Friday, March 4, 2011
New Plans
Well, so much for staying on top of that Rube Goldberg animation. Don't get me wrong, I am still going to do it. It's just that this semester has gotten completely away from me. As it turns out, however, I have a class that requires me to go go back to past projects and make them better. So now, I get to redo the Rube Goldberg project, still feel good about accomplishing it, and get a grade for it. It's a win, win, win situation! In the mean time, here's a little video game that I created in my programming class. Play it, enjoy it, and look forward to the sequel!
Wednesday, December 29, 2010
Catching Up
Week of December 6th
So my wife and I have just been totally burnt out from this semester. Hardest frickin' one ever! Anyway, she decided to take me to see Tangled to cheer me up. I know, it's a total kids movie, but I like watching the animation and art. It was a pretty good movie. This is Disney's first computer animated film, without Pixar. I was reading that they had to design their own program just for her hair. She had something like 100,000 different strands and there was an entire design department of like 10 animators for her hair alone. Which, if you see the movie, makes sense since the hair was almost a seperate character in itself. I was really impressed with how exceptional it turned out for being the first of its kind. I'd definitely recommend it to anyone else interested in animation.
Week of December 13th
Yikes, finals week! Ahhh! I'm trying so desperately to keep it all together. After a brief meltdown last night, I pulled myself together enough to get to the Fab Lab and start cutting the wells for my portfolio for Traci's Typography II class today. I was worried it would take me forever to get it all cut, but what would normally take 20 minutes per well by hand, took an hour and a half with the Epilog Laser Cutter! How awesome is that? I'm feeling pretty pumped right now, maybe I can get everything done and handed in. I just might pass this semester after all.
So my wife and I have just been totally burnt out from this semester. Hardest frickin' one ever! Anyway, she decided to take me to see Tangled to cheer me up. I know, it's a total kids movie, but I like watching the animation and art. It was a pretty good movie. This is Disney's first computer animated film, without Pixar. I was reading that they had to design their own program just for her hair. She had something like 100,000 different strands and there was an entire design department of like 10 animators for her hair alone. Which, if you see the movie, makes sense since the hair was almost a seperate character in itself. I was really impressed with how exceptional it turned out for being the first of its kind. I'd definitely recommend it to anyone else interested in animation.
Week of December 13th
Yikes, finals week! Ahhh! I'm trying so desperately to keep it all together. After a brief meltdown last night, I pulled myself together enough to get to the Fab Lab and start cutting the wells for my portfolio for Traci's Typography II class today. I was worried it would take me forever to get it all cut, but what would normally take 20 minutes per well by hand, took an hour and a half with the Epilog Laser Cutter! How awesome is that? I'm feeling pretty pumped right now, maybe I can get everything done and handed in. I just might pass this semester after all.
Friday, December 17, 2010
Confessions of an Anti-blog-o-holic
Well, the semester is over and that means no more required blogging. So, why am I still here? As it turns out, despite my negative feelings towards blogs and those that create them, there is something quite beneficial to be gained from the process, something I had initially overlooked. That something is called accountability. And, now that the semester has finally come to a close, accountability is something I need more than ever. So, if I promise myself, and any potential viewers of this blog, that I will be updating this site on a regular basis, I will be forced to remain productive.
I will begin this "period of productivity" with a project that I am dubbing "The Trevor Goldberg Project". Let's face it. I had an awful semester this time around. My life outside of school has been full of so much negativity that it began to effect my school work. And it just keeps getting more difficult. If my life were a game of Mike Tyson's Punch Out, this semester would have been the equivalent of a match with Bald Bull. (From the looks of it, next semester is going to be more like Soda Popinski.) NES nerdology aside, the class that was impacted the most by this negativity was one that I was most passionate about, 3D animation. Who knows? Maybe it was that passion that ultimately lead to my downfall in the class. Either way, I ended up doing quite horribly in the class. Being disappointed in myself would be a grave understatement. Now that I have some time off, I plan on using some of it to try and fix the mistakes that I made in the class, not for a better grade (it's a little too late for that now), but to prove to myself that I am better than this. It's time to stop feeling sorry for myself and actually do something about it.
