No Talking Tuesday # 13

Well this Tuesday finds me making more mistakes.
Sadly I seem to be getting stupider with each passing Tuesday,
I trend I hope reverses soon…

Anyway, my mistake this time occurred while I was eating lunch in a Thai restaurant.
I was knee deep in Tropic of Cancer, about to finish the last remaining pages,
when the women sitting to my right pointed towards my nearly finished plate of food,
and commented “That looks good…”

Apparently it was the first time one of them had been to a Thai restaurant
and was looking for something user friendly to help her cross the threshold.
Myself being half conscious,
still submerged in artistic reveries of depraved Frenchmen,
and the derelict/sensual surrounding they live in,
I motioned to my plate and said “Pad see ew”, “Pad see ew is pretty safe”.

Of course I immediately realized my mistake and felt awful.

The List:

I didn’t get fried rice
or 2 T/C
just the pad see ew

May I have a small hot milk
with hazelnut

No Talking Tuesday # 12

This Tuesday was a tragedy of epic proportions.

First I was un-characteristically involved in a number of late night phone conversations,
before I knew it, I looked up mid sentence
and saw that it was 12: 26 am Tuesday morning.
I gasped, made a obscene laden exclamation or two
and quickly blurted to the person on the phone “It’s Tuesday! I have to hang up!”

No the reason this is a epic failure is not because I accidentally talked on Tuesday
as I have done that before,
rather what makes it tragic is that this is the first Tuesday I spoke on purpose.
Granted I was panicked and alarmed,
but that fact remains that I knew it was no talking Tuesday
yet chose to speak that last sentence by way of explanation.


The list:


May I have an envelope?

#9 please

Just normal shorter




I got it to work

Sigur Rós

Múm

This comp is
made for this
time

Tell me something in great
depth

Old Bill Murray meaning
young Bill Murray?

I’m more willing to reveal
personal terse information
if you ask pointed questions

Westwood
A barbershop that
mainly students use
mainly students

More pointed
choose context maybe

20,000$

I don’t believe in radio
butt I do listen to
back episodes of this American life

Brian Eno

He’s done lots of
soundtracks

Last 30 years

He is the ambient sound/music
MASTER

Father

He went more ambient latter
but he can do anything

Did you like the food?

Santa Barbara

Whatever

I’m free to follow my heart
Or my spleen

Friday before Christmas
until after new years

This song inspired me
to ask a girl out

T.V. eyes

Kevin shields I think
is the main guy?

Album leaf – Red Eye
Artist Song

You know who
this is right?

Michael Jackson


This is Hail Social
or
The Go Find

I need psychological stimulation

Did you have a naughty thought
today?

The Sundays

This is maybe my
fav. song of all time

Where I’m asleep on the chair?

I didn’t take a shower
so now my pillow and
bed is defiled by
my hair shavings

The thought of a
potato bug crawling
into my ear and
laying eggs in brain

Baptismal
Horatio gazpacho
Benevolent dictator
Tractor fun factor

Yes

I cant think of anything
appealing, maybe the Victorian one?

I’m pained

No Talking Tuesday #11


Do I count the things I write on my pad to communicate with someone,
that I end up not showing them?
A couple times what I wrote became moot,
because it was anticipated and addressed before I showed my words.
So they went unseen by the other person.
I considered editing those words out of the list.
But I figured the same way some words aren’t heard, or misunderstood, or mumbled etc. in verbal conversation still count on some level,
so should my un-shown be counted in the list.



The List:


Paddy-G – super sub
+ 1 chips please
+ 1 water

The other guys diss?

French man?

Mouthwash is the tool
of the devil

I think it messes up the
p.h balance of your mouth

Play?

What did you ask you
to be in?

Why?

Grey suites are cheaper
than black suites?

I think the spreadsheet
of sales is given to artists
at end of week?

There playing no country for
old men at the theatre
right near work --> 7:20 + 10:00

Texture + temperature

Give me some advice on
pleasing a woman

Follow your heart

Dig deep, hit hard

You want to please her

You yourself want her please

You want her to feel pleasure

A woman

Think about it, then answer
from the heart

Provide an example of
this validation

Non hypothetical
Real example

That brought about
Significant pleasure

Not so much a general
improvement in quality of life

Something you said or did that
had immediate pleasure
ramifications


As long as he could do
the dry stuff
also, which he can

Andrew Jones

Metroid

The dub is good

Its good, I don’t
know about best



One ticket for
“no country” please
- student

No Talking Tuesday #10


The big ten has come and gone,
and I must say I have really gotten this thing on lock down,
ill write up my overall impressions from no talking Tuesdays, and what I’ve learned soon.



