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How 1 week in Singapore can change one’s ideas, goals and direction in life…

It was June 15 I took a 12 hour flight to Singapore, to attend CGOverdrive 2008 as keynote speaker and representer of BBB and Blender. And I can say that my first trip to Asia is one that will be hard to forget.

Stepping out of the plane started with a nice smack-in-the-face temperature, something that didn’t seem to get less during the late hours. The evening of that first day me and 2 other speakers were invited to a lovely welcomes diner with people from 3dsense media school (supporters of cgoverdrive) and other people from the organisation. It was a surprise to hear how much they thought of Blender and BBB, and it inspired me to finish up my keynote that night.

The next day I arrived early enough at the expo hall to get myself and my laptop plugged in, but unfortunately after even 3 hours of struggling we couldn’t get my monitor to work correctly on the big screen. Some issue with Linux, Nvidia and a cable that’s too long… I dunno. Even Andy, who arrived a day later in Singapore, couldn’t get things to work the last hour. But to the rescue came audience member Victor Yap, Blender user and organisor of Blender Birds of a Feather at Siggraph Asia 2008. When I was announced we were still busy transfering and checking my files on his laptop. Not the best start for a first keynote, but it worked.

My keynote talk was about the world of open source and open content, with Blender, the Blender Institute and BBB as my main examples. Showing BBB definitely gave it a good start. During the Q&A it became clear that alot of people had a hard time understanding that everthing was done in Blender (a free program?!), plus the open content aspect. Hopefully with my keynote I was able to give a nice introduction.

The attention I got after my keynote was something that surprised me the most. Visitors asking for autographs and asking to be on photo with me… hey, I’m not complaining.

The last day of CGOverdrive ended with a ’making of BBB’ from me and Andy; a ‘Blender sandwich’, how the presenter called it. This time having a more relaxed preparation (as in Andy did all the preparation), we had no problem filling the complete 2 hours. It was like bringing back old memories with Andy, something I enjoyed thoroughly. We ended the Q&A by giving away a few BBB dvd’s, just by having the audience members answer a few simple questions (last one was a toughy though; they had to pronounce my last name correctly).

The same evening and the day after me and Andy experienced Singapore in an unforgettably way. All this thanks to Victor and his family, who showed us around and treated us with a warm-hearted Singapore hospitality. And what to say about Singapore? Everything is amazing; the food, the buildings, the people, the way people with different background and religion live together… and don’t get me started about the women there.

The evening poor Andy had to leave, I was invited to a diner party with the 3dsense team (some of the people being from 3dsense China). A small but great group of people, with a strong passion for what they’re doing. That evening wasn’t too bad either…. okay, it was awesome.

The day I had to leave I visited Raffles Design Institute. Teacher and Blender user Jorge Otero invited me over to show BBB to a small group of students. Seeing I’m from schools with the same kind of creative background, I was very keen to take a quick look at the place. A short but fun experience.

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Before I end this neverending blogpost, I would like to say something about the day before I left. Sen and Justin from 3dsense invited me to take a look at their small school (a few classrooms in a shopping mall), and after that the place they’ll be moving to very soon (2nd floor of a very nice building). There’s still alot of work to do, but it’s clear the place is going to look great.

And the reason I mention all this? If everything goes as planned I’ll be joining the 3dsense team beginning of August. Sen offered me a job as lecturer, and to join a small group of passionate people with great goals and plans, is something I just cannot say no to. Mention worthy is that they also have plans to work more with open source and, of course, Blender.

Thank you 3dsense, cgoverdrive organisation and speakers, Victor and family, Jorge, and not to forget Andy for a great time. Singapore is awesome, and I can’t wait to get back.

Love y’all,

Sacha

Although it’s a closed format still, Blu-ray is most likely going to be the HDTV film disc format of the next decade. So, even when it was only for archiving reasons, it’s important to have BBB on this format available as well. Not to mention that the HD version of BBB is simply breathtaking to watch.

As bonus, apart from the extras copied from the video dvd, Imagion agreed to add Elephants Dream on the disc as well!

-Ton-

because they are getting married!

Have a beautiful day and of course lot’s of love for the future.

Congratulazioni, tutta la fortuna per il futuro!

In May 2008, the Blender Foundation released their second open-movie project: “Big Buck Bunny,” a funny and furry 3D short about a giant rabbit who gets even with bullying rodents. This session brings together the key people who created the movie and presents all the aspects of an open-source and open-content-based animation studio, and how this affects the creative process. The panelists showcase project files from the studio, and even recreate parts of the film on demand! This 90 minute session starts with a screening the 10-minute film and ends with a 15-minute Q&A with the audience.

http://www.siggraph.org/s2008/attendees/caf/caftalks/index.php

BIG BUCK BUNNY of SACHA GOEDEGEBURE
The Netherlands 2008
“Such mention, intends to underline the great ability with which has been completed the creation of characters animate of the work and their character animation able to absolutely return an expressiveness worthy of products commercial high-level, and such mention, wants besides, to be the occasion to underline the important value of a software 3D as Blender, with which the work has entirely been realized, and that it opens a ‘important reflection on the value of the open source and of the free software in the professional and commercial world.” thus Luisella Chiribini

http://www.cyborgproduzioni.org/

Vimeo: 300,000
Youtube 215,000

Downloads:

Waag.org torrents: 102,000
Sun Microsystems network.com: 120,000 (estimate, reported 29 TB traffic)
Sketchworkproductions.com: 125,000
video.blendertestbuilds.de: 55,000

Grand total: 917,000! Pretty good numbers. Without counting all the other mirrors, iso dowloads, our own dvds, and assuming more people watch a single download, we can safely estimate that over a million people have seen BBB now!

-Ton-

(Note; I did not include the italian mirror, which is most likely between 50 and 100k too. Waiting for their confirmation.)

MP3, ~192 kbps VBR, 16.2 MB ZIP

Ogg Vorbis, ~224 kbps, 17.8 MB ZIP

The isolated score is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-NoDerivativeWorks 3.0 license. Thanks to Andy for the neat cover image. Enjoy!

Have fun watching! And, thanks again for the great feedback and ongoing support. It has been a great ride for everyone here, and I definitely look forward to the next open movie… which - as promised - will not start before the Blender 2.5 project is in usable state. Most likely that’s end of 2008, early 2009.

Lastly: don’t stop buying the DVD! Revenues will be used as startup financing for the next Open Movie, and hopefully I can afford to send the full Peach team to Siggraph…

-Ton-