ScienceSim, or any OpenSim based project (OSGrid, ReactionGrid, etc) to visualize and analysis data from a computational simulation run on an HPC platform that is used for actual insight and action.  Not for computational research, but to actually create real actionable data for real products.

Weather simulations, blast codes, weight strains, computational chemistry, anything is a go.

I know there are several groups doing Sociological research inworld, and I’ve seen several examples and papers of people performing “Can it be done Inworld” research with computational simulations, but I’ve failed at finding any significant number of people actually using it for “real work” inworld (aside from meetings).  If you know of any (I already found Astrosim, which looks interesting), let me know!

Science pixels, secondlife, virtual worlds

The new centerpiece of the Fraunhofer Heinrich Hertz Institute’s (HHI) Tomorrow’s Immersive Media Experience Lab (TIME Lab) is a huge 7 megapixel 180-degree display 12 meters wide driven by 7 of projectiondesign’s F32 DLP projectors.

“The aim of this installation is to allow digital film experts and famous film directors such as Tom Tykwer, to dive into and discover the fascination of digital cinema projection and video systems, evolving scripts and global economic challenges. At the event visitors will be treated to a true multi-media environment that offers full acoustic and visual experience of live event broadcasting and a range of novel film formats. Our projection system is designed for the future and the fantastic image quality of the projectiondeisgn projectors has made the display the centrepiece of the HHI TiME Lab,” says Christian Weissig from the Image Processing Department at the Fraunhofer Heinrich Hertz Institute in Berlin, Germany.

In particular I love the construction of the reflection panels on the ceiling, the projectors are mounted in a half-circle pointed downwards with reflectors, all shown in the pictures.  The official launch is this Friday, but you can see several pictures of the installation at their site.  Full press release after the break.

Update 2/28/10: Corrected a misspelling of Weissig’s name.

Read more…

Science display, fraunhofer, immersive, projectiondesign

The U.S. Department of Agriculture has a new interactive site called the new Food Environment Atlas. This site allows you to take certain predetermined criteria and have them displayed on a map of the United States. For example, you can graph the availability of food stores or restaurants within a certain area. However, the site is not just limited to food issues. You can also plot the physical activity of adults or teenagers onto the map. You can look at where different races are concentrated in the United States. You can even look at the median household income. All in all, this is a great site to visit. I wish more government agencies gave access to data in this manner.

via : Food Environment Atlas

Graphics infographic

Users to Autodesk products may have heard of the upcoming ‘Project Excalibur’ or Autodesk XBR which was leaked a while back, and shown in a public webinar on January 27th.  Now some great example videos have come out showing some of the soft modeling features that make it a possible competitor for ZBrush and add a whole slew of new functionality.

After the break I’ve embedded two more for you to enjoy.

If you’re not familiar with Project Excalibur, CGArchitect has the entire webinar online here.

Read more…

Graphics autodesk, software, xbr

Follow on Google Buzz

While the jury is still out on whether Google Buzz will redefine the internet and social media, or fizzle into the plethora of social media options, the buzz on buzz is too big to ignore.  You’ve probably already noticed the neat little “Buzz This” buttons accompanying posts, and those of you using Buzz can now subscribe to our Google Buzz feed.  Simply head on over to http://www.google.com/profiles/vizworld00 and you can see our latest stories and comment on them right there!

So far the only real “plus” I’ve seen about Google Buzz is that it combines the immediacy of Twitter with the conversation threading of FriendFeed, all the while removing the 140-character limit.  So check it out, let us know what you think.

Website buzz, google, social media, Website

The Apple Trailers site has a new page up for Toy Story 3 will all of the official trailers, including a new one from February 11th.  Their synopsis of the film:

The creators of the beloved “Toy Story” films re—open the toy box and bring moviegoers back to the delightful world of Woody, Buzz and our favorite gang of toy characters in TOY STORY 3. Woody and Buzz had accepted that their owner Andy would grow up someday, but what happens when that day arrives? In the third installment, Andy is preparing to depart for college, leaving his loyal toys troubled about their uncertain future. Lee Unkrich (co—director of “Toy Story 2” and “Finding Nemo”) directs this highly anticipated film, and Michael Arndt, the Academy Award®—winning screenwriter of “Little Miss Sunshine,” brings his unique talents and comedic sensibilities to the proceedings.

