Technical Difficulties.

Hey, kiah can't post. That sucks. Possible implications could be the moving of this page... lame, i know...

in the meantime, watch carefully and see if you can spot this handsome man on a YouTube clip.



yearh... it rocks.

SPLENDOUR F***ING ROCKED!!!

So, how many of you went to splendour?
None? Oh... COZ I DID!! MWA-HA-HA-HA!!
Here's some AWESOME PHOTOS that i took coz i was so close to all the bands.










Awesome.

Dom's first Audio assessment.

So, this is the little ditty i've got worked out for my first audio assignment.


Charles playing his Halo-theme variation - [MP3 Link]


It's pretty lame. Not quite finished, so i'll post the finished product when it's ready, but this is what i've done with it so far.

EDIT: Screw posting the final thing. It's pretty much the same thing.

Awesome

Just letting everyone know that i, Dominic, am now in possession of a hammock outside my room.

It's so awesome, that i'm lying in it right now, and i may never leave it.

EXCEPT for the fact that i'm going to see my beloved girlfriend next week (7th of July).

So nyeeeahhrrr.

Thank you.

The Mistress of the Penguin is on Holiday

...... which means that there'll be no intellectual posts for a while... with the exclusion of this post.

SO!! Here's some stuff that i've been working on here at SAE Byron. I've handed in this first trailer, it was a practical assignment.


Secondly, and i may have posted this before, but here's an earlier advertisement that i created in class once.



If you are reading this in triple-double-u land, please post comments!

Mm... Smashing.

Firstly

HOORAY!! Billy Corgan has decided to release a new Smashing Pumpkins album!!

And although i find that the artwork for the new album is woeful (i'm not gonna post it, you'll have to google it and find it yourself), i'm really loving the new single

Smashing Pumpkins - Tarantula [MP3 link]

And secondly this song makes me very happy.

The Polyphonic Spree - Running Away [MP3 link]

And here's the funniest sex-ed video i've ever seen. Ever. For so many reasons, but especially around the 3 minute mark.

MPI104- what we've done this term!

This term has been primarily focused on the aesthetics of our web page. We've learned what makes a web page work and what doesn't (see what is aesthetics?). I've learned a lot this term, and i hope that my site is aesthetically pleasing to all who visit. So how have i tried to make my site more functional?

For starters, i have played around with the positioning of my page elements and have rearranged them into an order that is more functional. I have placed links to my other sites at the top, such as links to recently added del.icio.us items, and a link to my VFX101 site with recent projects i have done in the subject. Under that is a list of all the blogs on this page. I feel that this would be used often by visitors navigating around my blog, so i wanted it towards the top of the page in order for it to be visible and easily accessed.

I have learned over the past term that font colour is an important factor in web page aesthetics, and how this interacts with your background is essential in readability and comfort for the viewer. As i have a black background for my blog, i decided against white text, as this would cause eye strain for the viewer. Instead i have used a grey text, which takes away the extreme contrast between the text and the background, reducing eye strain and making the page easier to read.

I wanted to keep the black background, despite the issue with the text as i think this works well for what i am using the page for. I want to show a lot of videos and images on my web page, and a black background causes the colours to be richer and exhibits the images i include much better. It also reduces the glare from the monitor, as opposed to a white background or light colour, and this allows the viewer to watch the videos i have included with more comfort.

The banner i have included at the top of the page is images of my own, and i think they add some interest and personality to the page. I used green text for the headings and links as i find the combination of green and black to be aesthetically pleasing (as these are two of my favourite colours) and again this adds some interest and contrast to the page giving it a bit of personality.

I hope all who visits this site finds it easy to use and interesting to read, as well as aesthetically pleasing. If you have any problems with the layout or look of this page or have any suggestions for improving its usability or look, please leave a comment by clicking on the green comments link at the bottom of this post.

Music To Keep You Busy

Yeah, this is just a test to see if this works

Theoretically, if you click HERE (dead link) you'll be taken to a website that allows you to download the song "Pillar Of Salt" by The Thermals.

It's a song that always gets me spirits up. Can't help feeling better after it's played. Just thought any of you odd people may also enjoy it's pop-punk vibe and alt-radio friendly lyrics.

