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vaguely-concerned · 3 years

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TF x Graves, 2500 words, complete and utter fluff

Stifling another yawn against the back of my hand I glance over at the window, which shows only the flat dark of a moonless night outside, before turning my eyes back to the line of T.F.’s naked back.

I’m already undressed and perched on the side of the bed, watching as T.F. is still in the middle of his nightly ritual of hanging or folding his fine clothes up all properly and neatly, lest they, I don’t know, unduly crease somewhere they ain’t meant to or somethin’. Listen, I keep my clothes in a pile on the floor by the side of the bed, right next to the shotgun, both within easy reach in the case of a middle-of-the-night emergency skipping of town. Our priorities in these matters don’t really intersect much, but to each his own and so on.

I don’t know why I’m waiting for him to come to bed to lie down myself, exactly — my eyes are already making a spirited attempt at staying shut on me whenever I blink, I’m pretty sure I’d be out and snoring in about three seconds once I got settled — but my skin has that thin restless thrum all through it that I know from experience won’t be satisfied until he’s settled into place against me and besides, the view is nothin’ to sneeze at in the meantime. He stands there shirtless, belt unbuckled and hanging loose around his narrow hips, though the fastenings of his trousers are still done up. In the light of the oil lamp across the room he’s in a rare state of relaxed unselfconscious disarray, his hair grown out long enough again that it spills over his shoulders and down his back while he fastidiously fastens the cufflinks back into place on the empty shirt so they’ll be easy to find in the morning. As he finishes up with the cufflinks he sings to himself under his breath, a good-natured jaunty little tune I vaguely remember the Brick would sometimes break out once you got a couple of drinks in him.

The hum under my skin grows higher and keener.

Stretching an arm out I hook my fingers into one of his belt loops and gently pull him in by it towards the side of the bed, until he’s standing between my legs. It prompts a half-bemused noise from him, but he goes along easily — when I wrap my arms around his waist and rest my forehead against his belly he seems to catch on, though, a sound of amusement vibrating through his chest.

He slides his hand to the back of my neck, twining his fingers into the short hair there, thumb trailing back and forth along the hairline.

T.F.’s too damned scrawny to have much in the way of padding anywhere, but there’s the warm body softness to him here nevertheless, the sweet yield and shift of a living thing whose pliancy belies the supple strength beneath. I rest my cheek against the flat of his stomach and sigh, moving my hand at the small of his back in slow caressing circles.

“Come to bed already,” I murmur, too sleep-softened along the edges to worry overmuch about makin’ sense.

He chuckles, fingers stroking through my hair. “Well, I was on my way, but then I was waylaid by some deplorable fellow in the process. Hell of a thing.”

I grin and turn my face up to him, so that my chin is resting against his belly and my lips brush his skin when I talk. “Huh. Sounds like a real shady character. You want a trustworthy sorta guy to escort you safely the rest of the way?”

“With such dangerous reprobates skulking around in the area, that’s probably for the best,” T.F. nods somberly, fond amusement deepening his voice. He runs his thumb down the bridge of my nose. “Could I afford to hire the services of a strapping upstanding gentleman like yourself, though?”

I make a nonchalant sound in my nose, squeezing him closer against me for a moment. “Eh, don’t worry ‘bout it, this one’s on the house.”

His thumb drifts down to rest at the upturned corner of my mouth as he grins back at me. “Hey, looks like it’s my lucky day.”

I kiss his stomach and lean back enough so I can start in on the fastenings of his trousers — not with any sort of heat behind it, there’s no hint of sex in the air, but in a weird way this is equally satisfying, the everyday-textured contentment of being close without any particular purpose, being the one to slowly render him naked in front of me for no other reason than that he lets me, his hands still smoothing patiently through my hair while I work.

Once I’ve got all the buttons sorted I run my thumb along the sharp edge of his hip bone until I can tuck it into the waist of his trousers and use it to tug them down. We get them about half-way down his thighs like that before we have to pause for him to shimmy out of them the rest of the way on his own, his hand resting on my shoulder for balance as he does the traditional one-legged hop to extricate his foot. Serves him right for only ever wearing pants that might as well have been painted onto him. I mean, not that I’m complainin’, mind.

“Whoa!” he says, laughing as he almost overbalances at the last hurdle, but my hand shoots out to steady him by the hip before too much disaster can be wrought. “Well, not the smoothest strip tease I’ve ever pulled off, sorry about the inconvenience.”

I nose at the newly revealed crease of his hip over the edge of his underwear. “Eh, that’s okay, if I actually wanted a proper show I’d just suggest a round of strip poker again and sit back and watch while you lose.”

“Oh, that’s a strange yet beautiful dream world you’ve made up for yourself there, Malcolm. It’s touching, really, the things the mind will do to protect itself from the truth. Positively — aah!”

T.F. jumps as I draw some of the skin of his hip between my lips and use them to nip sharply at it. His startled yelp turns into a snigger as I let go, possibly ruining the castigating effects somewhat when I brush my lips soothingly over that spot right after.

“Let that be a lesson to ya,” I say sternly.

“A lesson on what, that your mom was apparently half turtle?”

I grunt, still trailing soft kisses over his skin. “That judge in Piltover was right back then, you are an incorrigible menace to all decent and right-thinking people everywhere.”

“First of all, that might be the nicest thing you’ve ever said to me, Malcolm, thank you. Two, including yourself among the ‘decent and right-thinking’ feels like the invention of some fresh new form of fraud by way of imposture unfolding before my eyes, and it’s an honour. And third, that seems to me to be some very selective memory you have there, considering His Honour Judge Highton had some even more colourful words for you after you blew up the entire north wall of the court building breakin’ me out.”

“He might’ve been given to wearing a damn silly mop on his head, but you couldn’t fault him on his vocabulary,” I concede. Before that whole incident I’d honestly thought the wigs were some sort of practical joke the Pilties would play on gullible outsiders, but as it turns out no, if you get sent to jail in the twin cities they add the indignity of makin’ someone wearing a dead badger on their head break the bad news to you. It’s a strange ol’ world out there, alright. In Bilgewater, where people are much more sensible, the justice system basically boils down to the bounty board, or — if you’ve really managed to make a nuisance of yourself — a bunch of captains may call a temporary ceasefire with each other and go get your ass together. I’ve found that the risk of getting on the bad end of an unfair trial is about the same in both places, though of course the Bilgewater one tends to be harder to come back from if carried out to its fullest. I consider myself a bit of an expert in these things.

T.F. makes a thoughtful sound. “To be fair I don’t think anyone had ever given him cause or inspiration for profanity like you did.”

“Aw. That’s the nicest thing you’ve ever said to me.”

He leans down and kisses the top of my head before he straightens for long enough to work his second foot free as well, standing there in just the sleek silky underpants he somehow seems to have an endless fresh supply of wherever we go. (My money’s on some sinister underground ring of lingerie-oriented tailors across south-eastern Valoran, for the record; when it comes to secret societies the Noxians just can’t help themselves.)

“I do my best. Hang on just one moment, I’ll be right back,” he says and ruffles my hair before he turns around, which I would complain about except that the view is, as previously mentioned, impeccable, and I’m sleepy enough to be magnanimous.

After meticulously folding his trousers and leaving them with the rest of his clothes, T.F. moves over to the table across the room and extinguishes the oil lamp, then whistles under his breath as he produces a card from somewhere — he does this, seemingly from thin air and no matter how little he’s wearing; I prefer not to speculate too much about how, exactly — and lets a little magic into it so it gives off a low glow, only enough to light his way the short walk back across the room, ‘cause in T.F.’s world the stubbing of toes and smacking of shins against unexpected furniture in the dark is somethin’ that happens to other people. That probably says some things about him I’m not ready to go puzzlin’ out at this time of night, and that he wouldn’t want to have anyone go puzzlin’ about too hard in the first place anyway.

