As if we needed more than one excuse to dress up, Halloween and New York Comic Con happen in the same month. The New York Geeks get together to talk about costuming of all kinds.

mp3 link

Show Notes:

Break Song: Sharp Dressed Man by ZZ Top

No Qwikster for Netflix

Why Gamers Are a Great Fit at The Gym – CNN Health

Zombies, Run! Audio Game

Wikipedia – Cosplay

Wikipedia – Halloween Costume

Dragon*Con

“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

"Cheer Up!"

Ah, New York Comic Con, how we love and hate thee, let us count the ways. In this half episode we discuss our recent journey into the heart of geek; stinky and sweaty though it may be.

Guests: Chris Murphy, Erin Natal, Dan Pinto

mp3 link

Show Notes:

Comics we bought:

The Outfit by Darwyn Cooke
The Man with the Getaway Face by Darwyn Cooke
The Unwritten
Air
Vatican Hustle by Greg Houston
Elephant Man by Greg Houston
Nedroid
Don’t Look Horror Anthology
Criminal by Ed Brubaker
The Perhapnauts
Yaxin the Faun
Mouseguard, Winter: 1152
Iron West by Doug Tennapel
Atomic Robo Collection 1
The Invisibles
Queen and Country
Mysterious the Unfathomable
Locke & Key
Four Letter Worlds

Video Games we saw:

Michael Jackson Experience
Marvel Vs. Capcom
Okamiden
Captain America: SuperSoldier
Mega Man Universe
Red Dead Redemption: Undead nightmare

Animation whose panel we attended:

Secret of Kells

P.S. 10 geek points to whoever can tell me who the action figure in the photo is.

Last night I attended the 6th Tom Stathes’ Cartoon Carnival, a periodic cartoon festival with a 1930s theme and a penchant for naughty old animation.  Skipping the god awful commute to Queens (I wrote out all the directions for the M train but stupidly decided to take the 7 instead and got lost) the location, Attic Studios, was gorgeous.  A vast white loft with two full walls of windows showing a view of the bridge (ONE of them anyway) and the Manhattan skyline.  Many white plastic chairs and a big screen for the 16mm film projector.  And a small roped off area where you can buy drinks, get free popcorn, and flirt with the cigarette girls who offer raffle tickets, ciggs for $1 and candy ciggs for a $1.  I was super excited for the raffle and they wouldn’t tell me in advance what the grand prize was.  It turned out to be a 16mm print of an Oswald the Rabbit cartoon, and I was sad I didn’t win it because I would have digitally scanned it and attempted to restore it.  The runner up prize, in case you didn’t know what to do with a print, was a kiss on the cheek from the cigarette girl.  I raise my eyebrow.

Down to the cartoons themselves.  Out of the collection of Terrytoons, Felix, Mickey Mouse, and various old-men-visit-savages, my favorite was “Felix in Two-Lip Time.”  Many people have told me that exclamation points and question marks are cop outs, but Felix wrangles punctuation and ties it up with his flawless acting.  Imagine Charlie Chaplin meets After-Effects puppet tool.  Two intermissions gave me a great chance to wander, socialize, and explore, and the whole thing was wrapped up by a raucous sing-a-long of “Minnie’s Yoo-Hoo.”  HEEEEE HAAAAW!  I noticed a new story genre in animation that I think should be revived: a conscious interaction between animator and his creations.  Usually the cartoons give the artist some lip but he gets them back by animating them in outrageous circumstances.

The festivals float around on notorious email-lists and semi-private Facebook events, but you can just Google it and sign up.  Cartoonsonfilm.com

Then they came for The Pink Panther and I did not speak out because I was not a fan…

Then they came for The Karate Kid and I got mildly annoyed, because I was a fan…

Then they came for Total Recall and… DEAR GOD PLEASE NO!!

Noooooo!!!

I tried to doubt it. Hell I only found one site reporting it. And then another. And another. Oh dear god, this is really happening…

Yes, friends, Len Wiseman, auteur of such fine works as “Live Free or Die Hard” and the “Underworld” series, is set to direct a remake of Total Recall (aka the greatest film ever made… possibly).

Yes, you read that right.

For those not in the know, Total Recall is a 1990 film, directed by Paul Verhoeven (Robocop, Starship Troopers) based on a Phillip K. Dick story (We Can Remember It For You Wholesale, 1966). It stars Arnold Schwarzenegger as Douglas Quaid, a man who has dreams of going to Mars. Well, he ends up going to Rekall Inc., a company specializing in completely customizable vacations where all the memories of the trip are implanted into your brain, and decides to take a “vacation” to Mars. That’s when the fun starts. If you haven’t seen it, go now and watch it. If you don’t own it, buy it.

Not only does it hold up really well over time, unlike…say…Running Man, Arnold’s performance is surprisingly convincing, the supporting cast is amazing and the special effects are mind blowing.

All in all, one of my favorite movies.

But, then, here comes Sony Pictures, with the full intent of destroying everything I love I’m sure, who decides to give the property, which is incredibly dense and layered, to a novice director who’s claim to fame is making bad action films. This is insanity.

Don’t go see the remake. Please. Let’s just all make a deal, right now. Let’s just all, from now on, never go see another remake again. It’s not hard. I haven’t seen one in years. You can do it. I believe in you.

Start the reactor.

-Dan

* The title is a pun brought to you by my brother, Gabe Pinto.

