:: The Secret life of a Visual FX Geek v01 ::

:: Friday, August 08, 2003 ::

My parents have started there roadtrip with my new S.
Since I couln't get a week off work to Break her in properly from Memphis to LA my parents volunteered (asked) if they could do it. My Father used to drive sports cars before he had kids and I think he misses it :)
They are driving around memphis today before heading north to Kansas City.
This is there first time in a MINI so they where not used to all the stares from people and the questions in parking lots, they are loving it. Best of all for me, when I get the car next Sat, the break in has been all done I can go right for the Santa Monica Mountains.

I will post pictures as I get them, but my new S is on the way here!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

YEA!!!!!!!

Major Thanks to Dorian Geraci at [URL=www.roadshowmini.com]Roadshow MINI[/URL] in Memphis. They can do a custom order for a Cooper or S today at MSRP.

Also thanks to there MINI Parts Guy Albert for helping me get some cool MINI gear for my Parents.


:: Posted by Techno 2:47 PM [+] ::
...

Long time no update.

Wow Life has been busy, I have been dealing with car issues, cash issues, and just life in general. Work is good though, working on 2 cool films. It's more of the same with some nice twists. The work looks good and that makes me happy. My girlfriend got me a very nice LaZboy for our anniversary, now thats love.

Some quick movie reviews:

The HULK rocked, I liked this film a lot. I liked the look of the HULK, yea he was CG, he is a 15' tall Green Guy, he can only look so real. I liked him just fine, but DAM did the F/A-22 Raptor and RAH-64 Comanche's Look great or what? I don't think most people in the theater even thought for a second that they where totaly CG. Major props to those teams.

Finding Nemo was the best movie I have seen this year. What more do I need to say? Visualy breathtaking and an emotional rollercoaster.

Matrix Reloaded.... I need to see Revolutions for a acurate review but I did enjoy it. To many action scenes, it seemed to have lost the mystery about it that the first one had. Now I liked superman Neo and they whole thing with the Architect was sweet.
:: Posted by Techno 10:09 AM [+] ::
...

VEGAS!

So we had a kick ass time in Las Vegas. I left 25 up and K left with $60 of the Sahara's money. I highly recomend gambleing at that fine place. They have $1,2, & 5 blackjack. We are all over the 1 and 2, that way if you loose you don't feal all that bad. We hung out with My friend Oli and his GF, He is also an FX artist. Vegas is just so much fun, We drove there this time and we made good time. Having a car there is nice. We might fly in next time and just rent a car. The Italian Job comes out this weekend, Go see it, I worked on it.

Gamefly.com

New service I am using to rent video games, so far so good, and for a guy who has Video Game ADD it works out well. I play a new game for 2 hours, send it back for a new one. This works out well as I get bored of games a lot and the $21 a month is worth it to me. Basicly thats only 1 game ever 2.3 months.
:: Posted by Techno 1:36 PM [+] ::
...

My Sister

So my sister wants me to give a talk at her school in 5 weeks when I go vist. I have never realy done the formal public speaking thing before. I am good with crowds as long as things are going well but if I start to bomb Im screwed. I like improve and it's kinda like that so I think it will work out. The usual length of the talks is an hour. I figure I can give alteast 15 min of that, if not 20 to Q&A. I can also make up some projects for the people at talk to work on. I need to write a discription of my talk, i will be working that out in the space below.

Proactive Goal Fulfillment or Don't let stupid people keep you from your goals.
My name is Brad Herman, you don't know me. I am not famous but my name has been on 8 movies. My name won't ring a bell but I am 23, I own a house in Los Angeles, I live with my Girlfriend who is a Chef, and I own my favorite car on the road. So how does someone a year older than some of you do that? I never take no for an answer, I don't let people stand in my way, and I don't take my self to seriously. Let's be clear about this, I work hard enough to get what I want but that doesn't mean I don't slack off. I can surf the net from work like nobodies business. The trick is that I always get my work done as well. It's a balancing act between my internal drive to distraction and my need to do good work. In the end it's all worth it, going to the movies and seeing my stuff on the big screen is a total validation for me. Well except for "Highlander 4" My work was really bad in that one, luckily no one saw the movie... Except my Parents. So in the spirit of a self help speaker I am going to try and impart to you a little bit of what I am all about.
:: Posted by Techno 5:14 PM [+] ::
...

Super Hero or Super Villain?

I recently got back into comic books and It occurred to me walking back from the noon meeting that we are right under the flight path of Santa Monica Airport. What would happen if some evil Scientist was trying to leave town with some horrible mutagen and it fell off the plane and exploded in our parking lot causing all kinds of mutations and super powers. It got me thinking, who here at DD would go the route of being a Super Hero and who would become a Supper Villain? I assume it would be a bell curve with the center being people who use there powers for fun but try to just live life. I can think of several people who I think would be Villains just because it is more fun, you make your own hours and steal any money you need, plus the cool hideouts. Being a Super Hero on the other hand is a very time consuming job, not to mention the whole secret identity thing. You have to keep all your loved ones away from the bad people and try to save the world. So I ask you, which side would you pick? Why? What powers would you have?
:: Posted by Techno 12:49 PM [+] ::
...

The days

Two days and lots of things happening. I found out that Paramount is having a screening of "The Italian Job" for MINI owners as a Drive in on there Lot. How cool is that? I RSVP'ed and then started geting word out to my friends. Tracy got a newsletter out to all SCMM memebers in record time. It looks like it will be one huge event and hey I get to see my name REALY big on the screen. Been working on ideas for stuff we can do at the event and if we can get people together afterwords to grab some food. Could be a great membership drive.

My boss's boss's boss sugested I do training in SideEffects Houdini Software, It's a cool package that I always ment to learn. I think I could do some cool stuff in it. They will be training me in it so who am I to complain? We got more shots finaled, just a few left to go and it's on to the next show. I realy enjoy it when we have film to watch. It's just refreshing to get away from your desk and see how the shots should look. Film just has this quality to it, it makes the shots look better than they ever can on a monitor. I hope that dosn't get lost on digital projection, I don't think it will. What gives it that feal is the dynamic range, the color curves and the material most of that can be emulated farly well by the big TI DLP's.
Back to learning Houdini...
:: Posted by Techno 5:58 PM [+] ::
...

Right on Time

4pm and the lull is over, cram time!
:: Posted by Techno 4:13 PM [+] ::
...

Final Strech

Ahh the odd lull at the end, 2D is off making the shots look nice and I wait for something to go very wrong. It's odd just sitting here waiting, I am doing something productive, a motion file viewer.
:: Posted by Techno 3:09 PM [+] ::
...