Center for Digital Imaging Arts - Boston University Blog

Eight Technologies Lead Job Market Recovery

Mon, 09 Nov 2009 09:34:56 EST

How many are on your resume? Simply access the latest issue of Beantown Web to learn which Web technologies are leading us out of recession:

http://beantownweb.blogspot.com/2009/11/boston-market-november-2009.html

FotoWeekDC

Tue, 03 Nov 2009 02:00:00 EST

‘Night Visions’ Exhibition Pulls All-Nighter for Area Photographers, Offering Guaranteed Georgetown Display    Drawing on the huge success of last year’s inaugural celebration of photography, FotoWeek/DC will this year host “Night Visions,” an open-to-all-comers exhibition, the very content of which will not be determined until the end of a frenzied all- night shoot and editing session centered in, though not limited to, Washington, DC.   

The purpose of the “Night Visions” exhibition is to recreate the adrenalin rush of a photo student’s end-of-term all- nighter or a professional’s laser-focused intensity against a drop- dead deadline.  
“It’s all about sucking it up, creating an image, meeting the deadline and doing something great,” declared Washington photographer Peter Garfield, one of "Night Visions" originators.   Images selected by a team of veteran, nationally known photography editors will be printed and displayed—literally within hours of their selection—at FotoWeek Central 1, 3338 M Street NW in Georgetown during an all-night edit-cum-photo-party featuring free snacks, coffee, music and a cash bar.

Editors to date: (Bonnie Stutski(Smithsonian Magazine) Nadia Hughes(National Geographic) David Hicks (Washingtonian) Jayme Mclellen( Civilian Art Projects Gallery DC)  Photos will be on display for a week. Everyone who takes part in “Night Visions” is guaranteed a spot on the wall.  The concept is simple; the rules minimal:  Any participant, amateur, student or professional, will be asked to submit up to 30 digital images created during the hours from sundown to sun-up Saturday night, November 7th. from which one will be selected for display. All forms of photography are eligible: landscape, still life, portraiture, documentary—you name it. Though most images are likely to be made in the Washington area, there are no restrictions here either—just that every photo be made that night.  
Once finished, the photographer will be required to hand-carry the digital images (in camera, or on disk,) to FotoWeek Central where they will be downloaded and displayed to a panel of photo editors, rotating throughout the night between the hours of 6pm Saturday the 7th until 6am, Sunday the 8th. The editors will select one great image from each photographer’s take to be printed and displayed during a week-long celebration of the Washington area’s local photography talent.   “We want this to be the shared experience of a photo class or a photo shoot, in which everyone gets together, talking photography and meeting their colleagues in a great atmosphere –and at a great party.” Peter Garfield said.
 

Registration: www.fotoweekdc.org  
[The “Night Visions” exhibition is made possible by the generous support of Mac Business Solutions , as well as by generous grants from Canon, Epson and Apple.]

Customizing is Key When it Comes to an Effective Job Search

Fri, 30 Oct 2009 02:00:00 EDT

We all get inundated with hundreds of emails, tweets, and, well, interruptions during the day – things that are demanding our attention. Think of what a Human Resources Professional/Recruiter’s or Hiring Manager’s day is like in terms of incoming emails! Why not make their lives a little easier - and your job search more effective - by *customizing* what you send them. It’s a simple thing, takes seconds really, and yet so many people don’t do it.

I receive many resumes for review from my students and alumni each day – can you guess how many attachments are titled “Resume”? Yes, 95% of them. And the remaining 5% may be something unrelated to the word resume, their name, their specialty, or date (and hint: all of those things should be in there). Then there’s that 1% in that group who actually use a clear naming convention, such as “Maureen Lawson Recruiter Resume_10_31_09.” Cover letters should follow suit, and same goes for Print Portfolio attachments in PDF form. This simple naming convention makes not only the receiver’s (and your own) life easier when searching for and saving your information for future use, but it’s also a courteous sign that sends the message “I care about saving your time (and I’m efficient, organized, and clear).”

In a similar vein, it’s important to have a customized *signature* at the bottom of your emails (see example below). Once again, you will make that person’s life so much easier if you include your professional contact information (name, title, phone number, website) right there. Trust me on that – I can’t tell you how many emails I receive that say, “hey, check out my new Website” with no mention of the Website address in the email, and I have to peruse through old emails, search through old resumes, Google it, or email the person back to request the address.

Another example of customization that relays the thoughtful message of “I’m a professional who cares about quality” is when requesting to connect with someone on LinkedIn, you type over that “canned” message of “I'd like to add you to my professional network” with something personalized, with relevance and enthusiasm. You could say, “I really enjoyed hearing you speak at that seminar last night – the subjects you touched upon really hit home” or “It seems like we had so many common interests at the meeting last night, so I thought it would make sense for us to connect.” We’re a creative school, after all, so let’s get *creative* and have an *impact* with our statements, emails and submissions.

The message here is, please make it easy on yourself and your audience through customization – it’s *most* effective!

Example:

Sincerely,

Maureen Lawson
Co-Director, Career Services
Center for Digital Imaging Arts at Boston University
800-808-2342 x3024
mlawson@cdiabu.com
www.cdiabu.com

Living the Creative Life, an Interview with Keith Lane

Thu, 29 Oct 2009 02:00:00 EDT

In August I wrote an article about Keith Lane’s visit to CDIA, and recently Keith was gracious enough to give me a phone interview. We talked for several hours, and he came across as a funny, caring human being with a passion for the creative life. What follows are some of the highlights of what I was able to hastily type down.

Q. How do you use social networking like Facebook?

A. Keith Lane: "I used Facebook to discover business opportunities on a global basis for my clients and for myself. Facebook and LinkedIn cover everything I need. LinkedIn is the Taj of social networking, Facebook is the Bates Motel. LinkedIn is primarily about doing business, but you can still be irreverent. I use Facebook as a social outlet and for business as well. If used correctly, it (Facebook) will build content and carve out your personality; your unique personality; your own personal brand. What makes you different. I use Facebook as a sounding board for creative ideas, I don’t play the games. Don't bore people; don't tell people what you had for dinner, don't show shots of your dog 30 times a day. I could care less about Mafia Wars or “What Martini am I?” Be innovative and irreverent. Use it to promote your friends and clients as well. I have a blast on Facebook, but it has also led to a number of new business opportunities. Nobody cares what you had for breakfast, and anybody who cares is as boring as you are."

Q. In your presentation, you seemed a little anti-Photoshop. What are your real feelings on what it represents for advertising, photography, and creativity in general?

A. Keith: "CS4 is a fantastic tool, but you shouldn't use it as a crutch. Long before PS, you had to get the shot right in camera. If you screwed up, you had to get die transfers and do airbrushing, which was expensive and very time-consuming. I do love what CS4 can do, it's an incredible digital canvas to bring your ideas to life. I'm a photoshop moron, but I know exactly what I want, how it should look, what the font should be, how it should be leaded and how it should be kerned. I have the creative vision. I know exactly what the end result should look like, sound like, and feel like. I need to collaborate with great photoshop artists. You can have the most expensive equipment, but if you don't have a great idea, it's worthless."

Q. You talked a lot about the "creative process". Do you have any habits that foster creativity, like a sketchbook?

A. Keith: "My ideas start on a pad of paper, a napkin or a receipt out of my wallet. Anything I can write on with my free UPS pen. I keep a notebook in my car, by my bed, that's my canvas. A receipt out of my wallet. I keep lots of cheap crappy pens because they can run out of ink. One time I had to scratch my ideas into the paper with a dead pen, and I couldn’t read what I had scratched! I had to rub over it with a no. 2 pencil later to read it!"

Q. Is there any process you go through when you need to come up with creative new ideas?

A. Keith: "When I’m given an assignment from a client I need to know what makes their product or service unique. They have a lot of competitors whether they know it or not. If you don’t think you have competitors, you’ll be out of business really fast. I do my homework, a lot of research first. Let's say I get a job from a client, how do I make my product unique? There are a lot of competitors. I research my brains out, about the categories, their competitors. No slogans, I hate that word. It’s not a slogan, it’s your positioning line. Then, I go to the notepad, Then I'll write 20 lines, 30 lines, to see if it works across all kinds of communication channels, which is absolutely crucial. I carve out a creative strategy using notepad after notepad. Whatever you do digitally has to translate just as effectively in print, broadcast, radio, point of sale and even outdoor. You have to be able to brand seamlessly."

Q. What is the relationship between photography and advertising? Do you think that it's still a sound one, or do new purely digital media threaten photography's place in modern business?

A. Keith: "Any Creative director or art director who knows their stuff knows that a unique concept requires a unique photograph, that works in it's purest sense.. A good art director will always know art. When the stock market crashed the creative industry received an anal probe. Magazines are much thinner now, and when you’ve got no ads, there’s no revenue. This created a domino effect throughout the industry. We in the industry all got slammed. That effected the photography industry, video editors, audio engineers, broadcasting stations. This has been the worst year any of us have ever experienced. What I’ve seen take place is that corporations know that the industry is sucking wind, and they expect creative directors to work for free, pro bono work. In february I got a call from an unnamed corporation, a CEO, let’s call him Chaz, that offered me a new advertising campaign. It was a freezing cold sleety day. My windshield wiper snapped off. I pulled into the building, the wind was blowing 50mph. The parking lot was filled with european cars. I went into this boardroom. Even the women at this place were named Chaz, everyone had the same gray suit. I was soaking wet, freezing. Chaz, the head of the company said “I'm so glad you could make it. Our sales tumbled due to the horrific economy. We'd like to rent your brain for three months. You develop our entire ad campaign and we'll gladly reimburse you if the economy turns around.” I then pulled an Alec Baldwin from GlenGary Glen Ross. I said “Put your blackberries down.” It was dead silent. “You are a for-profit corporation. I do a lot of pro bono work. You all garner really nice salaries. If you all took 20% pay cuts, you could afford me. Or you could leave everything and come work for me for three months for free and then maybe I'll pay you. Want to take me up on that offer?” Dead silence. Corporations who are employing this reptilian strategy need to stop doing this to people in the creative industry because it is disgraceful behavior and they should be ashamed of themselves."

Q. How do you think the industry has changed since you started out?

A. Keith: "In the 80's you could do business with a handshake. You could share information with your competitors who were your buddies after hours. With the digital age, things started to change. People started to get paranoid and nervous, and it only got worse after 9/11."

Q. From the presentation, it sounds like you and Rob have had some fun times to say the least. Do you have any other anecdotes? What’s it like to work with Rob?

A. Keith: "What's it like to work with Rob? It's a dream! Its interesting, if you take a look at the great Film directors they always work with the same actors and creative teams. They always surround themselves with great people.Why? Because there’s a comfort level because they know what each other is thinking because they’ve worked together so long. When I did my first job with Rob, we understood where each other was coming from instinctively. We didn't get in each others way. We collaborated with great immediacy. There are a few photographers I’ve worked with like that. Clint Clemens is one. Take a look at his work. Philip Porcella is another fella to look at. Sometimes as a creative director, a photographer might be better suited for one kind of shot instead of another. Let's say you need an underwater shot, you're going to get an underwater photographer. Being able to shoot anything makes a photographer great, What makes Rob great is that he will do anything to get the shot. You gotta get the shot. He hung off a cliff in El Capitan, risking his life to get the shot. He's fearless, and to be a great photographer you must be fearless. Every assignment I ever worked with Rob, he got the shot. You have to work with a photographer that has the same mindset as you do. You have to take risks and you have to have guts. If you don’t have guts, it’s not going to be magic."

A few other memorable quotes from the interview: “How do you treat people? it's real simple. Treat people like human beings with dignity, humanity, and respect. I abhor bullies, especially adult bullies.” and my personal favorite: “When I first met (CDIA’s) Rick Ashley, he looked exactly like Kenny Loggins, he looked liked a creative guy. However, Rick can’t sing.”

Keith Lane currently has a lot of irons in the fire, including a new business talk radio show in the works, a cartoon strip with a former Disney Animator, and a teaching position at CDIA.

My Experience on the set of the Surrogates

Mon, 19 Oct 2009 02:00:00 EDT

When people ask me how I got this job, I too sometimes find myself thinking “How DID I get this job?” I mean, the actual answer is easy: A colleague of mine recommended me. But how did I get here? The interesting thing with this job is that it’s not an “entry level” job. The typical route is to climb the hollywood ladder, starting out as a Production Assistant or in the locations department, an art intern, etc. But me, I inexplicably landed smack in the middle of the hollywood ladder.

My job is in the 24 Frame Playback department, sometimes known as Video Playback. I know, you’ve never heard of it. Before I was hired to work on the Surrogates, I hadn’t either. The easy description is I put copyright cleared footage on TV's and computer monitors that are seen in films. The technical description is that film rolls at 24 frames a second, TVs, computer monitors and the like display video at 30 frames a second. This causes a flicker since they don’t roll at the same rate. It’s my job to put the footage up there, but to also eliminate the flicker and to color correct it so it matches everything else in the scene.

In the time since working on the Surrogates, I’ve come to have a better understanding of why exactly I ended up there. Simply put, there is nobody in the Boston area doing 24 Frame Playback. The set on the Surrogates had 230 monitors and the producer for the Surrogates realized that all of that needed to be done was to hook computer screens to tv monitors. Why fly in and put a number of guys from LA in a hotel when anyone can hook up a monitor? He opted to hire two local guys and fly only one guy from LA instead.

So enter me and my colleague Joe. I have the computer and technological background, and Joe, a guy who’s worked on the boston sports trucks for 20 years or so, has the video and broadcast background. They flew a playback guy in from LA who was able to get us both up to speed, teaching us about synching frame rates and color correcting and so on and the rest, as they say, is history.

Working on the Surrogates got me the requirements needed to join the local film union, another interesting point about this job is that it was a union job. PA, locations, interns etc are all non-union. Somehow I landed a union job. Since I was able to get the minimum requirements, I’ve since submitted my application, and thus the work will keep coming.

I’m still not entirely sure why I was able to sidestep a large part of the hollywood ladder, but I can’t wait to find out.

Part-time Practicum Program Thumbs Up

Thu, 15 Oct 2009 02:00:00 EDT

It was my first day back home after a week of shooting my independent project in Maine. As you can imagine, the laundry was piled, the house was a mess and my desk was covered with pre-shoot debris. Though exhausted, I was still riding that filmmaking high that keeps us all going. I scrolled through email, coming across a message about a part-time Practicum Project. Reading further, I found that it was a one-day shoot planned for the following week. A quick look at my calendar, and I fired off my request to join the team. The project fit nicely between two shoots and my son’s Bar Mitzvah, nine days out. My non-film friends thought I was crazy. But most of you would not. If it’s a good project and it fits in the schedule, why not do it? Isn’t that what filmmaking is all about?

Image by Celle Amaral

The Practicum project was interesting. Our client, TeenAids-PeerCorps, is a proactive charity dedicated to educating teenagers about HIV/AIDS prevention. Their informational website, www.TeenAIDS.org, is specifically for teens and includes an advice line for all sorts of teen problems. Our project was to produce a broadcast-quality PSA (public service announcement) for cable television stations to air nationwide. The 30 second spot would also be placed on YouTube.com. The client had a script, a location, and over 20 teen volunteers from Upward Bound ready to act in the piece. Now, “House Party”, a depiction of teens throwing an unsupervised party and all the possible implications, was ready to be shot. They needed a film crew to make it happen.

I became Producer and worked with Howard Phillips, Practicum Advisor/ Project Director, and Urvi Modh, Practicum Manager, to learn more about the Practicum Program parameters and find out who was on the team. I spoke with Dr John Chittick, TeenAIDS-PeerCorps Executive Director, and gathered information about the organization, its goals, as well as specific details about the cast and script. With their input, I prepared the Practicum Proposal, reviewing the details with the team at a morning meeting a couple days before the shoot. Over coffee, six current and former Filmmaking students and a Photography student reviewed the shots, setups, and equipment needed with Howard. As a group, we packed my car.

Image by Celle Amaral

The shoot was a blast! Imagine 20 teens climbing through the windows and pouring through doors of a house, some laden with pizza boxes and (empty) cases of beer, landing in the kitchen to party all afternoon. It was loud. It was hot. It was fun. Dr John added to the mood with a donated lunch and raffles. The teens were great. The crew bonded. The edit went well. Two students from the Audio program joined the project, composing original music and handling sound design and the mix. I continued to interface with Dr John, Howard, Urvi, and the crew. Finally, the project was reviewed with Dr John, fine-tuned, finalized and deliverables were created. I am happy to say that we completed the project on time; 21 days.

So what did I get out of it? I’d say that Practicum is a different kind of experience. It does not feel like a class project. Everyone is accountable. It’s assumed that if you are in the part-time Practicum it’s because you want to be there and you want to be part of a team. Deadlines are real. It’s like a Real Life project in a school setting. As I was preparing to graduate, that was what I was looking for: more opportunities for practical applications of what I had learned. In addition, I’ve met students from other departments and learned about what they can do. I’ve had the chance to collaborate with part-time students from other classes and even a couple alumni. This has led to three new projects and even more contacts in the CDIABU world and beyond.

So, if you have the opportunity to join a Practicum Project, I would highly recommend it.

Be Professional and Join the Rest of the CDIAers on LinkedIn Part 2 five more fast facts

Wed, 14 Oct 2009 02:00:00 EDT

Thank you for your comments on my last blog. It sounds like there is continued interest in LinkedIn, so let’s move on to the next five fast facts in order to update your profile and become more “attractive” to its viewers.

1. How are you presenting yourself? If you haven’t already done so, take a minute to customize your Public Profile URL [found in the white box that includes your job/education summary] so that it’s short and snappy (I changed mine from something like http://www.linkedin.com/pub/maureen-lawson/3/512b6/a57 to http://www.linkedin.com/in/maureenlawson). The purpose of this is to further “brand” yourself in a simple, straight-forward way and to have a nice, easy link to include on your resume, cover letter, business card, or any other material you’re putting out there, *particularly* if you don’t have your own website. You could choose your business name or your cute and sweet Twitter identity as your name here, too – up to you, but just get rid of those numbers, please.

2. Have you joined any Groups yet? Use the Search function, top right-hand corner – see the drop-down menu, click on Groups, and search away for ones that interest you. You could type in CDIA or an area of interest, such as Game Designers or Filmmakers, and this smart little search engine will show you Groups with not only those keywords, but also Groups with similar titles/keywords that may pique your interest. You can refine your search further by using the drop-down menus on the right side to include only certain types of groups (ie, Alumni, Networking, Professional, etc.) or by languages.

3. Why join Groups? There are so many reasons, from networking with others in your immediate area or an area you’d like to relocate to, catching up with former work colleagues or alums from your college days who are in your target field already, meeting those that work at a target company of yours, to posing questions to and learning tips from others and sharing with them, becoming a contributing member of a community, and to be able to post these Group memberships in your profile, thereby strengthening your presence on LinkedIn. [See your Groups and Associations section to add them *and* make them visible in your profile.] Also, and importantly, to see their job postings – yes, many groups have a Jobs tab (an active one, even!) and will post current opportunities on there with *contact information* for their members. Cool.

4. Yes, Groups again! Hey, it’s a big topic. I will sometimes look at others’ profiles in and outside of my network (particularly those whose work I respect or are really “in the know”) to see which Groups they have joined (and therefore, *probably* find valuable) regarding a certain industry segment, and I’ll check them out. You should do the same.

5. Two helpful links for you on the basics of getting yourselves set up well on LinkedIn.com:
Grads and Students: http://grads.linkedin.com/ and New Users: http://learn.linkedin.com/new-users/.

If you are following all these steps, you should find yourself nearing 100% completeness on your profile. Up next -- I may switch it up a little and talk about social media marketing, so stay tuned for that and Part 3 . . . Maureen

Web Technologies on the Rebound

Tue, 13 Oct 2009 09:11:44 EDT

As the nationwide unemployment rate approaches 10 percent, the web technology job market in the Boston metro area continues its impressive rebound. Over a four-month period all 20 of the most-listed Web technologies have experienced an increase in job postings.

In particular, five technologies have experienced at least a 50% increase in demand since early June. One Web technology is climbing the charts with a bullet moving 10 positions in four short months. Simply access the latest issue of Beantown Web to learn more about the hottest Web technologies visit BeantownWeb.com

Avid and Final Cut Suite Demo Recap

Fri, 09 Oct 2009 02:00:00 EDT

The Avid and Final Cut Suite Demo was a big hit and was attended by a wide range of interested parties. From recent CDiA graduates to working production professionals, over fifty people learned how recent upgrades from Apple will enhance any editor's abilities, regardless of their editing platform.

Image by Shawn Read

Starting with a sequence shot on P2 and edited on an Avid Media Composer, I imported and opened the sequence in Final Cut Pro 7 via Automatic Duck Pro-Import (donated by developer Wes Plate). Freelance editor and Apple trainer Ernie Schaeffer applied an amazing range of enhancements available within Final Cut Pro and especially with Color's recent upgrade. Enhanced key framing to the Speed Control tool --similar to advanced key framing in Media Composer -- impressed the attendees, as did the round-tripping to and from Soundtrack Pro and Final Cut Pro. Ernie cleaned up some source sound from the production media and added original music to a commercial, created on the spot!

Image by Bette Walker

Running one of CDIA's G5 output through a Matrox MX-02 to two of the school’s HD monitors, attendees could easily and clearly see the amazing adjustments, corrections and enhancements Ernie applied using the latest version of Color. From subtle matching of hues between takes to totally re-creating a strong visual statement that the producer discovered in Post, the amazing strength of Color's software-based solution was a highlight of the evening.

Image by Bette Walker

A lively Q & A followed as well as lively interest in CDIA's Master Certificate Program. NoisyBrain and Boston FCP User Group leader Dan Berube added his expertise and charisma to the event, adding to the raffle awards, too. The CDiA at Boston University Master Certificate Program and Worshop is accepting sign-ups, and as this demonstration made clear, certified training from working professionals such as Ernie Schaeffer will give workshop attendees a major advantage in the competitive field of post-production.

High Fashion

Thu, 08 Oct 2009 02:00:00 EDT

Beautiful! Pop.Great Baby, great! Pop. Ok,now look into the camera. Pop. Nice! Pop. Ok, now pout for me, pout! I don't know what ideas you have of how a typical fashion shoot go, but that was kind of the way I had pictured one, and in the two week fashion module, I got to find out. I found out that shooting models is indeed exciting, but it is a lot of hard work before, during, and after the shoot. Our teacher, New York Fashion Photographer, Kevin Goggin, told us that as a fashion photographer you are allowed and even expected to have some attitude, and I could certainly see where it would help. He also told us that we weren't allowed to date the models, not that there was any problem there. Even if one of them had said yes, it probably wouldn't have gone over well with my wife.

Image by Shawn Read

We started our foray into the fashion world by signing a contract stating that we would treat the models professionally and not attempt to contact them outside of agency channels, which is understandable. We studied shots of famous fashion photographers both good and bad, and we discussed with Kevin what we liked or disliked about each shot. For homework we scoured local bookstores and a CVS or two in search of fashion magazines to make tear sheets. He said that a few students he'd had in the past had been really nervous before the first day of shooting, and I felt a bit apprehensive myself. From our portraiture class I knew that posing people was difficult for me, and I was a little worried about the much faster pace of fashion photography. When the first model stepped in front of my camera, I had a bit of studio fright. We were told interaction with the model is extremely important, and that we needed to strive for continuous positive feedback. With the first model, I had a hard time, and I couldn't think of any direction to give. I was definitely thinking that this was not my kind of shooting. Little by little, model by model, it got a lot easier. By the second day of shooting I was more comfortable giving direction, and I started to enjoy it. When your job is to take pictures of beautiful women, you learn to adapt.

In fashion, image capture is only the beginning, and we had to do post-processing on a scale we'd never encountered before. With portraiture, we used a little post-processing. A lighting of shadows, taking out a blemish, that kind of thing. With fashion, we had to step to a whole new level. Skin was smoothed, noses were straightened, eyes were dyed wild new hues that probably don't exist in nature. With many of the models, I felt that they didn't need any help from photoshop, but I was wrong as far as fashion photography goes. It was an interesting experience to work four or five hours on a single shot, and to think all along that not much had changed, but when I toggled through the before and after, the original shot was often surprising. Models that had had a professional make-up artist work then over and looked great in front of my camera looked positively haggard and hung-over when compared to their photo-shopped selves.

I enjoyed my two weeks of fashion immensely, and I found myself liking it a lot more than I thought I would, but I don't think that a full-time fashion career is in the cards for me, at least in the studio. I enjoy shooting out in the real world and trying to match an interesting person with a compelling environment, while I find the blank slate of studio a much more difficult thing to work with. It does offer great creative potential, to be sure. I learned that the model does at least half of the work, and great fashion comes from good synergy between model and photographer as well. We learned so much in our two weeks with Kevin that a month later I'm still trying to digest it all. We have the option to audit two classes after graduation, and because it encompassed both high end photography and advanced photoshop, it's probably going to be a class that I audit later to keep it all in my head. And if a beautiful model or two wants me to shoot them, I feel confident I can make some pictures we can both be proud of.

Image by Shawn Read

CSS 2.1 and 3 Lecture Recap

Wed, 07 Oct 2009 02:00:00 EDT

On October 1st, Marc Amos enlightened 70+ in attendance about CSS 2.1 and CSS 3 selectors, properties, and values and reviewed examples of actual code, rendered output of that code, and a few in-browser demonstrations. New and experienced web designers and developers found the talk fascinating and the new tips very helpful. His mission of “making your life as a front-end developer much easier” was accomplished!

Marc runs Boston Web Studio www.bostonwebstudio.com and spends the day designing, developing, marketing, writing emails, book-keeping, and more. He also works on improving and growing the Build Guild www.buildguild.org of the North Shore.

For those who missed the program, the slideshow can be viewed at: http://marcamos.com/presentation/intro-css2.1-css3/ .

Mobile Storyboarding with Hitchcock

Tue, 06 Oct 2009 02:00:00 EDT

My short films are so low-budget that my leads don’t have last names. I’m so indie that I can’t get in to Hollywood as a tourist. My shoots are so guerilla that Dian Fossey once tried to groom me. I think my point is clear: I’m not particularly funny. Also, I’m economical. So why throw down a not insubstantial $20 for a “mobile storyboard composer” iPhone application? Because time and flashes of creative inspiration are precious commodities, and Cinemek’s Hitchcock app harnesses both quite well.

Using Hitchcock is a fairly straightforward process that starts with photos. Choose the pictures that you want to include in your storyboard. Each picture is a “panel” that you drag and drop into the proper order. Use glossy shots captured with high-end photog equipment or – and here is the “mobile” in “mobile storyboard composer” – pics you snap on the spot with your iPhone. Imagine your next on-location project meeting, the impressed client hovering over your iPhone screen reviewing a rough sequence that conveys the essence of what you had discussed only moments ago! Twenty bucks starts to seem more reasonable. (For us low-budget indie short preditors, to whom paying clients are as tangible as the mythical Yeti or domestic distribution deals, there is always the “Starbucks scale”: 1 cool iPhone app = 5 lattes. Decisions, decisions.)

Once you have the storyboard sequence in place, set the duration for each shot. Then add textual information, such as scene and shot indicators (“1A”, “1B”, etc.), dialog snippets (“Are you talking to me?”) or scene location (“Ext. Warehouse – Night”). Take it up a notch by recording audio for the panel, like a dialog reading or production note.

You can insert two basic graphical elements to enhance any panel: “stand-ins” and arrows. Male or female silhouetted figures can serve as actor stand-ins, either facing forward or in profile position. Straight or curved arrows help with “blocking” movement of people or objects. Both these element types can be placed anywhere on the screen and resized using the well-known iPhone finger-pinching gestures.

Now you have a timed, labeled, blocked storyboard with actor stand-ins and on-location photos. Still, a tad static. And, in theory, most of it could be accomplished with a pad and pencil. (It would probably take longer by hand and you would not get a sense of pacing, but at least you would have your 5 lattes). This is where Hitchcock’s most persuasive feature makes its case: animated camera movements. You can execute dolly, zoom, track or pan movements on each panel to get an authentic sense of how your scene will flow. Adjust the size and location of the starting and ending frames in each shot for near-total directorial control.

Click here to download a five-panel storyboard I crafted in a few minutes while standing outside CDIA’s Georgetown campus.

Hitchcock is not without its faults. You can export the finished storyboard as a pdf and share a link to the file with clients, crew or beleaguered family members wondering whether you still have a day job. But you cannot export a movie file, thus losing the dynamics achieved by adding animated camera movements. Nor can you import movie files, which would take the application to another level of utility and slickness. If you were itching to add your own doodles to complement the silhouetted stand-ins and clip-art arrows, you will not be scratching that itch with Hitchcock - at least for now. And that is part of the beauty of good iPhone apps written by solid companies: updates and enhancements (hopefully soon and probably free) are inevitable. Indeed, word on the street is that Cinemek will be adding movie file exporting, perhaps more, to an upcoming version.

Paying $20 for an iPhone app can be a shock to those, like me, who have populated their screen with free or .99 cent offerings. (Did I mention that my projects are so unfunded that my craft services are on lay-away?) But I expect Hitchcock to be a worthy investment with a generous return paid out in saved time and developed creativity.

Sony PMW-EX1 Camera, Now at CDIA

Mon, 28 Sep 2009 02:00:00 EDT

We're thrilled here at CDIA because we’re acquiring new digital filmmaking gear - most notably the Sony PMW-EX1! It's a shockingly cool camera. A real game-changer, and it makes us the only certificate-based digital film school in the area that is going "tapeless". These new cameras will change how we do business around here. For starters they can practically see in the dark - so our approach to lighting is going to change - then there's the size of the chip - 3 half inch CMOS Exmor chips! The camera has all of the great ergonomics Sony is so famous for - and weighs just 5.4 pounds . The standout features I want to tell you about include the SxS tapeless technology, sure, but the ability to under- or over-crank the shots (fast/slow motion) is a major added value. Before I forget, let me add: we're also getting several wide angle lens attachments.

Students filming in tight spaces will now be able to get the complete shot, not just the corner of the room. We're also acquiring 60 gigabyte drives that snap on to the back of the Sony cameras - that's a drive that more than triples the storage capacity on the SxS cards. And this little item runs on the same Sony battery that's powering the camera - intelligence, intelligence, intelligence... It sounds simple, but it will change the way our students work and we are very excited to be able to offer this technology to teach our students.

Grassroot Project

Fri, 25 Sep 2009 02:00:00 EDT

The practicum has done so much for us. We were really a new organization when I met with Kate McNamee, barely out of the 'ideation' phase and into the beginning of implementation. As a 22-year-old trying to start a nonprofit in one of the worst economies in decades, I knew I'd be facing an uphill battle. Initially, it was really frustrating because while I was passionate with my ideas for the Grassroot Project, none of the potential investors seemed to be hooked by emails I'd send. Working with the students at CDIA was a phenomenal process with phenomenal results. We came out of practicum with a website, professional photography, and a five minute promotional video about our program. The same people who were unresponsive to requests for meetings were emailing me the instant they saw this media. I learned how essential media is to effectively communicating a message and a concept.

Since the practicum has ended, we have found a lawyer that has worked for us pro bono to help us become a 501(c)(3) organization. We have also received a $12,000 grant from MTV, a $1,000 grant from Ashoka, a $2,000 grant from Nike, and contributions from countless individuals. We have received implementing partnerships with the DC Public School System and Boys & Girls Club of Greater Washington.

All of this support has enabled us to expand to include athlete volunteers from additional universities in DC, and this year our aim is to reach 1,000 at-risk youth through our programs (as compared to 200 last winter).

We have built a relationship with the practicum students that has lasted beyond their graduation, as they still check in on our progress, and still work with us on a volunteer basis, which is above and beyond what I ever expected. I'm so glad I happened upon CDIA.

Tyler

Be Professional and Join the Rest of the CDIAers on LinkedIn, Part 1, five fast facts...

