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.

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 confirmed on this Apple Wiki:

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…”

My brother and I even snagged some of these to use as our Minecraft Server’s 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?”

The reason I bring this up now is someone on Bluesky 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 this wonderful Mac app by Cody Brom, which brings this tiny Yak back to life. He also wrote a great history page about him. Do enjoy :)

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.

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.

Dead Server

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.

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.

Restoring Resolve

Actively experiencing this xkcd comic, 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.

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.

Floating License Fun!

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.

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.

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!

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…

Okay, back to roto.

Someone on Reddit pointed out that the “What’s New” page for Mac OS X El Capitan is still on Apple’s website. As that was the OS where I finally parted ways with the Mac for a number of years, and looking back at it compared to Tahoe, I would just like to extend a heartfelt apology to El Cap. You could cut diamond with those window corners. Now you can turn a truck around in them.

I’m absolutely enamored by this shot of Earth from Artemis II Commander Reid Wiseman. If you download the file from NASA, it has the Exif data which shows an ISO of 51,200 and exposure time of 1/4-second. The auroras in the upper right… chef’s kiss

From MacRumors: Mac Pro Discontinued: Reflecting on 20 Years of Apple’s Desktop Tower

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.

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.

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.

And before you ask, yes, I do have my Mac Studio in a 3D-printed Mac Pro case, because it’s adorable:

I’ve been on a bit of a quest lately to find a means of blogging in a way that I like, and a place to shout into the void so I can stay off social media. Squarespace’s blog engine was meh, despite a few handy features like photo galleries, which I utilized on the CD4k post.

I thought I was set to go all-in on Ghost, and even did so with the SaberComp website. I even paid for a couple themes but things didn’t quite click with what I was aiming for. I like the idea of keeping things a little on the nerdy side, but I also like the idea of being able to compose and publish from a desktop app, so I was pondering Markdown. I love RSS and was intrigued by the thought of newsletters.

Ulysses does support publishing to Ghost. But while I was still poking around trying to shoehorn my content into someone else’s platform/theme design, I got sidetracked by Claude Code. As an experiment, I had it rebuild the BadCow website, just to see what could be done with prompting. I told it to recommend me a stack that would allow for controlling content with Markdown so I could version-control it, and it suggested Astro.

Seeing Astro in action through Claude, and eventually taking the reigns from it and setting up a nice little dev environment within Nova, I quite liked the idea of building something completely from scratch, but I’d like to do so myself rather than, you know, vibing it. So I have an on-going project/conversation whereby Claude Code is acting as my tutor for setting up and deploying an Astro site from scratch, with vanilla CSS and everything… My hope is that will result in a fun personal website that’ll be tailored to my needs.

Which brings me around to where we are now. Part of my drive to get my personal site built up into something by which I can more readily post my thoughts, is my desire to throw off the chains of social media and just have a home-base whereby people can come and see whatever I’ve been up to. I’d like to get in a better habit of talking about stuff I’m doing, and I’d like people who actually care about stuff I do to have a place where they can always get the latest updates.

Thanks to John Gruber sharing this wonderful piece (The Last Quiet Thing) by Terry Godier, I ended up discovering both Terry’s awesome RSS app Current, and subscribing to his feed. I also read The 49 MB Webpage by Shubham Bose, which really spoke to my guiding philosophy behind the stuff I’d like to build on the web; in short: don’t build shit.

I noticed Terry recently fired up a Micro.blog, so I went spelunking. And I might have found the right balance of nerdiness and polish I was looking for. There are numerous ways to shove content into it, and I was able to import my like, 7 blog posts from Squarespace. Plus it was super simple to just point a subdomain at it so I don’t have to nuke my Squarespace site yet.

Even now, I’m composing this in Ulysses on my MacBook Neo (squee!). I have a Micro.blog iPhone app that I can use to fire off Short Moos if I wish. Plus it has integration with the Fediverse built in, and I can automatically publish my posts to Threads and Bluesky, despite not having to actually spend time on those apps.

Talk about a win-win. In the spirit of not letting perfection be the enemy of good, I’m gonna roll with this and see how it goes. I’m sure I’ll be playing with the themes like crazy and I wouldn’t be surprised if I eventually go down the rabbit hole of building my own. No promises though.

