While I’m being nostalgic. here’s a slick Youtube video I cam across that shows many of the games that I spent SOoooo much of my time playing as a child. What else are you going to do, when you are miles from your friends, it’s summer vacation and your a computer geek?
Categoryentertainment
“Thought of You”, created by Ryan Woodward provided me with an inspiring dose to add to my breakfast this morning. He also has some beautiful figure sketches on his website that I recommend taking the time to see.
Thought of You from Ryan J Woodward on Vimeo.
It’s a bit like District 9, but with Trolls and in Norway instead of South Africa. It’s also a bit like Blaire Witch, but you actually get to see the beasts.
The first realistic creature animation to be done in Norway, the film had a budget of 3 million dollars, a quarter of which was set aside for the visual effects.
CGSociety has a Production Focus article on the film. The also link up to a VFX breakdown of the film on YouTube.
Here’s a “Rig to Render” video of one of the trolls. I think I see Houdini being used. 😉
Troll Hunter VFX – Ringlefinch from Rig to Render from Rune Spaans on Vimeo.
Thanks to Dan Laczkowski for getting me to seriously check this out. The following link will lead you to a demonstration by Android Jones.
Alchemy – An open drawing project
j4sonh4n
The last two weeks have been pretty crazy. Back to work in a studio cubical and also attended the Vancouver International Film Festival.
I started everything off with Monsters, and ended if off with the beautiful, French, somewhat depressing The Illusionist. In total I saw 28 films.
- Monsters
- Waste Land (trash is art!)
- Cold Fish (violently disturbing)
- R U There? (yes, I am… I’m just sleeping)
- An Ecology of Mind (documentary on the amazing system theories of Gregory Bateson)
- Crossing the Mountain (…zzzZZZ)
- David Wants to Fly (documentary on David Lynch and his association w/ Transcendental Meditation)
- Tree (needed a dose of good drama)
- Philosophies of Life (short film collection that I didn’t have the patience to finish)
- Turn It Loose (breakdancing!)
- 13 Assassins (live action version Ninja Scroll?)
- Secrets of the Tribe (anthropologists decimating each other’s reputations)
- Drummer’s Dream (luckily they were selling copies on DVD at the door)
- The Man from Nowhere (South Korean action flick w/ a Korean version of Keanu Reeves)
- Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives (still trying to “get it”, but the ghost monkeys were sweet)
- Nénette (I ♥ orangutans)
- Guido Superstar (love them poop gags)
- Into Eternity (now one of my fav documentaries)
- Cell 211 (violently beautiful)
- Rubber (the killer tire could be a cult classic)
- Schooling the World: The White Man’s Last Burden (spreading the gospel without thinking of the consequences)
- Aftershock (wicked earthquake scene followed by Hollywood inspired drama)
- Cities on Speed (documentaries where the titles say it all, “Bogotá Change” & “Mumbai Disconnected”)
- When the Devil Knocks (documentary on a woman with multiple personalities)
- Armadillo (Danish film on the Afgan war)
- The Repeaters (Groundhog day with 3 addicts)
- Plug & Pray (I ♥ Joseph Weizenbaum)
- The Illusionist (French animation from creators of Triplets of Bellville
How to Survive?
1) Bring a water bottle & snacks. You will be downtown all day long, surrounded by Starbucks, McDonalds and $2 pizza slices. Considering you’ll be sitting on your butt all day long, just how much torture do you want your body to endure?
2) Sharpie for the marking up of your schedule.
3) Learn to live without your phone for a few hours. I was amazed at how insistent the staff were in having the audience turn off their phones. I was even more amazed at how difficult it was for us to follow this suggestion. I must say, I only pulled out my phone a couple times to quickly check the time. I swear!
4) Networking. In line I met tons of people that made me regret not having a business card, though we all had smartphones so the problem was easily solved. meeting people in line was also a great way to get suggestions on films. If it wasn’t for the texts from my new friend Michael, I would have missed 13 Assassins, and that would have been tragic.
Speaking of “meeting people”, I finally met my doppelganger. According to Michael Hayward, there may be potential for me playing a younger version of Wallace Shawn (Princess Bride) in his autobiographical documentary.
The last two weeks have been pretty crazy. Back to work in a studio cubical and also attended the Vancouver International Film Festival.
I started everything off with Monsters, and ended if off with the beautiful, French, somewhat depressing The Illusionist. In total I saw 28 films.
- Monsters
- Waste Land (trash is art!)