Scheduled for release June 18th, and available in Disney 3D.

Apple Trailers : Toy Story 3

Graphics disney, movie, pixar, toystory3

This week’s recommended resource is for all of you fans of ZBrush’s organic modeling and sculpting tools, but find your models still lacking that little something that brings them to life.  “ZBrush Digital Sculpting Human Anatomy” from Scott Spencer aims to give you the concepts required to make your models more human and more lifelike.

Create memorable human figures for movies and games

To create compelling characters, you need to make them realistic, and ZBrush by itself can take you only so far. You also need solid artistic skills. This full-color, illustrated guide teaches you the basics of human anatomy, so you can create captivating human figures that really come to life on screen.

Using ZBrush 3.5 tools, you'll sculpt a heroic male figure, learning each body part as you go, including head, neck, torso, arms, legs, bones, and muscle. This book emphasizes concepts that have guided artists for centuries, such as gesture, form, and proportion, helping you develop foundational skills you can draw upon throughout your career. Transform your animation into professional-level artistry with this must-have guide.

• Understand the basic tenets of form, proportion, gesture, and rhythm
• Master basic anatomical terms for skeletal regions and muscle groups
• Break down the regions of the body into simple geometric shapes
• Begin roughing in your figure with Claytubes and other tools
• Create the impression of flesh over underlying muscle and bone
• Learn ZBrush remeshing and color-mapping techniques
• Flesh out your figure with fine detail and costuming
• Repurpose your figure for film, video games, Web, or digital output

Build skills you can also apply to Maya®, 3ds Max, Blender, and Photoshop

VALUABLE COMPANION DVD

Enhance your learning with video instruction that walks you through the projects in the book. You'll also find anatomy models to use for practice.

Use ZBrush tools to perfect the fine detail of muscle construction

Sculpt different kinds of fabric to clad a heroic character

Lay the groundwork for believable facial expression with a solid foundation

This book and many others are available in the VizWorld Store.

Graphics resource of the week, zbrush

We told you earlier about the infographic contest that Good magazine was holding. We told you yesterday that the contestants were published on-line for everyone to view. We even told you which one that we thought was the best. It turns out that we weren’t the only ones who thought that Emily Schwartzman had done a great job.

Emily Schwartzman—whose graphic, “Aftermath of the Haiti Earthquake,” clearly and concisely depicts both the human toll of the earthquake and the scope of the earthquake itself—is our winner. Schwartzman will take home our prize package, including a GOOD T-shirt and a free subscription. You’ll be able to see her infographic in print in our next issue as well as on the Design for Haiti site.

via Haiti Earthquake Infographic Contest Winner Announced – GOOD Blog – GOOD.

Graphics haiti, infographic

CoolInfographics has posted a link to an infographic explaining how to use CD laddering to gain a higher interest rate on your money. With interest rates at banks accounts paying close to 0%, we can use all the help that we can to earn more interest on the money that we have saved. What is CD laddering you ask? Well, from the original site:

CD laddering is a strategy that allows you to take advantage of the higher cash rates offered by CDs, while at the same time ensuring that you have access to your money regularly.

via How to Build a CD Ladder (Infographic)

Graphics infographic

ASGVIS has now officially released the new VRay for Sketchup for both Mac & PC’s, including new support for ambient occlusion, IES lights, and improved parsing times.  This is also the first official version that runs natively in the Mac OSX environment.  Some choice quotes:

“Amazingly fast! Instead of rendering one image per night I’m cooking five in one day. Great work ASGVIS, rendering on Mac is smooth. I’m sure my interiors will benefit from the new features as IES!” – Johannes Roevens

“The addition of Ambient Occlusion in V-Ray for SketchUp adds a new level of realism for architectural visualizations, making the details and shadows in interiors “pop” and creating an instant convincing dirt effect to exterior surfaces.” – Jackson Barkess

Retails for $799 USD, and is available from http://software.asgvis.com or through an ASGVIS reseller. Full press release with details after the break.

Read more…

Graphics asgvis, sketchup, software, vray