Halftone borders in Photoshop

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Xtreme!!!Neat effect huh? With the bubbles?

It’s the “Xtremely Xtreme” logo as seen in the GhostHouse movie “Xtremely Xtreme.” How did I do this?

  1. Make a new layer for your border.
  2. Make the shape that is roughly the dimensions you want the core of the “toned” border.
  3. Select the shape… I usually use the magic wand.
  4. Invert the selection (Select : Invert).
  5. Hit “Q” to switch to mask mode. Everything should turn your highlight color, for example pink.
  6. Use the halftone filter in the menu bar: Filter : Pixelate : Color Halftone.
  7. Mess with the radius and angle settings a couple of times. I find it easier to use a solid color that is a single key, like say black. That way you are only changing the offset angle of a single channel.
  8. when you get the effect you want, you should have a selection with a lot of bubbles… while on the selection tool, do a “fill.”
  9. just to be anal, invert the selection and fill with a different color.
  10. Alternately, choose one of these and just hit “delete” (backspace on the PC). This will make this a big mask, so for example if you want some complex pattern on a layer underneath to show through the bubbles, or be the background underneath the bubbles.

Since I’m using this for video, I need a thin border in a contrasting color around the halftone bubbles- I don’t have control over the background, because it will be constantly changing.

  1. Select the mask you made by using the magic wand with a large tolerance (for example 30).
  2. Grow the selection uniformly by choosing Select : Modify : Expand in the menu.
  3. Now you have a background mask for your mask! Without changing the selection:
  4. Pick a foreground color which is contrasting to the mask body.
  5. Make a new layer and make sure it is active for editing.
  6. Use “fill” on this grown selection.
  7. Make sure the layer is the immediately next one from your first “border” mask.

That’s it!

I Want A Nazi Jet For Xmas

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Looks like someone is implementing my wacky dream of building Messerschmitt 262 replicas.

The Me 262 is the experimental Nazi Fighter Jet which thank goodness was delayed in production due to the decimation of the German-controlled resources towards the end of World War II… In an era where the entire air campaign was being fought with propeller planes it would have made short work of the entire Allied fleet.

The Me 262 came in a couple of variants, including the base fighter and bomber models. Mine would be the “Me 262A-1a Nightfighter” which was intended to be used as a night-flying jet, equipped with radar… of course since radar was a new technology in 1944 it had these giant antennas on the front of the plane that look like the monstrosities suburbanites used to put on their roof in the days before cable or satellite televsion. All it’s missing is giant skull & crossbones – the perfect supervillain transport!

The Me 262 has a brutish and functional look, and fits well with all the “alternate history” stories where the war continues past 1946, like “Luftwaffe 1946” by Ted Nomura (from Antarctic Press).

“Taking Aim” at the CIA

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Taking Aim is an extremely left-wing radio show… I recently heard a piece supporting the recent “out-ing” of Valerie Plame as a CIA agent in their show “Outing the
Gentlemen Killers of the CIA, Part I.” Yikes.

Their argument is, the wrong questions are being asked… the law that makes the leaking of Plame’s involvement illegal is itself regressive, since its only purpose is to mask atrocities the CIA is committing on a daily basis.

It’s an interesting take, since the Democrats are using this incident in its more traditional setting of “someone on the Bush administration broke the law and needlessly endagered the life of someone who didn’t agree with them,” which is of course valid… but it makes you re-examine the more basic questions, like “should the American taxpayers be sponsoring terrorism in the form of the CIA’s operations abroad?”

In case you’ve been living under a rock the past few months, Joseph Wilson is an ex-ambassador to Iraq (under the Bush Sr. administration) and a generally credible person, who recently debunked the current administration’s assertion that Iraq was getting uranium from Niger. At the time of the investigation, Wilson did the research, as directed by the White House… he came back with a negative report- such a thing was very unlikely. The White House used the information anyway in, among other places, the State of the Union address.

Months later, Wilson went public with this gap between what he advised and what the White House wanted to hear. Then, seemingly in retribution, administration officials then blew the cover of his wife (Valerie Plame), who was apparently a CIA agent. Incidentally, this act in itself is illegal under a law passed under the previous Bush administration… but you can read all about that in the mainstream press.

Modern Protest Music

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I’m looking for “protest music” made recently- in the 1960’s there was a big theme of social criticism in popular music. These days, modern music is totally without this emphasis…

That is, if you only listen to “rock.” Actually there is a lot of hiphop music and punk bands with “social change” messages, and it might be argued that both these genres are at their core anti-establishment.

So far I just have NOFX on the punk end, and City High, and The Black Eyed Peas (kind of weak) on the hiphop end. Very mainstream thus far… remember, “modern.” I am not buying a Rage Against Your Mom album because I think they are too screamy, overplayed and mainly for little boys.

So, my search continues.
DANH: would you like my list of songs to play when Reagan dies?
BRIAN: Sure why not.

A.P.P.L.E. – Impeach Reagan
Fartz – Battle Hymn of Ronnie Reagan
Men’s Recovery Project – Ronald Reagan
Shattered Faith – reagan country
D.I. – Reagan Der Fuhrer
suicidal tendencies – i shot reagan
minutemen – if reagan played disco
Lennonburger – reagum
Demented Youth – Assassination Attempt
Capitol Punishment – El Salvador
ism – John Hinckley Jr. (What Has Jodie Done to You?)
J.F.A – jodie fosters army
subhumans – america commits suicide
reagan youth – reagan youth=20
dead kennedys – we’ve got a bigger problem now
youth brigade – moral majority
dri – reaganomics
sun city girls – Nancy Reagan
Old Skull – Homeless
doa – fucked up ronnie
NOFX – Reagan Sucks
tsol – superficial love
government issue – Hey Ronnie
Beefeater – Reaganomix
F- ???
Ramones – Bonzo Goes to Bitburg
Menstrual Cycles – Kill the President
Crucifucks- Hinckley had a vision
Ratheal Bean and the Doonesbury Break Crew (Comedy)- Rap Master 12″
Prince – letter to ronald reagan on “Controvery”
Testicle Bomb – Go Fucking Die! 7″
Turd Town Records, 1999
Nancy Reagan’s Punk Rock Army
Minutemen – – Bean-spill 7″ Thermidor T8, 1982 PS
(Afternoons / Futurism Restated // Split Red / If Reagan Played
Disco / Case Closed)
BLITZ (Berlin) : “Heil Reagan” 7″

Flexible Displays

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More for Mr Saxby and his art installation.

This time the emphasis is on the next step up from the passively-lit medium of electronic paper: Organic LEDs enable “Flexible Displays,” which are “emissive”- they have their own light source (thus they require more power) but can therefore be seen in the dark.

Electronic paper

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Eric Saxby had a great installation idea involving flexible monitor displays. It sounded really cool.

In an effort to speed him on his realisation of this project, I did some quick surfing and compiled all the e-paper / e-ink resources I could find.