Ok I'll admit I've been out of it for awhile when it comes to the toy scene and I've had a bit of a sour taste in my mouth about the whole deal. Because of the over-saturation of artists and the many of the companies becoming so close to mainstream (IMO)... I just have been bored with it for the most part.
Ok so when I first read about something called Generative Art in Wired magazine many months ago I was mildly interested but only til the end of that article. I never thought to try my hand at it or find out more about how it works. Well I've been following articles on a pretty cool blog: Media Militia* lately and most recently one of the authors wrote about generative art. With a little free time, I toyed with a couple of the different programs that are available for Windows (since that's what I'm stuck with right now, lol) and found that it was more fun than I had thought. Of course, I might add that I do some (not complex) web programming using vb.net so I enjoy a bit of coding anyway. (That's a warning to the non-programmer graphic designers, in case you hate numbers.. )
If you're interested in seeing some of the programs listed on Media Militia's site, follow the link afterward. For this image I used a program called context free, and this is only a sample, using their tutorial with my own embellishments to the program (how I got the curvature in the tree). Nothing complicated!
Here is the simple program:
startshape trunk
rule trunk
{
SQUARE{}
trunk{ rotate .25 y .4 size .99 brightness .005}
}rule trunk .01
{
SQUARE{}
branch { rotate 25 }
trunk{ y .4 s .99 brightness .005 }
}rule trunk .03
{
SQUARE{}
branch{ rotate -25 }
trunk{ y .4 s .99 brightness .005 |hue 40 |sat .5 }
}rule branch
{
SQUARE{}
trunk {y .4 s .99 brightness .005 }
}
Here is the article that got me started, at Media Militia and the programs I've tried:
- Processing
- Structure Synth
- and of course Context Free
Here is the latest addition to my growing collection of Christmas images on istockphoto.com.
First, we're happy to announce that the team has identified and fixed the issue with the YouTube conduit; you can now find and add videos from YouTube to your library and posts. As always, thanks for your patience!
The other news we have today is about a new addition to the Six Apart family: TypePad Micro, a new free level of TypePad that is streamlined for microblogging. We see a new form of blogging emerging that lives between the quick status updates of Twitter and Facebook and the long-form posts of "classic" blogging; TypePad Micro is designed to meet that need. You can read more about TypePad Micro in Chris Alden's post on the Everything TypePad blog.
A lot of the new capabilities we've added to TypePad this year were actually inspired by some of the best things about Vox: favoriting, member profiles, a dashboard to follow other bloggers, and easy ways to post content from other social media sites. But the things that make Vox different from TypePad are still there: Vox has always been -- and still is -- the best place for "friends and family" blogging, where you're in control over who sees what. TypePad, on the other hand, is built for the blogger who wants, no, craves, attention.
Do you have a passion or interest you want to share with people beyond your Vox neighborhood? If so, we'd love it if you tried out TypePad Micro. Maybe you've always wanted to start that obsessive blog that's just about waffle restaurants. Or want a place to share videos of your favorite band (Jonas Brothers, anyone? Anyone? ...). TypePad Micro's great for those topic-specific blogs. Take it for a spin and let us know what you think.
On the Vox front, our designers are working on some cool new themes (coming soon!). We'd also love to hear your thoughts about where we should take Vox in the coming year. What are the key things you'd like to see for Vox? If you've had a chance to use TypePad this year, what are the features there that we should bring over to Vox? And, if you're thinking big thoughts, how could we connect the Vox and TypePad communities in order to bring together bloggers and their shared passions? Your feedback is really important to us, so please leave a comment here, or shoot me a message.
And again, thanks for your patience as we found and fixed the YouTube bug!
~ daisy
Here is another Christmas image on its way Available NOW! to be sold as royalty free on istockphoto.com. Still a work in progress... but I'll post the finished product and updates for when its available to download.
Some new images hopefully to be approved soon on Istockphoto.com. I hope you'll enjoy them and many of you will find a use for them as Christmas comes closer... First up is my design of FlameHead or sometimes called Flameboy, decked out in Santa clothing. I thought he'd look great as Santa's helper, what do you think?
Next is another revamped design (I didn't like him as much before, as he had a lot of weak lines in him and I beefed them up. I thought a biker-style young Santa would be cool. Well maybe not too young, after all his goatee is still white, but hey... The idea for the slogan "Sleigh to Live" just hit me and I went with it, so if its way stupid, deal with it :P People can always just remove it if they buy the art once its approved.
As many of you have noticed, the YouTube Conduit is not working. I am so sorry about this; I know how frustrating it is.
The team is looking into how to get this fixed and I will update you as soon as I hear something. In the meantime, not all is lost... There is a work-around for posting videos.
When you're in the Compose Screen, just click on "embed." Ignore the fact that it says "Widget" before everything because you can definitely use this to embed videos as well. You'll just need to input the embed code from the video, enter a title (if you want) and hit OK.
It might not show up perfectly in your compose screen, but when you hit "Save," your video should appear just the way you wanted it to.
Hopefully this will allow you to keep posting videos while we figure out what's happening on our end.
As always, thanks for your patience.
Go forth and fill your libraries with media.
Seriously, thanks to everyone for being so amazing and patient. You are the reason I love Vox.
I was just told that the Amazon Conduit will be fixed by tomorrow. I will post here as soon as I get word that it's back up and running.
I know this has been frustrating and I am sorry there wasn't more I could do to make it less so. I really appreciate your patience though.
Cheers,
