Thursday, October 31, 2013

Cibatta

I baked this cibatta loaf the other day. I ws really happy with how it turned out. The flavout was delicious and the crumb turned out just how I hoped with some nice big holes. The bread was made using a poolish type of pre-ferment that fermented for about 14 hours before making the final dough. The final dough was amazing and full of life. It was bubbling and had an amazing elasticity and lightness.
Cibatta made with poolish

Tuesday, October 29, 2013

Countdown Stop # 2 - Twisted Fork

Tonight marks out second countdown restaurant and we decided to go to Twisted Fork - we had only heard good things. It was a great night and the food was pretty good. I got mushroom risotto and a Chorizo, goats cheese and spaghetti squash salad. Kate got the mushroom risotto and a goats cheese tart. We shared a pumpkin cheesecake for dessert. Over all it was a pretty good place to eat. Minor niggling complaints, risotto was a bit on the under cooked side and Kates tart was a bit lame for $9 when compared to my salad. But it was still a really nice night out with Kate.
Twisted Fork
Twisted Fork
Twisted Fork
Twisted Fork

Face Rigging part 1

As promised here is my first video showing the progress of my facial rigging project. Fully joint based facial rigging in Maya.

Joint Based Muscle Face Rig from Tim Forbes on Vimeo.

Monday, October 28, 2013

Countdown Stop # 1 - Cafe Medina

We had brunch out at our first countdown cafe. In the days leading up to our departure from Vancouver we are aiming to mark each 10 days by eating out at one of our favorite restaurants, or a restaurant that we really want to go to, but haven't yet. Restaurant # 1 was brunch at Cafe Medina. Why, because of their amazing coffee and the waffles. Me being healthy, I had a latte, a macchiatto and the muesli with almond milk. Kate went for the poached egg with toast, two waffles with chocolate lavender sauce and a white chocolate rosewater mocha. Next stop, Twisted Fork.
Cafe Medina Macchiatto
Cafe Medina Waffles
Cafe Medina

Face Rigging

So I have been working on setting up a joint based muscle face rig system. It is coming along nicely, and I showed it to a work mate yesterday and he was blown away and said I've gotta post the work. You can see a little bit of it in my reel here: Showreel, but I will record a detailed screen grab of the rig working and post it up to show off the deformation and skin sliding that I have set up. I have set up a very cool sticky lip system as well as some nice soft eyes and muscles that slide over the surface of the underlying skeleton to preserve volume and create some nice skin sliding effects.
Finally I am doing a dynamics pass to get some jiggle in the looser neck skin, and I think I will do a final hi-res render mesh that I may sculpt some wrinkles on to be driven by the muscles so I end up with a nice overall package. The final result will hopefully be a rendered greyscale pass with some nice lighting to show off the deformation.
I'm going to try for an initial post of the rig in progress in few days by the time I record and upload it.

Fall in Vancouver

Fall this year has been amazing. We have had cool days, and not much rain to wash the fall leaves off. This has led to the most amazing fall display and has made for some nice walks and amazing bike rides.
West End Fall Colors
West End Fall Colors

Sunday, October 20, 2013

Close up flash photography

I captured this nice picture of some fungi in Stanley Park the other day using my new flash. It has been so good having a flash as it opens up so much more room for creativity when the light is low.
                  Fungi

Friday, October 18, 2013

Foggy Vancouver

Vancouver has been ridiculously foggy for the last few mornings! Makes for some cool moody photography. Hopefully it blows away soon so that we can get some of this nice sunny weather that we are meant to be having!
Morning Fog, Mt Pleasant.

Date Breakfast!

So we are trying to make breakfast out each Friday morning as a little "date" breakfast before work once a week. This week we headed to Whole Foods Breakfast Buffet.
Whole Foods Breakfast
Whole Foods Breakfast

The 2013 Summer Race Season.

