Web Links

• ArtGeek
  • About the scribbler. 
    The general idea and technique behind Ze Frank’s “scribbler” app.
  • Anatomy Figures and Armatures 
    Incredibly cool anatomical reference figurines and sculpting supplies
  • David Elsewhere, Dancer 
    Trust me, this guy is amazing.
  • Krita – Natural media painting and drawing application 
    A graphics application which focuses on natural media, worth a look.
  • My Plastic Heart NYC 
    Gallery in NY specializing in recent art trends like custom vinyl figures, toon art etc.
  • Peter Blaskovic's procedural experiments 
    Fun stuff with processing and flash
  • The Scribbler 
    Vector scribbles over line drawings you sketch out.
• Artist Communities
  • CG Society 
    One of the most active 3D communities anywhere.
  • Creative Crash 
    Formerly Highend 3D. Large, active 3D artist portal.
  • Deviant Art 
    One of the most largest and most prolific artist communities online. Tons of resources.
  • EverMotion 
    Portal with high quality models and other resources.
  • MattePainting.Org 
    Where I go to become inspired. All things matte painting.
  • The Area at Autodesk 
    Maya, XSI Max etc community portal. Various resources, blogs etc.
  • XSI Base 
    The go-to community for XSI artists. Founded by my friend and coworker Raff Dickruder.
• CyberGeek
  • 20th Century Props 
    Can’t afford to buy? Rent your props here.
  • Geekologie 
    Geek stuff. Represent.
  • I want one of those. 
    We wants it, we wants it my preciousss.
  • Modern Props of Los Angeles 
    The coolest prop fabricators around. I want about half of their inventory.
  • NovelQuest Emporer Workstation 
    If the poetic workstations seem too friendly to you, up the ante with this scorpion-like scary workstation rig.
  • Poetic Aura Workstation 
    Cant afford a space station? Cyber up your workstation instead.
  • PropWorx 
    Film props for auction. Got a wheelbarrow of cash? Here’s the solution.
  • The FractalForums 
    The first place you should visit if you are interested in anything fractal, deep or shallow. (How many times do I have to say this?)
  • The Prop Store of London 
    Do you have TWO wheelbarrows of cash? Bid on some props here.
  • Touch Arcade 
    One of the best blogs out there for mobile gaming.
• Graphics Resources
  • 3Do2 3D models 
    High quality model store, strong on vehicles in particular.
  • About HTML5 Canvas 
    A great introduction to Canvas. Canvas allows you to draw onscreen and through Javascript do, well, fun stuff.
  • Blueprint reference library 
    Blueprints of vehicles and misc objects.
  • Crystalline rapid prototyping 
    3D printing and rapid prototyping service provider
  • EverMotion 
    Portal with high quality models and other resources.
  • Freestyle NPR renderer 
    Programmable nonphotorealistic rendering interface via python. So… coool…
  • Octane Renderer 
    Fast gpu-based renderer by refractive software.
  • Polymonkey's Processing Libraries 
    A code library of routines Matt uses in Processing.
  • Shaded Relief Map Resources 
    A site with many useful links to cartography related resources (maps, DEMS, satellite data etc).
  • Softimage Ice – keeping track 
    A list of XSI ICE resources and websites by the polynoid guys. They included me, so I wholeheartedly endorse it. :D
  • The FractalForums 
    The first place you should visit if you are interested in anything fractal, deep or shallow. (How many times do I have to say this?)
  • XYZRGB 3D Scanning Service 
    Scanning serivce in the LA area with a good rep.
• Graphics Tools
  • Crazy Bump 
    Handy utility for creating normal maps from images.
  • Geo Control 
    An innovative terrain generator.
  • Harmony Procedural Sketching 
    Online sketching with a neat processing/npr feel.
  • HDR Light Studio 
    Software for creating custom HDRI maps to simulate studio lighting.
  • Mach Studio Pro 
    Realtime lighting and rendering software
  • Mandelbuld Raytracer 
    Render your own polar projection of iterated functions on the complex plane, how cool is that?
  • TopoGun 
    Software for manually retopologizing 3d meshes.
  • Video CoPilot – AfterEffects Plugins 
    Makers of Optical Flare and Twitch, very nice tools.