Which brings us full circle to the "Trevor Goldberg Project". One of the class assignments was to render a working Rube Goldberg Machine. For anyone that doesn't know what a Rube Goldberg machine is, just you tube it. You'll find plenty of examples. After months of trial and error, this is what I was ultimately able to produce:
At first, there was nothing I could do but laugh. But as time goes by, this video has become a major thorn in my side. That being said, my plan is to start from scratch and do this thing the right way. I'll be sure to keep you up to date with the project's progress.
Overall, this semester was quite the learning experience for me. I used to think that over-achieving was an endearing quality. But, when it begins to impede your progress and keep you from making your deadlines, it is quite the opposite. What I need to do is find a healthy medium between creating a spectacular, industry changing animation and K.I.S.S. (keep it simple stupid). Here goes nothing...
I will begin this "period of productivity" with a project that I am dubbing "The Trevor Goldberg Project". Let's face it. I had an awful semester this time around. My life outside of school has been full of so much negativity that it began to effect my school work. And it just keeps getting more difficult. If my life were a game of Mike Tyson's Punch Out, this semester would have been the equivalent of a match with Bald Bull. (From the looks of it, next semester is going to be more like Soda Popinski.) NES nerdology aside, the class that was impacted the most by this negativity was one that I was most passionate about, 3D animation. Who knows? Maybe it was that passion that ultimately lead to my downfall in the class. Either way, I ended up doing quite horribly in the class. Being disappointed in myself would be a grave understatement. Now that I have some time off, I plan on using some of it to try and fix the mistakes that I made in the class, not for a better grade (it's a little too late for that now), but to prove to myself that I am better than this. It's time to stop feeling sorry for myself and actually do something about it.
Which brings us full circle to the "Trevor Goldberg Project". One of the class assignments was to render a working Rube Goldberg Machine. For anyone that doesn't know what a Rube Goldberg machine is, just you tube it. You'll find plenty of examples. After months of trial and error, this is what I was ultimately able to produce:
At first, there was nothing I could do but laugh. But as time goes by, this video has become a major thorn in my side. That being said, my plan is to start from scratch and do this thing the right way. I'll be sure to keep you up to date with the project's progress.
Overall, this semester was quite the learning experience for me. I used to think that over-achieving was an endearing quality. But, when it begins to impede your progress and keep you from making your deadlines, it is quite the opposite. What I need to do is find a healthy medium between creating a spectacular, industry changing animation and K.I.S.S. (keep it simple stupid). Here goes nothing...
Tuesday, November 30, 2010
Week of 11-15: Mini Internet just short of awesome.
I have officially joined the 3G generation and I have to say, ...ehh.. Maybe if I had gotten into it when it first hit the market I would've been more impressed. Sure it's cool that I can jump on facebook and the such (I'm using my phone to blog right now). But there still seem to be a lot of restrictions. Streaming video is of horrible quality and flash is non-existant. Could be the phone or the service provider, but I can't really complain. $25 for unlimited internet is pretty decent. Oh well. In the mean time I'll be happy with what I've got and wait until 4G is cheap enough for me.
Thursday, November 18, 2010
Week of 11/08 - Television: a Cruel and Tempting Mistress
This weekend I was reminded once again how much influence television has over our lives. Let's face it. Before there was a home office in every house and a computer in every home office, there was a television in every living room. And before the blogosphere and internet advertising dictated our every day lives, TV programming did the same. For me, this weekend, the programming of influence was a show by the name of Man vs. Food. This guy gets paid to travel the country and eat until he gets sick. And, every once in a while he travels to our neck of the woods, showcasing some local eateries that I wouldn't normally take much notice of. This weekend, my job had me rushing off to Boston, Massachusetts to work at a blood drive at Gillette Stadium; tough work for an Eagles fan but times are tough and money is in short supply. It just so happens that a few nights prior I was watching an episode of Man vs. Food on Netflix (which I can stream through my Wii now) which took place in, you guessed it, Boston! The place from the episode that stuck in my mind was a little shack on the harbor known as the "Barking Crab", a little hole in the wall restaurant that served up ridiculously large portions of seafood. Since my wife and I were in the mood for some authentic New England seafood, and since the best places to get authentic Philadelphia cheese steaks are little holes in the wall, I figured what better place to eat? The food was fantastic and smashing open a whole lobster with a large rock brought out my instinctual hunter side that hearkened back to my neanderthal ancestors. I left the "Barking Crab" that night with a full belly, a satisfied grin, and a touristy t-shirt sporting the slogan, "Everyone should have crabs". Unbeknown to me at the time, I also left the "Barking Crab" with a horrible case of food poisoning, one that left me violently ill for the better half of a week. If there is a lesson to be learned from all of this it is, "don't trust everything you see on TV". Now, off to Zagat.com to figure out what's for dinner tonight.
