Kurt Busiek is (among other things) a comic scriptwriter. Not so many years ago, Image Comics started to publish a work by him: Astro City. If I can remember correctly, since my memory is made of cork, Busiek had been already working for some time in the human perspective of the super-heroic experience. With his work, he tried to answer questions such as, how does a journalist view super heroes?, or, what are the feelings of someone who suddenly acquires great power? Read the rest of this article »

http://www.gamedevmap.com/index.php

Publishers, development studios with a staff of five or more, studios with previously published games, and studios under contract with a publisher are listed.

Gamedevmap is a growing database of video game companies. For the sake of general curiosity, you can spot at a glance the most prominent areas for video game developing -this is a little tricky though, since the spots don´t give visual information on the number of companies on each one of them-. However, I believe that this link will be most valuable for those interested in entering the business, since it saves countless headaches searching for the companies´ locations and sites. Beware that not every company is covered: the webmasters rely on the readers´ help to complete the list, so this could be your opportunity to add a spot!

We all know that the producers’ aim is to make a profit. And it’s logical: like any company, they are moved by obvious interests:

Then, it’s sensible to think that every film will be considered a product to exploit economically. There’s nothing wrong with it.

Simplifying a lot, let’s Read the rest of this article »

Well. I don´t know the reason, but this afternoon I feel naive. Maybe it will be the nearness of summer time, or maybe not. One thing is true, today we are going to talk about romantic moments in the movies. Why not? Don´t I have the right to be mawkish (I expect I won’t) at least once every quarter?

Love or romantic scenes in the movies seem (too often) to be written by teenagers while hugging their pillows. Ugh! Bad vibrations, if we want to make a high-quality film. Is there a hope? I think so, and that is the reason why I will Read the rest of this article »

http://www.foundphotography.com/

I think the new design is simple and I dare say quite beautiful.

Adrian Hanft is a graphic designer and founder of the very interesting Found Photography Blog. Besides publishing his pictures he has also made several articles on the cameras he uses, among these a peculiar camera of his own invention: the lego pinhole camera.

A pinhole camera is a kind of camera which follows the same principle as the camera obscura (it is, actually, a small camera obscura). You can read a thorough explanation on both concepts in this and this Wikipedia articles; in brief, a pinhole camera is a camera with no lens, the light crossing instead through a very small hole in the body of the device. This simplicity has made pinhole cameras very popular among hobbyists, and you can easily Read the rest of this article »

http://www.sonypictures.com/movies/thedavincicode/

(…) a secret that threatens to overturn 2000 years of accepted dogma

I wonder if “The Da Vinci Code”, the movie, will ever have a life outside of “The Da Vinci Code”, the book, just as much as I wondered before if “The Da Vinci Code”, the book, would ever have had a life outside of its title. In my opinion, both the book´s title and its cover design were the true reasons for its success, more than the plot, which albeit interesting was nothing new sub sole (for instance, check Peter Berling´s “The Children of the Grail“). In this way I would say that I Read the rest of this article »

A video game is not that different from any other software development; it perhaps depends more on hardware, but even so it is very similar. When you describe a program you need the client´s opinion and plenty of information to determine how the issue was being taken prior to the new development. In the end it is obvious that albeit there won´t be much relation between the analysis and the final development, that relation will still be more or less recognizeable.

But, what about video games? To start with, Read the rest of this article »

The first thing you should know, I’m not a Stephen King fan, but I feel interested by the fact that many of his novels have been taken to the Big screen, though not always with great success. I´ll overlook the sometimes terrible or unimportant adaptations, and the overrated ones (sorry, but I don´t enjoy “Carrie” very much).

For a great movie tour around King’s novels, Read the rest of this article »

http://cgi.linkclub.or.jp/~null/unicorn/unicorn0.html

Thanks to the instructions in this site, you can emulate Gaff and leave the same origami unicorn he left Deckard in front of your suspected replicant friends´door. This origami unicorn has an intermediate level of difficulty, but the instructions come both in origami signs and pictures for every step, which makes it a recommended model not only for the film fans but also for anyone who wants to understand origami signs better, since you can easily see how the drawings correspond to the real foldings. Good luck and happy sheepy dreams!

http://mzlabs.com/gart/g4.html

Genetic Art is a way to describe processes where genetic selection procedures are applied to computer-generated media, the selection criteria being based on aesthetical choices. In other words, think of yourself as a Mendel-wannabe of the digital era, one that works with images instead of peas. Ready to experiment? Read the rest of this article »

Hi everyone! We can consider this article as a continuation of those “Five remedies for sadness” released several weeks ago. Today we are going to concentrate on a film which, in 1988, revitalized the comedy genre: “A fish called Wanda”.

