Trying out Acrobat Presenter

Using Share to host a 7 meg PDF. I think this should work. Acrobat 9 extended has a plugin for Microsoft Powerpoint that can include video. There is something similar now in Google. Not sure if I have blogged about this laready. the weekend was confusing but the week ahead will feature more tests.

The potential is interesting. I have a collection of clips that need explanation. Maybe one day I will make sense to an editor.

Direct link

Embedded below

Google Docs links presentation and video

The title for this post assumes things will work ok. I am trying out the video in presentations. If this is ok I will do more as the combination of explanation in text with short clips could be useful. So the direct link is here.

And it should embed below, and play the video.

World TV allows many channels of video streaming

World TV has made possible a sequence of video from many sources on many sequences. So far I have just looked at YouTube, mostly from this blog. The first sequence is at

http://www.worldtv.com/animx

I have concentrated on showing both demoscene and early computer animation. I think there is a comparison but people used to one group do not often try the other as far as I can make it out. Later there is some Second Life and documentary from Devon.

Blender on TV, Amsterdam with English subtitles

This is interesting

More online within a month

It looks like the sort of animation that could turn up in a cinema, not some demoscene arty stuff for a niche. More on "arty" when you watch the link. But it is open source, so more connections are possible.

Photos from Black Box ; Cory Arcangel event

These pictures were taken during Animated Exeter when a film by Cory Arcangel was showing at the Black Box in the Phoenix Media Centre. It took a while to get permission to display them and then I was uncertain what to say about them. The previous set from the launch of the Spacex show was ok but then I asked permission to video the lecture. It turns out that permission to video is almost impossible to obtain. The web seems to be in two modes. Casually there is a mass of digital photography that just happens. Trying to work more officially is very complicated.

So my next phase is to move to Second Life and Photoshop. Second Life requires bandwidth. Exeter City Council have a block on Flash for bandwidth reasons so SL is also not for everyone. Photos mixing SL characters or backgrounds then reduced in file size could be an approach to link things. I have done some avatars that could be based in or visit Exeter at different times. Also some backgrounds from the Black Box. More on this later. There is a PDF guide to the avatars on Scribd. All Creative Commons on Flickr so feel free to use them but please send a link.

Adobe shifts design attention to video

Adobe have announced a Media Player for video.

There is some animation already. The background seems to me to be a change of direction towards Flash and away from Postscript and PDF, now rarely mentioned. The 'platform' unit is now merged with mobile so 'platform' may not have much space for PDF.

Meanwhile in Exeter there is still no Flash on the council website, apparently because Flash is not supported on their own browsers because of bandwidth constraints.

Round about now there is a bit of a crunch in what time travel can cope with. The web has gone from text to video and animation is part of this.

More on Nvision

If you download a magazine and the dlls fall in the right place you can read an interview with Temis Nunez who explains why Nvidia is supporting a demoscene party as part of an event about "visual computing".

off topic
maybe some other company in San Jose could suggest a magazine format that allows text to be copied out but maybe I have just lost track of what a magazine design should concentrate on

back on topic
It turns out that Temis Nunez is a genuine fan who collected "cracktros" for Apple II and C64. Also Jensen Huang has said of Nvidia "we are at the intersection of art and technology" so the demoscene is of interest to show off what a graphics chip can do.

Temis mentions Debris, already on this blog and also Andromeda's Lifeforce.

Breakpoint promotes demoscene in San Jose

Promotes NVscene in San Jose in August. Not sure how strong the demoscene is in the USA but time will tell.

SUN to charge $1 per CPU hour for Blender animation

SUN are moving further into software as a service and open source. Blender is one of the services available. Current charge is $1 per CPU hour. This sounds cheap but may result in lots of new projects. Somehow it is always tempting to use the full chance on offer.

Blender is one of the projects featured at the 2008 meeting on Libre Graphics. More on this later.

Repeating the week of Animated Exeter

Time travel seems easier if the space stays much the same. So I am trying to repeat the week ending 23rd Feb with another attempt at creating links of various kinds. Things could heve been even better with some slight changes. So imagining next year is the same as trying to change memory.

The YouTube connection is difficult partly because Exeter City Council have no support for Flash and so they do not host pages with Flash. It is therefore quite difficult to explain YouTube to people who work for Exeter City Council. Trying to get permission to video something depends partly on showing previous work which in this case is not possible. So Exeter TV might have recorded more including interviews had there been a release policy.

Try to imagine a shift so that there is support for Flash and YouTube is accepted as part of a festival / culture event. Someone who has no wish to be identified in this blog observed that this development has been a small step for manking but would be a giant leap for Exeter City Council.

Following that it would be easier to connect Second Life and actual events. There were two interesting events. See previous posts for more on Viral Duets in Exeter and D.R.O.I.D. in Bristol.

In theory the D.R.O.I.D. content could have been part of the Beatz and Bobz closing party at the Phoenix in Exeter. I have no information yet that this happened. But something like it may later. Sound and vision can be live or from the archive. It seems that the island of Prados Azules is set up for the summer at least so more could follow. And the dance steps goodies bag is in Diecicento.

