One ring to.... wait... what's that say?

Tutorial coming soon.

Phase one complete

As you can tell, we are back. There are still some things to do (notice the missing tabs at the top) but the good news is, we are back online. Keep an eye out for phase two, where we get the remainder of our content up and running, then phase two will introduce some brand new content! So keep your eyes open and check back often. Things are moving fast now!

And AAAWWWWAAAAYYY we go!

I've been talking about it for a while and now the time is almost here. The ALL NEW FIRECHILD VIDEO is upon us! We will be taking the site offline in a few days to set up the changes. It shouldn't take too long and when we are back it will be better than ever. We have a lot in store! Let's take a look at some of the changes you will be seeing upon our return! After the jump of course! Read on!

A Dark Night.

For those of you who may not know, during the Midnight release of "The Dark Knight Rises" Thursday night, a gunman entered the theater, armed with an assault rifle, two hand guns and a knife. Reports also suggest he threw tear gas before opening fire on the unsuspecting crowd, taking 12 innocent lives and injuring almost 60 others.

Words simply can't express the sorrow I feel for the family members of those 12 souls. I have worked for and with the media for a number of years and, thanks to all the graphic images one see's in a newsroom, felt I had become jaded to such events. This, however, literally brought me to tears. It's honestly very difficult to sit behind my laptop and type these words. This sort of thing simply shouldn't happen.

I've always considered the movie theater to be my church. It's my cathedral and my place of peace, as I am sure it is for many others. For someone to defile that sanctuary.... I just don't have the words.

Of course, this tragedy has spawned a whole army of people jumping to point the finger of blame. These people have blamed everything from violence in hollywood, to weak gun control in the United States, to attacks on judeo-christian beliefs (no, I'm not kidding, google it). What people need to understand is that finger of blame points in one direction. It points to 24-year-old James Holmes and no one else. Period.

This is about the victims. This is about the needless loss of life. This ISN'T about a trying to make the tragedy fit into evidence for pushing your personal agenda. Let's remember what really happened that night. We movie goers are a fraternity. What happens to one of us, effects us all. We need to come together in support. There will be plenty of time to talk about all that gun control stuff later.

In short. I love you guys. We don't say that enough, ya know?

I'm back!!!!!!!!!

Hey gang. Long time no see! I see some of you have gotten older, some wiser, and some of you look exactly the same! Bravo!

Anyway, in a previous post a few months ago I mentioned that this site was going to go through something of a change. I didn't mention what that change was going to be, and I'm not going to do that here, but I am coming to you with a question.

WHAT'S YOUR FAVORITE MOVIE?

That's right. Favorite film. Let me know. If that isn't a teaser of some of the new content coming to Firechild Video then I don't know what is.

Several months of production and we are finally ready to start rolling out the new Firechild Video. Trust me. You're going to love it.

Now get to typing them comments! Go! Do it! Oh, and while you are at it be sure to subscribe to the Firechild youtube channel so you get this new content as soon as it is released!. And now, my vote for greatest film of all time:

That's right. You're turn.

It's coming....

Hope Never Dies

Greetings everyone. In a previous post I mentioned that things will be changing a bit around here. I wanted to get back to my roots and reclaim some of the passion that brought me to visual effects to begin with. Well, I'd like to share with you now the first teaser poster for a documentary that marks my return to directing! I give you "Hope Never Dies: Battle for the Mission River."

A very good friend of mine, Gabriel Valentin Ochoa, approached me back in November with an idea. He had been hired to shoot photographs of an alumni football game in a small South Texas town. If you know anything about Texas, you'll know that high school football is HUGE here. Anyway, after his photography duties were complete he realized that there was something much bigger and much more special going on. He decided to produce a documentary about the rivalry between these two towns and the very "David vs Goliath" atmosphere. No spoilers here! I'll just say I was VERY inspired and immediately agreed to sign on as Director.

There will be MUCH more to come soon. Just wanted to give you a little teaser.

Nothing lasts forever.... IT EVOLVES.

It is with a heavy heart that I write this post. I know it has been quite a while since my last tutorial... heck... since my last post at all. For that I am sorry. I'm here today to let you know that I have made the difficult, yet bitter sweet,  decision to take Firechild Video in a new direction. What does this mean for you? In short, the tutorial days are coming to an end. Well... sort of. Read on after the jump.

