Sean Blakeley

We've Moved to a New Home!!!

2006-10-11T03:21:00.000+01:00

Check out the new idigit blog:

idigitdesign.com/blog

Amazing Film from Discovery Rocket

2006-07-21T00:22:00.000+01:00

This is truly amazing footage from a camera mounted on the Discovery Shuttle's rocket booster. Watch in real-time as the shuttle launches, the rocket booster seperates and then falls back down to earth; landing in the ocean. Amazingly, the whole journey is over in a little over 5 minutes.

The original of the film (without any sound) can be found here.

Technorati Categories: technology, discovery, shuttle, space, movie

Recovering From Cancer

2006-07-19T04:14:00.000+01:00

Last year BBC Radio 4 Presenter, Nick Clarke, was diagnosed with a rare cancer which resulted in him losing a leg. During his illness and subsequent recovery he made this moving audio diary in which he discusses his feeling and progress before and after the operation.

This is a moving account of a man and his young family coming to terms with serious illness; Nick and his wife speak frankly about their situation and the long, arduous road to recovery. I’d strongly recommend listening.

Thankfully, Nick Clarke returned to work on Radio 4 last week.

Listen to Nick Clarke's Audio Diary from the bbc website here (the full programme is the second audio button underneath the photo of Nick Clarke).

You can read a brief transcript of the programme and comments at the bottom of the bbc page.

Technorati Categories: health and wellness, bbc, health, cancer

9/11 Pentagon Strike - The Best Conspiracy and Official Line Movies

2006-07-18T04:02:00.000+01:00

These two films are by far the best I've seen arguing the two different points of view about the strike on the Pentagon on 9/11. First up, a film which uses 3D reconstruction to argue in favour of the official Government line. The second film has a slightly different take on the events that day...

The Official Line

The Conspiriacy

For the record, whilst I find the official line more plausible having watched this reconstruction, I still find the conspiracy film evidence compelling and seductive. On balance however, I for one believe that flight 77 did strike the Pentagon that day; I can't bring myself to believe the American Government (even this administration) would opportunistically murder its' own citizens for unclear objectives. The attack on the World Trade Centre would be world changing enough so why the need to compound matters with a fabricated attack on the Pentagon? This aside, I wholeheartedly support and encourage the right of all people to scrutinize, examine and challenge what governments do and claim.

Technorati Categories: terrorism, conspiracy, movies, politics, 9/11

Update on Getting Rid of 'Click to Activate Message'

2006-07-04T18:02:00.000+01:00

I've notice that the solution to get rid of this nagging message doesn't work with blogger as javascript isn't allow in posts - the script doesn't work in the template either - not found a solution to this yet, but I'll post it here when I do.

Technorati Categories: design, creative, internet, web, flash

The Power of Ten (and The Simpsons Parody)

2006-07-04T17:18:00.000+01:00

The Power of Ten

If you haven't seen this before then sit back and prepare to be amazed. A timeless classic which gives you a feel for how big (and small) the universe is.

The Simpsons Parody

Great stuff, as ever, from The Simpsons - a parody of the Power of Ten film.

Technorati Categories: fun, art, technology, entertainment, movies, humour

Top 10 Weirdest Gadgets

2006-07-04T15:07:00.000+01:00

There are some weird people out there, with some even weirder ideas. You’ve got to wonder what gap in the market these people think they're filling. Anyway, without further ado, the top ten weirdest gadgets.

10. Solar Powered Cooling Pith

Solar panels run a little fan at the front of the hat to keep your head cool. This looks like a prototype made in someone’s shed; seems they decided to bypassed the design stage and just stuck a couple of bits of plastic on an old helmet. Probably keeps you’re head lovely and cool but would you wear it?

You can get one from Hammacher Schlemmer for a reasonable $49.95

9. Rat Race Clock

One for all those ‘crazy’ people in offices. They’ll amuse themselves for hours with the Rat Race Clock. They can sit and watch the mechanical rat run on the treadmill moving the clock hands and giggle to themselves.

It's $24.99 from ComputerGear (although thankfully at the time of writing it’s unavailable).

8. The SafeType keyboard

Maybe genius. But it looks ridiculous and utterly unusable. Supposedly helps you position your arms and hands better than a normal keyboard, but could you really train yourself to use that? A review I saw for this included a little advice which I can only assume is an understatement:

“… if you have a low tolerance for frustration...then your best bet is to stay flat.”
yahoo review

a tempting $295.00 from SafeType

7. Foot Mouse

I’ve always thought getting your feet to interact with a computer in some way would be a very good idea, but I’m not sure this is the realization of that dream. One pedal controls your mouse movements while the other is for the clicks. What do you do with your mouse hand? That’s your business.

A shocking $315.99 from footmouse

6. Barbie

This Barbie doll is a standard USB drive – but you have to rip her head off to use it. Brilliant.

