Basic Walk Cycle, part 1 The cover of Animator's Survival Kit by Richard Williams For anyone interested in the subject, check out the exhaustive description of walk cycles provided by Richard (hasn't he been knighted yet?) Williams. A generic (vanilla) walk cycle broken down into its parts on page 108. © Richard Williams 2001 Above is an example of how Williams explains a walk cycle in basic poses on page 108 of his book. I am going to outline some walk cycle construction here and follow up with more detailed information on the subject with subsequent posts. Creating ExtremesAlthough animating for 24 frames per second, I start by limiting my work environment to only three frames in the time line. A generic contact pose demonstrating a modest gait for the character. Creating a good contact pose requires balancing the feet positions with the hip position. Changing small details such as the angle of feet will improve you contact poses. Front leg must be straight at the contact pose. Conclusion to Part 1 Mike Brown
Suddenly Last Supper - Popped Culture There's nothing like a couple thousand years of of repetition and an iconic painting to get story to get lodged inside the heads of the creators of pop culture. Leonardo da Vinci's 15th century depiction of Jesus announcing that one of his 12 disciples would betray him is so ingrained in our culture that it has been co-opted by those wishing to give weight to their parodies, tributes and caricatures. Update April 2009: Hit the link for 50 more Last Supper parodies Mickey Mouse Last SupperOne of several works by pop artist and culture jammer Ron English. Oops, made an error right on the first one, as has been pointed out by a few, including Drunken Chud: "Joe Camel is not Judas, he's Peter. Sopranos Last SupperFamed celebrity photographer Annie Leibowitz captured The Sopranos Jesus Christ pose in 1999, with Tony as the central figure in this mob of disciples and his treacherous mother Livia as Judas. From Chris Power: "Appears to be from the Morrison era of the JLA. M.A.S.H.
Easter Eggs - Eeggs.com 14 Add-ons that make Gmail more awesome(ly productive) Gmail has been my email client of choice ever since I managed to get my hands on an invite years ago (ah, the days of Gmail-by-invitation-only, I’m just glad I never paid for mine). I never really did much do pimp my inbox though, until now. Well, until Multiple Inboxes made it possible to prioritize my messages and turn even my inbox into a to-do list. Turns out, I can do a lot more than just this, as long as I download the right script. I decided to compile a list of the Firefox extentions and scripts that seriously pimp your inbox and improve on Gmail’s basic powers. Productivity & Organization Add-ons Gspace: If uploading to Google Docs isn’t enough, you can use Gmail as a virtual online drive. EasyJobApplications: If you use Craigslist a lot to apply for gigs or jobs, this script seriously cuts down on the time-per-application you need. Which one of these are you using?
louisgray.com: Twitteronia vs. Status.net: The Battle for Hosted By Jesse Stay of Stay N' Alive (Facebook/FriendFeed) It's no secret that I'm a huge proponent of self-hosted Microblogging. I've written numerous times on LouisGray.com and my own blog about the benefits business can see by "rolling their own" microblog with their own brand, look and feel. Not sold on this idea? Read what I wrote earlier about the implications of ESPN running their own sports network, or even the company I advise for, TodaysMama.com and their recently-launched network for Moms, TodaysMama Connect (which has quite a community going now!). There is something to be said for a brand being able to have full control over the relationships and community they build. Status.net Evan Prodromou has been busy since we last heard about Identi.ca and Laconi.ca. When I chatted with Rachael Herrscher, CEO of TodaysMama, she told me Evan had given them several hours each month that they were paying for, to help them out with the install of their Laconi.ca instance. Twitteronia
9 Scientific Ways to Make Your Ebook Go Viral 1. Fill a knowledge gap During World War II researchers in Britan and the U.S. studied how rumors could be weaponized. In every niche there are still areas where there isn't much real information or data available. 2. Is there some new trend in your space? 3. From my research into urban legends I learned about the concept of communal recreation. You should try to exploit this natural human urge in your content. 4. When asked why they spread content , people often cite conversation as a primary motivator. 5. Another commonly cited viral motivation is "utility." 6. When you're done writing your whitepaper or ebook, pass it around to a few friends or "industry celebrities" that you know and ask them to comment on it. 7. In my research on ReTweeting I discovered that asking people (politely) to share your content works very well. 8. If you want people to share your ebook (or any other type of content) you have to allow them to access and distribute it feely and easily. 9.