Well, it has been a while since I've posted. As usual I am slower than I'd like at updating this blog. But, there is still lots to say. First, I finished my first year of graduate school last week and I am excited to be on my last summer break. It's very fulfilling to look back on all of the things I've accomplished this school year and i look forward to finishing it all up next year.
Second, we've moved into a new apartment and I like it more everyday. We rented a small u-haul on Saturday and, with the help of several friends, got all of our furniture and most of our stuff into our new place. Last night Jess and I brought the cats over, and they have adjusted very well already.
Unfortunately, my body is getting mad for working so hard on Saturday (I'm sure that's not what it is, I'm just making something up) and I've been sick with a fever since last night. I wasn't feeling real great yesterday but I thought it was a mild cold or just allergies. But, I was up several hours through the night trying to keep my body cool. All that to say I am relaxing in our new apartment today and finally have some time to catch up on the internet.
But, that is only possible since I finally got the wireless working with our new internet service. I'm glad it wasn't to hard and that I was able to get it connected even though I'm not feeling real great. Jess or I will hopefully get some pictures of the new place posted sometime soon.
Two weeks from today will be my first day at Pixar! I am still very excited and have started to get pretty nervous about it. But, I know it will all work out and will be lots of fun.
That's all for now, have a great week.
Monday, May 19, 2008
Monday, May 5, 2008
"The World's Hardest Game"
It's an intimidating name I know. But this game is a LOT of fun if you like puzzle games. I got to level 26, and decided I had spent enough time with this game and should instead spend my time on other things. However, since there is no time limit, you can just leave it open in a tab and come back to it later. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did!
from: http://www.addictinggames.com/theworldshardestgame.html
If you are reading this through a rss reader, you can load the actual blog or goto the following link:
from: http://www.addictinggames.com/theworldshardestgame.html
If you are reading this through a rss reader, you can load the actual blog or goto the following link:
The World's Hardest GameTuesday, April 29, 2008
Three weeks of blah
So, I just realized that it has been a very long time since I've posted. It feels like the last three weeks have been days and days of the same stuff. At least in the school department. My wife's been wearing a foot brace for a week now, and so that involved setting up a doctors appointment and some other out of the ordinary events.
But, school has been time consuming and not very exciting. I have a final demo day for a group project in my graphics class. It's been very time consuming and pretty frustrating, but it is looking kind of cool. It's a program that loads 3D models and renders them like they were drawn with different styles of artistic strokes. I'll try to post the program itself or at least some screen shots at some point... maybe I'll do that now. Ok, I just made a couple screen shots. These just demonstrate a couple of the possibilities with our program. I moved the camera to show that these are real 3D models. The other cool thing is it does this all in real time, so you can move around the 3D world and have everything rendered like pencil art, or whatever. Once we have this presentation on Thursday, all I have left is to finish my other final project which is way too complicated to try and describe here. Have a great week.
But, school has been time consuming and not very exciting. I have a final demo day for a group project in my graphics class. It's been very time consuming and pretty frustrating, but it is looking kind of cool. It's a program that loads 3D models and renders them like they were drawn with different styles of artistic strokes. I'll try to post the program itself or at least some screen shots at some point... maybe I'll do that now. Ok, I just made a couple screen shots. These just demonstrate a couple of the possibilities with our program. I moved the camera to show that these are real 3D models. The other cool thing is it does this all in real time, so you can move around the 3D world and have everything rendered like pencil art, or whatever. Once we have this presentation on Thursday, all I have left is to finish my other final project which is way too complicated to try and describe here. Have a great week.
Wednesday, April 9, 2008
Publish via e-mail, Pixar, Links
This is the first time I've tried publishing a blog post via e-mail. Hopefully it will work just fine.
