I did it! Finally got to 1000 rating. Took me so long, but I’m finally not horrible at this game.

I’m slowly getting better at chess (on the road to 1000 ELO). Recent game I just played. Some misses, but a nice tactic to win a queen, and a good mating tactic at the end. Check out this #chess game: peanuts87 vs aswaaby - www.chess.com/game/live/16...

I'm starting off the year by tackling a few small problems that have annoyed me about my home for years. These are all easy-to-solve problems that I've been procrastinating on for years but have gradually made me upset every time I see them. Crazy to go so long with these small annoyances.

Another CG nebula, made in Houdini. Using custom volume solver to create internal gravity and pull the volume together into these nice structured threads.

Tron Ares is on Disney+ now. I did a bunch of work on the film. This sequence of the film was my main job (FX lead). (GIF pulled from Tenor) Initial concept art by Michael Rigley. Shot finishing by Serjan Burlak, Daniella Levy, and ILM Sydney.

I’m spending my Thanksgiving break doing home repairs because my kid has Hulk-hands and has destroyed the house.

Going through some old books and found this one that I picked up at a used book store around 25 years ago. I love these kinds of books because you can learn so much about how people lived back then. This is almost 800 pages and has EVERYTHING. The Amazon of the late 1800s.

Some high-level gems in here.

Quick algorithmic doodle

Sorted

Over the past year, I’ve been trying to get better at Chess, with the modest goal of getting to 1000 rapid rating. (Currently stuck in mid 700s). It’s funny, because I watch some of the Gotham Chess game reviews, and it just seems so obvious, but I choke during games (tunnel vision, hanging pieces),

LinkedIn really is the most depressing place on the internet

Not a very successful test, but was worth a try...

Procedural nebula, created in @sidefx.bsky.social . Render engine: KarmaXPU. #cg #art #space #nebula

More nebula R&D in Houdini

WIP Procedural nebulas (no simulations) in Houdini. Starfields to come later.

Looking forward to waking up tomorrow to find my retirement savings wiped out.

Nice little UI discovery inside Houdini today. I've been looking for quite awhile for a hierarchy view for object-level assemblies. Turns out the rig tree is capable of this - and even smart enough to filter out non-transformable nodes.

"Weapon" Made in 2022 #cg #art #3d #animation

Really bad if true. Massive company, thousands of people affected. www.reddit.com/r/vfx/commen...

Damn, sounds like all US Technicolor brands (Mill, MPC) are shutting down next week. ☹️

$7500 of vet bills coming up. Let’s find out if my pet insurance is worth a damn.

Thrilled to say I will not be turning on my computer for 36 hours.

I low-key want to be a turtleneck kind of guy. But with my bald head and pasty white skin, I’d probably just look like the human expression of someone popping a pimple.

The great David Lynch has passed away. RIP to a legend and truly original filmmaker.

Solving a technical work problem at the end of the day is both gratifying and annoying. The urge to work another hour or two to see the implementation of the fix is craaazy strong.

Very good read and sobering prediction of key sectors of tech (ai, autonomous vehicles, robotics, and sace travel). rodneybrooks.com/predictions-...

A lot of doomscrolling tonight and thinking about what I can/should pack if I need to evacuate the Palisades fire… I’m about 2 miles from the current evacuation zone. Safe for now, minus the air quality.

View from my street last night of the Palisades fire. I’ve lived in this neighborhood for over 10 years, seen these mountains every day, but never like this. Absolutely terrible.

The dogs tried to warn us. It may be too late now. Squirrel uprising has begun. www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2024/...

240lbs for today. Been a long time since I went this heavy. Injured myself about a year ago and have slowly been building strength and confidence back up to get here. Felt great to do this today.

I finished watching Fitzcarraldo. That’s some crazy-ass filmmaking. The only way to make a film like that is to actually do it (move the boat) for real. Insane it got made. I would say insane nobody died, but sadly, people did die making the film.

I'm continuing on with my Werner Herzog filmogrpahy by watching Fitzcarraldo. Deeply unsettling watching Klaus Kinski trying to act likeable. I'm about 2/3 through the movie - right at the point where the plan to drag the boat through the jungle is revealed...

I finished watching Aguirre, The Wrath of God. First time I’ve seen a film with Klaus Kinski in it. He’s insane, and you can see why Herzog worked with him so much despite his “personality flaws.” I was interested in his strange posture in the film and found this video: youtu.be/eROy1cRrGgA

"No Shelter" Audio by Pelican Sound From 2021, one of my more complicated loops. Lots of hard drive space filled up on this one.

I started watching the Werner Herzog film “Aguirre, the Wrath of God” last night, and it’s quite strange to see a bunch of Germans speaking German, pretending to be Spanish, all told through English subtitles. Excellent film so far, though. Klaus Kinski truly seems unhinged.

I think adding protein powder to my morning coffee might be a life hack I’ve been missing out on. Started doing that this past week, and it’s pretty incredible.

Nebula I made for Parallel

Another piece I made for Parallel. Seamless loops are always fun to figure out.

My CPU fan broke down last week. I took it in for replacement today, and when we popped off the old one, we found out it was installed with the protective plastic film still on it. I always wondered why my machine ran so hot…

Fun little thermoforming effect I whipped up in #SideFX #Houdini for this one. The laser assemblies were modeled in Fusion 360 and rigged with a FBIK setup in Houdini.

Apparently the last work I did at Parallel was released over a year ago, and they never told me! I made five different animated loops for their brand of digital trading cards. Here's one of them. (Vertical video. Will need to click it to see the whole thing)

Ok, here we go. I know a few people have been waiting for a Black Friday discount. So, Volumes 1, 2, and 3 (not Volume 4) of my Learn Houdini tutorial series are now (until Nov. 30) 25% off with discount code PTR2S0K. Come find it all at adamswaab.gumroad.com

Well shit, my computer just died ☠️ Not good. Not good at all.

So, doing a volumetric fracture like this requires extracting a bunch of cells out of a volume and then iteratively intersecting them with a mesh...

Playing around a but with some render-time volumetrics in Houdini for nebula creation. I have a few ideas for how to art-direct it a bit, but needs quite a bit more work.

This coming week, I’m going to write some posts about creating a volumetric fracturing tool in Houdini. Here, I’m using a Chebychev distance field to make some procedural sci-fi panel style volumetric breaks.