AWESOMECON

If you follow Daft Punk at all and/or played Little Big Planet then this will rock your socks off:

With the growth of control and interactivity available via video games, the world of Machinima is really taking off.  Games like Little Big Planet are designed with user content generation in mind and its amazing to see how it is being adapted and expanded by the user community.

Machinima, as defined via Wikipedia:

Machinima (pronounced /məˈʃiːnɨmə/ or /məˈʃɪnɨmə/) is the use of real-time three-dimensional (3-D) graphics rendering engines to generate computer animation. The term also refers to works that incorporate this animation technique. Machinima-based artists, sometimes called machinimists or machinimators, often use graphics engines from video games, a practice that arose from the animated software introductions of the 1980s demoscene, Disney Interactive Studios‘ 1992 computer game Stunt Island, and 1990s recordings of gameplay in first-person shooter (FPS) video games, such as id Software’s Doom and Quake.

[via @mesh]

The Seed from Johnny Kelly on Vimeo.

The Seed is animated short by Johnny Kelly and Nexus Productions using Creative Suite 4 tools.  It was funded by Adobe to feature CS4 and the animation is a combination of graphic/illustrated animation and paper craft stop motion.  Its a beautiful production and they have also provided a making of video to show you how they did some of the animation.

Making of ‘The Seed’ from Johnny Kelly on Vimeo.

Read [via I09]

For the 0.0003% of you that don’t read Boing Boing on a regular basis, check out these stunning pictures by Clark Little.  Clark stands in the waves with a waterprook SLR and takes shots at 9 frames per second to grab these photos.  The above video is his interview on Good Morning America about how he takes the shots.  Brilliant stuff!!

[via Boing Boing]

1 – Go to “wikipedia.” Hit “random… Read More… Read More”
or click http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Random
The first random wikipedia article you get is the name of your band.

2 – Go to “Random quotations”
or click http://www.quotationspage.com/random.php3
The last four or five words of the very last quote of the page is the title of your first album.

3 – Go to flickr and click on “explore the last seven days”
or click http://www.flickr.com/explore/interesting/7days
Third picture, no matter what it is, will be your album cover.

4 – Use photoshop or similar to put it all together.

5 – Post it with this text

Note: I’d also feel free to hit those links a few times to get stuff that will have the best impact… that’s what I did. Hell, use your own picture if you want. Rules were made to be broken! Or just follow the directions to the letter if you want. Fun!

1 – Go to “wikipedia.” Hit “random… Read More… Read More”
or click http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Random
The first random wikipedia article you get is the name of your band.

2 – Go to “Random quotations”
or click http://www.quotationspage.com/random.php3
The last four or five words of the very last quote of the page is the title of your first album.

3 – Go to flickr and click on “explore the last seven days”
or click http://www.flickr.com/explore/interesting/7days
Third picture, no matter what it is, will be your album cover.

4 – Use photoshop or similar to put it all together.

5 – Post it with this text

Note: I’d also feel free to hit those links a few times to get stuff that will have the best impact… that’s what I did. Hell, use your own picture if you want. Rules were made to be broken! Or just follow the directions to the letter if you want. Fun!

KANYE WEST “Welcome To Heartbreak” Directed by Nabil from nabil elderkin on Vimeo.

You have probably seen digital aritfacts when watching a highly compressed video or when your cable feed goes wonky for a bit.  They are the little squares and pixels that drift around and obscure the source you are watching.  In Nabil Elderkin’s mind, the director of the new Kanye West video, digital artifacts are not a bad thing but a tool to create an inspring video.  Even if you dislike Kanye because of his gigantic ego and hubris its still worth checking out.

[via Stereogum]

And here I thought ASCII art fonts took skillz and time to create… not any more! The Text Ascii Art Generator a pretty cool JavaScript app that allows you to select the ASCII art font you want to use and then updates the display as you type.

I love Tesla Coils. I remember the first time a saw one when I was a small boy. It was at an Academy of Science in Dallas or Fort Worth, the actual location is hazy, but sitting in the audience watching the electricity arc out was the coolest thing ever.  They are even cooler today.  Spending the last 10 years in San Francisco and being a DJ, eventually you play or attend at least one party that has a Tesla Coil.  The last one I saw was at the Steampunk Treehouse Fundraiser where I was DJing a set.  They had this massive 10′+ Tesla Coil that was both deafening and f***ing cool.  Especially since I was on the same level as the top of the coil and the electricity kept killing my midi/usb sync to my laptop.

Since that last in-person demo I have been seeing a new trend in “singing” coils, something I have not experienced in person yet.  By modulating the resonant frequency of the coil you can make them play songs. Oh Science, is there nothing you can’t do?  The first video is the original video of a singing coil I had seen.  Below is a new one featuring the “Imperial March”:

Charlie Kratzer decided that he was not happy with his cream colored walls.  Using a sharpie marker he then proceeded to draw an inspired mural across his entire basement.  Its damn impressive if you ask me.

Flinging toast far to reach one’s plate,
Hopeful the distance is judged just so.
Butter prepared, sliced thick like slate
Angles precise, before my bread does bake.

Read [from Ivovos via Ryan]