I’m a complete idiot when it comes to mental arithmetic and aspect ratios. Everything else I can convert in my head, and yet … here is an absurdly simplistic solution:
Built in Java. Now, should Jaymis and I set about building our own open source alternative with lots of powerful features? (I expect I can work out how to program division.) Feature requests?
Exciting things are afoot. As hinted, I’ll be Visualisting my way around the country soon. Touring Australia = Large chunks of time sitting on a bus, so when that hits I expect to be a veritable fountain of CDMotion content (including some of that hot new NAMM gear, stay tuned), but until then it looks like things are going to be a little… cramped? I don’t expect to have much time to devote to devote to the extensive, handcrafted editorialising we’re all used to.
Which is a problem, as I have loads of awesome stuff to tell you about, and it just can’t wait two months. So my plan is to do a series of Pocket Reviews, getting all of the salient points (which are quite easy to write) without the filler (which takes time to get right).
First up: My Russian Spy Lens - the Zenitar 16mm Fish Eye - arrived today.
US$150 including shipping from East Wave BestOptics. I’m using it on my Pentax *ist DS. The Digital SLR Focal Length Multiplier is 1.5, so it’s probably closer to a 24mm lens on this camera, but still gives a beautifully wide view angle, and plenty of lens distortion.
We’ve covered Lightroom from early in the beta. Now adobe have put up a product page, thanked the half-million beta testers, and announced that Lightroom won’t be a part of CS3, but will be shipping mid-feb, for an introductory price of US$199 (until May, then $299).
I feel that $200 is quite reasonable for the standalone product. I’ve been loving Lightroom for my image tagging, cropping and simple colour correction needs, and for gifted amateur photographers who want a little more power but don’t have the time or inclination to learn Photoshop it’s absolutely superb. I can definitely see where Photoshop users would want to use it instead of Bridge though, so I’d hope that there will be some of Lightroom’s workflow improvements implemented in Photoshop CS3, or that a bundled version will be available at a later date.
Vista Compatibility: Works, but no CD or DVD burning
Robert of Flight404 fame has posted his initial dabblings in Quartz Composer.
I find it rather exciting that a Processing Ninja such as Robert can find inspiration in QC. I have a terrible head for languages - both human and machine - so I’ve been wondering whether a node-based environment may be easier for me to grasp.
VJing with flickr? Clubbing with Yahoo Maps? Flash/Flex and Apollo-based apps present some interesting new ideas. We’ve been tracking the excellent Flash 9-based Onyx VJ tool, among others, and it’s nice to see the “open source Adobe-based VJ app” category growing. Mute is very early in development, perhaps not as far along as Onyx, but here’s a quick look at what it offers:
You can grab the Windows beta now, or inquire about Mac compatibility.
I like the open source idea here, because so many visualists are developing their own projects and need a way of integrating them without reinventing the wheel. In sound software, this is pretty easy — just route audio from one place to another. But in visual software, you need everything to be integrated on the same output to the display, even more so if you’re not using a mixer (and many of us computer-based folks aren’t).
Let us know if you’ve got projects of your own or want to share more about Mute or other tools.
Video overview from the product creators:
Thanks to Yansky for the great tip!
Create Digital Motion by Create Digital Media, Ltd. is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License.
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