Often I’ve thought to myself, “boy I’d like to visit Japan, the culture difference, the challenge of the language barrier, the public transport…”
Lee's App Of The Week: Zombies and Trains
OK I know I talk a lot about zombies and these days the topic of a zombie apocalypse is fairly meh BUT how could I ignore an app called Zombies And Trains?! This is the latest game app from Norwegian based Dragonhead Games and it is a corker!
Lee's App Of The Week: Real Bokeh
I love me some bokeh and I've been searching for a super simple bokeh app that lets me jazz up my pics with the click of button. Finally my search is over, for I have discovered Real Bokeh. Available on the iPhone and Android
Lee's App Of The Week: Plants Vs Zombies
Y'all know I've got a zombie "issue". I've actually developed a theory regarding the outcome of a potential zombie invasion since I unfortunately live quite close to a hospital (a well-known breeding ground for the suburban undead, see episode 1, season 1 of The Walking Dead) which means my fortress would be hit by the first intense wave of walkers to roll out across the nation. I've obviously begun acquiring the usual zombie defence equipment; cross bow, machete and so forth, but it turns out the only thing I really need is...PLANTS.
Lee's App Of The Week: Jurassic Park Builder
Normally I come bearing apps of technical brilliance, photographic immensity and all-round-smarty-pants-show-off material. This week however, I bring you JURASSIC PARK BUILDER. That's right people, you heard me right the first time, JURASSIC PARK BUILDER. Where all of your T-Rex and Jeff Goldblum dreams can come true.
Where the gamers at!?
Webseries Spotlight; Blood and Chrome
Happy New Year folks, hope you all got the things you wanted for Christmas. I certainly did; that pony was a long time coming. Let's kick off the new year with another one of my trademark spotlight blogs, focusing on Battlestar Galactica; Blood and Chrome. (Shout out to user DHW who posted about this after my last blog)
The 3rd Dimension
Many 3D fans will be aware of the power of Maya, and the influence it has on the world of VFX, from blockbuster films to major games series, Maya is one of the most incredible creative tools on the planet. But like a pack of Arctic Huskies, it demands time and attention if you wish it to take you voyaging across the vast plains of 3D.
In the beginning there was... FIFA International Soccer?
It wasn’t long ago that FIFA 13 was crowned the king of 21st century sports games, with 4.5 million copies sold in the five days after its launch, (1.23 million of those being in the first 48 hours) it’s figures worldwide trounced sporting rivals such as NHL 13 (0.48m), and Madden 13 (1.65m), more importantly though, it exceeded its closest rival, Pro Evolution Soccer, (0.86m) which had Christiano Ronaldo spearheading the advertising campaign, who in this case, off of the pitch, as well as on, has been left in the shadow of this year’s FIFA ambassador Lionel Messi.
Mirror Worlds Technologies to host Fashion and Games Jam.
STAM Museum Belgium is playing host to a fantastically innovative event on the 4th of December, as iDROPS bring together the two seismic forces that are the Fashion and gaming industries!
Fintastic: PlayStation's new underwater papercraft game
There's been incredible diversity in the range of video games graphics presented to us over the years, but developers are still managing to find new ways to surprise us.
Wow talk about computing power....
The U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Oak Ridge National Laboratory have introduced a new beast into the world of supercomputing. And as this new release is ten times more powerful than their previous world-leading system, this beast has been aptly named, Titan!
Google & The Science Museum team up!
Over the weekend I was wiling away a few minutes very early in the morning and I discovered this experimental collaboration, between Google and the Science Museum.
Bottles Beware!
Okay so it’s 2012 and I’ve seen so much cannon fodder footage on the internet that these days, when surfing the web, I am indeed hard to impress.
The Future Face of Game Graphics: Janimation's VFX Tech Demo
Take a look at the future of video game graphics in this demo, in which Janimation shows off their amazing new engine for facial animations.
NYCC 2012
We are less than a month away from New York Comic Con, “the East Coast's biggest and most exciting popular culture convention”, an event that attracts fans of film/TV/graphic novel (and the rest!) in their hoards, last year’s convention drawing 105,000 punters!
VIEW Conference: The Creative Power of Technology
October is certainly bursting with exciting events for the digital geeks among us. One to mention is our very own VFX Festival, the other is the VIEW Conference, a premiere international event in Italy for computer graphics, interactive techniques, digital cinema, 2D/3D animation, gaming and VFX. Running from 16th to 19th October in Torino, this 4-day event is overflowing with lectures, meetings, tributes, exhibits, screenings, workshops and demo presentations. And better still, our very own Daniel Shutt is among the exciting line-up for this year’s launching event.
The VFX Festival 2012 - Get your tickets now!
Step into the mind-blowing world of VFX with The VFX Festival! Escape Studios has created the first ever four-day festival exploring the breathtaking world of visual effects, held in London on 10th-13th October.
Celebrating a decade of UK visual effects, the festival will be packed with the most respected VFX talent, visionaries and companies who have helped shape the industry. Offering inspirational insight behind the clever trickery in this booming VFX industry, with an exciting four-day programme packed with insider knowledge and information, showreel demos, hands-on workshops and exclusive premieres, it's perfect for those with a creative talent or thirst to develop their VFX Career.
