a lot of stuff and nonsense from eclectech

A new animation. Hooray! This one was started months ago, I just struggled to find time to get it finished with The Techling and work projects taking so much of my time. Fortunately work is finally under control, and with eclectech.co.uk's 9th birthday I had the motivation to get my head down and finish it. It's called Petit Chaton, the song is by The Swings and it was just perfect for animating. Enjoy.

Labels: flash animation, mr and mrs swing, video

Aside from a few lines on twitter, a couple of new silly dogs and some photos I've not been online much recently. Part has been having fun in the sun with Mr Tech and The Techling, the other part has been doing lots of work that will be going online over the next month or so. The first bit has been working on a web site for the new Rubik's puzzle, the Rubik's 360. The best bit? Getting together top audio mangler Doghorse with 3D whizz Chris Ollis/Happy Toast to make this fantastic launch animation; Twisted Thinking (360).



The worse bit? The fact that I'm just as rubbish at the 360 as I am the cube. I'm not the most patient person with puzzles :)

Labels: neat links, video

I've not been online much recently, here or anywhere. Off-line life is rather hectic getting work finished up and things sorted in readiness for the Big Day of babytech arriving. I'm hoping to get a new animation out in the next couple of weeks but it all depends...

We have released an animation with Friends of the Earth since my last post. Available through their new site at www.exxon-files.eu or at YouTube, it looks at the approach of one particular oil company to climate change research.

Hopefully I'll have a little free time before baby arrives and be able to catch up with online friends. In the meantime have a very splendid video that you've probably seen before but is currently making me smile. Christopher Walken rocks.

Labels: blether, flash animation, video

A little something from my formative years. Watching this transported me back a good 17 or 18 years in a very impressive manner. The Cardiacs rock.



Stumbling across things like this should help balance out my YouTube moans; sometimes it really does come up trumps.

In other news my web site just turned seven years old. How quickly they grow. To mark the occasion I knocked together some little pairs games with images from my gallery.

Mutant Match | Nostril Eye Mutant Match | Posh Pairs

Labels: flash games, neat links, video

The otters came out to play for me last week and despite my camerawork not being up to their rather fast dashing about I managed to get a spot of video, now online with a snippet of Paul Whiteman and his orchestra as backing (hooray for public domain MP3s!).

Otterly Lovely.

I took lots of photos too.

The highlight of this visit were definitely the joyful otters and the red ruffed lemurs. After spending a while photographing butterflies in the lemur enclosure they graced us with their presence and were very fine company.

Labels: blether, photos, video

A couple of weeks back I promised a frisky tortoise so here he is. Rumour has it that later on he did actually manage to mount the lady tortoise the correct way round; he was 100 odd years old so I suppose he's not doing bad really.
Tortoise of Lurve

And whilst I'm here (and as I have another mad week ahead and am unlikely to get much online playtime) I recommend having a wee peek over at indexed, I particularly liked this one.

I'm restraining myself from ranting about this. I saw a couple from the plane being interviewed saying something along the lines of "Rightly or wrongly the atmosphere changed when they got on board".

I think you'll find that's wrongly. Yes. Definitely.

Och well. Enjoy the tortoise of lurve. I hope to reappear before the week ends with the next part of my Baked Beats animation but I might be being overly optimistic.

Labels: blether, neat links, news links, video

My software has an attitude problem.

I have just put together another silly video and decided to make a page for videos on my site. The quickest way for me to make the icons was to play the source video, grab a frame and make the icon from that. But I couldn't.

My software assumed that I didn't own the video I was playing. It accused me of stealing. I'm insulted.

On the plus side I now have animated icons on the page as I couldn't be as lazy as I intended.

On the down side my software is apparently allowed to defame my character and deny me the presumption of innocence* on the basis, I assume, that some people would screen grab something they shouldn't. If that's the case prosecute them, don't pester me and my penguins.

I mentioned them a couple of posts ago, but again, we really need ORG.

Anyhow, the video. If you've waded through my moaning you deserve it.
If you've skipped to the bold text have a gold star for initiative, I'm sure you deserve it too.

Penguins!
30 seconds of penguin joy (the sequel). 790KB Flash.

* I accept I could be seen as overstating the issue here. But it is what it was saying, deep down. They are wrong.

Labels: disgruntled, open rights group, penguin joy, video

...and I'm in the midst of a new Flash animation, a teched up Gilbert and Sullivan this time. There are plans for a Yiddish G & S piece later in the year too (I was intrigued by this concept far too much to avoid getting involved).

In my head-down animating-hard absence have this ludicrous art gallery picture that makes me giggle too much for my own good. I adore Reefer Madness. I can't help it. There's another RM derivative from a while back here.

There's another similar art gallery image here too, although the woman with her hand stuck on her head is from a later anti-drugs movie rather then the Reefer Madness classic.

In other news:

ID cards doomed, say officials

Emails from Whitehall officials in charge of ID cards

Identity card scheme faces delay

And an example of why I'm pleased that Whitehall are acknowledging the problem with our Governments ID cards plans... Online passport applications halted - 5,000 people are kept waiting after an internet system broke down just three weeks after its launch. I'm feeling even luckier at the successful renewal of my passport and pleased that I didn't trust the online system.

Labels: blether, NO2ID, video

30 seconds of penguin joy to be precise. 750KB Flash video of some lovely penguins at Edinburgh zoo yesterday. Enjoy.

Labels: penguin joy, video

I've got some new gadgetry that means I can get my old video footage into my computer and I have been playing with it this week. It has involved a great deal of smiling at memories.

In some instances I've just patched the video together, such as this timelapse footage taken in the Highlands. On some pieces I've added some scribbles, such as this piece from the Pass of the Cattle, near Applecross. For some pieces I went 100% scribbles, as they seemed right. The lizard is an example of that; the original lived in Watson Bay, Sydney.

I have a feeling that my particular liking for the colour orange came out of the trip to Australia. We spent a week driving through the desert, ending at Uluru. Orange was dominant, and I don't remember being so partial to it before then.

Memories can be very fine things.

Labels: blether, scotland, video

Some of you probably already know that I am a big fan of penguins. They are wonderful creatures and make me grin, particularly when they're being canny at the safari park, shuggling a plank of wood to make a ramp and clambering up onto the wall to their enclosure. Really. It was very special.
Penguin escape - the video (1MB Flash).

I got some nice photos for future editing as well as the video, nearly 2GBs of material by the time I got home. I am very tempted by the idea of a penguin fashion show at the moment, some of the video footage would be perfect, but I have other projects to finish first so I must avoid getting too distracted.

Labels: penguin joy, photos, video