Gregory

Just posting a photo for my sister to have a look at. :-D
This is my nephew Gregory playing in my backyard in Dubbo. Isn't he gorgeous! ^_^
I took this a couple of weeks ago when i went home for the weekend... oh, i love my camera *hugs it*..oh and i love my nephew too!! *hugs him too*

Technorati

I think i've claimed my blog. i dont fully understand what technorati is, but im sure i'll find that out tomorrow!
anyways, heres a link to my Technorati Profile.
have fun!

Squiggly Bits, Aesthetics & Interestingness

In MPI104 last week we learnt French! According to Jo the word 'serif' means 'squiggly bits', and 'sans serif' means 'without squiggly bits'. Of course we're talking in means of fonts! For example...

this would be a serif font
whereas this would be a sans serif font

I apologise for the appauling example. i couldnt be bothered changing the fonts and stuff... so i cheated and used italics and bolding. lol.
but hopefully you get what i mean!
According to my year 11 & 12 IT Teacher Mrs McKenzie(just proves that maybe i did pay attention to her raving madness) sans serif fonts are harder to read because they have individual blocks, whereas serif fonts are easier to read because each letter flows to the next.


In regards to aesthetics and websites, I personally like the Bitey Castle . It has a nice opening page, where you click the image to enter. All of the links on the main site are clearly labelled, and down the left column there are animated .gif links, which i think is pretty cool too. There are links to the sites that Adam Phillips, the artist of the bitey animations visits on a regular basis. Considering bandwidth, this site may be a little hard to load, although I am on a slow dial up speed with a crap computer and it still works quite well for me. He's done a smart thing and put each different animation on a different page, so it doesn't take ages to load the page if you're not going to watch the animations. So hes got a big chain of pages that link together (just like a diagram on front page *cringes* i hate that program) which is why i applaud modern technology! lol gone are the days when one must have everything stuck on the one page, and have no exciting colour or pictures- very gross. lol.


Speaking of gross, how about we check out a really badly done website.

For a laugh lets pick on The Worlds Worst Website. And its not a joke, that is the actual title of the website. lol. It just makes me cringe at the basic html that some people use and get away with. This site is good in regards to teaching people lessons! It does actually tell you what is and is not acceptable and what should and should not be done.
This actually brings me to another good site, Lissa Explains its a site that allowed me to steal html codes when i was creating my own websites. This site itself is aesthetically pleasing which is actually quite encouraging to the person who wishes to learn html. "oh this site is nice, it looks like this person knows what they're doing. lets learn from them." well that's kind of how i felt when i was a quivering year 8 student who had never used html before. And it helped too. yay!

Okay, so.... that being said...what makes a good website?
the aim of the website always needs to be taken into consideration, for example, the guys who made The Worlds Worst Website, made it like that on purpose to demonstrate some horrible mistakes people make when building websites, whereas Lissa explains was trying to show off its style to appeal to html and java scripting learners.
blah blah blah websites are so much fun, and they look good and blah.

Writing that is easy to read is always good, for example, if you have bright pink writing on a red background or even a fluro yellow background...it begins to get a bit painful to focus on and one must highlight each word to be able to read it successfully. not good!
Web buttons are pretty nifty and make everything look spiff! That is why i like the Bitey Castle so much, he has made his own web buttons, and has made them animated which heightens the appeal and aesthetics of the site as a whole.

For now, i am over analyzing websites and finding attractive things about pixels. so im going to depart. hope you enjoyed my long and tedious blog.
Thankyou

My 1-3 min Animation

George,
originally uploaded by Pamz0r.

This is going to be the star/main character of my first actual vfx101 animation.
Basically its about a man (this guy) mourning for his dead wife, and the steps that he takes spiritually to overcomethe loss. I have posted many of the details up on the VFX forum for all to see, though i dont feel its appropriate to post my idea everywhere... so for this blog, u only get the basics.
The style is going to be all black and white and sketchy, and im going to hand draw the whole thing. Which sounds quite painful... i havnt even started yet and it hurts! lol.

