(no subject)
Yesterday was super geeky.
I wrote up a snazzy GreaseMonkey script to make DeviantArt suck less -- on DA, you can add people to your "DevWatch" list and see when they post new work. Sadly, unless you are a paid subscriber, you just get links in that list, and not preview images. I had been using an old extension in FireFox 1.5 that would load images in a sidebar, but it looks like DA changed the pages enough that it broke, so I finally upgrade my work machine to FF2. I wrote a new GM script that fires off an AJAX-esque request for each link, pulls back the page, searches for the embedded image URL (the page URL and image URL are unrelated, which is why this isn't simple), then loads the image in place of the link on the list page. It's pretty sweet, if I do say so myself, and was a fun exercise. Since the DA servers are slow, and a full page means firing off two hundred HTTP requests, it's not the speediest thing, but it works. I don't plan on widely releasing it, since if lots of people used it, DA would probably try changing the pages to break it -- but if any friends here who are on DA (and are FireFox/GreaseMonkey users) want it, just ask.
Last night I was also messing around in Photoshop, trying to automate some image contrast methods. I got some actions set up that essentially do some slick dodging/burning based on the the local brightness (and not just the absolute brightness of the pixel). The effect is similar to this, though I think my method leaves a little more room for fine control, since I split up the lightening and darkening layers (which can then be toned down or masked separately). I'll probably write up a tutorial on if for my website's blog.
I wrote up a snazzy GreaseMonkey script to make DeviantArt suck less -- on DA, you can add people to your "DevWatch" list and see when they post new work. Sadly, unless you are a paid subscriber, you just get links in that list, and not preview images. I had been using an old extension in FireFox 1.5 that would load images in a sidebar, but it looks like DA changed the pages enough that it broke, so I finally upgrade my work machine to FF2. I wrote a new GM script that fires off an AJAX-esque request for each link, pulls back the page, searches for the embedded image URL (the page URL and image URL are unrelated, which is why this isn't simple), then loads the image in place of the link on the list page. It's pretty sweet, if I do say so myself, and was a fun exercise. Since the DA servers are slow, and a full page means firing off two hundred HTTP requests, it's not the speediest thing, but it works. I don't plan on widely releasing it, since if lots of people used it, DA would probably try changing the pages to break it -- but if any friends here who are on DA (and are FireFox/GreaseMonkey users) want it, just ask.
Last night I was also messing around in Photoshop, trying to automate some image contrast methods. I got some actions set up that essentially do some slick dodging/burning based on the the local brightness (and not just the absolute brightness of the pixel). The effect is similar to this, though I think my method leaves a little more room for fine control, since I split up the lightening and darkening layers (which can then be toned down or masked separately). I'll probably write up a tutorial on if for my website's blog.