With Google sketchup models being easily accessible to both Iclone and MovieStorm, sketchup is a good tool to have in your anymation movie-making belt. Ive been playing around with sketchup for a little while now and while I'm no expert I can do most of the things I need to do. Still, after a year and a half of putzing about, I only today downloaded the bonus materials pack. Doh! This little pack greatly increases the number of textures you can paint your model with. Definitely worth the download.
Just download the materials library link and change the folder in the installation process to the Sketchup 7 folder. Easy Peasy.
Thanks to the Dr. Nemesis Blog for the link.
Intent on giving Eddie Haskell thebiz
Friday, August 27, 2010
Monday, August 16, 2010
Monsters of the Atomic Age!
A man finds fame in a monster suit. Fame fades. World explodes.
Starring
thebiz as Dave/Growth-O!
6HeadedMonster as Steve-O!
Madison as Little Girl
JohnnyEx as Angry Dad
Nahton as The Boss
Wolf as Alan Hale/Giant Robot monkey
Norrie as Quinn/King Buzzo
GoofParade as The Mayor
Dulci as Dulci@Dusk
Act3Scene24 as Felix Award Presenter
Sisch as Marie Heim
MrsBiz as Red Leather
Jase180 as JetPackBoy
Music by Precog and Kevin Macleod
Full credits in film.
Please let me know if you have any problems viewing the flick.
Monday, August 9, 2010
A crutch is a tool after all...
Watched KibishiPaul's The Comeback last night. On TMU he has provided an interesting and involved description of the scenario/story involving generation of clowns and the protagonist being a very bad performer who wants to take off the makeup. However, the flick itself contains no dialog and could be easily broken down to a simple little horror story (though not a bad one, pretty fun I thought) that has none of this back story. It made me wonder if the description served to enhance the movie by adding context and secondary info or if the movie failed to explain the plot and uses the description as a crutch.
With online videos, the description is closely tied to the movie and I always read it before viewing a flick so here I tend to feel it can be used as a tool. No, the story line doesn't need to be fully expounded upon but perhaps some small verbal clues can be used to aid the visual story or is this cheating so to speak? Tag lines are used in most cinema poster promotions while expository info is often used in trailers. With online videos the description is sitting right there next to the little screen so why not use it? Or perhaps all this is pretty obvious. Thoughts?
With online videos, the description is closely tied to the movie and I always read it before viewing a flick so here I tend to feel it can be used as a tool. No, the story line doesn't need to be fully expounded upon but perhaps some small verbal clues can be used to aid the visual story or is this cheating so to speak? Tag lines are used in most cinema poster promotions while expository info is often used in trailers. With online videos the description is sitting right there next to the little screen so why not use it? Or perhaps all this is pretty obvious. Thoughts?
Friday, August 6, 2010
Video Game Makings
Continuing on the subject of Video Games, Edge Magazine has a very cool weekly feature on the "Making of.." various games both current and classic. The articles run the gauntlet (hehe) from design to tech specs and a good bit of history. Some of my favorites so far include:
Little Computer People (Thanks for the heads up Overman!) - A Sim before the Sims ('85) for the Commodore64
Tapper - Hard to believe making video games was as simple as they make it sound here. And who doesnt love a beer themed game.
Gauntlet - The multiplayer co-op Granddaddy
Repton - Never heard of it but an interesting story as its creator was 15 and lasted 2 years before leaving the game business behind to enter college.
Worth a look at thelist to see if one of your favorites is there as well.
Little Computer People (Thanks for the heads up Overman!) - A Sim before the Sims ('85) for the Commodore64
Tapper - Hard to believe making video games was as simple as they make it sound here. And who doesnt love a beer themed game.
Gauntlet - The multiplayer co-op Granddaddy
Repton - Never heard of it but an interesting story as its creator was 15 and lasted 2 years before leaving the game business behind to enter college.
Worth a look at thelist to see if one of your favorites is there as well.
Tuesday, July 27, 2010
A Life Well Wasted
Heres one of the best things Ive heard off the internet in quite a while: A Life Well Wasted is "an internet radio show about video games and the people who love them". Created and produced by Robert Ashley and featuring uber quirky pop music from him and his band, I come to Shanghai. Very good editing that sounds like a very hip version of NPR and provides incredibly interesting material. Trust me when I say you dont have to be a video game aficionado to enjoy as the episodes venture from the death of print journalism to musings on fame, creativity and ideals. Currently there are six episodes and Ive listened to three.