This summer was a pretty momentous race season. I accomplished a lot and had a shitload of fun while I was at it. My first triathlons and two marathons, I can't wait for next year and training up for my first Iron Man.
-Vancouver Sun Run 10km - 38 mins
-BMO Marathon - 3hrs 6mins
-Vancouver International Triathlon (Olympic Distance) - 2hrs 24mins 11sec
-Vancouver Triathlon Stanley Park (Olympic Distance) - 2hrs 22mins 16sec
-Victoria Marathon - 3hrs 5mins

Thanksgiving Dinner

In Victoria for Thanksgiving, Kate and I treated ourselves to an amazing Thanksgiving dinner at Joes Place. Nothing like a good homely meal at a classic looking diner to celebrate finishing a marathon.
Thanksgiving Dinner

More Sourdough

I baked another batch of sourdough, the dough felt the best it has yet, nice and light. I also finally got the scoring to work correctly - although it is far from a work of art. This was done mid week pre-empting some friends that were going to visit for dinner on Friday, however they bailed so sow more bread for us, and it frees up the weekend to bake a different kind of bread! I don't want to overdo the sourdough and rick getting bored of it, gotta mix it up a bit!
Sourdough
Sourdough
Scoring Sourdough
After an 18 hr cold fermentation

Thursday, October 17, 2013

To And From Victoria

This thanksgiving we went to Victoria. Traveling there and back was quite a visual experience. On the way over we caught the ferry, which is a beautiful trip through the San Juan Islands. There were beautiful autumn colours, crisp clean air and we even saw some humpbacks in the distance.
On the return trip we decided to get a float plane home, which took us from Victoria, straight to Coal Harbour. It was amazing to see the San Juan Islands from the air. We were lucky enough to see a pod of humpback whales, and all the beautiful autumn colours of Vancouver Downtown. The patterns created by the farmland were amazing, as were those created by suburbia.
Being in the small open propeller plane gave a much better connection to the landscape than that in a large passenger jet, and the windows were way bigger giving a much better view. We were also flying a lot lower than I am normally used to. Landing on and taking off from the water was surreal, but didn't feel all that strange. Definitely a unique Canadian experience though!
Twassen to Victoria Ferry Crossing
Twassen to Victoria Ferry Crossing
Vancouver East SIde
Friday Island From Air

Marathon Season Complete...For this year.

What a season it has been. I have completed a lot of goals this year, pushed myself and this has unfortunately led to my first real sporting injuries. Both injuries occurred in the later stages of marathon training and I believe had a significant impact on my race day performance.
Injury one was Achilles tendonitis in my right Achilles. This happened 3 weeks out from the Vancouver BMO Marathon. I believe it happened because I did a 35km training run at fairly high pace on the Saturday, and then I had a 10km race on the Sunday (Vancouver's Sun Run). This race involved standing around getting cold for about a half hour before the race, then trying to blast a PB 10km. I think it was this going from cold to pushing it that caused the injury.
Three weeks later, and almost no running I fronted up to the BMO Marathon to run a 3hr 6min marathon. This was followed by two months of recovery, no running, but swimming and I ramped up the cycling towards the end of the time off.
At the end of this two months I started training for the Victoria Marathon, an intense 5 month training schedule. Amongst this training I was also swimming and cycling, aiming at doing my first triathlons.
Fast forward four months and some knee/hamstring/calf pain took me to the physio which led to a wild goose chase to find the problem, messed with my running stride and generally left me in a bad place. I think the problem was caused by an imbalance in the muscular strength of my left leg, and that mixed with overuse led to this problem. Really all I needed was rest, but instead I figured getting a physio to stick needles in it would be the best option. Always looking for the quick fix rather than listening to my body and resting almost screwed me big time.
Anyways, I ended up having a good part of a month of no running before the Victoria Marathon, and missed my really long important runs. I definitely felt this on race day. My first run was a day before the race, and I was pleased to find that I could run with only a bit of pain (a week before hand I could barely take two strides). By this point I was just stoked to be lining up at the start line to try and race. There is a lot of energy at the beginning of a Marathon, I was so pumped to be at that line. Five months of training is a long time, and when you're there standing there waiting for the start gun, you think about those five months of training and all the hard work you've done! You realise that with a marathon, a lot of it isn't the race itself, but the hard training and all the fitness you build getting there.
After all that, and such a shitty lead up to the race, somehow I managed to pull a 3hr 5min personal best, not the sub 3hr that I wanted, but I am blaming that on bad training. I will have to wait until next time. The race itself was difficult. The first 25 kms was relatively easy to stick to my 4min 10sec pace, but from that point on, the wheels fell off, and I rapidly lost pace. Marathons are funny how the mind knows what the legs need to do, but the pain and fatigue just builds up and makes it ridiculously hard to press on. It becomes a mental game of convincing yourself that there isn't that far to go, or breaking it up into "manageable" chunks. In the end all I wanted to do was run the whole race, and not stop to walk, which I managed. The human body is amazing at persevering once you get going, but once it stops, it says that enough is enough. I managed to pick the pace up to a 4min 30sec pace for the last KM, but the second I crossed that line, my body just gave up. I must have looked thrashed when I crossed the line because the medics came rushing at me. I was fine, but so sore I could barely walk.
Now it is time to take a small break from running, let my legs totally repair themselves then start up again with some fundamental strength work, and then ramp up for Marathon season again next year, with the goal of running that sub 3hr race. While the weather is nice I will focus on some bike riding, and while the legs are still recovering keep the swimming up. They are the easy ones to let slide over winter anyways.

