The MultiPlane Camera - Old School Animation, Disney Style.

Ever wonder how cartoons were done before computer technology. In this video, they show you how it was done at Disney in 1957.  Actually, today's computer generated animation uses the same principles, albeit utilizing software for digital matte paintings and 3D modeling and animation; all this at a relatively low cost using a machine that sits on a desktop.

Two dimensional animation is still alive and well, despite the growing popularity of 3D animated films. Japanese anime cartoons range from the simple to approaching cinematic quality. One of my favorite cartoons is Cowboy Bebop, which can be seen on the TOON Channel's adult swim air time. It's a sci-fi themed anime with detailed visuals and Mickey Spillane plot lines. If old Walt knew the content of some of these Japanese cartoons, he wouldn't be too pleased, but I think he would appreciate the production values.

Some more Vector Art with Freehand MX.

I had fun with this Pac Man promo poster.

Is this Dilbert's new boss?

I cranked out these illustrations in the now defunct, Macromedia Freehand MX. It's old school vector art software that still gets the job done.  Even though the tools are limited compared to Adobe Illustrator's tool set, you can still create amazing art with simple shapes and path manipulation. 

Asteroid Field: Done in Blender 2.57

All mesh and physics modeling and animation done in Blender 2.57 by Vincenzo Ferretti.  Music track titled "Alone in Space", courtesy of Maverlyn Darkstar at Newgrounds.com (Thank you Andrew Price for the excellent tutorial). 

Genius is Alive and Well.

Ada Byron Lovelace

New technology is creating a DIY revolution in desk top manufacturing; barely 25 years ago, it was desk top publishing.  Genius is alive and well in the 21st century and tech geeks like Limor Fried and Nathan Myhrvold are paving the way for spectacular inventions along with whole new business models.  Today there is no shortage of visionaries who think outside the box, but unlike past visionaries like Leonardo DaVinci, today's prodigies have the technology and the materials to realize their visions.  From the arts and sciences to tech savvy entrepreneurs, this century may prove to be the most prolific nursery of genius in the history of the world.  Check out the interview with Limor Fried in this April's Wired Magazine. Limor  runs a New York based company called Adafruit Industries; she is truly a modern day Ada Byron Lovelace.*

Q&A: Open Source Electronics Pioneer Limor Fried on the DIY Revolution

* Ada Byron Lovelace was the daughter of the English Romantic poet, Lord Byron.  She was a mathematical prodigy, privately tutored, who collaborated with Charles Babbage on his Analytical Engine -a machine never completed- for the express purpose of solving polynomial equations and other complex problems.  Ada Byron Lovelace is credited with writing the world's first computer algorithm for the Analytical Engine, for which she was inspired by the patterned punch cards of the Jacquard loom.  The modern computer programming language, Ada, was named for this visionary daughter of Lord Byron.  It would take nearly 100 more years for Ada Byron's and Charles Baggage's project to be fully realized, for what they were working on was yet to be invented.

Happy 50th Anniversary Tovarich!

Yuri Gagarin, the first man in space.

Radiosity Room: 3D modeling-rendering project.

I was going for a hi-tech room with a video screen on the right and instrument panels along the walls. (Done in Blender 2.49 using radiosity settings, mirror reflections, transparency and discombobulation script for wall panels)

Yellow Blobs - Soft Body Physics Simulation.

Done in Blender 2.5 with a rendering time of approximately 7 hours.  Collision setting included wind force simulation.  Ray transparency settings used on blobs and ray mirror settings on plane. 

 

Transparent Radiosity Cube w/ Fluid Simulation

Done in Blender 2.49 - Cube was UV textured with Ray Transparency then rendered with radiosity settings onto ray mirrored mesh plane.  Fluid simulation was done separately then placed inside cube.  Total render time @ 1.5 hours. (Enlarge video in lower right corner for better view)

House Wins.

Done in Blender 2.49 - UV textured meshes with radiosity and ray mirror reflections.

Merry Christmas!

Illustration: Discovery.

Discovery.  Done in Vue Esprit 6.0.  Ship and statue imported into scene as alpha planes.  Optimized in Photoshop CS3.

Johathan Williamson - Topology Presentation

Jonathan Williamson - Topology Presentation from Andrew Price on Vimeo.

Richard Dawkins at his best.

 Listen to Richard Dawkins debunk a knuckle dragging Creationist claim about the true age of dinosaur fossils.  

Funny.pho.to - Great for Facebook....or whatever.

Funny.pho.to  - Great for Facebook....or whatever.

The Man of Steel Gets a Makeover - Photoshop Jollies.

Filling Joe Stalin's shoes is not for the faint of heart.  If I had a gulag, I'd gulag in the morning.....

