AProd

Hah! You're just up the road a piece. Just a couple of splines away. BTW, I also really dug the Vette. I voted for both of yours, and didn't even know they were from the same person! (I'm wondering...has it ever happened before that one person placed in the top four with two images in the same contest, or is that a Hash first?) My harshest criticism of the Vette image is that it is not very green. I mean, there is an issue of "Popular Mechanics" visible in the trash can. That should go in the recycling with the other colored paper. It is sending the wrong message! Good job again, and congrats!

Hey Eric, Great job with this model. It definitely got my vote! I made a stab at this ship a few years ago in an image contest, but yours is way better than mine was. Great detail, texturing, lighting...really top notch. You rock!

Hey Mark, Great job with the PET (I remember that machine! Never had one--my first was a C-64). Thanks for the belly-laugh. That is AWESOME! Reminds me of the "Art of Star Wars" exhibit they had here in San Francisco several years ago. There were several matte paintings from the first trilogy there, and I always loved looking at the little "artistic expressions" in them. Like the stormtrooper with a huge smiley-face head standing in the back of the crowd scene. Or the one whose feet were pointing backwards. Or the little tiny bumper sticker on the back of the Millenium Falcon model that read "How's My Driving..." I've often put little messages on billboards and such and put them in CG scenes...too small to be resolved on the broadcast, but I know they are there. (Though more recently I've had to be careful with that, with more shows being done in HD ) Anyway, great job, man! Cheers, John

I've always been a big Targa fan. I use it for everything--decals, rendering out to, etc. It's lossless and can carry an alpha channel. Plays well with video, too. The only problem I ever had was back when Adobe Photoshop 7 first came out--it had a problem with the alpha channel (they provided a patch to fix it, but it's something to look out for if you have that version of PS). Cheers, and good luck!

Wow--that's really cool, Luuk! One of the best analglyph examples I've ever seen. It's funny, the pure red/blue setting for analglyphs seems to give a much truer effect than the grey version. I guess some folks prefer the grey because the result of the red/blue is so strongly tinted. Of course, I always love using pairs, since the color stays true. And it reminds me of using the stereo ViewMaster when I was a kid.

Here's the gray analglyph and stereo pair of my Ferry Building entry: Oh, and btw--great job to everyone in the contest! Thanks to all who voted for mine...I'm honored to have placed in the midst of such an awesome group of entries.

This is the biggest format I ever had to output from A:M for. It only needed to be 30dpi, but at 32 feet wide, I had to crank out about 30K pixels wide. That certainly had my computer begging for more (memory)! I put some pictures of the finished billboard near the top of my home page: Atkinson Productions web site

For those of you who missed its debut in September, The History Channel is airing "The Battle of Tripoli" again this week--at 11pm on Thursday the 11th, and again at 3am on Friday the 12th. I believe that is for both east and west coast. However, I have DirectTV and I'm on the west coast, so we get it at 8pm and midnight. (stupid spherical Earth...) So anyway, just be sure to check your local listings. There are sailing ships and maps that were made using A:M, and I have samples on my web site if you happen to miss it. Enjoy!

Here is a web page with more thumbnail/image samples from the Tripoli show, along with one Sorenson 3 Quicktime file: http://66.70.254.100/work/samples/sampTripoli.html I also put some pages together with samples from other shows I've done work on for The Travel Channel and The History Channel: http://66.70.254.100/work/samples/sampChamp.html http://66.70.254.100/work/samples/sampTopSecret.html http://66.70.254.100/work/samples/sampFortKnox.html http://66.70.254.100/work/samples/sampOpReu.html ::whew!:: Thanks for the comments, y'all. The networks usually give us no reference material. We do have segment producers here who dig up some stuff, but for a lot of it I do my own research, since I know exactly what and how much I need in visual terms. The layout for the maps is indeed a combination of models on top of flat maps with bumps and displacement maps.

...one more... (I'll put the rest on my web site)

Another image...

Here are a couple of screenshots of a sampling of the graphics I did for "The Battle of Tripoli" which aired last Sunday the 19th of September on The History Channel. We just heard from A&E Network that the Nielsons were very high for the show (1.3, as opposed to their usual 0.8 for most of their other programming), so chances are good they will re-broadcast it soon. I'll post the info on my web site (www.atkinsonproductions.com), so check there in case you missed it last Sunday. [i have more sample images, but it looks like I can only post one at a time here, so I will try to create a web page on my site this weekend.] Okay--just added, here's the web page with samples: http://66.70.254.100/work/samples/sampTripoli.html See below for more links to other sample pages of A:M animations I've done for shows that have aired.

Hey folks, Thanks for the comments, and a (early) happy birthday greeting to Kyle! Ross--many of the big cable networks contract out to smaller production companies to create their programming for them. I'm not sure if any of them even have production facilities in-house. I am an independent contractor who works on projects for Indigo Films, a small (only about 12 people on staff, with the rest being freelancers...they have four Avid editing bays) production studio in San Rafael, California. Indigo does programming mostly for A&E Network (which includes History Channel, The Learning Channel, etc.) and Discovery Network (Discovery, Animal Planet, Discovery Wings, The Travel Channel, etc.). They produce on average around ten hours of programming a year, which keeps me with plenty to do. I consider Indigo to be my prime client, as they account for about 90% of my work for any given year. Because Indigo is a smaller studio, their budgets tend to be smaller. The producers don't care what kind of software I use, so long as the results look good. So I tend to reach for A:M. (Unfortunately, some of them have been coming in with Lightwave artists, so I'm having to pick up LW now too.) I like the fact that Indigo is a smaller studio, because I get to wear lots of hats. I do titles, visual effects, animated maps, CG, and even step in occasionally to do some voiceover and re-creation acting. The downside is the fact that being pretty much the entirety of the art department, I can get swamped when there are four shows going on at the same time. Oh, and as for web stuff, I have been long overdue on updating my web site. But a big part of it will be updating my samples, and I am hoping to create an area with Tripoli samples.

Just a little programming note: This upcoming Sunday the 19th of September a program will premiere on The History Channel entitled "The Battle of Tripoli". I did just about all of the visual effects and broadcast graphics for the show, so it involves a lot of Animation:Master output. Namely, all of the maps, ship models, and some of the battle simulation were done using A:M. I believe it is in the prime time slot--it airs at 8pm (Pacific time) on our DirectTV, which may mean it also airs three hours before that (or 8pm eastern time)...but anyway, just check your local listings, if you are interested in taking a look. Thanks!

Hi Frank, At the risk of doing a "me too" posting, I just have to say that your work posted here is fantastic! I love the atmosphere that you have achieved...that kind of "futuristic retro" that I always imagine Jules Verne would have created if A:M were around 150 years ago... I look forward to seeing more samples from this city. Got a short film idea in there?