HAPPY NEW YEAR 2011 ...

... to everybody in this and other galaxies. May your dream come true.

Daniel + Cosmic Motors

NEW - Website update press

The press link on danielsimon.com is relaunched and will be kept up-to-date. It's showing print publications to look for at the news stand and links to current online interviews with Daniel.

http://danielsimonpress.blogspot.com/

Cheers, Cosmic Motors

200th FOLLOWER - Welcome

I welcome the 200th follower and every other one! Thank you for being here, I try to post new things as much as I can. Thanx for you patience, the movie business is a high security, multi-million-dollar business, so little me can't just upload 'stuff' anytime. Trust me, there are lots of things I wanna share with you. The time will come! Also, lots of fun Cosmic Motors stuff is in the pipe, but I am still cooking on it to meet the high expectation.
And let me know what you guys thought of the Tron vehicles in the film, it is out now! Critic will make the next ones even better.

Cheers, Daniel

EVENT: Tron Book Signing Confirmed

Hey guys, I am confirmed for the Artist Meet & Greet. Hope to see you tomorrow at Nucleus. Info in prior post.

Cheers, Daniel

EVENT: Tron Book Signing and Q&A

Hey guys, meet some artists behind the Tron Legacy film! Listen to their individual 20min talk, ask them questions, and get your 'Art Of Tron' book signed!
Saturday, December 18th, at Gallery Nucleus, Alhambra. Confirmed are David Levy, Neville Page, Phil Saunders, Fabian Lacey, and Dylan Cole. I am still juggeling with my schedule, will confirm asap when I make it!

More info here!

Cheers, Daniel

INSPIRATION OF THE DAY: Tim's Rocket II

Living in L.A., you see lots of crazy stuff on the road - patrol paradise. But when I heard Tim Cotterill on his Rocket II trike the other day thundering by in normal traffic in Venice Beach, I could not feel more ordinary and boring, designing just virtual fantasies! Lol. Tim makes a living creating little frog sculptures (yes, frogs, awesome), and had this monster built at the famed Blastolene Brothers.
Check out this video and don't mind the uber-cheesy 80ies film style, it's about the spirit of building such marvellous machine. Kudos for ever.




Cheers, Daniel

TRON LEGACY: Darren Gilford explains Light Cycle background

Tron Production Designer Darren Gilford speaks about the long history of the new Light Cycle design, reaching almost four years back. Click here to read at FAST COMPANY.
If you are not familiar with movie terms, a production designer is the design director, overseeing every aspect of the films look, from costumes, colors, sets, buildings, vehicles, etc. Darren is special because he is an active designer himself, not the rule in Hollywood!

TRON LEGACY: Behind the scene feature

UK based magazine 3D Artist features a 10 page interview, going in depth about my vehicle design work on Tron Legacy. Computer struggles, Hollywood challenges, art department pipeline and many exclusive new renderings

and making of photos. Text by Lynette Clee.

Magazine is out now in the U.K. just in time for the film release and will be at newsstands world wide in January.

Best, Daniel

TRON LEGACY: Light Cycle featurette

Disney put together this promo short film, where I explain some thoughts that the design team under the lead of Production Designer Darren Gilford put into the new Light Cycle. 4 Minutes are too short to give you all the info you are looking for, but I hope you find some interesting things here.



For HD quality, please follow to youTube.

Best, Daniel

TRON UPRISING: Lead Vehicle Design

I am currently working as Lead Vehicle Designer for TRON: UPRISING, a long time undercover - now announced - animated TV series of Disney. Coming 2012. Director: Charlie Bean.

Source: Variety

Cheers, Daniel

DRIVE: a book to get

With many of my new designs waiting to get released into media freedom, I take the chance to tell you to get DRIVE, Scott Robertson's latest book!

I just flipped through the very first print run (in stores in a few days just in time for Christmas!), and I gotta say, Scott is the man. Not to butter up my own book editor or push a friend, I actually hate talented people. I am writing 'cause DRIVE is awesome, just look at the cover alone. Scott just jumped on 

3D (Modo) and bangs out all those cool concepts with joy. You may think on some pages "What the hell? He is all over the place!" but that is exactly what most of us don't dare to do - experimenting without care. The result is that everybody of any taste will at least find one totally inspiring vehicle in DRIVE - and that's priceless. Scott, you are the man.

order here

Cheers, Daniel  

COMPUTER TIPS: new Bunkspeed SHOT PRO testing

Being told by Bunkspeed to be the first dude to test the new upcoming Bunkspeed SHOT PRO, I thought I drop a line about my first impression - it's a great software, especially if you sport a cuda-core enabled GPU by nVidia (get the GTX480 for just 500 bucks and fly away).
Both Bunkspeed and mentalimages (the render engine) offer some great new stuff: turntable rendering (with practical features like setting an overall render time limit, render pickup at a specific frame...), glow shaders can be doublesided now (screw you normals!) and unsolid glass renders with alpha channel. You must know that SHOT builds on the iray render engine from mentalimages - a brand new render technology and its good being part of it.

