2011-01a

Here’s a little track I made for fun the other weekend. The results of a few hours one evening.

UPDATE: looks like the embedded player got a little sketchy, here’s a direct link.

UPGRADE series promo

It doesn’t always have to be fancy to be effective. This promo was conceptualized in about a day and shot with an iPhone 4. Grading and motion graphics enhanced with After Effects.

G’s room

My son loves robots. And gears. And factories. And other assorted mechanical creations. In a much drawn out decorating project for his room he and I created a series of drawings / Photoshop compositions to grace his walls.

He provides the sketches, and their descriptions, and I provide real world background images to compliment. Here’s the result.

Green screen fun

For Super Bowl weekend we were fortunate to get hold of CJ Spiller to help us with the announcements. It was one of our first opportunities to utilize the new studio for some green screen fun. The finished product;

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(photo courtesy of @bcoop

chipPad performace app

Similar to mlr on the monome is chipPad, a new upcoming performance app for the iPad. Makes the iPad quite compelling as an instrument.

Creativity time

Tonight I spent a little quality creativity time. Do you find time to do the same? What does that look like for you?

Will I post the results of my creation. That’s not really the point, but perhaps.

Twitter-sized post

Here are a few Twitter-sized things I’d rather share via blog post.

Can’t wait until next weekend for the release of Tron: Legacy (me, too). Here’s some Tron Mac icons to dress your machine up. (and some retro Tron icons if you’d prefer).

Gift guide for anyone who loves coffee.

Just a reminder that simpledesktops.com is an awesome place to style your workspace without cluttering it. (my current favorite).

Saturday afternoon creativity project

I love the chance to stretch myself and combine some of the things I love. In today’s creative project I’m combining elements of G’s artwork (namely, robots and electrical components he’s so fond of drawing) with industrial photography. We’re making images for his “robot room.” Have a look at the work in progress.

Pogo remix and derivative art

What a great example Pogo has created of derivative art, taking existing material and reinventing it into something artful and creative. This is a remix I admire that shows mastery of the form. I really hope we’re able to see his Pirates of the Caribbean mix soon.

Paper Star Wars

All kinds of loving this.

Sam Peacocke / VW ‘Milk Run’

What a gorgeous concept and well executed piece.

Stop motion yarn

Downright impressive and beautiful, this stop motion creation was produced with 1 km of yard, some simple lights, and a huge amount of imagination.

Man v Wife

Here’s a little promo the team built to advertise our marriage series, Man vs Wife. Playing on the whole “I now pronounce you man and wife” / “step into the ring” / etc. vibe we decided to go all UFC-y with the series branding. I like the way it came out.

Man vs Wife promo from Ken Wilson on Vimeo.

Reactable

Reactable is a new music app I picked up recently for iOS. It’s modeled faithfully after the physical interactive surface the Reactable table (which you can see in action here), from reading the wonderful depths of its manual I would say it has real potential as an artistically valid performance platform. I’ve found it to be a little cramped on the iPhone, but this demo of iPad usage is pretty impressive and the track feels complete (even if there are apparent video cuts and edits in the final recording).

Anakin goes to Catalyst

Whenever I go to a conference or travel away from my family I take one of G’s toys with me. The toy and I document the trip and I send back periodic photo updates. It’s fun for me (explaining to people why I’m photographing Legos) and keeps us connected while I’m away.

This year I attended Catalyst in Atlanta and Anakin Skywalker (plus an occasional Storm Trooper) came with me. Here’s some of what he experienced.

Why I wish the monotron wasn’t on such a long back order

I’m fascinated by small music creating devices. I love software, it’s great, deep, endless… but it lacks those tactile controls of a hardware device. Unfortunately most analog hardware devices are a little bit pricey for an average joe like me. Enter the Korg Monotron. It runs about $60 USD, it won’t take up a room in your house, and that probably explains why it’s so far back ordered. And with the right capture/looping infrastructure here’s an example of what one can do with it.

Keep clear of moving parts

One of the more interesting things I saw today

And here it is, doubly iPhone processed.

Troika ESPN rebrand

There’s a dizzying amount of complexity going on here, amazing. Even though I’m not a sports fan I can really appreciate the shine and glow and even slightly-sepia tinted beauty of this masterpiece.

When it comes to some things, analog is best

As much as I love it all digital there are some things that just work better analog. And when it’s groceries analog works best for me.