Sunday, December 14, 2008

Live Action Short: 28 Ghost IV

It snowed in Kelowna and as much as I dislike it, snow does create some interesting ideas. I've had and idea to do a short like this for about 2 years now, using the snow and someone dressed in black to push the contrast.
It's best to click on the video and go to Youtube and watch it there. While on the Youtube page select the "Watch In High Quality" text right below the video. Otherwise the video is grainy and low res.
Watch it, rate it 5 stars, fav it and share it with your friends!

You can also rate and view my Ghost videos over on NIN.com . Don't forget to rate them there as well if you're a member.

Thursday, November 06, 2008

Art Style Orbient Review

Suda 51 of Grasshopper Manafature, makers of Killer7 and No More Heroes, calls himself a punk game maker. One thing that lead to the punk rock revolution in the 70's was people being tired of long winded Progressive Rock bands, such as Pink Floyd and their super long songs. The Ramones debut album was shorter then some Pink Floyd songs. Punk rock brought rock back to the basics. In the sense of Punk style games, Orbient is a lot more punk then No More Heroes.
Orbient is apart of the Art Style WiiWare titles, which are the spiritual sequels (some times actual sequels or remakes) of the Gameboy Advance Bit Generation games. The Bit Generation games were solely released in Japan and were simple little games. Orbient is a remake of the Bit Generation game Orbital.
Orbient is a two button game. That's it. Just 'A' and 'B'. No use of the control stick, no wagging the Wii Mote, no directional pad (except in the menus). In the game you control a little sphere/planet and your goal is to grow bigger and get the target sun in your orbit. You use the 'A' button to pull you closer to objects and 'B' button to push you away. Sounds simple doesn't it? But it gets a little more complicated. Your little sphere never stops moving and soon you must orbit around a larger sun and set your path. The game is very much a game of timing. Some suns/planets stay stationary, others move. Then there's asteroids and black holes. Smack into a celestial body bigger then yours and you're going to loose a life (usually start off with 5). So it's kind of like Asteroids meets Katamari. Once your planet/sphere gets bigger you can then get smaller planets to orbit you. It can get pretty neat when you become one of the larger bodies in the stage and you have 14 things orbiting you. At the end of the level you're judged by time and how many objects are in orbit around you. The levels can be tough, but in a good way. I never found myself so frustrated that I couldn't play anymore. Chances are you will die several times in a level.

The music of the game ranges from simple little tunes to haunting. The music is fitting, sometimes there's a sense of wonder and awe to it, other times it's menacing, like something off of Alien. The real problem is the sound effects. The music is about half the volume the sound effects are. When you crash into a different body you'll hear it. On top of that, when a single planet is oribiting your sphere there's a little 8 bit-ish jingle added, when you get three bodies around you the other music stops and you're stuck with a repeating every 2 second bit high pitched melody that gets tired fast. Sometimes found myself looking for a 4th just to get the song to change. Once you get a 4th the music shifts to a peaceful tune that gets a little more complex the more things orbit you, I think it caps at 12.
Graphic wise, don't expect anything too pretty. Like I said, you control a sphere. The backgrounds are kind of nice, would have been even nicer to see Hubble Space Telescope backgrounds, or better 3D effects on some of the background stages. In one stage there's a giant rotating moon that looks like it's a sphere with only 30 polygons and a stretched texture. But overall, the graphics works.

I'm adding this game to the list of great puzzle games mentioned in my Doctor Mario Online RX review. At 600 Wii Points (6 bucks) it's a great deal.

Grade: B



Wednesday, November 05, 2008

A Strange Week in Releases..

Sorry, but this isn't an art post, just a far fetched theory, not crazy or deep enough for it to be a conspiracy.

This week there's something very odd happening. A movie is being released on DVD on Friday. This wouldn't be odd if it was a Friday the 13th movie, or if there was a special holiday that had some tie in with the movie. But the movie in question is Kung Fu Panda. Kung Fu Panda comes out on Friday November 7th, 2008 on DVD. But why not Tuesday?
On Tuesday Dreamworks Animation released Shrek the Halls on DVD, a made for TV X-mas Special. Then why not just push the movie to next Tuesday, the 11th? I'm sure It would sell better then Star Wars: The Clone Wars.
But there's something else a foot. You see on Friday, November 7th Dreamworks Animation releases Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa.

Let's review.
Tuesday 4th: Shrek the Halls on DVD (Dreamworks Animation)
Friday 7th: Kung Fu Panada on DVD (Dreamworks Animation)
Friday 7th: Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa in theatres (Dreamworks Animation)

So why would Dreamworks (or Paramount, the parent company) release a Dreamworks Animation in theatres and on DVD on the same day? Are they sabotaging one of their own movies to do bad? I think so. But hear me out. Madagascar 2 opens on Friday, and the next week (the 14th) Quantum of Solace, the new James Bond movie opens up. Could Dreamworks/Paramount by sabotaging Madagascar this week so it does better next week against Bond? Perhaps..

Anyway, a happy Guy Fawks Day to you, I'm going to go watch V For Vendetta.

Saturday, October 11, 2008

Live Action Short: 16 Ghost II

A month has passed and no update. That's pretty bad on my behalf. I've been gathering footage for my latest Nine Inch Nails Ghost Film Festival entry and have been having misadventures in dating while trying to deal with less UV Radiation.
It's best to click on the video and go to Youtube and watch it there. While on the youtube page select the "Watch In High Quality" text right below the video.
Watch it, rate it 5 stars, fav it and share it with your friends!

Wednesday, September 03, 2008

6th Annual CATO Film Fest and Reviews

Another year has passe and the Centre of Arts and Technology students have plenty of films to display. Unfortunately, the marketing department and marketing students didn't get the word out well and not many people knew about the film festival until it was too late. Needless to say I rate films on the A+ to F system. Thankfully I didn't have to give any films an F rating. Now on to the reviews. Sadly It's been 2 weeks since the event and some of the films have become foggy, I'll update this post once I've seen them again. How unprofessional of me.

