My Artwork – 3

September 17, 2017alexworkshop

I believe I can fly
I believe everyone has a purpose in life. And I do believe that everyone can fly, just pursue your dreams with passion. Time is never planned, just think of happy things and your heart will fly on wings.

我相信每人都有無形的翅膀，可以遨遊天際，只是我們會讓它長出來嗎？天空廣闊任意飛翔。

flying_alexworkshop

If I fly or if I fall, at least I can say I gave it all. (September 2017)

chicken_alexworkshop

Year of Rooster. (January 2017)

touch_the_sky

I want to touch the sky.
只要肯努力去尋找，總有一片天是屬於自己的，懷念從前，只會裹足不前。
(October 2016)

areo_alexworkshop

Give your stress wings and let it fly away.
那一天我會飛….我真的可以飛嗎？
(April 2016)

I_believe_alexworkshop

I believe I can fly
I believe I can touch the sky
I think about it every night and day
Spread my wings and fly away….
自由自在地飛，世界太精彩吧….
( November 2015)

Panoramic Photo Retouching in Photoshop

September 16, 2017alexworkshop

The Domemaster Photoshop Actions Pack is a collection of custom Adobe Photoshop actions – written by my friend Andrew Hazelden – designed to speed up the fulldome content creation workflow.

The actions provide tools for converting images from several common panoramic formats such as angular fisheye, equirectangular, and cube map panoramas, and general utilities for VR and fulldome production.

The Domemaster Photoshop Actions Pack is compatible with Photoshop both Mac and Windows.

This tutorial will show you how to remove the tripod from the bottom by using Domemaster Photoshop Actions Pack. The below panoramic 360 degree photos was taken by Ricoh Theta S camera at Hashiguiiwa (橋杭岩) in Wakayama-ken.

original_Latlong_image

Firstly, I start by opening the 2:1 aspect ration LatLong image in Photoshop.

Step_01

Then using the Domemaster Photoshop Actions pack toolset and run the General Utilties > Rotate 180 degree action, and then the Transform > 2:1 Equirectangular to Angular Fisheye action. This gives you a downward looking angular fisheye image to use for the tripod zone cloning process.

actions_pack

Step_03

After that, you need to use the Photoshop clone stamp tool to retouch and remove the tripod.

tripod_retouched

Next, you have to covert the retouched image by using “Conversions > Angular Fisheye to 2:1 Equirectangular” action to convert the image back into a LatLong projection.

Step_07

Since re-projecting a panorama can soften the image details, I suggest you add a layer mask to the repaired image in Photoshop and keep only the patched tripod zone at the bottom 25% of the frame. This means you will use the original image data for the top 75% of the LatLong picture that the audience is looking at most of the time.

Step_09

This little Pack will save your Day! There seriously is no easier way to edit 360 Panoramic Footage in Photoshop then this. So a big THANKS to Andrew Hazelden for this great job!

My Artwork – 2

August 6, 2017alexworkshop

How do I stop over thinking at night?
Anxiety can be so tough to deal with, your mind can’t stop thinking because you have too much stress to deal with. Sleeping pills are an instant and often effective answer to insomnia, but I find doing sketches is good because I can stop overthinking at night by focusing on it.

寧靜的夜深，睡不著，思潮起伏，回憶總是教人波瀾蕩漾。

sleepless_03 I’m super tired but I can’t sleep….. OMG
(Feb 2017)

sleepless_01 Sleeping is so hard when you can’t stop thinking…..
睡不著… 就好好享受寧靜。
(Jan 2016)

sleepless_04 I just want to sleep and sleep and sleep and sleep……
睡覺可不是一件容易的事。
(Aug 2016)

sleepless_05 I think I need sleeping pills….
我想我真的需要睡一睡。
(Sep 2016)

My Artwork – 1

July 22, 2017alexworkshop

I believe everyone has at least one talent – something they are REALLY good at. There are some of my sketches I really like…

ant Life depends on the little things we take for granted.
我是一隻小小小的螞蟻。
(Aug 2017)

teamates Teammates have your back. So if you fall you’ll always have people to help you back onto your feet. Thanks to all my true friends who love and support me…..
我沒擁有太多東西，當我倒下時，我背後總有一班老朋友，要感謝的朋友們，大家心照不宣。
(Jul 2016)

Delete_Memories I need to ‘delete’ some unwanted memories and people…..
把某些壞記憶删除，或許對自己是有益的事！
(Mar 2017)

move_on Sometimes you have to accept the fact that certain things will never go back to how they use to be.
明天又是新的一天，繼續向前行，我要加油。
(Apr 2016)

Fear Don’t let your fear of what could happen make noting happen.
心中的魔鬼告訴我，你不可能成功，但真的有魔鬼嗎? 如果心中的魔鬼想打倒我，我真的可以反擊它嗎？此刻的我真的充滿疑慮……
(Oct 2016)

UV Editor – Maya

July 21, 2017alexworkshop

Lemon_UV

The UV Editor lets you view and interactively edit the UV texture coordinates for polygon, NURBS, and subdivision surfaces within a 2D view. You can access it from either Windows > UV Editor or the UV > UV Editor menu in the Modeling menu set.

