My Dad's 60th Birthday

Wedding in Madikwe

Just yesterday I returned from a four day wedding in Madikwe Game Reserve where my brother works. It was a good friend of ours, Quinten who is the manager of Morokuru Game Lodge. I will have all the pics, vids and details this weekend.
[EDIT: I am so sorry for taking so long - here are a few and the rest are in the photo's section]

December Holidays

I spent nearly 17 days over Christmas and New Years in Madikwe Game Reserve visiting my brother. As always I had an amazing experience.



(Got to get back to work now, will post the remaining 50 odd photos later)

SIGGRAPH 2007

Ok, ok, I know... this is extremely late. Almost 5 months late... but at least its still in the same year.

These are just some snaps I took while in San Diego for SIGGRAPH 2007. I will eventually go back and write full descriptions and explanation for each photograph. For now, a quick tag is all I have time for before I go on holiday, and then I don't want to see a computer for three weeks. I am also planning to put the entire album up in my photos section, these are just a select few - (aren't you lucky)


I departed Monday 30th July from OR Tambo and arrived in San Diego a good 30 hours later after a very long and eventful journey through Atlanta, where Immigration's queues held me up so I missed my connecting flight.

First off I stayed in the Kings Inn hotel in Hotel circle which is north of the city and near Sea World.

I took a walk around the hotel after arriving to try and stay awake. Found these interesting palm trees.


and a hummer


not just any hummer...



The first bed I slept in. Not too bad.


The first day I woke up and headed off to Sea World. Here's the killer whales..


Dolphins...


and Walruses.


The next day, I took a trip to the zoo,


where I saw "Transvaal Lions" (hmmm, interesting, are these now Gauteng Lions?)


Pandas... promise that is a panda back there


Hippos


Tigers


Orangutans - the problem is most of the cages / enclosures have glass viewing areas and so there were a lot of reflections on all my photos.


Gorillas (and baby)


and Polar Bears (playing)

After the zoo, which is situated near Balboa Park (actually in it), I toured some of the interesting museums and places of interest.





On Friday 3rd August I took a tour of San Diego that started in Old Town and you could get off anywhere along the way.


A meal from one of the local restaurants - (this was actually taken a week later but it fits the Old Town theme)


The Chuck Jones Art Gallery in Old Town San Diego.

Here are a collection of some of the boats in the harbour around town. From museum replicas to originals.






A trip to SIGGRAPH would not be complete without getting in a tour bus and driving into the harbour (see Boston/SIGGRAPH).
Here are some snaps from my "SEAL" tour, which left from Seaport Village near the Convention Centre.








Seaport Village is near The USS Midway, which is a retired Aircraft carrier. Pretty impressive!!










All along the promenade there are "Trees", sculptures and things that represent trees, here is a palm tree made out of tyres. Looked amazing!


That evening I went to my first Baseball game. It was the Padres vs Giant at Petco Park where Barry Bonds was going for his record equalling homer - he got it the next evening, doh!








By the Saturday 4th August I had moved into the hotel for the conference, which is downtown and closer to the convention centre. The Best Western Bayside...


SIGGRAPH started on the Sunday and ran to the following Thursday, 9th August. By the end of it I was completely knackered, luckily I did not get pneumonia like last time ... PHEW!!!









View from my hotel on the last night in San Diego.... It was an awesome time and I really enjoyed the city - I would recommend it to anybody.

Madikwe - Long Weekend

Here are some snaps I took while at Declan's this last weekend.
I will write what they are soon.

Madikwe Holiday December 2006

Finally had some time to upload the photos from our Holiday to Madikwe.
The full set can be seen here

But for the blog I will post some of the better ones.


The first day we went fishing at the weir near Declan's house.


Craig was able to catch two barbel and here I am releasing the second one.


A lion on a termite mound under a tree. Between Tswasa and Safari lodge.


This zebra has had a lucky escape as can be seen by the scar and missing tail. Ouch.


Me, Declan and Andre at the base of Tshwene Tshwene, sundowners to follow.


As always the female dungbeetle catching a ride while the male does all the work, typical.












Declan looking for his wildlife - radio collars keep him and his animals in touch.


This is a panoramic I made using Autostitch, you can view the fullsize 10 800 X 1456 ( 2MB )image by downloading it here.

