Tag: Link

The end of green screen, and possibly the beginning of true 3D movies

Since Lytro’s tech basically captures all the 3D information in a scene, the imagery is unusually friendly to CGI. Placing virtual objects at exactly the right depth in a scene is essentially taking advantage of a native ability of the footage.

This is possibly the beginning of what I’ve been looking for since the re-renaissance of 3D movies in the last 10-15 years. As the new ‘real’ 3D movies came to theatres, what I really wanted was to be able to view a scene in full 3D (ie. with the right visuals, everything could theoretically be in focus at all times) and to be able to focus on whatever I wanted at any time.

You have no idea how disorienting it is (unless you do this, like I do) to be engrossed in a 3D movie, just to glance at something in the background of a scene and see that you can’t focus on it. Is that what living with glasses is like? It’s terrible.

I’m really hopeful that advances in 3D movies along with these Lytro cameras that are capable of capturing all aspects of a 3D scene could mean an overhaul of not only visual effects, but of the 3D movie as a whole. I think if we were to see something like this, we would be able to truly revolutionize cinema. It might take a VR type experience to truly make this happen, but I think at a certain point that’s where we’ll end up, and I can’t wait to focus on the meaningless background part of a scene in a movie, just because I can.

> Lytro’s new Cinema camera could mean the end of green screen

On watching Steph Curry and the GSW this year

Trying to figure out whether you like the Warriors, on the other hand, is like being 5 years old and trying to figure out whether you like magic.

This is exactly how I feel about Steph Curry and the Golden State Warriors right now. I’m not a huge basketball fan. I’ll watch a player or team that’s doing really well (up until this year that was LeBron for me, or the Raptors in the playoffs), but I don’t really follow the league.

That being said, watching Steph Curry hit crazy, off-balance, near half-court shots routinely makes me think back to the days on the elementary school court, when it was more about having fun and seeing what’s possible than trying to be technically or strategically perfect.

It’s all the more frustrating that I felt (as a kid) that I should be making more shots than I was, in real life and in video games. But Curry manages to overcome all of that, and swishes shots that should never be taken by anybody, which is something I aspired to, but could only ever dream of.

> The Golden State Warriors are the greatest NBA team ever—and the most likable.

Carbs are getting in the way of healthy eating

Canadians heeded the exhortation to reduce fat and reduced their fat intake to 31 per cent by 2004. But during this time, obesity rates spiked, which suggests that dietary fat is not a “primary contributing factor” in obesity, said the report.

I got healthy (and lost 45 pounds in the last 8 months) but not by focusing on eating healthier foods (like salads) at restaurants and at home. But my main focus was on the AMOUNT I ate, not on the types of foods as much. I didn’t count a single calorie, and though I started my diet exercising by biking to work every day, for the last few months I’ve only really been moderately active, but haven’t gained any weight back.

The demonization of fat (and subsequent need for people to eat lots of carbs at the grocery store, or restaurants, has meant that people have to eat a lot MORE food to feel full. Letting yourself eat fat, and trying to limit the amount of carbs you eat, is probably going to become increasingly important to the North American diet, whether these guidelines officially change or not.

> The Canada Food Guide is killing you: ‘The obesity epidemic… really began with our dietary guidelines’