Not sure now much it is, but you can find more details here

5. BriefSafe

I’ve got a sneaky suspicion that this might be a genius invention. These fake pants have secret little Velcro compartments where you can hide all your valuables. The floor in the idea is unless you live in a student house, one pair of shit-stained undies are going to stand out a mile. So you’d have to have a few decoy pairs lying around, which doesn’t really bare thinking about.

Available now for just $9 (each I assume) from Shomer.

4. Portable Ghost Detector

Finally, proof of the existence of ghosts is here. This great little device will tell you if a ghost is near. After that, you appear to be on your own.

Start ghostbusting here from only $18

3. Headlight LCD Combo

A DVD player in your car headlights. For who? Who’s going to watch? I can only assume it’s for when you go on a picnic, you can gather the family together and go and sit in the car park and watch a film. Or is it for other drivers in traffic jams? Surely a joke that's spiralled out of control.

Prices start at an intimidating (and insane) $900 from screenlights

2. Flowbee

This product allows you to achieve a “refreshing vacuum haircut”. It doesn’t suck the hair out, but sucks it up the nozzle to cut. The makers claim it cuts your hair “precisely”, which seems a little hopefully.

You can get your flowbee for $59.95

1. The Eye Massager

And so to number one. The weirdest gadget of all. I love this one. I assume you’re supposed to stick these little v-signs in your eyes and then switch it on. Looks like you could blind yourself with one of these - I’d get it quick before the law-suits start.

They seem to come from Sundayo but I can’t find a price

Hope you enjoyed these oddities - feel free to post your own in the comments.

Technorati Categories: fun, gadgets, internet, technology, entertainment, design, humour

Getting Rid of The 'Click to Activate' Message

2006-06-30T11:11:00.000+01:00

For Internet Explorer users there was an annoying little addition to a recent XP update - after a long and tedious court case, Microsoft have lost the right to seamlessly present dynamic content through their current methods. What do this mean? Well, it means if you roll over a Flash film you will get an annoying little nag message telling you: 'click to activate and use this control'. Short of migrating over to Fire fox, I haven't found a way around this as a viewer, but as a website designer it is easy to stop it happening. The best solution comes courtesy of the guys from Amara Software; and what's more, it couldn't be simpler.

So, to get rid of this nagging message on your website, put this little bit of script after the last </object> tag on all your .html pages containing Flash files.

<script src="ieupdate.js" type="text/javascript"></script>

Then, grab the 1k ieupdate.js file (contained in a .zip file) here and install it in the top directory of your domain (i.e. where your index.html file is).

And that's it. Easy and a nice little gesture for your viewers. If you're interested, this is what's in the .js file:

objects = document.getElementsByTagName("object");
for (var i = 0; i < objects.length; i++)
{
objects[i].outerHTML = objects[i].outerHTML;
}

Macromedia have come up with its own solution (which is rather complicated and bloated) but I've found this little hack works a treat. It might not stand up too well to future developments, but right now it's perfect.

Hope this helps a few budding designers out there.

Technorati Categories: design, creative, internet, web, flash

Inspiration and the Design Process – Part 1

2006-06-23T01:13:00.000+01:00

A few people have asked me about the inspiration and design process behind the idigit design website – so I thought I’d pull the answers together in a couple of posts. idigit design are a Brighton based website design and special effects company; the website took around 8 weeks to build from initial idea to publication.

Week 1: Inspiration

Inspiration can come from anywhere; I often find myself thumbing through Art books, or looking for well designed adverts. But for me, when inspiration strikes, it's only ever the beginning of a long journey. The main idea for the idigit design website came relatively quickly – after a few generic draft designs, I tried to define the core skills of idigit design and decided upon 2D and 3D design. After that, I knew I was looking for something which would encompass these two skills. It was a relatively short mental leap to drafting the hand idea. The design concept behind the hand was simple – to deliver a 2-dimentional website in a 3-dimentional way.

Week 2: Drafts

Once the hand idea was settled upon, I created a few quick, low-res visual concepts for the layout of the site. I always find Flash works best for quick easy layouts, although it wasn’t certain at this stage the final site would be Flash-driven.

Placing the hand on the left-hand side of the screen seemed like the obvious place to put the navigation at first, but after a few trials it became clear the transition to different information pages was going to look messy. The site also looked unbalanced when only the hand was on the screen. A brief foray into colour was quickly abandoned and so the obvious migration of the hand to the middle of the screen didn’t take long to happen.

Week 3: Working Backwards

As soon as the final draft of the basic idea is settled, I work backwards. Meaning, I start with the most information heavy pages of the site (normally the deepest in the hierarchical structure) and get their layout right first. When you achieve the right look for the busiest pages on the site, it is relatively straight forward to strip away what you want for the simpler pages. So for idigit design, I started by drafting the sections layout and the final, larger sheet of paper which would contain our services info, portfolio examples etc. I did this long before I designed the transitions between the two.

