<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?><rss version="2.0" xmlns:content="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/content/" xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/"><channel><title>Nathaniel Caauwe</title><description>Blog posts, blurbs, and YouTube videos from natecow.com</description><link>https://natecow.com/</link><image><url>https://natecow.com/rss/avatar.webp</url><title>Nathaniel Caauwe</title><link>https://natecow.com/</link></image><item><title>Yet Another New Website</title><link>https://natecow.com/blog/2026/07/yet-another-new-website/</link><guid isPermaLink="true">https://natecow.com/blog/2026/07/yet-another-new-website/</guid><description>Finally fulfilling a long-time goal of building my personal site from damn near scratch — here&apos;s the tour.</description><pubDate>Mon, 27 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMT</pubDate><content:encoded>&lt;p&gt;Approximately 1 million years ago, I used to spend 40 hours a week in an office building WordPress sites for clients, as well as coding custom themes using the Genesis framework. It was an interesting time period for me, and I&amp;#39;ve always had a toe in that world even as I shifted back to a career in VFX. Most of that has just been in the form of not being afraid to noodle with custom CSS on my old personal site or &lt;a href=&quot;https://sabercomp.com&quot;&gt;SaberComp&lt;/a&gt;, both of which were on Squarespace for many years. (SaberComp is now on Ghost.)&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;In the past year or two though, I&amp;#39;ve had more of an itch to get deeper into the web world again, and things like Claude Code have certainly given me a boost; being able to ask hyper-specific questions that pertain to exactly what I&amp;#39;m doing is like having Stack Overflow on steroids. Last fall—just as a test—I wanted to see what Claude Code could whip up on its own, so my brother said I could try it on &lt;a href=&quot;https://badcowserver.com&quot;&gt;BadCowServer&lt;/a&gt;. What you see there is all vibe-coded, with my biggest human input being the design of the frosted glass scrolling news updates on the Plex and Minecraft pages.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;So when it came time to finally rebuild my own personal site, I knew I wanted to do it properly this time: no drag-and-drop builder, no monthly subscription to a platform that owns my content. I wanted markdown files I control, a design that&amp;#39;s exactly mine, and something I actually understand under the hood. The stack that got me there was &lt;a href=&quot;https://astro.build/&quot;&gt;Astro&lt;/a&gt;, with Claude Code acting as my tutor rather than doing it all for me.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://natecow.com/blog/2026/07/yet-another-new-website/&quot;&gt;Read more on natecow.com &amp;#8594;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;</content:encoded><media:thumbnail url="https://natecow.com/rss/avatar-blog.webp"/></item><item><title>Blurb</title><link>https://natecow.com/blurbs/2026/07/27/</link><guid isPermaLink="true">https://natecow.com/blurbs/2026/07/27/</guid><pubDate>Mon, 27 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMT</pubDate><content:encoded>&lt;p&gt;Holy crap, this thing is working. Writing this as an excuse to test out my deployment through Cloudflare. Welcome to my new personal site, built on &lt;strong&gt;Astro&lt;/strong&gt;! 🚀&lt;/p&gt;</content:encoded><media:thumbnail url="https://natecow.com/rss/avatar-blurbs.webp"/></item><item><title>Blurb</title><link>https://natecow.com/blurbs/2026/07/19/</link><guid isPermaLink="true">https://natecow.com/blurbs/2026/07/19/</guid><pubDate>Sun, 19 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMT</pubDate><content:encoded>&lt;p&gt;Hannah and I spent some time at the water park yesterday and today. It’s just a few blocks from our house so it’s a brisk little walk, and we have a season pass. Mostly we just float around, but Hannah bought some goggles which we took out for the first time. We like to just see how far we can swim underwater (she smokes me every time). I call my underwater swims “salmon runs.”&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;When we were done tonight and the park was closing, we decided to just order a pizza and have it delivered there, and eat on the picnic tables out front. The driver arrived and handed me the pizza, but realized he forgot the drink. He ran back to the store and returned very quickly, but again apologized profusely because they didn’t have any Cherry Coke like we ordered, so he thought Mr. Pibb would be sufficient since it’s also cherry. I said “honestly this is an upgrade, thanks!” Had they listed Pibb on the menu I would’ve ordered it.&lt;/p&gt;</content:encoded><media:thumbnail url="https://natecow.com/rss/avatar-blurbs.webp"/></item><item><title>Blurb</title><link>https://natecow.com/blurbs/2026/07/16/</link><guid isPermaLink="true">https://natecow.com/blurbs/2026/07/16/</guid><pubDate>Thu, 16 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMT</pubDate><content:encoded>&lt;p&gt;Well well well… back to Zoic today 😄&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Pretty sure I’m getting real close to making this site live. I had Claude do a check over of everything and other than lots of pages that need content filled out, I’m nearly ready. I just keep getting busy with VFX work.&lt;/p&gt;</content:encoded><media:thumbnail url="https://natecow.com/rss/avatar-blurbs.webp"/></item><item><title>Blurb</title><link>https://natecow.com/blurbs/2026/07/14/</link><guid isPermaLink="true">https://natecow.com/blurbs/2026/07/14/</guid><pubDate>Tue, 14 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMT</pubDate><content:encoded>&lt;p&gt;One of the perks of modern computing is the fact that you may have one default web browser selected on your operating system. You may then be subjected to incessant banners and popups from every single other browser you have to make &lt;em&gt;them&lt;/em&gt; your default.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;I hate it here.&lt;/p&gt;</content:encoded><media:thumbnail url="https://natecow.com/rss/avatar-blurbs.webp"/></item><item><title>Blurb</title><link>https://natecow.com/blurbs/2026/07/13/</link><guid isPermaLink="true">https://natecow.com/blurbs/2026/07/13/</guid><pubDate>Mon, 13 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMT</pubDate><content:encoded>&lt;p&gt;Bit of a mental reset day. I wrapped my latest &lt;a href=&quot;../work/zoic-10&quot;&gt;Zoic booking&lt;/a&gt; on Friday. I have a project in hand I need to get started on as well as two clients I need to get back to about prospective work. But I also needed to change the catbox and clean up the litter he tracked around the basement.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;I experimented with &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.glaze.app/&quot; rel=&quot;noopener noreferrer&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;Glaze&lt;/a&gt; this weekend and built a nifty little project management app, and started drafting an in-depth blog post about that last night. But I really want my site to launch with &lt;a href=&quot;/blog/2026/07/yet-another-new-website&quot;&gt;Yet Another New Website&lt;/a&gt; on the homepage, so now I definitely have a ticking clock to get this whole thing out there.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Since I’ll likely go live before my endless &lt;a href=&quot;/vfx&quot;&gt;portfoloio&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;/work&quot;&gt;resume&lt;/a&gt; pages are fully filled out, content-wise, I recently added an &lt;a href=&quot;/updates&quot;&gt;updates&lt;/a&gt; page to track what’s been edited recently.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;blockquote&gt;
