Cynematik • Cyndi Greening

A while ago, I started using Facebook. There were some things I really loved about it. Short entries. Easy to read. Easy to write. Easy to keep up with what everyone was doing AND communicate to everyone what I was doing. It really cut down on my number of emails and telephone calls.

There were, at the same time, things I abhorred about Facebook. I couldn’t really cover things in depth as I could on my blog. There were these things called Notes and another thing called Pages that let me write more about things I found interesting … but those things didn’t really get into the main flow of the conversation. There were sidelined and overlooked quite easily. So, if I found something related to film production or web production or wanted to discuss a new technique, I’d return to my blog. It was as media-rich or user friendly but it did have substance.

Recently, I discovered two things that are the BEST plug-ins and features ever. First, there’s a fabulous WordPress plugin called FOTOBOOK that was written by Aaron Harp. It’s a self-installing wonder that pulls my Facebook albums directly into my blog. Effortlessly. Efficiently. It’s just wonderful. AND, I also discovered that Facebook let’s me pull my BlogPosts directly into my Notes (which are then published into the general conversation). I still have to go back and forth between the blog and Facebook but, now, both venues are doing double duty so I’m getting better quality with less effort. If you look in the sidebars, you’ll see my photo albums (including my recent research trips to New England). There’s also a RANDOM photo feature that changes every time someone visits. Just something to keep it fresh. Now, I’m working on RSS feeds AND looking for a way to manage video. If anyone has suggestions, I’d love to hear them. Remember, I’m Mac-based.

If you know of a FOTOBOOK-style plugin that pulls video in from Facebook as effortlessly as stills my life is perfect … however briefly.

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It has finally happened. I finally have the desire and the justification to purchase a high-end, high-quality digital camera. I have several traditional 35mm SLR cameras with a boatload of lenses — both fixed and zoom — but, heck, who can afford that hobby anymore? The film, the processing. Unless one is a total Luddite, digital is where photography it has come to be. Add the sophistication and ease of the digital darkroom available in Photoshop and it is no wonder the world has gone digital.

As a filmmaker, I have always loved, loved, loved film more than digital but, if film is cost-prohibitive in rolls of 36 images, then burning through 24 of those frames per second is the equivalent of stepping into financial quicksand. So, it was to be avoided … even though we all knew our images were falling into a compressed tonal range with serious compromises in the toe and shoulder of our contrast curve.

Now, thanks to an inquisitive phone call from Alec in New York, I find myself getting very excited about HDR (high dynamic range digital photography) and wanting to try it out. According to all of the sites I’m reading, expanding the dynamic range is a matter of taking multiple exposures with f-stops set to capture detail in highlight, midtone and shadow areas … and then compositing them together (using Photoshop CS3’s Merge to HDR automate command) to assemble the images into a 32-bit file that captures the detail in all of the areas.

If you want to give it a shot …
1. Set your tripod up on a scene that won’t change for about two (2) minutes.
2. Take an initial shot in the darkest area.
3. Open the f-stop to make the shot three (3) times brighter.
4. Open the f-stop to make the shot five (5) times brighter.
5. Open Photoshop.
6. File Menu —> Automate —> Merge to HDR.
7. Browse to your images.
8. Follow the dialog boxes.
9. Admire the detail in the highlights, midtones and shadows of your digital HDR image.

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Since I’ve been on a tutorial kick, I decided to go looking for good Maya tutorials. I love Maya. The software package is just so deep, there is so much one can do with that program. So, I have found a lot of sites with tutorials but I do not have tremendous confidence about the sophistication of many tutorials and, in fact, some tutorials teach inefficient or improper techniques. For example, game modelers need to monitor their polygon count and their polygon shape to avoid malformations in animation. Film character animators are more likely to use a NURBs patch model and have to pay attention to edge looping for better blendshapes when the character speaks. So, a list of tutorials and a word of caution. They always say, “Begin with the end in mind.” Know what you’re final goal is so you make the proper decisions along the way.

• Learning Maya.Com
• Pixel2Life
• The Gnomon Workshop
• Simply Maya
• High End 3D
• Infinitee Designs
• 3D Links
• Digital Tutors
• Tutorial Find

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Seramon, ancient priest of Thebes, died 3000 years ago. His remains have lain in state in France since 1851. As per their tradition, Seramon’s organs were removed and amulets were placed in the cavity to accompany until the next life. Using VolumeGraphics VGStudio Max, a CT scanner and Apple Cinema Displays, scientists have been able to examine the amulets of Seramon without disturbing or desecrating the remains. Glass eyes, an amulet necklace, beeswax figurines of the sons of Horus and a dung beetle amulet were documented visually.

