This a video for KidsCOR’s Lent/Easter series Choose the Cross. Continue reading →
March, 2011
26
Mar 11
Design: Young Adults Spring 2011 Brochure
I actually finished this informational brochure for Young Adults at church right before Spring Break, but I am now finally getting around to posting it. This design is actually one I had on hand from a previous first run at making the same brochure for last summer, but at the time I wasn’t really feeling it. I made some significant modifications to finally get it to the place where I finally was feeling it though, and I am pleased with how it turned out.
Everything in this (sans the text) is hand-drawn, and I have been finding recently that such a direction has become a style I am becoming more and more comfortable with. Granted, I am certainly in no danger of being mistaken for a talented illustrator, but hopefully the overall designs can make up for my lack of illustrative prowess.
For this one, I just wanted something bright and happy to give that sort of ‘yay!’ that the warm-ness of spring can bring to the world and your soul after the dreary and draining months of cold and winter.
If you are so inclined, a larger version in which some of the details are more evident is located here.
Enjoy.
26
Mar 11
Design: Divin’ Deep 6th/7th/8th Retreat
This is a postcard for rezlife’s upcoming Divin’ Deep retreat.
Helvetica gets the nod for typeface of choice because, well, it’s awesome like that.
As always, enjoy.
24
Mar 11
Hijacking the Hijacker
I am still working my way through Jesus of Nazareth: Holy Week: From the Entrance Into Jerusalem to the Resurrection by Pope Benedict XVI, (half-way through it, I can say I highly recommend it) and was captivated by another thought. In this passage he is considering the idea of the two-natures-in-one-person in Jesus, and specifically the relation of the human will to the divine will in the narrative of Jesus’ agony in the garden of Gethsemane. Benedict XVI begins with some questions:
What kind of man has no human will? Is a man without a will really a man? Did God in Jesus really become man, if this man has no will?1
In the monothelite controversy, the logic employed by the Monothelites was that if Jesus was only one ‘person,’ (per the definition of Chalcedon that in Jesus the divine nature and human nature are really united without confusion) that would mean that Jesus had only one ‘will,’ since to will is the place, so to speak, where “person” manifests itself. Naturally, this leads us to the questions that Benedict asks- if Jesus had no human will, and if will is where personhood is manifested, would that not make Jesus something other than human? For the church fathers, it was axiomatic that that which is not assumed, is not healed; that is, only if Jesus takes upon the complete reality of what it means to be human can humanity in its totality truly be redeemed. Continue reading →
- Pope Benedict XVI, Jesus of Nazareth: Holy Week: From the Entrance Into Jerusalem to the Resurrection, p. 160 ↩
22
Mar 11
Caligaverunt oculi mei
This beautiful piece by Tomás Luis de Victoria is a responsory for Tenebrae.
Caligaverunt oculi mei is intended for Good Friday and is #12 of de Victoria’s responsories.
Perhaps the most striking feature of this work is the piercing soprano solo during the words si est dolor similis sicut dolor meus. (see if there is any pain like my pain) It is as if the vocal part takes on the cry of pain,1 leaving a haunting reminder of what the day portends. The Latin text is as follows:
Caligaverunt oculi mei a fletu meo: quia elongatus est a me, qui consolabatur me:
Videte, omnes populi, si est dolor similis sicut dolor meus.
V: O vos omnes, qui transitis per viam, attendite, et videte si est dolor similis sicut dolor meus
English translation:
My eyes are darkened by my tears: For He is far from me that comforted Me:
See, O all ye people, if there be a sorrow like unto My sorrow
V. O all ye that pass by, behold and see if there be a sorrow like unto My sorrow
- Caligaverunt oculi mei, ChoralWiki, http://www1.cdpl.org/wiki ↩
19
Mar 11
Good Beyond Goodness
There is probably no more enigmatic author in church history than Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite. This anonymous author’s works exerted a profound influence on theology and philosophy within the early church, St. Maximus the Confessor and St. Thomas Aquinas notably among those within their purview.