The List:

Yea


I think I still have some cards un printed on that I can then print on by Friday

I guess, I mean its just an option, they don’t have to do the cards

Well I think simple character type pieces work via card, because of the size, yea but like an environment or something just wouldn’t look very good at that size


I think so,
But again whatever the artists wants I guess

Why do you have to tell Sam any specifics, I mean all the info as far as price and size etc. can just be next to the artwork, does that really matter, well if you sell one card for 2 dollars or something, people will be will more likely

I guess

If someone wants to buy something, there is no complication
?
I don’t see why anything would be confusing, you put up the artwork and have the price next to it, it someone wants it they just pay that price,

Well the whole point and convenience of the cards is they come in that size already, so you just print the character or whatever on them and your done, you don’t need to cut them out

The cards themselves are 4x6
Or 5x7

No
No folding
You buy cards and print on them

I would print at home
I would buy the cards then print on them

Yea
I don’t know, I guess
I mean it’s not complicated
If you can print 8 by 11 then it’s the same
No
I print at home
I don’t know if staples prints at all
Ok

?
This is so not confusing at all


I guess
Why does a spreadsheet need to be involved?

Why all this beauacracy?

Ok

I’ll bring in examples tomorrow hopefully and can talk about them


Raised prices?

What I can do also maybe, is if I find good cards to buy tomorrow, I can buy them for everyone

I’m just saying for all the cards to be the same, for unity sake

Gotcha




What’s the
Juice situation here?

All this stuff looks really good

You ladies handle everything
+ 1 fresh lime soda for me

Stimulating

3D-scans of Mayan ruins
And concept art/pre-viz

Visual development

Not at first
But now they respect it

Just your mother and you?

It’s good but it sort
Of incites a gag reflex

Are you Indonesian or something?

Chicken or pork?

I meant eggs, not bone

It will just mean she
Will reach menopause
10 months earlier.
Not bad for 100,000$

We could get desert?

What’s w/ the Dutch?

I can, and have money
Sitting in the bank without
Purpose

20 shares is how much

Over ten grand

So sell at 60?

What do you mean homework?

By
Friend?

No Talking Tuesday #9

Thirty minutes or so into the no-talking day,
I leaned back on a bed and hit my head against a wall
and squeaked out a quite "oww"...
whether or not that constitutes a break of the no-talking oath I'm not sure,
but I felt dirty inside non the less.

The List:

Is this it?
or is there more?

We can chill in your house
for a bit, then if you
bore me, I can leave

I’m being flippant
we can go inside
and you can hash it
out with me, and
really let me have it

?

All right well ill leave
we can hang out
another time

Don’t worry
I’ll leave when I
get bored

So how do you want
to take a stand
against my tyranny?

Well if it’s too much
to deal with we can
just hang out
later when were
more on equal footing?

I want to either leave or:
1. relax in your apartment w/
a full stomach and dark chocolate
2. listen to you chastise me

The lead is a
middle eastern guy no?

Mixture of both

12:40?

I like candle smell

I don’t think I like dresses
that bunch in the middle
like that

I like when they just drape



I want you to stick it to me

what do you want?

no

cop out

It put nothing on the line

I want you to bare yourself

I’ve got time…

time paradox!

tell me what
your feeling

I wont tolerate
any cowardice

If we just take
things slowly
I promise it will
be ok

remember my
honesty rule

I’m just very
patient and
that can be frustrating

The only thing i want
is for you to be honest
with me, and for us
not to force anything

don’t worry about
what I want

I want naked unguarded
honesty

That will come with time
and I’m patient

1 Italian chicken Panini
Please
-with potato salad

Ali

1 hot apple cider please
+
1 coconut macaroon

No Talking Tuesday # 8

So this is the last no talking tuesday in the Yukatan.

I had a great time travelling for this film,
and hope to post some of the concept and 3d work
im doing for it soon.