Who needs the Cover of Rolling Stone when you've made it to the Berlin Wall?

CG Art Critiques from Blender Guru Andrew Price

Focused Critique: Episode 1 from Andrew Price on Vimeo.

Graphic Design (Macromedia Freehand MX)

Just messing around with some old school software from Macromedia.  Adobe has since bought out Macromedia's suite of applications, and Freehand is no longer in the lineup.  Given it's limitations, Freehand was still a popular vector graphics application, despite Adobe Illustrator's long and undisputed lead as the industry standard vector art program.
( Taking orders for t-shirts )

Inspired by the cave paintings of Lascaux.

Inspired by ancient Greek shield emblems.

Jack of clubs for a card deck I'm designing.

Graphic Design ( Adobe Photoshop & Illustrator CS3)

Feast or Famine.  Love them Viking True-type fonts.

Alien Glyph.

Bamboo Forest Triptych.

Alchemy.

Photoshop planet & moons.

Pop Art Woman.

Who doesn't love neon?

Pixel art is making a comeback.

The Brand.

Halloween Pinball table (work in progress).

Perspective in Photoshop CS3.

Altered script used as mask.  Great movie too.

Yet another Matrix computer screen.  They are everywhere.

My Windows 7 / Core i3 computer build.

Just finished building my third computer.   Came in at a reasonable price with parts rebates and special sales.  This should fend off obsolescence for quite a few years by allowing me to upgrade to higher end Intel processors, faster graphics cards and RAM as prices drop.  Windows 7 should prove to be a significant step up from the aging Windows XP operating system.  Here are the specs:


Case - NZXT Tempest ATX mid-tower w/ six 120mm blue LED cooling fans.

Motherboard - Biostar T-Series TH55 XE LGA socket 1156 Micro ATX.

CPU - Core i3 540 Clarkdale 3.06GHz LGA 1156 73W Dual Core. 

Memory - Kingston ValueRAM 2GB 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10600) x 4 (Total 8 Gigabytes).

PSU - OCZ StealthXStream OCZ600SXS 600W ATX12V / EPS12V SLI Ready Active PFC Power Supply. 

GPU - XFX GT240XZNFC GeForce GT 240 1GB 128-bit DDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready Video Card. 

Hard Drives -  Two Western Digital Caviar Blue WD5000AAKS 500GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive x 2 plus one 500GB 7200 RPM IDE cable drive for a total of three hard drives.  Plenty of file backup storage.

Optical drive - Liteon 24X half-height internal DVD+R/DVD+RW/DVD-R/DVD-RW/DVD+R9/DVD-R9 /DVD-RAM/DVD-ROM/CD-R/CD-RW/CD-ROM combination drive. 

Monitor - ASUS VH236H Black 23" 2ms(GTG) HDMI Widescreen Full HD 1080P LCD Monitor 300 cd/m2 20000 :1 (ASCR) Built-in Speakers.

GUI - Windows 7 Professional 64-bit version.



The only thing left to upgrade will be the CPU heatsink and cooling fan since the CPU is running at 52 C. while idle - way too hot but we are talking intel's stock heatsink and fan here.  I'm leaning towards getting this liquid cooler instead of a conventional heatsink and fan, provided it fits in my case.  Tigerdirect.com is selling it for $79.99: 

Corsair CWCH50-1 Hydro H50 CPU Liquid Cooler - 120mm Fan, Copper Cold Plate, Aluminum Radiator, LGA775, LGA1366, LGA1156, AM2/AM3

All told, this system rocks!  Much better than my old setup, especially when running the Adobe Web Design CS3 suite of applications.  Should also dramatically improve render times in Blender 2.5 Alpha and Vue Esprit 6.  Already tested Visual Pinball and Future Pinball emulators and very satisfied with the performance, especially with the new LCD 23" widescreen 1080p monitor.   Can't wait to download MAME on this monster.  The color and clarity of the display, along with the XFX graphics card, are light years beyond  my old setup.  Internet download and upload performance also received a boost.  Next I will have to test Windows 7's XP mode once I download Virtual PC.  All said, this project was money and time well spent, despite having to return one defective motherboard and shelling out money for a new compatible power supply.  RMAs,  re-stocking fees and UPS shipping charges suck, but when you're dealing with online resellers, you can only go by customer reviews, which tend to run the full spectrum of pros and cons on most products.   With the exception of the optical drive, which I bought on Amazon.com, all other components were purchased from Newegg.com.     

Tribute to Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi.

A moving tribute to Silvio Berlusconi, who's party slogan is, "Love always conquers envy and hate".  A master politician with a media mogul's talent for getting the message out.  Italian politics are a wonder to behold.