Mark's Digital Arts

tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-229852592009-11-07T20:30:36.623-08:00Mark's Digital ArtsA web log devoted to the creative side of computingGray Cat Whiskershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04193195000690409013noreply@blogger.comBlogger108125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22985259.post-28767559889701439122009-08-14T12:26:00.000-07:002009-08-22T18:42:28.689-07:00Comedy Tonight!

August 14, 2009Hello again and Happy Friday! It's been months since I've posted a blog entry but tonight I've some exciting stuff to share. Tonight I have a spot in the late-night stand up comedy revue at the first inaugural Altadena Comedy Festival. The ACF is from Aug. 13th through the 15th and all proceeds go to a great cause, the American Cancer Society. I caught 2 of the shows last night and

Gray Cat Whiskershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04193195000690409013noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22985259.post-71749497785210431362009-04-20T22:04:00.000-07:002009-04-20T22:25:45.465-07:00I'm still here!

Friday April 20, 2009Hello Again! It's Monday and I've been very busy and unable to post these past few weeks. I've been away from the blog because I've found a day job and have been devoting more of my free time to stand up comedy. Life is strange in that there are times when you will be most inspired when you have the least time. I suspect that muses are fickle and flighty. You can't

Gray Cat Whiskershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04193195000690409013noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22985259.post-75081016051198041382009-02-25T19:21:00.000-08:002009-02-25T19:32:16.656-08:00Context Free and a Frantic February

Wednesday February 25, 2009Hello World! I'm very late but back with more of the good stuff. I may need to have fewer and less regular blog updates in the future but we'll see what time permits. My topic for tonight is graphics and the focus is on another fun and free program. Context Free is an art program that generates images from a set of written instructions called a grammar. The Context

Gray Cat Whiskershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04193195000690409013noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22985259.post-69757829635703337782009-01-25T21:41:00.000-08:002009-08-14T13:06:31.114-07:00A Mini Tour of Small Art

Sunday January 25, 2009Hello again! Sorry for the lateness of this post, but fate and reality have conspired of late to keep me from getting to all I'd like to do. It's another quiet Sunday night and the rain has passed for the moment. The topic for tonight is minimalism and the focus will be on small works of art. The essential challenge of a small art work is to express an idea in a limited

Gray Cat Whiskershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04193195000690409013noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22985259.post-55678497762303990702009-01-16T23:08:00.000-08:002009-01-16T23:16:33.009-08:00To Night, Tonight

Friday January 16, 2009 Unusually warm winter greetings. It's a balmy night considering it's January and this old gray cat has been busy. I've been out in the night a bit more this week so the topic is art with the word “night” in the title. The first night encounter is Mozart's Eine kleine Nachtmusik, which has been translated (somewhat inaccurately) as A little night music. After listening

Gray Cat Whiskershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04193195000690409013noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22985259.post-30629587193273435552009-01-09T22:06:00.000-08:002009-01-09T22:12:51.783-08:00I Got Rhythm

Friday January 9, 2009Hello Again! It's another fine Friday in January and the new year is well under way. The topic for tonight is music and the focus will be on rhythm. I've always been fascinated by unusual and ethnic rhythm patterns. The combination of an odd rhythm with a strange instrument sound or sample can be both startling and beautiful. I've started an experimental piece that has

Gray Cat Whiskershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04193195000690409013noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22985259.post-20597183943683512009-01-03T01:03:00.000-08:002009-01-03T01:23:04.981-08:00Finding Clarity Through Hilarity

Saturday January 3, 2009Happy New Year! It's the first Friday of 2009 and it's chilly here in the Gray Cat's loft. The topic for tonight is writing and the focus will be on writing comedy. We've all had the opportunity to tell a joke we've heard but it's far harder to create a new joke. There is in fact an art to crafting a good joke and to combine a series of jokes on a theme. Brevity is a

Gray Cat Whiskershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04193195000690409013noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22985259.post-53493559720943370202008-12-28T21:07:00.000-08:002008-12-28T21:41:55.313-08:00It's a Party for the Tardy

Sunday December 28, 2008Hello again! It's another late post and the last one of the year. Holiday madness and a full couple of weekends have played havoc with my schedule. For this latest and belated update I have my annual list of my favorite games of the year. My top five for 2008 were:#5. Civilization III. One of the best turn-based strategy games ever.#4. Sword of the Stars. Space

Gray Cat Whiskershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04193195000690409013noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22985259.post-31146083852979224602008-12-12T21:15:00.000-08:002008-12-12T21:42:41.371-08:00One Hundred and Counting

