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Bobby Parker 6/10/14 Bobby Parker 6/10/14

10 Commandments Color Theory

Make Your Projects More Enticing With Color Theory

Color combinations can be difficult to get right.

When matching with clothes, it’s easy. But for projects, ad campaigns and posters, the millions of colors to choose from can be overwhelming. Working under a tight deadline forces many people to choose safe or dull colors that lack substance.

For those who are not well versed in color theory, there’s this infographic.

The diagram shows brief descriptions of the foundational colors of the rainbow and indicates when and how to use them properly. The best part about the infographic are the samples. Since all of the samples are on one visual, making comparisons of color combinations can be quick process.

If you don’t know where to start in using the guide, start with the questions and work your way from left to right.

Explore more visuals like this one on the web's largest information design community - Visually.

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Bobby Parker 5/31/14 Bobby Parker 5/31/14

GRID Virtualized Graphics Acceleration

Take the free GRID test drive and experience virtualized graphics acceleration delivered from the cloud.

Experience the NVIDIA GRID Test Drive from the comfort of your PC. It only takes a few minutes to register and you get immediate access to the secure NVIDIA Test Drive site. Once there, you have 24 hours to experience some of the most demanding applications running from the cloud.

You will see how NVIDIA GRID:

Delivers a better experience for remote desktops and applications
Can run graphics-rich applications in a virtualized environment
Handles complex graphics files and images

Important note: the Test Drive is for North America only

- See more at: http://www.nvidia.com/object/trygrid.html#sthash.qQrgZHGt.dpuf

Bobby Parker 5/30/14 Bobby Parker 5/30/14

Coolorus 2.0 for Photoshop®

Coolorus is a Color Wheel Panel for Adobe Products (Photoshop and Flash) and all native Mac apps that uses native Apple color picker.

Coolorus is for creative people who would like to improve workflow as much as possible. Reducing clicks to the minimum, learn about Color Relations, Gamut Masks and the power of triangle HSV representation.

Bobby Parker 5/30/14 Bobby Parker 5/30/14

Learn How To Use Your VRay Camera like a DSL.

Shutterfly’s New Interactive Guide Teaches the Basics of Capturing Better Images

There’s no such thing as too many resources when it comes to learning how to render out an awesome image. And here to prove this statement is a neat little pseudo-interactive web guide put together by Shutterfly for those among us who are just starting out. Called How to Take the Perfect Photo, this web-based guide is a simple-but-efficient tool for anyone looking to get a bit more .

Use these tips to create a better composition in your 3DSMAX scene.

Bobby Parker 5/28/14 Bobby Parker 5/28/14

The Right Perspective And Field Of View

By watching the tutorial below, you’ll be able to see how to make subtle changes to your images when using wide angle, long focus, and zoom lenses in order to truly be the master of what you capture.

Bobby Parker 5/19/14 Bobby Parker 5/19/14

V-Ray Mag - Issue 1, 2014

Get an in-depth look into the world of V-Ray with the new V-Ray Mag Issue 1, 2014.

VRay Magazine

Bobby Parker 4/23/14 Bobby Parker 4/23/14

Advance2000

I am benchmark testing a desktop as a service (DAAS) called Advance 2000, and thus far, I am impressed! The company has been around for awhile, so they have a solid understanding of the needs of the Architecture, Engineering & Construction (AEC) industry.

The scene I used does use one plug-in, which I have uploaded here. I am in the middle of the test so I will post the results soon. I am using Chaos Group's V-Ray. and Autodesk's 3ds Max®, for my testing.

2 - Intel Xeon CPU X5680 @ 3.33GHz, 32.0GB, NVIDIA GeForce GTX 670 (Advance2000 Cloud)

My Advance2000 cloud render, running 2 Intel Xeons, took 1h 29m 32.7s. You can see the computer specs under the above final render.

1 - intel(R) Core i7 CPU 965 @ 3.20GHz (8 CPUs), 24.0GB, NVIDIA Quadro K5000 4095 MB (local farm)4 - Intel(R) Core(TM) i7 CPU  920  @ 2.67GHz (8 CPUs), 12.0GB, Stock video card (local farm) — 1 - intel(R) Core i7 CPU 965 @ 3.20GHz (8 CPUs), 24.0GB, NVIDIA Quadro K5000 4095 MB (local farm)
4 - Intel(R) Core(TM) i7 CPU 920 @ 2.67GHz (8 CPUs), 12.0GB, Stock video card (local farm)

My local render farm, running 5 Intel i7s , took 1h 7m 58.9s. You can see the computer specs under the above final render.

