Aidan Hornsby

Canon Announces 5D Mk III Firmware Update with Clean HDMI Out

Sat, 27 Oct 2012 18:28:00 +0100

Promising news for Mk III owners. The 5D Mk III + an HDMI Capture device such as the Atomos Ninja HD or HyperDeck Shuttle 2 could be a powerful combination for those of us on a budget. Looks like we have to wait until April to find out.

(Via Paul D.)

joshuatopolsky: Some of the most awesome art I have ever seen....

Sat, 20 Oct 2012 20:53:10 +0100

joshuatopolsky:

Some of the most awesome art I have ever seen. Just so, so perfect.

Thanks to Nick, Chris and everybody at the RVC for helping us...

Wed, 10 Oct 2012 16:00:41 +0100

Thanks to Nick, Chris and everybody at the RVC for helping us make this.

“Stay hungry, stay foolish.” R.I.P. Steve Jobs, 1955...

Thu, 06 Oct 2011 08:32:00 +0100

“Stay hungry, stay foolish.”

R.I.P. Steve Jobs, 1955 - 2011.

Stratus - a beautiful CloudApp client for iOS is now available...

Fri, 24 Jun 2011 15:32:00 +0100

Stratus - a beautiful CloudApp client for iOS is now available for free on the App Store. Digital Flair worked with developers Jeff Broderick and Kolin Krewinkel to produce the promotional video you see here.

We tried to create a video that was a little different from all of the other iOS app promo videos. Judging from the overwhelmingly positive response we’ve had so far I’d dare say we succeeded. Thanks to everyone who got in touch to say they loved the video, it really means a lot to us.

Dribbble Invite Contest: The Winners

Mon, 16 May 2011 10:05:49 +0100

So, it’s time to announce the winners of the Dribbble Invite contest. Thanks to everyone who submitted themselves and their work, we had a really tough time choosing 7 winners from 49 entries! I’d also like to once again thank Andy Smart, Haydn Woods, Octave Zangs and WelcomeToTheSky for being generous enough to submit invites to the competition.

So, after much deliberation we decided that the winners are Leslie Nayibe, Leonel Toribio, OJ Hornung, Jorge Mancheno, Chuck Gibson, Filipe Guth and Michael Norton. Congratulations guys, now go do some dribbblin’!

To everyone else; Sorry you didn’t make the cut this time, but keep at it and I’m sure you’ll all be drafted in no time, you’re all very talented designers. Good luck!

Dribbble Invite Contest

Sun, 01 May 2011 15:10:00 +0100

I have ~~one two three four~~ seven Dribbble invites to give out; I’m not sure if they still have the allure of gold dust that they once did, but I’ve decided to give it them out here on my blog through a contest.

Update: Andy Smart has very kindly donated an invite too, so now there’s double the chance to win.

Update 2: Haydn Woods has also donated an invite.

Update 3: Octave Zangs has donated a fourth invite!

Update 4: WelcomeToTheSky has donated three more invites! So, for anyone looking to be drafted, here are the rules:

Firstly, link to your Dribbble prospect account.

Secondly, post a link to your best work (and full portfolio too if you have one you’d like to show off).

That’s it. Although, if you have Tumblr and fancy reblogging this post to spread the word to other prospective Dribbblers that isn’t going to hurt anyone. Andy, Haydn, Octave and I will decide the winners on the 15th of May and I’ll announce them on here, good luck!

The Commonwealth Club Podcast

Fri, 29 Apr 2011 15:49:38 +0100

So, an update on my latest creative endeavour: The Commonwealth Club Podcast. Everything you need to know about what it is, who is involved and why we are doing it is over at the website.

However, if you’re too lazy to hit the link, here’s the elevator pitch: The Commonwealth Club Podcast is a bi-weekly show covering tech topics that pique the interest of Charlie Cooke (My partner in crime at Digital Flair), Stuart Bowness (Founder of the UI design firm Simplestation and open video platform MediaCore), or myself. We aim to have regular and frequent guests to talk about things like shipping containers and mosquito genocide (surprisingly, a recurring topic).

I just wanted to talk briefly here about why I’m doing this. I have no idea if anyone else in the world will find any our discussion interesting or valuable, but we have had some great feedback from those who have listened so far. I am aware that as a ‘show’, we are still finding our feet and balance; but it’s been great fun so far. I’ve come to learn that even the least structured programs still need at least a vaguely coherent plan or list of topics to start from - even if they end up totally derailing and heading somewhere completely different within the first two minutes.

It’s still early days, but so far we’ve all had great fun doing the show, we’d love to hear any feedback anyone might have, though. If it sounds at all appealing to anyone reading this then please check us out on iTunes or find out more on the website. If you enjoy our ramblings, a good rating or review would help to support us.

If you are a creative professional / tech geek / general nerdlinger who would like to join in the discussion, give some feedback or just have some ideas for things you’d like to hear us talk about then please get in touch by emailing us at hello at commonwealthclub.tv.