Fishing in Belfast

Who is this on the jetty at Green Pastures trout farm?







Why, it's none other than my 80 year old Gran fly-fishing. She is a remarkable lady, after recovering from bipass surgery she is still going strong and in November celebrated her 80th.

She has been fishing at the same farm for around 30 years now and I have been going since I was in nappies.
After my Grandfather passed away she nearly stopped but we all convinced her that she still enjoys it and it would be foolish to quit something she loves. Being a country lass born in Ireland in 1926 and growing up on a farm she always enjoys the weekends in the country.

I try and go with her whenever possible, lend a helping hand and help her with her fiddly knots and flies. Last September she even caught three good sized trout - unfortunately this weekend I was only able to come away with one small nipper. My Gran came up empty. Until next time!

Happy New Year

To all my friends and family across the seas and in South Africa, I hope you had a very merry Holiday and will have an even better Happy and Prosperous New Year.

I am back at work, my second working day of 2007 - we are well underway on two short jobs for the Super 14 starting in three weeks time. Work is the same, people are the same, weather is the same and traffic is still the same as last year.

I will be posting all my fantastic photographs from my two visits to my brother in December as soon as I can get them organised.
At the same time I will fill you in on what happened from the 16th December to the 28th December.

For New Years I went to Andre's for a little braai, spit roast, jacuzzi and loads of alcohol. - DAMN - I'm still feeling the effects of that one. A little OTT for me that night. We started at noon and ended at 4am - even though I struggled to make it to midnight I got my second wind and carried on till well past. Nice One!

Then on the 4th January I went fishing with my Gran which I will explain in greater detail later.

Last week till holiday

It's Monday morning and we are into our last week of work before a well deserved three week holiday.
Which will include a trip to my brother's place, Christmas with the family, New Year's party with friends, and a spot of fly fishing with my gran. All before the 8th January. It's quite a schedule but it will be relaxing, trust me.

I have all my Christmas shopping finished, nearly everything wrapped. The tree is up and the lights are turned on, the Xmas wreath is on the door - yep, I am pretty much all Christmas ready this year.

The only other thing I have left to do is my Holiday project. I bought a book on the weekend which I am aiming to get through by the end of the hols. Its not a novel or anything, more a training book with excercises (nothing to do with fitness). So we shall see in the New Year if it helped any.

To all my friends and family that read this, Merry Christmas and a happy New Year.

Boston Saturday/Sunday

Walk around Boston

On Saturday I decided to do a bit of a walk around Boston, following the Freedom Trail, a red line on the sidewalk leads you on this 2.5-mile, self-guided tour of Revolutionary sites, which starts at the Boston Common, America's oldest public park, and ends up at the famed Bunker Hill Monument, but I turned off it around Faneuil Hall Marketplace to have lunch in the Cheers bar, the one I wasn't allowed in the other night.























































Sunday -
On Sunday morning I decided to go down Newbury street all the way to Prudential Center and then go to the top of the center where they have a observation deck. Very impressive views of the city.


A view down Newbury, a very swanky street filled with all the chic shops - the Rodeo drive / Fifth Avenue of Boston -




The Prudential Center building from Newbury.



Views from the Prudential Building on Sunday


The John Hancock tower and behind it to the right in the distance, Logan International Airport (BOS). On the left the Boston Common and gardens.


South Boston, known to locals as Southy.


Church of Science me thinks... got to check up on this. I was listening to an Audio tour guide. Can't remember all the details. :)


Looking west from the center.

Fenway Park in the distance, and a major turnpike as it heads underground through Boston.


Looking over the Charles River to Cambridge.


Charles River and beyond it, MIT - nerd central...


View of the Charles River and the bridge that the duck tours go through.
On the right of the river, the esplanade and the new Bridge in the background that resembles the Nelson Mandela bridge in Newtown Jozi.


View of the John Hancock tower looking East. On the left of the tower in its shadow is Trinity Church.

Then it was off back to the hotel and grab my stuff, make my way to the airport and head home - my trip had come to an end.

SIGGRAPH Tuesday/Wednesday

Tuesday -

So after the party the night before, I got up bright and early as this was day one of the exhibition which would run till Thursday.


Entrance into the Center from the main road.


Entrance into the exhibition hall from the Convention Center's floyer.