When I hold out my hand for him in the dark he smiles and takes it, twining our fingers together, and I use the hold to tug him in and deposit him, in a neat controlled wrestler’s roll held close against me as I lay down, to his side of the bed. He laughs again at that, a surprised delighted sound that edges dangerously close to a giggle but hey, I ain’t no snitch, so who’s gonna testify against him, huh?

The card ends up on the far side of his pillow after the tumble, still giving off a glow, enough to illuminate the bed and lend the shadows around it some warmth. It makes the bed seem a small cozy island, the rest of the world rendered a not-unfriendly ocean of darkness around it.

T.F. looks at me like the world’s most contented castaway, bourgeoning crow’s feet punctuating his smile on either side and fingers still linked with mine. His hair is mussed from the meandering fall onto the bed. If I were only fractionally less about five seconds away from fallin’ asleep, my body might start to get ideas about it. Well, tomorrow is always another day.

With the back of my free hand I brush some of his hair away from his brow, and he cranes into it like a well-pleased cat. Even with the blankets tangled around our feet and the not-quite-right positions we’ve ended up in, having tumbled into place rather than settled ourselves with purpose, everything feels warm and loose and comfortable, like I could fall asleep like this even with the decidedly odd angle my arm is at.

As if sensing that the drowsiness is about to claim me for real, T.F. brings our linked hands up to his face so he can press his lips to my scarred knuckles before he lets go, then reaches to pull the covers over us, taking a moment to tuck the blanket around my shoulder properly before snuggling under it himself, hooking his leg over my thigh as he settles into place. I shift until we fit together, the familiarity of how to rest against each other just right comfortable like an old and well-loved piece of clothing. On a sigh he rests our foreheads together, craning forward the tiny amount needed to brush our mouths together and humming contentedly when I meet him there. It’s a slow kiss, but it lingers, a dry sweet press of lips like one last spark sending the day off down into the gently drifting murk of sleep that’s about to claim me for a few hours.

When it ends — I don’t think either of us was really the first to pull back, at some point the kiss simply, in the way of snowflakes on tongues, melted into something different and less defined with the warmth — there’s a moment when my eyes can still fight against slipping shut. It’s weird, the way you can look at someone every day for years and still not feel like you’ve had your fill. T.F.’s sharp narrow face, his high pointy little cheekbones and mouth still curved with a smile as he watches me back — there’s something to knowing I’m gonna see all that again tomorrow morning that all the damn money on Runeterra couldn’t get you. And take it from me, from what I’ve seen of the world there ain’t a lot of things in this life enough money won’t buy. Stumbling across one of them long before we even knew what we had, by a stroke of little more’n dumb fucking luck… sometimes it feels like the biggest heist we ever pulled.

“Hey, Tobias?” I say, brushing the tip of my nose against his as my eyelids finally give up both the battle and the war and slide closed.

“Hmmm?” he says, cheerfully drowsy as well.

“I’ll see you tomorrow,” I murmur, because I can’t think of any damn happier thing in the world to say to him.

He wraps his arms around me, his hand stroking meanderingly up and down the scar-crossed span of my back, fingers trailing over my skin with the perfect amount of firmness because he’s taken the time to learn exactly how much pressure it takes to make it comforting. As sleep starts pulling me under to calmer depths I tuck my head under his chin, so my face is pressed to the line of his throat and to his chest. He smells so nice, all warmly real and well-known like my own breathing.

“Tomorrow,” he agrees on a yawn, nuzzling at the top of my head and tightening his arms around me, just for a moment.

I've been trying to write stuff -- literally just anything, no matter how meandering and nonsensical -- to try to break out of a writer's block; it's not really working so far but at least I've got SOMETHING tangible to show for it at the end of the day, so, you know, uh... partial success I guess?? haha

The idea of T.F. having a judge somewhere out there who considers him the One True Nemesis of his career, J. Jonah Jameson style, even though T.F. barely even remembers his name, came from a wonderful conversation with @inversway, and the idea makes me laugh so hard every time I think about it.

ETA: Also put this on AO3, so I have somewhere to put these ficlets that isn't just tumblr! I'm grimly clinging on to this blue hellsite like a obstinate barnacle to the hull of the Titanic, but I do realize it's not the best place to archive uh anything lol

#tf x graves #twistedgraves #league of legends #my writing #been trying to live the philosophy 'it doesn't have to be good; it just has to be SOMETHING'#and from that I have at least learned that I don't necessarily think perfectionism was the main problem anyway lol #every little insight helps I suppose

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harry5232860 · 4 years

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Week 8

Andrew Simpson Video -

The model making process is shown in the video as an invaluable way to explore multiple different avenues of product development. Andrew mentions how different ways of modelling can be used to test different factors, for example 3d printed models may show size, scale and the feel in hand in regard to shape but are not accurate for weight and grip. 3d models are however very easy to do as they just require the 3d computer model. This means that model making allows for such an array of different testing when done thoroughly through different methods.

The mention of low fidelity vs high fidelity is the difference between investment into the model. For general shape a quick model from foam may be able to be used as weight and texture may not matter, making it low fidelity. This would be good for quick checks of ideas and drawings. A high fidelity model would be far more developed and usually later on in the design process, it requires more investment but would give more detailed feedback for things such as grip, weight and true hand feel in regard to the razor handle.

Image 0.5

I was lucky to have a symmetrical (in most senses) and square bottle. This meant to take the photos I used my cutting mat and lined up the bottle along the lines and used a grid on the camera up which I then also lined up with the cutting mat grid, the bottle sat at the centre point.

For a more complex design a jig likely would have suited best.

Image 0.75 + 1

Although the method of tracing shown in the video seemed to work quite well for that style of bottle, I decided instead to use the canvas as a reference for how to chamfer my corners. All of my chamfers I wanted to be matching around the bulk of the bottle so I only had to use the top view and ended up with a 10mm fillet which I then extruded up to match the full height.

I then filleted the remaining edges and used the second canvas I had as a check. Being symmetrical I realised the third view would have done the same job as this one.

I enjoyed this process of matching the design to the canvas in a 3d program as you can both tweak it in a reductive way as well as a constructive way, something that is much harder in the physical realm of model making.

Image 2

I created my cut-out for the bottle by making it as a separate piece and putting it in place and used the combine tool to cut it out of the body of the bottle. The canvases again came in helpful here as a reference however I used the measurements off my physical model also. Its helpful having different references to use as the static canvases are quick and easy to either show, hide and trace but the physical model allows for measurements to be taken and plotted straight into fusion.

I also added a slight chamfer to an edge which I had in my initial drawings but was too fine to do well on the foam model.

Image 3

I added an extruded circle to create a cylindrical neck and followed the instructions plus some extra googling on forums to create a thread, a task that would be very time consuming for a physical model.

Image 4

The lid I created did not match the week 5 lid as I wanted to take measurements from my foam model and create a lid with some subtle chamfers to make it slightly more separated from the bottle. I used the hole tool and thread tool to create a matching female thread. Whilst research further on creating matching threads I came across many mentions of providing tolerances also, something that many videos didn’t elaborate on but something id like to further explore.

Image 5 + 6 + 7

The final model im quite happy with. After I shelled the model (near impossible to do with a foam model), I rendered it in a translucent brown plastic with a clear window as I had more envisioned it originally. I also included a version in solid white plastic both with and without the lid as well as a section view to show it off in different ways.

I enjoyed this 3d modelling process as it allows for flexibility. Being able to try something out and simply go back or delete a part if it doesn’t turn out is something that I find relaxing in comparison to physical reduction methods. Having the physical model on hand however was extremely helpful as a reference as well as of course having it in the program as a canvas. It did have frustrating moments but the overall process was somewhat of a relaxing puzzle.

