Yale’s Shane Frederick gives a fascinating, lightning tour of just how susceptible our minds are to context—answering questions & evaluating people totally differently based on simple re-orderings, etc. Give it a quick listen; I think you’ll be glad you did.
[YouTube]
Paul Trillo worked with Nokia to rig up 50 Lumia 1020 cameras & capture dizzying slices of New York life, complete with snatches of audio.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LmDNjZM3Tu8
Here’s a peek behind the scenes:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hHVkNcvxMZM
Elsewhere Jonas Ginter made a 360º tiny planet using an array of six GoPro cameras:
Solid life perspective:
An audience appreciation is only going to be periodic, in the best of times. You fall in and out of favor continually. I don’t think it should be something one should be looking for. I think you should turn around at the end of the day and say, “I really liked that piece of work,” or “That piece of work sucked!” – not, “Was that popular or wasn’t it popular?”
This new utility promises to help iOS developers “get colors, shapes, font styles, text, PNGs, dimensions and coordinates.”
[Vimeo]
Watching this I couldn’t help wishing that SNL’s Stefon was there to chronicle New York’s hottest new club, Whoooosh!, currently descending onto a barge in the East River…
Can you turn a square Instagram pic into an interesting landscape? Bryan O’Neil Hughes shows you how:
[YouTube]
Check out this handy find from Scott Valentine. Even if you don’t care about using Photoshop for design, click through just to check out the unique way the video was created—a mechanism they tease about at the end. [Via Scott Valentine]
“It’s not ‘bullshit,’ but rather ‘male bovine fecal matter extruded on a longitudinal axis.’”
Enjoy. 🙂
[Via]
Waldo Bronchart interesting little utility shows you interactive charts of the keyboard shortcuts in Lightroom & Photoshop. You can hold down various modifier keys to see what they do in combination with other modifiers + letters, etc., and you can search for shortcuts (e.g. everything related to Print).
Hmm—this would actually be kind of brilliant for the teams to use when finding open shortcuts (never an easy task!).
[Via]
As The AV Club explains,
Everyone who donates $10 to the charity’s website before July 1 is automatically entered to win a chance to be flown to the set of Episode VII, where they will meet the cast before likely being dressed up as some sort of alien, and probably thrust far into the background behind characters who actually matter. Nevertheless, you will technically “be in Star Wars,” with all the decades of lucrative convention appearances that promises.
[YouTube]
“There may be something sacrilegious,” says artist & editor Lauren Wade, “but the same could be said for our contemporary ideas of beauty.” Check out some examples of her experiment:
[Via]
“This is not a how-to guide to get a job at Google,” cautions Evan (Google Maps PM for for Views, Photo Sphere, & Panoramio). Having said that, you might appreciate his perspective on how he scans for candidates.
Hand Jim a printout of your résumé and tell him he has 30 seconds to read it. But, after just 10 seconds, grab the paper back. Ask Jim what he knows about you from this.
I’m reminded of Steve Martin finally erupting in Planes, Trains, and Automobiles: “Have a POINT! It makes it SO much more interesting for the listener!!“
I also enjoyed this succinct advice from Laszlo Bock, who’s in charge of all hiring at Google: “[F]rame your strengths as: ‘I accomplished X, relative to Y, by doing Z.’” The rest of Thomas Friedman’s conversation with him is well worth a read.
If you’re like me (and most people), you take a trip, take a bunch of photos & videos, never really go through them, think “Oh, I really should make/share a gallery or something,” and then fail to do so—maybe feeling vaguely guilty about it.
Google+ Stories changes that.
My boss Anil writes,
No more sifting through photos for your best shots, racking your brain for the sights you saw, or letting your videos collect virtual dust. We’ll just gift you a story after you get home. This way you can relive your favorite moments, share them with others, and remember why you traveled in the first place.
Here’s a sample story made from Anil’s family photos. My colleague Ben says,
“We’ve added not just the photos and videos but the travel information, places and restaurants you went to along the way,” says Google + product manager Ben Eidelson. “We’ve given this all to you automatically when you’ve gotten back from whatever you’re doing so you don’t have to stress about that on top of doing your laundry and unpacking.”
Here’s a nice summary from Ben & USA Today’s Jefferson Graham:
“Is Nik dead?”
Nope, not even a little. 🙂
Google’s photography evangelist, Brian Matiash, joined Scott Kelby & Matt Kloskowski to present the new Analog Efex Pro on last week’s episode of The Grid. Check out the new stuff in action as Brian answers questions from the audience. (You can jump ahead to around 17:20 in case the embed below doesn’t do that automatically.)
[YouTube]
aka, “This is What Happens When a Squid Listens to Cypress Hill.”
I predict that when we attach your body to these stimuli, your smile muscles will fire.
The video is a view through an 8x microscope zoomed in on the dorsal side of the caudal fin of the squid. We used a suction electrode to stimulate the fin nerve. Chromatophores are pigmeted cells that come in 3 colors: Brown, Red, and Yellow. Each chromatophore is lined with up to 16 muscles that contract to reveal their color.
