Blancer.com Tutorials and projects

In the first part of this two day tutorial tutorial, Joshua Jorgensen will take us through the process of creating a motion graphics style effect to animate a pie chart scene. Using a combination of keyframing and expressions in Lightwave 3D, we’ll build a flexible semi-automated system to create an impressive effect out of what would normally be a boring statistic!

The tutorial will cover the entire process from start to finish, including modeling, layout, animation, texturing, and compositing. Intermediate knowledge of Lightwave as well as basic knowledge of After Effects are required to complete this tutorial.

Note: click the ‘Monitor’ icon to view tutorial in full-screen HD.

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Be it Steve Jobs, Nelson Mandela or any of the other 6 billion or so people in the world, we all have one thing in common.

Everybody loses.

Beneath all the victory, power and flamboyance lie the painful scars of failures. Failures are the checks and balances put in place by God, nature, Darth Vader or whoever else you consider the omnipotent.

Passed on for a promotion for the umpteenth time? Denied all of the projects you bid on or applied for? Can’t get the cute blonde girl to go out with you? That’s sad. What exactly can you do about it?

Look Backward

The problem with lot of us human beings is that we don’t look back and reflect. Add it to a checklist and after every failed attempt, make it a habit to take a couple of hours for yourselves. Sit back and contemplate why things didn’t go the way they should have. Think of past mishaps and how they have not stopped you from taking another step forward. Be proud of how agile and adaptive you have been.

It also helps if you compare yourself with other people, be happy at what you have got and realize how blessed you are. But it has to be an “apples-to-apples” comparison. It would be ridiculous to compare yourself with a homeless person or a poor human being from a war torn country and consider yourself to be blessed. Compare yourself with your equals and people from your social circle.

To start with, find what your peers from the neighborhood, high school or college are doing. Not everyone from the class of ’88 will be a rockstar. Be happy that you have not squandered all the opportunities like Bill Jones did from the back benches. At the same time analyze how John Smith who sat in front of you is now a business tycoon. That’s a fair comparison. You don’t have to beat yourself up – but at the same time you cannot pat yourself on the shoulder just yet.

Look Inward

Make it a routine to look inside yourself every single day. Search yourself to find what your strengths are; realize what you are really good at. Be it graphic design, gardening, pottery or even being especially adept with the photocopier, there definitely is a precious little thing that you can do best. Find it as soon as possible and hone it at every possible moment.

Stuck in a thankless, full time job that does not utilize your strengths? Find an outlet, an alternate or parallel mode of putting your skills to use. There simply has never been a period in this planet where you are not limited by race, age, language or place of birth. Both a prince and a pauper get the same 24 hours a day to live their life. Time is impartial – and the Internet is so vast the same can be said for it as well. You do not have to be a celebrity to get the limelight and having a presence on it is not only for the elite. You can be whoever you want to be…and do whatever it is that you want to do.

Is pottery your strength? After work, make some and sell online. Good at singing? Make a recording of yourself and put it out there. Good at tap dancing but feeling too shy to be seen doing it? Put on a mask, make a video and post it to YouTube. Can write with flair? There are hundreds of blogs that will pay you for writing quality content for them. With the Internet, you have an audience out there. Unlike the real world, there is an instant gratification for your efforts and all you have to do is find what is in you.

Look Forward

Once you’ve taken the time to look inward and reflect, it’s time to look ahead and “walk the walk.” Make plans. Assume they will fail and make alternate plans. If you are still hesitant to take the vital step forward, imagine how it is going to be when you reach the goal. This may sound cheesy, but imagining yourself with a crown on the head is pretty motivating. The thought of a fantastic future and living life the way you please is a pretty darn tasty carrot.

If one was to prepare a flowchart based on this article, the first and last steps would be in a bi-directional loop. When in doubt while looking forward, look back and see how many of these apprehensions have stopped you from going ahead.  Furthermore, look at how have those decisions have served you. The fact that you are going through this all over again is proof that nothing good comes out of “sitting it out”. Playing chicken is uncool, pointless and downright criminal.

The fact is that there is no one out there to sabotage your life. It is unnatural not to fail and when it happens, take responsibility and learn from it. The buck does stop with you and realizing it will the defining moment of your life.

I used to feel guilty taking a day off work to read a book or to play volleyball – but not so much after I had an anxiety attack in an especially stressful day at the office.  I ended up wondering what I was doing to myself…as I lay on my doctor’s examination table (to which I was becoming used to due to stress).

Soon after that, I changed departments and worked with a boss who allowed flexible schedules.  However, this and five sick days weren’t enough to keep other employees’ and my stress levels at bay so whenever I felt stress reaching a certain level I’d take a sick day – I called them “sick-of-my-job” days.

Companies should have a mental health day allowance or add it to employees’ sick day allowance.  We hear of people going postal, completely losing it to the point of killing their co-workers. People have heart attacks and anxiety attacks due to stress at work and still there’s not much change in the way companies help their employees handle stress.

What’s the policy at your job?  Do you take mental health days?

Modern Digital SLR flashes do a wonderful job of putting out a large punch of light in a specific direction. Nowadays they even zoom with the lens for more directed light. But what happens when that direct light is too harsh, casting ridged shadows? This happens often in an indoor setting, especially with groups of people, such as at a party. Flash modifiers to the rescue!

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Introducing Flash Modifiers

While there are a plethora of flash modifiers out there, this article will focus on just a few of the basic, less expensive models which may aid you in your photography. Each of the modifiers listed here attach to a flash in a number of fashions. Some require Velcro and others slide over the end of the flash, requiring the purchase of the correct model to match your flash.