In The Twilight of an Idol - The film opened up with an interview documentary short from Ivan Sampson about his father. It was a long film and did bring the emotional level of the room down. The film had an almost end, but kept going, which brought down the grade of the film. B
Beautiful Bugler - A silent film with accompany sound preformed on stage. Story wasn't anything new, but was still fun to watch. A
A Journey to Silence - A silent film with one of the oldest stories in the book, does get points for variety of locations, but the ending could be seen a mile away. B
Last Man Standing - A 3D piece that felt like a scene more then a short, tried to be cool, but rendering techniques made it look very dull. I was disappointed in all the 3D pieces for their rendering. C
Detail de Peintres - An interesting idea and story, it had two painters in Paris trying to paint the landscape and fighting over the best spot. As I said before, rendering techniques could have made this film even better, for example there could have been animated textures when they got in the paint fight. A
Pooch'd - Winner of the Best Animated Story and People's Choice (by 2 votes), Pooch'd is the story of two dogs fighting over the perfect hydrant. This movie wasn't even rendered and makes me wonder how much better it would be in proper colour, proper lighting and fur effects turned on. A+
A Light Obstical - Winner of Best Animated Film the film is about a young guy trying to cross the street. There were moments of greatness along with confusing spots, but did manage to be entertaining. Better sound, rendering and a better choice of camera location in a scene could make this film an A+. B

Drive Thru Disaster - Best silent film for last I guess. The film featured a man trying to get his drive thru food order right. A
Loose Stools - A gross out comedy about a guy who has a bad lunch and sure enough ends up with the runs. I'll have to admit, I found it entertaining. A-
Inches from Failing - (forgot what this one is about, but I have a C+ rating written down..)
Rendezvous - Oh god... they used "Hide And Seek" by Imogen Heap. *shudder*. Story was good. B+
Times Like These - (forgot what this one is about, but I have a B rating down)
Knock on Ginger - A quick short about domestic abuse, well shot and disturbing. A
One Way Out - 3 tales that deal with poverty, disturbing and well shot. A
Cozen - Chosen as the Best Live Action Film, Cozen is about the cut throat real estate business and how they'll do anything to capture the sale. B
12th and Hyde - Winner for Best Actor in a Live Action Film. I reviewed this film before and gave it a C.

There was a friendly bet running at the film festival. If an animation film won the people's choice award, James Hamilton the third would have to shave his head and Alexander Dmytryszyn would have to wear a dress for a day. If a live action film won, then Franciso Argudin would have to shave his head and Sean Ridgway would have to wear the dress. Below, James Hamilton getting his head shaved.

Saturday, August 16, 2008

Live Action Short: 5 Ghost I

After playing around with my new digital camera I created quite a bit of interesting footage from a few walks I've been taking. The result is this short which I'll be entering in the Nine Inch Nails Ghost Film Festival on Youtube. I'll post more info on how to vote soon, if the public gets to choose that is. As it is, watch it, rate it 5 stars, fav it and share it with your friends.

Saturday, August 02, 2008

The Slip: Theday Version Part 1

Back in May of this year, Nine Inch Nails released The Slip online for free for download at their website. It's a very good album. They also released the audio tracks for the album allowing people to remix the songs as they please. I remixed Year Zero (You Cam Read About It Here, with Links to the Remixes) and it was a lot of fun. I've been remixing The Slip tracks. I've remixed over half of them already and you can here them at Ninremixes.com, links below for each song. I'll post some cover art and part 2 in the near future.

1 - 999,999
(LINK)

3 - Discipline
(LINK)

4 - Echoplex
(LINK)

5 - Letting You
(LINK)

12 - Demon Seed
(LINK)



I also re-remixed The Good Solider from Year Zero

The Good Solider
(LINK)

Enjoy the remixes, don't forget to leave a comment.

Thursday, July 24, 2008

Digital Live Short: Traffic

Well I bought my friend's digital camera and I've been doing a few tests with it and making these artsy shorts. This one is called Traffic.
"7 Ghost I" by Nine Inch Nails is the song.
Leave a comment!

Wednesday, July 23, 2008

Batman 3 Theories

Warning! This post contains spoilers about The Dark Knight. If you don't want to know how it ends then press the page down button until you pass the picture of the Tumbler.

Greetings, my overactive brain has been thinking about the 3rd Batman movie in the Batman Begins trilogy. So far we've had Batman Begins and The Dark Knight, both are excellent movies and should be seen. Unlike the end of Batman Begins, there's no clear nod to the next villain in the third movie. Christopher Nolan (the director) and Christian Bale(who plays Batman/Bruce Wayne) are under contract to do 3 movies and with The Dark Knight blowing away all expectations and sale records, the 3rd one is most likely in the works. We might have to wait a few years, chances are Nolan will do a movie in between.

Spoilers Begin Below Image:


So we know that Batman has taken the fall to keep Harvey Dent's image in tack and keep a ton of criminals behind bars and has now become Public Enemy Number One now that the Joker is behind bars. Bruce Wayne's idea of Batman is on shaky ground and Batman has to redeem himself to Gotham City. Batman will not give up until the city is in order, no matter how many people are against him. The newly named Commissioner Gordon will not have completely abandoned Batman and will still hold secret meetings with him to discuss current going ons.
We also don't know if Harvey Dent is alive or dead, sure there was that funeral, but there's a chance he's alive and locked up somewhere secret, driven insane from hate. The 3rd movie could have Batman coming to see Dent in a Silence of the Lambs quid pro quo information session on how to process a mob boss. Then there's a chance of escape for Two-Face..
So far overall messages of the movies have been Fear and Chaos, the next one might be Hate. Hate differently plays well with Batman trying to redeem himself.

Here's a few ideas for the movies:

A) Bruce Wayne seeing that Batman isn't quite doing the job decides to help with the city and begins to donate a ton of money around to places like schools and help update the transit system. Batman's presence hasn't gone unnoticed and a film is being made and Bruce sees it as a good way to drum up support and buys the company in charge of the production to help it along. Sadly Garfield Lynns is working that that production and with a bigger budget because of Wayne. Because of the news he botches up a stunt and costs thousands of dollars worth of damages and he's fired and decides to get revenge on Wayne. Garfield becomes Fire Fly and goes around town destroying things under the name Wayne.

B) With an agent of chaos being Fire Fly a natural choice is to get an agent of order, a villain who loves structure. Two choices here, keeping close to the Nolan Universe set of rules are The Clock King and The Riddler.
B1) The Clock King could be a city worker or attorney and catches the public transportation system with the Mayor, who is trying to prove the city is safe. The Clock King, aka Temple Fugate (in the 90's cartoon) or William Tockman (in the comics) takes the mayor's advice and tries to break his OCD like habits and try something a little random and it completely ruins his life and he seeks revenge against the mayor. Also being unhinged he pulls off some extraordinary heists with precision timing also studies Batman and gets to know how fast he takes to throw punches and such.
B2) The Riddler could go two ways here, but I highly doubt they'll have Mr. Reese from the Dark Knight (Mr. Reese = mysterious, lolz) as the Riddler. He could be called in by what remains of the mob or the police to crack the mystery of Batman. If the Riddler is in the cards for the 3rd movie we could get the title of The World's Greatest Detective, but might be a little misleading.

C) Theory 3 could be one of my biggest fan boy dreams. We could get a live action version of Mask of the Phantasm, albeit a bit different. A former girl friend, Andrea Beaumont, from Bruce's college days comes back to town and a new dark stranger is going around knocking off mob bosses. Needless to say this Phantasm story would be a bit different from the 90's animated one, epically since Health Ledger has passed away. But could be substitute with Harvey Dent who failed to put them away.

D) There's 2 villains who could show up, but could be just doing their own thing. Catwoman, aka Selina Kyle, could just be a jewel theft in for the fun and could prove an interesting 3 way love triangle between Bruce, Andrea and Selina. Oo la la..
We could also see a cameo by the Penguin, aka Oswald Cobblepot, as a club owner with a few dealings in the back.


Here the Spoilers End!