Cheers, Daniel

COMPUTER TIPS: Do not use Poser 8

My advise to everybody: Do not purchase or use Smithmicro Poser 8. I repeat: Do never ever touch that software. And I don't give you my purchased copy to safe your life.

Cheers, Daniel

CAPTAIN AMERICA: high res set pictures

Entertainment Weekly just released a cover story about Captain America, including the first official pictures showing the look and feel of the film.

More images here.

Cheers, Daniel

SYD MEAD: new book preview

Have a first look at Syd Mead's new book Sentury II on DesignStudioPress' facebook page:

Cheers from Japan, Daniel

BREAKING: Disney releases Tron Light Runner clip

Today Disney released an exclusive film clip showing Quorra and Sam in the Light Runner. Follow the link and click 'Quorra Film Clip'.

Cheers from Tokyo, Daniel

CAPTAIN AMERICA: filming

Just coming back from the film sets of Captain America at Shepperton Studios in London. Sure I can't share anything. I am posting to let you know that everything I saw was done with passion and that the movie gonna look amazing.

Best, Daniel

TRON LEGACY: new art work released

Disney just released some more art work for Tron Legacy.
This one is the updated Flynn bike, with some bullet points explaining the thoughts behind its subtle re-design. As you might know, the bike we all know from the first film is a compromise. Mastermind Syd Mead originally designed a very sleek, open rider bike, but computers could not render that back then for the film. So together with Tron director Steven Lisberger, they had to come up with an enclosed design quickly to put it in the movie. That's what became the now iconic Lightcycle.

It was an honor to give it a very subtle re-skin to tie it visually better into the new film, while keeping its wonderful 80ies industrial appeal. As you see, it's different all over, yet immediately recognizable. Think Porsche 911 exterior over the last few decades.

I keep you posted as Disney keeps releasing stuff.

Hope you like it, Daniel

INSPIRATION OF THE DAY: Wow Robot

Oh my god, will it never stop to see awesome new robot concepts. Look at this guy, and its getting more interesting from 0:40 on. And the gag at 0:50, priceless.



Hat tip, Daniel

CAPTAIN AMERICA: first design released

As always, no comment from me on designs prior to film release - but always happy to share images with you that the studio or press released. Enjoy.

Cheers, Daniel

ALIEN PREQUEL: joining design team

I am very excited to report that I joined the design team working with Ridley Scott on his much anticipated prequel of ALIEN (currently untitled). As you might know, Mr. Scott is the mastermind of the original Alien movie of 1979, and other motion picture milestones like Blade Runner and Gladiator. Stay in the loop at imdb.

Cheers, Daniel

COMPUTER TIPS: Bunkspeed SHOT product release

If you are into 3D modeling, you should check out Bunkspeed SHOT. It was released yesterday, and I am just coming back from the Siggraph show in Los Angeles where it was launched.

SHOT is a stand alone real time raytracer using HDRI and hell it delivers. Of course, it renders bad ass results at unlimited resolution too. I support the developers with interface ideas, and they are very eager to streamline their product.

As a designer on intense movie productions like TRON LEGACY or CAPTAIN AMERICA, I need to deliver photo real images of whatever vehicle I am working on at any given moment - lets say a producer walks in and wants to take a shiny image into a meeting in a few minutes. Thats when this product comes into play on my machine.

What you should know is that Bunkspeed cooperates with graphic card giant nVidia. So, if you own a newer nVidia card with CUDA processors, that software will fly. (Just bought a nVidia GTX 480, and hell it's freakin' fast (and loud )).
Download your trail version of SHOT and play with it, it's absolutely worth it!

Cheers, Daniel

TRON LEGACY: Brand New Trailer

This piece premiered today at lunch at Comic-Con in San Diego. I didn't make it, although only two hours away... Click and enjoy.




Cheers, Daniel

INSPIRATION OF THE DAY: 500 years to travel around a star

What's the biggest star we dicovered so far? Someone named it VY Canis Majoris. It takes about 500 years to fly around its equator in a jet fighter - at full speed. It doesn't care about the sun, the earth or your hobbies. Its shear size is incomprehensible and freaks me out!
I'm the biggest nerd fan of the Apollo moon program, but if I put it in scale to those dimensions ... well.
Watch this great animation on youTube in HD, and remain in awe for the rest of your day.



Cheers, Daniel

COMIC CON SAN DIEGO 2010: schedule

TRON LEGACY Panel - Thursday July 22nd, 11:15 - 12:45, Hall H ( Q&A with director, producers and all actors )

CAPTAIN AMERICA Panel  - Saturday July 24th, 6:00 - 07:00, Hall H


more info about all Comic Con events here

Cheers, Daniel

CAPTAIN AMERICA: wrap up

I just finished my vehicle design work on Marvel's promising feature film project 'Captain America'. It's been eight amazing months, and I hope the movie will be everything the fans are waiting for.
Thank you Marvel for considering me, and thank you director Joe Johnston (design god from the original three Star Wars episodes turned director- latest movie The Wolfman) , production designer Rick Heinrichs and all involved inspirational artists for a great time at the art department in Los Angeles.