There were two main negatives I had with this process. The first being that the program can only be as good as I am at using it. As im quite new to 3d modelling and to this program it meant my speed at it was slowed and my ability to even search or ask questions is limited by the knowledge I have and by my ability to describe an issue. The other thing I found which will likely not be an issue as I progress is that when I created the clear window for the render it left some clear artefacts showing through from certain angles. The only way I could find to fix this was really to start the model again and create the window as a separate component. Something which is possible but quite time consuming. It also only became an issue in the final stages and so it made me realise that for this process we are at the mercy of the technologies capabilities also, some of these limits are hard to notice until too late in the process.

Overall im looking forward to progressing my skills at 3d modelling both the physical forms and digital.

**forgot 2 screenshots hence 0.5 and 0.75**

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feaftlikeabeaft · 4 years

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hey so uh demon’s souls remake on ps5 huh

what a concept

I was typing this as a comment on a YouTube video comparing the original to shots from the trailer for the remake, but I thought why not write it up as a blog post so I can inflict my nerdiness more directly on strangers on the internet and even a handful of friends? Sounds like a great idea to me.

Spoilers: I am cautiously hopeful that the trailer isn’t exactly what the final game looks like. I'm not fully sold on the look of the remake. Obviously things can change between then and now but it seems like they've completely changed the colour palette of the original. The original had this grimy yellow palette while the new one has a soft blue one. It remains to be seen what the full game really looks like but so far the amount I like vs what I dislike is pretty much 50/50 at this point. I hope they only improve from here.

I’ll be writing this as a commentary to this video here with timestamps, so click here to follow along. Credit to the creator of the video, ElAnalistaDeBits, for compiling these images.

0:17 The opening area looks pretty good imo, they've lost the griminess but they've created an atmosphere reminiscent of the soul-devouring fog mentioned in the opening of the game. Lots of the concept art they used in that opening has this kind of colour palette, so that at least is welcome.

1:03 I also like the corridor of the Boletarian Palace. It looks filthy and abandoned, just like it should be, with more detail that will surely be very immersive in the final game.

1:46 The Tower Knight, however, I am less a fan of. It looks like it's brand new, as do the flags and banners on the battlements. I don't think this is the vibe that makes the most sense for this scene, as the palace is meant to have fallen to the demons already. The colours are simple and pop out cartoonishly which gives the area the look of a toy set.

2:31 I also really dislike Flamelurker's new design. With those big horns it looks like a generic demon, like the Iron King (from Dark Souls II)'s little brother. The original had those weird stretched and broken lips that at least gave it a more unique face. I really hope they go back to the original design.

2:50 The shots we get from the opening cinematic I also think miss the mark. The lighting is a bit generic and don't convey the atmosphere of the original that felt like you were looking into a faded old memory. This one's just too crisp and pretty. Hopefully in the final version they put some filters over it and sort the lighting out so it doesn't look quite so artificial.

Also, the hanging corpse put on some weight! Good for them, they looked kind of sickly before. Sadly, their newfound health somewhat takes away from the creepiness of the scene and doesn’t sell the idea that this person was killed by having their soul sucked out of their body. It looks more like they were simply murdered via mundane means like tooth or claw which is less evocative.

4:39 The Storm King, on the other hand, looks awesome. I love the weather effects selling it as a truly magnificent and powerful being.

5:05 The Vanguard looks ok. Something about the design is less scary to me. I think it's in the eyes and the texture of the skin, it's a little generic. Somehow being less goofy also make it less unsettling. Seeing the demon on the left spooks me, while the one on the right doesn’t really evoke much in me emotionally because I’ve seen monsters like it a million times before.

5:49 The Boletarian Palace (I think?) looks pretty good, it's definitely a different vibe from the original but not in a bad way. I think the team must have taken inspiration from the idea of the blue fog in the original concept art.

7:13 I strongly dislike the way they've remastered the Dragon God's roar. It looks really boring to me while the original packs so much creepiness and fear. The way the teeth extend and rattle with the DG's roar in the original is both awesome and scary, while the new one goes over the top with the glowing eyes and mouth, plus the camera angle makes the DG look small somehow.

7:54 The scythe-wielding enemy and the environment its in looks good, although I'm not a fan of the change to green glow over white. I’m also sad that they dropped the spooky glowing eyes. Although they were a little goofy, they were also unsettling and did their job of conveying some intelligence behind this being. The new one seems a little soulless, nopunintendo.

8:25 The comparison of the skeleton enemy here is misleading as one is a pre-rendered cutscene and the other is seemingly in a moment of actual gameplay. Still, from what I can see it looks good.

9:04 The gargoyles look... fine. They've swapped the weird shrunken flesh of the originals for ornate stone which does make sense for them since they're gargoyles, but it makes them look less creepy and monstrous. The Player Character also looks less convincingly shocked than the original. The original is like “woah, what the fuck!?” while the new one is like “hmmm this seems a little suspect”.

And that’s all I have to say on that! Overall I have mixed feelings but I also cautious optimism that they’ll take the game in a new direction while remaining faithful to the original. I think what they’ve going for is a stronger adherence to the original concept art which could be neat. The remake could end up being what Fromsoft wanted to make back in 2009 but couldn’t due to the limitations of technology of the time. If so, I’m sure the remake will have something for new players and veterans alike! Hopefully they don’t go too far in scrubbing the game’s environments of the grime, I think anyone whose played Demon’s Souls, Dark Souls, or Bloodborne will be able to tell you that a nice layer of grime really sells the atmosphere that Fromsoft like to portray.

#demon's souls #demon's souls remake #demon's souls remaster #my thoughts #i won't be buying a PS5 just for DeSR but i do hope enough good games come out on it to warrant the purchase so i can play it at some point

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charlotteloveandfilm-blog · 4 years

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If Beale Street Could Talk

Barry Jenkins’ If Beale Street Could Talk (2018) is one of the most stunning and heartbreaking movies I have seen in a long time. I was struck by how well it tied in with a lot of the big concepts we have been talking about thus far in the course, most clearly with the ideas of Platonic love and the ladder of love. The film is explicitly concerned with physical love and how sex factors into a relationship.

Tish, in her narration as well as in her normal dialogue, talks about the connection that she and Fonny share—both emotional and physical. Early on, she talks about how they had bathed together as children, how she had “dumped water over Fonny’s head.” This image is so interesting to me because it calls up the concept of baptism. Baptism is an act of purification and it often accompanies name-giving when performed on children. It is as though Tish purified Fonny in that moment as kids, just as she does now. She spends the film trying to clear Fonny’s name. It is also, obviously, a religious ceremony. The sharing of this religious moment between them points to Tish’s feelings of emotional connection to Fonny—a connection far more profound than the physical. She goes on to say “I don’t remember that we had any curiosity concerning each other’s bodies. Fonny loved me too much. And that meant that there had never been any occasion for shame between us.” Their emotional connection is not only more profound than their physical connection, it also precedes it. We live in a world in which the opposite is often true, and even in the ladder of love, it is the love of beautiful bodies that comes first. For these two, they start at the top of the ladder. This is reinforced by the idea that Fonny loved her too much to be curious about her body—as though they are already beyond that kind of love. Tish also ties shame to physical love. This is another Biblical reference—Adam and Eve ate from the tree of knowledge and realized they were naked, and they were ashamed. Fonny and Tish are like Adam and Eve before they eat the apple. They are unashamed, but also ignorant. Naïve. I think that continues throughout much of the film. They live in their own perfect world, but when other people invade that world, that is when things start to go wrong. More on this later, I want to talk about all the 4th wall breaks, but first I want to finish talking about the scene at hand.

