Stephen's Art Update

I'm Working For the Okanagan Film Festival

2011-06-16T21:59:00.000-07:00

I would apologize for not updating, but Eyes at 6'5" updates EVERY Single day. Anyway, I somehow landed a (non paying) job on the board of directors for the Okanagan Film Festival. My friend Jeremy, who directed the '32 Ghost IV Video' I'm in (a couple of posts down) is the new president of the board and invited me to a few meetings and then elected me to the board. Most of the board are new, so there's a great sense of energy. I get to attend meetings, give valuable input, watch short and feature length submissions (I'm the resident animated and LGBT film expert) and think of ways to market the festival. So far things are pretty low key, we have the social media thing started up and soon moving into phase 2 with some physical displays. I'll post a few things here as they come up. We're hoping to do a couple of videos as well, which will be awesome. Keep your eyes on my Twitter page Twitter Page and the following links:

Okanagan Film Festival's Twitter Page

Okanagan Film Festival's Facebook Page

Okanagan Film Festival's Official Site

Oh, if you're interested in my choices of movies and want to know some interesting short and feature films that I've seen then visit my IMBb.com List Page. I have a few interesting lists up so far. Enjoy them!

Eyes At 6'5" Daily Photo Blog By Me

2010-10-04T21:07:00.000-07:00

Sorry for a lack of updates around this blog. Had some 'life' happen and was rendered homeless for a month. I'm not kidding. Thanks to some friends I wasn't out on the streets. Now I have my own apartment and things are back on track. I was going to mention my new photo blog a week into it's conception, but got busy. But hey, better late then never right? Now there's plenty to view. Head over to Eyesat6-5.blogspot.com To check it out!

Opoona Review

2010-09-14T01:04:00.000-07:00

Imagine a game developed by the makers of the Dragon Quest series.. set in outer space and the lead characters don't have spiky hair. Welcome to Opoona, a Japanese RPG for the Nintendo Wii.
Opoona, much like many JPG starts out with Opoona (the main character , the chubby bald headed kid with the orange ball on top of his head) sleeping in. He wakes up, his ship gets attacked and gets separated from his family and has to find them on the alien planet known as Landroll. Landroll, according to lore was hit by a meteorite awhile back and now the planet is split in half, a inhabitable side and a dark side.
The game takes a few cues from the Metroid Prime franchise with this plot device, but never gets very far with it. Sadly with no voice acting and only ONE CGI cut scene the story is made out through dialog boxes, long boring ones if that. And it's sad to say that Opoona did not get the best translation job out there. Things may have been taken too literal and sometimes leaves players wondering where to go and what to do? But then again the first dome (city) Tokione is such a mess of a design that it's easy to get frustrated trying to find a certain shop or even the exits! Whoever designed that city needs to be kicked in the balls, repeatedly. Thankfully the city designs are much more functional once you get to the next domes.
While getting frustrated with the city lay out and how the 'life style' part of this 'life style RPG' game works made me wonder about it even further. The game allows you to get jobs and make friends. In fact if you want to get outside of the first city you have to find a teacher to allow you to get a lice sense to be a Ranger, go the Admin office, get a license, then exit the building. If you want to upgrade your hover board transportation you get, you have to work fast food and get a mining license, then you can go face the second boss. At times I think the game is commenting on the bureaucracy of other games with job systems or society itself. But much like other JPGs and their ham fisted environmental message it comes off as annoying and leaves the player frustrated, especially when you have to do multiple 'side quests' just so you can reach the final boss's lair.
But let's talk about some more positive aspects of the game. The graphics and look of the game fit very well. Some of the domes look beautiful and have a real theme to them. Sometimes I wonder if the art team got their way on everything. The game heavily features variety of art work on display from paintings to sculptures to new age installation pieces. The character designs of the main characters work well, the cell shaded visuals of the characters make them look more childish and innocent. Some of the other characters are so oddly designed you wonder what kind of sick plastic surgeon the world of Landroll has, some women have beaks! Later in the game you come across some giants in an ancient forest, you’d swear they were created by a guy who just got his 3D modeling program the week before. Once you get out of the domes you can see some wonderful photo like sky boxes, which kind of clash with the cell shaded main characters.
The music of the game offers some short tunes, no 5 minute epics here. Most are over and done and repeating within a minute and a half, which isn't bad for some songs like the third battle theme or the final baddie lair music. But some of the cities have quite annoying songs to them (Bravo Company!).
The box of the game says it's one handed controls, only using the Nunchuck controller to do everything. I tried that, then picked up the Wii-Mote after 10 minutes and didn't put the Wii-Mote. It also supports the Classic Controller, didn't play with that.
The controls work well. 'A' To action things, 'B' to cancel things, etc, etc. In battle it's push the analog stick back, forward or sideways to direct your balls in battle and attack. Sure there's magical abilities which speak of angles and such (but never given any insight into how these abilities come to be, could be called Healing Spell 1, 2, 3 really.) As you progress through the game you'll find more and more attachments to your ball and gives your characters a bit more flare.
In the end you control 4 people over all. Only 3 at a time. The 4th is only momentarily during a part during the story. The three, Opoona, Copoona and Poleena have slightly different abilities. Copoona is more of a magic user, Opoona is the muscle and Poleena is the middle ground. But there isn't much difference between the three.

If you can make it to the second dome (Life Born) then you're going to be in for an RPG that will last 25- 40 hours, depending on your play style. The game has an odd quirky and cute charm that people have compared to the Super Nintendo cult classic Earthbound. I haven't played Earthbound yet, but Opoona has cult classic written all over it. Pick it up, give it a shot. It's most likely in a discount bin somewhere wanting you to play with its balls.

Grade: C+

Video Games | Opoona | Trailer

XBox 360 | Playstation 3 | Nintendo Wii

32 Ghost IV Video

2010-01-16T23:15:00.000-08:00

Back in November I was visiting my friend Jeremy who is a director, editor and actor here in Kelowna and he was showing me his compilation of the Nine Inch Nails Ghost Film Festival. He chose his favorites and best and was compiling a fan made DVD of fan made videos. My 16 Ghost II video is featured on the DVD, but sadly he was having troubles finding a the right videos for a couple of songs.
So we looked at the candidates and thought of ways we could improve them. We then decided to just go out and shoot something. He had these really cool looking goggles, and the camera case and headed out as the sun was sinking lower in the sky. As we begun to shoot in the park, I suggested we walk by the military complex that's just a few blocks away since it had some tanks and chain link fences, things that frequently showed up in other Ghost videos and Year Zero. As we shot things just fell together.
After sitting on the footage and doing some post production, the video is complete:

Jeremy is also apart of an up and coming comedy group called A Quick and Dirty Experience, which I highly suggest checking out. Link.

In other Nine Inch Nails related news, the fan made video of concert footage taken by fans, edited by fans and distributed by fans called "Another Version of the Truth: The Gift" contains a remix of mine on the Las Vegas disc. You can find out more information about the project, and download it for free HERE.

