Tilt shift video awesomeness

Posted on March 23, 2010 by James

Some people think tilt-shift is just another gimmick. It is, but its served in a can of awesome. I saw a couple of tilt-shift videos a while ago and for whatever reason decided to track down some other examples today and before I even watched it, I knew that I had found something I’d like. ‘Hulkamania’. The wide shots on this remind me of the toys I had when I was fiftee…six.

Keith Loutit seems to be something of a tilt-shift video master so check out his Vimeo channel here.

And heres another set in a Monster Truck show, I love the shot at 0.20 and the random dinosaur from about 50 seconds in.

And theres The Sandpit by Sam O’ Hare which I think is one of the first I saw.

And a real life train set.

The art of Medway

Posted on March 13, 2010 by James

A quick jaunt down to Medway provided a couple of fine examples of traffic cone shenanigans within 100 feet of one another. Whether or not the same troupe of daring individuals were responsible for both, or rival tribes of cone pilfering pixies were trying to outdo one another is unclear.

The question is, what technique was used to get it up there

Not to be outdone.

I’m particularly fond of the subversive post-modern mechanism, tinged with irony of the second piece – drawing attention to the seemingly endless pursuit of town centre cleanliness.

Or something.

Inky mole

Posted on February 14, 2010 by James

Thought I’d try something new and bust out some ink. I remember seeing some things by the Neasden Control Centre way back when I was at university that I found pretty inspiring. The scratchy illustration style seems to be creeping back into style at the moment, so I thought I’d bandwagon jump.

Sketched out freehand from a photo with a G-Pen nib and ink from Deleter and finished up with some textures.

Finished up with some textures

Inky mole before any work

Another great music vid

Posted on February 2, 2010 by James

Heres another music video that caught my attention from the band Avenged Sevenfold – who I don’t really like – anyway, thsi is a fun little video with some snappy animation and a macabre theme. Kind of like So I Married An Axe Murderer meets Akira.

My bookshelves > your bookshelves

Posted on January 30, 2010 by James

I finally got around to clearing out a load of old books [by clearing out, I mean hiding somewhere out of sight] to free up some space. A perfect opportunity to kill two birds with one stone as we’d completely filled up any and every available space left in the house with some sort of weird little object. Dancing monkey, check. Doodled dog, check. Blythes, check. Endless KidRobot dudes, check.

Until the next batch of things turn up, our bookshelves have become a Star Wars meets Domo meets UFC battleground.

Wanderlei is watching you from above

Domo, meet Clone Trooper

As the schoolyard chant used to go, FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT!

General Grievous defends David Frost mercilessly

He's behind you

Da da da da da dum da da dum...

Steampunk elephants

Posted on January 8, 2010 by James

Not quite sure how I went off on this tangent, but for some reason I googled Steampunk elephants.

A rather groovy steampunk elephant head

I’ve always liked the steampunk aesthetic. No idea where the artists get all of the bits and pieces from though. Might have to head down to Snoopers Paradise in Brighton to pick up some odds and sods.

Mechanical elephant by Andrew Chase

The above is a 3ft tall sculptue made by Andrew Chase from auto parts, sheet steel and other assorted bits and bobs. All the joints are articulated, the trunk can move up and down and even the ears can be shifted back.

Watch out, Alien’s about

Posted on January 2, 2010 by James

Kubricks are amazing. I never used to like them, some of them look pretty basic and a bit too much like Lego – but I saw the latest Star Wars Series 10 figures and thought they looked undeniably great, the level of detail is incredible.

I couldn’t help myself but to get a hold of the Alien [from the film Alien, duh!].

Out of the furnace...

...And into the fire

I spy an imposter

Weird little Christmas decoration

Posted on January 1, 2010 by James

So this is the weirdest little decoration I’ve seen this Christmas courtesy of my folks house. It belonged to my Gran and thoughts are rife that it might have been an old cake decoration. Not sure myself, it looks about 100 years old though.

Odd little snow baby thing!

Christmas Tree Shenanigans

Posted on December 27, 2009 by James

We’ve got so many weird little bits and pieces floating about the house that we always try and pile as many as we can onto our Christmas tree, this year was no exception.

Monkey taking in the festivity

xmas-tree-2

Think this thing came from Hong Kong...

Snow is falling

Posted on December 18, 2009 by James

Woohoo! Its snowing. It is a time honoured custom in this household to dash outside and take silly photos of toys in snow at the first opportunity. So here is the latest installment.

Whats that coming over the [snowy] hill? My Little Cthulhu

Whats that coming over the hill? My Little Cthulhu.

Tito Ortiz defeats winter

The mysterious snow ape caught on camera