Tron-tastic!

Tron Legacy Premiere - A Light Session from ENESS on Vimeo.

Learning and Building in 3ds Max: Day 22 Wishing I made blog entries for the past 21 days

So I'm learning and building 2 figures in 3ds Max with my brother for one of his professors. Structure, color, skeleton and all. Actually no heads though.

I've used 3d Modeling program before back when I was at Syracuse. I took a 3D modeling class one semester using LightWave on the Mac. This time I was using 3ds Max on a PC. First time I've used a PC to design/create something in about 6 years. Wasn't too bad. Windows is a lot less irritating with Windows 7.

Almost done just gotta put in the skeleton later today. It was a little nerve racking trying to figure things out but once I did, I started to enjoy modeling a 3d character. I hope to work on something a little more complex at some point.

Take a gander my Renders imaginary followers.

I definitely want one of these

The First Augmented Reality Video Game. I'm so getting this

ESPN the Magazine NBA Season Preview

Yeah I know its been a while. Sorry. I was busy working in Milwaukee, WI for a month.

Want to know more?

Ask me about it. I will answer.

But after getting back I think I just kinda forgot I had a blog. My apologies my imaginary followers.

A lot has happened since I last posted. A lot of cool things have happened as well. Not just to me but in the world as well. The anticipation of the new NBA season has, for one, has gotten even bigger (can anticipation get bigger? I don't know if it can but I'll use it).

Last week the ESPN the Magazine previewed the upcoming NBA season by utilizing its parent company's (Disney) acquisition of Marvel Comics to add even more pizzazz the issue. There are many things that I love and basketball and Marvel Comics are 2 of those many.

In addition to a Marvel Comic-like ESPN The Magazine cover, Marvel Comics artists created 30 covers for each team in the NBA pairing players with Marvel characters or Marvel themes.

To say the least, this idea and the images were AWESOME!!! With all that has happened with Free Agency throughout the summer with the host of blockbuster Free Agents and Lebron's The Decision, along with W+K's new Lebron spot that came out yesterday I am excited as hell for tonight's first game of the new NBA season featuring the the Miami Heat and Boston Celtics.

I got some of my favorites below. I'm still trying to decide between the Charlotte Bobcats cover with Michael Jordan as Nick Fury or the Houston Rockets cover with Yoa Ming being reengineered like Weapon X as my number 1 fav.

Here is all 30 Marvel comics inspired NBA covers.

Check em out my imaginary followers.......

If Super Mario was real....

GUCCI GUILTY -- OFFICIAL COMMERCIAL

I'm gotta build something like this one day...

The interesting things I find on the interwebs

Cool things I've found on the internet

Majestic

Iceland, Eyjafjallajökull - May 1st and 2nd, 2010 from Sean Stiegemeier on Vimeo.

Shut your mouth and enjoy my imaginary followers.....

The Brooklyn Bridge

The best camera is the one you have with you. Brooklyn Bridge courtesy of my iPhone. Enjoy my imaginary followers...

Extreme Sheep LED Art

You read right my imaginary followers.....

I finally found one...

After 2 summers of living in New York City and countless visits I finally found some Shepard Fairy street art out in the street. Enjoy my imaginary followers

Music I'm feeling at the moment.....

Consequence featuring Kanye West, The Good The Bad The Ugly. A song thats not too old with a feeling of the great hip-hop vibe. Enjoy my imaginary followers....

WTF TV

Hey all. Its been a while. I've been doing a lot of reading lately. A lot of reading and a lot of TV watching. Sigh....Anywho!! since being out of grad school for more than a month I have gotten reacquainted with TV.

I was definitely stuck on G4 for about a week during E3, the annual video game conference show in Los Angeles. For one week G4 was back to its old lovable self again, showing a slew of video game related news and content. It was great. It was how I fell in love with the G4 television network 5 years ago.

G4 TV has since changed ups its programming by a lot. Once a network devoted to programming that showcased the world of video games and technology from early morning to night, G4 gradually shifted network devoted to programming INSPIRED by the world of video games and technology and then into network that shows whatever they think those people who like video games and technology would like.

So most of the day G4 is bombarded by shows like COPS, Campus PD, Cheaters, and Ninja Warrior. Although Ninja Warrior is definitely one of the coolest shows ever, if it wasn't for the G4 icon on the corner of the screen you wouldn't know what channel you were watching if you randomly changed the channel to it. From video games and technology to a channel that houses the International sexy ladies show, Human Wrecking Balls, Web Soup, whatever movies somebody thought were really cool. It seems whatever is good at the time of the monthly staff meeting at G4 goes.

When you take a step back all TV is becoming like this. The Travel Channel is starting to become more and more like the Food Network and because the there isn't enough cooking on the Food Network, the Cooking Channel was started. According to a recent USA Today article entitled "For cable channels, the niche is expanding" cooking shows are showing up on the Syfy. Syfy by the way changed the spelling of from Sci-Fi to Syfy so it wouldn't be too weird when they bring in things like cooking shows into their line-up. The Cartoon Network just launched Unnatural History, its first scripted, live action series.

