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 ...