Author: Mark Wagoner

Spooky Halloween Treats!

Halloween is one of our favorite times of year, and in the past we have always done a special image to celebrate the spooky season, this year we had so much fun working on other projects that we ran out of time. Nevertheless we still wanted to do something fun and festive so instead of a CG image our team decided to do a Halloween bake-off. Let us know which one is your favorite!   Alison’s Halloween Fudge:     Chocolate layer: 1 ½ cups dark chocolate chips ½ can sweetened condensed milk 1 tablespoon butter 2 tablespoons marshmallow cream 8 Halloween Oreo cookies broken into chunks White layer: 1 ½ cups white baking chips ½ can sweetened condensed milk 1 tablespoon butter 2 tablespoons marshmallow cream Sprinkles Edible candy eyeballs Candy corn   Go to the store to get your ingredients (plan extra time as you will go to two different grocery stores and eventually end up at Hobby Lobby buying expensive sprinkles, because the grocery stores won’t have any related to Halloween. Reward yourself with a latte from Starbucks after finally finding your sprinkles. Pull out a saucepan and an 8x8 baking dish. Open all your ingredients and begin snacking on the candy corn… this will last the entire time you’re cooking. Combine the chocolate chips, sweetened condensed milk and butter in your saucepan over low heat, then turn it up to medium when you’re tired of waiting. Stir until melted and creamy. Add the marshmallow cream and then stir again. Fold in the Oreo cookie chunks gently. Pour into foil lined baking dish. Set aside. Combine the white chips, sweetened condensed milk and butter in another saucepan over low or medium heat, whatever you’re feeling. Stir until melted and creamy. Stir in the marshmallow cream and let cool for 2-3 minutes. Stir in sprinkles, it doesn’t matter how many because it’s Halloween and we can have all the treats we want. Pour over the chocolate layer. Top it all off with candy corn, eyeballs and anything else you can think of. Schedule a dentist appointment because you ate all the candy corn and this...

Black is Back

All About That Base

We’re all about that base and by base we mean TEXTURES! Creating and applying high quality textures changes the game in CGI. We've all seen images where a pattern is repeated over and over. Images that just don’t look good. The PIX-US process is one that focuses on creating beautiful, photo-realistic images and texture creation is just step one. We’ve proven that our process works time and time again. With the help of our clients we make the best textures possible. Collaborating on this one step ensures that we create the highest quality staying true to product reality.   So, what do we need to create textures? That depends on the product being created. Every situation is different so here are some examples: Product: Metal Light Fixture | Texture Creation: Small chip of metal material Product: Tile Flooring | Texture Creation: One piece of every pattern available Product: Upholstered Sofa | Fabric sample with one full pattern repeat (typically a yard) What if you already have textures and want to use them? Awesome! This is the case for a lot of clients and if you’ve had high resolution textures created, we may be able to use them. However, we can’t always use the digital files that others have created. If they aren’t high resolution, are uneven and can’t be tilled, or don’t meet the requirements listed above they won’t work for PIX-US images. In situations where you have usable files, we still will ask for a small sample of the product. Why are there so many parameters for texture creation? There are a lot of ways texture creation can go wrong and using bad textures results in things like uneven lighting, seams, and repeating patterns that can ruin a great image. We’ve worked hard to figure out the best and most efficient way to create textures, saving our clients time and shipping cost. This means that when we ask for a yard of fabric there’s a real reason!  If you’re looking to work with PIX-US, then you like the way our images look. Achieving this look on your project requires a close collaboration in everything including getting the right...

Tile Week Recap

Last week our designer, Morgan, took over our social media! She spent the week going over all things tile. But if you missed it you’re in luck because we've put together a recap of everything that Morgan had to say. TUESDAY: MIMICKING ORGANICS Tuesday Morgan touched on different styles of tile and how they can be a great substitute for natural materials such as wood, granite, and metals. Of course these materials are very popular and have a great look but sometimes they require sealing and other maintenance where tile doesn’t. WEDNESDAY UNEXPECTED LOCATIONS Wednesday Morgan discussed how tile can be used outside of its traditional purpose. It can be used to add texture, color, and patterns to surfaces. She also showed us how tile can be a design tool even though “tile can often be an afterthought when planning a design project”. THURSDAY MIX & MATCH Thursday Morgan talked about using a tile mixture to break up grids and patterns. Using different sizes and colors can create a fun look that changes up the traditional look of tile. She also showed us an example of how different colored tiles can create shapes in an otherwise simple layout. ...

Enter into new trends!!

Click here to see all of the images in detail: https://pix-us.com/EntryDoors/...

Gray Matters

This is Gerda Taro

This is Gerda Taro, and today is her 108th birthday. She is a long forgotten war photographer and is credited as being one of the first ever woman photojournalist that captured the front line of a war, and died doing so.     She was born on August 1st 1910 in Stuttgart, Germany to a Jewish family and fled Germany in 1933 after she was arrested for taking part in anti-Nazi propaganda activities, specifically handing out flyers. She eventually settled in Paris, France where she met her partner Andre Friedman (later known as Robert Capa). This is where she learned photography and helped create the alias “Robert Capa”. It was very difficult for foreign photographers to get their images into the French press so the couple came up with a very successful and rich American photographer that would create buzz and would help their photographs succeed. They both were very successful and captured a lot of crucial moments in the Spanish Civil War and Taro was known for putting herself in very dangerous situations just to capture an image. On July 25th, 1937 while returning from the front lines of battle she was crushed by and out-of-control tank and died the following morning (less than a week from her 27th birthday). Although she was largely forgotten for a number of years her work was a crucial part of the Spanish Civil war and was continued through her partner’s work.   (Here is a small collection of Gerda's Images)                           Robert Capa is known as one of the most successful war photographers to date. Some of his best known and most influential images were the ones he shot at D-Day on June 6th, 1944. After a very successful career Capa later died in action by stepping on a landmine on May 25th 1954. So overall Gerda is a pretty awesome woman that is finally getting some of the recognition she deserves. Setting the way for other women and photographers in general to be fearless and to follow their passion. If you want to learn more about Gerda and Robert here are some links:      https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/photography/gerda-taro-google-doodle-death-photography-war-capa-born-spain-a8471891.html https://www.cnet.com/news/google-doodle-honors-pioneering-female-war-photographer-gerda-taro/ https://www.icp.org/browse/archive/collections/gerda-taro-september-26-2007-january-6-2008 https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-25108104 https://www.cnn.com/2017/03/15/europe/gallery/tbt-gerda-taro/index.html https://www.artsy.net/article/artsy-editorial-photographer-robert-capa-risked-capture-d-day-images-lost https://www.icp.org/browse/archive/constituents/robert-capa?all/all/all/all/0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wISNDLNiNrg...