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AI is abuzz in the world of art, film, and tech, the various disciplines around which I find myself continuously revolving. Questions of ethics and threats to jobs are abundant across social media and journalistic outlets. So I’d rather talk about my much tamer and IMO quite interesting use of it in recent months—restoring my own old(ish) video projects.

Some of the earlier examples of what AI was capable of was in the world of up-resing photos. These examples weren’t merely clever filtering on scaling images up. They could actually identify features and create new detail. This very quickly started being applied to video as well.

Over time I would fiddle with various tools that would pop up, try a few things, be unimpressed, and move on. But eventually a demo of Topaz Video AI landed on my Mac… and the flood gates of possibilities opened in my mind.

Keeping Myself Swamped…

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Without spoiling plans I may or may not have for bringing new life to past projects, there was a fantastic opportunity for a soup-to-nuts test on something small. The 10-year anniversary of Core Differences was coming up—a 2-minute sparring session over preferred styles of lightsaber glows between Christopher “VaporTrail” Spenceley and myself. About 4-5 weeks prior to the anniversary, Vapes hit me up with the idea to re-release it as a 4k up-res (the original was shot on my Canon 60D in 1080p). I can’t remember if I had mentioned to him that I was experimenting with this stuff, or if it was totally happenstance. Either way, it seemed a perfect sized project to try out everything I was thinking in terms of workflows, so project code CD4K was born.

We of course missed our target date of releasing precisely on the anniversary, but that was a combination of my schedule being full with a freelance project (a good thing) and what turned out to be a much more involved and intricate process, from figuring out the right AI models to employ on different shots, to the color workflow, to what sort of finishing work I would need to do in Nuke, all of which I’ll outline in upcoming posts and possibly videos (trying not to overpromise on the video front).

That’s nothing to say about the process of recreating (and updating) the lightsabers, this time in Nuke and in linear space (more on all this later). I’ll gladly risk being accused of George Lucas’ing my own stuff here. But in my opinion, the more refined lightsaber effects in this 4k version stand as much more distinct from one another, both in style and even shade of blue. The new version is less our old fanfilm preferences of yesteryear—a mere “soft” verses “sharp” lightsaber core; hence the title—and more of a celebratory romp between Original Trilogy and Sequel Trilogy—two camps in which we would clearly put ourselves today.

            <img class="thumb-image" elementtiming="system-gallery-block-slideshow" data-image="https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/649742452099a26cee84b10b/1711648138939-DTLPJNCRYWW42CMORHR3/cd4k_025_2_HD.jpg" data-image-dimensions="1920x1080" data-image-focal-point="0.5,0.5" alt="Core Differences (2014)" data-load="false" data-image-id="6605ad8a2ad2e91d2e6ab3d4" data-type="image" src="https://blog.natecow.com/uploads/2026/ab17b3aa78.jpg" /><br>
          

          
            
              
              
                
                  Core Differences (2014)
                  
                
              
            
          
          
        
      
      
    

    

    

  

    
      
        
          
            <img class="thumb-image" elementtiming="system-gallery-block-slideshow" data-image="https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/649742452099a26cee84b10b/1711648146050-CFXR7N3KXOKPIYV0EAE5/cd4k_025_2_4k.jpg" data-image-dimensions="3840x2160" data-image-focal-point="0.5,0.5" alt="Core Differences Remastered (2024)" data-load="false" data-image-id="6605ad8a91216565605f3786" data-type="image" src="https://blog.natecow.com/uploads/2026/4074f5dfd7.jpg" /><br>
          

          
            
              
              
                
                  Core Differences Remastered (2024)
                  
                
              
            
          
          
        
      
      
    

    

    

  







  
  
    
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A look at my saber styles over the years:

            <img class="thumb-image" elementtiming="system-gallery-block-slideshow" data-image="https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/649742452099a26cee84b10b/1711072945058-9TLCOW7AQL06TK5GG17N/nate_sabers_avn1.jpg" data-image-dimensions="1280x543" data-image-focal-point="0.5,0.5" alt="Alex vs Nate (2007)" data-load="false" data-image-id="65fce6abf4fbe61104263ad0" data-type="image" src="https://blog.natecow.com/uploads/2026/243f55547e.jpg" /><br>
          

          
            
              
              
                
                  Alex vs Nate (2007)
                  
