I want to share this video because it’s really really really well-done. This was a puppet video released around two years ago inspired by the 2006 film Huo Yuan Jia (霍元甲) starring Jet Li. It was also released in North America under the title Jet Li’s Fearless in the UK and US. It was about Huo Yuan-Jia, a martial art master from the Ching Dynasty. (By the way, Chin Dynasty is a dynasty that really amuses me. Maybe we’ll talk about that later.) The background music is the theme music to the movie, written and sung by Jay Chou, one of the most well-known singer/song-writer in the world of asian pop music.

(If you can’t see the embedded video, watch it at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hEWsYUbrZfk)

The video is simply amazing in terms of puppeteering and editing. All the shots are meticulously planned out and the attention to details is superb. They must’ve spent a lot of time on this. The way the characters handled the instruments and weapons are very human-like, and it’s just one of those videos that I’d watch again and again to soak in all the details.

That said, although the puppeteering is very good, it cannot look that good without really heavy editing. I watch this kind of puppets growing up, and I know the mechanisms of these puppets. So, I know that they did really heavy editing with the left arm. Normally, the puppet’s left arm is controlled by a rod from below. The left arm rod is usually hidden from the audience by the character’s really wide sleeves, but it is not possible to hide the rod when the sleeves are so narrow like the main character’s. They are so careful with this stuff that this is the only frame in the whole video where I can show you the rod. This is from around time code 1:46.

You can only see a really short section of the rod, and it just goes to show you what I said about the rod being normally covered by the sleeves. For the main character, since there’s not enough sleeve to cover up the rod, they must’ve really carefully edited it out. And since the character is constantly moving, it must have been a lot of work to edit out. Again, what they’ve done amazed me.

Who made such a video? People had different guesses and the group of people that made it used a pseudo-name and didn’t released much official information about it. When it first became viral on the internet, there were a lot of discussions about who made this video. Some said it was made by Chinese people, and some said it was made by Taiwanese people. Some said it was made by professionals that work in the industry, and some said these were made by people that were just passionate about the art. But I think, you can buy puppets, but you are not likely to have access to a studio with set pieces that are to the scale of the puppets if you are not in the industry. And these people obviously have really good skills, and most likely a lot of experiences as well. I believe it’s done by professionals as a side project.

Anyway, this really shows that with a vision, good skills, and a lot of time, you can make all kinds of crazy and amazing videos come true.

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If you do, leave a comment.

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This post was inspired by a dream. I started writing this post in a dream, and I thought I’d finish up by actually typing it out now that I’m awake. It seemed like a much better idea in the dream though. When I actually wrote it in reality, it just became so much less awesome. Anyway, here it is:

1. Lip sync well

In the opening ceremony, 9-year-old Lin Miaoke lip-synced to a recording of Ode to the Motherland sung by 7-year-old Yang Peiyi. Some people think it’s wrong to do such a thing, and some people think it’s no big deal. But either way, lip sync is a must in puppeteering, since puppets can’t speak on their own. If you want the characters to be believable, you’ve got to do your lip-sync well. It’s bad if you don’t.

2. Only what’s in the frame matters

Another controversy was that they used pre-rendered computer generated fireworks for the footprints footage. Some said that it’s not right to do that, and some said that due to technical reasons, it was impossible to film it for real and guarantee the quality. In puppeteering, only what shows up on the screen matters. Nobody will criticize that the drawer, shade, and TV that Elmo talks to are computer generated. Nobody will care about how the puppeteer is in an awkward position to get the shot to look right. It’s what appears in the frame that matters.

3. Hide the control mechanism well (if applicable)

The movable type blocks were an amazing production. They displayed all these different patterns and Chinese characters. We thought those were machines, but at the end of the segment, each block opened up and each performer inside waved hello to the audience. In certain types of puppeteering, like marinettes, they puppets were clearly controled by wires from above, but in some other types, hiding the control mechanisms well can sometimes add to the magic. So hide your control mechanisms well, and maybe you can reveal it for surprise effect too!

4. Be precise

There was this tai chi performance during the opening ceremony performance. The performers run in such patterns that, if they were not precise with the planning and execution, people are likely to collide with one another. In puppeteering, sometimes a puppet is manipulated by several puppeteers at the same time. And sometimes there are a bunch of puppet characters and human characters all on screen at the same time. You need to be precise with the blocking (planning out where each character will go and what they will do).