Episode 1 - The Death of EGM includes interviews with the writers from Electronic Games Monthly at their going out of business party. Suprisingly interesting with amusing travels down memory lane of guys who seemed to live in the land of misfit toys. Reminded me a bit of skate culture from the same time period. Makes a fine, though subtle, case for why we should care about the loss of print culture.
Episode 3 - An outstanding piece on Jason Rohrer, a bohemian game designer intent on creating art through video games designed for 256mz systems (I gotta download Passage soon - its free!). Another pretty good interview with a game designer who discusses what happens when a game turns bad (and is reviewed as thus). Both pieces really translate well outside of the ideas of game design and are just plain interesting to listen to.
Episode 6 - A musical montage of user submitted game ideas. A narration on ideas that sounds like Jim Morrison in an American Prayer circa 2010 (this was the highlight for me...really well written). A man who licensed Tetris, made millions and now wants to save the world from itself. A well endowed, fame loving video game geek.
I will probably finish up the other three episodes this week which is a shame as new episodes of this one man show seems to get made very sporadically but its definitely worth the wait.
Episode 1 - The Death of EGM includes interviews with the writers from Electronic Games Monthly at their going out of business party. Suprisingly interesting with amusing travels down memory lane of guys who seemed to live in the land of misfit toys. Reminded me a bit of skate culture from the same time period. Makes a fine, though subtle, case for why we should care about the loss of print culture.
Episode 3 - An outstanding piece on Jason Rohrer, a bohemian game designer intent on creating art through video games designed for 256mz systems (I gotta download Passage soon - its free!). Another pretty good interview with a game designer who discusses what happens when a game turns bad (and is reviewed as thus). Both pieces really translate well outside of the ideas of game design and are just plain interesting to listen to.
Episode 6 - A musical montage of user submitted game ideas. A narration on ideas that sounds like Jim Morrison in an American Prayer circa 2010 (this was the highlight for me...really well written). A man who licensed Tetris, made millions and now wants to save the world from itself. A well endowed, fame loving video game geek.
I will probably finish up the other three episodes this week which is a shame as new episodes of this one man show seems to get made very sporadically but its definitely worth the wait.
Sunday, July 25, 2010
Stormy Baseball, Zombieland, Toy Story3
"Faust" Eddie Brock has become my "thing" ...meaning my next big project. Ive mentioned him here before so in short he's the baseball player who claims to have sold his soul to the devil. But where do we go from here? As I asked before...whats the story. In a straight up conventional world he wants to win a pennant (a pennant is so much more interesting than a world series..hey its baseball and baseball loves the old school and pennants only really matter in the old school). Mayhaps we throw in a girl or an orphan (it is a Wallace Beery picture right?). Or we throw in the Seatle Supersonics (cause they are simialr to a girl or an orphan...Cause..um...they dont exist anymore). But a city got screwed in the process (not for first and certainly not for last). But the last year in a city who's losing its sport franchise is pretty solid for a pretend strory right? Whos the protagonist and whats his issue? Not sure yet. Still, in the process of figuring it out. In the meantime, let me tell you a tale.
Went to the new Yankee Stadium last night. I dont like the Yankees (You may not know it but Im a die hard Atl fan. Love my Braves, love my Hawks and above all love my Falcons) but it was a friends birthday so such is life. Took the ferry uptown to the stadium. Great 30 minute boat ride. Good times. But alas, we had purchased the Mohegan Sun Bar seats. Ive been to many baseball games. I was at the game where Otis Nixon scaled the wall to send the 91' braves to the pennant (see pennant description up above). Or perhaps Ive got my facts wrong but stick with me anyway. So we are in a bar in dead center field with giant glass windows. But its a bar (with 11$ beers). Nothing like a baseball game, more like sitting in a bar. Ok, fine, I adjusted. We are 50' from the center fielder and Im thinking in my mind about what is the story as Eddie should be a center fielder and the experience was..er..it was an experience. Then somewhere around the 5th inning with a tornado warning in effect, a bitch of a storm wandered through (Hell came to Frogtown). Mass amounts of water and lightning but still Im inside and behind glass and watching as some of the bleacher bums dance and enjoy their 100% soakedness. Im feeling guilty cause Ive never seen a game from a stadium inside a bar before and it feels fake but alas Im getting pretty sloshed from my 11$ beers and then the ceiling springs a leak. As a result of a lot of water (did I mention how big this storm was?) on our seats leaking through the roof, we get our whole tab comped which is about $600 (there were a lot of us) which makes the whole experience worth it. Plus the storm was uber-cinematic.