&lt;p&gt;R.I.P. Sam Neill ❤️&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;/blockquote&gt;</content:encoded><media:thumbnail url="https://natecow.com/rss/avatar-blurbs.webp"/></item><item><title>Blurb</title><link>https://natecow.com/blurbs/2026/07/03/</link><guid isPermaLink="true">https://natecow.com/blurbs/2026/07/03/</guid><pubDate>Fri, 03 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMT</pubDate><content:encoded>&lt;p&gt;Listening to &lt;a href=&quot;https://daringfireball.net/thetalkshow/2026/06/30/ep-451&quot; rel=&quot;noopener noreferrer&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;The Talk Show with John Gruber Episode 451&lt;/a&gt;, and around the 14:30 mark, guest John Moltz talks about “moving your purchasing down” in light of Apple’s price increases. He said he has the iPhone 17 and might look at the e-series for his next phone. Or don’t get the Pro iPhone.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;This is something Hannah and I already did. Last year, she and I went from our respective iPhones 13 Pro and 14 Pro, to the regular iPhone 16. Part of that decision was the lineup of colors; she got pink and I got blue. But I also was making a deliberate decision that I no longer needed a Pro phone. I’m also composing this on a MacBook Neo, Apple’s most affordable Mac laptop to date.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;I’m feeling the need to have the top of the line option less and less.&lt;/p&gt;</content:encoded><media:thumbnail url="https://natecow.com/rss/avatar-blurbs.webp"/></item><item><title>Blurb</title><link>https://natecow.com/blurbs/2026/06/17/</link><guid isPermaLink="true">https://natecow.com/blurbs/2026/06/17/</guid><pubDate>Wed, 17 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT</pubDate><content:encoded>&lt;p&gt;The Feast-or-Famine™ nature of freelance VFX life plows forward.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Yesterday, I secured a brief booking back at Zoic starting this coming Monday.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Today, I helped my brother with a network and home automation install; helping him finish that tomorrow.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Also today, I got an email from a friend about a short film that needs VFX and has a respectable budget.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;This evening, I got a text from another friend who needed some 911 roto and light comp work, which I’m working on right now.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;
&lt;p&gt;It was a long seven weeks of famine. Here’s hoping things are picking up for the summer.&lt;/p&gt;</content:encoded><media:thumbnail url="https://natecow.com/rss/avatar-blurbs.webp"/></item><item><title>Blurb</title><link>https://natecow.com/blurbs/2026/06/14/</link><guid isPermaLink="true">https://natecow.com/blurbs/2026/06/14/</guid><pubDate>Sun, 14 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT</pubDate><content:encoded>&lt;p&gt;Spent part of yesterday and today helping my brother Jeffrey do some color grading in Resolve. We shot the annual dance recital for the studio our cousins run. Using my BlackMagic and Jeffrey’s iPhone 15 Pro shooting LOG, we actually have quite a bit of success matching the two cameras to each other.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The process isn’t too shabby either. After he’s done with the editing, I log into his computer via &lt;a href=&quot;https://parsec.app/&quot; rel=&quot;noopener noreferrer&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;Parsec&lt;/a&gt; while we hang out on Discord. I poke through and make adjustments while bouncing ideas off him or generally complaining when I’m struggling with something. He had fun sending a video to a friend of his joking that he has an AI agent color grading for him… NateCowGPT 😜&lt;/p&gt;</content:encoded><media:thumbnail url="https://natecow.com/rss/avatar-blurbs.webp"/></item><item><title>Blurb</title><link>https://natecow.com/blurbs/2026/06/09/</link><guid isPermaLink="true">https://natecow.com/blurbs/2026/06/09/</guid><pubDate>Tue, 09 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT</pubDate><content:encoded>&lt;p&gt;Continuing the neverending quest to fill out this website with content. Still in the process of just creating markdowns and shoving basic information everywhere.&lt;/p&gt;</content:encoded><media:thumbnail url="https://natecow.com/rss/avatar-blurbs.webp"/></item><item><title>Blurb</title><link>https://natecow.com/blurbs/2026/06/08/</link><guid isPermaLink="true">https://natecow.com/blurbs/2026/06/08/</guid><pubDate>Mon, 08 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT</pubDate><content:encoded>&lt;blockquote&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Holy &lt;u&gt;fuck&lt;/u&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;/blockquote&gt;
&lt;p&gt;I’m not sure my VFX Portfolio or Resume page will ever be complete. The sheer number of stuff over the last… 18 years ( ! ) is simply too much to quantify in the form of markdown files. Nor would I necessarily want a record of every single little thing someone has paid me to paint, roto, or merge over something else.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;blockquote&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;life/2026/07/13&quot;&gt;July 13&lt;/a&gt; update: Added an &lt;a href=&quot;/updates&quot;&gt;updates&lt;/a&gt; page.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;/blockquote&gt;</content:encoded><media:thumbnail url="https://natecow.com/rss/avatar-blurbs.webp"/></item><item><title>Blurb</title><link>https://natecow.com/blurbs/2026/06/06/</link><guid isPermaLink="true">https://natecow.com/blurbs/2026/06/06/</guid><pubDate>Sat, 06 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT</pubDate><content:encoded>&lt;p&gt;Out running errands all day. Left Claude with a styling to-do list and came back to find the site mostly built out. Verdict TBD.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;blockquote&gt;