From the earliest days of this work its authorship was open to debate; some believed it was actually penned by the Areopagite who was a convert under St. Paul, while others held the opinion that the ascription was a pious act of an author who wished to demonstrate humility, grounding the work in the memory of a beloved saint. Since the late middle ages it has generally been understood to have been written in the sixth century, as no mention of this work is found before then. Additionally, the author’s philosophy is heavily Neo-Platonistic, bearing remarkable resemblance to the thought of Proclus, leading many scholars to speculate that our author was perhaps a disciple or student of Proclus. Continue reading →
19
Mar 11
He Must Learn to Await His Hour
I have been reading Benedict XVI’s Jesus of Nazareth- Holy Week: From the Entrance into Jerusalem to the Resurrection, and found a very illuminating passage in regards to the washing of the disciples’ feet. Actually, there is a wealth of insight in this chapter, which will probably spawn some further posts, but for the time I wanted to zero in on Peter’s response to Jesus.
It is a familiar story- before the Last Supper Jesus girds himself with a towel (the garb of a servant) and begins to wash the feet of the Twelve. One by one, until he arrives at the place where Peter is sitting. Before he has a chance to complete the task, Peter, in his usual impetuous manner, essentially rebukes Jesus:
He came to Simon Peter, who said to him, “Lord, are you going to wash my feet?”
Jesus replied, “You do not realize now what I am doing, but later you will understand.”
“No,” said Peter, “you shall never wash my feet.”1
Peter has always seemed to have a problem with Jesus’ tendency to take on the form of a servant. As Jesus tells him, he doesn’t yet understand that the nature of the Incarnation involves kensosis, that it is the way God has chosen to reveal himself in Jesus. Peter wants God to be obvious and powerful- none of this servant nonsense, none of this talk of an impending death. For Peter, it is uncomfortable to even fathom the idea. Continue reading →
- John 13:6-8 TNIV ↩
13
Mar 11
HDR Food Photography Tutorial
In my last post I gave a few tips for creating HDR food photography. However, in this one I am going to go step-by-step through the process of creating this HDR image of some chocolate chip cookies. Continue reading →
12
Mar 11
A Feast for Your Eyes (And For My Face)
My wife Megan is, as many of you know, a rather prolific food blogger. One of the advantages of being married to a food blogger is that I have the opportunity to try out all kinds of delicious food. I consider it one of the highest sacrifices of my love to so give of myself to be a taste-tester for all of her wonderful creations. With all the amazing dishes she has already made and is going to make, my canonization is surely right around the corner… Continue reading →
11
Mar 11
Serenity the Scorpion
rezlife is starting a new series after spring break entitled ‘Grosser than Gross.’ My first stab at art direction for this series was a little too dark, so I decided to go with a cute and cuddly, albeit deadly scorpion named Serenity. Character videos are always fun, and it seemed to be well-received. And anytime you can use anime eyes, well, you have to.
The animation was fairly straightforward, albeit rather tedious. For the audio syncing of the pincers with the voice I applied an Audio parameter to the Z axis of the Rotation for the pincer ‘claws’ and for the joints that connect them to the face. I played around with the ceiling and floor of the frequencies until I found something that worked. For the legs I was originally going to animate all of the joints, but that would have taken way too long and I was running out of time. Since the movements were going to be fast enough, I made two objects out of the leg- one for the upper leg and one for the lower. I placed the anchor point for the upper leg at the connection to the body, and did the same for the lower leg where it met the joint of the upper leg. I then placed a Match Move parameter on the lower leg (essentially parenting in AE) and had it match the Position parameters and animation of the upper leg. It’s rotation was independent, however. This way, I was able to animate the upper leg and have the lower leg follow it, while adding some nuances of rotation for the lower leg here and there.
Pretty easy stuff. Just takes awhile.
My good friend Janelle supplied the voiceover for this piece, and did a great job.
Enjoy!
