Inspiration : Art books from three favorite productions

Figurines are a great inspiration (as I've said back on this blog entry), but something that is even more inspiring for me is the many art books I have here. Looking at concept art, model sheets and reading those stories that remind me why I love CG - its what keeps me driven and passionate.

In the last couple of months, I've gotten 3 - Pacific Rim : Mans, Machines and Monsters , Elysium : the art of the film and just recently Transformers : the art of Prime.

I felt a quick personal review would be a nice entry for the blog, and for those interested in these books. I like all three, but for those who were thinking about it - here's my personal take on each...

Pacific Rim : Man, Machine and Monsters

This is a nice book - its fairly large, and what's great is that it comes with a dust cover. Its an interesting browse. Inside is a little odd in that there are a lot of small pieces of artwork on removeable sheets spread across the pages.

Small removable sheets (like the one on the left) are spread throughout

I'm not sure if I should remove these (they are attached with easy-to-remove gum) or leave them. They sit over page artwork, and while I'm tempted to take them out - I'm also not sure where they would be stored (ie. to keep them with the book).

Great artwork, but those removable sheets (that blueprint) can get in the way.

Visual Effects and Special effects have various storyboards. But could do with more imho.

As expected, plenty of detail sketches and coloured artwork

Overall, this book is well written, and its got plenty of artwork and concept material. To be honest, as much as I like this book, I do feel it could do with more art and design sketches. Many of the photo's and imagery I've seen on the special features of the Bluray, or online.

However, its still a good look at the movie itself along with its production and design work.  I loved this movie, just for watching all that cool ass-kicking visual eye candy - its not a film I'd watch if I was after a meaningful and complex story however... lol!

Art of Elysium

This is a fairly wide book. Its a little awkward to browse through when sitting on my lap, but its a book that's well worth the cost if you're into the grungy design that Weta and Neill Blompkamp have bought to the cinema screen.

This book is very reminiscent of the District 9 art book I got a couple of years back at the Weta stand at a local NZ convention. Like that book, this one also features lots and lots of nice artwork, breaking the production right down to the small details such as the tattoo designs that the characters wore.

Right down to tattoo's, costumes and more - the books got plenty of great info...

Overall, as I said, there's a lot of great material in here. A mix of written material, with a good dose of conceptual artwork and sketches, as well as photo's.

As you'd expect - weapons and ships feature throughout.

The many, many sketches and paintings really show the amount of design that went on.

I'm a fan of both of Neill's films. I love the style, the stories and the gritty nature of the films themselves - Seeing the artwork and reading about the process just increases my respect for the amount of work that went into these productions...  Great stuff...

Transformers : The art of Prime

I'm a big fan of this animated show - and the book as well - its loaded with detailed images of characters, set designs, matte paintings and all the eye candy any self-respecting fan just has to see.

The overall dimensions (12.6 x 9.6 x 0.7 inches) make it a nice size that sits on your lap nicely without being too large or too small. The book has a nice matte cover, with the title text (and images on the back) in glossy print. If anything could have been improved on, it would (for me at least) have been a nice dust cover to protect the book itself...

Another thing I noted was that the cover, and the matte black paper that sits just inside of it are prone to picking up grease so if you're going to browse, make sure to clean those hands beforehand (you could say this for any book mind you)

The book is broken up into 3 sections on Characters & Props, Environments and Color and effects. Inside each section are chapters that break up the types of characters (ie. Autobots, Decepticons and Humans), locations and various effects and paintings.

Great glossy coloured print throughout the book.

The book content is broken into parts, each with sub-chapters...

A variety of conceptual art and sketches, renders, and illustrations with small paragraphs and comments inserted where they relate to the artwork are spread through the 200 glossy printed pages.

A good mix of details - model sheets, notes and colour art work.

I was quite excited to see just how much material was in here. Not only model sheets and coloured artwork, but many characters had a breakdown of their transformation sequences amongst other small details such as props or conceptual designs.

Good breakdown's of smaller details such as the transformation sequences.

Plenty of model sheets and sketches everywhere.

Added throughout the book are full interviews - from 3 to 5 pages, the interviews go into more depth with the core team behind the development of the show. There's a lot of interesting snippets of info within these, and of course a little more artwork to break apart the text.

With this book being mostly a collection of great artwork, I have to say out of the three its one of my favorite books.  This is most likely influenced by the show being a completely CG animated one and the fact I'm a big fan...

All three are great reads.  If you need more material to inspire you, check them out.

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TECH : Dk'tronics keyboard labels - part 2

Back in my previous blog post, I explained the process and gave a link to a set of labels you can download and print for replacing worn labels on a dk'tronics keyboard for the ZX Spectrum...

I have tweaked this document with appropriate colours for the symbols and extended mode keywords.  I also made a version with grey backgrounds that may be of use to those who can't get transparent label sheets (or if you have a different extension keyboard that you need labels for).


