My Experience with Adobe Fuse

 

According to the Adobe Blog, Adobe Fuse CC will be removed from the Creative Cloud on September 13, 2020 and it will no longer be available for download. I wish this wasn’t the case. But the truth for me is that the greater disappointment on Fuse CC is not this removal and the fact that Adobe was letting go of it. It is the fact that I believe that Adobe had so much they could do with Fuse to revolutionize animation, but refused to do so for reasons best known to them.

As an aspiring animator and hobbyist artist it was fun to discover Fuse CC. The idea that I could design high quality 3D characters and have it rigged by just uploading it into Mixamo.com was a dream come true. This was going to democratize animation at least for the masses if not for big studios and also story boarding. But now when I look at the work flow that was available with Fuse CC, this was never the plan with Adobe. I think Adobe had creating of graphic images with Fuse CC through Photoshop and creating of characters for game engines that focus more on actions and not on conversations in mind.

Fuse CC was a perfect tool for creating graphic design without using models. This was an excellent idea and a good start. Model a character, dress them up, choose their clothes, even design their clothes then use Photoshop to bring it all together was not a bad idea.

Fuse CC was also great for game engine characters. These characters only carry out actions anyway and mostly, we view them from over the shoulder most of the time.

Fuse CC was also a great tool for artist. The characters were quite good. And could act as very high quality models for artists. This feature could have even being better if Adobe had made it easy for a free form modeling of the poses of the characters designed in Fuse. This ability to pose them manually would have been another huge winner that Adobe should have considered.

But I can’t help but think of this: Fuse CC could have been the start of a revolution. Imagine being able to design a character, rig it and then maybe use the facial animation capability of Adobe Character Animator to add facial animation to any segment of the frames of the Adobe Fuse CC creation after animation is added to it by mixamo.com. But well, I guess Adobe ‘didn't think in this direction, or maybe choose not to go in this direction.

At least one consolation is that mixamo.com will still be available after Fuse CC is no longer available. And Adobe seems to be committed to mixamo.com since they have added new characters to it and it is still available.

Should I use Blackberry Messenger to Connect With My Audience?

A lot organisations and individuals now display their Blackberry PIN for customers, consumers and others to follow them and keep in touch with them easily.

I am skeptical of using Blackberry for that purpose. While I think that the Blackberry messenger is a great application for friends to get quick information update, I am not sure this works well for organisations for the following reasons:

1. Blackberry Messenger is a closed platform. This means that only those using Blackberry phones will have access to your information.

2. Since other mobile phone companies like Apple and Samsung have their own chat platforms, will you be planning to have multiple devices to connect to other platform users? Or you just connect with the blackberry users and forget all the others.

3. Even with the popularity of the Blackberry phones in Nigeria, believe it or not there are still more people in Nigeria Using Nokia phones to browse the internet.

4. A lot of Nigerians still use only a laptop or a desktop to access the internet.

5. It is limited to 2000 connections so when your organisation or group followership gets above 2000 will you be willing to migrate them to another platform or leave them at that number?

6. Because it is device specific what do you do if the phone gets missing or gets faulty or is stolen?  Simply forgetting to charge the phone could mean a post might be delayed.

7. Any phone with a working Blackberry messenger also has email active and can have access to Twitter and Facebook. And all these platforms are not limited to the Blackberry platform. So why limit yourself?

8. Your Posts or messages will be received only on mobile devices. This limits the possibilities of what you can post or send.

9.  Imagine sending a link to your YouTube page, while the Blackberry can actually view this, streaming video is charged for Blackberry phones in Nigeria and this could discourage people following the link.

10. While you can block a malicious follower on Twitter and block an email addresses, Blackberry Messenger allows the sending of PIN to PIN messages which will be delivered even if the two users are not connected.

The Tragic Passing of Goldie Harvey and the Online recklessness that Followed

While still reeling from the Oscar Pistorius shooting on Valentine’s night, I heard rumors that Nigerian performer, Goldie Harvey (May her soul rest in peace) had died that same day. Of course my first instinct was to shrug it off. You see, I have trained my instincts to ignore any rumors of death coming from the Nigerian social media atmosphere from the numerous times we have "killed" Nelson Mandela. Thank God Madiba's life is not in the hands of a “tweeting happy Nigerian".

