Hey all ...  Just dropping by to say hi ... as always, things are taking its toll on the other end of the stick. For now, here
are some quick tidbits to share:

* One of my external HD's bit the bullet so that took me back restoring things --

* Las Vegas is booked : May 15 to 20 !

* 2 New Websites + update on sideshowsito.com on the way ( iOS/Html5 update for the galleria ) !

* Preparing for my 2nd 3D model ( Coming Soon )

* I discovered the wonders of using disk utility to image your computer ! --- no more wasting half a day re-installing all your programs to your mac . 19GB DMG file + disk utility + 22mins is all it takes to get things back up and running !

* Planning a trip to Atlanta in July ( TBA ) ...

* And theres THIS VIDEO that i found on youtube that gave me this insane feeling vertigo : .... [link] ...

o_O

lol . im outtie . b b l

LMFAO .





I was surfing eBay for some iPad 3rd gen back covers and found one that has .. well ...full access to SLUTS !!?!  o_O ..
hahaha .. I especially love how the fonts are BOLDED .. for reassurance maybe ? hehe

[link]

Gotta love those engrish merchants on ebay !!

Final Comp of Piranha plant is on its way fully painted and detailed .

Btw. The MASK BY CAVITY feat in Zbrush is working wonders this evening !

peas.

Hello All,

Been busy moving the past couple of days but managed to get a few things done. I also have 2 new website(s) currently in the works so *again* its been real slow having my hands full.

QUICK UPDATES :

* MODELMAYHEM MASSIVE is back up
* Kate Braganca this week
* More Urban Exploration coming up
* Gail Borjiet : All of April
* Susan Coffey shoot *delayed* till further notice
* Limited Edition Prints on their way !

* I have been diagnosed with Dionaea muscipula ... which is latin for VENUS FLY TRAP !!!!

... I guess working on the piranha plant model for quite some time had some strange influence for me to grab one of these fly chompers at a local superstore, took it home and did a bit of research on them online. These carnivorous plants did have some special needs to properly raise them. I discovered that Venus Fly Traps can only survive under the following conditions :

* Distilled Water or Rain Water
* 4+ Hours of Sunlight ( 12 if possible )
* Shultz Peat Moss + Perlite Soil ( no potting mix or fertilizer )

The surprising thing about VFT's is that they don't actually need to feed on insects. As long as the three things above are met; your plants will live a healthy life. They're Perennials too which means they will have a dormancy stage where they will nap in the winter from NOV to FEB and eventually come back out in the SPRING ! The traps are actually small . About the size of your fingernails . The biggest ( according to sources online ) are the B52 types which grow up to the size of quarters ! Sadly none of them are in Canada only the US . I gotta figure out how to smuggle one of those brutes over lol ...

This wasn't the first time I owned one of these ; I remember buying one of these plants from REDROSE crafts store back in the late 90s but it died on me because I fed tap water to it and lol i think i even fed it a piece of raw meat lol . It went black the very next day and the entire thing just shriveled up and died .

After further research on these little carnivores ... I went back to the store to grab a couple more ( to fit the pot ) and swindled the store manager to drop the price down to 50% cuz the poor things look all dried up being bottled up in the store. I currently own 3 batches of V.F.T's ... all re-potted so they all share a new batch of fresh Peat Moss + Perlite ! ... If you think I'm nuts well I went on EBAY and bought 3 more breeds of carnivourous plant SEEDS : a SUNDEW Plant , a PITCHER plant , and bigger new BREED of venus fly traps !



*BITE* [link]

Interested in being an Admin for the modelmayhem massive group ?



Please PM me a note :

1) Why do you want to join ?
2) How often will you be able to facilitate the group when others are not around ?
3) What kind of work do you do ?
4) What contributions are you able to offer ? ( No I  am not looking for donations )
5) Why YOU and not the other person ?

I will be choosing up to 5 different administrators to help ressurect the group back in order ...