So there we go. There's some thoughts about the 3rd Batman movie by Christopher Nolan. Hopefully the team from The Dark Knight will be back, complete with Christopher's brother screen writing and some input from David S. Goyer. We'll have to wait and see what happens in the next couple of years. Good luck to the team!

Saturday, July 12, 2008

Digital Live Short: Water

I seem to have good luck. I've decided to jump to digital and get a digital camera and my friend bought a new digital camera from a friend and wanted to sell his. So I decided I'd give his camera a test drive to see what it could do. I'll be doing a few of these tests, so enjoy the first one called "Water". The song used is "6 Ghost I" by Nine Inch Nails.

Tuesday, July 08, 2008

Doctor Mario Online RX Review

What game do you think of when I say "Puzzle Game"? Well... if it wasn't for the picture and the title of the entry you'd probably said Tetris. Tetris is the best known puzzle game and has appeared on nearly every single system since it's release. Nintendo has 2 of its own puzzle series, Puzzle League (Tetris Attack) and Doctor Mario.

Unlike Super Mario Brothers, Doctor Mario games haven’t changed since it first came out in 1990 for the NES and Gameboy. Doctor Mario Online RX is practically the same as the original NES/Gameboy, Super Nintendo, or the N64 version. No new game modes, no new moves, no new combos. If anything they took the N64 version, took the story mode out, took Marathon mode out, took out 3 and 4 player mode, and left 3 out of 4 of the music in. But they did add in Virus Buster mode, which I will talk about later.

Anyway, if you've never played a Doctor Mario game I'll explain it to you. Mario, or your Mii in this version, has a bottle with viruses in it. The viruses come in 3 colors: red, blue and yellow. To get rid of the viruses you must place Megavitamins, which also come in the same 3 colors and in variety packs, on them to destroy them. The name of the game is colour matching. Blue pills go on blue viruses. Pretty simple, no? It gets a little more complicated, the pills aren't always solid colors. The pills are divided in half and one half can be a different colour, see the image. So you have to line up the colors, match 4 pill halves together to clear them. 3 with 1 virus, 2 for full colour pills and 2 viruses. You can set up combos and more depending on how you set up your pills.

The game play of Doctor Mario hasn't changed, but presentation wise has, the series has done way with the 2D Mario tossing avatar and viruses dancing around in a circle for some very poorly modeled versions of the Doctor and the viruses, and the Miis. The animation for the Doctor, Viruses, and Miis are all extremely stiff and awkward to watch as an animator. Even more so then Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance in game animation. As far as multiplayer goes... don't try it. The screen is divided up so poorly that you can't see your pill jar very well, a major step backwards, especially since the N64 version had 4 player battles.

The second part of the game is Virus Buster, which comes from Brain Age 2. In Virus Buster mode you use the Wii Mote to point and pull down the pills onto the viruses and get to control the falling junk as well. Up to 4 people can play this mode and it is rather entertaining. During this game play, your Mii and several random Miis from your Mii Channel are shown in a crowd pushing against some viruses. It is rather strange seeing Hungry Hungry Hobo in a doctor's outfit and saying," Never Give Up!" in a text bubble, see below. Virus Buster contains 2 different versions of Chill and Fever, compared to the other mode that just recycles the music from the N64 version. I was very disappointed, considering the awesomeness of Chill from Super Smash Brothers Brawl which was just released earlier this year.

If you want a version of Doctor Mario and don't have your copy of the NES, Super NES, N64 or Nintendo Puzzle Collection for the GameCube and need a Doctor Mario game, then give it a go. There's nothing to unlock, nothing really to draw you back other then the basic mode. If you want a better puzzle game then go for Planet Puzzle League, Tetris DS or Puzzle Quest: Challenge of the Warlords on the DS or download Pokémon Puzzle League for the Wii through the Wii Shop Channel. Here's hoping they release The New Tetris for the N64 soon for the Virtual Console.

Grade: C

Monday, June 30, 2008

Silly Facebook Updates

In a way to pander to my crowd and hopefully get some more views on this here blog of mine and have a snicker. I present to you a list of silly Facebook Status:

-(name) wonders who is right? The Beatles with "All You Need is Love" or Nine Inch Nails with "Love Is Not Enough"
-(name) wonders why "abbreviated" such a long word?
-(name) can't seem to throw away his garbage can.
-(name) is being spontaneous... tomorrow.
-(name) knows there's 10 types of people: people who understand binary and people who don't.
-(name) is all that.
-(name) is saving a ton of money on his car insurance by fleeing the scene of the accident!
-(name) saw a report that says 1 in 4 people are crazy and he's not it...
-(name) doesn't repeat himself, so listen carefully because he's not going to repeat himself.
-(name) still believes in Santa Claus to get the presents.
-(name) can't turn down the suck in your profile.
-(name) wants to live forever, so far so good.
-(name) got shoes for a dollar down at the bowling alley. What a steal!
-(name) is tragically hip.
-(name) is has a 7 figure salary! Sadly, there's a decimal point involved.
-(name) is bringing sexy back!
-(name) is herpes-free... today.
-(name) is going back to the drawing board.
-(name) is reading your facebook status updates in a priority order. Approximate wait time is 15 minutes.
-(name) knows money is the root of all evil. Send him $50 for more information.
-(name) found an incredible shrinking device! It's called his closet!-
-(name) is going around telling people that you're really 51.
-(name) wants to be your "it's complicated"

Feel free to use them!

Friday, June 27, 2008

Rabbit Walk Cycle

What a busy month it's been. 2 sisters graduating, Father's Day, work, summer heat and more. I've been busy tweaking The New Guy (who still doesn't have a name yet, keep suggesting). I've also been busy with preproduction with the short he's going to be in. I got a little tired of modelling yesterday and decided to do some animation and whipped out my mutant rabbit rig and did a walk cycle. Enjoy.

Sunday, June 08, 2008

Art School Survival: Movies

This is the second in a series of articles that will help you, the reader, fit in at an art school. By the time you're done reading this you'll be able to blend comfortably into a crowd at an art school, just a little bit more.

Your Favorite Movie

If you're favorite movie is ”Meet The Spartans” or some family friendly film that isn’t animated (there will be a complete Survival Guide on animation in the future) then you've just failed right now. You'll be laughed at and ridiculed. They're ok as guilty pleasures...
The top choices are: The Godfather, The original Star Wars trilogy, Fight Club, Pulp Fiction, Goodfellas, Children of Men , Lord of the Rings trilogy, Pi, The Maltese Falcon, The Wizard of Oz, Citizen Kane, The Seven Samurai, Monty Python and the Holy Grail or The Meaning of Life and a few others.

Other Movies to Know Of

In art school you’ll be exposed to many different movements and a lot of work and chat in your classes will involve talk about movies. As a basic rule of thumb, it’s a good idea to brush up on Internet Movie Database’s (IMDb.com ) top 250 list and past Oscar winners for movies to see.

