Once every couple of years I attend Siggraph just to feel the vibe and to see if there are any cool tools that need some hands-on playtime. After feeling the cool thrill of seeing 3 of our IBM webverts on the big screen at the Nokia Theater in the 2008 CAF, I went back to the exhibition floor and found such a cool tool.

At the Wacom stand they were showing off their newish Cintiq tablets. I’ve seen these before but never really played with one. I’m always looking for devices and software to make the creative process smoother and this is one of those. The special feature of this tablet is that it has a built in monitor. This enables you to draw right on the canvas so it feels like you are drawing on paper. Those of you doing more pitches than jobs will realize immediately the worth of such a tool.

I’ve used Wacom tablets for over 10 years and can attest to the fact that they’ve saved my wrists. They are great for drawing and even for 3D but I still sketch on paper before I take the image into Photoshop. For me there has always been a strange disconnect to draw on one surface and to see it on another - the monitor. Now, with this Cintiq, that problem has been resolved and your brush strokes flow out of the tablet’s pen.

I decided to get the smallest one in their arsenal - the 12WX. I do like the 20 and 21 inch versions a lot but as I am a generalist, simultaneously using other devices, I didn’t want it to take over my entire desk space. Real estate is at a premium and I saw it more as a replacement of my regular tablet in combination with my 30 inch display. I wanted to be able to switch on the monitor part of the tablet for when I wanted to sketch.

Okay, so now you’re thinking, whoop-dee-doo, he finally discovered the Cintiq tablet. But although that’s great the cool thing I wanted to tell you about is a piece of software that makes using the Cintiq even sweeter.

Let me back up a little. The Cintiq 12WX is small and has a screen resolution of 1280 x 800. My 30 inch Dell monitor has a resolution of 2560 x 1600. The way you normally set up the Cintiq is by setting up your displays as DualView. This extends your desktop over 2 monitors and you can drag your canvas from PhotoShop to your second display -  the Cintiq. If you want to work in Mirror View, in which both displays show the same image, you’ll have to set the resolution on both screens to the lowest one. In this case the one of the Cintiq. Believe me, 1280 x 800 on a 30 inch monitor looks awful.  Also, I didn’t always want to always have the Cintiq monitor on and the Cintiq doesn’t have a switch to turn off the display. (Note to Wacom.)  When I’m not sketching I want to use the Cintiq as a regular Wacom Tablet by putting the monitor to sleep. What I found myself doing was switching display profiles in my Nvidia Control Panel every time I wanted to sketch.

I packed my bag and went out into the World Wide Web to find some help - and I did. The elegant solution that you all have to know about is the UltraMon at: http://www.realtimesoft.com. Their website is terrible but don’t let that put you off. I have to admit I paced up and down in front of this site before I found the courage to download their applet. UltraMon basically takes over your display settings. From your taskbar you can quickly switch from Single Display, Dual Display or Mirroring. This is great and already a lot quicker that opening your Display Control Panel to change it there but there is even a much nicer feature in UltraMon - it allows you to create short cuts. I created a shortcut for Photoshop in UltraMon. I won’t go into all the settings as I’m not writing a manual here but in essence this is what it does.  When I click on my newly created Photoshop shortcut in my task bar UltraMon automatically changes my display settings to mirror. It wakes my Cintiq monitor up from sleep mode and displays full resolution (2560 x 1600) on my 30 inch display and projects this as well on my Cintiq. It probably does this by scaling 2560 x 1600 to 1280 x 800 but whatever it works. When I quit out of Photoshop UltraMon switches back my display settings to Single Display and puts my Cintiq monitor back to sleep. In short, UltraMon allows you to create shortcuts for each application that drive different display settings. UtraMon uses the icon from the original application for the shortcuts so it looks clean and professional.

This is a $40 “must have” piece of software if you own a Cintiq tablet.

I’ve been running into some strange error messages lately. I thought they would go away as I just bought a new clean workstation but after I installed all my software the same error messages appeared. It was time to get to the bottom of this.

My first error message was “windows logon UI encountered a problem and needed to close” and my second was for a USB key that unlocks my Canopus ProCoder software license.This USB key uses the HASP4 driver from Alladin. The second message read “cannot open HASP driver”. 

I went through all the usual stuff like reinstalling new drivers from the internet and reading through endless and normally very helpful bulletin board posts with no luck. It started to look like I was the only one having this problem. This made me think that it might be a conflict between drivers or devices so I started to uninstall software. First one out the door was ProCoder and it’s Hasp4 driver. It was no surprise that the second message didn’t show up anymore but Dr. Watson still went bat shit giving me endless error messages about my logon UI problems. This happens on start up and goes away after a while. I don’t know why but suddenly my attention shifted to my Logitech web cam. That could be because a little amber light on the camera blinks each time my computer starts up. So, I uninstalled the camera drivers and unplugged the camera and that put a sock in Dr. Watson and solved the logo UI problem. I re-installed my Canopus Procoder software with the Hasp4 Driver and all worked fine.

