Found a lot of nice extensions for Alfred, but found myself needing to modify existing scripts to better suit my needs, or to maybe fix little issues that existed. This script is based on the one @ mosx.tumblr.com.

Added an easy area to add your Bit.ly username and api key. Noticed the script would give me an API error if the address was missing the http tag or only used the www prefix, so tried to have it add a working prefix to the URL. Added a Growl notification, but sometimes it doesn’t pop up. Still sorting everything out, but so far its been working okay.

Update:
- Tried to add something to deal with no prefix.

#!/bin/bash
# Configuration:
# ulog=YOUR_USERNAME
# ukey=YOUR_BITLY_API_KEY
#
# Get your Username and API key here:
# https://bitly.com/a/your_api_key/

ulog=
ukey=
ulink={query}
if echo ${ulink} | grep -q -E 'http:\/\/|https:\/\/'
then
   slink=`curl -s --data "login=${ulog}&apiKey=${ukey}&longUrl=${ulink}&format=txt" http://api.bitly.com/v3/shorten`
echo $slink | pbcopy && /usr/local/bin/growlnotify "Link Created" -m $slink
elif ulink2=`echo ${ulink} | sed 's/www./http:\/\/www./'`
then
    slink2=`curl -s --data "login=${ulog}&apiKey=${ukey}&longUrl=${ulink2}&format=txt" http://api.bitly.com/v3/shorten`
echo $slink2 | pbcopy && /usr/local/bin/growlnotify "Link Created" -m $slink2
else
    ulink3=`echo http://${ulink}` ||
    slink3=`curl -s --data "login=${ulog}&apiKey=${ukey}&longUrl=${ulink3}&format=txt" http://api.bitly.com/v3/shorten`
echo $slink3 | pbcopy && /usr/local/bin/growlnotify "Link Created" -m $slink3
fi

Not really a design related post, but a mix of nerdy things. Started getting back into fighting games after not touching one since 1999. Been spending a lot of time in the training area or doing the character trials just figuring out the game mechanics. Now after a few days the music starts to get to you, and the current audio options in Street Fighter 4 doesn’t let you fully mute the background audio.

Found things online saying you can replace the .CSB files with a renamed text file with a letter in it. Went to the folders with the sound files and there were a ton of them, and it would take forever to manually go through and duplicate then rename every single .csb file. So the geeky feat of strength this week was doing a little shell script to do it.

find BGM_* -type f >> list; for i in `cat list`; do cp SoundBlank.csb $i; done; rm list

All it does is search for files beginning with “BGM,” then outputs the list to a file, kind of like doing: ls > file. Then it reads the contents of the list, and copies my empty SoundBlank.csb file as the files in the list. So basically doing: cp file1 file2, for all the .CSB files in the directory, replacing them with the blank file for audio. So you just run that in the directory, and end up with the files you need to mute everything. Made the SoundBlank.csb file beforehand and tossed it into whatever directory I was in to do it. Could probably use touch or vi to make a quick file at the start, then execute the rest.

Anyways, decided to toss a zip file of everything online if people want to mute the background audio. The file has the empty .CSB files in it, so you just unzip it and copy it into the folders with the audio files. It has a text file that shows where to put them.

Download Files:

SF4_BGM_Mute.zip

For one of my final projects I decided to come up with a commercial-like animation based around the company Media Temple. They have an established style, but haven’t seen any animations related to the company floating around. So I felt this gave some room to play with ideas due to not having a precedent influencing the look or content.

Concept behind the piece was that of exploring inside the “temple” via high-tech cameras with the goal of introducing the viewer to the style of the company. I didn’t want to make it sell specific products or services, but just give a slight idea of what they’re involved with through images related to servers, and to potentially get a viewer to check out the website. It is more or less is targeting a tech oriented demographic, but have had people with no real background in dealing with servers or networking pick up on the idea of the piece.

Testing WP widget that connects all your accounts. So when you post something on a blog, it posts an excerpt from it everywhere else or some such. Test test test test test.

www.linksalpha.com

Ran out of space on my desk for keyboards, so was thinking about getting a KVM switch to go between 3-4 systems. Had the random thought that “wouldn’t it be cool if there was a virtual kvm switch that worked over the network?” So did the usual google search and turned out there was.

Basically one system runs the server-side, and all the other systems run the client-side. Then whatever screen you slide your cursor onto gains the focus of the mouse + keyboard control from the server. Been using it with my MacBook Pro and my PC desktops without issues. Well, one thing was that windows protected by UAC (I’m using Windows 7) wouldn’t allow the Synergy mouse + keyboard to interact with them, so ended up lowering the UAC settings to get around it. The more recent or beta versions of Synergy supposedly fixed that problem, but I still ran into it.

Other than that, if you have a bunch of systems running at once and monitors all over, this is a nice way to control everything from one box. It runs on Windows, *nix, and OSX, but have only been using it with Windows and OSX. My little *nix box is still sitting in the corner all alone .

Synergy Website:

http://synergy-foss.org/

Assignment was to create a multi-screen entrance animation for a theater in San Francisco. The requirements were to make it somewhat abstract, but still incorporate imagery related to the city. Decided to build the animation around the idea of the Golden Gate Bridge structure and shapes, then also add the idea of fireworks from various events held in the area. This is the 4-screen version of the project, there was also a single screen and 9-screen version.

Was given a list of company logos, had to pick one we liked and create a 2 second logo animation that was somewhat different from the 5 second project. Was watching TV and saw some old commercials where the color saturation was kind of off, almost giving it a glow. So tried to get that look with this version.

Was given a list of company logos, had to pick one we liked and create a 5 second end tag for it. I liked the look of the Adorama logo, so wanted to make something really clean that tied into what they do as a company. (was a school project, nothing to do with the actual company)

So now I have to migrate all the content over for the third time in about 2-3 days.

Class project where we had a chance to play with stereoscopic work. We had to basically create a 3D karaoke scene featuring music and lyrics. Used Cinema 4d to create the project, then finished in After Effects. Initially was going to do 2D-to-3D conversion, but then came across a camera setup/rig for C4D. [Stereo Rig]

Had to create a 5second animation based around the phrase, “all good things come to an end.” First idea to come to mind was the movie Wargames, so decided to try a Wargames computer battle mixed with info-graphics.

Had to select a tv network, then create an ident, bug, and lower-third. Out of the choices for networks, decided to go with MTV, mainly because their style is always in flux, so there is more room to experiment and try different looks. The idea for the project was to create a summer themed ident, with a Southern California look.

Tried to go for a really graphic, almost print-like style for the project, and used a mix of warm and cool colors , express the time or season change to the summer. Just used After Effects and a lot of Illustrator for everything.