Digital Flair

Sun, 20 Mar 2011 02:25:00 +0000

I’m pleased to finally be in a position where I can announce a project I’ve been working on over the last few months.

Digital Flair is a new creative venture between myself and my oft-mentioned friend and colleague Charlie. Simply put, it is a creative venture offering our services creating tailor-made web-based promo videos to clients.

Although we have ‘unofficially’ been up and running for a few months now, it has taken that long to establish a solid website, portfolio and approach to what we are doing. Today though, www.digitalflair.tv goes live - check it out, feedback is more than welcome.

Without going too much into the philosophy behind it (read the site for that), we are going into this for 2 main reasons:

1. Video is becoming an increasingly important marketing tool for products online: Today, if you have a great video promoting your product you stand head and shoulders above most of your competitors.

2. Not only do we love the process of creating these kinds of videos, but we believe we make a pretty solid team and produce great results.

Although we are more than happy and capable of creating videos for clients in other industries, our focus for the moment is to work with tech startups with interesting apps and services.

Our latest project was a video for Panda - the powerful video encoding web service. Check out the finished video on our site, or on Vimeo channel and account or on Youtube (fans and subscribers welcome). Also, you should really follow us on twitter to keep up with the latest news.

Please don’t hesitate to get in touch with any project enquiries or general feedback, we’d really love to hear what people think of the project.

California, Again.

Thu, 03 Mar 2011 10:24:00 +0000

So in a few weeks I will once again be jetting out to California, this time though I’ll specifically be staying in and around San Francisco for a full 11 days. I’m coming over on a semi-business, semi-pleasure trip, and will be there from the 17th - 28th March. I’ll be accompanied by good friends Charlie Cooke and Damien Tanner.

I’d like to catch up with all of the awesome people I met on my last trip, and any other Bay Area technophiles, designers, filmmakers, or just general geeks who want to say hi should drop me a line via email or shout at me over twitter - I’d love to hear from you all.

Sticky

Sat, 26 Feb 2011 10:51:00 +0000

Dribbble is one of the few sites I have come across where I am usually actually interested enough in their ads to click through and find out more. Today though, is the first day that I have ever actually purchased anything from an web ad, ever.

Stickermule and Appsumo are currently offering a great deal - 50 3” circular stickers for $19 - less than half of the regular price of $62. They are also offering free shipping to the US, although that doesn’t help me at all.

I must include a disclaimer here and note that by raving about this on my blog, I get an extra 50 stickers free, but who wouldn’t want that? I also thought it was interesting to note that it has taken me over a decade of using the web before any advertising my primal urge to reach for my wallet.

If you too would like to have some of this sticky goodness, best not wait - at time of writing there is only 11 hours left before the offer ends.

Late to The Party

Thu, 27 Jan 2011 22:16:00 +0000

I must confess I never really took the time to find out exactly why people love(d?) Delicious so much, but I’ve just become a Pinboard user and I think it’s great. I’m still figuring out everything that Pinboard can and can’t do for me, but the ability to curate a ‘link gallery’ of sorts - complete with descriptions and tags - is very appealing to me right now.

Lately I’ve been realising more and more that many people much smarter than me use the internet to share their wisdom on topics I’m both interested in and passionate about; having an archive of my favourite articles and nuggets of web-wisdom seems like it could be very useful to both me and anyone else like me.

Should I have been thinking about this and using Delicious a few years back? Probably. Oh well - I also seem to remember making a new year’s resolution to blog a little more, and this seemed like a nice thing to write about.

I’ve been keeping a favourites list in Instapaper for a while now, and have just sifted through the best of the best to store on Pinboard. I re-discovered some real gems in doing so (mostly about Apple, design, or both) - check out my Pinboard here if you’re in need of some inspiring reading material. If you’re feeling particularly crazy you could even subscribe to my links.

The final promo video for AppMakr.

Wed, 05 Jan 2011 00:47:00 +0000

The final promo video for AppMakr.

AppMakr

Wed, 05 Jan 2011 00:46:00 +0000

I’m happy to finally be able to reveal what I’ve been working on for the last month: A promotional video for AppMakr.com.

There’s no point me telling you what AppMakr is - the video serves that purpose. Check it out now at the AppMakr blog.

Charlie and I met up with the AppMakr team when we were out in San Francisco last November, and quickly began work on producing a promotional video for them when we arrived back home to England.

This has definitely been one of the most enjoyable projects that I’ve worked on: We were promoting a great product from a great company who already had a very distinguished and recognisable visual style.

Jeff Broderick has been working on AppMakr’s new visual identity since he started as director of design and User Experience there last year, and he has done a remarkably fine job in crafting a look and feel that matches the philosophy and values of the company and their product.

Although the new site hasn’t yet launched, Jeff has been dribbbling sneak peeks of his work for a while, I’d highly recommend checking them out on his Dribbble page.

