Interesting Mozilla/Epic Games Hack from GDC

Got steered to this via a TechCrunch feed. 

"...to show off what game developers can do with a modern browser and without plugins today, Mozilla and Epic teamed up a little while ago to port Unreal Engine 3 to the web, something that was unthinkable back in 2011.
As Vladimir Vukicevic, Mozilla’s engineering director and the inventor of WebGL told me earlier this week, Mozilla wants to make the web a viable platform for modern games. About six months ago, Mozilla started to work on using its emscripten compiler to port C and C++ code to asm.js, a strict subset of JavaScript. This combination allows the JavaScript code to run at a speed within 2x of native performance and the latest versions of Firefox Nightly now support these optimizations. Given the complexities of modern game engines and games, getting relatively close to native performance is a necessity for running something like Epic’s well-known Citadel demo and Unreal Tournament, which Mozilla showed running natively in the browser at the Game Developers Conference today."

It's pretty slick and smooth, as the video shows.



Innersting, innersting stuff...

Love That Voiceover! Thom Pinto Interview - Pt 2

I've been lucky to have trained with Thom Pinto over the years. It's always a pleasure to hear his perspective on the industry, technology and talent. His love for the craft and attention to detail always comes through.

Thom Pinto – "Seedy Hollywood to Ninja Turtles" 

from Rebecca's announcement:

"Rejoin Thom and Rebecca as they pick up from last time… He takes us from the Hawks Recording studio in the seedy part of Hollywood to new paths as his VO career dominated running a commercial studio. Follow Thom from the early 90’s to present, witness the shift from external studios to home studios and how other busy industry leaders like Rob Paulsen and Don Lafontaine led that very shift which now creates a conundrum for some of the profession even now… Some producers don’t like it! Learn Thom’s pointers about camaraderie, spontaneity, self-direction and keeping himself fresh – Great tips! And hear Thom reflect on his numerous credits, selecting the most notable including some hilarious guest appearances on Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Finally, gain his insights from the Pinto Soapbox – Breaking VO myths, Ultra Marketing, Fostering Relationships, Managing Delicate Balances, How Agents Really Help and VO 2.0, Finding Your Niche, Celebrity VO and the fate of the ‘middle class’ VO."
Learn more about Thom at www.thompinto.com

Love That VoiceOver is a podcast showcasing in-depth interviews unveiling the personalities and projects behind the mic, with your fun loving host LoveThatRebecca, aka Rebecca Michaels Haugh. Every week it's a new interview with a fresh perspective on the art and artistry behind the microphone....
Follow Love that VoiceOver on Twitter @LoveThatVO

Thom Pinto – Seedy Hollywood to Ninja Turtles - LoveThat VO blogtalkradio.com

Part 2!! Rejoin Thom and Rebecca as we pick up from last time… Thom takes us from his seedy Hollywood Hawks Recording studio to new paths as his VO career dominated over the studio. Follow Thom from the early 90's to present,...

The Science of Sample Rates (When Higher Is Better — And When It Isn’t)

The Science of Sample Rates (When Higher Is Better — And When It Isn’t) by Justin Colletti.

Interesting article identifying where the errors actually creep into digital recording.  Distills a lot of the fact and history of sampling challenges very well.  As a (semi) reformed studio rat and computer music geek, I really enjoyed his descriptions of where things start to go haywire.  The idea of "Optimal" sampling rate provides a nice contrast to the constant more-faster-cheaper trend of technology.

And God Made a Voice Actor

The talented Cissy Jones tipped this my way via the FBook.  It's one of those things which is probably only completely-laugh-out-loud funny if you are in this crazy, wonderful business.  There are a bunch of wild fabrications and complete truths herein.  I leave it to you to decided which are which.

(And yeah, it does turn out to be pushing the VO Conference in Atlanta, which I shan't be attending nor do I have a specific opinion about...)

Anyway, enjoy!

Another Microphone Manufacturing Video

This one just popped up while I was searching for something else online, but since I had just shared the video on how the gorgeous AEA Ribbon Microphone went together, it seemed that seeing how the coveted Neumann U-87 large diaphragm condenser mic goes together might be interesting.



Now I will say that the video and voiceover seems a bit "intro" level and slightly dated (cleanroom? cotton gloves? At least cleaned fingernails?)  But, they probably couldn't really shoot where they are truly assembled.

It was interesting to watch the curve being drawn during the computer/anechoic chamber test.  Within the stringent Neumann tolerances, there's definitely a unique arc to the test mic.  Not outside the +/- to be sure, but it has a slight character which will probably be unique to that mic.

Lea Guilino's Floating Studio Newsreel

What a great way to start the week - enjoying fellow voice actor Lea Guilino's retro newsreel coverage of her floating studio!



Another of the supremely talented and creative voice over talents located here in the San Francisco Bay Area. 

Sim City Advance Looks At March Delivery!

With EA's recent closed beta preview, it looks like they are in the home stretch for releasing the new SimCity experience.  I've seen a few "real-time" videos of the beta play and it looks pretty impressive - with a gorgeous look and compelling detail.

Here's a quick promo of the city expansion packs and basic setup -


Reviews have already popped up as well - games.com and mashable, for example -  most of the folks seem to have spent their weekends looping back to the limited-to-one-hour beta and going through things again.  Certainly a testament to the quality of this upcoming release.

Can't wait to see it myself!