urbancoconut

Mung Bean Dhal

2011-01-23T15:07:00.001-08:00

I'm going to use the word 'some' or other vague words as I am pretty clueless about amounts. Might be worth having a look at some recipes online to get an idea of relative quantity. I tend to vary the amounts too, but that's the beauty of this recipe, its really hard to make it inedible!

Put some green mung beans - in the photo, I use the packet shown, but this makes huge amounts. You might want to start with small quantities and working out what you like -into a saucepan, put plenty of water (I have about an inch and a half on top of the beans - it will soak it all up and then some), bring to the boil and them simmer.

While that is cooking, chop up, or grate some ginger and garlic, and throw that in.

Put in some chopped tomatoes (I have varied the amount of tomatoes wildly and it never seems to make much difference).

Add some hot pepper (we put in a whole Scotch Bonnet and let it cook in there but that might be a bit too mad for most) or not. You can always add some hot sauce at the end, when you eat it.

Add some ground tumeric and ground cumin (roasted cumin is best). there is traditionally a stage where some oil is heated in ladle, and the whole or ground cumin is 'burnt' in there and then plunged into the dhal but I'm happy without this stage (and makes it healthier and safer!)

Just let it carry on cooking, and add water until its a mushy texture. Salt to taste.

Serve with rice, or I have even watered it down as a soup. A tomato and onion salad can go nicely, or some cucumber.

Good luck!

Bata de Cola

2011-01-14T12:28:00.000-08:00

I was asking around to see if anyone knew of any good bata de cola videos and they came up with these

Fast and furious!

Matilde Coral - This one has some slow flowing moves in it too.

(this one has a second half too)

Its an art that can look good..if you do it really well... but otherwise it looks utterly ridiculous! It requires an interesting technique though, more balletic than flamenco in a lot of ways.

.mov from Flash

2010-09-26T09:44:00.001-07:00

Convoluted method for getting an avi or decent .mov out of a Flash file. this was to get stuff into an .avi uncompressed, odd shape (one is a football perimeter fence) 30fps as per specification.

The built in 'export as movie' to .mov is dreadful in Flash CS4. Lots of artefacts and random results.

The solution I found is detailed below.

exporting it as a jpeg sequence (caveat is that any movie clips won't play (Jpeg sequence seems to give you exactly what you see as you scrub, and you don't see movie clip animations (you only see those when you export as swf). solution for the movie clip problem is to convert them to graphic symbols, or put the frames directly on the timeline.

putting it together in FCP. (in a 30fps sequence, need to edit timebase before you put the images in).

export using compressor (no compression, keeping and frame rate the same) to .mov (oddly comes out half second shy). The settings I used as a base were the 'uncompressed 10bit' and then checked through and saved them as a specific one.

then my first attempt was to convert using quicktime pro into .avi (oddly retrieves the half second!). this had the result of a dreadful colour shift. So I processed the .mov through Shake and used no codec and .avi container for the fileout node settings. slight colour shift, but nothing as startling as the quicktime effort. (shown - left is .mov right is mov to avi via shake. bottom is mov to avi using quicktime pro)

Oddly putting it through shake restored the extra half second missing.. !!??!!!

gossypium packaging

2010-07-31T05:45:00.001-07:00

gossypium packaging, originally uploaded by london_lime.

cutest packaging ever!

RSA - Postage Stamps

2010-07-12T15:19:00.001-07:00

RSA - Postage Stamps, originally uploaded by Kathryn Brookes.

such a cool idea.

Peppers from Flickr

2010-04-26T14:22:00.001-07:00

PEPPERS, originally uploaded by thenitygrity.

aaah...

anyone know where the best pepper sauce in London is to be found? my vote is currently for Roti Joupa..

We will be here - Map of the Future -

2010-03-28T04:34:00.001-07:00

We will be here - Map of the Future -, originally uploaded by densitydesign.

Awesome infographic, The content is cool but the style is really awesome. I love the use of the brown tint, which means they can use white as a highlight (always a favourite thing of mine). The use of the 'big picture' underneath makes the points of data less overwhelming. A subtle texture on the background is a lovely feature.

Flickr

2010-03-28T04:28:00.001-07:00

This is a test post from , a fancy photo sharing thing.

Dhal Pouri

2009-12-27T16:24:00.000-08:00

Step by step photos are here

Yellow Split Peas (~1kg)

Wash peas in cold running water (no need to soak)

Strain peas and place in large pan of water (no salt)

Add 1teaspoon of tumeric to the water and stir in well. Bring the pan to the boil.

Check the texture of the peas - should be soft but firm (you are not making dhal). so that it can be ground. Stir occasionally while peas simmer, peel some garlic cloves.

Prepare self-raising flour (~800g) and baking powder.

Check the peas after 10 minutes. Skim off any foam that forms. Sift the flour with 2-25 teaspoons of baking powder, mix well and then add some salt.

After 20 minutes, check the peas (try biting one) - should be soft enough to bite through, but still firm - could be 25 minutes.

When the peas are ready, strain them.

Add some oil to the flour (about 2-3 teaspoons) and mix together by hand until it is almost dry again.

Add (800ml - 1litre cold water, a bit at a time to make an 'elastic' dough (be careful not to make it too wet).

If it sticks to your hands its too wet.

Cover the dough in cling film whilst you grind the peas.

Set up a food mill/ grinder and grind the cooked peas in batches (if using whole cumin seeds, add them to the peas to be ground at the same time). Add 3-4 garlic cloves to the peas to be ground at the same time. Aiming for quite a fine consistency. When all the of the peas are ground put them in a very large bowl and season well with black pepper, ground (roasted) cumin and salt (~ 1 tablespoon) - check the seasoning and adjust if necessary.

Ground peas should be quite dry but if they are too dry, but if they are too dry and some oil to moisten them.

(At this stage the ingredients can be left to rest)

Put some oil in a flat bottomed saucer and place a flat-bottomed glass in it.

Prepare a teatowel over another plate.

Divide the dough into clementine sized rounds.

Lightly flour the rounds to stop them from sticking and leave them to rest for a while.

Lightly flour a spare plate.

Take each round and flatten it out with a circular motion - use more flour to keep it dry.

