Digit

FOTB 2011, Day 1

Friday, September 16th, 2011

Digit’s Creative Technologist, David Rosser, attended Flash on the Beach in Brighton this past week. The conference brings together the best minds in design and development to share, educate and inspire, while providing opportunities for hands-on technical training and networking. Digit’s attended FOTB for three years running, a tradition we hope to keep up despite there being doubt about the conference’s future (see David’s blog for more on this).

Here are David’s thoughts on the sessions that really stood out this year, and the importance of good reference libraries.

FOTB Title Sequence

This year’s title sequence was created by Bradley G Munkowitz, aka GMUNK. I’d never seen any of Bradley’s work before, so to experience a beautiful, well-rehearsed live action dance piece was a treat. The piece’s narrative follows a creative soul as he searches for inspiration and fights his inner ghosts — something we’ll all come across at some point in our careers. Click here to learn more about the piece.

Bradley G Munkowitz – Tron GFX

One of the first sessions on Monday was GMUNK’s Tron GFX talk, based on the 12 minutes of holographic work he and his team produced for the film, Tron Legacy. Showing an imaculate array of concept and post-production work, the visuals stunned us all. He also had plenty to say about the roots of inspiration. He couldn’t stress enough the importance of reference libraries throughout his presentation, which I thought was an interesting insight. It’s true; a good reference library will always provide you with a solid collection of inspirational material that can help you on current and future projects.

Click here to see more of the eye candy GMUNK and his team produced.

Jon Burgerman – A short talk about working and not working, and how to waste time efficiently

The first Inspiration session was headed by Jon Burgerman. Jon’s work speaks louder than his personality, which (trust me) is incredibly loud! On a daily basis Jon spends his time drawing and illustrating colourful cartoons while singing about vegetarian food. He’s also in a band called Anxieteam.

Check the Digit blog next week for my thoughts on Day 2. They may or may not involve moustaches and my perspective on the power of Pixels for People.

Images in this post are © of their respected owners.

Posted by drosser in Events | Comments (1)

The manila folder’s swan song

Monday, September 5th, 2011

It’s been with us since the year dot, but the end is in sight for the beloved manila folder. A main stay of the last twenty years of computing, the first and last bastion of computer symbolic physicality, actually had it’s humble beginnings as a real life paper folder. The first time the word “file” was used as a reference for stored data was in 1952 at IBM, it was used to describe data stored on punch cards. We all understand that folders contain files and that if we want to open a file with have to open the folder or folders to get to it.

So, why do I think it’s days are numbered? Well, with the increased usage of mobile and tablet devices, some of which do not have a traditional file browser its usage is decreasing. We seem to only have four distinct categories of things now; pictures, video, music and documents. Our emails are stored in our email app, our SMSs stored in the messenger app and so on. With the advent of cloud storage then the concept of a physical folder on you hard drive to me already seems antiquated. So behold, the swan song for the manila folder (video by emiliogomariz.net/)

Posted by mnaman in R&D | Comments (2)

Behold the beauty of Flash Player 11 – 3D games in the browser for everyone

Friday, September 2nd, 2011

On the 27th of February 2011 at the Flash Gaming Summit in San Francisco Adobe announced a new feature for Flash Player – hardware accelerated 3D support. Native 3D support has long been a requested feature from the Flash Community, open source 3D libraries such as Papervision3D and alternativa3d have enabled developers to create rich interactive 3D content but only to a limited scale.

Following the announcement by Adobe, the Unity3D team announced the added support for Unity3D to Flash Player deployment. Over the past 5 years Unity3D has provided both up-and-coming game developers and expert game developers an all-in-one game engine with support to publish to Xbox 360, Nintendo Wii and Playstation 3.

What does this mean for the average internet user?

Because 99% of all internet users have Flash Player installed on their browser, all of that 99% will have access to 3D games through their browsers without having to worry about which version of whatever browser they are using.

The WebGL experiments currently going on are admittedly very impressive, especially the WebGL Water demo by Evan Wallace. Whilst WebGL is the current craze, it will never be compatible on every browser (due to security and hardware restrictions), whereas Flash Player near enough will. Flash Player uses both DirectX and OpenGL as ways to render graphics to the screen, whereas WebGL uses OpenGL which requires a WebGL compatible browser. Many developers have doubted the future of Flash over the recent years, but this could mark a new beginning where Flash will once again reign as the most popular and preferred way to deliver rich interactive experiences for everyone.

Now if you haven’t already watched the video demonstration from the latest Unity3D blog, watch it here and be amazed at the performance and quality.

Images in this post are © of Unity3D

Posted by drosser in R&D, Thinking | Comments (2)

The Raindance Saturday Film School

Monday, August 22nd, 2011

The ‘Raindance Saturday Film School’ is a fairly well-known, crash course in the film industry that promises “to explain the basics of screenwriting, directing and shooting a film – in one day.” No mean feat, yet hundreds sign up every week in confidence.