I took my super 8 camera and 35mm still camera
and took lots of footage and photos, look out for that
when i get the footage and photos developed.

A record breaking amount of writing this week as you can see.

Unlike the work related communication i write at Pandemic on tuesdays,
I dont have to keep the work i'm doing on the mayaskies project a secret,
so if your interested in how people who work in visual effects or games
talk at work (i dont know why you would be) this records the madness...

The List

Your o.b.j isnt loading in
bodypaint or maya
sup wit dat!?

Have you got it to open in
Maya on your machine?

Just save out an mb or ma
file then?

Well now i'm going to export
an obj for body paint

Room 101
por favor

Not very far. I started with the most un-skewed photo, and im still having to do a ton of correction to every different part of the photo before it matches the scan data.

Ingmar was in the room around 2:30 ish

Radiance?

Judging by how long it took
me to manually register the
straight on photo to the 3d model
it’s going to take me a long
time to register the perspective
heavy photos… how should
I manage my time so as to
still do the crazy bump/
Z-brush pipeline? Am I going
to be able to work tomorrow?

I had to break up the one straight on photo into about 4 chunks and register them separately.

So the more perspective heavy photos are going to need much more massaging.

This is the one I already did

I mean what’s on there now, matches up great

Well the crazy bump pipeline isn’t needed when there is already scan data

Madness..

It would be allot easier to register textures if the ref photos were taken from farther away

That makes me feel dirty, but ill do it

Also when I get back to the states, I’m still available to work on stuff.

So in the proxy scene for the warrior’s temple, which part should I break off and work on for the test?

Doing the corner/edge will show off more the power of smoothening corners and whatnot, but will also take more time then just a flat brick panel

I don’t think the 3d data matches the photos?

Well in the interest of time ill worry less about matching the carving detail and put more of a procedural stone surface that’s a sort of average of that surface

Probably the pattern was the same, but maybe that’s why I had to do so much tweaking

Did you already eat?

ok let’s go

I talked with Kevin and
the new strategy is to
texture the rest of the
column in a more general
way (which im just about
done with) then move
on to the crazy bump
technique for the proxy
geometry.

Very slow on my comp

So the middle piece is
correctly registered
so I just need to color match
and project the bottom and
top. Very quick

The column is done

I want to eat that veggie burrito

Mayaland or bust

It’s Muhammad’s
cousin or whatever

It sort of looks like Bulgarian

Order me melon juice
and veggie burrito

I’ve long since gotten off the maya bullshit train… and am not looking to get back on board… I don’t understand why the lower part of the wall is grey in the view-port, and why the uv’s ive laid on the inside faces don’t show up in the render

Having two different textures on one model, to push through the zbrush pipeline is complicated anyhow, it will be enough for me to just focus on working with this one tiling texture on the model currently. Lets worry about the inside faces tomorrow morning.

16^th

Well I noticed that the brick texture on the lower wall tiles. So if im going to layout the uv’s on the lower part of the wall so that I can incorporate the texture change on the inside faces, then I should have the wall not tile anymore. But looking at the photos Antonio took, its not clear to me if the entire wall is accounted for, or what order the photos progress down the line. Couple that with my retired maya skills and looming deadline make me think it would be better to just go ahead and feed the lower wall as is through the crazy bump/zbrush pipline im proposing to make sure it works, so that Kevin can have something to look at tomorrow morning. Then when I get back to the states. Give it a more production level treatment.

No Talking Tuesday #7

So I should explain a self-imposed No-Talking-Tuesday stipulation.
The no talking time is not from midnight to midnight.
Rather, from midnight to whenever I go to sleep the following night.
So this means that my no talking often lasts longer than 24 hours.
(Usually 30-40 hours.)

The reason for this is that I often go to bed really late
and wake up later than most for my work.
So going from midnight to midnight would only cover
about half my waking time for that day.
To air on the side of caution, I extend the no-talking
until sometime Wednesday morning when I finally go to bed
(usually between 2:30 and 6:00 am).

That being said, this was the first Tuesday where this became relevant:

I was helping with late night 3d scanning
of the “Temple of the Warriors” at Chichén Itzá.
I alerted my teammates a few minutes before midnight Monday night
then continued to work until three or four a.m in silence.

