June 18, 2008

Dumb Luck 101: My First "Organic" 3D Modo Project on History Channel

I'm planning to write more about this when I have some time, but I figured I'd link to a local news item about my first "organic" Modo project ending up in a nationally broadcast documentary.

Understand that this is not a suggestion that I have any great 3D modeling experience (I don't)... it was kind of "dumb luck" to be perfectly honest. :)

Mahler's Venus on History Channel

Frankly, the model isn't completely finished yet and, I've had my hands so full with work, TWiP, forthcoming TWiM producing and photo gigs that I've not had much time in Modo recently. I've got a pile of projects I want to do with it soon since the app is just insanely cool.

I'm working on a few things combining Modo models with textures I shoot digitally and equirectangular HDR panos (most recent one here) that I shoot and assemble to use for real-world lighting.

This is the model I started after spending part of Christmas screwing around in Modo and modeling an AMF bowling pin I had sitting on my desk.

June 17, 2008

Of Local Interest: Waterstone Finally Open

I'm pleased to say that a restaurant we've been eagerly awaiting here in Lynchburg is finally open and, more importantly, it doesn't suck. In fact, it's really quite excellent! :)

There wasn't an official Google Maps entry yet, so I just added one for the meantime.

It was last year sometime that I first heard about the plans to open Waterstone, a wood-fired, brick oven pizza restaurant attached to a brewery. It's located on Jefferson Street and is part of the larger Bluffwalk Center / Cradock Terry Hotel complex which also includes Shoemaker's restaurant and The Jefferson Street Brewery.

My remark that it "doesn't suck" is just my general semi-negative attitude about the Lynchburg restaurant scene. Yes, we have some very good restaurants here. We also have a lot of mediocre crap, the worst of which make a play at being creative (surprisingly few make even that effort) and fall miserably short. My wife calls me a pessimist (I'm truly not), but I've found it safer to assume mediocrity around here and to be pleasantly surprised (and very supportive as a customer) when they pull it off. :) Waterstone pulled it off VERY well.

We visited with a couple of friends during the restaurant's first hour of being open to the public and found the whole operation to be very polished. The waiter was comfortable and engaging, the atmosphere was attractive and tastefully designed and, above all, the pizza was superb. As a group, we ordered four ten-inch pizzas including the Waterstone White, Greek, Wild Mushroom and a Sicilian (the most traditional of the four). All had a superb flavor, were not at all oily, heavy or greasy, and each was true to its theme with fresh ingredients and distinct flavors. The Sicilian, with its various sausages, was at the greatest risk of being overly heavy but managed to be just as "light" as the others.

We focused on the pizza last night, but the menu was fairly extensive and there is a lot left we'd like to try. I'm all for anything that brings quality to downtown Lynchburg and can say with certainty that we'll be repeat customers. They have plans for a two-level outside seating area as well as other refinements and their location on that part of Jefferson Street provides a lot of promise for community engagement. Here's hoping Waterstone is the beginning of a positive trend in the local dining scene and a little less having to flee to Charlottesville for a really great meal! :)

In closing, I will mention three other local restaurants of note. There are more, yes, but I want to mention these three right now: Machu Picchu, Grace and Main Street Eatery. Main Street has history and remains a Lynchburg institution, Machu Picchu is simply fantastic for those desiring Peruvian dishes (Elsa is passionate about her cooking) and Grace is probably the single most creative, elegant restaurant in the area and absolutely worth the visit.

June 15, 2008

Photos from Newport Trip

Newport, RI

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I've finally had a chance to put up a set of images from our trip to Newport, RI. We spent four days there starting June 7th and thoroughly enjoyed this fascinating island.

For those not familiar, Newport was the turn of the century summering location of the American "aristocracy". I provide some additional background on Newport in my previous post with a QTVR of a massive weeping beech tree, so check there and the wikipedia link above.

Average temperatures in Newport are in the 60's and 70's this time of year, so I was pretty thrilled to be leaving the 100 degree heat wave of Virginia for the trip. Understand that I despise hot, humid weather. Well, the heat wave followed us to New England and hit around 90 degrees and humid a good bit of the time. This sucked the total life out of my photographic endeavors since I spent the mornings feeling like I was wearing a greasy washcloth instead of a shirt. Yuck. I can't say the photos here are particularly stellar, but they should at least give you a taste of some of the Newport mansions and surroundings.

There are a couple of HDR images in here, though they need some more tweaking. Also, I geocoded most of my shooting using my AMOD AGL-3080 (look for some posts soon detailing this process). Until I get some good geo-coded linking worked into my halfpress.com workflow, I'm making use of Flickr for mapping. To see these images placed on a map, go here and be sure to note the slider along the bottom to see the full set.

Newport, RI

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June 13, 2008

The Weeping Beech of Chateau-sur-Mer

I'm planning to put together a full gallery, including some HDRs, but wanted to go ahead and post this 360 VR that I made during our trip to Newport, Rhode Island.

I'll save a more extensive write-up on Newport for the full gallery entry, but I will take a moment here to say that I highly recommend making the trek there if you haven't been before. I was unfamiliar with Newport and its history until just recently when we received an invitation to visit some friends in their final weeks before they relocate to Maryland. Suffice it to say, I'm glad we took the opportunity while we had it... both to visit our friends and to see this rather unique piece of American history.

Newport, in a nutshell, was the oceanside summer playground of the American aristocracy in the late 1800's and early 1900's. Names like Vanderbilt, Berwind, Oelrichs and Wetmore are synonymous with the area. These insanely wealthy, status-driven families built monstrous mansions here that they often used for only seven weeks out of the year. The most elite of the New York social scene migrated, en masse, to Newport for several weeks of nightly entertaining and continuous attempts to outdo one another throwing the most lavish parties and balls. Naturally, they took their staffs (often numbering 30 or more) of maids and liveried footmen with them to tend to their every need.

The rest of the year, the houses generally sat empty and were maintained by a caretaker with a small staff that looked after the place and readied it for the next summer season of over-the-top entertaining.

For a sense of the sheer number of estates, have a look at this Google Maps satellite view centered on Chateau-sur-Mer and the bulk of the mansions on Bellevue Avenue.

Anyway, as I said, I'll write more about the trip in a separate post with a wider array of photos. This entry is all about the Weeping Beech tree that sits outside of one of the more unique mansions on the island: Chateau-sur-Mer. After touring the home and on our way back to our car, I happened to step through the curtain of branches to see what the tree looked like "inside". Needless to say, it was pretty amazing and also pleasantly cool since we hit Newport in a bizarre, 90+ degree heat and humidity wave.

I've prepared an HDR version of this pano as well, but it needs a little more tweaking. In the meantime, this mid-tone (0 EV, 7 fisheye shots) set from the five exposure HDR spread (-4EV to +4 EV in 2 EV increments: 35 shots) does a decent job of representing the scene. This file is about 12 MB in size and retains a good deal of its resolution, so give it a moment to load if you're on a slow connection.