Having finally experienced it, the passion and years of industry knowledge from the speakers was indeed in abundance. The most useful element being the chance to learn the ‘art of storytelling’: from story strategy to scene sequencing, to setting up and paying off scene patterns, to blending dialogue. It was all there.

By far the most animated talk was on ‘directing’ by British film industry veteran, Patrick Tucker. Prancing across the stage with various props and humour, he demonstrated the principles of directing and how to get actors and crew to actually DO what YOU want! ‘Why is it that everyone wants to direct, yet few take the time to learn how’ he asked? Indeed, these days so many people consider themselves “Directors” with the introduction of video-enabled mobile phones and cost effective DSLRs, but so few will do it well enough to turn it into a career.

Throughout the day my film sat there at the back of my mind, music running through my head, along with some fragmented introductory scenes. How would it end? I wasn’t sure yet, but I now had the tools to work it out.

Will I go on to write my film? Definitely. Will I ever produce it? Who knows. But it doesn’t really matter. Unlike the millions of individuals who attempt to break into the film industry, I am not one of them. But instead one of those quietly curious creatives that will always pick up and put things down throughout my life. I wonder what will be next?

If you have an idea you want to turn into a film, find out how here.

Posted by Bobby Brockbank in Events | Comments (0)

The art at the heart of WOMAD

Tuesday, August 16th, 2011

Womad is a free spirited, laid-back and unpretentious family affair held in Charlton Park, Wiltshire, which celebrates the ‘World Of Music, Art and Dance’; hence the name WOMAD. It is in no way a festival purely about music and/or dance. Art had a huge presence on site and made it a real delight to photograph. Everybody had a chance to be creative and get involved in artwork around the festival.

There were craft workshops all around the site: in the kids area there were activities encouraging children and parents to get involved creatively, there was the Roots Architecture Project where four stages were built over four days (with the help of festival goers) out of reclaimed materials from the park itself. Sculptures were also placed amongst the trees in the arboretum and seven sea containers showcasing Giving Soul- Film Animations by Six Leading Artists were on display. On the final day a celebratory procession of the creations made over the course of the festival made its way around the site providing some great opportunities to capture the spirit of the festival.

Giving Soul was a fantastic example of the world-art displayed. The title was taken from the translation for the Greek word psyche and the Latin name anima, the “animating principle” – the vital force inside every living creature – close to the Christian concept of soul. So “Animation” would be the technique of giving “soul” to inanimate objects, drawings, etc.

The Six artists who displayed their work were Edwina Ashton, Sebastian Buerkner, Simon Faithfull, Melanie Jackson, William Kentridge and David Shrigley. The work by the South African artist William Kentridge stood out in particular: He uses a stop motion technique of filming charcoal drawings, making erasures and changes, and then filming it again. The palimpsest-like effect creates a fitting atmosphere for what is often fairly dark subject matter.

I would recommend Womad to anyone. As a photographer it was an amazing experience in itself to be able to photograph such a colourful, fun, friendly and diverse festival. It was unlike any festival I have been to and there was always something interesting and creative happening. It is a delight for all the senses, a festival of inspiration and great discovery.

Posted by aWalters in Events | Comments (0)

A Gift of Tea: Kerala, India

Thursday, July 28th, 2011

For a studio of tea-lovers, nothing makes a more perfect gift than some fresh tea sent direct from the source. So, it was pretty exciting when a package arrived at Digit, wrapped in cloth, containing a small container of tea all the way from ‘Delight Homestay’ in Kerala, India.

It came from our currently nomadic Associate Creative Director, Adam, who has embarked on an exciting round-the-world trip with his wife. It was true Adam-style that he would send this characterful bundle rather than your average “wish you were here” postcard.

Inside the bundle was a pot of the freshest hand-picked ‘silvery tips’ tea from the highest tea plantation in India. So fresh, that you only need a few measly-looking leaves to make a whole cup. It doesn’t look the most impressive of drinks but it tastes delicious and unlike most ‘English’ tea it is remarkably refreshing.

Thanks Adam! More tea from your next tea-producing destination please! Here’s a picture we stole from Adam’s blog that shows those beautiful tea plantations.

And here is the little note that came with it:

“It’s from Munnar, India’s highest tea growing area. Hand-picked that stuff! By beady-eyed women who trawl the mountain looking for the youngest leaves, covered in the most crystals, hence the name silver tips. It was wrapped up pretty efficiently wasn’t it!

In India, if you want to send a parcel, you have to go to a tailor (not exactly Saville Row) who will sew you up a little linen sleeping bag for your item before sealing it up with candle wax. You then go to the post office and fill in a mini biography of yourself. All in all it takes about 3 hours off your life. Entertaining and frustrating in equal measure.”