Week 3: And So, to Begin…

So with the design and layout drafted, I had to decide upon the structure and programming for the site. I am sometimes, I must admit, a little too easily seduced by Flash, but on this occasion I decided a pure Flash site was best for the creative flexibility it afforded me. I also had to decide about where and how I would feed the content into Flash. A recent site I designed which utilized .txt files imported into Flash has suffered from a known bug which shifts the text around when you roll over a button; so I decided to embed all the contents. It was a tough decision and one that has limited my flexibility for content change and development, but it’s a pay-off with convenience. With that decided, I brewed a strong cup of coffee and started the process proper.

Next time, I’ll talk about using Photoshop to improve the quality of the photos, the design tweaks along the way and the seemingly endless testing problems with the navigation system. Until then, please post any comments, I’d love to hear you’re thoughts.

Technorati Categories: design, creative, internet

10 Steps to Working in Film Special Effects

2006-06-22T02:27:00.000+01:00

Getting a break in film special effects is hard, but not as hard as you may think. Have a look at these ten steps to help you on your way:

1) Understand the Industry

If you want to work in special effects, it’s important not just to know the difference between a Stag and a Director, but know how special effects itself is divided up. Long gone are the days when Ray Harryhausen would lock himself in a shed with a small team of people and do all the special effects himself. Now, everything is spread across different teams and departments. So, if you’re interested in sculpting sets and large monsters, you want to work as a film sculptor; if you'd prefer smaller more technical projects you’d be better off choosing the model unit.

further info: Skillset - various descriptions of film industry jobs

2) Be a Realist

Working in the creative industry and particularly the film industry is not easy. You’ll often be faced with challenging projects and demanding deadlines and there’ll be dozens of different people waiting for you to finish so they can complete their own jobs. You’ll have to strike a balance between the time allowed and quality of what you produce; you can’t get too precious about your work. Not only that, you’ve got to promote yourself – all special effects artists are freelance and you’ve got to hunt down the jobs out there.

further info: Skillset – offer good advice to freelancers

3) Study Art

Whether you’re self-taught or went to Art College, it is vital you have a keen interest in Art to work in special effects. If someone asks you to sculpt a life-size Roman-style Statute or an Egyptian sarcophagus it’s invaluable to have a point of reference in your own mind. But more important than this, it’ll make the job more enjoyable. You may be flicking through an art book over the weekend, and on Monday morning you’re asked to recreate one of the pieces you’ve been admiring.

further info: Artcyclopedia – there are plenty of art resources on the internet, here’s just one

4) Drawing

In the film industry all technical drawings are done by draughtsmen in the Art Department. So is this just padding to reach the magic '10' steps? No. If you want to create any 3D object, particularly the human form, it is vital to learn to draw and keep practicing. Sculptors regularly liken sculpting to drawing their subjects in clay from various angles. The key to good sculpture, like drawing, is defining the lines and shadows.

further info: Vilppu Studios Tutorial DVDs – the best drawing tutorials, run by Glenn Vilppu

5) Practice

This is obvious but it's also vitally important. If you practice creating and sculpting things in your spare time, you will improve. It is also very valuable to recreate a film working experience – so limit yourself to reference photographs (rather than a life model) and give yourself a challenging deadline for the job. A little more difficult, but just as valuable, is to try different mediums. You may be an expert in steel construction and welding, but unless you join the engineering side of special effects or metal work team, these skills are useless. The materials of choice in the films tend to be low-grade potter’s clay and polystyrene.

further info: Gnomon Tutorial DVDs – learn the special effects sculpting process from armature to casting with John Brown

6) Approachable

Almost everyone in the film industry is self-employed and so they understand the only way to get work is to promote yourself. This doesn’t mean you should go around to a potential employer’s house or create wacky self-marketing campaigns; it means most people in the industry are approachable. If you cold call a relevant Head of Department (HOD) and show commitment and desire to learn they’ll often agreed to meet you for 5-10 minutes to look over your portfolio.

further info: Pinewood & Shepperton Studios – you can see what’s going on at the major studios and find some contact details

7) Persistence

When you do finally meet the man or woman you’re hoping to be your future boss, don’t stop there. They’ll take your details but it might be 18 months before they have a suitable project and give you a call. You need to make sure you meet as many future employers as possible, and stop and have a chat with other people in the department if you feel brave enough. Try and leave a card or better still, copies of your favourite 1 or 2 pieces of work with your contact details on (and ideally your online portfolio address if you have one). Then, give them a quick catch-up call every 6 months or so – even if they can’t offer you a job, it’s amazing how much information you’ll get about different opportunities.

further info: idigit design – you can talk to idigit design if you want to develop an online portfolio

8) Portfolio

Vital. In a word. The key rules to a good portfolio are simple:

>Diversity – show different types of work you may have done – you may be proud of the series of 18 statutes you’ve done, but don’t show them all. Also, you may not think that 30ft polystyrene snow drift shows you’re finesse as a sculptor, but it shows your versatility so put it in.