&lt;p&gt;This was an example post Claude created when I let it do some basic work while I was out. I’m leaving it here for posterity. There was like a solid week of design work after this, but it was adorably confident in what it did.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;/blockquote&gt;</content:encoded><media:thumbnail url="https://natecow.com/rss/avatar-blurbs.webp"/></item><item><title>Blurb</title><link>https://natecow.com/blurbs/2026/05/29/</link><guid isPermaLink="true">https://natecow.com/blurbs/2026/05/29/</guid><pubDate>Fri, 29 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT</pubDate><content:encoded>&lt;p&gt;[Taps mic]&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Check check. Is this thing on? Looks to be working.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;This is sort of where my little life page started, somewhere in the later stages of developing this site. Anything prior was ported over from my &lt;a href=&quot;https://blog.natecow.com/&quot; rel=&quot;noopener noreferrer&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;Micro.blog&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;</content:encoded><media:thumbnail url="https://natecow.com/rss/avatar-blurbs.webp"/></item><item><title>Bruce the Wonder Yak</title><link>https://natecow.com/blog/2026/05/bruce-the-wonder-yak/</link><guid isPermaLink="true">https://natecow.com/blog/2026/05/bruce-the-wonder-yak/</guid><description>Reminiscing on one of Final Cut Pro&apos;s classic easter eggs..</description><pubDate>Sun, 03 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT</pubDate><content:encoded>&lt;p&gt;I remember discovering Bruce the Wonder Yak in my Final Cut Pro days, having left Final Cut running idle for some time. A little patch of pixelated grass popped up on my timeline, and this little brown yak wondered out and started espousing random musings. As soon as you tried to interact with him, he’d get scared and run off screen. Positively delightful.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;What was more, I think I remember digging into the application package for FCP and finding a file that contained all his thoughts. The list always read to me like funny quotes from around the office during the development of the software, which was &lt;a href=&quot;https://apple.fandom.com/wiki/Bruce_the_Yak&quot; rel=&quot;noopener noreferrer&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;confirmed on this Apple Wiki&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;blockquote&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The 100 “Yak Bites” were composed on a whiteboard in a lounge near Ubillos’s office. Several reference the community’s early confusion about Bruce being a cow: “I’m concerned because the cow sounded pretty threatening”, “I am NOT a mad cow!”, and “What? You were expecting ‘Moo’ or something?”. Others reference internal culture, such as “Thirty quatloos says it crashes during launch!” (a Star Trek reference) and “Mostly clockwise, sometimes reverses…”&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;/blockquote&gt;
&lt;p&gt;My brother and I even snagged some of these to use as our &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.badcowserver.com/minecraft/&quot; rel=&quot;noopener noreferrer&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;Minecraft Server’s&lt;/a&gt; Message of the Day, which players see when logging in. So a lot of these quotes are both iconic and nostalgic to me. I distinctly remember having a screenshot of Bruce on my personal website with his quote “What You were expecting ‘Moo’ or something?”&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The reason I bring this up now is &lt;a href=&quot;https://bsky.app/profile/ebornian.bsky.social/post/3mkwwg6ft4c2i&quot; rel=&quot;noopener noreferrer&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;someone on Bluesky&lt;/a&gt; was pontificating about funny readme files hidden in old PC games. I wanted to bring up Bruce, and in my quick Googling to find an authoritative history of him, discovered &lt;a href=&quot;https://codybrom.github.io/CallTheYak/&quot; rel=&quot;noopener noreferrer&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;this wonderful Mac app&lt;/a&gt; by Cody Brom, which brings this tiny Yak back to life. He also wrote a &lt;a href=&quot;https://b10g.xyz/blog/2026/the-yak-is-back/&quot; rel=&quot;noopener noreferrer&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;great history page&lt;/a&gt; about him. Do enjoy :)&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;blockquote&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Fun fact: in my difficulty finding a clear screenshot online of Bruce, I opted to utilize Cody’s &lt;em&gt;Call The Yak&lt;/em&gt; app and screenshotted Bruce sitting on top of a full-res screenshot of FCP that I have on display on the &lt;a href=&quot;/youtube/avn&quot;&gt;Alex vs Nate&lt;/a&gt; page.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;/blockquote&gt;</content:encoded><media:thumbnail url="https://natecow.com/rss/avatar-blog.webp"/></item><item><title>I Didn&apos;t Think the Server Would Eat MY Face</title><link>https://natecow.com/blog/2026/04/dead-server/</link><guid isPermaLink="true">https://natecow.com/blog/2026/04/dead-server/</guid><description>A sudden server failure mid-project required frantic data recovery and reconfiguring tools I had setup long ago.</description><pubDate>Thu, 30 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT</pubDate><content:encoded>&lt;blockquote&gt;
&lt;p&gt;RE: The photo. This server being a mini-PC, was named Defiant on my network. “Tough little server.” As you’ll soon read, it wasn’t so tough. April 30th turned out to be a good day to die.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;/blockquote&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Approximately 24 hours ago I switched over to my PC and fired up Nuke because I needed to re-render a couple precomps on which I needed to do some lightsaber roto. One wasn’t rendered with the correct overscan and another shot wasn’t rendered at all. I opened the first script and was greeted with a watermark from Reel Smart Motion Blur, which was needed for said precomp.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;I figured my license server was off.. again. Recently it’s just been powering down for no reason. I went into my network closet to turn it back on and over the next few minutes, began to panic as I watched it kinda-sorta try to turn on and then fail. Status light would flicker a few times, I caught a glimpse of the startup screen once, and then it was just dead.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h2 id=&quot;dead-server&quot;&gt;Dead Server&lt;/h2&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Fantastic. Not only does this stupid little mini-PC serve my RSMB license, but my DaVinci Resolve Project Server also lives on it. I do occasional backups of those libraries to my Synology, but discovered my last backup was from JUNE 2025. BAD COW, VERY BAD COW.