- Cold Fish (violently disturbing)
- R U There? (yes, I am… I’m just sleeping)
- An Ecology of Mind (documentary on the amazing system theories of Gregory Bateson)
- Crossing the Mountain (…zzzZZZ)
- David Wants to Fly (documentary on David Lynch and his association w/ Transcendental Meditation)
- Tree (needed a dose of good drama)
- Philosophies of Life (short film collection that I didn’t have the patience to finish)
- Turn It Loose (breakdancing!)
- 13 Assassins (live action version Ninja Scroll?)
- Secrets of the Tribe (anthropologists decimating each other’s reputations)
- Drummer’s Dream (luckily they were selling copies on DVD at the door)
- The Man from Nowhere (South Korean action flick w/ a Korean version of Keanu Reeves)
- Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives (still trying to “get it”, but the ghost monkeys were sweet)
- Nénette (I ♥ orangutans)
- Guido Superstar (love them poop gags)
- Into Eternity (now one of my fav documentaries)
- Cell 211 (violently beautiful)
- Rubber (the killer tire could be a cult classic)
- Schooling the World: The White Man’s Last Burden (spreading the gospel without thinking of the consequences)
- Aftershock (wicked earthquake scene followed by Hollywood inspired drama)
- Cities on Speed (documentaries where the titles say it all, “Bogotá Change” & “Mumbai Disconnected”)
- When the Devil Knocks (documentary on a woman with multiple personalities)
- Armadillo (Danish film on the Afgan war)
- The Repeaters (Groundhog day with 3 addicts)
- Plug & Pray (I ♥ Joseph Weizenbaum)
- The Illusionist (French animation from creators of Triplets of Bellville
How to Survive?
1) Bring a water bottle & snacks. You will be downtown all day long, surrounded by Starbucks, McDonalds and $2 pizza slices. Considering you’ll be sitting on your butt all day long, just how much torture do you want your body to endure?
2) Sharpie for the marking up of your schedule.
3) Learn to live without your phone for a few hours. I was amazed at how insistent the staff were in having the audience turn off their phones. I was even more amazed at how difficult it was for us to follow this suggestion. I must say, I only pulled out my phone a couple times to quickly check the time. I swear!
4) Networking. In line I met tons of people that made me regret not having a business card, though we all had smartphones so the problem was easily solved. meeting people in line was also a great way to get suggestions on films. If it wasn’t for the texts from my new friend Michael, I would have missed 13 Assassins, and that would have been tragic.
Speaking of “meeting people”, I finally met my doppelganger. According to Michael Hayward, there may be potential for me playing a younger version of Wallace Shawn (Princess Bride) in his autobiographical documentary.
“Cottage of Doom” remains as one of my favorite zombie games. It’s only game where I’ve seen the concept of barricading yourself from zombies done well.
Plus, it was created by a single developer and all the source code is open and free. You can download this tiny game here.
It might not fit with the format of this blog, but a single developer that wins awards for a game that he’s also released the source code for, deserves some recognition. Also, I hope this acts as a ping for him to continue work on Dead Rock, a graphically updated version of Cottage of Doom. He has taken a long break from Dead Rock in order to complete work on Eufloria (which is current in development for the iPad), which also looks slick.
This video with some pop and lock dance stylins, at a street corner, is making it’s way across the internet like wildfire.
A month back I was forwarded an interview with Gareth Edwards, the director of Monsters. In the interview he talks about making a feature film on a small budget. I haven’t yet found out the exact budget, but the $15,000 number has been thrown around. I’ll spare my opinions on this exact number as there’s already plenty of debate that can be found online. In any case, I certainly believe it could have been pulled off for under $100k, which is still way cheaper than most films of this quality.
Gareth seems to have gained much of his visual FX experience while working for the BBC. For example, while working on Attila the Hun, he locked the camera and used cycled animations from live footage in order to fill a battlefield with virtual cast of millions. Smart time-saving moves, for sure.
According to this interview, prior to Monsters, Gareth was having trouble making money as a director and he figured it was time to jump in and make a film on his own. He knew the gamble of going off on his own, but he says, “If you always put things off till it’s perfect, you’ll never do anything.” Jumping in and “pissing” himself was what he knew he needed to do to progress his career. He feels like everything he had done as a director for hire was preparing him for this moment of creative freedom. The 48 Hour Sci-Fi-London Film Challenge was exactly what he needed to prove what he could do.
Gareth Edwards
Uploaded by SFLTV. – Classic TV and last night’s shows, online.
