With the pilot for the new TV show Virtuality set to air Friday, Deadbolt caught an interview with Ron Moore about the project. Whether the show actually becomes a series will depend on the numbers it pulls for Fox TV, so be sure to tune in.
Miku Hatsune is the name of a Virtual Idoru, or Idol. She sings whatever you program her for, because she is software that takes your input and generates custom made anime music from it.
Miku was sampled from anime vocal artist and singer Saki Fujita, who brought to life characters in Bleach, Speed Grapher, Shuffle, and many others. Including Zoku Sayonara ZetsubÅ Sensei, the show where she actually played the character Hatsune Miku. The software she (and a number of others) was sampled for is Yamaha’s Vocaloid2, a program that lets you enter the lyrics and notes for a song, select the singers, and generate the music. Or you can input the lyrics and play the computer keyboard in realtime to generate the notes. Unlike most software (OK, pretty much all software) I mention here, this program isn’t free by any means, and the crippleware version you can download to try is limited to 5 words and very truncated song length.
But I had to post about it, because very few news reports out of Japan make it to the US. There are Widgets for Miku, multiple CDs released, large user communities, dedicated music players to embed on web pages like the one below, entire anime’s built around the Miku songs generated, other anime voice artists who have since been sampled and call her Big Sister; and for the entire month her sample set was released it was the number one best selling item on Amazon Japan in any category. Pretty impressive for someone who doesn’t actually exist, isn’t it? Rumor has it there is a newer version of the software as well. You might also want to download the MikuMiku Dance animation software to make your own dance videos to go with the songs you create (that one is Freeware, and you probably want the multi-model English version).
Watch Hatsune Miku 3D Bleach Ending Song Remix PV in Animation | View More Free Videos Online at Veoh.com
This one is impressive. Just as an example, a short list of the guests of the London Film and Comic Con includes Scott Bakula, Eve Myles, Tom Baker, Jewel Staite, Michael Ironside, Michael Shanks, Hattie Hayridge, Nick Courtney, and so many more I don’t know how to tell you about them and make it fit on this page. And that’s just the top of the list for the actors; do not miss this one if you have any choice at all!
Red Dwarf ran its new special 3-episode series, Back to Earth, and it became available on DVD at the start of this week… in the UK. It was supposed to be a world-wide release according to a posting before the original air date (since modified), but Amazon doesn’t know that quite yet. But that’s OK, because there is more good news! At the Better Than Life Con last weekend in Bedford, Cat, Kochanski, and Kryten all confirmed that the ratings for Dave TV (renamed Lister TV for the event) blew the doors off of the BBC ratings for the same time slot. As a result, an entirely new 6 episode season of Red Dwarf is in negotiations. Anything that gets us new Red Dwarf is a good thing!
A brand new update to one of the best free 3D tools has just been released: Daz Studio 3.0. This is a well-rounded software package to allow you to import and modify models, create scenes and animation sequences, and render them into video. If you are looking for 3D Animation training, you can visit their YouTube channel for a collection of free tutorial step-by-step videos. If you try the free version and want something even more powerful, you can upgrade to the Daz Studio 3.0 Advanced. Download the 30 day free trial of the Advanced version; it decays gracefully into the Free variant if you don’t purchase the license. Happy creating!
Yesterday I embedded a song by MC Lars; today I got word that it (meaning that very song) is up on the list of this years Hottest 100 Songs of All Time over at TripleJ. You should take a look at all the nominees, and put in a vote for your favorites; there are so many great ones on the list! On the Who front, IO9 has a quality spoiler for the next Dr Who Special, specifically about the guest stars expected. DVD Times has a review of the first special released to disk (basically saying save your money for the box set). And the Gallifreyan Embassy has posted details about their Second Life virtual meetings, including the data you need to find your way there. If you make the meeting, don’t forget to put on your Tardis Hud.