Art of the Niles

kenobi-wan-obi:

thinksquad:

Discovered in 2007, this is the largest known void in the universe. More info: http://bit.ly/17CJxaA

I hate to be that guy but this is extremely false and misleading. If I’m not mistaken (please correct me if I’m wrong), this is actually Barnard 68. B68 is a dark nebula:

“Barnard 68 is a molecular cloud, dark absorption nebula or Bok globule, towards the southern constellation Ophiuchus and well within our own galaxy at a distance of about 500 light-years, so close that not a single star can be seen between it and the Sun. American astronomer Edward Emerson Barnard added this nebula to his catalog of dark nebulae in 1919. He published his catalog in 1927, at which stage it included some 350 objects. Because of its opacity, its interior is extremely cold, its temperature being about 16 K (−257 °C). Its mass is about twice that of the Sun and it measures about half a light-year across.” [source]

It’s actually a blob of dust gravitationally collapsing in on its own mass to eventually become a star in like 100,000 years.

This is simply a photoshopped version, whoever did this must have used the liquify tool to give the nebula’s figure a slightly different shape. But what caught my attention aside from that suspicious description about being “completely empty of normal matter and dark matter” was the fact that I remember what the brighter stars surrounding B68 look like.

This is B68:

See how similar it looks? down to the position of the closer stars most visible? The above pic is a sham :/ I love the mysteries of the Universe as much as the next person but there’s really no point in misleading stuff like this. Oh and p.s. the link provided above in the original post is a completely different article talking about a completely different occurrence unrelated to the provided image of B68.

As a man who Photoshops, but also loves science, maybe this will help enlighten. The clone patterns are way too easy to see. If some science article or image seems too good to be true, keep an eye out for patterns, nature might make interesting ones, but they’re never this perfect.

(via thenewenlightenmentage)

lotusemblem:

Lotus Emblem Page Five

Up to page five now, I’m on a roll!

lackadaisycats:

thurinusworks:

There are many tutorials out in the wild that attempt to address the Photoshop “Save for Web” colour shift problem that many artists and web designers run into. However, a disproportionate number of these do so with half-baked workarounds that only “fix” the problem on content creator computers, while exacerbating the issue for their audience.

In this tutorial, I try to demonstrate how colour profiles affect image appearance on different browser types, and how best to make content look as good as it can on as many displays as possible from Photoshop. Don’t expect a comprehensive writeup about colour management - there are more authoritative treatises you can check out for that (start here: http://www.gballard.net/psd.html)

While I don’t proclaim to be an expert, I feel that I have done enough research and my own experiments to make the assessments I do on this tutorial. Regardless, I welcome any corrections from those of you who are more knowledgeable in the subject.

If you’ve ever had cause to throw furniture through windows because that painting you just spent a chunk of your life on looks all wrong when viewed on every other monitor display or browser, this might help.

Color profiles are a black art even among digital artists, it seems, but this is the most comprehensive thing I’ve seen explaining why colors shift and what to do about it.

Epic useful!

theshimmyspot:

nohetero:

mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

It’s like somebody just gave the little guy a cupcake.

Gave that little guy a cupcake!

nyssashawart:

A small break from your regularly scheduled daily doodle, which you can find here. And I know, text posts on Tumblr are such a drag but:

There’s been far too little coverage(if you’re not looking for it or aren’t personally connected to the issues) of the 400+ VFX artists who engaged in a demonstration in Hollywood during the Oscars. Rhythm & Hues, one of the main VFX studios behind Life of Pi, recently filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy and was forced to let around 200 people go-many of whom haven’t yet received pay for work completed before being fired.

That’s right. The studio that accepted the Oscar for best VFX on a movie that made over $500 million worldwide in the box office can’t even afford to pay its staff.

What’s more, just as Bill Westenhofer(VFX supervisor on Life of Pi at R&H) began to bring up the plight in his acceptance speech, the orchestra was given the cue to play him off. With Jaws. Seconds later, his mic was cut.

Classssssy.

To be fair, acceptance speeches that run long are often given cues to wrap it up, but the numbers don’t really add up.

