I came across some interesting news this week whilst previewing some of the new features that will be available to owners of Apple’s iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad later this year as part of the OS4 upgrade. See preview information here:

iPhone OS4 overview: http://www.apple.com/iphone/preview-iphone-os/

iPhone OS4 Keynote speech: http://www.apple.com/quicktime/qtv/specialevent0410/

I own an iPhone and can’t wait to get my hands on the upgrade. However what stood out the most of all the new features is iAd. This is Apples planned in-app advertising platform similar to Googles Adsense. At the moment AdMob (owned by Google) is the main distributor of mobile adverts and can be seen on most of the free iPhone apps/games and specially formatted mobile websites.

Considering Googles dominance in internet advertising both on normal and on mobile devices, Apples entrance signifies great confidence in their own offerings, and I don’t blame them! Their iAd platform will tie in directly with their already impressive iPhone development kit and will offer developers higher levels advert control. Additionally developers will receive a generous 60% commission instead of Googles mysteriously calculated and ever changing one. The appeal of using iAd already marks a grim future for Google Ads within iPhone/ iPad and iPod apps.

Given Googles recent mobile phone endeavors à la Android (the open source mobile OS) and this years launch of the touch screen ‘Google Phone’, Apples move is obviously a retort; the beginning of a Apple vs Google War!

With thier newborn, the iPad, Apple are already making promises of a new mobile gaming and internet lifestyle (one which they intend to lead). Dependant on the success of the iPad in the coming months I don’t see Google letting them do this quietly! Things couldn’t be better for iPhone developers right now. New toys on the horizon and the potential for Ad price wars!

Lets see what happens. With both giants attempting to outdo the other at their own …’games’ things are about to get exiting!

Related Info:
If you are interested in iPhone development, you may be interested in iFund. This initiative was launched a few years ago with great success. They have financial support to start ups such as Shazam, Cooliris and Zynga mobile. Now with an increased fund of $200M they are looking to invest in another wave of innovative ventures for iPhone and now for the iPad. The below launch vids are worth taking a look at:

And just incase you feel you’re missing out on the poem:

For more info on iFund see: http://www.kpcb.com/initiatives/ifund/index.html

I stumbled across this artist around 2 years ago on one of my trips to Forbidden Planet @ Tottenham Court Road Branch . Unknown to me at the time, this artist had an affiliation with another of my favourite artists Tanaka Tatsuyuki via STUDIO4℃, a Japanese animation studio.

Get this book Now!!

This animator mainly works freelance these days making music videos and other shorts. He has worked with the Wachowski Brothers to direct “Beyond”, a segment of The Animatrix and is said to be working on another short movie ‘Sachiko’, his second feature-length film.

I love his style, probably more than Tanaka’s and thats a feat! I like the way he plays on perspective and the way limbs almost look disjointed at times yet seem to make sense. He has similar sinister undertones as Tanaka and some clever page layouts. For example one page features a neatly cut hole of around 2cm in diameter. The image surrounding the hole and the the page visible behind it complete the illustration. On the other side of the page u realise that the illustration that you just looked at (in particular the now hidden page opposite the hole) completes the illustration on the reverse side of the page with the hole ….. hopefully that makes sense .

His wacky illustrations are depicted with clean crisp lines of beige, red, turquoise, and black and his ability to render buildings and tekkie devices is amazing! You should take a look at (or even better buy) his book Orange in order to fully appreciate his works.

More recently whilst Hunting down more works by this artist I found these animations on YouTube:

…Enjoy!!

A few of the scenes from this short are used in the book Orange. Nice paralax scrolling effect@1min10secs…. genius!!

Recent works:
http://www.catsuka.com/kojimorimotodotnet_news.php?news=1270491768

.Hack// intro:
http://www.catsuka.com/kojimorimotodotnet_news.php?news=1268002742

More on Studio4°C
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Studio_4°C

Studio4°C Website (in Japanese)
http://studio4c.co.jp/top.html

Koji Morimoto (森本晃司, Morimoto Kōji) info:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/K%C5%8Dji_Morimoto

Just seen this site. It looks to be only a week old and has amassed a huge following. It has a large database of recent movies although the quality is very dodgy!

One feature I have to admit that I like is the thumbs up and down for the links. You get to see the percentage of people who have verified the link as working and not working. Its really helpful for seeing if a link is corrupted before you click it.

