It only takes one doesn’t it!

EuroMillions AKA “The Idiot Tax” by my brother. But let’s not let the leader of the “fun police” stop us!! If you’ve ever spent time thinking about your number selections then this saves you that time by providing a random selection instantly for you. I’ve coded a random set of numbers with my own algorithms including “Galton” weighted results in an effort to improve your probability of a win. If you don’t like the look of the set of numbers provided…
Compute again for a fresh set.

The UK National Lottery. If you’ve ever wasted time pondering how lucky the set of numbers you pick might be! This might be for you as it takes your pondering time away. This computes using mathematical principles and my algorithms of experimental probability. The calculations are made from a study of previous draws designed to try to improve your probability of a win. Remember, the odds remain the same! If you don’t like the look of the set of numbers provided…
Compute again for a fresh set.

Find a pattern and you could predict the EuroMillions results 😳 This is deeply flawed on many levels not least of which is the fact that it doesn’t use all possible combinations drawn as that would take well over a million years to acquire the data. Not forgetting the draw is RANDOM! So why this tomfoolery? I wanted to witness how quickly my computer could process a large amount of data graphically. It’s just programming intrigue/fun! Do let me know if you discover a pattern ;-) WARNING Patience required. This will slow down your browser.

On many occasions I’ve wanted to scale an image proportionally to include in my website code. A search for “online proportional scaling calculator” didn’t reveal pretty results. So, I’ve built this and designed it for website coders and graphic designers alike, well anyone actually! From the link below it opens in a perfectly small window for you to keep open whilst performing your calculations without taking up too much screen real estate. Please let me know of any improvements you would like to see via the “Buy Me a Coffee” comments. Thank You.

“Sexy Croissant” Probably the sexiest image in the world! My next door neighbour said “It’s more captivating than the f*****g Mona Lisa!” Spend a moment gazing at the Sexy Croissant’s rounded ends and you will be drawn deeply into it’s unique form. People with Synaesthesia can smell it!😳 Truly a masterpiece that you will have the opportunity to own very soon as it will be offered as a superlative NFT purchase. Sexy Croissant has entered the Ethereum Blockchain. Click the button on Open Sea to register your interest.
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A post dropped into my Facebook feed. It seemed to be jingoistically proclaiming another “victory”. However upon reading the article the ship in question was not destroyed. Damaged and still afloat if indeed the propaganda is not fake? As so very often in news, the article didn’t provide any context. It left me wondering how many warships are in the Russian navy? So, I created the following web page to graphically represent this.

Probably one of the best card tricks in the world the “Invisible Deck”. It requires you learn a few rules.

1. Is the chosen card odd or even? This determines which way you pull the cards from the pack. If the chosen card is odd then evens should be face up and vice versa.
2. Spades = Hearts
3. Clubs = Diamonds
4. Now learn the 13 rule. You must calculate the card that when added to the chosen card = 13

That’s it!

Example: Chosen card 4 Spades. It's even, pull your deck out odd face up. You're looking for a Heart (because spades = hearts). You're looking for 9 because 9 + 4 = OUR MAGIC NUMBER 13

Note: There are 13 cards in a suit. Ace to King. This means Kings = 13. So, reversing a King will show you it's invisible King. King of Hearts = King of Spades, King of Clubs = King of Diamonds

CREDITS

Downloadable svg playing cards courtesy of www.me.uk

Card Tricks - Including the Invisible Deck explained.

As the title, a lovely little slider to help you choose some attractive odds on the fly.

1. Estimated cost of Prize
2. Cost of a ticket
3. Number of tickets

That’s it! All done with Javascript.

It's relatively easy to align elements horizontally with css.
<p style="text-align:center;">I'm centered</p>
Introduce the vertical alignment and it get's a little more tricky.

The following two examples are currently the best ways to center content horizontally and vertically.

Pure CSS using transform

Best used as a one-off holding page image

FlexBox

Best used as a template for many pages whereby you might want multiple columns of content centered

Play with it

Open the two examples below and then play with the size of your browser's screen size to witness the content staying in the middle of the screen and also reducing in size when you make your browser screen too small for the original image

CSS to center both horizontally and vertically

FlexBox to center both horizontally and vertically

With the work on the Orwell Bridge projected to take until the middle of August 2025 I set about making a page to be able to view all of the traffic cameras along this important stretch of the A14.

Pretty much a day after I finished this web page they announced that work had finished on the bridge! ONE MONTH early! Who has ever heard of construction works finishing early?

I can only think that someone told them I was creating a web page so they hurried things along to make all my efforts redundant :-(

Not to worry, it's still useful in some small way. So, I give you all of the traffic cameras around the Orwell Bridge on the A14. You can witness a live feed updated every 30 seconds to get an overview of the state of the traffic in the area.

A14 Orwell bridge LIVE traffic cameras

See me conquer the A14 Traffic over the Orwell Bridge

You want to add your own social media emoji reactions to your videos? Why? To encourage engagement on your social media videos. To get the ball rolling so to speak.

Reactions have appeared on video platforms such as Facebook, Instagram and TikTok and are a great way of encouraging engagement. They started appearing approx. 2017.

