3 Dimensions

Finishing up

2008-10-31T02:42:00.003-04:00

Well all of the changes and small renders are finished on the reception hall. Now I'm working on 3 poster sized renders of it. At nearly 7 million polys cutting the scene in half and rendering in strips still wasn't enough so I bought more RAM. That should make things easier.

Photographs are just about done now, just waiting for final approval. They were shot for the Comcast Center in Philadelphia, of their "The Market" underground, high end, shopping plaza. The people who ran the shops were extremely nice to me and gracious. A couple were even happy to pose a second time when I needed to do a reshoot. As a side benefit the restaurant owners kept giving me free food! lol

Possibly coming up soon a project involving Dee Snider of Twister Sister.

Reception hall

2008-10-03T06:03:00.001-04:00

Almost a year after doing that reception hall that's in the 3D Gallery I've been asked to make some changes to it. So that's what I'm up to now.

Photo shoot

2008-09-29T02:02:00.001-04:00

Current project with Epic Studios seems wrapped up. Tomorrow I'm going to shoot some pictures for a local client's new website.

IGN Article & more

2008-09-04T19:41:00.003-04:00

Got a call from IGN.com yesterday asking to use my Nintendo DS 2 renders in an article. Of course I said they could.

Here's the article:
http://gear.ign.com/articles/907/907463p1.html

Also I am starting a new gig with Epic Studios tomorrow.

Photos

2008-09-03T09:32:00.002-04:00

I've added 8 new photos to the Photography section of the site. They're not exactly new though, I shot them in college around 1996-1997. The majority were shot with a 4x5 large format view camera. The Gravestone and Camden shots were shot on 35mm film.

Low Poly Environment

2008-08-31T11:49:00.003-04:00

I'm working on a new personal project. Starting with this Starbucks building in Shinjuku-ku

Redesign complete

2008-08-26T13:38:00.002-04:00

If you're reading this you're looking at the new design for my site. I hope you enjoy and please let me know if you find any bugs, I will try to squash them as quickly as possible. phil@philnolan3d.com

Under Renovation

2008-08-25T05:52:00.003-04:00

This site has been up for about 5 years now and it's about time for a change. So the site is undergoing a dramatic overhaul with entirely modern code behind the scenes, new visuals, and a few more tricks. The redesign is almost complete and should be live within the week.

Recomendations

2008-08-11T13:35:00.005-04:00

Recently I have received two recommendations from Shooters Post & Transfer.

From John-Michael Trojan (Producer):
"I've hired Phil for 3D modeling. He took complete ownership of his work, and delivered exactly what we needed, plus he took the initiative to send his work in with added value. Anyone who goes the extra mile to deliver quality work on time and on budget gets a recommendation from me, and Phil fits that bill."

From Laura Pappanicholas (Executive Producer):
"Top qualities: Expert, Good Value, High Integrity"
hired Phil as a 3D Artist in 2006, and hired Phil more than once

Also one from John O'Mahony who I worked with at High 5:
"I had the pleasure of working my first big freelance gig with Phil. Although we were in different states, he might as well been working besides me. Phil produces, and thats why I'd work with him again." August 11, 2008

Tweeting

2008-07-19T10:51:00.003-04:00

If anyone's interested I can also be found on Twitter at http://twitter.com/philnolan3d and Pownce at http://pownce.com/philnolan3d/ Feel free to follow me there.

Not happy with Apple

2008-07-10T02:41:00.002-04:00

I've had my iPhone for about 9 months, the other day the lower third of the touch screen stops working. Everyone on the forums said bring it in, get it replaced. So I drove a half hour out to the nearest Apple store and they replaced it... with a broken one! So I brought that one back and they replaced it again. This one works well enough, but it feels like it's shoddily put together. The Home button is loose and if you tap the area around it it makes a hollow noise like it's not put together snugly. When tapping the same spot on the other end of the phone, it sounds nice and solid. On top of that, you can tell by the serial numbers that both of the phones they gave me are much older than the one I originally paid for. And some people wonder why I don't use Apple computers...

I won't even talk about having to make an appointment at the store, then getting there at the appointed time, and still having to wait.

IMDB

2008-06-14T17:39:00.001-04:00

A while back I posted that my helicopter model was being used in a feature film, a zombie movie called Dead Moon Rising. Thanks to that I was able to set up my IMDB page.

