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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 remains a standard for the horror genre. Another good film for Halloween is Hellboy, the 2004 film adaptation of Mike Mignola's amazing comic series. Hellboy is a marvelously unlikely hero and the film is visually amazing, filled with strange creatures and locales. The last recommended movie for our fantasy/fright fest is Shaun of the Dead. Shaun of the Dead is a dead on (no pun intended) parody of zombie movies with the few tenacious survivors under siege by hordes of the shambling brain-eaters. And that's about it for this Halloween. Try one of these films for some good thrills and laughs.The picture of the week was created using Bryce
Click on the image for a full-sized view
The loops of the week are some synthetic plucked string parts.
Send your comments and feedback and I’ll read it all and respond to some of it.
Bye for now!
Friday October 24, 2008
Greetings! 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 usually start with a blank page of any dimensions. Next do some drawing or cut and paste images onto your blank slate. If your paint program has built in rendering you can use that feature to generate a semi-random pattern. Now it's time to make the picture seamless. Shift the image by about half the width and height. The “break” should now be visible in the middle. There are a few different ways to smooth the image. You can use a smear or smudge brush to blend the edges. You can also cut and paste small bits of the image over the edge area. Use your imagination and the tools in your particular art program. It's rather satisfying to roll your own tiled textures. Give it a try!
The picture of the week was created using Bryce.
Click on the image for a full-sized view
The loops of the week are some more dynamic drum parts.
Send your comments and feedback and I’ll read it all and respond to some of it.
Bye for now!
Friday October 17, 2008
Hello 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 game can be played in short sessions that don't demand too much time. There are 2 RTS games that have been consuming my spare time at a ridiculous rate. Command and Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars is a great game with a long lineage. The campaign is cool, but nothing is quite as much fun as starting up a skirmish against a few bloodthirsty computer opponents. The other RTS addiction of the week is Supreme Commander: Forged Alliance. FA is notable for sheer scale and numbers. It's quite possible to have hundreds of units engaged in separate actions across the entire map. Give them a try the next time you're looking for some fun and action.
The picture of the week was created using Bryce.
Click on the image for a full-sized view
The loops of the week are some weighty drum parts.
Send your comments and feedback and I’ll read it all and respond to some of it.
Bye for now!
Friday October 10, 2008
Salutations! 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 control you can create a web document that is far less generic and more artistic. I've been learning CSS and have embarked on a rewrite of my personal web site using style sheets. You can directly embed CSS style tags in an HTML document or you can link to an external file that contains all your CSS styles. With CSS you can design a web page with greater precision than is possible with plain HTML code. Everything works fairly well though I've found a few minor problems with Internet Explorer that don't occur when using Mozilla Firefox. Your mileage may vary based on which browser you use. You can learn more about CSS at the CSS Site. If you're looking to move beyond the basic functionality of HTML give CSS a try.
The picture of the week was created using Bryce.
Click on the image for a full-sized view
The loops of the week are some rhythmic synthesizer parts.
Send your comments and feedback and I’ll read it all and respond to some of it.
Bye for now!
Friday October 3, 2008
Hello 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. I've advocated free and open-source software from the beginning of Mark's Digital Arts but I hadn't found a solid music sequencer with all the bells and whistles for zero bucks. Then this past week I stumbled onto MU.LAB from Mutools. MU.LAB comes in two versions; a slightly limited (6 tracks and 16-bit mixdown) free version and an “unlimited” version for a rather reasonable 50 Euros. MU.LAB free covers all the basic necessities (audio and MIDI, recording and mixing) and some advanced features (VST plug-ins). As will all music software you'll have to devote a little time to learning it but there is a complete HTML online manual and some short tutorials available at the Mutools site. The interface has a slick look and there is an included synthesizer instrument and some effects. I'm still experimenting and learning MU.LAB free so I'll have to save the detailed judgment for another day. Suffice for now to say that MU.LAB free is the only free music application I've found that approaches the sophistication of commercial offerings. Stay tuned for more about this intriguing and excellent free find.
The picture of the week was created using Bryce.
Click on the image for a full-sized view
The loops of the week are some synthesizer sequences.
The book of the moment is Teach Yourself PHP and MySQL. Any computer book with a black cat on the cover gets my attention.
Send your comments and feedback and I’ll read it all and respond to some of it.
Bye for now!
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. Vector drawing programs draw and store pictures as dots, lines, curves, and shapes. The advantage of drawing programs is that they create artwork that can easily be scaled with no loss of detail. It's helpful to have at least one vector art application in your tool kit. Inkscape is a cool open-source vector drawing program with lots of features and excellent support. If you have a slightly bigger budget you can try Corel Draw 9 (or later). Corel Draw has a wealth of features and there are lots of tutorials online to help you learn. The remaining vector drawing program in my arts arsenal is OpenOffice.org Draw. OO Draw is the drawing component of the excellent Open Office suite. The benefits of OO Draw are greater simplicity and good integration with the rest of the OO package. There are many other vector drawing applications available but these three are a good start. Whether drawing a business diagram or your next art illustration, give vector drawing a try.
The picture of the week was created using Corel Draw.
Click on the image for a full-sized view
The loops of the week are some dynamic drum loops.
The movie/DVD of the week was Burn After Reading, a dark comedy from the Coen Bros.
The book of the moment is CSS in Easy Steps by Mike McGrath.
Send your comments and feedback and I’ll read it all and respond to some of it.
Bye for now!
Friday September 19, 2008
Aloha! 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 sites out there and I'll share some that I found topical and timely. JibJab gained lots of attention and got some major press in the last few years. The cool cutout animation and great music make for some prime political parody. Political cartoonist Mark Fiore has posted a number of very sharp and appropriate animations on his page. I like clean and slick drawing style and the slightly left-of-center viewpoint. Kevin Kallaugher (KAL) is the editorial cartoonist for The Economist magazine of London. His animated offerings give us a glimpse of the American political system from the outside. I was particularly impressed with the 3D animations, but all the works show a fine sense of style and British wit. And that's about it for this week. Send me a link if you find any other places on the Net to view animations or humor in a political vein.
The picture of the week was created using Project Dogwaffle.
Click on the image for a full-sized view
The loops of the week are some expansive synthesizer parts.
The PC game of the week is MechQuest.
Send your comments and feedback and I’ll read it all and respond to some of it.
Bye for now!
