Using QuickTime to create stop-motion animated movies

While exploring the "Open Image Sequence" feature on Quicktime to create a simple Slideshow of images, I noticed that the combo box presented some values that were odd for someone trying to create a slideshow of pictures:

Although values like "3 seconds per frame" may seem acceptable for showing a slideshow of photos (each photo would be displayed for 3 seconds), "15 frames per second" seems to be just a little bit too fast to see all your photos (it means that 15 photos would be displayed in a second, which basically means that you wouldn't be appreciating any of them).

This got me thinking: "Why would you need to go through a slideshow in such a rush?". And then the geeky part of the brain kicked in and I remembered that this is how stop-motion animation movies work.

The idea of stop-motion is as old as cinema since the whole concept of films/movies is based on a stop-motion technique. Basically a camera is a mechanism that captures photos at a very fast rate (usually 24 frames per second). When we reproduce the captured images at the same rate, our brain fills in the gaps between the images, producing the illusion of movement.

Stop-motion works in that exact way: we capture some still images and then while reproducing them at a very fast rate, the images will perceive as having movement between them. To get a clear idea of how this is made, check out the Wikipedia page on this subject.

Excited with the idea of creating a stop-motion animation movie (basically because the movie "Nightmare Before Christmas" is one of my favourite movies of all time - well, at least my favourite animated musical) after discovering how easy it would be to put it all together on Quicktime, I decided to give it a try.

So, I mounted my camera (Canon Digital IXUS 400) on a tripod and took some sequenced photos of my USB Pen being disconnected from the USB hub. After putting it together on Quicktime, this is the result (reproduced at different speeds):

• 6 frames per second:

• 10 frames per second:

• 15 frames per second:

Looks nice, eh? You can also apply this same concept to time lapse movies (that will be my next try).

How to make your Linux look like Mac OS X

If you're planning to use Linux on your Mac, but you're still looking for that Mac feel, check out this great tutorial on how to turn your Linux desktop into something very similar to Mac OS X.

 There's a simpler tutorial specifically directed at Ubuntu users.

How to setup Apache, PHP and MySQL on your Mac

If you're a PHP developer and have recently switched to a Mac, you'll have noticed by now that setting up PHP and MySQL on Mac OS X (Apache is already bundled with Macs) is not that simple, especially for a newbie.

Luckily, MAMP (acronym for Mac, Apache, MySQL, PHP) comes to the rescue. This special-purposed application allows you to manage the three applications automatically on your Mac, making it ready to start coding your PHP-based web sites with MySQL databases right away.

The configuration created by MAMP is not intended to be the appropriate web environment for you to host your dynamic web pages, but at least is good enough for the developing stage. You can even choose between PHP4 or PHP5.

Source: Mac Tips

Windows vs. Mac: a picture that says it all

I've just stumbled upon this picture, which made me laugh inside and think: "This is so true!"

The picture actually says it all, and I know what I'm talking about. I've been a Windows user for many years until I recently decided to switch to a Mac. And due to the Apple philosophy of "things just work", the switching process was pretty peaceful.

But getting back to the picture, it really represents my state of mind towards the two operating systems. On Mac OS X, things are made simple and for most of them to work you just have to find the on/off button, which most of the times it is as easy to find as that big yellow button on the picture. It's really that simple and intuitive. Whereas in Windows, things are by nature complicated and most of them don't even work properly. And if you decide to pop up the hood and fiddle around with the settings, you may end up with a busted machine.

And while the picture may seem to favor the Mac way, it actually also reveals the dark side of Apple. Ok, things are simple, intuitive and they work. But what if you would like to change something? For example, what if instead of having the big yellow button on the engine of the car on the picture, you would like to see that button on the dashboard of the car? That's where things can go wrong.

Apple designs things to work in a specific way and they do it very well. But they do it by controlling what the user has access to. By limiting the user experience to the known-to-work-without-any-problems features, they avoid any "bad press" about their products.

Don't get me wrong, as I said above I love the Apple philosophy since it is the way to go with unexperienced users. But sometimes, when my nostalgic college Linux-geek part of the brain kicks in, I wish I could change some of the settings of Mac OS X. And to do so, you have to be an experienced user because if you take a wrong turn somewhere, you may end up like the guy in the picture. But not the one with the smiley face...I'm talking about the frustrated one next to the broken car.

How to force Safari to open a new window on a tab

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While I was making a face-off between Safari and Firefox, one of the things that I didn't like about Safari was the default behaviour of opening '_blank' links on new windows. Even though I posted a solution for this before, this required the installation of a specific plugin in Safari.