Thu, 24 Sep 2009 02:00:00 EDT

I do research daily using LinkedIn, and often I’ll see a profile of a CDIA student or grad that is not only incomplete, but has maybe only a name and title filled out. These users are missing out on so much – from connecting with previous employers and co-workers to other CDIA alums and classmates and staff to researching employers – and potential *common links* to them. Why not join the rest of the bright, ambitious professionals and “link in” to an endless fountain of opportunity? It is an easy, powerful, and free resource at the ready. Plus, if you are concerned about divulging too much personal information on Facebook, you can “keep it professional” on LinkedIn.

The following are some simple steps for creating or updating a complete profile that will impress and attract employers, colleagues, recruiters, HR professionals, association members, and more:

1. Keywords are important – use them in your profile. Recruiters and hiring managers, as well as colleagues, often search on key words and industry terms when seeking candidates or connections. Keywords are those current terms, skill sets, and software packages that are associated with a particular industry or role, such as Web Designer or Web Developer. They would include the terms you use in the Skill Summary section of your resume or the job description for the current position you have or are striving to gain. If you are a current student or recent grad, you can include relevant coursework and extra curricular achievements as well (for example, if you are a 3D animation student, you’d include terms such as Maya, Photoshop, modeling, rigging, lighting, animation, etc.)

2. Write succinctly. This is not your life story. Just like your resume, include bullet points and/or key achievements. Begin your brief job descriptions with “punchy” action verbs to have the most impact.

3. Be sure to list your complete work history. LinkedIn has such a powerful system for alerting you to former colleagues and their whereabouts automatically. And what if you were targeting an ad agency in CA? You could seek buddies or colleagues you used to know who have since relocated to that area to research the area, job market, and possibilities. Maybe they work at just the type of place you are targeting or could refer you to one. The question of whether to include unpaid internships, pro bono projects, or volunteer work often comes up – and the answer is, yes, do include it – just because you didn’t receive pay for it, doesn’t mean the work doesn’t “count” –you still provided a valuable deliverable to a client, and that’s what matters most. In addition, volunteerism says something about you as a person and what’s important to you.

4. Start requesting recommendations from people you trust. It is important to start building up this section of your profile, as hiring managers, recruiters, and HR professionals will want to hear how people describe you and your work. You can contact employers, colleagues, instructors, internship coordinators, freelance clients, and *especially* Practicum Partners, who will become such an important part of your network at the end of your CDIA experience and beyond.

5. Share information and keep it fresh. The best way to “keep it fresh” is to update your status on LinkedIn (the box near the top of your profile) about once a week. It works much like a Facebook wall – you’ll want to keep it professional though, for the majority of the time. I will typically do a funny or goofy or thought-provoking quote every third time to create some buzz and add a personal touch. It’s a really great spot to tell people about events or conferences you are attending, major achievements you’ve completed, professional books you are reading, a non-profit you are working for, successes you are celebrating, or any other news-worthy snippet.

6. Say cheese. I know I said “five fast facts,” but this one is quick – make sure you get your *professional* photo on there, because you’ll need it to get your profile to 100% completeness. Smile pretty!

Flash CS5 Features Revealed

Tue, 22 Sep 2009 02:00:00 EDT

At the recent FOTB (Flash on the Beach) conference, senior Adobe Flash product manager, Richard Galvan, revealed some of the new features of Flash CS5 - due to come out who knows when. Hopefully, not that soon. The information is sketchy at this point, but Adobe is continuing its efforts to tighten up the Flash platform and address the slow adopting of AS3.

In the sneak peak, Galvan showed integration (finally) of Flash and Flash Builder (formerly known as Flex - although most Flex developers will still refer to it as that). You can now export from Flash your projects as Flash Builder projects and you can go from Flash Builder back to Flash. I think this is a key strategy in pulling together the technologies, since this has kind of presented a split in the Flash camp between designer/developer.

For AS3, there's a new code samples panel, which acts similar to the behaviors panel - which was made useless in a Flash AS3 project. Well, now you can actually use these samples (snippets) in your projects using ActionScript 3. I think Adobe's really trying to get everyone to adopt AS3, so they can continue developing its features.

Finally, there have been improvements made to the text features in Flash to aid text layout. This is a long-time coming thing. Editing and placing text in Flash has been pretty painful in the past and the functionality is different from something like Adobe Illustrator, different enough to make you scratch your head. There's also changes that have been made to the Art Deco tool. I didn't even think that would be a primary focus for anyone in the Flash world, but apparently, Adobe thought they should make it better.

There are more mobile featurs in this version and they announced increased adoption of Flash Player 10 to a figure that's over 90%.

I'm really encouraged by these changes and I can't wait to get my hands on a beta copy and start deconstructing it. Hopefully, this new release will get developers to realize the power of AS3 so they can start utilizing its features.

Read more at Al's blog: Elevate Your Mind.

Latest Innovations on the Internet and Mobile Devices

Mon, 21 Sep 2009 13:53:22 EDT

Ten innovative companies. Seven hundred business and technology contacts. All FREE in one event.

If you are interested in previewing the latest innovations on the Internet and mobile devices while expanding your social network in a real live social setting, then check out WebInno23. Simply access the latest issue on Beantown Web for details.

Fast Growing Companies in a Slow Economy

Wed, 16 Sep 2009 02:00:00 EDT

Fast growing companies emerge, even in a slow economy. Inc. magazine has identified the 5,000 fastest growing private companies in the United States. More than 200 companies are located in Massachusetts. Access the latest issue of Beantown Web to identify which private companies are most likely to be hiring in your neighborhood. View the complete blog here.

DC Practicum Screening - Summer 2009

Fri, 11 Sep 2009 02:00:00 EDT

Last Thursday, our DC campus hosted our 4th Practicum Screening. Practicum Screening is an opportunity for our students, across concentrations, to showcase the work they have created for their non-profit client over the course of four weeks. Our students, their families, their non-profit clients, and past and present Practicum clients are all in attendance for this special evening.

This summer we embarked on our fourth Practicum program for the DC campus, created digital solutions, and developed pieces of “media that matters”—the thesis that guides our Practicum program. From a historically accurate video game set in Prohibition-era Virginia; to a national photography advertising campaign that highlights non-profit professionals; to a film about a 9-year old girl’s work to help children with chronic illnesses at Ronald McDonald Houses. Each medium of digital media allows you, as the viewer, to experience and understand the mission of the group, in a way that mere words are not able to capture.

A big thank you to our students, clients and many supporters who came out to the screening on Thursday!

Our clients this term included:
Cakes for Cause
The Crooked Road Project
Idealist.org
Kathryn's Gift
Mt. Airy Volunteer Fire Department
Washington Metropolitan Philharmonic Orchestra

Underemployment in the Digital Arts

Thu, 10 Sep 2009 02:00:00 EDT

With unemployment being the issue first and foremost in the minds of jobseekers, another culprit has been overlooked, and it may just be worse: underemployment. It’s a broader measure than unemployment that includes people who would like and are qualified for full-time work, but are forced to settle for part-time opportunities. The rate of unemployment is approaching 10 percent, but for the month of August, underemployment was just over 16 percent. Beantown Web has details on a silver lining. Web technology workers with in-demand skills are finding plenty of opportunities, for work and training.

Studio Portraiture

Thu, 03 Sep 2009 02:00:00 EDT

"Who is familiar with the work of Karsh?" Hands go up. This week, we're going to be studying his work and trying to understand how he lit his portraits. This was the beginning of two weeks of portraiture classes with Jennifer Hudson, and they were some of our best yet at CDIA.
            The first week was studio portraiture, where we learned about sculpting the face with different patterns like loop, rembrant, and butterfly. A lot of time was also spent on posing and the tricky business of where to put the model's hands, something deceptively difficult to get right. This was the first class where we used hot lights, and they are quite a different beast than the studio strobes we used in previous classes. Mid-week everyone brought in friends as models and our usual orderly and organized classroom became photographic chaos, with four simultaneous studios set up for high key and low sets. Models, photographers, assistants, and passerby-voyeurs all made for an energetic and exciting but exhausting day. Our last shooting day of the week was dedicated to the film noir style epitomized by Hollywood photographers like George Hurrell, and I think we were all surprised by how well everything came out. Classmates and friends became starlets and detectives that we hardly recognized in the final shots.
            The following week we built on the skill set, but took it out into the streets of Boston. Our main shooting assignments were at the Museum of Fine Arts (MFA) and Boston's Back Bay. Our time spent at the MFA was intriguing. Jennifer had us spend a morning studying paintings, and we all chose one in particular that we liked. We then had to explain to the class why we chose it, in particular what about the posing and lighting we were drawn to. After lunch the class was scattered to all ends of the MFA and we shot in groups. My group chose the Japanese garden, and we all got some great shots there. The following day we were unleashed in downtown Boston and we shot urban scenes. In the afternoon we tried to recreate the paintings we chose the previous day, and this in particular was an excellent education in the wealth of ideas available to the photographer, who is also a student of fine art. Emulating the canvas in portraiture is something that had never occurred to me, but after seeing the original and creative re-imaginings of my classmates, it's an exercise that bears repeating.
            Those two weeks were probably the most hectic, exhausting, and challenging yet, but everyone's computer screens were filled the next week with work that seemed a cut above what we had previously done, and I dare say that this was the first class where many of us started to get it; we actually started to feel like budding professionals instead of struggling students. It's hard to believe our class is past the half-way point in the program in terms of time, but if the two weeks of portraiture were any indication of what's to come, and I think they are, then the hardest, most challenging, and best work is yet to come. Jennifer was an amazing teacher and everyone is looking forward to having her class again for Weddings I and II. Now I need to go and scrounge up some money for hot lights and toy guns, I want to shoot some more Noir.

100 Fastest Growing Fortune 500 Companies

Fri, 28 Aug 2009 02:00:00 EDT

There’s good news, and there’s bad news. The bad news is job loss is still happening. The good news is, the worst may be over. In January of this year, the number of job losses peaked, but there’s been a steady downward trend in job losses since. Fortune identified the 100 fastest growing Fortune 500 companies, and job-seekers should target these companies - six of which are based in Massachusetts. Beantown Web has the low-down on up-turn.

StartUpHire

Thu, 27 Aug 2009 02:00:00 EDT

You need options in life. That’s the motto at StartUpHire, a job search engine designed to connect talented individuals with exciting career opportunities. They’ve analyzed the job posting patterns at start-up companies in 10 metropolitan areas, including Boston, and have compiled a list of the fastest-growing new companies. Access Beantown Web to see a list of the Boston companies where business is booming, and find the other areas that StartUpHire studied.

Keith Lane Photo Lecture Recap

Wed, 26 Aug 2009 02:00:00 EDT

CDIA was fortunate enough to have veteran creative director Keith Lane give a presentation and it proved to be quite an interesting evening. "There's nobody I enjoy working with more," said Rob Van Petten of Keith, and it was clear that he meant it. Much of the evening proved to be a frenetic game of musical microphones between Keith and Rob talking about how the industry used to be, how it's changed, and where it's going in the future. Keith's first slide was a loose (very loose) pencil layout of an ad campaign they worked on together in the 80's, complete with a demonic bear, a vaguely human outline of a woodsman, and notes like, "Can we do this? Got two days! Need: Crazy grizzly bear!" and "Gotta show the product!" He then went on to flesh out how they did indeed manage to pull it off in two days, and turn that crabbed scrawl into a successful nationwide ad campaign for Timberland shoes.

Keith's wide-ranging clients have included Tom Mcan, Puma, Fox Sports, the American Red Cross, a council on anti-Semitism, and a Ukrainian vodka company. And he's won over 500 awards for his work. "Clients usually hail from Akron, Ohio and look like Drew Carry, even the women!" said Keith, and, "The most expensive part of any shoot is usually buying lunch for the client." He also said that often the client doesn't really know what they want, and it's the job of creative directors and photographers to educate them as to what they really need. Probably the most important point for photographers that Keith made during the presentation was that even in this day-and-age of Photoshop and mega-pixels is that the idea is still king. "Great ideas are free, but you own them."

He also talked about the effect the economy has had on the industry, and stressed that more than ever the envelope needs to be pushed creatively, but cheaply. He gave an example of a Red Cross ad he did in an evening with a nonexistent budget and nothing but copy; sparingly little copy, in fact, and it showed what can be done with only one's imagination. Other advice he had for new photographers: "Use your brain - it's a gift. Use your heart, be passionate, and remember that the job is 24/7!" to which Rob added, "It also takes a lot of guts!" On shooting models he added that the photographer needs to create theater for the talent, meaning that the photographer needs to be writer, director, and producer for the shot, spinning the story to which the model/actor responds, which made me think that maybe I need to stick to still life for now.

The evening ended with Keith discussing some modern trends like Facebook and YouTube, and how he has been using those platforms to promote his own work. When a technical glitch waylaid a YouTube video of one of his commercials, without missing a beat Keith proceeded to act out the commercial complete with Robin Williams-esque voice characterization. He then fielded some questions from students and faculty, and left us with the simple but powerful advice: "Never stop creating." Rob mentioned that he'd love to have Keith back, possibly teaching a module at CDIA, and if it happened after my time here is through it would certainly be one worthy of an audit. If you're interested in seeing some of Keith's commercials, you can watch them on YouTube under "Keith Lane Creative director," and check back here soon for an interview with Keith and Rob.

TECH Cocktail Comes to Boston

Tue, 25 Aug 2009 02:00:00 EDT

Already well-established in Washington, DC and Chicago, TECH cocktail comes to Boston for the third time in September to showcase the local tech scene. Tech cocktail is a community for developers, designers, bloggers, and technology enthusiasts and entrepreneurs. Mix and mingle with tech pros at the social networking event that will feature demonstrations from local start-ups and stories from local sponsors. Be sure to get in on the fun - Beantown Web has the details.

Pregnancy Aid Center In Depth

Mon, 24 Aug 2009 02:00:00 EDT

The Pregnancy Aid Center (PAC) is not new to the non-profit world. Established in 1974, PAC provides pre- and post- natal care for low-income mothers. Their website was created by an intern over 10 years ago, and remained static with basic information about services offered (see the old site here ). Mary Jelacic, executive director of PAC talks about the effect of an underdeveloped site. “Grantors who looked at our website were less likely to consider us…unless they actually took time to do a site visit. Prospective patients did not get their FAQs answered unless they called the Center”. Ms. Jelacic’s observations are supported by a 2009 report from the Philanthropy News Digest, which noted “highly satisfied nonprofit website visitors are 49% more likely to donate money…[and] 38% more likely to volunteer”, while 30% “chose not to give online because of poor website functionality.”

PAC partnered with CDIA this summer for a Practicum web redesign and photo project. The first client meeting involved the web team, photographer, and Mary---from this meeting, a plan developed to create photos and a site that was warm and welcoming for PAC constituents. Mary handed creative direction to the CDIA team, and took her role as “a great partner: astute, focused, responsive, caring and compassionate.” The site had few requirements for the redesign: accessible to a low-literacy group; translated in both Spanish and English; extendable to additional languages.

Pol Klein of the web team notes, “the challenge of an open-ended requirement is latching on to a direction. When you can go in any direction, which way do you face?” The direction was one that steered away from text-heavy content, and used visuals to increase the ease of navigation and comprehension. Pol offers an insight about the redesign process:
“We chose a package of technologies and approaches that would play well on older computers. With this direction in mind, we established three visual designs; one with a photo collage navigation on the home page and two with photo series on the home page. The Pregnancy Aid Center chose the photo collage navigation design and we got on to building. To ensure that additional languages could be added and that team members could work on the site at the same time (given the relatively short schedule), we chose to build the site with XHTML, CSS, and server side included templates and a folder structure that clearly separated language specific content for language additions. A key part of building the site was user and browser testing. CDIA organized user interface testing with volunteers the whole class could observe over a video link. It was rather effective as users identified aspects of the design that worked well and that didn’t for them; not always in ways we expected. With user feedback and browser test results in, we made modifications, finalized the content of the site and published a beta version for the Pregnancy Aid Center to review. Finally with their feedback, we made final modifications, special pages for errors, and plugged in video content all for a final delivery.”

Katharine Hauschka worked as photographer on the project; an important role in a redesign the depended on visuals. Following the initial meeting, Katharine set up shop at the clinic, working to capture a welcoming environment, images that would work both as stand-alones and as part of the website. Some of her biggest challenges came in the nature of the clinic—not only was she documenting clinical experiences (private in nature), but also was navigating model releases with clients who often did not speak English. However, with the support of the clinic and Mary, she was able to successfully document PAC, and provide the web team with the appropriate images. Additionally, Katharine utilized CDIA video and sound equipment to create a multimedia piece also featured on the site.

The results are easily measured--soon after the site launch, PAC was awarded with a $300,000 grant for their programs. Says Mary,“The new site serves as an education tool for consumers, donors and volunteers. After reading the information on the website clients know what services they qualify for as well as which documents are needed to enroll in Medicaid and WIC, etc. Volunteers learn about opportunities to help others at PAC. Donors learn about services that they are supporting. Everyone who has looked at the site has been amazed at the wealth of information it provides and the beautiful photos and informative video. Teens love the interactive features and the bold colours. Funders have made positive comments about our new website.”

For CDIA students, the experience also had a tremendous effect. In addition to the stunning portfolio piece, Katharine comments about the intrinsic value of Practicum:

“It was absolutely inspiring working with Mary and the staff members at the PAC as each of them wakes up every day and goes to work to help these people in need who wouldn't have a place to go for help without the PAC. To be able to go and photograph these people at work and to help them in their cause was an inspiration! I'd happily help them out again with anything in the future.”

Ignite Boston 6

Fri, 21 Aug 2009 02:00:00 EDT

O’Reilly Media is returning to Boston for the sixth time to coordinate an evening of fun, education and social interaction. Ignite Boston 6 is Thursday, September 17, at the Fidelity Center for Applied Technology. The first 300 people to register will learn about social networking in real life and hear from several speakers –all free. Ignite activities are held around the globe – access Beantown Web for event details.

The Importance of Hard and Soft Skills

Tue, 18 Aug 2009 02:00:00 EDT

Hard skills land you the interview. Soft skills land you the job. You need both hard skills and soft skills. According to a report by CareerBuilder, there is one skill that will cut your job search time in half, and land you a full-time assignment: Microsoft’s .NET technology. In stride with that skill, C#, SEO, and Ajax are among the other hard skills that are in-demand with employers. Soft skills include that ever-present “excellent communication skills” prerequisite to most any position. Beantown Web has the details on the higher-level soft skills that employers are seeking, and a plan to position yourself for that next opportunity.

Resources For Filmmakers

Mon, 17 Aug 2009 02:00:00 EDT

Recently, I learned from a person who read my last blog, “Clearances and Copyrights,” that there is a non-profit organization in the Washington, D.C. area that offers filmmakers valuable information and support for little money, and in some cases, pro bono. Also, after researching the Internet, I found an equivalent organization in the Boston area, too.

The organization in Washington, D.C. is called Washington Area Lawyers for the Arts, (WALA) and in Boston, the Volunteer Lawyers for the Arts of Massachusetts, Inc.(VLAMA).

Washington Area Lawyers for the Arts (WALA).

WALA is located in Washington, D.C. and has served the legal needs of Washington, Maryland and Virginia artists since 1983 along with cultural communities. WALA provides education, advocacy and volunteer legal services through workshops and seminars, free legal clinics for artists and arts organizations and pro bono legal referral services.

Over 350 top Washington lawyers volunteer in the WALA legal services program. Their funding comes partly from the D.C. Commission of the Arts & Humanities, an agency supported in part by the National Endowment. Memberships for WALA are relatively low in exchange for the services artists recieve and you can apply on line: Artists- $35; Full-time Students- $20. For more information please go to: http://www.thewala.org

Volunteer Lawyers for the Arts of Massachusetts, Inc. (VLA)

VLA is a program of the Arts and Business Council of Greater Boston, established to give legal advice to the artistic community of Boston. It was incorporated in September 1989 by the Boston Bar Association, Artists Foundation and the City of Boston’s Office of Cultural Affairs. VLA provides a legal referral program, seminars, and workshops to artists and arts organizations from all creative disciplines, which includes film and video.

Over 400 attorneys are available to provide free or low cost legal assistance for art-related issues. Their services include contracts, copyright and trademark, first amendment, tax and non-profit, estate planning, landlord-tenant disputes, non-profit corporation, employment, and much more.
Members also have access to accountants and CPAs in areas such as personal taxes and non-profit audits. Members and arts organizations receive a number of benefits that include discounted admission to the seminars and workshops, reduced application fees for programs, email notification of upcoming events and opportunities to market show openings and exhibitions on the new VLA website.
Memberships for VLA are also low, especially considering what a member receives in return and can apply online: Individuals- $25; Students- $15. For more information please go to: http://www.vlama.org/

Spotlight on The Pregnancy Aid Center (PAC)

Thu, 13 Aug 2009 02:00:00 EDT

The Pregnancy Aid Center (PAC) is not new to the non-profit world. Established in 1974, PAC initially provided pregnancy testing, counseling, food, clothing and referral services for in-need mothers. In 1986, PAC was able to expand into a prenatal care clinic; in 1995, PAC began their adolescent outreach program. They continued to expand services over the years, adding breast and cervical cancer screening and treatment programs for uninsured women; Title X family planning services; a flat fee maternity program; and an uninsured newborn pediatric care program. The impact and need for PAC's work in their community is powerful and significant.

Unfortunately, their web presence was not representative of this significance. Their initial site, http://pregnancyaidcenter.com/original_site, provided a great deal of information, but was not presented in a way that was easy to understand or access for their audience--or for potential funders. Working with a team of three Graphic and Web Design Practicum students at our DC campus, as well as a Photo student, PAC was able to gain a new logo, stock photo library, multimedia piece, and new website (easily translated into Spanish for their clients!).

The results are easily measured. Soon after the site launch, PAC was awarded with a grant for their programs. Perhaps the most notable result, however, is the stunning difference between the previous site, and the current site: www.pregnancyaidcenter.com. The CDIA team did an incredible job, making a site that is easy to navigate, visual appealing, and inviting. Check it out!

SIGGRAPH 2009 RECAP

Thu, 13 Aug 2009 02:00:00 EDT

This year’s Siggraph conference in New Orleans gave interesting insights into the advancements and future goals of Computer Generated Imaging and Animation. From the moment I sat on the plane next to a student who was going to be giving a presentation on, “How to Build Your Own 3D Printer”,  to the very last taxi ride back to the airport, where I shared a cab and conversation with a PHD who was working on methods to lessen the amount of distortion on abstract surfaces from projection lenses, I was saturated into the Siggraph experience. A lot of great 3D technology such as 3D printers, scanners and stereoscopic monitors were among the most abundant features at this year’s conference.  

I was enlightening to see that all the presentations I attended were using Autodesk Maya in some capacity. In the lecture, “Building Benjamin Button: A Blending of Technique-ologies,” given by Digital Domain, they explained why it was necessary to create a completely CG head of Brad Pitt, for over 50 minutes of the film, and the complexities they encountered modeling, rigging and lighting using IBL in Maya. DreamWorks revealed how they used Maya, and 15,000 lines of custom code, to create the rig for Bob from “Monsters vs. Aliens” in their lecture “B.O.B: Breaking Ordinary Boundaries of Animation.” On the educational front, Texas A&M University and DreamWorks showed how they worked together to create a curriculum for developing a short animation using Maya. Autodesk Maya dynamics were used to simulate thousands of balloons for Disney Pixar's film, “Up.” EA showed off the new game, “Fight Night 4”, in which they used Maya extensively for muscle simulation, modeling and animation. “The Digital Emily Project”, presented by Image Metrics and USC, used Maya and other technologies to create a photo-real face that was animated and composited into live-action footage. Finally, the creators of the film “Coraline” modeled and animated thousands of CG characters and props that were later printed with a 3D printer and used to create the stop-motion animation for the film. For all you tech savvy people, think of having a real physical library of blendshapes; Coraline's library had over 12,000 printed parts for the characters alone.  

Although Maya was the main software used for most productions, it wasn't the only tool used. Zbrush, Pixar's RenderMan, Motion Builder, Realflow and Houdini were among the others. If you're interested in building tools for animation, most TD's built them with C++ and Python.  

Addressing other aspects of the CG world were lectures given by Will Wright, the creator of Spore and the Sims, and Peter Sohn, director of Pixar's short film, “Partly Cloudy”. 

Will Wright exposed Human Perception and took a look at creating a new job title, Entertainment Designer. He also showed us how high or low his cat's cuteness ranked on ratemykitten.com, based on how he photographed the cat.  

Peter Sohn discussed his experience writing and pitching his short, through storyboards, to the heads of Disney Pixar. In his fun and down-to-earth presentation, he talked about Trusting the Process, digging deep for solutions, and letting go of ideas. He also revealed that he was the inspiration for the design of the little boy, Russ, for the film “Up”.  

The exhibition was smaller this year than in the past, although a lot of new technologies were displayed in the exhibition hall. Technologies such as motion capture systems, realtime renderers, and graphics cards. The job fair was equally as small, but exposed insights into what companies are looking for, mainly Technical Directors, Modelers, and Animators. There was a big divide in the types of work companies looked for in a prospective employee’s portfolio. For example, Digital Domain only wants candidates that can display realism, and Sony Imageworks wants stylized models and solid animation. However, everyone is looking for performance based animation and believability. In the lecture “How to Get Hired in Computer Animation”, the term Multi-Specialist (someone who specializes in certain areas that correspond to one another) was uttered. For example, a Modeler that can also texture. Still, large studios need specialists, and smaller studios are seeking generalists. Although in this economy, the more you know, the more your worth.  

There was a great CDIA presence. I counted nine total attendants that had links to CDIA in some way: Seven alumni, two of whom were working at the conference, and two instructors. New Orleans was a great place to host the event as far as the venue, although some of the courses could have been presented in larger rooms and auditoriums based on popularity. The city felt the same as it did when I first visited before Hurricane Katrina, and was very humid. Next year’s Siggraph looks to be much bigger, since it will be on the west coast in LA.

Technology is Still in Demand

Wed, 12 Aug 2009 02:00:00 EDT

There’s nothing new about this news – despite an unattractive overall employment outlook, technology workers continue to be in-demand. As long as those technology workers have the skills that employers need most. Five skills in particular are sought above the rest. In the last two months, demand for these skills have increased by 50 percent. Find out which ones on Beantown Web. Here, you can also read about a one-day conference said to be one of the best training opportunities of its kind.

The Power of Social Media

Tue, 11 Aug 2009 02:00:00 EDT

The power of social media is coming to a city near you. The Summer of Social Good is the first large-scale charitable campaign designed to raise funds online using social networking tools alone. Mashable – The Social Media Guide has organized a six-city tour to help promote the campaign, and Boston and DC are among the tour stops. Four charities – The Humane Society, LIVESTRONG, The WWF, and Oxfam America – will receive 100 percent of donations. Access Beantown Web to learn more about the Summer of Social Good.

Spotlight on Filmmaking Alumni Project

Mon, 10 Aug 2009 02:00:00 EDT

This Spring I worked on a Practicum project with a few other standout CDIA alumni –Patricia Cohen and Elizabeth Renomeron from DC’s Film program, and Alec Francesconi from Boston’s Audio Production program. We worked on a video for Pyramid Atlantic, a print, papermaking and book binding arts non-profit in Silver Spring, MD. Everyone put a lot of work into this project and I think it really shows. The video is linked to their website, pyramidatlanticartcenter.org.

It was shown in one of the theaters at American Film Institute (AFI) during a fundraising event. The fundraiser included a silent auction and a screening of the Beautiful Losers. It was a very special moment to see and hear our video play on the big screen in one of the area’s best movie theaters. And to watch it play right before such a spectacular documentary allowed us to see the quality of our work compared to other filmmakers in the business. I think it shored up pretty well.

If you'd like to leave comments on Rich's Vimeo site, view it here. You can also see the trailer for his final project, "Afterhack."

Boston's Social Media Breakfast

Fri, 07 Aug 2009 02:00:00 EDT

Social media experts and newbies alike came together for Boston’s Social Media Breakfast, a seminar which this session will be on “The Power and Peril of Online Communities.” Social Media Breakfasts take place periodically in more than a dozen cities across the US. Bryan Person, founder of the Breakfast, Rachel Happe, and Diane Hessan will speak on the topic. Marketers, PR pros, entrepreneurs, bloggers, podcasters, new-media fanatics, and online social networkers are attending this breakfast on Friday, August 07. Beantown Web has more facts and figures about this and other Social Media Breakfasts.

AlwaysOn Global 250 Competition

Thu, 30 Jul 2009 08:25:13 EDT

Creative destruction and creative creation were both prerequisites for the annual AlwaysOn Global 250 competition. This competition names the 250 most innovative companies worldwide. Google and Twitter have topped the list in past years, and the overall winner for the 2009 competition was Quantcast, a company that connects marketers and publishers with their target audience. The DC metro area placed eight companies on the list, and 14 Boston-based companies were selected by AlwaysOn. Access Beantown Web to see the companies from Boston and read more about the competition.

Clearances and Copyrights in Film

Tue, 21 Jul 2009 02:00:00 EDT

Clearances and copyrights are important for all independent filmmakers. Every producer, writer, and anyone who has anything to do with acquiring or clearing rights need to know about clearance issues. Copyright law is important to artists because it determines who owns what in the entertainment industry. It attempts to make decisions with absolute authority over who controls a project at every stage, and who is in the best position to reap the rewards of a project. Because it deals with intangibles, written contracts are more important in the entertainment industry than in most others. Also, lawyers are unfortunately indispensable.

      A comprehensive book called Clearance and Copyright: Everything You Need To Know For Film and Television (3rd edition) by Michael C. Donaldson, considered a bible among filmmakers and others who deal with the filmmaking industry, was referred to me by my son John, a writer and producer in Los Angeles for documentaries and television. Clearance and Copyright deals with fair use of copyright material, sets and set dressing, characters and costumes, personal releases, film titles, chain of title, obtaining insurance, and much more. Donaldson’s book is used in over 50 film schools across the United States, and has become the standard reference book for the industry.

            Donaldson, a Los Angeles-based entertainment attorney, has been fighting for independent filmmakers for over thirty years. As former president of International Documentary Association, he organized and led the Documentary Credits Coalition, which negotiated with the cable networks to prevent the wholesale migration of credits from the screen to the Internet. He notes that the single most common error he deals with in his practice is when “two friends start kicking around an idea and get very excited about the idea and how much fun it is to be creating this thing together. They start developing a project without any agreement about what happens to it when they are finished. More importantly, what mechanism do they use when they are further down the road on the project and when their visions for the project diverge?” He says that friendships break up and all too often end up in hostile disputes with everyone involved feeling taken advantage of. He strongly recommends that artists jot down the specifics right from the beginning, even if it is on a napkin. Co-creating a project is a business partnership.
            He also shares in his book that it is better to register your work with the Writers Guild of America in Los Angeles or New York than to mail a copy of your original work to yourself in a sealed envelope.

Jeremy de Beer’s, Associate Professor of the University of Ottawa’s Faculty of Law, teaches Digital Music Law has a blog on copyright culture and documentary films. A panel of expert speakers will gather next Wednesday at the University of Ottawa to talk about copyright culture. According to de Beer’s, documentary filmmakers in Canada and around the world increasingly face great obstacles to create their art because of copyright law, policy and practice.

In addition, according to the Techdirt Blog there is a growing concern that copyright laws are killing the documentary. Documentary filmmakers run the risk of getting charged with copyright infringement or enduring the difficult and expensive process of securing the rights. Some documentary filmmakers say that half their budget goes toward rights clearances, if they can even get them. Documentaries are supposed to document what is actually happening, but what’s happening is that they can’t document many things without first paying for the permission to do so.
As you can tell, this topic is BIG and complex and deserves attention by all people involved with filmmaking.

HDR is Here to Stay

Mon, 20 Jul 2009 02:00:00 EDT

You can drive a nail into a board with a baseball bat, but the bat will never be a hammer. HDR can extend the dynamic range of the images we capture. Using this process in our workflow to get a desired look is no different that cranking up the 'fill light' slider in PS, but let's not get confused as to what HDR is and the results it can yield. HDR is here to stay. Simply put, HDR is as follows: Bracketed Captures, Merge of those captures into a 32bit file, and Tone Mapping the file back to 8bit or 16bit.

