California

beautiful building size mural

me walking/seeing in ocean for first time

Newport Beach, cool little beach town

Niki on Newport Beach

Niki loving some of the Frida pictures at amazing Mexican restaurant

Bird

High Zoo Tram

Ok-with-heights-Zoo-Tram

Awesome Eagle.

Awesome Flamingos

Niki & Giraffes

Hippo

Seals on the beach.

Tree next to windy ocean.

Only cave in San Diego, accessible by land, through creepy cold, tight, dark tunnel.

Opens up to awesome water-level ocean view deck inside awesome little cave.

Cave Niki.

Cave Niki & Matt.

More Caves.

more cave/cliff dwellers.

End of the trip beer sampling. :)

Adelson's checker shadow illusion

Recently revisiting this cool color illusion, too awesome to not post...

Basically the theory goes like this...the colors A + B are identical colors. But because the surround tiles are contrasting, 1 in shade, the other not in shade, the eye perceives the colors different, due to the influencing surround colors. Not believing this what-so-ever, I actually took it into photoshop to cut out the rest of the pictures except for A + B. They are the same color. Crazy eh?





SOURCE

"Uncanny Valley" and video games

What is the "Uncanny Valley" you ask?



Recently playing Medal of Honor, I've been coming across a few of these points mentioned in the video. While feeling immersed in the environments and the situations that you come across, it is the little things that take you out of the moment. Getting stuck on a little piece of debris on the ground, forcing you to walk around it, when in actuality you would walk over it. Feet going through the ground, and of course the facial animation, but thats a ways away from pefecting in game.

I am excited to see what game companies (Especially Ubisoft) have in store for us, in terms of making it to the otherside of the Uncanny Valley, which I think, is not too far off, Ive seen some close calls, and think that very soon we will be climbing out the otherside.

Makes Sense

A quick little acting/dialogue piece I have been working on..