Animation, Art, and Other Shiny Things
Computer animation, “traditional” animation techniques, a killer soundtrack, and some remarkable puppetry, to put it mildly. The fluidity of the tyger is truly impressive, as is the overall flow of the video as a whole.
Tyger by Guilherme Marcondes of Brazil, based on a William Blake poem
Quality animation and electronica!
Caffeine by Brandt Brauer Frick
As readers of this blog know I’ve eschewed cable tv in favor of online content. One of my main suppliers is Hulu.com and last week I came across a documentary called Reformat the Planet about the popularity and culture of “Chiptunes“. It’s a thoroughly entertaining look into the music and worth the watch.
Remember those songs and sound effects your Nintendo made? Use those sounds, and even the console itself, and make music. That pretty much kicked off the genre in the late 70’s.
While it won’t land on my regular playlist (often), it is well done stuff and is a pretty deep genre. For a quick listen:
Being an old computer geek most of my computer music has been the sound of the hardware. Who hasn’t drummed a beat along with the impact printer? Early scanners and floppy drives had great rhythm too. Someone got creative old school in this next video:
There is yet to be a version of Windows released that I truly liked (w2k wasn’t too bad, I guess…) but if nothing else, the sound files can be useful:
You don’t think I’d pass up even the flimsiest of excuses to drop a Daft Punk video in, do you?
…and merely an honorary digression.
A rock tossed into the pond to break up the lack of posts for a few days. With apologies. Well, ok, not really.
In any event, I was hoping to finish a post tonite but it decided to get all idea-ful or something and it wants another page or so. Sucks for me too…
In the mean time, a video from a new fave band of mine – Ra
From wiki;
The simplest algorithm for generating a representation of the Mandelbrot set is known as the “escape time” algorithm. A repeating calculation is performed for each x, y point in the plot area and based on the behavior of that calculation, a color is chosen for that pixel.
Fractals have fascinated me for over 20 years. Back in the 80’s I had a fractal drawing program for my C-64 that could take over a day to render a relatively crude fractal image. For every day use, though, four to eight hours wasn’t unusual.
Over a decade ago I picked up a tiny screen saver that adjusts equation parameters and escape colors and redraws the screen continuously. (It can be quite mesmerizing…)
And now, just the other day I ran across this:
The Formula by Tom Beddard at subblue.com.
To create the 3 dimensional Mandelbrot set a tripartate coordinate is used (x,y,z) and, instead of a color to represent escape time, a distance calculation is used.
Even cooler than this is the name of the shape: a Mandelbulb.
The Mandelbrot Set
I don’t understand the math much beyond the most basic equations and I don’t have the software to play with Mr Beddard’s add-ons, so I really appreciate him putting this little film together.
Check out the Gallery; there are some stunning pics in there and, if you have Photoshop CS4 you can download and play with several add-ons found on the Projects page.
In honor of Dave Brubeck’s 90th birthday today his most notable work; “Take Five”. The tune was actually written by Paul Desmond, saxophonist and long-time band mate. (playing the sax in this clip, as a matter of fact)
Brubeck has been a prolific composer over the years and played alot with odd time signatures in his music. Don’t worry if you don’t know the term, you’ll recognize it when you hear it. “Time Out” is a record full of examples.
I’m kinda partial to his Late Night’s at the Blue Note albums and the Charlie Brown tunes, but his 60-some year career has gems buried all the way through it.
He almost became a Veterinarian…
…but transferred on the urging of the head of zoology, Dr Arnold, who told him “Brubeck, your mind’s not here. It’s across the lawn in the conservatory. Please go there. Stop wasting my time and yours.” Later, Brubeck was nearly expelled when one of his professors discovered that he could not read music. Several of his professors came forward, arguing that his ability with counterpoint and harmony more than compensated. The college was still afraid that it would cause a scandal, and agreed to let Brubeck graduate only after he promised never to teach piano.
I certainly hope the irony was not lost on his professors as Brubeck’s career progressed…
Dave Brubeck also stood up for his fellow musicians. The Dave Brubeck Quartet was integrated and some clubs owners didn’t like it. (this was back before the civil rights laws of 1964) He canceled his concerts at their clubs, as well as a TV appearance when he found out the black musicians in his band would be left off-camera.
Go here for a great article on a concert he did just last week at the Blue Note, then pop on over to Youtube and watch some great videos of one of the great musicians of all time.
While you wait for the next post… 🙂
There is a completely awesome Wiki entry for this song too!
I’ll leave it for you to decide…
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The Ruffled Crow 