Lightmaker Manchester: Homepage

I was recently asked to produce some cool and realistic looking textures for a brief we’re currently working on. I’m a big fan of digital painting and this was a real challenge to be able to create images that would be highly detailed. It was time to ditch the mouse and begin learning how to use a wacom pen properly. I love to create my textures from scratch, so that means finding the best solution to how to tackle a particular subject.

Keep a look out for the launch of the website as it features some great 3d modelling and some cool flash work to really bring the site to life, and of course, there are a few of my textures in there too.  

A sample of my digital painting, a work in progress

As a bit of a fun experiment I had a quick go at creating a digital painting. There are loads of layers that make up this very stylised image. It's still a work in progress, but I will be adding finishing touches to the design and creating more in the future. 

ENJOY!

Seeing as my Photoshop tips are proving to be so useful in the studio I thought I would share them with the world.

So here you go and I must say this is probably one of the most useful and time saving tips ever. When using the Rectangle tool you always get fuzzy edges where the lines are not aligned to a pixel, NO MORE. Select your Rectangle tool. Then in the panel at the top where the custom shape is click the arrow to get rectangle option, then tick the box ‘snap to pixels’.

Done no more fuzzy edges, EVER. 

 

I have recently been working on an animation that involves particle systems in After Effects CS3.

One word - 'Trapcode'. http://www.trapcode.com/

These guys have created some mega plugins for After Effects that allow you to manipulate an array of particle systems with super ease. The ones worth mentioning are:

Form - Grid-based fluid 3D particles (Allows you to manipulate a grid of particles to create fractal fields and such like. Good for fire effects and shockwave explosions etc).

Particular - Powerful 3D particle system (Has a lot of uses, namely sparkley stuff, twinkley stuff, smoke effects, particle trails, gravity affected particles).

Shine - Ultra-fast light ray effect (Good for visible light rays, shine from behind an object). 

Seems that particle systems are becoming more and more popular as After Effects is evolving into one of the must have packages for a designer or animator. Watch this space to see my latest efforts.

Word

Lightmaker Manchester were approached by Celtel(Zain) Nigeria back in April of this year who wanted to create an advert based on 3D characters for a new mobile phone package called Tru. The client wanted to appeal to the youth market in Nigeria and create something that was cool and that had never been seen in Africa before.

This was obviously a great opportunity for the project to be in front of such a big audience. There was the challenge of making a 3D animation that would have to work as one film, but also broken into scenes to be used throughout the rap setting the tone, pace and style for a bigger story. The main visual idea for this advert was to try to make the CG feel textured and warm yet stylized. The end result is a 48 second advert done completely in 3D with use of motion capture for character animation, using various different techniques for post production and visual effects to get the right look and feel!

Launch video

The most highly anticipated race of the F1 season is under way. The first ever night race, to be hosted in Singapore, has started and you’ve guessed it Lewis Hamilton is at the front (after first practice) so all is looking good for the qualifying tomorrow. Lewis in his own words http://www.lewishamilton.com/news enjoys street races so fingers crossed he will go out there and get another 10 points.

We have been aiming to add new clients to our site for some time now, we just haven't had the time; but thank you to our friends at Mr and Mrs Smith and Microsoft for a current press release we get to blog it again!

Chris Mullany's Clustering With Microsoft Virtual Earth first gave us a lovely story of just how we tackled this with our JavaScript skill and solution finding; the story now continues.......

Boutique hotel specialists at Mr & Mrs Smith along with Lightmaker Manchester have created an innovative, interactive online Route Planner, to make sure that getting there is half the fun. 

Based on the idea of tailor-made, experiential UK road trips, the Smith Route Planner allows you to plot some of the most inspiring motoring routes on the way to your stylish Smith-hotel stay.

It’s a nifty tool that lets you map your own trip from A to B, and select added extras on your route. It draws on Mr & Mrs Smith’s tried-and-tested selection of the best gastro-pubs and restaurants to stop off at, the best sights to see, and the best boutique hotels to bed down in for the night.

Using Microsoft Virtual Earth’s mapping technology, including road data and aerial imagery, Lightmaker Manchester built a number of features into the Route Planner, including the option to avoid motorways and take a more scenic route.

For the full article click here

Following on from Matt's blog; Children, Children, Children we are now the proud parents (and big brothers) of Little Rosie Bess Farrar.

Rosie finally made her appearance on ther 5th of August weighing in at an healthy 7lb 15oz at 11:16pm; just 51 minutes after arriving at the hospital.  So adding a little girl to the Farrar four we are not as out numbered as before, 3 to 2 now boys! and we have the advantage of being girls.

Thank you to all for the lovely gifts and the many flowers (still after three children we have not learned the lesson of 'having too many vases we don't know what to do with them').

So after a month of routine, getting use to school runs and number two son keeping up his role 'the whirlwind' life is full of fun and smiles.

and isn't she divine .........

Last night, whilst you were working late / in the pub / making your tea / preparing for the LHC-induced apocalypse, a battle was being fought at the JJB soccer dome... Lightmaker Manchester engaged Komodo Media head-to-head in what can only be described as a 5-aside football match. The pre-match huddle was perhaps even more epic than the game itself though. Tactics, formation, powerade and even mutiny were all discussed with a ferverent passion.

I'll leave Dean to discuss the outcome...

We recently said Dovizhdane to our Bulgarian friends who have been helping out with project work over the past few months. Our leaving gift was full-on Engligh Tea, complete with home made scones and cucumber sandwiches, and a customised teapot. Bye bye guys, the office seems too big without you!

A common problem that many developers face when using the Microsoft Virtual Earth SDK is that out of the box, you cannot generate routes which avoid highways/motorways. This functionality is available on Google Maps but not via the Google Maps API. It is therefore necessary to look elsewhere for the functionality.

Fortunately, Microsoft's MapPoint Web Service does allow the option of using or avoiding highways on routes. Using XML and SOAP to receive the route now avoiding highways from the Web Service, we can take these routes and plot them within Virtual Earth. The main Web Service can be implemented using the the default Map Point web service found here: http://www.microsoft.com/mappoint/products/webservice/default.mspx. If you're using PHP then you can consume this service with NuSoap and PHP. Microsoft have provided a useful document on how to do this here: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms980207.aspx.

Once you have received the full route from the Map Point Web Service, the next task is then to plot this on your Virtual Earth map. Using the VEMap.GetDirections method allows you to pass in a number of locations/waypoints for your route. For journeys greater than 25 waypoints (chances are it will be if you're avoiding highways) you can only select 25 different waypoints on your route using this method. To implement this you'll need to call the VEMap.GetDirections every 25 waypoints along your journey until you reach the end of the route and then plot this onto the map as a custom shape.