Media

LucasFilm pushes the boundaries with real-time rendering

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LucasFilm is working on a real-time rendering system that captures character movements on a soundstage and, in real-time, incorporates those movements in video. This is a remarkable achievement and, in my mind, carries significant implications for film and video game production.

As you watch the video, notice the convergence of technologies. At about :41, the director swaps out one character for another with the push of a button, while the video plays live. At 1:55, you get a real taste of the ability to capture subtle facial movements, transferring them to a live character. There’s so much more. Just watch.

The Simpsons secret math

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I’m a math geek, have been all my life. So I was delighted when I saw this one. Had no idea the Simpsons’ writing staff were so mathematically inclined. Here are a few examples.

The episode climaxes with Tabitha appearing on the Jumbo Vision screen at the Springfield stadium, where she publicly proclaims her love for Buck. More important, just before she appears on the screen, it displays a question that asks the baseball fans in the crowd to guess the attendance.

The screen displays three multiple choice options; 8,128, 8,208 and 8,191. These digits might seem arbitrary and innocuous, but in fact they represent a perfect number, a narcissistic number and a Mersenne prime.

The article goes on to give the details on each class of numbers. What amazes me is how much work they put in to create a short chunk of animation that few, if any, in the audience will notice. That’s craft. Or insanity.

Here’s another example (and my personal favorite). Note that the carat (^) symbol stands for “raised to the power of”, as in 2^5 = 32:

Professor Andrew Wiles (now Sir Andrew Wiles) worked in secrecy for seven years to fulfil a childhood dream and build a proof that confirmed that Fermat was right, inasmuch as the following equation has no solution: x^n + y^n = z^n, for n > 2. It is neither necessary to understand the proof nor to examine the equation in detail, except I should stress again that both Wiles and Fermat claimed, indeed proved, that this equation has no solutions, yet Homer’s blackboard proves the opposite!

3987^12 + 4365^12 = 4472^12.

Check it for yourself on your phone calculator and you will find that the equation balances!

I’ll leave it to you to figure out the fly in the ointment. Or just read the article.

575 free movies online

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A fantastic free resource. There’s something for everyone in this list. Some of my all-time favorite films alongside a bunch of unknown works (to me, at least) by great directors such as Quentin Tarantino and David Lynch. Yum.

Jimmy Page on the art of songwriting

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Daniel Rachel just released the book Isle of Noises: Conversations with Great British Songwriters.

Inspired by Paul Zollo’s seminal Songwriters on Songwriting, Rachel has managed to bring together a truly impressive ensemble of British tunesmiths, including Ray Davies, Jarvis Cocker, Mick Jones, Robin Gibb (why the hell not!) and Johnny Marr, among others. The results are hugely enjoyable, and the mind veritably boggles imagining the kind of cajoling and legwork Rachel must have put in to coax this rich and eclectic ensemble out of their country piles—not least the notoriously taciturn, the notoriously notorious Jimmy Page…

I love interviews where musicians talk about their craft (as opposed to their personal lives). Really looking forward to getting my copy. Follow the link above to get to an excerpt of the Jimmy Page interview.

Here’s a tasty bit of Page playing Chopin. The audio is a little out of sync (I think they captured the echo), but yum, nonetheless.

Tim O’Reilly, “How I failed”

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Tim O’Reilly has long been one of my heroes. He’s one of the leading lights in all manner of publishing, and a major force behind the maker movement (people learning how to build things, teaching others). A righteous dude.

This blog post is a thoughtful look back at his successes and his failures. An important read, especially if you are building a business.

Dungeons and developers

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Have you ever wanted to learn web development or just refine your webdev skills? Dungeons and Developers gives your quest for knowledge a role playing twist. When you get to the page, click the Open the talent tree button to get started.

Netflix, world-wide expansion, and pirate guidance

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Netflix is a fantastic story. They started by shipping physical DVDs about 15 years ago, then moved heavily into streaming. Over the past few years, Netflix has moved into more than 40 countries, sometimes building custom content for a specific region (Norway’s Lilyhammer is a good example). How do they make the decision on what content to purchase?

This week Netflix rolled out its service in the Netherlands and the company’s Vice President of Content Acquisition, Kelly Merryman, says that their offering is partly based on what shows do well on BitTorrent networks and other pirate sites.

“With the purchase of series, we look at what does well on piracy sites,” Merryman told Tweakers.

One of the shows that Netflix acquired the rights to in the Netherlands is Prison Break, since it is heavily pirated locally. “Prison Break is exceptionally popular on piracy sites,” Merryman says.

Here’s an interview with Reed Hastings. It’s from a Dutch site, but the interview is in English. To skip the intro, jump to :30.

John Cleese on creativity

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Cleese digs into the creative process as only he can. What a brilliant mind.

Craig Ferguson

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My brother and I got in a discussion about the late night hosts. While there is some question as to which host is the funniest, has the best music, etc., Stu and I both agree completely that Craig Ferguson is the most under-appreciated of the lot. Lots of great examples, but this one is my favorite.

