Another week has gone by, and for me--what a week! This was the final push for the EMC OpenStack video. It started out as an innocent little project to create a video that would play on a video wall at a OpenStack trade show in Japan. In the end it was ME--trying to create a full minute of video with very elaborate 3D scenes and having a gun to my head because it was not going fast enough. In the end, I delivered a good video only a few hours late. However my takeaway was to be reminded why I tended to shy away from doing 3D-heavy projects for the last few years. Those all-nighter work sessions take much higher a toll on me than they used to! Friday I delivered the files and then collapsed into a sleep coma until late Saturday morning.

The problem is there is a complete lack of understanding in the broadcast video industry about CG (aka 3D) graphics. I have often threatened to create a seminar called "CGI for Producers" to help educate clients and production staff about the process, so that they don't make the kind of ruinous decisions I always see on projects like these. The problem these days is that CGI is so ubiquitous, and it is of such high quality, that most people forget or don't know how difficult it is to produce. So they tend to think of CGI footage in the same way as any old video that they might have shot on their cell phone--it has the same weight in their mind. So much of the work is done up front--the building of the 3D models. A good 3D model is what really makes or breaks your end result. Well, on Monday of last week (three days before the video was due) the client said they didn't like the car model I was using. He asked for a completely different model. This after I had spent the entire previous week preparing the model I had. So they forced this new model on me three days before the due date, and it was horrible. Poorly constructed, the textures were either really bad or flat-out didn't exist. So yes, the video suffered. I suffered. There was much suffering. And in the future, if I do more CGI work, I am going to have to be more assertive about making sure all changes get locked in early.

But enough about that. What else is up? Space! Space is up. Did you hear about this interesting star found by the Kepler space telescope? That is the scope that was designed to look for exoplanets, or planets orbiting around stars other than our own. It watches a bunch of stars and keeps track of the light coming from them. If the light levels dip and do so in regular patterns, that is an indication that a planet is passing between that star and the telescope. The exciting finding a couple months ago is that just about every star we see at night has planets of some kind orbiting around it. But then there was this one star--KIC 8462852. Its light pattern is so bizarre that nobody can figure out what could be causing it. The light of the star dims for long periods of time--too long for any kind of natural, orbiting body. This has led some scientists to speculate about an advanced race that may have constructed some kind of megastructure around the star--presumably to capture energy from it directly. I mean, just think--if we could capture all the energy from our Sun for just one second, we would have enough energy to last a half a million years (at our current rate of consumption). So that's what has got the astronomy community all abuzz these days.

So what have I got coming up next week? Well, tomorrow I have my stress test for my physical exam. (Heck, if they had wanted to test me at stressful levels, they should have hooked up the EKG this last Friday!) Then I am at the onset of a new project with the same studio this EMC project was with. Hopefully I do not get a repeat of that last experience. And aside from that, I am hoping to find a day I can grab my cameras and drive back out to Folsom Lake on the other side of Sacramento. The lake levels have dropped below what they were in January 2014, when VacaSis and I went hiking out there. The day we were there, it was pouring down rain. I'd like to find a day it is clear and sunny and see if I can find some more artifacts and foundations of buildings for the old town of Mormon Island (covered when they filled the reservoir).

But tonight we are heading to San Francisco to enjoy dinner and movie night with friends. He is an avid film buff, and tonight's theme is going to be film noir. All that yummy black & white photography! This should be vun.

So until later, have a great week everyone!