Posted by ltan in @Digit | Comments (1)

Vivian Maier at the London Street Photography Festival

Tuesday, July 26th, 2011

100,000 negatives were taken by the photographer Vivian Maier over four decades. 20 to 30,000 of them were never developed and in her lifetime she had never shown her work to anyone.

Every one of her photographs remained in storage as Maier got older, until she was no longer able to pay the warehouse holding fee, and subsequently had to put her work up for auction.

90% of her photographs were sold for $400 to a man called John Maloof who was researching the Chicago area for a book on the city’s history. At the time, Maloof knew little about street photography and had no idea about what he was to discover. Years later, he did try to find her, but unfortunately was too late. Her obituary had been placed just days before he began his search.

Maloof set about developing the films and scanning the negatives, gradually revealing the brilliance of Maier’s work. It wasn’t until he properly took the project on that he realized the magnitude of it all.

I went to see the first UK exhibition of her work at the German Gymnasium last Thursday as part of London’s Street Photography Festival. There were around 40 prints on display, the little boy and the man on the beach were two that caught my eye. I enquired into the price of a print (as if I was a serious buyer!?) and… let’s just say that John Maloof will probably make his auction bid.

If you get a chance to see her work in the flesh it’s certainloy worth a visit. When standing in front of her more everyday snapshots of a bygone era, you cannot help wonder what she would have thought about her newly acclaimed fame and exposure.

The London Street Photography Festival starts at King’s Cross and will be on until the end of July.

Posted by aBrooks in Events | Comments (2)

Lab Craft Exhibition: Jewellery Designed by a Voice Message

Wednesday, July 20th, 2011

Call me an old romantic, but I fell in love with the idea behind this necklace whilst wandering through the Lab Craft exhibition of digital crafts. Remarkably, it is made using input from a digital voice recording.

What do you think it says: “I love you?” Or alternatively, “I want you to have a scratchy neck all day?” I showed it to a young friend who shuddered at the idea it might say something nasty. The cynicism of youth. It reminds me of a Nigerian blanket I once slept under, made by Igbo tribeswomen. It was supposed to have witchdoctor blessings of safety woven into it, so that tribesmen felt safe sleeping out in the wild.

My cynical entrepreneurial brain wishes 1234lab would get in touch with De Beers, who marketed the right-hand ring so successfully.

How about a right-hand ring with your own message in it? Look down in a hard meeting, see the ring and know that in the very DNA of the design is a little note to yourself that you made on your phone whilst sitting on a beach, looking at your perfect retirement spot. I might just commission one from 1234lab myself.

There is so much going on at the Lab Craft exhibition, and it’s not all girly stuff. The exhibition has many examples from chairs to tables, demonstrating that digital is radically changing the landscape of physical form.

Lab Craft has been curated in partnership with the Crafts Council UK and is touring the country at the moment. For more information go to www.labcraft.org.uk

Posted by sStoneham in Events | Comments (0)

10 year anniversary at Digit: CONGRATULATIONS HENRY!

Friday, July 15th, 2011

Digit peeps past and present gathered last night to celebrate the 10 year anniversary of Creative Director Henry Brook, who has pioneered Digit’s creative work since 2001 (or is it 1998?).

It was a fantastic night – great to see so many familiar faces from Digit past and present. A big thank you to all who joined us in making it such a special occasion. Congratulations Henry! Here’s to 10 more!

Posted by cCorbishley in @Digit, Events | Comments (0)

Live Looping: Going Solo

Thursday, July 7th, 2011

Having no friends and being unpopular does have its advantages. It give you plenty of time to learn how to program and play musical instruments.

I spent many a happy hour with a knackered out electric guitar, microphone, trashed drum kit and a tape-driven 4 track (Tascam Portastudio 414 MKII if I remember correctly) layering up tracks and bouncing them down.

Part time jobs helped fund my obsession and I eventually bought some effects pedals including the Boss DS 1. This gave me the ability to digitally loop small sections of guitar and vocal parts to create some wild and wonderful experimental sounds.

Live Looping is now very popular and takes many forms. In its purest form, live looping is a single musician creating an entire track from scratch and on-the-fly without the aid of pre-generated backing tracks.

Here’s a few of my favorite live looping artists, they all have something different to offer and cover loads of musical genres.

Enjoy!

Artist: Andrew Bird
Track: Section 8 City
Pedal: Line 6 DL 4 x 2

Artist: KT Tunstall
Track: Tutorial Black Horse & the Cherry Tree (part 2)
Pedal: Akai E2 Headrush

Artist: Emily Wells
Track: Symphony 1 (In the Barrel of a Gun)
Pedal: BOSS RC-50

Artist: BEARDYMAN
Track: Monkey Jazz
Effects unit: Kaoss pad 3 x 2

Artist: Dub FX
Track: made
Pedal: BOSS RC-50

Posted by Des in @Digit | Comments (3)