It's not some illustrative use of sliders taking the pixels in your image on a never ending adventure ride, however, HDR offers so many possibilities it will be hard to ignore moving forward. Certainly, some photographers have found a sweet spot for this technique to disguise itself in the personality of their work.

Photo's from the G10

Thu, 16 Jul 2009 02:00:00 EDT

Check out the photos taken with the G10 - these images are certainly a step up from the previous iPhone images I've posted. This camera shoots RAW 14+ mp, among many outstanding features. These images hold up better under the sometimes brutal attacks I subject them to in post-production, and further extends the creative features in my iPhone image-making series. See the photos here.

Webinno 22

Fri, 10 Jul 2009 02:00:00 EDT

WebInno 22 is slated for next Wednesday, July 15. Run by the Web Innovators Group of Boston, which has about 900 members, WebInno 22 is the latest installment designed to introduce products and people. Nine companies, including Thunder Thimble and Muzzy Lane, are set to present their products, services, and ideas to more than 800 attendees. Beantown Web has the details for this free networking event at the Royal Sonesta Cambridge.

Slightly ahead of the national average

Thu, 09 Jul 2009 02:00:00 EDT

The Northeast is slightly ahead of the national average for expected job growth in the Web technologies sector. More employers are expected to hire workers in third quarter than to fire them. Those with programming and database skills are in more demand now than in recent months, and a review of the top 20 Web Technologies in Boston reveals that 11 of the top 12 technologies experienced increases in job listings since early June. To learn which Web technologies employers value the most, simply access the latest issue of Beantown Web.

Web Development - Mac or PC?

Wed, 08 Jul 2009 02:00:00 EDT

Oh, the visual envy of a Mac. Their gorgeous industrial design, top notch specs, and high resolution displays. How could anyone argue with Apple's choices?

As I walk through the hallways at CDIA, I can't help but understand why students in the Web Development program might feel envious of the sexy Mac labs where the Web Designers spend their time. Then I step back and think about the exact reason why PC's were chosen for Web Development. PC's get the job done, and get it done with less overhead for the soon-to-be potential freelancers. The overhead I'm referring to is start-up cost.

I frequently rotate between a high-powered iMac, a high-powered Windows Lenovo laptop, and recently, a low-powered Dell Netbook. The common thing across the three is that they're all able to run the software I need to be a web developer. That's right, a $400 Netbook is able to serve PHP pages, run MySQL queries, and host Apache with seemingly as much pep as a $2,500 iMac.

How is it possible that systems with such varying horsepower can work as well for Web Development? Well, it's really simple. There isn't that much processing required for standards compliant pages. We're not talking about making movies, or rendering high-resolution graphics. We're talking about processing text, running SQL commands, and maybe executing some JavaScript. That's it.

When you have a choice on environments, use whatever is most comfortable. Don't dare to pigeonhole yourself based on one system because it looks nicer, or has better specs. If you have to turn down work because the client only has PC's and your a Mac person, or vice versa, you're immediately closing the door on a major revenue stream.

Girls in Tech

Mon, 29 Jun 2009 14:35:32 EDT

A networking event for aspiring tech professionals is slated for Tuesday, June 30 in Cambridge. Only one catch – no boys allowed. This event is held by the Boston Chapter of Girls in Tech. Girls in Tech have an official presence in 22 cities worldwide, including Boston, DC, New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles in the US. More than 50 Boston-area technology professionals plan to attend the free event which is open to women only. A lifestyle panel discussion will follow an hour of networking, and refreshments will be served. Find more details and how to reserve your spot at Beantown Web.

The Truth About Reality (and Why Photography is Alive and Kicking)

Fri, 26 Jun 2009 02:00:00 EDT

Photography’s obituaries have been popping up with increasing frequency these days. Photoshop guru Martin Evening jokingly refers to the new Content Aware Scaling feature in CS4 as “the death of real photography.” In a more serious vein, Peter Plagens posed a question in a recent Newsweek essay that I’ve been asking myself for years– “Is Photography Dead?” He laments the fact that digital technology has led contemporary photographers into a world of make-believe, one where “reality” is often defined by their fictive imaginations powered by Photoshop skills instead of their truthful observations. In his view, we are moving away from what he sees as our traditional role as "truth-bearers" toward a postmodernist sensibility fueled by easy and popular access to digital cameras and software. He sees it as nothing less than a struggle for photography’s very soul.

And so do I, in a way. But I’m actually a little more cautiously optimistic than Mr. Plagens. I’ve come to the conclusion that the more pertinent question we should be asking ourselves, “is digital photography alive?” – which begs the answer - "of course it is, if you want it to be." To understand where I’m going with this, you first have to consider what one self-help cult I got roped into joining by an ex-girlfriend used to like to demand of its adherents way back in the 1980’s. You have to understand and accept “The Truth About Reality”.

Photography has never been about “truth” or “reality,” and anyone who believes otherwise probably sees the film-versus-digital debate in far more starkly divided terms than I do. Photographers are visual editors, and the very existence of the camera’s viewfinder or LCD preview proves how and why. In use, that innocuous little window or glowing screen is anything but ambivalent and all-inclusive, and civilization has been manipulated by it since the first photographer tried to figure out at what exactly, to point the contraption it was attached to. Using it to subjectively frame the world in combination with our all-too-human proclivities toward empathy, revulsion, and awe results not in the photograph itself stating, “Here is the truth,” but rather the photographer proclaiming, “Here is the truth I saw.”

The viewfinder is an exclusive device; we use it to bring order to THE ENTIRE WORLD by excluding everything that doesn’t belong in our photographs. We edit, even the purest purists among us, every time we choose to point the camera HERE instead of THERE. We have always done this to simply eliminate options, thus manipulating our images in a way designed to elicit a particular response. Photographic composition is a wonderful puzzle palace of tension driven by a constant subjective analysis of what to exclude, always working toward what Edward Weston described as "the strongest way of seeing.” But make no mistake about it– whether editing in the camera, in the darkroom, or in Photoshop, we manipulate not only our images, but our viewers as well. The rightness or wrongness of that is really only a matter of degree, so, in my view, Plagens misses the boat with the “truth” argument.

My problem with what we call photography these days is about how much thinking we think we have to do. The overwhelming menu of options offered to us by digital cameras and software can be either inclusive or exclusive to the point of becoming occlusive. If we're not careful, we wind up spending far too much time considering way too many options, and in my opinion, increasingly too much of all of it after the fact. Henri Cartier-Bresson once said something along these lines: “Photography doesn’t take brains. It takes sensitivity, a finger and two legs.” We’ve been led to believe that photography does take brains, and when it comes to the back-end processes that digital technology has made so tantalizingly accessible, it’s becoming harder and harder to not feel like a nitwit.

Here at CDIA we remind all of you that Photoshop is not a verb, and stress how important it is to use it carefully and well in conjunction with good lighting and exposure, and all the other skills necessary to "get it right in the camera" and blah, blah, blah. In the Photographic Seeing / Composition and Design module, I tend to take it a little further and ask you to pretend, for a little while at least, that it’s 1989 and Photoshop is not only not a verb, it’s not even a word because it hasn’t been invented yet (that generally goes over like a lead balloon). Be honest– how many of you wind up “Photoshopping” the living daylights out of what should have been more clearly perceived pictures in the first place? When asked by a student, “How do I get rid of the telephone pole growing out of the top of this guy’s head?” my answer used to be, “Pay more attention to the visual relationships between EVERYTHING in the frame next time, that’s how.” Nowadays, I still say that, but then I have to go ahead and show you how to get rid of it anyway. It feels as if the perception of photography in 2009 has more to do with the Clone Stamp and Patch Tool than it does with learning how to record what we see clearly with a camera. It's why I wonder if what we should be asking ourselves is not whether photography is dead, but whether digital photography is alive. Being alive, even when practiced diligently, is an imprecise exercise in unpredictability, intuition and faith, guided by an inarticulate certainty. The aspect of photography that I fell in love with decades ago is just like that; it's alive and well and always will be whether I use a digital camera and Photoshop or not. Somehow, though, when we weren’t looking, the simple process of picture-making became over-thought and over-done, and when that happens, the way to correct it is to apply restraint. Unfortunately, restraint isn’t one of the great new features of Photoshop CS4.

Wrapping up the Newsweek essay, Plagens quotes photographer Lisette Model as saying, “Photography is the easiest art, which perhaps makes it the hardest” (think about that the next time you see the 4-year-old uploading photos to her laptop in the recent Microsoft TV spots). But Jerry Uelsmann, the guy who’s been brilliantly making Photoshop-like composite photo illustrations with multiple film negatives in the darkroom since the 1950’s, really gets to the heart of it.

“I certainly don't feel threatened by the computer”, he once told an interviewer. “It's a tool. It's another way of making marks. I figured out pretty early, even in the darkroom, having too many options is counterproductive to the creative process. The computer is the king of too many options.”

And maybe that's the point of all this– too many options may be just that, too many options. The truth be told, photography isn’t dead, it’s simply confused.

Randall Armor is Associate Director of CDIA’s Professional Photography program.

Ethan Marcotte: Comps vs. Coders - Recap

Thu, 25 Jun 2009 02:00:00 EDT

For anyone that wasn't able to attend Ethan Marcotte's dazzling presentation that pits Comps vs. Coders, you missed out on an entertaining information session.

Ethan has graced CDIA twice in as many years, and has shown that he really knows how to simplify the complex nature of design and development to current students, alumni, and faculty of CDIA. Through his hands-on experience with sites including the Sundance Film Festival, New York magazine, and the W3C, Ethan taught everyone a valuable lesson about communication between developers and designers.

Cringing at the word "handoff," it's clear that there are many iterative steps before a designer is done with their PSDs, and when a site is ready to be consumed in its entirety by its client.

Other important topics discussed include fluid/liquid layouts, communicating with colleagues with Campfire, managing projects through Basecamp, and the importance of source control with tools like Subversion.

For the many people who attended, what was you favorite part of Ethan's discussion?

Post-Production

Tue, 23 Jun 2009 02:00:00 EDT

Today I want to talk about post-production because that’s what I’ve spent most time doing in the last number of months. It is an important part of your project. In my next blog I will regress and talk in more detail about the proposal and the ways in which it is key to the success of your project.

Post-Production
When I think of post-production, the first thing that comes to my mind is editing, although the other aspects such as capturing the footage, transcribing all the interviews, sound restoration, color correction, and music, to name a few, are important, too.

Finding the Right Editor
If you are not going edit your project, it’s important to find the right editor. I feel it’s a good idea to hire a person to edit your project because the editor is able to distance him or herself from the footage and contribute to make a stronger film. But finding the right person can be a challenge. It most likely will take time, but well worth the effort. You’ll want an editor who is not only good technically, but also someone you have a rapport with and who cares about your project as much as you do—well, almost as much. Even though I have had some experience editing (not enough though), with the first editor, I totally gave up my idea of what was important to me and the information I wanted to include in my project. After that, I went from one end of the spectrum to the other---from allowing the editor to do whatever he wanted without even reading my proposal to being an ultra-micromanager over the editor.

I like to think I have found a happier medium when working with an editor or anyone I hire to work on my project. However, ultimately I think it is important to remember that this is your project and you can have it the way you want. On the other-hand, it is up to you as the director to have a clear vision as possible in your proposal. Include the synopsis, a list of topics, and a detailed list of scenes in order to communicate to the editor exactly what you want and are working toward in the editing process. Even though I always want feedback from my editor, I also need an editor who will be able to follow my directions and make changes that I ask for.

Just recently, I’ve started to read “Directing The Documentary,” by Michael Rabiger, a book that would have been extremely helpful had I read it before I started to work on my final project. I thought I was in first grade in filmmaking, but as it turns out I’m in preschool. I strongly recommend that everyone who is involved in filmmaking read this book. It will contribute to you greatly as a filmmaker.

The End of the Road for Quark

Mon, 22 Jun 2009 02:00:00 EDT

The desktop publishing software wars have been going on for about two decades now and there still isn't a clear winner. In fact, there are more tools to use now than ever before to get a project printed, including Apple's Pages, and Corel's CorelDRAW Graphics Suite. With the addition of multiple artboards, Adobe Illustrator CS4 can now be used the way everyone wanted to use it - for page layout and print jobs.

But the two giants in this category are QuarkXPress and InDesign. Quark had a long hold on the industry with little competition for the longest time. So long, in fact, that they didn't really do a major upgrade from Quark 4 (1997) to 5 (2002) for a period of six years. At that time, Apple was transitioning their operating system to the Unix-based OSX and Quark refused to recode their application until Quark 6 came out in 2003.

It was during that long stretch that Adobe, who had limited success with PageMaker, decided to scrap the application they bought from Aldus and start all over, inventing the "Quark Killer," as it was then called, InDesign. With a list of features that every designer was pining for - transparency, effects, creative suite integration, InDesign 1.0 (1999) came out like a lion with rave reviews. Technical glitches and bugs in the program hampered the experience for some and Pre-press providers and printers couldn't output all those glorious transparencies accurately.

Adobe quickly regrouped and came out with subsequent versions, InDesign 1.5 in 2001 and InDesign 2.0 in 2002 (still not integrated into any Suites yet), gently massaging out all of the product bugs. Adobe also did a good job in listening to its core user base in adding features that drew the attention of long-time Quark users, such as Nested Styles, and true PDF output, something Quark still has difficulty with.

Finally, in 2003, Adobe introduced the first version of the Creative Suite, updating all of its core programs (after the purchase and migration of Macromedia) into a powerful suite of application programs that are tightly integrated. The end result: clearly a better workflow solution for any designer. Instead of moving back and forth between Photoshop and Quark, InDesign users could actually place native Photoshop files into InDesign, make edits to the original Photoshop file, and then simply update the link. Quark users would have to make extra trips to Photoshop, save out static versions of their files as TIFF or EPS and replace their content.

Like the other InDesign releases, InDesign 3.0 offered more and more features that drew more users away from Quark. Now Adobe was gaining momentum. Adobe InDesign User Groups started forming all around the country and industry professionals also began migrating to Quark.

Another factor that kept Quark at bay for many users was its price point. InDesign - integrated with at least five other applications in the Creative Suite - was selling for a price that was still less than Quark. Quark 8's current cost is $799. InDesign is $699, by itself. Educational prices are better for both, but the clear winner in the price category is InDesign.

So what's keeping Quark afloat? A deep user base and a lot of investment on the part of those organizations who bought the app and are not willing to let it go. Call it loyalty or a desire not to lose out on an investment, but Quark was deeply rooted in the publishing industry for so long. Pariah S. Burke tells it best on his site Quark Vs. InDesign:

"Quark is dying, fast. The thing that’s keeping it alive at this point is the inherent nature of the relevant markets: Switching such an integral tool within a fast-paced, tight-margined production workflow is costly in terms of licenses, training, and lost productivity for learning. In this arena InDesign has the upshot of being very similar in user interface to already established tools like Photoshop and (especially) Illustrator. While that fact doesn’t do much for layout-only artists, it does help significantly with migration expenses and issues with artists who use multiple products."

QuarkXTensions also may have a play in whether it stays or goes. XTensions are like InDesign plug-ins that extend the functionality of Quark in terms of what its capabilities are. A lot of pre-press vendors and printers have invested heavily in these extensions, which perform tasks like pagination, output procedures, preflighting, and conversions. It's another part of their original investment which is hard to part with.

Recent rumors and announcements have suggested that Quark will move away from making its desktop software and go to an enterprise server-side solution. Enterprise software isn't cheap and this product won't be for the masses. It's a serious paradigm shift for Quark, one that can only indicate imminent defeat.

I spoke with a print vendor recently to get his thoughts on Quark's demise. Carl Feren of Feren and Co. has been in the printing industry for over 20 years. As Feren points out:

"In the past three – four years I have only had ONE client who used Quark. My other clients use either Corel, Illustrator or InDesign. I can’t think of anyone who prefers Quark over InDesign. The one person who does use it simply does not want to invest in additional software."

Even with the release of Quark 8, the reviews have been a little lackluster. MacWorld Magazine sees it as a dilemma for any Quark owner to actually upgrade to this version:

"QuarkXPress 8 poses somewhat of a dilemma. Because it offers very few new functions—and none that have broad utility—it’s hard to make the economic case to upgrade from the previous version. The most significant new capabilities—those derived from Quark Interactive Designer and the free XPert Tools—can be had for just $49 if you stick with XPress 7.3."

This in comparison with InDesign CS4, which - comparitively - has a slew of new features like Cross-References, SWF export, Page Transitions, Spread Rotation, etc.

Personally, I see Quark winding down as indicated here. I haven't used it outside of the classroom for any major projects and can't see why I would ever switch to Quark for a number of reasons. This battle though, kind of reminds of Freehand vs. Illustrator. Depending on which program you used first, you became fiercely attached to it and the separate camps fought openly about feature sets and capabilities. In the end, Adobe killed off Freehand and they'll probably be able to do the same with Quark.

Working with PSD files in Quark/InDesign

Fri, 19 Jun 2009 02:00:00 EDT

Quark heralds their PSD Import options as "the best integration with Photoshop’s PSD file format of any layout tool available today."

Yes, you read that right. This appears in a free PDF on their website, QuarkXPress 8, Xperience Design. So, I thought I’d test the waters and it turns out that the statement is pretty accurate.

There are limitations to what Quark’s PSD import feature can handle, so in the help files there’s a section on preparing PSD files. The key thing is, don’t use any layer styles. If you do, you’ll get the following warning:

Quark will effectively flatten the file and you won’t have access to the layers if you include any effects. You can get around this by converting your effects into layers. Quark also recommends converting Shape layers to Smart Objects for maximum compatibility.

So what can you do with PSD files, once they are imported into Quark? You can turn layer visibility on and off and change the blending mode and opacity.

Unfortunately, you can’t change the order of the layers, add layer masks or effects to them. However, you can view and work with Channels and Paths that are saved in the PSD file. For example, you might have a Spot Color channel in a file. Let’s say that you decide you want to change the spot color. You don’t have to go back to Photoshop to do that, just double click on the Spot Color channel and choose another color in the palette.

Any changes you make to the PSD file outside of Quark will be indicated by a red circle in the lower right-hand corner of the PSD Import palette. You won’t need to go to the Usage dialog to update the file, just double click on the red circle.

InDesign has a feature called Object Layer Options for placed PSD files. There are two things you can do with this, turn layer visibility on and off and choose a Layer Comp, if they are in the file. Here, again, you can’t change the order of the layers, but more so, you can’t change the opacity or blending modes on the fly. You can’t get to the Channels or Paths, but InDesign does handle them. In the case of that Spot Channel, the color is added to the Swatches panel and Paths can be used in the Text Wrap panel.

So, as you can see, Quark does have a little bit of a leg up here on the PSD thing, with potentially less trips back to Photoshop for edits. Is it a tighter integration than InDesign? Hmmm. What are your thoughts?

AIGA + Aquent Survey

Wed, 17 Jun 2009 02:00:00 EDT

AIGA, the professional association for design, and Aquent, a talent agency for marketers and designers, released a joint survey on annual salaries – one of the most comprehensive of its kind. More than 9,000 industry professionals took part in the survey, reporting compensation data for 15 design-related positions. National and regional averages, as well as estimates for Boston, are available on Beantown Web. In addition, 10 design professionals from across the country share their advice to thrive and survive during challenging economic times.

The Power of Positive Thinking

Tue, 09 Jun 2009 02:00:00 EDT

The power of positive thinking is, well, powerful. In three separate, periodic surveys, confidence levels in personal employment and the economic environment are on the rise. Employers are growing more confident as well, with a percentage reporting a stronger likelihood of hiring workers. Access Beantown Web to see the details of the surveys. The economy may very well be on the mend. Looking for ways to attract those would-be employers? Included in this month’s market analysis are ways to upgrade skills and improve career advancement prospects.

CDIA is Chosen to Receive Design Leadership Award

Fri, 05 Jun 2009 02:00:00 EDT

The Art Director’s Club of Metropolitan Washington (ADCMW) has chosen CDIA to receive their Design Leadership Award. The award is given to an organization in the local community that supports the value of good design, helps bring good design to the business community and the public, and has demonstrated partnership with the ADCMW to further these goals.

This Saturday, June 6, CDIA Executive Director Bob Daniels will accept the award at ADCMW’s 60th Annual Show Gala at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. Find more on the Awards Gala here.

June 2009 Mass Innovation Nights

Thu, 04 Jun 2009 02:00:00 EDT

Calling all bloggers, job seekers, and those simply interested in innovative products and companies. Hundreds of influential people in the media come out to Mass Innovation Nights each month, a free networking event that bridges the gap between producers and consumers. Ten companies are slated to demonstrate their innovative products or services, including MyRoar, ThingMagic, and Urban Animal. To see more of what these companies offer, access Beantown Web. There’s also a complete list of the companies set to attend. It’s all happening at the Charles River Museum of Industry & Innovation on Wednesday, June 10 at 6:30 p.m.

CS4 Backward Compatibility

Tue, 02 Jun 2009 02:00:00 EDT

CS4 has been around about nine months now and so everyone should’ve upgraded, right? Well, not exactly. The adoption rate has been a little slow this time ‘round, given the economy and for some, a lack of compelling reasons to upgrade. Adobe has been on a spree lately, getting the CS4 word out there and working with their evangelists to create compelling reasons to upgrade.

So let’s say that you did upgrade and now you’re in a situation where you are working with a client that is still in CS3 land. Inevitably, you’ll run into compatibility issues. This article will help you navigate that particular topic.

InDesign

InDesign has had a built-in, cross-product file format since CS2. An INX file is basically an XML file that describes how an InDesign document has been created and all of its linked assets.

In InDesign, when you go to File > Save As, you won’t be able to save down to CS3, you can only save as a CS4 document or template. However, if you go to File > Export, you’ll find the InDesign CS3 Interchange (INX) file format. Export as this file format to send to anyone who’s on CS3.

A word of warning, linked assets and fonts are not bundled with the INX file, so you’ll have to send those along as well. In InDesign CS3, simply go to File > Open and open the InDesign file.

Illustrator

Illustrator has also always featured a cross-compatibility file format in the Illustrator Save Options dialog. You won’t find an Illustrator CS3 option under File > Save As, but you will find multiple formats in the Options dialog.

As you can see, you can go back as far as Illustrator 3.

A little warning here is that some of the transparency effects and the new gradient transparency feature will not be backward-compatible. Also, since Illustrator CS4 supports multiple artboards, opening a file like that in CS3 will be problematic. You may have to save each artboard as a separate file.

Photoshop

Photoshop backward-compatibility is also built-in to the current version of the program. When you save a Photoshop file, you might see this dialog:

You can enable file compatibility options in the File Handling preferences. All you need to do to save the file is choose the Photoshop format from the file format drop-down:

Again, certain features will not be supported in CS3, but a majority of the file will be useable.

Flash

Flash actually does allow you to save down to the CS3 format. Just choose File > Save As and you can use the CS3 file format.

What you’ll lose here is the Motion Tweens you create in CS4 will be translated into Classic Tweens in CS3. ActionScript hasn’t changed much (Flash is still using AS3), so there’s not much to worry about there. Your easing values might be different, since CS4’s Motion Editor is more robust than simple easing in CS3.

Summary

You may find people still on CS2 or on other versions of the Creative Suite. At that point, backward-compatibility becomes more difficult. There may be other approaches of working with older documents. For example, InDesign allows you to place InDesign files in PDF documents. So you may be able to import older files into CS4 as a starting point. Going backwards though, not so easy.

Chowda Chat

Wed, 27 May 2009 02:00:00 EDT

Chowda Chat is a periodic Beantown Web installment that features a conversation with an influential member of the Boston technology community. Leah Busque, founder of RUNmyERRAND.com, a business which has pioneered a trend she calls service networking. Leah shares words of wisdom on starting her own business, learning new technology, and the importance of having advisors. Learn tips to advance your career, more on Leah Busque, as well as previous Chowda Chat participants on the latest issue of Beantown Web.

Constantly Improving Technology

Fri, 15 May 2009 02:00:00 EDT

Technology is constantly improving – but not all on its own. Web and tech professionals drive the evolution of technology, and as demand for the next big thing in the tech world is also a constant, continuous education must be a prerequisite for long-term career success as a technology professional. An outstanding majority of survey respondents from thousands of web workers listed their next career move as seeking educational training to improve their technical skills. Access Beantown Web to find a list of the largest educational providers for IT services in Massachusetts.

Half Empty or Half Full

Wed, 13 May 2009 02:00:00 EDT

Is the job market half full or half empty? Skilled web developers and IT specialists may see it as half full, as hundreds of opportunities arise in the Boston and DC metro areas. Those with a more pessimistic view of the market (and even those half-fuller’s) should check out the latest issue of Beantown Web. Get the details on how a jobseeker might refocus his or her outlook on the technology market, and how to fill the glass with more opportunities.

Milestones - Week two and three of the three-track demos

Fri, 08 May 2009 02:00:00 EDT

In my last blog I wrote about the first week of recording The Lights Out for our three-track demo project. In that first week we got the drums and bass recorded and I was able to do a basic mix before heading into the studio for the next round.

We had put down some scratch guitars and now we had eight hours in Studio D for the real thing. First up was Rish playing a hollow body Gibson through a Marshall JCM 800. We put the amp in one of the booths and it sounded great, nice tone and really big and crunchy. We had four speakers on the cab so why not four mics: a U87, 414, SM57 (of course), and a Royer 121, a few different ones to see what sounds we can catch. Rish put down his rhythm tracks with little problem and then we doubled them, which would make them bigger in the mix.

Next we switched up the Marshall for Adams Peavey and set the same mics up. Adam plays a Strat and so we had two very different guitar sounds which was great, but right away we were feeling that Adam's guitar was sounding a little too fuzzy, too much low end and needed some more crunch. This was a situation wherein the musician liked the sound, but from an engineer’s point of view we knew the guitar would not stand out in the mix, and we wanted to record the best sound we could rather than have to 'fix in the mix.’ We tried a different amp setting and came up with a compromise. Given a little more time we could have tried a different amp or spent longer tweaking the settings, but the clock was ticking. Adam got his parts down with few problems and we were all happy with how it sounded; we were ready for vocals.

We doubled all the rhythm guitars, so with four mics and two guitarists we'd end up with sixteen tracks, plus lead guitar lines and other overdubs. Before doing vocals I chose the best mic combinations and bounced down the guitars to just a few tracks so we wouldn’t run out, especially as I'd be mixing in Pro Tools LE.

I had booked a four-hour session in studio F for each of the songs, figuring Rish would be able to sing at least one song in four hours. This spread the time out over three evenings so he wouldn’t blow out his voice and gave us some spare time if we ran into problems. We put up a 414, U87, and an RE20. Straight away Rish loved the sound of the RE20 and we agreed, so the RE20 for vocals it was. The first evening Rish slammed out the main vocals and some doubled parts for two songs, and completed the third on the second evening. This was great, but recording doesn't usually go so ahead of schedule, so I didn't get too comfortable.

Over the next two evenings we did all the backing vocals - which really made these songs stand out - using a 414 to give a different sound from the main vocals, and had time for some shakers and tambourine.

Mixing wasn't too much work as some editing and mixing had been done along the way. These were pretty straight ahead rock songs so nothing too crazy was required in the mix. The songs turned out great, very professional-sounding and a far cry from demos. The band was happy and I feel great being able to put into practice all I have learned over the last few months.

Clearances and Copyrights

Mon, 04 May 2009 02:00:00 EDT

My suggestion for new filmmakers is to take clearances and copyrights seriously and learn as much as possible before you even start your film. It could save you a lot of frustration and also from being sued! My experience about copyrights was through journalism school and mainly dealt with print and photos. I thought I knew enough about the subject to make my film. Turns out I actually knew very little.

Clearances and copyrights are lot more involved than I first realized. They are complex enough for a full semester course in college. I found that a good way for me to start to become more knowledgeable about this subject is to read books on the topic. A good place to start to is, Clearance and Copyright: Everything the Independent Filmmaker Needs to Know, written by Michael Donaldson, a Los Angeles-based entertainment lawyer. This book has been used as a textbook in over 50 film schools and it has become the standard reference book for the industry. Donaldson has been fighting for independent filmmakers for over 30 years. He represents writers, producers and directors, and also serves as General Counsel to Film Independent (home of the Independent Spirit Awards and the Los Angeles Film Festival,) and the Writers Guild Foundation.

In early 2007, Media Professional Insurance, with their top intellectual property lawyers, and the Stanford Law School Fair Use Project, all worked together to enable documentary filmmakers to insure against claims arising out of “fair use” of copyrighted material.

Insurers and film distributors require producers to obtain permission for use of copyrighted material in a film. This can be expensive or in some cases impossible for new or independent filmmakers. The Fair Use Doctrine states that use for the purpose of criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship or research is not an infringement of copyright. Documentary films are an important source of education, commentary and criticism, but the rigid licenses or releases did not give filmmakers the flexibility to take advantage of ‘fair use’ in appropriate situation. The policy endorsement by Media Professional Insurance explicitly allows documentary filmmakers to rely on ‘fair use” without jeopardizing coverage.

Creativity, critical analysis, and cultural critiques are often only possible when filmmakers can use copyrighted material. Donaldson suggested the new initiative to Media Professional. He said, “Fair use has been accepted legally for more than a century, because free expression is one of our most important values. Creativity, critical analysis, and cultural critique are fostered, and sometimes only possible when filmmakers can use otherwise copyright material. We’re not pushing the envelope legally—fair use is always limited and provides protection for copyright holders.”

Some examples of documentaries that have used copyrighted material as a crucial cinematic tool are as follows:

“This Film Is Not Yet Rated,” a critique of the MPAA movie rating system.
“Smoke and Mirrors: A History of Denial,” a look at the tobacco industry and health risks.
“Who Killed the Electric Car?” which examined industry opposition to electric cars.

The filmmakers of these documentaries created a historical narrative that criticized powerful interests, who were unlikely to give permission for the use of copyrighted excerpts. Without the clips, these documentaries would have been less effective or would not have been made.

Mass Innovation Night Returns

Thu, 30 Apr 2009 02:00:00 EDT

By popular demand, Mass Innovation Nights returns this May to connect influential media, consumers, and innovative companies, and introduce products new to the market. More than 160 attended April’s event, which is free to those who spread the word. IBM is coming back, along with Hubunity, Mixandmeet, Blitz Innovation, Inc. Learn more about these companies and the event at Beantown Web. It will be held at the Charles River Museum of Industry and Innovation on May 13 at 6 p.m.

Information Week's Annual Survey

Wed, 29 Apr 2009 02:00:00 EDT

Information Week’s annual survey of information technology workers, released on Monday, drew some surprising and not-so-surprising, responses from IT workers from across the country. More than 12,000 IT professionals, including web designers and developers, took part in the survey, revealing salaries for a range of careers and broken down by region. See how continuous improvement of technology skills that employers value, and leadership skills that all organizations need, is one of the surest paths to above average pay and career security in the information technology fields on the latest Beantown Web.

Michel Tcherevkoff Lecture Recap

Mon, 27 Apr 2009 02:00:00 EDT

An extraordinary event happened over the last couple days in Studio C of CDIA's Waltham campus. About 100 students and faculty were treated on Wednesday night to an entertaining and inspiring talk by the renowned photographer/artist Michel Tcherevkoff. For three-plus hours, Michel, as he encourages his new CDIA friends to call him, took us on a visual journey of his career's work. To start, he showed us interesting composites and creations he made for commercial advertising clients early in his career - all done without the help of today's digital tools. He finished with a showcase of his current, more intricate and Photoshop-assisted artwork featuring flowers which he bends and arranges into fashionable shoes, lingerie, and butterflies.

For an encore, Michel invited interested students to return to Studio C the following morning for portfolio critiques. Again for three-plus hours, Michel helped about 15 of us look at our own work through the lens of his creative genius. Michel offered up nice helpings of "nice work" and "I like it", but he also showed each of us, very specifically, how we could have composed better, or lit our subjects better, or waited for better moments.

