This trek began with ragdoll physics

Lately I've been working on learning animation with the intent of creating characters and a story -- there's a lot to learn.  And since storyboarding can help a lot with story development, I'm looking at that too.  Let me tell you, storyboard artists have a lot to consider when producing storyboards; just one area is camera techniques.

There are many types of animation. Check Wikipedia's animation article for some good information on 3D, 2D, computer, stop motion, and such.  While looking at the "types of animation" results, I came across the term 'ragdoll physics' -- who can pass up checking out a term like that? But that's just one step in my trek.

From there I moved on to cartoon physics and hammerspace.

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Not sure who this Greg Williams guy is, I did a little searching.  He used to work for the Tampa Tribune as a cartoonist. There's a Q&A featuring him at Mac Slocum's site. Among his latest projects is Twips.  One of them is below.

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Greg Williams, @owlcity, Twipcomics 

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An archive of Greg's work is here.

-- Marge

Humor: Black Friday is coming...

Like winter in Game of Thrones, Black Friday is coming. Have you noticed that retailers are advertising Black Friday as if it's a cultural event? Or is it just my retail-phobia kicking in?  Cartoonists have fun with the sales event every year; meme-makers add to the mix.  Here are some new takes, or takes that seem new to me, on the topic. 

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Marshall Ramsey, Black Friday Deals Today, Creators Syndicate

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pumptime, Black Friday Is Coming, Cheezburger

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David Fitzsimmons, Black Friday Ops, Cagle

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Tchothcky, Not Sure If Looting, Cheezburger

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Adam Zyglis, Walmart, AAEC

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Marcy Bonebright has published a collection of Black Friday memes, titled "Let Internet Memes Explain Why Shopping In-Store on Black Friday Is a #FAIL," at DealNews.  Competition does have benefits.

-- Marge

DIY: junk CD magic

I love the shifting, rainbow colors of CDs and DVDs.  You can capture these effects in some of the projects below, all except the mixed media CD clock (it has a beauty of its own).

The mosaic tiles in the birdbath below are shards of an old CD.  Debbie gives full instructions on her blog, me and my diy.  She does a very thorough job.  Seems to me this project could be adapted to a decorative platter by using an old plate.  The direct link to her instructions is is the picture's caption.

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Debbie's birdbath, me and my diy

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Instructions for the disco ball below can be found at wikiHow.  You may be saying, "sure...what do I do with a disco ball?"  I can see a group of them in different sizes hanging by a window where they catch and reflect light.

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Disco ball, wikiHow

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Mixed media artist Cyndi gives instructions for making the CD clock below on her blog, Mixed Media Artist.  Her site has a wealth of information for artists and do-it-yourselfers who like to work with found objects/materials.

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Cyndi, "CD Clock," Mixed Media Artist

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The work below -- a sculpture by Sean Avery -- is an example of what you can do with old CDs.  No instructions are available.

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Sean Avery, sculpture, BuzzFeed

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For more ideas on finding new uses for old CDs and DVDs, take a look at Earth911's "10 Reuse Ideas for CDs and DVDs," Squidoo's "How to Reuse Old CD or DVD," and BuzzFeed's "18 Cool DIY Ways To Use Your Old CDs."

If you've been wondering how DVDs and CDs work, here's an article at HowStuffWorks. Another article there answers the question, "Why do CDs reflect rainbow colors?"

-- Marge

Veteran's Day, 2013

To honor the brave men and women who served to protect our country here are two outstanding images.

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JimboJones2456, "VeteransDay," DeviantART

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koopastar, "A Soldier's Anguish," deviantART

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A collection of images related to Veteran's Day can be found at YouTheDesigner's Tribute to Our Unsung Heroes.

Our returning veterans have a hard time adjusting to 'normal' daily life.  Seems to me a large part of it is the loss of camaraderie and of the sense of purpose military service gives.  Team Rubicon offers a renewed sense of purpose.  A PBS article, Coming Home, links to a wealth of resources for the returning soldier, some of them governmental, some of them not.

