Journal
March 29, 2007 | Links
Electro^plankton have posted about a wonderful animated short created by Isaak Fernandez Rodriquez.
Rodriquez cites Tim Burton and Bruce Timm’s designs for the Warner Bros Batman cartoon as influences. The whole project took 3 years to complete but the labor or love landed him a job at IIion Animation Studios in Madrid.
I love the blocky, super deformed style, and the black and white look is very film noire, stylee, which also works very well. And boy can that little man move!
Download info is available on the electro^plankton site.
One of my work colleagues pointed out this video about the world editor for the forthcoming game Crysis - and I must say - this is incredibly impressive stuff.
I’ve made a number of editors for video games in the past and they weren’t simple to create, yet they are nowhere near the complexity of this one. Clearly the person demoing the editor is very knowledgeable but the ease with which he creates and modifies the environment is astounding, and the fact you can drop into it as a player and run around testing things would ease the development process immensely.
A couple of things to watch out for which are technically challenging, and just rather cool (at least to me), include the real time lighting and day/ night cycles, the landscape sculpting and road laying tools, and the real time physics (on the trees)
Arstechnica have put together the three rules of effective cutscenes as taught by God of War 2.
The rules are…
Keep it Short, Stupid
I shouldn’t be Superman in a cut scene but Clark Kent in the game
If your engine is good enough for the game, it’s good enough for cut scenes
Obviously they go into more detail, but the points themselves are very valid.
My own opinion is basically that cutscenes are boring. It’s well known that a lot of video game artists would love to work in movies, and when cd’s were first used as a storage medium they decided to fill them up with movie clips showing off their talent. The problem was that, whilst technically impressive, the movies just weren’t enjoyable. One of the most important things I have learnt about animation (and I am far from an expert here) is to keep it short and sweet - keep the …
March 22, 2007 | Links
A comfortable well equipped office is well worth spending a bit of money on. The nicer the place the happier you will be, and the happier you are the more productive you will be (at least that’s the way I see it). Positive Sharing is a blog (and fellow 9rules member) about being happy and Alexander, the sites author, is a very happy person - just look at his photo.
Recently Alex mentioned 12 ways to pimp your office which, on it’s own, isn’t particularly exciting but then I saw this chair. It’s more than a little bit insane. Check out the full post for some other cool furniture and accessories for your office.
March 21, 2007 | Links
The competition for free Ninja Turtle schwag is going to be ending tomorrow morning (8:30 GMT) so if you still want to enter then head over and answer the ludicrously simple question (nobody has got it wrong yet).
You might as well give it a go - it’s free to enter and well… it’s the Turtles Dude!
The Google Personalized desktop themes have only been out a couple of days and some Easter Eggs have already been found. Google Operating System has the full story (with screenshots) for anybody who doesn’t want to wait until 3:14 in the morning to see the mysteries of the theme.
I’m sure in time we will see other Easter Eggs, along with custom things for celebrations (Christmas, Easter etc).
Binary Moon
Rocket Boards
Gun Wing
Seths Puzzle Boxes
Bubble Bomb