But then the rumours would not go away and then I saw a post on the blog of a popular blogger. The saddest part of the post was while she was validating  Goldie's death by claiming that Goldie's best friend, who was also her mutual,  friend had informed her,  she didn't see it fit to post a proper post. A fitting way to announce the death of a friend was a quick “I posted it first” post!

And then the so called Twitter overloads took over the next day postulating all sorts of reasons of her death and googling Wikipedia to explain pulmonary embolism. They even knew it was caused by her 24 hour flight from California. These overnight pathologists forgot that even if it was a 24 hour flight and she was seated in the same spot, the high-fliers from Kennis Music she was flying with would have schooled her on whatever she needed to do. And did she need schooling? Hasn't she been around the world from Lagos to London, to Johannesburg to Kuala Lumpur? If only the bloggers needed to shine less they would have accurately informed their followers that a typical British airways flight from California to Lagos, for example,  involved three stops: first to Dallas, then to London and finally to Lagos. Or didn't they know this?  Even the new 787 Dreamliners can't do a 24 hour flight.

Mainstream media also started to push the pulmonary embolism rumor. Forgetting they are bound by editorial discipline and should not be carrying unfounded rumours that was been expressed by the man on the street or the woman on Twitter. It was almost as if they couldn't sit back and allow new media to enjoy the entire spotlight!

The next chapter was even sadder. Sudden reports that someone was calling Goldie names and saying she was happy she was dead.  This is the chapter that had a little ray of light because yes: a particular blogger who recently had a face-off with President Obasanjo refused to mention the twitter account while raining insults on the person. You see, your intuition probably served you right.  When I saw this particular angle, I was suspicious. So I ran some analytics on the Twitter account and found out it was created 2 days after her death. So someone had actually created a Twitter account to get followers from the tragic passing of Goldie. And the funniest thing: She was getting the followers!

And then the tribute song and in less than 3 days after her passing. I can't help but ask: Were the artistes waiting for her to die? Or were they waiting for any artiste to die? Or they wrote it for someone else and quickly modified it for her? Do they understand the ethical implications of cashing in on someone else’s tragedy? How many tribute songs were written for Whitney Houston within 2 days of her death? I rest my case.

Finally, when we thought it couldn't get any worse, copies of the autopsy when it was finally done were now flying around the internet. Apparently someone took a picture with his or her phone and shared it online or with a media house. I do hope her family did not stumble upon the report online before it was handed to them by the hospital.

You see, Social Media and the internet have so much potential in this part of the world because it now means we can verify facts, engage with people, question our so-called normal and effect change. But this democratic empowerment promised will all be flushed down the loo if we all do not rein in ourselves. The "I tweeted it first" mentally or "I blogged it" first should be thrown into the trashcan.  Of course there is room to be first but information should be properly researched.

Some bloggers should realize that people now ask them questions they should be googling themselves. While I won't advice this, I guess it speaks of trust and respect towards the bloggers. Or does it speak of laziness on the part of their followers? You see, to whom much is given much is expected. Or if I can borrow from Hollywood, with much power comes great responsibility. So if people now see bloggers as source of credible information, they should be careful what they say or share. 

As for the rest of us, we need to know that the internet and Social media is not a wild wild west where there are no rules and everything or anything goes.  Let's all not forget that in the abundance of tweets”, sin is not lacking. Let's formulate the simple habit to google out supposed claims before sharing. Or refuse to share if you are too busy to properly research. A simple no comment does not kill, but the wrong words online may never be wiped off.

I can't help but ask:  Is social media exposing how reckless we have become? Or are we like this because we don't really understand how we should behave on it? Is the Nigerian more interested in the bad news, gossip, the rumours and the falsehoods first? Have we thrown all caution to the winds? Is this why when a plane crashed in Lagos people who got to the scene first, started out by taking pictures before anything else? Is that why people are creating accounts on Twitter where they tweet pictures of their body parts or write racy stuff that doesn’t do anyone any good?

The future of the impact of social media and the internet in Nigeria will depend a lot on the foundations we lay. A lot of good is already happening on social media and the internet in Nigeria, so we cannot afford for it to become a looked down upon media form the way tabloids are regarded or as a form of negativity. I do hope though that time will be a differentiator and will sort out the wheat from the chaff or else, the unlimited potential of the internet and social media in Nigeria may never be fully realized.