I’ve heard a quote from George Lucas, where he stated that his goal was to use computer graphics in order to put the paintbrush into the director’s hands. Gareth seems to agree with this dream… and has apparently executed it, with the help of a 35mm adapter for his video camera and a laptop or two. Gareth designed the creature himself, with thousands of sketches over the course of a year. The cast consisted of himself, two actors (who were soon married, after shooting the film), two line producers and a sound guy. For the rest of the cast, he would film random citizens in the cities he visited, including his assigned armed bodyguards in Mexico.
First there was Neil Blomkamp’s successful District 9, and now there’s Gareth Edwards. Both are convincing me that I have to start putting some time into learning compositing. Visual effects compositing is the final line where the 2D image is created and the more you can avoid time-consuming 3D, the better.
Are you wishing you hadn’t missed the showing of the film? Don’t stress!! The Vancouver International Film Festival has another showing on Thursday, October 14th at 11am. However, you had better act quick and request that day off work before someone else does. 😉
My opinions on the film? It’s a nice jaunt through central america while being chased by giant octupi. It reminded of Romancing the Stone, with more focus on the romancing. The effects range from subtle to not-so subtle. I enjoyed the film, as did everyone around me. Don’t worry, I didn’t ruin anything you won’t learn in the first 5 minutes of the film.
Thanks to Jin Lemon for that link.
In a semi-related link, here’s a Ted Talk by Ken Robinson. Specifically, I was intrigued by his story of the girl who “…had to move to think.”
Vestax’s new USB DJ controller uses Serato’s “ITCH” for some pretty impressive results. It also looks like an updated VCI-300MKII model has been released. I must get my hands on one… at least to try.
A big concern with more sensitive electronic equipment, is finding the safest way to carry it around. Mostly, looking for something that will help protect the digital knobs. On this Serato forum thread, someone points out this German company (Magma-Bags) that makes carrying bags. Specifically, the DIGI Control-Bag 300 is demoed with the VCI-300.
However, I’ve been thinking about purchasing a piece of foam and just laying the foam on top and slipping it into a large sleeve. This keeps it more modular, and I could bring the the device alone or slip it into a larger back with my laptop.
Last night I met up with Dave, a new friend I met on Capitol Hill the weekend prior. Coincidentally, he’s from Mt. Clements, Michigan. Dave highly recommended that I checkout Pinback, from southern California, so there we were. East Side crew in full effect for a concert at Neumos. Dave is a musician. He shared with me stories where he almost played for some very well known bands, and that he would do just about anything to play with Pinback. Well, little did we know, life had some interesting stuff in store for him.
The opener, Little White Teeth opened. They were pretty good, though we only caught the last half of their set.
Next, Pinback came on stage. One of the two members of the band was not able to make it to the show due to a recent addition to his family. The newborn child was projected on the screen to emphasize the point. Daddy was not going to make it to his performance. So, Rob Crow performed solo, so that his partner could be with his newborn baby. Rob was having a hard time, as he only had one day to prepare. Luckily, members from the opening band helped out a bit.
Soon the crowd was making requests that Rob was having a hard time fulfilling. At one point, he said, “I just need someone to sing this.” I pushed Dave forward, toward the stage. He turned and smiled before running up and jumping on stage.
Rob said to the crowd, “I don’t know what lyrics he singing, but it sounds better than ours!” At times like this, it certainly pays to be a musician… because Dave nailed it. A little flower girl ran up to Dave as he stepped off the stage. That was the last I saw of Dave that night.
Michael Kielbasa & Jennifer Deluca win 1st at America’s Classic. So much flexibility in the technique. So smooth. Ok, going to watch this for a 3rd time before I jump off the internet.
Who goes to see a midnight sneak showing of a 3D animated family movie?
Me, myself and I.
I was just driving around and saw the midnight showing. I couldn’t resist. Can Pixar do 3 in a row? I’m think so.
Back in 2003, Evil Dead: A Fistful of Boomstick was released on the XBOX 360. I saw only bits and pieces if, but the reviews seem to side with what I saw… some awesome voice work by Bruce Campbell, inside of a disappointing game.
If you love the concept of being trapped inside of a cottage, with unlimited waves of undead, you must checked the open-source game project Cottage of Doom. The graphics are something you might haven’t seen in a decade, but the gameplay is great. The creator is now working on an update called “Deadrock“, though I expect it might be awhile before we see anything since he’ seems busy with Eufloria.
Call of Duty: World At War
Staring out of a boarded up window as dead nazi’s stumble in from the fog. With the volume set properly, your guaranteed to jump.
There’s also Su
I’m sure that most will be playing Left 4 Dead 2, but don’t forget to checkout some of these other pieces of zombie flavor.
