Transparent House used its visualization capabilities to create a tribute to a company they greatly admire on the occasion of the iPad release. The idea was to show a glimpse into the history of this product giant by modeling some of the innovative products they've developed in their 3+ decade history.
The animation was done entirely using 3Ds Max and V-Ray render and took about 10 days to complete. Professionally done 3D visualization is the perfect tool to present concepts or new products in a beautiful, photoreal style, while creating a mood with music and conveying a message, through on-screen text or narration.
This animation was an artistic exercise and not intended for commercial use. The animation is not affiliated with Apple or any third-party companies. We hope this animation will be used mainly as an educational tool for the 3d visualization or/and design industry.
Update: We get a lot of comments and questions on why iMacs or iPods were not shown in the animation. The movie was done on the occasion of release of iPad. We wanted to show the products in Apple history that in our opinion were best related to the nature of the iPad. There were also time limitations - we just couldn' t get every product in.
In short, standing in angry opposition to the Bush administration had its fun kicks, but watching the Obama administration flail has given him... well, the blues. And with that, I'm going to turn it over to Loudon Wainwright III:
Larissa McFarquhar's lengthy profile of Paul Krugman in the New Yorker ("The Deflationist") chronicles how the prominent economist/columnist went from being a writer mainly concerned with the "smart and stupid" to one concerned with matters of "left and right."
It's the story of a conversion -- not from one political point of view to another, but rather how he came to participate in the mean-minded field at all.
(Also, scroll down to see the NewYorker.com video of folk singer Loudon Wainwright III crooning "The Krugman Blues". Sample line: "Sometimes when he's on the TV, in the background you can spot his school logo. Paul teaches at Princeton U, so Krugman ought to know.")
McFarquhar notes:
When Krugman first began writing articles for popular publications, in the mid-nineties, Bill Clinton was in office, and Krugman thought of the left and the right as more or less equal in power. Thus, there was no pressing need for him to take sides--he would shoot down idiocy wherever it presented itself, which was, in his opinion, all over the place. He thought of himself as a liberal, but he was a liberal economist, which wasn't quite the same thing as a regular liberal. And as a liberal economist, he was tired of the typical political battles ("Supply-siders never tire of proclaiming that taxes are the root of all evil, but reasonable people do get tired of explaining, over and over again, that they aren't"), and the state of play hadn't yet reached the point where his faith was badly shaken ("Occasionally, he received letters from people claiming that corporations were cooking the books, but he thought this sounded so implausible that he dismissed them").
Ultimately, and not particularly surprisingly, it was the election of George W. Bush that galvanized Krugman to enter into ideological combat. But McFarquhar does a fine job of pointing out that Krugman never really gave up preferring to fight the battle of "smart versus stupid." He's been a vigorous critic of the Obama administration's policies and politics ever since the early 2008 primary season. However, she also notes that the process of shifting from a Bush critic to an Obama critic hasn't always been as fun:
But most people didn't see Obama the way Krugman did; they thought he was the savior of the left, and the passions of the campaign were such that when Krugman wrote columns deriding Obama he was lacerated--scathing comments on the progressive blogs, more hate mail, and not the fun kind. "I won't try for fake evenhandedness here," Krugman wrote. "The Obama campaign seems dangerously close to becoming a cult of personality." "OK, you did it," one commenter wrote in response. "You lost me. I've defended you on local blogs but you've sunk into low territory." "You're devolving into a caricature with your gross misrepresentations and strident, ignorant defense of the Clinton campaign," another wrote. "Paul, you're killing a little bit of your readers' souls," a third wrote, "or at least those of us who used to love your column." "The primary was terrible, it was awful," Krugman says.
"Paul was getting attacked by people we thought of as on our side," Wells says. "I thought to myself, Well, I knew things were going to change, but this is quick and hard enough to give you whiplash. One of our friends said, 'You'd better be careful, because Obama supporters might put rattlesnakes in your mailbox.' People said, 'Oh, Paul's son works in Hillary's campaign.' " (Krugman has no children.) "People were so upset and angry after Bush, they had taken leave of their senses. They wanted to give themselves over, and they resented people like Paul who said, 'No, don't give yourselves over, think about what's going on.' They wanted to feel that they were being redeemed, and this is what Obama was offering, but he doesn't have the right or the ability to redeem people; that's not appropriate."
What Alice And The Hatter Have To Teach Us What's Your Reaction:
Move over, "Avatar!" After its first week in theaters, Tim Burton's new version of "Alice in Wonderland," starring Johnny Depp, is drawing record crowds. True, there's chit-chat about the good news/bad news of this rendition, and its 'Burton-esque' darkness. The fact is that this classic Lewis G. Carroll tale is an enduring story, as apt for our times as when it was penned in 1865. What makes this story timeless? While some are convinced Carroll's story was political, the deeper dimension has to do with identity crisis, something even our ancestors faced before each developmental leap
Falling Down the Rabbit Hatch No matter what rabbit hatch finds us, we still have choice. Simply put: how do you choose to respond? Alice opens wide her senses, follows clues, wrestles with the unexpected. Ultimately, she risks becoming herself. Up 'til then, she's let her circumstances define her. We are not our circumstances, or present life events, despite the fact that the collective believes that we are. Whenever there's an evolutionary leap in human awareness, on either individual or collective level, we are challenged to redefine who we believe, and expand the box. But first, the tumble. You don't have to be a shaman to slip down the hatch. We all fall. In fact, this is the Fall. We fall from Grace, smack into the Dark Night whenever we invalidate our own true nature, pretending we are not inextricably linked to the rest of nature. But, then, it's human, and stories arrive for a do-over just in the knick of time to help us course correct.
