Building Up Our Resources

We here at Digital Fruit have a goal to become an entertainment and information company, providing you, our customers, with fascinating and enriching media experiences that will last a lifetime.  This is no easy task, though, and the demands that modern entertainment projects demand can be overwhelming.  Knowing we can't compete without innovation, Digital Fruit is trying something new.

We have purchased two new AMD Llano APUs, a combination central processor and graphics chip. In conjunction with several new software upgrades, we will soon be bringing you high caliber CG animations and visual effects enhanced video.

Our first project will be a short film simply and descriptively titled Wizards' Duel.  I'm not going to say anything more about this one right now, and I don't think I need to say anything more for you to know what to expect.  Check back here on the blog often for test renders and new information, as the eam involved will be updating regularly.

Our First Serious Attempt At Animation

     Although simple and childish, this animation was more a lesson in patiences and resolve.  I'm continuing the piece, and will post the updated versions up until the final version, which I'm hoping will be about 720 frames, or 30 seconds.  Yep, thats right, when this is done, I will have drawn 720 individual images for this little show, and I hope you'll enjoy watching it as much as I'm enjoying making it.

DF Con Update

     Tonights post is a really short one.  I just wanted to update our customers as to what will be taking place so far at DF Con.  We've got some nifty stuff going on.  We're working on a game for the new Android 3.0 Honeycomb tablets, and we should have some updated work on Epic the RPG in time for DF Con.  Some other possible software projects may be showcased as well, but we haven't gotten everything else straightened out yet.
     We will also be displaying the DigiFruit Mini 1 computer, based on Intel Atom technology, and we should have two different operating systems installed for showcase by then.
     And, if we're really lucky, there may be some footage from projects being worked on by Digital Fruit Animation ready by the time DF Con roles around.  Stuff that may even warrant the big screen, (and by that I mean the silver screen).  So, who knows at this point, this may be the coolest thing we've done yet.  So till then, catch you on the flip side.

Commercial Commercials

     So, Digital Fruit is commercially producing commercials now.  We have most of the equipment we need for lighting and filming, and an impressive array of tools and talents for doing computer generated graphics.
     With the still-growing need for video content, especially in the ever-changing advertising space, a business that has the right tools and experiences is a must.  I'll be trying to get example material up here on the blog and on the Digital Fruit Video space.  Check back from time to time to see anything new we've posted.

Jerusalem 2111

     So, I, Andrew Petersen, on behalf of Digital Fruit, will be making an entry into the Jerusalem 2111 video contest.  This is a contest for a video about what Jerusalem will look like in 100 years.  I plan to use this to showcase my talent in three dimensional design, and to help me work out some of the bugs in my render pipeline.  I hope this will be a great learning experience, and will help me to learn the development process for CG video.

Eureka! I've Got It!

     Nightmare Before Christmas quote aside (I've been listening to the soundtrack way too much lately), I really have got it.  I've been having problems using Blender's built in distributed rendering to work in Windows, and I hadn't even tried messing with it in Ubuntu,  when I had a strike of brilliance!  The error message I was getting led me to think that my problem was in using a natively Linux program in a Windows environment.
     When Blender would load, it would tell me it couldn't open the file at such and such location, giving me a huge string of text that wasn't anywhere near what the proper file path was.  So, I went in, mapped the folder to a network drive on the other computers that I was using, and tried opening again.  This time the file opened without a hitch.
     Then I simple directed Blender to this new network drive for the location of the render, and voile, simple render farm.
     I know this post seems rather cryptic, but anyone who has tried to use Blender's built in render farm has probably spent time pulling their hair out because of it.  I hope this helps any young, aspiring Blender artists to achieve their dreams.
     Till next time, catch you on the flip side.