I’ve tried searching for a couple movies here (they have Akira:))). I wouldn’t recommend going here instead of the cinema just yet or even ditching your DVD collection. Its more useful for finding old movies you’ve seen before and can’t be bothered to dig out the crates or get back from your mates!!

www.movies-links.tv

How long will this site last before they shut it down?! Who knows!! Enjoy!!

Blender 3D!! Simple!

GET BLENDER NOW!!!

Blender is open source and packs a lot of features found only on high end 3D software which costs in the thousands of pounds/dollars –[insert local denomination]–!!

I haven’t produced any 3D recently however the feature set offered by blender is close catching up to the feature set offered by the big boys.

Not only this, but if you goto the download page for blender you will quickly notice that this software runs most major platforms and looks and performs well on each of them. I’ve even run it on a PocketPC and I was blown away just to see it working on the thing!

Once thing I would say is that the workflow differs greatly from other major 3D applications. Whether you are coming from one of these or just dabbling, I would advise you to read the online help.

I purchased the official blender manual around 2 years ago as free information on blender was a little sparse around then. While I still believe its a great investment for anyone who is serious about creating anything in blender, the official sites documentation now looks like a sufficient place to start. There are also many video tutorials around the internet and communities supporting the creation of 3D graphics using Blender 3D

Did I mention it was free?!!

Download it and have a go! and watch this space!!

–// Official Site :
Blender Home Page
Blender Features Link
Blender Download Link

–// Related Sites
Blender Nation – Blender Blog
Blender Artists – Blender Community
Wiki Books Link Pdf downloadable version available here.
Elephants Dream - Worlds first ‘Open Movie’ made with Blender 3D

Tanaka Tatsuyuki has to be in my artist top-10, and has been responsible for some of the most sophisticated animations in the industry. He forged his name in the late 80′s whilst working freelance as a key animator on the arm mutation scene in the cult anime classic Akira.

Tanaka Tatsuyuki

Since then he has joined with a few other artist (including another favorite of mine) at Studio 4°C. He now spends his time creating illustrations, manga, and short animations and other commissioned works.

His book titled Cannabis Works is a joy to read and study. It features works from across his career and continues in the theme of strange sinister acts in derelict surroundings.

The book features a lot of pastel colors, greys and black and pieces tend to have a green tinge finish. I’m not sure if this is his signature however videos I have seen produced by him have this weird finish too.

His backgrounds are as highly just as detailed as the main characters within any scene, some maybe more so. His ability to accurately render the technology and surrounding artefacts like pipes and bolts help to give this artists works a very convincingly macabre atmosphere.

If like me you love his style you may consider getting your hands on a copy of Comickers Vol 2 where he details his creation process. Be warned though, as he sketches don’t give much away. If you are looking for construction lines often left behind by other artists, forget it! His ‘ruff sketches’ are …. like finished works… they’re hot!!

See the arm mutation scene:

Related and juicy:
Akira (アキラ) Sound Clip by Geinoh Yamashirogumi Part 1

In the next clip pay attention to how the guy at 8min54sec hammers the notes off that instrument and mutes the ringout with the other hand whilst half asleep! – WOW!!!

Akira (アキラ) Sound Clip by Geinoh Yamashirogumi Part 2:

Loving Mr Yamashiros Apple Mac @4min 13.

Yup! Another new(ish) product from Google.

Go is the new programming language developed by Google with its accompanying compiler Ogle and below character as its mascot:

Although you may get beaten up for wearing any clothing featuring the mascot, the language does actually sound exiting and I thought it was worth mentioning.

This new programming language has a focus on concurrency, garbage collection, and expressiveness. This essentially, means you can separate tasks out into separate processes and have them running all at the same time, whilst at the same time, any unused items of code in memory get destroyed in real-time optimising performance, and lastly that the code uses syntax closer to human speech so its easier for programmers and non programmers alike to interpret and write code. This last factor is one on the increase in new frameworks, although it has long been one of the key features of scripted languages like lisp, smalltalk, ruby and perl.

The golang site is actually powered using this language, and it looks like the language was born out of and is geared toward creating server solutions. I see another David Heinmeir Hanson and new scripting language emerging soon!!

Sorry guys about the pages. Some seem to fall apart and some tweaks are yet to be applied to this blog.

Unfortunatly there’s not enuff day left in my time!

I’ll have this fixed asap… Zzz!