Recessionitis

List of links relating to me

2009-06-16T12:57:00.000-07:00

I'm going to use this as a way to organize what sites I'm on.

My Twitter:
used for status updates

www.twitter.com/300pockets

My deviantART:
used as an art portfolio

300pockets.deviantart.com

My MySpace:
used to test out HTML techniques

www.myspace.com/300pockets

My YouTube channel:
used to display my 3D animation/CGI work

http://www.youtube.com/user/Acanthusia

My BlogSpot Blog:
used to, well, blog, but outside of school

300pockets.blogspot.com

Moot for the 2009 Top 100 Influential People

2009-03-19T20:00:00.000-07:00

http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,1883644_1883653_1885481,00.html

Ever lol'd at a lolcat?
Ever rickroll'd someone?
Ever said "I see what you did thar"?

Vote for moot.

You owe him.

Fractal Art

2009-03-09T18:01:00.000-07:00

Right now, I'm really into fractal art. You can see from my works on my deviantART such as http://300pockets.deviantart.com/art/Sky-Shield-115309469 . I use Apophysis 2.02, and although it takes a bit of tweeking to make fractals that look good. I'll always recolor them and adjust the levels in PhotoShop though. I tried out UltraFractal and couldn't figure it out at all, but maybe I need to spend more time on it?

My favorite thing about making fractals is that they look cool and require less time and energy than it takes to make other forms of art. Mine aren't that special or unique, but I like them because they're complex looking but simple at the same time.

Something else I learned while making this post:

I've been tagging my posts incorrectly and have to go back and retag them with " , " instead of "((space))".

Mario Kart Love Song

2009-03-06T22:27:00.000-08:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VDBpQVhCMb8

"V1:
You be my princess
I'll be your toad
I'll follow behind you
on rainbow road
Protect you from red shells
wherever we go
I promise.

V2:
Noone will touch us
if we pick up a star
If you spin out
you can ride in my car
When we slide together
we generate sparks
in our wheels and our hearts

Chorus:
The finish line
is just around the bend
I'll pause this game
so our love will never end
Let's go again

V3:
The blue shell is coming
so I'll go ahead
If you hang behind
it'll hit me instead
but never look back
cause I'm down but not dead
I'll catch up to you

Bridge:
Don't worry about
Bowser or DK
Eat this glowing mushroom
and they'll all fade away

Chorusx2

to the mushroom cup
and the flower cup
and the star cup
and the reverse cup

walalalalala
walalalalalawaluigiiiiii"

It's a beautiful song. I cried. Listen to it, go buy it.

Internet Explorer Anti-Trust

2009-03-02T19:55:00.000-08:00

http://blogs.zdnet.com/microsoft/?p=2137

tl;dr people are suing Microsoft for bundling Internet Explorer with their operating systems.

Here's my question.

How are you going to get a non-Internet Explorer browser if you can't get on the Internet because you don't have a browser on the computer? There's no way Microsoft can use another browser, because then that browser would have the monopoly. Using random browsers would cause incompatibility issues. Users would have to go to a store to buy an internet installation disc, and by then? It's too much trouble.

brb stone age

Photoshop Project: Fire Wire

2009-02-21T18:50:00.000-08:00

I was inspired by this tutorial:

http://www.freeonlineclasses.net/photoshop-tutorials/photo-effects/high-tech-swirling-aurora/page5.html

To alter

http://300pockets.deviantart.com/art/EmoXCore-113385365

into

http://300pockets.deviantart.com/art/Fire-Wire-113709289

I was lucky because I have a Wacom tablet, even though it's a simple Bamboo Fun. However, I don't like the way the eyes turned out and the fact the image is too red. I tried erasing parts of the red on my skin and eyes and lips, but I ended up looking clownlike. My hair also looks too brown. I think I'll try this technique on another photo.

Coraline: An Animator's Review

2009-02-20T22:28:00.000-08:00

I just saw Coraline at the Berkeley 7 with my younger sister. I'm not going to bother to review the plot (at least right now), but I'm going to review the animation.

Good:

The cat's tail was great. It bounced (not realistically) but it didn't just bounce, it flowed. I'm still wondering how they did it, because working in Creative Art last year, I was unable to make creatures with tails using clay because the clay would weigh down the wire and destroy the whole creature, however, in this movie, the tail was nice, long, and furry, but it wasn't just limp. It was gorgeous.

The lighting was nice. It wasn't over the top, and the lighting effects really made the difference in mood between different kinds of scenes. The lighting always fit the attitude, and they didn't go over the top by making lights super-bright or a pure color.

The use of fabric was great. It gave the movie a texture and stopped it from feeling too plasticy. I especially liked how it was used as a lawn.

I liked the integration of digital effects to the claymation itself, such as when the world fades/collapses (not going to give many spoilers) and how subtle it was. It was very simple, especially in the last scene with the 3 angels.

Not-so-good:

In the beginning, the cat's fur moves even when he's sitting still. However, he had a fabric coating (some sort of velvet, I think), so whenever he was shifted, fingers adjusted the fur. It would have been extremely difficult to make the fur move realistically because they were working with physical materials, however, I think the texturers in digital effects could have fixed it with a simple clone tool. The cat's face could have also been less primitive, but it wasn't terrible.

The buttons could have been more varied, rather than the same-old black buttons for virtually every character.

The metals weren't very shiny, but then again, most metals aren't, except in the the movies. However, they weren't grungy, they just looked rubbery.

Photoshop Project: My Insides All Turn to Ash, So Slow

2009-02-15T20:29:00.000-08:00

"My insides all turn to ash, so slow"
- Linkin Park, from the song Valentine's Day, off of the album Minutes to Midnight

It's a song I like a lot, and I listened to it on Valentine's Day while playin around with Poser 7, which comes packaged with some skeleton models. I use them for everything, and thought, "I like these lyrics, let's see what I can do with them".

I listened to this song, and at first, I was going to do a piece in Corel Painter with my Wacom Bamboo Fun tablet, but I decided not to. I could do what I wanted to do even faster in Poser. I was at first going to make two shots: one of a female falling, and one of a female skeleton falling, then, in Photoshop, layer them, with the female on the top, apply a gradient layer mask, and make the skeleton layer's outermost side partially erased with an airbrush-type tool to erase parts of it with a layer mask (in case I mess up and want to erase it differently), but I ended up just wanting to do the female skeleton.

I posed it with a universal pose and rendered it, then I put it into Photoshop, and created a cavern of sorts. http://www.thedesignworld.com/photoshop-tutorials/texture/aurora-scene/ was the tutorial I used, by applying the aurora effect on 4 sides.

After I create the image, I'll use particle Illusion to add the smoke effect, with some falling ash.

UPDATE:

http://300pockets.deviantart.com/art/My-Insides-All-Turn-To-Ash-113711077

Finished image.

I chose not to do any smoke or particle effects for this picture.

The Veld - Laws of Escape

2009-02-15T19:56:00.000-08:00

My friend Loop sent me a link to this band. He's friends with the lead singer and the cinematographer. Check them out, I like it a lot, the lead's dreads are really nice.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4bBcx2W9y4c

Twitter

2009-02-15T17:24:00.001-08:00

Twitter twitter
How I do adore you so
You make me happy
Like a barrel of cookie dough

Making me happy
With updates so sappy
Twitter
Twitter
You are like
Status message glitter

www.twitter.com/300pockets