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Written by Admin
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Sunday, 13 July 2008 |
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 The Pixar Touch: The Making of a Company, by: David A. Price
The roller-coaster rags-to-riches story behind the phenomenal success of Pixar Animation Studios: the first in-depth look at the company that forever changed the film industry and the “fraternity of geeks” who shaped it.
The Pixar Touch is a story of technical innovation that revolutionized animation, transforming hand-drawn cel animation to computer-generated 3-D graphics. It’s a triumphant business story of a company that began with a dream, remained true to the ideals of its founders—antibureaucratic and artist driven—and ended up a multibillion-dollar success.
We meet Pixar’s technical genius and founding CEO, Ed Catmull, who dreamed of becoming an animator, inspired by Disney’s Peter Pan and Pinocchio, realized he would never be good enough, and instead enrolled in the then new field of computer science at the University of Utah. It was Catmull who founded the computer graphics lab at the New York Institute of Technology and who wound up at Lucasfilm during the first Star Wars trilogy, running the computer graphics department, and found a patron in Steve Jobs, just ousted from Apple Computer, who bought Pixar for five million dollars. Catmull went on to win four Academy Awards for his technical feats and helped to create some of the key computer-generated imagery software that animators rely on today.
Price also writes about John Lasseter, who catapulted himself from unemployed animator to one of the most powerful figures in American filmmaking; animation was the only thing he ever wanted to do (he was inspired by Disney’s The Sword in the Stone), and Price’s book shows how Lasseter transformed computer animation from a novelty into an art form. The author writes as well about Steve Jobs, as volatile a figure as a Shakespearean monarch . . .
Based on interviews with dozens of insiders, The Pixar Touch examines the early wildcat years when computer animation was thought of as the lunatic fringe of the medium.
We see the studio at work today; how its writers, directors, and animators make their astonishing, and astonishingly popular, films.
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Written by Admin
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Sunday, 13 July 2008 |
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 Generation T: 108 Ways to Transform a T-Shirt, by: Megan Nicolay
The T-shirt is the centerpiece of a girl’s wardrobe. But even better, that same T-shirt is a blank canvas just waiting to express the personality and creativity of its owner. You can cut it, sew it, twist it and turn it. You can deconstruct it, you can reconstruct it. Recycle it, resuscitate it, refashion it, re-invent it. Make it punky, make it funky. In the hands of Megan Nicolay— who knows the DIY pride of accomplishment and the pleasure of making something chic and unique (and cheap)—the T-shirt is like fashion ore, as she shows how to turn any ordinary, preferably well-used T-shirt into a halter, a tank top, a peasant blouse, or, for a total transformation, into a T-skirt. Or a hat. Or leg-warmers, a drawstring purse, an iPod cozy. Even a patchwork T-blanket.
In 108 unexpected, easy-to-follow projects, this pied piper of DIY shows first how to tee off with the basic materials plus add-ons (ribbons, lace, safety pins) and techniques (stitching, hemming, gathering). Then come recipes: 13 projects for customizing a T-shirt (i.e., doing everything to it you possibly can and still be able to call it a T-shirt); 21 projects for tank tops (less shirt, more style); and 14 projects for tube tops and halters (even less shirt and more style).
There’s the Two-Tiered Peasant Skirt, the Bow-Tie Beanie, the Sweet Dreams pillow. Plus gauntlets, pot holders and tablecloths, pillows and braided rugs. Not a DIY expert? No problem. More than one third of the projects are “no sew,” so anyone who can wield a pair of scissors can put a personal stamp on her wardrobe.
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