Now, with the new 3.1 version of Safari, a more elegant solution is available. In order to change this default behaviour and force Safari to open new windows on new tabs, just execute the following command on Mac OS X's Terminal (located in Applications/Utilities):

defaults write com.apple.Safari TargetedClicksCreateTabs -bool true

To return to the default setting just execute the same command but with false on the end:

defaults write com.apple.Safari TargetedClicksCreateTabs -bool false

Source: Mac OS X Tips

How to play (almost) all video codecs in QuickTime?

If you have ever used the combination FrontRow + Apple Remote on your Mac, you know what an amazing feature this is. It allows you to easily navigate through all of your music, photos and movies stored in your computer.


Well, not exactly "all movies" since it is only able to play the videos encoded in a QuickTime-supported codec. If you have any AVI or MPEG video files encoded with DivX or XviD (or any other video codec), they won't play on Front Row (or QuickTime for that matter). In order for them to play, you have to encode them into a QuickTime-supported format, which can be done using applications such as iSquint.


iSquint is mainly an iPod converter application, which is able to convert almost all kinds of multimedia files into a QuickTime/iPod acceptable format. However, you can also use it for converting to the Apple TV format, which in turn is accepted in Front Row.

Even though this application is a lot faster than QuickTime Pro (and free), it is still quite a time-consuming task to convert a whole bunch of videos to that format. It would be a lot easier to just use the files directly in QuickTime/Front Row.

Luckily, there are some amazing applications that allow you to do just that. Perian, as stated in its website, is the swiss-army knife for QuickTime.


Perian is a free, open source QuickTime component that adds native support for many popular video formats. It enables QuickTime application support for the following Media Types:

• AVI, FLV, and MKV file formats
• MS-MPEG4 v1 & v2, DivX, 3ivX, H.264, FLV1, FSV1, VP6, H263I, VP3, HuffYUV, FFVHuff, MPEG1 & MPEG2 Video, Fraps, Windows Media Audio v1 & v2, Flash ADPCM, Xiph Vorbis (in Matroska), MPEG Layer II Audio
• AVI support for: AAC, AC3 Audio, H.264, MPEG4, and VBR MP3
• It even supports SSA and SRT subtitles

Once installed, as you can see, Perian will allow QuickTime to play all these formats natively, which means that you don't need to do anything different to play them on QuickTime or Front Row.

The only common format that Perian does not support is WMV. That's where Flip4Mac comes in handy. It does exactly what Perian does in QuickTime for all those formats but only for the WMV format.

To sum up, all you need to play all video codecs on QuickTime (at least, the most common ones) is to install Perian and Flip4Mac. Guaranteed success :-)

The fight of the "thin" laptops

The Lenovo ThinkPad X300 laptop may never be as cute and appealing as the MacBook Air, but you have to admit that this ad does bring the MacBook Air down:

I especially like the "no-compromise" and "everything else is just hot air" statements :-)
The war for the "ultimate ultralight thin" title in the world of laptops has begun! And right now, it seems that the Lenovo is ahead of its competition.

Source: Engadget

How to quickly resize your Dock

I've just discovered the most interesting trick about the Mac OS X's Dock. If, for some reason, you need to resize the Dock because an application is beneath it or you just need the extra space at the bottom of the screen, all you have to do is click and drag (up or down) in one of the Dock's separators. This will immediately resize your Dock to the corresponding size.

Check out this video I just did to have a clear idea of what I'm saying:

iPhone SDK and the Gaming Industry: a perfect marriage

So far the accelerometer feature of the iPhone has only been used in simple functionalities like the automatic adaptation of the display (from normal to landscape view) when the user rotates the device. But ever since I have a Mac that it puzzles me why has this feature been so underestimated in Apple products, especially in small devices like the iPhone and iPod Touch.

Ok, I understand that this feature may not be the best practice for laptops (to avoid any accidents or damage to internal moving parts) and, except for some really fun applications (like LiquidMac and MacSaber), this feature is not really needed.

But now that Apple has released the iPhone SDK, we'll see (in the near future) some interesting games that will take advantage of the accelerometer feature of the iPhone. Check out this video, featured in the iPhone SDK launch event:



Uau! It makes you wonder why wasn't the PSP built this way, doesn't it?

Even virus are prettier on a Mac

Mac OS X doesn't have a lot of virus. Or at least I think it doesn't (my experience with Mac OS X is still only a few months old). But when the Newton Virus hits your Mac, at least you won't feel bad about it having caught a virus. Here's why:



Source