The Onion News Network presents a story about a Warcraft sequel that lets you play a character playing World of Warcraft.
For the record, despite the fact that I’ve played a lot of video games in my time, I’ve never played World of Warcraft.
2008 Democratic Primary in 8 Minutes
“In case you haven’t been paying attention…” here is Slate’s pleasant recap of the Democratic Primary in a mere 8 and 1/2 minutes 7 minutes.
I find it hard enough paying close attention to my own country’s politics, but this recap is nice because it succinctly summarizes the highlights of the race so far.
Big Buck Bunny
I’ve played around in the open source 3D modelling software Blender a little bit. It may not be as fancy as the retail software on the market today, but if you compare it with versions of Maya or MAX from just a few years ago, it blows them out of the water.
A team of creative folks used the free software to make a short animated cartoon, Big Buck Bunny. They were funded by Blender foundation support and pre-orders of the DVD by the Blender community.
It’s licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0, so it’s free to watch and distribute so long as the credits are attached. Theoretically you could even download the source files, remix the movie and then sell it for a profit. Here is the original movie via YouTube:
Watch Big Buck Bunny now on YouTube or one of the many other official viewing options.
Displacements
Displacements is an immersive film installation by Michael Naimark. He first filmed three people interacting in a typical Americana living room. Then the space and objects were painted white. The camera was replaced with a projector putting the action and colour back into the room with just light. The results are surreal.
Displacements is an immersive film installation. An archetypal Americana living room was installed in an exhibition space. Then two performers were filmed in the space using a 16mm motion picture camera on a slowly rotating turntable in the room’s center. After filming, the camera was replaced with a film loop projector and the entire contents of the room were spray-painted white. The reason was to make a projection screen the right shape for projecting everything back onto itself. The result was that everything appears strikingly 3D, except for the people, who of course weren’t spray-paint white, and consequently appeared very ghostlike and unreal.
Unfortunately the video linked from Vimeo has been taken down, but you’ll find a video in the link above.
Pavement Skating
This is a video of four people driving along a Saudi Arabian road with three of them outside the car doing what what appears to be sliding on concrete wearing nothing special on their feet.
[Only in Saudi Arabia – YouTube]
Weezer’s Pork and Beans Music Video
Mmmmmmm, Weezer’s new memelicious music video Pork and Beans is the best meme inspired creation ever.
Shot May 7-10 in North Hollywood, CA, this video features a cast of, well, many! And what a cast! An amazing group of well known “Youtube celebs” was tracked down and flown in so they could do their thing(s) with the Weezer men. Its pretty much impossible to properly describe what went down, so just have a look!
I particularly liked it when Rivers Cuomo embraces the “Leave Britney Alone” guy. If anyone was ever overdo for a hug, it’s Chris Crocker.
Update: Wired’s interview with the director.
Drew Burrows “In Bed” Art Installation
Perhaps this virtual girlfriend in bed installation will appease the lonely art connoisseur. Weird but interesting, from Drew Burrows:
Lilly, Mapmaster at 2
Check out this very interesting video of Lilly, the almost two year old master of the map. Apparently she showed off her incredible talent when she appeared as a guest on Oprah recently.
[The Original Video of Lilly: The World Map Master – YouTube]
Color Wars Morph
Competing in Ze Frank’s Color Wars, people have been recreating their childhood photos and posting them to the youngnow gallery. Here are a bunch that I animated using a morphing program:
[Color Wars Young to Old Morph – YouTube]
MUTO a wall painted animation
If you’re looking for something arty, creepy, yet mysteriously compelling, check out MUTO, a short animated film that uses public walls as a backdrop for animated creatures.
MUTO a wall-painted animation by BLU from blu on Vimeo.
(A segment of this film originally titled Fantoche, linked previously).