Via Wiley Wiggins’ blog, I’ve learned that Doc Baily passed away in April. Doc is perhaps best known for the breathtaking visuals he created to represent the sentient planet in Steven Soderbergh’s film Solaris, which were generated at extremely high resolution–for film, remember–in Spore, the software he wrote. I was very moved by Solaris and inspired by the cinematography and the visuals to push my own nascent work. Watch some video of Doc’s work, especially this clip from Xtacism by Doc Baily and John Buchanan, 2005, and many more. Here are some screenshots of Doc’s work I particularly like, which link on to the galleries on imagesavant.com. Read Doc’s words and those of his colleagues on friends on the Center for Visual Music’s memorial page.

For participatory art in a similar vein, I highly recommend Spot Draves’ Electric Sheep, which is (much more than) a beautiful, abstract screensaver.

I’ve stumbled across a real gem the other day. In researching 2 and 3 strip film processing techniques, color spaces, and projection systems (yes nerdy I know…), I came across a link to the Widescreen Museum Old Color page, which offers an incredibly interesting technical overview of old film color techniques like Technicolor, Cinecolor etc. If you are at all interested in how these films get their unique look, curious about reverse engineering a specific look, or simply enjoy a taste of cinema history, be sure to check it out, as there is an exhaustive amount of information contained in this site.

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Mike from HD for Indies with the Red One overlooking New York City

The Red camera is in the wild, and apparently the revolution wont be televised, it will be filmed, at 4096×2048 @ 24FPS. Here is a quick link roundup from the interwebs.

• FX Guides Red One launch coverage
• 4K stills and video from HD4NDS - with stuntcars!
• Extended 4K stills Gallery - HD4NDS
• 3D stereoscopic tapeless workflow at 4K with Red One - Studio Daily

I downloaded a few of the 4K still frames. They weigh in at 48MB uncompressed tiffs, and the result is astounding. Ive seen uncompressed HD and 2K on professional broadcast monitors and projectors, but I can’t imagine seeing this at native resolution in full motion. Lets let that last link sink in on you. I am insanely jealous.

I admit to being an incurable retro junkie. With that in mind, it’s worth making Super 8 part of your digital image arsenal. Even though few Super 8 cameras have been manufactured since the early 1980s, Kodak still offers a solid lineup of color and black & white film for as little as $14 per 50 foot cartridge (which lasts 2 minutes and 30 seconds). Once you start shooting motion picture film, there’s no turning back — there’s something addictive about the sight of genuine film grain and the way film responds to light.

Cameras are inexpensive and plentiful on eBay. You should expect to pay under $100 for a well-equipped device that can shoot at a “professional” speed of 24 frames per second and offers useful options such as slow-motion and timelapse. In fact, the ability to shoot film at a variety of speeds is one of its strongest benefits.

Once you’ve captured images on film, there’s no need to haul out a clunky old projector. Many companies offer pro-quality film to video transfers, starting at around $20 per reel. You can even purchase excellent video transfer equipment for under $1400. Once your film has been copied to miniDV tape you can manipulate it using all of your favorite video editing software.

Filmshooting.com: the most active online Super 8 film forum
Kodak’s Super 8 film lineup
OnSuper8.org: one of the most up-to-date Super 8 resources on the web

Illustrator and director Dave McKean did the impossible to produce MirrorMask, his film collaboration with Neil Gaiman. He built his own animation studio, and did a lot of the work generating texture maps, designs, and even compositing on his own. I’d love to track down Mr. McKean myself on this, but in the meantime, there are some terrific stories at Apple.com in a feature by Barbara Gibson:

Dave McKean: Transforming Reality

His tools of choice: Adobe Illustrator, Adobe Photoshop, and (for 3D) Alias Maya. It wasn’t all a dream: I’ve seen his advice to anyone thinking of doing their own compositing, and it’s basically don’t. But it’s spectacular what’s increasingly possible with a small team of artists, and the unique visual look of MirrorMask is a glimpse of the expanded artistic range that’s possible. It’s an antidote to the sameness of the big effects houses: make the tools democratic, and you have a real medium, as opposed to just a mass industry. You just might want to consider limiting yourself to still image design for CD covers if you want to see much of your family.

For more behind-the-scenes, MirrorMask is now available on DVD.