I'm Comic Sans, Asshole by Joe Hollier

There's no question, Comic Sans gets a bad rap.  Around the office the graphic designers shun it.  Snobs.  Given that this treatment isn't uncommon around creatives, this animation from Joe Hollier seems long overdue.
 

Britain's 722 (2001)

Like the other stop motion shorts I did a decade ago, Britain's 722 is more of an exercise in animation than anything else.  The video posted here isn't even the complete project as I couldn't find the edited version, just the raw footage I shot.  That aside though, I don't want to underplay the work that went into creating some of the scenes I used in projects like this.

The concept behind 722 was the story of a British man in the 1950's who tries to beat a land speed record against his American rival.  The final scene, not pictured here, was the race between the two of them.

Looking back at my early work like this I'm amazed that despite my limitations with equipment and primitive digital editing software, I really did push myself to attempt some ambitious concepts.  In the end it didn't seem to matter that things weren't perfect, as I learned a lot from the process and was able to explore ideas just for the sake of saying I'd done something with them.  When you're just starting out, not only trial and error, but trial and error with animation, goes a long way in showing you just what's required to create a scene.

A clip from Britain's 722 is posted below, and you can also check out my other 2001 stop motion projects, One Banana and Clumsy Claus to see more of my earliest work.

Via iPod Touch

This weekend I crossed another bit of indulgence off of my wishlist and bought myself an iPod Touch.  To be completely honest, I was swayed by the apps.  Namely, Instagram and Angry Birds.  It's really just another excuse to waste time.

I love my iPod classic and listen to it around the apartment and have it hooked up to speakers everyday at work.  The iPod Touch, however, seems more appropriate for everything else on the go.  I can put the few new CDs that I'm listening to for the moment on it, or play games while I'm waiting, snap some pictures, etc.  And for as much as I use my current cell phone, just going for the iPhone seemed a bit pointless.

In any case, it's been fun so far.  This weekend I was shooting video with the Super 8 app (from the movie, Super 8) that mimics an old school Super 8 camera.  Then I played with Instagram around my apartment, trying out all the different filters - and creating a new blog header with some of the images.  This will probably do for my photography what my Flip Cam did for my video, which will mean another cool way to share things on the blog. Then there was Angry Birds - no comment required, as it seems everyone else is already addicted.

You're never too old for new toys, are you?