Gonna be in L.A. Jan 6, 09, 7:22 a.m.

For a couple days next week for a work thing. Might have a little free time. Any reccomendations for anything interesting or god eats? My boss will want to do the glitzy bar thing where you see celebs, but that's not my thing really.

Any suggestions for:
food - hole in the wall local treasure type places
people watching
strange collecting and/or memorabilia type places

RIP Freddie Hubbard Dec 30, 08, 5:37 a.m.

Another legend gone. :(

After Effects conundrum Dec 17, 08, 2:08 p.m.

So I want to create this effect where a noodly stream of light particles flies around buildings and ultimately animates a logo. I'm going to cut between a few aerial shots showing the stages of animation.

For example, this kind of aerial shot:
http://www.gettyimages.com/detai…

All the particle stuff, no problem.
But I am stuck at which may be the best approach to matching the movement of the camera so it looks like all the good stuff is really in the shot. The options I have thought of are:
1. Eyeballing it and rotoscoping (probably not great looking)
2. A combination of motion tracking data sets
3. A fancy 3rd party match-move app like Boujou (which I do not have)

Any ideas? Am i missing something?

Awesomeness Dec 16, 08, 12:32 p.m.

This calls for some chemical equations. Bring them on.

A Red Nosed Reindeer Dec 16, 08, 9:01 a.m.

DrBombay's other carol thread reminded me of my whole problem with Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer. Been sticking in my craw.
....
Rudolph, the red-nosed reindeer
had a very shiny nose.
And if you ever saw him,
you would even say it glows.

All of the other reindeer
used to laugh and call him names.
They never let poor Rudolph
join in any reindeer games.

Then one foggy Christmas Eve
Santa came to say:
"Rudolph with your nose so bright,
won't you guide my sleigh tonight?"

Then all the reindeer loved him
as they shouted out with glee,
Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer,
you'll go down in history!

....

So at first the other reindeer laugh and call him names. They wouldn't let poor Rudolph join in any reindeer games.

So Dasher and Dancer and all those guys are fucking cocks. We have that established.

But hold the fuck on. Santa comes in at the end, the big dick, and says "Won't you guide my sleigh tonight?"

THEN all the reindeer loved him. Then? THEN?? No they don't. Not one little bit. These are some callous fucking deer. I think we can see what's really going on here. At the deer shack it's all about kissing the bearded man's ass. Sucking up to Santa. God knows how that came about. There's one of two possibilities:

A. The deer shack is basically an episode of the Hills. Catty, manipulative deer are always battling out for Santa's favor and control of the herd.

B. Santa tortures reindeer. The reindeer live in fear of jolly ol St. Nick, and must appease him or else it's any number of unspeakable tortures, not to mention no food.

The only positive thing in the ending of the carol is that Rudolf now has the upper hand. If it's scenario A, Rudolf must grow a thick skin and get hip to the politics of North Pole reindeer if he's to maintain alpha status among the herd and remain Santa's number one boy.
If it's Scenario B., then let's hope our boy Rudolph figures that out too, and either keeps the fat man happy and lights the way for his annual wilding, or gets his ass out of there, possibly even liberating the other traumatized animals.

Actionscript training Dec 15, 08, 10:15 a.m.

So I'm doing a couple days of AS training, as it been a long time comin. Immersing my self in tutorials and the Lynda course and all that.

Question —
I assumed I'd just dive into AS3 as I work on CS3 and it only keeps moving forward. Should I back up and focus on AS2? Am I missing anything fundamental by starting training with AS3 and not having other background?

Dancing Goats Dec 9, 08, 8:27 a.m.

Just kinda need this right now. Post more if you got 'em.

Yahoo down? Dec 3, 08, 12:41 p.m.

Is it?

User Generated Promos Dec 3, 08, 12:12 p.m.

Anyone have any promo sites bookmarked that call for users to upload their own content? And any that have sweepstakes attached? Need some for reference.
thx

Calendars Nov 24, 08, 11:55 a.m.

If this is something that can be done in iCal, fantastic, let me know. I can't find it though.