^_^

FYI

* 2nd Zbrush proj .... near completion .  
* Las Vegas May 15-20 ... confirmed !
* Gail Borjiet | Kate Braganca ... confirmed !
* Urban Exploring season ... is back !
* iPad ... !??!?!

* Susan Coffey ... encore.

* sleepy ... goodnight.

... so this morning ; a couple of friends and i were all up at 10:30am preparing to grab tickets for SAN DIEGO COMIC CON 2012 and although we had our
badge registration ID's all ready ... All we had to follow was a link that was given to us via email and it says :  

Dear SITO ALVINA,

The wait is over! Comic-Con 2012 badges will go on sale at 8:00 a.m. PST on Saturday March 3rd, 2012. To access the EPIC online registration website, click the following link: [link]

Sounds too easy ! ... so CLICK right . it says " CLICK on the following link " . ALRIGHT . Got it !!
... so when the clock struck 11am here in Toronto ..... IT WAS TIME TO CLICK ON THE FUCKING LINK

Click. ... CLick .. CLIIIIICK ... nothing .. idle ... then error ... error .. error for about 10 mins then finally in !

This new comic con queue apparently allows people to line up online ( sounds wierd but it was actually a lineup with a number system . At the time I got in i was #36,400 !!! ) and to cut to the chase --- an hour past .... SOLD OUT ... Geez . Later on this evening . LOLing at reading all the furious tweets about people not getting the tickets, an stumbled on an article i found online that identifies the problem the ticket sales had with a simple run-around to access the site faster .... IT TURNS OUT YOU HAD TO CUT AND PASTE THE FUCKING LINK IN THE EMAIL instead of clicking it !!   

[link]


A number of people are reporting problems getting into the San Diego Badge Sales.
It's not, however, a problem with the server. But a malformed link.
The e-mail send out to those with Member ID's gave people a link to click on.
The link however, does not work when you click on it.
Instead, copy and past the link into your browser.
That should do the trick!


*FACE PALM* . Seriously . WTF

Ah well, maybe it wasn't meant to be this time around ... there's always next year ( which gives me time to save ) . But then again theres also Sept ... PHILIPPINES and JAPAN !!!

ok ok ... so im hooked on Breaking Bad ... but can you blame me ? I can see why Bryan Cranston won 3 Emmy Awards for playing Walt/HEISENBERG in Breaking Bad!

SO ... Been quite occupied the past couple of days and keeping myself in post processing mode for the past month with Zbrush ! ... Learning new tricks along the way ... here's a preview of what stage im at : Almost nearing completion ... I still have a bit of tweaking left to do but im really really happy with the results so far .



Man, I messed up on this so many times I had to re-do .. and REDO ... and REDO some bits but one thing I knew was I couldnt forget about it and walk away from Zbrush . I had to learn the GUI... the tools .. and after I get all this modelling down, the last ( and probably hardest bit ) is the rendering. Although Zbrush has a built in default renderer, Im still leaning towards Vray or Mental Ray to properly do HDRI renders and so on ...

One thing for sure, I need to finish this ASAP for something else lined up is just around the corner so hopefully ill find the time again this week ... If theres one thing about 3D modelling/animation i hate is how time consuming it can get !

*sigh* Going through some heavy BREAKING BAD withdrawals right about now ... I could use some Los Pollos Hermanos eats right about now too ... mmmmmm

Photoshoots ? Yyuuupperss ... oh done worry ;Ive got em coming !

Yup. I'm still dabbling in this program and yes im getting really into it. Below is a screenshot of my current work in progress using Zspheres this time. I never thought digital sculpting would be so much fun. ( and sadly TIME CONSUMING as I learn the ropes in this program ) ... I've somewhat gotten acquainted with the user interface and it doesn't feel so intimidating anymore. Truth is I hit so many bumps along the way that I ended up redoing things over and over and over and over that it made navigation so much easier




A Toon Shader Material . Zphere stalks ... Lots more detailing to do here but I'm excited to finish this piece. I decided to learn the sculpting part for now and work on the rendering and lighting for later . If you're wondering why I am doing all this 3D imaging well there's a reason behind it and you'll see why at the end of all my Z'training' .... hope you can check em out  ! Once i complete this ill be sure to post the workflow process on my website so watch for that when its all done


