Recently in Computer Graphics Category

Well, after compiling your VTK (with Python support) on a Debian (or Archlinux), you could receive an error similar to this form python interpeter if you import vtk module:

ImportError: libvtkCommonPythonD.so.5.7: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory

This occurs because VTK installer puts all shared libraries in a subdirectory of /usr/local/lib Solve it by creating a file called vtk.conf in /etc/ld.so.conf.d/ directory. In this file, put the path to VTK libs, for example: /usr/local/lib/vtk-5.7/

And so, launch (as root) the command ldconfig to update the shared library path cache.

This is a clean way to solve the problem: avoid symbolic links, copy/paste files or setting mess-oriented enviroment variable as PYTHONPATH and LD_LIBRARY_PATH, please!

The last week I was at the View Conference, the international computer graphics conference in Turin. Here I'm pasting some link that I collected during talks.

Software

• Alchemy: 2D creative drawing open source software. The idea behind the software is very cool.
• My Paint: Opens source clone of Auteodesk Sketchbook. Infinite size canvas, artist-centric user interface are the strongest ideas of this software.
• Gimp Animation Plugin: a plug-in for GIMP focused on animation. To try as alternative to Photoshop.
• 3Delight: RenderMan compliant professional render totally free of charge (also for commercial use). A good start before buying RenderMan. If you are a student or educator, any way, RenderMan licenses are affordable.

Books

• Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson. The book was cited by the [prof. Perlin] speaking about computer/human interfaces. You can find some futuristic ideas in this book.
• The hero with a Thousand Faces by Joseph Campbell. Tim Johnson refers to it as a fundamental book for storytellers. I agree.

Videos

• Magic Projection: innovative user interface in illusionism.
• What Matters to Me: concept video about the perfect futuristic user interface

And the website of the VFX italian artist Fernando Luceri who I met at View Conference: tons of smart and great tip&tricks for Blender user.

I'd like to announce the new version of the Blender script to set stereocameras developed by Sbastian Schneider. Sebastian has integrated my hack in this version so it is possible to save and load settings: thanks Sebastian!

You can download the script from the Sebastian's website.

I'm using this script to teach Stereo basis in the Virtual Reality course.