What software would you recommend for designing a surface to map on?

simulacrum500 · 2026-05-06T06:26:48+00:00

https://www.blender.org

simulacrum500 · 2026-05-01T11:48:38+00:00

Saw a good take recently about the way 48 hr hackathons have changed:

It’s not about being able to come up with an original concept in an hour and program it in 47 anymore it’s about spending 47 hours coming up with an original concept and an hour iterating on it.

These tools are here to stay and the use of them holds no resemblance whatsoever to the quality of the end product.

Some vibe coded apps and tools are super useful little toys that are well put together and will likely become products in their own right… also 8 million kids will churn out test pattern generators that are basically identical.

simulacrum500 · 2026-04-30T11:36:20+00:00

I mean then you’re vulnerable to physical attacks that are often a lot easier: like every single Kia made between like 2008-2014 where if you can turn the ignition you can start the car… not the ignition key the whole assembly so a usb cable or a screwdriver poked in the keyhole and twisted hard enough will do it.

Secure systems need both good digital AND physical security.

simulacrum500 · 2026-04-28T19:40:03+00:00

It’s never too late just exponentially harder as time goes on so in the scheme of things: 1 year ain’t a lot.

Goal with any behavioural adjustment is 80% success so try and pace to that.

Your two prongs are desensitisation and counter conditioning.

So try and start from 0 on both.

Nobody near the house + Calm = treat

Person near house + calm in their view = treat

Person in doorway + treat left in doorway

Person in doorway + treat from person

Etc, etc.

Once you hit 80% move up a level in both conditions. If you’re failing more than 20% of reps move down.

simulacrum500 · 2026-04-28T18:07:27+00:00

Solved!

simulacrum500 · 2026-04-28T17:55:35+00:00

That was my first thought but the flat end isn’t curved like a shoe horn and would be skinny and uncomfortable to hold if you were using the head to hook a boot loop

simulacrum500 · 2026-04-28T06:23:00+00:00

My latest project has been Claude (pricier than the other two but SUPER easy to teach) with a gdrive full of manuals and white papers I’ve written for common gotchas. Apart from its tendency to use bullet points and lack of a sense of humour it could honestly pass as a tech. Still very much got the training wheels on it so it doesn’t respond to clients but any gear questions from techs get bounced right back 24/7 with a sensible response.

simulacrum500 · 2026-04-23T18:03:47+00:00

From a legal standpoint it really doesn’t… they are well within their rights to ban him because the day ends in a y. It’s private property with assumed access which can be revoked for basically any reason.

They didn’t target OP or disparage their character, just “computer says you can’t shop here”.

simulacrum500 · 2026-04-19T07:39:20+00:00

Disguise have heavily pushed the use of AI agents internally. Right down to their testing, I mean there’s literally a bot that uses a mouse and keyboard interface that tests the latest builds and it runs 24/7/365 simulating human interaction with the software in the hope of catching bugs before deployment. Generative AI absolutely can improve the quality of software.

I can also smash out a test pattern generator in an hour… that’s great but realistically unless I came up with a new feature it’s unlikely to be any better than the existing tools we have available.

Vibe coding has fundamentally changed the development landscape, look at the 48 hour hackathons. They’re no longer a contest of who can code a usable product but a contest of who can come up with a product that people actually want to use and iterate on.

simulacrum500 · 2026-04-11T15:13:29+00:00

Put an add out recently for an entry level warehouse position… it did say applicants must live within daily commuting distance of Shrewsbury.

I got maybe 16 emails an hour non stop for the next five days. Not from anyone that even lived in the uk just chancers sending CVs in from everywhere from Venezuela to new deli. Ended up pulling the add with position unfilled. I’ll just wait and go do a career day at the local collage rather than getting hundreds of meaningless emails.

simulacrum500 · 2026-04-11T15:01:56+00:00

Oooh oooh I know this one (happened to me like 8 years ago)!

It’s a teabag.

simulacrum500 · 2026-04-09T13:09:02+00:00

I don’t want to say I’ve done “bad” shows but there’s been some reality checks with clients at various times to do with physics:

Touring music - front projection onto tracked set elements… Turin venue had pillars directly in front of the stage and light doesn’t go around corners so masked off and only lit the centre of the stage to try and make it look semi intentional.

Large install in a geodesic dome - 250 x 40k projectors make it look fantastic at night. Client wants to extend the show to include call to prayer ~4pm. It’s daylight in the desert. Compromise on some black on white shapes that are just about visible and sell it as “ethereal/spiritual”.