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;So today, I took it to the PC repair shop my brother works at, hoping it was just a faulty power cable. But it was not. So we cracked it open and took the M.2 drive out, and shoved it into their data recovery system (wish I had a photo of that; it’s glorious; just a motherboard and various IO hanging on a wall). Luckily we were able to boot right into the Windows 11 install that was on it, and I could get into the Resolve Project Server UI and export backups.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h2 id=&quot;restoring-resolve&quot;&gt;Restoring Resolve&lt;/h2&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Actively experiencing &lt;a href=&quot;https://xkcd.com/949/&quot; rel=&quot;noopener noreferrer&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;this xkcd comic&lt;/a&gt;, as one does in these situations, we just logged into my Synology dashboard, which I had bookmarked on the server, using my credentials saved in 1Password, which was also installed; yippee! Uploaded the Resolve backups to a safe place back home, then trekked home to sort that out.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Turned out you can’t just go from a project server setup to your local database, as the Project Server uses PostgreSQL and the local database uses some disk database setup. So after a few failed attempts and poking around, I ultimately just installed the Project Server software directly on my Mac Studio, and then restored the backup files and re-added them in the network tab in Resolve. The Mac is basically just looking at itself for “network” projects. Whatever. It’s working again.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h2 id=&quot;floating-license-fun&quot;&gt;Floating License Fun!&lt;/h2&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Next I figured I should get the RSMB floating license sorted out during normal business hours in case I needed to get support involved (spoiler: I did). Scouring their FAQ, I discovered this would involve a $49.95 license transfer fee. And I’d have to run a node lock remover tool on the old system and then send a text file that generates back to their sales department.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;So back to the shop I went, and we fired up the server and downloaded the tool… only to have it not work at all. I don’t know why, but it simply wouldn’t do anything but flash the outline of a terminal window for half a second and then do nothing else. So I opted to just gather whatever information I could. Turns out I had screenshots of the license server and the original system ID prompt that it gave me back when I set it up. I threw those onto the Synology and went home again.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Emailing RE:Vision Effects, I explained the situation and provided them the system ID of my old server and that of my Mac Studio. Within 2 hours, they sent back an updated license file and waived the transfer fee, since it was a machine failure–YAY!&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;So wins all around, but quite an involved hiccup to deal with in a pressing time on a project I’m trying to get wrapped up. One perk: I no longer have to worry about that stupid Windows 11 server staying running in the closet. I was wanting to switch it out for a Linux server eventually… so now at least it’s out of the picture. The main lesson here is I need to be way more diligent about Resolve project library backups. An automated way to do so would be great…&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Okay, back to roto.&lt;/p&gt;</content:encoded><media:thumbnail url="https://natecow.com/rss/avatar-blog.webp"/></item><item><title>The End of the Mac Pro</title><link>https://natecow.com/blog/2026/03/end-of-mac-pro/</link><guid isPermaLink="true">https://natecow.com/blog/2026/03/end-of-mac-pro/</guid><description>Thoughts on Apple finally killing the product they&apos;ve left out to rot for so long.</description><pubDate>Fri, 27 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT</pubDate><content:encoded>&lt;p&gt;From MacRumors: &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.macrumors.com/2026/03/27/reflecting-on-20-years-of-mac-pro/&quot; rel=&quot;noopener noreferrer&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;Mac Pro Discontinued: Reflecting on 20 Years of Apple’s Desktop Tower&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;I was never a Mac Pro owner. I did get to experience “buying” one once. While I was working as a video editor for a local videography studio, I finally convinced my boss to give Final Cut Pro a shot, and he handed me the business credit card and told me to drive down to the Apple Store in Omaha and pick up whatever Mac Pro they had in stock.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;blockquote&gt;
&lt;p&gt;By the time the Mac Pro moved to Apple silicon, Apple had already released the Mac Studio, another desktop computer that is smaller than a Mac Pro but beefier than a Mac mini.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;/blockquote&gt;
&lt;p&gt;This was always an odd naming scheme in my opinion. If you had told me 10 years ago that Apple would have a Mac Pro and a Mac Studio, I’d assume the giant Mac Mini was the new Pro (following the trash can) and the giant tower was the Studio… you know, studios requiring something bigger and better than everyday pros. Dropping the Mac Pro from the lineup further confuses things; we have MacBooks Pro but no Macs Pro. The Studio name is just off on its own. Like the Neo. Guess it’s perfect that these are the two Macs I own.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;And before you ask, yes, I do have my Mac Studio in a 3D-printed Mac Pro case, because it’s adorable:&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;img alt=&quot;My Mac Studio in a 3D-printed Mac Pro case&quot; loading=&quot;lazy&quot; decoding=&quot;async&quot; fetchpriority=&quot;auto&quot; width=&quot;480&quot; height=&quot;640&quot; src=&quot;/_astro/mac-studio-case.DMgXW8VO_7mVga.webp&quot; &gt;&lt;/p&gt;</content:encoded><media:thumbnail url="https://natecow.com/rss/avatar-blog.webp"/></item><item><title>Blurb</title><link>https://natecow.com/blurbs/2026/03/26/</link><guid isPermaLink="true">https://natecow.com/blurbs/2026/03/26/</guid><pubDate>Thu, 26 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT</pubDate><content:encoded>&lt;p&gt;The MacBook Neo might be one of my favorite Macs ever. Equally important in my computing setup as my Mac Studio. But this thing is everything I wanted it to be. Held out for over a year. Totally worth it.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;img alt=&quot;My MacBook Neo on the table with some wine.&quot; loading=&quot;lazy&quot; decoding=&quot;async&quot; fetchpriority=&quot;auto&quot; width=&quot;1800&quot; height=&quot;1350&quot; src=&quot;/_astro/macbook-neo-table-wine.DdOkh0c-_Z6nKmm.webp&quot; &gt;&lt;/p&gt;</content:encoded><media:thumbnail url="https://natecow.com/rss/avatar-blurbs.webp"/></item><item><title>Chaos: SaberComp 2025 Promo</title><link>https://natecow.com/youtube/chaos/</link><guid isPermaLink="true">https://natecow.com/youtube/chaos/</guid><description>As an admin of SaberComp for over 10 years, I’ve campaigned for our yearly theme to be “Chaos.” We finally agreed to do so for 2025, and my brother and I volunteered to make the promo announcing it. This is what we made.