And The Year is Slowly Counting Down

After working on Set on Saturday 18th I met Jimmy Hsu, pretty kewl guy from Simon Fraser University (SFU) who worked with us as part of the crew. He recently updated his 2010 Demo Reel and I thought it'd be kewl to post, check it out.

Also found a 15 Min Behind-the-Scenes footage of Tron, alot of it shot right here along the streets of Vancouver, TRON: LEGACY - Innovative Design, TRON: LEGACY - The Grid, TRON: Legacy, Face Off

I've started using my Flickr Account again which I must admit is pretty kewl. I've uploaded some pics from the Flying Dance Shoot on Saturday. I also added the Flickr Photostream below this blog to show the most recent pics.



Check out a good friend at home working with Trinidad's Top Fashion Designer, Claudia Pegus as she unveils her Christmas Collection.

On to some sad news, "Star Wars" Visual Effects Artist Grant McCune Dies at 67. He was nominated for an Oscar in 1980 for "Star Trek: The Motion Picture."

Devyn finally uploaded her behind-the-scenes video from her on set. After her twitter post "I'm having problems uploading my behind the scenes video to YouTube so it might take a little longer than I first thought :(" she got the video uploaded. Check out the Behind the Scenes with Totally Sketch! over at Youtube.

Well I better get to bed, long day tomorrow, G'nite ...

Visual Effects and Some Reading

Hey Hey Hey,

I finally managed to put another blog together and recover from the weekend. It was fun and I might be doing another sometime in January but I'm still waiting on the OK from the higher-ups. It's raining a lot in Vancouver today but it's nice and warm on the inside and I like it. I'm also getting into some reading lately and started with 'The Secret from Rhonda Byrne'.

Anywaysss check out some of the kewl links I managed to wrangle together below.

Check out this behind the scenes look at a Rango Audio Recording Session.

Yet another post-production house closes its doors this time in Santa Maria after serving 17 years in the industry, CafeFX Officially Closes and had this to say:

After 17 years in business, CafeFX/ComputerCafe has decided to officially close its doors. The current economic climate and global marketplace have made it unrealistic for us to continue to deliver the highest quality visual effects work, which has been our hallmark, at a competitive price and a sustaining profit.

Read More over at Animation World Network (AWN).

Alice in Wonderland: Green Screen

I stumbled across some VFX breakdowns for Alice and Wonderland over at AWN.

Here's an interview of Sharon Taylor from the web series, Riese: Kingdom Falling. I've been following it lately and it's getting pretty good. Also check out their website for much more content. And to get the scoop on Sharon Taylor scoot over to this neatly kept fansite, SharonTaylor.webs.com.

Anyways, that's about it from me for now, hope you are enjoying the Christmas Season, see yah for now.

Flying Dance & Green Screen Fun

What A Week !!!

For the past few days I've been working like CRAZY!!! Straight from work on Friday I caught the second day showing of TRON and it was pretty awesome of a movie. I wasn't a huge fan of Digital-Jef but for what it's worth, it was good.

Green Screen Shot: Flying Dance

Saturday I worked on set for a Dance Video Promo for Flying Dance Studios and it ended up being lots of fun, downside, getting up at 6:00am for a call-time at 8:00am. I was Junior Visual Effects Sup for the day which was neat, I oversaw the green screen and tracking for the shoot. Alot of pretty girls dancing, high tech equipment, green everywhere and food will always be a recipe for a great day. I had the pleasure of working with some pretty kewl people and wanted to make a honorable mention to them (if I left anyone out, please shoot me an email):

• Barry Lui
• Feish R.
• Jimmy Hsu
• Kyle Chiang
• Lily Hsu
• Mark Cheng
• Shang-Han Chien
• Theo Ip

I've been updating my site offline but I don't have access to the server at the moment so I can't upload updates for a while now. Hopefully the problem will be fixed soon and you guys can see what I've been up to lately.



I got this from Rick Young and it shows how you can composite an explosion using After Effects, scoot over and check it out.

Check out a friend's very kewl dedication for John Lennon titled "The Biggest Beatles Fan EVER" I thought it was really good piece.

