VR IS BACK!

Developing this steel Gargoyle character while putting the new 3D VR rendering through the paces. Take it for a spin here. Works everywhere now, even on iPhones and iPads. Come to think of it... swipe gestures and VR seem to be made for each other.

CHICAGO HERE WE COME

Heading to Chicago this week for show and tell at the OneOnOne portfolio show Wednesday and Thursday nights at Draft FCB and connecting with creatives from the windy City. Chicago has been my top City this year with most of the work coming from out of there for some reason. Maybe it's because my daughter is studying architecture there at IIT and has gotten the word out about Raygun? In any case, went ahead and created our first iPad iBook portfolio for the occasion which incorporates motion seamlessly. It looks pretty amazing on the new iPad, at least IMHO. You can download the short version here and the full version here.

Pop me an email or give me a call if you're in Chicago town Wednesday through Friday and would like to meet for a cup of coffee or a beer and see the new work in person.

APPLE OWNS APPLE LOGO

It sure took a long time, but I had a feeling about that... Wonder if that includes the sliced apple on the B sides of the old vinyls too.

Either way, it seems the time has come to retire that drab gray apple that followed the beautiful Aqua glass logos, don't you think?

THE HUMAN FACE OF BIG DATA

I had the pleasure to work with Rick Smolan of "Day In the Life" fame over the last few weeks courtesy of a referral from Michael Rylander. We were brought in to create the cover image for his new book project The Human Face of Big Data



...and the accompanying motion piece. The project kicked off in a big way today in New York, at an event called Mission Control. Check out the highlights on YouTube.

CGI WATER IN MOTION

To answer the question of whether a print campaign that Robert Schlatter shot for the GAP Stay fragrance could be translated into motion using only CGI we created this 30 second motion piece. Not so much billboards, but retail spaces have become the OOH environment where extremely high print resolution and high quality imagery really come into play. Not only are the displays quite large in size, but shoppers can walk right up to it and hopefully the image is "infinite", meaning you don't lose the magic with the sight of pixels or dots once close up. And not just since the advent of video walls in Microsoft stores are high definition video displays all over the retail environment.

Here's one of the first test renderings:



It made sense for us to pursue this, after having been involved on the creative retouching end for the still photography to also create this extension into motion. The challenge was not just to create believable CGI water and match the photographic look and feel of the printed image, but somehow make it magical.

Here's another rendering with depth of field added:



The cherry on top came from Robert with the idea for a little surprise at the end of the clip. Did we rise to the challenge? Click here for the final video and judge for yourself.

A VIDEO FOR YOUR NEW RETINA MACBOOK PRO

Checked out the new Retina MacBook at the local Apple Store and the display is amazing. For those lucky enough to have gotten their hands on one, we've rendered out a version of our 1932 Ford Roadster Hot Rod 4K video we blogged about a few months ago, this video uses every pixel of this new display, so you can see for the first time what a full Retina video looks like on your new MacBook. Or click here to download and view it in QuickTime, full screen. Fast connection recommended, although good things always come to those who wait.

THERE'S BRILLIANCE IN PROCRASTINATION

If you're supposed to be creative right now, but for some reason you find yourself here instead, rest assured that the half hour wasted on watching John Cleese talk about creativity is actually not a waste, but you might even be able to chalk it up as billable time if you manage to get your client or boss to watch it too. Especially since it also includes some tips on how to stamp out creativity and control uppity creatives in the organization. So without further ado, here's Monty Python's John Cleese: