Back in January, I wondered why there was no web-app that transformed a photo you upload into a Na’vi character from Avatar.  While I still haven’t found one (although I really haven’t been looking), I did find these fantastic instructions to Photoshop yourself as a Na’vi.  The example the author walks you through creates a Tom Cruise avatar:

And via /Film, here’s Shrevatar:

Terrific infographic from Permuto.  Click for full graphic.

(Nod: GOOD)

This short film by H5 is nominated for Best Animated Short Film at the Oscars on Sunday.  “Amazing” doesn’t begin to describe the creative achievement in LOGORAMA.

In a world made up entirely of trademarks and brand names, Michelin Man cops pursue a criminal Ronald McDonald.

Watch the video (contains profanity):

Big thanks to Jon Nagle for showing me this!

Steven Heller discusses:

(Nod: The Daily Dish)

A very informative motion graphics piece:

(Nod: GOOD)

(Nod: The Daily Dish)

Awesome tilt-shift of New York City by Sam O’Hare:

I tried this with some of my photos once.  Cool effect.

Google Maps have hit the slopes.  You can now see ski slopes in Street View.

You can check out the Olympic slopes in Vancouver, too.  I think my favorite part of this new feature is the little character you drag along the map to see Street View.  In normal maps, he looks like this:

But on the slopes, he looks like this:

Nice touch, and another great feature from The Google.

The Favourite Website Awards site of the day today: Record Tripping.

To play different games, you use your mouse’s scroll wheel (or trackpad) like you would scratch a record.  Very inventive and beautifully designed and executed.  This kind of stuff makes me jealous.

A terrific and funny grammar lesson.

(Nod: Meig)

One thing I love to do with my Mac is change the icons—from the folder icons to the device icons to the application icons.  I especially love when I can update my icons with a unified look.

This week, icon powerhouse The Iconfactory released a new, massive set of free iPhone-inspired icons and extras designed by Louie Mantia and David Lanham. The icons are outstanding—and look great on my Mac, giving my system icons and my application icons a terrific, unified look.  Here are a few of my favorites:

In the top row are the icons for iTunes, Pages, and the system folder; in the bottom row are the icons for GarageBand, Mail, and the music folder.

• the iTunes icon uses the familiar double eighth note of the default iTunes icon and places it over a beautiful, blurred gradient that evokes the light effect from a CD
• the Pages icon uses a fountain pen similar to the default Pages icon, and the background of this icon evokes an ink well complete with ripple-effect
• the system folder icon uses the branding of Mac OS X Snow Leopard
• the GarageBand icon is a lovely cropping of a guitar similar to the default guitar icon
• the Mail icon is a stunningly simple crop of an envelope; and
• the music folder icon is a fiery update of the iPod touch music icon

Just as the default Snow Leopard icons are painstakingly created with amazing detail, so too are the Flurry icons. Again, the iTunes icon:

Address Book icon:

Pages icon:

Pubic folder icon:

Music folder icon:

Trash icon:

GarageBand icon:

System folder icon:

They even managed to make a System Preferences icon that is better than the iPhone Settings icon:

Overall, the Flurry icon set is outstanding.  Well done, Louie Mantia and David Lanham!

This commercial debuted last week and is easily one of the funniest, most intelligent “This Is SportsCenter” commercials yet:

I probably wouldn’t have appreciated it as much had I not recently road-tripped to Boston and been at the Old North Church.

This isn’t new, but I think it’s brilliant.  Jonathan Jarvis is responsible for this tremendous motion graphics information graphic titled “The Crisis of Credit” in which he explains the underlying reasons for the credit crisis with simple, slick, and stunning visuals and animations.  He writes:

The goal of giving form to a complex situation like the credit crisis is to quickly supply the essence of the situation to those unfamiliar and uninitiated. This project was completed as part of my thesis work in the Media Design Program, a graduate studio at the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California.

“The Short and Simple Story of the Credit Crisis”:

Here’s another fantastic motion graphics piece by Jarvis:

The New Mediators is a design practice that helps to clarify complicated situations. By designing graphic language systems that function across print, video, interactive and performance formats, it proposes a new role for designers and a new approach to transparency in an increasingly complex world.