Big projects!

Hey gang, I just wanted to drop a line and let you know that I'm working on a REALLY big project and it's giving me tons of idea's

Getting the contract

I had lunch with a long time client earlier today and the topic of freelance work came up. Some of the things he said were so truthful, so brutally honest, that I felt you guys needed to know. I asked him, out of all the bids he gets for assignments, what made him come to me time and again. He replied simply, "Because you are the fastest designer I know."

That really hit home for me. He admitted that he has gotten bids from more talented designers, as well as much faster designers, but what made him choose me was the balance of speed and talent. I am fast enough to get their projects finished ahead of schedule, but talented enough to make those products with professional quality.

Blender Quick Tip: Creating a Luma Matte

Have you ever rendered a video out, waited several hours, only to find out you forgot to enable your alpha channel? What do you do then? Re-render the entire thing? NO! Of course not! Save yourself some time by using a Luma Matte. It's a quick, easy to set up render, it renders quickly and most non linear editors support Luma mattes (masks). This quick tip will save you tons of time in overcoming mistakes. I hope you enjoy and I hope it helps.

Blender Sapling addon

So I have been playing around with the sapling addon for Blender 2.59 and I'm in love. It's so much fun, so versatile and so very, very impressive.

If you haven't played around with the addon yet, I highly recommend you do! You may need a basic understanding of it as we move forward through time. Just saying!

Are you a gamer?

It's a simple question. If you are a gamer, I want to know what you use for online gaming! Why? Well... I can't tell you that yet.... let's just say I have a really "fun" idea. Before I can say anymore, I need to hear from you! I need to know what system most of the community uses.

Please take part in this poll! I wouldn't want to exclude anyone when the big day comes!

You can find the poll below, or in the sidebar. Tell your friends and family! Let me know your opinion!

What do you use for online gaming?
	Xbox 360
	Playstation 3
	Nintendo Wii
	Pc/Mac
	All of the above
	What are games?
pollcode.com free polls

Newton's Cradle Tutorial Part 2

Time to finish this model up! In this part we will just take a quick look at some lighting and texturing. In particular, we will be using HDR lighting for a quick and dirty setup. It's far from perfect, but hopefully it will get your creative juices flowing and point you in the right direction. That's what this is all about after all! Enjoy!

Update

Hello friends. I'm currently traveling for work and writing this from the blogger phone app, so I will keep this short and sweet. I'm almost finished with part two of our newtons cradle physics tutorial and will have it posted as soon as I get back into town. Its taken a little longer than expected for various reasons, but mainly because I wanted to make the finished product better. I've been toying around with the physics engine a bit lately and getting some pretty exciting results. Hope to share all this with you very soon. Till then, have fun and happy blending!

NEW TUTORIAL: NEWTONS CRADLE PHYSICS

What started off being a quick, simple look at the blender physics engine has now become a two part tutorial! In this first part we are going to take a look at the modeling and physics of a Newtons cradle.

SEE THE TUTORIAL AFTER THE JUMP!

So many Blenders, so little time

Blender is an amazing piece of software, it really is, and thanks to the Google Summer of Code, we have many, many versions of Blender to choose from.

Newtons cradle in Post production!!

A few months ago I posted an experimental render of a Newton's cradle built in blender, with the promise of a tutorial coming soon (see the render here). Well, if you read my previous post then you know life has side tracked me and pulled me away from the recording process. Now that things are back on track, however, expect a new tutorial by this time tomorrow! In fact, I've recorded everything and I'm now just waiting on the render. (I used HDR lighting, motion blur, etc... so the render is taking a while). Here are a couple images just to wet your apetite! Should be a fun dip into the exciting world of Blender physics!

Like I stated, the tutorial is complete, just waiting on the render, and then the uploads. Hope you enjoy!

Where I've gone

I know it's bee quiet here for a good long while. For that I am sorry. I know I have probably already lost many fans and regular viewers, but I want you all to know it is my intent to get things back on track.

Now to the question at hand: What happened? Well... I'll tell you all about it, after the jump

Violent Story VIODOC #1: The Script