Ben's Comp Newsletter: Issue 021
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Hey,
Hope you're doing well. Please enjoy
Issue 021 of Ben's Comp
Newsletter!
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KeenTools' FaceBuilder
Released just last week by KeenTools
(the company who brought you marvellous
plugins such as GeoTracker and
FaceTracker) is
a brand new plugin which stands up against
their already-amazing line-up of tools.
FaceBuilder is a natural
extension of KeenTools' existing plugins,
which allows you to rapidly create a 3D
model of an actor's face using only a few
reference images, right inside of
Nuke! Once you have this model,
FaceTracker or GeoTracker can track your
newly-created face model to the actor in
your plate!
Figuring out a 2D solution for replacing a
stunt-actor's face in Nuke is by far my
least favourite thing to do. This suite of
plugins appears to put an end to our days of
frustration!
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Keep organized with to do lists.
To-do bullet lists are my favourite
productivity hack. I love the ability to
dump my brain into a document, then be able
to search for items effortlessly when I need
them. Long-time readers of Ben's Comp
Newsletter may already know of Workflowy,
which is great, albeit quite simple.
Last month, I stumbled upon the free
web-app Dynalist,
which adds all the features you might be
missing from Workflowy, and more! I
have been using it every day for the past 30
days, both at work and at home, and I
absolutely love it.
An example of how I utilize
Dynalist at work is:
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Start with a large heading for the
shot name
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Add a small sub-heading underneath
with the date tag
!(2018-10-22), to know when
the shot is due.
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Additionally, add a # to tag certain
things like urgency and ETA
(e.g. #urgent #2.5hrs)
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Now we can add indented sub-bullet
points for each note we have, and
sub-sub-bullet points for items
to complete this task! The
more granular the better, as
the more things you can check off
the list, the more dopamine (reward
hormone) your brain gets!
More dopamine = more
flow-state = more
productive.
Other
conveniences include:
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Using a to-do list keeps all of your
outstanding tasks visible in one
easy-to-access place.
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You can effectively plan your
workday by organizing your
custom #timeETA
tags into 8 hour blocks;
simple!
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Time for dailies? There's a native
iPhone & Android app that syncs
your notes real-time to the cloud.
Typing notes on your phone in the
review room, and then walking back
to your workstation to have those
same notes at your fingertips is
invaluable!
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Want to know everything that's due
tomorrow? Use Dynalist's search
function to search for your custom
tags with tomorrow's
date, e.g. !(yyyy-mm-dd),
and you automatically have your
to-do list for the day!
There are plenty more features that make
Dynalist worth using, but too many to point
out here. I encourage you to check out
their website and try out the
Live Demo to see what it can do,
and how it can help improve your
productivity!
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Create simple pop-up dialogs with
Python.
Nuke has a built-in PythonPanel
object, which you're able to add all
sorts of knobs to via Python, and that will
do anything you can imagine & anything
you can code! Back when I first learned how
to create them, it was a more involved
process. However now, it's quite simple!
If you're looking for something a bit more
comprehensive than
nuke.message("Hello
World!"), Jeang Jenq
Loh has written a
simple and easy to follow tutorial about how
you can create PythonPanel's, using
an example of a tool he wrote that helps the
user globally deal with Nuke's localization
policy.
Another example of how I use
PythonPanels is my QuickKeys
script, which helps you
quickly set on/off keyframes for selected
nodes. E.g: A window pops up, asks for
your first and last frame, and then you
hit "Go!" and it figures out the
rest!
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Designing Cinematic Scenes
One of the ways I seek inspiration is by
looking to designers (motion, web, UX),
animators and other artists
who are exceptional at analyzing and
problem-solving creative challenges.
I recently came across this talk by Matthew
Encina of Blind
and TheFutur,
who outlines how he approaches digital
cinematography. In his talk, Matthew covers
the basics of how he thinks about
composition & lighting, and touches on
the importance of contrast in an interesting
and informative way using Cinema4D
to show examples. Interesting
stuff!
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Did you enjoy this
newsletter issue?
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Thank you to the following supporters, who
help make this newsletter possible:
Premium Contributor: Seb
Tran
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