Friday, November 21, 2008

Videos Appearing Grayish Problem

Hi, folks. Two days ago, I have had a very frustrating problem with my videos/animations played over on my favorite and trusted video player (media player classic). Everything I view on my player (AVI, MOV, MP4, etc.) appear desaturated, if not grayish, and this is really a pain in the ass, especially when you wanted to really take a closer look on the colors of your animations/videos.

I searched the internet for possible solutions but with no luck, I haven't found anything that's really relevant to what I have experienced. With these said, just minutes ago, I figured out what whas wrong and eventually found a simple solution to this problem.

While unpurposefully checking my graphics card settings, I noticed something was really unusual, my saturation has been really set too low (for a reason I still haven't found out). So what I did was to restore the settings to its default, and voila, solution solved. Now I'm having a great time previewing my videos on to mplayer.

I hope this could be helpful to you.

P.S.: I'm not pretty sure if this solution solves other problem where there's a different graphics card installed.


Below are the screenshots of the process (click images for larger view):


Wednesday, November 19, 2008

GIMP Themes for Windows

On my past post titled Why GIMP?, you might have noticed on my screenshot that the theme I was using was not the default application theme in Windows. In Linux systems this might not be an issue since the window manager handles the styles so well that even GIMP adjusts to it, but in the case of Windows, the design is strictly following which was set on to the system, and the GTK which is responsible for GIMP's visual behavior is a separate part of that. 

I've long been searching to change my GIMP's appearance so I could work more effective and comfortable. And with luck, I have managed to find the solution to my long lived problem: GIMP THEMES FOR WINDOWS. Please check this link for more info and a link to the download > http://gimp-tutorials.net/gimp-themes-for-windows 


Enjoy!

The Super Organism

I have often been awed and just simply moved over by the majestic beauty and innate intelligence of one of the most overlooked insects, the ants. Honestly speaking, I've never liked ants since I'm having an allergic reaction to their dizzying bites, but that said, I'm still amazed by their society and behavior. Their way of living, their coordination, form of communication, receptors, sense, colony, architecture, name them. It has always baffled scientists and biologists alike at their incredible methods, where theories of possible advanced communication might be derived.

Here's a video I found on YouTube featuring one of the ants' superb skill of architecture:



Fujifilm Finepix S9600

Christmas is fast approaching, I mean really really fast, I haven't even noticed time pass by that much.  And with the nearing season, I'd just like to give myself some useful reward after all these years of longing.  I have never given myself some gifts as of this writing yet.  I'm that mini Santa Claus I presume, buying stuff for each and everyone in this household and seldom receiving any.  ^_^

And so just late this year I decided to buy myself something meaningful.  Something I have been wanting to buy even before I started with my freelance career.  I've been eagerly searching the internet for possible options, prices, etc. and even looked over at several shops here and found them to be very expensive.  What I would like to buy myself is a Digital SLR Camera.  That would indeed be a very rewarding piece of gadget for me.  It is actually a need more than a like I suppose. And with no luck on searching, I found most if not some to be very expensive and beyond my current budget.  But just recently, my sister's friend offered to have her buy me one and I'd just be sending the money for it.  The camera I have chosen isn't in a sense a DSLR Camera, but feature-wise, it performs like one, and it's a good deciding phase before buying an actual DSLR.

Here's the camera I've been wanting to buy, it's a Fujifilm Finepix S9600.  My dad and I already planned on buying this baby before Christmas hits.  I'm crossing my fingers 'till then.  The feature I love most about it is the manual adjustment of the zoom, not unlike the other digital cameras I've tried before where digital zooming is a real pain in the ass, though for some it might seem a great feature but sad to say, I just don't like it.  I'd love to have more control over my shots.  And one more thing is the battery which would be a handy AAA and not the packed battery ones you commonly see on most digital cameras. 

Here's an overview of the camera model > http://www.fujifilm.com/products/digital_cameras/s/finepix_s9600/index.html.  What do you think about it? I'm really taking in suggestions right now.  My other option would be a Canon Alpha A200.  But I'm planning on using the excess price on it to buy other gifts (for others).