A crisis line is available.

Soldier, you are remembered and valued.

-- Marge

Friday cartoons: Tea Party, Me Party

The government shutdown may be over, but I'm still stinging from it.  Seeing the Tea Party members of the US Congress gloat about having shutdown the government was pretty ugly.  Who knew they would interpret their mission of less government as no government?  Thing is, their extreme tactics are taking down the Republicans (who don't need any help alienating us ordinary folk) as well.

Here are some ideas about the Tea Party in the form of cartoons for you to consider.

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Drew Sheneman, "That Was Awesome," USNews

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Drew Sheneman, Boston Tea Party, USNews

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Mike Luckovich, "Bad Fit," theWeek

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Chan Lowe, "Shutdown," USNews

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Mike Keefe's cartoon below addresses what's been on my mind lately...

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Mike Keefe, "Home Grown Terror," theWeek

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-- Marge

DIY: making prints with linoleum

Printmaking is messy business, but the results can be satisfying and visually arresting, depending on the paper and carving technique you use.  All printmaking is indirect, meaning that you do the artwork on a piece of wood, linoleum, stone, metal plate, or such, then transfer it to paper.  Best of all, you don't need a press to transfer the linoleum print (or a woodblock print), but can use the back of a spoon, a brayer, or press the block down on the paper. Throughout this post are samples of linoleum prints (aka linocuts).

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A linocut by Redbud505, Keyword Pictures

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When transferring your artwork to paper, it's important to use the right ink.  If the ink is too thin or watery it will flow into the recesses of the design and transfer poorly, if at all.  Speedball is an established and well-respected brand in printing supplies and gives some good information.

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Jeff Moriber, "Coney Island Dreams"

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There are some really good how-to articles online about making linocuts.  At Make, take a looks at "Linocuts 101."  Hudson Hill posted a very good article at Instructables.  A group of articles/projects can also be found at Apartment Therapy.

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Michael Roman, "Rolleicord"

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For some ideas on other types of printmaking and a challenge or two, try DIY.org's Printmaker page.

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Michelle Han, "Brownstone Bloom"

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-- Marge

Einstein' spooky action

This proven phenomenon, now known as quantum entanglement, was called "spooky action at a distance" by Einstein. He was very uncomfortable with the idea, as reported in the Nova video below (it's a little long but well worth the time):

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Einstein and Niels Bohr were often on opposite sides of a given theory. Thankfully, they made their disputes public in the Bohr-Einstein debates.  Einstein's discomfort with quantum entanglement prompted him to publish a paper in collaboration with two other physicists, known as the Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen Paradox.  In the paper they considered measurement of two entangled particles in light of Heisenberg's uncertainty principle and concluded  that quantum mechanics was incomplete since, in its formalism, there was no space for hidden parameters.  As stated in the Wikipedia article:

According to EPR there were two possible explanations. Either there was some interaction between the particles, even though they were separated, or the information about the outcome of all possible measurements was already present in both particles.

Years later, physicist John Stewart Bell presented a paper that essentially drew a line in the sand between quantum mechanics and classical theory.  Bell's theorem states

No physical theory of local hidden variables can ever reproduce all of the predictions of quantum mechanics.

Current scientific activity studying quantum entanglement presents some interesting ideas and possible explanations, such as "Einstein's 'spooky action' common in large quantum systems, mathematicians find," "Imaging Quantum Entanglement," and "Quantum Experiment Shows How Time ‘Emerges’ from Entanglement." This last article was found at The Physics arXiv Blog, "An alternative view of the best new ideas in science."

In this video, theoretical physicist Michio Kaku answers Matthew's question, "Could quantum entanglement be used to transmit information instantaneously between interplanetary spaceships?" 

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For some background in quantum mechanics, take a look at this excellent piece.

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And for a simpler explanation of quantum entanglement, try this link to simple.wikipedia.org.