Tuesday, October 15, 2013

Victoria Marathon

What a success! After fighting injury for the last 4 weeks and missing some really important training runs, I made it to the start line after some short test runs on Saturday and some strides on Sunday Morning. It was such a beautiful weekend weather wise, and for the race it could not have been better. A crisp 10 Degrees to start, warming to mid to high teens for the majority of the race, no wind, and sun. Perfect race conditions.
I was pumped at the start line, so amped to go, I love the feeling before a race. Kate was feeling a bit nervous, but I knew that with her water tight 5 month training regime, that she had nothing to worry about.
The first 21kms went exactly as planned, I hit it in an average of 4mins8sec per km. Then the next 4 kms also went to plan, with my goal being to sit at 4min10sec for the whole race. At about 27kms the wheels began to fall off! The lack of long distance training and some of my key training weeks that I missed really showed. I started slowing down big time and was losing seconds per km. I had a blister on my right foot from about 11km which was causing grief, and now another blister was forming on my left foot. So before I had some relief on my left foot strike, now each foot strike hurt.
By about 35kms I was in damage control mode. The goal was to pace myself so I didn't have to run at all - I wanted to run the whole race. It's funny the mind games you play with yourself to convince you that there isn't far to go. Whatever it takes to get you through really. The last 2km was brutal, and the last km, with a burst of pure determination to set a PB i gritted my teeth and squeezed out a 4min 30sec km. A bit of talking to myself occurred here.
Race Plates Ready
                                    Tim After The Race
                                    Kate After The Race
Iced Leg

Friday, October 11, 2013

Coffee

It may have been evident through this blog that I love coffee. Check this new bean that my wife got me from a local boutique coffee house. I'm always excited to try something new, and these guys have the most bad ass coffee bag I've ever seen!
Coffee
Check them out at http://fernwoodcoffee.com/

Fresh Out Of The Oven

Friday night, and another sourdough baked. I keep trying to refine the same recipe. I think the dough may have been a bit wet this time, but the levain starter was amazing. So each new bake gives me something else to think about. I think the bake was a bit hot and long this time as the crust started to get pretty dark - not burnt, but getting close. But maybe this is an appetizing part of an rustic home made loaf of bread.
The smell is always amazing when baking at home, especially with my own sourdough starter. The aroma of sourdough as it bakes is delicious, but then having to wait till the bread has cooled to allow the crumb to develop kills me. The anticipation is brutal, but always well worth it. I hope you enjoy the photos.
Sourdough
Sourdough
And this is the crumb of my sourdough from last week!
Sourdough
Sourdough

Houdini

I have embarked on the mission of learning Houdini. It is bizarre learning a new piece of software, it rekindles a passion for learning that I remember from when I first started using Maya. Having used Maya now for 6 years, it has become such second nature, that to learn a new piece of software has been quite interesting. No longer is it easy to build setups that work how you want them too, and it is necessary to research how different nodes work in order to discover how to derive the correct data to achieve the desired result.
That being said, with all of my experience, the process is coming along quicker than when I first used Maya mainly because I now know which questions to ask. I have a better idea of what information I need to get to achieve an end result. I also know the kind of work that most interests me so I am focusing on only a small part of Houdini for the time being, namely simulations relating to creature FX.
Hoidini seems like a very smart piece of software and makes a lot of sense in terms of it's procedural nature. I can't wait until I start putting some shots out!