But what is this all about, really? Reddit user PixelMagic has one of the more succinct explanations of the issues at play:

“VFX studios are having a very difficult time making profit on movies they work on, even if that movies goes on to make millions or over a billion dollars. VFX studios make 5% profit on a GOOD year, but most of the time breaking even or even losing money on a job. This in turn has a very negative effect on vfx workers working at those companies. The entire fault does not lie with movie studios or vfx studios, but both contribute to the bad state of affairs in different ways.

1. The most noticable, is that other countries offer tax subsides that do not allow even competition. If a VFX studio in California bids on work for a set price, then a VFX studio in Vancouver can bid that very same price AND offer a 30-35% (not sure of exact figures) tax rebate on that work, but the VFX studio doesn’t get that money, the movie studio does. So they (the movie studio) automatically get 30% of their VFX paid for by tax payers instead of out of their already wealthy pockets. The California VFX studio therefore cannot compete with this situation, so fair competition is impossible.

2. Low rung jobs such as roto/paint fixes are being outsourced to China and India by movie studios because they can get the work done far cheaper there.

3. Movie studios put vast pressure on VFX houses to lower costs AND do more work at those costs. They also put huge pressure on VFX studios to open offices in subsidized locales so they (the movie studio) can take advantage of tax breaks. Most VFX studios who refuse or can’t afford to offer a subsidized location don’t get the work and go out of business. However, movie studios expect the VFX studio to take care of all the costs of moving to the new country themselves. And still have the nerve to ask for cheaper labor.

4. In addition to movie studios asking for more and cheaper work, they want it done in less time. VFX on a movie used to be 1 year long, and now they are trying to take the process down to 6 months or less. Because of this…

5. VFX studios often have their staff put in TONS of overtime. 10-12 hour days are a norm, and during crunch time 16 hour days, heck, spending the night at the studio, is not unheard of and in fact common. These horrendous hours can last 3-6 months, 7 days a week. On top of this, several VFX companies are not paying for that overtime, because movie studios refuse to pay for the extra hours (remember they are putting on the pressure for cheaper), even though they have insane deadlines for VFX delivery.

6. Every other movie trade except VFX has a union to prevent such gross injustices. VFX artists don’t have a stable 9-5 full time job. They are just temp contract workers, jumping company to company, project to project. As such, they do not have portable benefits, as other unionized trades in filmmaking do.

7. Artists are too afraid to speak up against these injustices because they’ll just kick you out the door for causing too much trouble, because there are 100 dumb young kids who would jump at the chance to work on a Hollywood movie for peanuts. Without a union, they don’t have much leverage.

8. VFX studios are too chicken to take a stand against the movie studios, because really, they only have about 5-6 clients such as Paramount, Universal, 20th Century Fox, Sony, etc. If a VFX studio stood up to one of these companies about their unfair practices, they’d get black listed as trouble makers and never asked to work again, thus driving them out of business. Likewise, if a VFX worker complains to a supervisor about unfair hours and no overtime pay, he is similarly black listed to not be hired again on the next project.

This is just a handful of problems, but I feel the major ones. VFX artists in Hollywood are treated like shit. VFX artists have a huge passion and love of their skill and trade, and because of it are taken advantage of. It’s time for them to stand up and just be treated like decent hard working human beings.”

More on those kids working for peanuts.

Tumblr, you LOVE these movies. Let’s support the people who help make them stunning, or at least, you know, help them keep their jobs.

(via theshimmyspot)

lenofi:

this is where i’d keep my scratching post…IF I HAD ONE

(via theshimmyspot)

Monday

(via thefrogman)

lotusemblem:

Happy February! Have some Lotus Emblem!

First page of the comic is out! On to page two!

animationtidbits:

ParaNorman - Angry Aggie

Definitely some stunning stop motion effects. Nice to see how much went into the character

(via animationart)

leseanthomas:

” I haven’t reached the point where I think I’m good at this. that’s the drive. i know that its in me to be really good at it. and i think i’ve come close a few times, but i don’t usually look at things i’ve completed and feel content. Which that means the next thing you start, you go in with that attitude that ‘this time, I’m gonna get it right.’ it doesnt mean you hate everything you do, but i’m never content. And maybe i never will be but i secretly know that that’s what makes you grow.” - Jamie Hewlett 

Excellent view into the artist perspective by the co-creator of Gorillaz and Tank Girl