Death Star over San Francisco // Current

This is one belongs under the "That's-No-Moon-That's-A-Space-Station" folder. As everyone knows, I like Star Wars quite a bit. But even I was a little bug-eyed to see these fan-made clips.

In case you can't tell, these are most likely your standard shots collected from home movies around San Francisco. But the effects have been seamlessly and pretty flawlessly added in. Check out the full video of the Death Star over San Francisco on Current.

Tilt Shift Photoshop Tutorial

Lil raft
Originally uploaded by markus941

Do you like this miniature scene? Wouldn't you think it took a long time to create these small boats and the realistic (but not realistic) looking water? What about the effort to get the backdrop painting just right?

Yeah, well, none of that was done. This is a real photo with some minor alteration that you can learn to do too.

See the Tilt Shift Photoshop Tutorial.

15 Second DIY Adjustable Snoot!

I wasn't even sure what a "snoot" was until I clicked through to this post. But essentially, it's a homemade tool for adjusting your flash's aim. Check out how to make a homemade one at F/1.0.

Two Quick Movie Mentions: Iron Man and Indiana Jones

I wanted to quickly note that I've seen two really great films this summer and I wanted to mention my reactions briefly.

IRON MAN

Yeah, this one was surprisingly awesome and I think a lot of people reacted that way. Fans of Marvel Comics have had some ups and downs in the last several years with some good movies and some bad ones. From what I hear, the good has been outweighing the bad with their latest ventures because the powers that be in Hollywood finally decided to let Marvel have total control of their own films. Imagine that!

INDIANA JONES

Do I have to actually come out and say this one was great? Can't it just be a given? Some spectacular work went into this picture. It's not a hindrance to the plot at all that our beloved Indy is now much older. Nor is it a problem that we haven't known his whereabouts for nearly 20 years. In fact, it makes for some interesting character exposition how much he has aged and the fact that much of his adventuring life is supposedly behind him. Also, in the first 20 minutes enough hints are dropped about the intervening time period that you think Of course that's what he's been up to! There are a few surprises too and at the end of the first act there is a special effect BANG that you don't want to miss.

See these quickly before they leave the theaters!

PhotoshopDisasters: Washington Post: Unlikely

Okay, first read this description from PhotoshopDisasters.

Have you seen a truly awful piece of Photoshop work? Clumsy manipulation, senseless comping, lazy cloning and thoughtless retouching are our bread and butter. And yes, deep down, we love Photoshop.

I know that a lot of the visitors here will be familiar with Photoshop, and might even have some experience in what should be done and what mistakes should be avoided. But hopefully, none of you will ever be this sloppy. Read the latest post called Washington Post: Unlikely.