On other news ;

* Breaking Bad : A TV show about a chemist who decides to manufacture Crystal Meth ... I started watching because convinced me to see it. I got through the first episode and it was alright ... I'm hoping the pace will pick up though --  
* Walking Dead Mid season returns on Sunday ! WOot !
* Previews of Game of Thrones Season 2 surfacing online ! Daenerys Targaryen is sooooo F'kin Gorgeous !!!
* That Darth Plaguies book got boring ...
* That Darth Maul Me App is LOW BUDGET
* Susan Coffey will be back in Toronto next month for ....
* Ant Hill app ( its free today via the app store ) is addictive !!!
* Temple Run isn't so much fun anymore with the stupid cheat/glitch -- I wonder why they haven't patched that shit up yet
* All work and no play makes Sito a Dull Boy ... Lets make some TRAVEL PLANS :

- Chicago ?
- Atlanta ?
- New York ?
- Montreal ?
- Las Vegas ( May )
- San Diego ( July ) - San Diego Comic Con

*) SKULL
*) P-PLANT
*) "CIMEX"
*) INCREDIBLE
*) THE SYMBIOTE
*) TURTLE ENDO
*) MOTOKO KUSANAGI
*) アクマ
*) MAKINAMI MARI
*) "MYSTERY" MODEL

Note : in no particular order

As most of you probably seen, i have updated my gallery with a new 'Zbrush' gallery.

Yessiree ! ---  im going at this Zbrush program full force and will be throwing up WIPS ( work in progress ) in that folder so keep an eye out -- and NO IM NOT PUTTING PHOTOGRAPHY ASIDE ... I'm merely keeping myself busy while being indoors because I seriously hate this winter weather and I really hate shooting outdoors with this kind of weather ... I do have some ideas with Zbrush that im still tryin gto figure out, hopefully itll work ... Finished off the skull WIP yesterday Im already working on my 2nd sculpt .

... can you guess what it is ???  Post your answer here and get a llama from me ! ... This will end Friday evening 11pm pacific time ...





i've also posted some earlier shots of the Skull for those interested found in my website ( dusts off ) via this [link]
Speaking of my website, Looks like im in serious need to do some major re-arranging and update with the ol' dot.com site ... *sigh*  so much to do so little time >_<

If only I could get my hands on my own iPad cuz my website fits PERFECTLY on it .... , of course ill have to wait till the 3rd one if it comes out cuz it'd be silly if purchased one now ...Shit . Ive held off for so long Im definitely in the market this time when apple releases the third one !

Anyway, TGIF ! For now , Time for some Zzzz

Hows everyone's new year treating y'all so far ?

For me ... I picked up a new hobby this year  : Pixologic's Zbrush 4r2 3d sculpting software !

Most of you probably thought all i did was photography + photoshop but truth is , Ive always been working along 3D modelling with nurbs,polygons but never with Zspheres, polymesh ... organic modelling . Here's my first run working on a skull from scratch ... starting off with nothing but a polysphere. Originally I was practicing on a human skull but ended up making it an 'evil' skull by altering the eyeball sockets a bit and making it look more sinister ( less boring than a human skull imo )  





You'd be surprise much resource you find online for such an intricate and complex GUI ... everything in Zbrush to me is self taught at this point. Always nice to expand the whole knowledge base and learn new things ... Not sure how far Ill get into this kind of work - Watch for the update on my website for work in progress for those who are interested . Ill be sure to uploaded some on here as well once I get a bit more familiar with the program ...

First Journal Post of the year ! " a Happy New YOU "goes out to everyone !!

Its been quite a slow week for me. Been sick the first couple of days after New Years and managed to get things back on track ...
I'm taking on a whole new league this year ... ol habits are finally back ( good habits; youll see what i mean ) and alot of old ones put to rest ...
As always I've set some goals for the year and Im really excited to get the ball rolling with a whole new batch of photoshoots I have been planning for a very long time.

