Biance Le Roux

New Camera: Canon VIXIA HV40

bianceleroux — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 01:39:04 +0000

HV40 Test Footage

Hi folks, just thought I’d quickly attach a YouTube link to some test footage I tried out on the day I got my camera. Quality is pretty darn good considering the price tag for the camera. Good deal I’d say. I also did a few renders with Final Cut Pro to see what sorts of styles I could achieve … very quickly. I exported it for YouTube restrictions, so it’s just SLIGHTLY squished, hardly noticeable, you can see it when you look at the text. Anyway, that’s it!

Netiquette

bianceleroux — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 21:27:19 +0000

“If you don’t have anything nice to say, then don’t say anything at all.”

Isn’t that exactly what every mother always said to their child when they’ve been mean to others? Well, apparently it applies to everyone – regardless of age, or how these slanders are being said.

Netiquette is the term that basically means the etiquette that must be used online, the social guidelines – a basic set of rules to ensure that the online world is a pleasant one. All definitions and rules were found on this site. Essentially all the rules listed and mixed into the netiquette rules of conduct, are ways to be fair to others online.

Remember the people:
There is no point in insulting others when they are new to a new online community and make simple mistakes, be helpful rather than hateful. Just because you have the power and intelligence to hack into another person’s account doesn’t mean you should, and it’s also not okay disregard others just because you are online – remember, behind every computer is a human being. Also don’t be that annoying person that fills up everyone’s email inbox with dumb chain letters, and if you aren’t that dumb person (and in fact you are the opposite, you are the expert!) then why not share your expertise, answer the questions of others and just be helpful folks! It never hurts to be nice right?

I strongly agree, and will try my best to abide by the rules of netiquette. The rules somehow seem so straight-forward, and yet look at how many hackers, jerks and disturbing content there is floating in the online world. Let’s decrease the size of that content … not increase. Thanks!

New to Laptops? New to Mac?

bianceleroux — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 02:07:53 +0000

Ok so I’ve gathered a few tips and tricks, that might be nice to keep in mind when operating your MacBook Pro.

So here are my top nine MacBook Pro Tips:

If you forget (or simply cannot utilize) your power-adapter for your laptop, it’s a good idea to change your desktop background to a plain black, or dark colour. This reduces the amount of power your screen uses, and of course reducing the brightness will also save battery power.
Plenty of you use YouTube, and everyone has probably thought: can you download these videos? The answer yes! Simply go to this Google Page and then follow the very brief instructions. In essence all you do is bookmark a link, and then once you are on YouTube, viewing a video you like, you simply click on your bookmark and it will open a dialogue box and you will click “save” and then voila! it will download onto your system.
By keeping your desktop neat and organized you will increase your processing speeds. Point is don’t have a hundred unnecessary files floating around.
By adding &fmt=18 at the end of your YouTube URLs it will automatically load it as an HD video rather than the regular viewing quality.
w3schools.com is an excellent, and I do mean excellent source of help in regards to website building.
I really want to impress upon everyone that just because you are using Mac does not mean you have to buy all your computer related products from Apple! Case in point, the Mighty Mouse, the bluetooth technology they have implemented in it is not the latest and greatest, and the costs, absurd! I am using a $14.99 mouse, I have a Mighty Mouse and I really wish I’d bought a new pair of jeans instead. Don’t make my mistake, please? And if you do not believe me, compare the reviews and prices.
CALIBRATE! CALIBRATE! CALIBRATE! A calibrated system can be an expensive one. But it is a very important attribute to basically any/all media types. If you are not ready to buy all the gear needed to calibrate your monitors/systems, then at least take a screen shot (using cmd+shit+4) of this visual form of calibrating. The instructions of how it works are listed on the webpage.
Buy AppleCare! I own an iMac desktop computer, I’ve had it almost two years now. I never bought AppleCare, but I bought a stupid in store protection plan, what a joke! After constantly using it for a year n half, I ran a system update and accidently shut off the power during this update. The result, a hard-drive crash. The result of that, pain, agony, frustration, money lost, time wasted and of course, extreme levels of anger. So buy AppleCare! You are using an absurdly expensive laptop, it’s worth a couple hundred bucks.
And last, but certainly not least, check out this site for plenty of helpful information: Macintosh Performance Guide

When will this rampage end!!

bianceleroux — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 10:22:44 +0000

Yes folks, I do think about more than vampires!

I finally finished our second project for MDIA2185, I decided to continue with the ‘vampiric’ theme, everything here was created/manipulated in photoshop. I may not have 20/20 vision anymore, but I’ve got my shadows the way I want em’ and finally got the hands looking inhuman. I would also like to add that I like long walks on the beach, soft rock, spaghetti, nice chats on the phone, funny movies and of course Mini Coopers. And no I do not like sleeping in coffins, have bats for pets, drinking the blood of the innocent or flying through the air mumbling in a ridiculous accent “I vant to drrrrink yourrr blooood”!

I’d love to hear any/all input from whoever has some to give. Thanks!

I’d just like to add if the colours seem very “off” or anything, it’s because the image has been proofed for printing not online displaying.

The Weekend

bianceleroux — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 21:13:47 +0000

Weddings = Photos

It should come as no surprise that weddings cause basically the biggest market for photography now’days. The photographer runs after the bride and groom as they make their way up to the altar, you try and catch the little flower-girl smiling, and the hardest of all you want to catch the expressions that embody the event.

