Thoughtful Preparations: Media Spin Blog

Congratulations to Career Element getting written up in Time magazine.

Funny what turns up on the Internet.  Today I decided to change my Facebook profile picture to Gumby, so I ran a search for “Gumby” using Google’s Image search engine.  On the first page, three of my own images appeared!

See the image above; I captured the screen and marked my images with a yellow asterisk.  You can double click on the image to see it in full size, or better yet, go to Google and run the search yourself!

The images appear in my website’s section about working on an early 3D model of Gumby at New York Institute of Technology, back in the “old school” days of 3D animation development.  I subsequently met Art Clokey, the original Gumby creator and claymation animator.  See the rest of the story and the images here.

Shrek reaches the end of the line with the current Shrek the Fourth 3D movie release.  Let out an obligatory, exhausted, “Whoo-hoo!”

Have the screenwriters reached the end of their own creative lines?  So, why can’t Shrek lose his kingdom to a Ponzi scheme, become an alcoholic junkie in a back alley, team up with the Green Goblin to combat the Green Hornet and Green Lantern, barf out some green super slime that cleans up a giant oil spill?  Whatever happens, Shrek is really Tracy Morgan, and he will continue on just fine.

This video makes outstanding use of Flash ActionScript programming of video object and overlays.  And, it’s funny! On Facebook my profile photo appears in the video.  Due to terms of service with Facebook, it does not appear within this version.

I have over 300 computer-generated images in circulation through a stock photography agency, most of them are 3-D images modeled, textured and rendered using Autodesk’s Maya software.  I receive monthly statements and royalty checks for sales made, and at times they have been substantial.  It’s a very good business relationship. The trouble is, the agency never tells me who purchased the image or where it is being published.

Today I was thumbing through an investment magazine, SmartMoney, and I saw an image in an article about disability insurance and carpal tunnel syndrome.  The image looked familiar, so I checked my computer files, and sure enough, it’s mine.  The trouble is, my stock agency didn’t attach my name to the picture credits.  Not a deal-breaker, but it might help my sales if I had a credit next to my images.  Then clients who like my work could ask for more, and I’d know for sure if it was one of the many I’ve done.

Another similar image appeared in one of those catalogs full of gimmicky personal and household devices, and those images rarely get credits, and that’s OK with me.

Catching up on a number of projects completed over the last few months.  In late August I got a call from a client asking to quickly put together a website that he could use for his affiliate website, to resell “dot tel” addresses.

Dot tel addresses, or .tel, is a new top level domain extension, defined by the Telnic site as:

The .tel is a service that allows individuals and businesses alike to store and manage all their contact information and keywords directly in the DNS without the need to build, host or manage a website.

I found a WordPress template that I liked, and modified it to give it a fun, “Twittery” look.  Then to help my client drive customers to the site through his Twitter expertise, we created a mascot, Peppy the Porpoise, and assigned a dot tel address to Peppy: peppy.tel.

Of course, I had to have some fun, as I often do.  So using Flash I designed, animated and synced up a singing jingle soundtrack, that I wrote and performed the pitch-modified vocals on.  See video online here.

The client is negotiating to become a major affiliate with a few top .tel domainname providers.  When that happens, Peppy will make a very big splash all over the Internet.

Here’s an online video about how to manage your .tel address, once you get one.

Fortunately the WordPress upgrading process has become familiar enough, so there are few worries.  WordPress is now up to version 2.8.4. Upgraded this blog as well as greberadio.com.  Part of the process is to de-activate and update the various plug-ins that extend WordPress functionality.  Both sites now have a new Contact page, enabled by a PHP plug-in.

It’s good to see the progress WordPress software developers have made with this free web publishing platform.  I’ve worked with it long enough to feel comfortable with it for use in developing a variety of new web sites.

Here’s a few cool articles from Best Design Options covering top WordPress plug-ins and themes.

Chocolatized Logo

Did this in half an hour for a client.  Quick tutorial: Found Nike swoosh online.  Placed into Adobe Illustrator, Live Trace, Expand, Duplicate, create Offset Path with rounded corners, Expand, Fill with gradients, Export to PSD.  Open in Photoshop, play with Layer Styles->Bevel and Emboss on layers.  Done.