NOMMO: New Stories of RA the movie

Asian kid beat down by racist White kids...

2012-01-17T01:01:00.003-05:00

So Screwed up

2011-12-24T15:35:00.000-05:00

Racism as Design in Sci-Fi/Fantasy Design

For Hip Hop News & Entertainment at DimeWars.Com

Forgotten History Lessons....

2011-09-30T23:48:00.001-04:00

Mostly if not completely unknown facts of history on maters of race that have probably formed the foundations of today's social strata.

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Just flat out funny...

2011-08-05T11:49:00.000-04:00

Black Best Friend with Casey Wilson from Casey Wilson

More Funny Stuff for Now...

2011-07-09T09:44:00.000-04:00

Obama: I'm A Dick! - watch more funny videos

Field of Dreams 2: NFL Lockout with Taylor Lautner from Taylor Lautner

I felt it necessary to post this...

2011-04-18T20:15:00.000-04:00

Something funny that will make you think, especially when you watch it from beginning to end:

Girlfriend Doesn't Realize Boyfriend is on Vacation - watch more funny videos

I'm not sure whether I should be impressed or totally creeped out...

2011-03-08T00:17:00.000-05:00

It's more than mildly annoying to see people developing these kinds robots alongside artificial intelligent developments from other companies like Watson from IBM without really discussing the implications of self-aware computers. Even though I like technology stff like this tends to creep me out. See for yourself: (vids)

I guess to me it seems logical that some scientists/programmer/engineer will want to put an AI like Watson into one of these and that's where the whole Terminator scenario eventually becomes possible.

Totally Kick-Ass small scale 3D cinema (Real 3D not gimmicky stereoscopic stuff)

2011-02-16T19:52:00.001-05:00

Okay these are kick ass, but mostly I'm posting them for my own record keeping needs as they'll get completely buried in any watchlist I might have.

Hollywood as it is...

2011-01-31T12:31:00.000-05:00

Written by Joel Stein, published in the Los Angeles Times, December 19, 2008

A poll finds more Americans disagree with the statement that 'Jews control Hollywood.' But here's one Jew who doesn't.

I have never been so upset by a poll in my life. Only 22% of Americans now believe "the movie and television industries are pretty much run by Jews," down from nearly 50% in 1964. The Anti-Defamation League, which released the poll results last month, sees in these numbers a victory against stereotyping. Actually, it just shows how dumb America has gotten. Jews totally run Hollywood.

How deeply Jewish is Hollywood? When the studio chiefs took out a full-page ad in the Los Angeles Times a few weeks ago to demand that the Screen Actors Guild settle its contract, the open letter was signed by: News Corp. President Peter Chernin (Jewish), Paramount Pictures Chairman Brad Grey (Jewish), Walt Disney Co. Chief Executive Robert Iger (Jewish), Sony Pictures Chairman Michael Lynton (surprise, Dutch Jew), Warner Bros. Chairman Barry Meyer (Jewish), CBS Corp. Chief Executive Leslie Moonves (so Jewish his great uncle was the first prime minister of Israel), MGM Chairman Harry Sloan (Jewish) and NBC Universal Chief Executive Jeff Zucker (mega-Jewish). If either of the Weinstein brothers had signed, this group would have not only the power to shut down all film production but to form a minyan with enough Fiji water on hand to fill a mikvah.

The person they were yelling at in that ad was SAG President Alan Rosenberg (take a guess). The scathing rebuttal to the ad was written by entertainment super-agent Ari Emanuel (Jew with Israeli parents) on the Huffington Post, which is owned by Arianna Huffington (not Jewish and has never worked in Hollywood.)

The Jews are so dominant, I had to scour the trades to come up with six Gentiles in high positions at entertainment companies. When I called them to talk about their incredible advancement, five of them refused to talk to me, apparently out of fear of insulting Jews. The sixth, AMC President Charlie Collier, turned out to be Jewish.

As a proud Jew, I want America to know about our accomplishment. Yes, we control Hollywood. Without us, you'd be flipping between "The 700 Club" and "Davey and Goliath" on TV all day.

So I've taken it upon myself to re-convince America that Jews run Hollywood by launching a public relations campaign, because that's what we do best. I'm weighing several slogans, including: "Hollywood: More Jewish than ever!"; "Hollywood: From the people who brought you the Bible"; and "Hollywood: If you enjoy TV and movies, then you probably like Jews after all."

I called ADL Chairman Abe Foxman, who was in Santiago, Chile, where, he told me to my dismay, he was not hunting Nazis. He dismissed my whole proposition, saying that the number of people who think Jews run Hollywood is still too high. The ADL poll, he pointed out, showed that 59% of Americans think Hollywood execs "do not share the religious and moral values of most Americans," and 43% think the entertainment industry is waging an organized campaign to "weaken the influence of religious values in this country."

That's a sinister canard, Foxman said. "It means they think Jews meet at Canter's Deli on Friday mornings to decide what's best for the Jews." Foxman's argument made me rethink: I have to eat at Canter's more often.

"That's a very dangerous phrase, 'Jews control Hollywood.' What is true is that there are a lot of Jews in Hollywood," he said. Instead of "control," Foxman would prefer people say that many executives in the industry "happen to be Jewish," as in "all eight major film studios are run by men who happen to be Jewish."

But Foxman said he is proud of the accomplishments of American Jews. "I think Jews are disproportionately represented in the creative industry. They're disproportionate as lawyers and probably medicine here as well," he said. He argues that this does not mean that Jews make pro-Jewish movies any more than they do pro-Jewish surgery. Though other countries, I've noticed, aren't so big on circumcision.

I appreciate Foxman's concerns. And maybe my life spent in a New Jersey-New York/Bay Area-L.A. pro-Semitic cocoon has left me naive. But I don't care if Americans think we're running the news media, Hollywood, Wall Street or the government. I just care that we get to keep running them.

- Joel Stein, LA Times
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-stein19-2008dec19,0,4676183.column

TRON movie and Jeff Bridges' faces? (SPOILERS)

2011-01-07T12:50:00.001-05:00

(I suspect a lot of people that wanted to see the movie already have, but for those that haven't and don't like spoilers this is your second "Turn Around" marker)

Okay, while there were things I liked about the movie as a whole the Tron tech, vehicles and the overall aesthetic sensibilities that are the core of what TRON is about in terms of describing life inside of a machine for man was updated with justice for the most part I thought There was one thing that was just major thorn in my side watching the movie, what was up with the Jeff Bridges digital double? I knew when I saw some behind the scenes snippets on TV and he had old school markers on his face instead of using the Mova method it was going to look bad, but I didn't think it was going to look that terrible. Even though a lot of ImageMovers work looked a little suspect while they were still operating I still feel like had Disney not shut them down they would have done an exponentially better job on the performance capture work for this film given the opportunity.

With the face capture work as it is knowing they were using markers I didn't realize that they would just "Put it out front" as much as they did. I guess I figured that maybe the decision to go the fast cheap way with the markers for face capture was because they weren't going to use it much or maybe they were using it to animate an imperfect villain copy of the main character within the machine which could have been interesting, but Disney used the face marker capture material far too much knowing that it looked bad and I guess that's almost the most disturbing thing at least that's what has me posting about it. It wouldn't have be bad if there just wasn't another way to do it, but there is and several better methods are in use regularly so you have to chalk it up to Disney's incompetence and/or poor taste. The most disturbing thing for me is looking at Disney, in this industry, at the precipice of the performance capture era owning the first studio to pioneer this method and having seen the success of Avatar and Gollum in LOTR and Kong in King Kong they still shutdown ImageMovers Digital and then did a movie with A LOT of really bad performance capture work.

After seeing the story I thought it would have been cool to use Mova captured face anim. for the real world young version of Jeff Bridges and the markers for the character "Clue." Even if that didn't look great, considering direct Human to Human CG will almost always encounter the a large fail in the uncanny valley it would have looked a LOT better and it would have visually carried a lot more weight on the story end.

From the story standpoint I really liked the idea of TRON being a separate entity, being evil and still being kick ass. I was hoping they would bring back the original helmet at the end just for nostalgic purposes, but it seemed irritating that they chose not to show TRON's face at the end. (I guess in my mind I was like, "Oh and now at end of the journey you just discovered that the the face capture stuff looks like shyte and you embarrassed? WTH?"

I don't want to sound completely negative, because like I said there were some really nice things in the movie that helped it out considerably.

And now for something a little different

2010-11-30T22:00:00.001-05:00

Some cool videos demonstrating the artistic tool competence of the iPad

And a well produced documentary that I wish would get more attention...

stuff and things...

2010-11-25T00:13:00.000-05:00

So here's an embeded Youtube video from an author I've recently discovered that says a lot of things that make sense . I probably could write a discertatation on this and maybe I will one day, but for now I'm tired and I'm pretty sure video with a living heartbeat behind it is more effective then type.

History Repeating Itself?

2010-11-18T08:52:00.005-05:00

Given how front and center race has insidiously become in the politics of 2010 it may be important to look into past. Kevin Phillips was Richard Nixon's political strategist and he made comments that should be pretty offensive to anyone, but ultimately Nixon won, albeit a short lived victory in the anals of history.

"From now on, the Republicans are never going to get more than 10 to 20 percent of the Negro vote and they don’t need any more than that… but Republicans would be shortsighted if they weakened enforcement of the Voting Rights Act. The more Negroes who register as Democrats in the South, the sooner the Negrophobe whites will quit the Democrats and become Republicans. That’s where the votes are. Without that prodding from the blacks, the whites will backslide into their old comfortable arrangement with the local Democrats."