5. Improvise when something goes wrong

During the torch relay, the last person Li Ning ran in mid-air and carried the Olympics torch to the flame cauldron. It was windy up there, so the flame almost went off. Li Ning was able to think fast on his feet (well… not sure if you can really be on your feet when you are in mid-air) and adjusted the angle of the torch to prevent it from going out. With video puppetry, you can do re-takes, but with live puppetry, you’ve got to be able to improvise on the spot when something goes wrong.

And… I sort of ran out of things to say there. See, I was probably way too ambitious in my dream. Ten? I didn’t finish it in my dream, so how could I possibly finish it now? I mean, a lot of ridiculous ideas only make sense in my dreams. But anyway, due to lack of serious points I can come up with, here are some stupid fillers.

6. Puppeteers must be physically fit

Puppeteers don’t need to be in shape for Olympics events, but puppeteering can be tiring after a while. Also some puppets are heavy. So they need to have good strength and endurance (which I don’t have).

7. Puppeteers shall not take steroids

If puppeteers use steroids, they might become too fast or strong. They might accidentally break the puppet, or perform way too fast while the other people were not able to catch up with him. Therefore puppeteers shouldn’t take steroids.

8. Puppeteers shall be given medals

It creates a lot of buzz when people start to talk about how many medals United States, China, and Michael Phelps (yep, Michael Phelps has just obtained country status… what? you didn’t know?), so to create more buzz around puppeteering, puppeteers shall be given medals.

9. Puppeteers shall wear aerodynamic suits

So they can move through the air better. See? I am really running out of things to say here.

10. Puppeteers shall all read this post

I mean, all Olympics athletes did it, right? If you are one and you didn’t read this post, leave a comment now. See? No comments. Yeah.

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Last night I went to Old Dirty Conservatory’s August show “Woodworks!… A Show About Carpentry and Plumbing”. The tagline on the flyer says “and quite possibly our stupidest show to date!”. I’ve watched several shows of theirs, and I am not sure if this was indeed THE stupidest one, but it’s definitely up there. Yep, certainly lived up to expectations. Some of the stuff was really stupid, but very entertaining. You know, you’ve just got to go when there’s a show about plumbers and carpenters, of all things.

Having been to a few of their shows, I think one of the thing that’s a nice touch to this particular one was the use of a live musician. These people write their lines pretty loosely and improvise on the spot all the time, so a musician that can just add music to the scene (instead of playing pre-recorded soundtracks) works really well.

Not gonna recap the whole show, but just to give you a sence of what happened:
1. An entertainer went on a quest to the sewers and pipe in search of his plumber father who disappeared in an unfortunate plumbing accident. Yes, they encountered many pieces of poo along the way.
2. A carpentry contest was in town. The winner? The student of the great master who taught moves that were both karote and carpentry at the same time.
3. An interpretive dance with a plunger and a piece of poo. (My interpretation anyway.)
4. An “interview” (and banter) between Randall and Dwayne with video clips in between to back up their points.
5. Two plumbers’ encounters with a Russian whore.

Looking forward to the next one.

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Living Up to Your Potential Is BS

This is a little bit of a reality check from Penelope Trunk telling people that complain about not reaching their full potential that the idea is BS, and is totally not the purpose of life. I agree with what she said in the article. Of course, the title of the article is somewhat puzzling without reading the article.

How to Do Light Drawings

This is a cool tutorial teaching you how to draw a picture with flashlights and really long exposures. I don’t think my camera has a setting for such long exposure time (haven’t checked yet), but if your camera can do it, it would be fun to try out!

The Daily Show: Special Olympics Update

This is The Daily Show’s look on all the controversies and scandals surrounding the Olympics games currently taking place. It was about the Olympics on the surface, but it was actually an interesting look at our modern culture. Take a look.

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I came across this cute video of Norah Jones singing “Don’t Know Why” on Sesame Street last night. It was not a new, but I haven’t seen the video before. I have no idea how Sesame Street somehow finds all these songs that would work perfectly for all these singers’ love for their numbers, letters, and shapes.

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I happened to have read these two articles on the same day: one on designing puppet staging and the other on designing puppets. I guess that’s fate. It made me think about my own work over here on this site.

