Firebox sell an electric guitar with a USB connection - I guess it's got a built-in pre-amp, because you can listen with headphones. It's 99 quid (that's about 200 bucks)
What I find exasperating about this is that they spend thousands, millions on getting this robot to play the violin, then they neglect to code the song correctly. The robot may be actually doing a pretty good job, it just doesn't sound musical! It's like spending millions to train an athlete then only letting him do Morris dancing. Reminds me of a Christmas card my grandma sent me once that had a cheap little tone generator in it that played Christmas carols, all of which were hideously, comically wrong. It must have been successful though, because I still hear the exact same sequence of notes every so often (in animatronic displays, electronic toys etc) with exactly the same coding errors.
In the animation I'm working on using a program called Celaction, F6 is indispensable. It's the Algorithm key, used to produce tweening. This has given rise to a slang term to describe animating something in a rough and ready way... "Just F6 it"
Also in Flash F6 adds a keyframe to the timeline, so again is indispensable. In fact it's one of the keys along with F5, Ctrl, Alt, Shift and Space which I use most. You can easily recognise me as the guy with the left hand fused into the "animator's claw"!
Did anyone else read that as "Squeezing the bag with the otter"? There's me thinking... I gotta go see more live music!
Seriously though - I agree with the above post wholeheartedly. My dad's 67 and plays sax and clarinet in at least three gigs a week, often lasting two or more hours. I'm constantly amazed at the speed and intricacy of his playing.
Well, as the BBC reports it, not many.
It says...
"The hearings are complete with opposing attorneys and a long witness list, although the witnesses are all allied against the teaching of evolution."
Notice the burglar's outfit too - any burglar who actually wears a stripey shirt deserves to be caught. The only thing missing was a bag with Swag written on it!
Have a look around the Duncan's website, he may be a geek but he's also a martial arts instructor specialising in kickboxing!
Burglar should be glad the guy wasn't there... Wrong house, motherf*cker!
...free time costs money, if you rent your house, pay taxes, eat occasionally etc.
There are people with talent, but in order to fulfil their dreams they need money to live.
The trouble is, a lot of production companies share your point of view and expect talent (I'm speaking from an animation/scriptwriting perspective here) to work for virtually nothing.
(Of course there are broadcasters and production companies who pay a very good wage for your talent. The downside of this financial security is that often you'll have to wait six months for them to cough up, and smile through gritted teeth when you hear of their plans to turn your idea into the latest celebrity reality crossover.)
It's easy to underestimate the value of a regular paycheque. I know it sounds mercenary but I speak as one who's had to scrimp and starve in order to finally be making a living in animation eight years down the road.
And I'd love to know the names and addresses of these media companies with "spare cash" you speak of. Fact is, the cash is never spare and there are ALWAYS conditions involved.
That said, I'm currently developing a sketch show which looks like it will have to be produced largely in spare time otherwise it runs the risk of being gutted and ruined. But at least some of the funding is coming from a production company.
Reminds me of a paradigm I find useful as a freelancer, where you can place a job as a point anywhere in the Fast/Cheap/Good triangle.
So: If you want it Cheap and Good, it's going to take a long time. If you want it Good and done Fast, prepare to pay thru the nose. And if you want it done Fast and Cheap, it will suck...
I had a friend who worked as a PA/researcher for Graham Hancock. He used to get dozens of emails every day from crackpots all with much the same Celestine Prophecy/Scientologist/Von Daniken claptrap. The ones with CAPITAL LETTERS so you know that WHAT they are TELLING YOU is the ULTIMATE AND TOTAL TRUTH. One I remember specifically is from a guy claiming to know BEYOND A SHADOW OF A DOUBT that there are six hundred million reptilian devils packed (this is the great bit) packed like sardines into a bottomless pit underneath the pyramids. Bottomless pit... right... packed like sardines... right. Obviously not a physics major.
Although granted, diesel fuel doesn't last forever and the flashpoint gets lower as it denatures over time. Still, there are much more hazardous fluids you can carry around with you perfectly legally. Sunny Delight, anyone?
The question of exhaust fumes still stands, though. All those particles; arsenic, benzene, dioxins, toluene, formaldehyde, 3-nitrobenzanthrone and 1,8-dinitropyrene. Horrible.