Morning Coffee

I love the ritual of making my morning coffee, so much so that I get up earlier just so I can prolong the process. It is such an enjoyable way to start the day, pouring the beans into the grinder, hand grinding, all the while the aroma of fresh ground beans is increasing. Meanwhile the kettle is boiling. All these sounds, smells and actions are part of the ritual and gets me going for the day. The brewing of the coffee is also an important process - there are so many different ways to do this, each resulting in a slightly different flavour of coffee, no method being better than the next, just different, and maybe better suited to different moods.
I am enjoying the pour over style coffee for my morning coffee at the moment, the process is more drawn out, but you get the freshest filter coffee ever. I don't like to call it drip or filter as it immediately gives bad impressions of over heated, over brewed shit house diner coffee. But this is far from it.
What better way to start the day than with a coffee that has been brewed freshly by yourself, while you gaze out over English Bay from your balcony!
Coffee

Thursday, October 10, 2013

Morning Health kick - Epic Green Smoothie

I'm in a bit of a routine with my meals, and every morning (except before runs) I'll hit a Chlorrela and Spirulina smoothie, blended with 3 ice cubes, some water, a whole orange and a whole lime as a starter. I'll then make up my epic green smoothie that is full of kale and much other goodness. Check it below.

                  Morning Health Kick!

Monday, October 7, 2013

Weekend in the West End

Vancouver put on a stunning weekend for us! The sun was out and it felt warm, maybe to s0ften the blow of the coming winter which has seemed to switch on like a light! Anyways, we made the most of the beautiful weather with a stroll around the West End while we went about out usual weekend chores.
Davie St.
Coffee Shop.
Haro St, Fall Colours
Burrard Bridge From First Beach

Friday Night Baking Session

I had a massive baking session this weekend! My last few sourdoughs have not been quite right, they have failed to raise aas much as I would have liked.The flavour has been amazing, but the behaviour of the dough hasn't quite been what I would like from good bread. After baking this loaf a couple of times, I realised that I was starting my liquid levain build slightly differently to how the recipe intended. Although the end result should have been quite similar, I thought I would change this to see if it made a difference.
It made a massive difference, I got way more rise and body out of the baked loaf, and the dough felt way more light and springy. I also cut back on the moisture a bit, as I felt the last few batches had been too wet. So I think all of these tweaks have got me in a much better plac, however I baked one huge loaf, instead of two half loaves which I normally do, and the result here was what I felt was a slightly undercooked crumb, it was just a bit too moist and doughy at the base of the loaf. Anyway, many things were learnt from this bake. All positive, one being, don't change too many things at once :-) Anyway next bake will be indetical but I will make tow smaller loaves again.
The other project as my first attempt at Baguettes. This recipe used a straight dough, with no starter of any sort set up. This was fun becauser I was just able to bang out the bread after work, which was gratifying as you get the final result quite quickly. This brad was amazing! The dough was so light and strong, with a great spring and a decent moisture content. It was very acticve as well, with lots pof bubbles blowing up all over the place. Shaping the baguettes was incredibly difficuly, especially with how fragile the dough felt and me not wanting to over work the dough. So the result was baguettes that looked more like cibatta, with a baguett crust and crumb. But that aside, the flavour was delicious and the eating quality was very good with a nioce contrast of soft and crunchy.. I can't wait to make thses again and try to get the shaping right.
The final ferment for the baguettes
Pre Shaping
Baguettes
Baguettes, displaying the crumb
Sourdough

My Favourite Healthy Dinner

My favourite healthy dinner comprises of: Quinoa, avocado, roasted sweet potato, raw Kale (if I'm not running the next day), dulse, and nutritional yeast and tahini to top it off. Good carbs from the sweet potato and quinoa, protein from the quinoa, fats from the avocado, a plethora of nutrients and vitamins from the Kale, dulse, nutritional yeast and tahini. I'll obviously mix this up a bit depending on how I'm feeling, what's in season or whats left in the fridge, but the main base is the quinoa, roasted sweet potato, dulse, nutritional yeast and tahini. This is a good one the night before running with nothing that is going to wreak havoc on the digestive system and has a lot of good carbs.
Healthy Dinner

Amazing Sourdough Levain Pancakes

On the weekend I had a big baking session - post to come - and had some sourdough levain left over so I made these off the dial pancakes.They were well and truly the most involved pancakes that I have ever made, but the final result was well worth it. Imagine a crumpet the size of a pancake!
Anyway, the night before I built up the liquid levain, as well as my batter in a separate bowl. These both did their thing overnight (batter in fridge, levain in nice warm place). The next morning these were folded together then fried up in good old healthy coconut oil. The result was the most amazingly textured, tasty pancakes. We had two each and were totally full!
Liquid Levain Pancakes
Liquid Levain Pancakes
Liquid Levain Pancakes
Liquid Levain Pancakes