J.K. Rowling to write “Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them” screenplay

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Not quite a new Harry Potter story, but I’ll take it.

Although it will be set in the worldwide community of witches and wizards where I was so happy for seventeen years, ‘Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them’ is neither a prequel nor a sequel to the Harry Potter series, but an extension of the wizarding world. The laws and customs of the hidden magical society will be familiar to anyone who has read the Harry Potter books or seen the films, but Newt’s story will start in New York, seventy years before Harry’s gets underway.

I predict big box office here.

Springsteen archive at Monmouth University

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I grew up in New Jersey and have been a fan of The Boss since I was a kid. Though his best stuff may be well behind him, Springsteen is a hero to many and carries a large legacy of good deeds and great music. Now that legacy has a permanent home. The Bruce Springsteen archive at Monmouth University is open to the general public.

Cal Worthington dead at age 92

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Cal Worthington was one of the true icons of Los Angeles. He sold cars and there was just no avoiding his commercials and his ubiquitous catchphrase, “Go see Cal, go see Cal, go see Cal.” Every one of his commercials featured Cal and his dog Spot. Spot turned out to be one of an ever-changing menagerie of animals, sometimes an elephant, sometimes an alligator, sometimes a camel. It was all part of the show.

We’ll miss you, Cal.

Apple sued over splitting of Breaking Bad

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An Ohio man named Noam Lazebnik is suing Apple for splitting the final season of Breaking Bad into two individual seasons and charging a separate price to purchase each “Season Pass”.

Two sides here. Apple clearly lists each of the episodes included with the package, so does not appear to be misleading in any way. But the Season Pass description on that same page, says:

This Season Pass includes all current and future episodes of Breaking Bad, The Final Season.

Certainly open to interpretation.

Every Netflix TV series sorted by IMDB ranking

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This page sorts all TV shows available to stream on Netflix, sorted according to IMDB rank. A nice alternative to Netflix’s own rating system, this list is hand curated by , so be sure to click the Suggest a Show link if your favorite show is missing.

Have a favorite TV or movie recommendation site? Post it in the comments.

The mechanics of the chestburster from Alien

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A seminal moment for special effects, the Alien chestburster scared a lot of people and was a marvel of mechanical engineering. The video below shows how it was built, and the post’s title link will take you to a page filled with all sorts of goodies.

Glickman

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Ever hear of Marty Glickman? He was on the Olympic team that represented the US in Berlin in 1936, alongside Jesse Owens. The documentary, Glickman, tells the story of Marty’s youth as a runner, his trip to the Berlin games (great story, don’t want to spoil it here), and then his rise to become one of the most influential sportscasters in history. Just as most musicians are influenced by the Beatles, most sportscasters have been influenced by Marty Glickman.

Glickman is available on HBO, HBO on-demand, and HBO Go. Terrific documentary.

Sony QX smart lens

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Sony announced a new series of lens cameras, designed specifically as smartphone attachments. Each QX lens has no screen and no body. The camera smarts are inside the lens housing, communicating with the smartphone via Bluetooth. There’s an attachment that connects the lens to your phone, though that is not strictly necessary. The QX app converts your smartphone screen into a realtime viewfinder. When you press the shutter release on the lens, a compressed version of the image is sent to your phone’s image library. The full-size images are stored in a memory card on the lens.

I really like this idea, though it is hard to imagine mounting the lens on my phone every time I want to take a picture. Something you might get used to, I suspect, and worth it if the images are significantly better than any I can capture with my phone’s built-in camera.

One aspect that I find most intriguing is the fact that the app can control the lens remotely, with the ability to release the shutter, start/stop movie recordings, and adjust common photographic settings like shooting mode, zoom, Auto Focus area and more. This means I can mount the lens on a tripod, move to a comfortable position, make all my adjustments, then take my shot, all remotely. In addition, this lets me take my shot without touching the lens, avoiding vibrations that might affect focus.

A cappella Abbey Road

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All the vocal tracks from the Beatles’ Abbey Road album, sans instruments. So lovely.

Individual elements that make up Dark Side of the Moon

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If you’ve spent any time with a pair of headphones and Pink Floyd’s seminal work, Dark Side of the Moon, the phrases “cruisin for a bruisin” and “I certainly was in the right” will bring back some memories. Not to mention, “There is no dark side of the moon really. Matter of fact, it’s all dark.”

Someone at WFMU got hold of all the individual mix tracks from the album and posted them. Nice.

Real-time flight tracking

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This is brilliant and a bit mesmerizing. Launch the page, zoom in on your airport of interest, and watch the flights do their thing. Click on one of the icons and detailed information about that particular flight, along with the path from its origin, will appear in a sidebar. Love this.

Early Christian Bale

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In 1987, Steven Spielberg made an excellent movie called Empire of the Sun, about a young British boy who lives with his parents in Shanghai whose wealthy childhood abruptly turns to chaos when the Japanese army occupies Shanghai. A terrific movie with a terrific young actor in the starring role.

Turns out that boy was a young Christian Bale. Here’s the trailer.