-- Marge

Cartoons and more: Government Waste

While we all joke about the snafu (military slang) that is Obamacare signup, it is an excellent example of how the Federal government works at present. This article at TIME Magazine offers an explanation of what was going on behind the scenes, "Traffic Didn’t Crash the Obamacare Site Alone. Bad Coding Did Too."

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Scott Stantis, "How The Glitch Stole Healthcare," USNews

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The site Outside the Beltway has an article titled "Is Government Inefficient?" with the cartoon shown below.  Here is an observation from the article:

While some federal agencies have made good-faith attempts to become more efficient, most still carry the dead weight of unnecessary overhead, outmoded business processes, infrastructure that is no longer aligned to their mission, and underperforming organizational structures.

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David Horsey, "The Federal Bureaucracy," OutsideTheBeltway

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One of the current problems is that the Fed uses a lot of contractors (aka outsourcing) with little coordination and oversight.  The article "Outsourced Government: Have We Gone Too Far?" discusses this.  During the Clinton administration, also that of G.W. Bush, attempts was made to 'reinvent government' (Wikipedia), but they fell by the wayside, as analyzed in this lessons-learned paper.  According to Wikipedia's NPR (National Partnership for Reinventing Government) article: "It was the eleventh federal reform effort in the 20th century."

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Paul Noth, "We Don't Need to Reinvent theWheel...," New Yorker

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In the case of government reform, reinventing the wheel may be needed.  If you feel something should be done, take a look at Citizens Against Government Waste.  The movement addresses more than government spending.

As for the dyfunction of the Obamacare site, some are suggesting that the NSA can help.

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Jack Ohman, Obamacare-NSA, USNews

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-- Marge

DIY: cardboard furniture, the Wiggle Chair, and other pieces

In the early 70's artist-architect-entrepreneur Frank Gehry gave the world the "Wiggle Chair," pictured below.  Possibly the first piece of cardboard furniture, it's also a fine piece of art.  For more information on the history of cardboard as furniture, take a look at "Cardboard furniture. Are you kidding?" by Kerry Derwent-Robb.

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Frank Gehry, "Wiggle Chair" (1972), Sailko

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If you would like to try your hand at making some cardboard objects/furniture, you can find a bunch of ideas (no projects) at Inhabitat.  The sample below is for sale at Vicara Exploratory Design:

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Fabio Afonso, "Cartonado de Mesa," Vicara

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You can find some good information, templates, and ideas for cardboard projects at the Leo Kempf site. Here's an illustration of one of his projects:

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Leo Kempf, "Speech-Bubble Discussion Coffee Table"

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Foldschool also has some projects; they're well documented with a manual and patterns you can download.

If you just want to read more about cardboard furniture, try Gizmodo and Chairigami.

-- Marge

Out sick today

Being sick with the flu today, I'm just checking in, but couldn't resist a reference to the 1918 Spanish Influenza pandemic and this picture of the flu ward at Walter Reed Hospital in a screened-in porch.

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Spanish Flu Ward at Walter Reed, Wikipedia

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-- Marge

Cartoons: Obamacare

I know, I know, it's all you hear about lately.  But the cartoonists are having a field day -- here are 6 of 141 political cartoons on Obamacare, found at the US News website.

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Tom Stiglich, USNews

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Drew Sheneman, USNews

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Drew Sheneman on Obamacare, USNews

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Michael Ramirez, USNews

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Drew Sheneman on Obamacare and small business, USNews

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Walt Handelsman on fixing Obamacare, USNews

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I just tried HealthCare.gov, the site for signing for Obamacare, and it worked just fine (loading the front page, that is). 

-- Marge

DIY: Spirited Halloween decorations

Here's a small, but tasty, collection of sites with ideas for Halloween trappings.

The Halloween Howl-to at DIY Network has pumpkin-carving templates, fright-night projects, and more.  The Green Gelatin Shots With Spiders pictured below were found there.