Then the following night (Tuesday night)
I was out scanning again and didn’t get back to the hotel until four a.m(wed).
This proved especially awkward because a new team member I haven’t met
(he didn’t know about my Tuesdays) had arrived while I was out scanning,
and I entered the hotel to find him awake in bed,
obscured in darkness, trying his best to greet me cordially.
For my part I stalked the room in silence and eventually sat on my bed
across from him and scribbled my final no talking Tuesday words…

The List:

I haven’t learned
registration yet

It might be easier
to keep doing this
no burn.

Why leave?
only 1:30

Pineapple jugo?

Enchiladas de pollo
- mole saue

Want to check what
i'm doing, and make
sure im on the
right track?

Mainly lighting

Too theatrical?
not natural enough?

For that should
I not worry about
painted color and
restoration?

All that red paint
will look black at
night no?

What’s my schedule
today/tonight?
Am I scanning?

If I stay here
I can hopefully
Get the diff.
Color comps done

Pinaple jugo
Por favor

Im going to
Be in the lab
Tonight.

Que?

1 order por favor

Why am I going to
Mayaland?

Laundry?
- Ali Jamalzadeh

I dropped it off
Earlier today

I already did

I’m not talking
Tonight.
A.) Nah. I was working
On some color boards
At the lab.

No Talking Tuesday #6

Greetings from the Yucatan!

In keeping with my promise to myself to always
publish my Tuesday report before the next Tuesday;
i'm breaking my promise with myself to not be connected
to the real world while in the Yucatan... Time paradox!

Alas,
the lab im working in down here has unexpectedly good internet access;
the only difference is lizards crawling over my keyboard as I type.

So this is the report of my last Tuesday in L.A

Tomorrow im going to unleash no-talking-Tuesdays on the unsuspecting Yucatan-ians

Which should prove interesting when I have to explain to the early morning guards
at Chichén Itzá why im climbing the pyramids and filming from restricted locations.
Should my National Science Foundation and Anthropology badges not assure them,
then things will get interesting.

The List:

Im not talking today
is that OK?

Are we leaving now?

who else?

Where we eating?

Same here

1 chicken burrito please

Tomatoes
Guacamole

For commissioned work:

They can choose a word
or sentence, and the
artist decides what
to paint to fit it.

- All my work is available
to view on my website

- I have a nice printer
and can print my stuff
no problem

I wouldn’t know which to
print to show?

I can just choose like five or
something?

“Mental physical
____ satellites in space.”

1 small carrot/orange

Where is Aaron?

Thanks allot!
I owe you one

Ali Artsy Life Update

I lost my sketchbook :(
I think I left it in the Hammer museum,
but they don’t have it in their lost and found.
What sucks is that I was about to scan in my drawings from it
to put online and now I cant.

Actually I’m more upset about loosing the book itself.
I bought it a few years ago at the Kinokuniya bookstore in S.F. Japan town
and since then haven’t been able to find it again anywhere.
(even at the same store when I visited S.F. a couple weeks ago)
It was made from this raw rice paper-ish paper
and was surprisingly light and took ink very well. Oh well…

On a more positive note,
I got a new monitor and color calibrator
so I can finally begin scanning in my backlog of drawings and photos.

I just finished the book “Gentlemen Of Space” by Ira Sheer.
And it was simply amazing.
I got inspired to read it after hearing the author read a short story
he had written about kids who found a man trapped in a well,
on This American Life. (Act Two)
It was by far the most powerful story I heard on that show,
and when it finished, I knew I had to read his book.

(I also read Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman by Murakami,
but would rather not speak about that literary abortion)

The new Radiohead album came out and it’s amazing.
I’m a little confused why it took four and a half years
to make 10 straight forward guitar rock songs,
but they are great non the less.
“Nude” and “All I Need” are my favorite tracks.
The lyrics for “All I Need” are incredible.

I saw Interpol and Múm, both shows were great.
Interpol was a little less then what I was expecting,
and Múm allot more. (My review of the Múm show)

I became obsessed with watching Malcolm X videos on you tube.
I was surprised to discover that he wasn’t at all
the violence advocating, Islamic fundamentalist
history has billed him as.
He was extremely well spoken,
and while not in agreement with Dr. Martin Luther King
about how to handle black inequality,
his arguments and philosophies
were just as well thought out and sensible as Kings.
Those two leaders were really the Yings to each other Yangs.
These videos show this compare/contrast very well:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=K9m4xFfF6v8

http://youtube.com/watch?v=MwKIUMbi9Jk

I feel that Kings message was to the society as a whole,
and was directed towards full and equal integration.

