Wordless Wednesday

Thanks, Stefanos!

Synchronized Spashing

Shot hand held and cleaned up (meaning color corrected, sharpened, straightened, and aligned by hand in Photoshop). Originally I uploaded this to Google+ where AutoAwesome did a GIF transformation. It didn't do a bad job of it, but I wasn't all that happy with it. If you want you can find it there as one of my postings. A better GIF could have been made if I had Photoshop CC or Camtasia... but I have neither. So I made this using ProShow Producer... my usual method. It was all worth a shot and the little amount of time spent just the same, and it was the first time I've tried anything AutoAwesome.

This was taken off the coast of the Big Island of Hawaii up near Hawe. The humpbacks migrate here each winter between about November and April and calve. Then they all head back up to Alaska for feeding. Each island in Hawaii sees some whales each year, but Maui and the Big Island probably the most. If you ever visit here this time of year a whale watching cruise is well worth the price.

How in the world could these guys pull this off if they weren't communicating somehow?! Stick your head underwater here anytime while they're here and you'll immediately know they're talking to each other all the time.

Friday Night Movie

Chupan Chupai

In a near future heavily influenced by the imminent boom of the Indian subcontinent, an emerging technology and economic superpower a new digital city has developed. The film follows a group of young children as they play a game of hide and seek (Chupan Chupai) in the bustling streets of this smart city. Through their play the children discover how to hack the city, opening up a cavernous network of hidden and forgotten spaces, behind the scenes of everyday streets.

The narrative of piece focuses on how the children interact with their built environment, we explore the smart city through the device of the classic children's game. The design of the future city fuses technology and built matter as one programmable environment. Using gestures and signs as a language, the project takes the concept of gesture based control to the level where we can interact and control all elements of the built environment, creating a symbiosis between technology and the city. The film splits the physical architecture of the city into two categories; the synthesised lived in city, and its organic wild undergrowth.

The project was shot on location in India and uses a mixture of animation and visual effects to embellish the design of the city and locations that are pictured.

Based on a short story by Tim Maly Directed by FACTORY FIFTEEN Produced by Liam Young

Really quite wonderful. Enjoy!

CHUPAN CHUPAI from Factory Fifteen on Vimeo.

Frozen Tundra

The places we call home are all different. But this happens to be mine. Wisconsin. And like all... there's no place like home.

Frozen Tundra from Oliver Würffell on Vimeo.

Best Wishes to Ukraine

I just looked at my stats tonight and noticed a large number of hits from Ukraine today. My thoughts and prayers go out to all of you caught up in things over there currently, and hope you can get the political turmoil sorted out one way or another soon before too many more lives are lost.

Be assured over there... all of you: the world is watching.

The Science of Kissing

This isn't too late for Valentine's Day, is it? :)

Valentine's Day

It's a bit like Henri Cartier-Bresson (August 22, 1908 – August 3, 2004) said about the "Decisive Moment"... in that it was simply being in the right place at the right time.