Entries tagged with humor - Channel 10

Microsoft's IT Probot

Larry — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 13:00:00 GMT

Don't miss this Technet Edge video on the new IT Probot out of Microsoft Research. It is the a core commitment to have one of these in every datacenter.

I'll let you in on a little secret, the IT Probot was a program that got off the ground after several failed attempts to retrofit Conan O'Brien's Pimpbot to do maintenance work in datacenters.

My favorite part of IT Probot; finally a robot with front side PCI slots.

Amy Sedaris on Microsoft Office

Larry — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 18:05:00 GMT

The videos for Microsoft products are getting better every day. This morning I saw an email in my inbox from Barbora Zychova, who found this Office commercial with Amy Sedaris from Strangers with Candy, who is always hilarious.

Left vs. Right

sarahintampa — Thu, 07 Feb 2008 06:00:00 GMT

A new Live Search promotional site, Left vs. Right, has been launched. The site features two new anchors, left-leaning "Patrick O'Neil" and right-wing "Britt Hayes," who represent both sides of the political spectrum. In the middle of the page is a search box which will perform Live Search queries. When you type in a keyword or question in the search box, the two characters will began a humorous discussion or debate about the topic. Or perhaps just insult each other. Even if you don't type anything in, the characters will begin a funny skit. Hilarious time-waster! (via Inside Microsoft)

The Creation of a Comic in One Minute!

Tina — Thu, 15 Feb 2007 21:10:00 GMT

Ted Bracewell, our resident super creative comic animation maker has made a super creative one minute animation on yes you guessed it. How to create a comic! I love the music in this piece too. Check it out.

http://www.tedbracewell.com/projects/comiccovercreation.htm

Bill Gates brings Vista to The Daily Show

Jesse — Thu, 25 Jan 2007 17:46:00 GMT

As if it weren't already plugged into our DVR schedule, but The Daily Show will host our man BillG Monday, 29 January. There will no doubt be a lot of talk about Vista, as well as some chat about the Gates foundation. We here round the 10 reservation are hoping that MS Bob gets an honorable mention. If for some reason you can't see the proper show, then keep a weather eye on The Daily Show homepage for highlights.

Ted Bracewell is back with ALIEN WASPS!

Tina — Thu, 30 Nov 2006 22:36:00 GMT

Our good friend and animator Ted Bracewell has kindly produced another animation for us. This time he's back with Alien Wasps! He also spent some time to show how he actually created the animation. Check out the video here. Enjoy!

The Creation of a Cartoon! Animation Style!

Tina — Sat, 18 Nov 2006 01:37:00 GMT

Friend and animator Ted Bracewell has graciously put together this brief how-to-create an animation cartoon for 10. The actual video for this how-to is right here. To get a glimpse of some past cartoons and one of my personal favorites check out Constipated Johnson. Now, I will let Ted take over.

It begins with a basic idea, usually something simple and small. But, inevitably the final product is never what I originally envisioned. I tend not to think of a project as a whole, but rather as a series of small steps. Most times I don’t know what direction it will go, or how it will even end. But, I always know how it will begin, and that’s the most important step.

Once I have an idea, I do a few storyboards to get things rolling. Some storyboards are very detailed, while others can be nothing more than a series of hastily drawn sketches (most are usually stick figures J).

Once several storyboards have been completed, and a basic sense of the shots that will be required has been obtained, the elements (characters, backgrounds, etc) that will be needed to achieve the necessary shots are hand drawn on paper and scanned into Adobe Photoshop for coloring.

The characters (namely the pilot and the wasps) are created using a series of images that are moved together to create expressions and motion. Each character is broken down into pieces. The face, eyelids, nose, torso, arms, hands, and even fingers…

…or in the case of the wasps, the head, torso, stinger, wings, and leg segments.

All of the character elements are placed together into a single Photoshop composition.

That composition is then imported into Adobe After Effects where the individual pieces are placed into an animation composition where they can be manipulated. To create facial movement the eyes, nose, mouth, and eyebrows are moved independently of each other to achieve the desired expression. It’s almost like a digital puppet. Tilting the eyebrows one way can create an expression of worry or sadness, while tilting the other creates a look of anger. Motion is achieved by selecting the position in the After Effects timeline where you want the motion to begin, then clicking the key frame icon. This creates the motion starting point. You then move further down the timeline to where you want the motion to end. If you rotate or move the element (eyebrow, mouth, nose, etc.) a key frame is automatically created at the new point. The total motion then occurs between the two created key frames.