                
              
            
          
          
        
      
      
    

    

    

  

    
      
        
          
            <img class="thumb-image" elementtiming="system-gallery-block-slideshow" data-image="https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/649742452099a26cee84b10b/1711065164479-1V77GTFHY7NQ4A90DEAO/nate_sabers_d1.jpg" data-image-dimensions="1280x543" data-image-focal-point="0.5,0.5" alt="Duel of the Dorks (2010)" data-load="false" data-image-id="65fcc84cf4fbe611041eadfd" data-type="image" src="https://blog.natecow.com/uploads/2026/93b58f5ca6.jpg" /><br>
          

          
            
              
              
                
                  Duel of the Dorks (2010)
                  
                
              
            
          
          
        
      
      
    

    

    

  

    
      
        
          
            <img class="thumb-image" elementtiming="system-gallery-block-slideshow" data-image="https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/649742452099a26cee84b10b/1711065164057-5VY88C1VPPXRFBTOROCH/nate_sabers_avn2.jpg" data-image-dimensions="1920x800" data-image-focal-point="0.5,0.5" alt="Alex vs Nate 2 (2013)" data-load="false" data-image-id="65fcc84bd5878454d1dbb112" data-type="image" src="https://blog.natecow.com/uploads/2026/b24fe7f220.jpg" /><br>
          

          
            
              
              
                
                  Alex vs Nate 2 (2013)
                  
                
              
            
          
          
        
      
      
    

    

    

  

    
      
        
          
            <img class="thumb-image" elementtiming="system-gallery-block-slideshow" data-image="https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/649742452099a26cee84b10b/1711065165720-43GBNM54BCPQGESMR9LV/nate_sabers_bq.jpg" data-image-dimensions="1920x800" data-image-focal-point="0.5,0.5" alt="Brothers' Quarrel (2015)" data-load="false" data-image-id="65fcc84c58f9352633f6f4f3" data-type="image" src="https://blog.natecow.com/uploads/2026/879127d721.jpg" /><br>
          

          
            
              
              
                
                  Brothers' Quarrel (2015)
                  
                
              
            
          
          
        
      
      
    

    

    

  

    
      
        
          
            <img class="thumb-image" elementtiming="system-gallery-block-slideshow" data-image="https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/649742452099a26cee84b10b/1711072895606-USDITGF610Q1OQ8WH0A6/cd_swing_1080p.jpg" data-image-dimensions="1920x1080" data-image-focal-point="0.5,0.5" alt="Core Differences (2014)" data-load="false" data-image-id="65fce67e95fe6409aa3025cc" data-type="image" src="https://blog.natecow.com/uploads/2026/e0594c2c08.jpg" /><br>
          

          
            
              
              
                
                  Core Differences (2014)
                  
                
              
            
          
          
        
      
      
    

    

    

  

    
      
        
          
            <img class="thumb-image" elementtiming="system-gallery-block-slideshow" data-image="https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/649742452099a26cee84b10b/1711072900440-6HEGRW9E71ZACYHE2HBR/cd_swing_4k.jpg" data-image-dimensions="3840x2160" data-image-focal-point="0.5,0.5" alt="Core Differences Remastered (2024)" data-load="false" data-image-id="65fce67f7559c83021da4e43" data-type="image" src="https://blog.natecow.com/uploads/2026/6475cec908.jpg" /><br>
          

          
            
              
              
                
                  Core Differences Remastered (2024)
                  
                
              
            
          
          
        
      
      
    

    

    

  

    
      
        
          
            <img class="thumb-image" elementtiming="system-gallery-block-slideshow" data-image="https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/649742452099a26cee84b10b/1711072662387-ZNDN6QKXK1ICJCORBEK8/nate_sabers_sq_2.jpg" data-image-dimensions="3840x1786" data-image-focal-point="0.5,0.5" alt="Sisters' Quarrel (2023)" data-load="false" data-image-id="65fce595e0c4cc467ca28abd" data-type="image" src="https://blog.natecow.com/uploads/2026/01aa4609a5.jpg" /><br>
          

          
            
              
              
                
                  Sisters' Quarrel (2023)
                  
                
              
            
          
          
        
      
      
    

    

    

  







  
  
