Animator Kyle

My First Impressions of Windows 7 Beta

2009-01-14T16:40:00.001-08:00

Just a quick note before I get on with my first impressions of Windows 7: I haven't owned a system with Windows Vista, so if it existed in Vista, it is still new to me!

The system I installed on:
-32 Bit Windows 7 (because I have under 4 GB of ram)
-AMD 64 X2 Dual Core 3800+
-2 GB Ram
-nVidia GeForce GTX 260

I installed the beta on an empty 120GB partition. I didn't want to completely ditch my long loved XP, so I'm dual booting both os's. To get the install to work correctly I had to grab the latest sata drivers from silicon image because the one's I have are for XP. The install was a snap and everything went exceptionally smooth.

Upon my first boot every single device was recognized! My HP All-in-one printer? Check. nVidia GeForce GTX 260? Check. Wacom Tablet? You bet. Incredible! I noticed my monitors were switched around (I use a dual-monitor setup) however, but fixing that was quick and easy; just right-click on the desktop, select 'Screen Resolution', and finagle a bit in this screen:

I quickly installed Firefox, then I got a pop-up warning me of my lack of an anti-virus, so I downloaded and installed AVG-Free:

Just as AVG completed installing, my automatic updates were complete too. Nothing too out of the ordinary, but I was sort of impressed that it grabbed an update for my Sound Blaster Audigy! (I normally don't keep Automatic Updates active on my XP install).

I also downloaded and installed OpenOffice.Org with no problems. It runs much faster than what it did on my XP install!

Now this brings us to a feature I find really cool, though it may take some getting used to: The new Taskbar.

Visually it is much more attractive than the XP counterpart, and the application grouping ability is super-useful. Also, instead of using both the application's icon and text, it uses a nice large icon. Below you can see the OpenOffice.org icon on the Taskbar. I've moused over it (you can also select it for a quicker response) which brings up a semi-transparent pop-up displaying screenshots of all the open windows associated with the program. In this case you can see an OpenOffice Text Document on the left, then a Spreadsheet, and a Presentation on the right.

Now what I thought was really powerful was the ability to view a specific window out of this grouping. I went ahead and placed my mouse over the Presentation. Doing this reduces every open window (even those that are not part of the OpenOffice group) to a simple outline while displaying the window you've moused over in the group. If you want to view the others instead, just move your mouse over them and the windows will fade out and into the newly selected one. Pretty slick. From here you can click on the window from the group pop-up which opens it as the top-most window and you can begin working in it. Pretty slick.

Something to note: Internet Explorer breaks all of it's tabs into separate selectable windows (below) but Firefox is unable to do this, as of yet.

Another cool feature is the 'Jump List' in the Start Menu. Some applications have this available, which are noted by the arrow on the right side of the program list.

Clicking on the arrow brings up the Jump List. It includes Tasks associated with the application, recent documents, and more. Here you can see the Jump List for Paint and Getting Started.

A freebie that comes with Windows 7 is a simple Sticky Note application (a la Post-It notes, virtual style ;). I use Hott Notes quite often but am happy to welcome this alternative. Opening the application places a Sticky Note on your desktop. You can move it around and place it wherever you want. You can open the application again to place another Sticky Note on your desktop. Create as many as you need. These notes save themselves so you don't need to worry about clicking a save button. When you Log Off or Restart your computer, Window 7 remembers your notes and where you've stuck them on your desktop and automatically puts them back. When you no longer need a note, simply mouse-over it and click on the X.

Snap feelings: I really dig it. This os is very quick, especially with the amount of intense graphics used by the Aero theme. It feels smooth and pretty seamless, granted I don't have much installed on it and have not really put it through the ringer. In the future I will hopefully be able to come up with a more thurough reveiw including some mamoth multi-tasking as I work on some projects in some 3d apps and photoshop. Maybe I'll install some games too and see how they run.

