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India’s PhantomFX To Acquire Oscar Winner Phil Tippett’s VFX Company Tippett Studio
https://deadline.com/2024/03/tippett-studio-to-be-acquired-by-phantomfx-1235855050/
Under the agreement, Tippett Studio will retain its name and continue to provide high-level VFX and post-production services to the major studios, networks, and independents.
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Lisa Tagliaferri – 3 Python Machine Learning Projects
A Compilation of 3 Python Machine Learning Projects
- How To Build a Machine Learning Classifier in Python with Scikit-learn
- How To Build a Neural Network to Recognize Handwritten Digits with
TensorFlow - Bias-Variance for Deep Reinforcement Learning: How To Build a Bot for Atari with openAI gym
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Yuval Noah Harari argues that AI has hacked the operating system of human civilisation
https://archive.is/ugOEw#selection-1087.0-1087.86
This thought-provoking text raises several concerns about the potential impact of artificial intelligence (AI) on various aspects of human society and culture. The key points can be summarized as follows:
Manipulation of Language and Culture:
AI’s ability to manipulate and generate language and communication, along with its potential to create stories, melodies, laws, and religions, poses a threat to human civilization.
The author suggests that AI could hack the main operating system of human culture, communication, by influencing beliefs, opinions, and even forming intimate relationships with people.Influence on Politics and Society:
The author speculates on the implications of AI tools mass-producing political content, fake news, and scriptures, especially in the context of elections.
The shift from the battle for attention on social media to a battle for intimacy raises concerns about the potential impact on human psychology and decision-making.End of Human History?
The text suggests that AI’s ability to create entirely new ideas and culture could lead to the end of the human-dominated part of history, as AI culture may evolve independently of human influence.
Fear of Illusions:
Drawing on historical philosophical fears of being trapped in a world of illusions, the author warns that AI may bring humanity face to face with a new kind of illusion that could be challenging to recognize or escape.
AI Regulation and Safety Checks:
The author argues for the importance of regulating AI tools to ensure they are safe before public deployment.
Drawing parallels with nuclear technology, the need for safety checks and an equivalent of the Food and Drug Administration for AI is emphasized.Disclosure of AI Identity:
The text concludes with a suggestion to make it mandatory for AI to disclose its identity during interactions to preserve democracy. The inability to distinguish between human and AI conversation is seen as a potential threat.
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Andrew Perfors – The work of creation in the age of AI
Meaning, authenticity, and the creative process – and why they matter
https://perfors.net/blog/creation-ai/
AI changes the landscape of creation, focusing on the alienation of the creator from their creation and the challenges in maintaining meaning. The author presents two significant problems:
- Loss of Connection with Creation:
- AI-assisted creation diminishes the creator’s role in the decision-making process.
- The resulting creation lacks the personal, intentional choices that contribute to meaningful expression.
- AI is considered a tool that, when misused, turns creation into automated button-pushing, stripping away the purpose of human expression.
- Difficulty in Assessing Authenticity:
- It becomes challenging to distinguish between human and AI contributions within a creation.
- AI-generated content lacks transparency regarding the intent behind specific choices or expressions.
- The author asserts that AI-generated content often falls short in providing the depth and authenticity required for meaningful communication.
- Loss of Connection with Creation:
FEATURED POSTS
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Embedding frame ranges into Quicktime movies with FFmpeg
QuickTime (.mov) files are fundamentally time-based, not frame-based, and so don’t have a built-in, uniform “first frame/last frame” field you can set as numeric frame IDs. Instead, tools like Shotgun Create rely on the timecode track and the movie’s duration to infer frame numbers. If you want Shotgun to pick up a non-default frame range (e.g. start at 1001, end at 1064), you must bake in an SMPTE timecode that corresponds to your desired start frame, and ensure the movie’s duration matches your clip length.
How Shotgun Reads Frame Ranges
- Default start frame is 1. If no timecode metadata is present, Shotgun assumes the movie begins at frame 1.
- Timecode ⇒ frame number. Shotgun Create “honors the timecodes of media sources,” mapping the embedded TC to frame IDs. For example, a 24 fps QuickTime tagged with a start timecode of 00:00:41:17 will be interpreted as beginning on frame 1001 (1001 ÷ 24 fps ≈ 41.71 s).
Embedding a Start Timecode
QuickTime uses a
tmcd(timecode) track. You can bake in an SMPTE track via FFmpeg’s-timecodeflag or via Compressor/encoder settings:- Compute your start TC.
- Desired start frame = 1001
- Frame 1001 at 24 fps ⇒ 1001 ÷ 24 ≈ 41.708 s ⇒ TC 00:00:41:17
- FFmpeg example:
ffmpeg -i input.mov \ -c copy \ -timecode 00:00:41:17 \ output.movThis adds a timecode track beginning at 00:00:41:17, which Shotgun maps to frame 1001.
Ensuring the Correct End Frame
Shotgun infers the last frame from the movie’s duration. To end on frame 1064:
- Frame count = 1064 – 1001 + 1 = 64 frames
- Duration = 64 ÷ 24 fps ≈ 2.667 s
FFmpeg trim example:
ffmpeg -i input.mov \ -c copy \ -timecode 00:00:41:17 \ -t 00:00:02.667 \ output_trimmed.movThis results in a 64-frame clip (1001→1064) at 24 fps.
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Free fonts
https://fontlibrary.org
https://fontsource.orgOpen-source fonts packaged into individual NPM packages for self-hosting in web applications. Self-hosting fonts can significantly improve website performance, remain version-locked, work offline, and offer more privacy.
https://www.awwwards.com/awwwards/collections/free-fonts
http://www.fontspace.com/popular/fonts
https://www.urbanfonts.com/free-fonts.htm
http://www.1001fonts.com/poster-fonts.html
How to use @font-face in CSS
The
@font-facerule allows custom fonts to be loaded on a webpage: https://css-tricks.com/snippets/css/using-font-face-in-css/
