It’s Earth Day again! Time to start at least saving the environment for free if you haven’t been already, and maybe even plant some trees and donate to a worthy charity, like The Conservation Fund. If you want to know why I prefer The Conservation Fund, read this.
Want to do even more to save the environment? Start at home with this list of fifty ways to help the planet.
Now, get out of your home or office and spend some time outdoors, or at least watch this video if you can’t.
The third trailer for RWBY is out, this time focussing on the character Black.
The rumor of RWBY being an anime-style treatment of popular fairy tales doesn’t seem to carry as much weight with Black as it did with Red, who really seemed like Red Riding Hood given the red hood and the fact that she was fighting wolves. Even White had a significant nod towards Snow White with the fixation on mirrors in the trailer’s lyrics. With Black, I’m really reaching with my assumption that Black is Belle from Beauty and the Beast. While we don’t know Black’s name for sure, scattered mentions refer to her as Blake Belladonna, which certainly seems to come close to Belle. She also refers to her companion as Adam, which is the name of the Beast in Disney’s adaptation.
Though the fairy tale connection has been declining rapidly since Red’s trailer, I’m still looking forward to this.
The future is here, or rather the future is at the new almost-finished Automattic headquarters in San Francisco.
In case you don’t know, Automatticians are employed all throughout the world, most work from home, and only a comparatively small amount work from San Francisco (though you could say that San Francisco is the city with the highest concentration of Automatticians). Thanks to the magic of Double Robotics, any Automattician can now feel like they’re part of the crowd at the San Francisco headquarters by taking control of an iPad on wheels.
If your curiosity has been rightfully engaged, gaze in wonder as Theme Wrangler Konstantin Obenland tours the new headquarters, and check out the tweet below from Lounge Manager Warren Kleban for a quick look at the robot in action.
Robots invade @automattic. Thx @doublerobotics!! vine.co/v/bD9pFMnOnTg—
Warren Kleban (@wkleban) March 25, 2013
As you may have noticed, I’m a fan of the Mega Man X series of games. I love the gameplay, the overall concept, the level design, the story, the art, and they just seemed to arrive at the right point in my childhood.
Mega Man had his 25th anniversary last year, which Capcom rightfully made a big deal of, considering it’s one of their most profitable properties. What we got was rather underwhelming. Yes, we got Street Fighter X Mega Man, and the poor bot doesn’t even get top billing. Sure, it’s a clever game, but all Capcom’s hype left us with was a crossover game. No Mega Man X games in almost 8 years and no original series Mega Man games in almost 3 years, but hey, we’ve got a crossover with Street Fighter.
Fortunately, the entire Mega Man Franchise represents one of Capcom’s largest fan bases, second only to Street Fighter of course. Many fans stepped up to essentially fill in the cracks left by Capcom’s rather poor showing for the Blue Bomber’s 25th anniversary, my favorite being the following fanimation from Shane Newville, one of the animators behind Red vs. Blue. I can only hope there will be more of these in the future.
The second trailer for RWBY is out, this time focussing on the character White.
I really hope that the rumors of this being an anime-style treatment of popular fairy tales winds up being true, because that would just be cool. Do I need any other reason?
The previous trailer, Red, featured a character who seems to be at least inspired by Red Riding Hood fighting a bunch of wolf-like creatures. While White is not as convincing of a match for Snow White, the fixation on mirrors in the lyrics is worth noting.
Fairy tale connection or not, this is shaping up to be another awesome web series from Rooster Teeth.
So, apparently Disney still produces gorgeous things like Paperman, an animated short which has been nominated for Best Animated Short Film at the 85th Academy Awards. The short film employs a new technique of layering the 2D hand-drawn animation on top of CGI, and it really brings back memories of the days when Disney produced quality hand-drawn artwork which could tell a thoughtful story in short form.
Happy New Year! Now that January 1st is upon us, it’s a great time to make sure that your browser is up-to-date, change your passwords, start a blog or start posting again if you have been neglecting your blog, and provide a mobile phone number for your WordPress.com account (if you have one) as an additional account recovery option.
MacManX.com had a great 2012, and I’m sure you’ll have a great 2013!
I have often referred to post-production as the unsung heroes of filmmaking, and this little behind the scenes bit from The Hobbit just reinforces that.
It’s hard to imagine just how many hours go into the film once the cameras are off. Sure, there’s always editing, but don’t forget about the sound design, music, effects, and the plethora of revisions. All of these elements and years of work combine to form the singular polished vision that you enjoy for an average of two hours.
It’s no secret that I’m a fan of Red vs. Blue, so I was excited to hear that Monty Oum (the lead animator on Red vs. Blue) is preparing yet another awesome series.
Not much is known about RWBY besides the trailer below, but it looks to provide a more modern treatment for Red Riding Hood and three other unknown characters, probably from the same folklore.
On a more general note, it’s comforting to see the steady rise in quality from such freely available online miniseries.
Depending on your time zone, election day (November 6, 2012) is either here or fast approaching, which means that it’s time to vote. Make no mistake about it, this is an important election and the polls are still close.
If you haven’t already voted, don’t stay home today. Your vote does matter. Visit your polling place to vote or drop off your mail ballot if you forgot to mail it.
As always, please research each candidate so that you can make an educated, logical, and unemotional decision. Choose the candidate who has the best chance of giving you your ideal America.
