Details.com - "The Agony of Zac Efron"

I'm always impressed by photo-shoots for magazines (Details.com)... I don't know why. Maybe I've subconsciously bought into the stereotypical ideals of beauty, etc. Maybe that's all it is, beautiful people in cool clothes, posing in odd locations.

Movement Pics "What the Naked Eye Cannot See" on AcidCow

Movement pictures as found on Acidcow, entitled "What the Naked Eye Cannot See".
By way of a sample, here are three of the twenty pics posted... Beautiful!

Storm Cloud Basking in Sun

Some aspects of these clouds remind me of when I used to take sunset photos every afternoon for an extended period.



This photo was posted here on Likecool.

Food About You

This are absolutely brilliant!  The stop-motion is great... butter cutting, chocolate keyboard, syringing egg, rotating animated cake... very nice.

I still have a fascination with food and it's manipulation on the somewhat macro level.  I love the colours at the beginning too... awesome.  One of my favourites of all time!

Here's the video, entitled "Food about you":

Animalia by Mikel Uribetxeberria (11 photos)

These are awesome.  Shots with posed animals are great especially considering the logistics.

My favourite would have to be the one shown below or even the ape on the bed. I like his sexy thinking pose. :)  Check out the Animalia collection. On a side note, the rest of his stuff doesn't really blow my skirt up (as they say) but maybe the lanbroa series.

Different Types of Aliens

Check out this set of 33 alien pics here at acidcow...

Basement Jaxx - Raindrops

I was watching this video on MTV and immediately thought of Alice's major work involving kaleidoscopes and broken up images...

Tauba Auerbach

I really should be looking at some of the more abstract stuff out there considering my fascination with using programs to create such work.

Some of the colours/paintings created by Tauba Auerbach remind me of some of the colours that appear in my digital compositing work. The works are like swatches and font sets.

Ugaritic Alphabet

On a side note, I hate the font he uses for his main navigation page... very difficult to read! And another one, his Bio page has a hover graphic that gives me an idea for a web-based palette work... Hmmmm...

Oh, and by the way, another assumption I'm making is that Tauba is a male... I couldn't tell!

Text-to-Video via Xtranormal

I talked about this in an earlier post... ie, the technology to type and direct animated characters to produce videos... here is an example of one... check it out. It's not the best but you get the concept.


Broccolli Man Saves The Planet

Concrete LEGO by Andrew Lewichi

On the trail looking for and at LEGO related work, I came across Andrew Lewichi... In addition to the two below, check out his other works, including an Acordian Obscura!

Oreo Manhole Cover

Concrete Lego

I LEGO N.Y. by Christoph Niemann

As referenced from the MoMA article, another related LEGO piece that I find interesting is called 'I LEGO N.Y.' by Christoph Niemann, which is available as a book, check out his site for his other work... his toothbrush/toothpaste illustration works is cute and the ink jar is awesome.

Lego: Plastic Bag caught in branch

Inkwell

Toothbrush/paste

MoMA art reproductions in LEGO

Not only does this involve Lego, which is awesome, they've (the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) staff) created versions of artists work. I particularly like that they've kept to the miniature scale of lego in the reproductions. I feel particularly inspired by this piece of work to do something similar with other works...

Shown below is an example of one of the works by Anthony Caro, called 'Midday' which has been reproduced in LEGO form.

On the topic of Lego Houses...

And here's a guy from the UK who is building a house made out of lego bricks... the article points out that it's about 816million lego bricks... Wowsers.  They have a really good photo library on the page.

Frank Lloyd Wright Lego Sets

I've always had a fascination with LEGO since a boy.

I've got a pretty big collection back at my parents house.

Thus, these building sets caught my attention.

Justice - D.A.N.C.E.

I was watching MTV tonight and this video caught my attention. It would have taken a fair amount of time to produce the animation, let alone filming the t-shirts and applying it effectively especially with moderate environmental interaction. I like.

Dissenting Queers Tell A Love Story, Kind Of (including generated speach & video)

A reminder by some that same-sex marriage shouldn't be the goal and won't be the end of attempting to obtain equality.  In my opinion, it's a bit heavy handed for two small bears to be talking about.  Check out the video here.

What I found curious was the mention in the story about how it was constructed by creating "one of those internet videos where you just type in the voice, and automated polygonal figures act out your script like robots"... I've not heard of this... I must search further. Oh, this particular one is from xtranormal.com...  I've now created an account and created a small movie... this is a lot of fun! :)  The only issue is that I can't publish without getting some experience points... now how to do that???

Layout for complete Video Reshoot (sans NTSC)

Well, even though stabilisation was great and the videos looked good before the browser, once they were exported, they looked very bad with terrible artifacting.