Cup a flattened round in the palm of your hand (the round should be around 6 inches across) and pack some of the pea mixture into it.

Draw the sides up to form a pasty and then pinch the edges together.

Pinch the edges well together. Press onto the plate to seal into a round dumpling shape.

Don't prepare too many filled rounds at once (let them rest, but not for too long).

Heat a large flat griddle (tawwa) over a high heat (then drop to medium).

Take a filled round and roll it out to around 8 inches diameter.

Use the glass to wet the griddle with oil.

Place the flat round onto the hot oil - put more oil on to the dry side - and turn it over. Push the dhal around for a few seconds and turn again. It should start to swell. Turn again and push to stop in burning - allow to cook for 1-2 minutes.

If you find one with a hole, block the hole to allow the steam to inflate the pouri.

Keep the cooked pouri warm in a tea towel.

(the rounds need to be well sealed to make sure that none of the dhal escapes).

Any unused dhal mixture can be frozen or used for soup.

Photos showing the whole process are here

Playing the Energy Game at the Dana Centre

2009-12-24T15:14:00.000-08:00

Serious Change has recently run an event at the Dana Centre in London where we played an Energy Game based on David MacKay's book, Sustainable Energy - without the hot air. Here are a few notes about it.

We had played Emilia and friend's version of the game a few times and came up with a few thoughts about new pieces (different fold out amounts, pieces for money, fuzzy felt, magnetic pieces, building blocks). I selected what would be the simplest I could manage in the timescale.

I went through David MacKay's book, to work through numbers for the pieces. This was a very useful exercise to get myself acquainted with the numbers. This also assisted in making sheets that gave information about each technology. Hopefully this information should be making it's way onto the Serious Change website soon.

It was quite stressful getting it all together but with the help of friends and my very patient designer sister we got it done just in time (about 20 mins before the event started).

Once we had actually got the formalities of the event out of the way I really enjoyed playing the game with my group.

There was a lot of discussion about the merits and security implications of overseas power. People were slightly blase about coating the country with wind turbines. Perhaps pictures of the country with an idea of scale would help. I also need to tie it down to specific areas where wind resource is possible as opposed to % of UK land area.

There should have been a better element of cost in the game (and including the HDVC lines into the CSP cost). I had abstracted the costs to make it easier to count up but I think some relation to every day life (as in the orginal) is more useful. There were also no costs associated with the demand side so it was essentially free to implement electric cars, heat pumps etc.

It was nice having a wide game board to do multiple plans (or silly plans) and the magnets worked well. Having current demand printed on the backboard was useful as well. Having the pieces in blocks was useful because it was much easier to get started and change the plan around. My group did use the blocks, at one point, in a similar way to the old pieces, i.e. utilising just part of a piece.

The Tech sheets need to have more information on them. While I could quite easily answer questions because I had gone through all the numbers and I knew the assumptions that were made, I realise that that might have been harder for other Facilitators.

Assumptions about what was missing should have been available as well. I left a few technologies out because they were negligible in scale.

Facilitators should have had sheets to write down questions they are asked (and email addresses to send answers too and sign up to SC). Also to make general notes about how it went. There should also have been email sign up sheets for the tables.

There wasn't really enough time for discussion so we couldn't address points that did occur (about bio-waste gas power etc). This was constrained by the entire event needing to fit into 2 hours. Ideally a good 2 or 3 hours discussion afterwards would have been useful for those really interested. I think the advantage of the short format is that you get over the main points of the game (scale, demand, technologies) in a short space of time which is vital.

I've made a note of some of the changes that people have suggested to the game pieces and hopefully in the New Year we'll all get together to discuss them.

I was very please with the turnout. I think it was about 40 people and about 12 of us. This made for a good group size around the 5 game boards.

In general I think most people enjoyed the evening and got a lot out of it. The Dana Centre seemed very happy as the event was engaging and prompted a lot of discussion.

Afterwards a few of us went to the pub where I really needed a couple of beers.

A massive thank you for everyone who helped pull it together and all those who came to the event itself to help.

If you have any feedback on the game, want to hold your own energy game or know of a good place to hold one then email us at: contact@seriouschange.org.uk

Poker T-Shirt

2009-12-12T16:58:00.000-08:00

Designed a tshirt which might or might not get printed (only if enough people actually want one!) by Teepay, (who have organic fair trade tshirts) which is a Howies offshoot. Cafepress is such a lovely idea, but I can't bring myself to be participating in the Great Cotton Scandal, that this is just perfect (Equop used to do this before.. but seem to have disappeared).

Link to Teepay for the shirts

Apologies for not doing a version in black! I was in a bit of a hurry and its an experiment anyway.

Stupid Show from Copenhagen

2009-12-12T12:50:00.000-08:00

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Present Ideas

2009-11-28T17:06:00.000-08:00

Not particularly for Christmas.

One is to have a custom stamp made at Blade Rubber Stamps. This shop is right next to the British Museum, but you can do the whole process online now. (You can ignore all of the 'make a rubber stamp' application and just send them an image too.). I did this one year and everyone seemed really happy. One friend is still using his 'done!' stamp to mark all his paperwork and says it is very satisfying indeed.

I've just sent off a design for stamping into a notebook to copy the idea behind Muji's ChronoNotebooks, which won an award but they seem to not have bothered bringing into the UK (after emailing them, they said possibly next year).
Have tarted mine up a bit with a kanji. Would be nice to stamp it in different colours, even silver, into a notebook.

Another nice present, would be the customisable Sigg bottles from Cafepress. You can put in text, or just put in images if you like. Some of the previews are hilarious (including a cute but hairy dogs), or of course, next to one's MacBook. If anyone wants a hand doing an image, I'm happy to help. All in the service of Tap Water!

Basic Guides to Climate Change

2009-10-28T16:57:00.002-07:00

I've just made this post so I can keep them all together, as I have been coming across some excellently written guides.

First up, we have a guide from the Met Office.

Met Office Guide (PDF 1.09M)
This is a gorgeously designed guide, laying out all the facts in simple language.

10:10 Vote in Parliament - What are they playing at?