Now that I knew what created the conflict my next task was to find a solution. I plugged the camera back in but instead of installing the bloated software from the Logitech site I let Windows XP find the drivers hoping these would be lighter and less prone to conflict with other software. Also, as Skype checks for the camera on start up, I changed that one setting to prevent it launching on start up. 

After I rebooted my new system everything looked healthy and best of all Dr Watson is off my back.

The Car and The Road: A Romance in Automation follows the trials and tribulations of a sensible, straight road as he seeks to reinvent himself for the car he loves.  Watch, as the road bares his inner passionate self to woo the fun loving car … “that can do things other cars only dream about.”  Sigh… a true love story for the modern era.

This charming work, directed by Jerry van de Beek and Betsy de Fries of Little Fluffy Clouds, was created for the Lexus Car Corporation.  Described by the Association Internationale du Film d’Animation (ASIFA) as, “A lovely animated fable…” The Car and The Road takes its inspiration from Chuck Jones’ Oscar winning film, The Dot and The Line. Original composition for the almost 4 minute film was scored by Trivers-Meyers Music whose arrangement fits hand in glove with the visuals. Commissioned by Los Angeles ad agency, Team One, The Car and The Road is a colorful and imaginative feast for the eyes.  

Animated using Adobe Illustrator, After Effects and Photoshop with Autodesk Maya and hand drawn frames. The Car and The Road will be seen on all broadcast media: Cinema, TV and Web.

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The much-anticipated Samsung Instinct has hit the market. Packed with all the latest features and mobile phone wizardry this wireless device is Sprint’s biggest handset launch of the year. Scoring high in the reviews, pre-registration for the Instinct surpassed all expectations. The sleek look and touch-screen design is all set to go head to head with Apple cult favorite, iPhone. 

Retailers report that the Instinct, which is cheaper than the iPhone, is flying off the shelves since launching June 20. Six days after the phone’s launch, Sprint called the Samsung Instinct ”the fastest-selling EVDO handset in the company’s history.”

Photo real model and layouts created by Little Fluffy Clouds for Goodby Silverstein and Partners, San Francisco.  Check out the buzz at: http://www.instinctthephone.com/ 

Okay, I confess, when I blog it’s usually in the service of Little Fluffy Clouds animation. We’re not as big a studio as Pixar so we have to maximize every opportunity to blow our own horn. It’s kinda like that when you’re an independent film maker or a first time author. If you’re flogging the new iPhone 35 everyone wants to print your press release verbatum but if you’re Don Gallinger and you’re only on the cusp of fame and fortune and not yet on the Oprah book club list, then you’ve got a hard row to hoe.  So, to this end every friend with a blog or horn must be enlisted towards the effort.

The Master Planets by Donald Gallinger.  Here’s a brief synopsis:

In the summer of 1973, Peter Jameson, a buoyant, handsome, already-idolized rock wunderkind stands poised to take his band, The Master Planets, to the top. Then his mother, a suburban housewife with a flower shop, is found dead after murdering an elderly German man living in Ohio. Suddenly, past collides with present in a sequence of loss and betrayal that ends his dreams and forever changes his life.  …  When everything you wanted is taken away, what is left behind?

Intrigued? Away you go then to Don’s blog to read a longer excerpt and order a real copy via Amazon at:http://www.donaldgallinger.com/ 

PARTY  is the latest in a continuing series of spots for Oscar Meyers, Lunchables, starring the irrepressible Lunchables Brigade of Oscar, Maya and Abel. In this episode the firm friends bring their own brand of explosive fun, mayhem and chaos to the school playground. Follow the action where just opening a pizza box sets off a party to be reckoned with. But young Buck, one of the Lunchables schoolyard regulars, has eyes only for the best tasting pizza ever and even though confetti, balloons, streamers and hi jinx happen all around him his rapture never wanes. Airing nationally on Cartoon Network, this 30-second spot is all animation.

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I am an unabashed Francophile. SO imagine how happy I was to hear that our short film, TODAY, was being featured not only at Festival NEMO in Paris but also at the 9th Elektra International Digital Arts Festival in Montreal. Deux Rêve Français - if I may make make so free with the Franglaise.

The mandate of ACREQ is to forge links between electronic music and other visual media. Here at Elektra you can immerse yourself in “the latest aesthetic currents in artistic practice with new technologies at their core.” The Elektra refuses to be restrained by the boundaries created by many so schools and styles in our field. It’s their mission to promote only the highest quality work. Robotics, digital imagery and music come together. Added to this fertile mix is a genuine desire to attract a wider audience, to democratize and make this culture more accessible - while also satisfying the specialists in attendance with more specific interests.

