Jai's Laboratory

Well, I had a meeting with Sebastien almost a week ago, and I am pleased with how it went. It could always have gone better, but there is nothing I can do about the past. The last week was a crazy one, hence my lack of posting.
Sorry about that, everyone.
I have been working on to code for so long, that it was nice to take a break and work on the visuals for the project. I finished 3 of the 4 levels, and I have been doing some concept sketches for the fourth. I thought I would have some serious help for the code, but it seems that there was a mis-communication, and now I am right back where I started. Oh well, I got a bit of advice, and I have yet to exhaust all my resources. 5 weeks left and I am determined to make this thing work.

Now, off to go and code some zones and do some freaky Flash math.

Listening to: Armor for sleep – “Phantoms Now”

Over at The Cool Hunter, I came across a neat post about some interactive turntables. Being a DJ myself, I have been keeping a close eye on this technology & was curious what the hype was about. Numark partnered with GoMA (Gallery of Modern Art) in Brisbane, Australia to introduce people to the art of turntablism. While I applaud their set-up and ambition, from looking at the interface, it doesn’t really accurately convey that which makes manipulating music through a vinyl record is all about. The user has control over one plastic/metal platter, and a touch screen. It’s a neat interface, but misleading. It’s like Guitar Hero, or Track & Field for the NES… You get to go through the motions and feel some minute trickle of accomplishment, but click as many buttons as you want, you still won’t be able to play a real guiar, or run a 400m relay without actually getting out there and doing it yourself.

I saw a video a while ago where someone had actually built some touch screen turntables that looked like something I could get behind. Now.. where was it…Ah… here it is:

The sound was a bit buggy when I was watching to it, but the simple interface, and visual manipulation of a waveform is awesome. If the reactivity could be as real-time as..well.. real time, then it would take off for sure.

Listening to: “Eye on the Gold Chain” – Ugly Duckling

I woke up on the wrong side of the bed today. However, I found this little gem while gulping down some vector before runing out the door. It’s charming, heart warming, and made me smile. The editing is fabulous, and the actors are spot-on. Enjoy.

Today is more flash work. The final project chugs along. I’ll get some concept scans and maybe my Proof of Concept up here. I did some minor timeline editing last night, but got a bit frustrated when I couldn’t interpret where the keyframes went after nulling an opacity tween. They were still showing on the timeline, but I couldn’t seem to edit them any more without nulling an existing motion tween.
Perhaps the answer is nesting the opacity fade inside the movie clip itself, and then moving that whole clip with a motion tween on the main timeline. I’ll look in to it today. I also have Print Design class & I am looking forward to it.

Tonight… Malones with the DD classes. Bring on the Pool & Pints. If you’re a DD student, I’ll see you there.

Listening to: “Cryptik Souls Crew” – LEN

Video via – SwissMiss.