In Naomi’s article Basic Set Design for Puppet Shows, she talks about the materials, sizes, and structures of puppet stages. I think the most important thing is to get the scale right, especially matching the size of the set pieces to the puppets so they look like they belong in the same world. I’ve actually been thinking about switching to small puppets because it would be easier for me to build set pieces. Of course, the current size is good for filming on location and interacting with humans (which I haven’t done that much).

Of course, the material is important too. Last time we did a show, we used a piece of cardboard standing up. I am not sure why it didn’t fly away.

And then there’s this article It Just Felt Right (get it? felt?) on the National Post (via PuppetVision Blog). Rick Lyon, who is the puppeteer and puppet builder for Avenue Q, was interviewed about the design of the puppets. What I found the most interesting was all the conscious efforts made to really make Kate Monster and Lucy the Slut exact opposites. The colors and the shapes are both there to reflect the character’s personalities, which are opposites. I didn’t really pay attention to these details, but thinking back, yep, those details did serve the show well.

Come to think of it, I’ve always known (before I even bought the fabrics) that Mac and Cheese and Bobby would be light colors and Bottle Monsters and Moostifer would be darker colors in contrast.

What surprised me was that each of the Avenue Q puppet takes at least 100 hours of labor to build. But after I read about the details, yeah, it makes sense. Their materials are custom-dyed. After the foam structure was made, the outside was decorated and the inside was lined with another piece of fabric. Also the mouth boards are wood instead of ordinary cardboard. With those things and other details not mentioned here, no wonder those puppets take so long to make. And of course, the quality is really good as a result.

Ah, details, details. That’s what seperates the great from the mediocre.

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(The Customer Is) Not Always Right

This site posts conversations between stupid customers and service personnels every day. I have fun reading about stupid people that don’t have common sense (I just don’t want to deal with them). I think that’s why I like Bill Engvall’s “Here’s Your Sign” routines so much. (via Singing the Sky)

16 Secrets The Restaurant Industry Doesn’t Want You to Know

This is an article about how many calories the meals from different restaurants contain. To sum it all up, many of them have a lot of calories and that’s why many restaurants don’t really want to answer the question when asked. Well… I’m not surprised that many of them have a lot of calories. I might not have the exact numbers, but I’d be in denial if I didn’t think a breakfast including several eggs, several sausages, pancakes with syrup and another side of potatoes, or a lunch including a huge hamburger, fries and a coke would be low in calories. Do I know these things are loaded with calories? Yes. Do I still eat cheesecakes? Yes, every once a while. I think nobody should tell us what we can or cannot eat; we just need to be aware of the consequences of our eating habits, whether it’s healthy or not.

Using Your Browser URL History to Estimate Your Gender

This little web page has a tool that can go through your browser’s URL history, and try to guess your gender depending on the sites you view… And apparently I’m more likely to be female… #$%@… I didn’t think the algorithm was very fair. For example, there’s MySpace, but I’ve visited MySpace like only once this month. I don’t even remember going on to eBay. And I wouldn’t have checked out Mahalo and GoodSearch.com if someone hasn’t bookmarked this site on those sites. But Google, YouTube, Facebook, and Wikipedia I do regularly go on. Well, still a fun thing to play with anyway.

Here’s my results:

Likelihood of you being FEMALE is 66%
Likelihood of you being MALE is 34%

Site Male-Female Ratio
google.com 0.98
myspace.com 0.74
youtube.com 1
wikipedia.org 1.08
ebay.com 1.11
facebook.com 0.83
wordpress.com 0.98
mahalo.com 1.06
stumbleupon.com 1.15
goodsearch.com 0.59

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I was pretty excited when I found this video on the internet. This was from The Fool of the World and the Flying Ship, an 1990 made-for-TV stop-motion film based on a Russian folk tale. The movie was originally released in the UK. I watched it as a kid when they showed it in Taiwan (I don’t even remember if it was dubbed or close captioned). In the story, the Tsar decides that he would marry the princess to whoever brings him a flying ship. A young man set out on the quest for a flying ship, and meets a bunch of friend with different strange skills. They eventually have a flying ship for the Tsar, but the Tsar regrets the decision and put the group through more tests. And let’s just say there’s a happy ending. For a more detailed story, read this article on the answer to everything website.

Strangely enough, I still remembered the song that they sang (not the lyrics, but the melody). I also remembered what the old man and the flying ship looked like. We’ve never been short of stories about not-so-smart but have-a-pure-good-heart young man trying to marry a princess, and stories about people with strange skills, but this story tied them together quite nicely.