Thats about it from me for now, gotta get to work in the morning, I'm out guys, G'nite ...

Down-Right Tired But Truckin' On

Hey Guys,

How's it going? I've been skipping ropes lately trying to stay on top of things. Working on the 'VERY LATE' responses for the SIGGRAPH Mentor program, work, personal projects, side projects and general stress.

This weekend I'll be working on set for a dance video so I'm looking forward to that. I'll be gabbin' some pics and uploading on Sunday. As for work, we're closing down for Christmas so all projects are hitting its last week of production and it's BUSY ... WOW ...

Hopefully I'll get through the week with something left over and then some ... I'm also hoping to get this month's 15 second video up and going finally and get the render out. It's been buggin' me for far to long now.

I made a few changes to my linkedin account, check it out: http://ca.linkedin.com/in/darvinkmanwah



I still haven't gotten around to that video from Squamish nor transfered the video from the camera as yet :(. Other than that, I'm enjoying the season and loving the way it's rolling out the 2010.

Chat soon guys, Enjoy the day ...

Some Much Needed Lazy Time

Hey Hey Hey,

Soooo, it's been a while ... a long while. I've been clocking in 12-14 hour days for the last week and didn't have a whole lot of time to do anything but sleep and repeat. I spent this weekend recovering and being lazy (which is advised from time to time) and now I'm back to my old self.

I'll be updating with some new stuff soon, see yah, G'nite ...

Poetry and Hellos

Hey hey hey,

I finally made my last comments for the ACM Mentor Program for SIGGRAPH, I'm hoping they find my comments useful and helpful. I spent quite a bit of time working around their portfolio to make sure and provide honest based criticism for them and hoping they use it in the long run.

On to other things, Andrew finally posted another poem titled 'My Bitter End' which he sounds rather heart-broken still, hopefully in time it gets better for him. Check it out over at his blog.

Not alot to talk about today, it's raining in Vancouver so I better get to work ... Catch yah later ...

Mellowin' Out for the Winter

Some mellow music for the Season, enjoy ...

1. The Band Perry - If I Die Young
2. Elise Estrada - Lipstick
3. The Black Eyed Peas - I Gotta Feeling
4. Neverest - About Us
5. Alicia Keys - If I Ain't Got You
6. Eminem - Love The Way You Lie ft. Rihanna
7. Bruno Mars - Grenade
8. Lady Antebellum - Need You Now

Squamish-Land and Tron-ified

Hey guys,

How's it going? WOW, now that's a long week, holy smokes. I worked till 2:00 am almost everyday with Tuesday at 8:00 am and sleeping most of Wednesday.

Squamish, Vancouver, BC

This weekend I spent some time over in Squamish which was wicked kewl. I made a roadtrip video which I'll be posting soon but neath-less to say, it was an amazing trip to be there. I want to go there again sometime soon.

We finally wrapped up 'The Haunting Hour Episode 109' and started two other movies, 'A Family Again' and 'Never Tell A Lie' which looks like another intense week but lets see how it goes. I'm recovering from last week and hopefully I'll feel alot better by Monday.

Itzel Rodriguez

Check out 3D Water Text Effect with Repoussé in Photoshop CS5 over at Abduzeedo.

And this why I heart Google, Call Credits for Military Families this Holiday Season.

Itzel Rodriguez, a Graphic Artist and Visual Effects Artist who has an amazing eye for design, check out her portfolio on her website at ItzelPixel. She is a really good friend of mine and a great person on the whole.

There were some new images coming out of the Autodesk University about 3 days ago and though it would be kewl to check out. Here's some more Tron loving over at IndieWire for the article, Tron Legacy Early Reviews and another at the Herald Sun, Tron - Back to the Future & Next Generation Tron Man. But there's more, here's a Behind the Scenes Featurette for Tron. And the final one, Tron: Legacy Innovative Design Bonus Clip

Tron Legacy

If you're a huge fan of Fashion as I am, check out this years Victoria's Secret Fashion Show over at SuperModels Industry.

There are some amazing work over at CGHub, if you're not already a member, signup and make a portfolio, it's worth it.

