The Space Toast Pages 03 2010

Zombeatification

Sun, 14 Mar 2010 14:13:00 GMT

From a picture of my friend Michelle...

Original:

Edited:

Still not as awesome as this image, or this image, but fun.

Lessons learned:

I'm trying to teach myself not to just go in and make a mess in Photoshop. You can always get an image done faster by painting and filtering the assets directly, but adjustment layers and smart objects REALLY save grief when you need to go back in and fix things. This composite is almost completely nondestructive.
Applying a filter to a smart object creates an editable "smart filter." I don't know how I missed this feature. I wish to god I'd noticed it when I did the Ego Likeness flyer for Plague.
Also useful in a project currently underway, simulating the look of still film has two parts to it: grain and schmutz.
- Grain can be created by adding a 50% gray layer, setting its composite mode to Overlay, applying a small amount of noise, and scaling the layer up as desired.
- Schmutz is small fibres, hair and dust on the negative. This is a little harder. Opaque bits on a clear negative, they appear white when printed. I'd love to find a high-res print of an unexposed frame of film. Then you could just apply it as a layer in Screen mode. I wonder if it's possible to make a convincing one in Animation:Master with instances and flocking.
When you see what happens to people when zombies get them, why are the zombies we see always so intact?

Retired Addiction

Sun, 07 Mar 2010 20:13:00 GMT

Barnaby Ward's Sixteen Miles to Merricks and Other Works
I've mancrushed on Ward before. Picking up his graphic novel was worth the money. Now where's the next one, Barnaby?

Building the Shack, Part 12

Sun, 07 Mar 2010 20:02:00 GMT

Ended up spending most of the winter on the walls, working on warm days. Started by cutting and stapling sheet plastic over the frame where the walls would go.

Collected usable scrap lumber from around the property. Angle cut boards on the table saw to 30°. Made perpendicular cuts in the workshop with hand-held circular saw.

Started on the west wall. Didn't beat the snow. Got most of the west wall nailed into place standing on saw horses. Finished on the extension ladder.

East wall was the most complicated. Hung the entension ladder on the roof peak from the foot of the banking, being careful of the picture window.

Made a platform with the ladder, to get the board above the window nailed into place. Steadied the ladder by running ratcheting straps out from the side windows, and finished the roof peak late one night in February under freezing drizzle.

South wall easier. Stood on the block of styrofoam from the picture window installation to get the top board in place. Worked up from the bottom. Recut the final board a few times.

North wall finished last. Cut the final board trapezoidally by hand.

Finished this afternoon, in sunny 45° spring weather.

Caulking needed in places, but walls are in place.