The Extraordinary Tourist

The Time Traveler's Wife - Movie Opinion

TET (David) — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 03:22:00 -0800

When I first saw the preview for The Time Traveler's Wife I thought 'chick flick' however, the movie has a time travel component (one of my favorite sci-fi subjects) so I was interested to know more.

If you're a time travel fan too then this film will not only not disappoint but it also breaks all the 'rules' of time travel. However, having said that, it's also a great chick flick too (especially for Eric Bana fans).

As with all my movie opinions, this isn't a review as such, it's more of a commentary on what I found interesting. I'm assuming you've seen the film but if not I'll try not to write anything that will spoil it for you. If you don't know what the film is about then you may like to click the link in the first paragraph which will take you to the movies page on the Internet Movie Data Base.

Quickly, on the plot, Eric Bana plays Henry DeTamble, a man born with a genetic condition that causes him to involuntarily travel both forwards and backwards through time. He has some subconscious control over where he travels to (usually places he knows or at least within range of places he knows) but it not an exact science.

In one of his time travels he meets his future wife, Claire, as a very young girl and develops a friendship over time that eventually leads up to her, as a grown woman, meeting him before he has traveled back in time to meet her. Confused yet?

People who enjoy the pseudo-science of time travel will have a field day analyzing the time travel aspects of this movie to death. The rest of you - be well advised not to try and rationalize the logic of time travel in this film and take it at face value for what it is. All you need to keep track of is which Henry are you currently watching, Henry from the past, present or future?

I liked that Henry's ability to time travel is a genetic condition. It's not a new idea but as something he can't control it does present some interesting challenges for him and those who know of his ability to overcome.

It's also interesting that he appears to be the only known person in the world with this condition. I did like that the film did not spend too much time explaining what caused his condition (initially) nor did they go into too much detail when Henry finally seeks outside help to try and control what he has. The research of his condition seems plausible but doesn't actually explain anything.

What makes this film a real discussion point for time travel enthusiasts is that it breaks the one common rule amongst many time travel films and TV shows - meeting your future or past self. It's often thought that this could be a catastrophic event (think Doc Emmett Brown in the Back to the Future films explaining what could happen if Marty's Girl Friend met her future self). In The Time Traveler's Wife this is something of a casual event, happening multiple times.

Further to that, as in the Back to the Future films, meeting your past self could be catastrophic because you could change your future to the point where the future as you know it ceases to exist in a major way for your life.

What's problematic in The Time Traveler's Wife is that Henry claims that he is unable to change the future for major events (such as the death of his mother at the beginning of the film) yet he spends much of the film influencing the future and even using it to change his present financial circumstances.

There are also a number of paradoxes in the film such as when Henry and Claire are looking for a house to buy. The house they choose is based on a house that Henry has already seen in the future. If his experience of the house they choose is based on his visit to the house in the future then how did they come to be living in that house before Henry had seen it in his time travels?

The film makes no apologies for these paradoxes and, in fact, embraces them by pointing them out on occasion and simply accepting them without question.

As I said, if you're not a time travel buff, analyzing the technicalities of time travel in this film will only tear open major inconsistencies using a science that isn't real, only speculative.

For fans of time travel then, if you can get over all the so called 'rule breaking' and try to make sense of the time line, there's a lot of interesting discussion to be had. You may even find yourself buying the best selling novel this is based upon to find out more.

TET's Animator Dominator Competition

TET (David) — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 08:26:00 -0800

As it turns out when I entered the last Unofficial, Official Animator Dominator Contest on GoAnimate I meant to let you know the results but didn't. Quite remiss of me considering I won and was crowned the new Animator Dominator.

If you're not familiar with this competition then here's some background.

Originally the competition was inspired by an animation by skits called Ryco vs Ro (two high profile GoAnimate members) where viewers could vote for who they thought would win. A debate then ensued.