Hopefully, there'll be more "choice" mp3s to follow!

site meter

Well we've broken the 200 visitors mark!!! HUZZAH! thats a big deal for someone whose never had their own blog before. Admittedly most of those hits we're probably from me and my mother...but still, i'm excited ok! So after breaking this new record of mine, i thought i'd find out a bit more about where all these hits were coming from, so i added a site meter. Then i realised ,y site meter wasnt actually recording anything...sigh. So i tryed again, and HOORAH! This time it worked. However, never having used a site meter before, it was a tad confusing to begin with. After much head scratching i eventually worked out what all these statistics where about and what they meant for my site. Turns out that most of the visitors to my page come back again! Thats a good sign, right? I also found that the majority of people leave my site by clicking on the links i've provided, so there's some interest in the topics i post, another good sign. However, the traffic through my blog is a little slow, so i began to question how i can increase the traffic flow...other than by telling all my friends to go to my site. So i took a look at a feature of Bravenet (my site meter host) and attempted to increase my traffic flow. Well the results are yet to be tallied as i only tried this recently, but we'll see what happens, and watch the hit counter intently.
So wish me luck! And tell your friends to check out this site.

Children R Skary

Just pointing this website out

http://skary.net/

Animation, black humour, Grim fairytales (what a pun).... this is always good.

"Perfect Drug" clip...How did dom know i'd like it?!

I do love that NIN clip for "Perfect Drug"! How did you know? Quote: "Some of his work includes the Nine Inch Nails music video for "Perfect Drug", which i love" (see Mark Romaneck post)... It's directed by Mark Romaneck and you can check out his site for information on the "Perfect Drug" clip and more of his fantastic film clips by clicking on the link in the Mark Romaneck post further down this blog. By the way...just for the record...i don't HATE NIN...i...well...i dunno. Some of their stuff is great! But "Perfect Drug"? I find it drags on and is kinda repetative. Please don't hate me for that.

Picking Gems from the World Wide Receptical

Today's Gems: Music Videos
Today's Receptical: YouTube

Gary Numan - "Cars" and "Healing"

Cars is a very "electo-pop" song, straight out of the 80s. It was a hit.


Now consider the fact that he's still making music and playing that song live. Because of his 80's electro-pop music, he's now considered to be the Godfather of Industrial Music. Trent Reznor (of NIN) apparently listened to one of his albums every single day when recording their hit album "Pretty Hate Machine".

If you don't think that the man that made the above song is hardcore with industrial music, check out "Healing"!


Nine Inch Nails - "Starf***ers Inc." and "Perfect Drug"



Keep an eye on the blonde woman in the Limo with Trent. Especially towards the end of the clip.

I know my darling headless penguin would love "Perfect Drug", because the clip is all arty, and she likes that kinda stuff (Don't get me wrong, i like arty too, but she's not a big fan of NIN... yes, it's odd, i know. Next thing she'll tell me is that she doesn't eat seafood, or that i shouldn't be in a car with a guy who drives at least 20 kph over the speed limit.)

I LOVE YOU KIAH!! :P


Billy Corgan - "Walking Shade"



Yes, a lot of people did not like Billy Corgan's solo work. I liked it a lot, and anyone who doesn't can just shut the hell up. And don't give me that "He broke up smashing pumpkins" stuff... He *was* Smashing Pumpkins, and Iha & D'Arcy just didn't like Billy's attitude. AND THAT'S OKAY, No-one has to force them to like each other.

Marilyn Manson - "mOBSCENE"



He may be weird and a tortured artist, but you gotta love his dress sense.

Bitey Castle Animations

I appologise for the lack of interesting posts in the past couple of weeks. The posts below are assessment requirements for my Multimedia course. So i thought it's about time that i included something of more interest...so BACK TO THE ANIMATION!!!

This week, i wanted to share the work of Adam Philips and his website Bitey Castle. These Flash animations are quite good, and his water effects are excellent. Check out the 30 short animations in the top right hand corner of his website, funny stuff. Adam Phillips' characters are cute and quirky and definitly worth a look.