Movie Gods

In movies, there’s filmmakers that are considered to be universally good. The following are some directors you should know a few things about:
Francis Ford Coppola, Fritz Lang , George Lucus, Akira Kurosawa, Alfred Hitchcock, Stanley Kubrick,, Michel Gondry, Spike Jones, Quentin Tarantino(There’s a love/hate relationship), Federico Fellini, David Lynch, David Cronenberg, just to name a few.

Movies to Avoid or Be Careful With

As mentioned before, IMDB.com can be your friend. If you like any film there that has a lower then 5.0 rating might cast a shadow of uncoolness. But the saying goes, “You can learn more from a bad movie then a good movie.” You can see the mistakes they made and as you progress with your courses you’ll know how to avoid certain problems.
Needless to say, be careful on how you bring up movies. For an example, a guy wearing a Spider-man shirt might be interested in seeing the latest Marvel movie, maybe DC movie as well. But the snobby film student who watches nothing but German Expressionism might not share the same enthusiasm for it.

Prepare For Spoilers

In art school you’re almost bound to have a lesson on “The Hero with a Thousand Faces” by Joseph Campbell. Once you know about the books subject you won’t be able to watch a movie the same way. Also, depending on the course you’re taking, you’ll also learn the secrets of film making and know how they pull of many of the shots and you won’t be able to watch a movie without a little distraction. Some people can turn it off, some, like myself, can’t.

Other Suggestions

It's very important to know how techniques came to pass. Needless to say people didn’t always have bullet time or know how to use sharp angles and dramatic lighting. So it is always a good idea to look at the older movies that broke the mode. These movies are usually recognized by critics and at the Oscars, but keep your eyes open for Top X lists.
Since you are attending an art school it would be a good idea to see what other students are creating and their direction as well as what other local film makers are doing. Much like music, local talent can be a little hit or miss, but do keep an ear out for film screenings and festivals. You can also do a YouTube search for your city and see what comes up.
One other suggestion is to keep track of what you thought of a movie you just saw, IMDB, Flickster (has a very good Facebook app, share it your friends and family, compare) and several other sites allow you to rate and keep track of the movies you’ve seen. Makes movie watching a little more organized.



Just remember, this is just a tiny little guide and the real choices are up to you. But do remember to be open to new movies and classics and you’ll soon realize how far film has come.

For Part One: Music, Click HERE!

Tuesday, June 03, 2008

Digimill.net Dump 3 - Principles of Design

Looks like the website known as Digimill that strive to become a one stop shop for 3D news, discussion and help has fallen off the face of the Internet along with my posts for the site. I've been uploading a few of the important posts from the website.

My tutorial about the Principles of Design can be found HERE, it talks about Contrast, Balance, Scale and Proportion, Repetition and Rhythm, Unity and Variety, Directional Forces, Emphasis and Subordination and contains a few photos from myself. It's an easy read but you can learn a lot from it. It was written about March 2007.

You can view it HERE



What do you think of these tutorials? Are they helpful? Leave a comment and tell me.

Monday, June 02, 2008

Digimill Dump 2 - Elements of Design

Looks like the website known as Digimill that strive to become a one stop shop for 3D news, discussion and help has fallen off the face of the Internet along with my posts for the site. I'll be uploading a few of the important posts from the website within the next few days.

My tuturial about the Elements of Design, which are: Colour, Value, Line, Shape, Form/Mass, Space and Time; can be found HERE and contains a few photos from myself and my parents. It's an easy read but you can learn a lot from it. It was written about March 2007.

You can view it HERE

Sunday, June 01, 2008

Digimill Dump 1 - 1997

Looks like the website known as Digimill that strive to become a one stop shop for 3D news, discussion and help has fallen off the face of the Internet along with my posts for the site. I'll be uploading a of the important posts from the website within the next few days. Here's one about the impact of 1997 and how it changed the industry and thoughts about the future, written about November/December 2007:

We’re closing in on the end of 2007 and the entertainment industry is nearly on it’s head. Everywhere you look there’s advances here, tons of money there, and change is everywhere. The old rules seem to be dead, but why? Maybe the answer doesn’t lie in 2007… but a handful of small events that happened back in 1997.

In 1997 the sale of the compact disc (CD) hit all time high. Do you remember what were the biggest songs of 1997?
They were:
-“Barbie Girl” by Aqua
-“Mmmbop” by Hanson
-“Don’t Speak” by No Doubt
-“Men in Black” by Will Smith
-“I Believe I Can Fly” by R Kelly
Scary isn’t it? Pop was running rampant, sure there were still some solid releases from Radiohead and Prodigy. But many people think that music begun to sound worse. CD sales begun to decline and in 2007 CD sales are so bad that Richard Branson, owner of Virgin has sold off his record label and the Virgin music stores (save a few) to get into the air line industry! It’s not just Virgin Stores shutting down, Sam the Record Man franchises in Canada are now gone. Oh yeah, do you know who had the best selling CD of 2006? It wasn’t Justin Timberlake, or Nine Inch Nails, it was the soundtrack to High School Musical. Yeah, a soundtrack to a cable made for TV movie.
The music industry is getting so bad that Radiohead, Madonna, Nine Inch Nails and more are jumping ship from the big record labels and have brought up the question “Do we even need big labels?” That’s a different topic.
But what’s at the root of this downcline? Is it because of people stealing music from the Internet? That might account for some… but what if it’s something else? Keep in mind the downfall of the CD until the end of this article.

TV. How many people watch the newest episode of CSI? I’m not talking about all the reruns on A&E, Showcase, Spike, etc.. I mean the newest episode on CBS? Did you know that only 1 in 10 people who have access to a TV watched that show last year? Only one in 10. But when you think about it, 10 in 100 out of millions is a lot. But did you know that The Cosby Show back in the 80’s had 15 out of 100 people watching it, even better. Even better then that is I Love Lucy, way back in the 1950’s had 6/10 people watching it. These numbers are falling fast. For an example, Al Gore’s (who just won the Peace Prize) Live Earth, a concert for Global Warming Awareness got 2.7 million viewers. Live Aid, the first big televised concert in the 80’s got 1.7 billion viewers.
So it would seem no one is watching much TV… Why is that? Could TV be fragmented into thousands of channels and with so much variety it is hard to add everyone up? Maybe. But keep thinking about the decline of TV and Music. Oh yeah, ER was the highest rated show in 1997.

2007 has been a huge year for the film industry. In May we were hit with a barrage of threequels (Spider-man 3, Shrek 3, Pirates 3…) and they broke records (some didn't live up to the hype). Big ones. But there’s a problem. Theater sales are down 18% from 2005 to 2006. If we convert that to numbers, if 10 people went to the theatres in 2005, that means 8 people came back in 2006. Even this month theater sales are down 14 for September.
Why would the movie industry be slowly wilding away? Could it be because Hollywood is making bad movies and cash in on sequels just for the money? Maybe. Could it be because movies are easier to steal because of torrents? Maybe. In 1997 the movie industry saw one of the biggest blockbusters of all time, Titanic. The Lost World: Jurassic Park and Men in Black were also released. It would seem that 1997 was also a high point for movies and they too are on the decline.

