I couldn’t help but think back to the type of store Toys R Us was in my youth and what it represented. They wouldn’t even let you in the place unless you were accompanied by a parent. Surely not because you’d destroy anything  rather because its unlikely you would ever come back out.

If it had anything to do with fun, Toys R Us had it. They had what all the other retailers had in their toy departments, just that Toys R Us had so much more. An entire row of possibly every board game ever created, stocked  in alphabetical order. GI Joe for boys and Barbie for girls, chemistry and geology sets, bikes and scooters. My generation was allowed Darwin’s law to take its natural course so they had lawn darts, creepy crawler sets with real hot plates, and the slip and slide with exposed metal anchors along the side to hold it down. It was the true fantasy land with the dreams and the danger.

Even when I got older and had my own kids, Christmas shopping was a one stop event with Toys R Us, by then having added video games into the mix. In fact I bought my first computer as an adult at Toys R Us

It’s probably been four or five years since I have gone into the store. It had already become a shadow of its former self by then. Gone were the long rows stacked to the roof.

Really it doesn’t surprise me at all, the writing has been on the wall for quite some time. Not all that sad either, because I still hold onto those fun memories of what it once was. And those memories are awesome.

I haven’t used Daz Studio much in the past preferring to stick with the more familiar Poser, However as of late Poser has been gathering some dust for me as I’ve moved on to a few more full featured modeling tools. A few times now when I’ve needed to create a character for a scene I’ve opted for Daz Studio and feeling more comfortable with the interface.

Up until version 3 Daz Studio has always been a free application, with the release of version 3 Daz has now introduced a “Pro” version which is no longer free but at a very reasonable price, currently on sale for $50 and some change. A slightly toned down version is still available as a free download.

Several enhancements have been added in the areas of animation, texturing, and character morphing. They have also improved the rendering, which bottom line, while all the other things are important and useful, nothing is more important in my view than the final output. So I downloade the 30 day trial of the pro product and thought I’d do a test project. The results are the image below:

This was straight from Daz Studio with no real post work performed. Some like to do renders that have a cartoon or drawing like look, I much prefer to do images that are as lifelike as possible. I thought this came out close to achieving that goal. Her eyes don’t quite have what I would call a natural quality but that has more to do with the texture rather than the render engine. All in all I think its decent.

As I watched some of early news reports, the crowds of people gathering around the UCLA medical center, many of them sobbing, I couldn’t help think back to an event the happened thirty-two years ago, the death of Elvis Presley. I thought of the parallels that have already begun and many more which are to come in the months ahead.

I was still in my teens when Elvis died and while I’m sure he still had his fans out there, at least in the area where I grew up he was mostly known as a guy who made a bunch of really bad movies. Before that he enjoyed a successful singing career but all of that was before I was born. Rock had gone in a completely different direction and while certainly many popular artists of the time counted Elvis as an influence, no one that I knew called themselves a fan.

Jumping forward a few years in my lifetime, there wasn’t any place you could go without hearing Michael Jackson music being played. Backed then MTV stood for music television and Michael’s videos dominated that too. Michael Jackson was so big that even one of the accomplished rock guitarist in history contributed an uncredited piece to Michael’s biggest hit.

It was hard to imagine Michael’s position at the top of the music world not lasting forever, yet in retrospect it only lasted a few short years. All of that took place over twenty years ago and I cannot help but wonder if those in their late teens and early twenties today have the same type of impression of Michael Jackson as I did of Elvis Presley thirty-two years ago.Up until today, if you had brought up the name Michael Jackson in conversation, most of the talk would certainly have been his freakish behavior in recent years.

Elvis himself was also know for unusual practices by social standards, and in the eyes of many a superstar has been. Yet when he died his popularity soared, his face on the cover of every magazine, his awful movies suddenly were not so bad playing frequently on the small screen, thousands turned out for candle light vigils in his honor all over the world. Some to this day believe he really hasn’t died because he was spotted working at a gas station in Oklahoma.

I was awestruck at the magnitude of grief exhibited by so many, some even taking it to a tragic end. I had to wonder, how many of these truly loved the man or were so many simply caught up in the moment?

Already in the early hours after his death we are starting to see the same type of reaction to Michael Jackson. The outpouring of emotion and grief is usually not a bad thing and I support all who feel that need. However it does concern me about those who will take things too far. If they occur this time around will be the stories that I grieve over, lets hope they don’t.

Could they be any more out of touch or is it the possibility of losing their gold lined pockets they are more concerned with? If you happen to live in the US and are fortune enough to have health coverage when was the last time you or a family member had a health issue and didn’t end up standing in line waiting for your name to be called or waiting in a hospital room all day long for a doctor to stop by for five minutes? Or waiting days, maybe even weeks stressing over some test results to come back?

I can’t recall anyone in recent years who needed some care and didn’t have some horror story to tell about it. But all of that is the easy part, the part most of truly live in fear of is the cost. Even those of us fortunate enough to have coverage are forced to live in a state of worry that an illness or injury could lead to financial ruin.

