Seed Project

Working at SideFX has exposed me to some of the smartest people I have ever met. I was shown something today at our Houdini office in Santa Monica that is either the kewlest? or weirdest thing I have ever seen, but I haven't decided yet.

It's called the seed ( ) project...and it's creator terms himself as a human assistant and wishes to remain nameless. I know, I know - all so mysterious, but let me explain.


You see in his words...He

"connects plants to a hacked human bio feedback system in order to reroute their signals into various computers that trigger real time I eavesdrop on the bio signals of plants and remap their output to signals that fall within the human sensory spectrum, allowing the viewer to hear and see their natural beauty and ponder their sentience. As we acknowledge the subjectivity of science; the viewer is asked to consider alternative consciousnesses. The hope is that the work provokes discourse resulting in greater respect and protective action towards the beings that create the air we breathe amongst other things we all depend on."

In my words...He

"plugs a computer into plants and lets them draw."

This doesn't really have anything to do with animation, but I thought it was interesting and really brainy and funny. When you mix and artists with math and computers, you get some crazy output! Check it out!

Plants drawing pictures with computers...
soon they will be animating!
Crazy Huh?




And if you want to hear the music a plant makes?
Click here...

If you want to speak to the human assistant...
email drobert@seedrobotics.com

Back From Toronto/SideFX

Tuesday May 8th, 2007

So, I had my first trip ever to Canada. SideFX sent me to the Toronto Office to meet all of the fantastic brains behind the software. I thought I would take the Mad Hatter's advice from Alice in Wonderland and "start at the beginning and when I get to the end? STOP!"
Before I talk about the headquarters office, I think I should share a bit about my trip and what it's like to be an American entering Canada for the first time.

Now, I traveled to Japan when I worked for CAPCOM/Japan in Osaka, so I am not a novice to overseas travel. BUT! I also am the type that - even if I am not guilty of something?? you could probably convince me I am...if you have a gun and there is promise of jail time.

The flight was a little over 4 hours and I landed on Canadian soil around 5:30 pm Canadian time.

I go through customs with my little immigration card filled out and this woman keeps asking me questions in this accusatory way.

"Where are you staying?"
I don't have my stuff together and have to dig for the papers "Stra..straconus hotel?" I say...unconvinced myself about this name...

She frowns..."Business or pleasure?"
"Business" I say...

"Who do you work for?"
"Side Effects, well Houdini, well SideFX makes Houdini Software."
She looks at me unconvinced and puts a big pink highlighter mark across my card.

I think to myself as I walk down the hall to baggage claim...she must really hate her job!
This other woman looks at my card and waves me away from the bags. I am instructed to go down this hall and to the "zig zag of ropes." It feels like I am going to ride on a roller coaster at Disneyland. I walk up to the next immigrations agent - another woman with a big scowl on her face. Who asks the same questions.

Now, in retrospect I shouldn't have used words like freelance, consultant and contractor. She tells me I have to buy a $150 work permit to get into the country. I try to explain that SideFX is the HQ and I will be paid in American Dollars and blah blah blah and she starts quoting the NAFTA Trade Agreement and I think...

"Dammit, I will just pay the stupid $150."

But there's more, and I am starting to think
I should have read this book before entering that line...

She continues to ask questions and finds out I "might" be working on a computer. She says, "You know, to work on a computer in Canada...you have to take a test."

A TEST!!!???
I am thinking to myself, if it's code
I am sooo not gonna pass
and I am not sure I could pass an excel sheet test!
WTF is wrong with these Canadians!

She asks me what my degree was in school, I say Electronic Arts and a minor in Drawing, to which she now rolls her eyes. I want so badly to answer the questions correctly so I can just leave! She finally tells me she will not make me take the test and staples this huge piece of paper with official stamps all over it to my passport.

Now I am officially allowed in Canada.

So, next...I finally head to baggage claim and the bags are all gone! Was my luggage lost? Did someone take it? Can anything else go wrong?

Finally the American Airlines agent asks if she can help me and shows me my luggage behind the counter - Whew! My favorite jeans were in that bag! It's about 72 degrees (whatever that is in Celsius?) and I take the shuttle from the airport.

Thank god the shuttle had AC because the humidity reminds me how spoiled I am living at the beach in LA. As we drive along the waterfront everything looks similar to the boardwalk in Venice! people are rollerblading, riding bikes, playing football, and even rowing on the lake.

I comment on a few of the buildings and sights to the bus driver and he asks the dumb American if I know "what lake that is." Okay, now before you all blast me on my sad representation of Americans and the public school system, let me say this was a last minute trip and barely had time to google if Toronto is on the west or east coast of Canada! I know, I am pathetic.

So, I say Erie Lake? The whole bus giggles at me and the driver gives me hell the rest of the way to the hotel. BTW if anyone doesn't know...it's Lake Ontario.

So, we drive past the Hockey Hall of Fame

And there is a guy on the bus who is obviously a BIG sports guy who is teasing me about going there...as we get off the bus, we walk along and discover we are both staying at the same hotel.