Here's some work from Jake Raymor, 3D Artist at Bad Robot and it's really good stuff, some kick ass Z-Brush work. And for some mattepainting work, check out Jorik Dozy who worked on 'White Swan', some amazing work from him.

Jorik Dozy: Mattepainter

I saw this site a few days ago and bookmarked it, thought I'd share with you guys, it's Designioustimes.

Here are a list of some of the sites I frequently visit for CG related stuff. If you have more, please include them in a comment below.

1. CG Channel
2. CG Hub
3. CG Society
4. 3DM3
5. Zbrush Central

I had an amazing day today thanks to a good friend Shiraaz for being absolutely random and unplanned. How did you guys spend your Saturday, I'm outta here, G'nite ...

3Vis Presents 'The Foundry' & Some Visual Effects Lovin'

Hey hey guys, It's been a few days since I've posted but it's been crazy busy with office stuff but I finally got some time to post some of my thoughts.

I attended a presentation of Nuke's latest software, Mari via 3vis and it was exceptionally good. NukeX 6.1 Version 3, STORM, Ocula & Mari were all on presentation and it was mind-blowing. I also got some swag from the event which I'm rockin' to work everyday for winter.Check out Professional Artists Gather for Mari 1.1 Launch Event and it will be hosted by Ben Kittay Studio Stage 15 – Gnomon School of VFX on 1015 Cahuenga Blvd, Hollywood, 90038. Registration starts at 6pm and the presentation runs from 7pm to 9.30pm.

Some very kewl stuff taking place with our ACM SIGGRAPH Montreal Chapter, with presentation for Eidos Montreal to present Deus Ex: Human Revolution and Show & Tell by Strob on Iron Baby.Here's an interesting read of The Making of Avatar over at 3D World Mag and some very interesting facts such as 4,352 render machines, 34,816 CPU cores and 104TB of RAM.

To some interesting yet old news, I had a small stint with visual effects house, The Embassy right here in Vancouver a few months ago where I was mentored by VFX veteran, Stephen Pepper for a short film I worked on. The studio did some amazing work for District 9 which got nominated for 4 Oscars, check out their contribution over at CGSociety. If you're in the Los Angeles area on December 4th, check out Zbrush Central's: User Group Meeting with some amazing talent, Neville Page - Lead Creature / Character Designer and Modeler for Productions including Avatar, Star Trek and Cloverfield & Ian Joyner - Character Designer at Legacy Effects with credits Including Avatar, Iron Man 2 and Thor.

I also got some new additions to my IMDB page with The Haunting Hour, Edge of the Garden & Goodnight for Justice. I'm out, Gnite

Darvin K. Manwah: Digital Compositor at Zoic Studios (Vancouver) & Matte Painter
Online Portfolio, Personal Blog and ACM SIGGRAPH Portfolio Review Mentor

Holy Smokes It's Freezing in Vancouver & Other News

I spent most of my day indoors but today dropped to -10 degrees with tonight being -17 degrees. A very good reason to cover up and sleep BUT that's not gonna happen. Today I officially started on another movie, The Edge of the Garden with The Haunting Hour pretty much completed.

I spent a few minutes updating my site again and added 3 new images from my collection and added them throughout this blog.

Along the lines of exciting, I'm apply for the VES-Autodesk Student Award Competition for a tight deadline of November 30th and hoping it goes through.

Check out some kewl work from Henry South, a VFS Grad from the 3D Animation & Visual Effects Program at VFS, old school style and his honorable mention in the VFS' Blog

Graduating one class behind me, Jeff Merkel an animator of 3d82 finished his final titled “Le B’anana” which made it to the VFS Blog, check out his story and how he actually got into animation.

To add icening to the animation-cake, check out one of my good friends, Andy Cheung's 4-minute animated shot 'Orizuru (Paper Crane)" and his review at the Richmond Review.

Now to some sad news, after 11 years in production Asylum Visual Effects in Santa Monica is closing their doors. WTF!

Stargate Studios did some pretty kewl work for The Walking Dead, check out the article at FX Guide.