Watching Michel give the critiques was so interesting. It gave me a glimpse of what it must be like when he's working on one of his stunning creations. For starters, he's clearly tireless - tireless in the way he wanted each one of us to see how we could produce better work, how we can still move forward on photographs we might have thought were finished. Next, being the fine craftsman that he is, Michel encouraged us to seek a higher plane of technique - something I imagine he does with his own work routinely.

The two sessions were not just all about looking at photographs, though. Michel weaved in plenty of excellent advice. Here is what he said that resonated the most with me:

• Seek out purposeful assistantships. How many times have we had someone recommend to us "go be an assistant" upon graduation? Michel expanded upon that common advice like no one that I have heard put it before. He suggested that we strategically seek out assistantships with a variety of photographers in a purposeful effort to round out our skill set: a location photographer to learn how to improvise and deal with new situations; a fashion/beauty photographer to learn how to direct and build a relationship with people; a still life photographer to learn the best light; and a photojournalist to learn how to record, not necessarily create.

• Have a 10-year plan. Know where you want to be in 10 years, and evaluate every decision along the way in terms of whether it will better position you to be where you want to be in 10 years.

• Follow your heart. Do something you're passionate about, even if you don’t see the commercial outlet for it right away. Your passion will show through, and possibilities you may not have thought of may unfold from there.

• If you want to be creative, train your brain to be creative. He tells how he would look at each day's newspaper headline and challenge himself to say the same thing in pictures.

Lastly, I will add something I'm taking away from this experience that Michel did not say outright, but his actions in coming to CDIA shouted it: be generous and enthusiastic back to this industry. Michel Tcherevkoff came to CDIA under an interesting set of circumstances. Those of you lucky enough to have Rob Van Petten as your portfolio module teacher know that Rob likes to collect names of favorite photographers from each of his students because he contacts them for portfolio advice which he then shares with the class - that is, if he gets a response. When I suggested Michel Tcherevkoff on my turn in class, Rob and I exchanged a quick look of "longshot", but he agreed to give it a go. To our surprise, Michel wrote back right away and suggested a conference call with the class in lieu of a written response to Rob's standard portfolio questions. My class spent an hour on the phone with Michel this past winter, which then evolved into his coming here this week to talk to the whole school. Generous and enthusiastic in sharing what he knows and wanting us to become better photographers - that was the spirit of Michel Tcherevkoff's initial call with us and this visit.

Oh, and one more thing - I am also taking away from this experience a new appreciation for all the skills my instructors have taught us over the last 18 months. Listening to Michel give the critiques was, at times, like being back in class. "Take multiple exposures and then blend them together" - that was from Interiors. "Adjust the exposure in Photoshop for your background and mask out your subject" - that's Photoshop I and II. "Your lighting needs more/less shadow" - that's Intro to Studio Lighting. All these things that, at times, seemed so basic and a bit tedious are so clearly very important going forward. So "thanks" to all the CDIA teachers, and a big "thanks" to Rob for setting up this very special visit with Michel Tcherevkoff. It was truly a memorable experience.

Growing Massachusetts

Tue, 21 Apr 2009 11:25:07 EDT

The Boston Business Journal recently held its third annual BBJ Pacesetters event, honoring local businesses that are thriving despite the ailing economy. Beantown Web has the details on 60 of the fastest-growing private companies in Massachusetts, along with one-click access to the right people to contact at these companies. Every company needs talented people to sustain growth, and these companies are no exception. See what they’re all about and what job opportunities may be available on their Websites.

Social Media + Graphic and Web Design

Mon, 20 Apr 2009 02:00:00 EDT

Is your community a social media hub? Boston is! Many of the founders and developers of social media smash hits have ties to Boston, and Mashable Social Media Guide puts the spotlight on six social media events and eight social media organizations in the Boston area. Find the top 10 social media personalities to follow on Twitter on the latest issue of Beantown Web. So far, Mashable has explored Boston and Los Angeles. Check back to see upcoming articles of more metro areas that have become social media hubs.

Interactive Media Awards�

Fri, 17 Apr 2009 02:00:00 EDT

If you are involved in the design, development, management, support, and promotion of websites, then you are eligible for the Interactive Media Awards™ (IMA) competition. Judges for this worldwide competition look for design, content, and functionality when making their decisions. The IMA have announced their top picks for the nine best websites for the first quarter.

The Interactive Media Council, Inc., a nonprofit organization of leading web-related professionals, oversees the competition which is designed to elevate the standards of excellence on the Internet. To see a list of the list honorees and runners-up, and learn how to submit your own website, check out the latest issue of Beantown Web.

Quincy Public Awareness Campaign

Thu, 16 Apr 2009 02:00:00 EDT

The Office of the Mayor of Quincy and Impact Quincy/Bay State Community Services recently collaborated with three CDIA film alumni, Bryan Ethier, Michael Crossen-Sills, and Eric Campana, to work on the Quincy Public Awareness Campaign.

In a survey of approximately 3,000 individuals in one-on-one interviews, it was repeatedly noted that the general community did not feel there was a drug problem in the community - yet the Department of Public Health ranks Quincy seventh statewide among cities and towns for overdose cases. This video will address the misperception; and hopefully, it will create a pro-active attitude in the adult community. But it would not have been possible without the cooperation and commitment of CDIA.

When appointments were arranged, the crew was on time and on point. When the video was promised in edited form, it was ready. When the final product was promised, the video was ready for distribution. I cannot say enough about the Center and the quality of the work that was provided to the Quincy Public Awareness Campaign. The budget for the Campaign was not overly large, even though the business community had been very generous. The $15,000 dollars which was raised had to cover a multifaceted media campaign with billboard, newspaper advertisement, TV public service announcements, and a website: www.quincyoverdosehelp.org. The video had to fit into this budget structure, and you made that happen. Our thanks, again, goes to CDIA.

Arthur Keough

Grant Writer for the City of Quincy

Organization is Key

Wed, 15 Apr 2009 02:00:00 EDT

Production
The first day of filming for my student documentary, which I’ve developed into a commercial project, was exciting and scary. All the equipment was ordered beforehand and picked up the day of the shoot. My crew of three - camera, sound and me (director/producer/interviewer) - arrived at the State House to film and interview midwives and consumer advocates who had gathered with members of the Massachusetts Coalition for Midwifery. Their plan was to lobby members of the Senate and the House to support a bill that would standardize midwifery training and licensing in Massachusetts.

The Director’s Vision
As a journalist, the interviewing part was comfortable for me. However, making the decision whom exactly to interview, what room to interview the midwives/consumer advocates in, and where the cameras should be placed, took a lot of my energy. How to deal with the sound I left up to the person I actually paid to deal with the sound along with a fellow student I asked to be part of the crew. Although I shared some ideas of how I wanted things to be, I wasn’t assertive enough for them to be heard. It would have helped for me to be more organized because in this case much of the shoot had to be decided on the spot. For example, I should have had a variety of shot lists since I didn’t know exactly how the State House looked outside and in. I could have researched the Statehouse on the Internet in order to learn more about the layout of the building and talked it over with the crew beforehand. My suggestion is to listen to the input of your crew, discuss possibilities and then as the director, make the final decision.

Hiring a Crew
As a director it is my responsibility to have enough technical expertise in order to hire the camera and sound people. My advice is before you hire a crew, even for your student projects, learn as much as possible about the technical aspects of the camera, sound, and lighting. You will be better prepared to hire your crew. As a new filmmaker it is your responsibility to oversee all facets of the film. For example, you will have less frustration in postproduction if you hire people who are competent in sound. In order to do that, you have to know enough about sound. There is only so much one can do to fix the sound, even for a specialist in sound restoration as good as Scott Defusco—although he did perform miracles with my sound!!!! But, you’ll save the sound technician and yourself a lot of stress if you hire the right person for sound in the first place.

The Checklist
A checklist is an excellent way to make certain you bring all necessary equipment on your shoot. It's so easy to forget something and that can change the success of the shoot. For example, on my shoot the boom microphone was forgotten and we only had one lavaliere microphone for all the scenes. In one scene we had five people. The sound quality was hollow and also some of the people were hard to hear. If I’d had a checklist, I would have noticed that the boom microphone was missing before leaving from the location of the shoot. Organization is always key.

Milestones: Week One of the 3 Track Demo Project

Tue, 14 Apr 2009 02:00:00 EDT

Six months have now passed since our class started the Audio Production course at CDIA, and it's amazing how fast the time has gone, not to mention how much we've learned.

The first few months of classes were great fun with a lot of information to soak up fast. In addition to the audio theory there are two amazing recording studios to learn to navigate, plenty of class labs to get us working on the types of projects we'd see in the working world, and mix projects to get us using and strengthening our audio theory. Looking back to six months ago it's very satisfying to see how the whole class has advanced and gained so much knowledge.

We now find ourselves at our first big milestone: the three-song demos. In teams of two, we have three weeks to produce, record, and mix three songs for a band of our choice. This brings into play all we've learned so far, testing our ability to use the studios, produce a band, and mix the songs.

My partner on this project is classmate Serge and we're recording The Lights Out, a four-piece rock band from Boston. Before the three weeks started we had to book our studio time. We sat down and planned how much time we needed for each stage of the project, worked with the band to figure out their availability, and then grabbed the studio time we needed. We also got demos of the songs we were going to be recording from the band, lyrics, and talked to the band about what they've liked and not liked about previous recordings they have done.

Our first studio session was Tuesday evening - seven hours in studio D to track drums and bass. One thing I've learned from being part of a band in the studio is that things always take longer than you think, plus you have to take into account time for setting up, packing up, breaks, unforeseen disasters, technical problems, musician problems; the list goes on. CDIA has an impressive range of top mics and outboard gear you'll find in all great studios, so before stepping in the studio we planned what we were going to use on the drum kit and bass.

The band arrived a little early, and this is great as we were able to chat about the session and start setting up some drums. The lead guitarist wasn't able to make it, which, for tracking the drums and bass, actually makes things a little simpler. Then, with studio keys in hand, we got going. Drums were set up in the main live room, bass amp in one iso booth, guitar amp in another iso booth, and all musicians are playing in the live room with headphones. It took a couple of hours to get everyone settled, everything mic'd, outboard gear patched, and levels taken. It sounded great so we went for the first take of the first song. The Lights Out is a great band so we knew we weren’t going to have too many problems with them, and we didn't. The first two songs we got within three takes, with very few bass overdubs required. The third song took a few additional takes, it was getting late and tiredness was starting to set in, but we got it.

The next session is Sunday - eight hours for guitars. We can't wait!

Meet and Greet Portfolio Review with the Pros

Mon, 13 Apr 2009 14:33:27 EDT

This past week, Career Services arranged for students and alums to meet and greet The Pros in an intense portfolio review. They are touted as the nation's most recommended provider of quality photography and videography - and The Knot’s Best of Weddings Pick of the Year for 2008.

Tomás Banks, New England Production Manager of The Pros, and Lead Photographer Andrea da Silva-Kaplan reviewed portfolios and demo reels from 25 students. Tomás was extremely impressed with the high quality of work and professionalism shown by our Photography and Film students/grads. About half of the 25 were either immediately hired on board or have been set up with shadow shoots for the upcoming wedding season.

The Pros Entertainment found the event very fruitful and is looking forward to a continued relationship with CDIA here in Waltham and in DC. Congratulations to all who participated!

Mass Innovation Night

Thu, 09 Apr 2009 10:48:13 EDT

Ten innovative companies, more than 100 attendees, one free event: Mass Innovation Nights , a showcase of new products just out on the market. Tuesday, details and demonstrations of products, as well as a terrific networking opportunity, took place at the Charles River Museum of Industry and Innovation. Tweetworks and IBM are just two of the companies that showed off their innovations. Access Beantown Web for more information.

Meeting The Pros

Fri, 27 Mar 2009 16:08:54 EDT

This past week, Career Services arranged for students and alums to meet and
greet The Pros in an intense portfolio review. They are touted as the
nation's most recommended provider of quality photography and videography --
and The Knot’s Best of Weddings Pick of the Year for 2008.

Tomás Banks, New England Production Manager of The Pros, and Lead
Photographer Andrea da Silva-Kaplan reviewed portfolios and demo reels
from 25 students. Tomas was extremely impressed with the high
quality of work and professionalism shown by our Photography and Film
students/grads. About half of the 25 were either immediately hired on board
or have been set up with shadow shoots for the upcoming wedding season.

The Pros Entertainment found the event very fruitful and is looking forward
to a continued relationship with CDIA here in Waltham and in DC.
Congratulations to all who participated!

Ten Women To Watch

Thu, 19 Mar 2009 02:00:00 EDT

Ten Women to Watch in 2009 were honored for their innovative and motivational work in tech and life sciences last week in Cambridge by Mass High Tech. The women are entrepreneurs and educators, and are involved in their communities. The women selected and nominated are considered industry leaders. Mass High Tech editor Douglas Banks described the motivation behind the program: “Unfortunately, women remain vastly underrepresented in technology and the sciences. But we at Mass High Tech know they’re out there. We know these stories and are going to continue to tell them and continue to hold events like this until it’s no longer news that there are women doing amazing work in science and technology.”

Read more and find LinkedIn profiles for the Women to Watch at Beantown Web. View bios and photos of honorees past and present, and nominate an inspirational woman you know for the 2010 awards.

Powering Up Boston

Wed, 18 Mar 2009 02:00:00 EDT

CDIA dominated the exciting launch of a new site dedicated to promoting video game business development and growth Greater Boston. Held at the headquarters for video game studio Fablevision, the event kicked off PoweringUpBoston.com, a site that allows people to search job openings, find events and other resources.

“That event went so well! I had so much fun!” said CDIA Animation alum, Nick Dougherty. “I thought that the companies were extremely approachable in that environment and I thought it was a great time to ask really honest questions.”

About 25 students and alumni from the 3D Animation program, career services staff, and special CDIA client guests attended the event. The CDIA crowd was such a presence that Mayor Menino mentioned the group while addressing the audience of more than 60 people in Fablevision’s workspace. According to Menino, video game development represents a $200 million industry and provides more than 1,500 jobs in Greater Boston.

It was a great casual networking opportunity, with client representatives from Brickyard VFX, 38 Studios, Blue Fang Game, Vivox, and more. Tanyania Warren, another alum, said, “I would definitely recommend people go to these things because you could connect with people you never would have dreamed of meeting!”

And the winner is...

Tue, 17 Mar 2009 02:00:00 EDT

The SXSW Interactive Festival, a five day event that celebrates the best and the brightest in emerging technology, this year selected two outstanding winners from 18 categories. The People’s Choice, which drew more than 12,000 online votes, went to Lost Zombies, while the SXSW judges selected We Tell Stories.

Check out Beantown Web to see the winners and the five finalists from each category, which includes Art, Film/TV, Games, Motion Graphics, Music, and Student. After absorbing some inspiration from these designs, create and submit your own future-award-winning website!

2009 High School Summer Programs

Fri, 13 Mar 2009 15:22:10 EDT

A glimpse of the future

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to be filmmaker? A photographer? Write film scores? Create 3D animation? This summer you can find out when you spend two weeks in a creative, total immersion summer program at the Center for Digital Imaging Arts at Boston University. Sign up today for one of our exciting programs offered at both our Waltham, MA and Washington, DC campuses, specifically designed for high school students interested in the arts and digital media. Our hands-on approach gives you a chance to express your creativity while you get a glimpse of what your future could be.

Who: High School Students, Ages 14-18
Time: 9am - 3pm, Monday - Friday
Cost: $1200 for each 2 week program
Locations: Waltham MA + Washington DC

Digital Photography: July 13 - 24

Audio Production: July 13 - 24 * Waltham MA Campus Only

Digital Filmmaking: July 27 - August 8

Digital Animation: August 10 - 21

Create Websites with Flash: August 10 - 21

For more information or to request a printed brochure with application, please call 800-808-CDIA or email info@cdiabu.com

Pursuing His Dream

Wed, 11 Mar 2009 02:00:00 EDT

When I graduated from The University of Massachusetts Amherst, I knew that I needed additional education in Computer Graphics. At that time, Computer Graphic programs were starting to appear throughout the U.S. I did an extensive search and realized that there was a program in Massachusetts that was teaching small, personal classes on the subjects I wanted to specialize in. Upon an orientation and a visit to the school, I learned that the Center for Digital Imaging Arts at Boston University (CDIA) had experienced instructors, cutting edge technology, and knowledgeable courses. In May 2005, I started to attend CDIA. I graduated with a certificate in Digital Animation in January 2006 and was prepared with a demo reel and real world practice.

Some of the most important foundation lessons I learned came from CDIA. One of my instructors, Pete Anderson, taught me to pay close attention to artistic detail, and that if I wanted to be employed as a 3D Artist I would have to be willing to listen to critiques, adapt my art, and always remember that it’s not the computer tools, but the artist who makes the true art.

After graduating I worked on my demo reel while also building up a 2D portfolio. I constructed my demo reel to appeal to video game art because my true dream was to work as a 3D Environment Artist. I sent out my work to a dozen companies, ranging from video game companies to ad agencies. I slowly heard back from companies and was quickly realizing that I did not have the experience they were looking for. Many of the entry level jobs wanted 1-3 years experience and a shipped title. I kept applying to places, while working on my demo reel and refining my 2D skills. Finally, I received a call from a small company in New Jersey, n-Fusion Interactive. They were working for Midway Games, using Unreal Engine 3 and were making a WWII game, ‘Hour of Victory’, for the Xbox 360 and PC. This was my big break, working on a AAA title as an Environment Artist. I took the job in May 2006 and committed myself to the project. For the next year and a half, I learned as much as I could from the other artists, level designers and programmers around me.

After the game released, I moved to Plano, TX to work at Gearbox Software, as an Environment Artist. I worked on Ubisoft’s ‘Brothers in Arms: Hell’s Highway’ for the Xbox 360, PS3, and PC. I specialized in Environment Art, but I also took on any task I could, including weapons, UI art, and creating destructible objects. The game shipped and I wanted to move back to the Boston-area to get closer to my family and friends. Bruce, my career counselor from CDIA, helped me as a valuable connection in this process. He guided me through the interview process and recommended experienced insight. Three years later and two shipped AAA games, I was back in Massachusetts working my dream job as an Environment Artist at 2K Boston. With my education, connections, and dedication to my dream, I was able to move back to Massachusetts.

CDIA - Apple Authorized Training Center - Offering End User Exams

Wed, 11 Mar 2009 02:00:00 EDT

End User Exams

Apple Certified Pros are end users who have reached a high level of proficiency in the use and operation of Apple's Pro applications, including:

Final Cut Pro
DVD Studio Pro
Motion
Logic Pro
Aperture

When you pass an Apple Certified Pro exam and obtain Apple Certified Pro status, you distinguish yourself to colleagues, employers, and prospective clients as a skilled user of the chosen application.

To become an Apple Certified Pro, you must pass an exam administered at an Apple Authorized Training Center (AATC). That’s where CDIA comes in – register today to take any of the Apple Pro application exams (listed above) at either our Waltham, MA or Washington, DC campus location..

Waltham, MA Campus: Third Saturday of each month @ 10:00am
Washington, DC Campus: Third Monday of each month @ 4:45pm
Cost: $150 per exam

Zoom

Fri, 06 Mar 2009 02:00:00 EST

Browsers are getting smarter and smarter. Take Apple’s foray into browsers – Safari. Safari 4 offers all kinds of gidgets and gadgets that take the browser paradigm to the next level. IE 8 is not that far off and Firefox keeps gaining on the IE world.

But that’s not what I really want to talk about here. What I want to talk about is how browsers are changing the way users can zoom in on content. Firefox, IE 7, and Safari, all offer ways to increase text size or to zoom the page. With a few keystrokes, I can zoom in to a page and all of the content increases in size – including the text. Nothing revealing here, I know.

My point is, for us developers, that this shift in user controls will allow the user to have more control over our designs. The debate about fix-width designs as opposed to fluid or liquid layouts may as well be over. That is, of course, as soon as IE 6 is dead.

A recent article on A List Apart by Ethan Marcotte, talks about calculating fluid layouts for an em-based design. The math makes perfect sense and the calculations and methods mentioned here are not new. Mark Boulton, Andy Budd, and others have already documented such techniques for arriving at a truly em-based, liquid layout.

My question is, “Is it necessary?” The obvious answer would seem to be no, considering the sophisticated advances made by the browser manufacturers. So what’s the hurdle then?

Is it only IE 6? Designers are control freaks, no doubt about it, especially designers coming from a print background. A fixed, width, pixel precise controlled layout is going to feel more comfortable than a flexible, width changing, pixel imprecise (or not) controlled fluid layout. With the math that Marcotte presents, it’s not insurmountable, but the variable nature of a fluid layout, frankly, scares most designers.

So do we need fluid layouts anymore? Is it necessary to focus so much attention on ems and percentage-based design anymore? What’s the lowest common denominator?

Let’s hear your comments.

Connecting the Masses

Thu, 05 Mar 2009 02:00:00 EST

I am currently a student at CDIABU, and this will be my first blog with some of the experiences I have been through.

I feel as though so far, CDIA is everything I expected and wanted out of a college. I am a month into the program and I am already learning, getting hands-on experience, and networking as much as possible. I am very thankful to be learning from industry professionals who have been through a lot of what I’m sure everyone will be going through. It’s a good time to ask lots of questions and soak up every bit of information. I plan to take as much as I can out of the program and continue to stay in touch with everyone as much as possible. I think CDIA has changed my life in a lot of ways. Before applying, I had no idea this school existed and hadn't found the perfect fit for me. Now I have, and I will always be thankful to CDIA for being so close to me and just simply existing.

As for the networking side of things, a friend of mine by the name of Jon Berkowitz at CDIA, as well as myself and others, have begun working to make the “social scene” at school more involved and to try to get students in other programs to network and collaborate more. I think so far its working out well. It needs time to grow seeing how it’s really the first time anyone has done this as far as I know. The goal is to bring people together to make a name for the school and show people that CDIA is a hidden jewel. We have a social networking group on Facebook and on Twitter anyone can join, and as of now, everyone tries to meet every Friday at the restaurant Margaritas in Waltham on Moody Street. Everyone is welcome to come. Please feel free to contact me about anything, or join the networking groups and please get involved and make CDIA a well known name in the world of media and colleges!

The Price Is Right in World of IT

Wed, 04 Mar 2009 02:00:00 EST

Everyone searches for that perfect job - the one that provides security, salary, and satisfaction. Does it sound too good to be true? Information technology (IT) workers are taking “this economy” head on, and getting just that. Success is not just within the reach of IT professionals, they have a firm grip on it.

“Money apparently does buy happiness in the current economy,” CDIA Graphic and Web Design instructor Gene Babon writes in his most recent post on Beantown Web. Babon explores the skills and salaries of IT positions, ranging from help desk support staff to chief information officer.

Babon breaks down who makes what, where, and how - making the bleak economy a bit brighter.

Concept of a Film - Through the Eyes of the Filmmaker

Tue, 03 Mar 2009 02:00:00 EST

To make a documentary film, whether it’s a few minutes or much longer, is an involved process. Even though I knew I wanted to make a film about childbirth, it still took me time to decide exactly what slant or approach would be best in order to tell my story.

Jean-Paul Ouellette’s pre-production and post-production classes were key for me. J P provided lots of guidance, information, assistance and feedback. His classes are amazing and extremely important when making a film.

While in J P’s preproduction class, it took me lots of time to decide what slant I wanted for my film. This time was necessary for me to develop the synopsis. Sounds easy enough, right? Well, not for me. I realized I didn’t know if I wanted to make an expose and emphasize all the negative aspects of the maternity system today—how it was a big business for profit at the expense of women and their babies—or to focus on birth as a natural event.

However, I know of a lot of women who are fearful about childbirth. Their answer is to have the drugs and medical intervention without questioning anything. I’ve heard women say that they aren’t brave enough to have a natural birth—a birth without drugs. In reality, it probably takes a braver person to go into today’s maternity system, especially if the women and their families do not know the facts about drugs and common medical practices. I knew then that I had to include specific information about the maternity system—the inductions, epidurals and high rate of cesareans. All of these can contribute to complications and negative results for both mothers and babies.

My main mission is to empower women. I want to give them the confidence to birth their babies, remind them that childbirth is a natural event, that they were designed to give birth without medical intervention/drugs, and to provide accurate, unbiased information. Education empowers people. I not only want to educate women, but also young girls and boys, young men and young women, grandparents, aunts and uncles—everyone. Some of these young boys and girls will be tomorrow’s doctors, nurses, doulas and midwives.

Women will learn that when they prepare mentally and physically for the birth of their baby, just as an athlete prepares for his or her event, there is a chance for a more positive outcome. It’s a lot like when I spend the necessary time in preproduction; the potential to have a more positive outcome is much greater.

In order to create the necessary foundation for my documentary, I learned that I must build a solid foundation. To write my synopsis I needed to take the time to decide what my film was about. The same was true for my Statement of and Purpose—why did I choose to make this film. The Abstract (a summary or statement of context) helped me to decide specifically what to put in the film in order to tell my story. And, lastly, the Preproduction Approach assisted me in selecting the right people and footage to best tell my story.

Pro Tools 8 is Among Us

Mon, 02 Mar 2009 02:00:00 EST

One of the bigger stories in the pro audio world this year has been the long-awaited release of ProTools 8, the first major upgrade to Digi’s flagship software in years. At a recent Pro Tools User Group meet at Parsons Audio (www.paudio.com) I saw a demo of the new platform. I had seen the mag articles and accompanying screenshots of the new release, but seeing it in person I was struck by the sleek new UI and, honestly, how much it reminded me of Apple’s Logic platform. Between the UI, starter templates (complete with built in drum loops) and updated comping function there is no question that Digi has Logic in mind when it designed portions of this new release. Still – once you move past the easy comparisons, it is still Pro Tools and the new release is impressive. All of the new functionality was not demo’d at this gathering, but from what I saw the most interesting and useful update is the ability to see and manage all automation parameters for a single track in vertical lanes underneath that track. No more bouncing back and forth with the track view selector to perfectly align the reverb send level with your didgeridoo volume automation - sweet!

You can get all the relevant details at the Digi site or any number of pro audio mags and online forums. I walked away impressed and will be upgrading in the future… as soon as a point release or two are out there and any major issues are resolved, of course.

A Little More History on the Making of BIRTH

Tue, 24 Feb 2009 02:00:00 EST

As I mentioned in an earlier BLOG, through the years, I have worked as a childbirth educator, a writer, and most recently a documentary filmmaker. My reason to make my documentary, BIRTH, is because I want to reach more people faster than is possible through print journalism. I want to educate, inform and empower women and men, the young and the old, that childbirth is a natural event. Unfortunately, in the United States, childbirth is a big business for profit filled with unnecessary medical intervention, high-tech machines and drugs, at the expense of mothers and their babies.

My motivation to become a childbirth advocate, writer and ultimately a documentary filmmaker, started with my first birth experience. When I read a book by Marsden Wagner, M.D., a natural childbirth advocate, a scientist, and former Director of Women's and Children's Health at the World Health Organization, it motivated me not to wait a minute longer to make my documentary about childbirth. In Dr. Wagner's, Born In The USA: How A Broken Maternity System Must Be Fixed To Put Women and Children First, he shares that the state of obstetrical care is in crisis.

My documentary is 30 minutes long and explores the benefits of natural childbirth and also the dangers mothers and babies face in today's high-tech and drug-filled maternity care environment. Most of the mothers in the documentary were given drugs and had medical interventions during the birth of their first babies, and subsequently birthed their babies naturally. In addition, childbirth experts also give valuable information and enlightening insights about childbirth.

The Creation of BIRTH

Fri, 20 Feb 2009 02:00:00 EST

My interest in childbirth began with the birth of my first son. As I lay alone, laboring in a sterile hospital room (my husband was watching Thursday Night at the Fights down the hall), the nurse screamed at me, “RELAX!” Every once in a while she’d reappear, scowl and say something like, “You’re going to be here until 2 or 3 in the morning, so just relax.” This made me even more tense, because it was only 10 p.m and the contractions were already hard. One hour later, I was wheeled into the delivery room, given a spinal and became numb from the waist down. During the birth of my first baby, the most important day of my life, the two doctors talked to each other about their golf game. They never once acknowledged my existence. As soon as my baby was born, he was whisked away, before I even had a chance to hold him. I didn’t see my son for another 10 hours. To this day, I tell my first son that he was my teacher, the one who motivated me to search for a better way to bring a baby into the world and to share that knowledge with others.

During my second son’s birth, with a new doctor, I was an active member of the birth team, along with my husband, the nurses and the doctor. Immediately after my son was born, I felt an elation and a satisfaction like I’d never experienced before. Just minutes later he was handed to me and lay skin-to-skin in my arms. Neither of us was groggy because we gave birth naturally. A year after my second son was born I became a certified childbirth educator, and later started my own childbirth program in a rural setting in Trinity County, California, right by the Oregon border.

Now, years later, I continue to feel passionate about natural childbirth and its importance to all of us, both individually and to our world. On March 19, 2009, at 7 p.m. in Studio C on CDIA’s Waltham campus, I will screen my first documentary film, called BIRTH.

Keep It Simple

Wed, 18 Feb 2009 02:00:00 EST

This past Saturday, Valentines Day to be exact, was particularly moving for me in the world of CDIA and printmaking. I fell in love again. I of course had class and spent the day with Bob Korn and my CDIA part time photography family. While standing in the print lab, photo in hand, bluesy music streaming from a laptop in the corner, I realized I am in love with photography. CDIA has been my home away from home since September. I have thoroughly enjoyed all of the instructors and classes.

My most recent module, fine art printing with Bob Korn has been by far the most beneficial and interesting class for me. Bob’s teaching reminds us that we are not only photographers but also artists. He empowers each of us with the knowledge that we can convey emotions through our photos. It may sound odd that a printing class can have this much of an effect but believe me when I say this is not just any printing class. For starters, Bob has a motto that while cute is actually practical. K.I.S – keep it simple. This is a rather timely motto considering we have now completed our second Photoshop class, which can be anything but simple. We are reminded that sometimes all a photo needs is to be held in hand and quietly looked at for a moment. If you walked into Bob’s class you would most likely hear, “too dark or too light?” in an almost melodic fashion. That is because Bob believes that a good photo is hiding inside many of our seemingly average images and the good images can be great.

Photo by Sarah Viera

In the last few weeks Bob has taught me to listen to my instinct, look at one image at a time and think about one element at a time. Density, contrast, and overall color begin to take on new meaning. These elements have become an important part of my technique and are now tools in my arsenal. Bob did more than teach me technique and printing. He reminded me that I am an artist and my images can touch people. This simple statement floats to the top of my mind as I prepare to photograph my sweet little dog and I think, “Will this be too dark or too light or just right?”

An Evening with Matt McClure

Fri, 13 Feb 2009 02:00:00 EST

On Tuesday, January 13th, I attended a presentation by renowned Nashville producer/engineer Matt McClure with a few colleagues from the CDIA Audio program, both past and present. Matt was speaking at the monthly Boston Audio Engineering Society (AES) gathering, and those who braved the labyrinth of the Boston College campus to find the meeting hall were treated to a wonderful evening.

Matt's story, like many in this business, is unique and inspiring on several levels. Matt got his start doing live sound for Disney, of all places, before seizing an opportunity to mix for a small country act. He spent more than 10 years on the road doing sound for a number of Nashville's biggest acts before leaving that grind to launch his career as an engineer and producer in the Music City. Despite a series of ups and downs, Matt persevered to become one of the premier engineers on the Nashville scene specializing in the production of demos, used by songwriters to showcase their work.

Over the course of a several-hour discussion, Matt enlightened us about the Nashville music process – everything from scheduling to the Nashville charting method to the inner workings of the demo. All of us in the music business are familiar with demos, but in Nashville, demos are a key component in the entire creative process, from songwriting to final production and release. Songwriters and music publishers produce demos as a way to create top-quality versions of songs for shopping to established stars and record labels. If selected for a major label release, the demos provide the direction and structure for that release – often the release even includes the same backing musicians!