</description><pubDate>Sun, 04 May 2025 00:00:00 GMT</pubDate><content:encoded/><media:thumbnail url="https://natecow.com/rss/avatar-youtube.webp"/></item><item><title>Remastering Core Differences</title><link>https://natecow.com/blog/2024/03/remastering-core-differences/</link><guid isPermaLink="true">https://natecow.com/blog/2024/03/remastering-core-differences/</guid><description>The 10-year anniversary of “Core Differences” saw an opportunity to test out a workflow I’ve had in mind of using AI tools to up-res old plates, and then re-grading and re-compositing them from scratch. The results have been promising.</description><pubDate>Fri, 22 Mar 2024 00:00:00 GMT</pubDate><content:encoded>&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://natecow.com/blog/2024/03/remastering-core-differences/&quot;&gt;Read more on natecow.com &amp;#8594;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;</content:encoded><media:thumbnail url="https://natecow.com/rss/avatar-blog.webp"/></item><item><title>Core Differences - Remastered</title><link>https://natecow.com/youtube/core-differences-remastered/</link><guid isPermaLink="true">https://natecow.com/youtube/core-differences-remastered/</guid><description>Years of online feuding over the look of a lightsaber comes to life as NateCow and VaporTrail finally meet in person to settle their differences. Now, 10 years later, a bored and unemployed Nate has been unleashed once more to remaster this short quarrel in 4k, and redo all the saber VFX in Nuke… because why the hell not?</description><pubDate>Fri, 22 Mar 2024 00:00:00 GMT</pubDate><content:encoded/><media:thumbnail url="https://natecow.com/rss/avatar-youtube.webp"/></item><item><title>Sisters&apos; Quarrel - VFX Breakdown</title><link>https://natecow.com/youtube/sq-vfx-breakdown/</link><guid isPermaLink="true">https://natecow.com/youtube/sq-vfx-breakdown/</guid><description>Enjoy this visual effects breakdown for “Sisters’ Quarrel” that demonstrates the work involved in everything from lightsabers to sparks and fire, chopping branches and trees in half, and ruthlessly erasing my brother’s breakout debut as a saber hilt wrangler.</description><pubDate>Mon, 08 Jan 2024 00:00:00 GMT</pubDate><content:encoded/><media:thumbnail url="https://natecow.com/rss/avatar-youtube.webp"/></item><item><title>Sisters&apos; Quarrel</title><link>https://natecow.com/youtube/sisters-quarrel/</link><guid isPermaLink="true">https://natecow.com/youtube/sisters-quarrel/</guid><description>In a distant land beyond the lake where brothers once quarreled, the next generation enters the arena. Will their imaginations meet the family legacy? Or ignite something beyond?</description><pubDate>Thu, 13 Jul 2023 00:00:00 GMT</pubDate><content:encoded>&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://natecow.com/youtube/sisters-quarrel/&quot;&gt;Read more on natecow.com &amp;#8594;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;</content:encoded><media:thumbnail url="https://natecow.com/rss/avatar-youtube.webp"/></item><item><title>Boris FX - Why I ❤️ Silhouette</title><link>https://natecow.com/blog/2021/10/boris-fx-why-i-love-silhouette/</link><guid isPermaLink="true">https://natecow.com/blog/2021/10/boris-fx-why-i-love-silhouette/</guid><description>Discover which feature [I] use most — and why the most difficult shot from Captain America was known internally as Cry, Run, Cry.</description><pubDate>Thu, 14 Oct 2021 00:00:00 GMT</pubDate><content:encoded>&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://natecow.com/blog/2021/10/boris-fx-why-i-love-silhouette/&quot;&gt;Read more on natecow.com &amp;#8594;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;</content:encoded><media:thumbnail url="https://natecow.com/rss/avatar-blog.webp"/></item><item><title>The Great Cow Frame Mover [9000]</title><link>https://natecow.com/blog/2020/07/great-cow-frame-mover/</link><guid isPermaLink="true">https://natecow.com/blog/2020/07/great-cow-frame-mover/</guid><description>Using Python to sort through thousands of EXR files and moving them to where they belong in my project file hierarchy.</description><pubDate>Fri, 17 Jul 2020 00:00:00 GMT</pubDate><content:encoded>&lt;p&gt;Last night I decided to start putting together the script that will do the real work of moving all my frames into their respective folders. I had to jump slightly ahead of where I was in &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.natecow.com/blog/the-great-cow-frame-mover#:~:text=Automate%20the%20Boring%20Stuff&quot; rel=&quot;noopener noreferrer&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;Automate the Boring Stuff&lt;/a&gt;, but not by much. At this point I’m starting to pick things up a little faster.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;img alt=&quot;First attempt at automation script&quot; loading=&quot;lazy&quot; decoding=&quot;async&quot; fetchpriority=&quot;auto&quot; width=&quot;919&quot; height=&quot;471&quot; src=&quot;/_astro/script_earlier.De1Bcq-k_ZNaeSy.webp&quot; &gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;But, as with most things, I wasn’t happy with that. As you can see by my big #TODO note, I wanted the user feedback to be a little cleaner. Instead of printing something on on every single frame it was moving, I only wanted it to print each shot once. After it finished one shot’s frames and moved onto the next, print the next one. That way we know the script is running but it’s not this insane machine gun effect of essentially the same line over and over.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;img alt=&quot;Excessive Output&quot; loading=&quot;lazy&quot; decoding=&quot;async&quot; fetchpriority=&quot;auto&quot; width=&quot;466&quot; height=&quot;890&quot; src=&quot;/_astro/output_meh.D9t9MMoo_Z1wIJFY.webp&quot; &gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;As you may also note, I sort of worked out the logic of what I should be doing instead, and immediately set off to create that. This initial version was looking at the folder full of EXR files and then iterating over every single one of them, using a regular expression to extract the shot name and then move it to where it needed to go. This meant printing any sort of feedback would happen on every single frame. It also meant running a chunk of code on every single frame.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h2 id=&quot;inverting-my-approach&quot;&gt;Inverting My Approach&lt;/h2&gt;