The download links for these are here.  Enjoy!

Transparent (colour version)

Transparent (black version (original))

Colour (grey version)

Note to those who grabbed the keyboard labels from my previous blog post that I've slightly updated the file to add in the colour labels for the numeric keys.  You may (or may not) want to re-download the file (the links also updated in that previous post).

Now in 3 different flavors...

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TECH : Re-labeling a worn out Dk'Tronics...

As far as I am aware, DK'tronics released two versions of their products.  The first one had stick-on labels for the keys.  The second, of which I have, printed the labels directly onto the keys.  While the print is pretty resilient, sometimes those greasy fingers can just wear off the hardiest of inks.

So - with those keys being almost perfectly cleaned off, how was I going to "restore" this old device.  The answer was to look around and see if anybody had released new labels for these keyboards.  As far as I could tell, there was nothing to be found.

Late night greasy pizza, or just sweaty fingers (ooh!) can cause issues...

Well, if you can't find them, then you make your own.  With a little observation, and Adobe Illustrator, I've created a set of new labels that can be printed and used to replace any worn keys.

Printed onto transparent label paper, ready to cut-n-stick

I'm sharing these here for those of you who are in a similiar situation.  All I ask is that if you download this file, please do not redistribute the file online elsewhere without first asking, don't remove my name/blog address (or change it/modify the image/claim it as your own work) or use it to make a profit through selling printed labels from it.  Just a little respect for the work I put into this is appreciated.

You can download the labels here.

By printing this home-made set of labels to an A4 sheet of glossy adhesive transparent acetate paper (you should be able to find these at your local art supplies of stationery supply store), I managed to restore the few missing keys.  Ideally, all keys should be cleaned off and replaced, but for what I need right now, the few that were almost completely cleaned off was a great start.

Clean, align and stick - its as simple as that

I will be uploading a coloured version of this for those wanting non-transparent versions.  I'll post that up as a new blog entry in the next day or so.

Just a note - I printed these on a lazer printer.  If you're using an inkJet, consider sealing them somehow.  Either a transparent sealant spray (which doesn't damage plastic label paper, obviously) or by placing a clean transparent label over the top.

Ink tends to easily smear or wear.  Lazer prints are much more resilient to wear and tear from constant pressing...  Just be weary...

Enjoy!

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Tech : Fixing the Dk'Tronics keyboard for my ZX Spectrum

Yesterday I decided to take a ZX Spectrum I've recently repaired and place it into a larger keyboard that I'd had since the 80's...  The reason for using a different keyboard? I'd replaced some components on the PCB with modern counterparts that were actually a lot larger and this made things a little cramped when screwed back into the Spectrums original case.  It made sense to use my classic Dk'Tronics box that was designed as a replacement for the original rubber keyboard.

The reason I'd originally gotten this keyboard back in the day was because I'd upgraded what had been a lowly 16k ZX Spectrum to a full 48k of RAM. That meant opening the machine up, inserting RAM chips and putting it back together.  All went well, except the space key slowly started to fail - notably while playing a game of Manic Miner (which used the space key to jump).

A real keyboard vs. rubber "dead flesh"

Why fail?  Well, the way that the ZX Spectrum keyboard works is that it uses a thin membrane system that has two layers of metallic tracks.  These are separated by another very thin layer so they do not make contact.  A rubber keypad on top of these presses down on the membrane, and that causes the layers to make contact and hence "press" the key.

The membrane is thin, and it can be quite fragile.  So when this had stopped working, I had to find something to fix it. The Dk'Tronics keyboard was a "real" keyboard, and the connectors inside were much more reliable (being cables and not a membrane).

Anyway...

So, I swapped my Spectrum PCB across to this keyboard, plugged it in and booted up the machine.  All started up, then I pressed a key.  Great.  Worked...  I pressed another.  Hmmm...  Nothing...

I then proceeded to press key after key - nothing, apart from around 10 keys seemed to be working!  Argh!

Inspection time!

I opened the keyboard back up and checked.  Its old, but it didn't look too bad.  It has been stored in less-then-ideal damp locations, so I wondered if perhaps there has been some corrosion...  From an initial view nothing looked rusted, grimey or damaged.

I did however spot a handful of partially soldered pins - so minimal they appeared to not be soldered when viewed from above.  I also looked closely at all of the soldered joints and spotted a few cracked ones.  Awesome - those were relatively easy to fix with a hot soldering iron, some flux and a little fresh solder.

Soldering fixxer-uppers...

Soldered - then tested again.  Nope.  That didn't help at all...

Dampness - corrosion - hmmmm....

I continuity-tested the cables (with a multimeter) that ran from the connectors at the end of the cables through to the keyboard.  I traced along the tracks - not all of them - but I made sure to do a few.  Nothing appeared faulty.  Everything connected...  Hmmm...