Here’s more info on the project. Now excuse me while I try to explain the concept of membranes (and Cypress Hill) to the beguiled Micronaxx.
Dave Wiskus and Jaimee Newberry sat down for a fun chat the other day about how the Photoshop sausage (er, code) gets made, startup weenies, double-decker couches, and more. Here, give it a listen.
Gannon Burgett writes in PetaPixel,
After spending some time with the program, it seems as though Analog Efex Pro II is a great deal speedier than its predecessor. Not only is speed improved though, it offers a much more diverse array of filter options and far more precision in terms of nailing the toning of an image, adding grain, etc.
Overall, it’s a rather impressive improvement and while I was admittedly skeptical at first, it’s most certainly worthy of calling itself 2.0.
My new team is constantly working to polish the Google+ Photos experience. Recently we’ve introduced three small enhancements that make it easier to find, manage, and download your files:
As I say, the team is constantly cranking away, so let us know what else you’d like to see!
Check out this interesting project:
The user starts with a mechanical model, then sketches motion curves to indicate how different parts of the character should move. “The resulting mechanisms are attached to the character,” write the researchers, “and then connected to each other using gear trains, which are created in a semi-automated fashion.”
[YouTube] [Via Matthew Richmond]
I’m delighted to announce that Google has just released Analog Efex Pro 2.0 for Mac & Windows, a big free update to the Nik Collection. I think you’re going to love the way you can sculpt blurs, make cool diptychs & triptychs, create really interesting double exposures, and more.
- New control points – Delivering one of the most requested features by our users, control points let you fine-tune the presence of Photo Plates, Light Leaks, the Dirt & Scratches filter, and Basic Adjustments using our U Point® Technology.
- New Cameras and Presets – Expanding on the Cameras from the previous version, you now have access to a larger assortment of new Cameras and presets that take advantage of the powerful filters of Analog Efex Pro 2, such as Black and White, Subtle Bokeh, and Simple Color.
- New creative ways to present your images – We’ve also built three new filters into the Camera Kit, that let you showcase your photos in truly creative ways with Motion Blur, Multilens, and Double Exposure.
You can download the update immediately via the Try Now button. (It’ll recognize your license if you’ve already bought the collection.)
Meanwhile, check out my colleague Brian Matiash putting AEP through its paces in this series:
Enjoy, and please let us know what you think!
[YouTube]
We’ll be showing something cool on Kelby TV’s The Grid (broadcasting live at 4pm Eastern/1pm Pacific). Stay tuned!
Huge photography, hugely important subject:
Photographer Edward Burtynsky and director Jennifer Baichwal give us an inside look into the making of their cinematic feat, Watermark. The documentary was shot using groundbreaking 5K ultra high definition photography and aerial technology and explores mankind’s complicated relationship with water, using a diverse set of stories that challenge how easily we take it for granted.
[Via]
A quick, neat tour courtesy of Cento Lodigiani:
The 12 basic principles of animation were developed by the ‘old men’ of Walt Disney Studios, amongst them Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnston, during the 1930s. Of course they weren’t old men at the time, but young men who were at the forefront of exciting discoveries that were contributing to the development of a new art form. These principles came as a result of reflection about their practice and through Disney’s desire to use animation to express character and personality. This movie is my personal take on those principles, applied to simple shapes. Like a cube. Check also the animated GIF gallery.
[Vimeo]
Nice, understated typography for Adobe’s 99u conference:
Each year at the 99U Conference we feature a motion reel of inspirational quotes from our speakers that plays in a loop throughout the conference.
How do you create a reel that you don’t get tired of? We focused on telling a story.
In past years we relied on the use of depth of field and 3D effects moving on changing axes. However, this year we focused on very few elements and simple 2-Dimensional designs that could morph into each other seamlessly, making the objects not only design elements but ‘characters’ of the story. We drew a lot of inspiration from movie title sequences we love and to the master of it all: Saul Bass.
[Vimeo]
Adobe’s Aseem Agrawala (whom you have to thank for tons of great Photoshop features like auto-alignment/blending of layers) & Aaron Hertzmann have been working with university researchers to apply crowdsourcing data to the problem of font selection:
Have you ever been overwhelmed by the huge menu of possibilities when choosing a font? A simple menu of fonts made sense when there were 20 fonts on our computers, but now we have hundreds and even thousands. Online font repositories have over 100,000 fonts. Our interfaces our based on the idea that fonts can be described with attributes, like “friendly” or “legible;” We use crowd-sourcing and machine learning to compute attributes for any font.
[YouTube]
Erroll Morris & team did a terrific job with The Fog Of War (wherein a spreadsheet of numbers started to fall like bombs on Vietnam), and their latest work—this time focusing on Donald Rumsfeld—is even better. I loved the juxtaposition & treatment of historical photos & text to the point that I created a gallery of screenshots that you might enjoy.
