On March 2nd, I did the article showing off the talent of Nico / Channel Nexx as he speed-painted John Locke in Photoshop, and a Lord of the Rings cover on canvas. Now that it’s April 2nd, I thinking maybe this should become a regular feature…
But this one Jason / Eclectic Asylum blew me away even more. He doesn’t use fancy gimmicks like Photoshop — no way! He does this in MS Paint, which is unarguably the crappiest piece of Graphics software (well, it’s supposed to be that) ever written!
I present you with: The Mona Lisa, in MS Paint.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uk2sPl_Z7ZU
Way cool!
He’s also been running a contest: “Strike a pose, and get a portrait!” Now watch him paint the last winner (Daxflame) in Chocolate Syrup:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qywqNXbHpLE
Of course, he couldn’t ship a chocolate portrait without nasty melting issues…
Basically, the reacTable is a flat surface that makes sounds and music by dropping different modules onto it, and positoning them so that get the sound you want. Modules range from tone generators, to strobes, to noise gates, etc. etc. It’s like a musical flowchart…
From its designers at Pompeu Fabra University in Barcelona:
The reactable hardware is based on a translucent round table. A video camera situated beneath, continuously analyzes the table surface, tracking the nature, position and orientation of the objects that are distributed on its surface, representing the components of a classic modular synthesizer. These objects are passive without any sensors or actuators, users interact by moving them, changing their position, their orientation or their faces (in the case of volumetric objects). These actions directly control the topological structure and parameters of the sound synthesizer. A projector, also from underneath the table, draws dynamic animations on its surface, providing a visual feedback of the state, the activity and the main characteristics of the sounds produced by the audio synthesizer.
Put simply: I WANT ONE!
In case you’re not getting it, I’m gonna post all three demo videos for this thing. This first is Basic Demo #1.
Does that deserve a, “Whoah!” or what? This is cool stuff! So we go on to Basic Demo #2:
Starting to understand it? Then you’ve gotta check out the Improvisation Demo:
The fun part is, it’s components are not exactly “cutting edge.” But the very idea of putting something together in this fashion is leaps and bounds ahead. Serious kudos are due its creators!
Apparently, this nutjob, California Tae Kwon Do-mom would like the Cops to enforce “Your Way, Right Away” at Burger King…
“Ma’am, we’re not going to go down there and enforce your Western Bacon Cheeseburger … that’s not a criminal issue.”
Fortunately, her calling 911 and tying up resources is a criminal issue. Unfortunately, they apparently didn’t bother to arrest her. That might have taught her kids not to be such spoiled little brats.
What do you bet she was driving a mini-van?
In a weird way, it reminded me of an EMS training call from Houston several years ago. (Language Alert! — but it’s soooooo worth it)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1BQW-0dpNrA
The original was sped up before considerably before being broadcast on the Art Bell Show (remember him?), so the voices ended up sounding as far from their original southern drawl as possible…
Several operators who received the training call were unsure whether or not the event was real, which makes it even better. This is what a good EMS instructor should do — it weeds out those operators who can’t handle the stress.
Quite by accident, I ran across a time-lapse video of a Photoshop paing by an “arte fusion” artist named Nico. Some of you have probably seen this guy before…
If you can see it fast enough, you might actually learn something about Photoshop. Some people, of course, will discount Nico’s talent as a computerized trick, so here’s another one of his…
He’s a talented artist, no doubt, but doing the time-lapse video is particularly brilliant in that it turns the relatively mundane act of painting into an enjoyable act of performance art. It’s difficult to say what’s better: the artistic creations themselves, or the time-lapse videos of their production?