All photos in this set were taken with a Canon 7D and two flashes. I used two flashes because the Velcro on one flash would not permit the Opteka to slide over the end. The strength of the flashes was balanced to maintain consistency. All images are shot at 38mm (45mm equivalent) at a distance of about seven feet. ISO 100, f/3.5 and 1/60 second except the ambient photo, which was 1.6 seconds.

The ceiling is standard height and all photos were shot RAW and then corrected to 5400K. This is only to represent the lighting effect of each modifier, especially when mixed with ambient light, which taking out the variable of auto white balance. The voluntary model in this shoot is none other than me. While I am often mistaken for a one man party (especially with a backwards baseball hat), this test is meant to be simple, showing coloring and shadow differences between the modifiers.

First up is the “control” photo. This image is shot with ambient light in the darkened corner which I stand. The orange cast is from the room lights. You will see evidence of this in later photos when bounce modifiers are used.

And now the 580EX II flash fired directly towards the subject.

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Opteka Flash Diffuser

The first diffuser example is from Opteka. It is a simple unit, retailing for $10US. It slides on the end of the flash and is molded to match contours, making it less functional if Velcro strips are already in place. Its intent is to give your flash more of an all around, bare light-bulb feel.

It works best when angled at 45 degrees up and partially bounced off the ceiling. This first photo shows the effect when simply placed on the flash and fired straight forward, diffusing some of the light.

The light color has changed a bit because of the coloring of the plastic. Features are a little less harsh although I could still use a shave. Shadows are about the same. Now let’s tilt it up to 45 degrees as suggested by the manufacturer.

Shadows are decreasing around my head, but because of the bounce, shadows around my sleeves have become longer. Toning is more even, more pleasant. Finally I”ll point the flash straight up at 90 degrees and see what happens with both ceiling bounce and indirect, diffused flash.

This last photo has even softer shadows and even toning, but it also lets in more ambient light, if you will. Notice the color has become more orange from the house lights. This can be a problem if colors don”t match (and Opteka does make colored filters to match ambient light.)

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LumiQuest Pocket Bouncer

Next up is the LumiQuest Pocket Bouncer (retailing at $28US). This unit is held onto the flash head with Velcro strips on the top and sides of the flash. It is operated with the flash unit pointing straight up at 90 degrees. Almost all light from the flash is then directed forward from the highly reflective surface of the bounce.

First, the control photo of the 580 EX straight forward, no modifiers. This is slightly different than the 580EX II, but not much.

Now, the LumiQuest Pocket Bouncer:

Again, the shadows become softer but the added height of the flash makes some of them a bit longer. And more ambient, orange, light has been brought in. Overall, though, the light is more evenly spread. Let’s compare it to a different type of bounce which allows for more light pass-through.

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LumiQuest 80/20

The LumiQuest 80/20 (retailing at $29US) attaches in the same way to the Pocket Bouncer but spreads light differently. It gets its name from the fact that 80% of the flash light is allowed to pass up through the modifier and then scatter when reaching the ceiling. This can be a problem with a high ceiling, but in this example, the ceiling is only eight feet high. 20% of the light is then directed forward as with the Pocket Bouncer.

More ambient light is allowed into the scene but shadow edges are softer still. Also catch lights in my glasses are less intense, something worth considering.

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LumiQuest Softbox

Last up in this comparison is a LumiQuest Softbox (the most expensive at $43US) . This handy little device attempts to mimic its larger brethren used in professional studios. It requires one more strip of Velcro (four in all) than the other bounces as it surrounds the flash head. It has an extra softening spot in the center to help diffuse and bounce the direct light from the flash. The sides are angled to let light expand outwards from the center.

The softbox attempts to smooth out the shadow edges but still punch the light from the front, rather than above. It does a decent job for a unit of this size. The light tends to be more even and the contrast not as great.

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Conclusion

There are many, many more flash modifiers on the market with prices north of $120. This set of four is a basic introduction and a good general purpose set to play with while learning the advantages and disadvantages each flash brings to your photography.

No one diffuser is perfect for every occasion, so experiment and find what works for you!

In today’s tutorial, you’ll learn how to create a small web app to sell digital items (eg. eBooks) securely and accept payments from PayPal. Become a Premium member to read this tutorial, as well as hundreds of other advanced tutorials and screencasts.

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Join Net Premium

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In the past, in order to create layouts based upon the width of the user’s browser, we had to use JavaScript — perhaps combined with a server-side language. Fortunately, the process is now becoming far simpler, thanks to CSS media queries.

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Method 1: Within your Stylesheet

@media screen and (min-width : 1200px) {
  /* let's do somethin' */
}

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Method 2: Import from within your Stylesheet

@import url( small.css ) screen and ( min-width: 1200px );

Note that you can also add addition rules, by applying a comma — much like you would when using multiple selectors.

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Method 3: Link to a Stylesheet

<link rel="stylesheet" media="screen and (min-width: 1200px)" href="small.css" />

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Method 4: Targeting the iPhone

<link rel="stylesheet" media="only screen and (max-device-width: 480px)" href="mobile.css" />

An interesting note, after a bit of research around the web, is that, despite the fact that iPhone 4 sports a resolution of 640×960, it still we pick up mobile.css, referenced in the code above. How strange? If you have more information on this, please leave a comment for the rest of us!

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Browsers that Support CSS Media Queries

• Firefox 3.5+
• Opera 9.5+
• Safari 3+
• Chrome
• Internet Explorer 9+

Please note that Internet Explorer 8 and below do not support CSS media queries. In those cases, you should use a JavaScript fallback.