Matt was also kind enough to show us pictures of recent production sessions and the home studio where he does the majority of his mixes. He also played us clips of some of recent work. The "icing on the cake" moment was when Matt took us through screen shots of a recent ProTools session, discussing in detail a few of his techniques for achieving sounds as well as some preferences for gear.

What struck me most about Matt was his passion for music and audio coupled with a genuine honesty and integrity that runs through his approach to the business. Overall, a great evening was had by all.

More Than Just Luck of the DAW

Mon, 09 Feb 2009 02:00:00 EST

CDIABU Audio students are lucky to be exposed to several DAWs (industry jargon for Digital Audio Workstations). Too often individuals, and even institutions, put all their eggs in one basket, choosing to focus on one particular tool to the exclusion of all others. For some people, the debate about the relative merits of different DAWs becomes passionate to the point of zealotry. Think Mac vs. PC or analog vs. digital for a sense of the strength of the feelings in play here.

As an instructor who teaches (and uses) several different DAWs, it strikes me as a pretty pointless argument. Here’s the analogy I often use when new students ask me which DAW is best: it’s kind of like someone asking what motor vehicle is best. Maybe you have a large family and need a mini-van. Maybe you’re interested in street racing instead, and a mini-van just isn’t going to soup up as well as an Asian import. Maybe you do carpentry on the weekend and need a pickup truck to haul lumber, or maybe you have a long commute and need a very fuel-efficient vehicle. The point is: all of these vehicles get you from Point A to Point B. The only real difference is in the ride.

Likewise, all DAWs record and edit audio and midi, mix, master, etc. One might be better at a specific task you need to do, or one might feel more comfortable to you, but that simply makes them different — not better or worse. They are all tools. When you need a hammer, you need a hammer, and when you need a screwdriver, you need a screwdriver.

But analogies about eggs baskets, mini-vans and hammers only get us so far, and they don’t explain much about the DAWs. To clarify, here are a few specifics:

Digidesign Pro Tools is used in many professional studios, which gives it an advantage in terms of inter-compatibility. The user can easily move files from a $300 home system to a $30,000 pro system. On the other hand, the LE (limited edition) versions within the reach of many users are, well, limited. Not in any deal-breaking ways, but it’s definitely something to keep in mind. Another catch is that you must use Digidesign hardware in order to use Pro Tools, which limits your hardware options.
Apple Logic is extremely affordable (especially for students) and has a huge feature set, including lots of loops and virtual instruments. This is great for composition (or “beat making,” as the kids call it nowadays). However, the learning curve for Logic may be a bit steeper than Pro Tools, which is elegant in its simplicity.
Digital Performer (DP) has a very good blend of ease of use, features, price, etc. DP integrates well with hardware and software made by its (local) parent company MOTU, although it doesn’t force you to use that hardware like Digidesign. It may not be the flashiest DAW, but it sure gets the job done.

To make matters more complex, each company borrows features and ideas from each other like competitive siblings, sometimes leapfrogging the others in one area, only to be leapfrogged themselves six months later. So stay tuned, DAW fans!

Our First CDIA Student Chapter AES Event

Thu, 05 Feb 2009 02:00:00 EST

On January 12th, 2009, the CDIA Waltham campus hosted its first CDIABU Student Chapter Audio Engineering Society event, titled "Building and Maintaining a Successful Career in Audio Production." We had a panel of Boston-based producers and engineers answering questions and sharing their experiences in the world of audio.

Our three panelists were Gabe Herman, J Franze and Dana Colley. Gabe is familiar to CDIA students as one of our instructors, helping us master the art of mixing. He also works extensively in the world of audio as an engineer, producer, sound designer and composer, as well as running his own studio out of the Jamspot complex in Somerville. J Franze owns his own production company and is a seasoned professional in many areas of the audio industry, with a diploma in Audio Production from the SAE Institute of Technology as well as certification in Engineering and Music Production and a certificate in Music Business. He’s also written two books and worked with many artists in Nashville, New York and Boston. Dana Colley is best known for playing the baritone sax for Boston's own Morphine. He is currently involved with HI-N-DRY Studios and is a core member of the Mark Sandman Music Project, which actively brings music and music education to local youth.

Since this was our first event at CDIA, we were keen to have a good turnout, and we were not disappointed – all seats were filled. I was moderating the evening, but it had been a while since I'd done any public speaking so I was a little nervous – especially when confronted with a panel of audio giants for whom I have so much respect. I’m always surprised by how comfortable I am making a fool of myself playing music on stage in front of any number of people (and in my music career, that number has ranged anywhere from a lone barman wishing for a customer to serve to a few thousand at some festivals), but when speaking to an assembly of mostly familiar people, the nerves kick in.

I began the evening with some general questions on how the panel members got started in the audio business. It’s always interesting to hear about the many ways people get started. Everyone has a different story, but the common factors are always a passion for audio, hard work and a hunger to succeed. We then moved on to a discussion of how the panelists currently manage the business side of their audio careers. They talked about the advantages/disadvantages to working out of your own studio and shared their strategies for keeping current clients and attracting new ones.

As a student who will soon be set free into the real world of audio, I was very interested in the panelists’ tips for students doing internships. Their expert advice: be enthusiastic and always on the lookout for something that needs to be done, whether it's closing an open door, getting an artist a glass of water or grabbing a mic that's about to fall off of a dodgy stand.

I'd like to thank everyone who attended the event, as well as our panel, and I look forward to hosting our next event at CDIA.

Skip Cohen Marketing Talk at CDIA

Wed, 28 Jan 2009 02:00:00 EST

There were 50-60 people at last night's event, which sadly is a good turnout for a marketing program. Based on the number of photographers who simply don't pay enough attention to marketing and self-promotion, a lot more of you should have made it!

However, to those "brave souls" who joined us – you were terrific. Just the fact that you made it to a program on marketing, says that in the next year you're going to be far ahead of your competitors who chose to do other things. Remember to look for those opportunities to promote yourself and your business.

Highlights to remember…

"If I can see the world through my client's eyes then I can sell my client what my client buys!"

You've got to pay attention to all the things going on around you that influence your client. Look for opportunities to be involved in the community always finding ways to be a part of the events around
you. People like buying products from companies they feel are giving something back.

It's winter time and the perfect opportunity to create that image for next year's holiday card! No photographer should be buying holiday cards when you can use one of your own images! And don't forget to put your contact information on the back – this is about self-promotion, not just wishing family and friends happy holidays.

If you're coming to WPPI, try and find me to say hello – it gets pretty crazy. After the first day you'll understand why I refer to WPPI as the most fun I don't have the energy to do for another year!

If you're not going to WPPI, you should be and this isn't a sales pitch because as students, you've all been given the opportunity to attend at no charge – so find a room mate to reduce your costs,
check out Southwest out of Providence or fly out of Logan – there are still a bunch of good airfares to Las Vegas. With 130+ instructors and over 300 exhibitors you can't afford to miss this year's convention!

See you in Vegas!

Technology Worker? In This Economy? Not Such a Bad Idea

Thu, 15 Jan 2009 02:00:00 EST

With the U.S. still frantically searching for where it misplaced its economy sometime last year, job hunting is one of the most daunting prospects facing professionals and recent graduates today. But fear not, brave technology workers!

In Tuesday's post on his Boston-based web development and career blog, Beantown Web, CDIA Graphic and Web Design instructor Gene Babon analyzes a job placement expert’s prediction that technology workers are likely to survive the current economic implosion more successfully than professionals in many other fields. He also looks at trends in the most popular Web-related technology fields and links to job postings.

Babon may not personally find you a job as a programmer or designer, but this should help chase some of those recession nightmares away.

Local Alumni Website: Some necessary questions

Mon, 12 Jan 2009 02:00:00 EST

Recently, I was approached by a high school alumni organization to help with their website as a volunteer. The first question they had was, "Can you help us to have our site talk to an Access database file?"

Hold the presses! When I hear that question, first I cringe, then I have to dig a little deeper. There are very few times where it makes sense to use an Access database as your source of record for a website.

It turns out that my questioning was valid. As is usually the case, the plan to use the Access database stems from the fact that Access was used during the initial data compilation - i.e. someone manually entering contact information through Microsoft's software. In the single-user world, Access is fine. But with plans to have the data dynamically updated through the web page by each alum, the solution wouldn't be scalable.

Joel: "What is the purpose of the site?"
Org: "People should be able to update their contact information, as well as see what's going on with the school and city."

Joel: "When do you plan to go live?"
Org: "This month. We have a prototype built, but it doesn't connect back to a database or Access yet."

At this point my brain starts to do the math. It's going to need to be cheap (free), up and running quickly, secure enough for people to log-in and enter their information, and it's not yet connected to any database (Access or otherwise).

We wrapped up the first call discussing a Content Management System (CMS), such as Joomla! or Drupal. CMS hadn't been considered before our call because the folks at the alumni association weren't familiar with the technology. Between the quick setup time, and overall ease of administration, it looks likely that we'll be choosing a CMS to get this up and running quickly.

I'll keep you posted on how this develops through this blog.

Questions? Thoughts? Post them in the Comments!

Jennifer Hudson's Passion for Couture

Fri, 09 Jan 2009 02:00:00 EST

In the December 2008 / January 2009 issue of After Capture Magazine, Jennifer Hudson talks about her road to couture photography and relocating to Boston MA.

"My journey as an artist has thrived on the unbelievable strength and mystery of women. There is such a power in every single one of us and it is fascinating to me to try and draw that out in a photograph. I believe that our industry depends on creativity now more than ever. We don't need more technicians, we need more artists."

Read the full article on page 40 in After Capture Magazine's December 2008 / January 2009 issue.

Rob Van Petten's "Near Future"

Thu, 08 Jan 2009 11:46:15 EST

For the January 2009 issue of Professional Photographer Magazine, CDIA-Waltham Photography Program Associate Director Rob Van Petten was featured in an article on his personal style of photography including his newest project, "Near Future."

"That process of developing his style has led Van Petten to some interesting personal projects, the most recent of which he calls "Near Future". Derived from his youthful interest in chemistry, physics and science fiction, the images in this collection look something like '50's comic strip meets a Richard Avedon fashion shoot. "The work is about a feeling more than anything else," says Van Petten."

Read the full article on page 126 in Professional Photographer Magazine's January 2009 issue.

I Wanna Rock!

Tue, 06 Jan 2009 02:00:00 EST

By now, you’ve probably heard about the phenomena that are the music video games Rock Band and Guitar Hero. I can’t think of any experience that has done more to broaden the appeal of video gaming for new players. Given their wild popularity – and my own fondness – I thought I’d take a look at the latest versions from the perspective of a 3D Animation student.

Both Rock Band 2 and Guitar Hero: World Tour are available on current- and next-generation consoles, but definitely look best when played on one of the newer systems. My experience has been on the Playstation 2 and Xbox 360, but I would be surprised if there were significant differences on the Playstation 3.

Animation in the two games is very good. The developers have created a library of what I like to think of as “rock cycles” that they string together to create a compelling performance for the onscreen characters. There are probably 8 or 10 cameras used during any act, and cuts between them are well timed. My guess is that the animators develop a performance for each song using their library of cycles and a basic skeleton with rig. This allows the player to create and use whichever avatar they want; then the avatar is applied to the skeleton when they play.

The lip sync is also well done, although I think Rock Band 2 did a little extra work on their phonemes and visemes. Guitar Hero: World Tour has a lot of rapid head movement and often hides the singer’s mouth behind the microphone.

Textures in each game are gorgeous, although I enjoyed what GH:WT had to offer more because of some stylistic choices the developers of RB2 made. In RB2, a noise filter has been applied to all the cameras, giving everything a grainy look. On a standard definition TV, this gives the effect of having been recorded on film, which is nice but in high def, it just looks like static.

Image by Hilary Goldstein.

While the GH:WT textures are cleaner, the characters suffer from some strange issues that I think are related to texture baking. This process renders a character’s lighting information in advance so it doesn’t have to be dynamically determined by the game console. It works great if the model’s light source won’t be changing dramatically. GH:WT didn’t apply it universally – just to certain highlights. Unfortunately, this means features like teeth, eyes and other body parts appear to glow when the lights swing away from them. RB2 appears to have avoided baking, so the color schemes in that game are consistent.

Placement of lighting is better in RB2, though more organic in GH:WT. RB2 characters seem to have invisible lights that follow them around via parent constraints and provide some really nice underlighting and highlighting. Both games use some kind of volumetric effect on their spotlights, which greatly improves the mood of the performances.

Image by Chris Roper

The crowds are very simple repeating models, maybe even some kind of advanced sprites with 3–5 animation cycles, so it’s fairly easy to pick out identical fans that are doing the same thing. RB2 either has more animations than its rival or places the fans more carefully; the crowd seems more fluid and natural. GH:WT fans will often appear right next to each other, like twins or triplets dancing to the exact same beat. This makes me think they’re being dynamically generated by a randomizer that hasn’t been programmed to space out any duplicates.

The next time you play a video game, think about how what you’re seeing was developed. It might give you some useful ideas on how to handle your next animation. Or (even better) it might show you what to watch out for.

Keeping My Website Up to Date

Mon, 29 Dec 2008 02:00:00 EST

A common complaint among 3D artists is about our website and demo reel: “Well, my website is out of date because I haven’t had time to make new pages recently,” or “I put a demo reel together last month, and it’s already out-of-date, but I don’t want to take the time to make a new one yet.” It seems that artists’ professional representation – their website and demo reel, what other artists, enthusiasts, and potential employers see – is almost always out-of-date, “under construction,” or simply given up upon.
    When we were required to create a professional website at CDIA, many of my classmates and I started discussing these problems with sites and demo reels. Maintaining a demo reel is too time-consuming, having a gallery website isn’t representative of the client- and project-based work we do, and coding new web pages every time we want to update the site is a pain, especially for the majority of 3D artists, who don’t happen to double over as web developers.
    I decided a few months ago that it was high time to tackle this problem of being constantly out-of-date. I started working on some website software that would allow me to upload new images, descriptions, and other information to a project database very quickly, and the database immediately display the updated work on my website. The goal was to be able to finish a project, send it into the client, take a few screengrabs of it, hit a few buttons on my website, and have the information be online. At last, my site wouldn’t be permanently under construction, permanently out-of-date: It would be a up-to-date representation of my work and projects, within about five minute accuracy.
    After working on this software on-and-off for three months, I finally put my website live a few weeks ago. I’m finishing up the software now, making it robust and user-friendly in hopes that I can sell it to other artists who would benefit from this streamlined system (I’m already working with my first client, a former CDIA classmate of mine). Of course it’s important to have your portfolio represent you accurately and show your most current and best work – you never know when your dream job might be checking you out!

    You can see my new professional website, and the software in action, at jonoforbes.com.

Beneath the Surface

Wed, 24 Dec 2008 02:00:00 EST

As promised, here are some images that have come out of our Practicum project on the visualization of Aplastic Anemia. As always, modeling and rigging are done in Autodesk Maya and texturing is done in Adobe Photoshop.

Modeled by John Corbett

The animation begins with an image of the human leg and zooms in to this first model, which represents the vein network located under the surface of the skin. Gross, but effective in establishing the scene. To make the veins pulse as if blood were flowing through them, Trevor Green came up with a clever technique: we duplicated the textured model and transferred the image map from the first to the second. We increased the size of the duplicate’s envelope and then created a blendshape between the two. This allowed us to scrub back and forth between the two different shapes without having to mess with the model’s scale.

Modeled by Trevor Green, Rendered by John Corbett

A dynamics simulation allowed for large numbers of red blood cells to flow through the veins. We accomplished this scene by creating a Curve Flow and having the particles follow the curve down the tunnel we had designated for the vein. Then it was a simple matter of replacing the particles with an instance of our red blood cell, meaning we only needed one piece of geometry. Unfortunately, the cells were all uniform, so our instructor, Pete Eastwood, developed an expression that told each particle to rotate a tiny bit in a random direction every frame, giving the illusion that each was operating independently.

Modeled by John Corbett

The infectious organisms were a lot of fun to model. At the cellular level, they can take all kinds of shapes, but we settled on the ones we felt were the most menacing. Since they would be attacking healthy cells, the invaders needed to have a little more personality, so I gave them simple rigs that would allow them to bend and swim.

Rendered and modeled by Trevor Green

We achieved the look of the stem cells by applying a facing ratio to the model. This neat little trick means that no matter what the orientation of the model is, the center will appear more shadowed than the edges.
Altogether, the animation only has about 18 separate shots, which makes it more manageable than our last group attempt.

I Want This as a Career

Tue, 23 Dec 2008 02:00:00 EST

I recently completed my sixth project for Lineplot Productions, an animation studio located in Cambridge, MA. I've been working as their sound designer on a freelance basis. The people at Lineplot put strong emphasis on the audio side of things regardless of the hundred other issues going on with an animated piece. So, yeah, it's a great gig. How did it come to be? It goes a little something like this…

I completed the Audio Production program at CDIA a year ago. My reason for attending was to discover which path in the audio world I would pursue as a career. I knew it wouldn't be the traditional route of tracking bands in the studio because to me that is usually rather boring. I'm all for occasional collaboration but I'd much rather be shut in a dark room with ProTools, Logic and a portable recorder. But how do you make money from late night maniacal aural experiments? That's what I wanted to find out... was it even possible? <Cue ominous strings, mild anticipatory chatter>

During the course of the audio program certain modules in particular piqued my interest - sound design, mix, and audio for video games. So, good; I was finding direction and it was all pointing towards post production... right on. But still, where do I sign up for the audio post jobs? My answer came, and it came in the form of Career Services Co-Director Bruce Jaranian who encouraged me to apply for a sound design opening at Lineplot. I applied and went for an interview, where at the conclusion I was asked to say something that would make them remember me and give me the job: "Well…<uncomfortable pause> I want this as a career. It's what I want to do."

We soon began the first project called "Supply Shock," which, through Grand Theft Auto-style animation, explained the factors involved in the rise and fall of gas prices. It was essentially my trial run to see if I was up for a five-part series that was next on the slate. Over fifty hours of audio bliss later the project wrapped, was a success, and it was time to move forward.

Next time - balancing the day job and freelance work, + inevitable spiritual awakenings via sleep deprivation.

Pushing the Graphic Envelope with HDR Photography

Mon, 22 Dec 2008 02:00:00 EST

CDIA-Georgetown Photography Program Director Chris Alvanas recently wrote an interesting article for Nikon World about HDR Technology.

"If you haven’t heard about high dynamic range photography, you soon will. It’s a hot topic among photographers, and many of those who are using it to create striking images feel we’re only at the beginning of its popularity. While HDR’s been around for a while, it’s the growth of digital photography and the capabilities of digital imaging programs that’s made it accessible to all."

Read the full article on the Nikon World site.

Talking e-commerce with Amazon.com: Part 1

Fri, 19 Dec 2008 02:00:00 EST

It's the holidays and if there's a time to shop it's between "black Friday" and the New Year. I decided it was time to get some e-commerce going one of my own sites, ArtofRhyme.com. The 8.5% referral fee www.Amazon.com offers on certain products is enough to get me to dig into their Web Service aws.amazon.com.

Over the next couple of blogs, I'll be taking you through the process of utilizing Amazon's API to pull back information from their servers. I'll be approaching it from the beginning so hopefully people can follow along.

One of the first steps to get going with Amazon is to register as a developer https://aws-portal.amazon.com/gp/aws/developer/registration/index.html. If you already have an Amazon account they can federate the information across the two services. I decided to create a new development account because I don't know how much information they share and they have some of my billing information stored.

Now that I'm registered, I'm able to check out some of the Developer Resources and one of particular interest is Amazon Associates Web Service Simple Store in PHP http://developer.amazonwebservices.com/connect/entry.jspa?externalID=498&categoryID=14. Sample code is always the best way to learn because it helps to see something working on your own system.

Moving into the technology side of this experiment, and, of course, a hiccup:

Fatal error: Call to undefined function: simplexml_load_string() in /home/sitename/public_html/SimpleStore.php on line 88

Luckily reading through some comments right on the Simple Store page points me to the culprit. The production server I'm working on is still running PHP 4 and the simplexml_load_string() function was introduced in PHP 5! Version lag is one of the major downfalls of working with a hosted service.

Okay, to move past that and prove out the connection and the functionality I want, I'll move to one of my development environments where PHP 5 is up and running. I really should always start in the development environment, but how fun is that?

The http://localhost/~joel/aor/SimpleStore.php?action=Search page looks the same, but now when I search results are returned!

A book search for "Dale Carnegie, How to Win Friends and Influence People" returned 2 matches and a "Next Page" link:

These books can be found at this link.

So far the only steps I've needed to follow to talk to Amazon's mammoth database were:
•    sign up for an AWS account
•    download a sample
•    add my access key to a PHP 5 server

Give it a try, and in the next blog we'll take this a bit further with an end goal of having it integrated within a real site.

Questions so far? Post them in the Comments!

Working With Flash for Audio

Thu, 18 Dec 2008 02:00:00 EST

Recently I posted a new website - www.ryanlaperlemusic.com.

The website still has the same address but it's now a brand new site with all the bells and whistles. I know I spoke of this last blog, but this is up and running thanks to the great web design program at CDIA and CDIA alum Amanda Martocchio. Its amazing how busy I was, working up to the launching of the site. Amanda, who designed it, did all the real busy foot work and design. Her and I looked at sites of other musicians to get ideas. I was looking for an audio player that would play during your time at the site and not restart the player if you click on a new button. She told me that she would have to create it in Flash instead of HTML. It was Amanda who was willing to take on this challenge and use flash, without a lot of experience, I think that is awesome. I don't much about webdesign, I just know Flash is hard and complicated to work with. After many weeks of trial and error, she was able to get it up and running.

During this I found myself going to CDIA weekly to meet about the site, and to make sure it worked on the server etc... It was nice to have something that brought me back to CDIA. I was able to have some post school reminiscing. I forgot how nice it was to leave your daily routine and go to this great artistic world where everyone had the same mind set and goals. That is always something that I really enjoyed about CDIA. To see the new player check out my new website.

Fun With Patterns

Wed, 17 Dec 2008 02:00:00 EST

Creating patterns in Illustrator and Photoshop can be a blast. No, seriously. So, I was trying to come up with something that looked like a metal grid. Something like this:

All images by Al Lemieux

I started in Photoshop, creating a new document that was a half inches wide, by a half inches high. I put two grid lines, one vertical, one horizontal, to find the center point. Then I drew a black circle in the middle with the Oval Shape tool. I copied the circles into the each corner, roughly centering each circles mid-point to the corners. Not easy to do, since Photoshop doesn’t allow you to see off-canvas objects. Then I turned off the background layer, and hit Command (Control) + Option (Alt) + Shift + E to isolate all of the vector shape objects onto a separate layer. I turned off all of the other layers and went to Edit to Define Pattern. Give the pattern a name and now I’m ready to go.

Unfortunately, when defining a pattern in Photoshop, it doesn’t preserve transparent areas. I created a new document and filled it with the pattern on a new layer. Hiding the background layer, I noticed that the black circles had a white background. “Tartar Sauce!”

So, then I figured, I’d take it to Illustrator. Even easier. In Illustrator, grab the Rectangle tool and click once. Set the width and height to a half inch. I need this square only as a guide, so I hit Command (Control) + 5.

Then I select the Oval tool and draw a black circle in the middle of the guide. Option (Alt) drag copies of the circle into each corner, registering the circles mid-point for each corner. In Illustrator, I need to clip the outside portion of the circles in the corners. So, I draw another square directly over the guide. This square needs no fill or stroke. Select that square and all of the circles in the corners, then go into the Pathfinder panel and choose Divide. Now, I can delete the portions of the circle I don’t need with the Direct Selection tool.

Finally, select the entire set and choose Edit to Define Pattern. Give the pattern a name and click OK. The pattern will appear in the Swatches panel. Draw out a larger rectangle and then click on the pattern to fill it.

Then I selected this rectangle, pasted it as a Smart Object into a new Photoshop file. I added a few Layer Styles and put in a ‘brushed metal’ background and got this:

Which is pretty cool, but not where I need to be. It turns out that the pattern I created in Illustrator needs to be reversed.

Starting the process all over again, I created the half inch square and set it as a guide. Then I drew in my black circles in the middle and corners. Then I drew a gray square over everything and sent it behind, Command (Control) + [. Selecting everything, I did a Pathfinder Divide again and then deleted all of the circles. Here’s what I ended up with:

Select what’s left over and then choose Edit to Define Pattern again. Create a new Rectangle and fill it with the final pattern. Select the rectangle and then bring it into Photoshop as a Smart Object. I added the following Bevel and Emboss layer style settings:

And then added a gradient overlay, from a medium gray to a light gray. Then I changed the background to black and Voila! I got what I was looking for.

Under the Microscope

Tue, 16 Dec 2008 02:00:00 EST

Of the three big businesses I hoped to do break into upon completing my studies at CDIA, I viewed medical animation as the one I was the least likely to land. I mean, I’m not doctor, and while I find the human body fascinating, I’m an artist first and a scientist… well, rarely.
    So, it was all kinds of interesting when the Practicum project that landed in our lap last month was for Johns Hopkins Medical Institute. I mentioned in my previous posting that we had been tasked with creating a visualization of the effect and treatment of aplastic anemia, so I thought I’d elaborate on that.
    What is it, exactly? Aplastic anemia is an autoimmune disorder wherein the body’s immune system becomes confused and starts to attack healthy cells. In particular, stem cells. I didn’t know this before we started, but inside your bone marrow, stem cells are growing. These cells transform into red blood cells, white blood cells, and platelets, all of which are critical to your body’s daily business. Red blood cells deliver oxygen to your muscles, white blood cells form your immune system, and platelets help with clotting. When you’ve got aplastic anemia, some of your white blood cells assault the stem cells, and the counts on your other cells starts to plummet. This causes all kinds of problems.
    The project was brought to us by Bill Chenaille, the Director of Outreach at CDIA’s Washington, DC campus. He has some expertise in the area, as his daughter is currently coping with aplastic anemia. Not only did this provide us a tremendous resource in Bill, but it also gave us a real and tangible benefit in knowing our work could help someone.
    According to our client, the animation is needed because everything that happens with aplastic anemia occurs on the cellular level, making it dreadfully hard for patients and their families to understand. Even the treatment is challenging to describe, as it has to make you a little bit sicker before it can make you better. What we’re developing is a visual aid that will hopefully give them that understanding and maybe even help to educate people who aren’t aware of what aplastic anemia is about. Next time, I’ll share some of the material we’ve created to make that connection.
    Media that Matters? You bet.

Take Me to the Pitch

Fri, 12 Dec 2008 02:00:00 EST

Practicum is upon us. Our class has the distinct honor of preparing an educational tool for the victims and families of aplastic anemia, a project that gives real meaning to the motto “Media that Matters.” In the first week, Norm Brzycki, program director Aimee Corrigan, and all the faculty advisors offered us tons of great advice on what to expect and how to deal with the challenges ahead. One piece of advice that I thought was especially important was to maintain a balance; keep your personal life in good shape and remember to get away from practicum every once in a while. I bring this up because I enjoy any opportunity to let people in on one of my personal favorite recreational activities: kayak polo.

Photograph by John Corbett, Austin, November 2008

That’s right – they’re fighting for the ball. In kayaks. Not many people have heard of this unique sport, which is sort of a cross between basketball and soccer, except with 650,000 gallons of extra water. Originating in England, and extremely popular in Europe and Australia, kayak polo has only begun to catch on in the United States in recent years. A typical game is played on a pitch about as big as a basketball court and consists of two periods that are 20 minutes long. Two teams of five square off and attempt to score the most points by passing a sphere roughly equivalent in size to a volleyball through a goal that is probably six or more inches smaller than a hockey net. Note that this goal hangs six feet over the water and is usually protected by a goalie.

Photograph by John Corbett, New York, January 2008

You have to do all this while seated firmly in your kayak, and members of the other team can block your shots with their paddles, stick their boat in your path, and even push you over if they get close enough. It can actually be a pretty rough sport when especially competitive teams are on the pitch. Because it’s a full contact sport, everyone wears a helmet and padded PFDs (personal flotation devices) and there are strict rules about where and how you can impact another player. I.E., no paddle strikes.
Despite this, it’s an incredibly fun sport. Most new players have to overcome the hesitation of being upside down while strapped into a fiberglass boat, but once you master the different techniques for staying upright, you can zip up and down the pitch like an NBA star. Because its winter, we play in a pool, but during the summer, we practice on a river or pond, and it’s a great workout. If you’re interested in learning more, visit your local club on the web at Boston Kayak Polo.

Priceless Feedback

Thu, 11 Dec 2008 02:00:00 EST

Earlier this week, I just about had a heart attack when an email appeared in my inbox with the sender ending in '@valvesoftware.com.'

Valve, the company that made the Half-Life series, Portal, most recently Left4Dead, and many other masterpieces of videogames, has long been one of my most dreamt-of studios, the kind of place I would die to end up at eventually. I attended a talk of theirs at the Montreal International Game Summit a few weeks ago, and chatted it up with the presenter afterwards, eventually asking if he would be so kind as to pass my business card along to the art department for some feedback.

The email I got was from an environmental artist, who had looked over my work, and had some general feedback for me. His feedback was very helpful, and the stuff that current students should be hearing as well, so rather than try to paraphrase I'll just put it as he did:

"On the texturing side, your textures often look very clean and could show more lived-in conditions. By example, your dinner counters could show some coffee stains, cigarette burns, and the bottom of some walls could show some shoes marks, the floor can show some scratches and be dusted, posters could be partially ripped… Overall, adding some dirt and details would add realism to your scene.
The lighting is a really important part of the environment's visual impact. Generally lighting helps to sculpt the environment with darker and brighter areas and puts emphasis on the subject of the scene.
It also helps to tell a story by stating the time of the day and setting a mood. Your diner [from my time with 3DVIA] might be a good candidate to explore some lighting dramatization. To bring more atmospheres to the scene, I would suggest better defining your light sources. By example, it might be interesting to add blinds to your windows that would create cool shadows inside the room, spotlights from your ceiling fans and some cool neon on the walls."

He also had some good points in terms of self-marketing, like distinguishing on my site between hi-poly and low-poly models, and showing the creation process including photo reference, concept drawings, the model's wireframe, UV layouts, and texture sheets.

The bottom line that I took from his message was 'tell a story in your art,' which is a point that, although should be rather obvious, is easy to forget when doing less creative, less personal work for clients and other professional outlets. I printed out his email and taped it up next to my workstation, and I will definitely be referring to it when working on my 3D, personal and professional, in the future.

Copyright and Trademark Lecture Recap

Wed, 10 Dec 2008 02:00:00 EST

On December 1, 2008, CDIA at Boston University's Waltham MA Campus hosted a lecture on Copyright infringement issues with local attonrneys Eric D. Sommers and Julia McAneny. The audience of about 80 students and alumni were so captive with questions that the speakers barely got through a half dozen presentation slides! Here is what Eric Sommers had to say about the talk.

"I really enjoyed the opportunity to speak with the group and begin to examine the practical application of intellectual property issues to their particular areas of interest. It was a terrific group, very interactive, with many intelligent, probing, and at times difficult questions. I hope that Julia and I were able to shed some light on these complicated questions and get everyone to become more aware of how copyright and trademark issues might arise in their careers. I especially wanted to thank Julia for providing many practical examples and insights from her extensive experience as an intellectual property lawyer. With so many questions, I think we probably could have gone on for another hour or two. Perhaps Julia and I need to schedule another evening of discussion in the near future."

For those who missed the session, here are some links that can give you a bit of background on the issues we discussed:

http://www.copyright.gov
http://www.uspto.gov
http://www.wipo.int
http://fairuse.stanford.edu

Those with more detailed questions about our presentation, or with specific questions involving copyright and trademark rights, protecting creative work, or related contracts and business negotiations should feel free to contact either Julia Harmatz McAneny at HarmatzMcAneny@gmail.com or myself at Eric.sommers@mclane.com

Broke? Become a Web Developer!

Tue, 09 Dec 2008 02:00:00 EST

We all know that the economy is terrible right now. Each and every day stocks hit the floor, then they drop to the basement. Even the iconic stock of Google is down nearly 60% since January. But does that mean that everything is dismal? Of course not.

