I'd like to thank vizworld.com, a site that specializes in computer graphics-related news for naming my book, The Visual Effects Arsenal, their Resource of the Week for the week of 9/9/09, here's a link to the article.

I've recently done some visual effects work on a behind-the-scenes short for the film Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs. It's now posted on You Tube, it's pretty hilarious. It features Andy Samberg giving all kinds of misinformation about how animated films are made until things go all nuts. That's when I came in, I created the Hadouken!-style energy blasts that he fires off at people towards the end. In addition, I also did the spinning Hancock poster! Click here to watch it.

Thanks to Jonah Goldstein, Chester Tam and Andy Samberg for getting me involved in this.

My band, (well, technically me in this case) The Painful Leg Injuries will be performing this Friday at Austin's Game Over video games' Joust tournament. I'll be performing an 8-bit only set of new material, I go on at 8:30p. It's at the North Austin store at Hwy 183 and Lamar Blvd.

Hope you can make it!

My textbook, The VFX Arsenal: VFX Solutions for the Independent Filmmaker is now available!

Click here to order it from Amazon.com.

This book comes from my classes in digital film-making, computer and motion graphics, and collects classic visual effects techniques and collects them in one place, demonstrated in commonly available software (such as After Effects, Final Cut Pro, Combustion, and Photoshop). Full of step-by-step tutorials, color images, and a DVD with lessons and tutorial elements, I think it is a great learning tool. A long time in the works, I'm so glad to see it completed, and available to the public.

Thanks to the folks at Focal for publishing this book, I hope everyone who is kind enough to buy it enjoys it.

I know it has been a while, however there's lots of news to share.

First, the latest issue of Make Magazine, Issue 17, has an article written by yours truly on page 161 called "The Stealth Mic". This is basically a tutorial on building your own binaural microphones. Binaural mics, are mics that are placed roughly where a person's ears are are great for capturing sounds that preserve the real-life stereo image. They've been used on albums by Radiohead, Brian Eno and Can.

Next, this weekend I will be doing a brief lecture/performance of my Wii-mote controlled music at SXSW Interactive with the Austin chapter of dorkbot. I go on first a 6pm. It's being held at Brush Square Park on 5th and Neches. If you are available, come by!

Photo by Rebekah Weatherly

I'd like to say thanks to the Maker Faire for having us back this year. This was the first time Suzanne and I performed in a year, and we were glad to be playing in front of an audience again.

When performing abstract electronic music in a live format, it's always hard gauge audience reaction. However, what I can say after having listened to the recording of the set, if you can make a baby cry so loud it gets picked up by the mic, well, you did something right. I will be posting a video and MP3 of the set shortly.

I'd also like to thank Mix 94.7's JB and Sandy for having myself and Sherry Huss from Make on their show on Thursday, here's a link to listen to our interview: Bill from PLI interviewed on JB and Sandy.

Update


So, Suzanne and I are are going to be performing on the Maker Stage at 8:30 pm this Saturday night at the Maker Faire, being held at Austin's Travis County Fairgrounds, Also, I will be part of a radio spot on the Maker Faire on Austin's JB and Sandy broadcast this morning on Mix 94.7 FM, at 8:30am, there's supposed to be a podcast of it, so when I know the link for that, I'll post it here. Thanks!