A Sci-Fi Movie Recommendation - Pandorum

Last night I watched a sci-fi thriller called Pandorum (official movie site). I don't recall ever hearing anything about it when it was out in theaters, but it was recommended to me by Netflix based on movies that I had previously rated highly. The movie is set in a 60,000 passenger sleeper ship that is fleeing from the earth as a last attempt to save humanity from a dying earth. The ship is on its way to an earth-like planet, Tanis. Various crew members are awakened from hypersleep to encounter other crew members, awakened at different stages of the mission, and some grotesue huminoid creatures. A full synoposis of Pandorum is available on the Wikipedia, but I don't recommend spoiling the exciting final turn of the plot by reading it. Apparently the movie received poor critical reviews from general audiences but did much better among sci-fi enthusiasts. I for one thoroughly enjoyed it, and would love to see a sequel.

Here is the trailer:

Time-lapse of the Week #7

Wow. I almost forgot to post a TLoTW this week and I checked in on YouTube just before going to bed and I got a message from schizzecazzechea to check out this video. All I can say is freaking WOW! I just kept watching over and over and kept on smiling. This just makes me happy.

Your Life is Now

My Fruit and Vegetable Docomposition Video has recently had some spikes in popularity. As a result, I have had an increasing number of positive comments regarding the accompanying music and requests for the song title and artist. Well, I made the music but I didn't give it a name. piterfromwawa in Poland was one of those who asked me for the information so I asked him if he would name it for me. He suggested 'Your Life is Now' because the title will give the listener something to think about while listening to the tune's positive summer vibrations . It sounded like a great name so here it is: "Your Life is Now". The link is to an mp3 version that can be downloaded, its ony about 1.5mb. Thanks for the kind words and the help.

Super Extreme Speed Painting - Amaryllis Flower

I have a new technique for painting that allows me to save time while creating beautiful works of art so watch closely and enjoy. Be sure to watch until the very end to see how this artwork really comes to life. The artwork is all original and the music was made with Sony's Acid Music Studio 7.0.

Really this is kind of just a spoof some of the speed painting videos I have seen on YouTube. It is not too hard to tell that I used the chroma key effect in making the the video, but then when the time-lapse portion of the flower starts then it is a dead give away. I just used a canvas and covered it with blue paint as evenly as possible while filming. The biggest problem was getting the paint even and trying to avoid shadows. I also should have noticed that the other room in the background was dark and shadowy and parts of it fell within the color range that I was keying out.

I Have Been Touched by His Noodly Appendage!

I was putting together a time-lapse video of some mushrooms that I found growing in my yard when I saw a miracle. The almighty revealed himself in this video footage. I will admit that it did require the use of Sony's Vegas Movie Studio HD and a green screen to coax this miraculous event into existence. Nonetheless, it was a truly life changing and enlightening experience. The main things I learned are that He is full of noodly goodness and that if you want to make the green screen (chroma key) effect work, the lighting and color of the screen have to be perfectly even, you can't have any shadows at all.

Miramar Beach Time-lapse with Fisheye Lens

I made this video using a fisheye lens with my Canon Powershot S3 IS and GBTimelapse program from the balcony of our condo at Miramar Beach near Destin, Florida. I took a picture about every 20 seconds and it is played back at 30 frames per second. We were there 2-3 weeks ago, just as the oil spill was gaining press. The weather was not so nice due to rain and wind but that didn't ruin our time. The oil stayed away and so far it has not been a problem on the beaches in that area. The local authorities do seem to be making some preparations for if/when the oil moves in. Though my time-lapse video has nothing to do with the oil spill, I'm putting in a link to an animation tracking spread of the oil, since I have digressed to the subject.

An Amaryllis Growing, Flowering and Decaying in Time-lapse

Here is my latest time-lapse. This amaryllis was filmed over a period of 24 days. Initially I took one picture every 20 minutes, then I increased the frequency to every 15 minutes about halfway through it. I had no idea the thing was going to get so tall or take so long to flower or I would have set it up differently. As you can see I had to adjust the location of the plant and camera several times, there were even a couple of sequences that I just left out because they stayed in the frame so briefly. I used a Canon PowerShot S3 IS along with my laptop using GBTimelapse software to control the camera and I used Quicktime Pro to make the movie from the still shots.