&lt;p&gt;I figured if I only wanted something printed out when the shot number changed, then the easiest way would be to iterate through a list where the shots only appear once. So I flipped everything on its head and used the VFX directory as my list. I then used the glob module to find all files that contain the folder’s name, which itself returns a list of matches. I could then just iterate through that list and move those frames to where they need to go. So just one line of code being repeated the most, rather than four.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;img alt=&quot;Second attempt at automation script&quot; loading=&quot;lazy&quot; decoding=&quot;async&quot; fetchpriority=&quot;auto&quot; width=&quot;738&quot; height=&quot;551&quot; src=&quot;/_astro/script_later.CC1Tgckf_2g657X.webp&quot; &gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;My initial test of this didn’t work quite right. My test folder has all 116 folders created for Brothers’ Quarrel, but I’m only testing on a few shots. So what happened was the first few shots gradually spit out “Moving [shot] to [directory],” but then it rapidly spit the same line out for all the rest of the shots. I had forgotten that I’m iterating through the entire shot list, with no regard for whether or not frames exist for them. Hence my little conditional checking if the frames list contains anything. If the glob module checks for a shot name that doesn’t exist in the files it’s looking at, then it’ll return an empty list. It’s length will be 0, which is false, and the line won’t be printed. It amuses me how often programming is about preventing something from happening.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;img alt=&quot;Excessive Output&quot; loading=&quot;lazy&quot; decoding=&quot;async&quot; fetchpriority=&quot;auto&quot; width=&quot;545&quot; height=&quot;199&quot; src=&quot;/_astro/output_cleaner.DUe2Tf-I_XNXUi.webp&quot; &gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;My task for the rest of the night is to set this up to run in the command line and take some user input, so the file paths can change. For now I’ll let it assume my file hierarchy, because I’m the only one using these scripts. But I am thinking about making things more open ended in case anyone wants to fiddle with them. None of this is even on GitHub at the moment anyway.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;hr&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;7/18/20 Edit&lt;/strong&gt;: I realized as I climbed into bed last night that I forgot to actually time the two scripts. My assumption that the second way would be more efficient turned out to be correct. While iterating through every frame in the source folder and executing a block of code each time, moving 550 or so files took &lt;strong&gt;14.13 seconds&lt;/strong&gt;. Running the updated script, which I updated further to only execute the move when the glob returns a list, the same set of files were moved in &lt;strong&gt;11.05 seconds&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;</content:encoded><media:thumbnail url="https://natecow.com/rss/avatar-blog.webp"/></item><item><title>First, Let me Build a System</title><link>https://natecow.com/blog/2020/07/first-build-system/</link><guid isPermaLink="true">https://natecow.com/blog/2020/07/first-build-system/</guid><description>Exporting VFX plates from Premiere Pro using the Project Manager.</description><pubDate>Tue, 14 Jul 2020 00:00:00 GMT</pubDate><content:encoded>&lt;p&gt;When I decided to &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.youtube.com/watch?list=PLqm9RtqC8AT_2e6XRjr4nt6n7SkUt2qYE&amp;#x26;v=hqYYe3HAPYQ&quot; rel=&quot;noopener noreferrer&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;document the process&lt;/a&gt; of completing all the VFX from scratch on &lt;a href=&quot;/youtube/brothers-quarrel&quot;&gt;Brothers’ Quarrel&lt;/a&gt;, I didn’t think about how much work the videos would be adding on top of everything. I also hit a massive snag as I started developing episodes, when I realized that one major step was… horribly tedious and not ripe for anything remotely educational.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h2 id=&quot;premiere-is-not-designed-for-this&quot;&gt;Premiere is not designed for this&lt;/h2&gt;
&lt;p&gt;My method in recent years for exporting image sequences out of Premiere was straight-forward, albeit tedious as hell. But I figured it was just something you do once, so whatever. I would double-click a clip in the timeline, right-click it in the source monitor, and tell it to make a subclip. I’d paste a base name and change the shot number. Rinse and repeat.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Then I could grab all the subclips at once and export them with the same EXR settings… and a base output directory. But then I’d have to go down the line in Adobe Media Encoder and change the output of each clip so they’d render to their correct directories. Another tedious step.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h3 id=&quot;bending-the-project-manager-to-my-will&quot;&gt;Bending the Project Manager to my Will&lt;/h3&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;img alt=&quot;Premiere&amp;amp;#x27;s Project Manager window&quot; loading=&quot;lazy&quot; decoding=&quot;async&quot; fetchpriority=&quot;auto&quot; width=&quot;810&quot; height=&quot;702&quot; src=&quot;/_astro/project_manager.BHeEKxjx_ZF3iBI.webp&quot; &gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;There had to be a better way. And I found one… kind of. Turns out Premiere has a Project Manger that can do something I’ve been wanting, namely render handles of any length. There are a few “gotcha’s” though. For one, this tool is meant for archiving. It’s designed so that you can save the source media you absolutely need in order to keep this project renderable, while being able to trash all the original stuff to save space. It does this by re-exporting each clip in your timeline(s) to a format meant for editing, such as ProRes or DNxHD. No EXR or image sequence options. I mean, why would there be? You don’t edit in those formats.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;BUT! I noticed you could import a preset, and these appeared to be the same presets Premiere uses in the exporter. Ah, think I, if one can save a preset to a file, then the existing presets in this list must also be files somewhere. Turns out they’re deep in this labyrinth of mysteriously named directories (see image). Spoiler: the EXR ones are at the end. Just start there.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;img alt=&quot;Location of export presets for Premiere&quot; loading=&quot;lazy&quot; decoding=&quot;async&quot; fetchpriority=&quot;auto&quot; width=&quot;590&quot; height=&quot;829&quot; src=&quot;/_astro/presets_example.B-79Swkg_1oYmmK.webp&quot; &gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;So I was indeed able to load in the EXR preset into Project Manager, and we’re nearly in business. There’s this whole other issue with getting things named correctly, and a particular head-scratcher when using the same source clip multiple times in the timeline, but I got all that sorted and I’ll cover it in a YouTube video.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h2 id=&quot;that-last-fiber-connection&quot;&gt;”That last fiber connection”&lt;/h2&gt;