    
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The original Core Differences was created right in the midst of Duel of the Dorks and Alex vs Nate 2 (we actually shot Core Differences in February 2013, 5 months before AvN2), a time in which I rocked a style of lightsaber that sprung from The Phantom Menace and became rather clean, with a broad falloff and saturated colors. But just a couple years later, I would instantly fall in love with the style of sabers in the Sequel Trilogy, to me a celebration of the characteristics of the lenses and how they react to brightly photographed objects… an embracing of imperfections that give the blades so much life. In a way, a hark back to the quirks of hand drawn, optical lightsabers, which so perfectly brings us full circle to Vapes’ preferred look of Empire Strikes Back…

That Old School Look

I spent quite a view versions of a couple of different shots in CD4k trying to nail down the look Vapes preferred as he played the role of a picky client, something I assured him I was used to and had no problem with. Each time I branched out in Nuke to try something new from scratch was an opportunity, like Sam Seaborn trying to nail the perfect birthday message. I ultimately struck upon the solution in the shower, thinking about the old processes used in the 80’s, and what sort of imperfections or “mistakes” could’ve happened, and how to recreate that digitally. It ended up being a bit of a eureka moment, and is well deserving of its own post, I promise.

            <img class="thumb-image" elementtiming="system-gallery-block-slideshow" data-image="https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/649742452099a26cee84b10b/1711065916033-UEYKVDN96HHJWUMVAE82/cd_vapes_2.jpg" data-image-dimensions="3840x2160" data-image-focal-point="0.5,0.5" alt="Initial 4k version" data-load="false" data-image-id="65fccb35de59e52ec9101c39" data-type="image" src="https://blog.natecow.com/uploads/2026/cd37625805.jpg" /><br>
          

          
            
              
              
                
                  Initial 4k version
                  
                
              
            
          
          
        
      
      
    

    

    

  

    
      
        
          
            <img class="thumb-image" elementtiming="system-gallery-block-slideshow" data-image="https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/649742452099a26cee84b10b/1711065909014-N0SS8YDCL89E5C2TBKQS/cd_vapes_1.jpg" data-image-dimensions="1920x1080" data-image-focal-point="0.5,0.5" alt="Original HD version (VFX by Vapes)" data-load="false" data-image-id="65fccb34c4d3d6604dfb4303" data-type="image" src="https://blog.natecow.com/uploads/2026/4fad73cdb2.jpg" /><br>
          

          
            
              
              
                
                  Original HD version (VFX by Vapes)
                  
                
              
            
          
          
        
      
      
    

    

    

  

    
      
        
          
            <img class="thumb-image" elementtiming="system-gallery-block-slideshow" data-image="https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/649742452099a26cee84b10b/1711065919376-4LY6GD71ADI85DHBUXJ4/cd_vapes_4.jpg" data-image-dimensions="3840x2160" data-image-focal-point="0.5,0.5" alt="Attempted matching of Vapes' version in Nuke" data-load="false" data-image-id="65fccb3cd5878454d1dc6589" data-type="image" src="https://blog.natecow.com/uploads/2026/36aea96974.jpg" /><br>
          

          
            
              
              
                
                  Attempted matching of Vapes' version in Nuke
                  
                
              
            
          
          
        
      
      
    

    

    

  

    
      
        
          
            <img class="thumb-image" elementtiming="system-gallery-block-slideshow" data-image="https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/649742452099a26cee84b10b/1711065923138-9BK9N5ZSC49HCFZ1B0SM/cd_vapes_5.jpg" data-image-dimensions="3840x2160" data-image-focal-point="0.5,0.5" alt="Final Empire-inspired look" data-load="false" data-image-id="65fccb3d29d0993eede4ec1c" data-type="image" src="https://blog.natecow.com/uploads/2026/683c505586.jpg" /><br>
          

          
            
              
              
                
                  Final Empire-inspired look
                  
                
              
            
          
          
        
      
      
    

    

    

  







  
  
    
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Even Tim’s “MS Paint” saber got an update, as my girlfriend Hannah weighed in on my pixelated work-in-progress, opining that it should “look like the spray can.” Great Scott! How right you were, my love!

