Tuesday, October 03, 2006

PSA-DIY: The Desk


this video is a 3 week journey. a 10 min, 49 mb, 3 week journey. i am experimenting with making video sizes larger, as are a few other folks like schlomo and because we've been working with widescreen stuff on RyanIsHungry and Scoble's show. so i'm less afraid to push it a little bit. enjoy!

25 comments:

Anonymous said...

that came out SERIOUSLY sweet!
the handles are loud i agree but you'll eventually find something to fit.... or you can fill in the holes and make new ones (since its dark, it wont be very noticeable).

jenn and i have done some projects like this... buy furniture at auctions and refinish some of them. a lot of work but its worth it when you get to stand back and look at the (re)finished product.

awesome video. thanks.

sull

Anonymous said...

Looks good. I was able to download and watch it fine.

Have fun in India!

Anonymous said...

The desk came out great--I actually like the funky faux rococo pulls. Adds a little interest to a rather plain desk. The dark wood, light paint is a nice contrast, too. I always like the paint and dark stain combo. Good job, Ryan!

Dez said...

Hey Ryanne!

I bet you if you go to the Urban Ore in Berkeley and scrounge around in their old handle bins, you'd find handles that would fit that old sizing. < http://urbanore.citysearch.com/ >

I have to say, that desk turned out superb! Great work. I can tell you truly enjoy doing such things.

Verdi said...

That came out great! It's so funny that you've been working on that; I've been painting Lauren's room for 2 weeks now.

Unknown said...

this is a great work, the desk and the video too, but don't you think that instead of magnifing image it's better to lower compression, so you can have clear images and more contrast? enlarging width it's good but I think you lose in quality

Anonymous said...

I appreciate your 'experimenting' with larger file sizes, Ryanne, but you do realise that it greatly limits how many people can actually access your video, setting unnecessary limits on the potential for discussion?

M. Matthews said...

thanks for making so much of your life a how 2.

ryanne said...

concerning comrpession:
this video was shot originally at 320x240 and then enlarged to DV so i could edit in final cut and then brought down to 480x360. the image would not have been clear no matter what size i made it. the original recording is pixelly to begin with which pretty much determines what the end result will be. i just wanted a larger frame size is all. the camera really determines the quality.

as for limiting the conversation:
huh? who couldn't download this that has been able to watch me before? someone on dial up? i highly doubt that anyone has been watching my videos on dial up if this is what you mean. and to be exact, the larger screen size has little to do with people being able to download this video. it's 10 minutes long and 49 mb, that's 4.9 mb per minute. my regular 320 x 240 videos are compressed a wee bit higher generally at 5-5.5 mb per minute. so what were you saying?

ryanne said...

p.s. ah ha, jay just told me that matthew is INDEED on dial up!
well, it would have been that big anyway because it's 10 minutes long.

cheers!

JuanFalla said...

Beautiful desk!

Anonymous said...

Liked the desk. Never thought about non smelly varnish but it's essential when working in a flat....really interesting site:)

Josh Leo said...

so that is what you have been up to... well the top looks really great, and together it is very unique!

Sweet T said...

desk looks good ryanne. jay, you're a lucky man!

now you're making me want to get off my butt and actually finish the armoire we got for my niece's room.

Anonymous said...

If you're looking for a completely natural finish with no stinky chemical smells you could use tung oil:
http://www.realmilkpaint.com/oil.html
http://woodworker.com/cgi-bin/search.exe?search=tung%20oil&go=388
This stuff is made by pressing the seeds from the tung tree and refining the left over oil. Fine furniture builders have been using it for years. There are lots of tung oils out there but most have some oil based thinners and hardeners in them. These are the pure oil versions. I like to use this stuff and I no longer have a basement filled with many half used cans of toxic crap. Plus, if you really sand the piece smooth with an electric sander and a fine grit paper, this oil leaves a lovely satiny sheen finish that doesn't look like a coat of plastic.
Marky

Anonymous said...

I think it would look AWESOME if you screwed individual knobs into each of the holes - ie: 2 knobs per drawer. That way, you could even get a bunch of odd/non-matching ones of all different sizes, shapes and colours. It would be a very different look to what you have now but a really cool one.

-- Lisa

Anonymous said...

That looks 200 percent better than it did initially. Great job.

Evan (http://e-vlog.blogspot.com)

missbhavens said...

Removing paint and stinky varnish smells have stopped many a project dead in its tracks for me! Thanks for the tips!

it look very, very cool! Normally, I'd hate those pulls, but now that the desk itself is so sleek, I think they actually add a nice Funky McFunk vibe!

Lan Bui (of The Bui Brothers) said...

That is a nice desk now!!!

Jay must be very happy.

schlomo rabinowitz said...

I'm REALLY into making "alternative" sized videos these days. I'm starting to think about things like "hmm, if I can make the file small, like maybe 6mb, then why cant I make it fill the whole browser page?"

Things like this test.

What can I say, I get bored easily.

Anonymous said...

great video

reminds me of some of your early videoblogs.

the desk looks real nice!

Anonymous said...

Great job on the desk! It looks really nice.

For your next project, you may want to consider YOLO Paints. They have ZERO VOC's.

Headsoff said...

That was really great. I never knew stripping paint coudl be so "easy"....

Anonymous said...

That came out Ausome and you made it look so easy!

Anonymous said...

Ryanne, the desk looks great and I feel inspired and empowered to do this myself! Thanks!