Videocracy Blog

I’m pleased with some progress I have made in my ability to animate in 3D…I’ve been using blender 3D for some time now…and I am doing a simple animation of a company logo flying in and landing, which will ultimately go on that companies website…

The logo has a metallic shine to it, which is no easy task…briefly touching on color theory, something like silver or gold is not necessarily a color, it’s a reaction to the environment surrounding it.  Just as an example, when I was in my first art class in high school we were given the assignment to paint a chrome ball bearing…and I heard a fellow student ask “Where’s the silver paint.”  Silver isn’t a color, in order to paint or create the effect of silver, and make the object look 3D, you would have to paint objects and images that reflect in the surface of the silver object.

And if you look closely at a silver object you will see a lot of little detail in there that you would never have noticed before…the objects on the table, the room around you…these elements create the illusion of silver…it’s the reflection, the light bouncing back that creates that look…

But what is color anyway but the amount of or lack of light hitting an object…

So one thing I forgot to mention that the only hope to end the confusion of the two formats is a combo player…

I just read this article that shows that Samsung is releasing their second generation combo player…for $599

http://tech.yahoo.com/blogs/patterson/11038

So if you are into tech related things you may have been following the war between Blu-Ray and HD-DVD, and at this point I find that it’s not worth getting too up in arms about…I mean which one is the better format? The cheapest? The most long lasting?  The makers of Blu-Ray and the makers of the HD DVD have been battling to see who is going to be the superior DVD for the next generation…For those of you old enough to remember (I certainly am not…) there was a battle between the makers of VHS, and Beta as to which is the superior standard for Video Tape…the winner in this case was VHS, but it was not the superior format…

The reason this issue is worth looking into now is because it was recently announced that Warner Brothers would be backing Blu-Ray, and in a not to distant past, Dreamworks announced they would be supporting HD DVD….this is an unfortunate choice by both parties because the battle is still going on…and by making certain movies available on exclusively one format or the other, will make consumers pretty unhappy…of course it is predicted that Standard DVDs…like the ones that are in my DVD collection…will still be manufactured for the next 3 years…and even when the time comes to purchase a new or different DVD player…I am sure that they will be backwards compatible and allow standard DVDs to play as well….

This topic got me a little bit more interested in what makes each format better then the other…here’s some quick highlights

Blu-Ray…taken from Blu-ray.com

- Offers more then 5xs the Storage Capacity of a Standard Disc…25Gb on a single layer (4.7Gb on Standard)

- Developed by the Blu-Ray Association

- The correct spelling is Blu-ray…not Blu-Ray

- Blu-ray has a hard coating

HD DVD taken from Wikipedia

- Storage Capacity of 17Gb

- Looks like it’s primary developer was Toshiba

Both formats rely on the Blue Laser technology…

I could go on with what I have learned about these two, but I won’t for now…as I learn more I’m sure I’ll share more…

It will be interesting to see which format comes out on top…

I’m listening to a podcast, and they are discussing some interesting things about archiving video…they are talking about how in order to archive a digital copy of a feature length film, costs upwards of 2000 dollars to archive the film, versus 500 dollars to transfer it to film and store it in a vault…

And they are also saying that film will live for 100 years, whereas the digital copy will only last 20-30 years…plus with the ever changing technology, we don’t even know if we are able to read these archives 20 years from now…

They also proposed that with the technology changing and now that we are moving to tapeless cameras, how are we going to preserve these digital files if they are not being backed up to tape initially…

With all the people scrambling to convert their 8mm films to digital…they are better off leaving them in 8mm, or at least hang on to them once they’ve been archived onto digital…

A few years ago, while I was in college we had a brief talk about the digital television change over…and initially we had talked about how we would be seeing an all digital signal by the end of 2007.  Well, it’s now the beginning of 2008 and we still haven’t seen this changeover.

Information about this analog to digital signal change is becoming more available, and questions are becoming more readily available. The newest buzz happening these days, is that each household in the country can apply to receive two $40 coupons for a reduced price on the converter set top boxes which will take the digital signal and convert it into an analog signal, so you don’t have to buy a new television.  A site to check out for more information on this is www.dtv2009.gov/ This is the site that you can go to, to apply for the coupon.

Something I didn’t realize is that these set top boxes are really meant for people who still use antenna’s to  watch TV, as opposed to watching Cable channels.  The Cable provider will handle the conversation through their cable set top boxes….

I am sure I will be writing more, as I learn more…but in the mean time I have a lot of reading to do on this subject before February 2009.

An interesting site I’d like to pass along to anyone who does video for home use, or for putting on YouTube…specifically for Novice Filmmakers… FixMyMovie.com you can upload your videos, and the site will color correct or fix any general problems that your video will have.  Then it will output to H.264 format, and you can use their servers to host your video, or you can take it and put it on any site you want…like YouTube or wherever…it’s a site worth checking out.