OKE NAPA: 12/25/2011

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Names the Top 10 Places to Get Naked

Naked Cycling: World Naked Bike Ride, next main ride 12 March 2011 worldwide Held annually since 2004 in cities around the world, people ride bikes naked to celebrate cycling and the human body. But it's not just about baring your bod; the ride demonstrates the vulnerability of cyclists on the road and is a protest against car culture. Ride proud, ride safely... Ride on!

Naked Hot Springs Bathing: Ooedo-Onsen-Monogatari in Tokyo, JapanOoedo-Onsen-Monogatari, Tokyo's onsen theme park, is located in the popular Daiba area. Foreigners are able to strip off at this bathhouse and experience the therapeutic Japanese tradition of soaking in onsen (natural, mineral-rich hot springs) in which most Japanese immerse themselves. When walking around, cover your private parts with the tiny towels provided and leave your snorkel at home!

Naked Spa Treatments for Singles and Couples: Ayana Resort Bali and Spa, Indonesia Awaken your senses to opulent surroundings and drift into a wonderland of quintessential healing and indulgent therapies at Ayana Resort Bali and Spa, a spa destination marked by worldly distinction.

Naked Sauna: Kotiharjun Sauna, in Kallio, Helsinki, Finland Kotiharjun Sauna, in Kallio, is Helsinki's only remaining public wood-burning sauna and dates back to 1928. Enjoy the mellow heat of the traditional sauna, a real Finnish experience where you can also get a scrub-down and massage. There are separate saunas for men and women - the rule in Finnish public saunas.

Naked Art Festival: World Bodypainting Festival 27 June to 3 July 2011, Portschach am Worthersee, Austria Held annually since 1998, the World Bodypainting Festival is the biggest art event in the bodypainting theme. Imagine a painter who can create an image from an idea in the fullness of colour, design and expression, and then imagine this artist asking their canvas to sing, dance or scream. Whilst clothing is required to attend the event, you can be one of about 30,000 visitors to admire the wonderful work of the participants.

Naked City: Cap d'Agde, France Want to go to the bank naked? How about a naked visit to the post office or launderette? Fancy a nude stroll along a Mediterranean beach? Or even nip into the shops for some meat and potatoes, in Cap d'Agde people will do it starkers. When in France, visit the coast town of Cap d'Agde, the world's capital of naturism where the entire town is clothing-optional. Book early if you are traveling in summer as the population peaks to more than 40,000 when the summer-time crowd flocks here.

Naked Park: Schönfeldwiese in Englischer Garten, Munich, GermanyThe sprawling Englischer Garten is among Europe's biggest city parks covering an area of 3.7 square kilometres - bigger than London's Hyde Park and New York's Central Park and a favorite playground for locals and visitors alike. Within the Schönfeldwiese part of the Englischer Gartens, nude sunbathing has been permitted since the 1960s, something which many Germans (and Europeans) practice - so feel free to get into your birthday suit and soak up the sun!

Naked Beach: Haulover Beach, Miami Beach, Florida Haulover Beach is one of very few government-sanctioned clothing-optional beaches in the United States. Nestled between the Intercoastal Waterway and the Atlantic Ocean, it has pristine white sand shores and is ideal for surfing as well as swimming. Although Haulover Nude Beach is only a small portion of the larger Haulover Beach Park, approximately 75% of visitors use the nude beach area, so get in the buff and join the crowd!

Naked Cruise: eWaterways Naturist Cruise Embarking 11 June 2011Split, Croatia Cruising company eWaterways offers bold holidaymakers a chance to strip off for an eight-day naked cruise along the stunning Dalmatian Coast in Croatia. With visits to enchanting islands, endless opportunities for swimming, sunbathing and exploring, this cruise is for the free spirited, promising to invigorate the senses and minimize your holiday wardrobe worries.

Naked Cultural Event: Burning Man, 29 August to 5 September 2011, Black Rock Desert, Nevada, US Held annual since 1986, The Burning Man is described by many participants as an experiment in community, radical self-expression, and radical self-reliance. Partakers are encouraged to express themselves in a number of ways through various art forms and projects. The event is clothing-optional, so what better way to express oneself than to undress oneself?

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After touching on Pixar's rejection of motion capture in my previous post, I decided to look into the studio's patents to see whether there's anything that would suggest they are taking another look at the idea.

Lo and behold, Pixar's latest filing, published on November 10, is for "light field [plenoptic] lenses" that can be used with "conventional cameras (e.g., digital or photographic/film, image and video/movie cameras) to create light field imaging systems".

