By Ian Hollidae, 2025/05/28

One thing I've enjoyed during my photography project is taking pictures of old or rundown buildings. I never really expected old items to become a topic of interest in the first place which makes it even more enjoyable. Alleyways, when I can find them, are a favorite. That's where this photo was taken.

I'm not sure if this building is completely abandoned but I never see anyone go in or out and there's never any lights on at night.

Anyway, there's plenty of peeled paint and a bit of wall decay which made this a nice subject.

Photo Only

This post is a continuation of the Beginners Photography Project.

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By Ian Hollidae, 2025/05/23

If you need any more evidence that the AI video generation age is being pushed forward, look no further than the steady stream of announcements. Googles recent event was full of the normal demos and the web was full of the normal end of the world comments.

But if you watch closely, there is something else that seems to be emerging. Has anyone noticed that none of these products promise *better* video/film creation than what's available through traditional means? Was there anything done in "Freelancers" (one of the demos) that can't be done today? For all the technological advances suposedly being made, I would think these announcements would present more than the predictable platitudes of "new chapters in creativity".

Now I get that video AI might settle down as a tool, and these tools need to be in the right hands, but these services don't seem to be offering better video even on a purely technical level. I find this odd mainly because all one has to do is dig up a video from decades ago to see just how much video, technically, has improved without the use of AI. Higher resolution screens, better means of video recording, a whole slew of new codecs, the list goes on. Even in the old days, there was never any question about the quality of video improving moving forward.

I think regardless of what happens next, it's clear the only value video generation has is to cut production costs. And that's only if the model somehow manages to create what you want before reaching your monthly service limit. Don't get me wrong, costs do matter. But if AI isn't really improving creativity, and the cost savings aren't realized under real world situations, then none of this will move forward for very long.

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By Ian Hollidae, 2025/05/02

Like so many of the textures I've captured to this point, this is one I found walking down a street. It's a large decorative boulder, just over a foot in height, used in landscaping. Unfortunately, there's no look-up-rock feature in Apple Photos so I'm not sure what type of stone this is. But the chiseled/weathered sides and various colors looked interesting.

Select a thumbnail to see a preview.

Download the Stones Throw texture set under Creative Commons (CC BY 4.0).

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By Ian Hollidae, 2025/04/28

While a most of the tech press was covering YouTube anniversary, three.js was quietly celebrating 15 years of existence.

With all of my current projects running full speed, three.js is one topic I track but don't have time for. From my point of view, three.js a deeper level 3D package than X3D and projects requires far more involvement to complete. Since I refuse to short-change my effort, I'll have to remain on the outside looking in.

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By Ian Hollidae, 2025/04/23

Has it really been 20 years for YouTube? I remember first visiting the site in early 2006 just to see what it was. I don't remember which video I watched. In fact, it was several years before I watched anything regularly on YouTube at all.

Looking back, given YouTube's wide spread acceptance, it's amazing they haven't faced any serious competition during their existence. I guess as long as streaming video at scale remains expensive, YouTube will have quite a few more happy birthdays.

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By Ian Hollidae, 2025/04/16

At the time I took this shot, I had actually been looking forward to these types of conditions (overcast, poor light). I had never done photography in bad weather and I had plenty of questions. How should I adjust to the light? How muted woulds colors really be? How much detail could be captured? Since I really didn't have my own answers, just the advice of from a bunch of tutorials, I mainly focused on not eliminating possible shots before I even started.

I decided the location to look for shots was a large local park. With a recreation center, outdoor basketball courts, miniature skate park and several baseball/softball fields, there were plenty of things to (possibly) shoot. And even if I wound up getting nothing, there were plenty of opportunities to practice. I made sure to set aside plenty of time to work things out.

As it turns out, I got more shots than expected. What I mainly learned from the experience was how much harder composition becomes in poor conditions. It clearly takes a lot more time to find suitable subjects (items you might find plenty suitable under better conditions) and how long it may take to frame things. I also learned that despite what tutorials teach you about light, I think if you have any light, there's a chance for for a photograph.

Overall, I enjoyed the outing. I was fortunate it didn't rain. However, it did turn dark several times and it was during one of those dark spells I got this photo. Just so you know, this is not a black and white shot.

Photo Only

This post is a continuation of the Beginners Photography Project.

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By Ian Hollidae, 2025/04/08

One issue with putting 3D worlds inside a 2D environment is integrating the app into the larger user experience. Given that 3D environments are rather expansive in terms of UX, it's easy to let 3D apps run out of control. My general approach in dealing with 3D is to keep things simple.