Keeping Safe Online in a Connected World

With the massive adoption of the internet nowadays, people have never been connected like we all are. But with this connectivity, access to the internet, email and other resources come all sorts of risks. Phishers are trying every means to direct us to fake versions of the websites we use to steal some kind of information which they can profit on. Hackers are trying to break into our computers or computer network s and steal sensitive information. There is the risk of losing devices you use to access the internet with the potential hazard of having our sensitive information in the wrong hands.
So what exactly can be done?

Here is my list of tips that can keep you safe online no matter with what device or devices you access the internet with.

1. If you use social networks like Facebook or twitter know, that while they ask for your email address to login, they don't need you to use the same email address password as your password.

2. Use different passwords for every email, social media or service account if you can.

3. When you get those spam emails promising everything from easy money to exclusive pictures of some superstar, don't click on the link they offer you.  Delete the emails in a breath and have the same attitude to such links on Facebook or Twitter too.

4. No matter how good an anti - virus is, it will be no good unless it is updated regularly.  Regular updates can be as frequent as every 4 days. Most antivirus will update automatically so checking and noticing your antivirus is no longer updating is probably a sign that it has already been compromised. If this is the case you might need a new installation.

5. Never use your smart phone or tablet without having a password active on the device.  While the password will not stop a thief from stealing the device it will at least protect your information from the thief.

6. For devices like smart phones which have memory cards. There is always a function to encrypt the card. So if a thief steals your device, they won't be able to have access to the files on the memory card. Make sure you always use this feature.

7. Blackberry protect allows you to remotely find your device if lost. So you may want to make sure Blackberry protect is active on your device. The only problem is a tech savvy thief will find a way around this.

8. The iPad and IPhone also have a feature to find your device if missing. Make sure you turn it on.

9. Most free email services including Yahoo and Gmail have password reset features to take back your email account in case a hacker takes over them. These features allow you to set another email account to use for a password reset. Make sure you have this feature in place too.

10. Know that hacking is big business now so handle everything you do online with caution but not necessarily fear.

Sharing Short URLS to an Audience

I went to an event some weeks ago and at the end of it there was an advert for additional content and instructions on how to download the mobile applications for different mobile platforms.  The links were shared with short urls like the popular bitly, tinyurl etc  and that was when I realized that sharing short url on a screen is a bad idea. While they work excellent for sharing links within Twitter or Face book by cleaning the look of the URLs and reducing the character count, they don't work well visually.

Short urls generated by services such as bitly are case sensitive but a lot of us are used to typing in our web addresses directly without ever using the shift button on the keypad or not caring any less because we all believe writing it all in small letters or capital or mixed does not make a difference. Well in the world of short urls. Type case makes a difference. 

I believe the best method to share a link to your mobile applications, website or any resource on a screen is to get your webmaster to do a re-direct from your website to the links you want to share.  For example, he/she can do a redirect from "www.oursite.com/apps " to your mobile application. This will be easier to do and less prone to errors than using a short URL.   

Another easy way will be to give an email address where your audience can send a mail to get the link. They may only need to send a blank email. This method even allows you to still use a short URL.

One option I like is for them to send an SMS with a keyword to a phone number Of a SIM placed on a SMS gateway or server solution. The system can detect the keyword they sent and send back a link to their phone numbers. This method not only allows the use of short URLs and will seem easier as most people feel closer to SMS on their mobile device than E-mail.  This is actually my favourite of the options in this article even though it sounds a little bit techy. ( OK, full disclosure after spending a while developing a solution like this, it has to be my favourite)

Any of these methods though will reduce the potential problem of displaying a short URL on a screen which will be hard to type onto the mobile phone browser or will create an impression of the site been available if the wrong case of characters is typed in.

The general idea in the world we live in today where there is every possibility to want to share links at the end of an event is to look for a method that will ensure the accuracy of the links you need to send.