So I quickly googled things - low and behold, I found this web page that talked about repairing this keyboard and commented that the contacts inside the buttons can get dirty.  Given the damp conditions of storage, this wasn't out of the question... So I tested one button that didn't work...

At first how to open these buttons seemed confusing. However, a simple thin plastic clip on each side of the button allowed the top to be popped off and the insides extracted for cleaning...  Using a very thin screwdriver blade, slip it under and gently push it outwards.

Two clips - one on each side.  Take care, they can snap easily.

I had to agree with the web site after I managed to snap one of the clips off - opening these up was tricky, and given how close the buttons were meant I couldn't get a screwdriver under the other side to pop the clip.  So I followed the advice and unsoldered one of the keys.  The age of this hardware did prove a problem - I did manage to lose a little of the pad when I sucked the solder - but luckily not too much of it to require a repair job.

The actual plastic key on the top popped off with a little prying (its just pressed down on a "+" shaped stem).  Opening the button revealed the following parts (see image below).  One of the contacts was in the middle of a grey rubber cup that is pressed down onto two contacts below to make the connection.

Pretty simple on the inside...

Now that I had this button removed and opened up, I grabbed a cotton bud with a little methylated spirits and proceeded to rub across both both the top and bottom contacts.  The lower contacts in particular had some corrosion, but the small copper contacts in the center looked a lot cleaner once swabbed...

One key had a dark spot that wouldn't rub off, but a gentle scrape with a screwdriver loosened whatever it was and removed it.

Clean both contact points with methylated spirits

I reassembled the key, re-soldered it back - plugged it back in - Fixed!  Awesome, but now I had the rest of the keyboard to deal with...  I desoldered 2 other keys, each time watching for damage to the pads on the PCB.  After testing all 2 were working, I knew what I had to do...  However - I wasn't looking forward to desoldering and clean the remaining 50 keys.

Specialised tools for the job

Instead of the unappealing approach of desoldering each and every key, I discovered a custom tool that was small enough to slip between the keys to hook under each side of the button and unclip it.  This tool you can buy from any stationery stockist - its called a paper clip!  Bent over to form a tiny hook, and by crimping the end as much as possible to get it thinned out - it shaved hours of soldering right there and worked a treat!

Specialised keyboard repair kit

I'm glad to say after a couple of hours work - the keyboard works perfectly yet again, and enough to load and play a few games...

 Now to check some RAM - a few crashes, a little testing and seems things aren't quite right yet.  But its close to done.  Great fun!

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"Great scott! Its time to travel back to 2014"

There has to be a point where a project finishes - in the case of the ongoing 8-bit project I've worked on for a while now (not constantly, mind you - just a little here and there when I had a moment to spare), I've decided to toy with the camera, lighting and do a final rendered still.


(You can view all my posts on this project here)

Just adding a little dutch bank to the camera, a few texture tweaks...   I ended up with this image.  A classic moment - playing Manic Miner in a dark room, with the sunny day outside being blocked by the bedroom curtains.  Just like it was back in the 1980's...

Done...

Some subtle comping of reflections/spec passes back on top of the image, and then grading the colour and exposure a little (all passes were rendered out as half float in .exr format) after slapping in a bit of lens distortion, glare from the curtains and noise grain...  I'm fairly happy with this.

Mix-n-match

Getting the angle right...

As for the camera - I wasn't really sure just where I was going to go with it.  In my original "finished" render, the camera was pretty much straight on.  It looked ok, but it felt a little too dull and uninteresting.  I decided to just throw on a Golden Spiral guide and used the inward spiral to take the viewer towards the focus of the game itself.

Composition guides can be useful tools

Compared with the last camera angle, I find this much more appealing.  Of course, beauty is always in the eye of the beholder as they say.

Tweaked a few elements...

I did tweak a few small things in here.  Some positioning of elements for one - the data recorder I actually moved forward (and slightly scaled up) to subtly influence the perspective of the shot.  The screen, while its not obvious, has a very fine dark band that dulls the pixels (across that creature/green platform) to create the effect often common with the scan line on TV's when filmed or photographed.

In this image below, I've cranked the effect up to make it more obvious - It was simply a soft black block blended with an Overlay to deepen the image...

The effect - though more exaggerated in this example then the final version

I looked at a few photo's and old videos of CRT sets from this era and found they varied - some were very dense and dark.  Some, as in this case, were very slight - but enough to 'just' notice when it slowly moved down the screen during filming.

I'm done and dusted... Honest... Well...

So, for now I'm signing this project off.  In reality, I'm more then likely to return to this now and again and do more "fiddling" but til then its time to consider new projects.  Such as looking at the real thing - given my brand new stash I recently picked up (as seen below).

Keep with the virtual?  Perhaps just go for the Physical...

For those curious, the large keyboard you see at the bottom is from an old Commodore PET - the person I picked these up from has rewired it to work with the ZX Spectrum...  How - I don't know (I'm no electronics boffin) but its pretty cool...

Until next post...

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