I think this was also the first time I was made aware what a stop-motion picture was, and it certainly made me appreciate all the work gone into the film even more. I also started liking the style and started watching Grandpa’s Stories (阿公講古), a Taiwanese claymation series about where each episode was a different story (often folk tale) told by Grandpa (kids sitting under a tree listening to local grandpas tell stories was a way of life before TV). If you want to see what it looked like, click here to see the two screen shots. The site is in Chinese though. Ah, I sure miss old TV shows. Some of them are good; some of them are mediocre. But either way, they are a part of childhood.

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This is going to be THE most technical post that’s ever appeared on this blog, so if you can’t stand it, just skip over this post. I am pretty sure that we’ll be back to more fun stuff soon.

As I’ve mentioned in the previous post, I upgraded my WordPress from version 2.1 to 2.6. Unfortunately, after the upgrade, all my post categories were missing. It took me a while to get them back again, and I’m writing to document what I went through and to share a solution if you ever run into this problem as well.

First let’s talk about the upgrade. I did this by downloading the new version from WordPress.org, and then uploading them onto my server, overwriting the previous files. Before I did the upload, I backed up my old files in case the upgrade failed and I would have to restore to the old files. After I uploaded the new files, I logged into my WordPress dashboard, and I was greeted with a question asking whether I wanted to also upgrade the database. I clicked on yes without thinking too much. This was sort of a mistake. I didn’t back up my database because I wasn’t planning to change it, but clicking yes meant that I’m allowing WordPress to make changes to my database. It’s a good thing that I only lost my categories and nothing more.

Anyway, after the database upgrade was also done, this was what my website looked like. All the category labels are missing:

After Googling around for a fix, I found this webpage. I didn’t follow it exactly but I was doing stuff along the line of what he did. First you want to view your database. My site and the tutorial author’s site both use phpMyAdmin. Depending on what you have installed on your server, this step might be somewhat different. But you want to go view your wp_categories table. You will see that all the category descriptions are gone. I then used the pencil icon to edit all the category descriptions. I changed them to something like aaaaa, bbbbb, ccccc, etc. This is so I will know which categories are actually used. This actually turned out to be an optional step, but it can save you some confusion down the line. Here are the before and after pictures:

Now go to http://(your site url)/wp-admin/categories.php?action=edit&cat_ID=(category number) where (your site url) is your url, and (category number) is the category ID. From my example, you can see that I have 18 categories. But they are not all consecutive numbers. You will have to put that address into your browser for as many categories as you have. I had 18 categories so I had to do that 18 times with a different cat_id each time. Once the address is put in, this is what it would show:

The Description is something that you already entered in the previous step. Now you want to fill in Category Name and Category Slug. I will explain what they are later. For now just put in the same thing and save the category. Note that although the description entry was optional in the last step, it was good to have so you can double check which categories are valid since sometimes they do skip numbers in category IDs. If there was a description, you knew you are editing a valid category.

And now go to your WordPress dashboard again. Go to Manage tag, and then select Categories. You will see your category manager. In the following picture on the left, I’ve already done aaaaa through nnnnn. Notice the stuff after ooooo still has no Name (label) yet. Eventually these would all be filled out. And in the picture on the right, you see on the blog that categories are no longer missing… they are just called really weird names consisting of repeating letters. On the site it would’ve showed up as something like the picture on the right:

And finally, it’s time to correct all the category names in the category manager again. When I looked at Category ddddd, for example, I can click on the number 23. It would show a bunch of posts that was filed under this category. In this case, they were Episode 15 - Godfather Nightmares, Episode 14 - Tofu, Episode 13 - Tis the Season to be Charlie, etc. So I knew that the category name it should have is “My videos”. So I clicked on “ddddd” and an editor would pop up, now that we actually some kind of label to click on. Go ahead and change the name and slug. The Category Name is the name that would show up on the sidebar as a category or under a post. In this case it’s “My videos”. The Category slug is what would appear in the web address for this category. In this case I chose “my-videos” because I didn’t want spaces in my url. So go through and modify all categories to have the appropriate names and slugs, and you’ll have all categories back. So this is what it looks like when it’s all done:

Wow, that’s a lot of info. There might be smarter ways of doing it, but that is what I’ve tried and it worked. This is fun. Lots of fun. Way too much fun.

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