Skip to main content

Build your own Sci-Fi: Firefox Personas

I came across an article on the Null Set about Making Anime Personas for Firefox, with some excellent examples (that set is listed under Steelbound). I also found rather nice collections by Songbird, Bellas, Kawaii Mooru, and Fleur, to name just a few. I also found huge selections of other science fiction themes, but these should give you the idea.

Building your own seems pretty simple and straightforward; the short version is you create an image each for the top and the bottom of the browser, both 3000 pixels wide, with the top at 200 pixels tall and the bottom 100 pixels. For slightly more detailed information, check the Persona Create and Test page. These are too much fun; I think the trick is building ones that look good but don’t interfere too much with the tool bars. If you need to install the personas Add-on, you will find it here.

Build your own: Music

No real film fests this week except for the tail end of a few winding down, so a good time to talk about building your own. One thing you will need when creating your own Sci-Fi movie, animation, or radio play is a good sound bed of themes and incidental music. The Super Collider at SourceForge has a single primary purpose; to generate quality music with a command/control string of only 140 characters. These Twitter-sized bites of code play entire musical masterpieces when run through the original program. You can view the source code for the first 120 entries, to give you an idea of how to create your own.

The SuperCollider real-time audio synthesis and algorithmic composition program that takes the source code and converts it into music you can actually listen to is part of the SourceForge family of software. There are more projects you will want to track, so please follow the Wire’s Rendition of the SuperCollider’s instruction set so you don’t miss anything.

Things to Do: Film Fests

From December 2nd to the 6th is the Sante Fe Film Festival with a number of interesting movies touring the festival circuit. The one that caught my attention at this one was Mythic Journeys, part animation, part documentary, and all story, starring Tim Curry, Mark Hamill and Lance Henriksen.

Running December 4th to the 17th is the 9th annual Anchorage International Film Festival, and with a tag line of Films worth freezing for you can bet there will be some good ones in the mix. They do have some we have seen at other festivals, like Zombies of Mass Destruction, and some new ones, like Homemade Vigilante, where his super-power is enthusiasm and his qualifications are his cape and comic book collection. Then there is the huge number of animations the have playing in blocks. In their assortment of film making workshops they even include an Animation Workshop 101 for people looking to create their own.

Build Your Own Sci-Fi: Films

One of my favorite film festivals is Sci-Fi London, which will be coming around again from April 28th to May 3rd, 2010. If you build your own Science Fiction or Fantasy, be it live action or animated, they would like to see your film and consider including it in their festival. Submissions are now open at their web site; if you want to get an idea of the kinds of things they will accept, check their TV segment and watch some videos.

Likewise, on this side of the pond, the Boston Science Fiction Film Festival coming up February 5 – 15th, 2010, is also looking for submissions. In fact, they are almost done, but you still have time to get your film in (just) with the regular deadline on November 30, and the late deadline on December 15.

Halloween Building

I have done a number of Halloween posts already this year, but as one of the major religious holidays I figured I should do another entry. I loved the Sci-Fi Wired sequence of 14 Great Cthulhu Toys that make devouring souls fun, 19 Amazing Star Wars Pumpkins, and 20 Great Pet Costumes, all of which put my appreciation of the site back on top where it belongs. But they are displaying Other Peoples Work; don’t you want to build your own? Two of the best sites I know for that are the Instructables Halloween Costume Collection and the Make Halloween Site. The later will help you with your haunted house and special effects technology more than your costume, but it all means your are building a unique holiday event. Make is also running a Micro-Controller Halloween Contest, so make sure to document and enter your remote-controlled exploding pumpkin as soon as possible. D-Vice came up with the concept and basic technology to build the Gaping Hole Costume for a Real Life application of the Death Becomes Her special effect, but I have yet to see a believable working version of it. For the little ones and their parents I can recommend Homemade Halloween Costumes from the Funtimes Guide web site. That should be enough for now; we still have a week or three to the holiday itself, so there is still time to get creative.

Steampunk Month at TOR, Sagan Trance

TOR has set up their very own Steampunk Month. October is a great month for it, since the SteamCon happens towards the end of it on the left coast, while the Steampunk Fashion and Design Event happens on the other. There are already a lot of great Steampunk links, articles, and stories on the TOR site, and this is only the second day of the month! Then there is this wonderful tribute to Carl Sagan and Steven Hawking…