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Manvi Drona, "Green Gelatin Shots With Spiders," DIY Network

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If your taste runs to the darker side of life, try the collection offered in mental_floss' DIY Halloween Decorations.  (Some are not so dark, just different.)  Two of the projects found there are below:

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Windell Oskay, "Cylon Jack-O-Lantern," Evil Mad Scientist

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Derek Greenwood, "Head in a Jar," Madhauscreative

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Sara W. posted the "Giant Spider in Spiderweb" shown below with full instructions on her blog Mom Endeavors. I like that it uses inexpensive parts you can find in a hardware store.

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Sara W., "Giant Spider in Spiderweb," Mom Endeavors

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'Tis now the very witching time of night,
When churchyards yawn and hell itself breathes out
Contagion to this world.
                   ~William Shakespeare

--Marge

Twitter: soundless sound, meaning evolving

Tomas Castelazo, "Birds on the wire," Wikimedia

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Linguists are finding untold treasure in the twitterings of Twitter.

According to an article (subscription needed) in TIME magazine, "What Twitter Says to Linguists:"

For researchers studying the use of language in today's networked world, social media is an invaluable tool.

...Gone are the days when a language researcher had to interview subjects in a lab or go door to door in the hope of gaining a few insights about a limited sample of people. Academics in the U.S. and Europe are using the seven-year-old microblogging platform to put millions of examples under the microscope in an instant. "It's unprecedented," says Ben Zimmer, the executive producer at Vocabulary.com "the sheer amount of text you can look at at one time and the number of people you can analyze at once." Hidden in tweets are insights about how we portray our identity in a few short sentences. There are clues to long-standing mysteries, like how slang spreads. And there is a new form of communication to study. If language is the archive of history, as Ralph Waldo Emerson once said, social media should get its own shelf.

If you're fascinated by language and how it evolves, take a look Ben Zimmer's (producer of the Visual Thesaurus and Vocabulary.com) Language Log, which documents and discusses Twitter's lingual developments and news about the phenomenon.  For a primer on Twitter usage, there's Lauren Hockenson's article, "The complete guide to Twitter’s language and acronyms."

And speaking of language, how about Pixar's "For the Birds:"

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-- Marge

Friday cartoons: hard feelings

Well, the U.S. government is back in business, but the editorial cartoonists whose work is shown below don't really seem that happy about it.  Ted Cruz especially is taking a beating.  All of today's cartoons were found at THE WEEK.

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Chan Lowe, "The Trade Off," TheWeek

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Drew Sheneman, "Let's Be Friends," TheWeek

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Jack Ohman, "So This Is Success," TheWeek

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David Fitzsimmons, "Scrap the System," TheWeek

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Mike Luckovich, "Join the Club," TheWeek

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T-t-that's all for today, Folks.

-- Marge

DIY: Halloween masks and face casts

How about something truly original for your Halloween costume this year.  A mask that's hand-made by you, for example. As an added bonus, some of the pieces shown below can be used for wall art.

Instructables has a collection of "40 DIY Halloween Masks." Here's a "Scary Mask" by scoochmaroo.

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scoochmaroo, "Scary Mask," Instructables

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For something more modern how about Low Poly Mask at MakerBot's Thingiverse by kongorilla.

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kongorilla, "Low Poly Mask," Thingiverse

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More in the girly realm is this Fabulous DIY – Make Your Own Masquerade Mask from Scratch, at DIY & Crafts.

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DIY & Crafts

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This minimal mask, called an "Ice Queen mask," is demonstrated by Klaire de Lys:

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Klaire and a number of other mask makers suggest using a face casting for the basis of a mask.  This video shows you how to make one.

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If you have questions about materials, try the Smooth-On site. There are other companies online that offer these materials, but the Smooth-on site is well-organized and has good information.  There's a page on Life-casting materials and much more.  Take a look at the materials for Special Effects and Propmaking page.

Keep in mind that, if you and your friend try a face casting but it doesn't go well, you can always laugh about it in the years to come.

-- Marge