Friday, November 5, 2010
Weeks of 10/25 & 11/01 - Computer issues / Fab Lab
10/25 - Computer Issues
As of the middle of last semester my home office has been collecting a disturbingly heavy amount of dust. The reason? My desktop had crashed and I had neither the time or the money in order to fix it. And, since my laptop was holding me over (very surprising for a $200.00 Black Friday special) I didn't see the need to confront it at that time. Well, here we are, my second to last semester and classes are picking up in requirements and my laptop is no longer cutting it. So, a couple of hundred bucks later (granted I still didn't exactly have the time or the money) I've upgraded to a 64 bit processor with 4 gigs of ram running windows 7 64. There's still a huge gap in my tower where there should be a dvd drive but funds kinda ran short. Giant computer vacuum of dust aside, I am now able to run Adobe Master Collection CS5 and Lightwave 9.6 with ease.
11/01 - Fab Lab
I went on my first class field trip since grade school today with Josh's Advanced 3D class. Our next assignment will require us to construct some sort of functioning mechanism and then print it three dimensionally. Que Northampton Community College's Fab Lab. Here, you can bring in your Lightwave design and have it molded into reality in a few hours. Some of the examples that we were shown included various gizmos with cranks and gears, statues, and a working hand wrench. The highlight of the tour was a hover craft / race car with wheels that actually spun on axles. The most impressive part was that is was designed by a fourth grader, effectively transforming our next project into a ridiculous TV game show hosted by a washed-up redneck comedian.
As of the middle of last semester my home office has been collecting a disturbingly heavy amount of dust. The reason? My desktop had crashed and I had neither the time or the money in order to fix it. And, since my laptop was holding me over (very surprising for a $200.00 Black Friday special) I didn't see the need to confront it at that time. Well, here we are, my second to last semester and classes are picking up in requirements and my laptop is no longer cutting it. So, a couple of hundred bucks later (granted I still didn't exactly have the time or the money) I've upgraded to a 64 bit processor with 4 gigs of ram running windows 7 64. There's still a huge gap in my tower where there should be a dvd drive but funds kinda ran short. Giant computer vacuum of dust aside, I am now able to run Adobe Master Collection CS5 and Lightwave 9.6 with ease.
11/01 - Fab Lab
I went on my first class field trip since grade school today with Josh's Advanced 3D class. Our next assignment will require us to construct some sort of functioning mechanism and then print it three dimensionally. Que Northampton Community College's Fab Lab. Here, you can bring in your Lightwave design and have it molded into reality in a few hours. Some of the examples that we were shown included various gizmos with cranks and gears, statues, and a working hand wrench. The highlight of the tour was a hover craft / race car with wheels that actually spun on axles. The most impressive part was that is was designed by a fourth grader, effectively transforming our next project into a ridiculous TV game show hosted by a washed-up redneck comedian.
Monday, October 18, 2010
Flying AirTran
Flying home was interesting. Airlines are now offering Wi-Fi service...for a fee, of course. I purchased usage for my flight home out of curiosity. I was able to watch a little bit of "Bizarre Foods" via my NetFlix account. However, it kept pausing and loading. Obviously there's still a long way to go to perfect certain new media options while traveling. My guess is that the plane was moving to fast for the satellite hookup to keep up with. Nevertheless, it's fascinating to see how far technology has come over the past few decades. Seeing the paths that technology is currently traversing is just mind boggling.
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