Beauty of the Blowfish

I was amazed at how the fish effects were pulled off for The Chemical Brothers' video: The Salmon Dance. You would swear that they had used real fish. So I went and found an old blog post on Creative Review interviewing Framestore CFC's Ben Cronin, the VFX Editor for the video. The details left me even more impressed. Of course my favorite, like for most I think, is the beatbox blowfish. 360 individually drawn fish (I had been told it was 200) were created, with most of the animation and lip-synchronization done manually. I was impressed just watching the video but now - wow!

And yes, for you aquarium purists, the video mixes species that would never live in the same environment. Not only that, according to the interview, the blowfish is a composite of two different species and the squirrel fish has attributes scanned in from a fish market mullet. So just take it for fanciful fun - and fun it is.

Google Earth's impact on virtual discovery

Australian geologist, Arthur Hickman, now has a meteor crater named after him, thanks to his use of Google Earth. While cruising Earth virtually from up high, looking for channel iron deposits, Arthur discovered the now-named, Hickman Crater, North of the town of Newman, in Western Australia. Previous surveys in this mining area had failed to identify the crater, which stood out visually to Dr. Hickman's eye. He was able to have a fellow scientist corroborate his find by visiting the site and the rest is news history.

I thought the subtext of the news report, that Google Earth already has this demonstrated commercial geological value and use, was very interesting. I'd not known about it and wonder how many other scientific uses this and similar virtual tools are currently being put to. This discovery will no doubt inspire more such virtual "expeditions": eager professional and amateur virtual explorers will seek to add to our understanding of our own world, and thereby make a name for themselves, all from the comfort of their homes and offices.