What is aesthetics?

aesthitics refers to how elements of an image work together to produce a subject that is overall pleasing to the eye. Aesthetics examines what makes something beautiful, disgusting, entertaining, pretentious, harmonious, boring, humorous, or tragic. Although broad rules apply to making an image aesthetically plaesing, the final judgement is subjective and will vary from individual to individual. This is beacause the aesthetics of an image produce different reactions in different people, depending upon their personal experiences. As mentioned above, an image may conjure feelings of disgust, beauty, humour or tradgedy. Which emotion is conjured for the individual is heavily reliant upon their personal experiences.

Web aesthetics refers to what makes a web page functional and easy to read and navigate. This refers to everything from the colours used to the type of font. For example:

This web page uses a dark, busy background, making the small font difficult to read and the overall page confusing and difficult to navigate. This isnt helped by the choice of red for the font colour which is difficult to read for the best sighted person. Confusion and distraction is added by the choice of boarder, alos red, which clashes with the busy background.
Simplicity is the best choice when it comes to web aesthetics as it creartes no confusion, is easy to read and can be navigated through easily. The best example of this is probably the search enigine, google:

This web page uses simple text, with very few page elements. This avoids confusion and makes the page easy to read. This site is used by millions of people around the world every day, and couldn't be simpler to use.

What is RSS and XML?

An RSS (Rich Site Summary, Really Simple Syndication or RDF Site Summary) feed is defined by wikipedia as a family of web feed formats used to publish frequently updated content such as blogs, news feeds and podcasts. In other words an RSS is a format for delivering regularly changing web content. Many news-related sites, weblogs and other online publishers syndicate their content as an RSS Feed to whoever wants it. An example of an RSS feed can be seen in the side bar of this page, which links the user to any recently updated information added to my del.icio.us account (see below). For more information on RSS feeds, how they are used and why, see whatisrss.com

XML stands for Extensible Markup Language and its primary purpose is to facilitate the sharing of data across different information systems, particularly via the Internet. XML is used for documents containing structured information. Structured information contains both content (words, pictures, etc.) and some indication of what role that content plays (for example, content in a section heading has a different meaning from content in a footnote, which means something different than content in a figure caption or content in a database table, etc.). Almost all documents have some structure. A markup language is a mechanism to identify structures in a document. The XML specification defines a standard way to add markup to documents.
For more information visit O'RiellyXML.com

My del.icio.us account

Check out some of my bookmarked links in my del.icio.us account

MPI104-2007 McCarthy. K 11362975

Del.icio.us
I currently have 40 links bookmarked in my del.icio.us account. I have found this site to be very useful in organizing my bookmarks, as well as finding useful links to topics relevant to my studies in the MPI104-2007 subscription, as well as through the other subscription I have joined. I have found that networking has also been useful in this respect as I am hoping to build my network over time to include other del.icio.us accounts by people in the VFX101 and MPI104 courses. However, I feel I have neglected this aspect of the site which I believe could be very useful and hope to build on my network in the future.
I have attempted to add interestingness to this page by bookmarking a variety of sites of different topics and through my descriptions of these sites. I also hope that by progressively adding more bookmarks I will have increased the interestingness of my del.icio.us account. Each time I have found a site I am interested in or think would be useful to revisit, I’ve added it to my bookmarks, and, over time, have compiled a useful collection of sites which I revisit often.
I have also found that the ability to add descriptions has been useful as my previous bookmarking system did not have this feature, and I often found I had difficulty distinguishing which bookmarked site I was looking for as I had many sites listed of a similar subject. Using the description feature I am able to record what it was I found interesting on each site, making it easier to revisit particular information later.
I have integrated the use of tags easily into my work and find them of particular use when searching for information for a particular subject, such as VFX101 or MPI104. I have used tags which help me to easily look for sites related to a particular subject as this has helped organize my bookmarks in a way that I find useful to my studies as I can easily access related sites. I have also used bundles to assist in this.
I have easily integrated del.icio.us into my workflow and find it of great use to my Bolgspot account. When searching for something to blog about, I often found myself visiting my del.icio.us account to look for interesting sites I had bookmarked previously and used these as the basis the subject of my blogs.

