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February 17, 2012
Reflections on Guatemala (or, What’s In A Pen?)
“I didn’t expect a road-to-Damascus, life-changing snap,” I told a fellow volunteer on my last morning in the country.  ”I didn’t expect it–but I guess one can always hope…”
The phrase “cognitive dissonance” keeps coming to mind: How does one work half days in an orphanage full of kids lacking toilet paper & teeth, then cruise off to swim in waterfalls with 18-year-old girls? None of it makes a great deal of sense. Much in our world doesn’t.
What follows is a lumpy mixture of the life-affirming, the very sad, and mostly the totally banal.
VFX: Inception Park
As Colossal puts it, “This is almost too good for words. A wonderfully clever video directed by Fernando Livschitz of Black Sheep Films, in which hovering roller coasters fly through the streets of Buenos Aires, completely untethered to tracks.”
[ http://player.vimeo.com/video/36874836?byline=0
[Via ]
February 16, 2012
Pixelapse: PSD backup & sharing
Pixelapse promises “Visual version control done right”:
Hit save in Photoshop. Your artwork will be on the Web, ready to be shared in seconds.
Share and get feedback from your team members, or anyone you share the design with.
[Previous/similar: LayerVault.]
Turn any rigid surface into a multitouch UI
Ehhh, what? But yes, it’s apparently real. Read more here.
[Via]
February 15, 2012
A camera so fast, it can see photons moving
Oh my:
MIT Media Lab researchers have created a new imaging system that can acquire visual data at a rate of one trillion frames per second. That’s fast enough to produce a slow-motion video of light traveling through objects.
[ http://www.youtube.com/embed/EtsXgODHMWk ]
[Via]
Friday Demo/Q&A: Mission Mobile
Learn how to create mobile apps or websites using Adobe Creative Suite 5.5 Web Premium software. Join Evangelist Paul Trani and discover the latest tips and tricks on Adobe Dreamweaver and Adobe Air for going mobile fast. We’ll cover how to customize content for different screens, create galleries, optimize graphics, and more.
Prior to joining Adobe, Paul led a team of interactive designers and developers at Starz Entertainment producing multimillion dollar web and mobile campaigns.
February 14, 2012
Valentine’s Special: Remove Your Ex with Photoshop.next
Artificial intelligence: Good.
Your intelligence: Better.
The two together: Best.
To reduce instances of “Content-Aware Fail,” the Photoshop team has been working on ways to let you guide the Content-Aware Fill algorithm. Check out this two-minute preview:
Brief impressions of the Nikon V1
I’ve recently returned from my Guatemala trip, on which I carried a Nikon V1 borrowed from the Photoshop team. Â If you want a long & crazy-detailed overview, check out Rob Galbraith’s review. What follows is explicitly not that. Rather, it’s off-the-cuff impressions from a guy who normally carries a 5D and who didn’t have the new cam’s manual to consult.
On the whole it’s a camera I quite like. Â With a few improvements it could be one I love.
Highlights: Quality, silence, size.
Lowlights: Battery, lags.
For pop-up street photography, I found the Nikon 1 a good camera–just not quite a great one. Cutting out the lags, letting me leave it on, and adding a flip-out screen (so that I could compose & fire from waist height) would make it nearly ideal for the kind of work I was doing.  As it was, I learned to work around the camera’s limitations, and I’m very happy with what it let me capture.
A few galleries, in case you’re interested:
Of all these, I think this is my favorite.
February 13, 2012
Animated lunacy: My Little Pony meets Skrillex
I get an absurdly large kick out of this. (Here’s the backstory.) Stick with it til 1:15 or so–if you can.
RED/Premiere Pro webinar Feb. 23
Join Ted Schilowitz, one of the founders of RED Digital Cinema, and Adobe’s Wes Howell, 10AM PST:
Adobe and RED have collaborated to bring a truly native, color-rich, 4K tapeless workflow to Adobe Premiere Pro CS5.5. Join this webinar to learn how you can enable a robust workflow for editing, grading, and delivering native R3D footage in real time using Premiere Pro.
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February 12, 2012
Video: Future Hipsters
Now I’m kind of tempted to get a QR code tat that links to “un gato vomitando.”
[Via Bruce Bullis]
February 11, 2012
Time & Tide
Canada’s Bay of Fundy features a high tide that can be 50+ feet higher than low tide. Check out this time lapse:
[ http://www.youtube.com/embed/hbzwzrZXUKA ]
In an old, obscure corner of my career, I was a Navy Midshipman who spent a month on the USS Zephyr. (Would you have guessed?) I sat on a dock in Alaska, sketching the aft 25mm cannon (below), which I’d just unsuccessfully shot at some seagulls (thankfully I missed). I tend to draw each part methodically, and I kept kicking myself as I failed to get the perspective right among the various pieces. Finally I realized that the tide was lowering the ship so fast that the lines were rapidly changing. Not a great place to draw in pen!
[Via]
February 10, 2012
Making iOS vector icons using Photoshop
Matt Gemmell shares his tips on creating extremely small PDF graphics using a combo of Photoshop and Panic’s utility ShrinkIt (reducing the size of his test file by 85%).
A North Korean Photoshop tutorial
“Rotting misery pumpkin”? “Catify” command? Where can I get this version?? [Note: Contains a little off-color humor]
February 09, 2012
Photoshop.next sneak #3: Dashed & dotted lines
Note the presence of controls for “real” stroke & fill (not dependent on the modal layer style dialog) on the options bar.
[ http://www.youtube.com/embed/zDfL021HkCg ]
[Via Rob Cantor]
![[image]](http://mowser.com/img?url=http%3A%2F%2Fblogs.adobe.com%2Fadobe-lq.png)
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Recent Comments
John - Insightful post; thanks--greatly appreciated. Epiphanies are often difficult and the first steps seem the hardest... ProDesignTools on Reflections on Guatemala (or, What’s In A Pen?)
“Adobe saves lives! Adobe changes lives! Thank you so much for all you do!†-- Dr. Katherine Nell McNeil http://... Alton Marsh on Reflections on Guatemala (or, What’s In A Pen?)
I do feel sorry for the little one lost. But you may have encouraged others there to much better lives. Because of you I... diseño paginas on Reflections on Guatemala (or, What’s In A Pen?)
this is a great post, perhaps one of the best post I've read. There is a deep feeling and a story that deserves all the ... Behue on Reflections on Guatemala (or, What’s In A Pen?)
Thank you for sharing your profound experiences in Guatamala. Food for thought for all of us. Great post, John. Bill Alton Marsh on Reflections on Guatemala (or, What’s In A Pen?)
I know what you need! More cowbell!! FilipK on Reflections on Guatemala (or, What’s In A Pen?)
What a life enriching experience that must have been for you. Tick that one of as one that for the rest of your life has... Eduardo Mueses on Reflections on Guatemala (or, What’s In A Pen?)
I have always read your musings and have laugh and cheer at most of your postings... To be sincere, I cried a lot when I... Geoff Scott on Reflections on Guatemala (or, What’s In A Pen?)
Great post, John. I can relate having gone through a similar realization about work and life a few years ago. I'd bee... Sho Kuwamoto on Reflections on Guatemala (or, What’s In A Pen?)
John, Awesome post. Thanks for doing what you did and thanks for writing about it. It made me think about what I'm do...