Anyone know any good Motion Graphic Designers?

I'm looking to see if anyone in the gaming community here at 2old2play has any knowledge or understanding of how to do video graphics using After Effects or any of that crazy stuff to do video introductions and such. Something similar to Eden Soto does for many popular video podcasts. I'm looking to produce some video podcasts and I'd love to have some sweet introductions so things don't look so amateur. I've got the 3-point lighting, the HD camera, etc. Just looking to prime the pump for upcoming productions.

 

Thanks!

 

Posted by codemonkey @ 12:22 am EDT | Permalink | 2 Comments

Anheuser-Busch Sells to InBev For $52 Billion

It is done, Anheuser-Busch is now owned by InBev. 52-billion dollars, not a bad investment if you bought a small failing brewery back in 1860 as a Germany immegrant eh? In any case, it's sad to see one of the longest and most successfully run American companies become foreign owned, but it is slightly ironic considering a European came here and started it and another European purchased them.

InBev, for those that don't know, is the largest brewer in the world owning brands like St. Pauli Girl, Spaten, Bass, Becks and now Bud. Next time you crack open the King of Beers you're drinking a Belgian owned company.

Read more if you want...

I can only imagine how much money that really is...so big.

Posted by codemonkey @ 11:26 pm EDT | Permalink | 2 Comments

Podcasting

I know Dsmooth's mentioned it already, but I'm here to back him up. He's petitioned to start the podcast again, I wanted to be a firm supporter of his efforts, because I think podcasting is a great way to build a community.

Like i stated in my comment to the post, I've run my own podcast now for 76 or so episodes, weekly. I've missed two episodes since we started the cast with my wife and I (now expanded it to three to four folks weekly) and we've built a listener base. We here at 2old2play already have a base audience and a podcast would create new members who find it on podcast directories like iTunes (a way many folks got here to begin with) and allow members to write in with comments, suggestions, audio comments, etc.

I know the original crew has long sinced moved on, grown a life for themselves (or play WoW I lot, from what I understand) and that's fine. We're not looking to bring back the original guys in a weekly podcast. We're just looking to re-ignite the thing and see if people enjoy it. Only a small percentage will probably tune in weekly, but so be it, that's absolutely fine.

And, if we ever want to move into video casting, it may be more viable as technology gets better, bandwidth higher and costs come down. My wife and I are building a video podcasting studio, so that may also be a place to launch such a thing. Who knows... until you try.

 

Posted by codemonkey @ 11:24 am EDT | Permalink | 4 Comments

Saw Sully Erna In Solo Concert

Last night, for fathers day, I got to go to Sully Erna's solo concert. Sully is the frontman for Godsmack, the show was similar to a "Story Tellers" format, where he explains the nature of his songs, urges people to really listen to music at a deeper level then just the song and talks about his life and how he got where he is today. He played a couple piano songs, paying tribute to Aerosmith in "Dream On" and Hey Jude from the Beatles.

At one point he covered an Alice in Chains song while the video screen paid tribute to some of the past legends of rock (such as Layne from AiC, the doors, Hendrix, Bohnam, etc.) and also covered a Metallica song--all acoustic.

All of the shows are sit down small venues, if you get to go, and are a Godsmack/sully fan I urge you to buy tickets. Of course, for us, he grew up only down the road from the folks in New England (out of Lawrence Mass) so having a local get popular and come back to play for you is awesome. This is the third time I've seen him, all have been great events (Godsmack did a special New England holiday tour while they were in town, and I've seen them for a New Years Eve event in Boston once).

A very sweet Dad's day gift.

Posted by codemonkey @ 12:35 pm EDT | Permalink | 2 Comments

Kung Fu Panda

The family and I went to see Kung Fu Panda last night. The last movie we saw was Horton Hears a Who, which was a very well done movie with plenty of funny stuff and humor that goes over a kids head (which means everyone gets a laugh at points in the movie).

Kung Fu Panda was pretty to watch, had some great moments and, most importantly, Jack Black rocks (I'm a big Tenacious D fan). Jack Black acts like a kid in many regards so he's a perfect fit for Po, the Panda. The actors were all top notch (Dustin Hoffman, Angelina Jolie,  Jacky Chan, David Cross, etc.) so the character personality was there, however Dreamworks never really explores the feelings and emotions of most of the characters.

This movie was fun because it involved lots of action packed Kung Fu, played off the old Kung Fu movie style and shots, along with plenty of slow motion into fast motion battle attacks like something out of the Matrix. However, that's about where it stopped. The dialog was fairly flat, the story was pretty basic but entertaining non-the-less but you won't see the characters change in feeling and emotions though the film. For the most part, you either see a dramatic change in a single scene as if magically the characters go from one opinion to another, or you see no change.

Character transformation based on experiences in the plot sorta make up the "round character" which you won't see too much in this movie. However, it's a kids movie so you kinda know what you're getting into. The kids loved it, my daughter now has Master Tigress (her favorite character) on your lapop's desktop background and constantly jumps around like Viper and Crane. Sure, she's going to be 5 so she's not really looking for a huge plot and my 2 year old son just likes action and fighting.

The plot was probably fairly complex for her, and the lessons to be learned are fairly cookie-cutter in fashion: believe in yourself as that's all you need to be great. However, after seeing many Pixar films I've come to expect a "kids movie" to be full of depth, balance, plot and action (oh, and great graphics too). So, compared to other block buster cartoon movies with huge creative ideas (or based on creative ideas like Horton) this one comes up a bit short.

But, if you like karate style moves, it's worth a look! If not, I'll put you in the dreaded Wuxi Finger Hold and wiggle my pinky finger!



Posted by codemonkey @ 2:52 pm EDT | Permalink | 3 Comments