Creativity is at the heart of Blue Gene's background. From his love of words, he developed his own distinctive writing style and from there he put some of the poetry that he wrote music to. But Blue also has a talent for art drawing, painting and sculpting, and has always been drawn to the visual side of creativity. When computers became the norm for home users, Gene bought an Amiga for the graphic and music side of his work. He then graduated to a PC and went onto studying Multimedia at the University of East London in 1986.
In 1987 Blue obtained his diploma in Multimedia, and was inspired by Germanic electronic music by the likes of Kratwerk. It was in Germany that he first developed his writing skills to become a journalist for a music magazine; He discovered that he loved journalism and was good at it. When he came back to London in 1991 he continued to write for magazines specializing in music technology. After becoming disillusioned with the publishers that he wrote for he eventually set up SystemBabies - an online technology review magazine that took off. Blue then went on to launch Synapse Circuit. His love for technology and his passion for creativity have inspired him and made this online magazine a continuing success.
Making Video Reviews with CrazyTalk
Q: What made you choose Reallusion's CrazyTalk for your video reviews?
I have been reviewing Reallusion products over the years and was always impressed, and wished that I had the time to do something with them. So when I decided to move away from the interactive PDF magazine format, which I miss, I immediately put CrazyTalk 7 Pro to work!
With the interactive PDF I found that although my targeted audiences enjoyed reading the magazine, it was often too heavy to download as it was so packed with information (sometimes over 100 A4) that they didn't have time to read it all. I am always talking with some of my readers as they pick my brain for help when figuring out their tech, and I learned that they would prefer a more readily digestible format that they can easily access from their computer, tablet and mobile.
YouTube was, and is the way to go. In fact Kathryn of KL Associates has been encouraging me for a while to go video. Thank you, Kathryn!
SYNAPSE review made with CrazyTalk7
Q: Why not present the videos yourself?
Good question... I have been in the video industry as a cameraman many moons ago, before it went digital, and I can tell you that presenting doesn't come easy to me. I have worked with the likes of Suzi Perry (formerly of the Gadget Show) at the start of her career and her professionalism is very intimidating - not Suzi personally! It was amazing to see her read a script and improvise like it was nothing. She can get a presentation down in one or two takes.
I am too self conscious to present, so I am one of those folk who cannot bear to watch his or her self on video, and to top it off I actually hate my voice. I am terrible, aren't I?
So CrazyTalk is a great solution for me.
Q: What's the inspiration behind the avatars?
I LOVE science fiction as it has influenced the Synapse Circuit.com website design. With great sci-fi in mind - especially the Channel 4 (UK) TV movie and series Max Headroom, I set about looking for avatars that would make for great presenters. I chose the present avatars from images I found on Google and then modified them in order to avoid breach of copyrights.
I was delighted to make an idea into reality as animating avatars in CrazyTalk 7 Pro was a cinch. Writing the script is the hardest part due to the fine line between overloading the viewer with too much technical information that potentially scares off my intended audience. Now I am using video with the blogs that the audience really appreciates.
It always amazes me to see the avatars come alive and that's what my audience finds stunning too. With CrazyTalk the avatars look so real. So if I wanted to do some graphics for a sci-fi movie that required a virtual presence, then I'd use CrazyTalk as it is super-fast to use. I will keep heaping praises for Reallusion and their superlative software. Now I am looking forward to CrazyTalk 8 Pro!
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