This high-calibre Montreal-based cultural initiative, presents artists and works of art that align the latest electronic music and visual creations derived from new technologies (animation, installation and robotics). Elektra unites creative media like music, video, cinema, design, gaming and audio or interactive installation with the latest digital technologies. Artists from all disciplines – composition, performance, dance, visual arts et al – all with a common interest in artistic applications of new technologies - uniting visual with sound. Elektra not only welcomes artists from all over the world, the festival also features local talents, helping make Montreal the North American meeting place for digital arts. Our best wishes for a successful festival! We only wish we could be there.

Elektra 9e Édition International Digital Arts Festival Mai 7 – 11, Montreal, Quebec.   Enjoy the blog and the live festival site at: http://www.elektramontreal.ca/

Help save a life. Who could say no? Anyone who knows me will have heard me rave about my animation super hero, Emru Townsend, editor extraordinaire of Frames Per Second Magazine – which IMHO is one of the net’s best animation zine/blogs. You’ve heard me extol his virtues in running FPS, be entertained by his diverse pod casts, swoon at his dulcet tones and revere his skills at holding down a heavy hitting job, keep a young family happy, and in his spare time chair the SIGGRAPH 2008 Computer Animation Festival. I am unashamedly one of his greatest fans. So, it won’t come as any surprise to you if I make this a very personal appeal to your higher selves.

Emru has Leukemia and needs a bone marrow transplant - not sometime in the future - but now. His nearest and dearest are sadly not a match so he is relying on outside donors. We are asking you to help us encourage members of the animation community and others to join a bone marrow registry. You - or someone you know - may be the match Emru is hoping for.
Because tissue types are inherited, patients are more likely to match someone from their own race or ethnicity. As an Afro-Caribbean, Emru Townsend will be most likely to match other donors of African or Caribbean decent. So please urge anyone in your circle with this racial background to participate - send them this info in an email.You will be added to the registry and hopefully you will be a match for someone who needs your donation. On any given day, more than 6,000 men, women and children are searching the National Marrow Donor Program Registry for a life-saving donor like you. These patients have leukemia, lymphoma and other life-threatening diseases that can be treated by a bone marrow or cord blood transplant. For many of these patients, a transplant may be the best and only hope of a cure.

It’s easy. It’s just a swab. In the US, registering is as easy as filling out a form, signing your name to make a commitment, and swabbing your mouth 4 times. Go to this URL, sign up on-line and receive a swab kit in the mail, or check the dates and addresses of the swab collections in your area: http://www.marrow.org/HELP/Join_the_Donor_Registry/index.html. Follow along in the adventures of Emru at: http://www.healemru.com/

Could anything make your heart race more than Paris in the spring? Try animation + Paris + spring + being on the same bill of fare with director, Peter Greenaway. And while I’m at it, try being part of a festival that invites controversy by taking a stand against the lowest common denominator and openly stating that they will show only the best of the highest quality. Now add a true egalitarian splash by opening the festival up to all for free. Viva La France! Viva Festival Némo 2008!

Festival NÉMO 2008 takes place in Paris and Issey-les-Moulineaux, France. Here you can see the best of French and International cinema and animation. For this their 10th anniversary year, selections were purposefully chosen to give a lasting memory of what is most precious to cinéastes –beautiful work of extraordinary quality, shown in optimal conditions. Festival Directeur, Gilles Alverez, states that this is NÉMO’s answer to the crumbling values of our art form by social networking sites like Facebook, and the “lo-def” generalization of YouTube. Passionate sentiments indeed!

Némo showcases multimédia presentations and animations along with music videos and documentaries on such luminaries as Scott Walker, Smiths, Sigur Ros, Holy Etienne, Daniel Johnston, John Cage, and Phillip Glass. Catch audio visual performances from Pageantry + Transforma, Ryoichi Kurokawa, Quayola, Adriaan Lokman, Otolab, Mikomikona, Mylicon and Scanner + TeZ as part of the Cinéma Vivant! A feast for the senses - let your passion rule.

TODAY screens as part of the Panorama International. It plays in Paris on Sun. April 12th at Élysées Biarritz Salle de cinéma and in Issey-les-Moulineaux, on Wed. April 18th at Le Cube.

Festival NÉMO 2008- Le Rendez-Vous Multimedia D’Arcadi. Panorama International des Nouvelles Images Expérimentales, Cinema et Animations Innovants. April 10 – April 20, 2008.

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See: http://www.arcadi.fr/rendezvous/rv.php?id=1 for details.

The studio’s short, TODAY, commissioned by Sundance for their Billy Collins Action Poetry series, has won a silver 2007 Creativity Award in the Consumer TV category. With more than 2700 entries from 37 countries, judges declared that the winning entries, “stand out because of their ambition, strong communication, and excellent design.” The 400-page, Creativity Awards Annual, a veritable bible of excellent design, is published by Harper and Collins and will be available in 2008.

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For more info see: www.creativityawards.com