Thus, I bit the bullet and decided to re-shoot instead of sleeping.

This is the new layout used for the re-shoot, you'll notice that I added a border around the rear of the lazy susan so as to avoid reflection and increase lighting of items inside liquid.

side view

top/front view

"The Comet Song" by Bjork from the film "Moomins and the Comet Chase"

This is a cute little video. The Moomins are cool.
Odd oriental Bjork song. Odd visuals match the song. I don't know what a Moomin is but they're weird, although I like their little felt arms. :)

Björk - The Comet Song - The Moomins And The Comet Chase OST from lfemusiclab on Vimeo.

Numero Magazine

A set of great images I found via Another men's Fashion Blog from Numero Magazine.

The effects are quite reminiscent of a few ads and video effects on music clips these days. I like!

ISABELLA ROSSELLINI'S ALL NEW SERIES ABOUT ANIMAL ATTRACTION

This is a very fascinating series by Isabella Rossellini. It's great from an artistic perspective with the puppetry and hand animation but very interesting from a factual perspective.

Seduce Me (Season 1)

MGMT - Congratulations

Here's a video by MGMT together with their song Congratuations.

I really like the creature they're following across the sand.  On a side note, their other "official" video has a very plain video featuring a guy holding up anti-war signs... (though I did like the quote, "fighting for peace is like fucking for virginity" or something similar) but it's boring in comparison to this one where the poor creature looses its bits. Sad and kinda gross really.

MGMT - Congratulations found on Pop

Jean Francois Carly "Snakes Series"

These photos are great. I'm not sure I'd be able to stand that but models are a different breed. :)



Check out the rest on "Another Men's Fashion Blog".

Also, look at Jean Francois Carly's website too.

Videos - Earth Time Lapse from Space

How cool is time lapse video! And from space... with lens flare! :-o

Last Address

This is an emotionally moving set of works entitled "Last Address".
It's quite sobering to consider that these people were artists like me, but they're now dead. Sounds like a stupid statement but I find these people more real-life and thus have a bigger impact than others. I don't know if I explained that properly.


Here's a film featuring the works...

Last Address from Ira Sachs on Vimeo.

Glad Wrap & Foil Vagina Tree

Check out the music video of iamamiwhoami, I think called 'y':

I just like the strange nature of the visuals... Also shows what you can do with lots of glad wrap, foil, paper and tape. The baby dancing is cute. Not sure on the song or the lighting of some parts but still worth a watch... stick around for the final sequence too.

Photography by Edgar Thissen

I really like this guys photos... particularly the macro shots.  Why aren't I doing more personal photography?!

Set Layout #2

After working a very long time on fixing the wobble on the existing video footage, I managed to get my hands on a really good lazy suzan, thanks heaps to Simon.

This was the layout of my new set.  You'll notice that I dispensed with the lighting tent concept, mostly because you couldn't really see what was in the jars very clearly and really, a few shiny lights on the jar edges aren't that big of a deal.

Schweppes Burst Balloon Ad

I was sitting at the Hellenic club and on one of their advertising lcd screens, they were showing this Schweppes Ad.

I wish I had high-speed camera so I could capture such things.

Polaroid 300... yes please!

Today I was bemoaning the discontinued film for my Polaroid iZone from 11 years ago.

discontinued Polaroid iZone

But in the search for film (no luck) I discovered this awesome piece of equipment. And it's only $150 at Teds!  I can't afford it yet, but I do want it.

Polaroid 300

Old Spice Equality Parody + Original

Chaser's Old Spice Equality Parody




Since I've included the parody, here's the real one...

“Fire Angel” by Simon Procter

“Fire Angel” by Simon Procter feat the house of Christian Dior. “The Fall from Grace.”

It does the whole optical illusion where she seems to move because the backgrounds are rotating... nice use of multi-opaque backgrounds too... I wonder whether it's a very large set...


Fire Angel from procter on Vimeo.

Jar Set Shoot #1

Here is the layout of the first set built to create my jar animations.

I tried to incorporate the concept of the lighting tent but due to a lack of a lazy susan (and not wanting to pay $40 for one) I went budget.  It involves, a curled up piece of paper for background (without edges), a metal frame drilled and fixed to a plastic breadboard, a platform made of a sticky-tape dispenser inside, a shoelace, 3CD's, tape a Blu-tak (shown below) which attaches via a drilled hole in the breadboard surrounded by another CD, baking paper wrapped round the top and sides and three spotlights tied to my tripod with shoelaces above the baking paper.

Jar within my lighting tent.

Side-view showing curled paper backdrop.

