mp3 link

Show Notes:

Break Song: “Future” by Cut Copy

Vision Machine, a free comic by Greg Pak and R.B. Silva

Douglas Rushkoff’s “Are Jobs Obsolete?” op-ed on CNN

“All of this stuff may or may not happen to be in a new version of After Effects at some future point in time, maybe.” That was the legalese they produce at Adobe… But at any rate, there are A FEW EXCITING THINGS you can look forward to:

Light Falloff -
Tired of those pesky lights being unrealistically bright and not conforming to our sketchy understanding of the physical universe? Worry no more! Now there is a built in slider that will simulate light-fall off from spotlights and more, so you can have murky shadows…

Rack Focus -
Possibly the coolest thing I’ve seen. They took a video of a boy pretending to hold something in his hand, animated in a ball of fire, separated the hand (foreground) from his face (bkgd) and then applied a rack-focus-map to all the layers. Then you just slide back and forth and viola, simulated rack focus!

Source Code -
all videos will be coordinated and you can switch between any source code you want… I’m sure editors are happy about that

Image caching -
each layer will individually cache their data, so if you change one little thing, it will take less time to update the whole image

Multi Ram Processing -
didn’t actually understand this, except that when you use it, limit the number of virtual CPUs, use a smaller amount of RAM, and disk caching will now default to 20gbs, and u should use it with an ext HD.

3D Glasses -
apparently they already had this filter, but now there will be a one click 3d-stereo-camera rig you can set up and different preview options to try out all the diff kinds of 3d glasses that exist today

RED film -
raw film data can be processed in AE, just like those snobby fashion photographers instantly color correct their pics on set

and finally…
WARP STABILIZATION & SUBSPACE CONTROL!!!!!
A new stabilization filter that uses a default cloud of 500+ tracking points to stabilize an image. We got to see all the crosshairs, but that won’t be available in the future. They had no idea how to term their controls, so one is actually called Subspace. It is all to reduce artifacting and warping around the edges of stabilized footage. Also cuts back on the amount of scaling and cropping. A vast improvement, but not universal for every shot. Personally I think it might cause a little motion sickness, but you’ll have to judge for yourself.

I was going to include a video preview of the Warp Stabilizer, but even though AENY promised it would be up the next day, all my Google efforts produce nothing but Star Trek engine designs…  but keep an eye out!

How to tell them apart.

In this bite-size, David and Brett regroup after the NYC release party for the Boxee Box, a set-top media aggregator for your TV.

mp3 link

Show Notes:

The Boxee Box by D-Link

Boxee website

Mashable: Congress Asks NBC Why Hulu Blocked Boxee

The New York Geeks catch the New York premiere of “Superman-Batman: Apocalypse” at the Paley Center for Media. Sadly, “Apocalypse” doesn’t begin to describe this mess of a direct-to-video animated film. Also, SPOILERS.

mp3 link

Show Notes:

Superman/Batman: Apocalypse Official Site

The Paley Center for Media

‘Superman/Batman: Apocalypse’ Is A Faithfully Flawed Adaptation on ComicsAlliance.com

I love anything Watchmen. Watchmen bedsheets. Watchmen cupcakes. Watchmen babies. That movie. I guess I’m obligated to own this book:

Minutes to Midnight: Twelve Essays on Watchmen examines Watchmen from a variety of perspectives to uncover surprising answers to many questions. What does it reveal about the history of scientific theory? How is the atom bombing of Hiroshima refracted through its pages? Does Watchmen’s murder mystery measure up to the standards of Raymond Chandler? Is the depiction of Rorschach an unfair caricature of the philosophy of Steve Ditko? Where are the secrets of Captain Metropolis and the Minutemen revealed? Was the Comedian right all along? Who shouldn’t read Watchmen? What are the limits of Watchmen and do they extend beyond a major motion picture?

The essays:

• Reassembling the Components in the Correct Sequence: Why You Shouldn’t Read Watchmen First, by Walter Hudsick
• Bringing Light to the World: Watchmen from Hiroshima to Manhattan, by Peter Sanderson
• The End Is Nigh: The Limits of Watchmen, by Geoff Klock
• The Smartest Man in the Morgue: Watchmen and “Twelve Notes on the Mystery Story,” by Chad Nevett
• Somebody Has to Save the World: Captain Metropolis and Role Playing Watchmen, by Tim Callahan
• 58 Varieties: Watchmen and Revisionism, Julian Darius
• Some Different Sort of Time: Watchmen as Cinema, by Patrick Meaney
• At Play Amidst the Strangeness and Charm: Watchmen and the Philosophy of Science, by William Ritchie
• The Last Laugh: Understanding Watchmen’s Big Joke, by John Loyd
• How the Ghost of You Clings: Watchmen and Music, by Mary Borsellino
• Blotting Out Reality: Questioning Rorschach, by Gene Phillips
• Nothing Ever Ends: Structural Symmetries in Watchmen, by Jon Cormier

(To answer the question posed in the official description: there are no limits to Watchmen. Like I said, cupcakes.)

Sources:
Sequart page
Press release at Comic Book Resources

The minute the opening credits started, I thought about what I was dealing with.  Was this a return to scratch film animation, or was this some how closely reproduced in a computer, with some heartfelt scratches and paint added in some new way.  Did that matter?  Then the movie started.  What is up with Canada, I thought?  It seemed like The Discrete Charm of the Hipster Bourgeoisie.  But that quickly passed when the music animation began.  Ghostly blended comic book stars and stripes representing one medium in another.  The basic shapes were an interesting change from the usual abstract Apple visualizer or hippie trance that one often sees as “music art.”

And then came the first evil ex-boyfriend.  What an effin’ awesome adventure.  I haven’t read the books. I had no idea what was going to happen.  Poor guy doesn’t know how to read emails, crashes at his gay best friends bachelor pad, and gets stalked by a Catholic Asian school girl who looks like she walked straight of your nearest EGL web comic.

Each increasingly awesome battle was separated by the introduction of the characters who dain to orbit about Michael Cera and his Punk chic girlfriend.  Like *SPOILER* the crazy goth lesbian, the angry girl drummer, and my favorite, Aubrey Plaza from “Parks & Recreations.”  Scott Pilgrim vs the World is a computer game, with a nod to ATARIs.

The Greenest of Lanterns

Entertainment Weekly published a “First Look” at the new Green Lantern movie this week. Front Page news, no less. More images of the film can be found over at iFanboy.

Now, I’ve never been a huge fan of the character. I like the idea behind him and the Green Lantern Corp however, his history is bogged down in continuity and the amount of different personalities who took over the role are incredibly varied, to the point where fanboys violently hate one or more incarnations. It’s not that I don’t want to like him, it’s that his whole world confuses me.

Enter the Green Lantern movie.

Right off the bat, the costume strike me as odd. As with a lot of comic book movies, designers feel the need to add something extra to the costume design (Bat Nipples anyone?). They forget the simplicity of the original design. In the case with Green Lantern, it’s that strange ribbing on the costume. It almost looks like he’s covered in varicose veins. You’re welcome for that visual, by the way.

That all being said, I am still somewhat optimistic about this movie. Okay, sure, Ryan Reynolds is not great. And the supporting cast is pretty bland, except for Peter Sarsgaard (Just say his name out loud. “Sarsgaard.”). And comic book movies, in general, tend to suck. All that taken into consideration, I’m hoping to be pleasantly surprised, ala Iron Man.  However, I’ll wait until the reviews come out.

<3 – dan