I really enjoyed hearing the enigmatic street photographer’s old neighbors remember her—and hearing how the remembrance brought them together.
Bizarre team presentation style notwithstanding (were these guys media-trained by Michelle Bachmann?), this project looks rather cool:
LIX 3D printing pen has the similar function as 3D printers. It melts and cools coloured plastic, letting you create rigid and freestanding structures. Lix has a hot-end nozzle that is power supplied from USB 3.0 port. The plastic filament ABS/PLA is introduced in the upper extremity of Lix Pen. The filament goes through a patented mechanism while moving through the pen to finally reach the hot-end nozzle which melts and cools it down. An interesting fact about this light-weight, engineered pen is that these structures can be formed in any imaginable shape.
[Via]
I’m really pleased to see that Adobe has officially introduced Voice, a crazy-easy way to make animated explainer videos, product pitches, etc.:
I had the chance to work closely with Tom, Ely, and the team over the last year, and it was amazing to watch how kids in particular would pick up the app and instantly start creating things they’d never made before. The combination of touch editing plus easy voice recording is oddly magical. I’m really excited to see where things go from here.
[YouTube]
Classic illustration gets a dark twist as German director Werner Herzog* reads & interprets Madeline:
*(NOTE: Not really Werner Herzog)” [Via David Nishimura]
And if that’s up your shady alley, try Time Is A Flat Circus on for size:
[Via Adam Symons]
Having gotten my publishing start as a kid via Cricket Magazine’s art contests, I’m pleased to see that Google has opened up voting across age ranges for kids’ art to appear on Google.com. Check it out!
Though it veers a bit close to fetishizing materials, I found this short film introducing a new notebook line compelling:
Thanks to the natural texture of the wood, no two “Shelterwood” memo books are the same but all share their origin in the same few hand-picked cherry trees from Northern Illinois and Southern Wisconsin. The wood covers are sustainably produced, with just a few 60″ logs converted into 5000 feet of “Sheer Veneer,” with very little waste (the waste is recycled into wood pellets to heat the factory!). The process can be seen in the film above.
[Vimeo]
I’m so pleased to see that my longtime boss & friend Kevin Connor, together with imaging forensics pioneer Dr. Hany Farid, has introduced Izitru (pronounced “Is It True?”), a free app & Web site for checking whether digital images have been manipulated:
CNET’s Stephen Shankland writes,
To use Izitru, a photographer can upload a photo through the Web site or an iPhone app. Izitru then runs a battery of tests that can identify editing or authenticity. It then posts a version of the photo with its trustworthiness rating. […]
Izitru is free to use, but the company hopes to make money by letting other Web sites tap into it through an application programming interface (API), which lets software use the service automatically. That could help social-media services, journalism sites, or insurance companies, Connor said.
[Vimeo]
New iPhone app Vhoto scans your videos to find (hopefully) amazing still photographs: “Use the Vhoto camera to record video, or import your existing videos. Vhoto’s Chooser looks at hundreds of still photos hidden inside your videos and finds you the best pics.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lsELdVAlaU4
GeekWire has a few more details.
Thoughts? I’m reminded of this paper from Adobe’s Aseem Agarwala & UW researchers on selecting candid portraits from video.
[YouTube]
Artist Sipho Mabona crowd-funded the creation of a life-sized fashioned from a huge, uncut piece of paper:
Weird personal detail: When my son Finn was just about to turn 3, he devised an elaborate story about an elephant named Psycho Tomoda. I now must commission Sipho Mabona to fold a Psycho Tomoda!
Who knew? But so you can, and to enable good causes:
Visual anonymity in video allows people to share personal footage more widely and to speak out when they otherwise may not. […]
YouTube is proud to be a destination where people worldwide come to share their stories, including activists. Along with efforts like the Human Rights Channel and Citizentube that curate these voices, we hope that the new technologies we’re rolling out will facilitate the sharing of even more stories on our platform.
To use the feature:
Once you’ve chosen the video that you’d like to edit within our Video Enhancements tool, go to Additional Features and click the “Apply” button below Blur All Faces.
You can now view a given point in space at multiple points in time—useful for things like the Washington Post showing the rapid development of parts of DC.
If you’ve ever dreamt of being a time traveler like Doc Brown, now’s your chance. Starting today, you can travel to the past to see how a place has changed over the years by exploring Street View imagery in Google Maps for desktop. We’ve gathered historical imagery from past Street View collections dating back to 2007 to create this digital time capsule of the world.
Rolleirückblende—literally “Rollei flashback”—“the flood of memory released when looking at old photos.”
[Via Torrie Selwyn]
I hate spamming people, and having discovered a setting to enable daily digests of emails instead of individual mailings, I’ve flipped the switch in hopes of cluttering your inbox less. If you’d like to get digests of posts via email, please sign up here. And if you’re a WordPress/Subscribe2 ninja who can help me offer the option of weekly digests, please let me know.
What a charmingly weird little Rube Goldberg project:
[Vimeo]
[YouTube]