With Bush's election after the Clinton era of extreme economic prosperity it would seem that there may have been something to this. In spite of Clinton's indiscretions most minorities were easily able to discern the weak man from his political accomplishments and saw Bush as just another hot headed, obtuse, Republican that was probably a bigot and someone that had no real ideas to get excited about. "The People" chose fiction over fact and were later emboldened by a man that unabashedly attacked people that didn't look like him without any evidence that they had anything to do with the specific terrorism that affected America. In otherwords the War declared on Iraq turned out to be international hate crime. Many Whites really didn't care about the macro-view of the decisions that were made, the loss of life even as it became clear and undeniable that there never were "Weapons of Mass Destruction" in Iraq. My guess is had it been Sweden or Finland (who had the same number of WMDs as Iraq) the American opinion of the attack would have been far different, but that's another story.

Fast forward to now and it's clear that the current president doesn't indiscriminately hate brown people, has pulled the economy out of the free fall of losing close to a million jobs a month and it is now gaining 150,000 + jobs a month, Health Care Insurance companies hate the President (They loved GW Bush for allowing them to dig deeper into the pockets of the public) At least half of the voting public, vast majority being White, hate the current president. They have voted for and elected more than one candidate that has taken campaign contributions from White Nationalist organizations, made multiple racist and/or sexist comments publicly and/or privately revealing their world view. The political environment has become toxic because of this and certainly political campaigning over the last two years (from Limbaugh, Fox News, or actual candidates) has divided the country down race lines.

2010-11-04T10:44:00.002-04:00

How the Health Care Bill Will Save Us Money

by Craig Harrington on March 22, 2010 - 11:56am

After months of heated debate and partisan rhetoric, the time has finally come. Nobody is completely happy with the health care reform bill, and many people still have their doubts even if they voiced support for the plan.

Representative Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio) had been voicing strong opposition because the bill lacked a public option, in the end however, he changed his stance in order to fight for something, anything, which looks remotely like reform.

According to the CBO, a non-partisan body organized to provide cost estimates on pending legislation, the health reform package would cost $940 billion over a ten-year span. It should be noted that this averages out to just $94 billion annually, and the program fits completely within the U.S. budget.
According to the CBO projections, this bill will cover 32 million of this nation’s 47 million uninsured; bringing the national total to nearly 95 percent coverage. It will reduce the deficit by roughly $138 billion over the first ten years, and by $1.2 trillion over twenty years.
Since the health care package is a fully “budgeted” item, it does not really cost the U.S. anything. Unlike the wars and bailouts, which are largely non-budgeted, the sources of funding for this legislation have already been lined out.
Since the proposal is already budgeted, the costs are a non-issue. Instead, we must focus on the savings. By implementing this program, which is hopefully just the first in a series of comprehensive reforms, the U.S. will see average savings of $13 billion per year for the next ten years. If we simply follow this program for twenty years, without more progressive updates, we will save nearly $120 billion each year on average.
Under the previous system private insurance would virtually bankrupt the economy within twenty years. Under the revised system we can begin to contain those growing costs.
Republicans, and their conservative media cohorts, have already questioned the validity of the CBO estimates. Stopping short of actually calling the CBO liars, the editorial board of Investor’s Business Daily, instead implicates that the Democrats intentionally misled the government’s best economists. The column then proposes that, without any data to back up its claim, the real cost is 166 percent higher.
Representative John Boehner (R-Ohio) stated on Fox News, that the CBO score was a ”fallacy” at the very least.
The Democrats, according to him, are simply lying about the figures. The Democrats are trying to steal from the public, and the rich, and defy the Constitution.
Basically, other than making baseless personal attacks, the Republicans have little real opposition to speak of.
The fact of the matter is, this country is horrendously in debt. One reason for that debt is the fact that our government had no way of keeping medical costs down.
Most countries have universal coverage, it works smoothly, people pay taxes, there is no fleecing of the rich, and there are no horrible evil underpinnings.
The bill's passage demonstrates that Washington is willing to do something other than collect endorsement checks from corporate interest groups.

(found at http://www.economyincrisis.org)

What is the CBO? (from Wikipedia)

The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) is a federal agency within the legislative branch of the United States government. It is a government agency that provides economic data to Congress.^[1] The CBO was created as an independent nonpartisan agency by the Congressional Budget and Impoundment Control Act of 1974.
With respect to estimating spending for Congress, the Congressional Budget Office serves a purpose parallel to that of the Joint Committee on Taxation for estimating revenue for Congress, the Department of the Treasury for estimating revenues for the Executive and estimates required for the Congressional budget process. This includes projections on the effect on national debt^[2] and cost estimates for legislation.
Section 202(e) of the Act requires submission by CBO to the House and Senate Committees on the Budget periodic reports about fiscal policy and to provide baseline projections of the federal budget. This is currently done by preparation of an annual Economic and Budget Outlook plus a mid-year update. The agency also each year issues An Analysis of the President's Budgetary Proposals for the upcoming fiscal year per a standing request of the Senate Committee on Appropriations. These three series are designated essential titles distributed to Federal Depository Libraries and are available for purchase from the Government Printing Office. CBO also prepares reports and issues briefs and provides testimony often in response to requests of the various Congressional Committees. It also issues letters responding to queries made to it by members of Congress.
The Speaker of the House of Representatives and the President pro tempore of the Senate jointly appoint the CBO Director, after considering recommendations from the two budget committees. The term of office is four years, with no limit on the number of terms a Director may serve. Either House of Congress, however, may remove the Director by resolution. At the expiration of a term of office, the person serving as Director may continue in the position until his or her successor is appointed.
________________________________________________
In short the CBO is a budget evaluation board created within the constitution, in 1974, to make non-partisan projections about budget costs. My problem is that Republicans dismissed the CBO as if they were Moe and Joe from the local pub and dismissed the reports as if they were cooked up over the weekend by Democrats when in fact the board is comprised of Republicans and Democrats. The Republican projections used were in fact cooked up over a weekend, as I recall, and they feel that those are "Accurate." (no surprise there to me) It's pretty obvious to me that there's a fundamental distrust of President Obama because he's Black (i.e. "There's no way this can be true since it came from a Black guy.")

There's NEVER been a congress that just outright scoffed at the projections of the CBO publicly. Just as importantly there's never been a President that's been as attacked personally on such a large scale. A picket poster displaying Obama as an African tribal warrior in a less than heroic stance at more than one Tea Party rally(that's not even the half of it.)

Tea Party organizers never call any of these individuals out and tell them that the Tea Party movement isn't a race propaganda movement. The posters/pickets continue to show up...really it's not about race?

What's with the Political stuff?

2010-10-26T22:11:00.003-04:00

Ok, this is a blog/journal about science-fiction/fantasy stories, but also science-fiction/fantasy stories many times are used as metaphorical constructs of the real world often times making social commentaries on the state of the world or the world viewed from one perspective at the time the stories are created. Science-Fiction/Fantasy looks at the for what is and what it could be at least most good science-fiction/fantasy does. If you look at Lord of The Rings the recurring motif of the story is the idea of people supporting other people that they typically would not support against the evils of absolute power, lust, greed and selfishness. Another recurring motif is the realization that the barriers standing between people are artificial and in all cases detrimental to everyone involved. Most people don't see fantasy/science-fiction in this way and that's good, because no one wants to be preached to and feel judged it's also bad because people tend to view the ideas presented as overly idealistic or naive and then go back to their highly discriminatory or "Sheeple" way of life multiplied by millions of brains enacting what is in fact the real socialist/facist agenda that's been in place since the inception of this country on a day to day basis.

What I mean by all of this is that it's not just minorities that are discriminated against...and people know what I mean when I describe these things like "If you're not blond enough..." or "If you are blond you must be...", "If you are blond and have big boobs, you absolutely must be...", "If you're 'attractive' you must be..."(not going to mention that if you have a heterogeanous population you can't have one stnadard of beauty, but America does because helps certain people, or you're "Not 'Smart' enough...", "Not thin enough...", "Not conservative enough...", "Not trendy enough..." you get marginalized or even targeted for social extermination that's really the definition of socialism and facism because there's one group that exclusively doesn't get marginalized in this kind of way and it's W.A.S.P males. Seriously, W.A.S.P males the same people that have been getting a pass since the drafting of the Constitution...if you don't fall into this category you could get lumped into a stereotype and painted with a big ass bull's eye tomorrow. I can't believe there are still women that accept the trophy wife role.

Here's more racism within politics being paraded around as "Anti-PC." Brown Latinos better watch their backs in Nevada the Teabaggers just keep getting the green light to discriminate indiscriminately. I truly hope Sharon Angle doesn't win. She just seems like a total headcase that shouldn't be in charge of anything more that Sunday school scheduling.

Tea Party Racism at it's best:

The level of blatant racism that's been unleashed to the general public is definitely driving me batty, but I'm sure I'll be back after the election, regardless of the results.

A look back to two years ago and the beginning of the Tea Party movement where the familiar "Obama is a Muslim", "Obama is not a US Citizen" rhetoric began. Undeniably racist origin.

What has President Obama accomplished so far?

2010-10-09T15:09:00.000-04:00

(Consider this a baby viral as I picked it up on another website.)
What has President Obama done so far?

So what all has Obama done since he took office?

I'm sick and tired of people asking "What has Obama done?" So here's a list of things he's done since he's been in office. Remember: He was elected President. He wasn't elected Jesus! The list is still growing. Let me know if I missed anything.

1. Saved the collapse of the American automotive industry by making GM restructure before bailing them out, and putting incentive money to help the industry.

2. Shifted the focus of the war from Iraq to Afghanistan, and putting the emphasis on reducing terrorism where it should have been all along.

