Zoom in, they're smooooth.

I'm a studious fan of earnestly edutational video tutorials. Gotta practice what I preach, right? I just wanted to pass along a tip that if you're into Photoshop at all, you need, need to see Russell Brown's video tutorials. The first time I watched one of his vids, I thought to myself: "What is this guy on?" but then blushed and realized I could turn that around and apply the very same logic to myself. :O

His teachings are sharp, memorable, and funny. He breathes life into staid post-process controls, places context around why he's doing what, and has done a whole series showcasing the amazing magic in CS3, all while cracking the odd joke. He doesn't have background music and he uses a sudden magnifying glass-technique (anyone know how he does it?) instead of the smooth zooms that I prefer, but I'm in awe of the dewd's mastery of his chosen subject, and tho I've never met him, I feel like he's a fatherly figure to me.

Anyway, take my word for it, Russell Brown's the man. And he isn't a spring chicken either: his lineage goes back to Photoshop 1.0 (!), which fit on a single floppy diskette, and now, he's the Sr. Creative Director at Adobe Systems.

More companies need outstanding, knowledgeable, passionate ambassadors like Russell Brown. (Did you know he's in the Photoshop Hall of Fame? Did you ever know that Photoshop had such accolades?)

Maybe someday I will be great like him. Until then, as my Dad said, lot of potatoes to eat, lots of learning to get done. Or as Bruce Lee succinctly put it:

"I'm not a master. I'm a student-master, meaning that I have the knowledge of a master and the expertise of a master, but I'm still learning. So I'm a student-master. I don't believe in the word 'master.' I consider the master as such when they close the casket."

Why golly, yes it does. Hello WindLight, here we come!

(Keep in mind it's not just the sky getting upgraded, it's the lush tones of the ground below too… hence the golden!)

A new acronym! For all those times you've got a bug on the Issue Tracker, where you know what the symptoms are, but aren't any closer to finding a cause. In an event like this, the bug… you got it, Needs a Solid Repro(duction), so we can experience, in astonishing Step-by-Stepvision™, how said bug happens!

OMXG I am so freakin' excited, the SEASON FINALE of Heroes is on tonight. I've just finished work for the day, I had so many positive interactions amidst the busystorm of a crazy Monday, and I'm eating watermelon. FRESH, JUICY, RIPE WATERMELON! How much better can life get!???

Well let's be fair, every day there are challenges. We had some encouraging bug fixes in the wake of 1.15.1 and 1.15.2, but new probs too. I'm not fond of VWR-740 (scroo you, you bastard bug) at all! I'm going through the Issue Tracker daily, and today, Bridie Linden had her first inworld office hour, albeit an unofficial one filling in for Rob, but a great start nonetheless! We work together on both Blacklight Studio and WindLight Project, she's super with constant communication, and I know how curious some of you are for details as to what we're working on, so wait and see as I share more on mah blog. =o)

OH! I bunkered down and reorg'ed my Gmail filters because I just can't keep up with all my email, professional + personal. I even played with Lifehacker's "Set up a filtered response in Gmail" to do an auto-response message to IMs, and my brief test worked. I may expand it, because alas, I'm very very sorry I can't reply to most, or even some of my IMs nowadays. As it says in the contents of my web tab. Too many words, too little me. But I appreciate them, especially the ones asking about my Video Tutorials, thanxies, that helps me be motivated. And I got some nice ones today askin' about WindLight atmospheric rendering coming to Second Life!

Let me be me, and express some "story behind the post". It was one of my favoritest blog posts I've made, and in large part a big THANXIES goes to my awesome coworkers, including Asi Lang and his Windward Mark team who've joined us here @ Linden Lab. There were so many great people involved in setting up our new Boston office and getting things coordinated, really. Asi's been kitting out his av inworld, guess who he looks like? You'll have to see him to find out, and given his eye for detail, he'll be making a big splash (no, that's not really a clue).

Anyhoooo — the snapshots in that post were all taken by Lindens. We had an internal contest of sorts, so I uploaded all to Flickr. Some of mine were in there, but it's always more fun when a lot of people participate.

I spent quality time going back and forth and learning more about WindLight. You know how it is, new feature, takes time to get used to it. And there'll be changes more! I assembled the blog post itself in a patchwork-style, taking snippets of text covering different angles, and compiled it into xPad and Windows Live Writer for the final publish. Yes, it was bona fide cross-platform, and yes, I hope for a new vers of WLW like yesterday, I've seen previews and they just make me hunger for more blogging excellence.

*tries to do a deathly boring face and fails*

As we've seen, I did the post in a more conventional Q&A style, thinking of what I'd ask if I was a Resi, perhaps even a new, or in particular, a curious one. A number of angles are adapted from previous influences. Just so you know, I read all the posts on the Official Linden Blog, and each time one of my fellow Lindens makes a post, I learn something from them. Even if it's not so much the content as the presentation, or a quip I'll pick up on. Yes, I'M LIKE THE FREAKIN' PETER PETRELLI (NOT SYLAR) of this shiznazzle. But remember, Hiro Nakamura is my #1 fave character.

AHHHH tangents —

I also made a video teaser, ha-ha!, you know how it is with me and videos. I edited it in like 3 hours, not counting after-tweakage following when I sent it around for feedback. For you see, Asi had a badass idea re: suggestions of contrast that a2 and Blue Linden had given feedback on, and that idea was to start it off nice and slow, all "funeral home"-paced, then KICK IT UP NOTCHES into TECHNO OVERDRIVE! And BTW, yes, all those crazy colors you can achieve with WindLight, I did them live when I was playing around with the internal client, and you'll be able to soon too, once the First Look viewer is out. Look for that soon, please!

An' if you haven't yet, OBSERVE!

P.S. The music in the vid, both tracks by me:

» solo piano 127

» All That Depth (Torley's Dub)

The following is part of a series where I review music I've composed. I'm going through The Final Selection in order, starting from the top. Use the inline audio players to preview, then click track titles to download them in MP3. Enjoy!
 

» Artilies

#011 - recorded on 2003-04-24

So, we're into the "A" section. I've decided to drop quotation marks from these posts' titles, because it's clear excluding them won't cause confusion that these are individual songs-mostly-without-words (as opposed to italicized albums).

This track is a shimmery, curious affair backed with delay-echoed classic drum sounds (hear that 808 crack?) and a pizzicato bassline which suggests an aristocratic background.

My partial inspiration for "Artilies" can be found in the magic of the Indiana Jones movies, because do y'know what the opposite of "Artilies" is? ARTIFACTS! Ha-ha.

But seriously, in my orthogonally humble opinion, the best part of this piece whips in @ 1:59, where what I deem "the watermelon belly dance routine" begins. I took the pitched-up sample of a Middle Eastern string instrument, and made it go all Bollywood. The echoed strings @ 2:15 are well-worth listening to over and over.

The closest external inspiration for "Artilies" comes from Aphex Twin's Selected Ambient Works 85-92, which is perhaps most evident @ 2:59. (Compare it to something like "Xtal", not so much in exact sound as spirit.) And maybe because of the Eastern influence, there was a little Muslimgauze in there too, rest his soul.
 

» Aspergia

#076 - recorded on 2004-03-09

VERY SOCIALLY AWKWARD. Within, I did my best to draw a parallel between Asperger Syndrome stereotypes and the stilted, mechanical nature (if you can call it that) of a lot of so-called Intelligent Dance Music (IDM). I had my bitcrushers out in full force for this, flattening supporting cadences holding up the drippy lead melody. Loads of weird chromaticism, it sounds like it's climbing yet falling at the same time.

The drums are a unique affair unto their own: I think I took several very over-compressed clunkers, and loaded them into the sampling section of the Yamaha RS7000, which was a pretty awesome "all-in-one"-type groovebox. It's definitely one of my "weirdest" tracks, and I think there's even a 32-bar loop, quite uncommon for dance… or any type of music, really.

"Aspergia"'s name is derived from aspergia.com, of which I was an active community member in the early 00s. I thought a lot about how best to sonicfy the eccentric way I see the world, so there are some obvious themes: the beat chugs along like a train — a motif I'll often employ is motion, engines on multiple tracks representing different instruments; also, lengthy crossfaded transitions. I've long liked sweeping changes over 8, 16, and as stated, even 32 bars. Subtle variations create interest and are easy to automate, so I'll be darned why so much dance music is still boringly repetitive. Of course, one of the stereotypical Asperger behaviors just happens to be repetition, so I challenged myself (I come up with holding patterns, lock myself in them, then bust out when I've mastered those skills) to setup loops, and knock 'em down. I succeeded.
 

» Assburgers

#124 - recorded on 2004-05-21

VERY AWKWARD NAME! This has very little redeeming value. It's blase, boring, and gosh, why did I make it? To prove a point, or rather, several. "Assburgers" is how "Asperger's" often gets mispronounced, so I was showing I don't take myself seriously. And yes this is very repetitive and grating. I do hope someone uses it for an annoying Flash anim someday, tho! Move on, move on…
 

» Asshookers

#048 - recorded on 2004-01-17

ANOTHER VERY AWKWARD NAME! Well, y'see, there was this Southern American guy I sampled, I'll call him a neo-Aztec, and he was actually saying something like "Asuka" (which really sounds more Japanesish) amidst all his "EE EEEEE WOOOOO ARRRIIIIAHHHHH!", victory cries, but when you keep repeating it, which I do in the track, it sounds like something else phonetically. :p

I slimmed the mix @ 0:57 to a bleepy, breakbeat-driven bouncer. The bassline is a variation of a phat Moog classic, and listen to the low-pass drum-filtering that rises up at around 1:32.

Silly party track. But sometimes, that's all it takes.

I had some complementary requests recently asking where some of my old MP3 cover versions went — short answer, the links broke! So if you want them again or missed them the first time around, here they are:

 
» Boy Loses Girl Song

Original by Aphex Twin. I turned the already-cheery source into something bordering on happy hardcore, complete with sine wave whistles, piano counterpoint, high school marching band rolls, and even a halftime breakdown section. Why it's so happy despite the sad name, I don't know. But yes, the bassline is cribbed from an alternate reality version of Underworld's "Jumbo"!

» Horizons (piano version)

Original by James Holden. Seminal trance (what a loaded word) classic gets a downtempo rubdown from yours truely (not sic). I took the key melodies and worked it into an æmotional lather. If you like pretty chording with vaguely nostalgic underpinnings, you'll dig this. What's even better, the man himself enjoyed it.

» Simple & Clean (Kingdom Hearts theme)

Original by Yoko Shimomura and Utada Hikaru. One of my all-time fave melodies, I rearranged this masterpiece to put the piano front and center, and warmed it with supplemental instrumental lines: ambient pads, music boxes, and even a classical guitar-thing join the fray. Really delicate and beautifully romantic. 

» Star Wars (Techno Jedi Master remix)

Original by John Williams. You know the theme. Fun voice samples and over-the-top house piano hammering. LOTS of changes. I had a such good time with it, and this was done almost a decade ago. :D 

» Things I'll Never Say

Yes, that Avril Lavigne song. Must've listened to it 100s of times on my boombox before jumping atop my piano to comp the chords and play along.

 
Aaaand as a contemporary bonus,

 
» Somebody (Allbody)

Original by Depeche Mode. One of my wife's favorite songs, and when you can play piano, you quickly realize the value of serenading your lover with sweet sounds. I played shortly after Valentine's Day 2007, and hope it'll help you bring forth more love in this world. 'Cuz as David Helfgott said, "If music be the food of love, play on."

 
Usual disclaimer that these are for fun and not profit applies. Enjoy!

Following up on my QuickTime conversion guide and requests I've gotten, I just wanted to share that I uploaded downloadable versions of my Second Life video tutorials to my own server. The ones converted from Flash video into QuickTime are in the main "vidtuts" directory as MP4 movies, and previous ones — actually, the same files I uploaded to YouTube in the first place — are in the "hirez" folder. They're better quality but bigger. So check 'em out in:

http://torley.com/files/vidtuts/hirez/

Please note that with the latter, they're in varied formats (either MP4 or WMV), as this was a time when I was actively experimenting with how to get the most out of video compression. Also, despite numerous retries, Vixy couldn't convert the longest, "How to fill in your profile", so that one's only in a hi-rez version for now.

Feel free to use these vidtuts just about any darn way you please, hopefully with positive results.

Based on, and inspired by, my beloved's.