A few things today. First, my wonderful wife has finally started a blog. It is located here if you are interested. Also, to go along with that, I've added a post to it in the sidebar section entitled "Friends". Which brings me to my next point which is to let you know that I also added a feed reader that is being populated by my shared items in Google Reader. So, this will contain the last 5 things I've shared. Which will hopefully remain a selective list and won't change too often. But, today I wanted to point out the link to the story about Pixar. My dad e-mailed me the story this morning and I was very pleased at the detail CNN gave about the future releases of Disney and Pixar. Here is a full list of the upcoming Pixar releases and there respective release dates:
Wall-E
(the following are being released in 3D)
Up
Toy Story 1
Toy Story 2
Toy Story 3
Newt
The Bear and the Bow
Cars 2May 2008
May 2009
October 2009
February 2010
June 2010
Summer 2011
Christmas 2011
Summer 2012
So, this summer I will be working on one of these movies (or possibly one of the shorts that will go with one of these movies). Which still makes me VERY excited.
Also, I'm not sure if I've mentioned it before, but I have a list of interesting/fun links on the side bar as well in the section titled "Cool Sites" Feel free to check them out.
A few things today. First, my wonderful wife has finally started a blog. It is located here if you are interested. Also, to go along with that, I've added a post to it in the sidebar section entitled "Friends". Which brings me to my next point which is to let you know that I also added a feed reader that is being populated by my shared items in Google Reader. So, this will contain the last 5 things I've shared. Which will hopefully remain a selective list and won't change too often. But, today I wanted to point out the link to the story about Pixar. My dad e-mailed me the story this morning and I was very pleased at the detail CNN gave about the future releases of Disney and Pixar. Here is a full list of the upcoming Pixar releases and there respective release dates:
Wall-E
(the following are being released in 3D)
Up
Toy Story 1
Toy Story 2
Toy Story 3
Newt
The Bear and the Bow
Cars 2May 2008
May 2009
October 2009
February 2010
June 2010
Summer 2011
Christmas 2011
Summer 2012
So, this summer I will be working on one of these movies (or possibly one of the shorts that will go with one of these movies). Which still makes me VERY excited.
Also, I'm not sure if I've mentioned it before, but I have a list of interesting/fun links on the side bar as well in the section titled "Cool Sites" Feel free to check them out.
Wednesday, April 2, 2008
Mom, california, and school
Another quick update. First, I picked up my mom from the airport (Providence airport) last night and she will be staying with us until Monday which is fun and exciting since we hadn't seen either of my parents since graduation last May. It's hard though because I have school all week still which I will discuss in more detail in just a minute. My mom went to work with Jess today which should make the day more enjoyable for both of them.
To answer a question...the Pixar internship is paid, and it in itself is a huge answer to prayer. Before I was offered the position I knew it was paid, but I had no idea how much or any of the other details. Well, it turns out it pays better than any other internship that I know of! And since Jessica's 36 hour a week nanny job has been supporting us all year, it will be very good to have some more income that will help us survive the next year until graduation next May. So, that's a huge praise...oh and the position has a "standard" work week of 50 hours. Which could be interesting if I get a job there after school (they expect at least 50 hours from their employees). But, for now it is a blessing as well since anytime over 40 hours is time and a half. Also, since 50 is standard for them, you get paid for 50 even if you don't put in quite 50. So, that is good for me too. And, housing for interns is provided by Pixar in furnished intern apartments. So, I will have a roommate or two, but I don't have to worry about the cost.
Also of note. My school year ends the second week of May. Between then and when I leave for Pixar, Jessica and I will be moving into a new apartment. It is just about .5 a mile from where we currently live, but I think it fits us better than our current one. Mainly, I think the cost of utilities will be a lot more manageable. And there is A/C for the hot/muggy parts of summer. I'll try to remember to post pictures once we move.
Finally, I wanted to update a little about the current status of school. I've had a lot of programming projects this semester and that won't change until the semester is finished. I'm trying to finish the last regular assignment that I have. And then I will be working very hard on two final group projects. One for each of my classes. If you are at all interested in the work that I've done in my graphics class this semester, they are listed on the assignments page for the course. It can be found here. Also, since each of these assignments were based on one or more research papers form the last few year, the papers themselves can be found here. Image Analogies was the hardest, followed closely by Photon Mapping (my output at right). I won't go into details about these unless one of you want to know. But, they make some cool pictures. Both of my final projects are going to be a TON of work, but hopefully I will do the best I can and get it all done in the month that is left of school.