Web Development to the rescue! The current annual mean income for a web developer is ... $66,864. Compare that to the national median annual salary of $40,690 for US workers. Did that convince you to drop what you're doing to join the web developer movement? How about this: the salary is expected to grow 15% per year through 2016 to $157,000 per year!

When I was younger it wasn't about the salary. Like everyone, I was going to be President (there's still time), an astronaut (way too hard), or a web developer. The world wide web didn't even exist when I was born, and now the salary predictions are backing up the career. This is why I'm passionately recommending the career choice to other people. It's not easy, and it's as much of an art as it is a science, but when you look at the technological (and financial) growth in the web it's hard to ignore.

Salary source: http://www.cnn.com/2008/LIVING/worklife/12/03/cb.jobs.pay.60k/index.html

3D Pipeline

Mon, 08 Dec 2008 02:00:00 EST

Displacement maps and normal maps are both extremely useful (and prevalent) in a modern 3D pipeline. From video games to Hollywood movies, every area of 3D can benefit from using them. They can add that last touch of realism to a photorealistic character, or transform a low poly character into something that can convincingly mirror its hi res counterpart. You can create displacement and normal maps in Photoshop or Maya. But two of the most useful programs to generate high frequency details and then export a detail map are ZBrush and Mudbox.

Creating the maps in either of the two programs involves slightly different output settings for each, but one of the most important settings is the bit depth. An 8 bit map can be useful for video games or low res renderings, but to ensure that as much detail as possible can be transferred from the map to the geometry, a 16 bit or 32 bit map is much more beneficial.

A normal map is similar to a bump map, but instead of using a grayscale image to perturb the normals of the geometry at render time, it uses the red and green values as X and Y coordinates perpendicular to the normal vector, and the blue value as the depth. This allows for a more useful level of control to add finer detail to the image. It should be used for high frequency detail, not to pull out or make broad alterations to the geometry at render time (that’s what displacement maps are for).

Now, setting up a normal map is pretty straightforward in Maya. Create a bump map setup like you would any bump map, then in the bump node, change the “Use As” dropdown to “Tangent Space Normals”. Then adjust the Bump Depth setting to adjust the intensity of the map. A higher bit depth will generate a truer representation of what you were seeing in either ZBrush or Mudbox, albeit at a larger file size, so make sure your pipeline can handle it.

Further tweaking and exporting of a normal map is often necessary, especially in Mudbox, where you can’t get a real time preview of the map. As with all things 3D, trial and error, experience, experimenting, and a little bit of luck all usually come into play.

Next time, how to set up accurate displacement maps...

Google's Top Draw

Fri, 05 Dec 2008 02:00:00 EST

Cornering the search engine market is but just one of Google’s many talents. We’ve been wowed by Google Earth and Google Maps. They also acquired and re-developed Sketch Up, a 3-D drawing and architectural drawing tool. Now Google is venturing into other application development and this latest one is kind of a pleasant surprise.
Top Draw is an “algorithmic image generation application”, or so says Google. Underneath the hood, Top Draw utilizes all of the graphic technologies found in OSX Leopard, like Quartz and Coreimage rendering. The code-base, interestingly enough, is very much like JavaScript. There are some pre-built scripts that come with Top Draw. You can open them up and play around with the parameters and values to make your own graphics. These graphics can be exported as JPEGs or as Desktop images.
Unfortunately, there isn’t a lot of documentation, at least not yet, but the WIKI does have some sample code and images. I was able to create the following images with the app:

Image by Al Lemieux

Just imagine the type of background images you could create for your web pages. Give Top Draw a try over at: http://code.google.com/p/topdraw/downloads/list

Image by Al Lemieux

Alex Case Lecture Recap

Thu, 04 Dec 2008 02:00:00 EST

Recently we were lucky enough to have Alex Case come to CDIA to lecture on equalization. I attended one of his lectures at the Boston Area Definitive Audio Student Summit earlier this fall and was really excited to see him here at the school.

One of the topics I found most interesting in his lecture was the "masking effect," which is basically when the presence of weaker sound is made inaudible by a louder sound. He discussed how this comes into play in a mix; specifically its effect on frequency. Something of which I was previously unaware is the "upward spread of masking" – maskers interfere with higher frequencies more than those that are lower. Practically this means that really loud low frequency events mask a broader band of frequencies than events occurring elsewhere in the spectrum and are therefore undesirable, particularly when they are sustained.

Another practical application of the properties of masking discussed was the use of complimentary cuts and boosts when working with a mix. Musical parts sitting in the same frequency range tend to compete or drown each other out. A solution to this (after initially attempting a natural fit in terms of the arrangement, of course) is to give competing instruments their own bands to occupy utilizing equalization ("EQ") to emphasize (or de-emphasize) parts of the spectrum more fittingly. For example, a snare drum and distorted electric guitar often sit in the same range. EQ can be used to make room for the snare in the guitar track by taking out some of the frequency content in the guitar that is shared.

Alex Case is a really enjoyable speaker to watch and listen to. I find him to be charismatic and subtly (and sometimes less subtly) witty, making his lectures on sometimes rather dry subjects entertaining and - I think ultimately - more effective.

'The Morning Of' at MTV Studios

Wed, 03 Dec 2008 02:00:00 EST

The Morning Of is an Indie/pop/rock band with a big sound, streaming from a small town in New York. These Newburgh natives have been together for 3 years, despite the numerous member changes. TMO has worked very hard to gain the respect of fans and earn the ears of record labels. Recently, TMO asked me to shoot their promotional photo’s at MTV studios for their new press kit. I spent five hours traveling to Newburgh to meet with the band and another three hours to NYC. We finally arrived to MTV and started setting up right away. I was slightly disappointed when I saw the size of the studio and the equipment they had available. The light kits were worn and stopped working after about an hour of usage, so we had to switch up the kits about 3 times. During the shoot, my friend looked over at me and said, “CDIA beats MTV by a long-shot.” That was for sure! However, we managed to pull off a great shoot nonetheless. For the “creative” shot I used shredded tissue paper to make confetti. We had a fan blowing the paper at the band for about an hour and by the end of the night the studio was completely filled with confetti. After cleaning up the place we had the chance to see some of the other television offices, such as Nickelodeon. Finally, we returned back to Newburgh only to drive back to MA right away. The overall experience was great, but once you’re granted the opportunity to use great equipment it’s frustrating to take a step back. It seems the saying “you don’t know what you have until it’s gone,” proved it’s truth once again.

Photographs by Lara Callahan

Movie Magic

Tue, 02 Dec 2008 02:00:00 EST

    I’ve mentioned before that one of my goals upon graduation is to work in the field of visual effects. It’s a lofty goal to want to be the person who animates Iron Man flying or Spider-Man swinging, so I’m prepared for a fairly long stint of paying my dues and doing all the grunt work that the entry level guys are forced to endure. These are little things like tracing a character’s outline by hand (or digital pen, rather) in eight hundred frames of footage. Not a lot of fun, but if the software can’t handle it, somebody’s got to do it manually.
    In our class, we get to play around with the compositing software Adobe After Effects, to combine our rendered frames of animation into viewable movies. After Effects is a pretty powerful tool, and as a hopeful FX artist, I was really glad for the opportunity to learn it as part of the 3D program. Besides its utility in collecting our renders, I figured the experience with a well-known visual effects program would give me an edge when looking for that FX internship. I even tried to impress friends and family, telling them, “Oh yeah, now I know After Effects!”
    Imagine my shock when my good friend and fellow CDIA student, Kat Alix-Gaudreau, invited me to oversee both the visual and special effects for her final student film. What a surprise! What an honor! What did I get myself into?

Photograph by John Corbett.

    At first, I wondered if it was possible. Did I really know enough to say that I could handle such an important role? Wasn’t I supposed to be sweeping up for the FX guys or acting as a lowly production assistant on a film with a combined cast and crew of somewhere around 30 people? But then I realized: taking those first big steps beyond CDIA was going to require taking a couple of smaller ones while still inside that safety zone. Not that I’m treating Kat’s film like a digital guinea pig, but trying and failing on a student project is a more useful learning experience than trying and failing out in the real world.
    It reminded me that when you’ve got the skills, you have to have the confidence to say, “I can do this.” That’s the kind of thing that’s going to impress a potential employer and get you a job when school is over.
    There is still one more day of shooting, so I haven’t had a chance to see any of the footage yet, but I’ve been on location for two of the three shoots, and it has been a blast. This set’s got it all: swords, daggers, axes, stunt coordinators, evil cultists, gunfire, and kung-fu monks. Here’s a sneak peek:

Photograph by John Corbett

A Nashville Mix Experience

Mon, 01 Dec 2008 02:00:00 EST

While in Nashville recently I got to sit in on a mix session with Matt McClure of Rooster Tail Productions. His in-home mix room was absolutely beautiful; he had built the whole thing himself – really cool – with a very large mix room and a small live room. Matt was mixing a few songs from demo sessions he had recently recorded. (Demos in Nashville are a huge part of the industry; most of the mid- to upper- level songwriters there record their songs to album standard.)

I got to take a look at Matt’s session template, which was definitely intense and set up quite differently than anything I’d seen before. He used a combination of in-the-box mixing, some outboard gear, and a D Control console. The speed at which he mixed was awe-inspiring. If I were able to mix the song he mixed, and do so as well as he mixed it, it would probably have taken me two or three days. He completed the mix I heard in two hours. He certainly knew his way around both the D Control and Pro Tools but his ability to hear what he wanted and make every change with complete confidence was really impressive. I obviously wouldn’t expect to be anywhere near his level at this point but it was definitely something to shoot for.

I couldn’t help but wonder if part of how he had become so fast was from his years as a live sound engineer, but it would make sense to me.

Interdepartmental Play at CDIA

Wed, 26 Nov 2008 02:00:00 EST

I mentioned last time that our class had been asked to create the opening credits for a film being done by a CDIA Filmmaking student. Jean Michel is chronicling the incredible story of his nearly four years in a Haitian prison and needed a title sequence that involved handcuffs and animated blood.

Liquid can be handled a number of different ways in Maya, but the most obvious solution would be to use the Fluid Effects option in the Dynamics menu set. Dynamics are technically outside the scope of CDIA’s 3D Animation course, but our instructor was kind enough to help us do the research necessary to make them work for this project. That makes perfect sense at a time when we’re all working on our demo reels – another addition to our portfolios before Practicum.

We took a two-pronged approach and began working on concept art and storyboards while looking into Dynamics solutions.

Drawing by John Corbett

While we researched the blood, one member of our class modeled the handcuffs. By the time he’d applied mental ray’s physics-based lighting and DGS (Diffuse, Glossy, and Specular) metal textures, they looked like the real thing.

Handcuffs modeled and rendered by 3D student Trevor Green.

Jean Michel liked the proposals we sent him, but wanted to add one twist: The blood would flow down the screen and form one of the titles, superimposed over a photograph of himself behind bars. We evaluated the possibilities and decided we could do this without much difficulty. But due to a limitation with the photography, there was one small problem: No bars.

Original photograph by CDIA photography student Kathy Castro.

Never a group to be deterred, our team created some 3D bars, lit them in accordance with the original print and added them to the photograph.

Composite artwork by Trevor Green

And just as those assets came together, we finally solved most of the issues surrounding how to make the blood flow, so we have a viable proof of concept that we will present to our “client” this week. Not bad for a crew that’s still a month away from graduating.

Balance is Key

Tue, 25 Nov 2008 02:00:00 EST

No mixing pun intended. Seriously. Maybe a little...

Anyway, one of the hardest parts about being in this line of work is knowing how to balance it with your personal life. Sure, we’ve all had the marathon sessions where we’ve spent an hour and a half tweaking the buss compressor across the drum mix or half a day doing vocal rides. While that’s fine and is a testament to our dedication as audio professionals who settle for nothing less than perfection, knowing when to back away and take time for yourself is just as critical to the outcome of a project.

I’ve been lucky enough that outside of my main engineering gig at the New England Conservatory, most of my freelance work is mixing—so I can do a lot of work from home. Still, I tend to find myself working until 2am most nights then get up at 6:30am for a 9am orchestra recording. It’s either that or I’m doing live sound or recording a concert until 10pm after working at home all morning. After a while, 16-20 hour days start to take their toll. While the end product usually doesn’t suffer, I find it takes longer to complete mixes, as I need to take more breaks during a session to keep my ears fresh. While sometimes I don’t have a choice because of deadlines and client expectations, when I can dictate my schedule, I get as far away from the audio world as I can.

While I have my preferred methods to help me relax and take an “audio detox”, the real trick is to deliberately set aside time to get out, spend time with family and friends you haven’t seen in weeks, take a day trip to a state park, go to a museum, or what have you.

After being away for a weekend, a day, or even just an afternoon, I find that I have a fresh perspective on my projects and can complete them more efficiently ... which benefits both the client and me. Getting into a routine that allows you to have time for yourself is incredibly beneficial for your professional side, in terms of efficiency and endurance, but more importantly for your personal physical and mental health.

I want to be able to still have a career in audio in 50 years and to do that, taking care of my body and mind now in my youth is the key to that future.

XML - Where does it FIT?

Mon, 24 Nov 2008 02:00:00 EST

As part of the learning process, I've heard a lot of interest in where some of the different technologies we teach "fit in" to the big picture. We try to go over it in each class, but with many subjects representing their own technologies, the specific value may not always be clear.

Here are some real-world examples of where a deep understanding of XML fits in to the web developer world. Its obvious application is with Web Services. And, by the way, it is the X in AJAX. But here are some more applications of why a developer needs to know XML in-depth.

Example: Facebook.com
What differentiates you from a web designer? Well, first, you know what lives under the covers. In the case of Facebook.com, how would you like to create applications that are so extremely popular? Think that's a marketable skill?

Facebook's Developer Site
Their entire framework is built on FBML, or FaceBook Markup Language. Like XML or XHTML you'll notice the use of markup language.

An easy example of FBML
FBML markup to use when logged in as user 1160:
<fb:name subjectid="219770" uid="219770" /> = himself

<fb:name subjectid="219770" uid="1160" /> = you
<fb:name subjectid="1160" uid="219770" /> = Josh Gibson
<fb:name subjectid="1160" uid="1160" /> = yourself

<fb:name uid="profileowner" useyou="true" possessive="true" reflexive="true" /> = your own

Notice how the FBML is valid XML, meaning the tag opens and closes. It has attributes, and it uses the fb namespace. These are all important concepts that you should all know now. The use of attributes makes FBML incredibly powerful because you can get all sorts of different results depending what you set in the attributes.

This is merely one of 50+ tags. Spend some time looking at the examples within the Documentation to get a sense of how much more you know about the development world you'll soon encounter as certified individuals.

Example: XUL (XML User Interface)
Do you use FireFox? Have you ever downloaded an add-on? Of course you have. A major component to those add-ons is XUL – again XML-based. To avoid duplicating their well written content, I'll leave it to you to read through their site and if you're feeling adventurous you can follow their step-by-step tutorial about building a "Hello World" extension.

Suffice it to say, understanding XML will help you in numerous avenues as you continue your web development career.

CDIA Holiday Fair

Fri, 21 Nov 2008 02:00:00 EST

This is super exciting!

From 4-8pm on December 5, CDIA will be having a Holiday Fair at their Waltham, MA Campus.

Check it out and tell your friends!

A Tree as My Nemesis

Thu, 20 Nov 2008 02:00:00 EST

The moment my client said the words “Make me a Tree,” I felt my stomach drop. The tree has always been the bane of my modeling. At CDIA, I spent days working on a tree for one of my first projects in which a car drove through a forest, and I had nightmares about those awful trees for months. A few weeks later, I made another stab at my model arch enemy – again, no success. So, when my game designer client from “Wizard Wars” asked for the tree, I said the obvious.

“Of course!”

I was determined to overcome my fear of tree modeling.

So with about a year of pure modeling experience between me-now and me-then, I started looking around, got some good reference, put down my starting cube and away I went.

As with the house for “Wizard Wars,” the trees will be cover for the dueling wizards so will be facing a lot of destructive forces. Franklin, my client, had some specifics in mind: "It’ll have to snap off from the trunk. And the branches too – let’s have them snap off. And let’s say the wizards can rip it out of the ground eventually and fling the whole thing across the map. Yeah, that last part is a must.”

Two big things on my mind were the leaves and the UV’s for the tree model. For the leaves, I settled on using a bunch of intersecting planes with a pretty chaotic leaf texture. Not the fanciest of methods, but surely an acceptable, time-tested one. As for the UV’s, this was a “quick and dirty” job. You wouldn’t want to get too close to this texture; for testing purposes, I simply applied a single cylindrical mapping to the tree body and threw a tiling bark texture on. I showed it to Franklin as “placeholder UV’s and textures,” and he told me to stop just as it was. We decided that the game’s camera was usually far enough away from the trees that no one was going to be getting too close a look. We’d rather just have the asset done and in the game than look perfect. Of course, that’s just how it goes sometimes – I’d love to spend a week on the UV’s, but deadlines call.

In the end, I was extremely pleased with how the model came out, and I feel that I have finally put my fear of trees behind me. Additionally, the compromises I had to make reminded me of a lesson I’ve been learning for as long as I’ve been working with 3D: striving for perfection is not a realistic goal, but striving to constantly improve is a must.

Putting Together a Demo Reel

Wed, 19 Nov 2008 02:00:00 EST

You know you’re in the home stretch of your program when the instructor turns to you and says, “You’re going to spend the next two weeks rendering your best work for use in your demo reel.” How can this be my best work? It feels like only yesterday I was learning the difference between NURBs and polygons.

As with other disciplines, the demo reel is an example of your art in motion. In the case of 3D Animation, the reel should highlight the skills you want to focus on (or the job you want to apply for). You can prepare a reel that focuses on modeling, rigging, texturing, animation, etc. By virtue of not having completed the course yet, our class’ reels will be predominantly generalist – a little bit of everything all rolled into one.

Having two weeks is good, because for complicated, high resolution images, it can take a long time to crank them out. Unfortunately, week one was bisected by a Career Fair. We’ve known about both the Fair and the rendering week for a while, and have been working toward getting our reels done as quickly as possible, but as we close in on the 13th hour, I wasn't sure any of us would be “reel ready” by then. If only the Fair had occurred two weeks later! Despite that, like every other event by CDIA Career Services, it was be a valuable networking opportunity. Even if I don’t have a demo reel ready.

Some work from the final reel that I haven’t shared before includes my architecture project:

I’m also showcasing my vehicle from the original modeling module:

Combine these with Bruce and the Elves vs Robots group project we did, and I think the foundation of a generalist reel will be born.

Speaking of collaboration, we were approached by a student in the Digital Filmmaking program (again, through the good graces of Career Services) about doing graphics for the opening credits of his final film. This great opportunity has the class uniting once again to develop concept art and assets he’ll be able to use when he goes into post-production. More on that to come.

How to Gain YEARS of Experience ... in 5 Days!

Tue, 18 Nov 2008 02:00:00 EST

I believe that all photographers are on a personal quest to discover exactly what makes a great image, and these days with the digital revolution there are more people than ever capturing amazing images. So, how do we gain the skills to jump from amateur to professional? What sets us apart? And how do we use these skills to hook ad agencies or book jobs?

Learn to Print.

This may sound crazy, and is of course just my opinion (I know there are other facets involved) but learning to print may just be one of the most important skills photographers can practice. Let me explain: digital imaging has re-defined printing to mean hitting apple+P and waiting all of 15 seconds to see an image, slap a frame around it, and hang it in under a minute flat. At CDIA these past two weeks we have had the chance to study and learn under the guidance of Bob Korn, owner of Bob Korn Imaging. Bob gave us a new understanding of what printing is, and for me it transformed from being an action and outcome on paper into the same metaphysical inputs we photographers use to create our images.

Printing is all about understanding and learning how to “describe” an image. Verbage can include density, contrast, color, warm, cold, mood, feeling, light ... and you should began to see how these words become very similar to those we use instinctually when deciding how to compose and pick subject matter for an image. Learning to identify what makes a great print; interpreting your image's subject matter, mood and lighting; and adjusting its density, contrast and color to showcase on paper what you saw when you shot the image WILL force you to become a better photographer because you WILL began to understand a little more about exactly what makes a great image.

So, if we take time to critique and analyze any images we can get our eyes on, I have a hunch that our ability to create and capture images will improve. If nothing else, at least now I have an argument against my brother when we are supposed to be working and I have managed to find myself in an image gallery of one of the hundreds of photographer blogs and websites I frequent.

Sorry for the capital letters, run on sentences, and flops in grammar, but after having your mind blown by a great instructor, it is hard to type and have it come out discernibly.

~Ben

PS: Below you will find three images, two of which have something “wrong” with them…very basic but it illustrates how important it is to recognize how big of an effect little changes can have.

Some Flash Inspiration

Mon, 17 Nov 2008 02:00:00 EST

Flash certainly offers much richer interfaces and web experiences than standard HTML environments. It’s a wonder that every site doesn’t leverage Flash in some way – such a versatile tool. And although the development time may be longer than a traditional HTML framework, it really pays off. Let's take a look at three Flash sites that are truly inspirational. Jamba Juice, Einstein Bros, and Good Things Should Never End. These sites are fun, educational and user-friendly.

Getting Juicy

www.jambajuice.com

The Jamba Juice site has a piece of chalk drawing most of the interface features as you navigate through the site. You can even pick up a piece of chalk to use on your own. There are colorful screen transitions between areas of the site – and it’s not every day that you see a lemon teach nutrition facts. The interface fits within the browser window and flexes when the browser window changes in size.

Bagels for Everyone

www.einsteinbros.com

It’s fun to watch the Einstein Bros site get put together. The two brothers are animated characters that come in on the scene from time to time. The idea behind the site was to bring the customer into a virtual store, so most of what you see is what you would see if you visited one of their locations. There are some really nice touches in this site, like the animated sign, e-Club graphic, and the Einstein bros card in the corners of the interface. When moving from one area to the next, a bagel replaces your normal cursor. The swinging menu signs are cool, too.

Never-Ending Fun

unlimited.orange.co.uk/flash/go

I didn’t believe it at first, but the title of this site says it all. There are literally hundreds if not thousands of activities built into Good Things Should Never End. Once the site gets loaded, look at the vertical scrollbar. It continues to shrink as the content loads vertically on the page. Although you don’t need the scrollbar to navigate, just drag with your cursor. Each step of the way you are greeted with a new activity and you can share each one with your friends on MySpace, Facebook, Del.icio.us, and StumbleUpon. Even the little trees are active elements of this interface.

Flash continues to amaze and these are just some examples of how it can effectively be used for site development in the corporate world.

Back to Busy

Fri, 14 Nov 2008 02:00:00 EST

It's getting cold outside and harder to finish up vocals for my EP. Every time I think I am good to go record, my voice decides it's not. I am heading back to the studio this Sunday and hoping things will be back on again.

I am now helping out a friend from my CDIA audio class. He needs to record some stuff for a band he brought in for his final project. I am excited to just get back to working on other projects and working with audio. Feels like it has been forever since I have touched a XLR cable or turned a switch. Now that the post graduation hiatus is over, I feel like things are going back to being busy and working on other projects.

I still am using CDIA for many things. I have now made a great connection with a web design student, and I hired her to build a brand new site for myself. I found if you just say "Hi" or actually go to the networking things, you will find the help you need. That is a great thing about CDIA – having all these programs working so close to one another.

I hope to speak of mastering in my next post because I should be at that stage. I don't want to get ahead of myself. Mastering is a good stage when you are finalizing all the music and bring levels to where they need to be for the consumer. I can't wait.

Elves vs. Robots

Thu, 13 Nov 2008 02:00:00 EST

While not as endearing or well known as the eternal struggle of pirate versus ninja, elves vs. robots is a powerful conflict I don’t think has been adequately explored.

As a Special Topic Presentation in our program, the class has the option to explore a subject that does not receive a module of its own as part of the curriculum. According to our instructor Pete, most classes take this opportunity to begin sharpening portfolios and preparing for the Rendering module that will ultimately form the foundation of their demo reel. But our class hit on this idea of doing a group project – something fun and light-hearted that could theoretically be done in a week. It would also serve as a preview or dry run for Practicum. Thus was born EvR.

We decided that Elves vs. Robots would be a fictional video game from a down-on-its-luck gaming studio. This would give us the opportunity to do a project of slightly larger scope because as a faux video game, we would have to keep polygon counts and texture sizes as reasonable as possible. Our goal: put together a trailer to highlight a combination of cinematic cut scenes and examples of game play from the third person perspective. Think Tomb Raider. Except with Orlando Bloom.

As a game, it would follow pretty standard conventions: throw hordes of a fairly repetitious enemy (the robots) at a lone hero (elf), who mows them down with an arsenal of weapons ranging from swords to bows to ingenious Ewok technology. We imagined the elven village as a place of peace, tranquility, and possible cookie baking until the day a horde of homicidal mechanical maniacs breaks down the front gates to begin a slaughter of epic proportions. Only one elf – that’s you – can stand up to the metal ones and stop the destruction of this Tolkien-esque hamlet.

Screenshot by Trevor Green

Not surprisingly, the scope was still more than could be done in a week. So we had to pare it down to a couple of scenes, but we're going to revisit the project in later weeks. What we accomplished in those 7-10 days was pretty amazing. The sheer number of models and textures generated by a class of five is a real testament to how much work a motivated team can achieve. My hat goes off to the artists who created this in just over a week.

Screenshot by Mike Kopilevich

Third Party Headache

Wed, 12 Nov 2008 02:00:00 EST

If we’ve ever met or exchanged emails, there’s a good chance your immediate reaction was not: “Now,that guy likes underground hip-hop.” Well, it’s time to take the vinyl out of the crates. Not only do I listen to underground hip-hop, I co-founded the underground hip-hop website ArtofRhyme.com in 2001.

Our most popular sections are New Joints and AOR Radio, both of which allow people to listen to new and often exclusive music. We didn’t want to write our own audio player so we decided to go with a popular third-party tool called Wimpy Player. It’s an Adobe Flash-based web app that worked well for us for a couple of years...until last week. Reports of users who upgraded to Flash 10 had their player begin to fail doing its one job: PLAY.

Having a hip-hop website without music is like having a photography portfolio with no pictures.
We can control everything that we developed in our site, but when two third-party tools, Flash and Wimpy decide to break, we’re at a loss.

Picture 1 - AOR Radio, notice the DEMO text :-(

We were stuck dropping (luckily only)$89.99 for Wimpy’s newest version in a kneejerk approach to make sure our most important feature still works. You’ll also notice that there’s a big annoying DEMO label staring people in the face until we have time to apply the latest licenses. Luckily, we’re an underground hip-hop website so our users aren’t very picky about DEMO labels - as long as they can hear new music.

Wizard House Conclusion

Tue, 11 Nov 2008 02:00:00 EST

I spent some time last week finishing up the Wizard House project I wrote about previously – another pass through on UV’s and textures, and then onto damage modeling, which went faster than I thought. The house goes through three damage stages: there’s one model for hit from the right, another for hit from the left (both for the first stage); a model of all the walls missing for the second stage; and a very minimal model of just the foundation of the house for the third stage. I also made many debris parts – shingles and beams and wooden planks – which will go flying away from the blast as the damage models are instantiated. The actual movement for the debris is left up to the game engine’s physics simulator, so I don’t have to worry about animating that.

So, I pumped out the damage models and debris, working down to the wire getting this stuff to the developer by the deadline. I walked in there and happily handed my files over on a flash drive. But of course that would be just too easy. Much to my dismay, the models showed up in the engine, and – oops! The models were about the size of my pinky toe compared to the characters, had no textures, and the normals were facing the wrong way, making the models invisible at certain angles. Of course this was all a problem in how I was exporting my files. It wasn’t a huge deal to fix, but just a slightly annoying little reminder that you should always check export settings and the engine’s import expectations to make sure everything lines up.

The house series can be seen on my site.

But the big news of my week now is I’ve been in touch with a startup game company in LA, and they want me on board, working remotely as a primary environment and props modeler. Too early to say anything for sure, but this could be pretty exciting, and of course I can dream that this will take off, and here I am with my foot in the door…

Creating the Varied Expressions of 3D Bruce Willis

Mon, 10 Nov 2008 02:00:00 EST

At last, Bruce comes to life as our course zeroes in on facial animation. The cycles we did in the last module certainly conveyed some personality, but nowhere near as much as you can achieve by seeing the character’s face while they’re speaking. Compare the body language here:

With what’s possible here:

Facial rigging in our software of choice, Autodesk Maya, is achieved primarily through the use of blendshapes. These are created by taking your basic mesh, often in what we would call a "bored expression," duplicating it, and then remodeling until you have the new expression you’re looking for. Then you combine all your duplicates into a node attached to the original geometry. This creates a series of sliders on the model that allow you to switch back and forth between the bored pose and the new expressions. So, if I want my model to be happy, I grab the happy button and start sliding it until I’m satisfied with the expression. Depending on how complex your character is, there could be a lot of these blendshapes.

Blendshapes are also great for dialogue. Human speech can be broken down into phonemes, basic sounds we make to distinguish one word from another. The shape of the mouth when making these sounds is sometimes referred to as a viseme, or visual phoneme. An animator needs to replicate those visemes in order to match the movement of their character’s mouth with any dialogue the character is speaking. A simple set of visemes would include sounds like a, e, o, u, f, m, and r, although it’s possible to cheat and use only two or three of those.

Earlier this week, we recorded the dialogue for our animations, so the rest of the week will involve matching that to the model and performing the lip synch. How can I sound more like John McClane by then...?

Opportunity Knocks

Fri, 07 Nov 2008 02:00:00 EST

We all became professionals the second we chose to come to CDIA, either foregoing a traditional college degree or changing our career path to pursue a passion. My brother and I knew we wanted to hit the ground running when we moved to Boston…realizing that a one-year(ish) program will be over in a flash.

We have been at it hard – two months of endless 16-20 hour days, and, as I am writing this, the last time I was asleep was in NYC 30 hours ago. But this has put us in a position to share what we are learning while at CDIA and how it is already directly affecting (and enhancing) our new business. I mean how can you not benefit when CDIA brings in speakers such as last week's presentation by Matthew Jordan Smith discussing his growth in the fashion industry.

To me, what Matthew was really outlining were business practices, regardless of industry. Vince and I designed our business to be highly experiential for our brides (yes, we’re wedding photographers), but MJS mentioned how he delivers flowers to his clients before ever seeing them. You can bet we are already talking how to integrate this into our brides’ wedding days. One power point slide, maybe 5 minutes of talking and this little insight may change part of our business workflow. How many wedding photographers have you heard arrange to have flowers awaiting their brides on their wedding day? What a wonderful way to not only come across extremely professional and well prepared, but you have also directly enhanced one of the biggest days of your couples' lives, setting a great mood for the day.

Our blog column will cover our journey through CDIA and how it ties into the real world and our growing business. Behind the scenes we have begun calling this the Avenna Saga, and we are excited to share.

A Post-CDIA Balancing Act

Thu, 06 Nov 2008 02:00:00 EST

Ah, the constant juggling act. Here I am, trying my best to adapt to academics post-CDIA, in this case a degree in Computer Science, while still of course doing what I love, 3D. So what that balancing act usually comes down to is crazy long nights. Last night was one of those.

I'm currently working with a peer, supplying him with 3D assets to use in a game he's working on, a two-player game of dueling wizards aptly called "Wizard Wars." My task this week has been a house, which will appear at a few points in the arena to be used as shelter and cannon fodder. I say cannon fodder because the house will be fully destructible in the game (based on damage models, not dynamic destruction).

So come midnight last night, I find myself just about spent on null pointers and dynamic memory allocation and other such Computer Science shenanigans, and I fear that my energy to model this wizard house may be just about sapped. But, I boot up Maya, get to work, and it occurs to me again, as it has many times before: "Oh yeah, I love this stuff. I could do this all night." So I did.

As of this moment, the house is not quite done. I need to retouch a few of the UV's, balance the texture colors out better (which will happen when I meet with the programmer-director, and we have a conversation about tone etc), and make a few destruction models.

