Video of the week: Jasper Morello

This isn't what we would call a normal youtube video (spending more than 4 minutes watching a video is an investment these days). But for this week's video I decided to present you the whole animated short: The Mysterious Geographic Explorations of Jasper Morello.

Directed by Anthony Lucas

This short was nominated for an Oscar and I think it deserve this honor since it had a great story while at the same time uaing a unique way to present it through the use of silhouettes. I feel that the use of silhouettes let you identify with the characters more easily plus it adds to the mystery of the story.

My reasons for the Ipad

Around a month ago I posted an entry about my favorite E-readers and at the time I didn't write anything about this Ipad thing Apple is going to release simply because I didn't know about it. And let this be clear: I knew about the rumors (who didn't know about them if they followed tech news) but I wasn't convinced; I've been burned before by these apple rumors. However my expectation of these rumors being false were proven wrong and Apple released their mythical tablet: the Ipad.

I decided to wait before writing this article to overcome my excitement and to read the arguments against the iPad. And there have been lots. Personally I want to tell you folks why I think the product fits me. It may not necessarily be a perfect product or even a successful one when it comes out, but I feel it fits my lifestyle and I want to tell you why.

I feel that the Ipad really does fit somewhere between your main computer and your phone. I don't think it should or that it can even replace your main computer. However it may replace your secondary computer (laptop, netbook) or one of your additional gadgets (E-reader, MP3 player). For me it would be a good replacement of my aging laptop. These days I've been using it to play games on it, but waiting 10 minutes to start playing Civilization is just annoying. I think that the iphone games that are available and the ones that might come out for the iPad will be good enough and have the right price for me to relax during the day without breaking the bank. I won't be able to play Windows games, I know, but that's ok since I couldn't play any of the newer ones on my old laptop anyway.

Another use I might have for it is to show my artwork to people. It's a bit annoying to carry your stuff in a thumb-drive and have to pray that the person has quicktime on their computer or play them from my website and wait for the video to download. I feel that this way it would be like having a portable portfolio for my work. I could use an iPhone to carry these videos but then I would not have the screen size the iPad has to better showcase my work.

Now, I know that there's a lack of flash in the iPad/iPhone world but I don't see the point. I don't go to that many sites were the content is flash based, like in Hulu or Newgrounds. And the other sites I go to pretty much only use it on ads. Personally, I feel that unless there is a need to make the site entirely on flash, it should be used as little as possible on a site. So with web-surfing habits like mine where I don't absolutely need flash I can live with what the iPad offers for the browsing I do.

However one of the things I constantly do on the web is read articles through my RSS reader (I'm a fan of NetNewsWire). So with the Ipad and already available RSS readers for the iPhone I can read my articles without having to constantly use my Imac. Plus with the iBooks app they plan to roll out I can also get into reading ebooks on it as well.

Overall My reasons for considering purchasing the iPad are its gaming platform capabilities, using it as a portfolio and for reading my RSS feeds. However, since the product hasn't been released yet, I have no concrete way of knowing wether it can do these things adequately. I'll have to wait until I know for sure but I look forward to testing the device and putting it through its paces.

High Rise Fly: flyby

A long time ago (meaning last year) I posted an entry about a video I did called The High Rise Fly. Well today I uploaded the flyby of that video. For those who don't know a flyby is video that show different angles or details of a 3D model that is going to be used on a future animation. One of the things you can see is that the original model was a bit more skinnier than the one used on the animation. I thought that making it curvier would make the creature look a bit more organic.

Video of the week: Fallen Art

Fallen Art is another one of the videos I saw during my time at the univeristy. Made in 2004 the 3D graphics do seem to age a bit but that isn't what's so captivating here. For me, the story that unfolds during these 5 minutes is what i've found astounding. I personally love the end where the process repeats itself (frog croaking included) showing how the disturbing process of creating continues even though the video ends.


By Tomek Baginski


When I watch these characters make art it reminds me of the supposed limits of art. One can believe that mediums like stop motion have to have some specific characteristics (clay models and such) but here we see how the characters take this medium and stretch the way it gets done. Though macabre, it doesn't mean that emotion can be obtained from such things.

Pics of cats and plants

Continuing my attempt of catch up up on my flickr uploads here are more samples of what I uploaded. This time I uploaded two different sets. Hopefully this will make the catching up process faster... ... I doubt it.

The first set is from the first photographs I took of the cats we own at our place. The one at the top of the post is Lucy, officially my brother's cat though she seems to follow me than anyone else here. She's a demanding one always wanting me to pet her brush her or feed her. Our other cat is Lucky (see the naming trend?) is my brother's girlfriend's cat. He's the more playful of the two, however his form of fun involves bitting you, so it's not our form of fun. He's also the older and "bigger" -cough-fat-cough- of the two.

The second set is from my photos at the Franklin Park Conservatory. If I'm not mistaken this are from my first visit to the conservatory (to any conservatory for that matter). I found interesting that they have different sections for different environments. They had a Pacific climate area, a desert one, which is were I took this macro photo of a cactus, and several others. They also had areas outside the building where one could go to. At that time of the year they had their Bonsai collection outside. For me Bonsai are that type of plant that I always try to grow but can't seem to keep them alive for long, so I really like being able to see some that haven't been touch by my "black-thumb".

I've been to the conservatory many times after that one time. Hopefully I'll be uploading soon more of the photos I've taken, including some pretty nifty shots I took of their butterfly collection.

Video of the Week: Procrastination

Keeping with the theme of procrastination this week's video explains deals with how one can identify it. I first saw this video in one of my digital imaging classes when our professor showed it to the class; it was part inspiration for us, part reminder to not procrastinate on our projects.

By Johnny Kelly

According to the artist, the video was a study into Procrastination and of how "sometimes the only way to get something done is to do two dozen other things first". An aspect of the video that I find very effective is how the varying styles are used to each distinguish each way we can put things off. My favorite scene is the organizing-your-socks part because one day without noticing (and mind you, I had watched this video already) I was procrastinating by pairing the socks in my drawer.

Dealing with procrastination

Procrastination: to put off intentionally and habitually

Photo by A-Wix

One of the things I've had to battle constantly in my life is procrastination. I hate it, yet I seem to fall into its trap every time. I believe that the reason for Procrastination, at the very least for me, is fear and perfectionism. I procrastinate because I am afraid of doing things wrong or doing them too slow. Other times simply wish to avoid the work because I'm unsure of how to do it. I simply want it to be perfect.

When I procrastinate it takes the form of me trying to get in a position of trying to do the work perfectly. I say to myself: "If I were more focused or more prepared I would be able to do this more efficiently". So I do things like read more about the subject or I leave the project for another time when I might be more ready or in the mood. Of course this doesn't work; I'm merely postponing the inevitable.

Some of the way I've found to work and avoid procrastinating is by accepting my mistakes as part of the work. I need to realize that while I may do some things well, what I do wrong is part of how I do things. For example I've had to come to accept that my posts will not always be completely perfect, that while I could always find a better way to phrase something, the way I currently write is my style, it is who I am. And while I must always better myself, it does not mean that I have to do thing perfectly the first time, "mistakes" are part of the process.

Some of the places I've found help has been through productivity sites like Lifehacker, Zen habits, and even Psychology Today. I believe that Procrastination is something that won't simply go away, however if I exercise my discipline and accept my work as it currently is I'll be able to do work without procrastinating as much.