Tish goes on to say, “We were a part of each other, flesh of each other’s flesh, which we so took for granted that we never thought of the flesh.” This is a clear reference to Aristophanes myth of the origin of love—Tish and Fonny are two halves of a whole. But, they are somewhat divorced from their bodies. They are soulmates. Their love transcends the physical altogether, to the point that they are simply unconcerned with. However, this is not always the case. When they do finally have sex, Tish seems afraid. Fonny consoles her by telling her, “I belong to you.” This is a very interesting inversion of the typical attitude around virginity (and Tish is a virgin before Fonny)—that for a man to have sex with a woman is to take something from her, to possess her in some way. But, in this moment, it is Tish who takes a part of Fonny (which, not to be crude, is a more accurate rendering of what happens during the action of sex, isn’t it?). He later asks her if she likes it when he makes love to her, and she dodges the question. When he presses the issue, she responds, “I just know that I love you.” She does not seem particularly enthused by sex, perhaps because she sees it as unnecessary or secondary to loving Fonny. It is Fonny who is more interested in sex and in the physical generally. After all, he is a sculptor. He communicates through the physical, through objects he can make with his hands. In fact, Tish first knew Fonny was in love with her when he gave her mother and sculpture he had made. Baldwin, in most of his novels, is extremely concerned with sex and how people engage with each other physically. In the article we read this week, “Baldwin and the Occasion of Love” by Christopher Freeburg, Freeburg brings up a quotation from Soren Kierkegaard, “Love’s hidden live is in the innermost being, unfathomable, and then in turn is an unfathomable connectedness with all existence” (191). This is a sort of Platonic take on love: the idea that love eventually extends to all beautiful things, namely the forms. Freeburg claims that “Baldwin fashions a similar vision through a relentless commitment to the individual’s materiality—through nakedness, sex, and a mysterious vulnerability. Baldwin’s version of ‘all existence’ is materialized as the texture of history…” (191). I think Jenkins is extraordinarily true to this Baldwinian view of love in his adaptation. Tish and Fonny are at once ethereal and physical. Fonny, in particular, seems able to access the ethereal via the physical. And, of course, it is crucial that we, the audience are able to access the internal lives of these characters via film, an inherently physical medium.

So! To loop around to what I wanted to talk about earlier: the dozens of times this film breaks the 4th wall. As I mentioned earlier, things go wrong for these characters when other people, situations, circumstance invade their private world—when the serpent enters Eden, as it were. But, we are invading their private world just by watching this movie, and Jenkins wants us to feel that. These characters are constantly talking to the lens (and, by extension, us) during otherwise typical moments of dialogue. This places the audience, quite literally, in the character’s shoes. The first instance of this happens when Tish tells her mother that she is pregnant. We are not made to simply watch Tish as she tells her mother this news. We, too, must look into Tish’s anxious eyes. We, too, are forced to endure her mother’s expectant gaze.

This kind of camera work is an exercise in empathy, but also in voyeurism. It forces us to ask ourselves: what right do we have to bear witness to this story? To these private moments between characters? Another example that stands out to me is when Tish looks into the camera over Fonny’s shoulder while the two have sex. It is extremely uncomfortable, and it also makes us consider why normal sex scenes without 4th wall breaks don’t bother us. Shouldn’t that be just as uncomfortable to watch? But no, it is only when someone looks back at us that we become aware of our position as voyeur. In that way, the movie is emphatically confrontational. It is refusing to sit back and be watched. It watches us back.

To conclude, If Beale Street Could Talk is a movie interested in questions of physicality, spirituality, and intimacy, among many, many other things that I, unfortunately, do not have the time or space to cover. It is always a joy to watch such a rich and carefully constructed film. I will not be forgetting it soon.

#week 5 #if beale street could talk

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sylleboi · 4 years

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𝕮𝖆𝖙𝖈𝖍 𝖚𝖕 | 04/11/19

We began with a brief reminder of why we are doing this assignment in particular and where we all are individually, as well as going over where we should be at this point.

So far we have had just a few hand ins during term 1; Pick & Mix and now also movers & shakers. For Movers & Shakers, we need to hand in the following, with the deadline being Thursday the 14th November - 4 pm:

All work from Pick & Mix, completed; both folder & blog.

Movers & Shakers completed; both folder & blog but also a usb that contains all the files for this brief; this would be things such as gifs or videos of each animation as well as a showreel (mp4 file) + current working sketchbook.

For this brief and briefs to come, there are no exceptions to not be finished with everything before the deadline given. Deadlines are there to replicate workplaces in real life so you can work more professionally.

We also went over the checklists for this brief which includes one for the production file and the blog; making sure that everybody were caught up with understanding everything on these two lists:

For the blogs, it’s important to keep in mind to follow the formation of;

Introduction

Body

Conclusion/Evaluation

It’s also important that we, at this point, know what all the terminology includes and that we have a clear understanding of what all of the terms and keywords mean. Some of the more important process related terms are additive and subtractive animation; these will come up soon so it’s a good idea to have a good understanding as to what these are for future projects, tasks and challenges.

Use the questions that have been given to help articulate the blogs. It’s accessible and there to help review and evaluate all the work we do as we go along through the briefs.

For this whole term, visual language has been the root for everything, main focus. we are right now looking at tone and texture.

Can we quickly define them?

Tone: Contrasts between different colours and shades, it’s the different between light and dark. The relations of these shades that describe tone.

Texture: Texture is tactility. Raised surface.

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Quick task:

Spend five minutes in groups to discuss;

Ways to describe a texture:

Rough, smooth, jagged, silky, soft, hard, spongy, wet, raised texture, sharp, shiny, matt, gritty, solid, liquid, grainy, spiky, fluffy, scaly, pointy, lumpy, chunky, dry, brittle.

Ways to describe a tone:

Light tone, dark tone, medium tones, warm tones, cold tones, dull tones, bight tones, contrast, colour, solid, harsh, soft, concentrated, rendering, juxtaposition, positive & negative space, richness and deepness, shade, viscosity of colour, opacity/translucence/sharpness, opaque, hue, saturation, vibrancy, desaturation, shadows; chiaroscuro.

Materials and mediums you could use in this project?

Wax crayons, watercolour, ink, acrylic paint, graphite, chalk, pencil, graphite stick, foam, paper, pastels, gouache, tissue paper, foil, fabric, plastics, plasticine, cardboard, sandpaper, glitter, sequence, lino printing, oil paint, card, ORE, coloured pencils, markers, pen, string, tape.

We also went over these with the class, adding as many ideas for each point as possible.

Today’s focus and task:

Use your own footage to create a working rotoscope sequence.

I am going to use the video of a swan.

Pick a describing term/terms for both texture and tone.

Texture: Rough yet soft

Tone: Contrast, hue, juxtaposition.

Pick a medium/material/media aiming to reflect the selected texture and tone.

I am going to use ink (brush pen) on paper and let loose.

So, the first thing I did was go onto Photoshop on a mac in the studio to then import the video of the swan into the program. The final number of frames were 46 after removing ever other frame from the initial video. I then printed each of these frames out on A4 paper. After this was done, I could start the drawing process. At this point, I didn’t really know exactly what I wanted to do for this task, but I decided to start the way we started this brief (Muybridge movers); with tracing paper and some ink. I began doing some simple and rather bold lineart with a brush pen. This was time consuming, but it turned out rather successful in the sense that it reads quite clearly what is happening and what the subject is.

At this point I had finished all the frames, making sure to number all of them to keep track. Since I still, at this point, didn’t know exactly where to go with this just yet, I decided to continue by roughly colouring each frame in with the same brush pen.

As I went through, I thought about when we did subtractive animation a few weeks ago, (”Mealt”) and so by taking inspiration from that lesson, I applied what I had learnt then about this process to this animation as well.

So now with every frame outlined and coloured in, what now then? I have now finished with the tone aspect of the task, now it’s time to incorporate texture into it, and I had the perfect idea. The ink lines are quite rough or somewhat harsh, and I wanted to create juxtaposition, so what better way of doing that by using texture opposite to anything rough or harsh? The answer is bubble wrap. It’s great texture and it is soft compared to many other mediums.

So, I took my bubble wrap and began cutting out random shapes of it to then use these to glue onto each frame with a glue stick. This was a tedious process, but fun since it’s nothing like I’ve ever done before.

