Yellowknife

Ever since I was a kid I was always fascinated by the northern lights and hoped to see them in person one day. Poland is too far south/densely populated to spot them, though, so it wasn’t a very realistic dream. In 2009 I did move to Sweden, but still, this was Stockholm area, so my chances might have been bigger, but not by much (plus only been there for a year).

Cuba

On Sunday we’ve returned from a short vacations in Cuba. As usual, it wasn’t really a conscious choice, rather a result of having to choose some destination, as my vacation date approached. As it turned out - it worked out great. If I’d have to sum up Cuba (and especially Havana) in one word it’d be irrational. Country like that has no right to exist, yet it does. What makes it feel even more weird, it’s a mere 3 hours flight from Toronto, but it feels like a different planet or like there’s a time machine involved.

Venice

Venice is truly one-of-a-kind city. I’ve ‘been’ there almost 8 years ago when returning from Italy by train (long story involving lost plane connection), but it was continental part then (Mestre) and only for 2 hours. For some reason I thought that the rest of the city looks the same, just with some canals here and there. Couldn’t be more wrong. Basically, it’s more of a museum than a city.

Ten Months in Sweden

About two weeks ago I had my last company beer/good-bye party at Starbreeze. I need to deal with lots of formal stuff in Poland now, then I’ll have a short vacation (flying to Venice next week) and then I will move to Canada to work for Digital Extremes. It really wasn’t easy decision as I had great time in Sweden and Starbreeze, but the offer was just too good to pass, one needs to take risks sometimes.

The Orton Technique

Another interesting photo technique (named after Michael Orton). To be perfectly honest, I’m not that big fan, it makes images a little bit ‘cheesy’. However, it should be interesting for every graphics programmer, as the idea behind it is almost exactly the same as behind fullscreen glow/bloom effect. Basically, it’s a blend of two images, the original one & overexposed/blurred layer. Sample result: Old comments Riddlemaster 2010-01-27 21:00:10 I hate bloom :) but still… it would be great if games looked like this - great picture ;)

Tilt shift photography

Been playing a little bit with tilt shift photography today. My first try here (Stockholm). Not the best source image (sky especially, technique tends to look better with whole picture ‘busy’) and perhaps a little bit too strong blur, but still kinda captures the ‘fake miniature’ look: Old comments Riddlemaster 2010-01-26 09:19:38 That’s true. It should be easy to remove this using some clone/stamp/patch tool though. admin 2010-01-27 08:47:10 Nah, I don’t want to tamper with it too much, let it stay as a record of my first tries.