Ludvig II then made a joke comment that the only way to settle it was to have an 'Animate-Off' with Ryco and Ro actually competing to determine who would win. Ludvig came up with some pretty crazy and humorous rules. His original comment was as follows:

The comments on the animation show that Ryco was inspired by Ludvig's rules to actually attempt an animation based upon them. From there Ro soon followed and the informal competition was on. The winner was determined by community vote. You can follow what happened in this forum thread on GoAnimate.

In the end Ryco emerged victorious and became the first Animator Dominator.

From those small beginnings the competition has grown with each new Animator Dominator devising the rules and when the next competition is actually run.

As far as I know I am the third title holder, with GoAnimate member, Mojochi, being the previous winner before me.

So that's the history as far as I know it.

Last week it was my turn to launch my version of the Animator Dominator contest which I did with the animation below.

TET's Animator Dominator Competion by etourist

Like it? Create your own at GoAnimate.com. It's free and fun!

The publishing date for animations is November 16, 2009 so if you're reading this before that date and are a GoAnimate member you might like to consider entering. Click on the links in the animation for your animations requirements and information for how the winner is chosen.

The previous incarnation of the competition was purely who could get the most views on their animation would win. This has been a common way to run competitions (including official ones) on GoAnimate that I wanted to address because it favors animators with the most fans and all time views.

Hence, to give lesser known animators some hope, I've combined views with a voting system that can be manipulated to favor more resourceful animators if they so choose. It's not necessarily fairer but it should make the out come a lot less predictable.

I announced this competition in the GoAnimate forums where you can follow the competition and read some of my humorous tips for winning.

I'll also be featuring the winner and perhaps the runner ups too in this very blog. The winners will be announced on November 30, 2009.

Domo Cooking Again

TET (David) — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 06:14:00 -0800

Ever since I made Domo Cooking (Internally) I've wanted to try another cooking episode because the first wasn't really what I had in mind. The story just kind of followed a path of it's own. I was also unhappy that Domo wasn't in a proper kitchen.

Finally I've completed Domo Cooking Again (see animation embeded below), which I started quite some time ago and kind of got side tracked.

This time Domo has a full kitchen and is aided by his capable assistant, Tashanna.

Domo Cooking Again by etourist

Like it? Create your own at DomoNation.com. It's free and fun!

Once again the storyline kind of went off on a tangent that wasn't there when I started. However these things happen once you start feeling the pinch of the limitation of movement the pre-made Domo Animate characters have.

I was originally hoping I'd be able to have Domo do some actual cooking this time around but I still haven't come up with a satisfactory way of getting him to pick up and put down objects.

If I was doing this on GoAnimate I'd be able to make some custom Domo arms and fake it a little with them but unfortunately Domo Animate doesn't allow custom... anything!

In the end we get what you see. For some reason both Tashanna and Mr Usaji have the mystical ability to bend spoons so I used that to suggest, somehow, that Mr Usaji had tampered with Domo's cutlery.

It kind of works as a joke.

I also like the interaction between Tashanna and Domo. I think I'm getting the hang of helping the audience understand what Domo is saying through the technique of using the surrounding characters to semi translate.

As I said this still isn't quite what I had in mind for a cooking episode so I expect I'll eventually give another episode a try. Once I've worked out how to fake Domo's hands picking things up and carrying them.

How to Market and Sell Your Art Online

TET (David) — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 06:33:00 -0800

The Unconventional Guide to Art + Money ebook
by Chris Guillebeau and Zoë Westhof

E-Book Review by TET

Less than two percent of Bachelor of Arts Graduates in Australia will actually go on to become established artists. At least that's the figure according to an article I recently read in The Adelaide Review by Peter Drew titled, Poor Odds for Arts.

That article is very relevant to this review as it highlights the emergence of Artist Run Initiatives (ARIs). Particularly the idea of young artists not waiting for their big break with a major mainstream gallery but instead, actually getting out there, finding their own audience and making their own success.

Many artists are turning to new media, such as the Internet, to promote and sell their work directly to collectors. Unfortunately this process can be trial and error to find what works.

This is where The Unconventional Guide to Art + Money ebook by Chris Guillebeau and Zoë Westhof steps in by delving into the real world experience of several successful artists, marketing their work online. Showing you what is working for them and giving you some practical advice for how you can get started marketing and selling your own work in similar fashion.