To answer a question...the Pixar internship is paid, and it in itself is a huge answer to prayer. Before I was offered the position I knew it was paid, but I had no idea how much or any of the other details. Well, it turns out it pays better than any other internship that I know of! And since Jessica's 36 hour a week nanny job has been supporting us all year, it will be very good to have some more income that will help us survive the next year until graduation next May. So, that's a huge praise...oh and the position has a "standard" work week of 50 hours. Which could be interesting if I get a job there after school (they expect at least 50 hours from their employees). But, for now it is a blessing as well since anytime over 40 hours is time and a half. Also, since 50 is standard for them, you get paid for 50 even if you don't put in quite 50. So, that is good for me too. And, housing for interns is provided by Pixar in furnished intern apartments. So, I will have a roommate or two, but I don't have to worry about the cost.
Also of note. My school year ends the second week of May. Between then and when I leave for Pixar, Jessica and I will be moving into a new apartment. It is just about .5 a mile from where we currently live, but I think it fits us better than our current one. Mainly, I think the cost of utilities will be a lot more manageable. And there is A/C for the hot/muggy parts of summer. I'll try to remember to post pictures once we move.
Finally, I wanted to update a little about the current status of school. I've had a lot of programming projects this semester and that won't change until the semester is finished. I'm trying to finish the last regular assignment that I have. And then I will be working very hard on two final group projects. One for each of my classes. If you are at all interested in the work that I've done in my graphics class this semester, they are listed on the assignments page for the course. It can be found here. Also, since each of these assignments were based on one or more research papers form the last few year, the papers themselves can be found here. Image Analogies was the hardest, followed closely by Photon Mapping (my output at right). I won't go into details about these unless one of you want to know. But, they make some cool pictures. Both of my final projects are going to be a TON of work, but hopefully I will do the best I can and get it all done in the month that is left of school.
Thursday, March 27, 2008
It's true ... and I'm happy
I got it. I am still in shock, but it is true. I am headed to California this summer to work as an intern at Pixar! Who would have thought!
I start on Monday, 6/2! It's a huge blessing in so many ways, with the only negative being that Jessica has to work this summer too, so she will be staying in Rhode Island while I am in California. Pixar is located in Emeryville which is next to Oakland, just across the bay from San Francisco.
I got hired as a Technical Director Intern and will be working on some upcoming Pixar film. I will be doing a lot of programming that will provide the animators with the tools that they need to make the movie. I will obviously post as I know more and continue to keep this updated while I am gone.
It is amazing to look at how this came about because of so many things happening in my life. I can only point this opportunity directly to God and the way he has directed my entire life. I really hope that this internship goes very well and opens up the perfect opportunities for me after I'm done with my degree next May. Thanks for keeping me (and Jess) in your prayers.
Saturday, March 15, 2008
Another update
So, I keep meaning to update this. I had the interview at Brown with some folks from Pixar on 2/28 (the day after I turned 23). It went really well. I finished another school project on the 26th (called Photon Mapping) and was able to add some resulting images from that to my demo reel. I also read through the tips on Pixar's site for what they look for in a reel and changed mine quite a bit. I like it a lot better now and here is what it looks like.
Also, yesterday morning I was contacted by one of the Pixar recruiters letting me know they wanted to set up a phone interview! I was super excited and they called me last night at 6:45. I felt really good about that too, and I should hear back in about two weeks as to whether or not I got the internship.
School has been VERY busy lately I finished another assignment this week that was very long and very hard. It's called image analogies and was a concept that was presented in a research paper a couple of years ago. If you actually care the paper can be found here: http://mrl.nyu.edu/publications/image-analogies/analogies-300dpi.pdf
If nothing else I'd suggest you open it up and look at all the cool pictures they "describe" what the paper is about a lot better than I could. (Just for clarification of the pictures, we give the program images A, A' and B, and it outputs B'). Very cool but very complicated.
Now, I'm starting some more fun projects. I get to do the math that allows animators to manipulated digital 3D objects. The technique is called character deformation and is used all the time in computer graphics. Hopefully I'll update on other things besides school sometime soon. It's just that it seems to be most of what my life consists of right now, unfortunately.
