http://library.creativecow.net/articles/gil_kino/ Joaquin Gil's library of tutorials, articles, reviews and more for media professionals world wide. en-us http://library.creativecow.net/articles/gil_kino/huge_4110.php CreativeCOW.net contributing editor Joaquin Gil shares his experience with storage needs during the creation of his last feature film. In this article, Kino discusses his success with the MediaVault 4110 from HUGE-Ciprico. He concludes with...''With the 4110, HUGE Ciprico addresses a market segment that needs large dataspaces in minimum physical space. A natural for the IT data center, the eCommerce nests, banking and legal data repositories and in general any data intensive application where reliability and speed are a must. This makes it very suitable also for animation and effects houses, middle sized to large editing and sound studios and the semi-nomad setups typical of reality shows, because of its sturdiness, practicality of the connectors and being a standard 19'' rack-mountable device.'' Wed, 31 Dec 1969 16:33:25 GMT http://library.creativecow.net/articles/gil_kino/ultra_2_rev.php CreativeCOW.net contributing editor Joaquin 'Kino' Gil writes a review on Serious Magic's ULTRA 2 Professional Keying Software with Vector Keying Technology and tells readers, ''[Before ULTRA2] each matte had to be calibrated separately and the values adjusted almost on a frame by frame basis in order to get details like loose strands of hair, bluish shadows and reflections, grains of sand and other minutiae. Yes, it took forever [and] no motion tracking software, either. All of that effort, [and hours of work] very seriously done, is made moot today with this software tool from Serious Magic. ... The key is perfect to the extreme of perfectly keyed fine strands of hair, transparency and translucency.'' Wed, 31 Dec 1969 16:33:25 GMT http://library.creativecow.net/articles/gil_kino/dram_rev_graf.php CreativeCOW.net contributing editor Joaquin Gil writes, ''Dramatica is a computer tool for something nobody realized you could do, computer or not. ... it is one of the most powerful tools available today for the serious fiction writer.'' Read on to see Kino's further insights into this amazing program. Wed, 31 Dec 1969 16:33:25 GMT http://library.creativecow.net/articles/gil_kino/NAB_huge_sys_rev.php CreativeCOW.net contributing editor Joaquin Gil writes a beefy review for us. Read on to see why he says, ''Good stuff performs as it should, works smoothly. It does not pretend to be all things to all people. Does what it is supposed to with effectiveness, even with elegance. The HUGE HMV-FCR 800-M FIBRE CHANNEL MEDIA VAULT meets and exceeds all expectations, and I am known to be picky. There is a dual model and the top capacity is four Terabytes. You are forgiven if you are starting to drool. Luckily the cure is not expensive. The relation of Dollars to Gigabytes that HUGE handles is justly famous and envied. At the last NAB they had the best density per dollar I've known of, and they were playing 2K film out of three of these 4Gb drives, something no one else even approached. I want more of these babies around.'' Wed, 31 Dec 1969 16:33:25 GMT http://library.creativecow.net/articles/gil_kino/xfrog.php Kino Gil, noted film effects artist and host team leader of Creative Cow's Maya forum, gives his impressions of one "the best kept secrets" in Computer Graphics Imagery. He gives an honest view of some of the strengths and weaknesses of the system and concludes that Xfrog 4 for Maya 6 ''..one of the best and most powerful 'plugins' for Maya I have found yet.'' Wed, 31 Dec 1969 16:33:25 GMT http://library.creativecow.net/articles/gil_kino/maya6.php Joaquin Kino Gil, noted film effects artist and host team leader of Creative Cow's Maya forum, reviews Learning Maya 6: Book Suite, by Alias Inc. [formerly Alias|Wavefront]. Wed, 31 Dec 1969 16:33:24 GMT http://library.creativecow.net/articles/gil_kino/maya_char_creat.php Joaquin 'Kino' Gil -- noted major film effects artist, independent filmmaker and Creative Cow's Maya forum host, reviews MAYA CHARACTER CREATION: Modeling and Animation Controls by Chris Maraffi and published by New Riders. Kino concludes his review with "...With this book anyone with a modicum of Maya proficiency can learn to rig and model professionally.'' Read more... Wed, 31 Dec 1969 16:33:24 GMT http://library.creativecow.net/articles/gil_kino/maya5_killertips.php Joaquin 'Kino' Gil, noted film effects artist and host team leader of Creative Cow's Maya forum, reviews "Maya 5 Killer Tips," written by Eric Hanson and published by New Riders. Kino concludes with "...This is a "must-have" book in every Maya shop and class.'' Find out why Wed, 31 Dec 1969 16:33:24 GMT http://library.creativecow.net/articles/gil_kino/mel_fund.php Joaquin Kino Gil, noted film effects artist and host team leader of Creative Cow's Maya and Film FX forums, reviews Learning Maya 5: MEL Fundamentals, by Alias [formerly Alias|Wavefront]. Wed, 31 Dec 1969 16:33:24 GMT http://library.creativecow.net/articles/gil_kino/fcp4_dw_rev.php Joaquin Kino Gil, noted film effects artist and host team leader of Creative Cow's Maya forum, reviews ''Maya: Secrets of the Pros,'' edited by John Kundert-Gibbs and published by Sybex. While he points out a few weaknesses of the book, he still gives it Five Cows, our top rating, because not only will it give you a great education in the software itself -- but in many pro-level aspects of effects production and workflow strategy as well. Kino says much of this book would be applicable to any serious animator and regardless of tool or version. This is high praise indeed from a guy whose own body of work includes Godzilla, Contact and Starship Troopers and many others. Wed, 31 Dec 1969 16:33:23 GMT http://library.creativecow.net/articles/gil_kino/panasonic_BT-LS1400.php Joaquin Kino Gil, noted film effects artist and host team leader of Creative Cow's Maya forum, reviews Panasonic's new 14 inch LCD pro grade broadcast monitor, the BT-LS1400. Wed, 31 Dec 1969 16:33:23 GMT http://library.creativecow.net/articles/gil_kino/maya_secrets_rev.php Joaquin Kino Gil, noted film effects artist and host team leader of Creative Cow's Maya forum, reviews ''Maya: Secrets of the Pros,'' edited by John Kundert-Gibbs and published by Sybex. While he points out a few weaknesses of the book, he still gives it Five Cows, our top rating, because not only will it give you a great education in the software itself -- but in many pro-level aspects of effects production and workflow strategy as well. Kino says much of this book would be applicable to any serious animator and regardless of tool or version. This is high praise indeed from a guy whose own body of work includes Godzilla, Contact and Starship Troopers and many others. Wed, 31 Dec 1969 16:33:22 GMT http://library.creativecow.net/articles/gil_kino/deep_paint_review.php Kino Gil, noted film effects artist and host team leader of Creative Cow's Maya forum, gives his impressions of Right Hemisphere's 'Deep Paint 3D with Texture Weapons'. Kino takes a quick look at the history of digital Paint FX technology and then jumps into some of the reasons that Deep Paint is an FX Pro power tool. He gives an honest view of some of the strengths and weaknesses of the system and concludes that Deep Paint 3D ''...is the nicest paint program I have used in a long time. I plan to make it into my main paint application.'' Wed, 31 Dec 1969 16:33:22 GMT