3. Relaxed Anti-American tensions throughout the world.

4. Signed order to close the prisoner "torture camp" at Guantanamo Bay.

5. Has made the environment a national priority, and a primary source for job creation.

6. Has made education a national priority by putting emphasis and money behind new ideas like charter schools, but speaking directly to school children in telling them they have to do their part.

7. Won the Nobel Peace Prize.

8. $789 billion economic stimulus plan.
(Obama put $789B into the US/ Bush put $800B and tons of American blood into assassinating Saddam Hussein to settle a personal vendetta)

9. Appointment of first Latina to the Supreme Court.

10. Attractive tax write-offs for those who buy hybrid automobiles.

11. Authorized construction/opening of additional health centers to care for veterans.

12. Beginning the process of reforming and restructuring the military 20 years after the Cold War to a more modern fighting force. this includes new procurement policies, increasing size of military, new technology and cyber units and operations, etc.

13. Better body armor is now being provided to our troops.

14. "Cash for clunkers" program offers vouchers to trade in fuel inefficient, polluting old cars for new cars; stimulates auto sales.

15. Changed the failing/status quo military command in Afghanistan.

16. Closed offshore tax safe havens.

17. Deployed additional troops to Afghanistan.

18. Ended media "blackout" on war casualties; reporting full information.

19. Ended previous policy of awarding no-bid defense contracts.

20. Ended previous policy of cutting the FDA and circumventing FDA rules.

21. Ended previous practice of forbidding Medicare from negotiating with drug manufacturers for cheaper drugs; the federal government is now realizing hundreds of millions in savings.

22. Ended previous practice of having White House aides rewrite scientific and environmental rules, regulations, and reports.

23. Ended previous policy of not regulating and labeling carbon dioxide emissions.

24. Ended previous policy of offering tax benefits to corporations who outsource American jobs; the new policy is to promote in-sourcing to bring jobs back.

25. Ended previous policy on torture; the US now has a no torture policy and is in compliance with the Geneva Convention standards.

26. Ended previous practice of protecting credit card companies; in place of it are new consumer protections from credit card industry's predatory practices.

27. Ended previous "stop-loss" policy that kept soldiers in Iraq/Afghanistan longer than their enlistment date.

28. Energy producing plants must begin preparing to produce 15% of their energy from renewable sources.

29. Established a National Performance Officer charged with saving the federal government money and making federal operations more efficient.

30. Established a new cyber security office.

31. Expanded the SCHIP program to cover health care for 4 million more children.

32. Expanding vaccination programs.

33. Families of fallen soldiers have expenses.

34. Federal support for stem-cell and new biomedical research.

35. Funds for high-speed, broadband Internet access to K-12 schools.

36. Immediate and efficient response to the floods in North Dakota and other natural disasters.

37. Improved housing for military personnel.

38. Improved conditions at Walter Reed Military Hospital and other military hospitals.

39. Improving benefits for veterans.

40. Increased infrastructure spending (roads, bridges, power plants.) after years of neglect.

41. Increasing opportunities in AmeriCorps program.

42. Increasing pay and benefits for military personnel.

43. Increasing student loans.

44. Instituted a new policy on Cuba, allowing Cuban families to return "home" to visit loved ones.

45. Limited salaries of senior White House aides; cut to $100,000.

46. Limits on lobbyists' access to the White House.

47. Limits on White House aides working for lobbyists after their tenure in the administration.

48. Lower drug costs for seniors.

49. Making more loans available to small businesses.

50. Many more press conferences and town halls and much more media access than previous administration.

51. Negotiated deal with Swiss banks to permit US government to gain access to records of tax evaders and criminals.

52. New Afghan War policy that limits aerial bombing and prioritizes aid, development of infrastructure, diplomacy, and good government practices by Afghans.

53. New federal funding for science and research labs.

54. New funds for school construction.

55. Ordered all federal agencies to undertake a study and make recommendations for ways to cut spending.

56. Ordered a review of all federal operations to identify and cut wasteful spending and practices.

57. Phasing out the expensive F-22 war plane and other outdated weapons systems, which weren't even used or needed in Iraq/Afghanistan.

58. Reengaged in the agreements/talks on global warming and greenhouse gas emissions.

59. Reengaged in the treaties/agreements to protect the Antarctic.

60. Removed restrictions on embryonic stem-cell research.

61. Renewed loan guarantees for Israel.

62. Restarted the nuclear non-proliferation talks and building back up the nuclear inspection infrastructure/protocol s.

63. Returned money authorized for refurbishment of White House offices and private living quarters.

64. Sent envoys to Middle East and other parts of the world that had been neglected for years; reengaging in multilateral and bilateral talks and diplomacy.

65. Signed national service legislation; expanded national youth service program.

66. States are permitted to enact federal fuel efficiency standards above federal standards.

67. Students struggling to make college loan payments can have their loans refinanced.

68. Successful release of US captain held by Somali pirates; authorized the SEALS to do their job.

69. The FDA is now regulating tobacco.

70. The missile defense program is being cut by $1.4 billion in 2010.

71. The public can meet with federal housing insurers to refinance (the new plan can be completed in one day) a mortgage if they are having trouble paying.

72. The "secret detention" facilities in Eastern Europe and elsewhere are being closed.

73. US financial and banking rescue plan.

74. US Navy increasing patrols off Somali coast.

75. Visited more countries and met with more world leaders than any president in his first six months in office.

76. Improved relations with Iran.

77. Improved U.S. policy on climate change.

78. Set timetable for exiting Iraq (already started removing troops).

79. Improved relations with Russia.

80. Improved relations with the Islamic World.

81. Made progress towards grater cooperation on limiting nuclear proliferation.

82. Economic stimulus plan has created jobs. (Unemployment rate decreasing).

83. Drastically slowed down the recession.

84. Saved Wall Street.

85. Passed the Lilly Ledbetter Act (equal work for equal pay).

86. HEALTHCARE REFORM.

87. Forced the arrogant General Stanley McChrystal to resign and replaced him with the more competent General David Petraeus.

88. Ended the Iraq war that Bush got us into like he promised and formulated a plan to keep an eye on things there with 50,000 troops.

By the way, the recession ended in June 2009. I'm sorry to the job situation didn't improve overnight, but he stated that it would take awhile. John Boehner and Mitch McConnell aren't helping matters; neither are Sarah Palin, Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh, or any of those Tea Partiers.

Once again, this is a lot to accomplish in such a short amount of time. He was elected President, he wasn't elected Jesus.

BP and it's history...Dan Lawn Profile

2010-06-09T13:52:00.003-04:00

Bp's history of egregious atrocities against nature and free nation's economies goes all the back the the freaking Exxon Valdez. Bp was actually in charge of the safety of the drilling site/pipeline of the Valdez. There was one engineer that attempted to expose them prior to the spill to no avail.

An environmental engineer who worked on design and construction of the Valdez Marine Terminal, Dan Lawn joined the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation as one of the first inspectors of terminal and tanker operations. He was the first regulator notified the night the Exxon Valdez ran aground on Bligh Reef. For over ten years before the spill, Dan documented the failures of the oil industry to prevent spills and to adequately prepare for clean-ups, and warned the state about the potential for a major disaster in Prince William Sound.

For his efforts, Dan was harassed, intimidated, and wrongfully demoted by the state. Finally, in December 1996, he won a decision from Alaska's Supreme Court ordering ADEC to reinstate him to his former duties overseeing the Valdez Marine Terminal. He is now represents ADEC at the Joint Pipeline Office's Valdez office.

-Dan Lawn -

Recovery Act is Working...

2010-02-16T22:28:00.003-05:00

...Contrary to popular belief the Obama plan is working, but if you've been watching the news you already know that the rate of jobs lost per month has dropped dramatically (800,000 per month at the end of Bush era and now somewhere around 60,000 per month.) Bailing out banks allowed multiple billion dollar corporations to not collapse. It's nice to see a graphic with the shrinking job loss numbers.

"Fly on the Wall" Healthcare conversation...

2010-02-16T21:03:00.006-05:00

So I had a conversation with someone that initially said that they didn't believe that a Public Option would be helpful and that a Physician's association would be best suited to make decisions for the masses. That the reformed Healthcare system should be modeled after the Veteran's Administration healthcare system and that stringent regulation of existing healthcare without opening the the geographic boundaries of Healthcare competition/coverage is the answer. I couldn't disagree more with most of that, but it does seem like, as for how we both view the current Healthcare system and what a working healthcare insurance industry would look like, we're on the same page. It seems like we're interested in a similar or the same destination, but are interested in two different sets of directions to get there. She would not give me permission to re-post what she said, but here are my two statements on the issue just to give a bit of a fly on the wall perspective on where HealthCare Insurance reform needs to go:

It seems like we agree, in essence, on 90% of our opinion on the current state of US health insurance system. The one thing that I'm more than willing to accept that maybe you aren't is that there's no "For Profit" insurance provider that will A.) Allow Doctors to determine needs without extreme pressure to do what the insurance companies want {Look at what they did with the attempting to roll back mammogram testing through a completely valid Medical Association} and B.) There's no "For Profit" Health Insurance company that will even attempt to run their company like the VA there's a high enough profit margin in it for them. Additionally even if doctors were to run the system there will be an organizational structure, probably with a profit agenda, that will look and operate like a health insurance company, just called something else.