Also, yesterday morning I was contacted by one of the Pixar recruiters letting me know they wanted to set up a phone interview! I was super excited and they called me last night at 6:45. I felt really good about that too, and I should hear back in about two weeks as to whether or not I got the internship.
School has been VERY busy lately I finished another assignment this week that was very long and very hard. It's called image analogies and was a concept that was presented in a research paper a couple of years ago. If you actually care the paper can be found here: http://mrl.nyu.edu/publications/image-analogies/analogies-300dpi.pdf
If nothing else I'd suggest you open it up and look at all the cool pictures they "describe" what the paper is about a lot better than I could. (Just for clarification of the pictures, we give the program images A, A' and B, and it outputs B'). Very cool but very complicated.
Now, I'm starting some more fun projects. I get to do the math that allows animators to manipulated digital 3D objects. The technique is called character deformation and is used all the time in computer graphics. Hopefully I'll update on other things besides school sometime soon. It's just that it seems to be most of what my life consists of right now, unfortunately.
Thursday, February 21, 2008
Pixar...I hope!
I'm submitting my resume for an interview with Pixar next week. They will be on campus doing recruiting for summer internships. I really hope it works out...this is my dream internship. I'll make this post quick, I also should have a demo reel of some of my work for the interview, so I spent some time in the last 24 hours getting some of my work more put together, then threw it all into a video. Here it is, enjoy the music...odd choice, I know!
Wednesday, February 13, 2008
How exciting!
I do have readers! 2! Well, at least I know someone sees this. And just so you guys know, I read your as well...and have them both in my google reader list.
So, for an update. First it snowed last night. It was so peaceful and nice, then this morning...rain and frozen mush all over everything. Oh well. And we are supposed to have flash-flood conditions today and tomorrow.
Enough about the weather. So, first cool thing I found recently. A firefox extension that turns photo galleries into something truly amazing. It's called PicLens and if you have Firefox you can see what it does and get it for free at: http://www.piclens.com. (If you don't have/use Firefox, you should!) Here's a preview:
Also another firefox note, I really like this theme.
Ok, more personal now. Classes have really started and are extremely busy. Both classes are more work than I anticipated, but, in my graphics class we get to make some really pretty pictures in just a couple weeks. Using a technique called Photon Mapping. Essentially we model the characteristics of real photons bouncing around a scene and then render that on the scene. more about this hopefully once I get there. For now I'll say that I've been very slightly involved in work that has continued from my Vision final assignment last semester. Just a reminder that I did my final project on processing video for a multi-touch display system. Here's the final video output that I produced at the end of the project. And I will also link to the final research paper that I wrote and turned in. It is pretty technical, but feel free to at least look at the very professional format and the nifty pictures.
Obviously, with what I had to work with, my results were not perfect. The idea was that we simply want to keep track of any fingers touching the screen over a series of consecutive frames. Since I finished this project another Master's student has started his Mater's research by taking my results and some other ideas and beginning to create the software to actually allow us to use our multi-touch table. I will probably be helping out occasionally with this project, and it just might be the research I do for my degree also.
Here's the paper: http://cs.brown.edu/people/reid/VisionFinal.pdf
And the video:
So, for an update. First it snowed last night. It was so peaceful and nice, then this morning...rain and frozen mush all over everything. Oh well. And we are supposed to have flash-flood conditions today and tomorrow.
Enough about the weather. So, first cool thing I found recently. A firefox extension that turns photo galleries into something truly amazing. It's called PicLens and if you have Firefox you can see what it does and get it for free at: http://www.piclens.com. (If you don't have/use Firefox, you should!) Here's a preview:
Also another firefox note, I really like this theme.
Ok, more personal now. Classes have really started and are extremely busy. Both classes are more work than I anticipated, but, in my graphics class we get to make some really pretty pictures in just a couple weeks. Using a technique called Photon Mapping. Essentially we model the characteristics of real photons bouncing around a scene and then render that on the scene. more about this hopefully once I get there. For now I'll say that I've been very slightly involved in work that has continued from my Vision final assignment last semester. Just a reminder that I did my final project on processing video for a multi-touch display system. Here's the final video output that I produced at the end of the project. And I will also link to the final research paper that I wrote and turned in. It is pretty technical, but feel free to at least look at the very professional format and the nifty pictures.