Ok, so we have Movies failing to fill seats in theaters. People aren’t buying CDs (the need for music is there thou), and no one is watching the most watched TV show. Is the entertainment industry doomed? Is there not one part of it doing good? Wait… what? One is? What one is that? That’s right. The one that’s raising by leaps and bounds. Rewriting the forecast for profit every single month… Video Games. Within the last month we saw the release of Halo 3, a video game that garnered the biggest amount of hype since Star Wars: Episode 3: Revenge of the Sith. With that help, the video game sales in Canada for September were up double since last year.

Now we bring it all into context. We’re not buying CDs, we’re not watching movies as much or watching TV because video games are becoming the premiere form of entertainment. There you go. After hearing that statement for years you finally know what that means. If one industry goes up, then others must fall.
But where does 1997 fit in with video games?Here’s a list of a few games that came out in 1997:
-Final Fantasy VII (PlayStation 1)
-GoldenEye 007 (Nintendo 64)
-Mario Kart 64 (Nintendo 64)
-Grand Theft Auto (PC)
-Quake II (PC)
-Grand Turismo (PlayStation 1)
-Castlevania: Symphony of the Night (PlayStation 1)

Check over any Top 10 Games of All Time and you’ll find at least 3 of those on that list. All these games brought in a brand new era of gaming that has sent waves of influences and has changed how we view the RPG, First Person Shooter and more.
As you read this people are beginning to spend more and more time with video games. People who never played a game before are now playing them. The face of gaming is no longer a teenage boy in his parent’s basement. It’s Everyone. College guys are playing Halo 3 online, Grandma is playing Brain Age on her DS, your Mom is playing Wii Sports, the receptionist at the dentist is playing Bejeweled, school yard kids are trading Pokemon, people in bars are playing Guitar Hero. Welcome to the future of entertainment.
But wait… something else happened in 1997. Well, kind of took place slowly. More and more people begun to discover the Internet. People begun to create e-mail addresses and visiting sites on the world wide web. How’s that little thing going? Well you are on it right now. Now think about all the things you’ve read/I’ve wrote. How much music have you been listening to today? Did you buy any? Did you watch a movie, how long was it? Did you watch TV? How long did you play video games? Now the big one, how long have you been on your computer and surfing online? Chances are, you’ve been online for a lot longer then you’ve watched TV or a movie today. Have you been playing video games longer then you’ve been online? (If you have, seriously take a break!) I didn’t think so.
Could the next entertainment battle be between video games and the internet? Or do they have a symbiotic relationship? There’s a change you’re reading this on your video game console of choice. But what’s the big down fall of video games and the internet taking over the entertainment industry? Let’s look at another part of the entertainment industry, it has survived longer then the music industry, TV, movies and of course the newbies video games and the internet. Books. When was the last time you read a book? Ok… bad question…. Anyway the book industry is still going and has survived everything that has been thrown at it. But even now and again the book industry sees blockbusters. Oprah’s book club gets millions of books sold, Harry Potter created a huge storm of readers and more.

Chances are Music, Film, TV and Books will never go away, but they will change their face and game plan. Our need for music will never die, I’m always looking for new tunes. We’ll always love to see a new movie and leave our drab boring world. We can always zone out and watch the tube and see what’s on. So in the end, 1997 has completely flipped the entertainment industry around. What could the next 10 years bring?

Friday, May 30, 2008

The New Guy

The new rig is ready to go. This is his simple stage, meant for mime actions. He doesn't have much of a mouth.. just a simple little line, but he has eyebrows and some animate-able eye balls. I'll be using him in the next couple of animations and eventually giving him a real mouth for lip syncs and vocal work. There's a few little things still to do, but the only problem with him is that he doesn't have a name. I've just been referring to him as The White Guy. Leave a comment and tell me what you think his name should be, enjoy the shoots.

Wednesday, May 21, 2008

Questions From Analytics Part 2: 3 Quick Questions

Question: What's the Zelda Timeline Theory?
Answer: There's no official answer on this one. Nintendo hasn't said if there is an official time line to the Zelda universe. Sure there are games that are connected, such as Ocarina of Time and Majora's Mask or Wind Waker and Phantom Hourglass, but other then that it seems that the games are kind of like Final Fantasy games, incorporating elements such as Triforce, Link, Zelda, bow, arrow, and more into it. You can read my theory of the Zelda Time Line Theory HERE

Question: Soundtrack to my life shuffle?
Answer: There's a few of these floating around the interwebs. I've done several myself. What you do is open your music library (best if you have over 100 songs), set it to shuffle and fill it in as you go along.
You can read my RPG Shuffle HERE
You can read my Soundtrack to my Life Shuffle HERE

Question: Is the Kelowna Centre for Arts and Technology any good?
Answer: It is. It's in a good location, lots of interesting people around and it's a small school with small classes so you get more attention then in a class of 50. If you do sign up make sure you're ready because it's a lot of hard work.
Visit their website to learn more: Digitalartschool.com

Monday, May 19, 2008

Stephen's Art Update: Now With Even More Pretty Pictures

I've added a few more visual elements to this blog of mine. As you can see I ditched the boring and plain blog title bar for a montage of pictures of my art and added visual links to Roy's Revenge and it's trailer. I'll be adding visual links to other things in a few days. As well as add visual links to projects as they are completed.

So what do you think? Leave a comment!

Tuesday, May 13, 2008

Deviation 100, 7,000 Gallery Views

Just a little update. My deviantArt Gallery has just hit two birds with 1 stone. I've uploaded my 100 deviation to the site, and it coincides with my 7,000 gallery view. I intended to use a shot I took of a spark shooter my friend built, but he uploaded it before me, he gave me full credit... but I found a better picture of mine to post. What do you think?


100 - Take Out Is Watching by ~Chmilar on deviantART

In other news, my new model has gotten the look over by Nolan "Number One" Wiebe and Luke Ritchie, both who helped me on Roy's Revenge. Should have him rigged soon. Then I'll introduce you to him, maybe give him up for download too.

Wednesday, May 07, 2008

Roy's Revenge Big Screen Debute Shot

Here's the shot from Roy's Revenge premiere from April 16th. Sorry for taking so long, I had to reorganized my room for my scanner. Anyway, enjoy and remember to watch and share Roy's Revenge!

More updates on the way. The new character is getting double checked over by a modeller. Then it's on to rigging!
Nine Inch Nails released their new album called "The Slip" on Monday morning and they released the audio tracks to all 10 songs. So stay tuned for those remixes as well. I think my "Echoplex" remix is sounding pretty good.

Thursday, April 24, 2008

Gearing Up for the Next Short

Production for the next short is already on it's way. And it's going to be darker then Roy's Revenge. I'm currently modelling a new character, but I haven't quite decided on the finer details of the characters, mainly in the face. I haven't decided if he/she/it should have eyes inside of it's head, or outside. Eyes like Mr. Block, or eyes like Roy Roy. I'll just make both, one for mime animations and one for more complex animations such as lip syncs.

