This was posted back in 2014, but I just recently found it and liked it so much I figured I would post it here. He used a DJI Phantom 2 for the platform and a GoPro Hero 3 silver camera, which apparently came through the show unharmed.
The Stargate Project created a life size replica of a Stargate in the park of Musée royal de Mariemont in Belgium. This is for an exhibit about the roll of Egyptian Gods in Geek Culture that will be running through November 20th, covering everything from the Stargate TV show and Movies to Comic Books. The first video is about the production of the Stargate, using milling, laser cutting, and 3D printing. The second video is of one that is much smaller and easier to 3D print and assemble, using the plans from Thingiverse, if you wanted to make your own.
Off topic, but I love Japanese cuisine and wanted to share these with you. NHK is a Japanese organization that an American would think of as a cross between PBS and the FCC, and they have a ton of excellent programming in their library. They have been streaming live online for a number of years, but they recently added an On Demand interface to their web site and their apps, so you can watch and listen to shows on your schedule. Besides the Manga/Anime/Games/Music shows I watch without fail every week, their collection includes an excellent assortment of Japanese Food programs, both video and Radio Recipe collections. Plus, they broadcast in 18 languages, one of which is English, so you don’t even have to learn to speak Nihongo to follow along. If you have ever gone to a Japanese restaurant and had a meal you really enjoyed, you will be surprised at how easy it is to cook them yourself. Just as a bonus, all of these programs are free to enjoy.
Pixar in a Box is a free online animation training curriculum developed as a joint venture by Pixar and the Khan Academy. The classes include effects, character modeling, rigging, sets and staging, and rendering, as well as a number of important topics that may not have occurred to you are part of the process. I am signing up with Khan Academy (mostly so I can save my progress and don’t have to wonder where I am on a given course) and checking out the wide range of free math, science, and computer programming online classes they have to offer, starting with the animation training. That isn’t all they have of course; history, art, economics, and many more topics are also available. But I only have so many hours a day that aren’t spent at work, so I have to choose which classes I take carefully. To give you an idea of what they have on offer, here is the Pixar class overview that they start the training with.
BBC Click put together the first ever TV episode recorded entirely in 360 degrees for VR headsets, although it can also be viewed on the desktop or with a mobile phone. They have a bunch of good content, like a helicopter ride to a glacier, a glimpse of computer game SUPERHOT, and a visit to the world’s largest physics experiment (CERN, of course). But I particularly liked the bit where they told us how they made the show, with some ideas about how the rest of us could get into creating our own 360 videos.
I couldn’t find a single new genre release in western Movies or TV, but there are a few eastern titles this week. Tokyo Ghoul √A – Season Two continues the war between Ghouls and Humans, cranking up the action and horror as old friends transform and new perils arise. Seraph of the End: Vampire Reign brings the first dozen episodes of the potential extinction of humanity as the vampires grow ever more numerous and hungry. In Shirobako: Collection 2 the five friends once in the animation club are now reunited and ready to create their first professional Anime, if only they can make it work. This was one of the most impressive Anime programs of 2015 for me, both for its recursiveness (an Anime about making an Anime, in the tradition of Golden Boy and Anime Runner Kuromi) and for its fond waves of recognition to some of the most amazing Anime creators in the industry today. I can’t say it anywhere near as well as others already have, so let me pass along links to a few of the better articles about it, from Rocket News 24, from Kotaku, and from Otaku USA. It also indirectly made public some of the sadder details, like the fact that many of the animators and voice actors that work on these projects are only paid a dollar an hour, not exactly a living wage. If you have ever wanted to create your own anime, this is a must-watch!