You can select, move, scale, and generally modify the UV topology for a surface very much like you work with other modeling tools within Maya. You can also view the image associated with the assigned texture map as a backdrop within the UV Editor and modify the UV layout to match as required.

UV_Tool

All major UV tasks are accessible either via the UV Editor‘s toolbar and menus, or from the Modeling menu set’s UV menu.

pig_cup_uv

The above image is the UV Editor View of Mr. Absent Minded’s coffee cup.

Lemon_outUV_color

UV texture coordinates for the Lemon in the UV Editor’s 2D view.

coffee_fb

Mr. Absent Minded coffee cup rendered by Mental Ray for Maya 2016.

messi_lemon_tea_fb

Messy Messi lemon tea cup rendered by Mental Ray for Maya 2016.

How to create and edit a virtual reality scene

July 8, 2017alexworkshop

In this tutorial, I will show you how to set up a VR scene in Maya and render a 360° scene by using the VR toolset of PlayblastVR for Maya and KartaVR for Fusion. These two awesome plug-ins were produced by my friend Andrew Hazelden.

playblastVR_alexworkshop

If you already have a scene put together, feel free to use that. In my case, I am using my Mr. Absent Minded Character with his house.

playblastVR_setting

The PlayblastVR renderer allows you to create immersive previz renderings of Maya scenes in Angular Fisheye, LatLong, cubic panorama formats.

D:/Maya Project Folder/Pig House Project/scenes/Sphere_Bg_House.

This is a Equirectangular (LatLong) format.

kolorEye_alexworkshop

After a PlayblastVR panoramic rendering is complete it can be sent automatically to a panoramic viewing program or a video playback tool like DJV Viewer, Adobe SpeedGrade, Amateras Dome Player, Assimilate Scratch and Scratch Player, Buf Software BVIEW, Domemaster3D DomeViewer, Kolor Eyes, GoPro VR Player, QuickTime, Whirligig, Whirligig SteamVR, VLC, VLCwarp Player, RV, Live View Rift, FCheck, or IMF Display.

Note

Google Cardboard brings immersive experiences to everyone in a simple and affordable way. Whether you fold your own or buy a Works with Google Cardboard certified viewer, you’re just one step away from experiencing virtual reality on your smartphone.

BoxCard_alexworkshop

With a wide variety of viewers to choose from, you’re sure to find one that fits you just right. This Mr. Absent Minded cardboard was a hand made product by my own.

stereoFusion_1024

The KartaVR plug-in works inside of Blackmagic Design’s powerful node based Fusion Studio compositing software. It provides the essential tools for VR, panoramic 360° video stitching, and image editing workflows.

defishingand rotate.jpg

KartaVR plug-in provides the essential tools for VR, panoramic 360° video stitching, and image editing workflows, the Marcos included Defishing and Rotating effects.

half_color_anaglyph_Glasses

The StereoAnaglyphHalfColorMerge node is used to create an anaglyph red/cyan 3D glasses style stereo image by merging a pair of left and right images. It is one of the powerful features of KartaVR plug-in.

Krita – Digital Painting

July 7, 2017alexworkshop

I’ve been using Krita for a while. Krita isn’t too complicated and I would like to recommend it to anyone who love digital painting. Krita is a professional FREE and open source painting program. It is made by artists that want to see affordable art tools for everyone.

Step_5

Cazu Brush Collection is an awesome set of brushes for Krita.

natural media

There are 5 groups or families, according to use or nature of the brushes: Basics, Concept, FX , Natural Media and Speedpainting. Each group is independent of the other, so you can download and use just a single group, or all you want. Under Natural Media group, you will find 4 Art Style brushes to simulate art strokes: Dripping, Impressionism, Pointillism and Cubism.

final

Wynton Marsalis – Photo by Whit Lane and Marylene Mey (reference photo)

Arnold Renderer

July 7, 2017alexworkshop

Arnold was bundled for free in the Autodesk Maya since version 2017. It will no longer include licenses for NVIDIA’s Mental Ray with Maya. Arnold has supported plug-ins available for Maya, Houdini, Cinema 4D, 3ds Max, Katana and Softimage.

Absent_Table_wireframe

Absent_Table

I had done some testings with Arnold Renderer. Arnold gives me outstanding image quality. It is about being able to have a high degree of control over how the image is created and every attribute. The render time of Arnold Render is longer as it is a unidirectional path tracer that uses a “brute force” method that is slower but more precise than mental ray approaches like final gathering which can look a bit blurry on indoor scenes.

UVeditor_AM_Maya2017

Arnold is used by many visual effects and animations studios to produce stunning imagery for films and TV, like Pacific Rim and Gravity.

alexworkshop

I love creative and have great passion for illustration, digital painting, 3D animation, 3D printing, 360 photography, fulldome & VR.

Menu

Search

Author: alexworkshop