Blogspot
I am very happy with the progress I have made with my blogspot account. I found I struggled with the idea of blogging to begin with as I had never done this before. However, over time I have become more comfortable with blogging and find it a useful way of documenting my interests. I enjoy adding page elements (such as the news and video reels in the side bar), pictures and videos which I believe add interestingness to my Blog. I also believe having a co-contributor has added to the interestingness of my blog as it provides some variation in the writing style and subject matter.
When selecting a template for my page, I wanted something neat and simple as I hoped to put many pictures and videos into my blogs and I felt anything with a brightly coloured or patterned background would detract from these. I chose the current template as I thought this was the best style for the type of blog I was writing.
I have found that the network of MPI104-2007 blogs has been useful in my workflow also, as many I was able to find some very interesting blogs by people with similar interests. An example of such a blog is Monkey House, on which I have left a comment which I believe to be one of the more interesting comments I have left.

Flickr
I have only recently started using Flickr, as I have not found much need for this site. I find the site confusing and messy and not particularly useful to my workflow. Perhaps over time, with more use, this site will become more useful to me, however, I prefer my previous method of storing, organizing and uploading photos as it is more relevant to my needs and work processes.
The networking system I find a little more useful as I have found a couple of pictures which I have added as favourites, and this source of images may prove to be useful in the future. However, I find my images to be unorganized and irritating to sort through. This is a problem I have tried to rectify through adding sets, but I still find this to be limiting to the organization of the images I have uploaded. Again the tagging system has its uses when searching for images, and I have added tags to assist in the organization of my images.

Flickr Account

So i recently joined flickr as per the requirements of our MPI104 assessment, and im required to tell you what i think about it. To be honest, im not a fan. I guess i find the site a little pointless as i already have my ways of organising my pictures which works better for me. I guess i've only just started using it, but i find the site arkward to navigate around and just messy in general. I think i'll stick to my old methods of organising my photos. However if you wanna check out the picks i've uploaded feel free to visit my site.

Character Animation

This week, Andrew showed us a couple of character animations that i thought were worth adding. Here's a really good little animation that was shown to us in class by Cemre Ozkurt. I liked the character animation in this short piece, plus im a HUGE fan of pulp fiction and anything Tarantino, so i liked the use of Samuel L Jackson's dialouge



This short piece is called Alien Song by Victor Navone

Spiderman 3!

I just got back from the premiere of Spiderman 3! SO exciting! Animation students got free tickets to see the premiere today, and i must say i actually enjoyed the film, although many of my classmates would dissagree. This film had a lot more humour than the previous films, and athough very different to the others, still managed to retain the feel of the other films. OK, so im not saying its the greatest movie ever, but if your looking for an entertaining film, i recommend it. fans of the comic books may be dissappointed by this film, but chances are, if you really liked the original comics, you've already been let down by the other movies. I gotta say though, the Spiderman films are better than most comic book movies out these days which just seem to butcher the original comics by totally disregarding the story and characters. I think the Spiderman films, although not really comparable to the comics as they are such different mediums, manages to keep the original feel, and the 3rd installment doesn't take itself as seriously as the previous two, which adds to the experience.

Ray Harryhausen

so i see you've been introduced to my "significant other". Its about time he posted something! whats the point in having another administrator if they don't do anything? So anyway, here's some more stuff from me. So i thought its about time that i mentioned the innovative (for lack of a stronger work) work of Ray Harryhausen. I'm talking about the guy who is a cult legend for being a forerunner in stopmotion animation. The guy responsible for the famous living skeletons in Jason and the Argonauts. Harryhausen was first inspired by the work of Willis O’Brien in king kong, when he couldn't figure out how the ape was made to move. After discovering the world of stopmotion, Harryhausen began making his own models and, borrowing a friends 16mm camera, began working to making a realistic movement. A man obsessed with dinosaurs, most of his early work was of a prehistoric theme. His most famous work, of course, was on Jason and the Argonauts in which he created this famous fight scene (Please ignore the dialouge as its dubbed in another language, but you get the idea) .
This early stopmotion animation was created with out the ability for Harryhausen to see his process as animators can today. This meant that if Harryhausen were to stop work at the end of the day in the process of shooting the scene, he would have to take note of the direction each character was moving in order to stop confusion when returning to finish the scene. A truly inspirational man, check out Harryhausen's official site.

statue of medusa character from Jason and the Argonauts
statue of the skeleton characters from Jason and the Argonauts
The man himself, Ray Harryhaussen

Doms Progress Update 1

Powerful stuff.
Hi, I'm Screaming Headless Penguin's significant other. Non-screaming head-of-a-fox. Or something.

