Board Game Murder

Sorry I haven't done daily videos in a few days, but I've been gone and apparently my list of future videos ran out. So, I'll try to get that going again soon.

In the meantime, I did find this video, and I had to post it immediately because it is so funny!
Have you ever wondered what it would be like if board games were real? Probably pretty close to this:

Hidden "On" Switch

Here's a video of how you can set up an electronic device to only turn on in the presence of a magnet.


Pc Protection With Hidden Switch - The funniest bloopers are right here

Peel a Raw Egg

Using water and a chemical, you can peel the shell off a raw egg! Looks cool.


Peel A Raw Egg - Watch more funny videos here

Blender 2.46

Yay, Blender 2.46 is out! It's got a bunch of awesome new features. Release notes can be found here.
I'm really excited about some of these new features. My favorites:

• Glossy reflections
• Continuous physics
• Soft shadows
• New particle system
• Cloth simulations

I've been using the beta version for about 2 weeks now, so I'm glad I can use all these new features I've been testing. Here are some of the cooler updates:

Hair and Fur

Many features have been added to make fur and grass rendering for Peach possible. Big improvements were made in visual quality, rendering speed and memory usage.

Image Browsing

The new Image Browser is blazingly fast and stable, and not only allows to browse for images in your filesystem, but can also show previews of materials, textures, world, lamp and image data.

Glossy Reflections

Reflections and refractions are now possible to be rendered with a glossiness factor, controlling the roughness of material.

Physics caching and baking

The softbody, cloth and particle physics now use a unified system for caching and baking. For real-time tweaking, a new option "Continue Physics" will continue the simulation regardless of the current frame.

Soft Shadows

Raytraced soft shadows are now possible for all lamp types; including spot, sun and point lights.

Particle system rewrite

The particle system has been rewritten from scratch. It now allows advanced hair grooming tools, but also much better physics, boid animation and even explosions!

Cloth simulation

Cloth simulation is available in Blender via a modifier on Mesh objects. Cloth then realistically and in real-time interacts with other objects, the wind or other forces, all of which is fully under your control.

Approximate AO

Ambient Occlusion is a render option that darkens areas with less visibility, simulating the effect of environment light. This new AO option is based on quick approximation, giving many factors of speedup.

www.promotionstudios.com

QMC & Adaptive Sampling

Blender now includes two new sampling methods, using a Halton sequence (Adaptive QMC) and a Hammersley sequence (Constant QMC).
Raytracing now also supports adaptive sampling.

Sequencer

Many many new goodies in our Video Sequence Editor:

• UI made more accessible, new panels/views
• Built-in strip blending
• Color correction tools
• Markers, NTSC support, preview, ...

UV texture editing

UV texture coordinates now are accessible via regular Mesh editmode. And many more features were added such as:

• UV draw types
• Solid opengl view with textures
• 2d cursor in Image window

The Invisible Color

Apparently, if you draw (using any drawing program) with the color Red 16, Green 0, Blue 16, (or hex #100010,) then you can see any videos playing behind it! And it's not some fancy editing trick, it really works. I tried it.


The Mysterious Color - The funniest movie is here. Find it

Ping-Pong Gun

Here's a video of how to make a gun (that fires ping-pong balls) out of household objects.


Ping-Pong Pistol - The most amazing bloopers are here

Arm Twist

Sorry for all these magic videos, but I'm going through my favorites list in order. I guess I must have been searching for magic videos the day I favorited these. There aren't many magic videos in the near future. ;)

Anyway, here's a trick that many professional street magicians do where it looks like they can twist their arm all the way around.


360 Arm Twister Explanation - The most amazing home videos are here

Open Source: GIMP

Sorry I haven't been doing any "normal" posts lately (i.e. not videos) but hopefully summer will give me much more time to do this kind of thing.

So anyway...

I couldn't forget The GIMP if I'm listing open-source software. For those who don't know, that stands for The GNU Image Manipulation Program.

It's basically Photoshop, but for free. There have even been some people who switched from Photoshop to GIMP because they like it more. I use it for almost all of my image editing. I occasionally still use MSPaint for things like pasting screens, but otherwise, it's the GIMP.

So, what can it do? Even if you don't want to take the time to learn to use it, you can still do a few awesome things as soon as you open it. Even without creating a new image, you can open up some awesome effects. It's got some presets for creating buttons, (like for a website,) it's got about 25-30 presets for creating logos, (for example, I used the neon logo creator to create the logo for "The Blog",) and it's got some other things like pattern generators (like camouflage) and web page themes.

But, of course, GIMP's strength is not in it logo generators, but in it's editing options. As of right now (version 2.4.1) there are 33 different tools for editing images, and far more options available in the menus. Some of my favorite tools:

*Fuzzy Select/Select by Color:
These both let you select parts of the images with similar colors. They each do something slightly different though, and I use both about the same amount.

*Foreground Select:
Using this tool, you can select an item separate from the background. It's a lot like keying in videos, but you don't have to be in front of a green screen or anything (although something like that would help). I've used this for a few things, one being removing my head. :p

*Crop Tool:
You may think "Bah. Every image editor has crop!", but in GIMP, the way they do it is REALLY easy to use.

*Bucket Fill:
Yeah yeah. Everything has bucket fill, also. But I do use it a lot. Also, the colors don't have to be EXACTLY the same, (like in MSPaint,) but you can set the threshold for similar colors.