In other news, my friend and I will be entering the Nine Inch Nails Ghost Film Festival on YouTube . I will of course upload the video here as well. By the way, have you heard the new NIN song "Discipline"? It's pretty cool. Look for that remix within the next few weeks as well.

Also don't forget to visit my deviantArt gallery for more art.

Here's a shot of the new character's feet.


Thursday, April 17, 2008

Roy's Revenge Big Screen Debut!

Roy's Revenge has been online for nearly 2 weeks now and everyone seems to be enjoying it. To quote some reviews:

"Poetry in motion my friend, poetry." - Maria, Animation Student.

"Very good work ^^ " - Natalie, high school student and sister.

And a lot more good reviews, don't forget to watch it and leave a comment!

On Wednesday, April 16th, Roy's Revenge made it's big screen debut as a part of the Boardroom Selection of the Okanagan Film Festival along with "Ogopogo", "How to Kill A Bear" and fellow animation student and voice actor and friend Roman's short "Trash!" . Being from Sicamous, I found it a little ironic that my short premiered on a houseboat since Sicamous is the Houseboat Capital of Canada, if not the world.
After the screening the film makers got up and took some questions. It was a blast and I'll make sure to enter another short or two into the next Okanagan Film Festival.
Once again a big thanks to Jason Woodford and the team of the Okanagan Film Fest!

I'll be posting some pictures once I get them developed.

By the way, have you Youtube video uploaders seen the new Insight option under Account/Uploaded Videos? It's just like Google Analytics, give it a try. Here's a screen:

Saturday, April 05, 2008

Roy's Revenge

After months of work and many times re rendering scenes. My epic short film is ready for viewing. The short has seen a fair amount of delays from sound fine tuning, to rendering issues, to no computer to work on, but now it's complete. Enjoy:



Roy's Revenge Credits

Written and Design by Stephen Chmilar
Animation, Modelling, Texturing and Rendering by Stephen Chmilar
And even produced and directed by Stephen Chmilar

Roy and Nurse model and rig by Graeme Morris
Roy rig modified by Stephen Chmilar
Nurse rig modified by Stephen Chmilar and Luke Ritchie
Princess model and rig by Cassandra Roth

Additional Modellers:
Nolan Wiebe
Luke Ritchie
Justin Fonseca
Ian Sisson

Sound Engineer Amber Smith
Music Arrangement and Preformance Amber Smith
Roy was Stephen Chmilar
Princess was Kristen Lucus
Nurse was Amber Smith
TV Announcer was Roman Yunker
Dog 1 was Luke Ritchie
Dog 2 was Zander Erasmus
Dog 3 was Roman Yunker

Software used:
Softimage XSI
Photoshop CS3
Premiere Pro CS3

Texture and Asset Websites:
Mayang.com
CG Textures.com
dafont.com

Thanks to:
Maria, Nathan and Roman for the advice along the way.
Nolan, Cassandra, Graeme, and online forums for the help and extra eyes.
Instructors and Staff at the Centre for Arts and Technology Kelowna
My classmates and friends
My family
My blog followers
And YOU for watching it!

© Stephen Chmilar 2007

send comments to thepartyoftea@hotmail.com

Tuesday, April 01, 2008

And Now A Brief Youtube Video Interlude...

I uploaded some pictures from my recent Maui trip a few post ago. I also took some video on my parent's digital camera since I forgot my 35mm camera back at home. Yes, I did slam my head against the wall when I found out at air port security. But anyway, here's a little video of 3 short videos I took on my vacation. Full screen it and relax..



Here's some videos I've been laughing at and have somehow inspired me. If the link doesn't work, blame youtube suspending the account or the user leaving.

Phoenix Write: Boot to the Head: LINK

Turbo Healther RC Extreme : LINK

Internet Party: LINK

Cube: LINK

Panda Babies (watch on mute): LINK

5 Easy Tips to Leaving Better Youtube Comments: LINK

Battle of the Album Covers: LINK

Super Smash Brothers Brawl Review

The third game in the zany fighter series has finally arrived on the Wii after years of anticipation, delays and tons and tons of teases on line. The game's anticipation has only been pushed to breaking points from the constant trickle of information from the official website. But sadly the game took a hype cutter when it was released in Japan well over a month before North America and most Smash Bros players could only feverously press refresh at fan sites to see all the new content and hidden characters found in the game. By the 4th of February everyone knew the final roaster. But enough of this background stuff, let's get the game.

Anyone who played Melee or the 64 version and liked it will love Brawl. Brawl brings in plenty more options, modes and game play tweaks that make the game series feverously fun to a new level. It isn’t a big step forward like Melee was to 64 version, but still makes new improvements and doesn’t feel like the same game with a fresh coat of paint. New items, stages, and surprises make games unpredictably fun. The new addition of the Smash Ball and the Dragoon create a frenzy as they fight to break open the ball and collect the pieces of the Dragoon, both items can drastically change the shape of the battle. Some Final Smashes take a little skill and luck to pull off, such as Marth's Critical Hit Final Smash, or knowing when to use it, such as Peach's Peach Blossom. Thankfully once a Smash Ball has been claimed by a fighter, it can be knocked out of a fighter and the fight for the ball can continue.

Several other new items are added to the mix including Super spicy Curry, Cracker Launcher, Smart Bomb and the Soccer Ball to name a few of my new favorite items. The game also removes two items, one good, one bad. The cloaking device has been removed thankfully, but the Red Turtle shell has also been removed... or replaced by Hot Head, a fire item that clings to the ground and goes around it. One thing about the items is that several of them are very small and you have no idea if you picked up a motion sensor bomb, deka nut or a Frankin Badge, unless you pause the game and zoom into your character.

While we're on the tangent of things too small, when playing several levels you find yourself having a tough time focusing in on your character. This is epically seen in New Pork City which is a massive level with tons and tons and tons of details in the background and your characters fade from vision. Mainly of the levels feature moving parts or dangers, where some places like Mushroomy Kingdom is welcomed (it's a steady pace), other locations, like Rumble Falls which speeds up and has 1 hit KO thorns sticking out in places can be very annoying. Not to say that all the level are bad. The new Battlefield is a welcome addition and is a lot more enjoyable then it's too dark to see Melee counterpart. Other favorite levels include Mushroomy Kingdom, Castle Siege, Shadow Moses Island and WarioWare, Inc. stage. However, some of my most disliked levels from Melee have returned, including Jungle Japes, Big Blue and Rainbow Cruise. I would have loved to see Princess Peach's Castle, Kongo Jungle and Mute City would have been preferred.


Unlike Melee that had 1, maybe 2 songs per stage, the Brawl stages can have well over 6 songs choices to battle at. The music ranges from 8 bit rips from the original games to complete arrangements by several awesome video game musicians. I would seriously drop 80 bucks for the soundtrack because it's full of awesome songs. Here's a list of a few of my favs:

Chill - from Doctor Mario
Break the Targets! - original song (sounds like The Breakfast Machine)
Crimean Army Sortie - from Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance
Wi-Fi Waiting Room - original song
Easton Kingdom - from Super Mario Land
Among a ton more...

