Learning To Fly

So I've been working on it for several days anyway, but tomorrow, I will be formally assigned an After Effects project "introducing" the concept of parallax. The assignment asks for a minimum 8 layer composition, creating the illusion of 3d with 2d imagery.

Having been a fan of Andrew Kramer's work on videocopilot.net, I was familiar with the concept already, so six days ago, I began compiling assets from the internet and modifying them in photoshop considerably, readying myself for this project. This is the first project in a long time (outside of my video work) that I've felt compelled to far exceed my requirements, but I love this feeling.

More To Come...

Old DMA Ninja Film

My latest After Effects project was to take 1 second footage of two ninjas provided by our professor and key out the bluescreen and put in appropriate background.

Because I was a big fan of the early Mortal Kombat arcades and couldn't help but think of Raiden and Shang Tsung, I started looking for levels from either MK1 or MK2.

But, I decided the footage would look out of place on those backdrops, I just googled "Japan" and found an old grainy photo at http://peace.maripo.com/images/slc_japan.jpg

That made this project for me, but after colour correction and matching the grain, it was missing one touch of that old film look. I remembered an early tutorial on videocopilot.net which featured blank 8mm film. I added it and voila.

The Start of Rebranding

So I started toying around with the idea of rebranding my website, starting with my logo. I like the RGB bars and how they tied my site together, but the drive behind my entire purpose with that site was originally based on its name, Infinitesima (in case you're wondering, it's pronounced "infinite-ESS-immah"), which is derived from the word infinitesimal, meaning infinitely small.

At any rate, I wanted it to be tied with the concepts of infinity and zero, and not so much the primary colours of light.

Here's my new logo, to be displayed on white, rather than black

Obi Wallace Kenobi

So my first update of fourth semester is the second Motion Graphics lab: We took a 1 second clip from Braveheart and gave one of the Scotts a lightsaber. Perhaps an unfair advantage over the English, but Longshanks' reign was a bloody one...

The Crane Vs. The Old Solid Block

My first 3D crane was a lab in 3D class. This one is my own animation. Our professor, Gavin provided the specs to design this particular model crane. 3Ds Max supplied the bitmaps.

Don't Attempt The Following At Home

This was actually the first assigned project in Video this semester. Unfortunately the Fire Store we were using to record our footage had some issues and we were unable to secure the green room again, so this video remained unfinished. I took a minute tonight to finally throw together a quick, fun mess of adventure. Don't try this at home. Unless you have your own green screen.

p.s. I thought my grammar sounded fine while exporting the final video, but might need to adjust a line (in the end credits).

It was filmed in HD, but is compressed for this blog.

Pecha Kucha

I've decided it's okay to have no certainty in the exact pronunciation of Pecha Kucha, because when I look it up, I see three pronunciations and several people sure that they are right. It seems obvious that the Japanese way of saying it would differ from the English, so I'll presume (PETCH-ah KOO-cha) is English and will probably become the common way it is said in our accent. The three that I hear touted as the actual pronunciation are (p'KAh k'CHAh ), (p'CHAh k'CHAh ) and the third and somehow obviously just wrong as though someone heard the real thing and tried to sound as though they were saying it correctly (puh-CHAWCH-ka).

I'll be saying (p'KAh k'CHAh). If that pronunciation guide is confusing, think of a chicken sound... I'd write it: " b'GAh! "

...but you can't hear me for now anyways, so let's move on.

It's taken me quite some time to come to this entry, which I said was forthcoming weeks ago. Of the available topics in my criminal psychology course, I could not settle on one. After reading a relatively good amount and watching several documentaries, I decided to go with "The Media and Misconceptions About Psychopaths." For it, I decided I would touch points from other selections for the assignment.

Tying everything to either media or conceptions about psychopaths, true or false, I decided still to examine psychopathy as mental illness, Hare's research, empathy, movies and television, behavioural indicators and the subclinical psychopath (including white-collar psychopathy), the idea of childhood psychopathy and the potential for treatment of psychopathy.

I also created a loose frame to structure my research, but will allow for it to be merely a guide not written in stone. My frame sets a direction by predetermining a possible slide series for my 20 images.

1-Intro

2-What people tend to think of psychopathy

3-Movies and television

4-News Media

5-Mental Illness

6-Hare

7-PCL and behaviour

8-Serial Killers

9-White Collar

10-Next Door

11-Prevalence

12-Prison

13-Therapy

14-Biology

15-Will Power

16-Emotions

17-Children

18-Prejudice

19-Rights

20-Conclusion