As I was working, I suddenly realised the potential of this sequence. There is an incredible amount of pollution happening in the world at the moment, and today there are literal islands made out of plastic, floating about in our oceans. Every day, wildlife is affected negatively to this by either getting hurt or dying from it in one way or another.

When I had finished gluing the bubble wrap onto a selection of the frames, it was time to start photographing every frame:

This was my setup. I used the back of my production file to create a solid black background for the pictures. I took all the pictures using my phone; I have learnt from the “Mealt” workshop that this is quite an effective way of doing it instead of scanning in 40+ different frames.

Above are some screenshots of my camera after photographing all the frames. Now it was time for editing them to my own personal liking, which I did on my laptop using “Preview’s editing tools. They are a bit primitive, but for the purpose of this exercise, that will do just fine.

After editing, the final number of frames came to 39, even though the initial was 46. I cut it down a little since I felt some of the frames were unnecessary; something I should have thought about earlier on when choosing which frames to use in the video. I decided to do my animation the same way I did when I did my Mealt animation; so, to do this, I replicated the process from then. That means that the next step would be to import all of the now edited frames into Krita (the program I’m going to use for this). This part is quite tedious but definitely still important to get right to avoid chattering when playing it back in the end. I’m simply just lining up each frame in order to the best of my ability. It was at this part of the process that I decided to invert all the hues of the frames. I did this to replicate how the swan originally is white; also, symbolising how pure the animal is in contrast to the pollution (black background)- and how it takes over.

Here are all of the frames put in order:

Here are the same frames, but with all the hues reversed:

After then exporting all the frames lined up to match each other better, it was time to animate it together. For this (and all my gifs) I use Giphy.com.

Like the Mealt workshop; I copied and reversed a selection of the frames to successfully make the animation loop; also, making it appear as if it’s “breathing” or growing.

Here is the finished rotoscope of the swan:

And here is the original snippet of the video:

With the use of the bubble wrap, it tells the story (which in fact is no story at all, but reality) of how the more plastic we throw out into the ocean, the lesser the population or the animals living in this environment there are. If this keeps going, all life will eventually be gone; (shown by how the bird eventually fades away into nothing) - but if action is taken globally, we can reverse this and start anew; letting wildlife thrive without plastic choking them up.

It is no coincidence that I made the subtractive element happen during the last 10-15 frames as it is meant to replicate how quickly it (plastic and pollution) can kill nature.

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commhunter736 · 3 years

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Luxoflux invites grown-up players back for another game of 'good cop (or) bad cop' in this follow-up to 2003's L.A.-based action-adventure. As in the original True Crime, players take the role of an unorthodox law enforcement officer, and by their actions and in-game choices, determine the character's morality as they play through the story. In True Crime: New York City, the hero is a former gang member named Marcus Reed, who uses his hard-knocks schooling to powerful effect in the gritty underworld of the Big Apple. As in Streets of L.A., New York City missions play out in freely-roamed, GTA3-style environments, stocked with plenty to see and do even when Marcus isn't working towards a specific mission goal. Key characters are voiced by accomplished screen actors, including Christopher Walken, Laurence Fishburne, and Mickey Rourke, with Marcus Reed portrayed by Avery Waddell.

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True Crime NYC is the sequel to True Crime: Streets of LA. It's also attempting a huge bite out of Grand Theft Auto's target audience. It's gritty, realistic (sort of), and meant to bring you right into the seedy underbelly of a New York crime drama. Does it do all this?

Nope, no, nada, sorry, but I digress. The rendering of New York City is incredible. A lot of detail and painstaking care went into making every street and alley look authentic. From Times Square to the depths of Harlem, everything is VERY close to reality. As a tour program this game excels, but I'm betting you're hoping for a lot more than a tour.

Before I get to what's wrong with this game, let me focus on what's right. It's a much shorter list. The graphics are quality, with features drawing from the latest in pixel shading, high polygon count character models and impressive motion capture, topped off with a gorgeous depiction of the big city that leaves a good taste in your mouth. You can spend a fair amount of time enjoying the scenery and getting lost in the mix. Another point for True Crime: the voice acting. They have spared no expense to obtain talent, Laurence Fishburne, Christopher Walken and many others top the list of grade-A voice acting for this game's gritty plot. When I first heard the voice of a mysterious officer bark out orders and explain my next mission in Christopher Walken's creepy cadence, I was very much caught in the moment. On a further note, the audio in this game is not lacking. Sound effects are crisp and believable for the most part, the soundtrack is as varied as you could ever hope for. Bouncing from White Zombie to De La Soul to The Ramones had me guessing that they wanted to avoid the rap-only crowd, though there is a large share of that too.

The plot, in case you're wondering, is you taking the role of Marcus Reed, a down and dirty gangster thug who has embraced the straight and narrow and become a police officer. Although he can still fight and play dirty, he's out to solve a few mysteries and clean up the town. This is mostly achieved by driving around (or by subway, or walking, but, unlike the real NYC, driving is preferable) and catching calls on the radio for random crimes. There is an interesting amount of variety in the crimes, but you soon reach the end of the cycle and bust your 34th counterfeit syndicate and your 23rd serial rapist and the regular missions soon get old. There is a larger plot to follow, however, and it is slightly more interesting. You follow a series of clues and leads to interrogate increasingly more important thugs. The interrogation mini-game is a fun little past-time to beat, or reason, information out of people. You're soon turned onto a mission that involves a mole from inside the precinct.

Ultimately, this plot has been done to death so many times on so many cop dramas that it's difficult to get engaged. This is just the beginning of where the game goes downhill. Obviously, high production values went into this game, but as is so often the case lately, they missed the mark in some very key areas. The controls for one. Amd display driver whql 8.10. I have rarely seen a more convoluted control system for PC.

I'll be the first to admit that this was originally for console, but it seems that barely a token effort was made to translate the commands to a keyboard layout. My fingers got a workout hopping all over the keyboard for the numerous and poorly constructed commands. If you're thinking that a gamepad might fix all this, nix that idea too. My Logitech PS2 Styled PC gamepad looked like a perfect match for this game, alas it was barely configurable and did not coordinate to the multiple styles of game play, you could set it up for driving, but not running, or vice versa, but its limitations soon had me back on the keyboard.

After I had adapted to the controls somewhat, the physics had me somewhat at a loss. Keeping in mind that this is not a driving simulation, at its core, I don't expect much more than doughy arcade style driving. Labtec speakers drivers download. But nothing handled as I expected, the cars were sloppy, sometimes you lightly skidded off the front end of a fire truck, other times being brushed by a motorcycle had you recoiling and turning 360's while your perpetrator was getting further and further away. The fighting system was convoluted as well, with a light attack, a heavy attack, a grab attack that was also the way to frisk people, which is also the button to arrest people, plus the buttons to put away your gun, pull it back out, fire a warning shot, flash your badge, tackle someone, all while trying to keep the squirrelly camera centered behind you (which it rarely does well).

In the graphics department there were glitches, clipping into walls, as well as criminals falling through solid concrete and waiting in the ether for you to attempt, in vain, to arrest them. At one point I was forced to kill a non-lethal perp by shooting him in the foot, just to end the mission. Top this off with some frame lag and a whack targeting system, and you can sense my mounting frustration. You'll often find yourself tackling air, punching civilians and firing point blank at walls. There were also numerous points where the textures for multiple guns seems to be missing, and your Uzi,s or pistol would appear as a white textureless shape.

