“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!

I love you. Honestly, I do. The last three years with you were amazing. A-mazing. Remember when my brother introduced us? It was love at first sight. You introduced to me to so many new things. Because of you, I’ve shaken hands some of my artistic heroes, found out about obscure comics I’d never heard about and met some new people. Hell, you even got me some awesome shirts. It was a blast.

And that’s what I mean…was.

This is kind of hard to write but here goes: I think we should break up.

Please don’t hate me. Again, I really enjoyed the last 3 years. I was going to say “It’s not you, it’s me” but, well, it is you. New York Comicon, you’ve changed. And I don’t like it.

Back in the day, we used to hang out and actually get along. You were actually all about comics back then. You and me would geek out over all the artists you’d introduce me to. Hell, I wouldn’t even have known about Mousegaurd if it wasn’t for you, and that’s one of my favorite books. And, sure, you had a few weird video game interests, but I could deal with it because you were still mostly about comics.

Things started going bad that second year. You started letting movies and video games take over. We just couldn’t really relate on those things. But, I stuck it out because, well, I knew you. I knew that, at your heart, you loved comics as much as I did. Or I thought you did.

This past year though, you made a drastic change. You started hanging out with anime kids. I don’t have a problem with that. Really, I don’t. But along with your growing interest in video games and movies and other stuff I don’t care about, you forgot what brought us together in the first place: Comics. You kept wanting me to try out the new Intel processor, or play Wii, or look at some new trailer for a movie I don’t care about. Whenever I tried to talk comics, it’s like you didn’t even know they existed. Your mind was so cluttered with other stuff, you didn’t even have any room for them. You shoved them away into a corner.

I loved the New York Comicon that actually cared about comics. I miss that New York Comicon. The new you is strange and frightening and sometimes smells funny.

So, again, please don’t hate me. I really did enjoy our time together but, I think I need someone who understands me better. I hope you understand.

Love always,

-Dan

PS – How much are tickets for next year?

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.

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.

Part 1:

Part 2:

Direct Links:
Crazy Sexy Geeks – Tim Gunn Strikes! Part 1
Crazy Sexy Geeks – Tim Gunn Strikes! Part 2

Part 1:

Part 2:

Direct Link to Part 1
Direct Link to Part 2

Feb. 11th Thursday night @ 9:30pm we’re recording Macking for Geeks part 2: Mack Harder
and we’re hoping YOU…yes YOU…can be a part of it.

Between the hours of 9:30 and 11 give us a call at 1-718-303-2193 to tell us your stories of geek love lost & found.

If you call in and the call doesn’t get through, don’t get discouraged; try again 5 mins later and we’ll pick up your call!

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