Understanding these things is what informs me that a Public Option is really the only efficient way forward to keep private insurers honest, pop their overinflated profit margin balloon and balance the cost of MediCare which insures the oldest people in need of the most and most expensive health care. My major problem is that abortions, lip augmentation, Botox injection, breast implants and other completely elective procedures should not be covered under a "Public Option" and those things have been included previous Acts. With a Public Option broad interstate rights for Insurers only helps, because they won't be able to charge 3X the rate of the Public option and they'll be forced to find new ways to differentiate themselves. That could mean medical transportation or, membership to more exclusive exercise clubs, or heavy discounts on expensive, but fresh organic produce. It's just a better outcome.

(Cont'd)
Like I said I think we are in agreement on a lot of things. I just don't know that a board of physicians, that are used to getting paid hundreds of thousands if not millions per year in some cases and enjoy "Rock Star" social status are the best group of people to put in charge of health care in the U.S. They have all kinds of reasons to make all kinds of decisions that aren't necessarily always in the best interest of patient care and we already see that happening now. Just as importantly again, organization of an AMA sponsored Healthcare system is going to look like insurance AND in all likelyhood would be outsourced to the same former private insurance companies that are leeching millions of people every year now. Hospitals that are run by Physician's associations locally in many areas where I live have already had management service reigns handed over to "For Profit" entities creating the same kinds of problems that existed before and worse so there's no reason for me to believe that that's not how a national medical association would handle ownership of national health care insurance.

I would prefer to roll the dice with smart people that get paid well, but still live in the real world receiving the same benefits for themselves and their families mediating some portion of the decision making. From my standpoint having a Public Option introduces all of the regulation that's necessary. For private insurers the only mandate they could have is to provide health care that people don't feel cheated by or whither away which is radically different from current mandate of "Take as much as you can."

What no one is saying about Healthcare...

2009-09-15T20:34:00.005-04:00

...Ok so occasionally I break from the norm of adding materials supporting the projects I working on to express an opinion or show something I think is interesting. This is one of those times and harsh words are used.
BE WARNED!

Just as a primer on the Health Care component of this check out the map below and compare the total per capita cost of health care pending in the US versus ANY other country on the map:
CNN Comparison Map

You might also want to compare governmental investment in Health Care in all these places and make the correlation between that and the cost of health care in the world and it's pretty clear to see what's going on as far as overpriced health care in the US.
_______________________________________________
In order to get into this I'm going to have to layout some background information just because I've found that a lot of people really just have no clue about what's going on as afar as the breakdown of the national budget. If you already know this stuff you can easily skim the info and move on.
(There's a movie link at the bottom which is a first hand interview of an American living the Czech Republic and his experience with healthcare originally posted online from another artist )

Disclaimer: Okay, part of the YouTube user's name is pothead so, many may feel like the info he dispenses is of questionable value...which would be understandable. He also calls the procedure he had an UltraSound which is clearly not right since those are mostly used to look at unborn babies. What he had was probably a lipotripsy. BUT there is still some good general information to glean from this.

First...this is definitely a conversation about the national budget as much as it is about the US health care system and we're talking about TRILLIONS of dollars. Generally, I've found that many people tend to believe that programs like National Welfare absorb significant portions of the budget.

FACT: Welfare accounts for about .00016% of the national budget.

Conversely, I've also found that a lot of people have, for whatever reason, decided that a number of other "Wasteful" expenditures which they generally can't name are responsible for our Ginormous budgets and national debt.

FACT: Social Security is BY FAR the largest budget item on the US budget list. Social Security accounts for 50%-60% national budget and probably 70% of the national debt. National Security is between 12%-18% of the national budget the last time I checked. MediCare/MedicAid is responsible for something like 80% of the Social Security bill.

I posted all of that just to basically try to start to put things into perspective. Most people will immediately say "What the Hell?" How did MediCare/MedicAid get so big in the first place...and more importantly what exactly is MediCare/MedicAid?

MediCare/MedicAid is U.S. sponsored health insurance for citizens over the age of 65. In other words it's health insurance for medical patients that require the most medical care and the most expensive medical care. Some people might even have the obtuse opinion that states something like this "Cut those old frickers loose, They're holdin us back!" There are some elected officials whose opinions are fairly close to that, but I'll dig deeper on that a little further down. The reason why it's critical to get Social Security fixed NOW is because the Baby Boomer generation, the largest age group in the country, are about to collectively turn 65 over the next couple of years. Even with the smaller age groups up to this point Social Security has brought the U.S. economy to it's knees. If something doesn't change the U.S. will come out on the other side of "Baby Boomer" MediCare FUBAR'd (fucked up beyond all recognition) We really shouldn't want to be in that position.

Here's the thing many democratic government officials are thinking but won't say...health insurance is pretty profitable if you don't have to cover old people which is where private Health Insurance has taken up exclusive residency at this point. The idea is that if the government can get elders out of the Medicare system that make a $250,000 plus per year that can easily afford their own private insurance, add some younger healthier people that require less care and bring some more profitability to government health care insurance roles and cut out out some ineffective medical policies that cost tons of dough without producing tons of results they can resolve the looming Social Security Budget Crisis by making government health insurance solvent. By introducing a public option they can bring down the cost of private health insurance/health care by creating a health care insurance company that operates WAY BELOW the 300%-1000% profit margins that private insurance companies enjoy now. A public option would also allow the government to hold the health care industry accountable for success and failure rates and use that as additional leverage in negotiating better pricing (at least for those in the government plan which would be a lot.) Private insurers will be forced to cut their profit margins and aggressively negotiate for lower medical costs instead of just cutting services/options for insurance holders.

So one thing you might ask is "This makes perfectly obvious sense what's everybody screaming about?" As promised earlier I said that some people might have the obtuse opinion that states something like this "Cut those old frickers loose, They're holdin us back!" and that there were some elected officials whose opinions are fairly close to that right? Well here it is, Republicans basically have no interest in making the current MediCare/MedicAid system solvent, they want to blow it up and push all elderly citizens into the private health insurance sector. They want to provide vouchers which represent a fraction of medical care expenses that would be covered by MediCare/MedicAid. With the way private insurers operate this is the way you want to go if you want to reduce the U.S. population QUICKLY. If you want to hear about massive deaths and genocide conspiracy theories for the next 50 years because of something like this voucher plan than it's the way to go. Republicans have been trying to destroy MediCare and MedicAid for YEARS. You might ask "Well, the Republicans had the presidency, the House and the Congress majority for the better part of 8 years why didn't they do this then?" The simple answer is that self-preservation rules strongly in all of these parties. Destroying MediCare/MedicAid years ago would have destroyed many republicans political careers, so they are content to try to do this while the seated president is a Democrat so that they can eventually shift blame. If this isn't the first bill that's voted on and it lasts until the next election and Republicans loose more seats, or Massachusetts seats an interim congress person before the next actual election it could be a moot point and the the new Health Care plan could get pushed through without any Republican support.

My personal feeling on this is that the Obama administration needs to keep pushing this, BUT again start the rumbling of a smaller bill that would allow the legal import of Canadian prescription medications sooner. I think he should have pushed this first, because it would have easily made it through the voting process and it probably could roll through just as easily now as well. Legalizing cheaper meds from Canada would have an immediate positive impact on those that need them and it would give all concerned a segue into actually researching a "Single Payer" government run health care system and it's benefits. Personally, I could care less about the "Public Option" eventually possibly turning into a single payer system even though I don't think it will happen as long as private health insurance companies run their businesses honeslty. Legalizing Marijuana FOR MEDICINAL PURPOSES ONLY is also something that could possibly help win the Health insurance battle, most Doctor's agree that for a couple of conditions it's proven to be the most effective pain reliever available and going State by State creates more problems than it solves.

Right now most people are disgusted with the way health insurance works and their ever shrinking options with insurance that they pay copious amounts of money for and it's just a hot button topic. Unless some very clear improvements are delivered quickly many will assume that it will only make things worse. It's unfortunate that a lot of people either don't remember or choose to ignore how much better health insurance was before the Bush administration was installed.

American Living in Czech Republic Video

Small steps...

2009-08-10T11:46:00.004-04:00

In an effort to keep things moving along...

2009-05-27T00:14:00.003-04:00

While not related to Nommo or the Gliese 581 project this is a creative endeavor. I was messing around with so graphic design ideas that really have intrigued me for a while and came up with this.

Hard times...

2009-03-28T22:16:00.002-04:00

I saw this post reposted on another website I frequent and I think it's good to have it here, for myself as well as those that stop through here. [Granted things area little different for minorities, BUT there's still A LOT of valid info here for everyone that takes on the concept of "Deferred Gratification" as a real part of their day to day lives]

(originally from conceptart.org)

Jason Manley

-----

first, you are not trapped in your situation. You can get out of any situation you want if you are willing to take the pain of doing all the things you dont want to do..the long hard way. The fruitful way.

At seventeen I was homeless and orphaned, taking care of my fourteen year old brother who I somehow managed to keep in school. I had dropped out of school. I did two years of wasting time eventually trying to get my head on straight. At nineteen I was homeless again. Scraped together enough money to get my ass to arizona to study art. Got a temp apt to get me through to the end of the month and took a job at subway (applied all over til I found something). The subway job paid enough money to sometimes eat and pay my small studio rental. I went back to school to get my graduation and was working full time (thought I needed to graduate from HS to get into a good college). Trust me...it was fucking painful. I transferred to a community college the following year and slowly got better and better jobs. Worked telemarketing fundraising to afford a 1977 datsun and art supplies. Shittiest job ever but paid double what subway did. Worked three jobs during the summer to get caught up including going to alaska to work the salmon docks across the country. I did not give a shit what it was, if it paid for my goals to be met and didnt involve anything illegal, I did it.