The backgrounds are created the same way, still elements manipulated to create motion. In a panning shot the elements that are meant to appear closest to the camera are panned quickly, while objects in the distance are moved at a slower rate to create the illusion of depth.

Shots that appear to be 3D, for instance the scenes where the ship is flying through a tunnel towards the camera, are done using the Basic 3D filter (found under Perspective in the Effect drop down menu), which allows you to smoothly zoom in or out on an image. A single tunnel image is drawn and colored.

The image is then imported into After Effects and placed into a new composition. By using the Basic 3D filter to zoom out on the tunnel drawing it creates the illusion of flying through it. The single tunnel image is then repeated dozens of times to suggest a long tunnel that stretches for miles. Additional effects, such as motion blur, are then added to enhance the illusion of movement.

As each individual shot is completed they are placed into a main composition where they can be shortened, lengthened, sped up, or slowed down until an even flow is achieved from beginning to end.

Once the animation is fully complete, a low quality video is rendered out and imported into Adobe Premiere where sound effects and music are added and synched to the action. Using a website such as www.findsounds.com , I search for the various sounds that will be required to create the audio track. When a sound that fits is found it’s downloaded, then imported into a program such as Sound Forge where it’s cropped and enhanced to improve the quality. Sometimes a change in pitch or the addition of reverb is used to create the desired effect. Once all of the necessary sound effects have been obtained, the low quality video render is placed into the Adobe Premiere video timeline, and the sound files are placed in the corresponding audio track at the appropriate place in the timeline and synched to the action in the video.

Additional effects are added to certain sounds during this process. For instance in a shot that shows the ship flying across the screen, an audio panning effect is added to the ship sound to create a stereo effect when you watch the video. If the ship moves from right to left onscreen, the ship sound will move from your right computer speaker to your left. Once the entire sound effects track is complete it’s rendered out as an uncompressed .wav file.

Next is the most important audio track of all, the music. There are countless music-licensing sites on the internet, but I prefer www.musicbakery.com. Once I’ve found a track that suits it’s paid for and downloaded (the prices of the tracks are relative to the length, some being as low as $10 and others as much as $50). The music track is imported into Adobe Premiere, and edited and remixed to match the action in the video, and to create the most dramatic effect possible. The music track is then rendered into an uncompressed .wav file, the same as the audio track.

Both the sound effects and music .wav files are important into the original Adobe After Effects project and added to the main animation composition. The last step is to render out your final video and show it to the world.

Hitachi promises laptop disk encryption in 2007

Jesse — Wed, 01 Nov 2006 18:43:00 GMT

Thanks to the magic of Get Perpendicular, Hitachi hopes to ship 750GB laptop HDDs next year (2.5 inch for those keeping score at home). If that weren't enough to get our blood pumping a bit quicker, these drives will also come in hybrid flavors, which will allow for better performance and lower power consumption. Great right?

Well that's not all folks. These same hybrid disks will feature AES-based encryption. Using a key generated from your password, both the data on flash memory and the disk platters will be wrapped in a blanket of mathematics so complex...well let's just say Setec Astronomy ;)

(via Engadget)

The iCup Arrives at on10

Duncan — Thu, 27 Jul 2006 22:39:00 GMT

I don't really know what to say about this video. We have coffee now, fresh, rich coffee... and it is a gadget... and we love gadgets.

featuring music by Theory In Motion

Note that the iCup also appears, briefly, in this video

Phil Torrone brings Make to Microsoft

Jesse — Fri, 07 Jul 2006 20:37:52 GMT

Picture this: It's a sunny Friday a little after lunch, and you're dreading the hike back to your desk and the piles of work that scared you towards the solice of your burrito in the first place. Typically this is the most depressing moment in a day at Microsoft. Once in a while though there's a glimmer of hope. Recently that glimmer took the form of Phil Torrone and Make Magazine presenting to anyone on the MS campus! Settle in and watch Phil spin a web of homebrew madness...

Links: Make blog

Video Game Theatre with Frank Meyer

Laura — Fri, 02 Jun 2006 18:56:24 GMT

The creative process is grassroots, the team is genius and the product is hysterical. But even cooler than all that is the way Frank Meyer and his partners really leveraged the internet as a mass marketing tool to create Video Game Theatre. Check out the future of indy!

Links: Video Game Theatre, Video Game Theatre on MySpace

Oh no he di-int!

Laura — Fri, 07 Apr 2006 17:00:00 GMT

Another look into one of our most loved internet phenomenons. NOTE: No rednecks were hurt during the filming of this segment.

Links: Rate My Mullet, Taser Intl, testicle, Thirst Aid Helmet