2009-10-22T03:42:00.001-07:00

Guardian Article on the 10:10 vote in the Commons yesterday

The fact they can't even agree to a simple motion, which would have shown amazing unity, to the world, and to the population, and in view of the fact that most front benchers have already signed up to the 10:10 target. It's a target, its non-binding and it has incredible value in signaling to the country and the world as a whole that we are serious about this, in a non-partisan way. Particularly in view of the fact Copenhagen is fast coming up.

I was particularly disappointed to see that Ed Miliband voted against it. This beggars belief.. considering he has spoken for it, asked councils to sign it, etc. We would very much like to hear his reasoning!

"I’ve been backing the 10:10 campaign - I was really pleased when the whole cabinet signed up to cut their CO2 emissions by 10% in 2010, and I know the campaign has been going from strength to strength." from EdsPledge

Some resources - The vote on Public Whip which is an awesome site for trying to make it plain and simple what is going on.

where you can have the fun of finding your MP and seeing which way they voted it!

(and they are voting on the first 'motion' not the 'amendment' which 'welcomed' it.)

So, what went wrong? Parties playing off against each other? Did our Conservative MP only vote for it because it was Anti-Labour? Do we really have a chance if big decisions get reduced to this playground level? Answers please :)

International Space Station and Shuttle

2009-09-11T03:25:00.001-07:00

Space Shuttle and International Space Station Time Lapse from Londonlime on Vimeo.

Here is a time lapse video of the International Space Station (ISS) and the Space Shuttle going over. This is our first foray into time lapse and the opportunity just presented itself.

The Shuttle is the first streak, and the second is the ISS. The latter is much brighter than it used to be, apparently due to the extra solar panels that have been fitted.

They regularly go over our heads, but of course they don't always catch the sun.

You can find a list of sightings for London or pick a UK City

Flamenco and Dance Links

2009-09-09T17:25:00.000-07:00

in the 'how to' vein

Flamenco Posture (particularly how not to damage your back by arching it. This isn't really a problem you encounter until a few years in!)

Flamenco Footwork

I'm taking this one to heart, and to technique class tomorrow!

Kicking the Bata de Cola Good to know, although perhaps some more basic moves need to be learnt really well first..

and finally a very general article on Learning how to Dance which makes a lot of sense

Creating a Picture Gallery

2009-08-24T17:00:00.000-07:00

I have a terrible memory so I take a lot of pictures. I've been uploading these since about the year n. I was using Fotopic which has served me well. I pay for the premium service.

I've found that it has become a bit slow of late and also that the tedious process of uploading files the sorting them on a remote site, adding captions etc was slowing me down. I'm now over a year behind. And I'd run out of space.

So I dedicated some effort to sorting the problem. I have two virtual servers with Bytemark (who rock) so I cleared my obsessive number of backups of backups off the machines and that left me with gigs of space to store my piccies.

My initial thought was to put Gallery (or Gallery 2 ... and then it gets a bit confusing as Gallery 2 seems to have been missed in an Debian release) on the server and then get it to automatically add the photos. But this didn't really address one of my ideals which was to be able to sort and caption offline.

Plan 2, which I started to implement was to have Gallery on my lovely newish (but scratched) Acer Netbook. This was okay. There was a bit of a drain having apache/gallery2 and mysql running on it but it seemed to work. The tedious bit was all the syncing and dumping of databases etc. And for what? I gained all the cool features of Gallery but most were useless cos the remote database where people could comment etc would get wiped as I uploaded. Also I wasn't trying to create a community, I just wanted to show my friends the photos they were in.

So backpedal a bit and have a look around. Finally found llgal. It totally rules. Configurable in all ways. Just generates a static site from the pictures and a captions file. So I can write the captions in a something useful like vi, manage the pictures with gthumb, run llgal to generate it and then a simple directory traversal script finds anything that has a directory called 'Remote' in it and uploads it to the server.

I added a bit to make my own index page but I'm fussy like that.

Bottled Water

2009-08-15T18:00:00.000-07:00

The water...

aside from the energy/ environmental issues.

It is often just purified local water anyway.
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2006/02/0224_060224_bottled_water_2.html
We had the hilarious situation here with Coca Cola, where they were bottling water in Kent from the Thames Water company and adding minerals to it. http://www.brandrepublic.com/News/203811/Cokes-bottled-water-Dasani-revealed-tap/

It has had issues with contamination and over legal levels of toxic chemicals
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/3550063.stm (which should make you think that its okay for them to have 'some' levels of these chemicals). Of course tap water has this too.

It isn't sterile (does have allowable levels of bacteria). You have to boil it before giving it to a baby and some waters have too much mineral content to make it safe for babies anyway.

http://www.eatwell.gov.uk/agesandstages/baby/weaning/

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2000/03/000322090356.htm
talks about the levels of bacteria found in bottled water

A point commonly missed is that if you have ice in your bottled water drink, that's made from tap water, albeit filtered most likely (like their 'tap' water I guess).

And then the plastic bottle...

Pat Franklin, the executive director of the Container Recycling Institute (CRI), says nine out of 10 plastic water bottles end up as either garbage or litter—at a rate of 30 million per day. According to the Climate Action Network, when some plastic bottles are incinerated along with other trash, as is the practice in many municipalities, toxic chlorine (and potentially dioxin) is released into the air while heavy metals deposit in the ash. If plastics are buried in landfills, not only do they take up valuable space, but potentially toxic additives such as phthalates may leak into the groundwater. “It’s ironic that many people drink bottled water because they are afraid of tap water, but then the bottles they discard can result in more polluted water,” says Franklin.
http://www.emagazine.com/view/?1125

There's been a whole set of debates about phthalates and bisphenolA, and they are starting to think about phasing them out of children's bottles (already have in some countries) as they are concerned about the possible hormone disruptive nature of them, and of course getting into humans via leaching from the plastic into the drink.

And if it isn't in landfill, or incinerated, then it often ends up in the sea.

Plastic garbage, which decomposes very slowly, is often mistaken for food by marine animals. High concentrations of plastic material, particularly plastic bags, have been found blocking the breathing passages and stomachs of many marine species, including whales, dolphins, seals, puffins, and turtles.