One of my favorite channels, the History Channel, started airing Top Shot, a shooting competition. Its planning its first scripted drama, The Kennedys, as well as an on-the-road show hosted by comedian Larry the Cable Guy and an Americanized version of BBC car show Top Gear, hosted by comic Adam Ferrara.

TV is changing. When I was a kid the Disney Channel used to show a whole bunch of cartoons, nowadays the Disney Channel is known for the real life young stars and actors they create. Today its about creating programming that people will watch and not necessarily about staying true to the brand and niche of the network, its about what people tune in to watch. Its about sprinkling your network line-up with reality, food, dramas, and comedies the popular genres that viewers are accustomed to seeing on rival networks. Its about those important numbers: money and eyes. Advertising and viewers.

TV is getting confusing. Not sure if that means its getting better. I personally liked it when the History Channel showed history and the Animal Planet showed animals but I guess that doesn't produce the eyeballs and dollars.

That's my take, what's yours my imaginary followers...

Google in style

I'm tired of a blank white screen staring back at me when I'm searching the web. It's about time Google gave me the option of changing the traditional white background on their home screen into an image.

What do you think my imaginary followers.....

Web banners don't have to suck

To promote the upcoming NBA Finals the NBA decided to remind everybody of all the great moments that have occurred in the history of the Finals and that web banners don't have to be pieces of crap.

You're given a collage of images featuring the greats of NBA Finals history done in the style of the current TV campaign promoting the NBA Finals. Something like this is perfect for those Youtube junkies like me who are coming to watch videos anyway and who like looking up videos of NBA players doing their thang but mostly trying to see if they could find a video of Ron Artest running into the stands from a totally different angle.

Yeah I know, there isnt really anything special with the execution of this web banner. There has been web banners with selectable video before so this thing isn't breaking new ground at all but not all advertising has to be ground breaking it just needs to work. This is an example of a cool idea that the right people can interact with placed in the right location.

Till next time my imaginary followers....

Brandcenter Experience: Over

Last weekend was the Brandcenter graduation which officially brought my Brandcenter experience to a close. It was 2 very interestingly educational years at the Brandcenter. I learned a lot about the advertising industry, being a Creative Technologist, selling ideas and most of all I learned a lot about myself.

I came out of my shell a bit throughout my 2 years at the Brandcenter especially during the second year when I was doing things that I didn't think I can do, like acting. Its weird how you learn the most away from the classroom. I should probably ask for some money back.

The advertising industry can be a big scary animal sometimes but I think going through the Brandcenter helped to transform me into a pretty good lion tamer. Nice analogy. I didn't have that before the Brandcenter. Or maybe I did. Another thing the Brandcenter helped me in is recognizing what the hell I'm good at and taking notice at the things that can be valuable in basically everything. Who would've thought that my love of impersonating people would help me deliver great presentations. Ask any of my Brandcenter classmates, my acting ranges from Blaxxploitation star to old white southerner.

So why am I dressed up like I just passed through a military academy you ask? Well thats because I just finished basic training within the elite corps of advertising professionals known as the Brandcenter and now I'm ready for battle. Just show me where the advertising war is taking place because I have plenty of idea warheads to launch.

But first I'll enjoy a little bit of Puerto Rico. Till next time my imaginary followers....

My cousin isadoin big thangs in the world

Do you google yourself? I do, but get your head out of the gutter because I didn't mean it in that way.

I was googling myself one day when I came across an entry for a Carl-Alex Ridoré. When I clicked on that Google search result I came across the campaign website for Carl-Alex Ridoré, who i later learned is my cousin. Carl-Alex won the mayoral race in Switzerland in the city of Sarine becoming the first black mayor in the country.

Its really cool to see the types of things your family is doing around the world. Till next time my imaginary followers....

More is less

Enjoy my imaginary followers...

Businesses take note...

People think when huge structures have to be imploded it is cool so you need to start charging people for these shows. 10,000 people showed up to see Texas Stadium be imploded last Sunday and it looked awesome.

Apparently the Dallas Cowboys knew that so they even put an interactive 360 degree camera inside the stadium floor to capture the show and that was triple awesome plus seven.

Enjoy my imaginary followers.....

Texas Stadium going down from the inside

Connected Objects

VCU Brandcenter Creative Technologists Cecilia Bogardus, Drew Dayberry, Don Sticksel and I have been working on a white paper since the beginning of the semester. For those that don't know a white paper is an authoritative report or guide that often addresses issues and how to solve them. Its used to educate readers and help people make decisions and they are often used in politics and business, and technical subjects. In commercial use, the term "white paper" has also come to refer to documents used by businesses as a marketing or sales tool.

Our white paper topic was on Connected Objects. Connected Objects dealing with the internet of things, the webs of things, sensor-ed objects and all the technology that help to enable all of these things. The culmination of this project was a 20-min presentation of our white paper to our class of attentive and eager Creative Technologists. Luckily for us, also in the audience was BBH's Director of Creative Technology, Richard Schatzberger. A lot of the work he has done included some of tech and subjects we covered in our presentation.