One of the only problems is that the returning Melee stages are stuck with only one or two songs from Melee and doesn't give you a bigger choice. Also would have liked to see one of the Dark Samus battle tunes from Metroid Prime 2 or 3, mostly 3 because that one is pure awesome.
Smash Bros will forever be a multiplayer experience, this is even echoed in the new single player mode called The Subspace Emissary. You could play by yourself, or a second player can join up. If you’ve played Adventure Mode in Melee, you won’t feel too out of place in Subspace. The course moves along with you and you come across enemies, items, trophies and new item Stickers. You come across all the fighters, except 3, in Subspace and they all have a little story arc to them. Lucus must muster up the strength to stand up for himself, Mario must save Peach, Diddy Kong must save Donkey Kong. All of which may sound a little familiar, but it’s well placed together with quick and silly cut screens showing off the character’s personalities. For an example, Diddy’s urgency to save Donkey Kong while Fox brushes him off and Diddy has to drag Fox to help him. The final 3 Brawlers can be unlocked once Subspace has been beaten, or by playing 450 Brawl Matches.
The Brawl Matches is where the true heart of the game lies. Very few game experiences match a close Smash Brothers game. The online mode gives a single person some human players to fight against, but depending on the connection it can be a blast or like pulling a fingernail off. With a quick connection games are fun and fast. Due to limited options with the Brawl with Anyone, you’re only allowed 2 minute Brawls with strangers. No text, no voice chat. Which is ok, I get annoyed when I hear preteen squeaky voices when playing other online games. With Brawl with a friend you can set up more options and give quick little one liners to your friends. I currently have mine set to “You” “Must” “Recover!!!!!!” I’m such a dork..
There’s other options when connecting online, you can watch people Brawl, which is ok. You can do Home Run Contests, 100 man Brawl and a few other options. Most people will stick to Brawling.

As stated above, the music for Brawl is awesome and range from Russian Folk songs (Tetris) to Zelda: The Twilight Princess and Wii Sports, but the music isn’t the only nostalgia filled area of the game. The entire game has references to tons of Nintendo games. Melee introduced trophies, which are expanded upon and feature newer releases. The stickers also add a ton of familiarity to the game by using production art as stickers. You’ll see tons and tons of stickers with familiar faces and some not. Brawl makes references to the game and in the Chronicle lists the system and the date it was released. No other additional information. Which is sad really, such a huge amount of history of games would be great to read up on in game.
Overall I definitely enjoy this game and love all the references to previous games, the frantic game play of versus matches and the astounding collection of music. Veterans will feel right at home with the GameCube controller, and new players will have plenty of ways to get into the game with the 4 control schemes, Subspace to practice in and a ton more.

Grade: A+

Images from Nintendo, the top one was fan made.

Sunday, March 30, 2008

Smashing Thoughts Aftermath

Super Smash Brothers Brawl finally arrived in North America on March 9th, 2008. On February 20th, 2007 I wrote an article called Smashing Thoughts where I predicted new and old characters, items and levels. It was a fun exercise and now that the game is out it's time to see if I was right or wrong. Needless to say this article contains some spoilers, but nothing you can't find on any other game site. Review for the game will show up tomorrow!

What I knew at the time for confirmed characters:

Mario - Super Mario Brothers series
Link (Twilight Princess version) - Legend of Zelda series
Kirby - Kirby series
Pikachu - Pokemon series
Varia Suit Samus - Metroid series
Zero Suit Samus - Metroid series (new)
MetaKnight - Kirby series (new)
Pitt - from the Kid Icarus series (new)
Solid Snake - Metal Gear series (new)
Wario - Wario World series (new)
Fox McCloud - Starfox series

Returning Characters Results:

Pichu - Pokemon series - left behind as predicted.
Jigglypuff - Pokemon series - returned as predicted.
Mr. Game & Watch - Game and Watch handhelds - he thankfully returned.
Falco - Star Fox series - Returned and a bit more unique.
Mewtwo - Pokemon series - Sadly was swaped out for Lucario.
Young Link - Legend of Zelda series - Celda Link (Wind Waker Link) was added.
Marth - Fire Emblem series - Returned.
Roy - Fire Emblem series - Traded for Ike, another Fire Emblem character.
Ice Climbers (Popo and Nana) - Ice Climbers - Came back.
Princess Peach - Mario series - Came back looking better then ever as predicted.
Princess Zelda/Sheik - Legend of Zelda series - Both returned and Light Arrows for a Final Smash, predicted.
Ness - Earthbound series - returned, Starmen.net will not destroy Nintendo now.
Luigi - Mario Brothers series - Came back with a lot more uniqueness to him.
Dr. Mario - Dr. Mario series - Got the axe like I predicted.
Captain Falcon - F-Zero series - Returned, but no golden nipples.
Yoshi - Mario series - He returned..
Ganondorf - Legend of Zelda series - Is more unique and does take out a sword for a taunt, close enough.
Donkey Kong - Donkey Kong series - of course he came back.
Bowser - Mario series - Came back with a few new tricks, even better then before.

18/19 right!

Guesses for New Characters:

Bowser Jr/Shadow Mario - Mario series - Wrong!
Krystal - Wrong!
Sonic - Sonic the Hedgehog series - He got in.
Pac-man - Pacman series - Nope.
Mii - Mii, Wii channel - Plenty of music from the Wii channels, but no Miis.
Deoxys - Pokemon series - Pokeball, so kind of right.
Captain Olimar and Louie - Pikmin series - Olimar and Pikmin are in.
Animal Crossing Character - Sadly not, would have been awesome.
Dark Samus - Metroid series - Sadly not, which is a shame.
Ray 01 - Custom Robo series - A tiny assist trophy.
Petey Piranha - Mario Sunshine - A boss in Subspace.
Birdo - Mario series - Nope.
Paper Mario - Mario RPG series - Nope.
Diddy Kong/Donkey Kong JR - Donkey Kong series - Yes, is faster and isn't a DK clone.
Waluigi - Mario series - Sadly is only an assist trophy.
Wolf Link - Zelda: Twilight Princess - Nope, would have been cool thou.
Daisy – Mario series - Still a Peach recolour, as predicted.
Final Fantasy character - Final Fantasy series - Nope.

8/18, ouch...

Guesses for Items, Assist Trophies and Pokemon:

Minda - Zelda: Twilight Princess - Nope.
Pikmin - Pikmin series - Olimar can pluck Pikmin.
Pokemon - Pokemon series - Melee featured a ton of new Pokemon that popped out of the Pokeballs, but here are my guesses what could happen in Brawl:
-Ditto - Nope.
-Kyogre - Shoots water.
-Groudon - Does a fire attack.
-Castform - Nope.
-Wailord - Nope, would have been cool.
-Flygon - Nope.