I gotta say, I love my code, check out the HTML5 Web Messaging Draft.

P.S. Birthday wishes going out to Katie Better, Kendell Sylvester & Shivani Atwaroo. Hope you guys had an awesome rockin' Birthday.

It's 12:56 AM and it's COLD, I'm off to bed guys, Peace !!!

Mattepainting & More ...

Hey hey hey guys,

I've been a bit under the weather for the past few days but I'm feeling alot better now. Spent some time this weekend recovering and recovered I am. Im my spare time I dug up some interesting links, check them out. I also made alot of changes to my website, mostly coding but some noticeable ones as well. Browse over to my site Carphology Entertainment and tell me what you think, specifically the Artwork Section.

As I'm getting better with Nuke, I want to try and complete a 15-Sec visual effects piece ever month starting this month, learning something new everytime. For the first project, I'll be making a camera projection out of my last mattepainting 'The Far Side' which should be completed and uploaded by December 1st, 2010. *Yikes*

Check out some amazing work by Bruno Wagner and Cris de Lara at CG Society.

Some amazing pics of supermodel Frida Gustavsson in 'In Bed with Roberto Cavalli'. There's also some new pics of supermodel Alejandra Alonso from Valencia, Spain.

Looking for a good laugh, check out my mid-day funny time, iJustine and with Marc’s crazy project, The Advice of Strangers.

I forgot to mention this earlier but the The Animago Conference 2010 was on 28th & 29th of October 2010. Check out some of the amazing lineups for the conference from Pixar, ILM to Scanline VFX.

Had this lying around for a bit and it seems interesting, check it out, Bondi Short Film Festival 2010

I highly recommend signing up and creating a portfolio at Behance Network, you won't regret it.

Also check out Belinda Rodriguez and the Trinidad based festival, Animae Caribe which officially started on Monday.

I got a Twitter request from Peregrin Studios located in Singapore. Gotta say, I'm liking their environment a whole lot.

Wow, now that's alot, I guess I'm making up for lost time, I'm out, G'nite

P.S. My 'Hot Chocolate Girl' is back ...

Feeling the Burn

I didn't feel super-human-like today so I ended up being home for the day. I slept till 3:30pm and got a bit of work done but I'm still trying to finish my shot for the office. Lots to get done still but I'm almost there. It's been about 3 days for this shot and it's driving me insane, hopefully a few more hours and I can get it approved.

Besides work, I've got my photo-op on Friday with my student advisor at VFS. I'm excited yet nervous about it. I'm not much of a in-front-of-the-camera kinda person but hopefully it goes well. I'm also hoping that this weekend I'll get some time to update my blog, website and portfolio with some new content. Work's been super busy and I haven't had alot of time to do anything but work !!!

For my Nuke lovers out there: Nuke, Production Workflows, Retouching Environment Maps

The long awaited Green Lantern Trailer

And not forgetting my code monkeys: Create a jQuery Popup Bubble

And finally some history loving: Dennis Muren

I better get some snooze, another long day tomorrow ... G'nite World !!!

Monday Depart, Tuesday Arrival

I gotta say, it's not bad of a day. I got my shot approved and it's looking good. We're finishing up Haunting Hour and heading straight into a Feature Film. This one sounds interesting as it's a very technical and creative. I should be starting that one tomorrow as I wrapped up my last shot for Haunting Hour. It was fun but I'm ready to move on ... :)

This one's called 'Edge of the Garden' and I really don't know a whole lot about it. I'll be getting a brief on it tomorrow to hear what's it about. Hopefully it's something I can take on and if not something to learn without too much difficultly.

Besides that, there's alot of strong winds in the city tonight, holy smokes it almost blew me away ... Dang it I need some wind clothes now. SEARS !!!

The Animae Caribe thing is on so I'm getting a photo taken on Thursday to send to the festival for the weekend. It's exciting to always get published however small or big it might be. Lets see how this one turns out.

I better get to bed, but before I do, check out this company: Radium Reel FX. They worked on 'Katy Perry - Fireworks' Here's some Behind-the-Scenes footage of the Video

Also check out Ethan Lader who directed Bruno Mars - Just the Way You Are

... and for my code monkeys out there: Dot Net Slackers

G'nite ... and Happy 'Would-Have-Been' One Year Anniversary ...