While Malcolm X’s message was more cynical of that possibility
(or more realistic depending on your stance)
and was geared more specifically to blacks,
about how they can learn to help themselves
without reliance or expectation of whites to give them anything.

And to encourage a sense of pride,
and willingness to defend and empower themselves.
That white people will only learn to be more covert and subliminal
with the way they racially structure society,
(50 years later you could argue he was completely right)
that equality will come about only through the actions of blacks, not whites.

I also finally started reading through the instruction manual
for my old super 8 film camera I got recently,
and almost cried at how amazing it is.
This camera can do everything I could ever want,
and is so incredibly well designed.
I have to call a couple of labs
to see if they will support my O.C.D. control freak desires
(film stocks, processing, scanning, hi-rez output etc.).
I can’t wait to shoot footage with it in the Yucatan in November!

No Talking Tuesdays #5

Made it through another Tuesday without a hitch.

In the evening I saw Interpol at the L.A. Forum.
So instead of wearing my no-talking-helmet (it would muffle the music)
I wore a red armband I made from cutting up one of my favorite shirts.

Ive gotten much better at learning how to emote through gesture,
so there is record breaking amount of non-writing this week:

The List:

Halfer at bags #2
With sandbags veggie

I small Tuscan turkey please

No Talking Tuesdays #4

I made a single mono syllable mistake this Tuesday…. So close.

Alas, when my friend mumbled his response to my question
I accidentally blurted out “what?”…
actually it was more of a “wha-“ but no matter, it was a breach and I own up to it.

The List

Should we wait, or does this
Take a long time?

Where to?

A little craggily

Noah’s?

Me = Noah + Hammer

Chicken pannini please

You may be cold

Speak to me at great
Length about your girlfriend

So you have already been
To Washington to visit?

D.C?

When those people put on suits
its probably like a Pavlovian
response they rely on to get
in the zone. Like dawning a
uniform before battle

but we will always need
a way to call political bluffs

that’s poetically tragic

its even Dijon mustard

dancing, house parties etc.

when I’m in S.F. or Santa Barbara
not really here

I would say the exact opposite

I thought the same until I started
going back since living here

Sausage ratio here is so
much worse

Bar/dance clubs

Mainstream I guess, all west L.A.

1. No guys talk to girls in S.F.

2. More % of women are attractive
(b/c they less homogeneous)

3. More places that cater to young real people
who don’t design their lives after magazine covers

Mission district, SOMA, and a
smattering of other places

Elbo room
upstairs

you mean like downtown, silver lake areas?

But I do enjoy not getting stabbed

Whole foods for some chocolate?

They don’t have 75% dark

75% dark?

Belgian + swiss = win
Rest = fail

It scares me that their playing Interpol

They are precious to me

What do you feel like?

Juice

I usually go solo now

In case there's shenanigans afoot

Ali is unusual

Small carrot juice please

Cant. I’m about to take a
Fat vacation.

Winter = Japan again

Its fixed

No Talking Tuesdays #3

Well I made it through another no talking Tuesdays without any slip ups.
I think im getting the hang of it.

There was more stuff I wrote that I can’t share because it was related to work.
Just as well, divorced from its context it sounds like technical art babble.
In fact it sounds like that anyway.

I think after next Tuesday ill coalesce my sociological/personal impressions of this experiment.

The List:

What’s helps phone extension thingee?

Brian Eno?

Do you have Vangalis?

435

So no doors?

But this is static.
Is there a scene for static west?

Chicken pannini

Ali

It doesn’t line up.

I haven’t added to the new prop. Yet

I’m picking up a roll of film

Ali Jamalzadeh

Small carrot juice

No Talking Tuesdays #2

I’m sorry to report that my second no talking Tuesday
was a tragic failure…

I was hoping to go years before breaking my no talking oath,
and I only managed to go a week. : (

I wore my helmet again (white one this time)
After work I decided to go to the gym to swim.

Of course I couldn’t wear my helmet in the water.
So doing stretches by the side of the pool,
(Without my helmet reminder),
I accidentally said out-loud “Thanks”
to the guy getting out the pool,
Whereby freeing a lane for me.

