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Archive for Uncategorized

Olivia Dunham…

Fringe has been my favorite new show for a bit now.  Olivia Dunham as a character is walking a very fine line between being feminine, with all the emotional tendencies but still retaining the tougher edge that allows her to function as an investigator.  The actress (Anna Torv) who portrays her has thus far done an excellent job, playing it straight versus some of the wackiness that goes on in the show (wackiness that somehow never manages to undermine the drama of the character interaction).  This weeks episode (“Bad Dreams”) really has jumped her up a notch in my opinion as an actress.  Olivia has a series of dreams in which she is murdering people, or rather she is seeing by psychic connection someone else causing their deaths (it’s more complex than that, watch the show).  So we have moments where we are seeing the killer, but when the connection to Olivia is live, we see her body rather than the killers.  There’s not much to the shift, her hair is tousled a touch, not as well groomed as it once was, but her physical acting (we never hear either her or the killer speak) speaks of an entirely different person.  The Olivia Dunham we are familiar with is efficient of motion, elegant and clean in all her movements.  When she plays the killer there is no question in your mind that she is someone else.  There is a slouch, a laziness to the motion, a languidity that is not otherwise there.

Bravo bravo, Ms. Torv :)  An excellent job, keep it up!

Goobers or Raisinettes?

As a species, we seem destined for division. Goobers versus Raisinettes, Republican versus Democrat, Mac versus PC, Max versus Maya…

Its this last one that I find coming into play more and more often. I teach at one of the online Universities and I have students that come through with just this question. I had the blessed fortune to be able to lay hands on the Maya beta back when Alias and AutoCad were the Big Dogs and as such, Maya will always have a place in my arsenal. However in terms of employment, I have been required to use Max at every turn. I keep hearing from students that Maya is the new top of the heap, but I’m still not seeing it happen so much. They are still both *excellent* programs. Despite the tools that have been duplicated between them, they still turn out art with a distinctive look, Maya stuff tends to look Maya-ish, Max stuff tends to look more Max-esque.

I am looking to see what everyone out there uses most often in there creation of 3d, not what you like to use, but what do you find yourself working with again and again? Freelancers, AD’s, Leads, Junior artists? I mean, I can see what comes across *my* table, but I think I am only seeing a teeny weeny cross-section of the art generation pipeline out there. I’m wondering if I’m standing on the brink of a genuine revolution, about to watch it pass me by, or if this is the same sort of wishful thinking engendered by the fans of any piece of software.