Obviously, with what I had to work with, my results were not perfect. The idea was that we simply want to keep track of any fingers touching the screen over a series of consecutive frames. Since I finished this project another Master's student has started his Mater's research by taking my results and some other ideas and beginning to create the software to actually allow us to use our multi-touch table. I will probably be helping out occasionally with this project, and it just might be the research I do for my degree also.
Here's the paper: http://cs.brown.edu/people/reid/VisionFinal.pdf
And the video:
Wednesday, January 30, 2008
How sad!
Deep down I knew it really wasn't a good idea to start a blog when I was pretty sure that this would happen. I have no motivation to post. I honestly don't know if a single person has found this blog. (Except Selam who left me a comment.) So, if you read these, would you mind leaving a comment, I enjoying keeping people up to date on stuff, but it's hard if I don't know if there are very many people even here to update.
Well, classes started back up this week. Break was long and nice. I didn't have classes from 12/12 until 1/23! Jessica and I went to Disney World for almost 2 weeks! It was very relaxing and wonderful to get a real vacation. Now I'm back into classes and assignments. I am taking CS224 - Interactive Computer Graphics, and ENGN291 - 3D Photography and Geometry Processing. Both classes are graduate level (200+) and will be challenging! Lots of fun.
Well, classes started back up this week. Break was long and nice. I didn't have classes from 12/12 until 1/23! Jessica and I went to Disney World for almost 2 weeks! It was very relaxing and wonderful to get a real vacation. Now I'm back into classes and assignments. I am taking CS224 - Interactive Computer Graphics, and ENGN291 - 3D Photography and Geometry Processing. Both classes are graduate level (200+) and will be challenging! Lots of fun.
Tuesday, December 11, 2007
Coming to a close
The end of my first semester of grad school is almost at an end. My last assignment is due tomorrow, along with my last class. I've enjoyed both of my classes so much this semester! I hope you are all doing well. Christmas is approaching very rapidly. Fortunately, I am finished with the shopping that I have to do on my own. I am really looking forward to this break and getting some time to spend with friends, and hopefully getting to explore New England a little more. I don't start classes again until 1/23!
Our apartment is decorated for the holidays, and we both REALLY like how it turned out. Hopefully I can post a picture or two of our apartment.
I have no idea who has found this blog, so feel free to leave a comment or send me an e-mail and let me know you found me.
Well, that's all for now, back to work on my final project for Vision.
Our apartment is decorated for the holidays, and we both REALLY like how it turned out. Hopefully I can post a picture or two of our apartment.
I have no idea who has found this blog, so feel free to leave a comment or send me an e-mail and let me know you found me.
Well, that's all for now, back to work on my final project for Vision.
Wednesday, December 5, 2007
Really cool technology
I am starting to get involved with some research projects that are happening inside our graphics research group here at Brown. I am even working on this for my final project in my vision class. But, I thought I'd show you some of the amazing things that have already been completed in this area of research. The research topic is multi-touch displays. This allows direct interaction with a computer with more than just one mouse pointer as you can easily see in the videos that I've included below. These first videos are from Jeff Han, who is a researcher at NYU. Here is a demo he performed when he first unveiled his research to the public.
And another that shows more possibilities.
Similarly, another researcher, Johnny Lee at Carnegie Mellon has done some cool things that are related to multi-touch displays. But, here is another one of his videos that is a little bit different topic, but still very interesting.
Hope you guys like these videos. Another related project is the "Microsoft Surface" and there is a really cool video about it here:
That's it for now.
And another that shows more possibilities.
Similarly, another researcher, Johnny Lee at Carnegie Mellon has done some cool things that are related to multi-touch displays. But, here is another one of his videos that is a little bit different topic, but still very interesting.
Hope you guys like these videos. Another related project is the "Microsoft Surface" and there is a really cool video about it here:
That's it for now.
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