2009 Family Pumpkin Carving Contest

A few days ago we had our annual family pumpkin carving contest again. It was alot of fun as usual. The dynamics of the contest changed this year with the expected results. The above jack-O-lanterns were only from members of my household. My wife and I carved our own pumpkins as expected. Hers is the toothy one on the far left. It won first place out of a total of nine entries. Her work has improved greatly over the last couple of years. Mine was the one with the sword through it which was made from the cut out portion of the mouth. It suprisingly only got fourth place. Now here is where things changed from previous years. My five year old drew his design for me to cut out which is the standard of our family for his age. It came in dead last and is the third from the left. Traditionally children too young to understand the meaning of this activity like my 23 month old are allowed to have a parent design and cut their pumpkin. However, this year due complaints from other jealous family members that this gave me 2 entries, we compromised on letting my 5 year old draw the the others while I cut it out. He used the same design as with his but I interpreted it a little differently and the result earned a second to last place finish and is seen on the far right. Happy Halloween to all!

Knucks: The Official Handshake of the 2009-2010 Flu Season

Yesterday, while preparing to go a football game, I became excited, thinking about all the old friends I would see. Then I thought about all the hands I would be shaking. After hearing several reports of local influenza activity, I became just a little worried about getting the flu myself. That's when I had the idea; you'll get nothing but a set of knucks from me brother. So I decided to make an image to help spread the idea. I know I am not the first to think of this as a more sanitary version of a greeting or high five, but I couldn't find anything on the web presenting it this way, so here you go. If you prefer the term fist bump, here is a blog sized version and here is the larger version. Feel free to pass on these links or even to hotlink the images if needed.

Please keep in mind, I am not trying to add to the hysteria we are facing with the novel H1N1 (swine) flu (I've already dealt with plenty of that). I just think that during this time of year, it is good to minimize unnecessary contact, wash hands frequently, and to keep your hands out of your eyes, nose and mouth especially when you have been out in crowds.

The Good News of Health Care Reform

I got the idea for this cartoon after recently attending a statewide conference for family physicians. During one of the gatherings a senator had to field some questions from some of the physicians regarding their patients concerns over euthanasia and 'death panels' as part of the new healthcare system. My initial thinking while formulating the above scenario was mocking the hysterical reactions to health care reform, but it also reflects my concern for the inefficiency we might get if we let the government take over our health care.

2008 Family Pumpkin Carving Contest

This year's family pumpkin carving contest for halloween was pretty exciting. There were 14 entries and all of them were interesting. The jack-o'-lanterns you see above were from my household which again did well. The toothy one on the far left was my 11 month old's entry; it won first place with a little help from dad. The sad one next to it was my wife's second place winner, much better than last year's sorry effort. The hellish jack seen swallowing up a desolate soul which is third from the left was my entry. It got 4th place. I really expected better, but my hat's off to the others. The one on the far right was my 4 year old's, he was deemed big enough to create his own this year; he drew it and I cut it out, hence the very avant-garde final product. It actually placed seventh, not bad out of 14.

How to Make a Time-lapse Video

No, I am not going to tackle this, but Jay at MIlapse has intiated this undertaking in a YouTube series. Up to this point, he has made Timelapse Guide (The Basics - Part 1) and Timelapse Guide (Compact Digital Cameras - Part 2). So far so good.

Time-lapse March Clouds Over Reservoir

Time-lapse Clouds, 640x480, .mov, 8.5 mb 38 sec

I am sure that I will eventually get tired of doing time-lapses and move on to something else, but I just can't quit thinking of all the different things I could film. The main thing I want to do with clouds is get some huge cumulonimbus clouds boiling up from a distance, but that will probably have to wait until summer. So in the meantime I am just trying lots of different things for practice, like this one. It was made on a very windy day beside a reservoir at sunset. It took approximately 1 and a half hours. I started at 1 picture per 5 seconds then decreased the frequency to every 4 seconds. I used my Canon PowerShot S3 IS and Granite Bay Time-lapse software for the shooting. I made the movie with QuickTime Pro playing the pics at 30 fps. I made the music with Sony Acid Music Studio. The YouTube version of this cloud time-lapse video is available if you can't play quicktime vids.

This and other time-lapse videos and stop motion videos can be seen at my time-lapse home page.

Fruit Lapse

Time-lapse Decaying Fruit, 640x480, .mov, 6.7 mb 39 sec

This is a time-lapse video of some fruit - banana, apple chunks, kiwi, lemon, grapes- deteriorating over exactly 3 weeks. The pictures were taken several times per hour at first then the rate was slowed down to once per hour toward the end. It is played back at 30 fps initially the replayed at a much faster rate. I used a Canon PowerShot S3 IS and Granite Bay time-lapse software for the video and made the music using Sony Acid Music Studio. I think it turned out fairly well. The biggest problem with this one was that I got tired of the continuous loud whirring of the laptop used to control the camera so I shut it down and just used the intervalometer on the camera to take a picture every hour. In doing so, I unavoidably moved the camera a little which readjusted the focus and caused a few wobbles in the video. This change can be seen toward the end when the banana goes slightly out of focus. The YouTube version of this time-lapse decomposing fruit video is available if you can't play quicktime vids.

