A long, long time ago (1998 to be exact) and in anticipation of the release of the first of three Star Wars prequels, toy maker Jason Deyer and his buddy Steve Ross were approached to design ‘Dealer Loaders’ for promotions and giveaways. But because they were ‘unapproved vendors’ (AKA not part of George Lucas’ monolith) Jason and his friend had to base their designs on the original trilogy.

You can check out the original drawings on Jason’s blog, Action Figure Insider, and you also can hear an interview about his trials and tribulations on NPR. Make sure to check out NPR’s Bryant Park Project page on the Star Wars merchandise, here. (Click ‘Listen Now’ for the interview).

Death Star BBQ Grill Anyone?

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A couple days ago I posted about Animoto- a very cool web service that I’ve been alpha testing for the past few months. In the most basic of descriptions (and this really doesn’t do Animoto justice), the site matches your photos to music for a unique, one of a kind “slideshow.” Honestly though, it’s super cool– like nothing else I’ve ever seen.

So, to honor their public beta launch today at around 3:22am Eastern Time, and mostly because Animoto rocks the hizouse, I was fortunate enough to convince Brad Jefferson, Co-Founder and CEO of Animoto.com to give us an exclusive interview. Thanks Brad, and thanks Animoto! Enjoy, and definitely go check out the site! [for some nitty gritty details, check out the Animoto Press Kit]

BLOGADILLA: Animoto is an entirely new way to interact with and view photos. What is the vision behind the project? Has your team’s vision changed as you’ve developed the site, or has it remained constant from the beginning?

BRAD: Part of the vision for Animoto is to catch the internet up to the type of production value commonly seen in film and television, and then give that type of production value to people in a way that is simple yet powerful. Our technology is focused on emulating the actual process that a post-production crew for film and television goes through. To that end, the fun part is that our Cinematic Artificial Intelligence algorithm is really more of an art than a science so the potential for improvement is unending.

BLOGADILLA: What do you see as the main target for Animoto: to operate as a standalone entity, or to interface with existing websites, such as myspace, facebook, etc?

BRAD: Short answer, all the above! We see Animoto.com as the place where users create, collect, share and view Animoto videos but the consumption of Animoto videos is not limited to our website. Through a partnership with an interesting company called Clearspring, our users can post their Animoto videos to any website, such as social network sites like MySpace and Facebook, with a click of a button. We plan to also allow consumption of Animoto videos through cell phones and ipods in the future.

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