And please, if you have any other thoughts on similar and cheaper digital cameras, please let me know.  The features I'm interested is the manual focusing/zooming and the battery pack.  Anything beyond that would be just a matter of manufacturer-biased set of features I guess.

If there's anything I could have availed by then, I'm really looking forward on writing a review.  ^^

Tuesday, November 18, 2008

Friendster System Error

Friendster, one of the world's largest social networking sites, which is based on the Circle of Friends and Web of Friends technique, has been recently acting abnormally.  Trying to visit the website via the entry "friendster.com" just doesn't do the trick, and explicitly adding the "www" prefix making it "www.friendster.com" would lead you either to a System Maintenance Apology page or to the main site of Friendster.

Though I might admit, I'm not an active member of the social site, I just visit there to read up messages and accept/reject friendly invitations and seldom post bulletins which are rarely related whatsoever to the site and those related with it.  Second from the last time I checked, I have my list of friends deleted.  One member even sent me a personal message telling me how pissed off she was that all of her hundreds of friends just went out like that, and all that hardwork and sacrifice she put into it just went into waste.  But with that in mind, it is still plain annoying, to make you wonder what had happened internally.  Is there a system bug? Was it cracked? Are they upgrading? I don't know.  What I'm pretty aware of is it isn't nice to encounter such things.

Yes, I'm pretty much aware it has grown immensely, since it had been introduced back in 2002, I think.  Most especially here in the Philippines where almost every internet surfer has his own account, from young kids to old adults, name them.

Just minutes ago, I checked in and the site is already fine.  It's already responding fast, layout is back to normal, and my friends list have been restored.  I wish the next time something like this happen, Friendster should let us know, probably just a simple text page on their address would be fine.

Whew.  Back to normal.  Thanks. ^_^

Monday, November 17, 2008

The Relaxing Beach



I just got home from the place I would swear would always have me fresh-minded, light, realistic, and calm. The place I wish would be my home. It is the beach and the soothing waters and waves that ripple on the soft sands. I went there with my girlfriend and every moment spent was all worth it. We walked, laughed, basked under the sun, played with the crabs, threw sand balls (I did), and of course wistfully thought time would just stop and let us be.


The beach is one of the places I feel very comfortable with, where I could just lie and dream. I see the colorful sky instead of the busy street, I smell the fresh air instead of the choking smoke, and I feel the sea breeze instead of the scorching heat. If I remember it right, it was where I learnt to walk when I was a child, that could probably explain my affinity with the sea. Since that day on, I craved for that same sensation which I felt back then. When I am sad and lonely, it’s the only place I feel most contented with. And when I’m happy, it’s the place I feel even happier with. No matter how I struggle to describe the feeling, I simply just can’t put it in words yet.

Lying on the sand beside my girlfriend a while back, we thought of nothing but each other and the great space we are living in. We looked above the sky and there we saw Einstein’s face looking back at us, a cat’s face on side view, a strange man’s face, and a dragon breathing out balls of flame just when the sun was setting. And everything felt even better when the sun started to wave goodbye and the golden moment as we know it had appeared, glaring the clouds with fantastic linings and images of intricate designs and magnificence. When darkness had already set and the sun was nowhere in sight, there came another beauty, the beauty that came from the sparkling stars and their reflection on the rippling waters of the sea and the the lights illuminated from the fishermen’s lamps. We waved goodbye and walked away, back to the regular lives we were living.

I’m hoping we could come back again there. Until the next time I see you, lovely beach.

Happiness and Being Happy


“You will never be happy if you continue to search for what happiness consists of. You will never live if you are looking for the meaning of life.” -Albert Camus


There had been times in our lives where we have often asked questions and searched for answers that had baffled us for some reason or so. Questions like: “Why was I born?”, “Am I happy?”, “What will I do next?”, and so on and so forth. Yet finding answers to these infinite questions would probably take a lifetime commitment, aging through the years that us by. 

