Patrick's VFX Blog

I was looking for some tutorials on Houdini and came across this page: http://www.wonderhowto.com/how-to-copy-stamp-houdini-9-241099/ Then I realise that this site is hosts a huge collection of videos that show you how to do stuff. From showing how to cut your own hair, or put on make-up, it also shows you how to create mechanical stuff or do your own modification to your computers, tvs, etc. :) All in all its an informative and hands-on website. I would put it together in the same category as Wikipedia and HowStuffWorks, although these 2 sites are more informative than hands-on DIY demonstration. I am now intrigued by the featured article on the main page of HowStuffWorks: Are There Any Other Universes Like Ours Out There? So here are the links: http://www.howstuffworks.com/ http://www.wonderhowto.com/ http://www.wikipedia.org/ I am a Christian but I am also a sci-fi fan. Working in the line of visual effects, how can I not be a fan of sci-fi? :) I believe in this worl...

Today, some artists were moved away from my room. They were mostly ATDs, maintaining the pipeline. I talked to Leandro, a very friendly guy, who was trained in VFX in school but was put into an ATD role after he came over to London. He was in this room when I moved in 2 weeks ago. Apparently he's been in this room for quite a while before I moved in too. He too would be moved out of the room before long. Leandro gave me a phrase used by coders: "Job security through code obscurity". It means to write codes other people can't straigtaway understand, so that you will be needed to maintain your own code. In this way, you make yourself indispensible to the project, and thus guarantees your continued employment with the company. ;) He does not want to be doing ATD work forever. So as to be available to move between roles in the pipeline, he tries to write very readable code, so people can easily take over his work. :) I did a Google search and here are some links f...