Now Archive | 2025-04-20
Last updated 2025-02-27 from Chicago, IL
Personal
Welp, have neglected keeping a log of my own life for so long we’ve had another kid since I last did this. So that takes up a little bit of time.
Work
Went through a lot of substantial staffing changes at our company so roles have been shuffled around again. Still kind of adapting to that. Having a month off for paternity still feels a little like a stake in the ground, before and after that, so it kind of feels like having something to compare my habits to now.
Funsies
Been able to go to some friends’ short film screenings and festivals lately! Also finally upgraded my iPad and traded in my loop pedal for an audio interface, although I haven’t used those together as much as I’d like.
Severance BTS
Posting this link mainly just to see how long Apple keeps this page up.
In the lack of DVD extras, some behind-the-scenes content is easier to find than others ;)
If you can squint through the marketing on this, and the accompanying article, there’s lots of very enjoyable little nuggets. I feel encouraged that remote access editing is a standard practice for example.
Update: Title designer Tyler Lotta shared some BTS of his work.
H/t to befores & afters, his behance link is worth checking out.
Update 2: Just started listening to the Rough Cut podcast with the editing team.
Better Looping Expression in After Effects
TL;DR:
loopOut(“continue”) is better than time*…
I am not an After Effects expression expert, but I try to save time where I can. So I can’t say this is definitively better, in all cases, but I find this is a better way to loop things in After Effects. Especially things like transforms on noise generators or the like. Basically, when it’s time to animate some noise, I prefer to use this loopOut expression instead of time* simply because I can drag the keyframes to adjust the speed the animation, instead of having to go back to the expression. It feels way more natural to me.
Expression Demo
So that’s the tip, hope it helps someone, namely myself to remember to use it.
Youtube Keyboard Shortcuts
Just sharing the knowledge. This is one of those things I forget that I know. I’d say >50% of the videos hosted by YouTube I watch, I immediately whack the Shift+> keys to speed it up.
| Key | Function |
|---|---|
| j | Seek backward 10 seconds |
| k | Play/Pause |
| l | Seek forward 10 seconds |
| m | Mute/Unmute |
| , | Step backward 1 frame |
| . | Step forward 1 frame |
| < | Slow down playback |
| > | Speed up playback |
Now Archive | February 27, 2025
Last updated September 18, 2023 from Chicago, IL
Personal
Looking at another birthday on the horizon (and remembering I’ll be sharing this season with my son from now on). Always a strange time of year, mixed emotions of anticipation and regret (just regular aging and looking back at one’s life) but I think I feel some more contentment than usual this year. I am continually beyond thankful for a healthy child, that might be my baseline happiness in life now. So a pretty good place to be.
Work
I think I’ve said the word process more in the past 6 months than other time in my life. We are in the midst of a bit of a refinement period, refining how we operate and creating room for growth. It is equal parts exciting and challenging.
As far as skill building, I feel like I’m growing in different ways at a steady rate–which I’m thankful for—but still not specializing as much as I’d like. I think I’m coming to a point where I really need to practice delegating and letting things go out of my control so I can say no to different things and yes to others.
Funsies
Playing a little more music lately, getting ideas to the hard point and then moving on to something else. Been playing the NYT daily crossword somewhat regularly. Finally got back into our family budget and actually been keeping up with that, which is its own satisfaction. And trying to refine my personal processes in writing and computing, using some inspiration from work (see above). And was going to say not much new in physical activity, but I actually have been doing some Apple Fitness+ classes lately, so I hope to continue those.