Happiness is indeed a very subjective factor in one’s life, by that, I mean it greatly varies from a person’s perception to another. One might feel joyed basking under the sun while the other individual might feel annoyed and irritated by it. It is a personal bias, admit it or not. We can’t blame others for what choices they make or for what their actions have caused them and the people around them. Though sometimes, these leads to a clash of ideas, a rumble of thoughts, a chaotic environment, and worse, it might eventually lead to war. Opinions are opinions, they can never be wrong.


Some people, or even most that I have known so far, are struggling too hard in search of happiness and satisfaction. What they couldn’t see (that I probably hadn’t too years ago) is that in the process of searching, they lower the chances, if there are, of attaining this goal. In the 22 years of existence on planet earth, I’ve learnt that when we crave too much of what we can actually have, we become nothing, we blend ourselves with the void, engulfing our tiny hearts into non-existence. It all comes naturally. Be contented with what you currently have and don’t complain too much with these things, because the more you whine, the more you fail.

Life has, in it’s mere sense, has but one meaning, it’s HAPPINESS. Just like a how a kid would have perceived this lovely world we live in. Give him something to play with and he’s fine, he doesn’t complain. Touch him in the nose and he grins. Smile at him and he smiles back at you. Hug him and you feel a real human warmth. Live like a child, learn like a child.

Why do we want to get high grades at school? Because our parents wanted us to, because we want to impress our classmates, because we just have to, because we wanted to get a good job in the future, we wanted to be rich, we wanted to help those who are in need, and for some other reasons you could think of. But above all these reasons, digging down deep on it, it’s because we wanted to be happy. Think about it.

“Success is not the key to happiness. Happiness is the key to success. If you love what you are doing, you will be successful.” - Albert Schweitzer


I might not have stressed it so far how important it is to be happy. Just reading this post might have deprived you of it already. I’ve often been into situations where I my deciding capacity has went too down on a level I couldn’t already weigh, made decisions that have hurt other people, and walked on paths where others haven’t. And it all boils down to what I am right now, a happy and contented person.

If you have a problem, take time to find solutions to it, don’t rush in or it will give birth to even bigger problems. Take a deep breath, relax. And think before you do. If there’s something that makes you unhappy now and tomorrow, get rid of it. And finally, if there’s someone hindering you from this endeavor, pulling you down all the way, talk it over, because I believe it makes him happy now but not tomorrow. Don’t let others tell you what to do because they don’t have any idea what you went through and what your precise plans in life are, and most likely, they don’t even know what you’re thinking right now. You decide on your present and future, you alone.


There are no secrets to happiness, just happiness. ^_^

All that we have thought of so far during the entirety of our lives might not still be well justified by what we have decided to be during the past, but that doesn’t matter. Happiness is not a means to an end. It’s an end. Earning lots of money, having your own company, marrying your partner, achieving your set goals, forgiving those who have made your life miserable, getting over heartaches, etc. are the MEANS TO HAPPINESS. And the rest of your life story depends on you.

Good luck on life’s journey. ^_^

It is not making a living. It’s living a life. -Reyn

Head Sculpt (Blender Work in Progress)

This is another Blender update from me. I’ve been working on this for 5 months already, though haven’t really had the time to work on it fulltime. And after scanning my files, I saw this and thought of continuing it.

Here’s a screenshot of my Blender scene and what I have been to so far (click to enlarge).


I would love to hear what you think about this. Please feel free to comment, criticize, and suggest. ^_^

Splash (Blender Fluid Simulation)

This is one of the few fluid simulations I’ve done with Blender so far. And I loved how this went out except for some of the parts of the fluid where it seems jelly-like, nevertheless, I hope you’ll love what I came up with.

The scene was made with Blender including the fluids.
Rendered with YafRay.
Post production with The GIMP.

Why GIMP?