The model has about 1,400 faces. Yes, that's a little extreme, but we decided to go higher poly because there aren't very many other items on screen at a time, and we want the destruction to be as good as possible, which means more polys to blow up. We're also curious to push the engine we're using.

(I used Maya for modeling and other 3D work, Headus UV Layout for UV unwrapping - check it out if you haven't; it's a life saver - and Photoshop for textures. The game is using the Unity game engine.)

A Real Life Live Sound Lesson

Wed, 05 Nov 2008 02:00:00 EST

It's Thursday and I am on my way to getting over a cold. This small bug has put the recording of my EP on hold. Since vocals are the last of what I really need to do, and I want it done right, it's slowing the process down. Friday I am going back in and I am like 90% sure I will be able to perform in the studio. I have a feeling staying up to see the Sox in the playoffs and still playing shows on the weekends is not helping my voice come back. 

Last Saturday I played in Cambridge and helped the band I opened for with sound. I figured with my CDIA education and some experience in live sound, I would do fine. I forgot how fast paced live sound is. If something isn't working, you don't have time to sit there, mess with it and find the problem. In school I had a good amount of time and other people to help with a situation. When you're by yourself and pressed for time, you need to pull the plug on anything that isn't working right and find a quick solution. That was a great lesson for me. I learned that I should mess with things on my own time and really understand some obstacles I could run into when performing or running sound for another band. 

Besides that live sound bump in the road, everything is going well and moving forward with my EP. Like I said on my last posting, working with another person on a project is such a relief; it has just been so great to bounce ideas off someone else...will it work or will it not. If I were to guess, I would say one more month and the EP may be released for people to hear. Until then I've found a great site for upcoming musicians called www.ourstage.com where I've also posted some of my stuff.

It's all Cyclical

Tue, 04 Nov 2008 02:00:00 EST

With a fully rigged model in my arsenal, it’s now time to start some actual animation. This week’s module involves creating three cycles as a kind of foundation for future animation. The only requirement is that one of the cycles be a walk, which every animator should create for their character. Everybody walks, right?

A simple GIF that I generated in Autodesk Maya.

For the second, I’ve chosen a shooting cycle. This really wouldn’t be a tribute to the Diehard movies if it didn’t involve Bruce Willis firing his pistol. I’m not really sure what to do for the third cycle. Ideally, it should be something that will allow for the starting pose and ending pose to be the same. So, for the shooting cycle, I’ll simply have the model pull the gun out, fire it then return it to the holster. When I think of Diehard and the third cycle, I’m assaulted by images of John McClane jumping, sliding and diving while bullets and explosions go off all around him. Any of those could be a brutal cycle to put this model through. Maybe a good solid run, where he fires off a few shots from a sub-machinegun would work.

Photo by Frank Masi, provided by 20th Century Fox for use by The New York Times.

I also downloaded a demonstration copy of the new version of Autodesk Mudbox that Peter Eastwood talked about in his blog. I definitely agree that it’s a huge step forward, and I was able to work up some of the details that I know my model has been missing. You know, little things like lips, eyebrows and wrinkles. It’s not much yet, but look at what’s possible now:

A screenshot I created using Autodesk Mudbox.

Big Shots at CDIA: Advice on Being Better

Mon, 03 Nov 2008 02:00:00 EST

Thank you, Matthew Jordan Smith and Julieanne Kost! They were kind enough to be our guinea pigs for the first talk in the Big Shots at CDIA speaker series last Monday. Mr. Smith shared his thoughts on the experience with us.

It was quite an experience to talk to the crowd at CDIA – there was a great energy there, people were really engaged. This was exactly the reason I get such a high from sharing my photography and life experience, especially with students and people wanting to go to the next level. They really want to be there and want to listen!

Matthew Jordan Smith at CDIA. © Damian Hickey

Matthew Jordan Smith with CDIA Executive Director Bob Daniels. © Damian Hickey.

I wanted to give everyone a little background on how I got started – mostly to demonstrate something I hold true in my life: that if you believe in yourself and work hard, you too can make a living doing what you love. That’s how it happened for me. I wasn’t handed anything and had to work to make this all happen. And I wouldn’t change it for the world.

Another part of talking to a group like this is being able to give advice. Not just on how to be a better photographer but also how to be a better person. I like to share my three favorite, must-read books. Surprisingly these aren’t photography books. I believe you have to think outside the box and outside of what you know in order to make yourself better in every way:

The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho: An essential read for anyone on or starting a journey. Let’s you see that even with a plan, life has a way of working itself out.
Selling the Invisible by Harry Beckwith: This comes from the point of view of an advertising guy but the take away message about how to deal with people is tremendous. Really helped me understand marketing for my own business.
How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie: A classic on how to deal with people, how to relate to them and understanding how they think. Knowing all of this helped me be a better photographer.

I just want to thank everyone for having me at CDIA. It was a great way to end a long speaking tour – definitely the best stop along the way.

Keep Google Happy

Fri, 31 Oct 2008 02:00:00 EDT

If you’ve had a website long enough, maintaining all of the links, both internal and external, can be a real hassle. Eventually, your site will become a victim of link rot: when an external site you linked to has either moved their content or went down altogether.

Being vigilant about link rot is pretty important, especially when it comes to your Google ranking. Bogus inbound and outbound links can be a detriment to your ranking and that’s not a good thing. Luckily, there are some tools you can use to help you get rid of link rot.

First of all, there are Google’s Webmaster tools. When Google crawls your site it lists broken links. You can click on a link to see which pages had the destination link on them and what link is actually broken. You’ll frequently notice that a lot of these links are not internal links, but links to other sites, blogs or social networks. You may have to do additional link cleanups outside of your own website to fix these.

Secondly, there’s a tool called Xenu’s Link Sleuth, which you can download for free. You can run Xenu on your own site and it will check every single link and run a report for you. The report indicates broken links, redirected URLs, broken local-links, orphan files and statistics. It’s a very thorough tool that catches common link errors. What’s nice about the report is that you can see all of the affected pages and the broken link on each. This makes it fairly easy to find broken links and fix them.

Finally, if you have Dreamweaver, you can always use its built-in tools for checking links sitewide. The report is less elegant than the other solutions I've mentioned, but at least it will help get you started.

Site maintenance is really important. And keeping your Google ranking high is even more so. Regularly run reports on your site and check your ranking to ensure best site performance.

Rendering with mental ray

Thu, 30 Oct 2008 02:00:00 EDT

So who likes rendering? Who likes rendering with mental ray®? Everyone’s hands went down, I know it. Okay, admittedly mental ray is not the easiest, friendliest renderer out there, but once you get to know it, it is one of the most robust, tweakable, powerful renderers (as well as one of the most prevalent) in the industry. And hey! It comes free with every copy of Maya, so it’ll also save you a few thousand bucks toward buying another third party renderer.

mental ray is at heart a physical renderer - meaning it attempts to recreate the physical properties of light as you and I see them, instead of using tricks and "cheats" to achieve the same effect (not that cheating is inherently a bad thing; sometimes it’s necessary to get a project done on time). The problem is, actually recreating the physical world takes quite a few complex algorithms to achieve. This is where we get things like Global Illumination, Caustics and Final Gathering. The complaint most people have is that they are too tricky to set up in Maya, and if not tweaked properly, can take forever to render.

Well, thankfully there are a number of settings you can alter to make sure a render doesn’t take forever. Here’s a hidden node that can be used to get "under the hood" of mental ray:

Type these 2 lines of code into the command line (or save them to a shelf): select metalrayGlobals;openAEWindow;

This opens the hidden settings of mental ray, where you can really fine tune the render. Start with the Memory and Performance dropdown. Here you can set the amount of physical memory that mental ray can use (don’t set this to the maximum your computer has; you need to leave some for the OS). You can also change the Acceleration Method to BSP2. This is an advanced and new mental ray algorithm that automates a lot of the render time breakup of your scene, so things like Final Gather and Global Illumination tend to render quicker. You can also uncheck "Inherit Verbosity" near the top, and change the Render Verbosity to "Progress Messages", which will give you a detailed readout of what exactly is happening as mental ray renders in the Output Window (the other window that opens when Maya starts). Reading and understanding these messages can help you to further refine the settings to speed things up.

A final note, some resources to fully understand what’s actually going on: the book "mental ray for Maya, 3ds Max, and XSI: A 3D Artist’s Guide to Rendering" by Boaz Livny and the site www.mentalraytips.com (some fantastic advanced tips can be found there). Check ‘em both out, then get cracking on those renders.

Stumbling into Every Opportunity

Wed, 29 Oct 2008 02:00:00 EDT

These last two weeks have seriously been crazy.

I ended up getting an internship for J Franze, the producer/engineer I wrote about in my previous entry. I approached him after his lecture at B.A.D.A.S.S. just to introduce myself and ended up having lunch with him. After talking for a while he told me he was actually looking for an intern and offered to have me come up to see his mix room and do an interview. I started work the next day and have been there four nights or so a week since. We’ve mostly been working on his tape digitization project. I’ve been assisting on editing, song quality checks and researching songs and musicians. It’s been really amazing just getting to hear all of those performances.

I’ve also been working on my AP206 class project for the last couple weeks. The 206 project is a three-song demo of a band of your choosing. Besides working with my own artist, I’m also recording songs for one of my classmates. Both of these projects have been going well, even though my original artist ended up ditching me before our first session, which greatly set me back. I ended up recording one of my friends, a local noise artist. We decided ahead of time to try to do actual songs, all written and arranged on the spot. It’s been a really interesting project. We’ve mostly been using an old UniVox drum machine with some keyboards, guitars and the piano in Studio D at CDIA. Hopefully I’ll be able to post some of the songs here next week when they’re done - stay tuned!

Tip #1: How to Make Media that Matters - Non-Profit Video

Tue, 28 Oct 2008 02:00:00 EDT

Every communications director I meet from the nonprofit sector needs one thing, and fast: a video. And it's no secret why. Second only to face-to-face contact, video is arguably the most powerful way to communicate.

In our web-centric world, videos provide fresh content for a website and spark new interest via online social networks. Videos engage new donors and offer immense fundraising potential. Video in hand, non-profits are in a position to fill a big event and can even find themselves at the forefront of a film festival. These days, videos are required components for most major grant applications. No matter the forum, if you can tell your story well with a video, you'll stand out.

It's no question that the benefits of a video are vast. The real question is: once you have a video, how do you get results? Every time our team completes a video production for a non-profit partner, these are the questions we hear:

Now that we've got fresh online content, how do we drive traffic to our website?
How do we make sure that we're not stuck with a stack of DVDs collecting dust on a shelf?
Now that we've made the investment to tell our story, how do we make it pay off?

Luckily, See3 Communications just released a few great resources for non-profits that help answer these very questions.

Check out See3's Guide to Online Video, a 7-part video series to help you make video work for you.

For more inspiration, visit See3's new project DoGooderTV. DGTV is a powerful platform that allows non-profits to present their videos, accept donations and increase membership. Be sure to watch the winners of DGTV's 2007 Non-Profit Videos Awards.

Hungry for more? Check out TechSoup's guide to promoting your video with free online services.

There are many tools out there to help you get your story told. Just don't forget that the story itself is above all else. Says See3 Founder Michael Hoffman, "If you want your audience to identify with your mission, you need a compelling story that connects your work to real people. If a story moves you, it will likely move others as well."

What to Do When Things Get Slow

Mon, 27 Oct 2008 02:00:00 EDT

In case you haven't watched the news or stumbled out of your home in the last few weeks, I've got some news for you: the economy isn't doing too hot.

Unfortunately for me this economic disaster has caused a previously overwhelming influx of freelance work to slow down a bit. As a result I've had a decent amount of free time.

Horrible, oppressive, soul crushing free time.

Usually I'd take this opportunity to catch up on some essential viewing at various local theaters, but movies of late have been somewhat... well, let's just say I'd rather stay home and watch "The Wire" on DVD.

So I've came to a conclusion: in times like these the most beneficial thing to do is to keep working regardless of pay. This has meant taking on a couple low/no pay jobs and subsisting mostly on water and lentil soup. I won't lie: not getting paid kind of sucks, but on the other hand there is a lot to be said for doing what you love simply because you love it.

I believe every filmmaker should be excited to work on something that interests them regardless of pay. Not to mention the fact that if you're an Editor or DP, a lot of this low pay stuff might wind up being a centerpiece on the reel that lands you a high paying gig down the road. It happens all the time in this business.

So go ahead and take the hit for your art. Stretch your budget and start that passion project. It's worth a shot in my opinion. What else are you going to do? Watch the "Dark Knight" six more times while you're waiting for "Benjamin Button" to hit theaters?

Big Rigs

Fri, 24 Oct 2008 02:00:00 EDT

I spent the last week rigging up Bruce. In 3D Animation, rigging is the portion of the workflow where the modeler creates controls that an animator can use to manipulate the geometry. In order to make a character like this dragon slayer swing a sword, the animator needs a control that tells the software to twist and turn the joints of his skeleton. That’s where the obscure art of the rigger comes in.

I think rigging in animation is one of those hidden arts akin to editing in movies. If it’s done well, nobody even notices it’s happening. If it’s done poorly, though, it jumps off the screen at you. Rigging is not glamorous; the rigger is a go-between and an enabler. In a typical work environment, the rigger takes what the modeler has made, rigs it and hands it off to the animator, who then breathes life into it. Everyone sees the model and the action it takes, but rarely the structure giving it motion. And if you did, you probably wouldn’t know what to make of it. Check out how ridiculous rigs look when they’re not attached to geometry:

What’s tricky about rigging is making sure that everything joins up correctly. It’s like the old "hip bone connects to the leg bone" song except that you have to add a few lines for control groups and orientation constraints. But do it right and come animation time the rewards are amazing. It’s hard to believe that the first image is what drives the second and third ones:

From Teacher to Student

Thu, 23 Oct 2008 02:00:00 EDT

So many of the students that come to CDIA are looking for a change - they want to finally make their career into something they love to do. We know that decision is not an easy one, and we have the utmost respect for anyone brave enough to make that leap. Including Allen Brooks.

Allen is a 3D Animation student at our Georgetown campus. He recently had the opportunity to write about his experience switching careers in Game Career Guide. "Feeling as if there were something else I should be doing," he decided to figure out what his right path really was. The article offers a wonderful insight into just what goes into making a choice to switch careers, opting to go back to school and includes tips for others on how to make an informed decision for themselves. Thanks for sharing your experiences, Allen. Check out the full article here.

OK, so what is Web 2.0?

Wed, 22 Oct 2008 02:00:00 EDT

For starters, the correct pronunciation is "Web 2-point-oh." If you're around the Web you've probably heard this buzzword, and maybe you've used it. But what is Web 2.0?

Tim O'Reilly's definition (feel free to skip over it): "Web 2.0 is the business revolution in the computer industry caused by the move to the Internet as platform, and an attempt to understand the rules for success on that new platform. Chief among those rules is this: Build applications that harness network effects to get better the more people use them. (This is what I've elsewhere called 'harnessing collective intelligence.')"

My definition: the application of existing technologies to facilitate and improve socialization through the Internet. Or simply, making the Internet cooler.

Some examples

Flickr.com: Different users upload pictures from all over the world and they are plotted on a searchable map. Users can comment on other people's pictures, they can upload their own, and they can do a lot of other cool things like make stuff from posted pics.

Google Docs & Spreadsheets: Utilizing the equally ubiquitous buzzword, Software as a Service (SaaS), documents can be created online without needing to install a "fat client" piece of software. You can share the documents so people can view them or even make changes. Collaboration is a big piece of Web 2.0.

Wikipedia.org: Encapsulates many Web 2.0 features. Users are able to create new articles, update content and discuss pages. There are also detailed rules to follow in order to maintain the integrity of the site. Notice the highlight of "discussion," "edit this page" and "history." Which two of those three make Wikipedia Web 2.0?

Some people disagree that Web 2.0 is a "real thing" because the underlying technologies are merely being used in new ways. As people continue to build cooler socialized sites with improved interactivity, we all benefit, whether or not Web 2.0 is just a buzzword or "the real thing."

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

A Few Common Web 2.0 Technologies

AJAX: Asynchronous JavaScript and XML

Adobe Flex

Microsoft Silverlight

RSS /Atom for syndication

Up and Running

Tue, 21 Oct 2008 02:00:00 EDT

This fall has been shaping up to be particularly busy and exciting!

In July, I finished construction on a second recording facility located in the new JamSpot Inc. in Wakefield, MA, just off Rte. 128. With 20-foot ceilings and over 1,600 square feet, the facility has been perfect for clients looking to record live music videos for promotion.

Left to right: Mike Gordon (bass player, Phish), Bill Kreutzmann (drummer, Grateful Dead), Gabe Herman

Back at my Somerville location, I have been busy producing two records for two very unique and interesting artists:

Zili Misik bridges cultures, generations and continents. With captivating sounds that evoke the African continent, Zili retraces routes of forced exile and cultural resistance through diasporic rhythm and song. Powerful Haitian, Brazilian and West African rhythms infuse Zili's original creations and traditional folksongs, while inspiring its audiences to dance and even teaches how. Reconnecting Haitian mizik rasin, jazz, roots reggae, samba, Cuban son and neo soul, Zili honors its influences while creating a sound that is unique. At present, I am working with them to release their second full length album due out sometime before the end of the year.

The second artist, "Zangi" is an up and coming talent from Port Au Prince, Haiti. Bridging a wide variety of cultural music together from all corners of the globe, Zangi brings fire, energy and soul to their live and studio performances. Be on the lookout for this amazing group!

On the education side, students at CDIA and other audio programs from all over the New England gathered for a day of incredible learning and fun at the 2008 Boston Area Definitive Audio Student Summit. There were over one hundred audio students who attended lectures, workshops, demos, giveaways and panel discussions from the area's best teachers and industry professionals. The 2009 summit has already been scheduled for next September.

What is Practicum?

Mon, 20 Oct 2008 02:00:00 EDT

“Never doubt that a group of thoughtful, committed people can change the world. In fact, it’s the only thing that ever has.” – Margaret Mead

From both an educational and a social entrepreneurship perspective, what we’re doing at CDIA is unique. Our students have made an impact from Boston to Belize and countless places in between by creating media that matters for not-for-profit clients through our Practicum program. What is the CDIA definition of Practicum?

An intensive program that provides students with practical experience working on real projects for real clients, complete with a fixed timeframe, well-defined deliverables and faculty advisory.
An innovative educational model that allows students to practice their craft while providing a valuable service for a not-for-profit organization in need.

At CDIA we believe it’s essential to provide students with hands-on experience with real world clients and make an impact in the community. Over the years, our students have provided websites, videos, photography, animation and audio production services for hundreds of deserving not-for-profit organizations locally and worldwide.

For each Practium-focused post, I will feature a project that showcases how media can make a difference. And, as a resource for our not-for-profit partners, I will also provide tips and insights from industry professionals on how to use visual media to inform, educate and inspire.

For Starters

This is the story of what happens when a team of CDIA photo and video students partner up with Homes for our Troops, an influential charity that builds homes for wounded veterans across the country.

The Customer is...

Fri, 17 Oct 2008 02:00:00 EDT

A few weeks ago, I was asked to remedy a particular situation with a menu bar on a website I was working on. The menu was pretty typical: hover over some items and a secondary drop-down appeared with more options. The client was happy with this until they changed their text size in their browsers, which forces the items in the menu to shift out of their normal position.

In keeping with web standards, and designing for flexibility, I had used an em-based font size in my style sheet, using 62.5 % as the font size, which is pretty typical these days. Em-based font sizes allow the text to scale relatively proportional to the font size choice on the user’s browser – which would be fine for text that’s meant to be read – but not perhaps, for text in a menu.

I could’ve used a pixel-based size for the font in the menu. This, of course, would only have worked in IE 6 and below, locking the size of the text in the menu and preventing the user from re-sizing it. But that wouldn’t have affected text scaling in IE 7 or Firefox. I could’ve used images in the menu, instead of text, which wouldn’t have scaled at all – problem solved, but more difficult to edit. My last resort would’ve been to make a Flash-based menu, which also wouldn’t have scaled, but again, would be more difficult to edit. As you can see, none of these solutions are true to the ideals we web standards folks hold onto.

What I had to do, in the end, is educate the client on the frustrating, but absolute, fact that once the site is in the hands of the user, the control we have over the design is limited. This is what makes all of those elastic layouts so malleable, even if they are difficult to design. User preference, whether it be text size or zoom factor, will always win out over meticulously planned designs. It’s difficult to stomach when you see your design all twisted and distorted when zooming in IE 7 or Firefox. But if a user wants to do that, or in some cases needs to do that because of accessibility reasons, they can do it.

As designers, we are control freaks and when we set out to design a site, we want it to look exactly the way we envision. But what we need to always always always keep in mind is the user and being more flexible with the design at the outset is better for them.

Dear Brian...

Thu, 16 Oct 2008 02:00:00 EDT

Dear Brian,

I read your blog. Like you, I was pretty blown away by the Canon 5D and LaForet’s short “Reverie.”

It is certainly true that digital filmmakers are a little envious of digital still photographers. You work with 35mm sensors, giving you incredible depth-of-field. You’re working with moments in time that you can manipulate in infinite ways. You have a wide array of lenses.

Of course, at the higher-end of digital filmmaking, we don’t need to be jealous. A lot of what you have, we have. But for those of us working on sub-$20,000 cameras and the color-correction tools in FCP or Avid, we are missing your level of control.

And now the 5D will, for only $2,700, shoot 1080p video. Not only are you playing in my sandbox, you just kicked dirt in my face and took my girlfriend.

Of course, all is not lost. While we may be behind in resolution, chip-size and post-production control, we digital filmmakers have a visual language that, because we’re working with moving images and cameras, you haven’t even begun to consider.

Let’s look at LaForet’s short again. What do you notice?

The point of focus is fixed.

Essentially, it’s a collection of stills with movement within the frame. And that movement, due to the shallow depth-of-field, happens laterally across the frame. Were his subjects to come at the camera or vice versa, they would go soft.

Filmmakers pull focus. As the subject moves or the camera moves, so changes our focus distance. We do this with a follow-focus unit.

We can use this for purely aesthetic effect to make sure all eyes are on Jennifer…

But the true power of the focus-pull is how it can be used to strengthen the narrative or emotion of a scene:

A screaming couple circles a table. If the wife has the upper-hand, I maintain focus on her. Or I shift my point of focus, from the husband to the wife, as the balance of power shifts back-and-forth.

A frightened girl stumbles, lost in the forest. I can keep her sharp until the last minute and then rack-focus (quickly shift my focal distance) as she bumps into…the Killer.

My camera doesn’t have to be stationary. I can dolly back from a lonely man sitting at a table. I can follow a spy as he sprints through a crowded train station. Throughout the shot, I’m pulling focus. I can do this manually, with a whip or remotely.

I’m sure someone will come along and develop a follow-focus unit for the Canon if it takes off, but still photography lenses are not designed to pull focus. They’re meant to snap into focus, not come in slowly. A rule of thumb among focus-pullers is to not anticipate the pull. To allow it to come organically, motivated by the character or emotion. It’s a skill that has to be learned, developed and ultimately perfected.

You guys definitely have yourselves a gorgeous camera there, but be ready: Once you implement motion into your work, an entirely new skill and mind set must be developed. You’re not just pulling focus; you’re not just moving your camera or your actors. You’re doing these to serve narrative and emotion.

So, congratulations, you’ve got video. Now get ready to step it up.

Learn from your mistakes and get on with the future

Wed, 15 Oct 2008 02:00:00 EDT

If I was to be sat down a year ago and told I was going to be in the position I am now, I would be running in the other direction.

Just ten months ago I was anticipating my first day of the photography program at CDIA. Throughout the year I accomplished much and my photography improved drastically. I found my niche during our Event Photography modules when we were assigned to find events to shoot. I nervously thought about contacting the promoter of a local 18+ party, but worked the nerve up and found myself swaying into my first "indie-electro dance night." Getting home at 3am, I immediately uploaded the photos, then spent the next day editing to send to the promoter.

I was surprised to get a response back from him asking me to become a resident photographer. I gained a lot of exposure as well as some very valuable contacts there. But after many promises of compensation but never receiving anything, I left. I continued on with small events that seemed few and far between. Two months after, wishing I never left, I was e-mailed by the on-premise Boston manager for Red Bull to become an on-staff event photographer. There I gained a few more resident positions with other parties and have been building up a great reputation as a Boston party photographer.

In June a friend of mine and I conjured up a plan to start an online magazine. Chock full of nightlife photos, fashion, interviews with bands, and reviews, this seemed like a perfect creative outlet for us. A month later we parted ways but I continued on with the publication. I brought on three other people to work with me, and we released one issue. We were almost finishing the layout of the third when two of those new hires up and trademarked the magazine name, filing with the Department of Revenue before I could. The magazine that I had created was taken from right under my feet!

The past few weeks have been very hectic with taking legal action and organizing evidence that I founded the magazine and created the name before their involvement. This battle is still going on, BUT I am now on to starting a new magazine that will be launched October 1, taking what I have learned and focusing on a brighter future.

Damn His Eyes

Tue, 14 Oct 2008 02:00:00 EDT

If eyes are the window to the soul, then I’ve robbed Bruce of something very important. Compare the baby blues I made for my model with the real thing:

For the image, the top half is my own, and the bottom half is a section from a photo credited to Stephen Lovekin, sold to Getty Images, and which appears in New York Newsday.

The first thing that jumps out at me is that the shape is off. When modeling an eye socket from photo reference, the artist typically jumps back and forth between orthographic side and front views. You can still orbit around and look at your work from just about any other view, but all your photo reference still only lives on just two planes. In my case, the socket I made does not actually bulge enough to accommodate the mostly spherical orb behind it, so if you look closely enough you can see behind Bruce’s eye and into his skull. Gross.

The second thing that bothers me is the lack of texture. In a typical 3D animation workflow, once the model’s geometry is laid out, you texture with a series of maps. Colors appear on image maps and work fine for simple projects. If you’re working on the next hot video game, you probably have to fake shadows with either a bump or a normal map. When you’re animating an armored superhero on a twelve foot tall movie screen, though, you want to use a displacement map that actually gives your geometry peaks and valleys. Some really great tools for creating these maps are “two-and-a-half-D” programs like Mudbox and Zbrush. They let you shape polygons with a mouse the way a sculptor works clay with her hands.

I created a passable displacement map of Bruce’s head in Mudbox, but exporting and applying it to the model didn’t work quite right on account of some of my settings not playing nicely with Maya. Unfortunately, I didn’t have time to tweak them before the texturing module ended. Now we’re on to rigging, so the only way I’ll be able to fix this is if I do it in my spare time, and there hasn’t been a lot of that lately.

So, maybe crappy eyes won’t be such a big deal if there are no close-ups in my final animation, but how will I score an internship at say, Brickyard Studios, if I can’t properly model a human eyeball?

Karmaloop and Cash Money

Fri, 10 Oct 2008 02:00:00 EDT

The electro scene in Boston is emerging and influencing creativity. Think of a mix of the 80’s and 90’s with the hot neon colors and outrageous graphics. The music has a punch and is guaranteed to make anyone jump up and sway to the rhythm. The clothing typically worn emulates the electro parties: flashy, loud and fierce. A clothing company called Cash Money Distribution really captures the essence of electro. With an urban flare and 80’s graphics and colors, this company has become very accomplished in such a short period of time.

This duo team consists of Mike Tran, a University of Massachusetts Amherst Graduate, and Kyle Brandse, a current student at Massachusetts College of Art and Design. Their motto, “Hustle Harder Everyday,” is resonating with a lot of people. After launching their company online, they made top sales in their first month at Karmaloop, a Boston boutique. Cash Money Distribution believes in producing solely American made products. They purchase blank t-shirts at American Apparel and print their designs with One Off Apparel, a digital printing company (Mike Tran is VP).

Cash Money was recently featured in a fashion show called Emerging Trends for Boston Fashion Week. They showcased the clothing unlike any designer/clothing company at the show. The first model walked down the runway with an old school boom box. After throwing the boom box a few punches and dusting it off a bit, music was put on as the model pressed Play. It was a brilliant skit that captivated the crowd's attention. Clearly Cash Money made a big splash, and I am certain there are many more to come.

A Brief History of the Internet

Thu, 09 Oct 2008 02:00:00 EDT

Within the short history of the Internet changes have occurred in every sector, from the original purpose to the actual look and feel of sites. The Internet that we know now has so little resemblance to the original that you have to wonder if any of the originators even recognize it.

In the Beginning
One of the most important originators was John Licklider. Licklider, a scientist at MIT in the early 1960s, first had a vision of a vast network of computers providing access to data and programs on a global scale. He called it a “Galactic Network.” In 1968, Licklider joined a government organization called ARPAnet (Advanced Research Projects Agency Network), part of the Department of Defense. ARPAnet began working on Licklider’s “Galactic Network” the following year. In 1971, Ray Tomlinson of ARPAnet sent the first email.

By 1977, the first 100 hosts were operating under ARPAnet. The term “Internet” itself was coined in 1983, around the same time TCP/IP became the standard protocol. One year later, the Internet had increased to 1,000 hosts, and Domain Name Servers (DNS) were introduced.

1990 saw the two biggest innovations in Internet technology. Tim Berners-Lee developed HTML, and the first search engine, “Archie,” was created at McGill University. By then, the Internet had over 300,000 hosts running.

The stage was set. The Internet was well-hosted. HTML had been developed. Many universities and government offices, as well as the military, had begun using the Internet for information-sharing and communication. John Licklider’s original vision of a “Galactic Network” had become a reality. But the Internet was headed for change.

The First Version
In 1990, the US government pulled funding and ARPAnet closed its doors. This looked like the end of funding for the Internet. Instead, the ban on commercial usage of the Internet was lifted -- and an unlimited source of funding was found. The first version of the Internet as we know it was unleashed on the public.

Over the next decade the Internet grew by leaps and bounds. HTML was released as versions 2.0, 3.0 and, eventually, 4.0. The first web browsers were invented and the battle between AOL and Compuserve for email dominance began. All of this was funded and fueled by commercialization.

But commercialization had its problems. The early commercial websites often used as many cutting-edge gimmicks as they could squeeze on a page. The result was a bit like going to the circus. Flashing dancing, blinking images and random sound effects. This was the curse of going commercial: slow-loading, poorly designed and annoying pages.

Designers eventually became more sophisticated. Web sites were refined with clean looks that appealed to the average consumer. Now the same design, layout and color concepts used in printed materials could work equally well in site design. Anything and everything could be purchased online. The first age of the Internet, the dot-com era of the late 90’s and early 00’s, was here.

But something happened to this original vision for the Internet. It had become so commercial that its initial purpose was lost. Even then, change was already happening and a natural progression was happening towards what is now called Web 2.0.

Web 2.0

At the turn of the millenium, as the big commercial ventures crashed, lessons were being learned. The first was that selling was not the only purpose of the Internet. Another was that potential customers were more sophisticated than expected and required more from vendors. Commercial ventures had to get with the program and return to marketing-based customer relations.

Search engines also played a big role in what was to become Web 2.0. Companies realized the need to understand search engine ranking and how to get listed. Search Engine Optimization became the buzzword it is today.

So what was learned? Prospective customers wanted information, and they wanted it presented in an easy-to-use package. The shapers of the Internet began to look back toward the original vision of data sharing and easy access. New sites incorporated blogs, wikis and other sources of free information. Blogs created an interactive arena for people to exchange ideas and gather information. Wikis provided easily searchable and accessible information. In turn, search engines gave better rankings to sites with more to offer. Web sites (even commercial ones) became a source for information instead of just a sales pitch.

The Internet has come full circle. Data and knowledge are being shared again. This is not to say that the original vision of the Internet was ever completely gone. Universities and other non-commercial institutions have always been quietly providing the original service. But now commercial websites are finally offering those features too.

Welcome, Web 2.0! And welcome back to the original “Galactic Network.”

Collaboration on a Musical Passion

Wed, 08 Oct 2008 02:00:00 EDT

So I graduated from school about 2 weeks ago and nothing has really changed, but many things are in motion. I am still going to the studio and finishing things up. I just had a 4-hour vocal session in studio D, I have a teacher of mine from CDIA assisting and helping me produce the EP. I am really excited on how things are turning out.