As time went on I realized I needed to arrange my priorities again. I took a night time job so I could exhaust all my energies in my art and studies. Eventually got a job at AT&T...Att this is Jason how may I help you?...I was still far behind those who had life handed to them their whole life. However, I was catching up. In time I realized it was not a chase against others but to only my own race to my goals. Kept the nose down. Chose friends who worked on art or learning always. Ignored the time wasting folk who never will amount to anything other than regular. Grew up around enough of those to realize the difference. After three and a half years I took my first art job and quit my shit job...have lived with and from art ever since.

By the time I was 29 I had achieved every goal I had reached for when I first set out. That is when I realized it was time to set new goals...each time this happens it feels like starting over...get something done..start again...in time your life becomes what you want it to be. Even those of money have to do this if their life involves learning, skill, and growth. It is not money that holds people back...is just their own mind.

The hard part about certain situations is not everyone is told they can do and reach their goals if they just work their ass off starting RIGHT NOW. Some know it and wont work for whatever reason. They listen to that voice that says I want to chill and watch tv or i dont feel like it. Others have addictions or mental issues keeping them from growing and learning. I didnt want to be any of that. I wanted to do cool stuff...to have an interesting life...and to work in a creative way.

Hard manual labor growing up taught me that my mind would rot if I chose that kind of path. I wanted something to use my mind. Bored if not...and with boredom comes making trouble or distraction. Gotta turn that into work ethic...no choice. Carl Dobsky was telling me this about the atelier every day. It has to be just uncomfortable enough to make the coolest thing to do be art. If there is a blaring tv or anything else, than there are other options. Options that keep one from not working to reach their goals.

Complacency is the womb of mediocrity. You clearly are not complacent. So do something about it in every free second of your day. All this wandering around doing not a whole lot but thinking isn't getting you much done. It is however, giving you a taste of life many others would never have the guts to explore. Just dont stay down there too long without coming up for air.

Good luck,

Jason

Another small update...

2008-12-08T13:39:00.002-05:00

This is Myurene, a Golden Jackal anthro, designed by one of my co-managers in the studio. It's coming along nicely, but this will probably be the last WIP posted publicly for a while anyway.

Small Update

2008-12-03T12:03:00.004-05:00

This character is a Gemsbok Oryx anthropomorphic character (Yes - the Nommo Universe and this Gliese 581 c/d Universe will most definitely converge...)

Nothing special today

2008-11-07T00:25:00.002-05:00

2008-07-29T01:44:00.001-04:00

Almost ready for UV mapping and detailing in ZBrush.

Latest WIP (work in progress)

2008-07-28T10:56:00.008-04:00

Probably one of the most gratifying projects I've ever been a part of is starting this illustration studio. We're not completely off and running, but we're definitely getting there.

My latest work in progress is a character named Moses: (This story will tie in nicely with the Nommo stories.)

[Look Below]

Crazy thing called Life...

2008-03-11T12:52:00.002-04:00

Lots of crazy things personally, professionally, and health wise have created the maelstrom from which I've been operating the last couple of months. I've neglected calls that should have been made BUT it feels like I may have righted the ship, turned the tide (and whatever other cheesy phrase you could insert here. Hopefully things will be normalizing soon and I apologize to those I haven't gotten too. The image here is for Nommo, it's a another test rendering of the Orisha/Jinn/Spirit Watchers with some minor alterations. Updating should hopefully be more frequent from now on.

Deep Blue...

2008-02-17T03:27:00.002-05:00

This is primarily just a stress test for rendering full scenes for Nommo.

Dedicated to the McNabb haters in Philly...

2008-02-06T13:33:00.001-05:00

...OK, this is an interruption of your regularly scheduled programming

This is a blog for my Nommo project, but the aggravation in me has been growing all season long. I have to get it out. I'm sick of the racists in Philly that hate McNabb. I saw the same identical build up of racism leveled against a Black quarterback fueled by the media in Philly before and that quarterback's name was Randall Cunningham...another quarterback headed to the fame.

Words of a fan on Randall Cunningham
David Kowalski

"Randall Cunningham is hands down a Hall of Famer, maybe not this year but in the next couple here are the reasons why, Randall has better stats than HOF Joe Nameth, in Cunninghams 16 year career he has a comp. pct. of 56.6, 29,979 yards, 207/134 TD/INT, and thats just passing, running he has 4928 yards and 35 TDS, not to mention when the Eagles called on him to punt, he did it well. Now you may say that those stats alone don't get him in but he is a 3 time MVP, Only Unitas, Favre, Jim Brown, and Y.A. Tittle have won 3 NFL MVP awards, Montana only won 2 NFL MVP, all in the hall or on there way. Now you say that most of them have a ring, but what Randall lacked in rings he brought with other things. Cunningham was a pioner for the Dual Threat quarterback, so now players like Vick and McNabb can thank him for that, but not only that Cunningham was a very successful quarterback when black quarterbacks were not given a chance. For all of this I believe he should get his bid into the hall."

Words from the PRESIDENT OF FOOTBALL OPERATIONS for the Eagles.
Joe Banner

"I can't envision a situation in which [McNabb] is not our quarterback next year,"

"We are talking about a quarterback who went to four straight [NFC] championship games. There are only four quarterbacks in the history of the league that have done that. You are talking about a quarterback who has had a higher winning percentage in his first seven years in the league than Peyton Manning. You are talking about a quarterback that has one of the highest quarterback ratings over the first seven seasons, one of the best TD-to-interceptions ratios of any quarterback in the history of this game in his first seven seasons in the league. . .

"My expectation, and I can't really even picture a different scenario, is that he'll be the quarterback."

Donovan McNabb will more likely than not be the Eagles starting quarterback until he decides it's time to hang up the cleats and he will probably win a few Superbowls in the process, so just think about how long Elway was in Denver...That's probably how long Donovan will be with the Eagles. Deal with it however you like. It's sickening, for me anyway, to feel like I have to defend a young eventual Hall of Fame quarterback, because more than a few people want to judge the quarterback on things other than stats, but don't want to admit it.

Thinking Beast Experiment

2008-02-03T00:48:00.000-05:00

(Final) Digital sculpting on Computers is a Godsend for technically minded artists/filmmakers. I primarily use Maya, modo, ZBrush on OS X and have worked in Linux, but am not a huge fan.

(Update)

After a good hiatus, much needed funds for real life, I may be back to Nommo:NSR, but I have quite a few irons in the fire.

Another Sekmet image

2007-11-21T10:51:00.000-05:00

Above[edit] is a another image of the WindCurrent Sekmet, one of the 3D ships I'm building for the Nommo Project. I completely forgot that I had this image rendered and was a little further completed here too.

First Female Cloud Soldier WIP

2007-11-13T14:36:00.000-05:00

Yeah, women can be Cloud Soldiers too! I was able to get a kind soul to photograph herself for me to use as reference for my next cloud soldier design and this is where I am so far.

First Cloud Soldier

2007-09-19T21:13:00.000-04:00

This image is my first Cloud Soldier sculpt. I remember testing out the modo renderer and having a rough go at getting the glass transparent, because of the way the shader tree was set up, but this was my first successful and I'll definitely be redesigning the goggles since they a little too much like "Rock Star" shades for me, but I really like the quality of modo's Global Illumination rendering.

In terms of my general process for the material for this project I really don't do a lot in terms of sketching for these sculpts -characters or vehicles- as it allows me more freedom in the design process. In terms of Influences and inspiration it's largely a blend of a lot of research on a African Tribal arts, clothing, costume, Comic book mythology and animal structure/anatomy.

Orisha/Jinns in the House!

2007-09-19T20:56:00.000-04:00

This is actually an Orisha/Jinn that is essentially a Spirit Watcher and one of many different Orishas observing the events of the "New Stories of RA!" This particular Orisha is based on the Satyr and I actually am finding information that places the origin of the Satyr mythos in Ethiopia. Initially this was a design for an illustrator, but he didn't like this one, so it left me with a sculpted, but unused character. I hadn't really done any Orisha for my project, but since they are nature and animal oriented I wanted fantastical Anthromorphic like creatures. The Physical make-up of this Satyr fit what I was looking for, but it being part of Greek Mythology to begin with was a problem since I have set the Nommo stories within African/Egyptian mythology, so it was a Godsend that in doing some basic research on Satyrs that I didn't mention much about the Celestial watchers that will be an important part of the trailer in the synopsis , but their role is more secondary.

NOMMO: New Stories of RA! : Synopsis

Productive Upswing!!

2007-09-19T08:05:00.000-04:00

I'm finally on a nice little productive upswing and I'm able to sustain that for more than a week. Work is slow-going, but that's just the nature of the "Thinking Beast." (corny joke I know.) I've been bouncing around modeling characters, many of which aren't finished, but I'm ecstatic to have them as far done as they are now. This is the most recent Nigerian Cloud Soldier model/sculpt I've been working on.

Wires for my first Cloud Soldier:

Detail Shot:

FINALLY an update!

2006-07-06T12:02:00.000-04:00

Won't say much here other than it's taken me a while to get out of the funk I was in right around Christmas, due to family medical emergencies. But things are back on the move again with the NOMMO project. Below are WIP images of of the WindCurrent Sekmet. I'm beginning to view it as the "Millenium Falcon" of the NOMMO Universe. For the few who still stop through here don't hesitate to say hey and let me know what you think of the WC Sekmet.