            <img class="thumb-image" elementtiming="system-gallery-block-slideshow" data-image="https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/649742452099a26cee84b10b/1711648243910-36NNRDWGNE8WGEECQUT7/cd4k_029_HD.jpg" data-image-dimensions="1920x1080" data-image-focal-point="0.5,0.5" alt="Original "MS Paint" Saber (2014)" data-load="false" data-image-id="6605adf329f479449b2e875c" data-type="image" src="https://blog.natecow.com/uploads/2026/79498526e4.jpg" /><br>
          

          
            
              
              
                
                  Original "MS Paint" Saber (2014)
                  
                
              
            
          
          
        
      
      
    

    

    

  

    
      
        
          
            <img class="thumb-image" elementtiming="system-gallery-block-slideshow" data-image="https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/649742452099a26cee84b10b/1711071277795-PUXEI9ISPL0P0JVL8F2K/cd_tim_2.jpg" data-image-dimensions="3840x2160" data-image-focal-point="0.5,0.5" alt="Initial 4k pixelated version" data-load="false" data-image-id="65fcdfc276a90a7dec497a08" data-type="image" src="https://blog.natecow.com/uploads/2026/b196b5fe93.jpg" /><br>
          

          
            
              
              
                
                  Initial 4k pixelated version
                  
                
              
            
          
          
        
      
      
    

    

    

  

    
      
        
          
            <img class="thumb-image" elementtiming="system-gallery-block-slideshow" data-image="https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/649742452099a26cee84b10b/1711071279512-4NZ9NZD34JDF1SOXB0Q6/cd_tim_3.jpg" data-image-dimensions="3840x2160" data-image-focal-point="0.5,0.5" alt="First spray can look" data-load="false" data-image-id="65fcdfc4923c645f61a8911c" data-type="image" src="https://blog.natecow.com/uploads/2026/4a99ba48ed.jpg" /><br>
          

          
            
              
              
                
                  First spray can look
                  
                
              
            
          
          
        
      
      
    

    

    

  

    
      
        
          
            <img class="thumb-image" elementtiming="system-gallery-block-slideshow" data-image="https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/649742452099a26cee84b10b/1711071549783-JOJX7MWBR1WCBIDYUGWH/cd_tim_4.jpg" data-image-dimensions="3840x2160" data-image-focal-point="0.5,0.5" alt="Final" data-load="false" data-image-id="65fce1354ed97031a398578a" data-type="image" src="https://blog.natecow.com/uploads/2026/023d5b6e99.jpg" /><br>
          

          
            
              
              
                
                  Final
                  
                
              
            
          
          
        
      
      
    

    

    

  







  
  
    
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Boter’s entrance remains unchanged, merely recreated in Nuke, with a saber reminiscent of Revenge of the Sith, a look I spent many of my much younger years deriding on the internet, but would now merely state is “not my preference.” The well runs deep with canonized lightsaber effects from which to draw inspiration these days. Take your pick and run wild, I say! And take pride in whatever you create!

            <img class="thumb-image" elementtiming="system-gallery-block-slideshow" data-image="https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/649742452099a26cee84b10b/1711648295139-PTCANKT9M1IR66ZDXZRX/cd4k_022_HD.jpg" data-image-dimensions="1920x1080" data-image-focal-point="0.5,0.5" alt="Core Differences (2014)" data-load="false" data-image-id="6605ae264570a80992e69fb6" data-type="image" src="https://blog.natecow.com/uploads/2026/934578f32e.jpg" /><br>
          

          
            
              
              
                
                  Core Differences (2014)
                  
                
              
            
          
          
        
      
      
    

    

    

  

    
      
        
          
            <img class="thumb-image" elementtiming="system-gallery-block-slideshow" data-image="https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/649742452099a26cee84b10b/1711648298158-5699C37NO88LG0067BRT/cd4k_022_4k.jpg" data-image-dimensions="3840x2160" data-image-focal-point="0.5,0.5" alt="Core Differences Remastered (2024)" data-load="false" data-image-id="6605ae24b0220872e42e9aa1" data-type="image" src="https://blog.natecow.com/uploads/2026/049310cc8b.jpg" /><br>
          

          
            
              
              
                
                  Core Differences Remastered (2024)
                  
                
              
            
          
          
        
      
      
    

    

    

  







  
  
    
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What I find most remarkable about this newly remastered version, besides just how ridiculously low quality the original looks by comparison, is the story of how Vapes and my ongoing feud has concluded, with our mutual appreciation of each others’ final lightsaber looks… albeit worth noting he ultimately won. My saber in this is still a little artificially sharper than I personally prefer it now, in order to keep a bit more contrast between them. But Sisters’ Quarrel saw cores soft enough to satisfy all of Vapes’ blurry dreams.

