Runwrake

Please check out Runwrake. Animator and Illustrator extraordinaire. His work is often bizarre but worth the trip.

Convert Art

What we mean is converting raster graphics to vector graphics. In Adobe Illustrator it's called Live Trace and Live Paint. Nevertheless there are lots and lots of conversion tools out there. Some are better than others for certain tasks or particular styles. Why convert? Raster graphics are not scalable, Vector graphics are. Raster graphics don't render hard edge graphics well, Vector graphics do. In addition, Raster graphics are considerably limited by the resolution and quality of the original source, Vector graphics are not.  The AGO Design site has a list of 30+ tools for vector conversion. Most listed are Windows OS only and most are not free. PoTrace is one tool that works on most platforms and is free but it is for bitmaps exclusively. Not only that but it works on the Amiga operating system, if you can find one. 

We like the word "Vectorizer". Panopticum Vectorizer works on color raster images, both Windows and Mac platforms and is only $32!

Wikipedia has a great comparison chart for Vector conversion tools.

Of course, Adobe Illustrator does a great job of conversion. If by chance though, you don't have CS3 or 4, there are other tools out there.

Brothers QUAY

Stop-motion animation is an amazing art form. Just recently we rediscovered the work of the Brothers Quay. It's amazing work that is worth a look wherever you can find it. In Baltimore check Video Americian, they used to have a couple of films of theirs. There are a few clips on YouTube but the quality doesn't do them justice at all. The imagery of their films is inspirational. Impossible to describe if you haven't seen their work. 

We didn't find a Brothers Quay website but their current film distributor is Zeitgeist FILMS.

Here is an interview from 1996

King GIMP

The title of this entry is a reference to a certain academy award winning documentary about Dan Keplinger, a Baltimore-based artist and good friend of ours. While he is not actually the subject for this entry, check out his work on his website please.  Pretty please. Our entry today is about a certain software rising in popularity. "GIMP 2.4" is a Photoshop alternative that many may already know about or even use. It was developed for use on the Linux OS. GIMP isn't nearly as robust as Adobe Photoshop but it is FREEware. That means free. In addition, Gimp gets much of its  punch and power from the fact that anyone with the expertise can develop plug-ins for Gimp. There is a registry for GIMP Plug-ins with a long list of effects and so on, that is still growiing. If you are a Mac user GIMP downloads can be found at the Wilbur loves Apple website. There is also tons of support for GIMP users, all you have to do is look for it. Community based Freeware like GIMP 2.4 is a living breathing animal. Users and developers a like can contribute to it's growth while making use of it for their own needs. 

FREE RANGE IMAGES

Copyrights are useful and to be respected of course. Brrrmmpf. Yet not all resources spend their life like penned livestock. There are many antibiotic free alternatives to copyrighted material. A good place to start is the Wikipedia entry for Public Domain Image Resources which has a lengthy list of online repositories. In addition, there is also a long list of excellent resources on a Wikispace for Copyright-Friendly images and sound. There are also an increasing number of image sharing sites like this Flickr site.

One of our personal favorites is the Internet Archive. The Archive doesn't have still images but is a repository for copyright free music, audio files, video files, spoken word and lots of other oddities. We've known people that got lost in there for days. The interface for downloading isn't the friendliest at first but you get used to it. For those die-hard deadheads out there make sure you check out their collection of live music on The Archive.  

NASA and The Archive are working together to put all moving images and stills from the space program in one centralized location. That's another thing most people don't know, NASA posts incredible copyright free image resources. NASA images are generally NOT copyrighted. Here are the full terms for anyone interested. Anyway, go there, some cool spacey stuff. 

The Library of Congress Digital Collections also has some amazing resources. The Prints and Photographs Catalog includes copyrighted and non-copyrighted material. Check the "rights information" listed for each item. There is a lot of old non-copyrighted photography that ranges a wide variety of topics. 

KYLE COOPER

FYI and mark your calenders. Kyle Cooper, motion designer, will be giving a lecture on Thursday 9/18, Stevenson University (Villa Julie College), Inscape Theatre at 7pm.  See this lecture. Check out his work at prologue.com

Check out video interviews with Kyle and former firm partners at "Imaginary Forces" here and here