Moil's Ink

Tomorrow is my fathers birthday.

Long Tail Video keeps a close eye on how HTML5 and video are working or not working and are kind enough to publicize their findings to the public. Check out this great documentation of the latest and greatest concerning the future of online video!

Some great info there and their sources are pretty cool too! Check out Stat Counter for browser and OS statistics.

OH…speaking about how flash is on it’s way out! I just wrote this nifty little script to time how long something goes on for. Best part is it’s not only made in Flash, but it’s also Action Script 2.0! Too much fun indeed, what a way to buck the system. Check out the timer, it gets angry after half an hour. If you know a little about coding and you’ve got Flash CS4 or higher feel free to download the .fla file and make your own changes.

I’d call it “A good day for wolf.”

I remember this set being slightly odd as a kid, but like many children just thought it was one of those ‘adult things’ that I’d eventually understand. Like innuendos, wish I never learnt about those. Now everything is an innuendo. I digress, the box was normal enough, it does indeed come with everything on the front, and a few pieces you just can’t see in the photo, mostly small flowers and plants and a wolf den (it’s just a massive hunk of plastic with a cave like hole in it. oh yeah, and a bone to chew on!)

Now, as an adult, when I saw this in the store started thinking about all the adventures I’d imagined about being chased by that wolf, bitten by it, surviving its attacks and then going back into the woods dispite my playmobile man loosing an arm and then fighting that rabid beast to the bitter end (who loves action movies?)

I remember hours and hours of good times with that play set…so I picked it up and looked closely at the box. I thought surely now that I’m an adult I’ll be able to figure out what the concept is…but to no avail. I can’t say I understand this one at all. It comes with a wolf, a little girl and a tonne of foliage and flowers and logs and trees and the aforementioned wolf den (and a bone). It’s not a classic fairy tale either…the little kid is not wearing a red cloak, nor guarding sheep, nor are any little pigs involved, nor is his name Peter with his own built in orchestral soundtrack…it’s just a kid and a wolf.

I bought the set immediately.

Here is some wallpaper for an 1920 x 1080 resolution monitor.

There was another set there with just a few plants, the same kid and a brown wolf, but it didn’t come with the wolf den or the bone, but had a chainsaw for some reason. The weird thing was there wasn’t an adult figure that came with the set, just a small child (too small to life a chainsaw like that) and the wolf. Like the kid was left behind by their negligent lumberjack father (or mother) and this wolf just happened along? It’s almost like a contemporary version of the jungle book or something…

Maybe that’s it! No wait…chainsaw… don’t remember Rudyard Kipling talking about a chainsaw…should have bought that set too.

Calculations have confirmed, GHD 2012 will be the 17th Annual GHD celebration.

A long time ago I had spare time. Now this luxury seems a digital mythology just like Boomcity.

Sure, I still have wasted time, just no spare time.

Between a full-time job at VanArts and my family I find that I could easily integrate an assistant into my life to help me stay on top of things. Alas, an intern just won’t fit in my budget. Thank goodness for Shared Calendars.

If job and family weren’t enough (and they are) some individuals are awestruck at the fact that I don’t stop there. I currently am a frontman for local band Brehdren, host a monthly music therapy session, co-producing a feature length documentary on the Malchiks, and working on a great non-profit project to encourage performance arts in the downtown east side (more later this month). All of this on top of my standard practices of drawing, piano, singing, animating, video production, client website maintenance and of course…blogging.

All of this of course leaves my hobbies out of the picture, except when I’m clever enough to combine them with the kids. Like the other day we managed to combine my enthusiasm for papercraft and the Muppets and keep the kids enthralled as well.

Still, none of this leaves time to properly re-build Boomcity. In reality Boomcity is a constantly changing and developing city yet as a web portal Boomcity.Biz is for the most part, hand crafted. I remember a day when there was time to redesign the website or close my eyes or breath. Good times, good times.

Various Excel Formula’s I’ve been working with lately. Created a document to auto-calculate attendance, add up marks, summarize comments, and wrap it all up into a nifty report card.

=SUM(E7:E10)

=(AVERAGE(B8:B10))*0.15

=IFERROR(AVERAGE(C34:L34),”-”)

=IF(SUM(B98:BI98)>0,AVERAGE(B98:BI98),”-”)

=INDEX(‘Master Lists’!A11:A35,MATCH(A1,’Master Lists’!B11:B35,0))

=IF(INDIRECT(CONCATENATE(“Module”,$A$50,”!”,CONCATENATE(“C”,$L$1+(29*(E$50-1)))))=$A55,INDIRECT(CONCATENATE(“Module”,$A$50,”!”,CONCATENATE(“D”,$L$1+(29*(E$50-1))))),”")

This last one would probably be more succinct…but it works and that’s what really matters.

