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It’s Halloween. Ah, what a great time of year. Halloween is the start of the holiday season. Before you know it, New Years will be here and we will be gearing up for CES and Macworld. Before we get ready for 2010, let’s have a little more fun in 2009.
With the start of the holiday season, also comes the traditional customization of many websites around the net, trying to show their festive sides. Many sites will take on an orange motif for Halloween, and red and green colors come Christmas. I, will not. To show my holiday spirit, I will be customizing my avatar instead. While doing so, I will share the “how-to” used to create the various avatars.
Starting with Halloween, I decided to go with a Zombie avatar. To get us started, I will explain how I used a free online service to accomplish this look. For other upcoming holidays, I may use other mediums such as Photoshop or The Gimp. This method, however, will use a website service called Picnik.com.
No registration is required for this project, but premium services and options are available. After pointing your browser to http://www.picnik.com, click the “Get Started Now” button. Doing this brings you to a tabbed interface that will have many common photo editing options. After uploading the photo I wanted to use, I jumped over to the “create” tab.
The create tab is where you will be creating you Zombie avatar. On the left column of the interface, select Zombify 2.0 which is under the Reanimated subheading. This brings up brush options that recreate decaying flesh tones. Play with this, get happy with it, and select Apply.
Your Zombie has a taste for blood? No problem. Scroll down the left hand column and select Face Paint, which is under the Other subheading. This will give you brush options that will simulate blood on your face. I also used the fading slider to tone down and blend the blood into the rest of the face. Play with this, get happy with it, and select Apply.
Ready to save out? Okay, here is how to do it. Once you are happy with your image and ready to save it out, select the “Save & Share” tab, which brings to a screen that provides options on name, size, file extension, and compression. After deciding on these options, click “Save Photo” and you are done!
Now you can give you Myspace, Facebook or Twitter avatar a ghoulish look for the start to the holiday season. Next month is Thanksgiving, and I am looking for ideas on what look to shoot for. Send your ideas my way; I’m looking forward to seeing what you come up with. I want to see your personal creations too. Just post a link in the comments section for me to check out.
This article was originally published by Daniel Vining on http://www.danielvining.com. Contact Daniel via email; dan@danielvining.com or send a tweet to @danielvining. Happy Blogging!
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Totally Rad Video!
Ok, I’m gonna try a new feature. This may end up as a part of the CoverCast project, but I’ll try it here first. Totally Rad Video. Think of it as G4′s Attack of the Show Around the Net.
This video comes from youtuber Tobuscus and is a parody of Apologize and the Windows 7 launch.
Rate, Comment, Subscribe and Enjoy!
Michael Jackson
This is it. The time has arrived. “This is It”, the much anticipated Michael Jackson movie premieres today in theaters around the country for its two week run. The movie is made from various rehearsal footage shot by Jackson’s team to provide a record of the rehearsal process in Jackson’s constant effort to provide the perfect show.
Will you be attending the movie tonight, or durning the initial theatrical run? I would like to, but nobody wants to go with me, and I don’t do movies alone. Instead I will be waiting for the DVD release which will have a ton more features and bonus content that you just can’t get at the theater.
Whether you loved him or hated him, most everyone agrees that his talent, above all the controversy has made him one of the greatest musical talents of all time. His stage presence, dancing, and most importantly his voice, will carry his name on for many many years into the future, much the same as the late Elvis Pressly.
To those who are going out tonight, have fun, enjoy the show, and post your experience and opinions of what you see to the web. I look forward to reading everyone’s thoughts.
My Wish List
If only I had a few hundred thousand dollars, I too could be as setup as the Great Leo Laporte. Sadly, I don’t have that kind of cash rolling in. If I did, here are some of the things I would buy to get me started.
27 inch iMac.
Apple just refreshed it’s line of iMac computers during this month. I could be totally greedy and wish for a Mac Pro, but considering what you get, and for the price point, I feel that these new iMacs are just right for me. The biggest reason I that would choose iMac of Mac Pro is the form factor. Sleek and sexy, few wires, and that beautiful screen. If money were no object I would order my iMac fully loaded from the Apple Store. In reality, however, I will be getting the Intel i7 model, then upgrading the RAM myself later. Besides a RAM upgrade, the only other thing I would change is the keyboard. I would much rather have the full size Apple keyboard with numeric keypad, even if it means being wired.
Magic Mouse.
I know, the Magic Mouse comes standard with every new iMac. I am writing this post on a Macbook, so that is why I have the Magic Mouse on my wish list. I love the glass trackpad on the Macbooks, but there are many times when I would rather be using a mouse, and the Magic Mouse is what I want to use. As inexpensive as they are in relation to the rest of the items on this list, I think I will be crossing this off the list very soon.
Time Capsule.
Next on my list is Time Capsule. This is Apple’s eloquent combination of a superb wireless router and external hard drive. I would be using Mac OS X’s Time Machine to backup my computer data, as well as making it available to other computers on my network. On a side note, I would recommend that everyone use a service like iDisk, Mobile Me, Carbonite, Amazon, etc. to backup your data in the cloud as well. I relish the concept of having a great wireless router and external backup as well as off site storage.
Drobo.
The Apple Time Capsule provides a 1TB or 2TB solution to external storage needs. At some point, however, that drive will fill up. When it does, I want to use the Drobo external storage system for long term archival storage. You can have four drives recording your data that can be replaced when full. Basically, I would use the Time Capsule for immediate backup via Time Machine, and then use the Drobo for data that will not be accessed as regularly.
Bluetooth Headphones & Speakers.
In keeping with the sleek and sexy theme, it would be very nice to have a nice set of wireless Bluetooth speakers surrounding my work area. They don’t have to be the top of the line in sound technology, just nice, reliable and wireless. Headphones are another matter. I spend a great deal of time watching podcasts, TV shows and movies on my computer. I am usually playing catch up when others are sleeping or when it would be impolite to have loud noise coming out of my room. As a find myself wearing headphones for longer and longer periods of the day I also find that the damn cord never wants to cooperate. Wether it is tangled in the arm to my chair or trying to pull my laptop off of the table, the cord always seems to get in the way. A nice set of Bluetooth wireless headphones is a must have in my opinion.
Powered USB Hub.
Even though technology like USB 3.0 and Lite Peak are just around the corner of being mainstream tech, USB 2.0 is still the standard. I have a lot of things that fight for the two USB ports on my laptop. Printer, iPhone, cameras, external hard drives, flash drives, mouse dongle, microphone…. this list goes on and on. I have found a few powered USB hubs online ranging from 4 to 13 ports. If I could, I would get a 13 port hub to future proof, even if for only a while. Since so many devices are now powered by USB, it makes perfect sense to own a powered USB hub.
Software.
I dabble in various areas of technology, so software is a constantly moving target. One thing I would love to own if I could would be the Adobe Creative Suite Master Collection. It is every major program in the Adobe lineup and would give me the tools needed for any project.
To go along with the Master Collection I would like to own a tablet screen. Wacom seems to be the leader in this genra but maybe by the time I can afford one, Apple will have introduced the iPad, and given it functionality that will allow it to be used with applications like Photoshop.
Camera Equipment.
I am an amateur photographer. I have a mid-range DSLR, the Nikon D-50. While nice, I would like to upgrade to a camera body with a better sensor, and video functionality. To go with my new camera body, I want a couple of lenses that will allow me to take almost any picture I want. I’m thinking of the Nikor line of lenses. A remote control and sturdy tripod would round out this segment nicely.
Sound Equipment.
Other than listening to podcasts and TV shows, I don’t really listen to a ton of music. I do, however, like to dabble in content creation. This will eventually mean that the built in microphones on my cameras just won’t cut the mustard. A set of nice dynamic mics to go along with my condenser microphone, the appropriate hot shoe mic for my camera, and a set of lapel mics would add nicely to the content creation process.
Lighting Equipment.
This is something that is on the low end of my wish list. I know good lighting is very important to making a good video presentation, but I can get by with shop lights and photo umbrellas until I have checked off the other items on my list. It is on my mind though.
There are a ton of items I haven’t mentioned on this list, and a ton more that I haven’t even thought of yet. This list is a compilation of the items that are on my mind most often. I have already removed and item off the list thanks to my recent purchase of the iPhone 3GS. I will update this list periodically as I find cool new gadgets or obtain items already on the list.
iPhone 3GS << I GOT ONE :0)
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