It is NOT a get rich quick by selling your art online product. This ebook is clearly targeted at serious artists who understand that success takes a lot of hard work plus time.

When I bought this product I found the ebook clearly set out and easy to read. With 55 pages and 54 headings (on the contents page) it attempts to cover a lot of ground - some more successfully than others. The whole book is broken into four parts.

The Introduction sets the frame work for why you might take the new media approach with a compelling story about the Twin Myths of Art i.e. the starving artist and the discovered artist who is instantly shot to fame and fortune overnight.

It then goes on to make the case for marketing your art online using the experiences of real artists who were interviewed as part of the research for this book. All of the artists are very credible sources of information who are succeeding with their online endeavors including; Hazel Dooney (Australia), Michael Nobbs (Wales), Leah Piken Kolidas (USA), Sandra Miller (USA), Joseph Szymanski (USA), Dan Duhrkoop (USA) as well as a few others.

Their experiences are referred back to in all sections of the book through quotes from each artist serving to reinforce the books ideas with real world experience.

The second section of the book talks about Strategy and how to envision your online 'studio'. This covers things such as planning your goals, finding your market (or 'people' as it refers to them), creating an action plan, pricing your art and more.

It also describes an 'anti-marketing' approach that is pretty much Chris' own signature marketing strategy and, interestingly enough, one that many of the interviewed artists use as well (though as something they just naturally gravitated and evolved towards rather than a learned technique).

The third section, Tactics, gets down to the nuts and bolts of actually putting yourself and your work on line. It includes a very useful chart that will let you quickly compare a number of popular art related web sites to see which may be right for you. It then goes on to look at each site in just a little more detail explaining the pros and cons of each and suggesting an action plan for how to get started if that site sounds a good match for you.

There's a more detailed look at pricing your art as well as starting your own web site, blog and the benefits of social networking sites like Twitter and Facebook.

Finally in the last section called, Putting it All Together, helps you develop a schedule for your work, looks at approaches to getting your work seen and discusses the importance of maintaining an email list.

It also touches on Product launches, Payment gateways and how you could expand you practice once you start seeing some success.

One of the bonus features of Art + Money is that several of the interviews conducted were recorded and are included as MP3 Downloads. There are two versions of the product with the difference being the number of MP3 downloads.

The Starving Artist version will give you the ebook with three interviews whilst the Picasso Version will give you all the interviews as well as a discussion between Chris and Zoë focusing on the eight most important things they learnt.

Personally I went straight for the Picasso version because hearing real, successful artists talk about the business side of their art practice is not only invaluable but inspiring too.

The Unconventional Guide to Art + Money is like a crash course in online art marketing. The ebook is short enough to read in an afternoon which may leave you feeling a little cheated (considering the price) but if online arts marketing is new to you then you'll probably find yourself re-reading much of it again and again.

If this stuff isn't new to you and you've been attempting to market your work online for a while with limited success then you may find more value in the interviews than the ebook - though there is still plenty in the ebook that you may find of interest.

As a product I'd say it does deliver the information you need to make some informed decisions about marketing your art online. Fast tracking your research so you can get on with the actual business of selling your art.

In some areas I felt it could have been more in depth (such as how to maintain your relationships with your 'people' once you've found them) whilst in others it seemed to be a little repetitive (Action Plans for the various web sites).

Like any product of this kind the real value will ultimately be in whether you make use of the information or you store it on your computer somewhere and forget about it.

Personally I've listened to the interviews several times because that's the main reason I bought the product but, since I'm familiar with just about every site mentioned in the ebook and have a presence on many of them, I'm still deciding on how valuable the ebook has been to me.

One thing I do know is that new media has been relatively successful for me already. I've been selling my work online for longer than new media pioneer, Hazel Dooney (I'm just not as driven as she is or as knowledgeable about the art world). In fact I started selling online accidentally, through message board forums. I'd post my work just to show and people would ask if the work was for sale!

