Today was another first for me: I played in guitar jam. A few people at work also play guitars (including the CEO) and so they brought them into work today, passed out music, and we jammed during lunch. Our repertoire ranged everywhere from The Beatles, to Bob Dylan, to Van Morrison, to Elvis, to Richard Berry, and more. the group consisted of 3 guitars (2 acoustic, 1 electric), 1 bass, an electronic piano, and a drummer. One of the players has his own band and knows lyrics to many songs of the past 50 years so he took lead vocals (although I think he made up most of the lyrics to "Louis, Louis", but then again, so did Richard Berry). Overall we had an awesome time and will definitely do it again!
No recording or photos today, but maybe next time!
Thursday, April 29, 2010
Wednesday, April 28, 2010
Super Mario Crossover
If you are a child of the 80's you may remember the many fun games on the Nintendo: Mario, Zelda, Metroid, Contra, Megaman, Castlevania, etc. But did you ever wonder what would happen if the characters of those games ever swapped places? Well someone did, and the result of that experiment is Super Mario Crossover:
http://supermariocrossover.com/
The flash game (you can play it in the link above) is the entire game of Super Mario Bros. for the NES. But now instead of playing only as Mario and you can choose from a roster of other characters complete with their own signature moves from their games. While the levels remain the same, the sound effects and music will change depending on the character you play as. And yes, all the moves of the characters remain the same. Suddenly, I realize Mario came ill-prepared to the Mushroom kingdom with his only way of killing enemies consisting of jumping on them or (if he was lucky) shooting a small fireball at him. Instead, he needed to bring a large spread machine gun (like Bill from Contra) or an arm cannon like Megaman and Samus.
Let's hope this begins a new trend of playable game crossovers beyond the videos previously shown.
http://supermariocrossover.com/
The flash game (you can play it in the link above) is the entire game of Super Mario Bros. for the NES. But now instead of playing only as Mario and you can choose from a roster of other characters complete with their own signature moves from their games. While the levels remain the same, the sound effects and music will change depending on the character you play as. And yes, all the moves of the characters remain the same. Suddenly, I realize Mario came ill-prepared to the Mushroom kingdom with his only way of killing enemies consisting of jumping on them or (if he was lucky) shooting a small fireball at him. Instead, he needed to bring a large spread machine gun (like Bill from Contra) or an arm cannon like Megaman and Samus.
Let's hope this begins a new trend of playable game crossovers beyond the videos previously shown.
Tuesday, April 27, 2010
Salmon and Pineapple Salsa
My next culinary experiment introduced me to the world of non-tomato based salsa (something unheard of by this Texan):
Salmon and Pineapple Salsa
Salmon and Pineapple Salsa
The salmon was easy to cook and didn't require anything too odd in preparation. I was more worried about ruining a delicious salmon steak by covering it in a "salsa" the consisted of mostly pineapple and soy sauce.
I am not a fan of soy sauce, and I only like Pineapple as a standalone fruit or drink. Sweet pineapple on a pizza, ham, chicken, starch, or pretty much anything that is not sweet naturally ruins that food for me. But this salsa required the pineapples be grilled with onions/jalapenos and mixed with reduced orange juice prior to mixing them with meat, so I hoped those actions would tame the sweetness enough where it wouldn't overrun the taste of the salmon.
In the end, I was really impressed with the so-called tomato-less salsa. It was good enough (and spicy enough) that I dipped chips into it like a "real" salsa. And it went well with the salmon. I don' think I would eat the salsa too often and I still prefer the more traditional Tex-mex variety when it comes to snacking, but I did learn that mixing some of your least favorite ingredients can create a delicious dip.
Helium!
A great short from a talented grad of Animation Mentor!
The variety of facial expressions in this are amazing, and the simplicity of the short (essentially 2 characters and one object, no other sets needed). Plus a little morbid humor to end it all. Great job Daniele!
Helium. from Daniele Zannone on Vimeo.
The variety of facial expressions in this are amazing, and the simplicity of the short (essentially 2 characters and one object, no other sets needed). Plus a little morbid humor to end it all. Great job Daniele!
Monday, April 26, 2010
April with Daddy: pt 3
The girls enjoyed a wonderful time searching for Easter Eggs. I hid some eggsin hard places for the eldest daughter and made some eggs quite obvious for the 2 year old. But wouldn't you know it, the first eggs the older one found were the easiest ones meant for her younger sister. We ended up cheating and pointing at the harder ones for the little one.
Sunday, April 25, 2010
Modern Vintage
I sense a new trend...
