an alternative approach

confessions of a pixel pusher misc

Just heard an interesting interview with Jon Favreau who will make Iron Man the movie. At some point the show should be available as a podcast

He seems to consider carefully where to use CG, and where not to. He cited “Top Gun” allot, which I saw for the first time yesterday. Which would be in itself worth a longish blog post, but I have to work today. Sundays are great for work, since there are less interuptions.

the red camera creates images

confessions of a pixel pusher misc

It seems that the Red camera does create images. People say so. I have not seen them myself, nor did I have personal contacts with the people involved yet. But at this point I have to write that I did not think that the Red camera would get that far. Still miles to go to be a solution. But, again, my assessment needs correction. I thought we would see images mid next year and would be underwhelmed by them. I was wrong it seems.

out of the valley …

confessions of a pixel pusher

this image is supposed to be computer generated Here the WIP posting

Of course on a still you can do lots of tricks. And 1 expression does not make something look alive.
But still, things get better in the department of computer generated reality.

on editing

confessions of a pixel pusher media

It’s not that often that a mainstream newspaper comments on details like editing
No comments on the authors opinion though.

slim and cheap server

confessions of a pixel pusher linux technology

Of course 1.50 US$ a GB is ridicolous

But the whole concept of a 1U quad drive cheap-o system seems intruiging: Raid cards are still expensive. They certainly deliver in many cases the best solution. But 3TB (4 x 750) cheap ‘scratch space’ for data that can be recreated could certainly exist in a 1U box for a pretty sweet price point. Sacrificing 25% storage and you have save space.

And as long Moors Law keeps deflating disk and system prices it is still the best strategy to buy as little storage as late as possible. To paraphrase Einstein just not to late or to little.

what’s wrong with flash

confessions of a pixel pusher internet media

There is of course nothing wrong with flash. Just that I don’t want to do it.
Here are my reasons why I don’t waste any clock cycles on it.

  • It’s allot of work to learn a system like flash to do it really right. I don’t invest that kind of time into a format that is owned by one company. I would become Macromedia’s Adobes bitch if I would do so.
  • Search engines ignore flash. Since more than seventy percent of all internet traffic get directed by google and friends those sites are simply sit idle.
  • Flash content can’t be linked to. The link is to the internet what rails are to railroads. You can not directly link to a item in flash. Or if you can, nobody knows how to do that.
    All you can do is to post the link to the start page and then describe how to get where you wanted
  • Flash navigation can be made unique and creative.Imagine a car maker would make a car with a ‘creative gear box switching interface’. And, only deploy this fancy model in the rental car market.
  • I don’t have enough tatoo’s. Flash designers seem to be mostly extroverted sculptors that want to part take in this internet thing. There is nothing wrong with that, as long I don’t have to deal and compete with them.
  • money, it costs money, but hardly makes any. Hosting and the dev kit, it all costs money. No problem if you have lots. But there is a whole internet out there that starts
    free and easy and might scale nice into something of value. Flash never did that.

Of course sites like youtube, the early flickr or etsy highly use flash and are very sucessful in doing so. Of course flash is here to stay.
Just that I will not deal with it.

colbert’s greenscreen

confessions of a pixel pusher internet media

I missed those so far

What a brilliant concept: Just air some green screen footage. The kids and youTube will do the rest.
Next stop: tracking markers.

four and a half hours

confessions of a pixel pusher internet media

Over time I did subscribe to a podcast here and there. A bit of NPR, fxguide of course, Twit, Adam Curry was only worth listening to a year ago. He is long gone from the cut. Even though I try to keep the list edited I can not keep up any more. Todays download would take 4.5 hours to listen to. Easy for the shuffle, hard on me.
There is simply not enough Lawn to mow, commute (replaced by getting breakfirst rolls from the bakery), floor to vacuum in my life. And hour or two, I can squeeze in.

Of course this is just one sign of the times: Content is available in abundant supply. Ten years ago Cinefex was pretty much the only magazine covering visual effects. Quartely. Now there are lots and lots of podcasts, websites, newsletters around the same subject. Weekly.

I looked at the Millimeter Magazine website today. Interesting, yes. Couldn’t find the subscribe button. So, no, they did not make the cut. Clicked on that funny icon just to find out that they try to use flash video. What a joke! Somebody have a the mercy to explain to them that their audience is different from youTube, and that they should use quicktime.

But with all those gigabytes streaming through to my hard drive they are not worth the consideration.

Media darwinism two thousand six. Lots of content producers are in a for a surprise.

cheap end

Apple confessions of a pixel pusher OSX

no new features, but a new price: 500 US$ for shake

Apple should put old stuff into the public domain. That would help build trust.

Apple is lately a bit distracted: If you pay 150 US$ more to get a Macbook in black you still get a white power supply.
That would be normal way for Dell and all the others. But Apple is about the details. Having a white power supply feeding your 150US$ more black laptop might be acceptible in emergencies, but selling it like this is very lame.

What happened? Did they present to Steve Jobs running on a battery at all times? This is the kind of thing that he is famous for: Attention to detail. I wonder how this could escape him. What is he doing?

100 best video

confessions of a pixel pusher media

As with any good ‘Meme’ the videos from the 80s site triggered a couple of follow ups. Like this top 100 list. Even though the content comes from youTube is the horrible flash format they actually reference the sources for most of the videos.

Now if I were a postproduction house I would try to get all those DVDs and put the decent content on a server for the clients to enjoy. A collection of 500 amazing Music videos from all times in great quality might be a great way for the agency to spend some time with while they are waiting on those renders and lay offs.