View of the Hall from the walkway between the two sides of the convention center.
Basically the center had rooms and lecture theatres surrounding three massive Halls that was divided into various sizes for Siggraph. Walkways took you over the halls from one side to the other.



The Exhibition Floor


First stop - The Disney booth. The back wall had an animation of the bowler hat guy from Meet the Robinsons doing various performances throughout the day. One involved him dressed as a trekkie and thinking this was comic-con.


Meet the Robinsons statues. From Left - Wilbur, Lewis, Bowler hat Guy and a robot??


The booth also had a computer that various Disney artists were showing off things like lighting, sets and rigs from the soon to be released Disney feature. The rig was very interesting, lots of controls to give the animator full control over the character.


Lucasfilm had a great booth with many presentations throughout the days of the exhibition.


The John Knoll presentation on how they brought Davey Jones to life in Pirates II was great fun, not only did he show off proprietary tools that calculated "stiction" - the amount of sticky friction the tentacles on Davey's face had - but also bloopers that the animation department had gone the extra mile to do such as the scene where the mill wheel rides over some of the pirates. They had replaced the mill wheel with a giant Krispy Kreme - that rolls over the pirate and into the sea.


Aahh!! The Pixar booth - this was actually more the renderman booth, promoting Renderman for Maya mostly. And accepting showreels on the other side.
All the studios were actively recruiting this year.


The Rhythm & Hues Studios booth


The Sony Pictures Imageworks stand - regular life drawing classes were held and you were able to draw on a Sony T-Shirt


The Softimage Booth -

At lunch I went off to the 3D Pro Brown Bag social Birds of a feather. Finally got to put face to name from the mailing list, Hector, Steve and

That evening there was the Softimage Users group presentation function thingymajig - if you are interested then go and check out Bernard's full report at XSIBase.com
Siggraph 2006 by Bernard Lebel - I'm featured in the eigth pic down - listening to Kim Aldis

I didn't stay long at the users meeting, instead headed back to the Boston Park Plaza to meet and greet with "Thinking Animation" authors Angie Jones and Jamie Oliff, whom I had already RSVP'd earlier.
The turn out was a little slim but Angie was great fun and I also met Javier "Goosh" Solsona who incedently studied at UCT and has family in SA. Check out Angie's blog here.

Wednesday -

The morning started off with a course Performance Driven Facial Animation but by lunch I was way to bored with that one.

After lunch I headed over to the Effects Omelette Sketch which was great fun and very inspiring, I also got to meet Ferdi Scheepers from Pixar who is an ex-pat from Rustenburg- go figure! He left the CSIR to join Pixar at the age of 40 odd years with a teenage son. Some kids never grow up, and now he's having the time of his life doing effects at one of the best CG Animation studios. Go Ferdi!!

The Reception was held north of the convention center at the World Trade Center.

View from the bridge between the convention and the Seaport Hotel and WTC of Downtown Boston.

As we crossed the bridge towards the WTC and Seaport Hotel, we were met with an array of smells. There was a vast selection of various food stalls, catering from Burgers to Chinese and Popcorn to Pasta. There were also watermelon stands and ice cream vendors - all was free except the excellent Sam Adams beer.


Looking towards the Convention Center.


Looking towards the sea - yes, those clouds did bring rain but only a cooling drizzle. Nothing like our highveld thunderstorms.

SIGGRAPH Thursday/Friday

[ NOTE: This is the conclusion of Siggraph 2006. You see, by the Wednesday I was incredibly ill and did not feel like posting anything. I was also having problems blogging within the convention centre, this was confirmed by Angie Jones from Thinking Animation . We're not sure if it was just the shear amount of geeks blogging that week or if something was up with Blogger. This is finally being posted as I didn't get the time after getting back to South Africa to do anything. ]

Thursday was one of the less eventful days at the convention - for me anyway as this was the day the bug decided to really have a go. I woke up sick as a dog and unable to get out of bed. Trying to stand up made me feel violently ill. I guess nows a good time to show you the inside of my room.


My incredibly comfy bed - The room wasn't small but the door opened up into my nightstand on the left of the bed. Shift everything over by ten centimetres and problem solved...


View from my door next to the bed, I had a couch, which was used to drape clothes over rather than sit. A tv with plenty of channels to watch the first night when I was awake at 4am due to jet lag.