"Who Are You?" Initially, Alice is confronted by the hookah-smoking blue caterpillar: "Who are you?" The fact is that neither Carroll nor Walt Disney studios have a corner on characters who challenge us to rethink the essential questions every day of our life. Our own 'caterpillars' come in many form. Maybe it's the news covering natural disasters like those in Turkey, Chile, and Haiti -- catalyzing our examination of whether we are 'our brother's keeper?' Or, do we 'check-out' and change the channel? When we read the fact that soldier suicides for January 2010 outnumber all the military deaths in Iraq and Afghanistan, combined for the same time period, what's our reaction? Do we simply shrug it off? Meanwhile, back home, who amongst us doesn't encounter some street person carrying a cardboard sign, while straddling a highly trafficked stop light? Two weeks ago, a man held his cardboard in front of my car that read "Needy." Last week, on 45th N.E. in the University District, a young woman's placard read: "Pregnant. Struggling. Need help." Were Alice to hold a sign, it might look like "Indecisive, self-doubting." The caterpillar's question is a question for our times.
What Sign Are You Holding? If you were holding an invisible sign that described you, what might it say? In the aforementioned, the sad thing is that we too often define ourselves as though we were our conditions. You are far, far more than this. In fact, when we see our identity as our life events, we box ourselves in, diminish, as the Hatter put it our "much-ness." No small wonder that the constant refrain in Burton's storytelling was this: "Who are you because you are not the 'real' Alice!"
A Significant Lesson for our Time. Well, then, if we are not the sum total of our circumstances, what is the Truth? Who are we? Desiderata put it this way:
"You are a child of the Universe; No less than the trees and the stars; You have a right to be here." -- Desiderata
Will the Real Alice Please Stand Up? If our 'inner Alice' has a right to be here, along with the moon and the stars, who might we be today if we embraced our own "much-ness," if our real-Alice-ness stepped through our confusion and doubt? What bold act might you take? What adventure might be yours? Here's what poet Mary Oliver has to say:
"There is no adventure like loving the world, Or some portion of it. Or some spirit encased in some particular body. This year I turn (I think, I don't keep exact count), seventy-three. Every day my feet grow heavier, my spirit grows lighter, I have been so blessed." Mary Oliver
Four Prescriptive Teachings:
1. Reclaim your 'much-ness.' Maryde, a 37-year-old gifted client's been hesitating to "do what she really wants, to open an orphanage," because she's afraid to give up the security of her C.P.A. practice, which leaves her drained, and confused ala Alice. Confusion comes when we break fundamental agreements with ourselves, to tell the Truth about what really lights our fire, rekindles the flame of our unique 'much-ness.'
2. "Get a bigger pan." Amazing composer/performer by the name of Karen Taylor-Good sings about a man who goes fishing, lands a beauty of a trout, throws it back, and is asked 'why?' Says he, his 'pan's too small.' Her solution? Get a bigger pan! How many times do we toss back into our depths our best ideas, deepest inspirations, greatest joys? We play too small. Do yourself a favor and check out www.karentaylorgood.com
3. Clear away the clutter that obscures who you are. Meaning, decide to shift your story. Otherwise, we stay in permanent rabbit-hatch-mode that defeats the imperative of our nature: growth. What saved Alice is her decision to recognize her confusion, her ailing heart's delight, and she ran in the direction of her fascination: the white rabbit. While our lives are not brought to us by Walt Disney, there is a 'take-away' here. Follow the direction of what holds the greatest life, away from that which is stale.
4. Tame your dragon. Eliminate what does not rejoice you, pass on those e-mails and social network affairs that have nothing to do with keeping you moving in the direction that's vibrant, regenerative, and uplifting for your own Spirit. Retire the need for approval-seeking. Life's an adventure. Live it to the hilt. Says Oliver:
"When it's over, it's over, and we don't know any of us, what happens then. So I try not to miss anything. I think, in my whole life, I have never missed the full moon Or the slipper of its coming back. Or, a kiss, Well, yes, especially a kiss."
Inspiration comes and goes when it pleases. It's independent of our desires, doesn't respond well to force, and refuses to be controlled. Inspiration is a force not to be wrestled with. You can try but it will slip under the cracks every time. So how do we maintain access to inspiration so we can continue to direct our efforts in a useful productive manner with as much ease and efficiency as possible? Seems only reasonable to make a deal with inspiration and give in.
5 Ways to Stay Inspired.
1. Open up. Inspiration doesn't respond well to tightness we can practice softening our strong opinions and our desires. Once we learn how to be easy in our bodies and minds, all the good stuff pours in our direction. If inspiration is like water then we can carve out a path for it to flow.
2. Allow others to inspire you. We get so caught up in doing everything for ourselves, including inspiring ourselves, that it's exhausting, and not at all useful. Take a look around you. Look at your friends. Open up to your friends and take in the caring and good intentions they hold toward you. We spend so much time closing ourselves to protect from scary things that we forget that when we do open to the world inspiration can flow.
3. Take care of yourself. When your body and mind is healthy and functioning correctly, all things necessary are lined up for inspiration to flow through you. Eat well, sleep well, and practice well. It's best to give our bodies and minds as much opportunity to live to the fullest as we can. If we are healthy and vibrant we also can live longer, and be inspired longer. Bonus!
4. Make a change. It takes a huge amount of courage to actually take a good look at yourself and decide to make a change. It's easy to talk about it, think about it, and even plan to do it. Compassion, reflection, action. Make it happen.
5. Have a good time. The universe is set up to work in your favor. It takes loads of self-work to realize, and continue to realize that. The world is full of amusement. Enjoy yourself. A good start is not taking ourselves so seriously.
Try this yoga routine the next time you are wanting to gain some inspiration. It's designed to open up the body and the mind so you can step into inspiration without squashing it!