Check out these two ads to see it:
Man, the 80's had some weird commercials, didn't they? These ads bring back some awesome memories of these toys...
Or do they?
Well if they do, they aren't real toy memories. Because these two "80's" ads were created for products that came out in 2010! Lots-o-Huggin Bear is another used toy at the daycare in Toy Story 3 (and he briefly appeared in Up too), and Mega Man 10 is a new game created for nostalgic gamers which looks and plays like 80's entries of the franchise.
The creators of these ads recreated the 80's feel perfectly. The ads come complete with recorded vhs distortion, cheesy soundtracks, 80's apparel, and fake sitcom closers found on many 80's series. Gotta love the creativity, and determination, of these ad agencies!
Bonus: Lotso has a Japanese counterpart it seems...
I didn't watch much Japanese television ads as a child but I assume they weren't too far from this.
Check out these two ads to see it:
Man, the 80's had some weird commercials, didn't they? These ads bring back some awesome memories of these toys...
Or do they?
Well if they do, they aren't real toy memories. Because these two "80's" ads were created for products that came out in 2010! Lots-o-Huggin Bear is another used toy at the daycare in Toy Story 3 (and he briefly appeared in Up too), and Mega Man 10 is a new game created for nostalgic gamers which looks and plays like 80's entries of the franchise.
The creators of these ads recreated the 80's feel perfectly. The ads come complete with recorded vhs distortion, cheesy soundtracks, 80's apparel, and fake sitcom closers found on many 80's series. Gotta love the creativity, and determination, of these ad agencies!
Bonus: Lotso has a Japanese counterpart it seems...
I didn't watch much Japanese television ads as a child but I assume they weren't too far from this.
Saturday, April 24, 2010
Head of the House - 3 blocking to spline
As mentioned before, I am finishing/completely overhauling my short one scene at a time.
I recently completely recreated scene 3 with new acting reference (essentially starting the scene from scratch). Below is the first pass of my blocking (planning poses without getting too detailed in the movements between) as I go into splining (figuring out the movements between the poses, focusing on smaller movements to complete the action).
It is a start! Again, for the non-animators this is just the very beginning of a shot which is why it looks rough. I probably have another 10-30 hours of work to go into this. Once it is "finished" I will post a comparison to see how much it changed!
You can see the original shot here, roughly at the 20 second mark.
I recently completely recreated scene 3 with new acting reference (essentially starting the scene from scratch). Below is the first pass of my blocking (planning poses without getting too detailed in the movements between) as I go into splining (figuring out the movements between the poses, focusing on smaller movements to complete the action).
It is a start! Again, for the non-animators this is just the very beginning of a shot which is why it looks rough. I probably have another 10-30 hours of work to go into this. Once it is "finished" I will post a comparison to see how much it changed!
You can see the original shot here, roughly at the 20 second mark.
Friday, April 23, 2010
Conan is in town
This weekend Conan O'Brien came to SF for his "Legally Prohibited from Appearing on Television" tour (the title is literally true, he is not allowed to be on television for few months after leaving the Tonight Show). The show was hilarious, but also very similar to his TV shows without trying anything new. I was hoping to see an uncensored/unrestrained Conan but save for a few curse words he was the same guy that I watched on TV. Which is fine because I laughed throughout the entire show. Unfortunately, there were no big name guest stars on this part of the show. The very next night Conan played in LA and had a special guest:
Oh well, it was still an awesome show. You can see the beginning of it here, and I'm sure eventually it will be broadcast online or on DVD.
Oh well, it was still an awesome show. You can see the beginning of it here, and I'm sure eventually it will be broadcast online or on DVD.
Thursday, April 22, 2010
New Layout!
Yay! After months of dealing with the smaller proportions of this site which couldn't even fit a normal sized video I have finally torn apart the code and updated it! Most readers probably won't notice the difference, but the blog is now 190 pixels wider and can fit larger photos and videos. While this may seem like an easy fix, it is actually quite tedious because everything on this page, beyond the overall background color, is an specific-sized image. And once you widen the tables suddenly the background images won't fit and look odd. See those curves on each of the pieces above and to the side? How about the border lines on each side of this section? And the logo fade to the calendar above? Those are images that needed to be recreated and updated. Basically, in order to complete the simple task of widening this website I had to update about 10 images, upload them to a server, and then replace all the code which referenced them, as well as redo the buffer portions so everything fit just right. And all of this without a manual or guide anywhere.
Anyways, it wasn't hard exactly, just time consuming and a lot of guess and check is involved. But at least now I can show video without having to manually changing the sizes so they fit a smaller area!