This garbage can also come back to shore, where it pollutes beaches and other coastal habitats.
http://www.panda.org/about_our_earth/blue_planet/problems/pollution/

also http://www.wired.com/science/discoveries/news/2004/06/63699

http://www.cdnn.info/news/article/a071104.html about the effects on the oceans

Recycling the bottles is pretty much a joke. It's just not worth it financially, and more often than not ends up just getting sent off to some other country to pollute their landscape. or chucked into landfill.

I agree London water does taste terrible. And I know a lot of people who filter or boil it. It also tastes horrendous when you leave it sitting in an open glass for some reason. High Wycombe water now... that's superb.. even if it scales up everything it touches. They both make great tea though!

You can get excellent bottles to carry water in. And some even look good (Sigg... I'm not looking at you.. get yourselves a decent designer!).

VFX with Hindsight

2009-07-09T06:33:00.000-07:00

VFX with Hindsight

After recently completing our first VisualFX commission my girlfriend (and team mate on the work) suggested I write down everything we did and learnt from the shots. Who knows, maybe the information I give might help others have less pain in the future and if nothing else, it will be good to get what I learnt down on paper, even if it is virtual paper.

I had to stop doing the 11 second challenge I was about half way through (which was a shame as I never seem to find the time to finish these things) in order to do it, just so I get to show how far, here is a link to what I _did_ manage. The rig and model are not my own (credit for this goes to: Jason Baskin), I was concentrating on the animation, in this case, mostly just the lip sync'ing and some other bits and pieces.

11 second challenge WIP (about half way there) on Vimeo

The commission was make a viral ad that makes recycling mobile phones interesting while at the same time promote the love london festival. As the date for the love london festival was only 2 weeks away that was our first problem, short timeframe. Needless to say it wasn't going to be the last.

The ad itself was built around the catchphrase, 'What are you saving those old mobile phones for? If it's not this cool then why not recycle them?'. The idea was to make a believeable shot that has someone knocking over a ludicrous number of mobile phones in a domino style that ends up showing the love london logo. Sounds simple right? So we thought too...

The first thing was to find a site for the shot, on a whim I asked a guy by the name of Graham Tilly from Risk Management Services Ltd if he could think of anywhere that might be suitable. (RMS were doing some work for me which I ended up very happy with) He came up with Artisans a beautiful office building in High Wycombe with a car park that might be just what I need. After getting permission from the owners (who we would like to thank) and a reconoitre of the site we fixed a date to bring the cameras back at the weekend, when the car parks would be pretty empty.

Amazing how one small mistake can set you down a road that dictates how the rest of the shot will go. Neither my girlfriend or I are camera gurus, cameraperson/cinematographer would never be used to describe us from the previous footage we had shot. I can take a reasonable photo and being comfortable behind the lens is something I want to get better at, especially lighting and shot composition, unfortuntely on the day of the site visit our main camera, the Canon XH-A1 turned up on site with the battery missing, I am not going to point fingers to whose responsibility it was, but between the two of us, it wasn't mine. It had already taken us 1hr 30mins to get to the site instead of the 40mins it should of taken, and 3hrs roundtrip to collect the battery again was not going to be an option. The decision was made to resort to the backup camera, the Nikon D90 DSLR which can shoot up to 5mins of movie at baby HD. We both knew that others had managed to get some good shots out of the camera so hopefully we could too. We were very fortunate to get good weather and strong shadows, both of which help in making a good shot (and help to ground the CG elements with good hard shadows) so we thought we would get away with it.

The first thing I learnt from the whole experience (apart from check the kit before leaving the house) was that it would be ideal to have a way to preview your shots while on location. When we got back and had a closer look at the wide shot it was obvious how overexposed it was. This didn't bode well for placing CG elements in the shot as they too would have to be overexposed to fit. The compression of the footage shot with the D90 was such that I didn't feel I could pull it back much in post so we just had to go with what we had. In retrospect, and under more ideal circumstances another shoot was really called for. But, we decided to get going with what we had, that's the problem with tight deadlines, compromise.

Onto the interesting bits, at least from a VisualFX side anyway. I will break the shot down into three areas, the dynamics, the modelling (including the texturing) and the lighting/rendering. Compositing was done by my girlfriend (as was most of the photoshop work), I will touch on this during lighting/rendering section.

Dynamics with Dynamica

I ran some Maya rigid body tests to see how many we could simulate at once, not a lot was the answer. This was a problem, a big problem. I didn't fancy having to hand animate about 10,000 mobile phones, that would be bad. After checking the net for solutions, in particular the cgsociety.org forums, we decided to go with Bullet Physics' Dynamica plugin for Maya as it was both free and simulated very quick. One thing I will say is it is not a finished product, we encountered problems with it which we will get into. Also, those expecting something similar to the Rigid Bodies built into Maya will be disappointed with the lack of functionality, such as 'Set Initial State' and any form of caching or baking. This is definitely a stripped down plugin that primarily just shows the dynamics and how fast they are (and they are fast). Although annoying, I didn't worry about this too much as I was confident I could script what was missing (some examples later).

Our first major problem with Dynamica was the limit to the number of simulated objects, 4096. Most simulations probably run with a lot less than this number but unfortunately we had 10,000 phones to knock over. It seemed simple to split it up into the three shots, start off the first simulation, cut after about 3500 phones had fallen over, line up the next shot and start a new simulation carrying on from the last one, just taking the edge of the wave from the previous shot into the next simulation. This didn't quite work out as planned, I think I ended up with 5 simulations in all, one of which stop/starts right in the middle of a shot. This didn't prove to be too much of a problem as my compositor/editor eventually just took a few frames out and managed to make it look relatively seamless (although not perfect). All of these (on the surface) minor problems all impacted on time. Running the simulation, selecting all the simulated objects, removing all the frames (so as to reduce file size), saving to a new file, selecting the edge of the wave, the new ones to be included in the simulation and creating a new simulation based on these new objects, tweaking it to make sure the correct ones fell, then running it all while baking the animation into the actual phones (not the proxy objects).

