The big news is that we have several cool upgrades going on in the studio. While today’s Mac news was exciting, our upgrades have nothing to do with Apple’s annoucements.
One exciting makeover is our fan page on Facebook. We’ve updated the page and changed the url to make it easier to find:
While you check out the fan page, click the button on the top to be a fan. We’ll be having some contests and most of the contests and surprises will be for fans.
We’ve redesigned the Digital Blacksmiths site about live digital caricature entertainment. We’ve very excited about the new design and hope to hear how you like both the design and navigation.
Digital Blacksmiths provides digital entertainment for tradeshows and other company events.
It is also a large resource for digital artists with tutorials, articles, and reviews of digital art techniques, hardware and software.
UPDATE: We posted a FULL hands on review of both the hardware and software, including plenty of pictures and screen captures over at Digital Blacksmiths.
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That’s the rumor. It is being reported that Wacom is going to be releasing a new Intuis tablet soon.
Someone apparently spied several Intuis 4 tablets in a Future Store and snapped a few pictures. In lieu of the touch strip, it appears to be a type of jog wheel, aka iPod design.
It also seems that the buttons have been re-ordered and dummy labels (they look like removeable stickers) have been added to the side of each button.
While my wife and I each own a Cintiq, I always keep my first generation Intuis in my laptop bag for when I’m just running out and am traveling light. My toggle switch is a bit worn on my first gen stylus pen and the new pens don’t work on the older tablets, so its either buy a new pen or tablet. *grin*
I’ve just finished an article discussing the details we look at when looking at branding.
This article goes into detail on how to look at what we as artists do, what the public sees, and how to maintain a consistent brand.
Here’s a quick snippet from the article:
However, once you begin to see your brand take shape, you should cultivate it and strive to make all of your public communication strengthen that brand. This brand is what you are to people. This is how you will be remembered.
Here’s another promotional video I just completed using After Effects CS4. It is for magician Matt Tomasko (goes by Matt Wayne) and is based in New York City.
Since he’s got the “New York City” persona, I wanted to go a bit more like a city nightclub backstage feel with the gritty, old painted, brick wall. Also, various other elements like the steam from the pipes and posters keep with the feel.
While image theft cannot be completely stopped, there are several things you can do that will reduce the casual theft going on.
On of the first things you can do is to edit your .htaccess file. This file resides in the root directory of your server.
Step One
Create a backup of the .htaccess file. This is a file you don’t want to mess up! If you don’t see it, make sure your operating system can see hidden files.
Step Two
This is the block of code we will insert. I’ll explain what each line does.
The first line is just the ‘prep’ file to allow what we will do. This next line of code uses the NC at the end to say, “No Case.” This means to match the URL regardless of the text being upper case or lower case.
This tells the server to only show images to files when ON the server. In otherwords, only your site’s own pictures viewed ON your site. This can be adapted. For example, if you had blog.reelsinmotion.com, you would write:
tells the server what files to block (jpg|jpeg|png|gif). Note that I only blocked images here, but you can block hotlinking to Flash files (.swf) or ebooks or other PDFs (.pdf) files as well.
Then it offers a link to redirect to (that’s what the R means at the end of the second line). Make sure your redirect image isn’t a .jpg if you block .jpgs or you will block your own alternative image! This took me awhile to figure out.
That image can just be a small .jpg image (just renamed to .jpe) and say something to the extent IN the picture, “This image cannot be displayed because it is copyrighted by Reels in Motion .com”
Step Three
Upload the file to your server (double check that you’ve backed it up!) and your good to go!
Note:
Thanks goes to Jack for reminding me that this is only for Linux/Apache servers and not for Windows Servers. While you can use many text editors, I use Coda (from Panic Software). Coda allows editing, previewing, and uploading of website files.
We’ve done a lot of events where it is useful to inform people more about what we do and do so in a fun and creative way. The best solution to this is using a digital picture frame.
Over the last year and a half, we’ve used a few and have come to love the 8" View Sonic Frame for several reasons.
First, it is a very modern looking frame. Its all glossy black, much like an iMac. There is no product branding on it, so it becomes a classy piece of art, by itself.
Second, the menu lights up on the front when you press the right location (and only then do you see the View Sonic text appear). These menus in the front are easy navigation. In the past, we’ve had frames with the buttons in the back and it was very hard to keep navigating between pictures.
Third, it plays movies well. Being in the business where animation gives an added edge, I can create custom Quicktime movies for the frame just for that event. And believe me… clients LOVE this!
Finally, the price is right, at just over a hundred dollars. You can purchase it on Amazon (if you use our Affiliate link, it helps support the site, as well!)
Some of you might know what Tilt Shift Photography is. Some may have even played around with it. I carry my DSLR around with me pretty much everywhere just in case I see something interesting. I’ve also been playing around with making some of my pictures look like Tilt Shift images.
Well, someone has taking this to a completely new level and has taken a ton of photos at a monster truck rally… enough to make it look like stop motion. Then they ran the entire image sequence through a Photoshop Batch file to create the Tilt Shift effect.
The result? It looks like a very elaborate miniature stop motion video!
I’ve been a Photoshop user for years and am currently using their latest version, CS4. I also use their motion graphics program, After Effects. They make a great combination.
Recently, Dan Goldman (who works in Adobe’s “Skunkworks” division) shared a video of some of Adobe’s newest technologies.
If this is a sign of things to come in video editing and visual effects, we’ve got some powerful tools coming our way.
As a visual effects artist, I’ve had the tools to do the tracking shown in the first half of the video (using different tools). But the second half of the video is what really “grabs” my attention. You’ll see what I mean.
Just a quick update today. I’ve been swamped with video production work. Most of it is animation, motion graphics, and visual effects work.
In fact, I’ve now got a second film under my belt on IMDB. And the cool part is that for the this most recent film, ‘77, I’m listed right next to Richard Yuricich, a visual effects consultant who worked on 2001 and Mission Impossible, and I’m listed just a little under John Knoll. His works include visual effects supervisor for The Abyss, Star Wars, The Hunt for Red October, Pirates of the Caribbean, and much more.
It was an honor to work on the same film as these giants.
Add this some more personal things going on like a the new tile floor we installed at our house, new dog, and a few other surprises, things are pretty darn cool. More soon!
