Two of my works have been selected to be part of the "Art Speaks Out" program that is put together by ikonoTV that will be shown as part of the Global Climate Art Festival, scheduled to coincide with the UN Climate Change Conference Paris 2015. I am happy that my animation "Seeing Red" and my video "City.Flow()" will once again be on display.
Seeing Red from Wobbe on Vimeo.
If the title of this post deceived you into expecting some clever remarks here, you will be utterly disappointed. This is simply a post in the Animators Anonymous category to prove that I have been working. I actually animated quite a bit, getting close to finalizing the possible opening scene for what is still tentatively called "Scattered Mind Matter". Here is a test for what may happen to the tree like structures once the animation progresses deeper into --dare I (ab/mis)use the term?-- the technicum: it gets hard.
[Geek alert!] It turns out the mesh generated from nParticles is not exactly clean and polygon reductions does not work without manually removing all manifold geometry. Polygon Cleanup can do that automatically but results in crappy topology, so the polygons identified by the cleanup procedure need to be manually fixed. And the mesh also has a number of holes in it. I guess that just shows how hard it is to fit a polygonal surface over an isosurface,and that the solution is pretty stable is quite a feat.
I do not quite like the overly suggesteive way this thing thrusts up at first, but here is a test of how these tree like structures may come into being. In a bare wasteland or on little islands appearing in a vast bubbling ocean. Oh wait, I was going to try to not make this a mega project!
To our dismay we found another skunk in our trap Wednesday morning. Since we had to go to work, this one had to wait until the next evening to be set free. I snapped this picture of it, seems to be yet another individual, a small one:
I was stupid enough to not want to swap cars and took it away in our Prius. So now it smells terrible…
Update: this afternoon a skunk who was eerily similar to one I released last week on the other side of a major highway, was strolling leisurely through our neighbors garden!
Oh no, not again! Yesterday morning we again found a skunk in the trap under our porch. Videotaped its release, and it is now confirmed: this was yet another one! His (or her) image is a bit blurry as this one decided to take of quickly once it was released.
So the question now arises: did I catch the first two twice or were there in fact five individuals? The trap is still open for business.
I though this guy really wanted to be on video. The first time I released him after being caught under our porch, I forgot to bring my camera. So it was back the very next day, walking straight into the same trap. The second time I released it in the park nearby, the battery of my camera was dead. The next morning I found our friendly neighborhood skunk back in the trap. So I released it in a bigger park further from home. And brought the recharged camera.
Turns out there are more than one. This morning there was one in the trap again today. Probably the same one I caught the second time. Videotaped (VideoSD-ed?) this one's release as well and it has distinctly different markings.
I have finally finished a video piece I started working on over half a decade ago. Mixed the audio over the weekend. Updating my website to include it right now. I used my students at Montclair as a test audience, and now "City.Flow()" can be now be added to my list of works created.
Here is a scene that I created for it in 2005 which I just put up on YouTube:
Eventually I will put the whole thing up on YouTube, though this type of imagery looses a lot of detail in the compression judging from how this one came back.
I have a lot of unfinished bits and pieces (bits and bytes actually) on various disks that are part of an ongoing City.Flow() video project. During our recent trip to Arcadia National Park I shot some HD footage to complement the heavily processed city stuff. While experimenting with that footage I created this test. Can you guess what the original footage was?
Play it in HD to get the best view. Embedding in HD is possible with YouTube videos but the player is then too big for this blog.
Last week, while at least one computer was rendering most of the time, I finally found time for one of the other reoccurring summer activities: home improvement. After banishing the groundhogs from our back yard it seemed that they tried to create new dwellings under our porch. I have replaced one of the rotten lattices, three more to go. A severe cold kept me from doing much this weekend, but I should be able to make the other ones next week. Of the next and biggest one the frame is already build and painted.
In unrelated news: This morning one of our resident groundhogs was stupid enough to walk into our live animal trap
H2oil animated sequences by La Moustache from Dale Hayward on Vimeo.
These animated segments for the upcoming documentary H2Oil do a pretty good job explaining why the whole concept of extracting oil from the tar sands in Canada is utterly stupid.
Via Drawn!
After reading todays Bizarro comic, which automatically gets loaded into my Daily Comic Widget, I wonder: should I change the logo for ideePIX? It currently features an old fashioned energy sucking light bulb. Should I replace it with a more energy efficient model?
Through the del.icio.us feed of a friend I came across this article: "I am creating artificial life, declares US gene pioneer". It would be great if they manage to create micro organisms that can eat pollution and even curb climate change. That is the best case scenario, but I have read too much science fiction (as a boy, not recently, really!) to not immediately think of what can go wrong. Giant mutant bacteria ruling the world! Anyway, an intriguing development, let's see it there will really be an announcement tomorrow or if this turns out to be another cold fusion.
I hear the crickets outside, or are they cicadas? I though those are supposed to only appear every 17 years, but the photo on the right shows one from this year and one from last year. Yes, both are deceased and the ladybug is wooden.
It's kind of quiet in here. My wife has left for the South Pole. So except for teaching two classes there is no good excuse for stalling my animation any further. Animate I must! I will be posting progress reports here soon. Was my last one really three months ago?
Did do more lightwave stuff, since I'm teaching a class in it. I created the image on the right to show bumpmapping
We saw this add in a waiting room the other day. Since today is the day of the Live Earth concerts, here it is:
PBS is promoting the electric car. They have now aired two of their three possible new science programs, and both had items on it. W|I|R|E|D science reported on Tesla, the electric car company of PayPal founder Elon Musk. The Science Investigators were driving at high speed with the all electric race car X1
With all electric vehicles the problem is that you have to recharge the batteries. So why not create an electric car in which the driver can recharge the car by pushing around a set of pedals. A Human-Electro Hybrid! HEH!
Agreed, the power generated by pedaling away will not be enough to keep the car running. But it can extend the battery life. One can keep on pedaling when stuck in a traffic jam. It will be great exercise, so next to helping the environment, the HEH-car will also help fight obesity!
And you know what? It exists! Well, sort of. But what kind of a name is TWIKE?
Okay, so I started this blog. Now I need to find things to talk about. Since I'm Dutch I thought I'd start with... the weather.
Yesterday we had lunch outside in the sun, no coats required. The high was 72F / 22C, setting a new record for the day (the record for the month is 74, set on january 26, 1950, according to Accu Weather). This soon after Christmas, can we just blame the child?
Unlike Denver, CO, we had no snow yet this winter. Another record, the last record for first snow of the season was January 4. Last December was almost as warm as the warmest on record. You don't hear many people complaining but....
We clearly need more pirates!
Certainly now that the sky is falling
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