Samorost 2 is out. It’s a quirky little adventure game constructed using Flash technology. Has a sort of Jan Svankmajer or Roland Topor feel to it. The first part can be played online (although the servers are currently experiencing a heavy load from the interest), or both parts can be downloaded for a modest sum and played on your PC or Mac.

There’s quite a good article in The Economist this week that traces the history of the last few years of computer animation. The history starts, a little late in my opinion, with Toy Story (1995). I think that there’s a case to be made that the first full-length feature film to make extensive use of computer animation was Tron (1982).

 

The article also asks the question: "will computer-animated humans ever look realistic on the screen?". I think the answer is almost certainly: yes, it’s only a matter of time. But the article doesn’t mention what is probably the main barrier to progress: the "uncanny valley".

Another fun test that probably means nothing, but passes the time… I certainly don’t feel androgynous – but I do fancy Neo’s leather coat and dark glasses, even though I know they’d make me look a complete prat…

 

 

I was speaking to my brother yesterday and he told me that Ken Mackintosh had died aged 86. Ken Mackintosh was a popular saxophonist and band leader. He and his band often played at the Villa Marina in the Isle of Man, and spent several summer seasons on the island. The trombonist of the band, Gordon Langhorn, stayed in my parent’s hotel (the Ivanhoe, on Loch Promenade, demolished in 1998), and through him, my parents got to know Ken. I think I met him a number of times – but my clearest memory of him is when I was seven. He came to visit me in hospital, following an operation. I suspect that I remember it most clearly, because he brought me a toy aeroplane – a Vickers Viscount, which I subsequently played with incessantly.