Close-up of the rotating platform (with 10 degree outline for still movie test.

My home made "lazy suzan".

The resultant video produced with this method left a lot to be desired, particularly from a wobble perspective.  I'll post the video, and what it looked like after post soon...

On a side note, this video is of one of the jars but using still images rather than video... You can see my template with every 10 degrees showing but worth a look anyway:

Skream | Listenin' To The Records On My Wall

While browsing posts I came across this one which draws on the Adam and Eve story. What is cool is that it uses various types of art forms to make up the video... what particularly took my interest, although I think it had the potential to be much better, was the use of 'Strata-cut animation'. The 'Making Of' video was very informative too... although I think the director's teeth need attention!

Check out the making of video too.



SKREAM - Listenin' To The Records On My Wall from David Wilson Creative on Vimeo.

Human Furniture by David Blázquez

Human Furniture, just as it sounds.

Following from the Spencer Tunick reference, I came across the following. The Book Shelf is quite creative and I particularly like the concept of the ironing board.

Art :: Human Furniture by David Blázquez

Speaking of Joseph Khan...

http://www.josephkahn.com/index.xml

After posting about 'All the Lovers', the music clip for Kylie, I started looking into Joseph Kahn's work... I love the non-conventional website design but am impressed at how many high-profile artists he's worked with.

Check him out!

All The Lovers - Kylie

I was watching MTV tonight and saw this video clip again and was reminded about how much I liked this song. Also the inclusive themes and of course the visual aspects of having such a large orgy pileup. :-) I was reminded of her visually interesting clip Come Into My World by Michel Gondry.

In any case, 'All The Lovers' was directed by Joseph Kahn, influenced by the group nude works by Spencer Tunick.

'The Lady is Dead' directed by Roy Raz

Song: 'The Lady is Dead' by The Irrepressibles.
Director: Roy Raz (http://www.facebook.com/raz.roy) of PAG Films (Check out their PAG Films YouTube Channel)

The music is great but I really enjoy the visual asthetic. Roy Raz has become a favourite based on this.  The white somewhat-limbo background is great.  But what he was going for... is it a commentary on gay culture like some have supposed or even on STI's?

When I watch it, I'm left feeling kind of lost, or at a loss... with a sense of hopelessness teven. It definitely evokes an emotional reaction.  Whether intentional or not, with the tennis of the organ and the touching of transmission of the black pain, or even the transmission of black between the three guys, it seems to indicate an STI message and even conveys the hopelessness via the gaze of the heavily made up actor.

Either way.  I'm a fan.

Possible HV20 Firmware Hack?

So, when I found out that the HV20 I purchased on eBay from a guy in Sydney was an NTSC model I thought... damn it!

But... I came across this forum explaining how to successfully hack the firmware of the HV30 to allow it to be switched between PAL and NTSC. You can check it out here.

Official Firmware Hacking Thread

On the bright side, they are researching the same kind of hack for the HV20.

Crossing fingers.

UPDATE: Note the log entry made on the forum on 15 August:

"The HV20 is on its way here, it should arrive sometime next week, I have already prepared the HV30 firmware for injection, fingers crossed!"

Uses of Canopic Jars | eHow.com

I was looking at formaldehyde and jars and came across the Egyptian use of Canopic Jars...

Uses of Canopic Jars | eHow.com

Digital Photography How-To: Building a Light Tent

http://www.creativepro.com/article/digital-photography-how-to-building-a-light-tent

How To Photograph Reflective Round Objects - watch free tutorial at LearnMyShot.com

How To Photograph Reflective Round Objects - watch free tutorial at LearnMyShot.com

Test Cycle of iPod Jar

Here is a test animation showing a jar rotation.

What to jar next?

I'd like a larger jar to enclose a miniDV cassette and something that will take the 2.5 inch external hard drive.

Still not sure what to place in the pickle jar and the two original baby food jars...  I'd like to capture gaming... maybe a DVD would work, or BlueRay though I don't have any of those.

I'd love to purchase a broken/damaged iPhone (since they are very topical atm) but is it worth the money on such a project?

Filling jars & making new ones...

So, the jars from last night have been topped up with Gelatine.  They look relatively good, except I am worried that the phone jar has too much of a colour difference despite my attempts to ensure a smooth blend.

Some new additions to the collection include:

• USB key
• Oil (actually vegemite)
• Micro SD card

Complete set as at today, above.

Complete set as at today, front.

Untethered Jars (In progress)

The jars that were created last night have successfully set and look good. Now to top up the gaps... Here is what they look like now:

iPod Shuffle w/ headphones

XBox communicator

Nokia phone

Film roll