Creating the schedule for a project that will go live in April 2009 but will also continue in phases through August 2009.

Is there a way in iCal or a Mac calendar app that allows me to view and edit a whole spread of calendar months on the screen all at once, as if you had pages spread on a table?

Transferring an internal drive Nov 5, 08, 8:22 a.m.

So my G5 of six years died last week, and I had to replace it. All my work work is on external drives, so that's all fine. But I have to get 80gb or so of stuff off the internal of the dead machine.

Someone at the Mac store said I have 2 options, either get a 'sled', or pop the internal drive into another machine and transfer. I'm going to try the latter.

Anyone ever do this before? Is it a big deal to do either?

Cinema 4D texuring q Nov 3, 08, 7:26 a.m.

I have a vector logo to animate in 3D. Got the paths into C4D, and extruded nurbs, and all is well.

But, when I apply textures to it, using a bitmap image as texture (even if I change the nurbs to editable polygon object), the texture is only applied to the extruded sides of the logo, not the "caps" or front and back.
What's going on? thanks

More 'Puter Death Oct 30, 08, 6:17 a.m.

So in the wake of TheBlueOne's woes, it appears my desktop shit the bed last night. Been dreading this, as it's a nearly 6 year old G5 with a lot of mileage. Just wish it hadn't happened now in this chilly economic client, with a new baby, and blah blah. But I need to replace it asap, as it's my livelihood and deadlines don't care about this issue.

I need to run FinalCut, AE, and Cinema 4D (run them well) amongst other standard creative apps. I use these a lot, so I need some decent juice.

I'm weighing a MacBook Pro for around 3k, against a desktop Mac Pro for around 4k. the specs seem to be very similar, with the exception of memory expandability. Looks like the laptop maxes out at 4gig.
Am I missing anything??
Are there any limitations of the laptop I am not thinking of?
Gotta make a decision in the next 24 hours or so, and I really don't want to screw this this up.

Thanks, I appreciate your input.

Another QBN Dad!! Oct 20, 08, 8:03 a.m.

Our daughter, Gianna Angeline Ludvigsen, was born on Friday, 10/17/08. She's a right bit of loveliness. So I am now an official member of the QBN parent club. Yay!
:D

More here: http://www.pleasewhisper.com/spa…

RIP Estelle Getty Jul 22, 08, 11:37 a.m.

"Mannequin's" true heroine has died.
http://www.cnn.com/2008/SHOWBIZ/…

Revenge for Stolen Bike Jul 16, 08, 9:31 a.m.

For those here who have recently suffered some douche swiping their bike, here is a bit of revenge.
This (strangely shirtless) dude explains how to make a cell phone activated stun gun for your bike, to exact revenge if it is taken.

chik...chikachikah! Jul 2, 08, 3:07 p.m.

So I'm getting stuff packed up and I hear a co-worker a ways away go "chikachikah!"
I stand up and say, "Did you just make a Ferris Bueller 'chicka' sound?"
"Hell yeah!" he replied, "chik...chikachikah!".
Then another co-worker on the other side of the room went "umm, bow bow!"
We all began our long weekend with hearty laughter. Yay!
Have fun, all.

*insert endless screaming Jun 27, 08, 8:36 a.m.

Wtf??!!! Left overs??

http://www.wwtdd.com/post.phtml?…
http://www.nydailynews.com/gossi…

"Ever go to shake a guy's hand...and he doesn't have a whole hand?! And you gotta pretend that the handshake feels real good?"
-Sky Marshall Carlin

Old People Porn Jun 18, 08, 11:03 a.m.

Shigeo Tokuda looks like any other 74-year-old man in Japan. Despite suffering a heart attack three years ago, the lifelong salaryman now feels healthier, and lives happily with his wife and a daughter in downtown Tokyo. He is, of course, more physically active than most retirees, but that's because he's kept his part-time job — as a porn star.

http://www.time.com/time/world/a…

RIP Cyd Charise Jun 17, 08, 2:49 p.m.

:(
Oh those sweet dance moves and those legs. Legend from one of my favorite films "Singing In the Rain," amongst other.