Archive for the 'Creative' Category

Toonsday: Pucker and Bloat #4, Squidmas Pickle

Published
by
Jason
on December 9, 2008
in Pucker and Bloat
. 1 Comment
Pucker and Bloat web comic by Jason Robertshaw [500x324, 136K]
Pucker and Bloat #4, Squidmas Pickle. © Jason Robertshaw


Hi ho, the Pucker and the Bloat return with Seasons Greetings. But as you can see, the War on Squidmas continues even into the briny deeps. But Pucker has done his ecumenical best to cheer his pal Bloat and so too, whether you are a Pastafarian or Spewish, celebrate Squidmass, Cephalopodmass or Fishmess, here’s hoping for good things for you and yours in the coming years. May all your growth rings be bright. Happy Holothuridays!

Cephalopod Evacuation Route

Published
by
Jason
on August 19, 2008
in Pucker and Bloat
. 1 Comment
Blue road signed with a stylized octopus and the words CEPHALOPOD ROUTE and a downward pointing arrow [284x521, 44K]
Cephalopod Evacuation Route, © Jason Robertshaw


Another Illustrator exercise inspired by this sign. Because cephalopods need to know where to go when it rains too.
 

Bloated

Published
by
Jason
on August 12, 2008
in Pucker and Bloat
. 0 Comments
green, cartoon sea cucumber [500x165, 68K]
Bloated, © Jason Robertshaw


My original working files for Pucker and Bloat are stuck on a dead hard drive. So, I am recreating the characters. This is Bloat, the sea cucumber. That’s not a curly tail coming out of his butt either.
 

Cephalovlog #5: 25 Signals in the Rain

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Jason
on August 8, 2008
in Cephalovlog
. 0 Comments


Cephalovlog #5: 25 Signals in the Rain from Jason Robertshaw on Vimeo.

As Rick mentioned, I picked up a Flip Mino digital camera. This is the first project I’ve finished using this handy little cam. Edited in iMovie HD and scored in Garageband using pre-installed loops.
 

Doodlebug #1

Published
by
Jason
on August 6, 2008
in Pucker and Bloat
. 0 Comments
Seven 7-sided orange stars will purple drops forming a circle [450x450, 44K]
Doodlebug #1, © Jason Robertshaw


Just messing around in Illustrator, working with a seven-sided figure.
 

Toonsday: Super Happy Funtopus

Published
by
Jason
on July 29, 2008
in Pucker and Bloat
. 0 Comments
[400x400, 24K]
Super Happy Funtopus


I came across a short Illustrator tutorial at Vectortuts.com that shows the steps for making a Super Happy Octopus Character. Some of the steps were missing, but it was a fun tutorial and I finally learned how to make one of those ubiquitous starburst effects. Expect me to abuse that technique liberally in the future. :D

The original vector file I made is more vivid than the the image reproduced here. I still need to figure out why the gamma changes when moving from Illustrator to Photoshop to the Web. I expect there are difference between Mac and PC displays too.

Pucker and Bloat

This marks the return of my Pucker and Bloat feature where I will share some of my Illustrator and Photoshop doodlings. The feature derives its name from one of the distortion filters in these programs. Pucker and Bloat are also the names of two sea creatures appearing in a Web comic I am starting.

Unfortunately, the external hard drive that housed my original art work for those characters decided to die. :( I don’t mind recreating them, but having those files would have made it easier to turn out some new panels sooner.
 

Cephalopodcast #8: The Ocean Hour

Published
by
Jason
on April 24, 2008
in Cephalopodcast
. 1 Comment


24 April 2008, The Ocean Hour

On 22 April 2008 I hosted one hour out of a 24-hour long Earth Day webcastathon. My program was about ocean conservation and I was joined by two fellow ocean enthusiasts and science bloggers. First is Dr. Karen James, director of science for the The HMS Beagle Project. The Beagle Project is an international effort to celebrate Charles Darwin’s 200th birthday by building a sailing replica of his ship and then retracing the 1831-1836 Voyage of the Beagle with an international crew of researchers, aspiring scientists and science communicators. Also joining me was Rick MacPherson, Director of Conservation Programs with the Coral Reef Alliance (CORAL) and author of the Malaria, Bedbugs, Sea Lice and Sunsets. CORAL is a member-supported, non-profit organization, dedicated to protecting the health of coral reefs by integrating ecosystem management, sustainable tourism, and community partnerships.

