Looking to get a little bit more friendly with that new Magic Mouse? Look no further.

I have been using BetterTouchTool since I got my hands on the Magic Mouse to be able to middle click in apps like Maya, Nuke, whatever. I actually asked the developer Andreas Hegenberg for very specific middle click functionality (being able to click with one finger in the center of the mouse and to have an adjustment for the exact parts of the mouse that would respond to it) and he came through 100% within 48hrs:

He has recently added many other types of gestures, and a favorite of mine, a single tap right on (or right above) the Apple logo. I have a few tools I have made to make my day to day workflow a little bit more efficient. fn & layout are simple workflow tools that promote laziness to its full extent and the Magic Mouse has managed to make them a little lazier!

960×600 .mov

iPhone

If your mind is blown then comment or email and I will uhh. . . un-blow it for you. Hmm. . .

[BetterTouchTool]

720p

Just trying out a technique using the iPhone to capture some handheld camera data and use it in a comp. Even with only 640×480 pixels and an envelope with hand drawn tracker markers it still works very well.

Section of the iPhone camera track:

Watch it on an iPhone

This is a fantastic way to take the “perfect” out of the CG camera without messing with the CG methods of doing it. Randomization does not equal human, the way a human moves while holding a camera, large or small, is very far from random. Should be fairly simple to move data like this from application to application once a good track is put together.

Essentially the poorest, least efficient, laziest man’s version of James Cameron’s SimulCam without any of the benefits, except the human feel.

(Vimeo. . . I just can’t deal with Flash in my life anymore, I will still upload to you for continuity’s sake, but I want iPhone viewable embeds!)

And animators need some frame by frame action damn it!

I love everything about monome. Hand-crafted in the mountains, grid pattern with orange and gray squares, the technical interest required to really use one to its full potential, and most of all, it is a wide open device with many possibilities.

Take a look at what is possible with one:

And check out some more info. They come in all shapes and sizes nowadays, originally starting with a 40 node grid, and as long as people keep tinkering with them, they will get more and more interesting over time. Brilliant.

And if you are feeling generous my birthday is in November. . .

[monome.org]

Did you know you can look at this website on an iPhone!? Who knew? Now. . .if you add this site to your homescreen you will also get a sexy icon to go along with it, because who can go a day without checking up on what I am up to?

For the nerds: you can easily setup your site with this functionality by including a file named “apple-touch-icon.png” in the root of your site. Most people recommend starting with a simple square 158×158 (72dpi) image, you don’t have to worry about round corners or anything, the iPhone will take care of that for you.

My icon in it’s original form.

Maya is great, it can handle all of them CG’s that are so popular now a’days. What isn’t so great is that due to it’s fancy pants nature, it can crash at very inopportune times leaving you with your hopes crushed and tears streaming down your face. . .

Luckily, Maya does store recovery .ma files on every operating system that it is available for, on the Mac they are stored in a hidden folder (/private/var/folders/), and in those hidden folders are folders that a normal human doesn’t really understand.

However, it is very easy to set up a search that will indeed search these hidden folders for .MA files, allowing you to easily find your latest recovery data.

I quickly made a saved search (smart folder) that anyone can use to quickly access this default recovery location:


Maya Recover Smart Search
(1kb .zip file)
[Mac OS X 10.5+ if you are using 10.4 you are kidding yourself)

Just unzip the file, and place it in a easy to find directory (I recommend the default Maya directory in your User/Documents/maya folder, so it is always easy to find). I don't care how cool you are, if you have used a 3D app, it has crashed on you before, and you have shed a tear. If you try this out leave me a comment.

UPDATE: This will-not always work 100%, sometimes it can miss some temp files, because it doesn't always search the entire nested directories, so if you aren't seeing it, another method is to go to a Finder window press Cmd+Shift+G, and type /private/var/folders/ and press return. In that "folders" folder is a bunch of arbitrarily named folders, in one of those there should be a -Tmp- folder that will likely have some .ma recent recovery files.

[andoru.labs]

User Friendly:

Not very Friendly at all:

Do you like having your Finder and Application windows organized in a specific way? Or maybe you spend a lot of time re-positioning your windows to specific locations when they are moved around.

Well this app I developed called “layout” can turn all of that time spent re-organizing your windows into a simple one-click process.

Here is a video explaining exactly how it works and how to set it up to fit your own setup:

Download full 1440×900 video
[98.23.mb Quicktime .mov]

Included in the package is an Instructions file for reference on getting your own configuration working.

Download:

[UPDATE]: layout 1.0 now available, fixes and changes include:
-Will now check to see which Finder windows and Apps are open and run accordingly. Won't open every listed app to re-position it, will only position the currently open Applications.
-Finder is now setup to make your default layout if no windows are detected.

layout 1.0
(63kb .zip file)

layout is a set of 2 apps, one “Get Sizes” to find the position of your application windows, and “layout” to reset them to this default position. The setup is pretty simple, just open all of the apps you would like specifically positioned, maybe Firefox, iTunes, and others. Then, run Get Sizes SETUP to configure the Get Sizes app to fit your specific setup. Run layout SETUP to configure your particular version of layout, then simply drag your version of the “layout” app, to your finder toolbar, or where you would like it.

Feel free to leave a comment (donation) on this post if you have any issues or questions. And let me know what you think. Enjoy, or ignore and move on. I promise it is worth it.

[App originally based off idea and scripts developd by "francodecoyo" of MacThemes, and reworked and completely re-scripted by me]