The Backend
Videos
Let’s revisit another cringe-worthy video project back from my SAE days about a fictional product: Adobe Catering .
(Bunch of copyright infringements may apply)
Wow! I totally forgot I still had the storyboards! Here we go:
Trivium: The characters’ names are Torben and Bruno… 😂
Good old times!
Some footage to test the low-light and slo-mo capabilities of the Sony FX30. It’s much too noisy for my taste but that could be my bad and I suspect the attached NiSi Black Mist filter didn’t help either. Still learning. And I think I can get away with it on smaller screens.
Captured with Sony Sigma 56mm f/1.4 DC on a DJI RS3 Mini Gimbal.
Music: Coastline by TrackTribe via YouTube Audio Library
Inspired by Adobe Photoshop’s new generative AI capabilities, I gave my SAE thesis project back from 2007 the «Special Edition» treatment and made some minor changes I wasn’t able do the first time around when I was attending the digital film and animation school.
Especially one scene at the end never was as bombastic as I’d planned it to be. After some upscaling and with the help of some generative AI-magic the frame was extended and new details were added.
For dramatic effect I tried to generate some smoke-simulation in Blender but I was quickly reminded of the fact that one doesn’t just start up a 3D-software after years of absence without browsing through a handful of tutorials.
After hours of struggling and rendering, the first results were less than underwhelming and I went the old-school FX way of simulating smoke: Capturing footage of some milk dripped in water did the job just fine. When I cropped, enhanced and flipped some of the footage I had taken inside my kitchen cupboard earlier, there was no going back to Blender – for now.
It’s been 16 years since the original version of Aurora – a fictitious trailer, my very own homage to high concept disaster movies à la Independence Day but it hasn’t lost an ounce of its soul, enthusiasm and – admittedly – cringiness:
I give you: Aurora – Special Edition:
Maybe the next version will finally get its own soundtrack without all the copyright issues…
In the meantime, here’s the original version and some bonus content:
Exploring the movie universe through graphs
After more than a year of planning, research, and development, I’m excited to share my newest app: Moogerly.com.
The Moogerly platform is aimed at fans of cinema, data, and visualization, allowing them to explore the movie universe through interactive graphs. It provides a unique way to visualize your favorite titles, cast, and crew, and shows how they fit into the interconnected world of film, TV shows, and trivia.
With its continually evolving features, Moogerly is an exciting platform for movie enthusiasts to dive into the world of cinema and TV. The website offers a growing range of predefined sets to browse through. You can also create your own sets by selecting movies and persons of your choice.
Moogerly is a personal project created by the maker of rafenew.world, who aims to bring together data, design, and storytelling while learning new things and improving his skills.
The website’s user-friendly interface allows you to navigate through various predefined sets or create your own visualizations. Whether you’re interested in exploring the filmography of your favorite actor or tracing the connections between different movies, Moogerly provides an engaging experience for movie lovers.
Moogerly utilizes data and technology from «The Movie Database» (TMDB). This ensures that you have access to accurate and up-to-date information about movies, cast members, crew details, and more. The website is continually being developed to enhance its features and provide an immersive experience for users.
Join Moogerly‘s growing community of movie enthusiasts and embark on a journey through the fascinating world of cinema. Start exploring today at www.moogerly.com.
It’s beginning to look a lot like that time of the year when we all gather around and remind ourselves that there’s something even worse than «The Rise of Skywalker»:🎄
That thing is «The Star Wars Holiday Special» from 1978.
Enjoy:
You’re welcome 😉
For more context, I recommend this great video by Toy Galaxy:
The wait is over! All my full movie reviews are now available in print:
Not the book you need. But the book you deserve!
Order your copy now! (Printed on demand)
Or get it in a Book shop of your chosing via ISBN: 978-3-7519-9952-6
About the Book
This defining movie guide and blog companion contains a plethora of equally passionate and subjective movie reviews published by the title-giving nerd on his blog rafenew.world between 2015 and 2020.
The second chapter gathers even more (German) pieces written for his former website nidwirkli.ch between 2003 and 2006. Some of the older texts may not have aged too well. But they bear not only witness to the coming of age of the author’s writing style, taste and character – they document two decades worth of evolution in cinema, pop-culture and society itself.
Each one of the more than 160 articles comes with its own QR Code, providing an interactive experience including free videos, graphics and even more digital content available on rafenew.world.
Being first and foremost a vanity project, this title delivers hours and hours of reading material, opinions, trivia, callbacks and, most important, fun for everyone lucky enough to have been a child in the eighties.
About the Author
Raphael Röthlin – designer and software engineer by trade, nerd at heart – was born and raised in a small Swiss farming village. Today he works and lives in the city, in a nice apartment – without a cat, but making the best of the situation.
Ordner now and enjoy!
Baby steps to becoming a Master of Advanced Studies in Business Intelligence🤞: Unboxing my very own Certificate of Advanced Studies in Big Data Analytics @ Hochschule Luzern. 🤓😎😀
A big Thank you goes out to Mr. Dr. Daniel Benninger and all of my classmates!
Day 17 in Homeoffice:
Getting more mileage out of my toilet paper.