Australian International Animation Festival.

The AIAF, started on friday and will end today. There were 3 international programs, and some other special stuff, like Siggraph highlights and the Australian Panorama, and today we'll be watching the digital panorama.
My personal favourite thus far, based upon story and upon style would be Little Dog Turpie. It was simple, yet effective... although i think there were a couple of scenes where the background took your focus away from the animation itself because there was no contrast between the two.
Also in the Australian Panorama i really liked "Fraught", it was just excellent.
Amoungst the animations we're watching, the vast majority i feel, were disappointing, like they had potential to go somewhere...and then the typical "and then they wake up, and it was all a dream" because they didnt know how to end their animation. Take "stilt walkers" for example was brillaintly animated, and then the child wakes up...but oh wait- the stilt people are walking out the door! so maybe he didnt dream it after all? Que the mysterious music.
Another animation worth mentioning was an animation by Clemens Stiger "Not The End" it reminded me greatly of hitch hikers guide to the galaxy.
En Tus Brazos was also another one that i likeed for its style and storyline.

Now, i will leave you all with a rather creepy film clip, by Tool. "Prison Sex".


Will leave you an update about the final screening of the AIAF later :-P

Junk Food vs Healthy Stuff

I sit here in my mild daze, dwelling on the fact that my sister(aged 27? & mother of 2) weighs less than i do. Yet, here i am enjoying the delicious taste of a vienetta!...lol, yes..a whole one to myself!! Perhaps i should start a new diet.. or my first diet in the history of time so far.
The problem being with the whole diet thing...i HATE vegetables... they're gross and should all spontaneously combust and DIE!. I dont mind fruit, but theres the whole preparation thing... washing it, peeling it...perhaps cutting it? and then eating it.. its such an effort... junk food is so easily accessible! In one quick move of your hands a bag of fresh potato chips are ready for your eating pleasure! mmmm.

My bf's brother was wearing a shirt that said "Stay Fit, Eat Well, Die Anyway" of course he is quite a large guy... so perhaps this motto fits him.. its pretty funny i think lol.
But i want to actually feel better than how junk food and no exercise makes me feel. So im going to try exercising, whilst still on the junk food... if no improvement i think i'll slowly wean myself onto healthy yuck.

________________________________________________________________

Steering away from the boring food debate (despite the fact that its the title of this blog)
I went home on the weekend to support my friends band,SIX at the Rock Up, Battle Of The Bands in Dubbo! which, was absolutely awesome! Six Won! They'll be playing at the regional finals...uhh dont know when it is.. but they'll be there!! Good luck to you guys!

I also visited my mother for mothers day, and the day after i got back I was informed that I'm an aunty- again! number 4. lol, it seems everytime i go home theres another child born! My newest nephew, Jared Victor Readford! cute name, i got sent a pic- i still havnt spoken to my brother yet!
Heres the list so far (by age)
Gregory James Cook
Chelsea Grace Readford
Mitchell Edward Cook
Jared Victor Readford

(they have different last names obviously because they're from different parents :-P, just incase u didnt work that bit out)

Right, well thats my blogging done for today..
i should have my animatic online tomorrow night.. i'll post it up if i do!

RSS, XML...and my tribute to Wikipedia

What is RSS you ask?
well... im a bit fuzzy with it too... shall we wikipedia it?
"RSS is a family of web feed formats used to publish frequently updated digital content, such as blogs, news feeds or podcasts."
I love the way it puts it so simply!
Heres one i prepared earlier (at the bottom of this page), its hosted by delicious.
Click here to read the Wiki entry on it!

XML... also a bit fuzzy, but thanks to good old wiki i understand it a little more.
"The Extensible Markup Language (XML) is a general-purpose markup language.[1] Its primary purpose is to facilitate the sharing of data across different information systems, particularly via the Internet.[2]"
Aaaannnddd... the link to the wiki article!!
Of course Wikipedia is supposedly a horrible site to use for anything 'university', but at least it gives an understandable definition. I think i'll be forgiven? *smiles sweetly*