kevin from pixellit

Kevin Erhard is a writer, editor, and producer of many things including, but not limited to, corporate videos, short films, and essays.

[gamebookslp]

ICO: Castle in the Mist Part 1

New series! ICO was a game made by ICO team in the early 2000s. The game released after it, Shadow of the Colossus is must more well known b

This is a pod I recently got turned on to and anyone who loves video games and loves fiction should absolutely check it out! Not interactive fiction, but damn close. *Explicit language warning* Also, love the two hosts, sound quality is excellent AND the kid dropping in and asking for human sacrifices was epic... *eyes* Go follow them! Then listen! @pixellitpodcast

[pixellitkevin]

Dakotia!

I've been working on turning Dakotia into a novel for some time now. And today I can announce that, well it's still not a novel. But I've started writing it, and I'm feeling pretty good so far.

So we'll see about that.

[pixellitkevin]

http://www.fastcompany.com/1844017/why-no-one-will-watch-your-crappy-corporate-viral-video-and-how-to-fix-it

[pixellitkevin]

Tracking, tracking, tracking.

Tracking footage is probably my least favorite activity in After Effects. Keying is easy, just requires some fiddling and a willingness to go outside the normal bread and butter keying tools. (For example, in this footage, color range was more apt than KeyLight.)

But tracking, why'd it have to be tracking? Of course I knew that I was going to have to do it going in, but this was my first time trying to track a moving green screen under uncontrolled outdoor lighting. Sure, I probably could have controlled it with a 12 by 12 silk in the air, but I don't have one of those. What I do have is a tiny budget.

So naturally when the greened iPad tilts toward the sun, the king of our solar system in all his glory blasts the tracking markers away in a shot of wondrous glare. Now I'm sitting here tracking the corners of the iPad, and pausing every time they disappear behind a hand or a corona bottle.

Anyway, back to work.

[thedailywhat]

Penn State Punishment of the Day: Holy punishment for Penn State by the NCAA, announced this morning in the fallout from the Sandusky abuse scandal:

The school must vacate 14 years of wins — pretty much every game since Paterno learned of the first abuse allegation. His win total dropped from 409 to 298. Florida State’s Bobby Bowden is now the winningest football coach in history. (But who cares?)

Penn State will be sanctioned $60 million; the funds — equivalent to the average annual revenue of the football program – will be directed toward programs that help prevent child abuse.

The football program is banned from bowl games for four years and on probation for five years; student-athletes have lost 20 scholarships; and current players will be allowed to transfer out.

“In the Penn State case, the results were perverse and unconscionable,” NCAA president Mark Emmert said. “No price the NCAA can levy with repair the damage inflicted by Jerry Sandusky on his victims.”

[shortformblog]

[pixellitkevin]

The Dark Knight Rises

Throughly enjoyed it. Watched it at the iPic theater in Boca Raton, which is one of the best ways to watch a movie over two hours long (reclining chairs with a foot rest, seat side food and drink service).

There weren't really any nagging issues that I came away with, and I felt it capped off the series in a meaningful way.

[ryanestradadotcom-deactivated20]

Only 55 hours left to name your price for 850+ pages of comics!

We’ve started seeing some awesome reviews of our books!

There’s one for The Kind right here.

And there are two reviews of Fusion Elementary, here and here.

[instagram]

43rd Anniversary of First Moon Walk

43 years ago today, on July 20th, 1969, astronauts Buzz Aldrin and Neil Armstrong aboard Apollo 11 became the first humans to land on the moon. Six hours later, Armstrong reported the moon’s surface dust as “very fine-grained” and “almost like a powder.” As he stepped off the lunar module he then spoke his famous words, “That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind” as the world watched in awe.

Though there have been no manned U.S. moon landings since 1972, it has not stopped those of us here on earth from dreaming of traveling worlds beyond our own — utilizing telescopes and lenses to capture images of distant planets, stars, and satellites. Take a look at beautiful photos of Earth’s natural satellite snapped with just an iPhone and a telescope over at #astroiphonography.

[pixellitkevin]

Harrison Ford's been doing this thing where he parks himself by the door to track the activities of the neighborhood cats. They have taken to plotting in the back yard.

[pixellitkevin]

I just realized that two years ago, Lee Keeler and I dropped what was the biggest hit of our Classy Hands run. Here it is, in all it's glory, Ferris Club.

[pixellitkevin]

Screen shot of a video I just shot for work.

[pixellitkevin]

My thoughts go out to those involved in the Colorado shooting. Heartbreaking way to start the day.

[ryanestradadotcom-deactivated20]

Wow, that looks different! That’s a panel from a comic I did on a nervous airplane ride to India in 2008, followed by a panel from the graphic novel it eventually became.

Since Tumblr will only allow 10 images in an album, you can read a short story in three styles right here.

The book is available until Monday, and it’s pay-what-you-want!

[pixellitkevin]

My friend Ryan Estrada just posted a recap of the journey he took (and I was a brief part of) to take The Kind You Don't Take Home to Mother from sketchy comic to 160 page graphic novel.

[pixellitkevin]

If you copy from one author, it's plagiarism; copy from two, it's [a remix].

--Wilson Mizner

[pixellitkevin]

Vincent Price Average

This is quite a paltry average and in baseball terminology it would be referred to as the "Mendoza Line." By keeping track of this we should be able to refine our skills at reading an audience much like a batter refines his ability to track a pitch from the pitcher's hand. I don't believe my life time Vincent Price Average will ever rise more than a few points, I swing for the fences too often, but I have high hopes that this exercise will improve other stats.

[pixellitkevin]

Frameograph is an iPhone app that has been sitting on my phone for a few months now. Today I decided to shake things up and, you know, use it. This is a quick test of its time-lapse feature. The footage is recorded at 720p and didn't have any noticeable motion artifacting. The resulting video from the time-lapse is 15fps. This was easily fixed however during my color correction pass in After Effects by switching the comp to 23.98.

The app also has a stop motion feature which I'm sure I'll toy around with sometime soon. 

[pixellitkevin]

Shot this video a few months back with the C300 at max ISO and it turned out pretty damn good.