randform

It is allways an interesting question at what point a picture becomes a symbol, i.e. a representative for something more abstract. This is also what I found to be the most important point which I missed in John Maeda’s commentary in this weeks post. How much is an avatar a symbol for the person behind it?

In the case of a logo the symbol nature is usually easy to manifest, but e.g. in the case of characters – especially from computer games – this depends. Sometimes they are pixymbols – just think of the pac man characters. For the smiley I find this is similar.

In this context it is worthwhile to see how early character design in computer games has transformed by time. And so I stumbled over these funny “round voxel”-3D analogs of game characters by designer Jeremy Dower who did – among others – also character design for the gameboy.

-See also an old randform post about pictoplasma.
-fake (?) space invaders characters e.g. here

A good way to see some of the capabilities of blender‘s physics engine is to have a look at the outcome of the Bullet Physics 2006 Contest at this youtube link.
More info here.

Usually I try to keep away from gadgets (:)) but I was really waiting for the above image to come. Tinky winky the telechumby holds a socalled chumby inside its belly – a product to be expected march 2007 for the price of approx. 150 $ according to gizmodo. Chumby seems to have a linux kernel , a WiFi hook to the internet and may thus be an alternative to Nintendo DS, who has also a linux kernel. Another interesting feature of chumby is the hookup to Adobes Flash lite, which is interesting for Flash programmers. The rumors are that the Nintendo browser (to be released Oct 6 in Europe) won’t support Flash (sofar) and the new Flash for Linux…well…needs some time.

via etienne mineur and gizmodo