            <img class="thumb-image" elementtiming="system-gallery-block-slideshow" data-image="https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/649742452099a26cee84b10b/1711648359955-WQFP521CK9SEEXOLLB1E/cd4k_020_3_HD.jpg" data-image-dimensions="1920x1080" data-image-focal-point="0.5,0.5" alt="Core Differences (2014)" data-load="false" data-image-id="6605ae63dc64791e21aca1f1" data-type="image" src="https://blog.natecow.com/uploads/2026/8ad5dd141e.jpg" /><br>
          

          
            
              
              
                
                  Core Differences (2014)
                  
                
              
            
          
          
        
      
      
    

    

    

  

    
      
        
          
            <img class="thumb-image" elementtiming="system-gallery-block-slideshow" data-image="https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/649742452099a26cee84b10b/1711648362712-UT4XMUJWTM67PYLH4DTZ/cd4k_020_3_4k.jpg" data-image-dimensions="3840x2160" data-image-focal-point="0.5,0.5" alt="Core Differences Remastered (2024)" data-load="false" data-image-id="6605ae5eb2c5e84ccb988819" data-type="image" src="https://blog.natecow.com/uploads/2026/92887382eb.jpg" /><br>
          

          
            
              
              
                
                  Core Differences Remastered (2024)
                  
                
              
            
          
          
        
      
      
    

    

    

  







  
  
    
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More thoughts to come…

My site was starting to feel a little long in the tooth, and I was wanting to get more content up here and keep things more up to date. So I figured I’d take the opportunity to rebuild everything in SquareSpace’s newer “Fluid” engine. For the most part, I like it. It’s a little finicky at times and it’s wildly inconsistent with whether moving something will affect other things on the page. But the grid layout makes things a lot easier.

I’m a little annoyed that the blog still uses the old layout engine, but oh well. Let’s see here, compliment sandwich… I like the idea of “sections” and being able to quickly save them and call them up elsewhere.

Anywho, hope you enjoy poking around. On the Videos page, the titles all link to dedicated pages, where you’ll find behind the scenes for things like AvN, Duel of the Dorks, and Attack of the Drones. I’m still working on gathering stuff to post for the two Quarrels. And I’ve got some fun stuff in the works that I’ll be posting about in here.

Cheers!

It is with great pleasure that we finally release “Sisters’ Quarrel” upon the world. We shot this over the course of three weekends in October 2022. While the bulk of the post-production work was completed within a month in time for SaberComp 2022, we’ve spent the past seven months fulfilling our original vision and polishing the visual effects and sound mix.

This was a massive team effort, from Jeff Caauwe's directing and the collaboration of our nieces, Corinna and Cyrah (with a bonus Tim Sazama for an afternoon), to the compositing work by Eric Fakharzadeh and Steve Ernst, the incredible sound work by Jon Maxwell and his brother Aaron and the epic score composed by Justin R. Durban.

This is by far our most visually ambitious project to date, and I’m excited for everyone to see the culmination of everything we’ve been learning over the years since we last put a lightsaber on screen. Please enjoy the debut of the next phase of our continued adventures of nerditude. Yes, there will be more.

Nerdy stats for those who are interested:

• Camera: BlackMagic Pocket Cinema 6k Pro

• Lenses: Rokinon Cine Primes, Helios 44mm Anamorphic Mod

• Format: 6k BRAW

• Editing and Finishing: DaVinci Resolve Studio

• VFX: Nuke, Silhouette

• Expletives from Nuke crashes: 400-500

• Total Storage Used: 1.26 TB

• Ryan vs Nate plans: None at this time.

The official poster was designed by Jim Harris, whose work can be seen on Instagram.

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Check out my artist profile Borix FX featured on their blog :)

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<a href=“https://blog.borisfx.com/why-i-love-silhouette-nathaniel-caauwe-compositor-lead-roto-artist" class=“sqs-block-button-element–medium sqs-button-element–primary sqs-block-button-element” data-sqsp-button target="_blank”

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