*Airbrush:
This is really helpful for creating textures that I use in Blender. Unfortunately, I can't make anything good since I'm not using a tablet. :p

*Clone:
Yay for the clone tool! VERY helpful. I use it for removing dates from photos (and stuff like that).

*Smudge:
After fixing some things, it helps to get rid of the sharp edges with the smudge tool. :)

And those are just some of them.
Some of the other awesome things that the GIMP can do? Layers, for one. I LOVE layers. I use to have to do all my editing in MSPaint, and I would have to save a new image for practically every change I made, or to edit in "layers".
Another awesome thing: practically infinite undos. It always annoyed me how MSPaint only had 3 undos, so now I can know that whatever changes I want to make can be reversed.
There's also a ton of different filters and changes you can make to an image, so... yeah.

The only downside I know of: long loading time. It takes like 2 minutes to start up. Other than that, it's amazing!!!

Website
Download
Features

NOTE: I just found this out: Apparently, someone has created a hacked version of GIMP that looks and behaves more like Photoshop, called Gimpshop. So, if you use Photoshop and you want to see what GIMP is like, you might want to consider using Gimpshop.

Here

Straw Penetration

Here's yet another magic trick that shows how you can pull two straws through each other without breaking them!


Easy Straw Penetration Revealed! - Watch today’s top amazing videos here

Finger Through Bottle Cap

Another awesome magic trick: shooting your finger through a bottle cap!


Useful Kung Fu Trick (Video Lesson) - Funny home videos are a click away

Pen Spinning

Here's one of the most popular pen spinning tricks. I always wanted to learn this one, but even after watching this, I still can't get it :p


PenSpinning- Sonic Harmonic - Funny bloopers R us

Fireballs!

This video has become somewhat controversial; there have been tons of comments on whether it does/does not work. Many people say they tried it and have burnt themselves, but others swear that it works. Just watch for yourself:


How To Make Fire Balls - The best free videos are right here

I made some of these, but what I did was instead of trying them out on my hands, I held them with tongs and felt near it, to see how hot it was. It seemed really hot, so I didn't actually try them out. I thought it was fake, but then I saw more videos (from more reliable sources) that showed them using them. So, assuming it's not fake, here are some tips that people have said:

"The fact is that the ball is hot. The fuel dosn't reach max temp until fully ignited(yellow). The bottom is cooler. If you have thick skin you can hold them longer. Rub ice on your hands for a minute then dry them and then you can hold them for much longer. Plus the vid is in some what slower than reality so it looks even longer." -200sx

"i tested it out, its really really cool !!
but if you hold it too long on one place at your hand, it's getting hot und you must change the place! when i see how long you hold it at one place i think : waahh its hot ;)" -ICE C0LT

Quotes taken from Metacafe.

So, to sum up:
*If you try it, you may get burnt
*Keep the ball(s) moving
*Rub ice on you hands and dry it off before you do it to keep your hands cool.
*DON'T TOUCH THE YELLOW PART OF THE FLAME!!!!

If anybody gets this to work, send me a video. If I see more people getting it to work, I may try it again.

Ring on Rubber Band Trick

I'm sure you've noticed by now: I've always liked magic, so here's another really easy trick that's really cool.


Ring On Rubber Band Revealed! - Click here for more blooper videos

Cool Transformation

Here's how to transform an old plastic cup (like one for yogurt or butter) into a disc! I wonder if you could use it for frisbee...


Weird Transformation! - The funniest videos are a click away

Goomba in Blender!

Hey, just finished a new thing in Blender! This one took me 2 days; it's a Goomba! Here's a picture:



And, as an extra bonus, I'm giving you guys the model! Do whatever you want with it. Mess around with it. Animate it. Whatever. One request, though: if you use it in a project, give credits for the model to me. That's all I ask. :)

Download here

Soda Cans Into Ashtrays

Here's how to make a soda can into an ashtray. You might also be able to use them as coasters, too, but I'm not sure. Might be too small.


Recycle Cans Into Ashtrays - A funny movie is a click away

Video Sunglasses

Here's how to make a pair of sunglasses with a camera so you can record video, and no one will know!


How To: Spy Sunglasses! - Watch more funny videos here

Top Ten Soccer Misses

No idea how they could miss these shots. 0_0


Top Ten Misses - Funny blooper videos are here

Scared of Nothing

Didn't know what else to name this one... :p

Here's what's going on, if you can't figure it out: A guy gets in the elevator, and screams for no reason. It freaks everybody out. LOL.


Funny Pics No.3 - A funny movie is a click away

Freeze a Beer Instantly

Not that I drink beer, but it's still an awesome effect.


Freeze A Beer In Two Seconds - The most amazing videos are a click away

Awesome Acrobatics

I'm sure you've seen videos like this before, but they're so awesome I still want to post them.


Martial Arts Tricks - Funny videos are here

Ham CD

Just watch. You will ROFL.


Playing A Ham CD - Watch more amazing videos here

Funny Japanese Acting

Japanese people seem to like doing things like this; I've found a ton of videos. Here are some of them.

You've probably seen this first one.








Funniest Asian Show Every LOL!!!!!! - For more of the funniest videos, click here

"Beautiful" People Part 2

Here's "Beautiful" People Part 2. LOL again!


Beautiful People 2 - Watch today’s top amazing videos here

"Beautiful" People Part 1

Here's a video of a bunch of "beautiful" people. (Notice the quotation marks). LOL.


Beautiful People - The funniest home videos are here

"Beautiful" People Part 2 tomorrow!