In our day to day lives, we go to the store and buy a loaf of bread, go shopping for a new car or home. We always know the price upfront, but what is the one thing you have no idea what its going to cost until you get the bill? Health care. Why is that? Why do we need to live in fear of getting sick? Far more people are worried about how they will pay for health care rather than choosing a doctor. Yet people keep falling for the same old worn out scare tactics. Are we going to be duped again or will we really see positive change this time around?

Rather than solid panes of color, I would make one using hypnosis spirals. Clicking on any of the panes on this color chart will display a full sized animated version of the same colored spiral. So you may decide, which color is most hypnotic?

Hypnosis Spiral Color Chart

The past few months have been difficult, again I am not alone. The situations of others, friends, family, and myself have all weighed heavily on me, eating at me from the inside out.

In the process I have kept to myself much more than normal. I haven’t kept up my end of the deal in relationships, with the people who are very dear to me, people that I care very much for. It’s kind of weird because I realize that and it causes me to just internalize things that much more. That makes me feel awful.

I need to break out of this funk. I guess its kind of like worry turns to depression, and eventually to anger. Perhaps not the bad sort of anger, but the anger that but a cause to action.

Very recently things went down and I came away feeling as though I had been sucker punched. That seemed to have hastened my forward motion into the anger phase. I still haven’t quite left all that depression behind though, and I really need to. Because that feeling is paralyzing, it stands in the way.

There are so many cool things in life, but sheesh it can sure suck some times. I have some serious challenges, no question, but I am starting to wrap my brain around getting back to the person I like to be, I think it will be a tough ride but I am going to give it my best shot.

Make no mistake about it, Apple is capable of producing some fine hardware, I have even owned a couple of Mac’s myself a few years ago. However beyond the hefty price tag as compared to a similar wintel machine, the thing that finally caused me to find a place for the machine in the closet was the fact there just wasn’t any software available for the Mac. Oh sure there was some but it got frustrating having to check if there was a Mac version and more often than not coming away disappointed.

The lack of software is rooted squarely on the size of the user base. If I happen to be developing a piece of software, I certainly want to receive the most bang for my buck, actually lots of bucks. In many cases there just isn’t the return on the investment to justify developing for the Mac.

I have used the same argument concerning the lack of malware targeted at the Mac. I would gather the evil software doers think of the same return on investment. However the Mac is growing in popularity and with that I saw the following article today:

Mac hit with Malware Attack

In this particular case, the rogue software is embedded in an application being distributed on a bit torrent. In my opinion anyone participating in bit torrent activity is just asking for trouble, the word karma comes to mind.

The point is, yes Apple does make a series of fine computers, but if you are using a Mac, don’t get lulled into a false sense of security. That up to date security software is certainly not a waste of time or money.

At that time nearly everyone who used photography as a form of artistic expression worked in black and white. I still love black and white photos as I feel the art has so many subtleties that are often lost in color. However I digress, I mean to be talking about doorknob photography.

The idea behind this exercise was to take a subject that is really not all that interesting or complex all by itself, and pay more attention the framing of the subject, the angle of the shot, the way light and shadows play together. A good photograph pays attention to all of these elements.

Today I was thinking back to that article and how really it does apply to the core of what becomes stunning art. Some times the special effects, the cool animation, or content itself become the focus. But really all of those elements are wasted without the perfect light or the correct point of view. It’s interesting to me now matter how complex something becomes, its always the basics that make the difference.

What is my favorite new feature? By far, by far and away my favorite new feature are document tabs. I remember the first time I used Firefox and found I could have several web sites open at the same time without multiple browser open at the same time through the magic of tabs.

And now this awesome technology has come to Photoshop and I couldn’t be more excited. If you are like me, you frequently have several images open all at the same time. It used to be Photoshop on my screen looked like some sort of scrapbook with images scattered about. And woe be to me if I should ever minimize one and try to find it again. Now its just a click of a tab, thanks Adobe!

Both of these products are considered hobby level applications within the 3D modeling community yet both are also powerful enough to accomplish many complex tasks. Both also have a reputation for being buggy within the forums that I frequent.  I suppose that it a sure sign that I’m still novice because I haven’t noticed any of the bugs yet.

Lately I’ve been thinking investments in 3D modeling tools. Of course there is the financial investment but there is also the investment of time. I am trying to decide if I should just stick with Carrara/Hexagon or if I should be looking towards something that is the next level up.

There are the pro level tools such as Maya and 3ds Max, but those are mega bucks as in needing to apply for a mortgage in order to buy them.  However there are some mid level tools that I could afford by setting some money aside for a few months.

The major thing Carrara has going for it besides the fact that I already have it, is that it works very well with Poser, its fairly easy to move object from one product to the other.  On the downside is the lack of formal training material, there are not many books and unlike the pro level applications, I know of no classes where Carrara is taught. Not to mention the bugs that I have not yet discovered.

The biggest risk of all is vendor support.  Carrara 7 was just released however I have to wonder if some time in the near future Daz decides to drop the product.  In today’s economy these things do happen, and at the core of why I am still looking for my tool of choice.

I have been spending most of my time the past few weeks learning, it’s a entirely new level of satisfaction to have created an entire scene or animation with materials created from scratch, and that’s the place I want to be.  I’ve done a few quick projects and a couple of other things that I am working on by request. And still having a blast with it all.