Tune of Fish

Rounding out the program was a musical contribution from Kevin Zelnio. Kevin could not make it live for the program, but he had a very good excuse.

Kevin Zelnio, What Did the Deep Sea Say [3:50]

Listener Feedback

My thanks again to the EdTechTalk.com community for hosting and organizing Earthcast 2008. My thanks also to Peter Etnoyer and the other live participants in the ETT chat room. And to the guests, Karen and Rick.

Also, thanks to you for listening. If you have ideas for future programs or feedback, please send me a message at cephalopodcast [at] gmail [dot] com, or call the Cephalo-Hotline at 1-941-256-0097.

Cephalovlog #4/What the Shell #5: Donax me

Published
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Jason
on April 9, 2008
in Cephalovlog and What The Shell?
. 6 Comments
About two dozen, bean-sized, colorful clams held in the right hand, slightly underwater [300x225, 104K]
Florida Surf Clams (aka, Coquina, Donax variabilis), © Jason Robertshaw

What the Shell Is That? is my series on beachcombing and tidal life. Living on the west coast of Florida, it is mostly about shells, but can also be about other flotsam, fauna and even flora.

Note:
This is a bonus, double-feature entry. You get the WSIT #5 and Cephalovlog #4 combined in one.

Florida Surf Clams (aka, Coquina, Donax variabilis)

Date: 6 April 2008
Location: Siesta Key, Sarasota, Florida, U.S.A.
All along the surf.

Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Mollusca
Class: Bivalvia
Order: Veneroida
Family: Donacidae
Genus: Donax
Coquina Clams (Donax variablis)

Report:
Surf clams, also called Coquina, are bean-sized (2 cm), colorful bivalves that make their living in one of the most challenging habitats, the surf zone. They are filter feeders, extending their siphons into the water as it washes over them. As the wave pulls back out, they are often exposed at the surface and have to quickly put their muscular foot down to scoot back beneath the sand. It seems like a very energetically expensive way to make a living and it’s surprising they get enough nutrients from just filtering bacteria and algae out of the water (but still further proof that even the tiniest mollusks are tough enough to whip any echinoderm’s hiney).

The clams, in turn, are an important food source for shorebirds. People seem to like them too, but personally I have never eaten them before. The shells of these animals also accumulate over time and mix with other sediment to form a consolidate material called Coquina rock. It is used as a building material throughout Florida.

Small marine worm held on a finger. [100x75, ?K]Something else that was remarkable, and requires more investigation, was the presences of hundreds of small marine worms. You can see a close up in the video about half way through. These worms would suddenly appear in the hundreds, wriggling after a wave wash, only to disappear instantaneously beneath the sand.

Cephalovlog #4: 60 Second Surf

I borrowed the Sanyo Xacti E1 from work for a field test. This little camera is immersible to 5 meters. I did not need to send it that far down to video these little guys, as they are in the wash zone of the beach. Video was edited in iMovie and scored in Garageband. Note, this is not time-lapse footage. The clams really do dig that fast.

Donax me


blip.tv | CephalouTube

References

Additional Links

Toonsday: Pucker & Bloat #3, Nerviscerate

Published
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Jason
on April 1, 2008
in Pucker and Bloat
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Pucker and Bloat web comic by Jason Robertshaw [450x152, 32K]
Pucker and Bloat #3, Nerviscerate. © Jason Robertshaw


Whatever side you take in the Invertebrate Wars, both contenders have some interesting defense strategies. On the one side, many octopus and other cephalopods have the ability to eject an ink cloud to confuse their would-be predators (this should technically be coming out of Pucker’s funnel). I’ve also heard some researchers suggest that the volume and shape of the ink cloud is meant to mimic the departing cephalopod. Maybe it smells like the cephalopod too, thereby overwhelming two senses.

