Character design and other stuff May 16, 2008
Posted by townsend51 in character design, creative economy, graphic.add a comment
I have an ongoing interest in the ‘Creative Economy’ in Britain, and I’ve found a well written article which gives a fair assessment of where British creative business currently stands, and where it could be going in the future:
And on an entirely different note, here is my latest character design. Its a bit wacky this one, admittedly. I’ll keep churning them out ’til I’m sick to death with Inkscape.
Twitter head May 15, 2008
Posted by townsend51 in graphic, social networking, twit, twitter, web 2.0.add a comment
I’ve heard a lot about Twitter recently, so I thought I’d give it a go. I’ll report back on my thoughts, which may seem strange to American readers, but Twitter is still very niche in the UK.
It’s certainly a big change from Facebook, which I’ve never been a huge fan of. Facebook seems quite walled and moated in some respects, whilst on Twitter you get inundated with scraps of information from all comers. Its a whole different experience – something akin to instant messaging on speed. The basic concept behind Twitter is that you post regular updates on what your up to, and by doing this you communicate with other fellows. But its not like having a conversation with one person, but rather a pushing and pulling of information amongst a whole community. The possibilities are mind bending when you consider that these communities can number in the hundreds or even thousands. When these people subsequently spread the information to their friends, the effect is like a nuclear information bomb going off.
This is me after starting on Twitter.
This has provided some unique challenges to the developers of the site, because every time a person posts something, that information is copied to their ‘followers’. The load on the servers is unbelievable when you consider the number of copy operations which need to be performed in a short period of time. Consider what will happens when Apple makes a new product announcement, or the US presidential elections are announced. Handling such vast volumes of data requires a robust software infrastructure. The site was originally coded using the Ruby on Rails framework, which is pretty much the de facto standard amongst Web 2.0 start ups, largely because of its efficiency in terms of coding time, and its sophisticated feature set. But word is abound that the whole thing may have to be coded again in PHP or Java to help the site scale more efficiently.
The most successful start ups usually don’t have to worry about this kind of thing for long, because the likes of Google and Yahoo come knocking, cheque book in hand. The problem is, the founder of Twitter also founded another web stalwart – Blogger, which was purchased by Google a few years back. After the acquisition, the founder left, as many web entrepreneurs are prone to do having experienced the stuffy confines of a corporation, even of Google’s nerd friendly ilk. So the likelihood of Google or Yahoo acquiring Twitter is unlikely, because a considerable part of their investment is in the talented people who create the sites.
Twitter will undoubtedly sort itself out, but its likely to take a little longer than if a larger parent company stepped in and switched the operation to their own servers, with all of the reliability improvements that would entail. But not since the early days of Youtube have I felt so expectant of a Web 2.0 start up. Undoubtedly it will grow larger, and I’m heartened that a new service like this has come along. The last thing that I want is a single pre eminent social networking site, and Facebook is arguably heading in that direction. Facebook is trying to integrate everything into one service, and I’d rather hand pick a particular service for a particular need. And as it stands now, Twitter enables people to do things, both socially and technologically, unthinkable even a year ago.
There’s currently a big race going on to see who can get the most followers. If you’re familiar with the tech podcasts TWIT and Diggnation, then you’ll know that most of the presenters have around 20,000 followers. One of them, Leo Laporte, has almost as many followers as Barack Obama. But what if more people cotton on to the power of Twitter? Leo Laporte is very well know amongst certain circles, but what if mega-stars like Tom Cruise or Britney Spears start ‘twittering’? It’d be bedlam. So lets keep this secret for now. Ok?
Follow me on Twitter
Front cover May 6, 2008
Posted by townsend51 in article, graphic, publishing.add a comment
Here is the front cover for my next article. I’m so chuffed with it, I thought I’d post it straight away. All I can say is Inkscape is brilliant! A lot of people think that they need Photoshop to create graphics, when what they really need is Inkscape.
The basic premise of the article is how ‘publishing on demand’ companies have made it possible for people to get books made economically in small batches. Current commitments have put my writing on the back burner somewhat in recent weeks, but I’ll soon be in a position to continue, which will be a relief…
Character Design April 27, 2008
Posted by townsend51 in animation, character design, drawing, graphic, inkscape, maya, vector art.1 comment so far
I’ve found Inkscape and Paint.net to be great tools for image creation, partially owing to the good balance of features and usability that these programs offer. They are also completely free, and run well on older hardware.
If you plan on getting into 3D modelling, then these tools are especially useful to have, because you can develop ideas on your own computer, and then, as is the case for many learners, go and use a college computer with Maya installed. The Maya Personal Learning Edition is only of limited use, because it outputs scenes in a file format that isn’t readable by the full version of Maya. And likewise the Maya PLE cannot read files outputted by Maya.
Even if you’re not into modelling, character design is still a great thing to do. They don’t have to be masterpieces, though admittedly some people do make them so. There are a lot of community sites out there, which offer advice. But don’t be afraid to try out your own ideas, or to do something which doesn’t conform to an existing look, like those characterised by Pixar and Disney.
A final word on Inkscape. One of the reasons its so useful for this kind of work, is because by using the bezier curve and straight line tool, you can get a lot of control over the quality of the line work in your piece. The image can then be exported as a bit map, which can be edited using Paint.net, which has a feature set similar to Photoshop.
So go and design some characters – you never know they might end up in an episode of Dr Who one day. But remember to draw with a coloured pencil or pen because this will result in a clearer scan, with more defined lines than if a graphite pencil is used.