A classically animated short created by Michael Dudok De Wit. Simple yet beautiful. Powerful use of the music to tell the story. If you like this short and can handle seeing something a little more simple, Father & Daughter is also worth checking out.
Thanks to Des Duggan for getting me to check this out.
A classically animated short created by Michael Dudok De Wit. Simple yet beautiful. Powerful use of the music to tell the story. If you like this short and can handle seeing something a little more simple, Father & Daughter is also worth checking out.
Thanks to Des Duggan for getting me to check this out.
District 9 was a significant film for me for a few different reasons.
- Efficient use of effects. It’s not just what you can do, but how you use it.
- Story with meaning. In a time where films rarely follow their core message… it’s refreshing to see an exception (including Pixar).
- I was almost lucky enough to work on it. Almost. :
- Oh yeah, and it’s got aliens!
The film was directed by Neill Blomkamp, a Vancouver Film School graduate who is a VFX veteran from The Embassy, who directed the popular Citroen commercial.
Long story short, Neill was supposed to direct the Halo film, but that was put on hold (indefinitely?) and so Peter Jackson assisted Neill in turning his short film, “Alive in Jorberg“. into a feature film. District 9 was green lit with a budget of $30 million.
On September 29th I attended a Siggraph talk with Image Engine, where spoke on the making of District 9. Image Engine was one of a handful of studios in Vancouver that worked on the film. While Image Engine focused on the creation of the “prawn” characters, The Embassy was working on the large robot and little critters. Goldtooth Creative worked on some of the 3D user interfaces shots and WETA, since they were busy with Avatar, was only able to contribute to a few shot elements, including the mothership.
The original intention was to use prosthetic suits for the alien prawns w/ CG face overlays. Peter Muyzers recommended that Image Engine be allowed to create the creatures entirely in 3D. In the end, about 300 alien shots were created by Image Engine. The aliens were acted out by a grey suited actor and then replaced by a CG double, which was created in Maya. It was noted that the grey suit provided a great reference for lighting. Nuke was heavily used in the production as allowed for much of the CG lighting to be adjusted in real-time.
People at Goldtooth and Image Engine both noted how the use of the “Red One” camera sometimes produced warping of the frame during fast camera moves. This was often difficult for the tracking software and forced them to fully recreate the scenes in 3D in order to do touchups. The warping effect was referred to as the “rolling shutter“.
The 300 alien shots felt like a lot more. This and many of the other tricks, including filtering footage through VHS recorders, were testiment to Neill’s efficient use of FX. He understood that 3D is expensive and when some shots were pushed through the pipe, he was quoted saying that the cost was “a snowmobile or 2“. Like Fight Club, Neill used used FX to help tell a story, not a story to show off pretty effects. The crew at Image Engine expressed how much of a benefit it was to have someone directing that spoke their language.
I hope to see more movies like this and nearly everyone who’s seen it agrees. Would Neill be able to produce double the quality with 60 million? Anybody ready for a District 10? We’ll see.
FXGuide has a very detailed breakdown that includes before/after shots organized by studio.
I received Fallout 3 free with my PS3 console deal… the “Collectors Edition” that is.
I’ve put just under 10 hours into the game and although the new turn-based like targeting system (aka “VAT) is pretty satisfying, the game is pretty repetitive. Glad I took the time to play it as now I’m more sure than ever that I want to avoid most first person RPGs.
You like the open world RPGs? Then you’ll probably like this game. However, if life demands your attention, don’t pick this one up or:
1) You won’t get anything done. You’ll constantly be late for work. You’re wife will leave you (though this is more tolerable to spouses than “WoW”).
2) You’ll snap out of a trance, 10 hours in, and think, “Where am I? It’s 2am?” and set out to burn the drug-like media before it tempts you into more game time.
Checkout what the Escapist has to say.
Thief? Hmm… yeah, I still haven’t played that one.
I received Fallout 3 free with my PS3 console deal… the “Collectors Edition” that is.
I’ve put just under 10 hours into the game and although the new turn-based like targeting system (aka “VAT) is pretty satisfying, the game is pretty repetitive. Glad I took the time to play it as now I’m more sure than ever that I want to avoid most first person RPGs.
You like the open world RPGs? Then you’ll probably like this game. However, if life demands your attention, don’t pick this one up or:
1) You won’t get anything done. You’ll constantly be late for work. You’re wife will leave you (though this is more tolerable to spouses than “WoW”).
2) You’ll snap out of a trance, 10 hours in, and think, “Where am I? It’s 2am?” and set out to burn the drug-like media before it tempts you into more game time.
Checkout what the Escapist has to say.
Thief? Hmm… yeah, I still haven’t played that one.
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