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In a GTA-styled attempt to test the limits of my virtual city, I shot an arsonist, grabbed his flamethrower and took out 30 people before highjacking a public bus and driving over half the residents of the Lower East Side. I finished up with some cop killing. reckless driving and traffic accidents. I was being hunted by every cop in the city and identified as a rogue cop who was 'mentally unstable,' according to the radio. Assured of my own impending death, I ran to and fro waiting for the inevitable. Which never came. I made a break through the park and dived into the bay and swam around for 2-3 minutes. Upon returning to shore my 'criminal' rating had gone back down and I was back to being boy hero. Realism indeed. In another game glitch, I began a mission to follow a motorcycle courier on a bike of my own for an exciting chase, but after trying 20 times to follow him, he wrecked within two blocks almost every time. Finally I just tracked him down on foot after he fell and interrogated him, wondering why I even got on the motorcycle. It's this kind of unfinished and unpolished gameplay that brings this gaming experience to its knees. I couldn't bring myself to care about the characters, the city, the law; nothing in this game draws you in efficiently enough to make you want to finish it.

The controls need work, the engine needs work, the collision detection needs work, the AI needs serious work, all in all I wouldn't be surprised if you told me this was a beta. A brief look at the customer support page for Activision also shows that numerous glitches and problems were had by users of all consoles. Overall, a well-presented, high-budget flop. Advanced systemcare ultimate 7 crack. The world doesn't ever need another World War 2 game but developers keep making them, which I guess is the same reason they keep trying to capitalize on the awesome profits of Grand Theft Auto. But a bigger budget does not make a better game.

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cc-alex-salter · 3 years

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Notes and eval

Something made abundantly clear in the brief was its emphasis on realistic drawing style. This is something I think should benefit me, however I want to push myself further in this project and go for more of a linework focused style, and branch away from the more painterly workflow I've grown accustomed to. Phil explained that we should become more used to working in other styles than our own and so I feel inclined to focus on a key area in drawing that I feel is my weakest.

The main focus of the brief was to emphasize realism drawing style. This is something I think should somewhat benefit me, however I will need to push my style and rendering a lot further as I do have a tendencay

From analyzing my previous comic, there are three major things I personally want to improve on as well as the briefs realism style. The first is to improve on the contrast and value. Comics are renowned for having a heavier black and white contrast and this is something I feel I need to grow accustomed to if I want to succeed in the comics industry. The second is to think more carefully on composition and not simply boxing in every drawing. Carefully considering which drawings to put in a box and which to perhaps blend with other panels or put emphasis on. Guiding the eye around the page and drawings without using simple lines/boxes will certainly be a challenge. An important aspect to this I feel is controlling white space - using shape design to guide the eye and focus on areas. Finally, my last goal for this project is to improve text and positioning of the text bubbles. Perhaps experimenting and playing around with how this could impact composition and placement of other key areas. A trend I’ve noticed is the speech bubbles are always inside the panel box. If I remove the panels, what will happen? These are some things I need to consider. Another additional key area is to have fun and experiment - utilising the digital tools, one idea I have is to have a sharp black and white and use galaxy textures with a PS blending overlay, replacing the white or black with a coloured texture. Will need a LOT of playing around to get right but could be very effective. Something that is partially inspired by Jocks comic series; Wytches. Which adds watercolour splashes over the top of the already coloured drawings.

One thing I found when making comics the first time was that I had a tendency to noodle at the drawings, which I felt lost a lot of the character and gesture to begin with. Making the drawings feel a lot more stiff and lifeless - something I am constantly trying to emphasis in the drawings - although, the brief states realism, I want to almost over exaggerate some of the features, using elements of caricature drawings - this is something I personally feel is integral to a good comic.

Here are some tests and playing around with composition.

The first was what I felt was finished after doing, but after consideration felt it still needed a lot further work. The second was my attempt at adjusting areas and inverting the values. I preferred this a lot more, however the actual composition needed more work.

On the third (the main villain wasnt my drawing and pasted from an image i felt did what I needed in my composition) was meant as a quick test to see if worked. I felt this was a lot stronger composition and was a much better way of controlling the space. The white silhouette was strong and guided your eye to the right, then down - enabling space for speech bubbles and to allow for it to look like a conversation between the two.

My iterations were done and each step was improved through a lot of research. Both in comics and design. One key artist I looked at was Mike Mignolia; creator of Hellboy, who i feel controls white space and shape design best. His style is a lot more simplistic, and I feel could be a challenge to utilise elements of his in a realistic sense, but proved to be extremely beneficial when looking into solid comic composition. Another reference was Frank Frazetta. Although he primarily known for his paintings, is a personal art god, and a master of composition - applies to his comics as well. Using key things (although often the perceived threats) in a harshly contrasting black. Often using rule of thirds. His compositions describe the events without having to read the text.

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attract-mode-collective · 6 years

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Just Another Late Night At The Game Center

And just another massive dose of game culture, as originally shared on the Attract Mode Twitter account, (most of) everything that was shared in the latter half of February. The first half was covered here.

Before I forget: the above is courtesy of erickimphotography.com.

Again, given how short Feb is supposed to be, I figured this post would be too... and it's not. So am wonder if going weekly might best going forward?

Anyhow, where did I leave off last time? Oh yeah; Valentine's Day. And here’s Amy Rose, from the day after, reminding us all that, as great as love can be, it also hurts (via sonicthehedgeblog)...

Check out this devastating big boot from Mario, one that would make the WWE's Undertaker or Kane proud (via suppermariobroth)...

You're no doubt familiar with Julie Bell's work, but are you aware of the close resemblance between her art & the artist herself? (via slbtumblng)...

Some nice, pixelated sukajans we have here (via kauzara)...

Look at these hipsters...

Look at these hipsters standing around, on a Brooklyn rooftop...

Look at these hipsters standing around, on a Brooklyn rooftop in leggings based upon the interactive menu for the Super Famicom's satellite modem peripheral. (via minusworld.co.uk)...

Am legit thinking of getting this shirt covered with quotes from people trying to figure out which Metal Gear character is gay (via kotaku.com)...

Am rather fond of Data Weave, which has more than a passing resemblance to the Eliss scarf that helped put the Attract Mode shop on the map (via prostheticknowledge)...

When you go to bed, don't forget to never use your Dreamcast as a pillow (nor should you ever place it on a bucket filled with leafy greens either, but you probably already knew that one; via posthumanwanderings)...

Not sure which SNK 40th Anniversary shirt I like more (via miki800.com)...

It's just Hidetaka Suehiro, playing... I think The Last Blade? Criminally underrated Neo Geo game btw (via nintendu)...

And the late, great Robin Williams playing Ground Zero Texas for the Sega CD (via celebgames)...

Plus the President of Turkey, circa 1990, playing Galaxy Force II for whatever reason (via historium)..

Pro-tip to any & all custom arcade cabinet sellers: if you're going to photograph someone playing a game on your thing, have said person actually play the thing (in this case, Robotron utilizes dual sticks and no buttons; via arcadephile)...

Today's recommended reading is a follow-up to another older post, one that's all about Willie Williams, who not only inspired Virtua Fighter's Jeffry McWild but also Tekken's Paul Phoenix (via lordmo)...

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After seeing this gif of a young woman punching a dinosaur (or possibly a dragon) in the crotch, I may have to give Capcom Fighting Jam a second look (via kazucrash)...

Sticking with the subject of crotches for just one bit, everyone out there's familiar with PuLiRuLa, right? (via kazucrash)

Just a friendly reminder of how wacky commercials for the PlayStation 2 were back in the day (via kurhl)...

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Back to the subject of dinosaurs... yet still sticking with fun under the sun (via sidestorygaiden)...

If I'm gonna share fan art of unofficial PlayStation 1 era mascots, then I have to pass along this rendering of Abe (via it8bit)...

Seen countless folk play music with a Game Boy or a NES... but a Dreamcast? @slowmagic is the very first, and with a Hello Kitty edition Dreamcast no less...

youtube

Does anyone know if these figures of Dorimukyasuko & friends were commercially produced or if they were just made for the Sega no Game wa Sekai Ichi~i~i~I ad that the image comes from? (via vgprintads)...

We've gotten snowfall here in NYC over the past few weeks, once during during sunset, but alas it wasn't nearly as pretty as this (via kirokazepixel)...

