Apple TV

I was lucky enough to receive an Apple TV recently as a gift. It’s one of those pieces of tech I’ve been pretty curious about but even with the lower price it got not too long ago, it’s hasn’t been exactly on my list of «must haves». I should say, it still isn’t but it is a lot more useful than I would have guessed. The basic concept for those of you who aren't aware, is to get content from the computer or online (or with Apple, your ipod or ipad) easily on to the TV screen.

The good:
Really works well, fast and has a nice interface. Takes nothing to install it and gives you access to Netflix, I-tunes rentals etc. I find I-tunes rentals far too costly for what you are getting but it’s available. The new «airplay» feature on iOS devices is pretty cool. A great way to show stuff on the TV without having to make a DVD or some other time consuming method.

The bad:
Missing the ability to browse the internet is a ridiculous omission in my opinion. Even many new TV sets can do it. If Apple wants people to use their device over anything else, it will need one. Apps are apparently coming for the device and that’s a good thing, it will give it more functionality and will personalize the device according to the needs of the user. «Airplay» is lacking a few features it really needs to succeed in a big way. Many apps show TV shows (such as tou.tv here in Québec) would profit from being able to use this feature. As of now, only the sound is transferred over, not very helpful. It would be amazing if you could see your game on the ipod/ipad on the tv but I’ve been told there are certain technical problems that make that difficult to accomplish. Still.. it’s something that would turn Apple TV into something much more than a «hobby» for Apple overnight.

Huge site update!

Behemothmedia.com has had a major update. Mostly it's a simplification of the site, making it much more a portfolio page and less and information source of what's going on... that's what the blog is for! I also decided to host videos and photos off site as much as possible. I just saves time and resources and always for more flexibility.

I am sure it won't please everyone... it already hasn't in fact, but overall it's a step in the right direction I think. The point is to give potential clients a look at my work and that's what it does.

Not sure I'll keep that photo on the front page. I do believe that most people like to "see" who they might be hiring, but that photo I'm not so sure about.

now available at Amazon.com

My film "50 years" the story of the relationship between Ralph Hodgdon and Paul McMahon (which is now well over 50 years) is for sale at Amazon!

the direct link

Please consider buying a copy and encouraging people who may like the film to do the same.

For those of you who thinks this means "I've made it"... think again. It's great thing to have happen, but my take of the sales is very small, I'd have to sell 500 a year to make what many people consider to be a below the poverty line salary. So I still need to to find new work and new clients to makes ends meet.

Amazon now has a service for artists that lets them sell music, video and books on the site. Amazon only makes a copy when an order is made. It's really quite an amazing development for independents like me!

New photos

Can't travel this holiday so I spent some time taking photos around the neighborhood. Processed using the new HDR Efex Pro plugin and photoshop.

Holiday Cards

Usually I try for an outdoor image but I've been housebound lately because of illness so I used some holiday tree decorations.

Back to basics

I think drawing is still the most basic skill in all the visual arts. Nothing compares to learning about perspective, depth, form... you name it. It's something you can do anywhere and anytime with materials so cheap anyone can afford it... even me.

I often work from photos on complicated subjects like this guy. On vacation though I like to draw whatever is in front of me.

Since I am in the middle of some not very pleasant surgeries right now, drawing really makes things seem a little easier to deal with.

Living for the Truth - revisited

I made this doc in 2001 and was never happy with it. So after upgrading to the new Final Cut Suite, I decided a severe cut was in order. 60 minutes to 7. The longer version is very dry. This is much more lively and helps hide the very bad video quality of the clips. The clips of her performing and lecturing were less integrated into the interview originally as well and I think this new treatment of them helps support and liven up the interview. She is still plugging away on Boston Neighborhood Network, claiming Obama is not really a citizen and that the Haitian earthquake was caused by an experimental bomb in a very "Tea party-ish" conspiratorial way. Disappointing, but since the interview was from 2001, I didn't find it fair to include things we didn't talk about back then.

* This might be better seen directly on Youtube as the blog seems to crop the video a bit.

further along with the Whitman design

the front and back covers how they will look if the book was lying open on a table. (without the spine details for now. )

I like the "makes one face" concept, but I think keamy is leaning towards the same crop of each face.

New Design Project

Just started working out a design for the printed version of a play written by Michael Z. Keamy about Walt Whitman. Working with Keamy is always great, and I thought I'd show some of the early design ideas. This will be available on Amazon's site sooner or later.

Still deciding on the right image and how much of it to show. Right now I'm going for a very "classic book collection" look.

Hdr Options

I am not an HDR expert by any means, but in some ways I think that helps in deciding with software I want to use. I am very «results orientated» when it comes to work and usually the background tech doesn't interest me very much if the final product is what I was going after. So looking at these 3 options I was mostly looking at how easily I got to my goal.

Photomatix: as far as smoothnees went this one topped the others, at 100% there was very little noise to be seen and gave the most «photoreal» images. Options were limited and the interface out of date. It was the fastest processing the images of the 3. More painterly treatments of the image I found harder to control and get what I wanted.

Photoshop CS5: I huge step up from other version, I like the interface well enough and really liked the «details» slider for bringing out details in the images, something the other two was less straightforward about. The «photorealness» of the images was hard to accomplish and it takes quite a while playing around to get what you want. More illustrated looks are much easier to do.

HDR Efex Pro: Very nice interface, the best of the 3 with options to work on portions on the images and not globally all the time. Presets are fantastic starting points and there are lots of them. Images are much noisier than Photomatix, but less than Photoshop and that can be fixed with tweaking to a large extent. As slow or slower than Photoshop importing and processing the photos.

My recommendations...

All 3 are excellent choices, budget comes into play. HDR is included in CS5, the Photomatix plugin is 100$ while the HDR Efex Pro is 160$, a little steep. For a «1050’s postcard» look which I like, CS5 gave me more of what I wanted with HDR Efex a close second, Photomatix was a hands down winner in realistic treatment with HDR Efex a close second there. So a lot will come down to personal taste but I’d say, despite price a little too high, that HDR Efex Pro is the one I’ll go with. A big advantage is the speed of use. Getting what I wanted took less than 2 minutes while it took at least 30 in CS5 and never quite made it in Photomatix. (for this style of image). All 3 needed tweaking in Photoshop proper afterwards, which is to be expected I think.

HDR Efex and Photoshop : Glowing around edges much more noticeable in Photoshop


Photomatix: much more realistic, but falls short on illustrated look