Dynamica has an array which was extremely useful for this project as everything can be simulated with the same proxy object shape. Very early I decided not to worry too much about the relative differences in the phones dimensions when it came to the simulation, if someone wanted to pause the frame and possibly notice the lack of contact (or overlapping) then good luck to them, for me, it looked good enough during the tests. The main problem with the array was manipulating it. So I wrote a script that placed the proxy objects in the array to coincide with objects placed in the world, copying their location and orientation.

global proc replaceObjects() {

string $selected[] = `ls -sl`;
int $numSelected = size($selected);

if ($numSelected >= 2) {
string $arrayShape[] = `listRelatives -s $selected[0]`;

for ($i = 1; $i < $numSelected; $i++) {
setAttr($arrayShape[0]+".initialPosition["+($i-1)+"].initialPositionX", getAttr($selected[$i]+".tx"));
setAttr($arrayShape[0]+".initialPosition["+($i-1)+"].initialPositionY", getAttr($selected[$i]+".ty"));
setAttr($arrayShape[0]+".initialPosition["+($i-1)+"].initialPositionZ", getAttr($selected[$i]+".tz"));
setAttr($arrayShape[0]+".initialRotation["+($i-1)+"].initialRotationX", getAttr($selected[$i]+".rx"));
setAttr($arrayShape[0]+".initialRotation["+($i-1)+"].initialRotationY", getAttr($selected[$i]+".ry"));
setAttr($arrayShape[0]+".initialRotation["+($i-1)+"].initialRotationZ", getAttr($selected[$i]+".rz"));
}

setAttr($arrayShape[0]+".numBodies", ($numSelected - 1));
} else {
// Error, print some message on usage
print("Usage: replaceObjects() requires the selection of 2 or more objects, the first should be the dRigidBodyArray.");
}
}

I then ran another script which created and linked random instances of the phones to the dRigidBodyArray:

global proc linkMe() {

string $selected[] = `ls -sl`;
int $numSelected = size($selected);

if ($numSelected == 2) {
string $arrayShape[] = `listRelatives -s $selected[0]`;
string $children[] = `listRelatives -c $selected[1]`;
int $numChildren = size($children);
int $numBodies = getAttr($arrayShape[0]+".numBodies");

group -em -w -name "instances";

for ($i = 0; $i < $numBodies; $i++) {
int $randomChild = rand($numChildren);
string $newObject[] = `instance -name ("instancedCopy_"+$i) $children[$randomChild]`;
parent $newObject "instances";
connectAttr($arrayShape[0]+".position["+($i)+"]", $newObject[0]+".t");
connectAttr($arrayShape[0]+".rotation["+($i)+"]", $newObject[0]+".r");
}
} else {
// Error, print some message on usage
print("Usage: linkMe() requires the selection of exactly 2 objects, the first should be the dRigidBodyArray, the second a group node with children of the random objects to place.");
}
}

The astute group amongst you will realise I probably should of passed the group name as a parameter and then kept the return name of the actual group created and used that as the group to parent the instances too (I bet you don't care, neither did I). The simulation runs (word of warning, more often than not, the first time you run a newly created simulation the objects seem to behave very strangely, you will see what I mean, rewind and start again and it should be fixed) but nothing is baked and the objects aren't sitting perfectly on the floor. The next script does a set initial state on the array:

global proc setInitial() {
string $selected[] = `ls -sl`;
int $numSelected = size($selected);

if ($numSelected == 1) {
string $arrayShape[] = `listRelatives -s $selected[0]`;
int $numBodies = getAttr($arrayShape[0]+".numBodies");

for ($i = 0; $i < $numBodies; $i++) {
setAttr($arrayShape[0]+".initialPosition["+($i)+"].initialPositionX", getAttr($arrayShape[$i]+".position["+$i+"].positionX"));
setAttr($arrayShape[0]+".initialPosition["+($i)+"].initialPositionY", getAttr($arrayShape[$i]+".position["+$i+"].positionY"));
setAttr($arrayShape[0]+".initialPosition["+($i)+"].initialPositionZ", getAttr($arrayShape[$i]+".position["+$i+"].positionZ"));
setAttr($arrayShape[0]+".initialRotation["+($i)+"].initialRotationX", getAttr($arrayShape[$i]+".rotation["+$i+"].rotationX"));
setAttr($arrayShape[0]+".initialRotation["+($i)+"].initialRotationY", getAttr($arrayShape[$i]+".rotation["+$i+"].rotationY"));
setAttr($arrayShape[0]+".initialRotation["+($i)+"].initialRotationZ", getAttr($arrayShape[$i]+".rotation["+$i+"].rotationZ"));
}
} else {
// Error, print some message on usage
print("Usage: setInitial() requires the selection of one dRigidBodyArray to set the current position as the starting configuration.");
}
}

Once again, nothing too complicated. The only thing left was some baking:

global proc bakeMe(int $start, int $finish, int $increment) {

string $selected[] = `ls -sl`;
int $numSelected = size($selected);

if ($numSelected == 2) {
string $arrayShape[] = `listRelatives -s $selected[0]`;
string $children[] = `listRelatives -c $selected[1]`;
int $numChildren = size($children);
int $numBodies = getAttr($arrayShape[0]+".numBodies");

currentTime -edit $start;
for ($i = $start; $i < $finish; ) {
int $j;
for ($j = 0; $j < $numChildren; $j++) {
setKeyframe -attribute "t" $children[$j];
setKeyframe -attribute "r" $children[$j];
}
int $frameDone = $i;
do {
$i++;
currentTime -edit $i;
} while (($frameDone + $increment) > $i);
}
for ($k = 0; $k < $numChildren; $k++) {
string $token[];
tokenize $children[$k] "_" $token;
disconnectAttr($arrayShape[0]+".position["+($token[1])+"]", $children[$k]+".t");
disconnectAttr($arrayShape[0]+".rotation["+($token[1])+"]", $children[$k]+".r");
}
} else {
// Error, print some message on usage
print("Usage: bakeMe() requires the selection of exactly 2 objects, the first should be the dRigidBodyArray, the second a group node containing the corresponding objects!");
}
}

Now, a word of 'WARNING!' don't use the increment field as anything other than 1. I found this out to my peril and its responsible for some really nasty jumpiness in the final shot. For some reason I never worked out - the objects go through a strange rotation and flip if you do this, something to do with the values it assigns. To give an example: Take an object, on frame one key the rotation XYZ as 0, advance to frame 10, key the rotations to 180 and press play. Although the object looks the same at 0 and 10 it goes through that horrible flip that those familiar with animating will have experienced, going from 5 to 355 for instance when all you want is a 10 degree movement you end up with a 350 degree one. For some reason I never expected this in a dynamics simulation, but it was there and it was a headache that we never managed to get fixed (see end of post for why).