Sea cucumbers take a much different strategy. When they are disturbed, they can extrude sticky filaments called cuvierian tubules. It’s a rather extreme defense mechanism that requires the sea cucumber to tear a hole in its gut and expel the filaments through the new opening. You can see a short video of the process here. I am somewhat ambivalent about linking to it, since it demonstrates some rather poor behavior on the part of the divers. In fact, in the tradition of coining new Internet eponyms, I want to propose a new one for this occasion. When someone harasses marine life and it turns around to bite them in the arse (or hand, or nose or foot), that person has been MacPhersoned (with apologies to Rick, but he has a knack for pointing out these occurrences). It’s just too bad this sea cucumber can’t MacPherson these divers severely. And if the sea cucumber gets really stressed, it may even eject some of its internal organs as well. I’ve never seen that happen myself, but here’s a picture of what it looks like. Fortunately, the little bloaters are resilient and can rapidly regenerate this lost tissue. Indeed, I’ve read that they might do this intentionally as a way of clearing their system of parasites.

Next week: More carap about sea cucumbers

Toonsday: Pucker & Bloat #2, Outvertebrates

Published
by
Jason
on March 25, 2008
in Pucker and Bloat
. 1 Comment
Pucker and Blat web comic by Jason Robertshaw [425x291, 64K]
Pucker and Bloat #2, Outvertebrates. © Jason Robertshaw


Well, with any luck, I’ll be able to bring you a regular toon each Tuesday. At least, as long as the ideas keep surfacing. If you have any suggestions, let me know.

This one goes out to Kevin Z. and his unremitting quest against the use of paraphyletic nomenclature. Of course, what folks refer to when they say jellyfish are really cnidarians and starfish are echinoderms. There is really nothing fishy about them. A more proper term would be sea jellies and sea stars.

Next week: Evisceration!

Pucker & Bloat #1: Smart Blast vs. Mouth Hole

Published
by
Jason
on March 21, 2008
in Pucker and Bloat
. 4 Comments
Pucker and Blat web comic by Jason Robertshaw [325x250, 40K]
Pucker and Bloat #1A, PG version. Click here for profanity. © Jason Robertshaw


When we last left Pucker, we were missing the other star on the marquee of my nascent Web comic. But given the recent kerfuffle over on the Science Blogs over the merits of molluscs versus echinoderms, it seemed natural to settle on a sea cucumber as the best choice to play the sparring role. So there you have it folks, it’s decided: Pucker is an octopus and Bloat will be a sea cucumber.

But what’s the real separation in this spineless schism? What pulls these two poles apart? Why can’t we all swim along? As it turns out, the differences are primordial and profound.

In the very beginning, all animal embryos look very much the same, whether they are snails or sea stars. But once they get around a hundred cells thick, the hollow blob starts to split, forming a hole at one end. This opening, called a blastopore, is important and will ultimately form part of the digestive system of the animal. In a group called the protostomes, this opening forms the mouth. Molluscs and many other invertebrates start life out this way, mouth first. However, in a group called the deuterostomes, this first opening forms the anus. Sea stars, sea cucumbers and sea urchins do it this way, as well as vertebrates, including humans. We start life out butt first.

So it should now be obvious which end these two spatting sides are speaking out of. And my first comic is a tribute to these fundamental differences. It’s a little rough and rude (there are two versions, PG and PG-13). But now that I have these two characters to play with, I need something more for them to say. So if you have a bio joke or aquatic anecdote that lends itself to illustration, let me know. I need ideas. Feed me.

Team Sticky, for the Echinoderms

Team Mucky, for the Molluscs

Pucker and Bloat

Published
by
Jason
on March 19, 2008
in Pucker and Bloat
. 4 Comments
Pucker, the Cephalopodcas mascot [png, 200x225, 104K]
I’d like to introduce you to the Cephalopodcast mascot. His name is Pucker. He’s got suckers.

