New film 'Still Walking' using blender masks

I have just completed a little film for the Butlers which will be on show as part of their appearance at the Flint Microfest, Wiltshire, England.

Flint Microfest will take place at Salisbury Art Centre on the 17th of November and Pounds Arts Corsham on the 18th of November and the Butlers will be walking from one to the other armed with Victorian maps and traditional measuring equipment to record their progress as they go.

Their 'walks' are inspired by Richard Long's artwork 'A Line Made by Walking' (1967) where he got of a train, walked up and down a field for an hour until he had made a path, took a photo of it and went home.

I made the looping walk cycles in Blender using the lovely new Masks feature in 2.64a. I was going to use AfterEffects, but after five minutes of hating AfterEffects I returned to blender as 2.64a was released and the new Masks saved my life. I did need to upgrade my computer as the interface needs plenty of horsepower and it is still buggy so save every time you make a change.

I ran out of time to completely smooth everything out but I'm pretty pleased with the results. It was all shot on a 550D at Frogs Copse in Southampton, sadly under threat of development.  The soundtrack is made from all the sounds we found there.

Still Walking - Following in the footsteps of Richard Long from Larryboy Eutopia on Vimeo.

Windows 8 won't boot - SSDs Gigabyte mobos AHCI UEFI

(edit: This is becoming my most accessed page - so don't forget to complain to Gigabyte because they've obviously done something wrong - if they don't know they can't fix it)

Well I just been in a week of hell as my new computer will only boot on the 5th attempt or so. It was fine at first. I have a Gigabyte GA-Z77-D3H motherboard, an OCZ Vertex Plus SSD and a Segate 2T HD.

This all started after I installed the F18 version of the bios, I can't remember which version was on there originally. After that on most attempts to boot I would get 'data can not be read from disk'. Also the SSD (which contains the operating system) would disappear from the boot list in the bios. I think changing the cooler was a coincidence to throw me off the track.

The following worked for me, it may or may not do the same for you so do some research.

I did some research and it seemed I should turn on AHCI (whatever) in Peripherals in the Bios (Sata Mode selection) and that would make good. Well windows did boot and then crashed. One time then I did this and set it back to IDE Windows said I had to use a restore point to get it going.

So further reading and apparently its not straight forward enabling AHCI after you've installed windows 8. There is a link here but the info is wrong in the main article and only corrected in the comments so I thought I would put the correct solution here.

This uses Regedit and you can completely destroy your system with regedit so use with care and I take no responsibility for any damage trying to do the following might cause. Also you need to have installed the Motherboard disk controller drivers.

amended from their website

• Exit all applications
• Go to the start screen and type in regedit.
• If you see the UAC (User Account Control) dialogue box, just click continue
• Locate the the following registry subkey:
• HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\storahci\StartOverride
  In the right pane, you will find a key labelled O with the value '3'. Double click on this and set the value to '0'
   
• Go up one level to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\storahci\
  there should be a key called ErrorControl which has a value '3'. set this to '0'
  
• Reboot your machine and set Peripherals / Sata mode selection / to 'AHCI'. 
• Save and exit and all should be good.

I shall be monitoring my system. Hope this post cuts down the time it takes you to solve this problem.

Back borders, pixel aspect, HD, SD, and Adobe CS 5.5

This is well documented except for the solution. ( and I will be concentrating on PAL here ).

In the days of Premiere CS3 we were blissfully ignorant. Standard television was 4:3 aspect ratio and wide screen was 16:9. HD telly was 16:9 - all was well.

In premiere, as with other software, if you wanted to make some computer generated footage you would make it 1024x576 (576 for the number of vertical lines in PAL and 1024 because 1024:576 is 16:9) Magic. Also of course HD was 16:9 so you could just scale it down.

This all changed with CS4 ( and the chap on this forum suggests it was coincident with a juicey contract with the BBC). Because if you do the boring maths, 4:3 is not really 4:3, and neither is 16:9.

So SD widescreen is actually a bit wider. 1.46:1 and you are suppose to crop 13 pixels of the top and bottom of you picture. Or, as has been stated elsewhere, widescreen SD is 1050x576...

As one non BBC engineer said to me once, ' you can do it the right way or you can do it the BBC way'.