As for now, with the limited amount of time I've spent with Windows 7, I really look forward to using it in the future. Maybe after I can save up enough cash to buy a new rig or something. Until then I'll keep playing around with the beta. Go ahead and install it on your machine too! It's quick and easy ;)

Got a new webcam...

2009-01-05T22:30:00.000-08:00

Kristi and I bought it for security purposes... but I won't bore you with that story. Anyway, I had to start playing with it the moment I got it installed ;)

2009-01-04T18:16:00.000-08:00

You may have noticed I've been MIA on the intertubes this past week. After applying for an animation job at a local studio, they requested I complete an Animation Test. I had to create 3 animations within a week (the week of New Years, my future Brother-in-law's birthday, and many family thingybops... of all weeks...). Monday to Monday. I just finished a little bit ago, though we all know an animator is never complete with his work, and plan to continue working on them in the future. The time deadline was killer ;(

I had an absolute blast working on these though - it's been so long since I did straight hand-key work. Midway didn't often request it, and when they did it was just a simple addition to the end of a motion captured movement or something. Ah well, here they are for all to see!

Oh yea, the studio mentioned that working in 3ds Max would be a plus - so I used that. First time since college, it took a few hours to get rolling, but mostly everything went smooth after the first day. Eggch, except for the Constraints. I was having a hell of a time figuring out how to set up a simple parent/child constraint, is there no way to key the weight!?

"I have exercised the demons" (Has Audio) This sound-clip is from Ace Ventura.

"I have exercised the demons" (Has Audio) I attached a camera to his face so you can see the facial animation better.

"Run-Knockdown"

"Heavy-Throw"

Now that I met the deadline, I'll be going back and really tweaking these out. Yay.

About time for a new computer

2008-12-27T13:59:00.000-08:00

I am getting very close to blowing a lot of cash on a workstation machine. There have been way too many problems with my current computer that really put a clamp on my productivity. The prices are a bit steep when stepping foot into the workstation territory, but I should be able to save some of the money by building it myself. For starters, I have already have a new video card that may be able to do the job: BFG GeForce GTX260. The remainder of the system rings in around $1200.

TYAN S5396A2NRF

Intel Xeon E5410 Harpertown 2.33GHz Quad-Core Processor

Kingston 4GB DDR2 FB-DIMM PC2 5300 ECC

CORSAIR 750W ATX12V Power Supply

Western Digital Caviar Green WD10EACS 1TB SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive

Microsoft Windows XP Professional SP2C 64-bit

Then again, it may be wise to just wait until Windows 7 is released next year and build a machine that is fully supported.

2008-12-23T09:31:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I finally finished rigging the last two characters for a short funded by the US Army. Because of the crazy short deadlines, I figured the quickest and easiest way to go about the rigging was to use Motion Builder for body animation. This gets the body rigging tasks out of the way because Motion Builder auto rigs your characters with a decent setup.

Once this file was handed off to the animator, it bought me enough time to crank out four facial rigs built in Maya, where the body animation would later be transferred to.

Had the deadline been a little lighter, I would much rather have built the entire setup in Maya. Either way, I'm glad to have completed it before the Holidays so I can relax and enjoy the time with my family!

2008-12-17T06:59:00.000-08:00

Today I am an unemployed animator looking for work. I was laid off from Midway Games because of drastic cost-cutting measures they have taken to stay afloat in this rough economic time. For the last two years I was part of the Cinematics team at Midway as a Character Animator and Setup Artist. Working with such wonderful and accomplished artists on the team was a blessing and a non-stop learning experience.

More than anything I will miss our closely-knit team and hope our paths don't veer too far apart in the near future. I anticipate with so many artists now looking for work in the Chicago area that there will be great opportunities emerging.

In hopes of finding work this holiday season, I've begun fleshing out my internet identity a bit. You can see more of what I'm all about.

http://www.linkedin.com/in/animatorkyle
Demo Reel