Since then the landscape has changed with sites like Myspace, Facebook and Twitter. It's a whole new way of marketing and The Unconventional Guide to Art + Money shows you how.

Read more information and purchase
The Unconventional Guide to Art + Money

Other Unconventional Guides:

Frequent Flyer Master

How to Become Your Own Travel Ninja

The Unconventional Guide to Working for Yourself

The Unconventional Guide to the Social Web

* Disclaimer: Please note that I am an affiliate seller of all the Unconventional Guides. Whilst I have tried to remain objective I did become an affiliate because I was impressed with the Art + Money Guide as a product that doesn't overstate its claims.

03a - Jonathon Apple Colour Concept

etourist — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 18:07:58 -0700

etourist posted a photo:

Possible colour suggestion for Jonathon apple using digital photographic images combined with my sketch.

GoAnimate Spooktacular Contest

TET (David) — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 15:25:00 -0700

GoAnimate launched its Spooktacular Halloween Contest this week and although I missed the first deadline I've just managed to get this in before the October 25th (2009) deadline for tallying up total views during the contest period. So, if you happen to be reading this and it's October 25 or before please watch the animation below ASAP so I can get the view recorded in my tally.

Deer Hunter's Creek by etourist

Like it? Create your own at GoAnimate.com. It's free and fun!

The ten animations with the most views will go on to be judged for the major prizes (which are only exciting to GoAnimate members - so don't think I'll be inviting you as a guest on my prize of an ocean cruise or anything).

Anyhow all the animations are themed around Halloween and in particular Ghost stories. If you've already watched my animation you'll know it features GoAnimate's Full Energy Cast of characters as well as a couple of cameo appearances from characters in their Classics theme.

Of particular note is the animated fire pit which I created myself using Pencil Animator, a program that I will be reviewing on this blog in the near future.

Finally, I know the ending of my animation is pretty lame but, with a time limit of two minutes and the closing date looming, I just had to bite the bullet and end the story as best I could. Once the competition is over I may go back and do a better ending but for now, it is what it is. Hopefully the journey will make up for the ending.

03 - Jonathon Apple Concept Drawings

etourist — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 20:45:54 -0700

etourist posted a photo:

Conceptual Drawings of character development for a children's book.

Stage 3: Further development sketches of Jonathon apple. Shape is more round, legs/arms are more stick man like and eyes and mouth raised higher to give an older appearance. Banana is sketch is just a joke as the author felt the character couldn't walk with such short legs (author wasn't convinced by this sketch either).

Author mostly likes the shape of Jonathon but still not happy with the face. Says it's too cute. Also author is still not sure about the arms and legs. Feels they still are a bit prominent but this may be solved with the addition of colour. Likes the potato in drawing No#4

02 - Jonathon Apple Concept Drawings

etourist — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 20:45:38 -0700

etourist posted a photo:

Conceptual Drawings of character development for a children's book.

Stage 2: Based on the author's feedback some more character sketches of Jonathon attempting to give him a more three dimensional look. Some other fruit and vegetable characters including a potato (No# 5), Banana (No# 7) and Carrot carrying grapes (No# 8) have been drawn just as initial ideas to match them with the style of Jonathon.

Author's feedback favoured drawings 1 to 3 but felt that the legs and arms were becoming too stylized. Face is becoming too cute and baby like on images 4 to 6. Apple shape in drawings 1 and 3 suggest a 'feminine' quality to the apple that wasn't present in first drawings. Vegetable characters look too subdued. Also felt that the short legs on banana and the dot eyes on the grapes were veering too far away from the style of characters that the author is looking for.

01 - Jonathon Apple Concept Drawings

etourist — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 20:45:19 -0700

etourist posted a photo:

Conceptual Drawings of character development for a children's book.

Stage 1: Initial drawings of Jonathon Apple to gauge how the author wants the character to look. Sketch 2 on the right is the author's preference.

Star Trek Quogs: The Re-animation of Khan

TET (David) — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 04:04:00 -0700

The Re-Animation of Khan may only be four minutes and fifty three seconds long but it took just over four months to get the script out of my head and into a completed animation.