Over my past few years of experience with graphic design and the like, some of my friends and colleagues have often asked me this question: “Why do you use GIMP and not *this*?” And I often wonder to myself, “Why not?”, but just before I indulge myself in an unending conversation with them, a bit of thought leads me to some simple answers.

Before I begin discussing those answers, I might as well take a bit of your time to introduce what “The GIMP” actually is. The GIMP (I often wouldn’t want to omit the word “The”) or The GNU Image Manipulation Program is a “free raster graphics editor used to process digital graphics and photographs. Typical uses include creating graphics and logos, resizing and cropping photos, altering colors, combining multiple images, removing unwanted image features, and converting between different image formats” (source: wikipedia.org). And beyond this definition lies even a greater and more vast sets of features, capabilities, and characteristics but I wouldn’t be enumerating of all those sets for now because I believe it would take too much of your time or even your interest. With these in mind, you might probably have a picture on your mind right now on what this application is all about.

With the introduction above, I would now start answering the question. So “Why GIMP?”

  1. The GIMP was one of the first graphic application software I have ever been introduced to and have actually tried using. Back in my younger years, I’ve doodled around the famous Microsoft’s Paint Program or you could call it MSPaint, and it was so much fun! Where creating shapes, colors, lines, and figures was more exciting than playing mud in the field. And when I entered high school, it dawned on me the opportunities and the broad world of what these shapes and colors could actually do and affect the world we’re living in. But I just couldn’t fit myself in, not until I reached college where my parents have actually bought me and my older brother a personal computer for our school projects. And from then on, I’ve met quite a number of people having the same passion and interest. We started discussing stuff regarding this matter. Then eventually I learned of Adobe Photoshop, it was version 7 back then I guess, was impressed by how great the software was and was even more impressed by the number of things you could actually do with it. Only, these features come with a great deal of money, which, for a student like me back then couldn’t actually afford. But we’re here in the Philippines and accept it or not, piracy is a business here and it’s been like a culture. So you might have guessed it by now, the people who I actually interacted with, showing me Adobe Photoshop, actually had the copy pirated and didn’t spend a single centavo on its acquisition.It was December, I got home early from school, but my brother’s sched was so flexible that he is home hours before I could, and that means me not able to use the computer until he’s done with his tasks. By the way, we weren’t using the Windows Operating System then, but we were using a Linux and FreeBSD OS with KDE being the desktop environment. Surprisingly, he called me over and showed me one piece of software I could never forget my whole life! Before he could actually let me see his screen, he was talking riddles about the open source foundation, free software, linux distros, blah blah blah, all of which didn’t register on my mind back then, probably due to too much excitement from what he has for me. Then, yes, I was able to see his screen and stare blankly with heart pounding on a “squary” grayish piece of application. What I saw on my brother’s screen was called “THE GIMP”, a graphics software that has changed my life since then…

  2. The user interface was one of the many things that I loved most about this software, though I know many people who have actually used it might argue with me on that matter but you can’t blame me for my loving it.If I remember it right, the version series that I saw back then was GIMP 1.0 and it looked something like on the left (or even older). Now you have an idea what that “squary” stuff I was talking about a while ago.Just by looking at it, you can already figure out what this boxy screen could actually do, as compared to MSPaint which has a simpler user interface I suppose.Unlike the other programs back then (e.g. Photoshop, Corel, etc.) where everything was situated in a single window, GIMP handles windows separately, scattered (positively) with different window areas. This, as a matter of fact, has its own pros and cons. One of the pros I could think of right now is the the way windows are plainly focused, without the distraction of other tools showing. Though this, for other users might be irritating due to the multiple instances of its windows, creating even more distraction. It’s a case to case basis though. Since then, developments have taken place (at a not-so-fast pace), and the user interface as we have seen before is now this (click to enlarge):
  3. The community and development. I assume that, without the active participation of communities and users worldwide, applications like The GIMP would die out naturally. GIMP was made by the people and for the people, so it is just rightfully just that it be given a continued support from the people who ever dreamed of having one. The development among other things is one of my most liked aspect of GIMP, since version 2, it has been continually being developed by the fantastic coders and volunteers, providing us users with the optimum tool and best alternative there is on the industry. Though I might want to suggest that the maintainers of the website keep us posted with tidbits of the development process.

