AMBITION

So that's what Aidan Gillen's been doing in his time off from Game of Thrones.

The short is a little hard to explain so here's a synopsis from the site:

"The short film tells the story of one of the most important space exploration endeavours of this decade. Just as Gillen’s enigmatic Master encourages Franciosi’s Apprentice to seek out the key to life amidst a rugged alien landscape, ESA has been on a decade-long ambitious journey of its own, to unlock the mysteries of a comet and the origins of our Solar System with its Rosetta spacecraft, hundreds of millions of kilometres from Earth."

It's a very interesting and beautiful looking short aimed to help support the European Space Agency's Rosetta mission, deployed 10 years ago and is the first spacecraft to successfully orbit a comet. Very fascinating stuff if you're into space. Check it out!

Can You Tell What's Real And What's Printed?

Printers aren't usually the first thing on my mind, but robots generally pop into my head multiple times a day. That's why this commercial advertising Canon's line of PIXUS printers is so interesting. It uses Gundam models and printouts of Gundam models as mind bending illusions. It's pretty fascinating to look at. Can you tell what's real and what isn't?



Obviously these printouts only look 3D from a certain angle but it's still impressive how they did it. Here's a short behind the scenes video which explains a lot of how they shot the commercial.

LIX 3D Pen

Credit: www.kickstarter.com

File this under tech I don't understand but must absolutely have. The LIX 3D pen is the latest in the world of 3D printing pens which I had no idea was a thing. It's powered by USB and it works a lot like a hot glue gun melting plastic which is fed from behind. When the melted plastic is extruded from the tip, it cools and you can literally draw on air. You can learn more at their kickstarter page which has already been extremely funded. Looks like I'm not the only person impressed by this. And you really have to see it to believe it.

So You Wanna Be Spider-Man?

You know the one thing keeping you from being Spider-Man, aside from getting bitten by a radioactive spider, is that pesky webshooter technology. Well thanks to Patrick Priebe, YouTube user AnselmoFanZero, we're just a bit closer. They're not exactly webshooters as it fires a mini-harpoon that can be retracted, but it's damn innovative. With a laser sight for aim, and a winch to retract the cable, you gotta love that German engineering. Patrick wins the Internet today.

His YouTube site also features other comic book inspired paraphernalia like Cyclops' goggles and Iron Man's gauntlet. You can check out his creations over at his site: www.laser-gadgets.com. And remember, with great power, comes great responsibility.

Lucasfilm and the Future of Filmmaking

Are you ready for the future? In this video, you see people wearing motion capture suits, and they have camera rigs strapped to their heads, and all the information is sent to computers where it gets rendered in real time. Real time! The results are droids and Stormtroopers doing exactly what they're doing, and at the same time! They play with the lighting, interact with their environments, and even show how accurate the facial movements are. And it's all done right at the same time. This is an incredible piece of technology. Now why the hell is my Kinect still so slow?!?

Monday January 13, 2014 Catchup

Let's not bury the lead. The Game of Thrones Season 4 trailer is out! It has King Joffrey still being an utter prat, Ser Jorah Mormont dishing some advice, Daenerys Targaryen offering an ultimatum, Tyrion in cuffs, and tons more. Simply put, there's a lot of "Whose side are you on?" kind of talk. Game of Thrones premieres Sunday April 6th.