I can see it now - a special carriage reserved on the train for laptop users. PDAs banned in public places? Special rooms at work for anyone with those 12th generation iPods.:)
"The war on drugs to me is absolutely phoney, its so obviously phoney, ok? It's a war against our civil rights, that's all it is. They're using it to make us afraid to go out at night, afraid of each other, so that we lock ourselves in our homes and they get suspending our rights one by one." Bill Hicks
I second this! I had chronic eczema (dermatitis) and was using E45, hydrocortisone and another steroid cream and went to several doctors in succession, even a dermatologist at my local hospital. All useless. None of them seemed to know what to do, even though after two years it was obviously getting so bad that I couldn't sleep, work or hold down a relationship. They did a skin test for various foods and all gathered round, fascinated, when my arm swelled up like a beachball.
Then I moved and signed up with another surgery, where the (Greek Australian) doctor told me all the stuff I was using was USELESS! He said don't bother with E45, it isn't pure enough. Even aqueous cream is absorbed straight into the body, along with anything else on the surface of your skin. What you want is a nice greasy ointment which will form a barrier.
It's not all bad. Without Flash, many people wouldn't have been able to produce their own animations quickly and cheaply. It's acted as the route into the animation industry for thousands.
I'm not formally trained, and to do what I do (The Amazing Adrenalini Brothers) before the advent of Flash would have been pretty impossible to stumble into: it would require me to do a degree course or be lucky enough to be able to tinker for many years with unwieldy and expensive equipment - camera, rostrum, film/video processing, sound recording, editing equipment, perishable cel/paint/puppets.
And without the possibility of broadcast on the net, I'd have to get to grips with publishing and distribution. And get representation to guide me through the quagmire of commissioning and broadcasting.
Slashdot Mirror
I started the video and got a brainful of loud alarm beeping in the preliminary advert. Should be a goddamn warning about that...
No!
Come back!
We can change!
Don't go!
Seriously - good luck finding a more balanced set of opinions elsewhere.
Does that mean I could get a U-boat through the U-bend?
Firebox sell an electric guitar with a USB connection - I guess it's got a built-in pre-amp, because you can listen with headphones. It's 99 quid (that's about 200 bucks)
What I find exasperating about this is that they spend thousands, millions on getting this robot to play the violin, then they neglect to code the song correctly. The robot may be actually doing a pretty good job, it just doesn't sound musical! It's like spending millions to train an athlete then only letting him do Morris dancing.
Reminds me of a Christmas card my grandma sent me once that had a cheap little tone generator in it that played Christmas carols, all of which were hideously, comically wrong. It must have been successful though, because I still hear the exact same sequence of notes every so often (in animatronic displays, electronic toys etc) with exactly the same coding errors.
Is that a normal second, or a cotton-pickin' second?
Now that will be unexpected! Not any more
Did anyone else see the video and think the robot was writing "Help!" on the board? Freaked me out for a moment.
In the animation I'm working on using a program called Celaction, F6 is indispensable. It's the Algorithm key, used to produce tweening. This has given rise to a slang term to describe animating something in a rough and ready way... "Just F6 it"
Also in Flash F6 adds a keyframe to the timeline, so again is indispensable. In fact it's one of the keys along with F5, Ctrl, Alt, Shift and Space which I use most. You can easily recognise me as the guy with the left hand fused into the "animator's claw"!
Fuckin A!
Well, as the BBC reports it, not many. It says... "The hearings are complete with opposing attorneys and a long witness list, although the witnesses are all allied against the teaching of evolution."
You'd know this kind of thing if you subscribed to Bleeder's Digest.
I misread that as Hugh Hefner. *shudder*
But he who tux into penguin-meat gets tarballs.
Notice the burglar's outfit too - any burglar who actually wears a stripey shirt deserves to be caught. The only thing missing was a bag with Swag written on it!
Have a look around the Duncan's website, he may be a geek but he's also a martial arts instructor specialising in kickboxing!
Burglar should be glad the guy wasn't there... Wrong house, motherf*cker!
...free time costs money, if you rent your house, pay taxes, eat occasionally etc.
