I’m a big fan of the steampunk trend or genre, be it in books, games or movies. I collected here a collection of the most beautiful examples of steampunk inspired gadgets.

According to Wikipedia, Steampunk is a sub-genre of science fiction and speculative fiction, frequently featuring elements of fantasy, that came into prominence in the 1980s and early 1990s. The term denotes works set in an era or world where steam power is still widely used — usually the 19th century, and often Victorian era England — but with prominent elements of either science fiction or fantasy, such as fictional technological inventions like those found in the works of H. G. Wells and Jules Verne, or real technological developments like the computer occurring at an earlier date. Other examples of steampunk contain alternate history-style presentations of “the path not taken” of such technology as dirigibles, analog computers, or digital mechanical computers; these frequently are presented in an idealized light, or with a presumption of functionality.

Steampunk is often associated with cyberpunk and shares a similar fanbase and theme of rebellion, but developed as a separate movement (though both have considerable influence on each other). Apart from time period and level of technological development, the main difference between cyberpunk and steampunk is that steampunk settings usually tend to be less obviously dystopian than cyberpunk, or lack dystopian elements entirely.

Do you know any resources for steampunk art? Or steampunk game design?

Explore your site backlinks. There’s more buried there however. Look yourself.
http://www.opensiteexplorer.org/

360 degrees demo. Full screen. Great.
http://www.bm8.com/360f/

The Twitter developer conference, San Francisco, 14th-15th April, 2010. Curious what they’ll talk about?
http://chirp.twitter.com/

Post images on all social media networks. Pick one.
http://www.yfrog.com/, http://posterous.com/

Listen to music online.

http://www.grooveshark.com/

IM? Y? G? AIM? ICQ? MSN? USB? Pidgin. Portable.
http://portableapps.com/apps/internet/pidgin_portable

A few interesting videos I’ve found these days. They are pretty impressive. Don’t forget to check out more articles from Motionworks.

The Mill breaks down the visual effects behind “Apples” for City Harvest Food Rescue Organization.

Simplicity by KORB.lt.

More by KORB here

A short film for NZ Book Council, produced by Colenso BBDO and animated by Andersen M Studio.

Partial source: Motionworks

I’ve just seen Avatar movie, and the next day I started searching making-of movies on the Internet. It’s still early, but I found some screens. It was an awesome movie, and the cinema experience contributed a lot to it.

In 2000, Sony agrees to help Cameron build his “holy grail” camera system. Over the next few years, he develops a lightweight, dual-lens, hi-def digital camera capable of shooting precisely calibrated 3-D images that won’t give viewers a headache. The new equipment is used to film Avatar’s live-action sequences.

To create a precise template for the CG sequences, actors first perform scenes in a barren warehouse. Cameron views the action through a virtual camera — an LCD that shows the actors as 10-foot-tall aliens inhabiting Pandora’s lush environment. This system allows Cameron to position performers and direct action while seeing a real-time simulation of the finished product.

The actors wear bodysuits dotted with small reflectors. LEDs shoot near-infrared light into the room while up to 140 digital cameras track the reflections. The data is fed into a system that correlates the reflections with the actors’ movements. As the actors move around the sound stage, the system creates a 3-D record of the entire scene. Later, it’s mapped onto the digital rendering, making the CG sequences appear realistic.

Each actor wears a head rig that holds a tiny HD video cam a few inches away from their face. The camera’s wide-angle lens records every subtle facial twitch, blink, and lip curl. The data is then mapped onto the CG face.

After the performances are captured, Cameron returns to the warehouse, now empty of actors. Techs cue up the performances one by one as Cameron uses his virtual camera to choreograph the camera moves — tracking shots, dolly shots, crane shots, pans. The movements are tracked by the same system that records the actors. Cameron’s work is then incorporated into the rendering system so his every directing decision is reflected in the finished product.

Source: Wired Magazine

In an effort to stay away from programming and SEO, and making money online via affiliate marketing, I installed several games to spend my evenings.

So I started with Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas Multiplayer Edition which I’m playing with my brother. I recently played Call of Cthulhu and Penumbra Series (great games, especially Cthulhu, oh, the atmosphere…).

I also like to play Age of Empires: Rise of Rome, Lords of the Realm III and a city-building simulator set in ancient Rome, which I cannot quite remember the name. Games that are set in Rome are great. I remember the good ol’ days when I was playing Caesar III, Pharaoh and Rise of the Middle Kingdom.

Well, I guess that my passion for good, challenging, atmosphere-enhanced, games made me start (and later abandon) the CGButterfly project. But, who knows what 2010 will bring?