You can buy stock videography to add similar to your videos. However, I realised I can program the effect and supply YOU with the ability to control the flow of social media emoji reactions.

Using my social media reaction hearts, thumbs or smileys you have complete control. You can choose to only show hearts, or only show thumbs or only show smileys, it's completely up to you.

Play with it 😁

Once you have the emoji reactions appearing at the flow rate you like (you can change it whilst your record for extra realism) you can then record your computer screen as a movie.

The movie you create can then be saved into your favourite video editing software (Da Vinci Resolve, Adobe Premiere etc.) and you can key out the green screen.

If you find this useful bookmark it, share it and please Buy Me a Coffee☕️

This is for…

1. animated hearts on a green screen also known as Chroma Key.
2. animated thumbs-up on a green screen also known as Chroma Key.
3. animated smileys on a green screen also known as Chroma Key.
4. animated mixture of all social media reactions on a green screen also known as Chroma Key.

Social Media Emoji Reactions Chroma Key Green Screen

What does it look like when you add your animated hearts to one of your videos?
Example: One Last Slow Dance - Ava Tarai

If you find this useful bookmark it, share it with a nice comment and please Buy Me a Coffee ☕️

Latest project from DirectFX websites using the full force of AI image and text generation.

At first glance, Simularcra feels like another sign that the creative industries are being pulled into unfamiliar territory. A luxury model appears in Venice. A product glows under Monaco lights. A ruby ring sparkles on an Alpine rockface. A red motorcycle cuts through a rain-soaked Tokyo night. The unsettling part is not that these scenes are beautiful. It is that none of them required the conventional machinery of a campaign shoot: no flights, no location permits, no studio hire, no weather delays, no army of production staff waiting for the light to behave. For photographers, stylists, set designers, models, and creative crews, this raises the obvious question: what happens when the shoot itself becomes optional? That concern is not imaginary. Levi Strauss & Co. faced public scrutiny after announcing a partnership with Lalaland.ai to experiment with AI-generated models, saying the technology could help show products on a wider range of body types more quickly, while critics questioned whether brands should be using real people instead. Coca-Cola also drew criticism for AI-generated Christmas advertising, with debate centring on whether artificial intelligence was enhancing creativity or cheapening the craft behind commercial storytelling. So yes, there is a real tension here.

But to look at Simularcra only as a threat to traditional creativity would be to miss the more interesting story. What the platform represents is not simply a cheaper photoshoot. It is a different kind of creative medium. The strongest argument for AI-led visual production is not that it replaces imagination. It is that it compresses the distance between imagination and execution. A traditional campaign might begin with a moodboard, then move through casting, styling, location scouting, logistics, weather planning, travel, lighting, shooting, retouching, and delivery. Each stage adds cost. Each stage adds delay. Each stage narrows what is possible. Simularcra reverses that pressure. The idea becomes the starting point, not the compromise. Want a product photographed in Tokyo rain, then an Alpine storm, then beside a Monaco marina? Traditionally, that is a production headache. Virtually, it becomes a creative decision. This is why major fashion and luxury players are already exploring the space. Zalando has used generative AI to speed up marketing image production, reportedly cutting timelines from six to eight weeks down to three or four days and reducing costs significantly. LVMH awarded its 2024 Innovation Award Grand Prize to FancyTech, a company using generative AI to create videos from 3D product models and creative briefs. That tells us something important: this is not merely a novelty. It is becoming infrastructure. And perhaps that is where the creative anxiety begins to shift. The camera did not end painting. Photoshop did not end photography. Digital editing did not end cinema. Each forced the creative world to renegotiate what skill meant. AI visual production may do the same.

The value moves from simply capturing what exists to directing what could exist. Taste, judgement, composition, brand understanding, art direction, lighting, timing, and storytelling become more important, not less. The machine can generate an image. It cannot decide why that image matters. That is where Simularcra becomes interesting.

Its promise is not just “AI imagery.” Its promise is visual production without physical constraint. A campaign can be tested before it is shot. A product can be placed in five worlds before a plane ticket is booked. A brand can explore mood, setting, atmosphere, and audience response at speed. For marketing teams and e-commerce brands, that speed is not a gimmick. It is strategic.

Campaigns now move at the pace of culture. Trends appear, peak, and vanish in days. Traditional production often cannot keep up. AI-enhanced visual production gives brands the ability to respond quickly while still aiming for premium, editorial-grade output. The question, then, may not be whether AI is creative in the human sense. The better question is whether AI-assisted work has become a creative genre of its own.

On the evidence of platforms like Simularcra, the answer increasingly looks like yes.

Not photography. Not illustration. Not conventional CGI. Something adjacent to all three. A new visual language for a new commercial reality.

And while the concerns around jobs, authorship, and authenticity deserve serious attention, it is equally true that tools like this open doors that were previously closed to smaller brands, faster campaigns, impossible locations, and creative concepts too expensive to attempt in the physical world. Simularcra does not ask us to stop valuing traditional production.

It asks a more provocative question:
What could brands create if the old limits were removed?

AI, Creativity, and the New Shape of the Photoshoot