Sky Hye Report

Things are settled down again, since Max's return. One of his sailing friends wrote up an interview, found here.

I've been working, of course. That's as it should be. Getting the new computer is delayed until some accessories for it come out next month. I also need to know more about the new version of final cut pro, coming out soon, before I can determine how much computing power I can actually use. No need to buy the most expensive machine, if the software can't use the power.

I've been rewriting the script in the head and portrait segment of the dvd. To better compose the wording, I created the visuals for it over the past week. I'm liking the results. Here are a few images from the process...

I can't seem to embed images from flickr at this time, so I am using links for now:
It was fun building this simple wrap with elastic top and draping it to the model. The wrap was built in Silo and the draping was achieved in Poser 7's Cloth Room.

I built construction line models in Silo and placed them in Poser, attaching them to the model. Shown here is the external contour center line of the face. The model is a morph I created in Silo from the Poser character, Sydney.

In this image: Using the Sketch render feature in Poser 7, I attempted to give an egg volume any amount of transparency to reveal the center line inside, but doing so created a bizarre artifact within -- that imagery inside the egg on the right is the figures and objects in the scene whose visibilities were turned off! Their orientation did not reflect their positions in the scene, either. No tinkering resolved the bug, but the resulting renders were fascinating! The left egg has 0% transparency.

Max's disposition is completely back to normal today. His boat co-owner/partner and I worked on understanding his situation from a distance. One of boat-partner's friends is a doctor in Kauai, coincidentally. This doctor told partner that these bacterial infections sometimes don't respond to antibiotics, so those patients end up in the hospital. Actually, we knew that, but it was enough for Max's partner to go ahead and leave a pleading message on Max's cell not to depart until they could talk some more about his wound and treatment. That did the trick. Max had already pulled his anchor and was about to head out when he checked his cell and found partner's urgent message. He called partner and then me. Partner persuaded Max to stay put for a bit, and I persuaded him to call the doctor to discuss his healing progress. Max called the doctor, who wasn't in, but talked to the nurse. The nurse asked some questions and was satisfied with the answers and gave him the all-clear to travel. I would like to have been part of that conversation, but I must trust that all parties were clear in their understanding of the situation. Max called back, saying he was sure the wound was healing and the infection was subsiding, so he was heading out. I encouragingly wished him lots of luck and a good voyage. Boat partner and I agreed that Max did all we could hope he would and we trust he made the right decision. Max is on his way, and we can watch his position reports over the next three weeks during his trip home.

Oh, and it turns out that there were two categories in the race where he placed 1st, making his result among the best of the group. Cool!

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Max came in 3rd in his division and 4th, overall. Not bad. :)
It'll take him 3 weeks to get back as opposed to the 2 weeks to reach Kauai.
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I found this tidbit from the Log Reports this morning:

Track Max on Solar Wind in the Singlehanded TransPac race with me!
Here is the front page. The TransPac Forum might provide news.
Position reports are here.

Updates:
6/20/10
The log reports started. These provide amazing stories for us to "watch" the race with. Max can't send stories from his boat, but someone out there might convey a few tidbits for him from their connection.
Here are pictures of the race start.
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