7 Tips for Meeting People Offline

2010-01-04T23:10:00.000-08:00

I'm a major player on the Anime and Cosplay Kelowna forum and the community there has been booming. But since there's a lot of young people and people who are a bit socially shy, I made them a quick and easy guide to meeting people. It's helped quite a few people so far, so I might as well post it here as well.
Remember, meeting new people is great, the anime forum has had a ton of great meet ups, new friendships being made and more. But there's always a danger of something going wrong. So here's some tips for meeting people in person.

1) Meet in a Public Place
This one is pretty basic. If you're going to meet someone for the first time, maybe it's best not to show up at their place. A coffee shop, the mall, a store, movie theatre all work well.

2) Tell People Where You Are and What You're Doing
This is important for the younger people. Your folks worry about you. Tell them where you're going. Who you're going with and what time you're expected back. Also tell them who are you meeting, their real name and forum name.

3) Bring A Cell Phone
Once again your parents worry about you kiddies. Bring a cell phone, that you if you're stood up you can call for a ride home. Or if you're feeling uncomfortable you can get away easily.

4) Bring A Friend!
Strength in numbers! If you're nervous about meeting someone in real person, bring a friend or a parent or older sibling. At the anime forum meet ups we always welcome friends of members to our meet ups! The more the merrier (but do give a little bit of notice, especially for events with limited amount of room).

5) Trust Your Feelings
Sometimes you know things are not right. If you're not having good feelings from someone, then don't meet them. Cancel your plans with them and tell them you'll meet them at the next meet up with multiple people instead of alone. Do have the common courtesy to tell them you can't make it to a meet up several hours before you're planned to meet them.

6) Protect Your Information
If you haven't figured it out yet. All anyone really needs is your e-mail address and I could potentially have your full name, location, school, work address and even phone number. That's it. Really easy to become an Internet stalker.

7) Dress Appropriate
I got a bit of heat from writing this on the forum, but do dress right for occasions. While some Cosplay costumes do features some revealing clothing choices, it's always best to not to run around in super short skirts and low cut shirts, especially for the younger ladies. Also make note of the weather as well.

Anime Convention Coming 2010

2009-07-07T23:29:00.000-07:00

In January I made a post about a possible Anime Convention coming to Kelowna in 2010. I can now say that there will be one and we're still looking at July 2010. It will be called Anime Okanagan.
I've been made into the second in command as Vice President of Kelowna Anime and Cosplay Association and I'm the Director of Marketing for the convention.
So my job is to make sure everything is moving forward while trying to get the word out about our convention and draw in as many people as we can.
The Anime and Cosplay Kelowna Forum is borderline 160 people now, which is a markable improvement from me being the 34th forum member back in January.
So far marketing has been through word of mouth and little business cards left in strategic locations. My goal is to have over 300 people on the forum by the end of the year. We're on to phase 2 of marketing, which is our online presence. We've got our Twitter page going, blogger site, facebook page, YouTube page and a lot of YouTube videos in the work. Ian, the president, and I wrote out at least 2 dozen video ideas. It should keep me busy for a while.
Location of the convention will be decided by the end of the month, same with the exact weekend. We've canvassed a lot of different locations; each had their positive and negative aspects. Some knew what they were doing and services they offer and what spaces they have could be useful for some events, others.. didn't. The ones that didn't sunk to the bottom of the list fast.

If everything goes well then Kelowna's going to be hit by something it has never seen on a scale that's bigger then this valley has ever seen.
Wish me luck.

Oh yeah. I'm also landed a part in a movie by local director Jeremy Heynen. Check out his website: TheMissingPatient.Com/

Kelowna Zombie Walk 2009

2009-05-11T00:11:00.000-07:00

On May 9th I got to attend the Kelowna Zombie Walk. I have to admit, it was a lot of fun. I also did my own make up, which turned out quite well. Here's a few shots of me as a zombie and my make up.

Here's close to the final stage: Here the wound is made up of toilet paper glued to my arm, then the surrounding area was covered in white Halloween make up, then dirt. Then food colouring was added to the toilet paper. Then more dirt. I was a very dirty boy by the time my costume was done.

Here's the end result. A little brushing to make the dirt look a little more natural, a lot more fake blood and colouring. If you look closely the blood from the wounds twirl around my hand and off my pinky. I found it interesting to see how it flowed down my arm following the contours.

Here's a video of me in action:

Not Very Arty At The Moment

2009-02-28T13:22:00.000-08:00

I couldn't let a month pass without an update. What have I been up to? I've found four great sound bytes for lipsync animation. One from Clone High, one from Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance and two from Duckman. I have begun storyboarding them out. I've also been trying to get another short film off the floor. I have quite a few ideas for little scenes, but nothing that creates a larger picture or story. Which is quite fustrating.
However, despite only being on the Anime and Cosplay forum for nearly 2 months now. The forum numbers have surged forward from 34 to 86. The first official meeting for the board of directors is on Monday, so it should be interesting to see where it goes.

The Slip: Theday Version

2009-01-22T19:23:00.000-08:00

I've finally got around to remixing every single song on the Nine Inch Nails albums The Slip. The last one to remix was 1,000,000. Here are the link to listen to and download them. Don't forgot to rate them a full 5 stars while you're at NINremixes.com . I also posted the links to my Ghost remixes off of the album Ghost I-IV. Enjoy those as well. Cover art coming soon.

The Slip Remixed
999,999
1,000,000
Letting You
Disipline
Echoplex
Head Down
Lights in the Sky
Corona Radiata
The Four of Us Are Dying
Demon Seed

Ghost Tracks

3 Ghost I
6 Ghost I
18 Ghost II
26 Ghost III
35 Ghost IV

Anime Convention in Kelowna? A Reality?

2009-01-21T01:34:00.000-08:00

Japanese Animation, or Anime, has always been interesting to me. Then again I find all kinds of animation and moving pictures interesting. I'm not the biggest fan of anime, but still find it interesting.
A week or so ago my friend pointed out ACK, Anime and Cosplay Kelowna. I've never dressed up outside of Halloween and costume parties ..and that one time at work..
After being on the site for a little while it looks like I've got my fingers into spreading the word about this site and somehow on an organization to plan an Anime Convention in Kelowna. This will get me out and about and meeting up with other people to talk about one form of art or another.

The current tentative date for said convention is July 2010. But before we go through with it we need a lot more supporters. The forum has jumped from 37 to 52 since I've been there. Realistically speaking I would only suggest a convention in Kelowna if the forum number was over 300 people. We'll see what happens.

Update: I've been selected as a board of directors member for the convention.

2008 Highlights

2009-01-05T13:11:00.000-08:00

2008 Brought many different art adventures for me. Here are some highlights.

Roy's Revenge - My highly anticipated short film burst onto the web in early April and had it's big screen debut on April 16th as a part of the Okanagan Film Festival.

Final Gathering Hints - In late March I explained Final Gathering for newbies.

