To be continued …

Here is my Christmas card for 2009 … and what follows is how it came to be …

Almost three years ago, before any of the farmhouse construction began, I had taken a real picture of the building site. I used this as a background in my drafting software when designing the project. When the exterior design work was finished, I used the software’s ray trace renderer to create a likeness of the farmhouse. So, in the first cell of the strip below you find the rendered farmhouse with rendered grass in front of a photo of the real site and trees. Next, I used various brushes to add snow in the air and on the ground. I then went back and made a copy of the first layer and removed everything but the building. This was layered on top of the snow to bring it back as the focal point. I added a new layer and outlined the roof. This layer received more brushes of snow. I also added a layer with piles of snow around the building with small amount pushed up to the building and the porch. The final layer of snow was added to the tops of the trees. With the image complete, I added the greetings and finally the border. In truth, the greetings are four layers – one each for the lines of text and similarly for the snow caps and shadows for the text. The border is actually three layers – one for the woven frame, one for the gold scroll, and one for the subtle shadow to give it an embossed look.

 
layers

 
resulting stages

In my post, "So good, you don’t need the real thing" I asked, "how long before some evil entity killed off a world leader and replaced them with a digital representation?"

Well, audio engineering has been brought to bare on this same topic. There has been growing commentary on a technology called "Auto Tune". Antares designed the technology for pitch correction based on algorithms created for geologic mapping and oil exploration. A big stretch from the applied sciences perspective but a creative new business for the creators.

While Auto-Tune can be used for to adjust an off note here and there when the artist is no longer available to make the recording, it gets a bit fuzzier when it is used live because and artist just "isn’t that good". This is where purists start to rant. What comes next is the usual slippery slope of applying technology in greater and greater quantity. What happens when you have the ability to completely change pitch and transition processing and generate very natural output ?

• A politician’s statement becomes less convincing.
• An apology becomes an admonishment.
• A rejection becomes and agreement.

We’re not there yet … I think. However, here is an example of how meaning and intent can be altered dramatically …

 John Keating: We don’t read and write poetry because it’s cute. We read and write poetry because we are members of the human race. And the human race is filled with passion. And medicine, law, business, engineering, these are noble pursuits and necessary to sustain life. But poetry, beauty, romance, love, these are what we stay alive for. To quote from Whitman, "O me! O life!

Todd Anderson: Truth like-like a blanket that always leaves your feet cold. Y-You push it, stretch it, it’ll never be enough. You kick at it, beat it, it’ll never cover any of us. From the moment we enter crying to the moment we leave dying, it’ll just cover your face as you wail and cry and scream.

Dead Poets Society (1989) – Ethan Hawke

Perhaps we still have things to learn from Hollywood or from Tom Schulman.

I was shopping for a new point-and-shoot camera for my mother this morning when I arrived at the Samsung camera website. I was introduced to an interesting marketing angle which I would like to see as the next viral blog challenge. Here is how the website tells it …

My story in 11 photographs

In London, a stranger leaves behind a camera containing 11 photographs. Four girls – Lisa, Tiffany, Chantal, and Lindsay – find this camera and so begins a project to tell their own stores through 11 pictures.

source: samsung.com

I’ll be working on my 11 photos and will blog them in the next week.

If you are up to the challenge, I encourage you to do the same. You can post the individual photos or turn them into a flash slideshow or other means of sharing the images. In keeping with the original medium, short captions are permitted.

Specifically, I challenge Roy, Mary, and Carl (Jessie can help).