I check in, and have just enough time to call Jeff Wagner and make arrangements to have dinner with him. I was so tired from the immigrations debacle and I wish I had taken more pictures at this time. Jeff took me down to the theater district in Toronto to a great little restaurant called Kit Kat.

Just a little background on Jeff, he is Senior Technical Consultant at SideFX, but in my book he is "Big Time Smartie" - whose brain is like a bottomless well and goes into tangents forever... They should seriously put his brain in a jar and study it when he leave this mortal plane. This is Jeff, sorry pic is a little blurry...but we were walking and talking down the street and I just snapped.

So we had an amazing dinner and of course I had to take a picture of the big ass needle that was in the middle of downtown - the CN Tower.

Jeff and I had a great time eating and talking about all kinds of things. He also makes mayple syrup!! - of which he gave me some before I left, but I am not supposed to tell because I guess he is kind of stingy with it...sorry Jeff, I told.

So, Jeff had to get home to his family and I was headed back to my room. It was 10pm-ish Canadian time but 7pm-ish my time and the sports guy from the shuttle entered the elevator from the pub in the basement of the hotel. BTW, his name is Brad Duncan and he suggested we should go have beers and I thought, you know what - it's 7 pm my time, why not?

The pub in the hotel was closing, so he took me to the Loose Moose. Mkay, so this is your typical beer swiggling, sports bar and the drinking age in Toronto is 19 years old. It was...lets say, interesting. I took a pic of Brad at the bar in front of the pipe covered in bras. After a couple drinks and watching the high schooler get wasted, I told Brad I wanted to go somewhere else or else my impression of Toronto just might be skewed.

We walked further to this place called Jack Asstors. This place was much more my style and the bartender - Robbie - made a great dirty martini! Here is a pic of Robbie the bartender.

But wait, what is wrong with that picture? What is up with his eye? Well evidently a customer wasn't happy and threw a bar stool at him and he had to get stitches. Canadians are tough!

So, Jack Asstors is where I got my first Canadian coinage! The coins are called "loonies" and "toonies"..."loonie" for the loon on the back of a dollar coin and "toonie" for the two dollar coin.

After a couple martinis, it was definitely time for bed. I had to go meet the team at Sidefx tomorrow!

________________________________________________


Wednesday May 9th, 2007

I arrived at the office and was greeted by Jenny Blacklock. Jenny is a Technical Support Specialist and knows her stuff! She and Jeff Wagner work very closely together.

One of the most impressive things about SideFX is their support and interaction with users. Today, ( with the merger between Maya and Autodesk) I can say "first hand" you would be lucky to get the right person on the phone at AutoDesk. SideFX is small and has always valued their users, so interaction is a big part of the company philosophy. This is Jenny - how cute is she?

I spent the day with Calin Casian (Product Specialst and the main artist working on the character toolset), Edward Lam (Senior Software Developer a.k.a. the main programmer helping Calin and myself create great character tools), Cristin Barghiel (Director of Product Devlopment), Rober Magee (Product Marketing Manager), and Jeff Wagner (I already told you about his brain).

I wish so badly I had taken a picture of all of us at lunch, but the conversation in this group was so fast and productive I never even thought about my camera. Next time, I will give this group its due justice because during the early day and at lunch we made great strides in bridging the power of Houdini and how we can make it more artist friendly! I am very excited!

As a side note...about Toronto...there is so much art and so many sculptures everywhere. It's amazing and the city feels like a european San Franciso. Only more humidity :)

photo by Michael Willems

The guys took me to this amazing sushi place TaKe. I could eat sushi every single day and if you are ever in Toronto - I highly recommend this place. Even the lunch special rocks!

BTW, as a side note...if you dig sushi too - this is an awesome website/blog about sushi!

Sushi Day

The balance of my day on Wednesday was checking emails and trying to write a few wikis regarding all that I had soaked up from these folks. Then Monika Janek came up to me and said she was going to see her boyfriend who works at the local studio Spin Pro in the King West Village and did I want to join them for dinner. Turns out I know a few animators there and almost took a job with Spin to work on Outlander. I wanted to say "hello" to everyone, so we headed out! This is Monika - the cutest System Admin chick you ever did meet!

Brian Dowrick and David Breaux are two animators I worked with at R & H and they are now working at Spin. It was great to catch up with them.

I also met Dusan Strugar (Pronounced Duuu-shan) who is the Animation Supervisor and Jeff Campbell the VFX Supervisor at Spin on the Outlander show. We then left to go eat at KiWe Kitchen.

Brian couldn't come to dinner but here is David...
and I think he was drinking water!

And here is the happy couple Erin and Monika -
they are recently engaged!
Erin is a modeler at Spin.

Although very trendy and would fit into any setting in hollywood,
the folks at KiWe couldn't make a martini if they tried.
The waiter was gorgeous and made up for that a little bit...
The decor was really kewl and mod in this place.
This is what the ceiling in the main dining room looked like.

And then I look to my left and see the needle tower again!
- It's like following me!

The ceiling in the front dining room is really arty
and you can tell the metal has all been cut out by hand...
their image below from their website really shows
how pretty it is with the lighting.