Smashing After Thoughts - In 2007 I made some predictions of what Super Smash Brothers Brawl would include and this is the result. See where I was right and where I was wrong.

The Fall of Digimill - In 2008 the site formally known as Digimill.net fell off the face of the internet when site editor Graeme Morris failed to sign into Blogger. I saved several of my best posts and posted them on this here Blog, here are the highlights:
1997
Elements of Designs
Principles of Design

Live Action Shorts - I finally upgraded and bought a digital camera from a friend and begun shooting interesting footage and editing it together to Nine Inch Nails.

Reviews - I begun to review video games I've played this year on this here site, here are the highlights:
Super Smash Brothers Brawl
Doctor Mario Online RX
Artstyle: Orbient

There you go, 2008 was a weird one for me personally, but if the economy improves I can except even more art adventures. Wish me luck and keep reading.

Live Action Short: 28 Ghost IV

2008-12-14T11:02:00.000-08:00

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.

Art Style Orbient Review

2008-11-06T22:19:00.000-08:00

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

A Strange Week in Releases..

2008-11-05T19:42:00.000-08:00

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.

Live Action Short: 16 Ghost II

2008-10-11T12:41:00.000-07:00

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!

6th Annual CATO Film Fest and Reviews

2008-09-03T22:46:00.000-07:00

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.

Live Action Short: 5 Ghost I

2008-08-16T23:00:00.000-07:00

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.

The Slip: Theday Version Part 1

2008-08-02T02:41:00.000-07:00

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.

Digital Live Short: Traffic

2008-07-24T12:05:00.000-07:00

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!

Batman 3 Theories

2008-07-23T19:47:00.000-07:00

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!

Digital Live Short: Water

2008-07-12T20:08:00.000-07:00

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.

Doctor Mario Online RX Review

2008-07-08T01:06:00.000-07:00

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

Silly Facebook Updates

2008-06-30T22:49:00.000-07:00

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!

Rabbit Walk Cycle

2008-06-27T02:44:00.000-07:00

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.

Art School Survival: Movies

2008-06-08T18:00:00.000-07:00

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!

Digimill.net Dump 3 - Principles of Design

2008-06-03T23:22:00.000-07:00

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.

Digimill Dump 2 - Elements of Design

2008-06-02T21:49:00.000-07:00

Digimill Dump 1 - 1997

2008-06-01T22:37:00.000-07:00

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?

The New Guy

2008-05-30T20:49:00.001-07:00

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.

Questions From Analytics Part 2: 3 Quick Questions

2008-05-21T16:16:00.001-07:00

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

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

2008-05-19T03:05:00.000-07:00

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!

Deviation 100, 7,000 Gallery Views

2008-05-13T23:01:00.000-07:00

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 deviant ART

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.

Roy's Revenge Big Screen Debute Shot

2008-05-07T19:14:00.001-07:00

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.

Gearing Up for the Next Short

2008-04-24T00:08:00.000-07:00

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.

Roy's Revenge Big Screen Debut!

2008-04-17T22:43:00.000-07:00

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:

Roy's Revenge

2008-04-05T13:07:00.000-07:00

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

And Now A Brief Youtube Video Interlude...

2008-04-01T21:43:00.000-07:00

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

2008-04-01T00:23:00.000-07:00

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.

Smashing Thoughts Aftermath

2008-03-30T22:34:00.000-07:00

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.

Questions From Analytics Part 1 : Final Gathering

2008-03-29T20:54:00.000-07:00

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.

Note To Self: Update More Often...

2008-03-28T18:50:00.000-07:00

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:

2 Weeks Later..

2008-01-25T23:49:00.000-08:00

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 deviant ART

3 Years Too Late....?

2008-01-19T01:18:00.000-08:00

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.

Year Zero: Theday Version

2008-01-16T02:46:00.000-08:00

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]

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

2008-01-11T02:43:00.001-08:00

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.

Centre For Arts and Technology Film Student Film Premiere Q4 07

2007-12-22T22:36:00.000-08:00

Once again the Centre for Arts and Technology had a premiere party to showcase the Centre's Film student's latest works. This premiere had 12 films ranging from documentary to comedy to romance and a little sci-fi.

1) Fish Out of Water by Kyle Pigeau - Apparently people find the word 'Yar' funny. The film had a very stylized animated opening which caught my eye, but the rest of the film was live and felt flat. The film was about a janitorial pirate you finds love. I thought the script needed some more polish and I think I only smiled once.
Grade: C

2) Collide by Ada Jules - I loved the idea, it has potential to hit home with the sci-fi fans and the romance films. The idea is that a guy gets the ability to learn everything there is about an object by touching it. He shakes hands with a girl and falls in love with her. The script needed a bit more polish (romance is hard to write, I know!). But it's the grounds for a good short.
Grade: B-

3) Love Doesn't Hurt, Only You - An interesting short with no diolog, only music. It played very much like a long music video. This short and many others featured copy written music which could effect them in the long run. My instructors always told us never to use copywriten music unless you have permission from the artist themselves. So placing the copywriting music in their short means that they can not submit it to film studios or other film festivals. The short itself could benefit from some cutting and shortening in a few places. For an example, I don't think the viewer needs to see 3 minutes of footage of people playing The Game of Life.
Grade C+

4) Crimson Steel by Brian Dycke - This one was interesting. It stars a guy with a sword in a Mafia movie, in Tokyo. Pretty interesting idea. Much like Loves Doesn't Hurt, the movie also featured copy written music and needs a few more polishing points, especially colour correction and audio sync. For an example when 2 people are sword fighting the swords are completely out of sync. Was interesting though.
Grade C+

5) Passing By by Kaylan Wiebe - A romance story about an actor who gets into a car accident and is paralyzed. The romantic lines and timing needed a bit more polish (I know, it's tough to write romance!), but it was on the right track. One thing I'd have more pronounced in the movie is the relationship with the actor and his friend who was driving when they got into the car accident. At the end of the film I was like: "Who is he? I swear he only had 1 line earlier in the film."

