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.

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!

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

It's Coming...

Hey gang, I'm sure you are wondering why it has been so quiet around here lately. Well, I think the time has finally come to let you in on a little secret I have been keeping. I don't want to spoil the surprise right here on the home page, so click on the "Read more" button and we'll talk a little more after the jump.

Blender 2.58 just released!

That's right folks, another "stable" version of Blender is available over at Blender.org. I just finished downloading it myself, so I can't speak on any of the improvements just yet, but it's worth a download... if for no other reason than to get rid of that hideous splash screen from 2.57!



The Blender gang has really put a lot of effort into this release, you can tell just by the long list of improvements and bug fixes involved in this release. Check it out here

It goes without say that Blender just keeps getting better! If everything goes according to plan, we should see Blender 2.59 sometime in August. Until then, let's have some fun with this new Blender! More detailed review coming soon.

Can you say BLAH!? -------------------->

Blender Back to the Basics: Rendering

In this sixth and final installment of the back to the basics training series I'll crack a couple jokes, ramble a bit... but more importantly I'll be showing you beginners out there how to render your video. See the video after the jump.

Miss me?

Hey gang, sorry for the silence the past couple months. I can't go into too many details (yet) but I was hired on as special FX supervisor by a very talented, visionary director and that gig has kept me on the road quite a bit lately.

We are just finishing up post production and I'll be back in my cozy home studio in no time. One good thing about spending so much time on the road, I've had plenty of time to daydream and experiment with Blender. (thank God for laptops!)

Blender 2.57 NOW AVAILABLE!!!!

For the first time in over two years, an official, non beta release of Blender is available for download. This calls for a celebration!!

If you haven't done so already, head over to the Blender main page and download it now! Seriously. Go. Stop thinking about the barbeque and get to downloading!!!

This is an exciting moment that we have all been waiting a long time for. The entire blender community should get together for a BBQ! I'll bring the chips and salsa! Who's bringing the beer?

Why Blender?

As a tutorial producer, every now and then I get a comment on one of my videos that really makes me think. Mattgraeme provided me with just such a comment on our first SPARKS EPISODE. Will learning Blender enable me to get a job in the real world? Yes and No. Read on:

Firechild Sparks: 1. Creating a Studio Backdrop

In this short Spark, we will take a look at a quick and easy method of creating the first part of your Blender photography studio: The seamless backdrop!

Firechild SPARKS!!!

I'm very excited to announce the start of a new series of training tutorials called FIRECHILD SPARKS! Sparks are short, quick burst tutorials. We'll take a look at simple quick tips, procedures and theories.

The idea is to have a series of easy to produce, but fun and informative tutorials to fill the gap between our major, feature length training videos. So welcome to Firechild Sparks. Episode one will be posted in a couple minutes. Enjoy!

Quick Tip: Blender and Wacom

If you've ever done any kind of work in image editors (photoshop, illustrator, GIMP, etc...) then you already know the value a wacom tablet. I've been using a tablet for YEARS and couldn't imagine a life without it (try rotoscoping in After Effects without one... ugh).

The new look of Firechild Video!

Please join me in congratulating Jonathan Santiago from Austin, Texas for winning the first ever Firechild Logo Design contest! More after the jump...