Character Rigging and Skinning

2005-09-25T21:28:00.000-04:00

Character rigging and skinning is the process of building a "Control Skeleton", like a puppet rig, for a 3D sculpted character. Above is an image of my Centurion character with the control Skeleton (Rig) almost completely visible. The process of connecting the 3D mesh to the skeleton is skinning and building the skeleton to match the character and the complex set of relationships that become the controllers or the control system of the skeleton is rigging. Fortunately my first experience with character rigging and animation was my first Maya class taken at CADA. Susanne Taaffee's Maya 1 class "Trial by Fire: Intermediate Character Rigging." Character rigging is tedious and was overwhelming when I was first exposed to it in that class, but over the two years before taking Dan Visloski's Character Rigging class I really worked rigging concepts enough to really have a handle on it and was able to really glean all of the information from the advanced rigging classes necessary to feel competant in rigging just about anything I want to.

Rigging Image LARGE

Logo Design

2005-09-25T20:31:00.000-04:00

NOMMO: "Word Magic"
New Story of RA

This is my official logo for the project. Ultimately I chose the typeface and design because it is reminiscent of typefaces used for Greek stories and easily relays to most people the idea of expressing mythos through story. Since Egyptian mythology as well as all other African mythologies pre-date and heavily influenced the development of Greek mythology I felt it was extremely appropriate. In the future I will redesign the logo, modestly, to include technological elements that are also representative of this story.

Link:
Link to Larger Image

Influences: The Thinking Beast

2005-09-25T16:44:00.000-04:00

I am very story/purpose oriented so conceptually, with all of my creations, I have a fairly clear idea of what I'm looking for early on because every character or creature or environment or architectual structure has a clear purpose or place and set of emotions I intend for them to carry in a given story. Once I have the story nailed down I begin to find ""loose" image references or sketch, or commission another artist to sketch images of the character(s) which I model from, regardless of where the reference images come from I can have as much or as little freedom in the modeling phase as I choose. In more than a few cases I've found it useful to use modeling applications without reference as an effective brainstorming/sketch tool as is the case with the "Thinking Beast" and my Centurion.

The "Thinking Beast" is a character/creature that I felt I definitely needed in my story. No sci-fi fantasy film is complete without a huge imposing quadraped. The main difference between most huge creatures, as depicted in film, and "Thinking Beast" first can be distinguished first from the character's name; as the name would suggest these creatures have as many complex thoughts as any man intelligent man would. In keeping with with Egyptian Mythos that character is a mix of animal and human/Sphinx-like elements and also falls squarely between the ethereal an corporeal realms. The beast is "Ghostly" white because it represents that rarity and mythical element that has been recognized by so many cultures and traditions throughout history in story. Most of my characters are not replicas of the original Egyptian pantheon deities, because these are "The New Stories of RA." The following images are random images that influenced the 3D design of the "Thinking Beast."

The "Thinking Beast" was modeled, rigged, and skinned (enveloped is the XSI terminology) in Softimage:XSI. I later exported the geometry for tweaking in Maya and to re-rig and skin the character since I decided on primarily using Maya for the rest of my project.

Digital Sculpting: The Process...

2005-09-25T08:44:00.000-04:00

Using an image like this isn't the way I start all of my models, but it is the standard, accepted beginning of most 3D sculpted characters. Essentially images, drawn, photographed, or aquired from any other medium are used as "set" reference for multiple perspectives to aid in sculpting from all three dimensions {X, Y, Z}. The red lines represent continuity of the position of facial features from all three perspectives.(Gotta have your eye in the same spot regardless of angle of view, because it's still your same head.)

Even with the reference images, for three dimensional sculpt most of the information just isn't there, so it takes a considerable amount of patience, diligence, and a modicum of innate ability to fill in the gaps and move towards a 3D sculpt that looks like the original 2D image.

Fleshing things out...

2005-09-20T23:53:00.000-04:00

I really just noticed that while I've been working on developing this project and solutions to problems I would encounter for, going on, two years now I've not done an adequate job of "fleshing out" enough elements out for everything to fit together and make sense to someone who doesn't know me, my work, or this story. The rest of the posts will be about strictly putting 2 and 2 together so everything makes sense and in some cases I'll be reposting some images with descriptions that clearly define what or "who" they are in the story and what's going on in the image.

This character is a heroic "Good Guy" character and is part of a story steeped in the Mythology of ancient KMT/Egypt (Ra, Horus, Anubis, etc.) The story is also heavily influenced by post twentieth century science fiction storytelling, most notably Japanese anime/manga. The character is a statue (Birdlike/Dinosaurlike/Humanlike) "Imbued with Fantastic powers" by the avatar of Ra, who is the star of the story. Although this character isn't the star of the story he is the star of that particular scene, and that scene happens directly before the swarms descend on Ra. It's important, for me, to nail down the look and feel of how the creature should move here to establish the feeling of the scene as a whole moving into the climax of the trailer. At the beginning of the scene the creature is beaten down by the desert sun, but scouting ahead of a large military force to find a particular offender. He checks behind him to see how far back the military force is. He then, in the middle of the previous action, hears then sees a bird, or something, in the air that can clearly be associated with the particular offender he is pursuing and and goes into high-speed chase mode. The animation speed/motion blur/ shutter angle was deliberately stylized to maximize the dramatic impact of the scene. It is both a stylized effect as well as part of the way this particular creature moves. In the final project this will be a cut away shot from the main action and there will be a large army that follows after the scout in high pursuit and will jump off of the lower cliff after him onto the field of battle. He is pointing the direction of the offender out to the army near the end of the scene. Larger copies of both of these images have already been posted here and are readily accesible.

Help if you can.

2005-09-11T15:15:00.000-04:00

American Red Cross

The Egyptian Pantheon

2005-09-09T02:36:00.000-04:00

This is a brief visual look at the Mythical Deities of KMT (Ancient Egypt.) Given the long period of time the Mythology was developed over this does not represent a complete picture, but does give some idea about the Egyptian Pantheon. It is interesting that many scholars have always seemed to believe that the Egyptians were Polytheistic many other scholars believe that they were were monotheistic. I tend to believe the monotheistic theory primarily because of the research that supports the idea that the Egyptian Pantheon provided divine inspiration for the for the development of organized and civil society where all other Dieties had their own duties or tasks but were all subjects of RA, just as there were many subjects of KMT, but the Pharoah was the singular ruler. The downfall of the of Egyptian society really happened after one Pharoah decided that he wanted to be both the ruler of KMT and divine naming himself both Pharoah and RA which led to civil unrest and ultimately created weaknesses in the society that made it vulnerable to outside invaders. This is very much similar to way my story will develop.

from the website of "The Brish Museum"

Cheikh Anta Diop

2005-09-03T06:36:00.000-04:00

There are two major influential elements that inspired me to write and develop this story NOMMO: New story of RA.

1.) The idealized version of Egypt which has been realized over decades having billions spent to research, document and publicize Egypt commercially and non-commercially.

2.) The simultaneous discoveries made by Chiehk Anta Diop and Theophile Obenga that ultimately changed the face of the people of Egypt or what is now widely accepted as KMT{Kemet} - "Place of the Blacks" and reoriented the development of modern languages.

Diop discovered that the ancient Egyptians were in fact Black or Negroid, and Theophile Obenga discovered that contrary to popular belief, at the time of his discovery, Kemetic language developed independent of and actually predates Semitic languages.

For me, this means that Egypt, or KMT, has evolved into a much more interesting sand box where Egypt not only represents the origin of modern civilization, but it also exists squarely in the center of African culture, history and tradition which is significantly less researched and in many ways very mysterious and/or even esoteric in nature. All of the qualities of KMT lend themselves perfectly to epic story telling for Fanatasy/ Science Fiction.

more on Cheikh Anta Diop:

African Perspective-Quarterly Magazine:

"... In 1966, the First World Black Festival of Arts and Culture held in Dakar, Senegal honored Dr. Diop and Dr. W.E.B. Du Bois as the scholars who exerted the greatest influence on African thought in twentieth century. In 1974, a milestone occurred in the English-speaking world when the African Origin of Civilization: Myth or Reality was finally published. It was also in 1974 that Diop and Theophile Obenga collectively and soundly reaffirmed the African origin of Pharaonic Egyptian civilisation at a UNESCO sponsored symposium in Cairo, Egypt. In 1981, Diop's last major work, Civilization or Barbarism: An Authentic Anthropology was published.

Diop was not only an intellectual, he also had a past as a man of action who did not hesitate to embrace political militarism when he judged it necessary. It was in that regard that he published scathing and brilliant articles in "La Voix d'Afrique", a journal of students of the RDA (Rassemblement Democratique Africain). One of his articles appeared in February, 1932, and already he had put (at an epoch where most African parliamentarians opted for a policy of compromise - not to say betrayal) on the agenda the question of independence and the federation of the ex-colonies.

Throughout his life, Diop led a pathetic struggle so that Africa might at long last get rid of the claws of cultural alienation which had lasted far too long, so that they would again become masters of a history which they had not lost before colonialism. "Black nations and culture" was within the context of an intense ideological struggle opposing the most awakened and conscious elements, the most politically awakened of the African elites to the tenants of colonial order who, to be witnesses to its collapse, were nonetheless less solid and untouchable.

When he died on the 7th of February, 1986, Africa lost one of her illustrious sons, an exceptional African whose singular destiny and contributions were in tune with an Africa sometimes (promising), hopeful and some times despondent. While leaving us, he bequeathed to Africa a heritage of liberation without precedence: the knowledge of one's origin.

Here are some of Diop's major works that have been translated into English: The African Origin of Civilization, Myth Or Reality.

The book presents Dr. Diop's main thesis that historical, archaeological and anthropological evidence supports the theory that the civilization of ancient Egypt, the first that history records, was actually Negroid in origin. Pre colonial Black Africa.

In the book, Diop compares the political and social systems of Europe and black Africa from antiquity to the formation of modern states. Black Africa, The Economic and Cultural Basis for a Federated State.

