February 11, 2016 : Nimbus Done Right!

This is what I call “Hoverboard, done right”:

Apparently there are several videos in which people convert a Hoverboard to a Nimbus, but dressing up as Goku and going out in public was a nice touch. I’m not sure I get the ending – or why Goku is wearing shades – but I still like it.

I also stumbled upon this gem:

I believe Spike would approve… had he survived his fight with Vicious.

posted by Pi Visuals at 12:50 am

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January 30, 2016 : Cartoon Network’s New Justice League Series

Unbeknownst to me, Cartoon Network announced (or rather confirmed, amidst speculation) a new Justice League series last Fall, entitled Justice League Action. This past week, a few more details have emerged about the show. Specifically, Kevin Conroy will reprise his role as Batman (awesome!). Similarly, Mark Hamill will once again voice the Joker (also sweet).

The episodes will only be 11 minutes long; and while they claim they will be action-packed and fast-paced, I do worry the plots will be simplified and skewed to a younger audience. Either way, I’m still watching it.

The release date for JLA has yet to be unannounced, although I wonder if it will coincide with the release of the Batman Vs. Superman movie – which is slated for the end of March.

posted by Pi Visuals at 1:10 am

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January 20, 2016 : GIF Creation

For a while, I’ve been telling myself I need to learn how to make a GIF. It wasn’t for anything in particular – just something I wanted to do. Well, a few days ago, I finally got around to it. Below is a quick GIF showing something I made in Lightwave, via DP Kit (I believe you need to click on the image below for the GIF to animate):

I used Photoshop to make the GIF, and it was surprisingly easy. Whether or not I make more in the future, we’ll see. I think the hope is that if I feel creatively stagnant, perhaps I will crank out a short GIF to give myself a sense of productivity (while also killing some time).

posted by Pi Visuals at 8:26 pm

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January 12, 2016 : R.I.P. Topless Robot

Topless Robot, a site I frequently visited, has recently closed shop. Providing copious amounts of Nerd News, it earned it’s tagline: Unofficial Sponsor of Your Inner Childishness. In fact, several posts for this blog came from or was inspired by Topless Robot.

The website went through its share of changes over the years, including switching editors three years back. However, the site continued to produce a whole lot of nerd-based entertainment. It even recently changed names (and domain) to ‘The Robot’s Voice’, with the hope to increase its credibility and exposure in the blogging/ news community.

Sadly, the site could not maintain its financial sustainability. While I have other sites to fill the void, I will miss Topless Robot. After all, they hooked me with their awesome name so many years ago.

posted by Pi Visuals at 10:09 pm

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January 2, 2016 : Updated Reel (Finally)

Over the last couple months, I’ve been working on updating my Motion Graphics Reel – something I’ve been meaning to do for far too long. My goal was to create new material to splice in with existing clips. While I was hoping to include more that used Lightwave (via DP Kit), the bulk of the new clips used After Effects.

With the music, I tried something different. I decided not to record any tracks with my guitar. Instead, everything was done via MIDI controllers (predominantly a keyboard), using several non-instrumental synth sounds. The mixing was done in Adobe Audition.

posted by Pi Visuals at 11:28 pm

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December 22, 2015 : Random Time Killer: IFC’s Matrix Quiz

If you have a few minutes, feel free to waste your time and take IFC’s Ultimate Matrix Quiz. It was a nice stroll down memory lane – forcing me to recall details of one of my all-time favorite movies. However, I believe the quiz is flawed since it asks questions about two movies that don’t exist.

Actually, I did pretty well. And oddly enough, the only question I missed was about the first movie. To be fair, I guessed several times. One would say that it was luck, but I believe the Oracle had a hand in it…

posted by Pi Visuals at 11:06 pm

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December 11, 2015 : DP Kit Sprucing Up Pie Charts

Having spent time familiarizing myself with DP Kit over the past few weeks, I’m now working on creating some motion graphic related animations using the plug-in. One of the first ideas was animating a pie chart – where it opens up and does a full 360 to reveal a complete pie chart. Below is a screen shot in layout:

The scene setup is pretty basic. There are four identical objects that represent the slices of the pie (I technically created 5 but decided to hide the fifth and not include it in the animation). The only difference between the objects is their surface color. Three nulls were added to each slice for extra control. Two of these nulls are used to open and close the slices (one null for each side), and the third null controls the general movements of the object (rotation, position, and scale).

The  major work, which allows for the slices to be animated, takes place via a displacement node – using DP Kit. Each object/ slice has an identical node network – the only differences are which nulls get referenced. Below is a screenshot of the one of these networks:

The rendered sequence was dropped into After Effects in order to add a few extra bells and whistles to the animation. This consisted mostly of labels and titling text.

To be honest, I am a little disappointed that it has taken me this long to create an animated pie chart. You’d figure that would have been a specialty of mine for a while now.

posted by Pi Visuals at 1:58 pm

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December 3, 2015 : Watch Out, Aku! Jack Is Back!

File under an early Christmas gift, Adult Swim announced this morning Samurai Jack is coming out with new episodes on Toonami in 2016. This teaser trailer was also released:

Production has already started, and as expected, Genndy will be involved – serving as Executive Producer. Also part of the news packet, this sweet poster:

In an interview back in September, Genndy hinted towards some unhappiness with Sony. It was confirmed that he wouldn’t be involved with Hotel Transylvania 3, but it was assumed he was developing a project for them that he created (Can You Imagine?). I’m not sure if that’s still in the works; but if it gets temporarily shelved for new Samurai Jack episodes, I think most people will take it.

posted by Pi Visuals at 12:07 am

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November 27, 2015 : Vegeta And Goku AMA

Chris Sabat and Sean Schemmel, voices of Vegeta and Goku respectively, did an AMA a few months back. It’s pretty interesting and not too long. Plus, it was fun to actually see what the voice actors looked like.

There still isn’t an American release date for Dragon Ball Super. Release dates have been for other regions so I assume it’s not too far away.

posted by Pi Visuals at 11:25 pm

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November 16, 2015 : Gundam With A Bebop Flare?

One of the more recent Gundam Manga, Mobile Suit Gundam Thunderbolt, is starting production on its anime adaptation. Last week they released a teaser for the series. Does it remind you of anything?

It’s brief, but that music certainly has a Cowboy Bebop vibe to it. It’s worth mentioning the studio producing Thunderbolt is Sunrise, Inc – the same one that did Bebop. Plus, the anime’s official website posted a key visual for the first episode:

The poster features two main characters, whose designs have a definite Bebop feel to them. The studio release a tagline with the image: “The two are fated to kill each other.”

Thunderbolt is set during the One Year War, the same time as Mobile Suit Gundam (the original series); and it pits characters from the Earth Federation against the Principality of Zeon. I don’t remember too much about the Gundam Timeline (I believe Gundam Wing took place over a hundred years after this – although apparently there are multiple timelines, and I’m not sure they all exist within the same universe).

I can’t say I’m a huge fan of the Gundam franchise. I’ve watched a few series – some impressed me more than others; but I’m open to watching more, particularly if it has a Cowboy Bebop feel to it.

posted by Pi Visuals at 11:47 am

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