Access to Second Life is the next frontier for organisations, even beyond Flash. A journalist from the Financial Times recently explained that they had to go home to write a story about business schools in Second Life as the firewall prevented installation at work.

As well as trying to repeat events through time travel i am also thinking about forms of fiction, so repeat the script outline from a previous post.

So assume VJs B1 and B2 who arrange an event without web access but hear about another one a week later with web streaming. They discuss various issues arising and are not entirely convinced. Not that they are luddites or anything but there has to be scope for acceptance of some form of development during the story. One concern is that animated dancing online may not work too well. The next week B1 and B2 are somewhere else where they could stream something but are not sure. Fortunately Kola Spellcaster turns up with a set of code that allows anyone to dance really well. The only problem is that she has put a timeout into the code so it will all fall over unless her Arts Council grant for next year is confirmed before midnight. This story ends at about 11.47 but there may be another one. If you feel any characters are based on yourself you may request changes or write your own version. Creative commons : attribution requested. I may claim other forms of copyright if I write something longer or for a later production.

Recent video of seats in Exeter. When the light is reliable there could be interviews if there was permission. What sort of release form would be required? By the way, this test is done on a disgo, GBP24 so the future could be much better if Exeter TV had more resources.

Some people prefer lounge music

Just in case the Luke Vibert style of music is not what you would choose, here is another video from Second Life which may make more sense for people who like the Voodoo Lounge for example.

Actual Exeter in a World of Google

This post is for both animX and WifiExeter. I am still getting used to the events of last week, the outstanding Second Life events and the video on YouTube from Prados Azules. i think this means that bandwidth is ok. There are enough people in Exeter and Bristol or at least somewhere online for this sort of thing to be viable. So other forms of files such as work with hard copy should be ok. A lttle slow maybe if TIFF-IT is still required but definitely possible.

Meanwhile Google have launched a service around Sites for collaboration. seems a little too controlled for public use but the elements of Docs and video can be widely available. I have an account for Internet Express so have started a page at InXpress/landofGoogle or something like it. Actual url is too long to remember so best to bookmark this page.

Detail from Flickr photo recreating last week

Pipsi and Eric did get to the D.R.O.I.D. event if only through Photoshop.

Previously, script idea

So assume VJs B1 and B2 who arrange an event without web access but hear about another one a week later with web streaming. They discuss various issues arising and are not entirely convinced. Not that they are luddites or anything but there has to be scope for acceptance of some form of development during the story. One concern is that animated dancing online may not work too well. The next week B1 and B2 are somewhere else where they could stream something but are not sure. Fortunately Kola Spellcaster turns up with a set of code that allows anyone to dance really well. The only problem is that she has put a timeout into the code so it will all fall over unless her Arts Council grant for next year is confirmed before midnight. This story ends at about 11.47 but there may be another one. If you feel any characters are based on yourself you may request changes or write your own version. Creative commons : attribution requested. I may claim other forms of copyright if I write something longer or for a later production.

So the mess of bits and pieces from the actual week of Animated Exeter will be gradually rewritten and retested. Surely Exeter City Council will connect with Flash at some point, then everything else could be attempted again.

The goodies bag is here but what effect it has is still a mystery. Right click on the stars in the floor and then choose dance. The camera save previously is still just a test. Go back a couple of posts to Prados Azules for something sensible.

Later at LifeBytes, camera saves ok

Try this to reach Diecicento

Probably the most advanced form of animation from last weekend west of Swindon

This is amazing. I failed to persuade Director Jo to stay at Life Bytes and record D.R.O.I.D. Good thing too as the sound at the Voodoo Lounge was probably good enough for a future video and this record on YouTube already is fantastic and shows what is possible.

What else is anywhere? and when will Pipsi turn up?

Another SL camera test

There is still time for Pipsi to arrive at the occasion. Any other ideas on how the dance steps could be found?

Interest on Guardian Talk

There is some interest on Guardian Talk.

I have posted an example of dance on YouTube just to show it is possible in Second Life. Not sure this is well known to others who post on Guardian Talk.

I wonder if any of this will turn up in the Guardian print version before Saturday? My impression is that the Talk bit is a closed world for Guardian staff.

Phoenix Sounds and the resource problem for video

It turns out that better video is very unlikely as the resource from Exeter TV will be concentrated on the Sound Gallery. Mostly acoustic, live music. Nothing against this sort of thing so the archive will depend on other sources. My own videos are a form of test. Maybe next year there will be better planning.

Scroll down on the page for video from previous events.

Sometime there could be interviews in the bar. I still think the chat show is the basic format of TV. If only Exeter City Council could offer a release form Exeter TV could work with. For future discussion.

another test ahead of D.R.O.I.D.

http://slurl.com/secondlife/Prados%20Azules/94/99/28

go there

or search for "Prados Azules"