If everything goes according to plan, which always happens in the audio world (no, not really), I should be done with my EP by the end of October. And then out for people to hear and buy in November. I have to get everything mixed and mastered, then pressed. One thing I wanted to do when I came to CDIA is do it all on my own. Produce, mix, etc.... I have found it not too hard to wear many hats. I want to thank everyone who has jumped onboard this project and contributed in someway. This music isn't just mine anymore, it's something that has become a group effort and something I am extremely excited to be a part of. I can't wait to see where things will be in a month or so.

Animation Software 2009: Sweeeet

Tue, 07 Oct 2008 02:00:00 EDT

October is coming, and that can only mean one thing: new software! Well, at least this year it can. After reading just this morning that Adobe announced the new CS4 suite (with enhanced 3D tools to boot), it only adds to the bumper crop of new stuff coming out next month.

Autodesk announced both Maya 2009 and Mudbox 2009 at Siggraph this year, and neither one (at first glance) looks to disappoint. Starting with Mudbox, it’s very apparent they are making a conscious effort to compete with ZBrush – the upgrade offers a whole new palette of tools, most importantly, the ability to now paint directly on the model and export out various maps (diffuse, specular, etc.) to use in other 3D apps. Unlike ZBrush though, which can render a preview of the finished model but then jumps back into normal view mode when you go back to painting, Mudbox will let you do a render (complete with HDRI lighting), then paint directly on the rendered image. I couldn’t believe it when I saw it, and I can’t wait to try it out. Of course this only makes me wonder what ZBrush 4 is going to include, but they haven’t even announced it yet, so in the meantime I’ll stay excited about Mudbox.

Then there’s our old buddy, Maya. In celebration of its ten-year anniversary, Autodesk has introduced a number of enhancements/new tools that look very cool. Although too numerous to list here (find the latest news at www.highend3d.com), among the “greatest hits” include a new particle engine that should streamline particle effects, animation layers for non-destructive animation (sweeeet), and my favorite, IPR rendering of almost all the bells and whistles that mental ray has to offer (as well as a much needed render layer overhaul). I can’t begin to explain how this will speed up render workflows, and being a big mental ray fan, I’m really looking forward to the new toys.

Now the only question is whether all this new software will be stable or not, but until I get to test drive it for myself, the glass stays half full…

The Revolution in Digital Photography

Mon, 06 Oct 2008 02:00:00 EDT

I should start by saying that I am a Nikon guy; always have been. I am the first one to join the battles waging in the Nikon vs Canon war. I love talking about why one is better than the other, or why one is less expensive than the other. But I will say this now: if there was ever a reason to shift my loyalty, it is most definitely the Canon 5D Mk II.

This release was much anticipated for Canon. A lot of rumors floating around about it for quite a while. But I don’t think anybody expected this. First, some notable new features:

-21 megapixel full-frame CMOS sensor

-ISO expansion range of 50-25,600

-Highlight tone priority, auto lighting optimizer, lens vignetting correction

-2 size RAW files (RAW and SRAW1)

-Huge 3” HD preview screen

-Live-view with 3 modes of auto-focus

-Optional vertical grip with WiFi (wireless) tethering capability

This is all good stuff and very interesting that these features are now being offered on a DSLR. But nothing revolutionary. Well, here it is. The final, amazing feature: the ability to capture up to 12 minutes of full 1080p HD video capture!

WHAT?!?!?! Motion picture capture on a DSLR? Of course we’ve seen this in some form or another on point-and-shoot cameras, but nothing like this. Full HD capture using any lens in Canon’s vast arsenal, switchable to SD format to capture 24 minutes, and full audio support: built-in mic and speaker, mic-in socket and audio-out over AV preview. Please, I implore you, take the time to watch the first film ever made with the 5D MkII, “Reverie” by Vincent Laforet (www.laforetvisuals.com):

Now that is revolutionary. The movie was shot with many different lenses but Vincent also noted in a posting that there was NO postproduction work (color correction) done to the movie... essentially what you just saw came straight out of the camera. And, oh yeah, the thing is only $2,700! Wow.

So if Canon can now do this with a Digital SLR, what does that mean for filmmakers now only using boring fixed lens cameras that can’t capture stills? This opens up so many new doors for photographers being able to add video capture on-the-fly to anything they are shooting. Multimedia has been on the rise over the past couple years in photography, and now with the ability to shoot video with ease, photographers can produce some amazing pieces of work. I will be so bold to even say that with this small piece of hardware, I think we’re leaving the filmmakers in the dust. Ultimately we have just expanded what we have to offer as artists. Is there going to be an uprising among filmmakers? A rebellion? I foresee there being a major response by the hardware-making companies to come up with something revolutionary for filmmakers too. Don’t worry guys, we will try not to take all your work.

9/30 CDIA Speaker Series with Ethan Marcotte

Fri, 03 Oct 2008 10:09:29 EDT

Ethan Marcotte, Senior Designer at Airbag Industries in Cambridge, came to CDIA-Waltham on 9/30 to discuss the relationship between web designers and developers.

First of all, I'd like to thank CDIA for having me: I had a wonderful time visiting the space, seeing the recent graduates' work in the halls and hearing more about the program.

My talk was called "Comps vs. Code: Couples' Therapy", and deals with a lot of the challenges that web designers and developers have in working together. After a decade or so of working on the web, I

believe there's more than one kind of client: there's obviously the "actual" client, whose work we're doing, but it's also important to treat the other people on your project team as clients. Whether you're

a designer or a developer, it can be useful to:

Go over important requirements with the person heading up the phase of the project following yours.
Review your work early and often with that person, to make sure that they can start thinking about the work in front of them.
Review their work, to make sure that all those requirements are being met.

Here are a few of the links I mentioned during my talk:

sIFR: http://wiki.novemberborn.net/sifr/

SWFObject: http://code.google.com/p/swfobject/

Flash Satay: http://www.alistapart.com/articles/flashsatay

Son of Suckerfish: http://htmldog.com/articles/suckerfish/

ExpressionEngine: http://expressionengine.com/

And here are the projects I discussed:

2008 Sundance Film Festival: http://festival.sundance.org/

The Today Show: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3032633/

The W3C: http://w3.org/ (Still in progress)

Finally, I'd like to thank you all for coming out to hear the talk. I'd especially like to thank former Graphic and Web Design program director Jeremy Osborn for recommending me, Liz Menard for passing my

name along, and Maureen Lawson for inviting me to speak and for coordinating the event. I had a great time!

Above the Scroll

Fri, 03 Oct 2008 02:00:00 EDT

As a child one of my first jobs was a paperboy. I remember my mentor, who I think was 12 years old at the time, explaining the ins and outs of the newspaper biz to me. One of his lessons was to make sure the deliveries left on the doorstep were "above the fold". He explained that "above the fold" refers to the location of an important news story on the upper half of the front page.

Fast forward 20 years. As a web designer now, one of the comments I often hear is: "Can we move all of the content "above the fold?" Usually, I will try to educate my customers about using the term "above the scroll" instead of the antiquated "above the fold". In web design, "above the scroll" refers to the location of an item near the top of a web page, so it can be viewed in a browser without scrolling down.

As a web designer, if you want to keep all of the content "above the scroll" on the page so that the viewable screen size contains all of your content, your maximum height for the website should not be greater than 768 pixels or 48em. If you are designing a website and you size it larger than what the current market share is listed, some people who may view your site may have to scroll.

In August, the screen resolution market share was listed as follows:

• 1024px X 768px: 40%

• 1280px X 800px: 18%

• 1280px X 1024px: 13%

• 1440px X 900px: 7%

• 800px X 600px: 5%

• Other: 17%

The market share means that 40% of the computer screens on the market are currently 1024 pixels x 768 pixels. So if you are designing a website and you size it larger than 1024 pixels x 768 pixels, 40% of the people who may view your site may have to scroll down to see all of the content.

A Reminder About What I Truly Love About Editing

Wed, 01 Oct 2008 02:00:00 EDT

It's been a hell of a week.

I've spent a good chunk of it walled up in an office in Quincy, MA, working with director and CDIA instructor Greg Croteau on his first feature, The Aristocrat. The film had its first rough cut screening about two weeks ago, and it was at that point that we realized (thanks to the help of a responsive and thoughtful test screen audience) that a few scenes had to be reworked, and the running time needed to be reeled in.

To put it bluntly, we took an axe to the thing.

Two hours and five minutes, thats what we were up against. But after a ton of cutting, several hundred cups of coffee and a few beers, we're currently down to a heroic hour-and-a-half that feels damn good. I think I can speak for everyone associated with the project when I say that we're excited as hell and incredibly happy with how far we've come.

This week has reminded me of what I truly love about editing: late nights, early mornings, in-depth discussions on everything from human emotion to the traditions of independent cinema, and that ever-present sense of satisfaction you get when you realize that you have played an important role in creating a work of art.

My Take on the Boston Area Definitive Audio Student Summit

Wed, 01 Oct 2008 02:00:00 EDT

I went to B.A.D.A.S.S. this weekend, and despite its suspect naming, this event was really interesting. I attended several great events and met some really cool people. The lectures I went to covered recording Country and Jazz, compression, and how to get a job. I also saw a rather strange rant on how compression should never be used and how awful SM 57’s are. Probably the most interesting lecture was J Franze’s presentation on recording Country music.

First of all, I had to sneak into J’s lecture 'cause I didn’t realize they were giving out tickets. This turned out to be fine but it was still funny. J Franze works primarily out of Nashville, TN. He records established artists as well as developing up and coming bands. He gave a lengthy presentation on one of his last sessions at the The Tracking Room. The Tracking Room comes complete with a basketball court-sized live room and a rock room (yep, that’s a room made of entirely rock surfaces). He showed us some of his microphone set-ups, talked about the importance of individual multi channel headphone amps, and told us all about the inner workings of the Nashville session players. Maybe my favorite mic technique he talked about was the Ringo mic. The Ringo mic is a lone omni directional room mic placed back from the drums and then compressed within an inch of its life. I thought the mic really added a nice feel to the mix he was playing for us.

J spent some of the lecture telling us about a very interesting project that he has been working on. He had been asked to digitize and master a set of tapes of Grand Ole Opry artists such as Johnny Cash, Hank Williams Jr., Loretta Lynn, and Jerry Lee Lewis. To make a long story short, these recordings were something of a legend and it was unknown whether or not they even existed. A label in California decided to try to track them and succeeded. J brought in a sample of the performances, which were all fantastic. The most entertaining was a Jerry Lee Lewis set where he was very drunk. Apparently he tried to play it off for the first half of the performance but halfway through admitted he was drunk to the audience: he very obviously had completely forgotten the lyrics to Great Balls of Fire. It was hilarious.

Plan B: Bruce Willis

Tue, 30 Sep 2008 02:00:00 EDT

A few weeks ago, we began our character modeling module. I really wanted to develop a set of original players for use in a short, three-minute animation I plan to turn in at the end of the school term. They’re a fun, kind of cartoony bunch led by an animated toaster and inspired by all the great work the guys and gals over at Pixar are doing. Unfortunately, when it came time to start the module to begin modeling our characters, I didn’t have all my designs sketched out yet. Procrastination: 1, Me: 0.

A brief moment of panic followed. One of the course requirements is lip syncing. So in order to meet this, I decided I would just work up a real person. Another one of my goals is to eventually get involved with special effects, specifically integrating them with live action, so I’ll probably need to know how to model, texture, and animate real people at some point. That’s when my backup plan kicked in: I would collect photo reference and model an actor I admire and whose films tend to feature a lot of shooting and exploding.

So, here’s Bruce Willis from his turn in Live Free or Diehard, along with the un-textured digital double I made of him using Autodesk Maya. Organic modeling is hard. Thus far, our class has done automobiles, product placement, and environments, and right now I’m crying for a chance to return to the hard edges and machined surfaces of those projects. I know Bruce will be very rewarding once I animate him, but getting there is a challenge I wasn’t prepared for.

First Impressions

Mon, 29 Sep 2008 02:00:00 EDT

Saturday, March 8th, 2008: I stand surrounded by liquid-filled glass, acoustic vibes and muffled laughter, pushing the last legal drug to the drunken masses of Portland, Maine. I act the part: chatting, shaking hands, flirting, but I feel an uneasy restlessness, uncertainty, dissatisfaction. College is over, and here I am: no plans, no inspiration, no passion. What the hell am I supposed to do now, I would often ask myself, searching the shelves for that manual, “Life: How to Live It!”

Back then, I would carry my little Canon point-and-shoot camera and snap shots of drunken banter or crazy bachelorettes around the bar. I enjoyed catching people’s unguided emotions, joining in their laughter and companionship.

Finally, an idea struck me. For years I had wanted to learn more about photography, but the Portland area lacked the kind of amateur education suited for someone of my skill level. So I hit the 'Net, and uncovered some information on this great little school in the ‘burbs of Boston.

From the very beginning I was amazed at the network of sophisticated and polite professionals, working together to achieve a comfortable and fun, yet dedicated, learning environment, while also concentrating on my individual desires in an area of digital arts. So I packed up, moved to Waltham and braced myself for the unknown.

Nervous? Absolutely. Intimidated? No doubt. In over my head? Most likely. Let’s do it! CDIA Photography Program, here I come!

On the first day of class, we were doing an icebreaker (you know, standard where ya from, what’s your deal, what are your goals, got any pets) when my instructor noticed that many students were saying photography was their favorite hobby. When everyone had finished, our teacher made a single statement that has remained true for me every day since: "Just to let you know, guys, photography is no longer your hobby. It’s your profession."

As these many weeks fly by, with barely enough time to catch my breath, I allow those words to remain my focus. It is simply amazing that this environment at CDIA has already given me so much and yet I am merely a third of the way through my program.

Compared to this, a standard university-style degree curriculum doesn't stand a chance. There were some classes in college I know I sat through, but I couldn't tell you a single thing that I took from them and applied to my life. (And I'm still paying for that. With interest.)

With each day that goes by, I feel a little more prepared to face the world as a digital artist. As my excitement builds, I ask myself, “Self, what took you so long? Finally, you found your inspiration.” Thanks to all the people at CDIA for helping my dreams become my reality.

(Eric is a photography student at CDIA Waltham. His blog column will center around his experiences at the school.)

New Features of the New CS4

Mon, 29 Sep 2008 02:00:00 EDT

Adobe has announced the release of the new version of the Creative Suite, CS4, with exciting updates to all of your favorite tools. So I’m sure you are dying to find out what’s new and whether or not it’s worth the upgrade. For the quickest overview, head over to Computer Arts magazine. They have summary pages on Photoshop, InDesign, Flash, and Illustrator. You can also find video information over at Adobe TV.

There’s a few interesting things about this release. For example, the Web Premium package now includes Soundbooth, Adobe’s audio editing tool. Probably to give Flash users more sound editing capabilities. Flash will feature a new timeline that’s geared towards programmers and a new motion editor panel. Motion Tweens now get applied to objects rather than keyframes. Flash also has a new Inverse Kinematics features for character animation as well as new 3D transformation tools.

Photoshop is all about non-destructive editing here, with a new Adjustments panel. Photoshop CS4 now takes full advantage of 64-bit processing and has some incredible new 3D capabilities. Deke McLelland has a great overview of Photoshop CS4.

There are some cool upgrades to Illustrator. The program now (finally) supports multiple artboards for a single document. This is something Freehand has been doing for years. There is also a new Blob brush tool that makes filled vector shapes while you sketch. InDesign has new Flash capabilities to output SWF content from InDesign documents and a new Live Preflight tool to preflight documents on the fly.

The entire Creative Suite has been re-engineered for overall tighter integration amongst the applications. You can pre-order CS4 now from the Adobe website, with an expected delivery of mid-October.

The Facebook Factor: Redesigning a Website

Fri, 26 Sep 2008 02:00:00 EDT

Facebook.com is in the final stages of deploying its newly designed layout. The changes are being met with fierce opposition from its users. Facebook has made strides from their last major redesign when they introduced News Feeds overnight to a similar uproar. Ironically, News Feeds have become one of Facebook’s most desirable features.

This time around, Facebook made the wise decision to wean people off of their old look. They gave users a few weeks to optionally switch between the new and old layouts to familiarize themselves and ease the transition. Despite their best efforts, there are currently 7 million out of their reported 100 million users who have joined groups denouncing the new look.

Old Facebook.com:

New Facebook.com:

As a web developer, it is easier to understand and appreciate the new design than it may be for a casual user. When building your own site it will quickly become clear that a side effect of development is uncovering and fixing bugs. Though bugs are inevitable and must be addressed, they hinder forward progress in releasing new features. Had Facebook attempted to keep two branches of their code base (the new and old layout), they would have essentially needed to double their staff to both fix problems and make progress.

The story of Facebook is amplified by their size, but the rules should be taken into account for any web designer or web developer.

· People do not like change.

· Changes must add enough functionality (for you or your users) or improve usability in such a way as to offset your visitors’ resistance.

· Give users fair warning and let them know why you are making the changes. “A new database for content” is not a sufficient reason because most users won’t understand. “Providing more frequent updates with the ability for users to make comments” might be more palatable.

· Listen openly to the criticism of your users.

· Do not take any negative commentary to heart. Expect that feedback will be negative; positive feedback is just icing on the cake.

Whatever the outcome of Facebook’s redesign, these rules should always be applied to changes in your site.

Check out http://www.cnn.com/2008/TECH/ptech/09/22/facebook.facelift/index.html?eref=rss_us for more discussion on this hot topic.

Inspiration Strikes on Lack of Sleep

Thu, 25 Sep 2008 02:00:00 EDT

One of the most useful skills that an audio engineer can learn, beyond recognizing subtle frequency imbalances, routing dozens of impeccably-recorded tracks through sexy outboard gear, or knowing about every microphone ever made, is the ability to work on little or no sleep. When I play one of my mixes for someone, one of the first things they might say is, "Oooooh! Sounds good...it sounds like you were awake for about 35 hours straight." And I'll say, "Absolutely. See how the snare almost sounds like a gunshot inside an igloo? You simply can't get that kind of sound if you're well-rested. Your judgment is too...normal."

I've found that in the would of audio geekery – at least in the crowds I run with – there is an unspoken competition between engineers: who can abuse and/or neglect their health the most in pursuit of undeniable sounds. I know engineers who purchase four-packs of Red Bull in preparation for 20+ hour mix sessions, down all four cans before the compressors are even patched, and maybe catch a quick one hour nap before doing it all again the next day.

My personal abuse goes something like this: Get to CDIA at 8:30 am, teach until 4:30 pm, get a couple hours of tech work in before driving into Cambridge to mix live sound at the Lizard Lounge (I am a house engineer) and get back home at roughly 3:00 am. Set alarm clock for 6:30 am. Rinse and repeat.

If I'm not at CDIA, I might have an all-day tracking or mix session at my studio, Ample-Fi Recording, in Winchester, MA. Miraculously, I managed to build a studio in a converted church (I live in the lower level) with a live room bigger than I could ever need and a grand piano better than I could ever afford. On those days, my commute to the control room is about 8 feet, but the hours are just as long if not longer. The only difference is that at home I can work in my underwear if I want.

I can honestly say that if a day goes by where I do nothing audio-related, for either work or personal use, there is a noticeable void accompanied by an overall feeling of worthlessness and self-loathing. I realize that this is not normal.

The Nonstop Life of a Freelance Filmmaker

Wed, 24 Sep 2008 02:00:00 EDT

The phone rang. Without even looking, I knew who it was.

"Urvi." I said answering the phone. "What's up?"

"A couple things. Are you busy?"

"That depends..."

"Good. Listen, the Pro-Teck people want to discuss deliverables and compression, so could you please get back to them ASAP? Also, I have a favor to ask."

"I'll call Pro-Teck when I get off the phone with you. What's this favor you speak of?"

"CDIA wants you to write a blog about your life as a freelance editor."

I took a sip of coffee.

"Can you do it?" she asked.

Good question, I thought.

The fact is, I've been extremely busy since graduating from CDIA last September. Actually, wait a minute. Now that I think about it, I was already working as lead editor on a feature-length documentary a month or so before I finished Practicum. So in actuality, I was a working filmmaker before I was even shaking hands and enjoying the spanakopita at graduation.

Is it feasible time-wise for me to write this blog? My to-do list this week includes: a reality show, a feature length doc, a short film and a music video to edit; a rough cut screening to attend; a class to teach; another doc to produce and a feature length script to co-write -- but besides all that, I have plenty of time.

Wait, I almost forgot. I also have a relationship to maintain and two bands that I need to write and practice for. But besides that... Yes, plenty of free time.

"Sure," I said. "I can do it. No problem."

I think that’s a motto all we freelance artists need to learn in our first few years out. I've lost count of how many times I've said that exact phrase or something very similar to a prospective job since graduating from CDIA. And that determination to take every job that comes down the pipeline and to keep learning has ensured that I'm constantly working and doing what I love.

Sure, I don't sleep much, and I'm reasonably certain that all of the blood in my veins has been replaced with black coffee and cheap energy drinks, but I'm living the dream. I'm getting paid (much more than I ever did at previous jobs) to film live music, edit documentaries and features, color correct shorts and much more... Sometimes I feel like I'm cheating. That’s how much fun I'm having.

So here I am. I spent the morning location scouting and doing tests for a short that I'm working on this weekend. Now I'm writing this blog on site at a client's office while Compressor whirs away in the background and with about two pots of coffee swimming around in my brain.

I wouldn't have it any other way.

Megapixels: The More the Merrier?

Fri, 19 Sep 2008 02:00:00 EDT

"Oh man, they just came out with a 6 megapixel camera!! I have to get that!" ....Remember those days? You'd go out and buy a small point-and-shoot camera that was maybe 4mp, then a month later the 6mp came out and you just HAD to have it? It's been ingrained in our brains that megapixels (mp) are such a huge deciding factor on everything related to digital image quality. This may have been true way back in the day, but times have changed.

Some of the first professional level digital cameras were released back in the early '90s (Wow – it's been almost 20 years since the birth of digital still cameras; congratulations, technology!). Kodak gets the prize for the first digital single lens reflex camera (DSLR) that tipped the scales at an astonishing 1.3mp (1,300,000 pixels)...and emptied your bank account at $13,000 — one penny per pixel.

Streamlining for consumers began mid- to late-‘90s with Nikon and others developing 2-3mp cameras for around $6,000 ($.0024 per pixel). Hmm...getting cheaper per unit!! Now Phase One has just released a digital camera “back” (not a full camera body with lens; just the digital sensor in a box that gets put on the back of a medium format camera) rated at a mind-bending 60mp, bankrupting its suckers (I mean patrons) at $40,000! The question is: Do you really need it? Are there other factors that go into the image quality?

The sales pitch for years has told us that when it comes to megapixels, the higher the better. Why? Because it’s an easy sell. Imagine some super geek salesman telling you, “This camera is better because it captures in 16-bit color depth, records Profoto color space AND has a faster EXPEED processing engine AND embeds your GPS location right into the metadata of the file!” Um, yeah, what he said.

The reality is that the only thing the number of megapixels does is make the file size bigger. For example, the Phase One 65+ boasts a 180mb+ raw file. Compare that to a smaller camera with less megapixels like the Nikon D300, which will create a raw file under 20mb.

So if it isn’t megapixels that matters most in image quality, then what does matter? How about: the diameter of each pixel (the width of each); depth of each (color bit depth); and how far apart the pixels are from one another.

Diameter determines how much actual light can be captured or held in a pixel. Generally, the larger the diameter, the less chance for any digital noise — a constant struggle since the beginning of digital cameras. The bit depth (or color depth) refers mostly to how many different shades of color can be captured in each red, green or blue pixel. 1-bit color is grayscale (21), 8-bit color can capture 256 different colors (28), and 16-bit color can capture up to 65,536 colors (216). Many high-end digital backs can now capture 16-bit; most DSLRs still only capture in 12- or 14-bit. Lastly, the proximity of the pixels to one another makes a difference in how much of the projected image is lost. The further apart, the more you’ll lose in the space between each pixel.

The bottom line is: forget any “Napoleon complex” about having a smaller camera; remember, size isn’t the issue. You don’t need a Hummer H2 to be a successful photographer, when a Jeep Wrangler will do you better than fine.

How 3D Made The Dark Knight's Gotham Come To Life

Thu, 18 Sep 2008 02:00:00 EDT

I finally joined the rest of the civilized society and went to see The Dark Knight recently. (If you haven't seen it in IMAX, go. Right now.) Yes, the movie is as good as everyone has told you, and yes, Heath Ledger is as great as everyone says he is. But just as impressive is the technology that was used to create the visual effects; not just the obvious stuff, but the city of Gotham itself... at a ridiculously high 3D resolution of more than 8,000 x 6,000 pixels.

www.studiodaily.com/filmandvideo/currentissue/9703.html

First of all, kudos to Christopher Nolan for keeping to the ideal that realism is key. Not real as in a caped billionaire can save the city (although, who knows?), but that the effects must serve the story and look like they’re supposed to be there, as if there were no CG at all. There are too many special-effects movies nowadays that rely on smoke and mirrors to carry a bad story, or obfuscate the very action that should be drawing you in. Nolan managed to make an action movie that feels gritty and real, only using CG where there was no other alternative.

Gotham was based on Chicago, but the city was entirely re-imagined in 3D by several VFX post-production teams, including Framestore CFC and Double Negative. New DSLR cameras were used to capture even more information than the 1 million pictures used for the first Batman movie, making the city look fantastic at any time of day. All digital doubles were hand-animated, proving once again that a good animator still beats motion capture any day. Even the Batpod and the ferries were modeled from scans and hundreds of images of the real deal.

The attention to detail and hi-res compositing made the entire movie feel that much more “real” -- and that should be the goal of any movie, no matter how fantastic the circumstances or the story.

The pencil trick was pretty neat, too.

Improving your site's search results: Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

Wed, 17 Sep 2008 02:00:00 EDT

Whether you’re a business owner, hobbyist or the person in charge of a community website, you’ve likely gone through the effort of creating a web page for your cause. You may not be the technical person behind the effort, but now you’re sitting in the saddle, waiting for results. You know people should be visiting your site, but you can’t seem to overcome that visitor hurdle. Before you panic and hire a PR agent, ask yourself these questions:

Is your site employing Search Engine Optimization (SEO)?

When you type keywords related to your site into Google, Yahoo or any other search engine, do your results come out first?

If the answer to either of those question is no, it’s possible that your site’s results could be organically improved without spending money directly on advertising. Here are a few ways to tell if you’re getting the most from your site:

1) Do page titles properly articulate what visitors might be looking for?

You have a news story on your band’s website about an upcoming local coffee shop performance. Is the title of the page “Show November 1” or, worse, “Untitled”? Or is it “Joe’s Band Performs at Coffee Shop X November 1 in Waltham, MA?”

2) Building on the previous point, do the URLs to your site represent information about your page?

Using the last example, is the URL to your page http://www.YourBandsPage.com/shows.php?id=24, or, worse, are you unable to link directly to stories/events?

To be properly optimized, the site URL should look more like: http://www.YourBandsPage.com/Joe’s-Band-Performs-at-Coffee-Shop-X-November-1-in-Waltham-MA/24/

As a general rule, the more intuitive it is for you to figure out the content of a page by looking at the title or URL, the easier it will be for a search engine to “crawl” your site (find all of the pages) and “index” it (place it in its results).

3) Does your site have any friends?

Networking and socializing aren’t just for people. Websites that are linked on other pages will see their results climb in search engines. This is because search engines aggressively scour the Internet, trying to make their results more complete than their competitors’. They do this by picking some starting points and then following all of the links they find. If your page keeps showing up in other locations, the crawler will know it’s popular.

Naturally, there are many more areas to improve the organic search results, but taking care of these top three will set you in the right direction.

Lessons From My Final Project

Tue, 16 Sep 2008 02:00:00 EDT

My name is Ryan LaPerle. I’m a singer/songwriter and an Audio Production student at CDIA. My final project is a new EP (“Disguise”) which is coming out this Fall. With this project I really took the role of producer, hiring other musicians and organizing the schedules and budgets to make everything run smoothly.

I also just finished a promotional multimedia film with Vanessa Embling, a graduate of the photography program here; I met her at a school networking social. She has helped me with pictures for my professional career and now with a promotional film to help me advance my EP. At CDIA I have gained so many connections with photography, film and other departments. I can see how these areas can all work together for many types of projects. Most of all, I made friends with people who understand and are striving for the same things.

I still have to spend some time in the studio to finish up “Disguise,” which is great because I am really excited to work and make a life outside of school projects. Working on this EP taught me that I can’t be counting on school to motivate me to work on a new project; it’s about finding the motivation to push yourself forward. That is something I love about this program: the freedom to choose your own project and do something you really care about.

Why Are We So Concerned About Resolution Anyway?

Mon, 15 Sep 2008 02:00:00 EDT

I’ve been obsessed with doubling frame rates for almost ten years.

It was 1999, and I was a freshman in film school. I’d yet to drink the inexpensive, instant-gratification Kool-Aid that is digital filmmaking. I’d never shot a frame of film, or experienced the disappointment of getting film back from the lab over-exposed or soft (after dropping a hundo on stock/processing). To be fair to film, I’d also yet to get back a perfectly-exposed, focused and composed roll of film -- achieved by trusting my skills as a filmmaker instead of relying on on-set playback and umpteen takes.

But still I decried the rumblings of the digital filmmaking revolution as heresy. Film was beautiful! It had been around for a hundred years!

So? Tell me something I don’t know. The fact is, all the benefits of film are true. I love the way it looks. I love the workflow. I even like the smell of it.

But the future is here, and it ain’t film. Digital cinema is, as Will Smith would say, ‘the new hotness.’ It has been for a while. And it keeps getting better.

So why are we still trying match the 4K/24fps standard set by film? Why are we so wrapped up in resolution when it’s FRAME RATE that we need to address?

This leads us back to ’99 – a great year for film, though I still say that American Beauty is overrated. In my quest to outwit George Lucas (this ‘tip-of-the-spear’ of the digital revolution had become my bearded, bad-movie-making nemesis), I stumbled upon a process called MaxiVision 48. Invented just that year, it allowed film to run through the projector gate at 48fps. By doubling the speed, each “frame” was held a fraction longer. This eliminated the strobing effect of panning shots and gave a clearer (read: higher-appearing) resolution than film projected at 24fps.

The downside was that in order to be projected at 48fps, the film had to be shot at 48fps. This meant double the amount of film stock and double the cost. Needless to say, no one but Kodak was all that enthused, and I’ve heard neither hide nor hair of this process since.

The same fate befell effects-wizard Douglas Trumbull’s Showscan process. That brilliant lunatic wanted to shoot 60fps on 70mm!

Fast-forward to now: George Lucas is still my nemesis and, while we’re shooting digital, we’re still shooting 24fps. Some of us are still shooting 60i…

I’ll admit that during my own digital conversion, my obsession with increased frame rates fell away. I was lulled into complacency by Panasonic’s DVX100/24p siren song. But leave it to James Cameron to snap me out of it. His interview with Variety back in April reminded me that maybe we’ve got all of this backwards.

Yeah, we’re shooting digitally, but we’re still shooting 24fps while we chase K’s. 2K, 4K… RED’s EPIC will shoot 5K. It comes out next year. Maybe. Maybe not. At the very least, it’ll probably be late.

All of this resolution is choking up our hard drives, making distribution pipelines look like John Goodman’s arteries and essentially slowing the transition to digital cinema.

Why are we forgetting that perceived resolution is pixels x refreshment rate? A 2K image at 48fps is just as sharp as a 4K image at 24, and it doesn’t have the strobing effect. We can keep going with this: an HDV camera with a horizontal resolution of 1920 could, at 48fps, have a perceived resolution of 2,048 horizontal lines. That’s the equivalent of what you’d get from Sony’s $150,000 F23 camera.

And we’re ready to display films shot like this. Our digital theater projectors can handle up to 144 frames-per-second. Even our laptops can refresh fast enough to show us a film captured this way. Yet all we care about is resolution.

I say, keep your pixels. Give me more frames.