I was faced with the task of bringing Jeff’s style and designs to life for the video. Thankfully, Jeff’s clean, simple and ‘flat’ style lent itself perfectly to a style of animation that was also simple and bold. I think the results speak for themselves.

Working with Jeff and the rest of AppMakr’s incredibly creative, driven and talented team has been a fantastic experience. Everyone was excited about this project from the start and made sure there was never a shortage of great ideas. 2011 will be a big year for them, and I wish them the very best.

2010 In Review

Fri, 31 Dec 2010 00:37:00 +0000

2010 has been a big year for me, so I wanted to recap briefly for anyone interested in what I’ve been up to (and also what might be coming up).

I spent January snowed-in, working flat-out on my 14,000 word Dissertation paper. I was lucky enough to have it selected for my college’s student showcase online - if anyone fancies reading about how a rise in film post-production is affecting the role of the director, feel free to give it a skim.

Come February I was no confined within the walls of education, and was thrust straight onto the job of finishing my visual effects work on The Dark Side of The Earth. After around 30 days of non-stop compositing I finished up and handed everything over to the director. If the experience taught me anything other than an incredibly thorough understanding of feature-level post-production workflows, it was that I definitely didn’t want to become a professional visual effects artist any more.

However, since then I have been lucky enough to see my work in place on a 35mm print of the film’s 3 minute pilot. Although this is still being kept very much under wraps by the director and producer, my best shots are in my 2010 showreel.

I spent the spring and summer working on a few interesting projects, including some UI design for an upcoming iPhone app and a music video for my close friend Charlie, who is hoping to launch his career as a rock star in early 2011 - watch this space.

In Autumn I launched the aforementioned 2010 showreel on a brand new website, complete with a re-written back end, courtesy of my personal code monkey Alex Heaton (whom I still owe a crate of imported beer as thanks. Don’t worry Alex - I haven’t forgotten).

In October I received a mysterious phone call from another director. I soon started working as an editor and post-production artist on a feature film that is just getting off the ground at a film studio in Greater London. Once again, I can’t say too much at the moment, but stay tuned for more on this one too.

Come November Charlie and I jetted off to spend 2 weeks driving around California and (fleetingly) Arizona. I’m still sorting through the thousands of photos I took along the way, but the full set will be available on my flickr page within the next few weeks (a few assorted shots are already up). We saw more than I could even take photos of and and met some absolutely amazing people.

Somehow, we managed to touch down on British soil brainstorming ideas for a project for a company in the Bay Area. I’ll be able to reveal all about this one in early January - rest assured, it has been a fun and exhilarating ride.

For me, 2010 has been the year I was forced to find my feet, and as the year comes to a close, I think that succeeded in doing so. I’m not big on New Year’s resolutions, but I do intend to try and update this space a little more. At the end of the day (year?) though, I just hope that the next 365 days offer me as many great opportunities as the last.

Road Trip!

Sun, 07 Nov 2010 10:36:00 +0000

Tomorrow I’ll be jetting off to California for a fortnight with my good friend Charlie. We’ll be traversing the state head to toe before heading out to Arizona for a few days.

The aim of the trip? Part holiday, part road trip. We want to see and experience as much as we can squeeze into 14 nights, and make as many new friends as possible. If anyone around the Bay Area, Los Angeles - or anywhere inbetween - would like to show us some good bars or restaurants then feel free to get in touch on twitter or via email at aidan [at] aidanhornsby.com.

Of course, what self-respecting geeks would we be if we didn’t create a bespoke travel blog to document our hijinks? Follow us at …And Then California to see what we’re up to.

Once I return I will clean the dust off this blog and give an update on what I’ve been up to recently. Until then, adios!

Dribbblin'

Tue, 21 Sep 2010 23:27:51 +0100

This morning I checked my mail to find an invite to Dribbble; an invite-only ‘sneak peek’ preview sharing community for designers and artists which I wrote a piece on over at Digital Flair.

Invitations for the service are like gold dust - do a quick search on twitter for ‘Dribbble invite’ and see what percentage of results are people begging for invites vs people offering them. I was lucky enough to be invited by showing my portfolio to Ryan Shelton. Thanks Ryan!

I’ll be using it regularly to preview new work, so if you’re a member, follow me or check out my first shot (actually a piece created for another contest to win a Dribbble invite - I didn’t want it to go to waste).

This time it's personal

Sun, 19 Sep 2010 12:55:00 +0100

Well, between my scrapbook of a tumblog Crazy Beat - where I mainly seem to find myself sharing things that inspire or tickle me in some way - and Digital Flair, I haven’t really had a place to comfortably write anything about me.

As a freelancer who enjoys writing, travelling and personal projects, I feel that it’s probably a good idea to have space where I can safely vent, share and express my profound opinions on the aforementioned subjects. This will be that place.

Now, enough of the rationale.Next post will have some real content. Promise.