thenomad
Joined 18 years ago
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Comment · 8 years ago
"No one died regretting time no spent at work"
Citation needed.
Here's one example of a situation where I could very easily see someone regretting not spending more time at work.
As a professional creative, I'm betting there are a fair number of authors, film directors, screenwriters and so on who died regretting they didn't finish their latest work, or didn't spend more time on the thing they really wanted to make. That's work.
Comment · 8 years ago
It's intent and emotion that I'm really interested in - which to the best of my knowledge, computer generation still isn't good at. (This is for VR games, so high quality voice acting is a priority)
Hence, if I could find a program which could reliably turn one actor's voice into another, I could use their acting ability, but with more characters and less requirement for them to "put on" voices. That's powerful because really good actors are thin on the ground, and also because trying to hold a different voice or accent can limit the quality of the main performance.
Comment · 8 years ago
Is voice conversion via ML possible yet?
I know we can create vaguely convincing synthesised voices, but I've not run across a program which can take my recorded voice, and convert it to a celebrity, or even shift apparent pitch or gender convincingly.
Comment · 8 years ago
I suspect I'm one of the few readers here (@cstross being another) for whom this is genuinely important professional information. And it's fantastic.
Sadly no mention of license there, though - kinda vital if one is intending to use some of the imagery in remix works - although given the texts are thoroughly out of copyright I'd assume that's not too big an issue.
Comment · 8 years ago
It's also extremely good for RPGs and MMOs, neither of which are unpopular genres.
We haven't seen a lot of either yet, because both require considerable investment, but the first VR MMO, Orbus, is going very well, and Skyrim VR on PSVR is one of the first VR apps to really sell headsets.
(My own VR RPG also did very well, and convinced me it's a great use of the medium.)
Comment · 8 years ago
This approximately describes my approach to game development, too. It works exceptionally well there as gamedev is all about crafting a fantasy and an experience.
Comment · 8 years ago
My Dark Souls inspired VR horror/RPG, Left-Hand Path, which exited Early Access last month:
http://store.steampowered.com/app/488760/LeftHand_Path/
It's held at mid-80s positive reviews after that, and numerous people have said it's the scariest thing they've ever experienced in VR. A good start to what I hope will be a long career making VR games.
Comment · 8 years ago
Dumb question - what's CPL?
Comment · 9 years ago
This is a deeply unfair, unreasonable and arguably abusive comment.
It's entirely reasonable to talk about yourself and your achievements on your resume, and Mr Mayes' site is rather a good example of doing so.
Comment · 9 years ago
This is good advice, but one question: why is the default assumption here that I'm the only person I ever record?
I'm pretty good at not um-ing too frequently (20 years of public speaking will do that), but I can't exactly require all my guests for podcasts or interviews, for example, first rigorously train themselves for months!
Comment · 9 years ago
On the subject of "ums" - does anyone know if there's a tool out there to automatically remove ums and uhs from spoken audio?
Seems like it'd be a useful and comparatively doable problem to solve.
Comment · 9 years ago
You might find looking into this question interesting.
It's not universal, but a surprising number of the greats in all fields work less, not more.
Comment · 9 years ago
I just discovered https://trint.com .
No idea if they're any good, but they're certainly cheaper than Rev.
I'm the moderately well-known Hugh behind the word "Machinima" (and the associated business, which I founded and was subsequently acquired).
These days I'm a Virtual Reality developer and the solo dev behind the horror-RPG Left-Hand Path for the HTC Vive (and Oculus, coming soon.) - http://store.steampowered.com/app/488760
Before that, I made TV-style series and films on the Web for 19 years. I started using real-time 3D engines to make films when Quake came out, which is when I coined the term "Machinima". Subsequently, after making one of the few Machinima feature films amongst other things, I moved into using motion capture for filmmaking as the technology matured, and then had a Road To Damascus moment with an HTC Vive, and completely changed careers to VR, which I expect to be involved in for the indefinite future.
I also made a cookery show and consult on internet advertising. I've got an eclectic portfolio :)
I run a bunch of assorted businesses of varying kinds, but my production company - www.strangecompany.org - is where I blog about motion capture, directing, the film industry, virtual reality and other such things.
I'm also always happy to hear from people - feel free to ping me! Nomad AT strangecompany DOT org