Friday December 12, 2008 Welcome Back! It's Friday once more and it's starting to feel more like Winter here. This week's posting is my 100th and it's hard to believe that over 2 years have passed since I relaunched Mark's Digital Arts. This week I'd like to thank all the good people who have contributed in some way to this web-log. I'll start with my lady love Bella who has always given me

Gray Cat Whiskershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04193195000690409013noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22985259.post-30545878223124028062008-12-05T21:43:00.000-08:002008-12-05T22:10:33.452-08:00Easy Peasy 3D Bliss

Friday December 5, 2008Cool December greetings! It's a rather quiet day here in the Gray Cat's loft. The topic for tonight is computer graphics and the focus will be on Carrara 5 Pro. I've mostly used and written about the Bryce 5 and Anim8or because they're both good programs and available as free software. I acquired Carrara 5 Pro as a featured free program on a 3D Now magazine disk, but it

Gray Cat Whiskershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04193195000690409013noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22985259.post-828884257474674962008-11-28T21:56:00.000-08:002008-12-05T15:09:51.467-08:00Turkey-Fueled Retail Therapy

Friday November 28, 2008Hello! November is nearly done and in a couple of weeks this humble web log will see it's 100th entry. That's right mi agigos y amigas, Mark's Digital Arts is hitting the century milestone and I'm already looking for some special way to celebrate the event. The topic for this week is shopping in honor of Black Friday and the big Thanksgiving Weekend. This year the

Gray Cat Whiskershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04193195000690409013noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22985259.post-91325848305388675692008-11-22T23:55:00.000-08:002008-11-22T23:58:38.952-08:00It's Late but Great

Saturday October 22, 2008Good Evening! Ugh, I'm late once more this week but hopefully this will be the last time for the year. It's Saturday night and I'm here with a fresh new entry, hot and straight out of the oven. I'm pressed for time this week so there won't be any new music loops and the entry will consist of an update of all my current projects. The experimental film group has cast an

Gray Cat Whiskershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04193195000690409013noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22985259.post-41430411545093536632008-11-15T22:10:00.000-08:002008-11-16T00:31:17.330-08:00Musical Construction in Progress

Saturday November 15, 2008Hola! It's Saturday night and I'm back with the belated hits and misses of the last week. The topic for tonight is music and the focus will be on composition. This week I've started in earnest on the score for a short film project that I'd been involved in. This is an entirely new challenge after only writing non-connected, self contained works. The first step was

Gray Cat Whiskershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04193195000690409013noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22985259.post-57687238472163757312008-11-07T21:54:00.000-08:002008-11-16T00:31:36.423-08:00From Last to FIrst on a List of the Worst

Friday November 7, 2008Warm autumn greetings! The topic for tonight are lists of art and creation that are the worst in their category. We're talking real bottom of the barrel sludge here so be sure to hold your nose as you wade in. I personally think it's harder to agree on the best examples then it is to name the worst. The first stop on our tour of the truly terrible is Web Pages that Suck

Gray Cat Whiskershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04193195000690409013noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22985259.post-26952420746668173882008-10-31T21:08:00.000-07:002008-10-31T21:15:29.893-07:00Macabre Movies for your Halloween Holiday

Friday October 31, 2008Hello and Happy Halloween! The topic for tonight is films and we're going to talk about some great movies for the Halloween holiday. The first film on my short list is the original 1960 version of Psycho. There have been scary movies since, but few have come close to the impact and suspense of Psycho. In Psycho, Alfred Hitchcock created a cinematic touchstone that

Gray Cat Whiskershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04193195000690409013noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22985259.post-32121479545309901392008-10-24T21:05:00.000-07:002008-10-24T21:10:25.215-07:00Creating tiled textures

Friday October 24, 2008Greetings! It's Friday night and time once more for my weekly share of artistic and technical rants and ravings. The topic for tonight is graphic and focus will be on creating tiled textures. I've been making a number of seamless tiled textured to use as repeating backgrounds. Repeating patterns are also useful as textures for 3D models. To create a repeating pattern I

Gray Cat Whiskershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04193195000690409013noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22985259.post-73296479445668669862008-10-17T21:12:00.000-07:002008-10-17T21:23:46.053-07:00Great games for a lazy Friday