  • Video Trace – Modelling software 
    Models objects from video with user cues.
• MAYA Specific
  • CG Sutra Maya Resources 
    Heavily ad-laden site with some useful maya stuff. And some are in Hindi too, as an added bonus!
  • Maya videos on Vimeo 
    Active group posting videos (animations, breakdowns, tests reels etc) made with Maya, contributors of all skill levels.
  • Python in Maya group 
    Google group with good amount of activity.
  • Simply Maya Community 
    Good Sized online community of Maya users and fanboys.
• Music and Audio
  • MV Nation 
    Online community of users of the awesome MV-8000/8800 music production workstations.
  • MV Patches 
    Patches for MV8800
  • Open Labs 
    They make powerful all-in-one boxes which combine PCs and music studio hardware. Use your preffered software and workflow on this hardware and >foom< you're on fire.
  • Philharmonica Orchestra Sound Exchange 
    Large library of samples from each instrument in an entire orchestra. Whoa.
  • Tangerine Dream Official Website 
    New Agey? Dated? Frighteningly similar to Jean-Michelle Jarre? It’s not true. And anyway I don’t care. Tangerine Dream is the shit. I’ll take a double helping with Kraftwork on the side and a Daft Punk chaser, please.
• OtakuGeek
  • Daily Bento 
    No otaku can feel quite complete without perusing this blog.
  • Otaku in Review 
    A fairly new blog on the scene with better than average articles on anime-related topics.
  • Vocaloid: Hakurei Shrine Festival video. 
    Shrine festival? If you’re a vocaloid/miku freak you know what this is about. The voice is synthesized.
  • Vocaloid: Hatsune Miku sings Diva Desu 
    Virtual character with synthesized voice, Miku. You. Will. Like. It. LIKE IT! NOW! DRINK THE JUICE!
  • Vocaloid: Miku in Concert 
    Welcome to the uncanny valley.
• Photography and Film
  • Dynamic Perception Motion Control Systems 
    Small new company selling sub-$1000 motion control time-lapse dolly etc, good stuff!
• Programming Resources
  • Maya MEL Wiki 
    Hugely useful online MEL reference.
  • Processing: toxiclibs 
    An awesome open source library for Processing.
  • Python in Maya group 
    Google group with good amount of activity.
  • Python Org 
    Online comprehensive site for all things Python. Ni.
  • Sunflow Renderer 
    Open source powerful rendering engine which plays nice with processing. How cool is that?
• Realtime Graphics
  • Ben Cloward 
    Technical artist who shares HLSL info, tutorials and shader resources.
  • DR. Cem Yuksel 
    Interesting papers on real time waves, hair shading, caustics etc.
  • Nvidia Shader Library 
    Realtime CGFX and HLSL shader library.
• Research & Info
  • 2010 SIGGRAPH papers online 
    A collection of links to many of the paper’s presented at SIGGRAPH 2010
  • DR. Cem Yuksel 
    Interesting papers on real time waves, hair shading, caustics etc.
  • Freestyle NPR renderer 
    Programmable nonphotorealistic rendering interface via python. So… coool…
  • Parallax mapping overview 
    A good introduction to parallax mapping.
  • Paul Bourke's library of useful esoterica 
    This is a huge resource of miscellaneous topics of interest to CGI TDs, I hope it never goes away…
  • Popular Science Back Issues 
    130 YEARS of back issues now online. A great resource.
  • Proceduralism 
    Many example videos of procedural graphics.
  • Processing: toxiclibs 
    An awesome open source library for Processing.
• Studios and Professionals
  • Alan Fregtman's Blog 
    Alan is one hell of a line TD. Rigging, ICE, XSI.
  • Andy Nicholas 
    XSI TD doing great stuff with ICE, he’s on my short list!
  • Antropus aka Krishnamurti Costa 
    Kris is a well known figure in 3D and rightly so, he’s a brilliant guy.
  • Brad Gabe 
    XSI TD coolness and pop culture musings wrapped up in a blog that tastes like salsa.
  • Chris Marshall's blog 
    Chris is an ICE guru and moderator of the softimage ICE group on vimeo, and I check out everything he does because it’s invariably cool.