There are people with talent, but in order to fulfil their dreams they need money to live.
The trouble is, a lot of production companies share your point of view and expect talent (I'm speaking from an animation/scriptwriting perspective here) to work for virtually nothing.
(Of course there are broadcasters and production companies who pay a very good wage for your talent. The downside of this financial security is that often you'll have to wait six months for them to cough up, and smile through gritted teeth when you hear of their plans to turn your idea into the latest celebrity reality crossover.)
It's easy to underestimate the value of a regular paycheque. I know it sounds mercenary but I speak as one who's had to scrimp and starve in order to finally be making a living in animation eight years down the road.
And I'd love to know the names and addresses of these media companies with "spare cash" you speak of. Fact is, the cash is never spare and there are ALWAYS conditions involved.
That said, I'm currently developing a sketch show which looks like it will have to be produced largely in spare time otherwise it runs the risk of being gutted and ruined. But at least some of the funding is coming from a production company.
dum de dum de dum...
Reminds me of a paradigm I find useful as a freelancer, where you can place a job as a point anywhere in the Fast/Cheap/Good triangle.
So:
If you want it Cheap and Good, it's going to take a long time.
If you want it Good and done Fast, prepare to pay thru the nose.
And if you want it done Fast and Cheap, it will suck...
Can't help thinking that the word "Experimental" in the name is going to frighten people unnecessarily.
I had a friend who worked as a PA/researcher for Graham Hancock. He used to get dozens of emails every day from crackpots all with much the same Celestine Prophecy/Scientologist/Von Daniken claptrap. The ones with CAPITAL LETTERS so you know that WHAT they are TELLING YOU is the ULTIMATE AND TOTAL TRUTH.
One I remember specifically is from a guy claiming to know BEYOND A SHADOW OF A DOUBT that there are six hundred million reptilian devils packed (this is the great bit) packed like sardines into a bottomless pit underneath the pyramids.
Bottomless pit... right... packed like sardines... right. Obviously not a physics major.
Errr. That's why he said diesel.
Although granted, diesel fuel doesn't last forever and the flashpoint gets lower as it denatures over time. Still, there are much more hazardous fluids you can carry around with you perfectly legally. Sunny Delight, anyone?
The question of exhaust fumes still stands, though. All those particles; arsenic, benzene, dioxins, toluene, formaldehyde, 3-nitrobenzanthrone and 1,8-dinitropyrene. Horrible.
I can see it now - a special carriage reserved on the train for laptop users. PDAs banned in public places? Special rooms at work for anyone with those 12th generation iPods. :)
"The war on drugs to me is absolutely phoney, its so obviously phoney, ok? It's a war against our civil rights, that's all it is. They're using it to make us afraid to go out at night, afraid of each other, so that we lock ourselves in our homes and they get suspending our rights one by one."
Bill Hicks
I second this! I had chronic eczema (dermatitis) and was using E45, hydrocortisone and another steroid cream and went to several doctors in succession, even a dermatologist at my local hospital. All useless. None of them seemed to know what to do, even though after two years it was obviously getting so bad that I couldn't sleep, work or hold down a relationship. They did a skin test for various foods and all gathered round, fascinated, when my arm swelled up like a beachball.
Then I moved and signed up with another surgery, where the (Greek Australian) doctor told me all the stuff I was using was USELESS! He said don't bother with E45, it isn't pure enough. Even aqueous cream is absorbed straight into the body, along with anything else on the surface of your skin. What you want is a nice greasy ointment which will form a barrier.
It's not all bad. Without Flash, many people wouldn't have been able to produce their own animations quickly and cheaply. It's acted as the route into the animation industry for thousands. I'm not formally trained, and to do what I do (The Amazing Adrenalini Brothers) before the advent of Flash would have been pretty impossible to stumble into: it would require me to do a degree course or be lucky enough to be able to tinker for many years with unwieldy and expensive equipment - camera, rostrum, film/video processing, sound recording, editing equipment, perishable cel/paint/puppets. And without the possibility of broadcast on the net, I'd have to get to grips with publishing and distribution. And get representation to guide me through the quagmire of commissioning and broadcasting.