Blog

Almost-zero cost website setup

Note: this setup is for intermediate level developers only. Someone with little or no experience in programming or technical knowledge may find this difficult to follow. I used a number of free tools and libraries to set up my current website, so that the only cost I have to pay for is the domain name ($17 AUD per year at the time of writing- it seems that to get a professional domain name there is no way around having this cost). Here are the various services I used to set...

Animation Studies (personal discovery)

There is such a thing as animation studies. It's still a relatively new area of study, and is often see as a shadow of its big brother, film studies. It may be argued that animation is film. However, the definition of film is live-action, since the term 'film' itself refers to the piece of material in which light reacts photochemically through the camera to create images. Animation is entirely constructed, though of course you can have hybrid live-action/animated screen media. I am trying to determine what makes animation so special....

Reflections on a life of programming (so far)

I think it was Mark Zuckerberg who said that being able to program computers is like having a superpower. He was promoting computer programming to young people at the time, but I think I can relate to that. I thought that moving to an artist role (3D animation) will take me away from computer programming, but as it turns out, programming is still very useful in this line of work. Many DCCs like Maya, Nuke, Blender and Houdini benefit from coding, as they have Python/C++ APIs to extend functionality. Even...

How I transitioned from engineering to 3D art

Due to unforeseen circumstances, I was forced to take a break from my employment with the rail company that I had been working for for three years. I had applied for a PhD in Computer Science and attempted to study in this program, but could not complete it. So, after taking further time off, going travelling, doing personal projects, and helping the family business, I decided to retrain as a 3D artist. It is difficult to evaluate what it was like going back to university again as a mature age...