We wanted to do our white paper a little differently so instead of an actual piece of paper with the printed words of our report we made a website. We called it InterWebConnectedness. We laced it with links wikipedia style and a twitter feed of recent tweets that mentioned certain connected object related terms so it too became a connected object.

You will learn something. Enjoy my imaginary followers.

Sak Passé

Like most Haitians January 12, 2010 was pretty horrific day for me and my family. Fortunately no one in my family was killed. My aunt, Seour Lea Ridoré, although broke her leg while in the convent where she lives as a nun and she was airlifted to the Dominican Republic.

I just got a really interesting video from my mother. Its a Swiss documentary featuring my uncle Charles Ridoré and my cousin Carl-Alex Ridoré. Carl-Alex Ridoré is actually the first black mayor in Switzerland.

The documentary follows them as they visit my Aunt in the Dominican Republic and parts of Haiti, including Habitation Ridoré in Jacmel, Haiti (Yes thats right we Ridoré have our area in Haiti). I don't know if you understand french because it is all in french and I cant really understand french either but regardless it is a very interesting documentary.

Haiti, retour au pays dévasté

Hope you enjoy it. Take care my imaginary followers....

A Really Cool Nerdy Thing

A $28,000 Motion Simulator. Enjoy my nerdy imaginary followers.

My favorite time of the year

Its my favorite time of the year. The time in which there always seems like there's something to watch on TV and there's always some big huge sporting event that will be taking place. Three of my favorite sporting events take place during this time and two of them happen about a week apart. Those events being the Super Bowl, the NBA All-Star Game, and the Men's Final Four (sorry ladies). I like these three events for several reasons. The first of which being that I enjoy playing these 2 sports. I played football in high school and college so I really enjoy watching the spectacle that is the Super Bowl and I love playing basketball so watching the NBA All-Star game and the Final Four/Men's Basketball Championship/NCAA Championship (apparently they change what this thing is called) is always enjoyable for me.

When these things are on I'm usually hooked from beginning to end, commercials and all. This year's Super Bowl was the most watched TV program in history (That means ever. EVER) so I wasn't alone. This further cemented the reasoning behind the $2 Million/per spot price tag for a Super Bowl spot. Super Bowl XLIV was watched by 106.5 million viewers. The feel good New Orleans Saints story and Peyton Manning and the Colts was the perfect combination to bring record number of eyes to CBS. I only wonder if a Brett Favre led Vikings vs Peyton Manning and the Colts would've brought in even more? I had a former teammate in the Super Bowl, Dwight Freeney, who I played with for 2 years at Syracuse. Yet another reason for me to like watching the Super Bowl. Its hard to stop watching the Super Bowl too. The commercials and the game keep me glued to the TV. My favorite commercial this year was Punxsutawney Polamalu. It was halarious. But there were other funny commercials and other commercials that were pretty damn good. One of those being a Google spot that Brandcenter alum, Tristan Smith, actually worked on. This spot showed a narrative of a guy meeting a girl through the internet and at the ending getting married and starting a family all through a series of Google searches. This was a very smart very and well done spot.

This year's NBA All-Star Game was played in Dallas Texas, well Arlington, Texas, in the immaculate Shrine to sports, Cowboys Stadium. Since the NBA All-Star Game is a exhibition game, TV viewership is never really anything too spectacular but since it was played in the Cowboys Stadium, this year's All-Star game had the largest crowd to ever to watch a basketball game. 108,713 packed into Cowboys Stadium. That number may stand for sometime for Cowboys Stadium even as next year's Super Bowl comes to the stadium since there's more room to fit people in a basketball configuration.

We're still in the middle of the NCAA Tournament but like every year its capturing huge numbers across the country. From the numerous basketball arenas across the country that hosts the tournament games to CBS coverage of the event both on television and online the NCAA tournament keeps audiences watching for 3 weeks. Such a perfect tournament, its hard to believe that they want to change things.

One of the other reasons why I like these sporting events is the cool logo's they come up with every year to represent them. My favorite of the three this year is definitely the NBA All-Star Game logo. The Super Bowl logo is usually the winner for me but this year I was not feeling it at all. I didn't get the concept behind the design of the logo at all. Seems like a logo you can tag on to any Super Bowl or even any football game for that matter. The NBA All-Star Game was great. The word "All-Star" in the shape of Cowboys Stadium holding up a huge star. Everything about the logo was perfect. The NCAA tournament logo, meh. I get it but doesn't look too special or new for that matter. I feel like they've used it before.

Anywho, thats the nerdy stuff that I do. I analyze the things I like to watch to the smallest possible detail. I hope you enjoyed this extra long post my imaginary followers. Till next time.

Wired is moving towards iPad ready

I'm still not sure how the Apple iPad will do but all the biggest brands out there getting ready for its arrival. Wired of course is one of them.

Text messages net over $400,000 for Haitian relief in first day after quake

My home country really needs help. Thankfully Yele Haiti is there to help along with the help of technology. If you can please help however you can offer it.

Text messages net over $400,000 for Haitian relief in first day after quake