I immediately realized my mistake,
and was so mad,
I forced myself to swim all my laps without a break.
(Oddly enough,
I never finished with less fatigue or cramping.
Maybe because I started riding my fixie
and developed more leg strength?)

As if that wasn’t enough,
afterwards, when I got changed in the locker room
I checked my voicemail
and again without thinking (still no helmet)
I returned a call to my cousin
Saying I was available to get dinner.

This time I was less mad than flabbergasted at myself,
I just spent the last half hour angrily swimming
thinking of how stupid I had been to break my oath
And here I did it again.

But when we met for dinner,
it was no-talking business as usual.

Oh well.
I’ll be more on guard in the coming weeks.

*NOTE
During dinner, my cousin got frustrated with my no-talking
and snatched my writing pad to force me to speak.
I wrote on my napkin until she returned my pad
A few minutes later.

But I forgot the napkin at the restaurant!
Luckily I remembered most all of what I wrote
And in what order, but there are still probably
A few lines missing from this weeks list.

The List

Joe’s anti piracy?

Falafel pita
Water (bottle)

Which Zelda?

The I-max screens are more

So what do you call that?

The back of that woman’s
head/neck is totally
seducing me.

I need resolution : (

You’re dressed like a communist

So I finished the diffuse and
normal texture, what should
I name it?

That was epic

You down with M83?

Electronic music
He’s French, shame on you

So I forgot when I called
you back, I betrayed
my oath…

Im not talking today

But I can write

What are you craving?

Forget it, ill cook when
I get home

I have food at home. Its ok.
Don’t tadouf (farsi)

Do you want to smooch him?

Every Tuesday = no talking Tuesday
…
Forever

Use this opportunity to expound
At great length what’s
On your mind

Large tortilla soup please

You can get your elaborate salad here

The waitress has a be-witching swagger

Truer words were never spoken

Your being very L.A. right now >:(

It’s a respectable occupation
But I bet you could aim higher

Doctor?

You just graduated

Dentistry/orthodontics

Maybe owning a small business

Whore house

Why do you know so many Asian virgins?

I totally would, but im only
attracted to her swagger

I can’t stand it when bands cover “twist and shout”

Beatles

John Lennon recorded his vocals
in one take. The most famous
vocal take in recording music history
or so ive read

Your distress, amuses me

Borders still?

No Talking Tuesdays

Yesterday I kicked off no talking Tuesdays.
I didn’t utter a word all day.

I got the idea from an incident in James Kochalka's sketch book diaries
and a day in college when I lost my voice
and wrote things down instead.

I found the experience extremely insightful.
Since then ive wanted to do it every week.

I waited until this week because:

1. I had an artistic/social/emotional awakening
in San Francisco over the weekend
that taught me to trust and commit to my artistic impulses.

2. I’ve worked at Pandemic long enough
for them to rest assured I’m not psycho,
just eccentric.

The twist

To intensify the challenge
and provide a visual paring for my no talking state
I spent the day in a black Chinese air force pilot helmet
I bought from my friend over the weekend.

The goal

To not speak every Tuesday, for the rest of my life.

Tuesdays from now on will be the day I focus on
Listening, observation, pensive tuning,
and not putting my foot in my mouth.

I hope to always have a visual cue to match the day
for now its my fighter pilot helmets
maybe down the road it will be an arm band, eye patch etc.

The List

At the end of the day this is what I had written on my notepad,
in order to communicate with people. (in order)

Im not talking today

Im down, this is your time to shine

Want to eat?

YOU can talk

No talking helmet

Stays!

Halo is based on dark crystal?

China

Wheat
-->salad
Swiss?

Wasn’t Belgium part of France?

Just ask yes or no questions
b/c im lazy

small carrot juice

2 choc chip cookies

Don’t get Skies
Get Grandia

No music is part of the deal

Genesis

Hi
I’m ali

Although making a blog makes me feel defiled by the internets,
it will be worth having a place for the rubbish I’m always making
that isn’t fit for my portfolio/website.

Expect a deluge of the following:

sketch books drawings
photos
writings
recipes
musical arrangements

and whatever else swims through my mind.

Ill try my best to keep this blog free of my personal neurotic ramblings
but expect a few to sneak through and traumatize you.