Ethyl Merman Lies Beneath

More work to add to the Kid Millions Resume.  Just some sillyness and fun.

Nathan Bitner and the Mysterious Tunnel

I ever tell you the story of the Nathan Bitner Expose?  Its a memorable story to me because I myself entered the He-Man character contest back in the 80's.  My character was Hear-O (he had excellent vision...or someting) and I was convinced I was going to win with an idea like that.  Then Bitner came along with his superior drawing skills and his character Photog won the contest.  Years later X-Entertainment writes a little blog about whatever happened to Nathan Bitner and the sordid exploits of his youth and otherwise become public knowledge.  Memorable.

Today I happened upon a little pic on Shorpy,com of a mysterious tunnel from 1924.  Reading through the comments (often almost as fun as seeing the hi-res pics) there were plenty of suggestions of speakeasy tunnels but then someone unearthed the newspaper accounts of a rather extensive tunnel system built by a millionaire entomologist as a hobby.  This was followed information of the man being a bigamist and his failed attempt to get a real divorce of a fake marriage (complicated as bigamy must often be) and then dying 5 years later.  The situation reminded me Bitner (who was understandably horrified when he happened upon the X-Entertainment post with 1000+ comments about his personal life)..  Only it happened in 1925 instead of 1990.  And still people were able to use the ol internet to get to the sordid little details.  

The Sport of Kings (and queens and jacks)

I think I mentioned a while back that I was toying with a Faustian baseball project.  Following a 3 month computer issue wash, I seem to be back in business. Been working the last 3 weeks on this particular scene.  No animation yet; just set and lighting and characters.  But then theres no script for this particular episode.  Most likely a music video type of thing.  And I heard that collective gasp of disappointment.  

Of interest to me, I'm using fog to tamp down a bit of the brightness from the HDR effect (and to give things a hint of smokiness).

The Thomas Beale Cipher

Caught this one as a Vimeo favorite. Much fun and creativity. More info here.

Family Sci Fi Fun

My first CTA short and easing out of a funk.

I am slowly coming out of a 3 month funk due to computer issues.  Heres hoping everything is fixed (though it inspires no hope that I do not know why everything seems to be working correctly).  Expect another little family oriented adventure in the next couple of days.  Until then...


GO Falcons!!!

Yea, Im a big falcon fan.  It doesnt help that MrsBiz is a big Green Bay Packer fan.  Lets hope things stay civil when my team wins.

NYC Holiday Train Show

Made a trip to the NYC Holiday Train Show last weekend and managed to splice together some admittedly amateur video into something coherent enough to send to the grand folks.  Its a bit too long.  If I were doing it again, Id lop off at least a minute.  Meh.  100 NYC buildings (and 3 major bridges) made out of sticks and twigs and berries.  Very cool exhibit.  A good excuse for me to get acquainted with Vegas Movie Editor.