You can follow my thoughts on Twitter @folarinoye

The iPad Vs the Kindle

With the launch of the Kindle HD 8.9 inch a lot of writers and bloggers immediately started to write all sorts of reviews and I have to say most were either hurried or not really well thought out. Basically, most did not give a fighting chance to the Kindle HD. True, the Kindle HD 8.9 might not be the better piece of hardware but at least it should be given a fair analysis.

I thought I had to write my own view until I read the article by David Gewirtz @davidgewirtz goo.gl/fb/uzaky   . I still think it is the most objective comparison I have read so far.  I will recommend it again and again.

But just to add, while we can’t rule out the advantage of the cheaper cost of the Kindle I did compare the screens of the two devices and found an interesting fact. I don’t think that the 8.9 inch screen size chosen by Amazon is a coincidence. While I am sure that its part of the trick Amazon is using to help in driving down its cost apart from using it as a differentiator.  I also found out that the 8.9 inch 16 by 9 screen has the same width as the height of the iPad while held in portrait mode or its width when held in landscape view.

This means that when the Kindle is held in landscape orientation to watch movies, and the iPad is also held in landscape, the size of a 16 by 9 HD movie will be the same. The difference will be the black borders the iPad will have at the top and bottom will not be visible on the Kindle or will be reduced.  This also means that using the Kindle HD in landscape (it is designed to be used this way anyway) will make the width of your content identical with that of the iPad.

So while it is easy to brush aside the size of the Kindle DX screen as smaller it actually works better for movies and may offer no considerable dis-advantage for other kinds of content you use the Kindle HD for . For one thing if you read a lot of pdfs or web browsing like I do all you will do will be more scrolling. The pdfs and the webpages will be the same width on either tablet.
So while the 9.7 inch iPad is the standard for now the Kindle HD 8.9 just might not be really far behind technically.

iPad and Kindle DX 8.9 Screen size comparisons - Landscape

iPad and Kindle DX 8.9 Screen size comparisons - Portraits to Landscape

Before Amazon Releases its Tablet

In the past few weeks a lot of rumours, claims and suggestions have been made about the upcoming Amazon tablet.  Everyone has shared what they think Amazon should or would do. Well over a year ago, I wrote a piece on my blog on why I believe Amazon should do an Android tablet, so I welcome this news with a lot of anticipation too. But with all of the rumours and suggestions I guess I should throw in my two cents too.

Everyone believes that it will be cheaper than the ipad. This has to be the case. It looks like this is really hard to do for other tablet manufacturers. The main reason for this is the cost of materials and manufacture for the other tablets is higher than that of the iPad, just check isupply.com.  The truth is most of the other tablets aspiring to beat the iPad have better hardware than the iPad and this increases their cost of production. If Amazon can take a loss and sell its hardware cheaper, well that might be a start. We all remember how the reduction of the cost of the HP TouchPad started a mad rush for it. But I have a question here: If anybody can sell a tablet at a loss and afford to make money from the buying of content it is Apple after selling millions of iPads. So why has the price of the ipad not been reduced by Apple?

There are rumours that it will be a 7 inch screen size. I think this will be a bad idea. It will only make the Amazon tablet look like a cheap attempt to compete with the iPad. Amazon already have 7 inch Kindles so I feel it makes sense to start with a large screen device first and maybe launch a smaller device later. I believe that part of the magic of the ipad is its size. It makes it easier to identify the iPad. It makes it easy to consume all kinds of media. It means you will do less zooming. Books and PDFs just look like the real thing. It’s a winning size.  Anything else will just be like, just there. If you don’t agree with me show me a 7 inch tablet selling like hot cake.

The Amazon tablet will have to be a visual wonder design wise, size wise. Or else it will be criticized so badly people won’t even want to try it out. Think about it:  part of the excitement about the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 is the fact that it’s the first of the Android tablets that is lighter than the iPad while throwing in some excellent hardware. No wonder Apple wants to kill it in the courts.  Then on the other side think of the Motorola Xoom while not necessarily a poor tablet, the poor design is shooting it in its foot.

And finally it should be more open. A micro SD card slot will not be a bad idea. Something that will allow getting media from the tablet out and getting stuff unto the tablet. Or at least it should show up as a storage device when connected to a computer, allowing access to its storage space. It should be able to access the Android Market, buy things from Amazon.com and be totally free so if a user never wants to browse Amazon.com there will be no issues.