New Mediators are practitioners who combine methods from design, journalism, and narrative analysis. The result is designed transparency—information that is not only made available, but accessible, relevant and beautiful.

This introductory animation attempts the method advocated by the New Mediators to explain the project itself.

The New Mediators:

A very slick motion graphics piece by Fairly Painless Advertising and Imaginary Forces for careers at Herman Miller:

(Nod: Motionographer)

Check out this terrific set of motion graphics pieces for Toshiba.

(Nod: Motionographer)

A nice illustration/animation piece with an interesting message (check the subtitles):

(Nod: Motionographer)

The New York Times last week released an awesome, and I do mean awesome, interactive graph of how people spend their day.  You can break-down the graph by group (e.g. men, women, age, etc.) and isolate specific activities (e.g. work, sleep, computer use, etc.).  I learned that at 11:10pm, 1% of Americans are using their computer and 66% are sleeping.  I’m about to join the latter.

(Nod: Lifehacker)

I learned something new about my Mac tonight.  While I was reading an article online, I wanted a quick way to look up the meaning of “fiat.”  I knew that in Safari, if you highlight a word and right-click, an option in the resulting menu allows you to look that work up in the native dictionary app:

Also, with a highlighted word in Safari, you can choose Safari > Services> Look Up in Dictionary:

But I’m using Firefox, and in Firefox, neither of these options are available.  I learned by experimenting, though, that I could highlight a word and then drag it to the dictionary app icon in my dock.  The dictionary opens up and reveals the definition of my word.  I love finding little usability gems.  Put this one on the list.

I was first introduced to someecards a couple years ago by a friend in grad school (thanks Gloo!), but I was recently reminded of them by a CNN article highlighting funny-haha websites.  Someecards are like your normal ecards, but the sayings on their ecards are part-funny and part-biting-satire with a healthy dose of inappropriateness thrown in and an occasional sprinkle of political wit.

From their website:

Someecards.com is possibly to probably the best site on the Web for free, funny ecards. We have greeting cards for every occasion-from important to utterly pointless. Send greetings for apology, birthday, baby, breakup, congratulations, encouragement, farewell, flirting, friendship, get well, sympathy, thanks, thinking of you, wedding, workplace, and holidays like Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, Valentine’s Day, Thanksgiving, and Christmas. We suggest you e-mail them to friends, family, coworkers, loved ones, liked ones, and anyone else with fingers.

This one from Independence Day:

This one from around Michael Jackson’s, Farrah Fawcet’s, and Ed McMahon’s death (not to mention the world events the ecard speaks of):

This one is a popular birthday ecard:

This one a popular workplace ecard:

This one from last year’s presidential election:

This one from a recent Appalachian Trail hiking trip:

And finally this one about Obama:

Also check out Western Spaghetti by the same artist.

JibJab does their first Obama video. Cue the hilarity:

If you didn’t get a chance last week to watch NBC’s Brian Williams’s two-part special going inside the Obama White House, you can catch the video online via MSNBC here.  Also while you’re there, be sure to check out the awesome interactive tour of the White House.

(Photo: Antoine Sanfuentes / NBC News)

The latest cover for The New Yorker magazine wasn’t designed in Photoshop, and it wasn’t created with paper and drawing materials; it was created with an iPhone.  Jorge Colombo used the app Brushes to create the cover:

Said Colombo:

I got a phone in the beginning of February, and I immediately got the program so I could entertain myself.

Thanks for entertaining the rest of us, too.  The best part, though, is that the app records your brushstrokes.  Watch Colombo create the cover:

(Nod: TUAW)

This isn’t new, but here’s an awesome HP ad designed by Stardust featuring Serena Williams:

(Nod: Bella)

…according to Facebook.  Christopher Beam and Chris Wilson at Slate imagine President Obama’s Facebook news feed for his first 100 days.  Terrific.

(Nod: The Daily Dish)