Pitfall - Nailed it.
Spikey Blue Shell - Mario Kart series - Sadly not.
Bananas - Mario Kart series - Got it perfect.
Golf Club - Mario Golf series - Nope.
Mega mushroom - New Super Mario Brothers - Nope.
Mini mushroom - New Super Mario Brothers - Nope, but lighting bolt from the Mario Kart series can sometimes reverse and only make you smaller.
Chibi Robo - Noper.
FLUDD - Super Mario Sunshine - Mario's new Down B attack, kind of lame.
Poison Mushroom - Nope.
The Elite Beat Agents - Would have been awesome.
Tetris blocks - Tetris series - Two Tetris songs, but no blocks.

6/19

Predictions for New Levels:

Nookington's - Animal Crossing series - Appears in the background of SmashVille
New Pokemon stage - vague enough guess was right.
Pikmin stage - Above ground stage confirmed, but no Pikmin plucking.
Twilight Realm - Nope, but a Twilight Portal does appear in Bridge of
Eldin.
Custom Robo battle arena - Sadly not.
Nintendo DS Screens - Pictochat is essentially my guess, except no attacking stylish on screen.
Super Paper Mario style - Sadly not.
New Donkey Kong - another vague on right.
Tetris stage - Nope, but the music is awesome.
Boxing Ring - Wii Sports - Wii Sports music is featured, but no boxing ring.
Metroid Prime battle arena - another vague stage confirmed.
Battalion Wars battle field - Wars series - Sadly not.

6/12

38 out of 68 predictions right. Not too bad, got a little bit more then half right-ish. But it was just for fun.

Image is a fan made one found on the internet.

Saturday, March 29, 2008

Questions From Analytics Part 1 : Final Gathering

If you've been reading this blog of mine for awhile you might have come across an earlier entry that tells you my blog has been seen on every continent in the world. The handy tool is Google Analytics which is a simple little tool you place on your site and you can find out some basic information about the viewers to your site. You can learn what browser they're using, screen colours, city, and what site lead them to your site. But the one I'm focusing on in this new section of my blog is the Keywords, aka what people type into search engines and find my site. I'll be answering What does Final Gathering do.

Let me show you 3 pictures.

This first one is my scene, unrendered.
As you can see it's a cube sitting in a room.



A pretty simple looking scene, no?







Ok, now here's the same scene rendered without Final Gathering.
As you can see it's pretty basic, and kind of has that "cheap 3D" look to it.








Now in this picture I have turned Final Gathering on.
What do you notice? Does it look more realistic? The reason it looks more realistic is because Final Gathering does something we see in everyday life. As you might know light reflects off of everything and the angle they bounce off an object gives us it's colour. With Final Gathering the program finds all the spots light is hitting and makes those item a light source, so to speak.

You might be asking yourself, Stephen, why is your white cube pink/redish?
Like I said above, Final Gathering makes almost everything a light source, so you have a giant red light with a little white box in a room, the red is going to bleed through onto the box. You can see this in real life as well. Get a bright red object, or blue, or green, or yellow and set it down on a piece of white paper and place a bright light near the objects. You'll see this example.

There you go. Final Gathering explained. I hope you now know a bit more about this cool 3D effect.

Pro-Tip: To get away from cheap 3D looking objects, bevel the hard edges, like on the above cube. As you might know, most items don't come to a sharp point. For an example, my desk, window sill, keyboard, computer screen, computer tower and even the mini Wii-Mote on my key chain don't have hard sharp edges, they're all soft edges.

Friday, March 28, 2008

Note To Self: Update More Often...

Well... umm... no updates since January... sorry about that. Not a happy/creative time for me. But it's spring time and I feel a lot more energized and inspired. I recently took a trip to the fabulous island of Maui, which is a part of Hawaii. Here some picture highlights.

Vancouver Airport:



A flower called a Dragon's Claw:




Mars... I mean the Haleakala Crater:



Road to the top of Haleakala:

Glow in the Dark Mini Golf! (and one of my sisters):


True Vacation Shot:

Friday, January 25, 2008

2 Weeks Later..

Well it's been two weeks and I've completed... 3/5 of the 5 things. Sadly the few personal things in my life are slowing me down, one of which is a move across town. I got lucky and found a place thanks to some help from my sister. Networking, it works. So I'll be posting some bunny animation soon along with the demo reel and Roy's Revenge as soon as I'm settled in the new place.
In the meantime my deviantArt gallery has hit 6,000 views. Here's one of my pieces I have up there.


End of the Road by ~Chmilar on deviantART

Saturday, January 19, 2008

3 Years Too Late....?

I signed up for Myspace..... Want to be my friend? Visit www.myspace.com/schmilar to be my friend.

Animation is coming along. I got some great ideas for some very quick shorts I'm going to place on my demo reel before I send it out. They'll be awesome.

Wednesday, January 16, 2008

Year Zero: Theday Version

Sorry about the long wait, but I've finally put together some album art for my remixed version of Nine Inch Nails 'Year Zero' album. The following will have the track, link to the blog post and song. Enjoy! Don't forget to rate and download my remixes at the remix site!



1 - "Hyperpower!"
[Blog]
Remix

2 - "The Beginning of the End"
[Blog]
[Remix]

3 - "Survivalism"
[Blog]
[Remix]

4 - "The Good Solider"
[Blog]
[Remix]

5 - "Vessel"
[Blog]
[Remix]

6 - "Me, I'm Not"
[Blog]
[Remix]

7 - "Capital G"
[Blog]
[Remix]

8 - "My Violent Heart"
[Blog]
[Remix]

9 - "The Warning"
[Blog]
[Remix]

10 - "God Given"
[Blog]
[Remix]

11 - "Meet Your Master"
[Blog]
[Remix]

12 - "The Greater Good"
[Blog]
[Remix]

13 - "The Great Destroyer"
[Blog]
[Remix]

14 - "Another Version of the Truth"
[Blog]
[Remix]

15 - "In This Twilight"
[Blog]
[Remix]

16 - "Zero-Sum"
[Blog]
[Remix]

Friday, January 11, 2008

2008 - Post 1 (I will get more creative with titles in the next entry)

Hello, I hope you had a wonderful holiday season, great new year. Sorry for the lack of updates, the holidays keep me busy with shopping, work at my retail job, and a few other things.

Then after the holidays I got sick with a cold (still have a bit of a runny nose), and a few personal things happen in my life. But I'm back on track. The 'Year Zero: Theday Version' cover is coming soon. I finally got the sounds I've been waiting for for Roy's Revenge. My rabbit is completely rigged and textured (few more improvements to do yet), then I can animate him, then render him, stick him on my demo reel and send them out and post it on here.

So in the next two weeks expect:
-'Year Zero' cover art
-Roy's Revenge
-Rabbit animation
-Demo reel 2008 version 1.0
-and whatever else I choose to put up here, maybe some pictures.

Here are my resolutions for 2008:
-Finish Demo Reel.
-Get a job in the animation field.
-Meet new friends.
-Learn new skills.
-Do a little traveling.
-Buy a XBox 360.
-Go to more concerts.

A little generic? I know.. But hey, they're easy to do and I don't have to drop 10 pounds.