Brilliant Animation Short: The Kinematograph
Check out Tomek Baginski’s short animated movie The Kinematograph. This is a very touching and well animated short movie.
Wacom Inkling
I’m not even going to bother saying much about this product. I have always wanted a Cintiq (still do) but this looks like it would be loads of fun.
For $200, all I am going to say is, sold! I’ll leave the rest to Wacom’s marketing:
The Inkling digital sketch pen captures a digital likeness of your work while you sketch with its ballpoint tip on any sketchbook or standard piece of paper. Designed for rough concepting and creative brainstorming, Inkling is ideal for the front end of the creative process. Later, refine your work on your computer using an Intuos4 tablet or Cintiq interactive pen display.
In addition to capturing your sketch, stroke by stroke, Inkling allows you to create layers in digital files while you sketch on paper. Digital files are transferred to your computer using the Inkling Sketch Manager software, and later, exported to applications such as Adobe® Photoshop® and Illustrator®. Files can also be opened with the included Inkling Sketch Manager software to edit, delete, add layers or change file formats.
FanExpo 2011 Canada
FanExpo was a bit of a cluster fuck last year. Super long lines and way too small a space but this year promises to be different. They are now in the south building of the convention centre which is much bigger and they seem more prepared for the onslaught of people.
I went on Thursday and was impressed. I mostly go for Artist Alley but there were a ton of interesting things. I have a weekend pass so I will be going Friday, Saturday and Sunday too. Must remember not to spend too much money!
New Look Roma 2011-2012
Here we go. Sunday is the first game of the 2011/2012 season for AS Roma. I’m not going to mention any new players, coaches or owners in this post. I almost feel like mentioning ANYTHING about Roma is just going to jinx the season. I can’t handle another season like the last one. Just can’t.
FORZA ROMA!
Take it easy, Don Henley
How crazy are things starting to get with IP? Companies suing every other company. Music industry trying to extort money from regular people. Basically, trying anything and everything OTHER than trying to solve issues using creative methods. It’s funny, but if it weren’t for Apple and iTunes, the music industry would have died a long time ago.
Now we have this beauty. According to a USA Today opinion piece from Eagles drummer and singer Don Henley, blocking and banning any site that breaks copyright laws (in this case, illegally downloading Henley songs) from Google and credit card payments is something that should be supported… and if you don’t supported, well you are either a terrorist or a criminal yourself. He is referring to the PROTECT IP Act.
Critics of this pending legislation need to be honest about the company they keep and why they essentially aid and abet these criminal endeavors. The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), a civil liberties group, claims such a bill would “break the Internet,” while Google Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt says it sets “a disastrous precedent” for freedom of speech. No one has the freedom to commit or abet crimes on the Internet. Stopping crime on the Internet is not, as EFF says, “censorship.” There is no First Amendment right to infringe intellectual property rights.
Luckily, EFF ( Electronic Frontier Foundation) board member Brad Templeton (yes, brother of famous Canadian comic artist/writer Ty Templeton, whom I mention often in this blog) wrote an amusing response to Don Henley:
Take it Easy, Don. There’s a New Kid in Town, and it’s called the Internet. Get Over It. I Can’t Tell you Why, but in The Long Run, there isn’t going to be a Heartache Tonight. One of these Nights I hope you’ll you understand that for search engines to Take it To the Limit, they can’t be forced to police every search result.
Internet companies only grow when living Life in the Fast Lane, able to operate, innovate and design products without needing to check for permission from the music industry. If every time you wrote a song you had to worry about what every user who plays it and every store that sells it might do with it, you would lose your Peaceful, Easy Feeling quickly. Big companies might run filters, but if the small ones had needed to they would be Already Gone.
When will the music industry learn?
Elena Aurora at 4 and A Half Months
Can’t believe how quickly time is flying. Elena is 4 1/2 months! She’s a cutie and keeps my wife and I busy. Looking forward to teaching her many things and watching cartoons together!