It truly was the script that was the stumbling point as this animation features only one custom prop that was specifically made for it (the GoAnimate screen shot). Everything else is 'straight off the shelf'.

Before I go into to detail of what went on behind the scenes please watch the final animation below.

The Re-Animation of Khan by etourist

Like it? Create your own at GoAnimate.com. It's free and fun!

The Re-Animation of Khan originally began as the third installment of my original series, How to Get Views - The Evil Genius Way. Khan was the ideal 'Evil Genius' since his back story from the nineteen sixties TV show placed his origin firmly in twenty and twenty first centuries - hence he just may of heard of GoAnimate (well, you never know... could happen!).

So sure was I that this would be the third installment I even made an announcement on twitter on June 8 of this year.

Not being a Star Trek fan and only having seen the movie, The Wrath of Khan, once when I was about eleven (maybe), I had to do some research to find out Khan's origin in the TV show. I did that because GoAnimate's Quog Character for Khan is based on the TV show version of the character and not the later, much cooler looking version, from the movie. Hence the back story Spock reveals in my animation is the true back story for Khan. Even the year 2267 is accurate for when Khan was revived by the crew of the Enterprise.

So the animation began as a parody of the TV show in which Khan first appears. Obviously the GoAnimate element of the story and Khan's pursuit of fans comes from my Evil Genius series.

By the 11th of June I had about everything complete up to the point where Khan escapes and then a bunch of half done ideas for scenes after that. Not only that but I still didn't have a punchline - which was needed to match the format of the Evil Genius series.

The animation was already well over the one minute mark of the previous two in the series and I wasn't prepared to release something that just didn't live up to those animations. For the first time ever I decided to consult someone else on one of my animation scripts.

RoTV is one of the many people on GoAnimate who are real Star Trek fans and came to the site through the Star Trek Quogs theme. He's made some of the best and most innovative Star Trek animations on the site but, more importantly for me, he's pretty good at comedy too. Which is why I sought his help on June 11th.

Rowdy Friends + One by RoTV

Like it? Create your own at GoAnimate.com. It's free and fun!

To date RoTV is the only person who's ever seen one of my unfinished animations (and he may even be able to recall a scene or two that I deleted by the final cut).

Whilst there probably isn't a lot of RoTV's suggestions in the final cut he did feed me a lot of information about the particular episode of the TV show I was trying to parody (but had never seen) and reminded me of a few elements in the Khan movie that I had forgotten. All of it was very useful in helping me advance the script.

Unfortunately Ro didn't have any suggestions for a final punchline either. This became the real hurdle and is the reason why this animation took so long to develop.

Several animations and two and a half months later (plus one fatal computer crash to recover from) I decided to try and finish this animation once and for all.

The first decision I made was to remove it from the Evil Genius Series. It was already way off format and far too long. However it wasn't until the day before I made the animation public that I came up with the new title, The Re-Animation of Khan. A kind of play on the Khan movie title.

The first draft (if you can call the way I script a draft) was that Khan would try to get more views of his animations by broadcasting them on the ships viewing screens, however he would be discovered when he accidentally invokes a new GoAnimate feature and broadcasts a live feed of him and Nurse Chapel to the bridge of the Enterprise. A chase would ensue and... well I don't know where I was going with that?

In the next version, Khan and Nurse Chapel take over the bridge of the Enterprise with the intention of broadcasting an animation across the galaxy. Kirk willfully submits to Khan's use of the bridge because he has a plan... don't know where I was going with that either.

Third version, Khan captures Kirk and holds him hostage in the Engine room (much like in the TV show). He then communicates up to the bridge his demands to take over the ship. Spock takes his demands on board but contemplates the success of the show if Captain Kirk died in this episode (Khan appeared in the first season of Star Trek). An argument with the crew ensues as they worry about their future careers on the convention circuit... umm... yeah... not sure where that was headed either.

The final script evolved as I just let the characters play the story out, all the while thinking 'Can I end this yet?!'.