There was a lot more to the simulations as I mentioned (coping with the end of one and the start of another) but this gives you some of the tidier and simpler MEL script that I used to get around some of the Dynamica limitations. The full script file that I made during the project is included at the end (but I must warn you, it isn't pretty).

Modelling and Texturing

27 different mobile phone models giving about 50 different (when we recolour some). The last thing I wanted to do was model these all from scratch (given the timeframe). So I scripted the whole creation process, it was a compromise, giving me the rough shape and edges that had a rounded edge - so I got that specular ping on the edge. Not only did it model them in nurbs based on 3 curves, a top, side and bottom, it also textured them with projection nodes. I always meant to go back and plug one of the colour channels from the texture into the specular channel but things just ran away from us time wise and this got left out. The script itself is very long and ugly so I wont post it here, it is included in the file at the end called buildIt(name, scalingFactor).

I had some problems with this approach which I should of forseen. The projected textures seemed like a great idea at the time but once I started creating instances of these objects it became unwieldy to have so many projections and hence shaders linked to the instances (it would of made the file ridiculously large and unwieldy). So I converted the models to polys and converted the projected textures to file textures using the command from the Hypershade -> Edit->ConvertToFileTexture all within the one script: polyfy(). This left me with a single polygonal object with the textures assigned and UV's mapped. It actually worked better than I thought it would.

Could I have modelled 27 different models, UV'd and textured them in the time it took me to write these scripts? Possibly, but I try to reduce the repetitive things to scripts wherever possible and as I get faster in scripting I think it will end up being a much better way to spend my time. Although I will admit sometimes the results didn't capture a perfect likeness of the phone with the scripting approach but it was more than enough for this project.

Here is a sample of the progression as I am sure 95% of the readers of this blog wont check the scripts out for themselves...

First image has me with a simple surface shader and the front phone texture on so I can align the curves (which have been selected in order top/side/bottom).

Second image is what you get immediately after typing buildIt("phone1", 1.0), at least I think that's the scaling factor for this phone...

The third image is after both the polyfy() command and bumpIt() has been run over the phones, you can see some gaps and its not perfect but there are no close ups of the phones in any shots so I was happy with this as a final result.

All of the images for the textures came from setting up a light tent outside and my girlfriend and I taking all the pictures in an afternoon. She then ran them through photoshop cropping, centring and later, creating more colours for the phones based on the images we had. She also had to remove the screens as a lot of the phones (most in fact) were ex-shop demonstration models complete with screen pictures.

Lighting and Rendering

The plates dictated the look of the CG, I hated the wide shot as the highlights were so blown out as to make some of the phones only look realistic when similarly blown out. Annoying when you go to such lengths to make reasonable looking phones and then have to blow them out. By the time we got to the rendering time we were really pushed, I so wish we could of gone back, re-shot everything with the right camera, and had more time to do the whole thing justice. I had hoped to get some camera movement with camera tracking into the whole thing as I think that would of helped sell the CG a little more.

I am still proud of the side shot, especially when it got run through FCP by my girlfriend and the speed increased about 40-50% as at the moment it looks like its in slow motion.

Some of the phones don't have bump maps and as mentioned previously a seperate specular map would of helped, but the size of the phones in shot made them not essential.

Final Thoughts

My PC started crashing badly towards the end, not Maya crashing, the whole machine just resetting with no reason. Like someone stepped on the power. At one point this happened 3 times in 2 mins (once shortly after the GRUB screen). This really didn't help with a very tight deadline. Add memory issues into this, the dynamics, especially when baking the simulation frames, took a lot of memory and I used the /3GB switch in 32bit windows to get as much as I could in one simulation but it didn't solve all my problems. I have a 32 bit windows install and a 64 bit linux install (which I used for rendering) this whole experience has made me desperate to get a 64 bit Vista install as Dynamica doesn't work under linux.

The scripts: These were never meant to be seen by anyone else so please, don't send me complaints about how difficult they are to follow and how I should of tidied them up. If someone wants to pay me for a couple of weeks to write useful menu items/scripts for the Dynamica plug-in then no problem, I could do with the work. :)

MEL Script file

The final shots: There should be a voiceover and some splash screens to go with this. The wide shot (the one I don't like the colours/exposure of) looks better in full HD for some reason. Whereas the side shot looks a bit more CG like in HD. Anyway, take it for what it is, unfinished and in need of better back plates. The end part needs the dynamics redoing due to my PC crashing after we tried to save time using the increment variable while baking (see previous post).

Final Shot on Vimeo

If you got this far, thanks for reading...

Gary Jones

Wake Up, Freak Out, then Get a Grip

2009-07-09T05:32:00.000-07:00

Wake Up, Freak Out - then Get a Grip from Leo Murray on Vimeo.

this is an awesome animation. explains the feedback and tipping points very well. as well as super stylish!

NHS Behind the Headlines

2009-05-25T09:40:00.000-07:00

Awesome site here - NHS Behind the headlines
and well needed, seeing all the rubbish the newspapers spout off on, when they get hold of some research and run with some insane extrapolation of 'what they thought it meant'.

In fact, was pretty impressed to see how jolly the NHS site is now. Gone are those 'we will only use blue' days.
In fact, the NHS main home page is almost a bit magazine like!

Let's get mobile

2009-01-07T11:27:00.000-08:00

Well I thought this could be a long post about the technicalities of getting my new 3 Mobile Broadband working on my new Acer Aspire One on which I had wiped the perfectly working Linpus OS and put on Ubuntu.

The process went like this - plug in, select mobile broadband, choose '3', click connect automatically.
Job done.

Pesto Pasta

2009-01-04T05:43:00.000-08:00

This is a pesto which is more dominated by the taste of the mushrooms rather than the pesto as is usual. The pesto is a very smooth one and does not contain any cheese.
It can be eaten cold, slightly warm or hot. Slightly warm is probably the best. Forgive lack of measurements but I tend to be wildly enthusiastic over garlic.