6) Fishers of Men by Cherly Hardy - A documentary question and answer feature about Christian religion. I have to admit, it started off very funny. I don't know what side was funnier, the question askers or the answers. But soon they begun to touch on some more pressing issues. One thing I must point out was a lack of commitment to style. There were questions being asked by people, screen shots and the people answering themselves. It's best to have a set set up.
Grade C+

7) In The Night - A very funny cynical and dark film about a guy's day and his thoughts on several things that he does. It was pretty funny.
Grade B

8) Candy Kane by Jordan Lange - It was nearly anime brought to life. Sure no giant monsters, but there was a scantly clad woman talking to a stuffed toy. It was twisted and a breath of fresh air.
Grade B+

9) A Lonely Day by Nick Starsky - A movie that used the power of green screen in the real world environment. Very surreal and boarder line "mind fuck". The camera man's shadow was vi sable and took away from the experience sadly.
Grade B

10) Untitled by Ryan Hiemstra - A wonderfully dark humoured short about 2 morgue workers. The reactions and set was very well done.
Grade B+

11) Work In Progress by Adam Kitter and Curtis Pittendriegh - After a long wait and technical problems the movie finally got on it's way and it was better then imagined. It was about 2 stoners who decide to make a movie about their lives and the problems along the way. The film had a ton of great gags, jokes prop humour.
Grade A

12) Pancake Day - Best for last I guess. This completely improvised movie was shot in less then 3 hours and was great. It told the story about 3 roommates who each looked foreword to pan cake day, the day they have pancakes. The over the top performance by Josh G really pushed the film down the direction it needed to go. It was shot documentry style and featured interviews with the characters which added to the comedy. Anyway, pan cake day turns bad when a new addition is added to the apartment (won't spoil it) and it turns the guys against each other. There's a great scene which is about 7 minutes long and is a confrontation of Chris about the addition and they pulled it off great, without a cut. Sure there were a few smiles, but they remained in character and the dialog was great for being improvised.
Grade A+

Why Re-Render?

2007-12-20T00:51:00.000-08:00

With "Roy's Revenge" coming out very soon I feel like I should show you why some scenes had to be re-rendered. Below is a shot from my short, the top one is before, the bottom one is after. In the before shot we see that some Final Gathering bleeding has taken place. We also have strange shadows on Roy and have you ever seen a blue sky like that? Didn't think so. The re-render shot has better lighting, no Final Gathering bleeding or strange shadows, the glow on the computer screen is also corrected. Stay tuned for the short, it'll be on here before X-mas.

Hyperpower! remix

2007-12-15T11:30:00.000-08:00

"Hyperpower!" the first song from Year Zero has been remixed and ready for download. Hyperpower is an actual economic term that describes a country that is the most advanced militarily, economically, and technologically in the world. The term was used to describe America in the 90's and the British Empire at it's peak. I used the song as an intro piece and extended it to showcase some of the sounds from the rest of the album.

I'll post a cover art for the remix CD and links to all the songs soon.

Photo by my mom or sister (not 100% sure). Modified by me.

The Beginning of the End remix

2007-12-14T12:31:00.000-08:00

One of my favorite songs from Year Zero by Nine Inch Nails is "The Beginning of the End". So when it came to remixing it, I was very nervous about breaking it's perfection. But I found a way to make it work and I think it sounds even better. Give it a listen by clicking the link or picture.

Photo by me.

Survivalism remix

2007-12-13T00:10:00.000-08:00

The third track from NIN's latest CD is called "Survivalism" and the character talks about how life is in the world of Year Zero. The term references a person is is ready for 4 things: Natural Disasters, Man Made Disasters, Loss of society benefits (water, electricity) and the collapse of society as a whole. It fits perfectly to paint the picture of Year Zero. You can listen to my remix of the song by clicking the link, or the picture.

Picture by me.

The Good Solider remix

2007-12-11T23:48:00.000-08:00

"The Good Solider" from NIN latest album Year Zero seems to be about a solider serving his country and is trying to believe that he/she is doing the right thing and the reason they're at war is justified. They seem to go from a strong, playing the strong solider in the verses to a softer reflective voice in the chorus. I went with the softer side with this remix. Are you downloading them all? I'm closing in on the last songs.

Photo by me.

Vessel remix

2007-12-10T23:22:00.000-08:00

The end is near to the Year Zero remixes, only a handful remains. "Vessel" is the 5th song of Year Zero and the character is the vessel of the truth, mainly theories of this song is that it's about a soldier who is taking pills to advance the agenda of the army and numb out feelings of regret and make killing as pleasurable as sex. Thus the character feels powerful and allows it to happen, but does feel like the pills could be ripping him apart. Just one theory of many.

Photo by me.

In animation news, Roy's Revenge is looking even better after rerendering a few scenes and will premiere at The Centre For Arts and Technology's (end of semester) Film Festival on December 20th. I'll be posting the finished film on here on the 21st. Get ready for Revenge!

Me, I'm Not remix

2007-12-09T14:48:00.000-08:00

The 6th song from Year Zero is "Me, I'm Not", I'm not too much of a fan of the original mix. The song was very easy and fun to remix, it all just flowed together. I removed an entire chorus because it reminds me of the Fonz from Happy Days. The song seems to be about a person losing control over themselves or something, my theory is that the song is about the person who designed Parepin (see my post about The Greater Good) and is succumbing to the numbness of the drug.

Anyway, enjoy. Photo by me.

Capital G remix

2007-12-06T23:45:00.000-08:00

"Capital G" is a song about the president of the USA in Year Zero. The G stands for Greed. The song goes on to say that power can convert people. A person who once had noble intentions can be corrupted and become drunk with power. Click the link, or the picture to hear the song.

Photo by me.

The Warning remix

2007-12-05T23:40:00.000-08:00

Oops, Looks like I forgot to upload "The Warning" before "My Violent Heart". Oh well.
"The Warning" seems to be about The Presence. What does The Presence look like? On the cover of Year Zero there's a giant partly transparent blue hand? That's it. The question is, what is The Presence? Is it the hand of god? Some kind of strange storm? Aliens? No one really knows. Witnesses of The Presence say that they feel intense fear, insignificance, astonishment, and forgetfulness.
Run the strange static sound through a spectrometer (one found in Adobe Premiere) and you'll see The Presence.

Photo by me.

My Violent Heart remix

2007-12-04T23:19:00.000-08:00

How are you enjoying the remixes Please leave some comments. "My Violent Heart" is ready for downloading at NINremixes.com. This is possibly my favorite song from Year Zero. I used a few samples from the Nine Inch Nails song "StarFuckers Inc" to create a darker mood. Listen to it yourself.

Photo by Sicamous Eye Centre, my eye.

God Given remix

2007-12-03T23:39:00.000-08:00

The 10th track of Year Zero is "God Given" and my remix of it is now available for download. "God Given" is kind of a tongue in cheek look at the church in the Year Zero alternative reality. In that reality church and state has merged with large problems. The song has the character singing (it is a concept CD with multiple narratives going) that their religion is the only right one, insisting that every other religion is wrong and several other lines. The song is dance and poppy... an interesting mix to say the least.

Photo once again by me.

Meet Your Master remix

2007-12-01T00:59:00.000-08:00

The Year Zero remixes continue with song number 11 out of 16, "Meet Your Master". I'm working my way backwards with these remixes remember?

Meanwhile, I'm testing my new computer's ability, so far it's been doing good, but now comes one of the ultimate tests... Rendering. Stay tuned.

Photo once again by me.

