I took a film-making class while I worked at Rice University. I did not really "take" it, though, I more audited it. But I did a lot of work for it, until I quit with a month left. Here's why. First, Rice has some pretty cool creative classes. There's a class where every student is… Continue reading Film-making class at Rice University
Tag: science outreach
Should you take time off after your PhD?
I took time off after my PhD, and here's my thoughts on the matter: 1. I was very tired after my PhD concluded. I really wanted to rest. And this felt like a more important consideration than needing to find a job right away for the sake of being able to have a ready, assured… Continue reading Should you take time off after your PhD?
How I got two science communication jobs
I have seen on Twitter the heart-ache for people in science communication who can't find full-time jobs with benefits. Well, I found two of them. So let me tell you how I did that. First, how did I search for job openings? I'm not very good at that, but one thing I did was to… Continue reading How I got two science communication jobs
My 2019 AGU talks
AGU is a conference held in December each year, about a week before Christmas. AGU stands for American Geophysical Union. It's more interesting than it sounds, promise! Usually it's held in San Francisco. I've been a couple of time. This past December, I had three talks at AGU. Two were invited. I felt very special.… Continue reading My 2019 AGU talks
My protoplanetary disk in Blender3D
A protoplanetary disk is, in my opinion, a stupid word that means something very sweet ... it just means a solar system in its infancy, when it's still a baby, still developing. But instead of just calling it a "baby solar system" or, to be more regal, an "infant solar system", they had to christen… Continue reading My protoplanetary disk in Blender3D
Scicomm made polished, part 3
I finished a new animated Twitter thread for work. This one is on planet collisions. Woah! You can see it here. It's nine tweets in all. I wrote about getting feedback onĀ my animated Twitter threads earlier. I was sad because I was told about how bad and unpolished my work was. Well, after all… Continue reading Scicomm made polished, part 3
Texture vs Point in Blender materials
I discovered a new, tiny detail in Blender3D. It's a tiny thing that made a big difference. I was trying to make etches onto a cube with an image -- like engrave the image in. I wanted it to look like this: See, nice and clear! However, it was just looking like this: Much less… Continue reading Texture vs Point in Blender materials
Scicomm made polished, part 2
I was bemoaning the apparent lack of polish in my science animations and not quite understanding all the criticisms, but now it's a few days later, and something has dawned on me. I remember now reading people's blogs, and them saying all all their photos are put through pre-sets in Lightroom. Meaning every photo gets… Continue reading Scicomm made polished, part 2
How to make scicomm look polished
They say you should be open to feedback, and of course, of course, yes, yes. But ugh, I so hate being told that something I've done isn't "polished". I hate hate hate that. So I met with a designer yesterday, and I showed her this latest Twitter thread I made for work. And yes, after… Continue reading How to make scicomm look polished
Explosions in blender
I need to make an explosion in Blender for work. First I used this tutorial, which was only 7 minutes long, and I followed it easily and got the result. But then I decided it looked too cartoonish, so I went for this tutorial, which was 14 minutes long. So still quite short, and for… Continue reading Explosions in blender