I am starting a new series on this blog called Pucker and Bloat. It’s named after one of the distortion filters available in Adobe Illustrator and I think it sounds pretty funny. It will feature postings based on my dawdling doodles made with this new tool. And since Illustrator is vector-based*, it should be possible for me to later animate the images in another program I want to work with, namely Flash.

Pucker and Bloat also sounds like a good name for a cartoon, don’t you think? So I am going to use that as a springboard to guide my studies. And with that in mind, I’d like to introduce you to the first character, Pucker. He might look familiar. In fact, it’s sketched from the Cephalopodcast mascot, who now officially has a name. This is not the final version. I am going to keep working on it. But in the meantime, I have to come up with a second character called Bloat. That sure sounds like the name of a blowfish to me. But what do you think? What marine creature would be friends with Pucker and have a name like Bloat?

Besides making learning fun for me and amusing for you (I hope), my other goal is to end up with a series of marine life clipart images. If this works, I’ll make them available under a Creative Commons license for use by educators.

So are any of you illustrators? Any one using Illustrator? What resources are your favorites? I am looking for tutorials and sources of inspiration. Here’s some of my favorites:

*Graphics programs basically come in two varieties, raster- or vector-based. Raster programs like Photoshop represent an image pixel by pixel. Because of this, they can produce painterly effects but the images are difficult to scale. Vector programs create images as a series of lines and polygons that can easily be scaled because they are fundamentally just mathematical expressions. It’s always reminded me of the wave/particle duality of physics.

Cephalopodcast, Episode #7 - Happy Blue Year

Published
by
Jason
on January 8, 2008
in Cephalopodcast
. 3 Comments
Cephalopodcast album art [300x300, 14K]
Cephalopodcast - The Ocean Podcast
[display_podcast]


It’s been a little while since I’ve updated the blog and the podcast. Here’s a new episode. My thanks go out to Mark Powell from the Ocean Conservancy for taking time out to share his thoughts about the Carnival of the Blue. The interview was recorded back in November, shortly after CotB #6.

Show Notes

00:00 www.cephalopodcast.com
01:08 Happy Blue Year: 2008 Color Trends, Pantone color 18-3943
02:12 LivBlue
03:00 Sea Notes
03:38 Center for Ocean Solutions
05:06 Carnival of the Blue #8 at I’m a chordata, urochordata!
06:00 Interview with Mark Powell from blogfish
14:38 International Year of the Reef
15:11 ICRI IYOR Mini-Symposium, Washington, DC, January 25, 2008
15:35 11th International Coral Reef Symposium in Ft. Lauderdale, FL, 7 July 2008
15:54 Coral Discovery Kits from NOAA
16:31 Coral Reef Conservation Fund from the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, 20 Feb 2008
17:05 Year of the Frog
18:16 New frog species in North America, Cajun Chorus Frog, Pseudacris fouquettei
19:15 Some mammals smell underwater
21:05 Underwater text-messager for safer SCUBA
22:10 Underwater camera in SCUBA mask
23:25 NC Science Blogging Conference, 19 Jan 2008, Real-time blogging in the marine sciences. Discussion leaders are Kevin Zelnio, Karen James, Rick

Thanks for listening. If you have ideas for future programs or feedback, please send me a message at cephalopodcast [at] gmail [dot] com, or call the Cephalo-Hotline at 1-941-256-0097. Also be sure to check out the cephal.icio.us links to see what’s coming for future shows.

–

New Ocean Music: Jonathan Coulton, OCTOPUS [5:43]

–

Cephalopodcast, Episode #6

Published
by
Jason
on September 12, 2007
in Cephalopodcast
. 4 Comments


It’s good to be back behind the mic again. This episode has an interview with Dr. Clyde Roper, world-renowned teuthologist. We get into a brief discussion about the recent efforts to capture a living giant squid. Also the ethics of seeking these mysterious beasts and the practical considerations of trying to keep one alive in captivity.

My thanks go out to him and Debi Ingrao for their time and interest in the show. Hope you enjoy it too.