The Greater Good remix

2007-11-29T18:02:00.000-08:00

Here's the link to my "The Greater Good" from my remix version of Nine Inch Nails - Year Zero album. I guess I should give a little bit of a background about this song in the context of Year Zero and the image (which is once again by me). The album is a concept record, concept records often have a story, main character or certain direction. For an example, NIN's 1994 album The Downward Spiral followed the steps of a man on track to self destruction, stopping on the way to denounce god, society, the person they loved and in the end, taking their own life. Year Zero on the other hand is set in the future where religion, politics, the environment is pushed to a breaking point. "The Greater Good" is about Parepin, a drug added to the water to bootstraps the immune system.
However... it also alters the levels of dopamine and serotonin levels, induces muscle spasms, inability to reach orgasm, complacency, dulling of emotions and maybe the reason people see "The Presence".
Lots of info? Well, it's only the tip of the iceberg, you can find more... if you know where to look...

The Great Destroyer remix

2007-11-28T21:11:00.000-08:00

This remix of "The Great Destroyer" from Year Zero, follows the original one very closely, but I played around with the ending, which feels a lot more destructive and loud. This song is followed by "Another Version of the Truth", so it's a nice contrast.

Remember to leave comments and give it a 5 star rating and you can even download it. Collect the entire remixed CD.
Photo by me.

Another Version of the Truth remix

2007-11-27T21:49:00.000-08:00

The Nine Inch Nails remixes just keep coming. ,Here's my remix of "Another Version of the Truth" an instrumental from Year Zero. I decided to do a... I guess... a two face remix, one part hard and loud, the other quiet and soft. Enjoy.

Photo by me.

In This Twilight remix

2007-11-26T14:40:00.000-08:00

Blog post 100!!!! Here's the link to my remix of "In This Twilight" . The song is considered to be the "Hurt" of Year Zero. I personally felt the album version was very noisy with abrasive drums and effects, so I cut them out for my remix and I believe the song sounds a lot more fragile.

Photo by me.

Zero-Sum remix

2007-11-25T14:37:00.000-08:00

As mentioned a few months ago, Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails has released the audio tracks for all the tracks of CD "Year Zero" on the CD/DVD combo of the "Y3ARZER0R3M1X3D". I've been remixing the tracks and now you can listen to them.
Here's the link for "Zero-Sum"I use the pen name of Theday at NINRemixes.com.

I'll be posting more links as I submit the rest of the songs.

I have my new computer and it's getting put together properly and set up. Then I can begin rerendering a few scenes and get back into animation. Stay tuned and enjoy the remixes.

Sound Is Complete

2007-10-28T23:02:00.001-07:00

Ok, after a long wait and a few bumps along the way, the sound for Roy's Revenge is finally complete and is sounding great! Amber Smith is the audio engineer and she has done a great job with the sound. I'll be posting the completed short in a day or so, I have to do a few little corrections and set a few things up. So prepare for the long awaited, Roy's Revenge!

UPDATE: After a couple of days of thought and tinkering, I think it would be better to rerender a few scenes. The sound works wonderful... but I'm being a perfectionist.

5,000 Views @ deviantArt

2007-09-30T15:27:00.000-07:00

I'd like to point out that my deviantArt gallery has hit a new milestone and has reached 5,000 views. You can view my gallery HERE. My deviantArt gallery is my main photography gallery.

In other art news, my Mom, scrap booked some of my art from my grade school years. It's quite an interesting look back to my previous works and see how far I've come. There's this painting I made in Kindergarten, or was it Grade 1 and looks like it's a finger painting and called "Man Running Around In Circles". I found it interesting and may upload it to deviantArt later.

In Roy's Revenge news, music/sound is still being worked on. So you'll have to wait a bit longer. I know, I know.. I'm excited too. I want to see the end result as well.

CATO September '07 Final Film Premiere Reviews

2007-09-23T02:46:00.000-07:00

Tonight I got to witness some premieres of some student films. Sadly my short isn't quite ready yet, music is in the works, see previous post.

12 and Hyde - I walked in a bit late on this one and pretty much found it to be a boring torture porn film. I have to admit it had some nice lighting and colours, but script and violence and ending was not there. Something tells me I'd still feel the same if I saw the first handful of minutes. Grade: C

Short Tail - I have no idea who directed this one... but there was some real problems with it. The story was about two pot heads played by two guys who can't act and an archaeologist who is digging up dinosaur bones. I know, dino bone hunters are called Paleontologists. Anyway, the Paleontologists over acted and the pot heads underacted and brought the film to a climax that was meaningless. There was also a huge continuity error when one of the pot heads losses his beard between scenes. The credit sequence was also tough to read, had no connection to the film and went by too fast. Remember people, you should be able to read a credit about 3 times before it disappears. Grade: F

The Very Long Goodbye - Due to technical difficulties, the film was shown was very grainy, but at least it was there. The film was over the 20 minute mark, but was far better then the previous films shown (* my trailer not included since it was a trailer, not a film). The short was a nice homage to the film noir and detective stories from the golden era of Hollywood. Script was good, but another rewrite could have really tightened it up great. The use of black and white was nice, but contrast could have been pushed to get rid of some greys. The film had a lot of homages to such films as The Maltese Falcon and The Big Sleep, with similar angles. One of the main problems with the short was it's audio qualities, the bad compression could have added to it, but there was always a white noise and the voice over changed volumes several times and got a little annoying, that and there were some audio pops in there as well, most notability the door knob falling off the door (nice touch). Grade: B (better contrast and sound would have landed this film at an A-.

Waiting for the Music

2007-09-21T23:47:00.000-07:00

Roy's Revenge is completely rendered and ready for export, except the music. My audio engineer, Amber Smith is hard at work on it and so far it's sounding awesome. I'm looking foreword to the final product, which might be a small wait. But now comes the scary time between school and a job in the field of animation. Unfortunately the wait will last a bit longer then I want because I need a new computer to work on more animation, improve my demo reel and burn DVDs with. My currently computer at home is a nice little machine, but it can't handle a program like XSI.
Roy's Revenge finished rendering on Tuesday and since then I've been working on my Rabbit from Z-brush class. I brought him into XSI and begun to rig him. And here's the result (see right image). I haven't given him a proper texture yet. But his rig works and can't wait to animate with him..... whenever that will be. Hopefully I don't go crazy not animating..

The Final Scene

2007-09-16T15:18:00.000-07:00

The final scene of Roy's Revenge has just been sent to the render farm to render. Funny thing is that the final scene to be rendered is the first scene Roy is in. I'm at least 4 days ahead of myself and feel very confident in my abilities. I'm very excited to see it completed with sound and present it to everyone. I guess I should begin designing the DVD package. I'm thinking of charging 5 bucks per DVD. Does that sound like a good price? Would you buy it? Not only will it come with the completed version of Roy's Revenge, but also the trailer, my demo reel, some of my shorts, my trailer for Blackout Mod, a slide show of my photography and whatever else I can shove on there. Place your orders now!

(rejected scene from Roy's Revenge shown)

Don't forget that Wednesday, September 19th is Talk Like A Pirate Day!

