Today I discovered what I think will be my new favourite band — Abandoned Pools. While checking out Tommy Walter’s artist blog I read his recommendation to investigate another band — The Stills. It’s exactly what I’ve been looking for, reminds me a lot of the grunge alternative music I used to listen to in the mid to late 90s.
A New Direction for Disney
In the realm of feature animation, the hand-drawn no longer rocks the cradle. Thanks to the consistent success of Pixar’s five computer-rendered theatrical releases, coupled with Disney’s recent failure to produce popular hand-drawn films, it’s easy to see why folks are favoring bytes and pixels over ink and paint.
Slashdot is offering up a great article and discussion thread about Disney’s abandonment of traditional, hand-drawn animation (which Disney has sworn, for years, it would never give up), in favor of 3D, computer-generated work.
Supposedly, all of their animators—even staunch traditionalists such as Glenn Keane—are being trained on 3D computer animation techniques. The last hand-drawn high-budget Disney feature scheduled for release is Home on the Range, which is due out next April. It appears that Disney is bowing to the supposed pressures of the market, even though the hand-drawn Lilo and Stitch was considered a success and the all-CG Dinosaur (done at Disney’s now-defunct FX house The Secret Lab) was not. However, I believe there’s another factor at work: Pixar’s contract with Disney is set to expire soon, and the revered CG house has been making their own demands of Disney for the contract’s renewal.
It’s no secret that Disney feels threatened by 3D Animation. “For the first time in decades, the entertainment giant that pioneered feature-length animation with 1937’s “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs” has no traditional animated big-budget movies in production.” Disney has not only fired many of it’s traditional 2D animators, but it has also been auctioning off the tools of the 2D animation trade, a sign that they don’t plan on rehiring new animators. “Among the items listed [for sale] was an animation desk for $1,299; a story board for $54.15; and a 6-foot-tall cabinet for stacking scenes for $64.95.”
Go Deaf for Def Leppard Update
At the crack of dawn this morning Anna-Maria and I headed off to Rock 106 to try and win some concert tickets. When I got there, there was only one other contestant. Things were looking up, but then they got on the radio and asked more people to come down and be in on the contest. Well a few more people started to show up and after a slight mishap with dead batteries in the decibel reader they got things underway.
First off, I should explain the basis behind this contest. The idea was that whoever sang the loudest Def Leppard line would win tickets to the Def Leppard concert on Monday. They talked Anna into also participating and she sang at an amazing 101.2 decibels (or was it 102.1?) She sang Pour a Little Sugar on Me — which she said she didn’t even know and nobody else sang louder than Anna-Maria, in fact nobody else even broke 100 decibels, except for me. I yelled a spectacular 106.6 decibels of Let’s Get Rocked and then after the contest was over did an encore performance and sang at 108.1!
We won the tickets and now all that’s between me and a sweet free Def Leppard concert is getting out of my evening class on Monday night. We are pumped.
Girl 12, Settles Lawsuit
Recently, the RIAA laid charges on a 12 year old girl from New York State for copyright violations by downloading music over the Internet.
It has now been announced (CNN story) that the RIAA has rushed to settle with the young Brianna LaHara, after serving her with a lawsuit on Monday. It looks like her single mother will be paying a $2,000 fine to the RIAA for her daughter’s song-swapping, which they had thought was legal. They purchased the software that allowed them to swap files with other users.
Quoting Brianna: “I am sorry for what I have done. I love music and don’t want to hurt the artists I love.” What a relief this must be for the huge bands like Metallica.
You might think that the RIAA was being excessive but see, downloading files is just a gateway crime… by the time this girl is 17, she’ll be sharing video games, and maybe by the time she’s in her early 20’s she’ll be giving away illegal copies of Microsoft Office! Thank goodness for American justice.
Go Deaf for Def Leppard – Rock 106 Radio Contest
I forgot to mention that this morning on the radio I heard them talking about free tickets for Def Leppard for the next 10 callers. Well I whipped out the cell phone and then Fraser and Rosie (the breakfast boys) explained to me that I didn’t win yet but that I had to come down to the studio on Friday morning and sing a short clip from Def Leppard. Whoever sings the loudest will win the tickets. Somewhat hesitantly I told them I would be there.
Update: Apparently I have quite the ability to raise my voice — see how the contest turned out.
Old Age Make-Up
Anna-Maria applied some old age make-up to my face this morning. This was her first time of doing this particular kind of old age make-up and although she is confident she could do better her next time, I think she did a pretty convincing job.
The make-up took about two to two and a half hours to apply and after she had it marked for her final, I took it off (2 minutes after it was done)! Anyway my face is still a little red from the latex. I imagine Gary will be interested in trying this but I must say although it looks cool, the process of having it applied is very boring.
New Flash Movie – Who Wants a Millionaire?
I just finished the sensational new movie, “Who Wants a Millionaire?“. I figure we’ll see some increased traffic on this one. Oh yeah, this is the good stuff. Please shout out any comments.
Animation Update
I just finished the animation project that is due tomorrow. Actually I still have to export it to .mov format and add sound but here it is without sound. (You’ll need an up to date flash player.)
New Video for Download
Ok I kind of like this one (update: video http://www3.telus.net/jefmil/blog/shrinking.mov offline), even though the effects are really cheezy. Get it while you can, I’m not sure if I’ll leave these on the web forever.
New Media Update
I’ve been working on a new video project since lunch time. I am really sick of it. I never realized how much work it was going to be trying to use a green screen and making it look realistic. I guess some tips I have to offer are that you want to make sure the green screen is exactly the same colour all over and that objects / people you are filming not only aren’t wearing green but are wearing dark colours that contrast well. I still have to do another project for tomorrow and I had to skip swimming again today because I need to get this work done. Next Thursday I have another video due, this time it has to have a Star Trek effect of beaming someone into screen. If either of these two projects turn out I’ll post them here.