It's been ages since I've posted any Game Culture Snapshots, despite countless promises that I'd fix that. Well, until that finally happens, here just one, from IndieCade East 2018. Which was an epic bust, but hey, at least I finally got to play that Bill Viola game I first encountered at GDC 2008...

PLEASE tell me that GBA Video carts are the new hot means of distributing bootleg Hollywood flicks (via @katribou)...

This part from The Thing always reminded me of Asteroids on the Atari 7800 (via pixpunk)...

I posted this on Twitter, not realizing that I had shared it on the blog once before. But since I can’t find that original post, and since it's so damn nice, plus totally worth looking at again (via humanoidhistory)...

I also need to re-share that Tron movie poster cuz it's the first lead up to this Blade Runner-related spread from Joystik Magazine (via mendelpalace)...

As someone who fetishizes old video game magazines, I'm legit ashamed that I didn't know about Joystik sooner (via here & here)...

Please enjoy a healthy helping of scans from Lovely Sweet Dream, the dream journal that would become the basis of LSD for the PlayStation 1 (via here & here)...

Sorry, but I still think the idea of a multi-billionaire sending his sports car into space just cuz he can to be kinda cringey, yet that doesn't mean I'd don't think this pixelated recreation is any less pleasant (via it8bit)...

I've never been to Beverly Hills, so I have no idea if this portrayal according to Super Chase: Criminal Termination is accurate or not; maybe it was when the game was produced? (via obscurevideogames)...

Meanwhile, closer to where I am (somewhat; am not all that far from Long Island) is Mario & Yoshi & the Book of Revelation (via greathaircut)...

Are you playing Mario? Or is Mario playing you? (via suppermariobroth)...

Game Boys. And Game Girls. Mostly Girls. (via contac)

Before anyone asks, no, I do not have a bigger/wallpaper appropriate-sized version of this super sexy image of a couple of Wiis (via klaus-laserdisc)...

I think I kinda need to do this to my PlayStation (via dreamcast.tokyo)...

... Which reminds of those fancy, souped up by audiophiles PSXs I mentioned a whiles ago...

I celebrated Cat Day in Japan by posting this fave official King of Fighters illustration (via videogamesdensetsu)....

... along with this Monster Hunter fan art (via kerriaitken)...

... plus this highlight of a fave WarioWare: Twisted micro game (via suppermariobroth)...

So yeah, Flash sucks, I get that, but as the platform fades away, so does the opportunity to play games like Fear Less! (via zombie-chaser)...

Thankfully, WORLD OF HORROR, "a love letter to the cosmic horror work of Junji Ito", is something that's much more accessible (for now at least)...

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I don't know much about Dujanah, which has you assuming the role of a Muslim woman with grievances against a military force that's occupying her Islamic homeland, other than it looks extremely compelling...

Yet another game I need to check out is CONTINUUM, which is a shmup that combines time manipulation and Tetris? (via alpha-beta-gamer)...

It's a legit shame that Jetpack Squad has seemingly fallen off the map (via shmups)...

Another shmup that I really, really want to play (though it's starting to feel increasingly unlikely) is AEROBAT, which looks just as gorgeous (and insane) today as it did the first time I laid eye (via shmups)...

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Yet another game that was never meant to be, and the only thing we have here is some incredible looking concept art; if it ended up happening & was any good, I wonder if I'd be a PC-FX owner? (via videogamesdensetsu)...

If a Tokyo Dark Souls was ever to happen, which artist's take do you prefer; this one (via visor-visual)...

... or this one? (via mendelpalace)

You know about celebrity roasts, right? Well, a comedy club in Long Island City had one for Mario, though I have no idea how it went; I had kung fu practice that night...

Me, when the coffee kicks in (via anthony10000000)...

I had no idea that Typing of the Space Harrier was even a thing (via posthumanwanderings)...

It's a bit unsettling how some of Dreamcast Magazine's advice on how to survive Y2K are still useful today, in particular their words of wisdom regarding Seaman (via posthumanwanderings)...

Megadora Man, a Tokusatsu-esque take on the Mega Drive, for Beep! Mega Drive; am assuming his foes are inspired by the Famicom and PC Engine (though am not totally sure which is which; via obscurevideogames)...

Question: how hard would it be for someone in the US to get the first three issues of Famitsu from the Japanese Kindle Store? (via miki800.com)

Been well over a decade since first laying eyes and I FINALLY know the identity of the artist behind a series of Mario illustrations that has long left me stupefied: his name is Ishihara Gōjin (via videogamesdensetsu)...

I woke up the other day with a sense of purpose, with the knowledge that I finally have a mission in life: to do whatever I can to make this dancing kid from Sega Splash Golf a viral sensation (via sonicthehedgeblog)...

Though speaking of morning, been feeling run down as of late, though it's my own damn fault for not having breakfast. Which is why I can't wait for my Persona 3 toaster has yet to arrive (via gasp-theenemy)...

Had no idea that MAME can also emulate those crappy, Tiger handheld games; naturally there's not much to look at, since none of the background is part of the game's code (via lanceboyles)...

Eggman has a sense of humor (via voidirium)...

Eggman also has aesthetics (via posthumanwanderings)...

When you mess with the textures in Wind Waker for the sole purpose of making Vaporwave Link (via pmpkn)...

Man, I really wish each and every mech in Tech Romancer actually had its own anime (via ultrace)...

Before Mappy was a video game, it was a physical game involving real deal robots (via namcomuseum)...

And I swear, one of these days, we'll make available online Zac Gorman's print from Comics Vs Games 2...

In my time I've encountered lots & lots of BMO fan art, so much that it has become increasingly difficult to take notice and be impressed, yet this one managed to do so regardless (via it8bit)...

Let's all take a moment to appreciate the instruction manual for Cubivore, shall we (via skincoats)...

Cubivore's Japanese box art is also very nice (via gaygamer)...

An important message for all parents out there, concerning Minecraft (via reddit.com)...

When you can't afford the licensing fees for Miami Vice, Ghostbusters, Barbarella, I think... and maybe Logan's Run? (via mendelpalace)...

Given how Platoon ended up as a NES game, the idea of the Terminator on a Tiger handheld isn't totally far-fetched (via rewind01)...

And finally, PUT THAT CONTROLLER DOWN, NOW! (via fuzzyghost)