In the book, the late Cheikh Anta Diop presents a dynamic and convincing argument for the creation of a unified black African state and there is an interview by Carlos Moore on Diop's vision of Africa's emergence as a major world power.

Civilization or Barbarism - An authentic Anthropology

This last work of Cheikh Anta Diop is a summation and expansion of his two previous volumes -Precolonial Black Africa (1987) and The African Origin of Civilization (1974) - offers a refined statement of his life's work, to prove the primacy of African culture by proving that ancient Egypt was a black society, first in many cultural achievements later claimed by the following Indo-Aryan cultures.

Dr. Diop was the Director of Radiocarbon Laboratory at the Fundamental Institute of Black Africa (IFAN) at the University of Dakar. He sat on numerous international scientific committees and achieved recognition as one of the leading historians, Egyptologists, linguists and anthropologists in the world. He traveled widely, lectured incessantly and was cited and quoted voluminously. He was regarded by many as the modern `Pharaoh' of African studies.

In 1987, the Dakar University was named University of Cheikh Anta Diop (UCAD) in recognition of his achievements. Dr. Diop was also member of UNESCO's Scientific Committee."

Impatient Render

2005-08-26T00:03:00.000-04:00

I've been working on modeling this head in modo like forever, got impatient and needed to do something somewhat creative with it as well as continue to test and learn the mental ray renderer. Still a lot of problems to work out, but I'm satisfied with the progress I am making..maybe.

"Impatient Render"

PreVisualization Animatic

2005-08-16T18:05:00.000-04:00

I'm not nearly as comfortable displaying this stuff as some of the other work I've posted recently. This is an animatic and screenshots from the animatic that lays broad strokes and begins to give an idea of what the pacing of the trailer will "feel" like. Missing are the cut away shots showing the closer look at the four armies approaching RA. I'll be posting a story synopsis for the trailer shortly.

Nommo: New Story of RA animatic v.1

That Didn't work out too well...

2005-08-16T13:51:00.000-04:00

Ok, well I'm going to add some more things, including animation clips. You'll have to email me at butch.arrington@nyu.edu to aquire the username and password for the animations.(sorry, no way around that just yet.)

CenturionAnimationLARGE

CenturionAnimationSMALL

The depth of Field effect, which theoretically blurs everything in front of and behind the subject of the image, can really only be seen in these larger renderings, it is pretty important to the readability of the scene, it begins to emulate a style connected to film and gives a "More real feel" to the whole thing. It's hard to explain, but hopefully you'll be be able to see what I mean from the images.

Image Plowing into My Sidebar again...

2005-08-16T12:30:00.000-04:00

I'm posting these images and journal entry to try to tidy up my Blog a bit and get that image from clashing. Essentially, this is a model that I already posted earlier, without some modifications and a completely different surface material. I'm posting both images, because I used it for a class assignement to combine CG materials with Real world footage. Let me know what think about the image in general and try to compare the two images.

Thanks,
Butch

My personal favorite.

Probably the better one.

Brief update!

2005-08-09T19:55:00.000-04:00

Long time no post here's a brief update: A test animation for this character is finished, I just have to find somewhere to store it so I can post it here and my overall story animatic; which are all coming soon.

Here's a test render of the centurion character with an altered color scheme, that changed for an event for the DeviantART "Yellow Day" events. Blue, red, and reflective white will be the color scheme in my thesis.

The Great Rift Valley?

2005-04-10T17:13:00.000-04:00

http://www.cotf.edu/ete/modules/rift/rvwhatisriftvalley.html

What Is the Rift Valley?

Africa's Great Rift Valley is a 6,000-mile crack (fissure) in the earth's crust, stretching from Lebanon to Mozambique. One of its most dramatic sections slices through East Africa, dividing Kenya into two segments. Geologists know that the Rift Valley was formed by violent subterranean forces that tore apart the earth's crust. These forces caused huge chunks of the crust to sink between parallel fault lines and force up molten rock in volcanic eruptions. Evidence that this process, called rifting, is still in progress comes from the many active and semi-active volcanoes, located along the Rift. Evidence of volcanic activity along the rift is provided by the presence of numerous boiling hot springs.

Why is the location important?

Partially, the location is important because the story is supposed to take place in Africa and from a story stand point it is important that RA have a "Last Showdown" as it were. John Kilner, the avatar, has spent a great deal of time forcibly occupying other countries and in a modern society not all that diiferent the current US New KMT has recieved a mixed image from the public/media of who John Kilner, the avatar of RA is. The African Military wants to show the public that it is capable of dethroning the tyrant and governing and a final showdown after a "Coup d' etat" is the all too familiar solution in Africa dating back to post-colonialism times. From an aesthetic standpoint the crowd movements over and through terrain presents the most visually striking solution.

The Story Synopsis

2005-04-04T12:23:00.000-04:00

Hopefully a couple of people are itching to know what the story is behind this "Nommo: New Story of RA" thing is, because there have only been disjointed bits and pieces up to this point. Here is an updated draft of my Thesis treatment that will hopefully pull all of the random pieces I've posted, so far, together. Feel free to ask any questions you'd like.

NOMMO ->“Word Magic”

{i n t r o}

Nommo is a West African term for “Word Magic” or "The Power of Words" and it is an important part of the title of my thesis project. The story is one based in the long lineage of fantasy/science-fiction storytelling, but with a twist. For me, it’s important to declare that it is a story of fiction, so that it is perceived as “A story being told” not just a sequence of fictitious events being given to an audience. I would like to establish the story as the beginning of a new kind of modern mythology that blends futuristic technology elements with elements of the ancient African cultural aesthetic. The premise of the story is the demise and redemption of John Kilner, the avatar of Ra. (Egyptian mythical God) Because this will be a CG short story/trailer, the challenges will be the amount character animation/ design/modeling that will be necessary and the creation and rendering of natural rural environments.

{concept}

The McGuffin - “A man with the power of God that began as a hero and became a villain choked out by his own villainy.”

The story "NOMMO: New Story of RA" takes place in the distant future of earth where the countries of Africa had united and become one powerful country in the world system, under RA. The transformation/reshaping of Africa took place as a direct result of the intervention of John Kilner (aka., The Avatar of RA.) As the Avatar of RA Kilner was only supposed to oversee and intervene as minimally as possible with the activities of the universe. Greed, lust and frustration with the "Order of Things" corrupted him and he abused the power he was given. The birth of New KMT was the result. (KMT ->Kemet -> “Place for the Blacks”/ "Black Land") KMT is the original name of Egypt and was adopted by the new United Africa. For some of the citizens of New KMT life was more than fair, but for most it was egregiously unfair. Disparity of justice and inequality under a tyrannical government lead to strife and civil unrest, which lead to a coup. Kilner falsely accused of a murder was stripped of his governmental position, hunted down and killed in a nameless ravine in South Africa. Carthegians lead by a descendent of Hannibal pursued, the Spartan Army of Zaire pursued, The Royal Marine Corp. of Johannesburg pursued, and the Elite cloud forces of Nigeria pursued. Kilner's end came after being surrounded in a valley by armies charging from peaks of the cliffs, mountains and plains surrounding the barren, desolate, sun beaten valley {ravine.} (The trailer is ultimately about laying out the "Chase Scene.") The Mountains and cliffs on one side were beige, like a desert with sparse foliage. The other side was green with dense foliage and many trees and in the distance were snow covered mountain peaks. RA was in the rift attempting to escape while others closed in from the outside. This area most resembles the Great Rift Valley in Africa today.

{m y m o t i v a t i o n}

The "Ra" fantasy/mythology story is one that I had developed fairly extensively three years ago. The developed story, for me, represents an amalgamated creative structure for me to continue to explore a couple of areas that I have always been intrigued by: ancient African history, culture and art, science fiction, fantasy and mythology. The “Ra” story was originally conceived as a novella/graphic novel, but can easily translate to a more cinematic presentation format. While "NOMMO: New Story of RA" is different from the RA stories some of the characters and the storyline follow the same path and there is quite a bit of back-story development for me to pick and choose from in the original fantasy/fiction stories. The new story takes place much further in the future and includes aliens from the farthest reaches of the universe as well as technologocally advanced or even enhanced humans.

Stylistically, I always intuitively lean towards “Clean Lines” and geometric pattern while wanting to do grunge work. The largest influence on me, in terms of overal design of "Look and Feel" of futuristic environments and specifically for this project is Syd Mead, a world renowned Cinema Set/Art Director. Syd Mead is most well known for doing most of the conceptual art and set design for the film “BladeRunner”, "Aliens", "TRON", "Short Circuit", "Solar Crisis", "Star Blazers: Yamato 2520" the animated series and "Gundam".

The Cloud Army Concept

2005-04-02T18:18:00.000-05:00

The cloud army concept is something that just kind of popped into my head at some point and many of the things I learned in my Particles and Dynamics course with Jean-Micheal Mistrot really filled in the gaps, as to whether I can realistically get the smoke effects I would want. Below are images of the Human Torch, because I can't really find any reference of of the same look using smoke gotta use the imagination God gave me. The idea of the look, for me, is to replace the flames with smoke, or "Clouds." The characters will appear "Hawkish", or short tempered. They will be flying feverishly towards the center of the terrain area and swarming roughly in the shape of a sphere. It will look like a cross between a moving bee swarm shaped as a sphere and an atom with positive and negative charges speeding around it.

Attire:
Different variations of long draping leather-like costumes, partial armor plating, primarily white with red accents, "Pilot" goggles, "Spitfire" bomber style leather pilot helmets.

