I don’t feel I want to go out and shoot lately. I’m still doing it, but not with the right spirit, and therefore the result can’t exceed the expectations. Thus I don’t have new photographs to add to my gallery.
So, I thought it might be a good opportunity to do some work indoor. In fact, it’s been quite a long time since my last macro photograph.
Plus, I’m having fun with Affinity.
Recently, Affinity launched its vector and bitmap software on Windows.
I already bought Affinity Designer and now I am testing Affinity Photo beta, which I will buy as soon as it’s out of the beta stage. They are both incredible graphics applications.
Designer, despite being only at version 1.5, comes with a list of impressive features. Working with it is a breath of fresh air. The symbol tool itself, with the chance to see the changes applied in real time to the clones, it’s a tremendous boost to the workflow. Affinity Designer is also unique as it combines vector and bitmap in a streamlined way.
There’s plenty of help on the forum and the developers are working hard to release bug fixes and new beta at a fast pace. Considered we are not talking big corporation but rather small teams, it’s a truly remarkable example of innovation and devotion.
There are already rumors about a DTP program and perhaps more.
P.S. The price for Affinity’s programs is a steal!
Tonight I spent some time with a couple of renders for a UI exercise.
I wanted to test a Vray shader for UI renders, below the result.
So little time lately.
I started a new website with a collection of my photos. I’m keeping myself busy, going out every weekend for a photography session.
Nonetheless, I’d love to focus more on Houdini, but with the given time I end up just playing with it whenever there’s a chance.
So, for tonight’s render here’s something baked just now.
Quoting a lovely soundtrack by Pat Metheny, I started a project just for fun, called Letter from home.
First two:
I took this picture yesterday at the Getty Museum.
I wanted to try some sort of van Dyck color treatment.
Then I used Language is a Virus to generate a Dada poem.
The black & white photo on flickr.
I did the previous displacement with a shader. This time I modified the geometry itself, using a VOP attribute.
The proceduralism of Houdini is really something!
You can go back, change the starting point, go forth and update the result, and Houdini will properly take into account all the tweaks made.
Render:
Elements:
I’ve exported a Pflow simulation from 3ds Max to Houdini (just because I still don’t know how to handle particles with Houdini).
Then I wanted to do a test with Mantra, this is the result:
