More Video Clips

Here are a few more video clips that I have created and placed onto YouTube.

Enjoy.

This first clip is an example of some of the animation I’ve been working on. While the YouTube conversion reduces the resolution quite a bit, it still looks ‘interesting.’ I used several elements to make up this video. The scene was arranged using Bishop3D, a modeling program produces output that is fed into a 3D rendering package calledPOVRay. By changing each frame slightly, one can generate an animation sequence.

In this sequence, there are roughly 1500 animated objects, each with their own x,y, and z dimension movements and a rotating image-map of Bob Dobbs’s face. Every group of six spheres is joined via five tube structures, creating a joined object. These objects are then ‘chained’ together to produce the spiraling ‘tentacles’ seen in the video. Oh, and the camera is moving in 3D space as well. Enjoy.

More Animation!
These next two clips were generated by manually writing code for the POVRAY application. No modeler was used, making it a fun experiment. You never really know what you will see when you do animation like this.

These next couple of clips are of Coco and Jojo enjoying some outside time at a dog park in Southern Southern California.




Christmas 2006
Yes, it is very late, but this is how I spent Christmas day. On San Diego Bay.

Another few weeks, another few video clips…

While I’m working on the Christmas Lights series, I will take a day off and just run around with the video cameras. Here is a quick little in-car video shot while driving through Ocean Beach and nearby Lindbergh Field.

And the non-flash-resolution-reduced version is here (or will be soon):
http://sdmedia.snbeta.com/images/around-sd.mpg
Please note that this clip may not be reposted on any other Internet site without the written consent of the author

Next up is a look into the guts of one of my vintage video devices, a Sony AV-3400 portapack. If you were recording video at the consumer level in 1974, there was a really good chance that you wre using one of these. Btw, even though this one is currently in the shop, I can replay and convert recordings made on this type of system by way of my other Sony systems (AV-500, 3600, 3650, and 8650 editing deck).

And the non-flash version
AV-3400 Video
Please note that this clip may not be reposted on any other Internet site without the written consent of the author

Next up is the introduction to the first episode of “Christmas Lights 2006″

That…..s all folks!

Pack-O-Rama ‘75 Update

http://www.disastours.com/newpack.html
Back in 1975, I was in a Cub Scout ‘pack’ (260) that had various ‘dens’ throught the Willow Glen area of San Jose. Each year, the Boy Scouts would throw a ‘Pack O Rama’ at the Santa Clara County Fairgrounds as a way to introduce the community to scouting, and to let other troops try to ‘out do’ each other at trade-show like boothes within the convention hall.

For 1975, our pack produced a video featuring each den, to be played every 20 minutes at our booth. Video was new back then, and to have a fully produced presentation was a big deal. The pack 260 presentation was in black and white, no audio, and used hand-held cards to provide narration. It was a blast to film, and I almost got someone killed during one of the scenes in “Bike Safety,” but that is another story.

(techie stuff)

The raw footage was shot on 1/2″ EIAJ tape, which only had a resolution of about 240 lines (a normal NTSC TV has 525 lines). The equipment needed to be powered by 110volts, so the camera was never mounted in a car, or more than 50′ from an electrical outlet. The footage was edited (by hand) to 3/4″ umatic. This 3/4″ master is the only surviving copy of the event, all of the 1/2 reel to reel footage has been lost/discarded over time, as well as the backup master. Time has been kind to this tape; I have had it in my posession since 1977 and had not played it until four years ago when I got my first umatic deck. I quickly encoded a copy, since I did not know how the tape would hold up after 30 years of storage. It looked OK, so I sent a copy to a few friends.

(/techie stuff)

Fast forward to February 25th, 2006. I have finaly added a soundtrack, name titles/credits, and even some sound effects to the video to give it new sparkle. I have tried to adjust the contrast on some of the title cards, but there are limitations to what was possible. This new version is now hosted at http://www.disastours.com/newpack.html and I encourage all of y’all to take a look at Cub Scouting in the mid 1970s. This video has not been seen by the general public in over 30 years….