My manufacturer, ThreeZero, have just sent me a little video of the Kricky The Alien Frog master mold. This showcases how the head comes off and fits either frontwards or backwards.
From this master mold, the production mold will be made and then the first vinyl sample. If I get this sample in time, it may be shown at this years San Diego Comic Con!
The Dread - Part 1
A new experiment for the 12seconds.tv site; an attempt to tell a story of dread in only 12 second increments.
The Dread – Part 1 | 12seconds.tv (beta)
I recently discovered this 12second.tv site. Basically, it’s a video version of twitter where you only get 12 seconds to post what you are doing. And much like twitter, the vast majority of the people posting are posting how bored they are or how drunk they are or, even worse, themselves just laughing or making stupid faces into the camera for 12 seconds!
Well, I wanted to do something a little more creative. I saw this as a challenge; to try to tell a story within the constraint of the 12 seconds. And I wanted to do this visually, with sound effects and music but no dialog. So this is my first attempt as an internet film maker. I present to you, part 1 of a multi-part series known as The Dread.
(Note: I do hope that everyone reading this checks out the version on the 12seconds.tv site and comments on my little film. Unfortunately, the 12seconds.tv site crops the videos submitted to a squarish format. So to view the full widescreen version of The Dread, please check out my Mac Gallery. Thank you.)
I don’t know how I missed it before, but a friend of mine mentioned that I should check out the new building at Caltech if I’m into Architecture and Photography (which I am!)
The building, known as the Cahill Center for Astronomy and Astrophysics at Caltech in Pasadena California, was designed by Thom Mayne founder of the architectural firm Morphosis.
Though it has received many mixed reviews and comments, for me, this is just an incredibly designed modern work of inspiration! And since I couldn’t find any photos online that did justice to this incredible building (Editorial: including the horrendous photography work done by the L.A. Times for their architectural review of the building; Really? An architectural review and this was the best photo they could take!?) I took it upon myself to capture the building the way I thought best represented the idea of a modern Astrophysics work of art facility. Here are my results:
I just received photos back from my manufacturer of the new [re]sculpt of my next toy, “Kricky The Alien Frog“. Originally it was going to be manufactured and released a couple of years ago, shortly after my first toy the “Broken Heart Robot” was released, but due to financial circumstances and other obstacles beyond my control, I was unable to continue through with moving the project forward.
Luckily, things are now moving forward. The manufacturer has been paid and the manufacturing process has begun (again.) The first step is re-sculpting the figure based on my design (see photos below of the sculpt.) After this, the manufacturer will make a wax pattern from the sculpt. I will be posting the progress here as I get the photos and samples in.
It’s been a long time coming, but finally, the Broken Heart Robot will have his side kick! Kricky will of course be released under my own toy brand GENSHI:TOY.
So, a strange turn of events happened several weeks ago. Though I had recently gone back to school in Pasadena to study Industrial Design, I wound up having to [temporarily] drop out as I was offered a teaching position at a Community College in Whittier, CA. I am teaching their “Principles Of Digital Photography” class.
10 minutes before start of class, students still coming in.
This is the third week and so far so good. In fact, I’ve been asked to not only continue on through the fall, but to add more classes (I am contemplating developing a “Digital Music Technology” course which is more my specialty.) The thing about teaching at a Community College (which is a first for me) is the diversity of students, especially in age range. I have students from 18 years old to over 50; makes it very interesting when trying to relate to everybody!
This is definitely a new adventure for me and is allowing me to not only share my love of photography with others, but is forcing me to keep my skills honed and my knowledge accurate.
Finally! After many delays and obstacles, it looks like I am finally getting my next toy, Kricky The Alien Frog, into production. I’m in touch with my manufacturer, he’s working on my final quote, and once it’s approved the tooling and production process begins!
In anticipation of the impending production (and release) of my long awaited second toy, I have redesigned, or, rebranded if you will, my GENSHI:TOY label and am selling the official GENSHI:TOY t-shirts for a limited time only! They come in Men’s, Women’s, Kid’s and even Infant sizes and all in a variety of colors!
GENSHI:TOY Men’s T-Shirt
GENSHI:TOY Women’s T-Shirt
GENSHI:TOY Kid’s T-Shirt
GENSHI:TOY Infant’s or “Onesie” T-Shirt
I discovered an interesting article today in the U.K edition of Wired Magazine. It talks of how researchers are experimenting with giving robots the ability to “sense” when their human owners are upset and to then avoid their angry owners.
What caught my eye though was that the picture they used for the article was one I took of my Broken Heart Robot toys! (did I mention I am a toy designer?)
Broken Heart Robots in Wired Magazine
Coincidentally, since I’ve been experimenting with the Arduino platform and thinking about making an actual, autonomous robot… maybe I should program it to fear me as well!
The article was written by Katie Scott for Wired U.K. (Online editing by Holden Firth.) Article link: http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2009-03/30/robots-taught-to-hide-from-grumpy-humans.aspx
Busy, busy, busy… I had mentioned in one of my other blogs that one of my “pleasures” and curses is that I usually become interested in too many things. For example, I recently went back to school after oh so many years to study Industrial Design, I’ve been working on my photography (but unfortunately neglecting my music) and now, trying to learn iPhone app programming as well as continuing my explorations in the Processing language/environment.
I recently discovered the next extension to Processing; the Arduino micro-controller board! Arduino is an open source hardware platform which can be programmed [to do just about anything] with the Processing IDE. I received my Arduino board today with a few bits of kit (LEDs, resistors, etc.) and I have SO many ideas… but to start with, the basics: I made a simple little LED circuit which is activated with a push button (see photos below.)
I will eventually be making an accelerometer-based, color changing LED desk lamp, possibly an autonomous robot and then, if I can pull it off, a touchscreen musical instrument!
It’s been awhile since I’ve done any logo design work (I’ve been primarily focusing on my photography this past year and more recently, on learning Industrial Design, but more on that later!) and I recently had a friend ask me if I would do one for him on spec. Now normally, I would just say no, but I needed to get my feet wet again as well as test drive this new Adobe CS4 Design Premium I had just purchased.
He didn’t give me much direction [at first] other than the name of his company and the fact it was going to be a hip-hop management company. So I threw something together real quick (since I was, basically, doing this for free after all) and then the “designer” in me started tweaking away on it… so where I ended up was a bit different than where I started.
So I thought I’d share a few of the steps I went through for this exercise in 30 minute logo design.
Yay! My Holgaroid (Holga 120GFN + Polaroid back) arrived from PolaPremium.com along with a few packs of film.
This is my third Holga camera but the first with a glass lens, a flash and a Polaroid back. And this particular one seems to have much crazier light leaks than my previous models, but it only adds to the mystique of the images, imho.
My first tests with this Holgaroid were conducted using the Type 100 Sepia Polaroid film, so the Sepia-toned image you see here is how the camera shot it (no post processing, no Photoshop!)
I seem to be de-evolving my photographic process; from Digital, to Holga 120 Film, to Holga-based Polaroids… what could possibly be next? (hint: Pinhole Photography!)
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Craig Anthony Perkins @ Wordpress.com