I spent six hours on my feet this Saturday running after 60 people, trying to get them to show those nice pearly-whites. I jumped around every-time I heard the clinking on the glasses as the party called on the bride n groom to kiss, trying to catch them in their loving moments. And you know what, I really gotta’ say, it just kills! By the end of the day, my arms were tired from holding up my brick of a camera, my back was aching, my eyes strained and my feet were just begging me to go lie down. And of course, by the time I left to go home, I felt like I still didn’t have enough pictures.

But in the end, I did catch a photo of that aunt in the family that lets loose on the dance floor. I did catch some outrageous smiles as the wine loosens that social threshold people tend to have, and yes I did catch that important kiss at the altar. All in all, it was a heavy weekend, but I thoroughly enjoyed it – and I wanted to thank Nicholas for helping me with ideas and with all the equipment.

I’ve added a picture in here of Nick and I at the end of the day, the location was quite beautiful – it was out in Port Coquitlam at Minnekada Park.

KISS: Keep it Simple, Stupid

bianceleroux — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 22:32:50 +0000

If Seinfeld did it, why can’t I?

I cannot remember how many times I’ve watched Seinfeld, or how often I’ve laughed at the same joke, but it’s always the same, the stories are basically about nothing. So I figure if the show is about everyday occurrences, which is essentially the basis of this blog, occurrences or thoughts that are relevant in my life, which are essentially things that are relevant in the media-based-world, so read my blog if you want to follow the know-how for media platforms.

On this blog you’ve read about my photography, I’ve spoken about games and I’ve ranted on about media ie. videos, music, flash, online content etc. But if you manage to stay tuned to my ramblings you will eventually read about how I’ll be creating the website for my “future” company SOON Media. You will be taught through my own tutorials how to create simple Flash objects such as: galleries, buttons or interactive media. There will be lists of the pros and cons to using certain programs, like why is Dreamweaver a bigger hassle than hand coding? Who decided a .gif is a poor choice for image quality?

I would also like to stress that I am entirely open to questions. I’ve been shooting photography for four years, and I’d love to give people some tips and tricks on how to improve their skills. Sure there may be days when I’m in a grump and will post not such nice stories, perhaps things regarding traffic or scum that I’ve stumbled across on the internet. Essentially what I’m saying is, stay tuned because I might just do something interesting .. or funny, intentional or not, I do have a few things up my – usually rolled up – sleeve!

So the point is, I’d like to share a little about my nothingness with all of you.

Reviewing Sims 3

bianceleroux — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 21:40:27 +0000

I’ve been playing Sims since I was in middle school, and ever since then I’ve never been more taken with any other games. So you can imagine my disappointment when I finally get my grubby little hands on Sims 3! The folks at EA games have been tinkering away on it for about four years now, and I must admit I love the open game concept. You’re not longer constrained to your little plot of land, now you get to walk over to the neighbor or the community gym, walk, bike or drive – it’s all up to you. The game is much more customizable and your characters can look much more realistic: fat or thin, weak or muscular … or anything in-between. Essentially at first look I was impressed. And then! it happened. You see in Sims there are time tools, basically speed 1 is real time it goes second by second – in a Sim hour there is 60 secs, quite long for game time. But the game developers added the speed up options of 2 and 3, meaning you don’t have to watch them read a book or sleep for 8 hours. But alas … Sims 3 has failed majorly, there is no change in the speeds, even though they added an even faster option of 4 … but there is a problem, they just do not work. I have scanned online forums, and apparently it’s been fixed with an down-loadable update, however, I am still at stand still. Hopefully this gets fixed, but for somebody who rarely buys games, $49.95 down the drain is a little painful, and to be quite honest, I think it’s ridiculous to sell a game that is not fully been tested and primed.

Intro

bianceleroux — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 20:22:32 +0000

I’ve created the intro video for my little series on the animals … all the characters: “donkey, pig, cow, lion” … hope it’s not too bad.

way back when!

bianceleroux — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 09:19:50 +0000

I recall, about 4 to 5 years ago, how obsessed I was with music videos. Sure the music was nice … maybe even great, but what I enjoyed most were the visuals. I used to draw up little concepts and key frames in notepads, and whenever we had career planning assignments I’d go on and on about how excited I was about my future as a music video director! However, that ended … as sad as unfulfilled childhood dreams can, this isn’t too sad, because I still have quite the liking for music videos. And so, I have this little gem to share with everyone!

This is Misstress Barbara featuring the oh-so-grand Sam Roberts, in a very authentic song – the music video is very creative not only in it’s basic “back to beginning” concept, but notice the clean colour editing, the stops matching the beat … splendid! Anyway, enjoy folks!

Got any ideas?

bianceleroux — Thu, 28 May 2009 09:03:44 +0000

I went to the dollar store today..

I looked at the typical stuff: some stupid magnets, key-chains, picture-frames, feather boas … you know the dollar store stuff! Anyway, as I ambled through the toy section I found these stupid pointless little toys – and then it occurred to me! THEY CAN SERVE A PURPOSE! You might be thinking:

a. Bring joy to a child? Nice, but no.
b. Reverse your car over them? Hilarious, but no.
c. Attach extra wooden pieces in order to morph them into a new subspecies? Interesting, but of course no.

My idea was this! STOP MOTION! See, I’ve always thought it was a neat platform to create in, and seeing as I have my trusty D200 and quite a bit of lighting equipment, I figured, “why not!”

Check back soon as I will be featuring some little stop motion videos.