I'm here in Byron Bay, doing a Bachelor of Digital Media, Audio Engineering (and i'll have a minor in Digital Film Production).

I'm glad to meet you.

RDMA
Or: Rough Draft Mercedes Advertisement for short.


This Advertisement was made using a song called "All Systems Go" by The Common Code, and footage of a Mercedes "Kompressor".

The whole thing is a rough draft for an Ad i'm currently creating in my film class.
I will keep you good readers posted on any updates.

(I thank you for keeping in mind that it's just a draft of sorts)

Mark Romanek

So this is the work of Mark Romanek, legendary music video director, as well as having directed tv spots and, more recently, gotten into feature films. Some of his work includes the Nine Inch Nails music video for Perfect Drug, which i love, and closer. He's done music videos for Macy Gray, Weezer, Fiona Apple, Audioslave, Beck,David Bowie, Johnny Cash, Coldplay, Lenny Kravitz, Linkin Park, Sonic Youth, Madonna, R.E.M, Janet Jackson, Michael Jackson, the list goes on. All of his videos have a unique and rich visual style. I thought i'd just include some pics from a couple of Romanek's music videos. If you wanna see more, take a look at his site which has stuff on a heap of his video clips, including video stills, and other projects.

Abstract Animation By Richard Reeves

So this week i was introduced to the amazing abstract animation of Richard Reeves. When i first watched this animation, i didnt really know what to think. It didn't strike me as particularly unique or revolutionary as it had been hailed to be. However, once i learnt how this animation was made, it was mind boggling to think of the precision and dedication it must have taken to complete, and the unique idea and concepts behind it are intriguing. This animation was made by scratching with pen onto 35mm film using microscopic precision. Every dot you see in this animation has been intentioally scratched onto the film using magnifying glasses. The sound you here in the animation has been created when the shapes have been put onto the film, its interesting to listen to. Reeves' main interest is in how light works and this animation is an experiment in and study of light.

Back at uni

So im back. Its nice not to be living out of a siutcase any more. I had a great time over the break and got to have some fun and catch up with some people from school that i hadn't seen in ages. But, as predicted, the work load has hit! Yep, really wishing i'd done something sooner. Well, back to it. As you're probably sick of hearing about me, i promise i'll get back to the animation stuff, PROMISE!

Still haven't got that work done!

So i'm in Sydney now, after catching up with some friends in Newcastle, staying with my sister and uncle in Sutherland.

My sister... Teagan

And, no, i haven't done any of my assignments while i've been gone. I've managed to justify my lack of work ethic by telling myself, "you deserve this break, this is time to spend with friends and family, after all you wont be able to see them again until July, and your relationships are important. Besides, you've been through a very stressful time recently what with moving away from home to a whole new place, and you've been doing so well, take some time out to relax". I'm i good, or am i good? SO i'm feeling much better about being lazy with my work, thats bound to change when i get back and realise just how much i have to do! Oh well, for now i'm gonna spend some time with my sister.

Flickr account

You can find me on flickr by following this link

Back home for Easter!

So term 1 has been completed and i survived! Im back home for a few weeks over the easter break with a hell of a lot of work to do. First term was kinda slow assignment wise, and now i'm on my break and back home for the first time in over a month, i'm swamped in work! Being back at home is great, i get to catch up with all my friends who have dispersed accross the country side to further their education in whatever way, be it formal or social. I get to see my sister, who i haven't seen in AGES! and my boyfriend who i haven't seen since leaving for uni. But with all this work to do it seems i wont have much time for any reunions! I thought uni was quite a relaxing ride, i get to do subjects im interested in and love and the work load is manageable. That was until the last week of term when suddenly the work piled on! Yeah, ok, so i have subject outlines and i knew the work was comming up, but i'd lulled myself into such a false sense of security, i thought i could manage and get the work done in time, maybe even in advance as i had told myself that i was no longer going to leave assignments to the last minute as i had done all through high school. So suddenly uni life has hit me, strange how that happens. I come back home and uni life sems more prevalent than ever! Im starting to think that leaving the work to the last minute sounds like a good option. It's worked for me in the past, right? (gulp)