&lt;p&gt;There’s a great anecdote on the appendices of The Two Towers about the remote workflow Weta built in 2002 so that Peter Jackson could review work being done in New Zealand while scoring in London. They managed to setup a high speed fiber connection going half-way around the globe, but for some reason, it stopped about a mile from where Peter was staying. (I’m sure there’s a fascinating story behind just that little tidbit).&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The solution was to load whatever New Zealand sent onto an iPod, which at the time were just 2.5” external drives that could be side-loaded with anything, and then physically walk it down the street. We had the same sort of Sneakernet when I was on Captain America and Thor, but by design, since our main office had no internet connection for security reasons.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;All this to say that often times we get a ton of pieces working together, and then end up with some break point right at the end, where there’s no clean way to finish the job. It happens all the time, especially with workflows in VFX. In my case, it should be expected. I’m using an archiving feature of an NLE that is not really a go-to for big budget, VFX-heavy projects, so no one at Adobe probably thinks this is a pressing need. And that’s fine with me. Premiere is what I have and know, so I’m going to make this work.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h2 id=&quot;enter-python&quot;&gt;Enter Python!&lt;/h2&gt;
&lt;p&gt;For those that don’t know, I took a break from VFX for a couple years and got into web development. Specifically, I built WordPress themes so I spent a lot of time learning and working in PHP, JavaScript, jQuery, HTML, and oh so much CSS. I learned a lot from my Systems Administrator at the time, and he was a big fan of Python, so I wanted to learn that so I could talk shop with him more.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;I fell in love with it. And when I came back to VFX, I lucked out in that Nuke and Silhouette both utilize Python. Oh the possibilities… I dabbled in customizing Nuke along the way, just sorta figuring stuff out as I went. I built some basic tools for myself that now probably litter the Los Angeles compositing departments (if you see something with Cow at the beginning, it was probably me). I went through &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.benmcewan.com/python_for_nuke_101_eol&quot; rel=&quot;noopener noreferrer&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;Ben McEwan’s Python For Nuke 101&lt;/a&gt; course, which I highly recommend. I’ve recently been getting far more obsessed with all this thanks to Ben, especially since he recommended &lt;a href=&quot;https://automatetheboringstuff.com/&quot; rel=&quot;noopener noreferrer&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;Automate the Boring Stuff With Python&lt;/a&gt; (which is FREE!).&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;All this is driven by the fact that I need to make that last little fiber connection in my Premiere export workflow. Premiere will dump all the EXR files into one folder. Just thousands and thousands of files. So what I’ve been doing these past few weeks (months? What is time anymore?) is the first in what will probably turn into a full suite of tools. I need to look at all the files in the folder and move them into their respective shot directories.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;img alt=&quot;A large list of sequential EXR files in a Windows folder&quot; loading=&quot;lazy&quot; decoding=&quot;async&quot; fetchpriority=&quot;auto&quot; width=&quot;1328&quot; height=&quot;535&quot; src=&quot;/_astro/exr_sequences.DzRsdnxo_Z1U0YB7.webp&quot; &gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;This has involved learning several things, such as Regular Expressions to parse the filenames (basic string manipulation works too but is more prone to breaking, and harder to read), learning how to navigate and interact with the file system and using the os and pathlib modules, and how to actually screw with files. And between all this has been just learning how VS Code works, setting up virtual environments, learning how to properly install modules and making sure things run every time… you know, all the intimidating stuff that usually drives you away from getting too far into this in the first place. Or was that just me?&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;But I have some really specific things I need to do, and I need to do it to show it on my YouTube series. And I’m getting closer and closer to needing to put that episode out. So hooray for actual motivation! It may seem like I’m going overboard with all this. And I probably am. But I think going overboard with things is exactly how all my saber duels came about in the first place. It’s how I’ve ended up where I am now.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;There is a certain hilarity in my learning like 15 other things so that I can avoid just having to shift-click 116 different groups of files and drag them into folders, a task that I could have done in one mindless day. I think Randall Munroe put it succinctly…&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;img alt=&quot;xkcd #1319&quot; loading=&quot;lazy&quot; decoding=&quot;async&quot; fetchpriority=&quot;auto&quot; width=&quot;404&quot; height=&quot;408&quot; src=&quot;/_astro/xkcd_automation.Cho9zMZo_Z1XfNNd.webp&quot; &gt;
&lt;a href=&quot;https://xkcd.com/1319/&quot; rel=&quot;noopener noreferrer&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;xkcd Link&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;</content:encoded><media:thumbnail url="https://natecow.com/rss/avatar-blog.webp"/></item><item><title>Silhouette - Academy Award for Technical Achievement</title><link>https://natecow.com/blog/2018/12/silhouette-academy-award-for-technical-achievement/</link><guid isPermaLink="true">https://natecow.com/blog/2018/12/silhouette-academy-award-for-technical-achievement/</guid><description>Check out the reel I cut together that Silhouette presented to The Academy for their SciTech award nomination.</description><pubDate>Sat, 15 Dec 2018 00:00:00 GMT</pubDate><content:encoded>&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://natecow.com/blog/2018/12/silhouette-academy-award-for-technical-achievement/&quot;&gt;Read more on natecow.com &amp;#8594;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;</content:encoded><media:thumbnail url="https://natecow.com/rss/avatar-blog.webp"/></item><item><title>The Making of Alex vs Nate 2</title><link>https://natecow.com/youtube/avn2-bts/</link><guid isPermaLink="true">https://natecow.com/youtube/avn2-bts/</guid><description>A long overdue look at what it took to bring Alex vs Nate 2 to the interwebs.