Special Effects in Aronofsky's "The Fountain"

I haven't had a chance to see "The Fountain" yet but I've been reading up on the special effects for the movie. All of which where created without CGI. The space scenes where created in a petri dish.







Here's the trailer.

Judging by the mixed reviews the movie is getting I can't tell if it'll be good or not but it seems like the visual experience alone might be worth the price of admission.

The site for the movie (which is great) manages to create a rich environment. I really like that it seems to be boundless.


Here's an excerpt from Wired about the effects:

Then Aronofsky's team discovered the work of Peter Parks, a marine biologist and photographer who lives in a 400-year-old cowshed west of London. Parks and his son run a home f/x shop based on a device they call the microzoom optical bench. Bristling with digital and film cameras, lenses, and Victorian prisms, their contraption can magnify a microliter of water up to 500,000 times or fill an Imax screen with the period at the end of this sentence. Into water they sprinkle yeast, dyes, solvents, and baby oil, along with other ingredients they decline to divulge. The secret of Parks' technique is an odd law of fluid dynamics: The less fluid you have, the more it behaves like a solid. The upshot is that Parks can make a dash of curry powder cascading toward the lens look like an onslaught of flaming meteorites. "When these images are projected on a big screen, you feel like you're looking at infinity," he says. "That's because the same forces at work in the water – gravitational effects, settlement, refractive indices – are happening in outer space."

You can read the full article in the November issue of wired or online

Happy Monday!

Please enjoy the silliest, happiest song.

The Hot Ladies of Wears + Wares

Check out the article Donna Goodison from the Boston Herald wrote about Wares + Wares. The Herald jumped at the chance to get an early interview before these girls go national.

Co-founder, Ann Karash is quoted as saying "It's needed because there isn't a regular marketplace for independent designers in the Boston area".

You can view a scan of the article here or you can read the online version here.

John Day!

November 13 might be one of my favorite days of the year! Why? Because it is John Torres's birthday, and he is one of my favorite people of all time!

HAPPY, HAPPY BIRTHDAY, JOHN!

Wears + Wares this Saturday! (11/11)

I'm going for Mitten Mitten, the limited edition print from sad, sad, story, and treats.

Check out the full vendor list.

Our Friends at MITX

I was at the MITX awards last night (which for the first time had a decent comedian) and I was happy to see that so many of my friends were representing there in one way or another.



First and foremost, Hunt & Gather had nominations in 2 categories and they won for the Wainwright Bank Website redesign. Big congratulations to Ann Karash, Beth Carron, Mitch Sinclair and the whole Hunt & Gather crew. Hunt & Gather were also nominated for the McGraw-Hill Presentation Center

Backbone won an award for Scout (which was nominated in several catagories). Michael Leykin and Dave Alpert played a big part in that project. (Michael-there was an ad for it in the program and the Scout logo looked great! Although I sincerely hope you had nothing to do with those overhead fish-eye perspective photos on the site!)

Enpocket won and award for the Dog Bounty Hunter guy ringtone campaign. Brian Dolan and Josh Bloom both work for Enpocket.

Hill Holiday was nominated for the 15 second "iraq" spot ad we did for Gather.

Overall it was a fun night and I hope even more of our friends will be there next year!

why karashes have impressive skull diameters...

just look how much flash my cousin billy knows now... and I think he is not even in highschool! that's right — genuine virtuoso!

I am going to show him how to let users enter answers, get a score, and the secret text button trick... and I was going to direct him to actionscripts.org — does anyone else have a good tutorial site?

check out his game: NumaNumaScreamer. I don't want to spoil it, but there is a special surprise waiting for you on the last frame!

And... I forgot to add a stop all sounds for the "replay," so your second time around will have an inspiring themesong...

buy your domains now!

David Pogue had an article in yesteday's New York Times, all about the new offering from Microsoft called Office Live. Although lots of benefits abound with this idea — free website, free domain hosting, you can design a site yourself with a drag and drop tool application, and making this whole process overall easier for small businesses to have an online presence... As well as loading all kinds of fun mini-Microsoft applications onto your home computer while you are taking advantage of this service (ahem!). However, from my own particular view of the world, I fear this means that 1. we might be flooded with more not-great-looking online design and 2. whatever odd domain names are left out there are going to disappear in a flash.

If you are interested in the article, you can read it here (at least for the next five days).

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

And I have a general poll question:

are template design solutions like this generally good for designers? I.e. the difference between custom and pre-packaged design is clear to the general public? Or, thinking of a former boss in polyester suits, does this mean that some realize getting things done fast and cheap is the best direction for online production, and lots of nice design compatriots take up woodworking?

I am a little torn on the idea — on the one hand, I like thinking of more modular forms of design that can be customized in the details to look, feel, and function as a unique operation. And, I think there are always things that we can learn from behavior patterns that are adopted quickly, tools that are easy to use. But, the pessimist angle says that not too many people care or can see the use of aesthetic discipline, so eventually our profession is doomed?

Which brings me back to woodworking. Or the sandwich shop. Which I am really looking forward to — because, at this point, if I don't start logging fewer hours on the keyboard and tablet, I am going to have no wrists and only my left elboe by the year 2010.

Eduardo Recife - Misprintedtype

I've long admired the work of my fellow countryman, Eduardo Recife. And have also long appropriated some of the freebies he offers on his site, misprintedtype.

His fonts and Photoshop brushes have done the trick many times. Misha even used one of his font for his wedding invitation.

After 3 years of procrastination he finally got his commercial site up. You can check it out here: eduardorecife.com