Dead Space Countdown Clock

Want to know how long you are going to have to wait until you can go play your own copy of Dead Space? Check out this cool Dead Space Countdown clock added to the bottom of my page.

Pimp my rice paddy?

Rice Paddy Art

Each year, farmers in the town of Inakadate in Aomori prefecture create works of crop art by growing a little purple and yellow-leafed kodaimai rice along with their local green-leafed tsugaru-roman variety. This year’s creation — a pair of grassy reproductions of famous woodblock prints from Hokusai’s 36 Views of Mount Fuji — has begun to appear (above). It will be visible until the rice is harvested in September.

Looks a bit like Burning Man

I saw this video and with the "Waffle" errrr.. "Birdsnest" in the background.. this is almost looking like Burningman. Innovative uses of tiny LED lighting is a must for protests and life in the Playa.... and remember Don't be a Dark Wad.

Bright Lights spell out "Free Tibet" on banner in Bejing.

CG Hair gets a new look

University of California, San Diego today announced a new method for accurately capturing the shape and appearance of a person’s hairstyle. The results closely match the real hairstyles and can be used for animation.

Article can be found here:

More Dead Space......

Two are diggin - one is.... ahh... not so much. :) Enjoy this Dead Space review on 1UP

This one is from the Community Day here at EARS... find it on Achievement Hunter

My Lighting Presentation is now Live

Here's the link to my lighting / rendering presentation for Dead Space. There were a few links floating around for this... but something was a bit wacky with the audio. This version went live the other day and looks quite bit better... weird to see yourself on camera.. guess I wouldn't be a good actor! Sorry for the power point graphics... you really can't see any of what is on the TV monitor. Note to self: Never use a white background with black type.. this will be completely unreadable if video taped.

Well.. I hope that this might help to clear up some of the confusion going on around "frame rate" and real time rendering vs. "software / pre-rendered solutions".

I'll see if I can post a few of my power-point slides on this blog as well.. that might also serve as interesting information for some of ya.

Isaac Clarke on Twitter

Tell your friends and family to follow Dead Space's own Isaac Clarke on Twitter.

Off to Godfather

Looks like I will be now going onto GodfatherII for a bit. No rest for the weary... still not done with Dead Space.. but hopefully I can get this in the can and take a bit of R&R before getting on the GFII train.

Community Day Rock'd!

Thanks to all who helped put the Dead Space EA Community day together. It was lots of fun for me to get to meet some of the peeps who have their fingers on the pulse of the industry. My voice took a beating as I am speaking today like I smoked a pack 'o Camels. :)

Seriously... was very cool to see this side of things and get out from behind my computer for a bit. Great to see the excitement and appreciation for the game. It truly makes me and the rest of the lighting peeps happy to know that our work is valued and respected by our core gamer community.

Starting to collect links:

Scobleizer
Kombo
io9
GamerTagRadio
HawtyMcBloggy
Scobleizer2

Dead Space is racking up the awards!

Game Critics Awards – Winner! Best Action/Adventure Game
New York Times – Winner! 10 Games that Impressed at E3 (List) “Without question the sleeper hit of E3.”
Popular Mechanics – Winner! Top Ten Games of E3 – Dead Space takes #5
IGN – Winner! Best X360 Action Game
Kotaku – Winner! Best Action/Adventure Game of E3
GameSpy.com – Winner! Top Ten Games by Platform, 5th on Xbox, 6th on PS3 and 10th on PC
GamePro – Winner! Silver Medal
Cheat Code Central – Winner! Best Horror Game of E3
IGN – Nominee: Best Overall Action Game, Best PS3 Action Game, Best PC Action Game, Best X360 Graphics Technology
GameTrailers – Nominee: Best New Franchise, Best Shooter
1UP – Nominee: Best E3 Action Game
X-Play – Nominee: Best Innovation
UGO – Special follow-up commendation for Best Action Adventure Game

Dead Space Community Day

Today and tomorrow EA is sponsoring a Dead Space community day. The roster of events will include a meet and greet along with dinner and drinks. A 7:00 pm double feature along with Popcorn and all the candy your dentist told you not to eat will be available for the invited guests.

Tomorrow the 6th heats up with hands on game play and discussions and interviews with the developers including myself! Stay tuned for more.

Dead Space

I am currently working on the new IP Sci-Fi Horror game DEAD SPACE. This is being produced at Electronic Arts Redwood Shores. We are actually very close to wrapping this up.. probably about 1-2 weeks of bug fixing left. I'll be back to document the lighting / rendering tech used on this project. We have really done some very cool next gen stuff on this title. Deferred rendering is just part of the mix.

Coorporate MashUp

Electronic Arts Redwood Shores Campus gets a Starbucks inside the atrium of building #250. What other cooporate mashups are next??

Starbucks Cup Durability Test

I was listening to NPR a while back and they were discussing the new Starbucks cups that are made from 10% recycled product. I mumbled to myself, "Geeezzz it seems like they could be making these from more than 10% recycled product." The claim from the Starbucks spokesperson was that this could jepordize the integrity and strength of the cup. Being born in the "land of the wastefull" I thought of the uncommon idea that it might be interesting to actually see how long one of these new cups would last.

