Chris Howard's Blog, page 98

Want to see into the future?

Just a little bit, three weeks or so...  Here's the Winterdim cover--complete with leafy QR code.  Click the pic for the full view. I think there are some minor tweaks to be made, but it's pretty much there. The book will be out mid-November in trade paper and wherever ebooks are sold. More book stuff here: http://www.SaltwaterWitch.com

.

Tomorrow's Navy

Spent a few hours painting today, and this is what I did:

[image error]

What I'm working on...

Hoping to submit an update to Apple this weekend. I'm working on Version 3 of the Seaborn Books and Art iPhone app, which includes bug fixes, enhancements, and an entirely new feature called "Ocean View", a set of artistic image filters that will give any photo or illustration an underwater look.  Version 3 of the Seaborn app is going live with five Ocean View filters: Shallows, Biologic, Beams, Rust, and The Tide. 

Shallows attempts to recreate that shallow-water experience of bands and rings of light.

Biologic is a tinting and blending filter that allows you to merge your photos with some of the built-in underwater images of marine flora and fauna.

Beams overlays some vertical bands of light with some contrast and tint adjustments.

Rust…never sleeps. This will significantly alter the copy of the image you run through it.  (See the examples in the workflow below).

The Tide takes a few passes to overlay a rising tide halfway across an image.

With this release the blending, alpha, color, and other values are set for each filter and can't be adjusted, but I'm already working on the next version, which will add new filters and allow greater flexibility with each--sliders for parameter values and the ability to add custom image overlays.  In version 3 the filters employ a bit of randomness with each pass, producing different results almost every time. 

Version 3 will also have built-in sharing features that allow you to post your Ocean View creations--with comments--onTwitter, Facebook, Tumblr, and other social platforms.  You can also email copies of your images and save to the camera roll or photo albums on your iPhone.

Here's my workflow diagram--click to view full-sized:

 

Seaborn app for the iPhone is out!

[image error]The Seaborn app for the iPad has been available for a while, and I'm working on a new version.  Apple just notified me that the iPhone version is now available!

Here are the links:

Seaborn iPhone app

 

Seaborn iPad app
[image error]

 

Help me spread the word! Here's the HTML for the iPhone app:

Seaborn iPhone app

Here's the HTML for the iPad app:

Seaborn iPad app
[image error]

Here's the main menu for the Seaborn iPhone app:

.

iPhone 4s

Alice and I went up to the AT&T store in Newington yesterday morning, and walked out with a pair of iPhone 4s's.  There was a bit of a line, but they had things flowing smoothly.  You know I'd swear they've done this before...

This is my third iPhone. Pretty soon I'll have enough boxes to build a fort.

Graveyard

I was doing some book research, using satellite images and came across this. Really sad.  You know how you look at an old building and think that there are stories in the walls--that if you could walk around that building through history you'd probably hear some amazing stuff. Same here. I look at these ships and wonder what ports they called, what they carried, what storms they survived, who sailed them. 

 

Fairwell Steve

My first computer was an Apple 2. I drew this on my iPad.

Cephalopod Awareness Day, it's right around the corner

Wait, there aren't any corners in a Cephalopod's world, right?  Cephalopod Awareness Day is on the 8th of October, of course.  Here's my contribution--take and post at will. 

Sigh...I remember my first Cephalopod Awareness Day like it was yesterday... Actually it was only a few years ago--2007. I think I heard about it first on Pharyngula.

 

iPhone app for Seaborn

Finally. It's months late but I submitted it to iTunes Sunday night, and expect to see it in the app store soon—within the next couple weeks. I'll keep you posted. 

This is pretty much a straight port of the Seaborn iPad app to iPhone.  The main difference is the "Art Portfolio", which points to my online portfolio. (One collection to maintain and it's always up to date).

I was halfway through development of a Seaborn "universal app" which covers iPads, iPhones, iPod Touches, but dropped that path a couple months back and moved to two separate apps because there are different features and presentation methods--some of them significant--I will be adding for each platform.  (e.g., I may move the iPhone version to the Cocos2D framework and include games and other cool things).

Seaborn iPad app

A New Paper City Every Year

My son and I took a walk around the backyard to check on the progress of our paper-nest-building neighbors, thousands of Baldfaced Hornets (Dolichovespula maculata) They're actually wasps--not real hornets, related to yellow-jackets, and they build these absolutely beautiful homes of paper, a new one every year. 

The nest is at the base of a small tree a couple hundred feet from the house.  Apparently these guys are aggressive, but my son and I got within a foot or two of the nest, taking pics, and they didn't seem to care.