Ingredients

Garlic
Red Onions
Flat Mushrooms (e.g. Portabellini)
Sacla Chargrilled Aubergine Pesto
(optional) Cauldron Beech Smoked Tofu (or some sort of vegetarian sausage, e.g. frankfurter)

Pasta (we use Waitrose Organic Wholewheat Fusilli if we can get it)

(optional) pinch of italian herbs

Method

Start the pasta boiling and then race it to the finish...

Finely chop the garlic and onions.
Saute the onions, then when they are slightly translucent, add the garlic.
Chop the mushrooms into large pieces and add.
Add some black pepper, some salt (or can add salt afterwards) and a pinch of italian herbs if desired.
Let the mushrooms cook until water comes out of them.
Chop the tofu into 2cm squares and add to the mix so it heats up.

Strain the pasta when it is done and put it into a big mixing bowl (good to serve in this too so you don't have to transfer it). Add the sauted vegetables and the pesto and mix up.

Very good with some West Indian Pepper Sauce (what isn't?!)

Cough and Cold Comfort

2009-01-04T05:27:00.000-08:00

Here is a West Indian traditional cold remedy but omitting the rum!

Chop up ginger (however much you like, but you could do about an inch to make a lot you can have all day) and put into a saucepan. Add two or three cloves, and a piece of cinnamon bark. Add water, bring to the boil and then simmer (or just turn it off and wrap a few towels around it so it stays hot and stews).

After a while, just take out some of the liquid, heat it, and sweeten it to taste (I don't sweeten mine any more which makes it more tooth friendly to be sipping all day), and then just sip away.

You might want to tone down the amounts if you find it tastes too strong.

I think its so virulently anti-bacterial I can't imagine anything living in it, so I don't worry about putting it in the fridge, but am happy to leave it out overnight and reheat some in the morning.

I've noticed my aunt making this (sometimes called Ginger Tea) to 'clear the air' after making curries. So there is often a pot of it on the stove and they drink it as a digestive.

Sink your teeth into this

2008-11-28T14:06:00.000-08:00

Looks can be deceiving when it comes to cake. Paul's Chocolate Moelleux. I can't say it loud enough as I shiver anxiously in the queue, eyes on the display, so much is at stake. The world could end, it wouldn't matter, I would have this cake!

Not corrupted by icing or murdered by raisins and nuts, it stands alone, brown and unassuming, even somewhat unattractive. The first bite is a revelation; this cake has managed to embrace the extremes; sweet but with a hint of cocoa bitterness, soft but nicely crusty on the sides, crumbles and melts in the mouth at the same time. A little goes a long way, but even a whole cake wouldn't induce nausea.

Great choice for any occasion, especially if you need to fool anyone about your baking skills. This cake has such a home made, just out of Mom's kitchen oven taste, that you could get away with it!

Can you eat a painting?

2008-11-03T19:03:00.000-08:00

So I was listening to a chap singing at the Fitzwilliam Museum here in Cambridge. The setting is amazing. The walls are adorned by fine paintings of great people, in ornate golden frames. The room was filled with people who were enjoying this demonstration of what happens when society has the resources to allow some of it's members to reach the peak of their abilities.

Yet all I could think about was where this was all going to be in 10 or 20 years time. The science about climate change is now lagging behind the speed of the change itself. Reading Mark Lynas' Six Degrees introduces you to the sheer terror of a world blighted by 4, 5 or 6 degrees of warming. We will not be worried about how to tune our pianos or where we can get a tube of red ocher, we will be worried about where our next meal comes from as we fight for resources on a massively over-crowded planet with a collapsed eco-system.

Last year I read a book, recommended by Monbiot, called 'The Road'. It's the most wrenching, tragic yet compelling book I have ever read. Testament to this is the rather frank text I got from Francis when he read it at my suggestion. A post-apocalyptic world where people have to do anything to survive.

Is this really the gift we want to give our children?

I do everything I can do reduce my personal emissions but I have recently joined the whirlwind that is Francis Irving to help create: http://seriouschange.org.uk in order to help effect political change. Join us. Write to your MP/representative to let them know you care (http://writetothem.com).

If we don't sort this out, as Starbuck herself would say, "It's the end of the world".

Adding GPS track data to JPG exif data

2008-10-26T14:35:00.000-07:00

Recently I went on holiday with my girlfriend, my little olympus digital snappy camera, and my nokia E71 phone.

While touring Paris, I left the E71 (with built-in GPS) running Nokia's SportsTracker software, which is quite a respectable GPS tracking tool. Naturally, I also took more than a few photos.

Just before starting the SportsTracker session, I ensured that my camera and phone times were more-or-less in sync.

Various web-based photo sites allow one to see where a photo was taken by using the GPS coordinates in the JPG Exif data, and I rather liked the idea of being able to see a map displaying the photos I've taken. I'm specifically thinking about google's picasaweb here, but they're not the only one. For example: http://picasaweb.google.com/karl.dane/Testing?authkey=6ER8sJ42S90#5260750179838664114

Now, some weeks later, I have the data that SportsTracker recorded, and a load of photos. The problem was how to merge the two. Well - I'm a perl coder, so that seemed to be the sensible approach.

SportsTracker will export to various formats, and of these XML seemed the most useful. This was where I learned just how limited XML::Simple is; the XML file produced by SportsTracker was about 4.6MB, and to turn this into a perl data structure took about 20 minutes!

XML::libXML seemed the way to go, but it looked reasonably scary. Thankfully, I found a splendid page 'Stepping up from XML::Simple to XML::libXML' which provided the necessary examples: http://www.perlmonks.org/index.pl?node_id=490846

All that remained was to find a good exif editing utility, and Exiftool seemed to be perfect: http://freshmeat.net/projects/exiftool

So - the script I wrote looks at a directory of JPEGs and uses exiftool to lookup the original creation time of each image.

It then hunts through the XML file for a timestamp that closely matches that of the jpeg. When found, it pulls out the appropriate coordinates, and uses Exiftool again to update the file accordingly.

It's a little on the slow side; there are definitely areas for improvement / efficiency gains, but it does the job.