My bathroom for the 9 days. Not bad shower, I must admit. Double nozzle blasts away the hot Boston dirt.


View from the passage of my door. They had these weird smaller doors built in that I still have no idea what they were used for.


View from my room down the passage.

By 11am I was finally up and waiting for the bus.
The day at Siggraph was slow. I wasn't feeling well and everything was wrapping up. It was kind of sad, because I had not made the most of it, due to various reasons and that there was no more time left. I popped over to the job fair and spoke with a SAfrican now working at WETA in New Zealand and also Shane who wears the top hat in the "Making of" features from King Kong (The Post Production Diaries)

That evening Brian, Mike and myself made our way around Quincy Market and the home of the Replica Cheers Bar. I was still too sick to even enjoy a beer and made my way home early. We actually went to a bar next door because I didn't have my passport on me and they are extremely strict with drinking laws, and so the bar we ended up in were fine with me just having my Drivers license.


The Replica Cheers bar in Quincy Market, near Fanueil Hall.

Friday, the convention was over and now it was down to sightseeing.


In the morning I made my way around town, getting a lot of walking done. At lunch I met up with Brian and Mike and headed over to the science museum for Gunther von Hagens' Body Worlds exhibition. Truly amazing work - slightly sombre at times but overall AMAZING.

After that we headed for a duck tour- read more about it here. Basically you board an amphibious vehicle for a quick tour of Boston and a ride along the Charles river
The Duck Tour is a must do event in Boston.












Would you believe this is the prison??




John Hancock tower on the left, Prudential on the right. TALL!


Spotted! - A duck making a right turn into Newbury near my hotel.


Ducks seen near the Science Museum.

SIGGRAPH Sunday/Monday

Ok, so its lunch on Monday and I didn't post anything last night but now I have a little bit more to write about.

Yesterday I started with the first half day course, The Art of Open Season. Sony Pictures spoke how the put Open Season together from development to final render in a great course. This feature is looking extremely promising with some nice design and animation going for it. Too bad about the voice cast - not my favourite bunch.



Lecturers (from right) Doug Ikeler, Sean Mullen, Darren Lurie and Max Bruce.

Sean spoke about the rig and Character Setup, including key panels similar to the synoptic in XSI and Slicers which enabled the animators to refine and sculpt the silhouette of the character.

After a quick lunch, I was back in the extremely cold hall, these guys love their air conditioning and I fear I am getting sick from the hot-cold conditions here.

The second course yesterday was all about Narnia and how Rhythm & Hues developed Aslan and the other creatures involved in the battle.



Lectures included (from left) Ivan Neulander, Tae-Yong Kim, Wil Telford, Hans Rijpkema, Brad Hiebert and Jubin Dave.

Vastly more informative than the DVD, this course went into more detail and showed some early work on Aslan and how the Griphon got his walk on part. Not overly technical this course was great for the beginner, with a small bit of "what was that?" when Ivan spoke about rendering hair...



In the main lobby there is an exhibition on the teapot containing some interesting interpretations on the original Teapot render. From sculpture to paintings and even glass blown teapots.

This morning I was between a course on Sketch Based interfaces and emerging technologies sketches. Nothing as good as yesterday but the preperation on the main exhibition is underway and visible from the catwalk through the centre. Looking like fun tomorrow.

Now it's off to a course on defining Character Dev Techniques, the Electronic theatre and then the Chapters party. Looking forward to it but I will post some more later this week. They are being strict about photos here so hopefully I can get some more.

Boston / SIGGRAPH day 1

Registration started yesterday at 6pm and a whole bunch of attendees and exhibitors turned up. So far the shuttle service from the hotel, through the "big dig" detours and to the Convention Centre have worked well. Granted, yesterday was a Saturday afternoon, so we shall see what Monday is like when we have to deal with normal traffic.
Registration was painless, quick and efficient for the most part. When I arrived there was a short line which by the time I had registered had grown to easily 150m.



The line growing as eager atendees wait to register.





Inside the registration hall.

I got my registration papers, card and other useful info for the week ahead. Then made my way to collect my conference DVD etc. Unfortunately the DVD wasn't available and will be shipped to me later. Now the full conference starts today, so hopefully I will have little bit more information and photos this evening.