Friday October 17, 2008Hello Again! It's Friday and I'm here with my weekly update of all things technical and artistic. The topic for this week is games and I'm going to share my current obsessions and time killers. MechQuest is a browser role-playing game with anime style graphics. I like pretty much any game that lets you fight it out with giant robots. The game mechanics are easy and the

Gray Cat Whiskershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04193195000690409013noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22985259.post-72094039610427894242008-10-10T22:18:00.000-07:002008-10-10T22:23:27.249-07:00Styling and smiling with CSS

Friday October 10, 2008Salutations! It's Friday night and once more I'm back with the usual mix of tech and creativity. The topic for tonight is web design and the focus will be on CSS (cascading style sheets). CSS were designed to add greater style control and to HTML web pages. Style is the colors, spacing, and fonts used in a web page, and CSS is all about controlling style. With style

Gray Cat Whiskershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04193195000690409013noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22985259.post-11038407318401964482008-10-03T22:46:00.000-07:002008-10-03T23:04:24.979-07:00More Music and Free Glee

Friday October 3, 2008Hello and Welcome! I'm back with the weekly dose of computerized merriment and artistic commentary. The topic this week is music and the focus is a on a great free sequencer. A sequencer program is the heart of a virtual music studio, in which you can record, arrange and edit compositions. Sequencers range from free trackers to costly and capable professional systems.

Gray Cat Whiskershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04193195000690409013noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22985259.post-89594613164845450742008-09-26T21:04:00.000-07:002008-09-26T21:14:07.932-07:00Drawing on Versatile Vectors

Friday September 26, 2008Greetings! It's another warm Friday evening and I'm back with my weekly report of creative and fun stuff. This week the topic is graphics and the focus will be on vector drawing applications. The distinction between drawing and painting programs is whether they're vector or pixel based. Pixel paint programs draw and store everything as pixels, or tiny colored dots.

Gray Cat Whiskershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04193195000690409013noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22985259.post-26820166030741058102008-09-19T23:31:00.000-07:002008-09-19T23:42:55.551-07:00Apt Animations and Comedic Candidates

Friday September 19, 2008Aloha! It's Friday once more and I'm here with the weekly dose of artistic doings and computerized chaos. The topic this week is animation and the focus will be on political humor. 2008 is an election year in this country and the the overall effect is like being caught in hurricane when you're downwind from a manure plant. There are some fun and funny animation satire

Gray Cat Whiskershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04193195000690409013noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22985259.post-63502329451271054532008-09-12T21:04:00.000-07:002008-09-12T21:27:44.821-07:00Retro Recreations of Innovative Instruments

Friday September 12, 2008Greetings and Happy Friday! We're on the verge of autumn and the evening is cooler. The topic for tonight is music and the focus will be on recreating the sounds of old instruments and computers. There's something about the limited sounds of yesteryear to get the old synapses firing. The synthesizer plug-ins listed here are all in VST format, so they'll work with the

Gray Cat Whiskershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04193195000690409013noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22985259.post-26630546325028898072008-09-05T21:30:00.000-07:002008-09-12T21:04:16.722-07:00The Fine Art of UV Mapping

Friday September 5, 2008Hi again! It's another warm summer evening and I'm here with the weekly dose of artistic and creative doings. The topic for today is Graphics and the focus will be on UV mapping. I gained an interest in UV mapping after reading about it in a chapter from a book on creating digital dinosaur 3D models. UV mapping is a graphics technique in which a 3D model is projected

Gray Cat Whiskershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04193195000690409013noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22985259.post-16682160421639025422008-08-29T23:00:00.000-07:002008-09-05T21:46:50.920-07:00Stone Soup from Free Loops

Friday August 29, 2008Greetings and TGIF! I'm back on this fair if humid Friday evening with more interesting and creative stuff. The topic for tonight is music and the focus is making music with loops. I'm certain that most of you have heard the fairy-tale/fable Stone Soup. The basic idea is that a flavorful soup is created seemingly from stones boiled in a cauldron of water when in fact it

Gray Cat Whiskershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04193195000690409013noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22985259.post-87450173574784995472008-08-22T22:29:00.000-07:002008-08-25T13:10:01.331-07:00A Bounty for Bibliophiles

Friday August 22, 2008Hail and hello to all! It's Friday again and topic for tonight is books and reading. This summer I have a backlog of books to read both fiction and otherwise that are filling my shelves. Most were bargains and blowout sales or plunder from book sales at the local library. As much as I like finding a book on the cheap it's even better to get your reading material for free

Gray Cat Whiskershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04193195000690409013noreply@blogger.com0