Placebo- Infra-red film clip

Ok, so we were shown this film clip in class recently and told to find out how the ants were done. I couldn't for the life of me work out how they made the ants look so real! I looked everywhere, expecting either a really complex, outstanding method, or a really simple one, otherwise we wouldnt have been asked, right!? Well, after finding the director and the company the made the film clip (not as easy i thought it would be), i searched under everything i could think of. After i while i admitted defeat and decided to wait to hear the answer. To my amazement, it turns out the footage of the ants is all live footage, seriously, real ants! They complied over somthing like 20 hours of footage of these ants and sorted through it till they found enough footage of the ants looking as though they were being electricuted, then they were put into the scene. The only shots of the ants that are CG are the ones where the ants are seen walking in formation. Looks great! (Good song too)

Other interesting MPI104 Blogspot accounts

Check out Pam's blogspot account

or take a look at Matt's blogs

You can also find some interesting links on my del.icio.us account.

The War At Home

OK, so here's a bit of a plug for a friend of mine back home making his first larger scale movie, 'The War At Home'. Phil Kingsland, the director, creator and funder of this piece, has been filming this movie for the past year, employing the help of not only my sister Teagan, who is currently studying at the Sydney Film School, but a group of dedicated friends who do everything from acting, to props and camera work. This film is being produced on a very small budget and the level of dedication and talent working on it is worth a mention. Ok, so the graphics are cheep and rushed, but the talented camera work and vision of Mr Kingsland more than makes up for it, so take a look at the newest trailer.

Hellgate London Game Intro

Ok, so just a quick post on a really cool game intro for Hellgate London, just thought you might wanna watch it. Great CG!

Interesting stuff!

So here we are again. As promised, i thought i might fill you in on some of the things im interested in. Last week in our VFX lecture, Andrew showed us some awesome animation by a guy called Rosto AD. I have no idea what its about, but im in love with the visual style of the thing. Rosto AD has come into the spotlight after being nominated for various awards and winning the Grand Prix Canal Award at the Critic's Week Award Ceremony in Cannes for his work on "Jona/Tomberry". All the animation on his site was done by him personally, so check it out at:

RostoAD

Here you'll be able to take a look at his online graphic novel "Mind My Gap" as well as more information on "Jona/Tomberry" and his other films, "Anglobilly Feverson" and "Beheaded", which make up the Mind My Gap Trilogy. So, until next time...Enjoy!

This is the begining of something beautiful

Well, hello...
This is my first blog EVA! So please bare with me during these first tentative steps. Welcome!

Where to begin? I've recently moved out of home for the very first time, to study animation at university in Wagga Wagga. That's right...im in the middle of nowhere. Trying to survive on my own for the first time in my life, 9hrs away from my hometown on the coast, and i move here, to soaring temperatures and total lack of any body of water more than 2 meters deep. Whatever you think independant living is going to be like...it's nothing like that! Trying to scrape by on the measly amount of youth allowance centrelink has so generously provided while they take their sweet time proccessing my living away from home allowance is barely enough to feed me on a weekly basis, let alone perchase textbooks and school supplies!

And is it just me, or does no-one warn you before you leave that on campus living is like living with a flock of ear piercing, screeching voltures whose sole purpose is to keep you up all night by drunkenly banging on your door at 2 o'clock in the morning, before vomiting on it and passing out on the doorstep.

However, here i am and making the most of it. I've met some great people and im really loving my course. Homesickness aside, life is good! So with this blog, im hoping to share with you all some of my animation, as well as some of the movies, music, books, artists and artworks i love, as well as give you a brief running commentary on whats happning with me :) So at the close of my very first Blog, i'd like to appologise for the poor quality, and say hello to all my friends who i miss so much, and my boyfriend, Dom, who is currently a good 2-3 days drive away! I'll b seeing you all very soon in the easter holidays!