This simple questions deserves a simple answer:

Exactly 8 uses.

After use #1 and #2


After use #3


After use #4


After use #5


After use #6


After use #7


After use #8


Prior to use #9 Cup officially expires.



Detail of the weakest link.... the seam.

Lumia Grande Burning Man Project

The Lumia Grande project has been migrated to it's own Blog site.

http://www.lumiagrande.blogspot.com/

finish paint / installed cabinets

Long time since I have updated things here.. but now I have the moulding all installed and primed and painted. The walls are also primed and painted. The cabinets are finished and now installed. They really look great and Dave did an awesome job putting it all together and also helping me install them. The material used was a Veneer called "Italian Ebony" Bascially this is a copy of the exotic hardwood called Macassar Ebony, but this is a much more earth friendly version. To create this veneer two types of wood are sandwiched / glued together.. then the thin veneer is cut off in sheets. This results in the two color look of the Macassar Ebony, but without harvesting the hardwood from environmentally fragile locations.

The recessed medicine cabinet is installed along with the light fixture just above it. The mirror is made by Robern and it's got a very nice defogging / door warming feature. The dimmers have yet to be installed.

Here is the vanity cabinet. Still have to pick out a stone or some solid surface that will finish the top of the cabinet. It also needs some drawer pulls to make opening and closing things much easier.

Detail of the crown moulding and the open shelved cabinet. The top piece of the cabinet is removable to have access to the light bulbs back in the wall. It's a very nice feature with a special clip to hold the piece in place, but also allows easy removal.

Here is the recessed open shelved cabinet that has adjustable shelving. The floor heating thermostat is installed on the wall just in front of the cabinet.

Beet Salad

The other day I made a mean Beet Salad. Here is the aftermath.

Glass door / Crown Mouldings begin / Some painting..

Ahhh... having a shower at home has been sweet.. but now lets take it up a notch! I've installed the body spray units and just today the Glass shower door was installed. The shower door was done by a company called Schicker. I must say that they did an amazing job. It's fun to watch people that have done something so many times that they don't even have to think about what they are doing. There is no time wasted in indecision or doing things out of order. The process is mangaged with as few steps as possible and things are done once. It's great when things work out that way.. it was a good day for Dave and the bathroom today.

I managed to get the body spray shower heads installed. The showering experience should be something like a carwash.

Here is the detail of the shower head and recessed ceiling element. This is my artist inspired angled photo.

I've started painting the mouldings around the windows... I'm going with the same moulding color as the rest of the house. I think that the color is going to work well.

The crown mouldings are started, but I won't be able to finish these completely until the recessed cabinet / shelf unit goes in. Hurry up Dave the cabinet maker!! :) Hopefully Dave is going to get things done in the next few weeks so that I can really and truely finish this project. Once the vanity goes in, then I can install the sink, faucet and toilet. almost.. almost.. almost.. really this time..!!!

Houston we have a shower!

I've managed to install a bunch of the fixtures for the bathtub and shower. The volume contols were a bit tricky to install as two different pieces of this fixture needed to be cut to different lengths in order for it all to be correct. yikes.. that was a bit tricky but I managed to get the job done with a bit of patients and being super extra careful. The big issue here is that if you get it wrong.. you can't just easily replace the valve. Tile would have to be torn out and then plumbing would need to be cut out and replaced.. pheeewwww... glad that it's done.

The body spray's are going to have to wait as the tile guy needs to come back. The holes in the tile are too large and leave a visible gap when the body spray fixtures are installed. :(

I've installed the rain shower head as well. This uses a Opella extension kit. It all conected up somewhat easily and looks nice.

The tub spout was the easiest one.. just keep turning it until it was just right!

A major milestone was achieve this weekend as the first shower was taken in this bathroom since early MARCH!! YIKES!

The glass shower door should be installed sometime this week!

Ceiling done.. Window and Door Mouldings...

The tile is basically all done... except that they need to come back and fix a small detail. The holes that they made in the tile for the body spray fixtures are too large. When installing the body spray fixture.. it doesn't cover the entire hole. :(

The ceiling is also basically done... I went ahead and put the final two coats of paint on it. Figured it would be best to just finish it up and try to install the rain shower, and all the lighting trims etc.. this way I won't have to take anything back down to apply the final coat of paint. Here is the picture of the recessed shower niche design element.

Here is a detail of the light slit element. I still need to find a small statue of the Mayan rain god Chaac! That will make it complete! The box in the center between the two slits of light will be the place where the statue can sit. I will also put in some small semi-opaque pieces of glass in the light slits to finish them off.

Here are some details of the moulding work that I have completed. The door and window mouldings are done.. just have to add the crown mouldings and that will be it for the mouldings in this room! :) Just primer white on everything at this point... still need to decide on the paint colors. That always proves to be a difficult challenge even though it seems like it should be really simple.Color is really difficult to get right!

What's next?? Install all the shower fixtures, and get the cabinets done!! Hopefully Dave the cabinet maker is getting these done in the next few weeks.. saying with my fingers crossed. Once the cabinets are all installed, then I will get the plumber back to finish up on the sink hookup and toilet installation.