Everything up to Khan's animation is almost exactly as I created it right from the beginning. It all started heading a new direction when I realized, wouldn't it be funny if Kirk was faking that he knew nothing about GoAnimate?

Thanks to GoAnimator, Coady, as well as a few others, GoAnimate has been a very popular place for William Shatner's other creative pursuits. What if it was Captain Kirk, himself, that was posting all those animations? Plus, there is a great ongoing story here for Khan being Kirk's arch nemesis in popularity on GoAnimate.

iam.bill! Canada Day July 1st!! by Coady

Like it? Create your own at GoAnimate.com. It's free and fun!

Next up, I liked the idea of Kirk being held hostage in the engine room. Originally I had Doctor McCoy chasing Khan and Nurse Chapel down the hall but I quickly replaced him with Kirk.

I got to the point of Khan relaying his demands to the bridge and suddenly remembered my first original Star Trek Quogs series, Laundry Day. This was the ideal opportunity to self reference my previous series hence Uhura's statement, "Let him kill the pompous twit!" (it was at this point that the Laundry day premise and the washing machine was added into this episodes opening premise - making it a kind of continuation of that story).

I also like the idea of Spock contemplating the show without Kirk so managed to work that in without the objections from the crew as Kirk was able to cut this short with his line "I can still hear you, you know!"

At this point I knew if Khan actually made it to his ship the animation may never end so I was searching for ways to make sure he didn't.

First I thought, what if Nurse Chapel came to her senses and, when they got to the transporter room, she set the controls so that only Khan got beamed back to his ship? Seemed like a plan - so that's what I went with... except Kirk had demanded the crew to come and save him?

Right. Spock's in charge so he should come up with a plan. It occurred to me that much of the Enterprise's control systems must be configurable from the bridge. I don't know if they are but for the purpose of my animation I made it so. However, for a little more comedy I thought it would be cool to have Spock formulating a plan whilst the rest of the crew jumped straight into action. Which worked out great because Khan could be outnumbered instead of having time to find some other way to get back to his ship.

It also made sense that the stale mate between Khan and Spock would be enough to make Khan back down - since he was already in one stale mate situation between him pointing a gun at Kirk and the crew all pointing guns at him.

Khan backing down wasn't the right point to end it all. There was still the unresolved issue of Kirk being outed as GoAnimate legend. I swear he'll deny his popularity on a 'kids site' until he dies!

So that's the epic story behind The Re-Animation of Khan. Possibly one of the most difficult scripts I've put together to date!

Man of Action - Dudeman32 Story Challenge

TET (David) — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 07:14:00 -0700

Dudeman32 is a GoAnimate member whom I felt created an interesting animated character coincidently called, Dudeman32.

This beer drinking, head transplanted, war hero with the unusual looking head seemed to have a lot of potential for some serious animated action adventure. At least that's what I thought after watching Dudeman's Story below. It's a bit of an epic but you really only need to watch the first five minutes as the second half is just listening to music.

Dudeman's Story by Dudeman32

Like it? Create your own at GoAnimate.com. It's free and fun!

Dudeman32 himself (the GA member not the cartoon character) asked if I'd be interested in participating in his Dudeman32 story challenge. I said maybe but, after seeing the rules of what to include, I had an idea just snap into my head. Hence I decided to put something together.

The animation had to include Barack Obama, Sara Palin, Tom (the blue body used for the Dudeman Character with Dudeman's head) with any head, and the Doctor. The whole thing had to be two minutes or more long. Although I could've put any head on Tom I chose to stay with the Dudeman32 head because that character was the whole reason I got interested in the first place.

Below is what I came up with.

Man of Action - Dudeman32 Story Challenge by etourist

Like it? Create your own at GoAnimate.com. It's free and fun!

Initially I only had enough of an idea for one minute of animation. Originally it ended after the head transplant scene with the doctor. However Dudeman32 wanted two minutes so I extended it out with the bar and TV studio scenes.

So far the animation has been well received and was a Staff Pick on GoAnimate.