Starting off the new year is one of my long awaited deviations entitled Angelus w/ my ol' pal Poisonne.

This on location set was another one of my trickiest, unpredictable type of shoots and i recall being incredibly happy to have finally finished shooting it thanks to Poisonne ! Painting with light is VERY tricky but with the right calculation ( and dedication ) things end up going your way eventually ... I've grown quite fond of these light painting series I might just do some more depending on how effective it looks . Perhaps do a series or maybe ill leave it to that --- who knows ....

Anyhow, TONS of crazy new concepts lined up and my gad I cant wait to begin . Theres a slew of new models Ive been wanting to shoot this year and I think its time I start
rounding em up -- *wink

^___^


ps. Did you see Girl with the Dragon Tattoo yet ? Rooney Mara is just ^%A$SF&%ARSF*&A*&F%A*S&FT  !!!!! ...um.. AWESOME. [link]

Ready ?.... [link]



side note : if you havent already . download JJAbrams/BadRobot app called " Action Movie Fx " from the app store and blow shit up !!!

So the other day … Christmas arrived early for a lot of retro gamers - and this is sort of a big deal cuz you see … this magical app called iMAME showed up , mysteriously approved on the app store !

So What is it ?  First of M.A.M.E stands for Multiple Arcade Machine Emulator .

U See - Back in the days when some of the best video games cost .25 cents to play at your local convenience store or arcade/pool hall, theyve become extinct and taboo. Around the late 90's These games were then CLONED and EMULATED to be played on your PC/MAC ! … a la … MAME ! Basically allowing you to play those arcade classics on your home computer … They're actually emulated really well that you can even see the ' insert coin ' flashing on the screen ! Mame has been around for many many years and just recently--- its been ported to iOS devices like your iPHONE .. iPAD … iTOUCH … ! Best thing about this is you don't even need to jailbreak your iPhone ( which i am totally against )

It's a good thing I kept my collection of favourite MAME games throughout the years ( ie. Super Contra, Ninja Turtles , Wrestlemania, Streetfighter II , however I admit the graphics are a bit tame for todays standards - I sure love to reminisce and enjoy the games i used to waste a zillion quarters on ported into my iPhone !

-- and here's your chance to grab it for your iOS device !






More info here Everyones talking about it :

ENGADGET [link]
GAME TACTICS [link]
MACRUMORS [link]
SLASHGEAR [link]

On a side note ; I've audited and tested most games and although its still an early version, some of the games ( like Marvel Vs Capcom , Darkstalkers, WrestleMania, Wrestlefest ) do not work as yet --- hopefully the next release will fix these bugs !

For those interested -- Download the iMAME app to your iOS device before apple gets all antsy about it and removes it !
If you want, PM me if you're serious about getting the ROMS/GAMES running on your iOS before December 30 ( yes I'm feeling Jolly enough to share ) and ill send ya the juicy details

** UPDATED *** Ive added a youtube video on how to add ROMS to iMAME --- you can view it via this [link]


You'll need :

* a mac computer
* iMAME app ( run this on your iOS device )
* PHONEVIEW ( run this on your mac )
* ROMS

Man o Man  … If this app remains to prevail on the app store and updates show up …  I am totally gonna grab me one of these iCADEs found via this [link] ( think geek ) !!

Great. Another Excuse for me to get an iPAD but meh ill wait for the 3rd one … then again maybe ill get one just for iMAME ! LOL

GRRRR I really hate waking up at these awkward times of the night/morning -- I took a nap around 7pm . Woke up around 3:02am and im now wide awake . Good thing is I CAN QUICKLY write something in my journal ! YAY So .. first things first ... did you guys see the leaked Dark Knight 8 Minute Monologue ? its pretty badasshhh ... Its attached to Mission Impossible in theaters and the theatrical trailer is also out there ! Here's the link for it if you havent seen it . Warning : its CAM copy but its still viewable :

THEATRICAL TRAILER :
[link]

8 MINUTE PROLOGUE :
[link]

Surprisingly these havent been pulled off youtube but ... watch at your own discretion . Doesnt really show any real spoilers but still worth the watch. Bane's voice in the 8minute prologue is a bit hard to understand at times due to the low quality recording but its pretty trippy ! -- Cant wait for this movie to come out !!! Also... coming up this week is the preview for The Hobbit ( December 20 ) attached to Adventures of Tin Tin ! Im really looking forward for that one ! 2012 is just plastered with so many things to look forward to ... are you ready ????


so YEAH ... the lovely took me to dinner yesterday ( originally it was pho but we went to korean bbq instead LOL ) ...



