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Saturday
Jun232012

Children's Card Games!

You guys remember Yugioh?  You know, the anime that used to air on Thee WB around 2002?  Well, last fall we filmed a minisode version of Combo Breakers, which is a video game culture themed show, about playing the trading card game that Yugioh was about.  Perfect branding right!?  Anyways, if you watched the anime you should check out this quick little tribute minisode about it.  We tried to hit all the cliches from the show and stay faithful to all its rules.  Plus, it's pretty funny!

If you're already familiar with the show, this minisode is really about Eric.  Normally Eric is a very responsible, hard worker.  He enjoys organizing paperwork and other office work for VGHL.  But he was a 12 year old once like everyone else, and we all went through weird obsessions at that age, right?  I sure did about Yugioh.  I was one of those kids who brought his cards to school and dueled his friends during recess.  I won a lot too!  Anyways, back to Eric.  Without giving too much away, this is about what happens when that past obsession catches up to you.  To tide you over until the release next week, below is a sneak peek we posted for the minisode awhile back.  And if you love Yugioh spoofs, you gotta check out Little Kuriboh's Yugioh Abridged. It's pure genius.

Preview's not much, but you can expect a lot of cool effects in the scenes following the intro.  See that Mystical Elf picture up top?  Her skin wasn't blue at first.  That's all visual effects.  Remember all the flashy effects that came with the holographic duels?  You can expect those too.  I tried some new techniques inside After Effects to get some of the digital sparks in front of AND behind the characters.  Y=It sounds like something boring, but it's one of those details that really goes a long way to selling an effect.  I also experimented with incorporating lens flares to sell other effects like explosions and lightning.  I'd been noticing their increased use in movies over the past couple years.  Especially when it comes to lens flares and lightning in movies like Thor and The Avengers.  We'll see how it pans out.

And random hilarious side note:  Ever since filming this minisode I've created a cult of grown students playing Yugioh again.  We play it all the time at the station now.  Synchros and XYZ cards and everything.  Way more complicated then you'll see in the minisode, but just as fun as back in the day!

Friday
Jun152012

Macbook Pro or No?

So Apple debuted their new Macbook Pro at WWDC this year and as a current Macbook Pro user, should I upgrade to this one?  Mine's 4 years old, and while it's never let me down in any of my productions, an upgrade would speed up my rendering times a lot.

What's cool about this new laptop though?  Apple's made lots of advances with including USB 3.0 and Thunderbolt.  The retina display is amazing as well!  There's some logistical problems with implementing it, but lots of potential.  And the amount of hard drive space is overwhelming, even the thought of SSD's in the hundred of gigabytes range.

Nice improvements, but I won't be getting it.  Why?  Well, I don't think this computer is really a professional version of the Macbook line anymore.  Why do I say this though?  Well, it doesn't have an optical drive anymore, nor does it have a built in ethernet port.  You can argue all you want that people barely use discs anymore, and I agree with you.  Taking out an optical drive works for computers like the Macbook Air.  Even the regular Macbook (I'll get to this later).  Those computers are really for people who enjoy surfing the Internet, take notes in classes, and maybe enjoy some photography and file sharing.  But there's so many more uses for the Macbook Pro line.  I think of mine as a mobile office I can use to tackle just about any problem.  Most of those problems have been solved using the optical drive or by plugging into a network easily through an ethernet cord (sometimes figuring out wifi passwords is a hassle).

Now that adaptability is much reduced because the new Macbook Pro is just a souped up Macbook Air.  They even compared it's thickness to the Air.  It used to be that Apple had three distinct styles for three distinct laptops.  And what was reassuring about the Macbook Pro, pre-2008, was that it resembled a Mac Pro in design and had extra ports and features to stay versatile.  Now Apple is merging the designs of all their mobile devices so that they all resemble eachother.  Put an iPhone, iPad, and newer Macbook next to eachother and you'll see what I mean.  It's great for branding, I won't argue that.  But a side ffect of that merging is loss of distinction and extra features between lines.  This current iteration sees the loss of the optical drive like the Macbook Air.  So now how can I do things like burn a demo reel for a client on the go?  Sure I can buy an external optical drive, but that's an added hassle, so why bother?  If I forget an ethernet adapter, how do I drop files off at my office network?  I have to contact IT now to get a password to the wifi.

Hopefully you can see my frustration with the new line.  If you go to the Apple website right now, you'll see there isn't a regular Macbook line anymore.  With the loss of added features in the new Pro, I can only really see this new computer as the new Macbook with the word "Pro" added at the end.  It certainly does make it harder for more experienced media creators to do their work without said features.  Though it, like last year's Final Cut Pro X (that's a whole new blog rant) does aim more towards amateur content creators.

Quick word though about why removing the optical drive will benefit Apple.  Imagine you've got this new Macbook Pro and you want to watch a movie.  Well, you can't pick up a DVD, can you?  Nope.  But wait, iTunes lets you rent them!  Bingo, Apple.  You've just driven more traffic and money towards yourselves.  It's a smart business move on their part.  But an annoying one, at least to me.  I don't like the way iTunes and other online services handles media distribution with DRM.  I still buy movies and music on discs speciifically to avoid DRM.  That way I can consume my content on whichever devices I want.  Anyways, enough of that side rant.

So, in short, lack of new features in what Apple calls the next "Pro" Macbook means I won't be getting one.  And seeing as I got a Macbook Pro in the first place for Final Cut Pro, which no longer really works for professionals anymore anyways, I'll be switching back to PC for my next computer.  Something with all the features I need.  And, if even only so I can watch movies on DVD, an optical drive!  Maybe even one that reads and writes Blu Rays?  Definitely!

Friday
Jun082012

Last Bit of Station Managing

I've talked about Texas Student TV a lot here already. I decided why not post one of the last things I did as their station manager on my site?  In my year as manager I concluded we should connect with our audience and alumni more.  Just broadcasting on tv wasn't enough.  So what's the best way for a tv station to update its audience then through video?  In addition to many other things we started doing, we started releasing these monthly newsletters.  If you ask me, I'd much rather hear what's new at a place n a video then read a message.  Hopefully it's something that sticks.