RR: Live From the Render Farm

2007-09-12T22:55:00.000-07:00

Hey, it's just a quick update. I'm currently rendering 7 different scenes on some computers here at the Centre For Arts and Technology. Things would move faster if other people didn't need to use computers or XSI. Sadly the school only has so many licenses and we're using them all up. Hahahaha. A couple of renders will finish tonight and then I can move on to the next batch of scenes to render. The final scene (which will show up after the credits) was pretty quickly done. I modeled the scene and textured it with the assistance of Luke Ritchie on Sunday, finished modelling and texturing on Monday and by Tuesday it was being rendered. I have the sound files for the lip syncing scenes ready to work on for tomorrow. But for now, I can't do much. Some renders only have 3 hours left, which will be after the school closes for the night, if only I could stay longer. Oh well, they'll be ready for me tomorrow. I might as well turn on another render and go home and have some hot chocolate. Mmmmmm.

Final Gathering Band-Aid

2007-09-07T21:05:00.000-07:00

I've been working with the renders of Roy's Revenge for awhile and have come across a problem with my outdoor scenes. In the scene, Princess, Roy's next door neighbor's dog is white standing in some green grass and a big blue sky. But there's a problem, when it renders with Final Gather it looks like this:

As you can see, the green from the grass and the blue from the sky bleed onto Princess and makes her look ugly. Why does it do it? It's the way Final Gathering works, it makes everything a light source, so the giant green ground the little dog is standing on becomes a giant green light.

How do you stop this? Well, I figured out how.
First create a giant grid to cover the ground and set it a couple of inches (in terms of the scene scale) above the ground. In my scene, it's just up to Princess's ankles. Then give it a new material, Pong, and make the Colour, Ambient and Specular all white.
Once that's done, go to the Selection Button on the Right and select Visibility. In the Rendering portion of the Visibility deselect Shadow Caster and Receiver since we don't want this thing to give off shadows. Then turn off the Primary of the Ray Visibility off. Here's the result:

Ta-da! Fixed! Princess is no longer greenish! I also do it with the sky so Roy doesn't turn up blue.

RR: ReRendering Perfection

2007-09-06T19:06:00.000-07:00

I'm being a bit of a perfectionist lately. If there's something wrong with a scene that doesn't take too long to render, then I'll fix the problem and rerender it. For an example, see the picture. The subsurface scattering on Roy's hand looks absolutely stunning, but the desk behind hit has a massive specular problem and the background has a huge line that makes it look ugly! Also, once in the shadow of the screen, Roy's hand turned grey and that would be weird. So I corrected the lighting problem, fixed the spec and gave the background an image. It looks much better now.

In other Roy's Revenge news, I'll be recording my lines for Roy tomorrow along with Kristen Lucas voicing Princess along with Amber Smith as my official Audio Engineer. I'll add some links to their blog/website on the side bar once I get them.

Stay tuned for more shots! Also, at the top of the blog you can see a Render Status about Roy's Revenge. I'll remove it once all finishede.

RR: The Staircase

2007-08-31T23:27:00.001-07:00

Remember that animation I posted that had Roy going up the stairs and turning his machine on? Well here's his poorly crafted staircase, textured. I'm not entirely sure at the moment of how to shoot this scene, but I just wanted to show off the staircase. It really looks unstable now, and partly painted. Funny thing about Roy is that he can build amazing things out of plastic and metal, but when it comes to wood and carpentry skills, he lacks big time. Time to model a paint can for it. Just extra little details.

Went swimming in the lake today, possibily the last time this year. Got to go swimming 4 times this year. Kind of sad, but better then only once like 2 years ago!

Smoke, Mirrors, Grass... Fire...?

2007-08-29T23:08:00.000-07:00

Ok, Rendering has been taking place! I've done a few little scenes and so far so good. I've been playing around with some particles and hair for the effects as well as volumetric lighting. My short is beginning to look pretty damn sexy looking *wink*. But there has been set backs. Right now a scene is still rendering and will take another 20 hours or so. But it has a lot of stuff in it, probably the most technical shot, looks pretty good. Another set back is the picture to the right. In this that little white thing is Princess, Roy's next door neighbour's dog. I thought the grass looked like grids and not like real grass, so I'm re-rendering it now and it looks a heck of a lot better!

In personal news, I got Metroid Prime 3 and I'm loving it. It's only my 4th game for my Wii. I also have Wii Sports, Zelda: Twilight Princess and Excite Truck. But looks like I'll be getting a lot more soon with Mario Galaxy, Fire Emblem: Goddess of Dawn, Smash Bros Brawl and Puzzle Quest: Challenge Of The Warlords all coming out within the next 3 months. Must get job in the animation field to feed my video game addiction....

I Present To You... The First Rendered Shot!

2007-08-26T17:38:00.001-07:00

Well, rendering is finally on it's way. I have rendered out two quick scenes. One where a drawer opens and a chalkboard full of items. These two scenes are very small, but play a part in the short. I'll be compiling what I have so far and then make adjustments from there. Animation is looking a lot smoother and has a lot more feeling to it now. I'll be e-mailing my sound engineer later tonight to see if I can make an appointment to do some vocals so I can properly sync them to the animation. That's probaboly why it's one of the first things they do in big productions. Things are getting pretty close to the end, so stay tuned!

CATO Film Fest Reviews (exclaimnation point)

2007-08-20T01:21:00.000-07:00

I know the previous entry said "Tomorrow" but it's 1 in the morning, so it's still technically Sunday to me.
Ok the Centre For Arts and Technology Film Festival '07 happened on Thursday and had the theme of Golden Age of Hollywood. A few people dressed up, including me. Hopefully they push the theme more next year. Anyway, this year Animation didn't have much of a showing. But thankfully the Film Department really stood up and offered some much better films this year then last year. Improved sound, better locations and away from the school locations. But needless to say not everything was golden. Here are my reviews and ratings. Needless to say they go from A to B to C then F for Failure. A, B and C have + ( ) and - for A+, A and A- grades.

Maple Flavored Irony - A good way to open up the Film Festival. A light hearted slap stick piece. Would have worked better as an animation. A-
Old Time Calamity - The first in several "silent" black and white shorts. This one had 2 jail birds getting free and trying to get away from the cops. Nice to see some locations away from the school. B+
Nathan Hibberd Reel - My classmate Nathan's demo reel, very well done, view it yourself, see the link on the side. No Rating.
Being Ivan Sampson - A complete rip off of Being John Malkovich without a proper ending or reason. Think of it as Being John Malkovich in slightly more then 4 minutes. C
The Neighbour Below - Anpro project that Nathan and several other of my classmates worked on. Due to the Okanagan Film Fest, production values on this short got hurt along the way, but was still good. B
75 Years of BC Wine - An interesting history piece of wine from around the region. Interviews felt a little cut off. B-
The New Janitor - An attempt at some Charlie Chaplin, but fail. Most of the slapstick felt flat and didn't quite have the timing that the master had. Also the film quality was very over exposed. C
Another Whiskey Jack - An attempt at using filters to make the production look like a 3D or comic book piece. Looked extremely grainy and bad, but nice to see it tried. C
Unfolded - Nathan's short he submitted to EA Reveal. I critiqued him along the way and helped it shape form. You can view it on his blog. A
The Black Baron - Another black and white one, this one was very silly and had a very good ending. B
Archie Meets the Punisher - Script didn't work, no real ending, colours were messed up during the Archie scene. Why? F
Impostertute - A very silly short, Ivan must have been very brave to be in this film. Very simple, but funny. A+

