Not only does Focus Features’ feature length animation “9″ look fantastic, the website has a piece of technology I hadn’t seen before. It accesses your webcam, and by holding up a special graphic (downloadable PDF on the same page) you can see the different characters in 3d, perched on the paper in your hand.
I had to install the latest version of Shockwave player, but the effect was worth it. This is a straight screenshot (click for larger), no photoshop work, and the character rotates and tilts in real time as you move the paper. Nice!
I turned 30 last month. With three kids, the oldest turning 4 in October, 30 years didn’t feel like much of a landmark. But I did get money from generous family members, and I bought some fun items this year.
One of those was a Wacom “Bamboo” drawing tablet. This is the amateur user version of Wacom’s Intuos line. It has fewer pressure sensitivity levels and doesn’t detect the tilt of your pen like the more expensive tablets, but it’s a great little tool to play with. Besides, I generally draw in pen & ink and color on the computer, and for that it’s perfect.
It installed without a hitch on my macbook pro. I did have a little trouble in photoshop after the initial install. There was a long delay between my mark on the tablet and the mark appearing on the image. Then it would cut out entirely after a couple marks, and I’d have to switch to another application and then back to PS. I restarted my mac and haven’t had a problem since.
The image here was drawn entirely with the tablet, directly over a photo of my friend, Evan.
One of my graphic design profs in college had us keep a graphic design “sketchbook”. She had a series of assignments involving type, photography, collage, and other visual experimentation. It was a fantastic ongoing assignment that really forced visual play, a concept necessary to healthy creative flow.
I found this in a shoebox this weekend. It’s a collage/drawing I kept from my sketchbook that semester.
House Party!
I finally had the chance to participate in a sketchcrawl this month. I invited several friends to come, but it was just as well they couldn’t make it. I’m pretty out of practice and took a fair amount of wandering before getting a few good drawings out at the Detroit Zoo.
The first sketch is of the butterfly gardens and free flight aviary, the second from the reptile house. I felt surprisingly comfortable drawing at the zoo — I rarely draw in public. It reminded me how much I enjoy drawing from life, taking what I see and translating it onto the paper.
Check out the other results (from literally all over the world) in the Sketchcrawl forum.
This is the credo for Make, a DIY technology magazine that’s become one of my favorite online destinations. Here are some notable items I now “own” according to this inspiring, if demanding, slogan:
Macintosh 700 MHz G4 Emac (upgraded optical drive)
Macintosh 1Gb G4 Powerbook Aluminum (replaced/upgraded optical drive)
Macintosh 4th Gen U2 Edition Ipod (replaced battery)
Notable items I do not “own”:
1998 Chrysler Town & Country (unless you count opening the door)
