Early graphic user interface

Courtesy of Tom Sito via Facebook. This is how people functioned before Cintiqs.

The officer looks like he's drawing with a small power drill, or a soldering iron. You can find what he drew on this link:

http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2013/01/the-never-before-told-story-of-the-worlds-first-computer-art-its-a-sexy-dame/267439/#.UQKoKHF5gtA.email

Eric Hoffer - learners will inherit the earth

'Nuff said.

Basic City - Basic Mental Ray render

Just some basic polys; simple Physical Sun and Sky in Mental Ray. Gives a fairly dramatic layout, imho.

Aaron Swartz cyber activist

More on Aaron Swartz, I'm just learning about this.
http://www.democracynow.org/2013/1/14/an_incredible_soul_lawrence_lessig_remembers

James Baxter - Notes on Acting for Animation

Link courtesy of http://floobynooby.blogspot.fr/

http://floobynooby.blogspot.fr/2012/04/james-baxter-notes-on-acting-for.html

Rage against the Machinima

 Happy New Year blog

Artists, protect your rights!

http://www.laweekly.com/2013-01-10/news/machinima-maker-studios-YouTube/

Machinima

Edinboro University Animation at CTN Expo 2012

Edinboro was at the CTN Expo this year. I had been feeling nostalgic for the old campus last year, but could never find the time or the wheels to get out there when I visited NE Ohio.

Instructor Michael Genz was there; he had moved to Edinboro back in the '90's I believe; had a nice chat with him about the program, and the snow:) Doucette Hall is still the heart of the animation and graphics departments. It even looks like the old cafeteria is still there too.

Anyway, my department chair Dori from Woodbury let me know Edinboro was there. I saw my name on their banner of Distinguished Alumni quite a few times. It gave me a nice boost after feeling worn out from CTN. For modesty's sake, I only posted one close up shot of my name with Warner Bros. and Woodbury; two of my best achievements. Nice to be listed with Bill Waldman from Warner Bros. and Dave Filoni from King of the Hill. (I only did some freelance for Tom T Productions.) Some people say my head was swelled up enough after that;)

Argyle type pattern made in Maya, w/ Photoshop

Needed a pattern for a character's scarf, got stuck trying to create the pattern in Photoshop alone; and Illustrator is not my best thing.

Started in Maya, took a polygon plane, and rotated it 45 degrees, RMB to select faces, assigned a new Lambert to every other face. Took a screen shot and opened it in Photoshop. Had to use Edit-Transform-Scale and stretched it vertically to get the diamond shape. Duplicated the layer and reduced the opacity, moving it over to get the diagonal patterns. Had to experiment with Image-Adjustments-Hue/Saturation and Brightness/Contrast. Try it, you'll like it!

Diffusion of Innovation

Found this interesting, on how quickly, or how slowly people accept new technology. I've been guilty of being on the slow end, but I'm trying to stay ahead. Just like everyone else right?

Copyright http://www.learnmarketing.net/diffusion.htm

Technorati Claim

BJ8FJP47RBD7

Blog views down Again!

Well, views of this blog have taken another nose dive. Who evaluates these things?
Is the information on this blog not worth anything?
Should it be organized in a better way?
Someone please let me know!

Female Iron Man in secret tunnel

Here's a stylized female "Iron Man", stalking through a tunnel under some super villain's lair. Maya primitives comped together in Photoshop. I think this character is more appealing, less arousing. I added her to the tunnel from my last post.
Still a lot of work to do.

Evil Tunnel

Evil tunnel, experimenting with lighting in Maya and Mental Ray;

Work in Progress.

Johnny Sokko Iron Giant Mashup

Sorry, I couldn't resist this; I'm surprised no one else has done this before. (Maybe it's a bad idea.) Or no one remembers Johnny Sokko and his Flying Robot.

Anyway, What If Hogarth Hughes and Johnny Sokko had to trade robots for a mission?
If you remember, both robots get blown up at the end... Or did they?
It would be even scarier if Giant Robot and the Iron Giant had to fight each other; who would win?
I know, I should get back to work. Just blowing off steam from the CTN Expo
http://www.ctnanimationexpo.com/


With apologies to the Toei Company Ltd., Mitsunobu Kaneko, Brad Bird and the crew at Warner Brothers Animation. (All artwork copyright Toei Company Ltd. and Warner Brothers Feature Animation.)

CTN Expo 2012

Quick snapshot of Woodbury's stop motion set up, created by Ric Heitzman. Canon Rebel EOS camera with DragonFrame stop motion software.

Election 2012

Better late than never, I want to refer anyone who finds this blog to a quote from the film "1776".

"Don't forget that most men with nothing would rather protect the possibility of becoming rich than face the reality of being poor." I believe the quote continues as-"that is why they will follow us."

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0068156/quotes?qt=qt0443110

Whether John Dickinson actually said that is up for debate, but it makes sense why people vote the way they do.

Personally, I didn't hold out much hope for President Obama. When I saw how much campaign money he accepted from Wall Street, I thought the celebration was over, even before he was sworn in as President. Getting rid of Bush, and cleaning up the mess the GOP had left for the last 30 years would take time, and any non GOP replacement would seem to be an improvement. The wars, the influence of big money trampling civil rights, and the bank bailouts rolled on with just about the same momentum.

On the other hand, a Romney victory would lead us back to more of the same war, corruption and incompetence of the Bush presidency.

Biased? You bet. I'm tempted to join the angry, noisy minority that tries to rule this land.

But I don't have the energy to carry on like that, and I have to live with people the next day.

Blog Value

The numbers on this blog have dropped. According to business models, I must not be doing this well. I see now that a blog has to make money, be an authority on some subject, or offer some meaningful contribution to society. I've also read via Google search that Google reviews the value of blogs, and then resets their value. That may explain the drop. My goal is showing some expertise, and offering something constructive.

This blog is about animation, art and teaching. The bounce rate is high, according to Google Analytics. Most of the visitors are new, they seem to look around and then leave. I need more comments, more feedback, even if its just about selling a T shirt.

http://www.google.com/analytics/


http://www.myblogvalue.com/

http://www.blogcalculator.com/

http://blog.valuecruncher.com/

Happy Halloween Skull sketch

Having a good time seems to be a big gamble these days. Did the "Gambler" in Sketchbook Pro with the "Y" symmetry turned on.

Turing pattern generators

Finally, some cool Turing pattern generators. Have to use screengrabs to get them into Photoshop. Should be able to convert them into Illustrator curves to send them into Maya to create geometry. Still want to get them into Flash, later. The texrd.com website has a very cool free software. My hat's off to them.

http://www.texrd.com/

http://www.supracodex.com/processing/gray-scott.html

Commander Kitty!

Guilty pleasure time again:

http://www.commanderkitty.com/

Enjoy!