New blog, new exhibit

[human]

Saludos y'all,

I just wanted to share my new blog design (signature link below) and my Q Center exhibit (ditto).

We don't talk much here about tools which are not animation tools but which can nevertheless profoundly benefit an artist or a studio.

Great blogging software and great web templates fall into this category. I'm using WordPress right now. It's not nearly as polished and powerful as Typepad (which I obviously love), but it's freely available from my web host, and it's plenty good enough to get the job done.

And I'm just crazy about the new template. (Or maybe I'm just crazy. Period.) The template was freeware, too. If you know how to code HTML and CSS, what this means is that sometimes you can obtain your dream site by customizing from a template kit.

The other non-animation animation tool is a truly great printer. Like my Epson 4000 or its replacement, the Epson 4800. Once you get one of these, you don't see how you got along without it. It's very empowering to print in vivid color 17 inches wide and indefinitely high. Working with a pro-grade Epson has many frustrations which consumer-grade printers never give you, but the results are worth it. Also, while the cost of professional consumables is still high, they are actually more cost-effective than consumer quantities of ink and paper.

The bad news is that I still don't know how long it will take to do this animation. The good news is that people will come to a gallery just to see the partial storyboard.

I know it's a little off-topic, but I hope these reports of little bits of technomagic (at the edge of the animation studio) prove useful to someone.