  • Complexification 
    Jared Tarbel’s procedural graphics gallery and blog. Great stuff!
  • Djx aka David Johnson's Blog 
    David is a Maya artist and his blog is excellent.
  • Fabrico Chamon's Blog 
    Fabrico does some great stuff in ICE, most recently his awesome collection of L-system/procedural plant nodes.
  • Frenchdog aka Guillaume Laforge 
    Top-tier XSI artist, TD and particle guru.
  • Google Map of VFX Studios 
    Map of studios worldwide, excellent resource!
  • Graham Clark 
    Some old guy who never updates his site….
  • IoXU aka BenP aka Ben Paschke 
    Excellent TD using XSI/ICE, one of my favorite blogs.
  • Joe Plaete 
    TD at Animal Logic. I don’t know Joe personally, I’d like to meet him and buy him a beer at SIGGRAPH because he does cool work.
  • Joshua Harvey 
    Another artist I’ve not met in person, his work is excellent and inspiring.
  • Julian Johnson's Blog 
    XSI/ICE TD and lateral thinker.
  • La Maison 
    An excellent VFX house. I will learn French if they let me work there.
  • Monophyl and Polynoid 
    Incredible work, art and tech come together and the result
  • Monophyl and Polynoid 
    Incredible work, art and tech come together and the result? One of my favorite groups currently doing CG. wo0T.
  • Pings from the void 
    Polymonkey aka Matt Ditton’s Blog. Life in Tokyo, processing and programming, and art.
  • Pixel Liberation Front
  • Psyop 
    One of my favorite studios. Fantastic work.
  • Stefan Andersson 
    TD who has some interesting Maya/Python stuff on his blog.
  • Tiago Costa's Lagoa Technologies 
    Lagoa is Thiago’s ICE-based physics multisolver which does an amazing job simulating granular, fluid and viscoelastic materials. I am officially a Thiago fanboy!
  • Tim Borgmann 
    Freelance artist who does some amazing procedural art, mostly with XSI ICE
• Training and Education
  • About HTML5 Canvas 
    A great introduction to Canvas. Canvas allows you to draw onscreen and through Javascript do, well, fun stuff.
  • Caffeine abuse 
    Some great Softimage and ICE training, worth a visit!
  • FX PhD 
    High quality VFX training online… for a price.
  • Google Python Scripting Online Course 
    Google Teaching Python. Online. For free. Gratis. As in: ‘Help yourself and learn something.’ ‘How much?’ ‘No charge.’ ‘Whoa.’
  • TD College 
    Some of the best online training for Technical Directors you can get. For a hefty price.
• WordpressLinks
  • LightBox for Wordpress 
    Wordpress plugin which adds lightbox photo viewing functionality. Nice!
  • Mashable's Blogging Toolbox 
    Excellent article on blogging resources available. Covers the major tools like Wordpress, Blogger and Movable Type.
  • Sociable plugin for WordPress 
    Adds buttons to articles so viewers can tweet the article, add it to facebook etc.
  • Wordpress Official Site 
    Your starting point for all things WordPress, the blogging software this site uses.
• XSI Specific
  • Chris Marshall's blog 
    Chris is an ICE guru and moderator of the softimage ICE group on vimeo, and I check out everything he does because it’s invariably cool.
  • ICE videos on Vimeo 
    Highly active group of TDs sharing tests and output using softimage ICE, which is amazingly cool.
  • Rray XSI resource list 
    Been around for a while, one of the most thorough lists of resources out there for XSI users
  • SI Community 
    Newer and less active than XSIbase, but some good discussions and downloads.
  • Softimage Ice – keeping track 
    A list of XSI ICE resources and websites by the polynoid guys. They included me, so I wholeheartedly endorse it. :D
  • Softimage Wiki 
    It’s a wiki. About softimage stuff. Go figure. A good resource.
  • XSI Base 
    The go-to community for XSI artists. Founded by my friend and coworker Raff Dickruder.
  • XSI Blog 
    Some of the top artists in the XSI community contribute excellent posts, rather infrequently.
  • XSI Files 
    A mini-portal focusing on XSI resources. Dated, but still relevant.