=CONCATENATE(INDIRECT(CONCATENATE(“Module1!”,”K”,($L$1))),INDIRECT(CONCATENATE(“Module1!”,”K”,($L$1+29))),INDIRECT(CONCATENATE(“Module1!”,”K”,($L$1+(29*2)))),INDIRECT(CONCATENATE(“Module1!”,”K”,($L$1+(29*3)))),INDIRECT(CONCATENATE(“Module1!”,”K”,($L$1+(29*4)))),INDIRECT(CONCATENATE(“Module1!”,”K”,($L$1+(29*5)))),INDIRECT(CONCATENATE(“Module1!”,”K”,($L$1+(29*6)))),INDIRECT(CONCATENATE(“Module1!”,”K”,($L$1+(29*7)))),INDIRECT(CONCATENATE(“Module1!”,”K”,($L$1+(29*8)))),INDIRECT(CONCATENATE(“Module1!”,”K”,($L$1+(29*9)))),INDIRECT(CONCATENATE(“Module1!”,”K”,($L$1+(29*10)))),INDIRECT(CONCATENATE(“Module1!”,”K”,($L$1+(29*11)))),INDIRECT(CONCATENATE(“Module1!”,”K”,($L$1+(29*12)))),INDIRECT(CONCATENATE(“Module1!”,”K”,($L$1+(29*13)))),INDIRECT(CONCATENATE(“Module1!”,”K”,($L$1+(29*14)))),INDIRECT(CONCATENATE(“Module1!”,”K”,($L$1+(29*15)))),INDIRECT(CONCATENATE(“Module1!”,”K”,($L$1+(29*16)))),INDIRECT(CONCATENATE(“Module1!”,”K”,($L$1+(29*17)))),INDIRECT(CONCATENATE(“Module1!”,”K”,($L$1+(29*18)))),INDIRECT(CONCATENATE(“Module1!”,”K”,($L$1+(29*19)))))

All Malchiks shirts I own.

In 1996 Brett Gaylor told me to try After Effects. He described it as Photoshop with a timeline. Ten years later I began working with it and I fell in love with its amazing capabilities. With Flash going the way of Zune I’m happy to have a strong animation software to work with.

Click the images to check out these tutorial sites related to After Effects…

Although After Effects is designed specifically with video effects in mind Brett had made a prediction with his After Effects/Photoshop metaphor. The last few releases of Photoshop have shipped with a much greater timeline than ever before (yes Photoshop has had a timeline for ages).

Go to the Window menu and choose Animation to open the Timeline. In older versions of Photoshop the timeline was extremely simple and best for making annoying animated banner ads. Now the timeline has positioning, scale, opacity and rotation controls that can be animated. It’s absolutely perfect for a fusion photographer to add color grading or text to their video footage and yet remain in the comfortable familiar environment of Photoshop.

Not that I don’t love my Android Phone, but the thought of 1080p video without having to ask my wife for the camera was incredibly attractive (just like my wife). I’m really quite excited to try it out having seen some of the amazing app’s that are out there. I may be eager to get my very own iphone but the bill on the other hand…not so much.

For years I taught software like Illustrator, Photoshop, InDesign and Dreamweaver to people who had moved laterally in their work place. Companies would move someone into the marketing or communications departments from a non-graphic position and replace their previous position rather than bringing in a professional designer. This “saved” the company money as the new replacement employee would receive starting wage, and the existing employee was happy with no pay raise just not having their boring old non-graphical job.

The company is happy, yet my friend who studied graphic design is a bar tender. Soon the employee who moved into their new role realized that graphic software is nothing like PowerPoint or Excel or whatever they were used to working in before. The company then sent them to me. In one or two day hands on seminars I’d show them how to use their graphics package and as a personal quest try and add a few tips on not making terrible design decisions. Here are the main design guidelines I’d offer to newbies.

• • Overall the concept was to Keep It Short & Simple ( a polite KISS )
• • Only use one font, two if there are headings & paragraphs. It’s better to use italics and bold to make text stand out.
• • Never underline, unless it needs to have a default hyperlink appearance.
• • For paragraphs start with a 12 point serif typeface to reach the broadest target market. If needs be shrink it down as far as 9 points for university markets, and never hesitate to increase to 14 points for elderly or children.
• • Use black ink plus one additional colour. For variety use different tints of that colour. Keep the colour scheme monochromatic.
• • Keep as much of the page empty as possible (negative space is good). Clutter and crowding will deter readership.
• • Finally, keep everything lined up. Use guides, grids, align features, anything to keep it orderly.

What brought this on? A Wim! A fellow web instructor, Wim, left a website up on the screen after his class. Check out 978.gs It’s not just a really great webdesign concept, the site also has a lot of great links to articles and write ups as well. Is 978 too big for you? Then try 960.gs out for size.

Below are some Video Editing Software choices from most expensive to cheapest that I’ve at least seen if not worked with. Since Apple did a complete facelift on Final Cut Studio I can’t offer an opinion on the new software, I’m sure it’s great for most peoples needs, but until I’ve gotten my hands on it I can’t say much. So as of the writing of this I personally would recommend Adobe. Premiere Elements is a great, cheap introductory product, complete for most peoples needs. While getting the Full Production Suite (CS5.5) from Adobe would be the professional way to go as it includes additional products like After Effects and Sound Booth to assist with Sound & Visual Effects along with great products like Photoshop and Illustrator to help compliment the imagery.

• Adobe Creative Suite Production Bundle – $1700
• Adobe Premiere Pro – $800
• Sony Vegas Pro – $600
• Final Cut X – $300
• Sony Vegas Movie Studio(s) – $100 – 200
• Adobe Premiere Elements – $100
• iMovie (with the rest of of iLife) – $50
• Windows Movie Maker 2011 – Free Download

Also note that many packages have educational pricing as well as 30 day trials.

Here’s a Wikipedia page with many more choices available.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_video_editing_software