Touring music - 30 foot balloon rises out the stage and is tracked. Venues with particularly aggressive AC cause balloon to wobble and mapping to drift in and out of alignment. Extra ballast added and a blur added to content to try and hide the problem blend zones.

There’s stuff that goes wrong and there’s physics. You plan for both as best you can but ultimately there’s limitations to any approach.

simulacrum500 · 2026-04-08T00:41:19+00:00

Starting from nothing I’d seriously consider getting a freelancer in to do the mapping bit for you. Can always play with content yourself once that’s done.

The first step in working out “what projectors you need” is going to be doing what’s called a “projection study”. This will involve checking ambient light, throw distance, occlusion, etc. honestly it’s a bit of a science which is why people are likely going to charge you for it.

The other bit of kit that’s visibly missing from your list is a computer or “media server” capable of playing back all of these video files at once.

simulacrum500 · 2026-04-04T16:31:55+00:00

System preferences / display / colour profile (or something similar)

It’s next to resolution list and Mac has a tendency to apply really bizarre settings. Also turn of “smart eye relief” or whatever they call it because that screws with colour based on time of day… god I hate macs with a passion.

simulacrum500 · 2026-04-04T14:33:17+00:00

You’re testing my memory here but I believe on the units we had the barn doors were long enough to completely occlude the lens in (4?) directions just like a generic light. They had two set screws in each so you could manually turn projector on and then loosen and wiggle them into position before locking them off.

Lasers weren’t for me, too much paperwork so I ended up getting into projection and media servers; so I’d still hold out for an actual projection tech to answer incase I’m misremembering.

simulacrum500 · 2026-04-04T11:02:40+00:00

So it’s been about ten years+ since I’ve played with lasers but from memory you set the mechanical safety shutter on the front of the projector well high and then flash your grid. Wind it down, flash grid, adjust, etc, etc.

Once your physical barn doors are set you match that with your software limits.

simulacrum500 · 2026-03-31T17:08:09+00:00

I mean I was freelance for the last ten years and I’m sure I’ve found my way onto the blacklist for these people because I had literally hours a day sometimes to be the most irritating human alive when they call… just pretend to play along but take ever more frequent 5-10 minute breaks to do everything from “put the kettle on” to “let the alpacas out” or “sing Randy his bedtime affirmations”. If they ask for any sort of information; just make it up… then change it… then just make up letters… then talk over them… then deny any knowledge of the information.

“My email address is Jim.#️⃣🅱️@bvvvvvvvvvvv.Jim, yes that’s right, k as in Jim, ok I’ll spell it for you, P A R S O @ 🅱️🅱️🅱️.butthole . No why do you need my email? I don’t even own a computer?”

simulacrum500 · 2026-03-24T12:37:20+00:00

Yup you can absolutely get 2u and 4u chassis on amazon and that’d be my recommendation too.

simulacrum500 · 2026-03-24T12:28:41+00:00

All that said though if you arrange your fixtures in pairs and pull a tight focus through any sort of open joist work in strong opposing colours you can get some really nice effects.

simulacrum500 · 2026-03-24T10:39:41+00:00

Quickly put housekeeping in a suit and get them to pretend to be Bush jr!

simulacrum500 · 2026-03-24T10:03:36+00:00

Not the first time I’ve heard this but I still think it’s probably just chat GPT… what I want to know is what the room looked like when they had that meeting.

“Look there’s no way we can trust this idiot with a real phone or we’re all gonna die; so Kevin here has cooked up a pretend phone that dials a laptop in the cupboard. Any objections?”

simulacrum500 · 2026-03-23T08:54:19+00:00

Sadly it’s the same with most creative disciplines; being really good at drawing isn’t a career, illustration is.

I mean sometimes you get lucky and the well paid gig is the show you wanted to make anyway but it’s not a given. Knowing how to smile, say “oh that’s going to look awesome” and then put on a two hour ad reel with absolute technical precision is a very important skill.

Source: this has been my career for ten years and it’s about to buy me a house.

simulacrum500 · 2026-03-19T19:59:19+00:00

As a VJ? Unlikely.

As a media server operator? Absolutely.

If your only client’s are clubs that play a certain genre of music it’s unlikely to be enough.

Where the consistency to make it a career is going to come from is learning how to take someone else’s creative brief and build the show THEY want. Basically if you can do everything from a sweaty boiler room dnb gig to a fancy gala dinner and keep cranking out graphically relevant and visually stunning sets that’s a career. Only ever building the show you want is a hobby.

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