My favorite piece, Seramon’s mummy contained a scarab amulet. The amulet is a carved image of a sacred dung beetle that represented his heart. The underside of the scarab amulet is inscribed with Spell 30B of the Book of the Dead, a collection of spells and incantations. The spell implores his heart not to testify against him when it is weighed in the judgment ceremony:

O my heart which I had from my mother!
O my heart which I had from my mother!
O my heart from my different ages!
Do not stand up as a witness against me,
Do not be opposed to me in the tribunal,
Do not be hostile to me in the presence of the Keeper of the Balance.

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Last Thursday, Apple released the iPhone Software Developer Kit (SDK) and offered Mac aficionados the chance to build applications for the iPhone. There are, of course many reasons Apple might make such a choice but the most important reason is that it will generate a plethora of programs to add value to what a friend essentially described today as “an iPod on steroids.” Let’s face it. Most of us already have a cell phone with a two-year contract for services. If one does not want to buy out their contract or crack their iPhone, then one must wait for the contract to expire or use the iPhone as a glorified MP3 player. So, if Apple can get everyone working on making value-added merchandise for the iPhone, it will become more useful for users. And, it certainly does increase user loyalty. So, overall, another clever marketing move by Apple.

To be honest, the SDK development process has a fairly steep learning curve. I’ve spent the last three days in search of someone, anyone who knows Xcode really well. I’ve downloaded Open Source sample projects and tried to take them apart. I ordered the new book from O’Reilly that lists today as the publication date. If UPS is accurate, I should have that in a couple of days BUT as a person who is really quite determined to figure this out and do it, it has been a challenge to get information. Even going to the Apple Store didn’t give me the answers I was hoping to find.

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The folks at Mac Media sponsored seminar on Apple Leopard Server today. I wasn’t all that interested in going because I’m more into the whole creative production side of Apple. I’ve never enjoyed the thought of becoming (or, worse, actually being) a networking geek. But, the biggest little networking geek I know actually left school early so he could go and invited me to go along.

As is always true, some parts of the event were grindingly boring sales pitches BUT it turned out to be five hours well-spent because I remembered why I love Apple so much. They demonstrated the installation of Leopard Server from beginning to end on an empty laptop. The entire installation took less than fifteen minutes (after a two-hour explanation) and it was phenomenally easy. The new Leopard Server rectifies the challenges with Active Directory versus Open Directory structures. Didn’t that sound smart? I had to learn the difference between Active and Open Directory (Microsoft versus Open Source; closed, restrictive versus more open directory structures) and knowing the Leopard handles that problem so I don’t have to was quite exciting. And for the folks I have watched install Windows servers with VLAN (or some such acronym), I was stunned at how quickly and easily the Mac handled it.

Bottom Line: I am actually planning on buying Leopard Server. I’m small, only about ten computers that we use for film production and blogging, but I now have the ability to easily share enormous media files between all of these machines. And, by having network administration capabilities, I can easily limit who has access to what data. I had been planning on Fedexing data DVDs to NY so Alec could do some FX scenes because there was no easy way to get it to him. With my own server, I simply give him the IP address, he logs in and, BAM!, he’s got the files. Seamless integration.

There were three other things I was REALLY excited about:

• Podcast Producer: Built in ability to record video and audio, compress in multiple file formats and distribute to multitude of locations. Automated VOD (even high-def video on demand) and podcast publishing. It even automates the intro/extro process. Holy cow.
• Wiki Server: Filmmaking requires a lot of data collection and sharing with members of the cast and crew. In the past, I always set up blogs for people to share info but it was tedious to work through the entries to find what one wanted. Now, one can easily make Wikis for each project that are tremendously easy to use.
• Calendaring: Group calendaring with automatic notification, invitation and RSVPing. During production, seems like it would be useful but the jury is out on this yet.
• Hosting my own blogs: I’m actually considering hosting my own blogs and media. Since I don’t want to be a networking geek, I’m having a hard time reconciling this in my noodle.

Cost: In my opinion, cheap. $499 for ten client (ten servers NOT ten endusers), $999 for unlimited clients.

After teaching for 18 years, I’m always shocked at how many geeky computer things I’ve learned over the years. Often times, I’ve had to laugh that things I spent a lot of time learning (like HTML) became nearly superfluous with the advent of new applications like, say, Dreamweaver. I had often thought, “If I had just waited a little longer, I wouldn’t have needed to learn that.” Well, the time has come where I’m thinking, heck, networking so easy, even I can do this.

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