Mature Films:

Prey - Good to see some locations other then the school being used. This one was shot in Mission Creek park, just a few blocks away from where I am now. The story was pretty simple, but the thing that got me was the must and camera. The music was too simple and didn't add to the scene. The camera was shaky and in several scenes the focus was off the main character and too blurry. But I give the main actor credit for going down the river... must have been cold. B-
Cannabis Zombies of Death - I was hoping for something so bad it was good. It wasn't quite that. It was bad, but felt too long. C+
InterventioN - Good to see it on a bigger screen instead of the Youtube player (see it HERE). I have made my comments to the director on his youtube page. Acting needed to be pushed a bit more, few sound problems and brightness contrast for the black and white scenes needed to be pushed since they looked very grey. A
Collaboration - Epic failure. Two bad shorts combined to make an even worse one. Horrible location for the part with two guys and mediocre dialog. It was like pulling teeth. F
Highjinx - By far the funniest black and white short. Classic gags and puppets and more! Very well done. A+
Thin Lines Between Us + Nick of Trades - Thin Lines Between Us and Nick of Trades kind of blended into each other. Each had a guy who got beat up because of drugs for some reason or another. Seriously... why drugs? Dialogue was flawed in both. They both left me rolling my eyes and checking my program to see what was next. C- for both
Wes Falls - When I saw this was a 17 and a half minute long film I thought, "Oh no... please not another bad drug movie.." Sure enough this one didn't disappoint like the previous two films. It was well shot and made the school lunch room look like a reasonable set. Music needs a bit of a hand, but it wasn't too bad. Good acting. B+

Retrosepective:

Consummatum Est - Really sad feeling, but didn't feel complete to me. B
Coffeeeee - I've seen this a hundred times and I still smile at the peeper shaker. Hopefully my short will be the 3D equivalent of Coffeeeee (awards and praise wise).

Setting Up The Sets

2007-08-18T17:00:00.000-07:00

Well, Roy's Revenge trailer is online and I'm prepping the rest of the short. The trailer contains no footage from the short. I'm currently texturing and getting render settings correct. Thankfully, I only have 2 sets, one indoor, and one outdoor. There has been several weird issues that have popped up, such as in the scene where Roy screws the light bulb into the machine. In that scene his eyes would turn complete black, reflect the noicon.pic and the render time would shoot through the roof. Thankfully I found the reason behind it and now the scene is good. Having to find the right textures to fit Roy's Revenge is a bit tricky, but it's very fun. I also got some help from Asinine Animation, fellow students who donated their house from their short. It would be funny if Roy from my short and Willy from their short were neighbours. Anyway, Enjoy the screen shot of the Machine's keyboard and Roy's hand.

I'll be posting my reviews of the films shown at the Centre For Arts and Technology Film Festival tomorrow.

Roy's Revenge Trailer

2007-08-17T12:35:00.000-07:00

Ta-da! Nearly out of nowhere comes a trailer for my upcoming short. James Hamilton requested something of mine for the 5th annual Centre For Arts and Technology Film Festival.... but it was rejected. Their lost. Now you can enjoy the 45 seconds of awesome that is the Roy's Revenge trailer. Enjoy:

The Open Door

2007-08-12T22:26:00.000-07:00

Grad was a blast! It was great seeing some friends again and once again congrats to Ian. Anyway a nearly 3 year journey has come to an end, and the next one is coming up quickly (depending on how you look at it). I'm texturing and doing some render tests for my short, Roy's Revenge. I thought ahead and only have to texture two locations. Since the short happens in Roy's basement and outside his house. Just because I'm an animator doesn't mean that the short can't shine. When the renders were going for my entry into the Centre For Arts and Technology Film Festival (August 16th), Gord and Chris Quigley saw the renders as it was going and they thought the renders looked pretty pro. Here's a shot from the short, it's the basement door:

Grad is Tomorrow!

2007-08-09T20:40:00.001-07:00

My graduation ceremony from the Centre For Arts and Technology is tomorrow evening. I'm getting excited. Not as excited as my high school grad, but I haven't spent that long going to the Centre. While I was working on my entry for the film festival last night I was asked to supply some things for the Grad Reel, then they came and ask me to do an opener. I quickly formulated an idea and went to work on it. I delivered the opener to them and they liked it. And now I'm editing together my entry for the film festival. I found some awesome music from Freeplaymusic.com and I'll give them proper credit on here.

In more audio related news, I have found an audio student to do sound for Roy's Revenge! I'm so excited! Here's a little teaser image from Roy's Revenge:

RR: Centre for Arts and Technology Kelowna Short Film Festival

2007-08-02T21:53:00.000-07:00

Rejoice! The first public showing of Roy's Revenge will be at the Centre for Arts and Technology Kelowna's 5th Annual Student Film Festival. Sadly it won't be the short, but will be something else.... Something smaller... I'll be devoting the next couple of days to this project, so stay tuned for teases!
The Film Festival will be
Held at: Rotary Centre for the Arts, Kelowna.
On: Thursday, August 16th
At: 6:30 PM show starts at 7:00 PM
Price: Free

I'll be posting my surprise entry on the day of the festival, so if you don't go you can view it here. Or you can watch it here again and again and again and again...

RR: Walk Down Stairs Revisited

2007-07-25T20:00:00.000-07:00

As promised, I reworked this scene. I added more character to Roy's walk, made the actual stairs smaller, changed the object he holds into a box, and a ton of other things. Now that the main animation is out of the way it's time to texture! Woot! Keep commenting on my animations here and on the digimill.net forum. I'll be posting render tests on here after my island adventure (aka my cousin's wedding on Vancouver Island). Back on Monday, July 30th.

RR: Machine Go Rebuild

2007-07-20T01:05:00.000-07:00

Here we go, another take on the machine go piece. As you can see, stairs! I'm 100% about the camera angle, tell me what you think!

Hey, Other Things Also Get Updated!

2007-07-17T02:30:00.000-07:00

Just a reminder, that my blog entries called Smashing Thoughts: Smash Brothers Brawl Predictions and Virtual Console Wish List are being updated as more news comes from Smashbros.com and as games get released for the Wii Virtual Console. Check them out.

Problem Adverted!

2007-07-16T20:43:00.000-07:00

I'm back in animation mode! Howrah! Ok, I touched up a piece which I'll be posting in a few days. But at the moment I'm working on THIS ANIMATION In this scene Roy climbed up into the machine helm, but at the end of the short he walks off the machine and falls. (see below image)

Think about that, wouldn't he turn to climb down the ladder instead? Instead of doing two ladder climbs I decided to get rid of the ladder climb in the first one and make him run up a rickety staircase he built himself. (see side picture).

