DIGIPENDENCE - declare yours!

This is INCREDIBLY beautiful. And is that Martin Sheen I hear in the voiceover? If it plays as well as it looks, Bioware has another hit on its hands.

This is the launch trailer for Mass Effect 2. This video gives you an idea of the gravity of the situation facing Commander Shepard. The Illusive Man and his Cerberus group have recruited you to stop humanity from falling prey to the Collectors, a race of insectoid aliens who are stealing humans from across the galaxy. As Shepard, you must assemble a squad of assassins, savages, psychotics, scientists and soldiers to try to stop the Collectors attacks. It is up to you to save the galaxy from this threat. Assemble your team and get ready for Mass Effect 2.

1985 LA Times file photo by Mel Melcon

Legendary Art Clokey stop-motion animator, who with his wife, Ruth, created the stop-motion animation series Gumby and then later, the Davey and Goliath series, has died in California at 88.

From the New York Times:

Asparagus green and fashioned from clay, Gumby made his television debut in 1956 on “The Howdy Doody Show.” The next year, he became the star of “The Gumby Show,” in which he embarked on a string of gently quixotic adventures with his supple steed, Pokey. The series was one of the first extended uses of stop-motion animation on television.

Read the rest of the NYT’s obit. Also see the Los Angeles Times obit. Visit The Deep Archives for a detailed tribute to Clokey which includes Gumby storyboards and pictures of him at work animating.

Reallusion has announced the debut of its line of iPhone apps with the free 10x Camera Tools designed to give you “the top 10 digital imaging tools to make your iPhone a true digital camera and photo manager”.