Prisoners Of Gravity Now Available Online
TVO, I love you! I remember this show from when I was a youngster. I used to watch it all the time and now it’s online for free. The other cool thing about the show is that the montage at the beginning is drawn by none other than Canada’s own Ty Templeton.
I took Ty’s class at the Toronto Cartoonists Workshop and I would highly recommend anyone that has an interest in story telling, drawing and sequential art to check it out. He is an encyclopaedia of knowledge and has a great sense of humour as well.
Prisoners of Gravity, the acclaimed comic book and science fiction news magazine series, is not television. It’s the world’s orbital oracle. It’s the future now. Trapped in geosynchronous orbit, unable to escape the planet he’s convinced is hurtling toward self-destuction, Commander Rick (Rick Green) commandeers the airwaves to transmit his weekly pirate broadcasts. Assisted by his on-board computer assistant Nan-Cy (his trusty NANo-CYbernetic 3000 computer) aboard the Reality-1 Communications Satellite, Commander Rick explores crucial issues of the late twentieth century in the language of the faithful: science fiction, comics, computers, fantasy, and horror, all respectfully recognized in the series as adult art forms. He interviews these genres’ writers, artists, and filmmakers, focusing on a different theme in each program: politics, war, fears, dreams, addictions, children, new worlds, and even the current popularity of dinosaurs.
Guest included Ray Bradbury, William Gibson, Harlan Ellison, Anne Rice, Frederik Pohl, Clive Barker, David Brin, Charles de Lint, Robert J. Sawyer, Spider Robinson and Terry Pratchett, Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, Will Eisner, Bob Kane, Frank Miller, Chris Claremont, Scott McCloud, Alan Moore, Neil Gaiman, Gene Roddenberry, Michael Dorn, James Cameron and David Cronenberg.
M42 Screw Mount Lenses
So, I have become obsessed with the m42 screw mount lenses. I am using them on my Canon 5dmkii and Canon XTi bodies. They are manual focus lenses but are cheap and there is a ton of selection. Maybe it’s the fact that I feel a bit more involved when using a manual focus camera and a aperture ring or maybe it’s the good glass that I have found. I don’t know. All I know is that I am having a ton of fun with them. Funny how a year ago, I didn’t even know this world existed!
Apparently, Canon DSLRs are perfect for the M42 lenses. As for bodies with a flange focal distance greater than that of M42, most notably Nikon, three options are available. A simple mechanical adaptor allows the lens to be mounted, but the effect is similar to the introduction of an extension tube, reducing the minimum focus distance at the expense of losing infinity focus. Alternatively, an adaptor with an optical element can be used to retain the original focus range of the lens, at the expense of some image quality. Finally, it is possible to replace the M42 mount on some lenses with a Nikon F mount, or to perform the reverse change on a Nikon camera body. The latter process will, of course, render the camera unable to use the F-mount lenses it was originally designed for.
Here is some info from Camerapedia:
The 42mm screw mount was introduced in 1947 with the Zeiss IkonContax S 35mm SLR, then it was adopted by KW on the Praktica. Later it was chosen by Asahi for the Pentax family of SLRs. It was also used by the Russians on the Zenit. In the 1970s that lens mount became old-fashioned, and was progressively replaced by bayonet mounts by all the manufacturers that used it, except on some Zenits. Very recently Voigtländer reintroduced a 42mm screw mount SLR with the Bessaflex.
This mount is also called Universal screw mount, Pentax screw mount, even if it was not invented by Pentax, or Praktica screw mount (same remark), or M42 for short.
Glassless adapters have been marketed that will allow M42 lenses to be used on bodies with the Pentax K-mount, the Canon FD or EF mount, the Nikon F mount, the Minolta MD or ? mount, the Olympus OM mount, the Konica AR mount, and probably other 35mm SLR mounts besides.
I have begun testing the lenses I have and I will be writing some reviews with example shots soon.
About Me
I created my first web site in 1994 and have been working full-time designing web sites since 1996. I currently work as an UX specialist and Information Architect.