>Honesty – it should go without saying but it doesn’t. Only one thing gets a HOD's back-up more than seeing a large piece of work with someone claiming to have created it single-handedly, and that’s seeing a piece of their own work being claimed by someone else. Believe me, it does happen. So, be honest. If you did the left foot of a giant, then say so and don’t be ambiguous about it.

>Concise – use your opportunity wisely. 10-12 photos are definitely enough to show a range of your work and skills.

>Best Foot Forward – most people will make a decision about your work within 2-3 examples so put your best work at the very front.

>Presentation – try not to have scraps of paper tumbling out of your moth-eaten portfolio. Invest in an easy to carry A4 portfolio and use plastic binders. If you have any Photoshop skills to improve the presentation of your work then use them. Don’t feel the need to take in an example of your sculpture – you will be showing your work to professionals who are very used to assessing work through photographs.

>Information – you may have produced a full-scale replica of Michelangelo’s David, but if it took you three years it’s no good to the film industry. Make sure you note down the scale of each example of your work, what material you used and how long it took. These simple pieces of information are important for HODs and will be appreciated.

>Online Portfolio – if you can, get an online portfolio designed and make sure any contact details contain the address. Ideally, try and get the HOD’s email address so you can send them the link. Any time you update the contents of the portfolio, it’s a good excuse to contact the HOD with another link to your work.

further info: Free Website – there are plenty of opportunities for novices to get free web space and website templates. Blogger’s a good place to start with Flickr hosting your portfolio images.

9) Networking

Networking can feel a bit uncomfortable and embarrassing at times, but it is important to get to know what jobs are out there. After you’ve worked on a job or two you’ll get the phone numbers of a few fellow workers – make sure you give them a ring. But be warned, if you’re first to hear about the new James Bond film and then tell everyone, you’ll find yourself joining the queue to show your portfolio. This doesn’t mean you shouldn't share information you may have about up coming jobs, it means you should bear in mind that everyone is trying to get employment. It's also a good idea to keep an eye on movie news websites.

further info: Rotten Tomatoes - one of a number of up-to-date movie news and gossip websites

10) Watching Films

A great perk for those times when you’re not in work – you can watch films and claim it’s research. Obviously, it’s a great feeling to see your own work on the big screen, but it’s also exhilarating to see the work and names of people you know. After your first job or 2 you’ll very quickly start to feel part of the industry and start recognising names and faces. Also, for those jobs you missed out on, you can go and have a good grumble about how you would have done it better!

further info: imdb – see what films other people have done

Working in the film industry is not for everyone; but if you’re keen and develop you’re skills and knowledge, then you’re likely to get an opportunity to show what you can do. If you’re interested in other areas of the industry, Skillset do some great courses (UK based).

Best of luck in getting work and please post comments here about how useful you found this advice.

Technorati Categories: special effects, movie, film, creative, entertainment, career, work, jobs, artist, sculptor

The World Cup is Nigh

2006-06-09T08:27:00.000+01:00

So, it’s arrived. With just a few hours to go until the opening game, I feel like a kid again. You can feel the excitement and anticipation everywhere. I really think England have a chance this time – I have a nasty feeling I say that every time – but surely this time. Anyway, I for one am utterly over excited. Let’s hope the tournament lives up to expectations. Come on England!

Technorati Categories: football

Final Testing for idigit design Website

2006-06-08T14:39:00.000+01:00

The idigit design website is now ready for final viewer testing. You can find it here. It’s been a painstaking, two month labour of love, but I’m very pleased with the final result. I'll sit down at a later date and talk about the design process in detail – but for now, any comments and recommendations would be gratefully received.

Technorati Categories: internet, design

A Humble Beginning

2006-05-26T12:53:00.000+01:00

Starting a blog has been a side project I've been thinking about for a little while now. The last few weeks I've been busy developing the idigit design website, but now that's got down to the nitty-gritty testing stage, it's nice to have an opportunity to procrastinate and do something else.

I'm excited to see how this blog will unfold over the coming weeks and months. I expect the content will be dominated by my work with idigit; hopefully soon to include some special effects work on a major Hollywood blockbuster (I don't want to jinks my chances by mentioning the project by name just yet, but it is undoubtedly the most excited I've been about a film project so far). Outside of idigit, I'm a self-confessed internet addict and often find myself trawling around the net and revelling in all its glorious messiness. I'll certainly share some of the more interesting sites I find. Other than that, I'll be interested to find out what I post...

Categories: internet, film