(Image Below is by Skottie Young)
"Human Torch" is © Marvel Comics group ® All rights reserved

(Image Below is of stutue Sculpted by Thomas Kuntz/ Bowen Designs)
"Human Torch" is © Marvel Comics group ® All rights reserved

"The Messenger"

2005-04-01T14:36:00.000-05:00

This is John "The Bike Messenger." He's a computer/graphic art/ Traditional art guy that I used to shoot the breeze with at my beloved Empryean Cafe, which is now closed. John likes some of the fantasy and sci-fi stuff out there, loved the idea of being turned into a 3D character, so he'll probably get a kick out being the leading general of my cloud army.

The Bouncing Stilt Walker Concept

2005-04-01T12:52:00.000-05:00

The majority of the visual "Weight" in my piece is coming from four armies converging to one spot. Since I will have cutaway shots getting closer into the armies I can really open things up a bit and make the armies and their movement/design more dynamic. I decided to make all four of the armies very different. The bouncing stilt idea came from seeing performers on bouncing stilts at the grand opening of the World Class Kimmel Music and Theatre center in Philadelphia. The dynamic bouncing movement that these stilts lend themselves to idea of "Acrobatic Super Soldier" very well and will add believability to the kind of movement I want. These things are real and there are many types and variations. Right now, my designs will more closely follow the Poweriser design. Below are images that hopefully will describe what I mean in a more clear way.

PoweRisers
http://www.poweriser.net

Bionic Boots
http://pages.zoom.co.uk/bionicboots/

SpringWalker
http://www.springwalker.com/

Nuts and Bolts

2005-03-29T14:10:00.000-05:00

At this stage of my project there are really two areas, being evaluated against the reference artists' work that I am focussing on to establish the tone of the film:

-Poses and gestures

There are certain gestures or posture that
uniquely identify characters, particularly modern
myth characters, like Superman or Spiderman,
even if they are only seen in silhouette. This
includes body poses, face poses and original character design.
It's my intention to depict, clearly and visually, that this is a story about Heroes and Villains.

-Properties(all props.), texture, Color Palette

Ideally I will have figured out, fairly soon, a set of rules or a theme
for these interconnected elements. Right now, I am thinking to
primarily work in shades of a muted slate blue, and muted red,
and shades of grey. Having green trees and forrestry "Pop-out"
from that should be visually interesting. Also, possibly tinting with
a virtual neutral density, or slate blue filter at the end, may help blend everything.

(Image Below is by Leinil Yu)
"Superman Birthright" is © DC Comics group ® All rights reserved

Blackmale photos of a Troll.

2005-03-26T14:50:00.000-05:00

Flikr's a pain in the A$$. I like the idea of being able to have a seperate image posting service from my Blog, but Flikr makes it difficult to find just the html code that points to where the picure is. Instead, it's much easier to find their "Blog this" button which creates a seperate Blog entry for every single stinkin photo and , but of course they add a nice little hotlink to that takes people to the Flikr website so they can peddle their services. I personally think this process is retarded...if you didn't pick that up already and am still trying to figure out how I got the code for the first images I posted.

Anyway the pictures below are of Lauryn Smith, a classmate of mine at NYU: CADA. The images are being used as reference to build another character fo my thesis project. I joked to Lauryn and said that I was going to make her a troll, she insisted that she would better fit the roll of a "Sexy Elf Chick" (Index Fingers pointed up and around her ear area "Blinking", I was appalled by her vanity and reiterated that she would be a troll. After some consideration I won't make Lauryn a troll, I do however think I can model a character from the photos of her that will make a pretty cool field general for my bouncing stilt-walker army.

Still not quite enough.

2005-03-04T00:51:00.000-05:00

I will add a journal entry here though.

My younger sister was home this week on break and so I'm allowing myself some "time off" of my thesis. She wanted to rent movies, at the beginning of the week, which is always great for me to do personally and professionally. We rented "The Grudge", "She Hate Me", "Saw" and "Girl With a Pearl Earing."

"The Grudge" was decent, by the end, but a lot like "The Ring"; I only saw the Japanese version.

"She Hate Me" was the best shot Spike Lee film I've ever seen, but conversely almost the worse story only second to "Girl 6."
The thing that sucked the worse about the film is that it starts off making you believe that it is brilliantly structured satire that comments on the current state of human greed, averice, and malice in government and corporate subculture only to belittle itself as a bizarre circus sideshow where the embattled star of the film becomes the soulmate of two lesbian women and their two collective children. WTF!?!

"Saw" was decent, but too predictable, Definitely nowhere near 7even. I didnt even hear about the movie until it was almost out of the theatres, but all that I'd read at that point said that it was overrated when compared to Seven, so I assumed that was wht all the early reviews compared it to.

"Girl with a Pearl Earing" was by far the best movie of the group and even that film had gaps that weren't filled either by poor direction, poor screenplay condensing of the novel, or just bad choices made by the original novelist. A lot of those things showed themselves when watching the "Behind The Scenes Featurette" on the DVD. The interviews layed some things out that should have been told visually that never were. Overall though it was better than average and Scarlett Johanson was gorgeous.

I am also going to check out the new "Dali" exhibit at the Philadelphia Art Museum with my sisters, if we can get tickets and we'll also be checking out the Egypt Gallery at the University of Penn. Museum, which is permanent. Visiting museums is something that I always secretly wanted to do, but was always "Too Cool", or too busy "Dealing with Real Life" to be frivolously visiting museums. However, now, that I almost consider myself an artist I feel justified in going. (Note: Children this is not a justifiable way of doing things, if you genuinely want to do something that there's nothing wrong with doing that don't let superficial obstacles get in the way.) Interestingly enough it took a rather unsettling experience at an artists' gallery for me to actually begin to view myself as an artist. I'll put that in the next Blog entry though.

Gotta move the images down and out of the way of the sidebar.

2005-03-03T20:42:00.000-05:00

Technology is never perfect.

My first 3 modelled characters, almost COMPLETE

2005-03-03T20:33:00.000-05:00

I'm finally getting the hang of Flikr, an image posting service that allows me to sore my images online, but also forward them to this blog to be viewed online.

Sexism and Racism in Contemporary Fantasy Art.

2005-01-28T11:01:00.000-05:00

As I'm looking through reference material and rediscovering some art that I've seen in the past and admired, but didn't know the names of the artists of I am beginning to see certain elements of the artist's body of work and Fantasy art as a genre that concerns me. Namely, work that falls into the same category as Frank Frazetta, and Simon Bisely's work. While I would not would not be foolish enough, as a man, to say something as stupid as " I abhor the sight of voluptuous nude women." I do have two sisters and feel like a lot of the work within the fantasy genre is offensive to them. I intend on having more than one female character and am wrestling on how to depict them. FEEDBACK WOULD BE GREAT HERE. The female characters won't all be weak and in need of saving so then there is the idea of how to physically depict them. I would like to have an erotic elemen, if only for appeal, but I want to find some middle ground between an asexual "Butch" female and a gyrating "Music video girl."

A good sampling of Fantasy art:

Frazetta Gallery

Fantasy Gallery dot net

Still organizing

2005-01-24T21:19:00.000-05:00

I'm still organizing and keep finding new images that are relevent to the work. I will take some time to post images some of my stuff up to this point. I probably, will have to use a variety web image posting services since Blogger doesn't support image posting directly, so once some images start going up some may/ or may not erretically be available and unavailable, but I'll have to see how it works out.

Travis Charest

2005-01-22T16:10:00.000-05:00

Travis Charest's artistic style and depiction of character in a particular context is THE major influence on the aesthetic of my sci-fi/fantasy work right now. Travis Charest is one of the few comic book illustrators that has re-established the look of traditonal art styles prior to the "Comic Book" art style era in popular books published now. Charest's work seems influenced mostly by Greek/Italian/renaissance period art.

Joe Mad!

2005-01-22T13:51:00.000-05:00

Joe Madureira's art is one the many artistic influences on my work. I'm still organizing my refernce art and am really trying to whittle down my selection to something manageable and also create an aesthic paradigm for my project which combines sci-fi/ high technology and ancient myth-based fantasy. Joe Mad and Travis Charest, both illustrators primarily for comic books and graphic novels, are my main influences for tastefully blending lots of elements. So, primarily that's what I'm doing today while sorting through all these reference images.

Organizing

2005-01-19T11:00:00.000-05:00

Current Favorites:
two songs: "Ghetto Rock" - Mos Def, "Big Weenie" - Eminem
two movies: "House of Flying Daggers", "Kinsey"

While I have some characters and a basic animatic already built I need to take time to organize my reference materials to streamline my modeling and texturing workflow. Unfortunately, all of my material is scattered all over my computers. I hate to do product plugs, but I just got and started using Extensis Portfolio 7 and it really is awesome at helping to organize lots of images quickly.

NOMMO the movie

2005-01-19T09:18:00.000-05:00

This is my first entry for my thesis journal. I am testing the blog thing to see if it will allow me to journal my progress in a convenient, effective and finished way. It will be ideal to be able to edit and publish this from anywhere since I move around so much, primarirly between Philadelphia and New York daily. If you didn't know already I'm Butch Arrington, currently a grad. student at NYU. I am a Master's candidate in NYU's Center for Advanced Digital Applications otherwise known as CADA. "Nommo" is the tentative title for my thesis project and the film teaser trailer of a movie I would like to produce VERY SOON! "Nommo" is a West African term that roughly means "Word Magic" and it is very often used in reference to idea of weaving, or crafting stories orally by a person like a griot. A very important element of my film concept is the idea that the story itself is a story that is like mythology being passed down from generation to generation. The opening of the story includes a father telling one of the many "modern" stories of RA to his son.