In the end, as someone who is producing finished material destined for DVD and playable on modern digital devices capable of playing right up to the picture edge (no need for the safe zone), I just want it to work. I don't want to suddenly have thin black borders at the sides (which will show up on Youtube and Vimeo) for the sake of some engineer being right. The software should be there to enable you, not to prove a point.

Forum contributors have been posting how this is not a problem with other editors and apparently there is a button in encore CS6 which corrects the issue. But there is still the problem in Premiere as all the presets for PAL will give you the 1.46:1 aspect.

My workflow is thus:
I work in true 16:9 (usually HD) on my project. When I render for youtube or vimeo I render in true 16:9 using the custom settings in Premiere. These heretical services don't seem to mind this.

When exporting to Encore I take in the rendered footage and scale it (for HD) by 53.4 vertically and 54.7 horizontally. (My reasoning here is whatever the BBC says my telly is 16.9 and the telly will stretch the picture accordingly when dealing with the non square pixel aspect ratio). In the end its 26 pixels and its up to you if you want to loose it. Scaling the vertical by .5 will give a better result)

I then export to Encore so that the Scaling and the transcoding are done in one step thus reducing the number of times the footage is mangled.

Well that's my solution and for people who don't want / can't afford to upgrade to CS6 I hope it helps.

Windows 8 Ugrade with Classic Shell... Very good indeed

So I finally took the plunge and purchased my Windows 8 upgrade for £25 (you can use Paypal). I actually used the Windows 8 trial to run the Upgrade Assistant (XP was also resident on the system) and that caused the Assistant to say that the upgrade wasn't available, but, following a thread on a Microsoft site I ran the assistant in Windows 7 compatability mode and hey presto!. I already had the 64 bit version installed so I can offer no advice on choosing 32bit or 64bit when upgrading.

The upgrade was a piece of cake. I selected 'custom' and wiped the Windows 8 trial version (as it was on my new SSD. Windows 8 activated without asking me (in fact I had to check it had happened.)

You are then presented with Metro which you instantly have to do something about - so off to Classic Shell (and why not donate and buy this chap a drink for all he's done). With Classic Shell installed Windows 8 boots to the desktop rather than Metro and you can choose between Windows Classic, XP or 7 menu. I chose Classic. Classic Shell also adds the XP file manager menu we miss so much.
(Get rid of the stupid ribbon on FileExplorer with http://winaero.com/download.php?view.18)

Apart from that it's plain sailing. Windows 8 boot up times are fantastic. I was able to install all my old software. The taskmanager has great new features and the File Copying in progress dialogue has natty graphs if you want them.

One note though. Windows 8 seemed to find all the drivers without so much as a dialogue box. When I went to install my manufacturers video drivers (coz I thought they would be better), the screen stopped working on reboot and I had a hell of a time - eventually going back using a restore point.

Windows 8 desktop design seems more thorough (windows 7 looked pretty ugly if you turned off Aero). Working with two monitors is easy and the Taskbar now works in all monitors and you can choose how it works.

Not much else to say really. My PS2 keyboard wouldn't work and apparently that's a bug that being fixed. Apart from that it's business as usual.

Metro really is an irrelevant bolt on. Using IE brings you to the desktop. With two monitors you can have Metro in one and the Destop in another, but Metro disappears when you touch the desktop so there's no multiple screen working. Metro shows an irrelavent bunch of your programmes cluttering the Metro desktop. All in all, Metro is a dead loss on a desktop system, but with Classic Shell you don't have to worry about it.

All in all, if you fancy a few days mucking about with your computer, £25 will give you a fresh, new and most useable OS. I don't really know why its getting such a lack luster press - Microsoft have done a good job!

enjoy

Blender MJPEG and Premiere pro

Many times when people post problems using Blender's MJPEG encoded AVI files the reply tends to be.... use image sequences or use uncompressed. But there is a very good reason for using MJPEG - the results look great and the files sizes are much much smaller... and of course its much easier to handle than a mass of image files. But at High Definition sizes they don't work with Windows Media Player, or more importantly, Premiere Pro CS 5.5 ( and probably other versions )

And the answer is indeed the Morgan MJPEG codec at http://www.morgan-multimedia.com/morgan/php/products.php?sProductId=4 which has a 60 day trial but otherwise you have to pay for, but, oh well, sometimes you have to pay for stuff and I'm sure the chap deserves it - 20 euros in this case.

Doesn't solve Windows Media Player bit does solve Premiere, but you can use VLC or Media Player Classic to play them.

