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TV Paint fun

Posted on February 26, 2009  | 2 Comments
Filed under Drawings

head

For the past few weeks, I have started sketching on my way to work. I am still using a demo version of TV Paint that closes down after 20 minutes and doesnt allow saving.

TV Paint is a really great software and I haven’t used Sketchbook pro for a more than a year now.

I mostly do caricatures/character design and usually start with 2 spheres, one for the cranium and an other one for the chin/jaw, then I place the different features (ears, noze, eyes) at different height, in order to give some personality to my character. That s a tip I got from Steven Silver. The drawing above was my first test with shadows and didn’t work very well. Instead of starting with a white page next time, I will start with a mid gray background. This should will give me more range. An other exercise I learnt from Steven Silver is to draw the feature into a geometrical shape (triangle, square, rectangle and circle), do you know any other?

Productivity tools Windows Mobile

Posted on February 26, 2009  | 2 Comments
Filed under GTD, IT, Life hack, Windows Mobile

After spending a bit of time around the net I finally replaced the default HTC Touchflow interface with the classic Windows Mobile 6.1 UI enhanced by a really cool add-on called SBP Diary. It is obviously not for everyone but personally I prefer to have my calendar/todo list on my home screen rather than shortcuts to softwares. The application is $20 and there is even a demo version on the website.

calendarhtc1

Useful Windows tools

Posted on February 22, 2009  | 1 Comment
Filed under IT, Life hack

here is a list of freeware I find really useful:

Cathy: To organize your collection of CDs or DVD
Virtual Dub The swiss army knife of video compression, editing and capture
KMPlayer: probably the best media player for Windows, great for animators as you can scrub the timeline with the audio feedback
Timelapse photobooth: best timelapse webcam capture software
IrfanView: with Paint.net one of the lightest photoediting and screen capture software
WinSCP: FTP, SFTP freeware, that one has recently been recommended to me, I was using Leechftp until now
Syncback freeware: to synchronize files between computers/FTP
Windirstat: I spoke about that one some time ago. Visual disk usage statistic viewer

WordPress hell

Posted on February 14, 2009  | 3 Comments
Filed under IT, Life hack

as some of you noticed, my blog was down for the past few days.

Like Keith Lango mentionned on his blog last month, WordPress is a great application but the hacking problem is a big issue which I am fed up fighting with. I was talking to Andrew Gordon few month ago and he was complaining about Splinedoctors issues as well.

I have successfully upgraded my WordPress application to 2.7 but WordPress is taking so much of my precious time that I might end up like Keith and go back to Blogger.

Ah

Synchronizing files between PCs or FTP

Posted on February 6, 2009  | Leave a Comment
Filed under IT, Life hack

Copying large files across a wireless network or automatically to a FTP can be a bit painfull unless you use a Synchronization software.

There are many for Windows, and plenty of free ones. SyncToy is the default Microsoft one but “SyncBack Freeware” is my favourite SyncBack. You can find it here
SyncBack Freeware

Windows Mobile best applications

Posted on December 15, 2008  | 1 Comment
Filed under Windows Mobile

I will use this post as a repository for my favourite Windows Mobile Applications:

AE Button plus
This utility extends functionality of hardware keys on Windows Mobile devices. It allows you to:

  • intercept almost any standard button: application buttons, WM5 SoftKeys, Volume slider, Action and even Red/Green phone buttons
  • distinguish up to 4 different keypress events on each button grabbed (single, double, triple and “long” keypresses).
  • remap each of the keypress events to “virtual” application button or assign them directly to one of the wide set of built-in actions.

    • As a result you may “convert” volume slider to up/down arrows, assign several essential application buttons to these “SoftKey” buttons and even assign your favorit alternative dialer to red/green phone buttons.

    G-watch:
    G-watch is a stopwatch/countdown that uses your built in GPS to track how much distance you have covered running/cycling/driving. It is really really cool. It is still a beta version but worked very well for me. On my way to my training I uploaded that application to my phone and was happy to finally know my running speed and the distance I ran. This will be great to set goals and improve my running speed.

    BBC Iplayer:
    Ok that one is not really an application but you can find the steps to allow the BBC Iplayer on your HD on the following website
    http://www.tracyandmatt.co.uk/blogs/index.php/2008/12/01/bbc-iplayer-streaming-on-windows-mobile

    HTC Touch HD, my new toy!

    Posted on December 9, 2008  | Leave a Comment
    Filed under Life hack

    I I jumped on the bandwagon and got myself one of the fanciest mobile phone on the market. I am not talking about the “Iphone 3g” but the HTC Touch HD and that phone is really really cool.

    Now what is the difference with the “Jesus phone 3g” ?

    Well it does everything the Iphone does and few more things. For example you can:
    – copy and paste (doh)
    – run several applications at the same time
    – play full res Divx and Xvid videos (using TCMP)
    – change the battery
    – swap MicroSD cards (it comes with a 8gb SD card)
    – record videos
    – use it as a wifi router or a cabled one
    – it comes with a very slick stylus
    – with a bit of trickery you can view Flash websites (only in USA et UK)
    – it synchronizes Outlook Notes and tasks
    – connects to Exchange corporate emails
    – really fine 800*480 pixels screen
    – ultimately it doesn’t drop phone calls!!!

    I am too busy at the moment to explore everysingle function but so far I love that phone. After nearly 4 years, I finally ditched my Palm T5 and my recent Nokia N95, the Touch HD replaces all my devices. No need to carry all my chargers and cables with me anymore just a regular Mini usb.

    Hichem Arfaoui short film

    Posted on December 7, 2008  | 1 Comment
    Filed under Animation Mentor, Friends

    My friend Hichem just posted his short film on internet. If you haven’t seen it yet on the Animation Mentor showreel, have a look!

    It’s funny and managed to get few laughs from top Pixar animators during Annecy this year.

    Banjo kazooie 3 “Nuts and Bolts” It’s out!!

    Posted on November 2, 2008  | Leave a Comment
    Filed under Rare, Video Games

    The game I have been working on for 1 year is finally out. Run! It is gorgeous and it is really fun!

    What are you learning?

    Posted on November 2, 2008  | 1 Comment
    Filed under Life hack

    Once in a while Fool.com posts some interesting article and I found an interesting one today entitled “What to do with $5,000“.

    What interested me in this article was a series of links to the free online MIT and Berkeley University courses.

    I am not too sure how to naviguate on the MIT website and couldn’t find the actual courses but the Berkeley one seems easier to naviguate and finding videos and mp3s was really simple. I am currently listening to the Social Psychology lecture by Dacher Keltner.

    On the same topics, Stanford University is also broadcasting some amazing lectures, talks and interviews with some of the most relevant people in business. Do not miss the Ed Catmull talk by the way if you haven’t heard it yet.

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