Roger

I can't remember if I posted this before but this spoof is obviously referencing 2001: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TeQi4zbT8fA It's called Black Holes (warning: brief animated nudity ). Apparently it is a pilot for a series but I've yet to see anything further by these guys using the same concept.

2001 had some very groundbreaking effects for the time, stuff that had never been seen before. I found some information on on how various effects were done as well as behind-the-scenes information that was pretty interesting: https://indiefilmhustle.com/stanley-kubrick-slit-scan-2001/ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AgNyCluIRhA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=StZ2fmWYom4 There's a lot of good stuff if you're interested in how they made the film.

Having seen AC/DC more than once, I have to say they put on one of the best hard rock shows around. I saw them once in Milwaukee in '09 and twice again more recently I think it was 2013 and 2016 I saw them, both times in Chicago. I'd have gone to see them back in highschool but just couldn't swing it at the time. Anyway, we are likely to only get tribute bands as Brian Johnson is retiring due to too much hearing damage, and Angus' brother Malcolm passed away recently. I had heard something about them finishing out some tour dates with Axl Rose singing and someone else subbing in for Malcolm, but I don't know what their long term plans are. My guess is they are either going to hang things up or it is entirely possible they are going to keep going until Angus drops dead, just with a different rhythm guitarist and singer. On a slightly different note, there is an AC/DC tribute band that does bluegrass renditions of their songs called Hayseed Dixie. While I've never seen them I have heard one or two of their songs and it's definitely an interesting spin on your typical tribute band. I don't know what Angus does to have that level of energy in his 60s, tons of cardio maybe?

Very nice.

That looks like an advanced case of Bone-itis.

I'd be down for it. I've done some of these already but I can always use the practice.

This looks pretty cool, I can't watch the videos though unless I watch them directly on YouTube. Anyone else having that problem?

This is true, I am also the limiting factor in terms of getting things done more so than rendering. I don't know that having extremely fast final renders would make much difference in that regard. However, where they might make a difference is in all the iterative test renderings that we often do when testing lighting, materials, etc. on a scene. Now 5-10 seconds as opposed to 5 minutes for a test frame would be a valuable thing. We can work around this somewhat by doing lower resolution tests or rendering only a portion of the screen but sometimes you need a full frame test at final quality. Blender and AM are very different in the way in which they are developed. Blender is a community effort with dozens if not hundreds of programmers. This is not true of AM. I am happy enough with AM, I am not investing more time at this point in my life in learning a completely different software. I suppose if I had to at some point and was forced to adopt Blender I would but I'd much rather work with AM.

It depends, of course, but in average 3-5 minutes for a 1280x640 9xmultipass frame without hair/particles. You should get in a time machine and go tell 1987 me that the day would come when it would not take 5-15 hours per 320x240 frame with no hair or particles even if you wanted them. True, I remember trying to do single-frame Povray renders on my 286 and them taking all night since I didn't have a math coprocessor. That said, if you could do those renders faster, why not? It would be terribly useful to be able to do a final quality render in near real-time.

Just saw this today, I really don't want to run the risk of spoiling anything so all I will say is it was a very strong film. And porgs are adorable.

Yeah, makes more sense. I guess it has been a while since the last contest, forgot what the other one looked like.

Looks good so far. What about the reverse side, you could have Tom/Thom in a hammock.

Nicely done video, Rob. Congratulations to Mark, Matt, and Bruce. Mark I will be sending you a photo for my caricature prize. Maybe I could have you do one of my fuzzy dog.

I got a Chick Tract once.

Candy corn is pretty horrible. Also Necco wafers. And black licorice.

Any luck finding those renders? We are officially in October now. Anyhow, looking forward to seeing everyone's stuff.

And one of the Hash people was a parrot keeper, i recall. Jeff Paries, I think. I remember the parrot featured in one or more Martin's Minutes posts.

African Grey is a type of parrot. I think that may be what the color is referring to.

Yep, that's something I will never un-see LOL.

That seems like that would be impossible to do without some very expensive engineering, or materials that we don't currently have. Also....there are trombone forums?

Is it Weasel Stomping Day already? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k76IGLi6jWI

Clever. I always like seeing the "behind the scenes" stuff.

Did we do robots already? Robots could be cool.

Looking very good Rob. Nice work.

Is the Loosh creature your character? If so, he's interesting.