On Craftsmanship

• Combining What We Know With What We See & Feel - From a recent lecture, artist / musician Tom Nash shares his thoughts and philosophy on creating art. (UnderPaintings.blogspot.com)

• How To Unlock Creativity - "No matter how smart you are most of your ideas will be crap." The wrap to the article is great - but I don't want to spoil it by quoting it here. Great read. (DigitalTonto.com via @Coleran)

Skill Up

• Create A Realistic Tilt-Shift Effect with Final Cut Studio - A short tutorial on an effect that can be adapted to several grading apps. (FilmMakerIQ.com)

• Getting the 'Gran Torino' Look (AaronWilliams.tv)

Tools We Use

• Using A Tektronix Scope As A Still Store - Colorist Josh Petok returns to the Tao Of Color with a concise video tutorial showing how he uses a Tek 7020 to compare shots. He also puts its 'slice tool' to work. (TaoOfColor.com)

• Tangent Wave Function Keys in RedCine X (RedUser.net)

• 3 Colorist Control Surfaces Compared (colorgrader.net)

• Unboxing Resolve Control Surface II - Author, Colorist Robbie Carman documents his Resolve controls surface unboxing. Feel free to drool. (RobbieCarman.squarespace.com)

• Arri Alexa Post, Part 4 - A comprehensive look at dealing with Log-C ProRes files in a variety of different editing, compositing, and grading apps. Including different resources for creating LUTs and how those LUTs get applied. (DigitalFilms.com)

• Arri Alexa Post, Part 5 - A terrific follow-up post from Oliver Peters documenting his workflow (from shooting through delivery) on a series of 10 spots he recently wrapped - including getting the ProRes444 files to colorist Bob Festa to grade on a Baselight. Note how even this 'native' FCP workflow required quite a few workarounds - including a trip to Premiere Pro and another trip to After Effects (the former for pure workflow reasons, the latter to solve image quality issues). I'm curious to see if this will continue to be the case with FCPx. (DigitalFilms.com)

• Teradek Firmware Update - Teradek's wireless streaming to iPad video tap for DSLRs, RED just got a firmware update for the Canon 5D. And if you haven't seen it, the embedded promo video is pretty nifty. (blog.VincentLaforet.com)

• 30% Off Magic Bullet Grinder - Ends June 2 (NoFilmSchool.com)

• Video Production Tools: Using Color Correcting Gels (GeniusDV.com)

• Aspect Ratio Cheat Sheet -  Need to deliver your video at a smaller than native frame size? this cheat sheet lists the various divisible frame sizes to maintain your aspect ratio. (ImNotBruce.com)

Edumacate Yer'self

• SIGGRAPH 2011 Technical Papers Video Preview - I can't imagine coming up with this stuff. (YouTube.com via @5tu) 

• Comparing Two Transfers of '8 ½' - Nice write-up with comparison photos between two different transfers of Fellinni's '8 ½' (BluBrew.com)

• Students & Educators: Download Smoke on Mac... for free (Students.Autodesk.com via @SFCutters)

• ICA In-Person Training Dates / Locations - The International Colorist Academy is really ramping up their training dates. There are too many for me to keep listing. So, just visit iColorist.com and see what they have on tap in your neck of the globe. Note: So far, the East Coast of the US is out of luck. What's up Warren? End the drought! (iColorist.com)

Optical Delusions

• Seeing Cyan (i.imgur.com via @flyosity)

Outside 'The Box'

• The 12 Rules of Animation (DigitalArtsOnline.co.uk via @eactipis)

• Interactive Storytelling On The iPad (Gigaom.com)

• An Open Letter to VFX Artists and the Entertainment Industry - VFX Artists of the World... Unite! (VisualEffectsSociety.com via @Company3)

Is This Any Way To Run An Industry?

• After All Our Hard Work - Colorist Craig Mieretz laments a new shark rising from the depths that irreparably harms the work colorists do... (the story he links to is the next item below) (cmieritz.blogspot.com)

• Misuse of 3-D Digital Lens Leave 2-D Films Dim & Dark - Colorists, you need to read this terrific piece from the Boston Globe on how movie theaters aren't removing the polarizing lenses from Sony Digital 3D Projectors when projecting 2D films - cutting light output by up to 87%! The problem, due to DRM protections, is that simply changing out a lens involves passwords and security clearances. One wrong mistake shuts down the projector. (Boston.com)

• The Dying of the Light - What's Roger Eberts' take on the previous item? Well, after quoting extensively from the Boston Globe piece (without linking to it) - and discussing how this is just a variation on the 'dim Xenon bulbs' theme - he points out that Eberfest's films look bright and are focused. Thanks, Roger. To be fair, Ebert does add several interesting quotes that further informs this discussion and makes it a necessary read. (blogs.suntimes.com)

• Pirates 3D: Box Office Not Encouraging - Nearly 70% of the screens for Pirates of the Caribbean were 3D. They generated an underwhelming 48% of gross revenues. What might this foreshadow for 3D tentpoles? Or might this just be the sputtering end of a lucrative franchise? (MovieCityNews.com via NotesOnVideo.blogspot.com)

Now We're Talking

• Bringing Cinema-Quality to the Home TV - THX talks about their effort to bring 'better than cinema-quality' to the home theater... with built-in color management and lossless compression. (Pocket-Lint.com via @Pocketlint)