Show Notes:

01:50 Cephalopodcast Events Calendar
02:30 Now Reading plugin by Rob Miller.
03:00 The Unnatural History of the Sea
03:30 Reef by Scubazoo
03:55 Microbial Week @ Deep Sea News
05:40 Deep-sea vents ‘no climate haven’
07:50 Carl Safina, Baked Alaska. See also, Whale ’success story’ questioned
10:05 2007-2008 is the International Polar Year
10:25 NSTA Webinars: The Role of Polar Regions in Earth’s Changing Climate System
11:10 Bowhead Whales May Be the World’s Oldest Mammals and 19th Century bomb found in whale
14:15 NOAA Biofact Loan Program
15:50 Marine Mammals Ashore Stranding Field Guide, Special Pricing Through October 2007
16:41 Science Daily, Migrating Squid Drove Evolution Of Sonar In Whales And Dolphins, Researchers Argue and Whales evolved biosonar to chase squid into the deep. Compare How sperm whales use echolocation to catch prey.
18:30 Interview with Dr. Clyde Roper
29:50 Super quick last minute Squid costume
30:18 Reef Fest needs your help

–

Thanks for listening. If you have ideas for future programs or feedback, please send me a message at cephalopodcast [at] gmail [dot] com, or call the Cephalo-Hotline at 1-941-256-0097. Also be sure to check out the cephal.icio.us links to see what’s coming down the ol’ Esox sp.1 for future shows.

–

The Darkest of the Hillside Thickets [200x200, 12K] A MARINE BIOLOGIST [4:14]

Band: The Darkest of the Hillside Thickets
Rock

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Cephalovlog #3: 60 Seconds of Rock-Flipping

Published
by
Jason
on September 4, 2007
in Cephalovlog
. 7 Comments

Last Sunday was International Rock-Flipping Day. I made another 60 second video highlighting some of our discoveries. It’s a little choppier production, since I only had the Powershot A95 (movie setting). Once again, edited with iMovie and scored in Garageband.

Video thumbnail. Click to play.
Click To Play

Blip.tv | YouTube


And remember kids, every day is IRF Day! :P

BioJar - Making a Tabletop Biosphere

Published
by
Jason
on August 5, 2007
in Cephalovlog
. 3 Comments

BioJar [400x300, 38K]Make magazine has instructions on building your own miniature aquatic biosphere. I took the weekend challenge and made my own using specimens from a retention pond near work. There were snails and crustaceans in abundance, including grass shrimp (Palaemonetes sp.), amphipods (aka, scuds) and copepods.

Make:Biosphere - completed project [100x75, 6.5K]The instructions call for the use of a sea shell to help with buffering. I thought I would be smart and use a small deer antler instead. It looked good at first, but I never properly degreased the thing, so the set up went south pretty quickly. I removed the antler and restarted with a little crushed coral gravel. I also added the iconic econaut refuge (orange diver) and a little bit of hornwort purchased from the pet store.

Cephalovlog #2: 60 Seconds of Green Pond Scum

I made a little video featuring some of the critters. I used a jeweler’s loupe held next to my Canon ZR500 and Powershot A95 (movie setting) to get close-up shots of them in action. It was edited with iMovie and scored in Garageband.

Video thumbnail. Click to play.
Click To Play


Blip.tv | YouTube

Lessons Learned

Needless to say, this is a great lesson in ecosystem management. Unlike an aquarium, the tabletop biosphere is a closed system. All nutrients must cycle from the plants (producers) to the animals (consumers) and back again (via decomposers/bacteria). A well balanced biosphere can last a couple of years, with some commercial manufacturers claiming systems that have run for ten years or more.

In addition to the articles from Make, there are several lesson plans out there for starting biospheres in the classroom. It might be interesting to get students started with these at the beginning of the year and see which ones last the longest. See the links below for more ideas.

Tendrils

I also wanted to highlight another sources of inspiration for this project. It is an aquascaping photoblog simply called Green. I encourage you to marvel at the beautiful macro photography of Marcus Wallinder’s miniature worlds. And if its zen-like, award-winning design inspires you, then here are more than 130 palettes to “help you get your green on” too.