maegul (he/they)

A little bit of neuroscience and a little bit of computing

Last Notes

2024-08-26 03:35:24 GMT

Rant …
::: spoiler spoiler
I’m talking about Ash/Rook, obviously.
Just saw the film recently, and while it’s a bit of a love it or hate it film I think, the Rook character is I think objectively egregious.
The idea is good, IMO, in a number of ways, and I can understand that the film makers felt like it was all done with love and affection for Holm and the character. As a viewer, not necessarily onboard with how many cues the film was taking from the franchise, I noticed the silhouette of Rook pretty quickly and was quite happy/hyped to see where it would go.
**But OMG the execution is unforgivable!** And I feel like this is just so much of what’s wrong with Hollywood and VFX, and also indicates that some execs were definitely intervening in this film. Somewhat fortunately for the film, it had a low budget (AFAICT, by Wikipedia) and is making a profit.
But it’s no excuse to slap some bad CGI onto shots that were not designed for bad CGI. Close ups on the uncanny valley! Come on! AFAICT, bad CGI is often the result of a complete disconnect between the director and the VFX crew, in part because the VFX industry is kept at arms length from the film industry, despite (it because of) its massive importance.
That CGI is not something you do a close up on. No remotely decent director would have done that knowing the CGI looked like that. This is likely bad studio management creating an unworkable situation.
What could have worked much better IMO is don’t have the synth functioning well. Have its facial expressions and movements completely artificial and mechanical. Rely on the likeness of Holm and the AI voice (which did and generally do work well). Could have been done just with a well directed animatronic coupled with some basic CGI to enrich some textures and details. Instead we got a dumb “we’ll do it in post” and tortured some poor editor into cutting those shots together.
For many the film was a mixed bag. For me too. But this somehow prevents me from embracing it because I just don’t trust the people who made it.
:::
… End rant.

2024-08-09 01:07:06 GMT

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Well that is certainly relevant news! And sad to see too.
So long for the kbin family of platforms then (seriously, harsh to say, but so long as this is representative, I reckon that spells the end of it on the fediverse).

2024-08-04 10:35:47 GMT

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If you’re wondering about lemmy compatibility: https://mastodon.social/@pixelfed/112902986123309202
Lemmy and piefed compatibility will be there it seems.
If you’ve got other questions, dansup, lead dev, is pretty outgoing and probably happy to talk.

2024-07-26 08:53:48 GMT

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I’ll add to hendrik’s sibling post … it seems you’re relatively new to the fediverse. You may want to get a feel for the place before advocating for such wide reaching actions.
I’m all for expressing your feelings on an issue, but I do wonder if your eagerness is a bit premature. I myself “called for” defederation early in my time on the fediverse … and it was dumb of me.
Since then I’ve come to view most arguments around the idea of defederation suspiciously. There’s usually a bit of personal drama or a shallow opinion or people who want to loudly voice opinions without wanting to put work into making this place better. Usually, if defederation is actually needed, the admins will know before you do and it will be obvious.
All that being said … I’d ask you … what do you think federation and decentralisation is for?

2024-06-28 10:22:26 GMT

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Onservable HQ, if you don’t already know it. They’re likely to be interactive too.
It’d a platform made by Bostock, who created D3.

2024-06-18 01:09:16 GMT

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For a continued focus on film, the projector is a pretty iconic representation of the cinema and movies … so perhaps an alternative image of a projector?
As a start, a quick search dug up these two creative commons pics of projectors: [first](https://www.flickr.com/photos/rvwithtito/4236716778 ) and [second](https://www.flickr.com/photos/libraryman/110679756 ). As easily identifiable thumb nails or icons, I can see images like those working quite well.