Obviously this is tuned to work for SportsTracker XML exports, but it should be quite easy to adapt to any other XML format.

Find the script here: gps-exif.pl

Requires Date::Manip, XML::libXML and Exiftool

Must pass -d switch to tell it where your photos are, and -x to tell it which xml file to read.

Karl Dane

Olverum Bath Oil

2008-10-26T07:28:00.000-07:00

Are you stressed and worn out? Coryzal symptoms? Or nothing to do on a Friday night? The prognosis is good with Olverum Bath Oil, the only bath oil that has fulfilled all the criteria for the perfect soak. Absolutely amazing relaxing and yet uplifting aroma, wafting out of the steamy water and soaking perfectly into the skin, with no oily residue on the bath afterwards. All muscle aches and negative thoughts are dismissed, a recipe for insomnia as well, the pillow rises to meet my head and I am instantly asleep and restored when I stumble into bed.

Read all about it and order online at www.olverum.com

Tweed Cycle Bag

2008-10-23T16:12:00.000-07:00

In the fashion of a Thai bag (which is made from two pieces of cloth).

I used some New Grey Raver from Dashing Tweeds. I had intended to make a top out of it, as illustrated in the previous post, but I lost the nerve (and the fabric isn't cheap!). So I just made this simple bag which folds up beautifully small and seems almost invisible until it reflects. I figure that while cycling you can wear it across the body so it would work like a sash. Because of the cycling use, I made it a bit shorter than normal.

Below is the bag when photographed with a flash.

Warmest and Coolest Coat Ever

2008-10-19T09:33:00.000-07:00

I'm in love with my Hemp Hoodlamb (flash site). Its stunningly warm, but yet one doesn't overheat. The ladies' version is even a bit shapely, which is pretty amazing for a warm coat (see Michelin Man style coats favoured by those who get very cold and want to wear a duvet)

Inhabitat have a good review of the hoodlamb and some other stuff in the range with some nice pictures.

Really impressed with the quality of the hemp/acrylic fur which lines the coat (and is delicious when you put it on, its like being hugged by a bear). It hasn't matted in the two years I've had it.

I'm currently looking at a pair of earmuffs in their range. Although the hood on the hoodlamb is pretty fantastic. And check out the Ruderalis Hat too. I challenge any head to get cold with that on.

Snow Dome in Wycombe

2008-10-17T16:59:00.000-07:00

View Larger Map

Just found out today that there is a Snow Dome planned to replace (or augment) the dry ski slope in Wycombe. Its brilliant news and apparently should take a year. Some sketchy information on this Wycombe Summit website. Might go look soon and report back if anything is happening.
It seems that there are several of these snow domes going up in the area though. Perhaps buoyed by the success of the three big ones (Milton Keynes being one of them). I just hope that they really take spiralling energy costs into consideration and build in some decent insulation to cut down their costs. Otherwise I can see it becoming prohibitively expensive to run pretty quickly.
It shouldn't be that hard to build smart, but of course the material and design costs would be higher. Considering that humans were building ice houses long long along, it should be possible.

Making Clothes Cycle-Useful

2008-10-06T00:54:00.000-07:00

This is a step in the quest for stylish cycle clothes that veer away from the Hi-vis jacket school of fashion (although we got some free from the London Freewheel).

Here is a Maharishi top I altered by just opening the seams (which are barely visible in this version of the top) and putting in some reflective piping from Point North so that it is more visible at night. I'm thinking of wearing it as an overtop (so its not a summer-only top).

(above) the top with one piece of piping in it. Maharishi clothes are extraordinarily well made.

(above) the top complete with the piping (the pattern is on the back too for great visibility)

(above) This is another Maharishi top in the same series. One of my ideas was to make a new version of this in Dashing Tweeds (British tweed with 3M reflective tape woven into it) and possibly include the same sort of piping, or even flat reflective panels where the pattern is.

The Maharishi designers clearly like reflectives. Most of the trousers and tops have a little tag on the side including black or white reflective material, and often the eyes of the embroidered dragons are sewn with reflective thread, which can be quite startling. I wonder if they would consider going a bit more reflective mad.

Wipeout HD

2008-10-02T16:24:00.000-07:00

It's finally here. Long awaited, long delayed.

First impressions - its quite visually overwhelming. I haven't even got around to looking at the HUD yet, because I am too busy watching the track and trying to stop scraping off the walls (the paddle like airbrakes are taking some getting used to, seem to require a lighter touch).
Even the courses seem visually full. I just noticed that when one is racing, there are pulses racing along the track, which can actually be very useful to follow and give a clue as to the the way the course is going to twist. Nice touch.

Really nice feeling of continuity with Fusion which has to be one of the best games ever. They have preserved the gameplay too, it feels like. We were suitably struggling with Feisar.
Even the weapons seem to be along the same lines.

The graphics are lovely. Not yet up to photorealism (I keep hoping..). You really notice the sophistication when things get blown up. Great smoke and fire etc. And glints of reflectivity off the track.

I'll post some screenshots.. if I can work out how. Most of the ones you see don't look like the game itself. this looks pretty close, but when its going past at 100 miles an hour... its a lot madder...

nice review here

now... coming up to a weekend where I try and get better before attempting the online play. I can't lay myself open to that embarrassment! Will have to thrash my brother when he gets here Monday...

some screenshots. Excuse the ranking, but its hard to keep pressing the 'photo' button and keep any kind of position.

London Dancewear shops

2008-09-16T10:22:00.000-07:00

Just a note up in case anyone is looking for Julienne & Porselli. Its now closed down. However if you do end up around there, its a short walk to Drury Lane (down Long Acre) where you can find Blochworld (nice looking shop, bit useless in the clothes department) or the Very Pink but Extremely Helpful Dancia (seriously, don't let the colour put you off) where I have ordered some Grishko vegan ballet slippers. The place with the biggest range of leotards I have found so far is Sansha which is tiny and crammed.

All three of these shops are within a stone's throw of each other and seem to be open later on Thursdays.

Sevillanas World Record

2008-09-03T16:40:00.000-07:00

Picture of Regent Street and the dancers from above. An intermittently showery day but we did it and broke the record! (Just wait for the next Feria in Seville).