Similar applications dating from 2010 were published* by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) earlier in the year and somehow managed to stay under the radar.

The applications state that "data collected by these light field imaging systems can then be used to produce 2D images [or] right eye/left eye 3D images... as well as to render and manipulate images using a computer graphics rendering engine and compositing tools."

Cameras that capture the entire light field—instead of a single plane of light like conventional cameras—have been around for years in research settings, but only now are beginning to find real-world uses. (The Lytro is the first consumer product to hit the market.)

It's long been known that data from an advanced light field surveillance camera, for example, could be used to create a photorealistic CG model of a suspect. It seems that Pixar is looking into applying a similar technique with moving images.

Such a system could conceivably capture all of a performer's complex facial expressions in stereoscopic 3-D. The greatest limitation of current mocap systems, which track select muscle groups, is, of course, that they can only capture some movements.

The Disney Research website confirms that David DiFrancesco, one the inventors named in the applications, is currently "researching instrumentation to capture lightfields for use in 3D cinematography and videography" at the Pixar Research Group in Emeryville.

The stated purpose of the Pixar Research Group is to develop new technologies that can be applied specifically to Pixar's films.

*United States Patent Applications 20110169994, 20110249341, 20110273609.

So it's been a couple of days since I purchased The Art of The Adventures of Tintin...

As you can see, except for the film's awesome logo, the cover isn't very appealing. But the concepts, rendered designs, and especially the character close-ups inside make up for it.

It's slightly different than other 'Art of' volumes in that there's greater discussion of the film's main animation process—motion/performance capture or mocap. It should have been titled The Making of...

The 200-page book is authored by Chris Guise, who was the lead conceptual designer for the movie at Weta Workshop. But much of the written material comes from quotes by others who were as instrumental in making the film.

While presenting the details in a fairly uncomplicated manner, the text holds some great facts on the filmmaking techniques used. Case in point: Weta's method for creating realistic skin textures (p. 56).

The artists at Weta are clearly proud of what they do and thus defensive about mocap.

"Do people say Michelangelo was just a technician because he copied a life model?" Guise asks in his introduction. "No. He's considered a great artist. The same should be said for digital artists, whether they build digital models, performance-capture movement, or create artificial hair for a dog."

He makes a good point. Performance capture is just another way to animate characters.

In a recent post on Cartoon Brew, animation historian and current vice president of ASIFA-Hollywood, Jerry Beck writes that mocap "is not "the future of animation" ... It will not replace human beings in narrative stories for motion pictures."

Mocap will never completely supplant frame by frame ("keyframe") animation, but to shrug off the potential for future progress is incredibly shortsighted and smacks of insecurity.

Of course I'm still with the studios (notably Pixar) that have rejected the technology because of its present limitations and hope they continue doing so as long as they feel that is in the best interests of the films.

Tintin would have been better off without motion capture. Then again, its doubtful that Spielberg would have directed it otherwise.

The Art of The Adventures of Tintin is published by Harper Design, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers. An iPad app based on the book is available from the iTunes App Store.

Will Brad Bird Ever Return to Animation?

Bird directing Tom Cruise on location in Dubai

That's the question I asked myself while riding the cinematic roller coaster that is Mission: Impossible–Ghost Protocol, which opened Friday on IMAX screens.

After helming The Incredibles and Ratatouille for Pixar, Brad Bird has brought his filmmaking skill to live action in a big way—one of the most successful animation-to-live action transitions for a director in film history.

The action in M:I–GP is spectacularly well executed, on the same plane as that of the Bourne trilogy. A few more like this and Bird could become Hollywood's go-to director for adrenaline.

It's a sure bet that Paramount will be pushing for a sequel as soon as the box office figures from the wide release come in next week. Should he 'choose to accept it', Bird won't be coming back full-time to Pixar anytime soon. That means no Incredibles 2.

Still it's easy to see that Bird still retains a strong connection with his first love. Ghost Protocol is sprinkled with in-jokes (A113 becomes "Alpha 113") and talent (music by Michael Giacchino and voiceover by Teddy Newton) familiar to Pixar buffs.

And then, of course, there's this.

Giant Lantern Festival in the Philippines

The Giant Lantern Festival is an annual festival held in December (Saturday before Christmas Eve) in the City of San Fernando in the Philippines. The festival features a competition of giant lanterns. Because of the popularity of the festival, the city has been nicknamed the “Christmas Capital of the Philippines”.