The Tango Studio Linux build is primarily oriented to folks who want to create, modify, and edit audio/music files, through all aspects of the process. But it also gives you a mighty impressive tool set for working with graphics, video, animation, 3D modeling, and pretty much the entire creative range of media production and creation. Being a Live DVD means you don’t have to install it; boot from the DVD you make from the .ISO file you download, and run it from the DVD, saving anything you create to a thumb drive. When you are done working with it, shut down the computer and eject the disc. When you boot without the disc in the computer, the normal operating system on your hard drive launches whatever system you have installed. As usual for an open source Linux OS and software collection, both the Operating System (OS) and all the software running on it are free for use and distribution. Once you boot the disc, you will find a number of worthwhile workflows to follow, depending on what you are trying to create. Try it out, and let me know what you think.
Possibly the best Sci-Fi movie never made, Jodorowsky’s Dune spent years assembling the most amazing cast and creative talents, before finally falling by the wayside. The team he assembled included Orson Welles, Mick Jagger, David Carradine and Salvador Dali for the actors. It was set to a musical score by Pink Floyd and the art/design work was put together by H.R. Giger and Moebius (Jean Giraud). Because of this project, many of the folks involved became entangled with other Sci-Fi masterworks which would have been much poorer for their loss. Even though we will never get to see this version of the film, the documentary telling us how close we came is finally becoming available. You can see it on the big screen if you are lucky enough to be in one of those cities. For myself, it doesn’t look like I made it unless I do a 3-hour drive, so I will wait for the Blue Ray/DVD to come out instead on July 2nd.
The band Passepied has a lead singer who is also a graphics artist, and she has brought some pretty interesting animation styles to her videos. That kind of thing doesn’t happen in a vacuum, as anyone who has ever sat through the credits at the end of a feature length animation knows. There can be upwards of a few thousand animators, each working on their specialty for the small slice of the total project their production house got. Music Videos are much shorter than feature films, and take much less in the way of resources. This makes them the perfect environment to give you a sense of perspective into the process, since the size of a music video is about the same as the size of a given project slice for a feature film. Take a look at the Music Video Yes/No, and then watch the behind-the-scenes video for it, and see if it doesn’t bring the effort involved into focus.
A documentary about Studio Ghibli, and more specifically Miyazaki himself, is coming out called Kingdom of Dreams and Madness. The article the folks at Otaku USA did on it was really quite interesting, and I am now looking forward to seeing it, as soon as they release a version in English, or at least with English subtitles.
The movie of choice this week is Edge of Tomorrow, based on Hiroshi Sakurazaka’s light novel All You Need Is Kill. The book was excellent, I expect they did their best to do it justice bringing it to the big screen. If you are in the mood for lighter fare, or maybe want a movie you can share with your kids, they are re-releasing Ratatouille in a 3D version.
In Movies, the RoboCop reboot becomes available this week. This one goes all the way back to the original 1987 film for its story line, bypassing the sequels, TV shows, animations, video games, and graphics novels that have come along since. Also this Tuesday, the 10 foot tall RoboCop Statue is being unveiled in Detroit. Parts Per Billion is the story about the choices people make at the end of the world, and follows three couples through those events.
In TV, True Blood: The Complete Sixth Season keeps the South’s horniest supernatural creatures whipsawing back and forth through all the radically shifting plot twists. In addition, Falling Skies: The Complete Third Season brings the next round of Alien Invasion adventure to the shelves.
Western Animation has The Adventures of Batman: The Complete Series, which is a compilation of a bunch of shorts done in 1967 and 1968. While dated, the animation work was quite impressive for it time.
In Anime, we finally get Attack on Titan: Part 1, one of the most intense and critically received shows of 2013. Amnesia is the tale of a girl who wakes up in the hospital with no memory of how she got there, with the ghost boy who seems to know warning her not to let her visitors know she has forgotten her life. The Hentai Prince & The Stony Cat: The Complete Collection is the story of a Cat God who grants wishes, but not in the way you expected… or wanted. Finally Bleach: Season 21 brings us episodes 292 through 303.