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm3031327/

High 5 again

2008-06-08T02:33:00.002-04:00

Back to work with High 5 Productions. I started earlier this week doing a little more work on the Kid Fitness show I was working on before.

New outfit

2008-05-30T04:08:00.002-04:00

So I've been working on this character for basically years now, pushing a few points whenever I have some free time. At the moment I have just finished up the base model for her "armor". I based the design on a couple of the outfits worn by Kahm, the main character of the Outlanders manga by Johji Manabe. As I said this is the base model, the details and textures will be created in 3D Coat as soon as I get the UV maps set up.

Old news, new news

2008-05-22T00:25:00.002-04:00

Shooters Post & Transfer is displaying some of my work on their site. The LaCrosse stick I modeled for them was used in this spot.
http://www.shootersinc.com/content//qt.php?id=102340

I'm now finishing up an art test for Anderson Renderings and sending it in. If I get the job the project will be an animation of an accident to be used in a court trial.

Modeling video tutorial

2008-03-12T10:23:00.003-04:00

One of the guys on Spinquad.com was having trouble modeling the cylinder on his revolver gun model so I made up this video tutorial. He ended up figuring it out before I got through some editing troubles, but I figured the tutorial might be helpful to some other people. It explores a number of tools in LightWave including Rounder, Bridge, and Drill.

Meta Cafe version
http://www.metacafe.com/watch/1148953/revolver_modeling_in_lightwave_3d/

Mega Upload version (40MB Quicktime H.264)
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=H8NRRJB2

Female head

2008-03-04T17:33:00.002-05:00

Lightwave 9.5 is coming soon and it will include new hair tools among it's other new features. So I figured I'd better make a new head to test it out on.

NewTek Announces LightWave 3D 9.5

2008-02-20T18:22:00.001-05:00

The fourth major update to LightWave 3D v9. Is to be a huge one, including enhancements to character animation and modeling, an all new hair and fur system, all new lighting system and much more. And of course it will be free for current LightWave 3D v9 owners.

read more | digg story

New Mexico

2008-02-06T07:28:00.000-05:00

I'm going to be revamping the 10 minute animation I did for TMC Services, although it's not handled by TMC anymore there was a falling out between them and the creator of the device in the video. So anyway I'll be flying out to Albuquerque for a few days to discuss all of the changes that have to be made.

Lightwave 3D rules!

2008-01-04T10:46:00.000-05:00

To everyone reading bout the DS Prototype mock-ups I'd like to share that these renders were done entirely in LightWave 3D 9.3.1. Lightwave doesn't get enough recognition in the CG world.

DS Prototype skyrocketing

2008-01-02T20:09:00.000-05:00

I sent the WIP images to Gizmodo and they offered to feature them on the site. After a few small alterations they went up and also hit the front page of Digg.com. I've never had so many hits to my site in one day before. Currently at about 150 and rising since this afternoon. Hope my bandwidth can handle it. I think the most I ever had was close to 80 in one day.

Gizmodo link:
http://gizmodo.com/339601/nintendo-ds-2-the-3d-mock+up-makes-us-drool-even-more

Digg Link:
http://digg.com/nintendo/Nintendo_DS_2_the_3D_Mock_Up_Makes_Us_Drool_Even_More

Big thanks to Jesus Diaz!

Nintendo DS 2 Prototype

2007-12-26T14:50:00.000-05:00

I was inspired by the image Gizmodo came up with for what they'd like to see the next DS look like as seen here.
http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/all-giz-wants/n...k+up-332353.php

As I worked I got more ideas from the iPhone, PSP, and Wii.

Happy Holidays

2007-12-25T15:08:00.000-05:00

Merry Christmas and happy assorted other holidays everyone.

RSS feed

2007-12-17T06:19:00.000-05:00

I've added a feed for this blog, so you can now subscribe if you like. Find the link in the upper right corner of this page.

Addys

2007-12-13T03:56:00.000-05:00

I talked to Kevin Fanning at Shooters about the NCAA project that we both worked on and asked about the Addy award. He didn't go to the event this year, but apparently it was submitted to Baltimore where it won the gold and also Philadelphia where it won two silvers.