Wrong Way Already and Cat Sampler Books

TET (David) — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 06:28:00 -0700

For anyone who has ever done any kind of writing you'll know that you never really feel quite like a writer until you have a book of your own writing in print. Yes, old style ink on paper, professionally printed and bound.

So it was quite a buzz today to finally get my hands on a small stack of two books (pictured right) I've self published, one of which represents my first properly published work as a writer.

Wrong Way Already, A Road Trip Across Southern Australia, is half travel guide and half travel journal of a Road Trip my Sister and I embarked upon mid way through 2007.

We traveled from Gawler, South Australia to Broken Hill, New South Wales and then back across the continent to Perth Western Australia. Each day I wrote about my experiences in this very blog you're reading now. Hence the book brings together all the posts and photos from this blog into one handy sized guide that you can either take with you on your own Southern Australia travels or curl up with if you just like to adventure from the comfort of your lounge room.

TET's Cats Sampler comes as a set of three identical photo books (one for you and two you can give as gifts) that feature a selection of my cat paintings completed over the last few years for you or your friends to enjoy.

Printed in full colour it really is a stunning little book of some of your favorite cats and a fantastic way to share the art you love with the people you love.

Both books are available from my LuLu Book Shop whilst you can also purchase a Cafepress edition of Wrong Way Already from my Cafepress Shop.

Microsoft Courier Booklet, An Artist's View

TET (David) — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 01:10:00 -0700

There's been a lot of buzz lately in tech circles about tablet computing, in particular the Apple Tablet which is either a soon to be released product or a whole lot of geeks speculating on a fantasy.

Possibly the most exciting thing I've seen in this space is the Microsoft Courier booklet, which, like the Apple Tablet, is a potentially soon to be released product or just some one leaking ideas that may never come to pass. For the purpose of this article let's suppose this product is really in development.

The Microsoft Courier Book (illustrated in the picture from Gizmodo top right) is a tablet computer with two screens that folds in half like a book. It's about the size of your average journal or diary and is operated with a combination of touch screen motions and a pen/stylus.

Gizmodo has also discovered a video of how we'll actually use the Courier (follow the link to see the video).

From an artist's perspective I'd have to say it all looks very intuitive and very much in line with the way many visual artists would interact with their traditional Visual Diaries (for non-artists that's the A4 or A5 size ring bounded sketch books you sometimes see us carting around and scribbling in).

Based on what I know here are some thoughts I have on this device:

The two screens, fold in half like a book concept is genius. Devices like this will need to be robust and what better way to protect the screens than to fold it in half so the outer cover gets all the scratches. Does it really annoy you when your mobile phone screen gets scratched? Me too.

This device has a built in camera and presumably Wi-fi connectivity as it is internet capable. One hopes it will also have a built in microphone and that the camera will also be capable of filming video. With that combination artist types like myself can use this device to record the things we see in images (moving and stationary) and sound. Given that this device is also intuitive enough to allow sketching with the stylus pen you've pretty much got me hooked.

Beef up the RAM and make sure it has some kind of removable storage medium (such as SD cards for example) and this will be on my Christmas list. Heck I'd even consider spending all the money I was going to spend on Christmas gifts for everyone else on getting me one of these!!

The proposed user interface (i.e. the software) looks well thought out. I particularly like the use of the hinge/spine to 'tuck' items that you want to hold and move to other pages of the book (wonder how that works for text?).

There's nothing particularly ground breaking about the software - you could easily use the same software on a single screen device divided into two regions (which they demonstrate in the video by downloading your Courier Book to a laptop computer). Oh and that 'tuck' feature - you could do the same thing just with a standard 'cut' and 'paste' feature and an infinite 'clip board'. However visually it looks fun to use and more like how people work rather than how computers work.

It's more like using an actual book than a computer.

If they manage to eliminate the use of a keyboard altogether the art of 'hand writing' may just see a resurgence. I just hope they don't over do the hand writing recognition to the point where everything you write turns into a nice, clean, readable font like 'Times'.

So that's just a few of my thoughts on a product that's supposed to be in development but who knows for sure if the Microsoft Courier Booklet will ever see the light of day (or the inside of my back pack).

