How many email addresses do you need?

As part of my constant battle to have less, not more things to maintain on the computer, I've been trying to reduce the number of email addresses I've accumulated over the years. I have one "official" one for Behemoth media I've had since the early 90's, plus personal ones, gmail and Yahoo versions for behemoth and the personal ones, plus an ever growing number of Apple emails thanks to Apple's constant adding and then abandoning of online "cloud-like" services, each with it's own email address attached.

All the passwords and remembering what email was used for where is a huge pain in the ass. No to mention every mobile device has to be set up for so multiple accounts and in the end, no one knows which one to use to get in touch with you.

So I'm trying to cut back and finding it practically impossible. Apple has no way to remove old email addresses but they do send everyone one to the same account so it's less a burden administratively. I am seriously thinking of getting rid of the dedicated Behemoth media account. It's not like I'm a big company (It's only me) and at this point I think the gmail version will work just find and be easier to manage. I'll keep a personal gmail for buying stuff. The yahoo account I had rid myself of years ago, but then I needed a flickr account and as flickr and yahoo are the same now, I had no choice but make anew mail account.

My ultimate goal will be to get down to 4 including the never to be looked at yahoo one. Wish me luck!

NIK plugin collection

I have had several NIK plugins for Photoshop (they also work for Lightroom and maybe other software I don't use) for a couple years now. I REALLY like them. Everything but the price which I always though was high for plugins. So imagine my surprise when Google (who bought NIK recently) sent me an email to download ALL of the 6 plugins in one free collection today! No strings, and even Color Efex Pro is the complete collections of filters, I  previously had only the limited version they came with my Wacom tablet. The entire collection is now one suite you buy at once for less than the price of a single one before. As a current owner of multiple plugins, they gave me the new collection for free.

If you have never tried them, now is the time. There is a deal going on you should really take advantage of. 3 of them I had never tried out and I have to say the results are amazing.

Kudos to Google for not only making them affordable finally, but also giving those who already laid out cash for them the collection for free. This is not something I see Adobe or any other company doing very often. In a way, it's simply the fair thing to do, but as well know, fair is not the norm with software sales anymore.

Paul in crow

I am thinking of making this into a series. I'll need a nude male model who can do all sorts of yoga positions,  however.

Flash Gordon site from the past

At one time, the use of Flash was considered more cool than it is today and the ability to interact with animations was fun.. it got out of hand pretty quickly. This might be an example of that. But it was fun to do and that was point… to make the site fun. Sound isn't exactly in sync as it was on the site originally. Being obsessed with Buster Crabbe… I had to do it.

3 Plays by Michael Z Keamy

Michael Z Keamy's new book of plays is out on Amazon.com
I did the cover art and design and the typography for the interior.

The 3 plays are disturbing… funny at points but very intense and at points, shocking.

Drawing of Paul

Trying for a natural on paper look with digital tools. I really like the look of sketches on rough paper, especially when ink is combined with light and dark pencil to make it pop more. I find I use Sketchbook pro for almost all the drawing now and Photoshop for more of the effects work, not that some of it can't be done in Sketchbook but it's just easier and I think better implemented in Photoshop. The skin is almost all stipple work so this took quite some time to finish.

Click image for more detail if you wish.

Koch

The film "Koch" has been released.. Coincidentally on the day he died. I worked on the restoration and retouching of photos throughout the film. It's been a tough couple years, I only hope I get more good work like this soon!

Siegfreid et le Dragon

Merci à Jason Patrick qui était le mannequin pour Seigfried il ya 15 ans (environ).  L'image est ma première image avec les éléments fantastiques depuis une vingtaine des années. 

The Hobbit and the future of cinema tech

If you want a review of the film, not the tech, check out the excellent review on "The Movie Wrench". 

With the release of the Hobbit came a slew of new, not so new and fairly old technology that's all been heralded at some time or another as the "future of cinema". While the future is not easy to predict, it's not too early to pass some judgement on these advances... if in fact they are. 

3D

This has been the future since the 50's and I have to say that watching The Creature from the Black Lagoon in three dimensions is much more entertaining than any of the films released recently. It is headache producing, eyes straining and lends itself to excessively obvious shots of things pointed directly at your face with no reason to do so. 

IMAX screen

Again, not so new an idea as bigger and bigger screens were quite the thing on and off in movie theatres since they began. On the positive side, these new screens are not just bigger but clearer, have much more depth and the sound is amazing. This really does give you the larger than life feeling we want from a night at at the movies. The set back to this is the price... paying a lot more for what should maybe be standard if you want to compete with 80 inch TVs which let you watch for free and in your own home. 

High Frame Rate

While still not totally new (Douglas Trumbull - a god of cinema effects and tech) has been trying to get up to 70 frames per second (FPS) in our local movie houses for decades. Unfortunately in the Hobbit, this aspect of the film is hard to separate from the 3D. The images are 48FPS not 70 but even that might look either "hyper real" or "fake and video like" depending on each person's tolerance for the technique. The colour and sharpness is beautiful however when the images are up to the technology. People's faces can look odd at first and some action sequences look like they have been animated with puppets one frame at a time since there is almost zero blur. It makes any kind of special effect that much harder to pull off realistically, at least for now. 

Overall

The future could easily be comprised of IMAX and high frame rates but 3D is still something that time has never arrived and likely never will come to pass as something many people will want to see beyond the gimmick. 

Siegfreid

I've been sitting on reference images for over 10 years inspired by Fritz lang's Les Nibelungen. Jason patrick from Boston was the model and I never got a satisfying photo montage from the photographs… they just looked tacky to me. With my recent return to drawing, I thought now was time to really get the images I wanted out of my head. This first was sort of an art-deco poster idea. 

I have a second idea from this film and think I'll try other drawings inspired by other silent films.. most of which I've also taken tons of references for over the years and never did anything with. 

Edit: I've added a second image after some feedback on the figure mentioned it could have been more dynamic. I do think I like this better.