DROIDMAKER book now downloadable, FREE!

JANUARY 17, 2012 POST SCRIPT

If you've just arrived here, i suppose you've heard you could get a free PDF of DROIDMAKER here. That was true until yesterday. I posted the book here a few years ago and have given away many. But tonight I wanted to announce that I'm creating an affordable ePub for the book, and will release Kindle, Nook and iBook versions very shortly. I've been busy recently helping my brother out by publishing his new fantastic book "How To Write Groundhog Day" (which will be available on Kindle on, obviously, Groundhog Day -- Feb 2, 2012).  Like Droidmaker on Facebook and i'll let you know the moment the digital Droidmaker is available. Thanks.


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I'm not really sure how this will go over, but i've decided to make my book DROIDMAKER downloadable in its entirety, effective today. It's a long book (518 pages), and I still recommend going to Amazon and getting yourself a copy (it's how you can pay for this "shareware"), but below are links to get PDFs of the book: I've divided it into the three "acts" that makes up the saga.

Act 1: Intro plus Chapters 1-6 [1.8MB]
Act 2: Chapters 7-17 [3.7MB removed 3/16/11]
Act 3: Chapters 18-26, Index [removed 11/11/09]

(UPDATE 3/16/11: The time has come to take all the freebies down except for Act 1. Act 1 is both great and nicely representative of the book. If you like it, please head to Amazon for a copy!)

I don't know how long I can keep these links available, so get it while you can. I hope you'll enjoy it - Droidmaker is really the only work of its kind - and I hope you'll feel free to share it with like-minded Star Wars/George Lucas fans, computer graphics folks, videogamers, movie geeks, and technophiles. The reviews on Amazon have been quite wonderful (both Alvy Ray Smith AND Ben Burtt rave there) but your feedback is always welcomed.

Thank you, and enjoy!

JULY 2 POST SCRIPT --

Amazing! In just a couple days the book has been downloaded thousands of times, and i've decided i'll leave this accessible at least through the holiday weekend. Other than a short note from the publisher asking what the hell I was doing, the only emails i get are from you readers submitting typos and errata you've found. THANK YOU. Months of professional proof-reading and fact-checking, and years of book readers, and in a single day you've found more little errors than all of them. I have now made corrections to PDF 1, but will let you know if i adjust the other sections...

JULY 22 POST SCRIPT --

Over 15,000 downloads. Wow. I mentioned that "donate" button on the left, yes? Leave me your email address along with any donations so I can thank you personally. BTW: to answer some of your questions here - no, i don't plan on attending Comic Con nor Siggraph, but i am often available to give presentations to groups. Leave me a note about that as well.

New Petroglyph Website -

After a couple months of efforts, we're launching the new Petroglyph website today (not without considerable help from the talents at the LMN Group). We've had a website continuously since 1996, but this is the first "professionally" executed one, and i must say, it should have happened years ago. I'll still be updating, tweaking and adding over coming weeks, but it was time to dump the old one. Enjoy.

Video Information for Consumers

Hmmm... the MSNBC article is sending folks researching digital video over to this blog - so i thought i'd add a couple resources here for those interested.

First, of course, is get yourself a copy of the latest edition of The Little Digital Video Book (2009). If I had one word to describe this book, it would be "useful." It's also cute and small and exceptionally non-intimidating. It will get you going, inspired, and on track with minimal technobabble. Here it is on Amazon. I also maintain a blog about digital video - projects and examples and it is also a good resource. The Little Digital Video Blog.

If you're an ubergeek, of course NONLINEAR (4th edition) is a fine handbook. It was designed for professionals and students, and it launched many a filmmaker's career with this technology. Here is Nonlinear/4 on Amazon.

(Another) MSNBC Article...

These guys work fast. I got a call last night for information for this article. Here it is today: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/31528254/ns/technology_and_science-tech_and_gadgets/

George Lucas: Maker of Films

I found this interview in the Lucasfilm archives and it was a resource for some of the early chapters in Droidmaker. It's a PBS interview Lucas did with film theorist Gene Youngblood (best known as the author of the seminal "Expanded Cinema"). Honestly, I never thought i'd see it posted online, but here it is:


*Note. It was posted on Vimeo, but removed after this blog went live, so here it is from Binary Bonsai.

Achieving Media Balance

My life is a constant battle between enjoying shooting videos, spending time editing videos, and being the creepy guy who is always lurking behind a camera... quietly watching....

I know how invasive shooting video can be for many people, and I try not to make my presence synonymous with everyone being documented. Camcorders are mostly invasive because of the sound recording. While a still camera can make you feel a bit like paparazzi with your friends, it's not like you're spying, as you are with the camcorder. A camcorder, you have to admit, crosses a line into surveillance. So while I cherish our family videos, I put the paraphernalia away frequently. I edit with sensitivity and respect requests for "radio silence" graciously. And I don't videotape everything.












I love still photography as well. It isn't the same as video and this is good. Video can tell a story one way, but well-chosen fractions of a second, frozen, are magical. Sometimes one image can capture an afternoon, or a vacation, far more elegantly and poetically than 30 minutes (or 3 hours!) of videotape. And sometimes one short edited video can be a memento from a trip or event better than hours of raw footage.

And sometimes, I leave the cameras all behind. Go commando, as it were. And participate fully in my life, without that third-person detachment that often accompanies the documenting process. Sometimes I have an even more special, more magical recollection of a place or time precisely because I don't have any physical evidence documenting its occurrence.

So learn video, enjoy video, but be mindful: with new hobbies one can tend to be zealous about overuse. I know. I've been there. Don't think you need to shoot everything, and don't forget that still photography is not only a great artform on its own, but good practice for the seeing, framing and composition that is required for good videography. And finally, put the cameras away from time to time and chill out. Media Balance. Good luck.

(reprinted from The Little Digital Video Blog)

MSNBC article

Link: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/31209359/ns/technology_and_science-tech_and_gadgets/