  4. And lastly, to finalize some of my points, The GIMP is free. You don’t have to worry working very hard, earning and saving your money just to have a taste of one of the world’s powerful graphic applications. By free, I mean it is distributed without having to pay a centavo on it, but in itself has restrictions which, by far, are reasonable enough; like selling it to gain profit for yourself, distributing it as your own without the credit of the original creators and contributors, etc.You can see what I mean by grabbing your own copy here > http://gimp.org/downloads/

To sum up everything I've said so far:

Why did I choose The GIMP over other alternatives out there?

  • My first and will probably be my last graphic application software.
  • Awesome and powerful user interface.
  • Active community and development.
  • It's free and open to everyone!
  • And just a follow-up of all the things I've mentioned, I LOVE GIMP! ^_^


If you have enough time, you can visit my online gallery at
http://www.reynante.deviantart.com/gallery

Hopefully, this would be one of my posts regarding the “WHYs” of some of the daily tools I use. More to come soon!

First Post


Howdy, everyone! It had been a year already since I first heard of Web Blogging and stuff like this. And so here I am now embarking on a journey which was thought of before but not done and now that I have this opportunity and time, I might as well grab it and give it a go.

SoooOoo, since this is my first post here, I might as well take the time to blabber about anything I want to, wouldn’t I?

To start off, I’d like to say thanks to you for coming over to my blog and (hey!) for having that bit of patience to have even read up to this word you are reading right now. You might probably ask why I made the decision to make a blog, well… Why wouldn’t I? I really am that type who does better in writing than in verbal, yeah, I’m fully aware of that. And often, it crosses my mind to write just about anything that came upon me, just like air that swooshed past my ear.

This blog would serve as a general-purpose blog I might say. From personal journals to graphic arts to technology news and probably even to the oddest of articles that you would ever read! I really love writing, it has been my intellectual and emotional output eversince, at par with my designing hobbies.

So, what else could I say? Just keep updated with my other posts and articles and who knows, you might derive and learn something from them which I’m very positive you would and I would love to.

Thanks so much for the time! ^_^

-Reyn

Sunday, November 16, 2008

My First Blogger Blog


Welcome to my very first blogger blog! My name is Reynante Martinez (though I prefer you to just call me “Reyn”) from the humble land of Philippines. I am a freelance graphic artist, illustrator, web designer, 3d modeller, and architectural visualizer. I have been in this field for 4 years already.

Since my early chilhood, I have been amazed by comics, cartoons, textbook illustrations, and the magnificent nature around me. That passion and appreciation was nothing until my parents formally introduced me to school education and that’s where I first learned that these interests of mine was actually possible to express, though probably that realization happened in the later parts of my life though. And it was only in my late elementary education that I was able to see and actually touch a computer and since then my world became very different. When I stepped on to high school, I have no definite plans with my life yet, not until I entered college, where everything seemed real to me already, the people, the places, and the world in which I live in. And that’s the time when I started setting my ambitions, goals, and dreams.

I have been a self-taught artist and haven’t had a formal education with the arts, though that didn’t hinder me from developing my skills, as a matter of fact it even strengthened me. And there’s one thing I’m very sure of and will always be, I will become a lifetime student, learning from life itself.

And from then on up to this time of writing, I have made great changes to my life and to others as well where happiness above anything else matters to me.

From this day on, this blog would probably be my everyday journal, sharing with each and everyone my experiences and hoping you could learn something from them. And as far as I have thought of yet, I’d probably be writing articles about atheism, digital art, 3D, Blender, GIMP, movies, technology news, tutorials, and of course I wouldn’t miss my personal life.

You can visit my online gallery at http://www.reynante.deviantart.com/gallery

So, welcome! And I’m hoping you’d have a great time! ^_^

-Reyn