Excerpt from Sports Illustrated: Since retiring in July 2011 from playing in the NBA for the Houston Rockets, Yao Ming has found a new passion, wildlife conservation, and has become a global ambassador for WildAid, one of the leading organizations working to reduce the demand for illegal wildlife products.

Photo by Kristian Schmidt / WildAid ~ Yao Ming traveled to Africa for the first time to come face-to-face with some of the world’s most majestic species – the elephant and the rhino – and to document the poaching crisis these creatures are facing as a result of growing demand for rhino horn and ivory products.

Yao met Najin and Suni, two of the world’s remaining seven Northern White Rhinos – representing one of the most endangered species on the planet. The Northern White Rhino once roamed through Congo, Uganda, and Sudan, but now only seven remain, four of which are at Ol Pejeta.

Yao poses with a group of Kenyan Police Reservists protecting Ol Pejeta, an animal sanctuary in East Africa.

These are immense and powerful creatures. Yao Ming insight, “As one of them pushes me, I’m reminded of the immense pressure I used to feel when I had to guard Shaquille O’Neal. You knew that pressure while guarding Shaq, and you know it when a rhino leans on you.”

But this power is meaningless in the face of a poacher’s bullet or wire snare. To make them less of a target, they have been dehorned – a painless process removing the top of the horn, but because there is still a substantial nub they are still under constant threat.

It’s tragic to know these impressive animals are among the last of their kind, just because some people believe their horn, which is just keratin like our fingernails, has healing properties.

It would be a tragedy if we lost them.

Yao and British tycoon Richard Branson attend a press conference for a campaign against eating shark fins in Shanghai. Yao and Branson made an appeal Thursday in Shanghai against the consumption of shark fins to a group of 30 of China’s richest and most influential business people.

It’s so great to see Yao take on such an important role in the effort to conserve the African endangered wildlife. Thank you Mr. Ming.

Check out Yao Ming’s two-week tour of Africa (follow his adventures at yaomingblog.com), SI looks at life after retirement for one of basketball’s true global stars.

I knew this day would come, and I have been dreaming about it for quite sometime since I joined the industry 15 years ago, what I did not picture was the dramatic results that Realtime Rendering in a Game engine would bring to the souped up, Feature hungry gamers and 3D art world.

Graphics researcher Jorge Jimenez has cracked the problem of rendering what he calls “ultra realistic skin” in real-time with consumer-level computer and graphics hardware. It’s a breakthrough made possible by the process of separable subsurface scattering (SSS) which quickly renders the translucent properties of skin and its effect on light in two post-processing passes. The code is based wholly on original research using DirectX 10. Jimenez describes the achievement as the result of hours of “research, desperation, excitement, happiness, pride, sadness and extreme dedication.”

I came upon these 2 videos which demonstrate the arrival of a new breed of Realtime Graphics and effects processing combined with capable machines. I am watching this video, and I am thinking, dude, this right here is what I have been waiting to see for so long in a Video game engine and 3D applications like 3DS and Maya. Take a look and Feast Yur Eyes (think of a Brave, scottish accent)

This second video shows the results Achieved by using DirectX 11 in the New Crytek 3 Engine. This makes for a much richer gaming experience. I believe Hardware advances like GPU enabled graphics cards are going to drive the ever increasing demand for this type of graphics.

I can Imagine a world where there will no longer be a need to wait long hours for 3D scenes to Render ~ the Introduction of Directx 11 has definitely opened a door to that new world of Realtime Rendering. Take a look

A special thank you to the team at Faceware Technologies, Inc and ImageMetrics for their kind support of the Galiwango Film and My cartoon TV Series (https://www.sowl.com/2012/12/a-seed-for-nkoza-and-nankya/ ).  I am so excited about working with their talented team to help make the Galiwango film Characters even more awesome. I highly recommend their services.

Thanks Again Peter and the entire team. You guys rock, and thanks for joining in this effort of making the world a better place for endangered wildlife, especially the mountain gorillas, plus cheering on the selfless sacrifices of the rangers engaged in the protection of these great apes and their habitats.

I will be posting the behind the scenes of the Galiwango film Facial Motion capture sessions using Faceware’s Analyzer and Retargater. You can follow the Galiwango film production at this link: https://www.sowl.com/2012/02/galiwango-film-reload-3d-model-update and on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/Galiwango.A.Mountain.Gorilla.Film

Check out this video explaining the services provided by Faceware Technologies, Inc: http://www.facewaretech.com

This particular video shows the process in a more linear way and gives a visual example of how the Faceware technology works:

Faceware has been used on over 45 shipped video game titles as well as 8 feature films, with many more in production now. Both Analyzer and Retargeter are extremely battle-tested and have shipped thousands of minutes of facial animation and our Head-Mounted Cameras have been on hundreds of shoots with thousands of production hours logged. Take a look below at some of the titles our products have been used on.

Below are some of the Game titles: Check out the full list here: http://www.facewaretech.com/projects/

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Element3D ~ One word ~ EPIC!! ~ Andrew Kramer has just democratized Motion graphics design and 3D asset integration, giving every aspiring artist a fighting chance at getting a job doing a commercial. I think that Artistry and creativity is what’s going to separate the boys from the men!! lol!!! YIKES!!! ~ still shaking my head in AWE!!!

I created this 3D scene after going out on a date with my wife to watch “Battleship” ~ The visuals and FX in the film were so amazing, I couldn’t wait to get back home and jump into Vue and 3DS Max, and see if I could recreate some of the shots. I highly recommend Battleship, you can definitely see the fingerprints of the teams that worked on Transformers, all over the VFX shots. The sea scenes are some of the best I have ever seen in a film. I was totally inspired.

Short video clip of the above scene:

Animation Breakdown ~ Minus the Titling

Here are some wireframe renders of the scene inside of Vue Xstream. The above shot was rendered at 1600 x 900. I am working on a short animated clip to capture the motion and water effects.