Here is my close up..


Anyone who has seen my siggraph blogs knows
I take pix of good food! Remember Crabcakes OMG in Boston?
I took a picture of the tuna lemon pasta
because it was so good!

Aimee is another animator on the Outlander show
and also worked at C.O.R.E. on The Wild using Houdini.
She modeled more Canadian money for me!

And the Rigging Supervisor on Outlander joined us -
Ran... he is Isreali, but moved here
from Germany and is hilarious!

Now that our tummies are full,
we decide to trek to Little Italy
per Aimee's recommendation.

We finally chose a martini bar, after
(in classic LA style they blew off several as "lame").
I soon convinced Erin to model my cocktail napkin rose
in Jonesie Cake style...

Dusan, Aimee, Ran, Erin, and Monika...we had a great time! Soon, I had to go home because even though I was on LA time and it was only 11pm to me, Dusan was trying to drink me under the table and I really needed to be able to speak the next day at SideFX.

_________________________________________________________

Thursday May 10th, 2007

So, Thursday brought more pow wows with the guys and I was able to spend more time with Calin going over his new tools for Houdini - sorry I can't tell you much, except that Siggraph in San Diego will be a great place to check them out! That night I went to Peter Robbins house. Peter is another helpful soul at SideFX and really understands artists and their plight -while still being amazingly smart and technical like Jeff. He is kind of that syphon that takes all of the stuff Jeff talks about and makes it something an artists can understand.

Peter took me - as he put it - "the scenice route" to his house and didn't tell me it was 30 miles away in a town called Keele. We rode the trolley and then the underground tram and finally walked for what it seemed like miles. I took this picture as we walked of a kewl sign. I just liked the design.


I was so happy to be at his house finally and was really hungry. His wife Debbie was amazing and made me a homemade meal of chicken, asparagus, rice, salad and cookies and ice cream for desert! We sipped on their home made wine and talked about everything under the sun.

Debbie makes hand made quilts, so it was "over for Peter" - once we got into talking sewing, crafting and making things with our hands. Again, I was having so much fun I didn't take any pix and I regret that...but I did take a snap of Peter with Jeff's homemade syrup on the table!

I was supposed to hook up with Greg Hermanovic and go to an art party that night after dinner, but I was just so beat after the great food and all the amazing talk and then more bus, tram and trolley back to the hotel. I think I was asleep as soon as my head hit the pillow.

Most of Friday was filled with working with Calin on rigs and character tools. However, I did have a great talk with the President and CEO - Kim Davidson. Kim is another really smart guy who started Prisims software after acquiring Omnibus Computer Graphics with Greg Hermanovic. Omnibus had "gone under," after purchasing both Digital Productions and Abel Associates (two poineering computer graphics studios in LA). In 1987, Greg and Kim created a "pheonix" from those ashes and SideFX software was born.

This picture was taken at Ominbus on the Paramount lot.
Front: Harold Buchnman (Left) and Larry Weinberg (Right)
Behind (From left to right): Pactrick DeWarren,
Michael Kory, Eric Reid, Bob Hoffman

If you pay attention and really "get to know" the people you are working with, you would be amazed at the history that is standing right next to you. I have had the priviledge to work with and meet folks like Larry Weinberg, Sherry McKenna, Brad Hunt, Diego Angel, Richard Taylor, Con Pederson, John Hughes, Richard Hollander, Neil Eskuri, Liza Keith and so many more. As Jamie and I say in our book, we are "standing on the shoulders of giants." And, I cannot tell you how exciting it is for me to be surrounded by folks who have been making images with computers for so long - real poineers. I am determined and optimistic that we can make a great product that artists will readily embrace - just as much as the technical community in CG has done with Houdini.

You know how animators are taught the 12 principles of animation? #11 is Solid Drawing. I translate this principle for computer generated animation into a solid understanding of the computer and your tools. Yes, it's important to be able to sketch gestures and thumbnails quickly and draw what you see in your "minds eye" so you do not waste time when you pick up the mouse. BUT! If you do not have command of the tools in the software you are using in CG, you will be as lost as a bad draughtsman would be trying to make it as an animator in traditional animation circles.

For the young-starry eyed animators entering the field today, I say...next time you start a new job? look at the executive team and the technical staff at that studio. You might be surprised the history that is walking the halls and the folks who have been creating images on a computer since before you were born.

In closing, it was an eye opening trip. I was able to experience Canadian immigration, drink and eat alot of great food and martinis, meet the nicest people in the world (not to mention some of the smartest) and make some new friends. I leave you with some fun pix I took on my way out of town...the Canadian cops have funny uniforms (so formal). Venice Beach cops are all tatted up and would never wear a hat and mess their hair up!

I carry old drawings by the masters with me
when I travel, and try to copy them.

They took my pencil sharpener in the metal detector thingy.
And, I stupidly forgot to pack my eraser,
but here are some sketches I did
waiting for the plane and flying...
I encourage you to always draw,
even if you don't have an eraser :)

And nothing makes you miss home
like being away for a while! :)
Pic from my deck.