Would you like to walk up those stairs? They're still work in progress. I still need to tweak them, add some bent nails sticking out of them, uneven steps, paint can (Tiff suggestion), then texture it. Just something to add some more atmosphere and character to the scene. More on the way! Watch those Crash Without Recovery episodes!

Crash Episode 3

2007-07-15T18:29:00.000-07:00

E3 has come and gone and like I said in Crash Episode 2, I'll be representing Nintendo on a Digimill.net Crash Without Recovery Round Table about E3. Well, Curtis, Kyle and I got together on Thursday and recorded our reactions to the show and now it's online. Check it out:

Part 1: Microsoft

Part 2: Nintendo

Part 3: Sony

Part 4: E3 and the Industry

An Oldie Animation

2007-06-29T00:31:00.001-07:00

Things are slow around here because production on my short is currently halted because I do not have access to a computer that can run SoftImage XSI smoothly. So here's a little something to keep you entertained, a ball bounce animation I did awhile ago. Enjoy:

If you are wondering, yes, I'm bored to tears. *Le sigh* At least I'm catching up with my movies, already watched Pom Poko, Memories, Art School Confidential and Shooter. I recommend all except the last one...

My Mom Went To New York and Brought Back Cool Things

2007-06-23T23:20:00.000-07:00

My Mom, sister, aunty and grandma went to New York on the 9th to the 16th and had a blast. It's been my grandma's dream to visit the big apple and she finally filled it. The four of them visited the major tourist traps, Grand Central Station, Central Park, the Empire State Building, Broadway and several other places. My sister took a whopping 1,111 pictures!!! I'd probably be the same if I went, good thing she's digital.
Anyway, one of the places the four went is the Nintendo World Store in Rockerfeller Center. There they bought me several gifts, including:

-A Wii-Mote Key chain with light
-GameCube candies
-Zelda Life Shirt
-Zelda's Hero: Link shirt
-Conan O'Brien magnet (from NBC Studios)
-Some more candies

and my favorite: -An Animal Crossing Plushie!!!!

I want to go to New York now..

Crash Without Recovery Episode 2

2007-06-20T19:05:00.000-07:00

I'll be representing Nintendo on a Digimill.net Crash Without Recovery Round Table about E3, the Electronic Entertainment Expo. Due to the fact that it's invite only, we'll be talking about the news. Should be fun, here's my E3 Predictions:

Bunny High Res

2007-06-19T00:00:00.001-07:00

Here's my Z-Brush Rabbit in glorious high res. Beware, he'll eat your soul. Yeah.

He was suppose to be low res with a normal map to bring out all the pieces, but I made his low res too low so I couldn't show all the details. Oh well, live and learn. I'll try it again after the break and then animate him.

Even More Rabbits...........

2007-06-16T22:33:00.000-07:00

Seriously... Rabbits and Me.

Anyway, remember my rabbit in THIS ENTRY? Well, I'm making him in 3D with SoftImage XSI (usual program I use from my 3d work) and Z-Brush. Here's a screen shot of what I have so far...

What Is With Me And Rabbits?

2007-06-15T01:59:00.000-07:00

Seriously?

Animal Within by ~Chmilar on deviant ART

More animation coming soon, running out of time..

Crash Without Recovery: Episode 1: Smash Brothers Brawl

2007-06-11T02:29:00.000-07:00

Ok, despite having a huge workload, I decided to host, edit and post a vidcast (video podcast) for digimill.net (I'll post it on digimill.net once I get the second episode up) . The first episode features Maria, Roman, Kyle, myself and Luke on camera. I honestly thought it would take 15 minutes, sure enough we ran out of tape at 55 minutes! There's so many good things in there that I just didn't want to edit it down, so I divided it up into several parts.

I'll be posting the parts this week. It was recorded on June 9th, so there might be updates to SmashBros.com , were we right? Time will tell...

Part 1:

Part 2:

Part 3:

Part 4:

Part 5:

Part 6:

Maria's blog

Kyle's blog

Roman's blog

Camera man Luke's blog

What do you think? Talk back about this vidcast over at Digimill.net's Forum, Click HERE.

RR: A Look at the Newly Improved Star of the Show

2007-06-08T00:22:00.000-07:00

Here's a render of Roy again in a scene I'm working on. I just love the pose and expression. Leave a comment. More animation on it's way.

RR: Laugh and Shock

2007-06-06T23:46:00.000-07:00

Got my instructor to give Roy a retexture job and looks awesome. Sadly I didn't import him as a reference model, so I gotta find a way to update his body without loosing the animation. Graeme gave me some suggestions, but I don't think I did it right, I'll have to get him to show me how to do it properly.
Anyway here's a scene with the improved Roy. In this scene Roy has fired the gun and is doing his victory laugh. Then something happens....
Listen! Listen! Voice acting!

Help Me Help You and Win Me A Wii!

2007-06-05T22:06:00.000-07:00

Ok, I've written 3 tutorials over at Digimill.net and they're pretty well received. My first one on some animation basics got on the front page of XSIBase.com and I want to get there again. All these tutorials of mine are being graded by viewers and I need you to head over to:

XSI Animation Basics and Above 1
Elements of Design Tutorial
Principles of Design Tutorial

and give them 5 star ratings so I can win a Wii. Of course, what's in it for you? Well this is your time to send in questions to thepartyoftea@hotmail.com and I will write another XSI Animation Basics tutorial with some questions sent to me! Win, Win, Win, Right?

So vote for me, send suggestions and check back.

RR: Button Press 2

2007-06-04T21:14:00.000-07:00

Ok, another take on the button press, much like the first, except Roy puts his googles on and the machine fires. He coughs at the end of the animation and the machine fires during the animation, hard to see because of the shaded mode, looks cooler rendered. I'll have to begin rendering soon. Everything is due at the end of the semester, June 22nd.

RR: Machine Go!

2007-05-31T19:01:00.000-07:00

Ok, in this scene Roy's giant machine is ready to go and he is powering it up in his basement and according to his plans, the machine turns on, then the house divides in two then the machine raises up. But by now you should know that Roy doesn't have the best luck. Remember to check the other animations and comment on them as well.

RR: The Big Machine

2007-05-30T23:15:00.000-07:00

I know you've all been drooling in anticipation to see it, the giant machine Roy will use to get his revenge on Princess. I did the base model of the device and Nolan "Number One" Wiebe spiced it up.

Can you spice up machines??

Here's the results, textures are coming soon.

RR: Screwing in the Lightbulb

2007-05-27T20:09:00.000-07:00

With the light bulb in hand, Roy quickly races over and screws it in it's rightful place. Sure enough, it's rightful place is on a giant laser! With the last piece of the puzzle in place, Roy is ready for his revenge!

Yeah, still no sound...

RR: Second Light Bulb Scene

2007-05-25T21:54:00.000-07:00

Another scene from my upcoming short. I'm getting a little nervous with the deadline less then a month away!