31 July 2010 · Comment [1]
Life updatearooney
I’m moving to Texas in two weeks! To go to grad school. For computer animation. At Texas A&M University’s Viz Lab. So that is what is going on with me these days. Yurp.
It’s pretty weird and sad to think about leaving California again, but I’m super excited about grad school. And besides, it’s not like California is going anywhere until it breaks off from the continental United States in 50 years due to a massive earthquake, and I’ll probably be dead by then anyway.
Going to Texas is also exciting because one of the summer interns at Disney is an undergrad student there and he is awesome and he already agreed that we’re going to be the best of friends and have lunch together every day. Also he took me to a Texas A&M party during SIGGRAPH last week and everyone I met was really nice! So basically everything is going to be magical there. And most importantly of all, I’m gonna be a Master! In a mere…two to three years. And then I can be all like, Science, I have mastered you! It’s gonna be great.
This is a graphics thing I made using Houdini, which a program that’s good for making special effects. The thing that makes this image special is the caustics, which are the bright patterns of light. Caustics are hard because usually computer generated light uses cheats to sort of recreate how light behaves but not really, so when you want to get caustics you have to actually simulate the photons moving around in the scene and it takes a lot more computing power and makes your laptop crash over and over again until you can find just the right balance between enough photons to make the scene look pretty and yet few enough photons that your computer doesn’t crash.
This is another thing I made using Houdini. I dunno, it’s kind of neat. Especially when you move the time slider around really quickly and it looks like a dancing octopus. I’m pretty happy with how these two things came out, but hopefully after a little time in grad school I’ll be really embarrassed by how amateurish they are! Hey, a girl can dream okay.
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« The legend of the rent was way hardcore» Things that have happened since I moved to Texas three weeks ago that have garnered the sarcastic response of "Welcome to Texas!" from my classmates (who are awesome)
You are one of the smartest and most talented people I know! Texas A&M isn’t gonna know what hit it once you’re done with it.
Can’t wait to squeeze the last bit of time together with you!!
— Tapan · Aug 1, 11:09 PM · #