Once the movie is out, I hope to share some art work with you. Until then, god speed Captain America.

Cheers, Daniel

COMPUTER TIPS: Windows 7 and Wacom Issues

I ***ing hate computers. Testing software, hardware, every day a new problem if you work on the edge.
If you switched like me to Windows 7 (welcome to 64 bit and lots of RAM) and employ a Wacom tablet, you will notice all sorts of fuck ups (annoying ripple effects, Tablet PC crap, etc..)  Click here, some blogger offers helpful fixes:

http://nx9420.blogspot.com/2010/03/how-to-fix-tablet-issues-with-wacom.html

And to all Mac users, lets hope Apple did not forget about a new MacPro ...  it's about time.

Cheers, Daniel

TRON: First trailer for the video game 'Tron Evolution'

How could I miss that? Disney showed the trailer for the upcoming video game TRON: EVOLUTION at the 2009 Spike Video Game Awards here in L.A.
A stunning Olivia presented the clip, our full size Light Cycle model guarding her back.

To see the video, click here!

Best, Daniel

COSMIC MOTORS: U.K. release

I am happy to announce that Titan Books, a major U.K. publishing house for books and comics like Akira, Batman, Star Wars, James Bond and many others, just released Cosmic Motors. It is the same content and look (just an additional Titan Books logo here and there) and will improve the availability in Europe.

Cheers, Daniel

INSPIRATION OF THE DAY: air racing on the edge

The Red Bull Air Race is one of the event on earth that comes closest to all the racing madness envisioned in scifi flicks and computer games. I include myself in dreaming about this stuff when it comes to design new vehicles and stories for Cosmic Motors. But on earth, real shit can happen. Click below and see how pilot Matt Hall escapes a horrifying crash with skills and luck. He dips his wing tip into the water at high speed by "looking into the turn", apparently a mistake at out-of-this-world-level of flying.
Although bad endings are part of racing too, I won't post any accident clips in this blog. So here we go.

Go air racers go!

INSPIRATION OF THE DAY: lockheed martin monowing rotorcraft

This is the Samarai UAV project. Getting its name and concept from the flying Samara fruit, it could be an awkward, yet simple flying machine. Not for personal transportation, but filming, spying, surveillance, etc. As impractical as it looks, don't forget it doesn't have any exterior moving parts due to its mono-winged layout. That makes it a rugged contender for easy to handle / carry on vehicles.



For more, read this Lockheed Martin Samarai pdf file.

Cheers, Daniel

INSPIRATION OF THE DAY: incredible flying machine

Watch this Quadrotor maneuvering in a lab of University of Pennsylvania and let your imagination fly. It is truly awesome, especially the precision it displays. Whether pre-programmed to this flight path or autonomously guided - I can't stop thinking of a speed contest through a three dimensional maze. Wow. Cosmic Motors Quadrotor Racing, anybody? Hat tip to Grasp Lab.



Cheers, Daniel

INSPIRATION OF THE DAY: real life minority report interface

I will start posting a few things on this blog that I stumbled upon on my daily web safari, lets call it "Inspiration Of The Day". It will be related to space, technology, robotics, sciences, etc. Stuff that inspires me and hopefully you too. Some of it might be dated, some new, don't care.
Today I saw this presentation at 2010 TED, with John Underkoffler showing a real Minority Report User Interface. It's jaw dropping and reality soon.
Cheers, Daniel 
 

COSMIC MOTORS: new wallpaper available

Click here to download the latest and greatest Cosmic Motors wallpaper. Up to a sharp 2560 px for a 30 inch screen. Enjoy!

Best, Daniel

MOVIE STUFF: Lightcycle sketches on helloflynn.com

HelloFlynn.com features two light cycle sketches in high res, which were displayed at Disney's viral marketing gig at Comicon 2009 in San Diego. The website has a sweet retro-touch, its worth signing up!

Image Source: helloflynn.com

DANIEL SIMON: Interview 3D artist magazine

Worldwide available British 3DArtist magazine features ten pages about Cosmic Motors, my thoughts behind 3D modeling and latest projects. At US stores one month later, around June.

COSMIC MOTORS: reprints

We are happy to announce that the third print edition of COSMIC MOTORS paperbacks arrived at Design Studio Press and book stores worldwide. The unchanged book content was printed with a brand new process - called sublima - resulting in an even better image quality. The mighty hardcover version is currently sold out.

Best, Daniel and the team of Design Studio Press !

TRON BILLBOARDS - HIGH RES

Since Disney booked a billboard on Santa Monica Boulevard here in Los Angeles for the entire year, its quite a fun game to see what new Tron billboard they come up with every month. I will upload officially released high-res version to keep you in the loop.

Best, Daniel

TRAILER OFFICIAL: TRON LEGACY

The first official 3D trailer for Tron Legacy hit theaters with the release of Disney's Alice in Wonderland.
Follow the link to enjoy it in HD. 


Cheers, Daniel