Wacom has just introduced their new line of Intuos tablets. The Intuos5 tablets are now touch tablets as well. Other new things that are different are the now rubberized coating on the tablet and the removal of the led for the buttons. In place of it we are just greeted by nothing but buttons and the wheel. All the buttons are now shown in HUD on the screen.
For the touch aspect of the device, the tablet is capable of multitouch (probably around 10 fingers). It's only activated when the stylus is not in the range of the tablet.
Wondering about the drawing surface of the tablet? Well it has the same coating as the intuos4. Meaning that it feels like paper, but that coating will disappear over time. It will also make the nib on your pen degrade faster as well.
Another cool feature is the wireless add-on. The downside is that you'll need a usb port still and the battery life isn't very good. Depending on the size it can range from 16 hours to 6 hours. Not very good, but oh well.
As for those people thinking about upgrading, I'd say it'd be a wait see approach. With Windows 8 just around the corner though, touch input will be even more popular now than it was before. Oh yeah, did I mention the pricing seems to have been reduced? It seems like it's $100 less compared to the same size of the intuos4. If I was given one or had the money, I'd sure as hell grab one (now only if the touch implementation worked seamlessly).
Nothing beats an original like a fan made one. Check out Joel Furtado's take on a game if it were to be real. I've got to hand to him for bringing the Wind Waker style and updating it. The animation is slick and even this short trailer is done nicely. If Nintendo could make another Zelda this would be it.
Check out this cool timelapse of modeling Juggernaut in 3D. It takes you from basic modeling to sculpting all the way to retopology. MmAaXx the person who created this doesn't take any shortcuts. Everything is modeled and careful to make most of the topology really good.
The model design itself is very good. Very realistic yet has that almost photoshopped look. It's a really good take on Marvel's Juggernaut. If you're just a beginning modeler or just like to see what goes in the making of a character, watch the video below. Make to grab something eat a play some music as the video is over 1 hour long.
I don't know what it is about these days, but there are some great international animation teams doing great work. Take for instance Fruit Punch Studio. The group consists of graduates from The One Academy in Malayasia. Ninja Vs. Pirates is pretty self explanatory. The title says it all. It's a ninja against a pirate. There are some funny moments. Being that the ninja was on the heavy end, you kind of know what the ending was going to be about.
As far as animation goes, top notch all the way around. Smooth and fluid as some of the big boys. Story was simple and easily understandable. Character design was different, but not ugly. The colors were very vibrant and relaxed. Hopefully this isn't a one-time-thing and that the guys at Fruit Punch Studio create more in the future.
Technology is advancing quickly. Check what engineers are able to do today. Those are robots that fly like something out of a movie or like a UFO. They fly very precisely and doesn't seem to require a lot of human controls.
There are many uses for this. I'm not sure what right now, but I'm sure it'll be used for surveillance. The one thing I know will be that we will be seeing for UFO's in the sky very soon or maybe SkyNET will be beat them to it.