Such a darling - Thanks for dinner Laurelle   ... if youre reading this ; dont forget your ipod touch yo !  ( all 52 updates haha )

OK BACK TO COUNT SHEEP Y'ALL .

^__^ Thanks everyoe for the birthday greetings !

I'm gonna do my best to round up everything before the year ends so i can finally begin new photo concepts lined up for 2012 !

* Susan Coffey interview
* MissLaurelle is taking me out to inhale some massive amounts of PHO this saturday.
* " Angelus "  

I've got a pretty clear overview of  things lined up for the new year with shoots and trips and im REAL EXCITED to get started -- hope you will enjoy the ride


oh boy --- 2 more weeks till 2012 ... you guys ready for the new year ?

....... SQUEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE !!!!



Received my copies in the mail today !!! Susan Coffey in Maxim December 2011 Folks !!


^______^

Heads up folks, Susan Coffey will be in the december Maxim (espanol) issue ... photos c/o yours truly ^__~

See the announcement on the official Maxim en Español Facebook page. The issue should be available for purchase on Monday, December 5.
I was told we  were gonna receive our own copies but I've yet to see it myself ! Anyone who gets it before us we'd love to see it !

Anyway ... heres the [link] to the maxim facebook page ...

*sigh* I sure miss geocaching.

… It all started when I went to Vancouver earlier this year ( July 1st to be exact ) ….  and up to 90 geocaches found to date! Unfortunately Ive been really tied up this time of year so I had to put it on hold lol . For those of you who are interested in geocaching ( or would like to know what it is ) …

Here's how it works : [link]

Sign up and make an account HERE :

IF you have an iPhone, You can get the app for free ( but theres also a paid app that allows you to log it to your account ) .

If youre into the outdoors and treasure hunting, youll find its real fun. The best thing about geocaching is discovering all these obscure and beautiful locations around your neighbourhood that you probably wouldn't think of venturing into. !

Here's and on a geocaching adventure sometime in the summer ! [link]

Got instagram ?

Beginning next month --- find all the RARE behind the scenes stuff and daily antics exclusively on my instagram! : You can find me on there via " sideshowsito " of course .  



Yup ... straight from my iPhone4s ! --- one of my favorite new apps this year !




On other news :

* New pics just around the corner with ... *ahem* ...

* Finished the Steve Jobs Biography --- * MIND BLOWN * ... so much insight about the man who created APPLE : the first biography I've ever read on anyone ! truly inspiring and thought provoking ... Loved every chapter in the book !  

* I saw Human Centipede 2  --- For months I've read online that it was coming but little did I know it was already out -- err, got a chance to watch it last night and although it wasnt really medically accurate ; it was mildly amusing to see what kind of ridiculous story director Tom Sick had come up with with this sequel . For what its worth, I think the protagonist/antagonist did a good job portraying the sick, mildly retarded invalid who went around kidnapping people to create a full blown human centipede. I do admit its brutal in alot of ways but with an open mind you'd think nothing of it - I did figure out that if all else fails, a staple gun does the trick LOL .

Now I dont want to spoil anything but for those who have seen it : WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED TO THE PREGNANT WOMAN AFTER GETTING IN THE CAR ; that was probably my biggest WTF moment during the entire film !?!? HAhaha ... and was ... that ... the baby ... OMG ... gas pedal ?!?!?!?!?

* Next up to bat .... a Blade-of-Mako piece Ive been saving ...

meow. ....