Preppin' for Monday!

Another weekend gone by, another week to go. I finished my shot over the weekend and I'm looking forward to another tomorrow. Time's flying past so quickly it's going without notice at the moment. Hopefully I'll get to catch up soon enough.

Hopefully my small bits from ACM SIGGRAPH comes out as I'm super duper excited at the moment about it. I also have to uploaded the VAFF stuff and then get the VFS thingy going as well.

Over the weekend I turned a sunny day of filming to a snow covered day which was pretty neat I think as a visual effects show ... and in 5 hours. Hopefully I get another that's kewl just as much.

Also I made my way up to North Vancouver today which was interesting. As I already have a One-Zone bus pass it allowed me to take the seabus which is very KEWL. It was a bit cold but I liked the bleak days when they come by.

For my coding monkeys out there, check this out: How to Build a Kick-Butt CSS3 Mega Drop-Down Menu

Also thought this might be an interesting to check out: Dreamworks Animation

And my fav of them all: Summer 2011 Preview: 20 Movies We'll Be Talking About Next Year


I'm off to bed guys, g'nite ...

ACM SIGGRAPH Student Services (S3) Mentor for Mattepainting

It's official, I'm now helping out with the Mentor Program for SIGGRAPH where I'll be reviewing portfolios specific to mattepainting. I'm excited about it as I really like stuff like this. Helping out where ever I can gives a warm fuzzy feeling on the inside. My last academic stint was back at NorthGate College presenting on Graphic Design and Job Opportunities for Trinidadians in the field of art.

I also updated my website: www.carphology-entertainment.com, trying to make it a bit more interesting and user friendly, check it out and tell me what you think.

Unfortunately, I have to work tomorrow to finish off one of my shots and start another, the shot's coming along but I'm not entirely pleased with it as yet. Hopefully I'll get it done by the weekend's end.

I also got published as the Web Developer for the Vancouver Asian Film Festival and got a small blurb at the back of their Program Guide and I'll be uploading a link to that soon. There is also talk about a VFS blog thingy but lets see where it goes with that.

Well ... hoping to having a good weekend, see yah ...

Sorting My Stuff

Hey guys,

Sorrie it's been a while. We finally wrapped up 'Goodnight for Justice' and jumped straight into 'R.L. Stine's: The Haunting Hour Episode #106'. Wow, that was alot ...

I'm writing again and trying to be consistent with it. I wanted to post something here to start off and hopefully stick with it. There's alot more updates to come and some really kewl things that's been happening in my life.

I guess over the weekend I'll spend some time putting those updates together but for now, I gotta grab some snooze, another working day tomorrow.

Happy 235th Birthday to the Marines ...

Wrappin' Up Production

Today was an interesting day. We are about to wrap up Jason Priestley's western feature film, 'Goodnight for Justice' after 2 solid weeks of work. We were worried but after some long nights managed to get it done on time. As for now, we are working on breakdowns and shot previews for the producers awaiting on final approval.

In addition we started concept dev for the new kid's TV show with modeling, rigging, animating, some mattepaintings and the general look of the show. We are looking into ways of making the show more 'beautiful' from a viewing perspective, sort of an 'Avatar Effect' with great visuals.

Work has been great and really enjoying the atmosphere of the environment. I hope to work on some more visual effects and mattepaintings and the TV show starts to pick up. Looks like a good start to my career here in Vancouver.

I want to start and finish a 15 sec video every month but all based on camera projections, mattepainting and texturing of objects to develop more Nuke, Maya and Photoshop skills. Hopefully I get some time to finish some personal projects.

Darvin K. Manwah: Matte Painter & Digital Compositor
Online Portfolio, Personal Blog and ACM SIGGRAPH Portfolio Review Mentor

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Thanking a Friend

I almost made a big mistake today but instead a good friend, miles and miles away saved me. She is a true friend and will always be ...

Thank you Shasya, you definitely helped me from making a big mistake today ... You are Swick'd ...