</description><pubDate>Tue, 20 Sep 2016 00:00:00 GMT</pubDate><content:encoded>&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://natecow.com/youtube/avn2-bts/&quot;&gt;Read more on natecow.com &amp;#8594;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;</content:encoded><media:thumbnail url="https://natecow.com/rss/avatar-youtube.webp"/></item><item><title>Attack of the Drones</title><link>https://natecow.com/youtube/attack-of-the-drones/</link><guid isPermaLink="true">https://natecow.com/youtube/attack-of-the-drones/</guid><description>What happens when you mix bored employees, some remote-controlled drones, and an active imagination? This.</description><pubDate>Fri, 20 Nov 2015 00:00:00 GMT</pubDate><content:encoded>&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://natecow.com/youtube/attack-of-the-drones/&quot;&gt;Read more on natecow.com &amp;#8594;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;</content:encoded><media:thumbnail url="https://natecow.com/rss/avatar-youtube.webp"/></item><item><title>Brothers&apos; Quarrel</title><link>https://natecow.com/youtube/brothers-quarrel/</link><guid isPermaLink="true">https://natecow.com/youtube/brothers-quarrel/</guid><description>Assisting on Nate&apos;s saber duels since the beginning, Jeff finally explodes onto the web in his LCC debut, both in energy and rapid film production which spanned just 15 days from shooting to VFX, sound, and an original score, proving that it&apos;s never too late to enter!</description><pubDate>Mon, 28 Sep 2015 00:00:00 GMT</pubDate><content:encoded>&lt;p&gt;Brothers’ Quarrel was our entry into &lt;a href=&quot;https://sabercomp.com/&quot; rel=&quot;noopener noreferrer&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;SaberComp 2015&lt;/a&gt;. My younger brother Jeffrey and I had spent most of our formative years fighting with lightsabers in the backyard, and I had produced several duels whereby he had contributed to some extent, but we had yet to shoot anything with the two of us. So in the 11th hour of that year’s SaberComp, we decided to try an experiment with two core ideas:&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Given our familiarity with each others’ fighting styles, could we simply shoot lots of coverage of us sparing, and come up with something coherent with little to no actual choreography?&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Could we also complete all the VFX, a full sound mix, and an original score in the 2 weeks we had before the deadline?&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Long story short, we pulled off both, and finally took first place after years of taking third with &lt;a href=&quot;/youtube/avn&quot;&gt;Alex vs Nate&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&quot;/youtube/avn2&quot;&gt;Alex vs Nate 2&lt;/a&gt;, and &lt;a href=&quot;/youtube/duel-of-the-dorks&quot;&gt;Duel of the Dorks&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The cliff-hanger ending would of course come to bite us. As I should have learned from AvN2’s “To Be Concluded” card, these things tend to be a total jinx unless you already have the promised conclusion done. We did in fact go back a couple weeks after the competition and finish shooting the rest of the duel, and I did get it cut to together. But efforts to finish the VFX have stalled, started, and stalled a couple times over, as my compositing skills rapidly improved and I kept changing my approach.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;With the release of &lt;a href=&quot;/youtube/sisters-quarrel&quot;&gt;Sisters’ Quarrel&lt;/a&gt; now squared away (as of summer of 2023), I’m hoping to take advantage of my current momentum and tackle the Definitive Edition of Brothers’ Quarrel once and for all; giving the edit a tune-up, a brand new color grade, and flashy new saber effects. There will be challenges as we definitely didn’t have the dynamic range of the BlackMagic at the time, but it’s the sort of thing that should keep my mind stimulated while we develop the next adventure.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Do keep a lookout for updates :)
-Nate — August 1st, 2023&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;blockquote&gt;
&lt;p&gt;That last paragraph has aged like milk.&lt;br&gt;
-Nate — June 15, 2026&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;/blockquote&gt;</content:encoded><media:thumbnail url="https://natecow.com/rss/avatar-youtube.webp"/></item><item><title>Core Differences</title><link>https://natecow.com/youtube/core-differences/</link><guid isPermaLink="true">https://natecow.com/youtube/core-differences/</guid><description>Years of online feuding over the look of a lightsaber comes to life as NateCow and VaporTrail finally meet in person to settle their differences.</description><pubDate>Wed, 05 Feb 2014 00:00:00 GMT</pubDate><content:encoded/><media:thumbnail url="https://natecow.com/rss/avatar-youtube.webp"/></item><item><title>Alex vs Nate 2</title><link>https://natecow.com/youtube/avn2/</link><guid isPermaLink="true">https://natecow.com/youtube/avn2/</guid><description>Simple Science Productions presents the promised sequel to LCC5&apos;s third-place entry, Alex vs Nate. The two combatants return to a familiar scene to finally settle... whatever it was they were fighting over in 2007. Frankly, they&apos;ve probably forgotten by now.</description><pubDate>Sat, 04 Sep 2010 00:00:00 GMT</pubDate><content:encoded>&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://natecow.com/youtube/avn2/&quot;&gt;Read more on natecow.com &amp;#8594;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;</content:encoded><media:thumbnail url="https://natecow.com/rss/avatar-youtube.webp"/></item><item><title>Duel of the Dorks</title><link>https://natecow.com/youtube/duel-of-the-dorks/</link><guid isPermaLink="true">https://natecow.com/youtube/duel-of-the-dorks/</guid><description>This 7-minute epic takes the audience through a multitude of locations as a couple of dorky theater employees battle it out over a coveted movie poster... and takes third place in the contest while they&apos;re at it.</description><pubDate>Sat, 04 Sep 2010 00:00:00 GMT</pubDate><content:encoded>&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://natecow.com/youtube/duel-of-the-dorks/&quot;&gt;Read more on natecow.com &amp;#8594;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;</content:encoded><media:thumbnail url="https://natecow.com/rss/avatar-youtube.webp"/></item><item><title>Alex vs Nate</title><link>https://natecow.com/youtube/avn/</link><guid isPermaLink="true">https://natecow.com/youtube/avn/</guid><description>A lightsaber duel created for TheForce.net &apos;s Lightsaber Choreography Contest V and which took 3rd place in May 2007.</description><pubDate>Fri, 04 May 2007 00:00:00 GMT</pubDate><content:encoded>&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://natecow.com/youtube/avn/&quot;&gt;Read more on natecow.com &amp;#8594;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;</content:encoded><media:thumbnail url="https://natecow.com/rss/avatar-youtube.webp"/></item></channel></rss>