But in keeping things simple, I ran across an unexpected problem when it comes to animation. As it turns out, animation within a 3D world doesn't look all that different from animation in a 2D world if the viewer doesn't move or rotate the 3D app. It's the equivalent of a video that has no cuts or motion being no different from a static image. In fact, using a video would be rather pointless.

So what can be done to make 3D animation stand out?

I decided to experiment with one of my older X3D demos. It's a 3D maze where, in the original version, the viewer manually navigates through corridors like any standard maze. One idea was to rework the demo into a 3D non-gaming animation apps. Basically, an app that's more than standard SVG or CSS animation but something less than a full-blown game (I'm still not entirely sure what that looks like but OK).

At first, I automated the entire walk-thru experience. Just push a button and avatar would makes its own way through. This wound up having the feel of an extended animiated GIF.

Another idea was to leave the maze as it was and add a "Where Am I" button that lifted the avatar above the maze space so the viewer could see their location. But this really wasn't any better than a 2D birds-eye view map.

After a number of revisions, I broke the fully automated tour into several sections to try and make the UX more interactive. At the end of each guided section, the user is presented with a brief note about 3D Maze and an opportunity to continue the tour similar to how a setup wizard works on the web. Simple text signs are used for notes but anything, such as images, can be inserted. I left the original maze layout intact, dead-ends and all, but lowered the walls so you can see where everything is.

To move through the demo, press START to begin. Press CONTINUE, when presented, to move forward:

I tried to keep this demo as minimalist as possible. No texturing, no sounds, no distant visuals beyond the operating space. Just take a basic 3D mechanism and demonstrate a possible method of integration. I believe that motion, if done properly, can add the type of animation that standard HTML/SVG/CSS can't provide.

I'm sure there are other ways to maximize the 3D experience on the web which I hope to post in the future. Maybe I'll have time to make a more complex example. For now, I'll continue to focus on simplicity.

By Ian Hollidae, 2025/04/04

A couple of days ago, I ran across an unexpected article in my newsreader. The post was about SMIL and the authors surprise that it was still around. To be honest, I was surprised it may still be around.

For those who don't know, SMIL stands for Synchronized Multimedia Integration Language. It was/is a way to create interactive presentations for the web (or whoever implemented the spec). One of the design purposes stated is:

Define an XML-based language that allows authors to write interactive multimedia presentations. Using SMIL 3.0, an author may describe the temporal behavior of a multimedia presentation, associate hyperlinks with media objects and describe the layout of the presentation on a screen.

For a myriad of reasons, SMIL never caught on. It's too bad because I thought it should have been a lot bigger. Bigger than Flash. Bigger than Silverlight. Maybe as big as SVG webwise (SMIL powers SVG animation). Like a lot of others, I thought SMIL had faded away living on only in spirit. I guess the question now is how alive is it?

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By Ian Hollidae, 2025/03/27

I realized Napster was still around. I had no idea that what still existed had any monetary value. I'm sure the Napster brand might fetch something. But is it worth $200 million? Obviously someone thinks so. Infinite Reality has agreed to buy Napster for $207 million:

"By acquiring Napster, we're paving a path to a brighter future for artists, fans, and the music industry at large. This strategic move aligns with Infinite Reality's vision to lead an internet industry shift from a flat 2D clickable web to a 3D conversational one - giving all creators modern tools to better engage, monetize, and measure their audiences. I firmly believe that the artist-fan relationship is evolving, with fans craving hyper-personalized, intimate access to their favorite artists, while artists are searching for innovative ways to deepen connections with fans, and access new streams of revenue. We're creating the ultimate music platform where artists can thrive in the next wave of digital disruption."

-- John Acunto, CEO Infinite Reality.

Despite all the usual press release fluff, I have my doubts about the great new vision that's just over the horizon. But never say never, right?

However, it is nice to see another musical blast from the past make some noise.

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By Ian Hollidae, 2025/03/24

Now that GIMP 3.0 is truly final, the question now is will the supposed UX improvements translate into a wider adoption. Does it really matter at this point? Outside the usual places where you'd expect this to be news, there really hasn't been much buzz. I realize I'm someone who would eventually upgrade to the next version, regardless of whether it was the brand new 3.0 version or merely a 2.11 update, so maybe I'm not the best person to ask the question. But I'm still curious.

For now, here are some reviews by people more qualified at graphics than me:

• I use GIMP every day and I'm loving its 3.0 release (ZDNET)
• Freeware image editor GIMP 3.0 arrives after seven years of incubation (Tom's Hardware)
• GIMP 3.0 is Finally Out (How-To Geek)

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