And thats it really.. I just wanted to add to the posts pointing in the right direction

Hotmail Exchange Android and Jelly Bean

I have been using the Hotmail app for mail/calendar/contacts as the Icecream sandwich exchange thing goes wrong all the time. The big problem with this is that you can't add a contact to hotmail from the app (think microsoft wants you to but a windows phone)!

Anyway, driven by bordom I decided to try and install some custom Roms on my phone - because I could. I thought I would share the information here as it is not easy to get the right answers sometimes.

This is no step by step guide, just a few important things which stopped me wrecking my phone.There are loads of guides to flashing roms on the internet but hopefully this fills in the gaps.

Firstly a disclaimer: You undertake any instructions here at your own risk. This will void your phone warranty and could possibly render your phone un-useable. I accept no liability for your phone, your data or you.

my phone is a samsung galaxy s2 and so the instructions are for that. Your phone may be different

Lesson 1: Kernels
A kernal in computer speak is the software core. Every time the software on your phone is updated the kernal changes to a new version. Putting in a different kernal is like putting in an engine from a different car, all of the gearbox connectios and so forth will be wrong.. so it will not work.

Your Kernel version is in Settings/About Phone/Kernel version - eg: 2.6.35.7-I9100XXKG1-CL349526
the important part is after the I9100 ie XXKGI. Mine was BVLPD

We do not strictly need to root the phone but it is worth having a copy of your kernel if something goes wrong. You can get that here:

http://s2tip.blogspot.co.uk/2012/04/kernels-updated-270612-latest-insecure.html

The insecure kernels are ones where the software has been hacked so that you can grant yourself administrative permissions. The secure ones are the untouched version.

Lesson 2: Clockwork Mod Recovery (CWM)

Clockwork Mod Recovery replaces your phones 'recovery software' ( thats the boot software that saves you when things go really really badly) AND KERNEL. It allows you to take a complete back up of your present Rom so you can return it to its original state.
So this nice Chainfire chap has incorporated CWM with the Kernels and some other stuff and made what he calls CF root files.
BUT, unlike many other website say, YOU NEED TO HAVE THE RIGHT ONE!

you need to read this thoroughly
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1103399

you can get the right cf-root file for your kernel here.
 http://www.mygsmforum.com/f15/download-cf-root-samsung-galaxy-s2-i9100-11221/

You Use Odin to flash the kernels, becareful.

Lesson 3:Backing up

Once the CWM Kernal has been installed your phone should A) work and B) be rooted. You can now install Titamium backup and this will allow you to backup all your apps and all there data. Do this and it stores it on the internal SD storage.

After you've done this you can boot into recovery mode and use CWM to do a 'nandroid' which is a rom backup. This stores the backup on the internal SD storage so its there if something goes wrong. If something does go wrong (as it did for me) boot back into recovery and install this backup. Thewww.

Lesson 4: Jelly Bean Rom

The Rom I used is the ReVolt Jelly Bean rom (Galaxy S2 only) available here.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1755884
You will have to try a different Jelly Bean Rom if you do not have the GT-i9100.
I have been using ReVolt for nearly to weeks now and V2.2 seems very stable indeed. No exchange hiccups.

There is one weird setting you need to make otherwise the email client just sits there staring at you.

You need to do this:

Settings -> Data Usage -> Menu (this is the bottom left hand menu touch button) -> and check 'Auto Sync Data'

enjoy

Cheesey 70s lens flare with the Blender Compositor

I rendered out something I was working on and realized that I had got the lighting wrong. the material I was trying was quite reflective and during the animation the material burned out - I had over exposed hotspots. While I considered what I was going to do about the lighting I realised that what it really needed to make it look authentic was lens flare.

I thought I would try it in Aftereffects as I'm always conning myself that I will oneday learn Aftereffects, but the tutorials for that were either very bad or involved buying an expensive pluggin. Not doing that! So I returned to Blender. Most of the tutorials for Blender involved meticulously choreographing lens flares by hand and I wanted something automatic and easy. Also I was quite happy with smudgy anamorphic style lens flare rather than beautiful blobby nikon lens flare. So I decided to do it myself using the compositor.

Now with my 70s star filter node set up my humdrum dual control assembly suddenly becomes a luxurious and desirable item. Why not use it on all your renders ;)

The node set up is here:

enjoy