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Author: matt

These dreams are made for you

These dreams are made for you

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Media Molecule’s latest title Dream is a great creation platform that allows users to create and let others play almost anything they can possible imagine.

With such a powerful creative engine/tool available for anyone and everyone to create amazing worlds – you’d expect it to be amazing.

In reality, it seems like there is a problem. While there is no shortage of amazing creators and amazing art, music, and playable creations, there seems to be a real shortage of players.

Is this part of a larger issue? Has lowering the bar of entry and enabling just about any artist to create whatever they want leading to oversaturation or maybe it’s just a problem of getting visibility on the truly good content?

Give the linked article a look – it’s a great discussion on how the whole game industry might be going as the bar of entry is lowered every year.

Automated Sand drawings

Automated Sand drawings

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I’ve seen these kinds of art devices before – but they are big corporate looking things and run thousands of dollars. “The principles behind them can’t be that complex”, I thought. But there are some tricky bits I didn’t think of before – and this guy does a great walkthrough.

Personally, I would likely have shaved off the bottom part of the marble to create a flat spot and put felt there, so you don’t disturb the lower pattern as much. Also, I wonder if a specialized plexiglass would have worked better instead of glass to help hide the noise.

When all is said and done

When all is said and done

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Existential crisis. We all face it at some point in our lives. Did I make an impact? What happens when I die? Did I matter at all? It’s a Wonderful Life is all about one man’s existential crisis. I’m also reminded of the line from movie Blade Runner.

I’ve seen things you people wouldn’t believe.

Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion.

I watched C-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhäuser Gate.

All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain.

Time to die.

Roy Batty – Blade Runer

When we think all the way back to the stone age – one is confronted by so many lives that were lived and never remembered. No matter how much we accomplish, how rich, how powerful we become – no matter what amazing things we do, death and obscurity await us all in a long enough timeline. It is sometimes said that you only exist as long as one person remembers you. Or as long as something you did or created impacts another life. So what happens when that is finally gone? Do I really matter? Does any of it matter?

For me, it’s knowing those even when the world forgets – those moments and our lives are not lost. Even when the last person that knew me dies or the last impact of my work fades – all of it comes with me into eternity.

Because there is always someone that remembers. They were all shared with one who loved me and was with me my whole life. We spend eternity together remembering those moments and witnessing how my actions echo through time – in the glory of perfect joy. For Jesus was with me yesterday, today, and through all eternity – and he loves me more than I can even love myself.

That is where true hope lies.

Pulse – analog animation using glass panes

Pulse – analog animation using glass panes

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This artist was inspired by patterns she saw in Yellowstone’s hot springs. By drawing different patterns on multiple layers of glass and moving lights across and between the planes, she creates a unique animation effect.

Made me wonder if projection mapping could perform the same thing more easily – but this is a really cool analog method.

Synthetic Aperture Radar

Synthetic Aperture Radar

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Ever wonder how we get amazing, nearly constantly updated satellite maps that can see through clouds and are now even finding hidden cities in heavily forested, unexplored jungles and lost cities under desert sands?

Scott Manley does an absolutely EXCELLENT job describing exactly how synthetic aperture radar (SAR) was developed over time and the principles behind it. By using polarized radar detection, you can even detect how much oil might be stored in tanks. By using subsurface scattering, you can detect features below tree cover and sand.

The part that was most amazing to me is they actually did the original image reconstruction using analog LENS technology.

Absolutely worth a listen.

The Newburgh Christmas lights

The Newburgh Christmas lights

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BBC Scotland reports that the tiny town of Newburgh in county Fife has a wonderful Christmas tradition. For the past 20 years, this tiny town selects one student each year to get their Christmas drawing made into an illuminated creation that lights up the town’s streets.

Nobody remembers exactly how it started (likely a proposal by a local school teacher), but continues every year. Once a winning proposal is selected, the artwork is sent to Blachere Illumination to convert them into the massive street light. They are then hung up around town for the enjoyment of all.

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