So yea, my next picture will be a baseball flick I think.
In other news, I watched Zombieland today. Solid but perrhaps lacking. I would have liked to see more of the bigger picture of society (especially the zombie kill of the week stuff) and I didn't like the two females and the finale was pretty lame. Still, the whole BM (and I aint talking Bob Marley..in fact the whole Hollywood Zombie combo could have made an excellent movie itself.) scene makes my 2 hour investment worthwhile and Woody Harrelson was great. (2.5 outa 4).
Also watched Toy Story 3 this afternoon with Kid Millions in tow. His first cinema event in which he participated in whole. I was a little dissapointed as the reviews I read made me think I would gather some insight from the proceedings (perhaps see UP...perhaps...). I left feeling unaffected and wondering how much longer the 3d fad will persist. It was used fine here but it added little (and was a big detriment when your three year old refuses to wear the glasses and ends up watching an unfocused blurry screen for two hours and get to feeling all guilty over it). 2 of 4 stars.
Went to the new Yankee Stadium last night. I dont like the Yankees (You may not know it but Im a die hard Atl fan. Love my Braves, love my Hawks and above all love my Falcons) but it was a friends birthday so such is life. Took the ferry uptown to the stadium. Great 30 minute boat ride. Good times. But alas, we had purchased the Mohegan Sun Bar seats. Ive been to many baseball games. I was at the game where Otis Nixon scaled the wall to send the 91' braves to the pennant (see pennant description up above). Or perhaps Ive got my facts wrong but stick with me anyway. So we are in a bar in dead center field with giant glass windows. But its a bar (with 11$ beers). Nothing like a baseball game, more like sitting in a bar. Ok, fine, I adjusted. We are 50' from the center fielder and Im thinking in my mind about what is the story as Eddie should be a center fielder and the experience was..er..it was an experience. Then somewhere around the 5th inning with a tornado warning in effect, a bitch of a storm wandered through (Hell came to Frogtown). Mass amounts of water and lightning but still Im inside and behind glass and watching as some of the bleacher bums dance and enjoy their 100% soakedness. Im feeling guilty cause Ive never seen a game from a stadium inside a bar before and it feels fake but alas Im getting pretty sloshed from my 11$ beers and then the ceiling springs a leak. As a result of a lot of water (did I mention how big this storm was?) on our seats leaking through the roof, we get our whole tab comped which is about $600 (there were a lot of us) which makes the whole experience worth it. Plus the storm was uber-cinematic.
So yea, my next picture will be a baseball flick I think.
In other news, I watched Zombieland today. Solid but perrhaps lacking. I would have liked to see more of the bigger picture of society (especially the zombie kill of the week stuff) and I didn't like the two females and the finale was pretty lame. Still, the whole BM (and I aint talking Bob Marley..in fact the whole Hollywood Zombie combo could have made an excellent movie itself.) scene makes my 2 hour investment worthwhile and Woody Harrelson was great. (2.5 outa 4).
Also watched Toy Story 3 this afternoon with Kid Millions in tow. His first cinema event in which he participated in whole. I was a little dissapointed as the reviews I read made me think I would gather some insight from the proceedings (perhaps see UP...perhaps...). I left feeling unaffected and wondering how much longer the 3d fad will persist. It was used fine here but it added little (and was a big detriment when your three year old refuses to wear the glasses and ends up watching an unfocused blurry screen for two hours and get to feeling all guilty over it). 2 of 4 stars.
Friday, July 16, 2010
LastLegs
Ive been working a bit on an idea for myclone's comic book challenge lately. LastLegs is a character I've been wanting to bring to life for a few months and a still life comic book seems a good place to start. He's based on a song from CopShootCop (titled aptly...Last Legs) but my version is an old and decrepit man who's a bit more spry than you would think at first glance. Wasnt completely happy with the character model yet (looks a bit to young and nice). No telling if I can get it done by the deadline as I wont start really working till MotAA is done. Anywho, played around a bit with photoshop this morn and got a look that I was pleased with. File this one under more ideas floating about the noggin.
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