Tech Tuesday: Using the ForcePad and how 3d printing is changing animation

This week on News 1130 radio in Vancouver I talked about these items:

• ForcePad is going to change your trackpad: The introduction of the ForcePad by Synaptics is set to radically change how we use the trackpads on our laptops. Unlike traditional trackpads with basic scrolling and multi-touch gestures, the ForcePad can recognize five different pressure points, each with up to 1000 grams of pressure and 64 levels of differentiation giving you many more options for control. Instead of clicking 3-4 times to fast forward a movie, you simply tap the same button and the harder you press, the faster it goes…let go and it returns to normal playback speed. This opens up a world of new control options for gaming as well. (source)
• 3d printing changed the face of ParaNorman: The stop-motion children’s movie currently in theatres used 3d printing technology to change the way the characters were modeled. Instead of the traditional way using clay, which would require many duplicates of a characters face to cover the range of expressions, the creators of ParaNorman used a 3d printer which enabled them to create thousands of variations of the face of the main character which then effectively gave them over 1.5 million combinations to play with in creating much more realistic facial expressions that they could animate with greater speed. The end result is much more believable characters in the movie. (source)