Smash Mash TV, Online Animation Tool

TET (David) — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 09:37:00 -0700

Whilst GoAnimate's studio is one of the best, free online animation tools around it's not the only free tool out there. Hence I thought I'd start an occasional series looking at what other animation tools are availble, the first being Smash Mash.TV.

Smash Mash.tv is a combination of a free online animation and slide show application teamed with a downloadable 'Pro' version with more features that you can trial for 30 days then opt to purchase.

What makes Smash Mash interesting is that it specializes in one particular style of animation - the mash up. It allows you to take any bitmap image(i.e. photos etc.) and simply, by defining areas you want to apply movement to, make an image come alive.

Each area can have up to two preset movement effects applied to it as well as one flash (or colour) effect. All the effects can be adjusted using sliders to vary how much of the effect you want to apply.

You can also add text and speech balloons to your images as well as draw directly onto each frame with the paint brush tool. There is also the ability to add sound to your shows.

I was very impressed with how easy Smash Mash is to use. I simply watched the short demonstration video and then dived right in learning the tools and sliders as I went. In less than an hour I had a three slide animation with music and speech balloons finished and ready to share (which the site makes very easy to do with links to a range of popular sites). You can see my simple animation below.

Anyone who has ever used the lasso tool in any graphics software will find Smash Mashes editor a breeze. That's really as technical as this application gets. However as simple as it is I'm sure with further exploration an advanced animator could really produce some impressive shows.

Probably the only disappointment I have with the online version of Smash Mash is that, just like GoAnimate, there's no way to download your animations or export them into a single video file. However if you're prepared to buy the downloadable pro version (which is not that expensive) then this issue is solved. The pro version not only allows you to create your animations offline but also gives you the option to upload it to your Smash Mash account or save it to a video file (that you can upload anywhere).

I haven't covered all the features of Smash Mash such as the ability to import audio from Youtube videos amongst other things. If this type of animation sounds like your sort of thing then I'll leave it up to you to really explore what Smash Mash has to offer.

Not Quite Power Walking

TET (David) — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 03:50:00 -0700

Since I discovered jogging wasn't for me I've been kind of all over the place with my daily exercise routine. In fact for a little while I stopped my daily walks altogether.

Not walking meant I could do an extra 50 minutes of work a day which was great for getting things done but not so great for my health. Since I haven't yet been able to get myself a bike to replace jogging it's back to walking, however, this time it's different.

When I was jogging my daily walking route I'd managed to cut my time down to 35 minutes, noting that I only actually jogged about two thirds of the way. The rest of the time I spent gasping down water and walking until I felt ready to jog again.

It occurred to me that if I simply walked consistently at a fairly quick pace the whole distance I could probably cut my time dramatically and increase the benefit of walking as a daily exercise routine. Yeah I know, totally obvious, right?

So I gave it a try.

Now we're not quite talking 'power walking' here. You won't see me walking like they do in the walking event at the Olympics, rubber band legs twanging away and butt cheeks screaming "Come On, break into a run already!!" No that isn't what I'm doing.

Simply put I'm being conscious about the need to walk quickly. In the way you might if you had to catch a train or a bus and you knew you had time to get there if you pick up the pace without actually breaking into a run.

The first time I tried my regular walking route at this faster pace I completed it in 36 minutes. What the?? I expected to do better than my previous walking times of 50 minutes but to do it in about the same time as when I was jogging? Clearly a much better result than I expected.

I've been doing this faster paced walk all week trying to better my time but so far 36 minutes seems to be about the peak. I'm determined to cut it down to 30 minutes though because it's early days yet and I've been walking in cold and some what windy weather. This time challenge is keeping me motivated.

Best of all is that, after about five sessions of jogging my route my joints were really starting to ache, so far my joints feel fine.

I guess the moral here really is walk before you run. Walking quickly and consistently over my entire route is getting my heart rate up and I'm cutting down my time spent exercising with greater benefit. Importantly though, my body can handle the pace.

If you're like me and not quite fit enough for jogging then maybe not quite power walking is for you.