Webseries spotlight: Red vs Blue - Part II
Continuing on from Part I of this blog... then, at the start of season 8, and totally out of the blue, RvB started using action sequences, made with fully scripted fight scenes that involve stunts not possible with the previous game engine. CG had crept its way into the show, and in a big way; multiple people beating the incredible hell out of each other, huge explosions, space fights, giant weapons, and jaw dropping set pieces littered season 8, including a hilarious 8-minute sequence of Tex destroying the Reds and Blues, and flashbacks to Project Freelancer.
Webseries spotlight: Red vs Blue - Part I
And here we arrive at the end of our spotlight on web series blogs that have cool visual effects. And fittingly, we will wrap up with one of my absolute favourite shows.
This show began with a few friends recording themselves playing Halo; Combat Evolved(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halo:_Combat_Evolved), and dubbed voices over the top to create humorous shorts. Now, ten years later, those few guys have become Rooster Teeth(http://roosterteeth.com/home.php), and are the proud owners of the internet's longest running webseries, Red vs Blue(http://roosterteeth.com/archive/?sid=rvb&v=more). RvB has won many awards, and now has a huge fanbase(http://rvb.wikia.com/wiki/Red_vs._Blue_Wiki) over the entire world.
In the begining, RvB was a clever nod to the nuances of videogaming; two teams, of the aformentioned colours, trapped in a boxed canyon with two identical bases with no purporse or logical goal other than to kill eachother. There was a heavy emphasis on humour, specifically for gamers and Halo fans. Over the last decade, however, it has evolved. The length of the episodes has grown, the cast has greatly expanded, the plot has twisted and turned dramatically, and although they are split into seasons, the episodes actually tell one long continuous story from start to finish, which at this point clocks in at over 18 hours. It's basically one really, really long film.
The comedy has continued - and improved - over the years. However what's more impressive is the story, and how, despite it being created on a year by year basis, it continuously managed to tie itself into past events to create on long complex yet sophisticated narrative.
Both visually and in terms of production value, you can see how the show has adapted over the years. In its beginning(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9BAM9fgV-ts), RvB was filmed in an almost bootleg fashion, where large black bars covered the top and bottom of the screen to cover the Halo HUD, and the aiming reticule is always visible in the centre of the screen (They have since gone back and 'remastered' these episodes for HD quality). As the popularity of the show increased, Bungie(http://www.bungie.net), the creators of the Halo series, gave the guys at Rooster Teeth the means to record and render their exploits with their own in game cameras. Rooster Teeth have also cleverly used their stories to explain the visual differences that occur as new versions on Halo are released. For example, when they began to use Halo 2(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halo_2), the cast were blown into the future, where everything looked better and shinier.
Then, at the start of season 8(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VQ9pCqbwCFo&list=ELKa7KIIcrH8k&index=3&feature=plpp_video), and totally out of the blue, RvB started using action sequences have been made with fully scripted fight scenes that involve stunts not possible with the previous game engine. CG had crept its way into the show, and in a big way; multiple people beating the incredible hell out of each other, huge explosions, space fights, giant weapons, and jaw dropping set pieces littered season 8, including an hilarious 8 minute sequence of Tex destroying the Reds and Blues(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ke9wtbzGjCI&feature=relmfu), and her epic final battle against Washington and The Meta (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZgweBtQLL5g&feature=relmfu).
Since then, the show has cleverly incorporated fully CG sequences by showing flashbacks to Project Freelancer(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xQ3OZfPsP2E&list=ELYWB-pNdHjy0&index=2&feature=plpp_video) that tie into the current story. They've also built models for their characters underneath the suits of armour they wear, allowing their helmets to come off. It's important to remember that this is still a low budget show so the graphics aren't movie quality, but it's perfectly forgiveable considering the sheer amount of action and artistic direction used.
For those of you who're desperate to follow RvB in all its glory after this extremely thorough and well-written blog (which, I'm sure, will be all of you) it's important to point out a few things. The first 3 season's do look a little rough by today's standards, and it takes just a little bit of time for the cast to refine their voices. While it's fine to skip ahead to see the kind of quality you'll end up with, I urge you to start at the beginning, otherwise you'll fail to grasp most of the long running jokes. Also; it's totally hilarious, heartfelt, intelligent and constantly impresses with its ability to create a complex and intriguing story using just a few multilayer maps from a video game. So you should watch it anyway.
It terms of visual effects, RvB delivers incredibly over the top sequences that rival any film this side of The Avengers(http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0848228/). In terms of the series as a whole, there's a reason this show has been running longer that most television shows, keeps winning awards, had it's fictional game Griffball incorporated into Halo 3 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halo_3), and generally keeps getting better every year (this has even seen the inclusion of Elijah Wood to the cast). It's the best and longest running webseries out there, and well worth you're attention. Now go; you've got 18 hours of webshow to watch this weekend. Enjoy!
And here we arrive at the end of our spotlight on webseries blogs that have cool visual effects. And fittingly, we will wrap up with one of my absolute favourite shows.