There is something that distinguishes this film from many others: surely, the charisma of the four main actors and their brilliant and hilarious performances. But, let’s start with the beginning.

Mythic John Cleese (along with Graham Chapman, the two most outstanding members from Monty Python) dumped his acid sense of humour in a story about burglars, and he decided to offer it to a filmmaker (Charles Crichton, who hadn’t shot a movie since the late 60’s). Cleese succeeded in putting pressure on the producers, and (along with Crichton) wrote the final screenplay. They opted to dispense with the dark surreal humour from Monty Python’s stage, and they also impregnated the absurd situations with more dramatic likeliness. And the bet was complete, because they Read the rest of this article »

http://www.craftsmanshipmuseum.com/Ho.htm

http://www.zoho.nl/zoho2.html

the “ultimate puppet” that could duplicate the grace and range of human movement

Mark Ho has recently been spotted in many sites across the Web after his work on the ArtForm No.1, a metal fully poseable robot sculpture. The reasons for this interest? Well, according to a post in digg, Mark is selling a limited series of these sculptures, priced at more than 36000 dollars each. That will raise some eyebrows, but honestly, I think that the price is fair (and it would be even if the series weren´t limited). From a craftsman´s point of view the statue is a masterpiece, comprised of 920 pieces that Read the rest of this article »

http://ccl.northwestern.edu/netlogo/

NetLogo is a programmable modeling environment for simulating natural and social phenomena. It is particularly well suited for modeling complex systems developing over time. Modelers can give instructions to hundreds or thousands of independent “agents” all operating concurrently. This makes it possible to explore the connection between the micro-level behavior of individuals and the macro-level patterns that emerge from the interaction of many individuals.

3.1 features a new suite of link primitives, configurable world topologies, randomized agent ordering, and a new tie primitive.

NetLogo is one of those cool, easy-to-understand program languages, like processing, that I keep in my linkshelf with the hope to learn one day and become a really cool artist. I want to configure world topologies!!

Now talking seriously (as if I ever did), NetLogo, by the way based on the famous (at least when I was a kid) LOGO language, really IS an impressive programming environment for at least three reasons: it is easy to learn so students can use it; it is written in java, which means that the programs can be executed from within the web browser, like the examples here; and it has a very wide scope of applications, from biology to art. All in all, this is a highly interesting and worthwhile environment that I´ll keep on wanting to try for a long time.

Construction of a Menger sponge can be visualized as follows:

1. Begin with a cube.
2. Shrink the cube to 1 / 3 of its original size and make 20 copies of it.
3. Place the copies so they will form a new cube of the same size as the original one but lacking the centerparts, (next image).
4. Repeat the process from step 2 for each of the remaining smaller cubes.

After an infinite number of iterations, a Menger sponge will remain.

from Wikipedia

The Menger Sponge is a fractal particularly appealing to modular origamists, and I believe that for two reasons: it can be made out of Sonobe modules (the very first “brick” that every origamist learns), and given its fractal nature, it can be expanded forever and ever. What follows is a list of origami websites on this fascinating structure: Read the rest of this article »

http://www.famfamfam.com/lab/icons/

icons for your new website or web application, at the best price there is (free!)

Finding free quality icons for your site can be not only tedious but many times frustrating. I spent quite a lot of time searching for “mail” and “print” icons for the articles, and after some time I ended up making them myself, with functional but modest results. Fortunately, I came across Mark James´site some days ago and it really made my day! Mark currently offers three different sets of icons in .gif and .png formats, all of them are free to use and you can modify them to your liking (there´s one more about to be released). Mark only asks for a link back in case you decide to use them, which seems more than fair to me since his icons are professional, varied and really cute. In the end I am using the “print” and “mail” ones, plus the little green flags and the “user” icon on the “readers online” counter. Thanks Mark!

ps. Alternatively, you may like to try this, this or this icon collection.