3 things you need to know: 1) One fan stabbed his friend in the eye with a pen for a seat for “Cowboys & Aliens” 2) Stan Lee made out with two chicks simultaneously in the Marriot hotel lobby on Saturday night, and 3) this will all be in documentary by Morgan Spurlock

Comic Con

Check out the album for my Top 5 Cosplayers, all the runner ups, and photos from events!

Click to read more about Comic Con secrets!

Ugly Americans – never saw the show but I went because I liked the subway advertisements.  produced by Augenblick studios, their new season seems to be based entirely on characters pulled from background shots from previous episodes and the tv posters.   probably a good idea, got to see the whole animatic process which is entirely Flash based with hand drawn B&W tablet images roughly motion tweened.  10 month turnaround on the new episodes?

ASIFA Hollywood -panel chaired by Tom Sito, who later labeled East coast animation as urban and indy, and west coast as mass media with lots of heritage.   strong emphasis all around on technology bringing the animation industry from NY/LA/London/Japan to other parts of the world like south america.   recommended “The Missing Lynx” as a new Spanish cgi movie.  gaming industry called fastest progressing animation field, cited one lifetime to take a re-programmed Cold War computer to draw a line, to get to the movie Avatar.

Creature Design for Avatar – Alex Alvarez of Gnomon went from concept sketch of a personal project to full animation integrated into live action footage in 6 F***ING DAYS.  He also puppet animated a scanned drawing in Maya which I’ve never seen done before.  when designing creatures, concentrate on the profile or silhouette and make multiple versions to pick which one works the best for the film.   “what about this new creature will entertain you?”

Writing for the Animated Feature -apparently scripts are just rough or basic, and storyboard artists get to do whatever they want with their scenes anyway.  this leads to lack of continuity but also reworks and fleshes out the whole film.  the guys who wrote How to Train your Dragon said it took 7 months for the storyboard guys to play around and then come back to the original script

Leverage -never heard of it, but apparently in it’s third season, sat thru this to get to…

Venture Brothers – The creator Doc Hammer’s skin glitters in the sunlight.  He also loves the movie “Incognito” about a Rembrandt forger.  Patrick Warburton is a hottie but a douche who asked for too much money and was written out of the series temporarily.  #24 is still alive.

Simpsons -just caught the end.  apparently there is so much TV trivia that Matt groenig was unable to answer a question about the Itchy & Scratchy video game

V – the entire cast was there!  so much sexiness concentrated in one room!  Anna is now BLONDE!  Her mother will appear in season two, as Diana, or DIE-ANNA!  V-wine is nicknamed Malinga!  V’s might be made from multiple species, and may have already influenced human history!

Fringe -Anna Torv in real life has an english accent!  A fan snuck on stage and was arrested!  “Altered States” inspired Fringe, where Nina Sharp was naked multiple times!

Welcome to the Future: Are you sure you want to stay? – teh awesome.  a discussion about optimism v. pessimism in speculative science fiction.  “a person from 50 years ago would love the iPod but hate whats on it.”  got to ask my fun “why do magic stories villianize technology” question and the general answer was that ‘magic is organic technology, technology is magic we understand, and it is the people who use either that make it good or evil.’  see Princess Mononoke.  “beware of any technology that is inherently out of balance or unsustainable”  “consumer technology will go the way of Starbucks”  “you will need a digestive tract upgrade in order to process the new corn”  “we should be worried about the axis of evil (a vast blank tear in the middle of the galaxy right next to a super concentrated cluster of stars)”  Reading List: Radiant Dawn, Dark Reflection, David Weber, The Unincorporated Universe,

LGBT in Comics – met Zan Christensen, who self published the first gay graphic novel, which was an adaptation of the first gay erotic novel, possibly by Oscar Wilde “Teleny & Camille”.  the first panel was OK, they talked about how they made their own works but I didn’t really learn anything.  The second panel sunday morning was way more intellectual than I expected and was really interesting.  A discussion of how intimacy in Taiwanese all girls schools produced a lesbian-comics artist who later won comic artist of the year of Taiwan.  A modernist historiography of “Northstar” following his creation, his coming out, his mysterious sickness, and current state which is accurately summed up by “Northstar isn’t gay, he is just a fairy.”  And a great look at classical Greek Ironic Pederasty vs Japanese Aesthetically Ambiguous Shonen-ai, and why the Greek lit are banned from schools but Japan manga isnt, along with the explanation of ‘quaternionic structure’ and ‘ritual vocal combat’ in “Loveless” and “Phaedros,” wrapped up with an analysis of eye contact with Socrates and whooshing anime lines in anime (WTF WTF WTF????!!!!)

San Diego Film Festival -  one good animation about wax people with great subsurface scattering http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OFZ5ryNwlII

I also bought my first ever Sandman T-shirt “You get what everyone gets… you get a lifetime” and awesome Sandman figurines.

If you’re a LOST fan, as I am, you’re probably kind of curious as to where this is all going. This weekend is the series finale of the show, and to celebrate, The Paley Center for Media is holding a little get-together:

“The Paley Center for Media and New York Comic Con are going to help EASE YOUR PAIN with a fun-filled celebration featuring a slew of events—a DHARMA aptitude test (aka trivia contest), a custom-made Lost game, prizes, giveaways, a panel discussion, and a special screening of a pop-up version of the program that got it all started: the pilot episode.”

The Last Lost Weekend: A Celebration | The Paley Center for Media