So, we are almost running neck to neck, but in their lane is 2 rigs, and on my side is 5 rigs. Mind you, my rigs are about 7 years old and have already paid for themselves 10x.

Bobby Parker 4/20/14 Bobby Parker 4/20/14

How Quickly Our Brains Can Redefine Normality

So let me show you how quickly our brains can redefine normality, even at the simplest thing the brain does, which is color. I want you to first notice that those two desert scenes are physically the same. One is simply the flipping of the other. Okay? Now I want you to look at that dot between the green and the red. Okay? And I want you to stare at that dot. Don't look anywhere else. And we're going to look at that for about 30 seconds.

And I'll tell you -- don't look anywhere else -- and I'll tell you what's happening inside your head. Your brain is learning. And it's learning that the right side of its visual fieldis under red illumination; the left side of its visual field is under green illumination. That's what it's learning. Okay? Now, when I tell you, I want you to look at the dot between the two desert scenes. So why don't you do that now?

Your brain is seeing that same information as if the right one is still under red light, and the left one is still under green light. That's your new normal.

So, what does this mean for context? It means that I can take these two identical squares, and I can put them in light and dark surrounds. And now the one on the dark surround looks lighter than the one on the light surround. What's significant is not simply the light and dark surrounds that matter. It's what those light and dark surrounds meant for your behavior in the past.

Bobby Parker 4/15/14 Bobby Parker 4/15/14

Construct GTC Teaser

Construct GTC Teaser from Kevin Margo on Vimeo.

CONSTRUCT is a Sci-Fi short film advancing the art of filmmaking, VFX and virtual production.

This teaser was presented as part of a tech demo at Nvidia's GTC conference March 25, 2014. This is a work in progress intended to illustrate recent advancements in graphics hardware and software capabilities.

Watch how we're pioneering new filmmaking and virtual production workflows.
youtube.com/watch?v=nnaz8q6FLCk

Special thanks to Chaos Group, NVIDIA, Boxx, OptiTrack, iTooSoft, Just Cause Entertainment and the AMAZINGLY TALENTED team of artists, actors and stunt performers who've supported this project.

1. Rendered using V-Ray RT GPU 3.0 for 3ds Max
2. Rendered with NVIDIA K6000s and K40s on 3DBOXX 4920 GPU Edition
3. Typical video RAM usage 6-7GB
4. Typical render time 5-10 minutes (DOF and motion blur are all rendered in camera)

CONSTRUCT in its entirety is coming soon...

For more info:
constructfilm.com/
facebook.com/constructfilm
twitter.com/MargoKevin
kevinmargo.com

Bobby Parker 4/15/14 Bobby Parker 4/15/14

Optical Illusions Show How We See

Beau Lotto's color games puzzle your vision, but they also spotlight what you can't normally see: how your brain works. This fun, first-hand look at your own versatile sense of sight reveals how evolution tints your perception of what's really out there.

“Beau Lotto is founder of Lottolab, a hybrid art studio and science lab. With glowing, interactive sculpture — and old-fashioned peer-reviewed research—he’s illuminating the mysteries of the brain’s visual system.”

Why you should listen

"Let there be perception," was evolution's proclamation, and so it was that all creatures, from honeybees to humans, came to see the world not as it is, but as was most useful. This uncomfortable place--where what an organism's brain sees diverges from what is actually out there--is what Beau Lotto and his team at Lottolab are exploring through their dazzling art-sci experiments and public illusions. Their Bee Matrix installation, for example, places a live bee in a transparent enclosure where gallerygoers may watch it seek nectar in a virtual meadow of luminous Plexiglas flowers. (Bees, Lotto will tell you, see colors much like we humans do.) The data captured isn't just discarded, either: it's put to good use in probing scientific papers, and sometimes in more exhibits.

At their home in London’s Science Museum, the lab holds "synesthetic workshops" where kids and adults make abstract paintings that computers interpret into music, and they host regular Lates--evenings of science, music and "mass experiments." Lotto is passionate about involving people from all walks of life in research on perception--both as subjects and as fellow researchers. One such program, called "i,scientist," in fact led to the publication of the first ever peer-reviewed scientific paper written by schoolchildren ("Blackawton Bees," December 2010). It starts, "Once upon a time ..."

These and Lotto's other conjurings are slowly, charmingly bending the science of perception--and our perceptions of what science can be.

What others say

"All his work attempts to understand the visual brain as a system defined, not by its essential properties, but by its past ecological interactions with the world. In this view, the brain evolved to see what proved useful to see, to continually redefine normality." —British Science Association