There are some great examples on this website:
http://www.fengzhudesign.com/
Liver bird April 22, 2008
Posted by townsend51 in Liverpool, graphic.add a comment
This is a Liver bird – Liverpool’s feathery mascot. Its uncertain whether such a bird exists outside of Liverpudlians’ fevered imaginations, but its said to have a mystical sway over the well-being of the city.
Piecing together the… March 3, 2008
Posted by townsend51 in animation, creative economy, graphic.add a comment
You here the phrase ‘Knowledge Economy’ bandied around a lot nowadays, but what exactly does it mean? The government has published a report, answering just that question.
It mainly concerns the creative sector, and seeming as we make very little nowadays, we are increasingly dependent on intangible assets which result from the labours of artists, designers, film makers and the like. In fact, the creative sector has grown twice as much as the rest of the economy in recent years, so it is firmly on the government policy radar.
But where exactly is this growth happening? Well, undoubtedly the lions share is in London. No surprises there. But the reasons merit further discussion. London is a truly cosmopolitan place, and the creative industry thrives off the multiculturalism. In fact, the creative base is so strong, that it acts like a giant magnet. And even within London there are red hot areas for the creative sector: Soho for post production and visual effects, and Kings Cross for pretty much anything.
All this seems to suggest that young creatives should likewise set up shop in the big smog, but there are alternatives. Manchester has a strong creative industry, which will only be bolstered by the development of the MediaCity:UK in the Salford docks, which promises a centralised area for creative start ups to rub shoulders with the big players, such as the BBC.
Likewise, Edinburgh and Glasgow are strong in this sector, partially owing to the proximity of high quality art and design colleges.
And hopefully Liverpool will be stimulated by its year as Capital of Culture to forge ahead with the creative headway that its undoubtedly made in the past.
All of which points to a fairly positive future. It was one of my personal gripes that the late 20th Century city redevelopments centred on superficial improvements, which purported to be design and arts led, but did little for the wider creative economy. Hopefully, this new legislation will change that, with design and the arts being acknowledged as central to both our personal and economic well being.
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If you are interested in this, either from an arts or business perspective, then the following may be of interest.
New Talents for the New Economy
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And just to stress the point, here are some creative companies and individuals which are truly top notch, and as such deserve recognition.
Young animation company:
http://www.breakthrufilms.co.uk/
TV production company:
http://www.propellertv.co.uk/Default.aspx
Building infrastructure for the creative economy:
http://www.sohonet.co.uk/
Ethical product design:
http://www.diykyoto.com/
Post production:
http://www.dneg.com/
Visual effects:
http://www.the-mill.com/
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Animation Masters: William Kentridge January 21, 2008
Posted by townsend51 in animation, graphic, tate modern.add a comment
Zang Tumb Tuum January 20, 2008
Posted by townsend51 in graphic.add a comment
Source: Wikipedia
The God Machine December 14, 2007
Posted by townsend51 in film, graphic.add a comment
**I like every post to be accompanied by a picture, but in this case it’s been a right pain. I couldn’t seem to get it right, and though I’m still not wholly satisfied, after twenty iterations it’ll just have to do! Anyway, on to the post, which will much briefer as a result (yay!).**
So, I had the pleasure of visiting the projector room of our college run cinema the other day. This was a serious event for me, because I love the cinema.
My head was full of ideas of what it’d be like. They were like all wildly extravagent, coloured by years of idle thought. It was about time I saw it for real.
Firstly I’d like to explain that student run cinemas are completely different to their commercial brethren. All of the staff are volunteers, and as such are passionate about what they do. This was apparent as soon as I stepped in to the projector room, where I was greated warmly, even though it transpired that a film was due any minute.
My preconceptions were shattered immediately. I was amazed by the amount of film these people dealt with. I expected a reel of film to be the size of the feed mechanism for a tommy gun, or perhaps to be as large as a bicycle wheel. It was the size of a cart wheel! Not only that, but it was mounted on the wall and was whizzing away, as it rewound the film back to the start. When this was done, a tag on the end of the reel was fed into the projector. Just on cue, the film winged its away around the room through numerous tensioning devices, and finally into the hungry lips of the projector, which made a resounding click, click, clicking sound.
The room was very energetic, both with frantic humans, and electronic gadgetry flashing away. However the room was quite cold. The projectionist explained that this was the air conditioning unit that was strapped to the projector to prevent the mega bulb inside from frying. Errant light bleeding out of the sides of the projector casing gave a good indication of just how powerful the bulb was. The light was pure white. Whiter than white. The whitest thing I’d ever seen.
The adverts started. Little figures could be seen through the viewing pane in the cinema beyond. The soundtrack blared to life.
I had the best seat in the house.
English Language December 11, 2007
Posted by townsend51 in Clockwork Orange, English, Paradise Lost, graphic, language, writing.add a comment
The English language is great, because the more you abuse it the better it gets.
The readiness to adapt and push the language that has given us some of our greatest literary works, amongst which are Paradise Lost, where John Milton created new words to pique the sonance of his verse. Another example is a Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess, in which he liberally created new words to the extent that it was almost a language of its own, and is useful in its display of the localised adaptation of the lanaguage by certain groups of individuals through use of slang and ‘creative misuse’ that ensures its continued vibrancy.
Furthermore, these local language blends have ensured the convincingness of novels and other ficitonal works, where by the author, albeit a talented one, can distinguish between people purely through the tone of their dialogue.
All this leads me to believe that in order to understand English and use it well, it is necessary to learn the lingo and not just the language. To deconstruct the hard and fast rules which linearise language, and instead, through juxtaposing words create something more organic and life like. Because if nothing else, language always has a life of its own. Case in point:
all to pot