In celebration, here is a random youtube video that wouldn't have fit normally:
Anyways, it wasn't hard exactly, just time consuming and a lot of guess and check is involved. But at least now I can show video without having to manually changing the sizes so they fit a smaller area!
In celebration, here is a random youtube video that wouldn't have fit normally:
Wednesday, April 21, 2010
Jay's Playlist: Kick-Ass score (sorta)
Welcome to my playlist, where I discuss the music which is currently entertaining me. Below you will find a video, press play to begin the song and then read my feelings on the album.
Today's music is the score selections from the soundtrack to Kick-Ass (well not quite, read below)
(Warehouse scene)
Whenever movies release soundtrack albums and soundtrack scores I usually choose the scores. Most of the time the albums have a selection of current day pop music that will be forgotten in a few years, although a few albums from decade-specific movies (such as Dazed and Confused or Forrest Gump) have a nice "best of the decade" mix. Another bonus about score albums is it is new music, the score to a move is composed specifically for that movie and beyond hearing it in the movie you won't find it anywhere else.
While watching Kick-Ass, I noticed a lot of non-score song selections and assumed the movie would be an album-only soundtrack. But a few times some amazing score music played and I knew I had to find the soundtrack as well. Yet when I tried to find the score online I could only find an the album and not a single mention of the score music even on the album. "How odd" I though, "I know I heard score music but why doesn't it exist anywhere". Only by stumbling onto another movie's soundtrack on youtube did I find the answer: there is no new score music to Kick-Ass, the score pieces used in the movie are from other movies' soundtracks!
(burning daddy scene)
The soundtracks are usually added as one of the final pieces to a film. A composer needs to see the (near) final movie in order to be inspired and even time the music to the actions on screen. But when the movie has test screenings they need to add a temp soundtrack so the editor throw some temporary music on the film which is usually from other films. And, in some cases, the directors like they mood of the temp music so much they ask their composers to create themes similar to the temp music. Case in point: below you will find the soundtrack to King's Row (1942) which was used as a temp track to the original Star Wars:
Suddenly the Star Wars (or Superman) theme doesn't sound so original.
Anyways, from what I've gathered, the director to Kick-Ass liked the temp tracks (from the movies 28 Days Later and Sunshine, among others) so much that rather than have a new composer imitate them he just paid the original composers to re-use the same music just like they were radio hits from years past. As such, the score to Kick-Ass is actually a "best of other movies scores", and I quite like it! I haven't found all the score pieces used, I will have to wait for the DVD to listen to everything, but if they others used as as good as these two then I need to check out some awesome soundtracks I may have missed!
Today's music is the score selections from the soundtrack to Kick-Ass (well not quite, read below)
(Warehouse scene)
Whenever movies release soundtrack albums and soundtrack scores I usually choose the scores. Most of the time the albums have a selection of current day pop music that will be forgotten in a few years, although a few albums from decade-specific movies (such as Dazed and Confused or Forrest Gump) have a nice "best of the decade" mix. Another bonus about score albums is it is new music, the score to a move is composed specifically for that movie and beyond hearing it in the movie you won't find it anywhere else.
While watching Kick-Ass, I noticed a lot of non-score song selections and assumed the movie would be an album-only soundtrack. But a few times some amazing score music played and I knew I had to find the soundtrack as well. Yet when I tried to find the score online I could only find an the album and not a single mention of the score music even on the album. "How odd" I though, "I know I heard score music but why doesn't it exist anywhere". Only by stumbling onto another movie's soundtrack on youtube did I find the answer: there is no new score music to Kick-Ass, the score pieces used in the movie are from other movies' soundtracks!
(burning daddy scene)
The soundtracks are usually added as one of the final pieces to a film. A composer needs to see the (near) final movie in order to be inspired and even time the music to the actions on screen. But when the movie has test screenings they need to add a temp soundtrack so the editor throw some temporary music on the film which is usually from other films. And, in some cases, the directors like they mood of the temp music so much they ask their composers to create themes similar to the temp music. Case in point: below you will find the soundtrack to King's Row (1942) which was used as a temp track to the original Star Wars:
Suddenly the Star Wars (or Superman) theme doesn't sound so original.
Anyways, from what I've gathered, the director to Kick-Ass liked the temp tracks (from the movies 28 Days Later and Sunshine, among others) so much that rather than have a new composer imitate them he just paid the original composers to re-use the same music just like they were radio hits from years past. As such, the score to Kick-Ass is actually a "best of other movies scores", and I quite like it! I haven't found all the score pieces used, I will have to wait for the DVD to listen to everything, but if they others used as as good as these two then I need to check out some awesome soundtracks I may have missed!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)