This and other time-lapse videos and stop motion videos can be seen at my time-lapse home page.

UPDATE 7/20/10: Here is my best video of fruit and vegetables decomposing

Time-lapse Sunset Over Reservoir

Time-lapse sunset, 640x480, .mov, 9.8 mb 19 sec

This time-lapse video was made a couple of weeks ago with my new setup including the Canon PowerShot S3 IS and the Granite Bay Time-lapse software. I think it turned out fairly well for my first try. I made the accompanying music with my Sony Acid Music Studio software. It is kind of eerie, which was not really intentional, it just turned out that way. I had a couple of problems with the video. One was that I took the pictures every 5 seconds, which was too frequent for the mininmal action involved so I had to play it back at 60 fps rather than 30 fps. Also, my laptop ran out of power before the sun was completely down so it was cut short. I did like the contrails left behind as the jets flew over and I enjoy the appearance of the water as the wind died down and the water became perfectly still. The above video is a rather large file for the short time but is of fairly good quality. The YouTube version of this time-lapse sunset video is not quite as good but is a quicker download.

This and other time-lapse videos and stop motion videos can be seen at my time-lapse home page.

Time-lapse Colored Water in Melting Ice and a Tulip

640x480, mov, 4.4 mb 33 sec

For this time-lapse video, I started by freezing water in an ice cube tray. Before the cube was completely solid, I used a syringe to inject some colored water in the center and let it freeze a little longer. Then I placed the cube in the glass of water with the tulip. I used my Canon PowerShot S3 IS and Granite Bay time-lapse software to make the movie. Initially the pics were taken about every 4-6 seconds but I stretched it out to every few minutes once I focused on the flower. I used the Sony Acid Music Studio to make the accompanying music.

Here are the rest of my time-lapse and stop motion videos or all these plus others can be seen at my YouTube player page.

Time-lapse Ice Melting in a Wine Glass

click to view video

This Time-laspe video was taken over several hours with my Canon PowerShot S3 IS along with my recently purchased GBTimelapse softwae, Both of which have been very satisfying so far. I took a picture about every 5 seconds during the shooting. The main faults are that I accidentally got my foot hung in a cord and knocked the camera off the table, which is noticealbe at about 13 seconds when you see the glass shift a little. I also was not able to figure out how to turn on the macro funtion with the GBTimelapse software until near the end of the shooting. It is not apparent on the YouTube version due to the degree of compression but you can see it at around the 2/3 mark on the quicktime version. I used my Sony Acid Music Studio software to create the music.

Here is the YouTube version of Ice Melting in a Wine Glass. Here are the rest of my time-lapse and stop motion videos.

Time-lapse Crystals Growing

Click to view Video, 6.9 mb, 33 sec, Quicktime

This is one of my first videos made with my recently purchased Canon PowerShot S3 IS. The main reason I chose this camera over the newer Canon PowerShot S5 IS is that I had read that the intervalometer feature was not in the later model and of course it was a little cheaper. I used the intervalometer to take a picture every 4 minutes during the 2 days that I allowed the crystals to grow. I used the "Space Age Crystal Growing Kit" as directed except that I didn't place any rocks in the solution to seed the crystals. The video turned out about okay, the crystals grew, but the visual effect is kind of bland. The quicktime version on my site is much sharper than the YouTube version. I made the music using my Sony Acid Music Studio software.

You can see my other time-lapse and stop motion videos here.

Time-lapse Sunset from the Hancock Tower

click the pic to view 3.5mb, 7 sec.

This is a brief time-lapse video I made in Chicago while on a visit there back in October. We were up in the bar of the Hancock tower and obviously had an excellent table. I used my good ol' Sony Cybershot, taking each picture about every 15 seconds while resting the camera on the back of the booth I was sitting in. It is a little short because we didn't think to start taking the pics until the sun was almost all the way down.

Here's the video at YouTube.

Other time-lapse and stop motion videos can be seen here.

Bat-O'-Lantern

This year's family pumpkin carving contest involved nine entries, with these three being entries from my household. My wife did the BOO! pumkin, a very unoriginal performance, deserving its seventh place finish. My official entry was the one on the right, it was supposed to have 3 eyes but its left eye came off when I was removing the part I cut out, I think it turned out just as well anyway. It got fourth place. The middle one was my 3 year old's official entry which I spent most of my time on. It was meant to be a bat; it won first place. I made the ears in a fashion similar to last year's chimp pumpkin. Next year, the quality of my boy's entries will go down, when we will be required to cut his pumpkin from what ever he draws on there without any help.