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thepunchpoetryiam · 6 years

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This isn’t art stained into glass for anyone’s ass to admire with a fugitive pass this isn’t a painted panel or pane In any by numbers book This is a hard pained look , cover to cover not a come hither glance,or pass made at each other These are the thoughts, pieces puzzling lots of us, very well brought everything to us no longer standing where it stands second and third chances somehow askanse Happenstance circumstances dancing in a rain standing still forever until our powers are bust until even flowers are starting to rust Limbs and stems crumbling until nothing remains of real ephemeral beauty nothing left but cruelty to our names and some experimental dust on the frames gathering my own confessions in neat geometric piles Offerings of erstwhile admissions meanwhile gathered upon the Terra cotta tiles As my performances unperformed swarm though the unoccupied turnstiles Tell them my last words were rather than sad, they almost made you smile Tell them my words were of something worthwhile For these aren't words scribbled across a folded paper sack forgotten and unread some words of regret I wished had never said Feeling stupid, I'd gladly return them from wherever did take Like a gift thought genuine before discovering to be fake No this is something I once felt was truer than truth Seen slipping away even faster than youth and almost as useless Desecrated for no one's sake only a month or two ago There was perhaps a nonchalance, a balance of innocence before I understood i see only the illusion of good This regard hard bitten already chewed And rather skewed view ever since the thoughts that will see you lonesome now see you loathsome and this is how it ends ideas skimming the dimly lit view of the surface of artifice a device designed to divide and conquer your fear no longer wanting to prosper as per your wishes so clear Here finds you finishing off your career having asked me two times to leave here and if you did want me with you could you be any less sincere listening to your synapses snap and moan Taken out to the pawn shop and already loaned your thoughts repeating upon themselves back to back like a dial tone cracked as alt right phonies cracked as your phone listening to you talking to characters invented all on your own watching a person I once knew this fender bending accident who looks like you used to Sitting where you are in his place blurring hurt of words hurled towards me with furious haste still burning hot like a slap right across my face and if your intention was meant to decrement my self respect to waste congratulations, just like to say you are welcome and thank you for putting me in my place next time though, go ahead and kick a puppy this assault and battery I’ve accepted without exception with your compliments and all intended flattery the battery acid gratitude and boiling oil loyalty An attitude befitting your eloquent elocution and nascent grace evident the definitive brilliance of your turmoil and the infinite amounts of money we waste the well ordered chaos you call a thought process the casualties bleeding only you can taste the distress call of your confession such a carefully wrought and well thought about MESS and those who care for you, people everywhere I suppose you’d prefer we simply sit and stare like a chauffeur needing a cipher, attempting to decipher. in the absence of any evidence of cognitive relevance Or fleet of moving vans anything previously believed as thought or thinking God, if there is still a part in there somewhat aware could you perhaps signal yes by blinking? understanding the burden, sorry to ask Reprehensible horror nothing more linking these tasks come back to us from your horrible nowhere and harbor of sinking where tell them I was thinking of you as these feelings for you were once Of the greatest importance the only thing more frightening than lightning striking and burning by the time you get around to returning anyone you care about will have disappeared only person you’ve ever cared about is warily staring at you there in the mirror no doubt because even then you’ve only your own thoughts to fear barely cared about your selfish self maybe that's just as you want or maybe you no longer care seems an unseemly demise of a love we thought enough to share with the rest of our lives And if I trade places with the homeless on the corner please If you've the chance, inform those who loved me I always wore my feelings beautifully like the seas wear the shore What I'd swear became little more than abhorrent Tell them this love was once mine and yours, something sent soaring not something you're sore or sorry to have ignored. Something of the greatest importance There are no answers to heal you Or bring a sheen to your cheeks everything sealed is revealed in leaks heard every word after two or three weeks Every heavy handed hindrance of our plans while you research. What you thinj4 So many carefully rendered demands how is it we Love found us at once reborn and living with enough Everything we wanted to be and are still incapable in giving of voices whispering with subtext and textured with scorn splintered and torn from the seams of your pants and the hem of my dances frayed and coarse So if I die in my sleep one beautiful morning following a torrent of discordant distortion of sorts Please tell em my dreams seemed of esteemed character and of more than the greatest importance

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entergamingxp · 4 years

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The Mass Effect trilogy remaster everyone wants is already here

“Stand by for clearance Normandy,” bellows Captain David Anderson as the iconic ship approaches Citadel Dock 422. Shortly thereafter the wonder of the galaxy’s epicentre hits you like a sledgehammer, its empyrean skyline a majestic marvel among the cosmos. However, there exists a monumental issue that has plagued this cutscene for over a decade: it has aged like a fine wine, if only said wine had its cork removed long before it was shelved.

Fortunately, there is a fix. After the divisive denouement of Mass Effect 3 ripped a fissure in the community, a group of fans banded together to rewrite the series’ disgruntling culmination. Thus the Mass Effect modding community was born, brewed from a chaotically potent cocktail of discontent and desire for more. “We only have Mass Effect 3 mods because of the terrible endings,” Spectre Expansion Mod author Tydeous tells me in a recent interview. “People hated them with such passion that it spawned an entire community that wanted to fix them.”

Although the ensuing ending mods were relatively renowned within Mass Effect circles, the movement didn’t stop there: accepting the unlikeliness of an official remaster, these dedicated tinkerers decided to work on a complete 4K overhaul of the entire trilogy, as well as orchestrating their own original mods to boot. The aim of this enterprise is to complete Mass Effect Modding Workshop creator Ryan “Audemus” Ainsworth’s own labour of love, ALOV (A Lot Of Videos), which is the result of a community-wide effort to remaster Mass Effect’s inaugural iteration.

Citadel arrival in Mass Effect 1 using the A Lot of Videos mod.

“We have 2TB of dedicated Nextcloud storage on a Gigabit connection thanks to our team member bosp,” Ainsworth says. “Another team member designed a script that can automatically check through hundreds of videos in the mod for errors such as missing frames or an incorrect framerate.” Meanwhile, a dozen team members volunteered to upscale frames to 4K using Gigapixel in an ambitious attempt to meet the mod’s scheduled release date last year.

However, modding Mass Effect is no easy endeavour, nor is it a phenomenon BioWare encouraged or even facilitated. “I can’t overstate how difficult it is to mod a PC game that was designed primarily for consoles on an engine that offers no mod support whatsoever,” Ainsworth explains. “Because of this, there are only a handful of people in the community that can use the toolset to its fullest capability.”

A prime example exists in the low-res story sequences in the original Mass Effect. “The pre-rendered cutscenes in Mass Effect are 720p videos that were heavily compressed to allow the game to fit on the disc,” Ainsworth tells me. “When playing the game at 1080p to 4K with texture mods, those cutscenes were the biggest thing holding it back from looking like a true remaster.”

There are other hardships, too. Modding Mass Effect is nothing like creating expansions for games like Skyrim or Fallout, Ainsworth adds. “Their Creation Kit was created and supported by Bethesda, while ME3Explorer had to be created from scratch by talented and dedicated fans.”

Screenshot of Mass Effect 3 using the A Lot Of Textures mod.

Perhaps paradoxically, difficulty is part of what inspires Mass Effect modders to persevere against the odds while maintaining the harmony inherent to Ainsworth’s community. “The [Mass Effect] modding scene is small, but tight-knit,” ALOT (A Lot Of Textures) author CreeperLava tells me. “Any modder who lingers there ends up getting to know every other modder.”

“Perhaps because it is so small, or because the games are so difficult to mod, only die-hard fans end up dedicating time to learning how to mod them,” CreeperLava adds. Regular contributors also ensure each subsequent mod released via Nexus is cross-compatible with every other project in the community’s existing oeuvre. “This is impossible in larger mod bases like Skyrim, where the amount of work involved would be insane.”

CreeperLava also asserts this is likely the reason the Mass Effect modding process is so collaborative within the community. “They seek to make sure their mods work together from the get-go,” they explain. “It’s kind of like having a team with many heads, all trying to get the best out of the games they love.”

Ainsworth says roughly 30 people were involved with the Project Earth Overhaul Mod specifically, marking it as the biggest Mass Effect modding endeavour of all time. To this day, however, the team continues to rework the games they love. “We have over a dozen active modding projects going on, and everyone is encouraged to collaborate,” Ainsworth adds. “I would liken the modding community today to a loose development team, made up of programmers, writers, artists, voice actors and more. I’m extremely proud of what we’ve built together.”

“It’s not even about the game anymore,” CreeperLava adds, ushering the sentiment in a new direction. “The modding I did started as a personal quest for a more beautiful game, but ended up as a coming of age experience for me. Its development mirrors my own – ALOT matured and became much more than just a compilation of textures.”

CreeperLava goes on to explain they were joined by developers who conceived an installer for the mod while they learned how to implement their own textures. “I saw articles being published about my work,” they continue. “What amazes me the most to this day is that beyond just saying thanks, some people stepped forward and offered their help, knowledge, and time to improve the mod.”

CreeperLava also fondly recalls working at a LAN party on one occasion, where a random person came over and asked, “are you that CreeperLava? From Mass Effect?” As it turned out, this was a fan who had played through Mass Effect with ALOT installed. “Really took me by surprise,” CreeperLava adds. “I felt really good for the rest of that day.”

Screenshot of Mass Effect 3 using the A Lot Of Textures mod.

Ainsworth echoes this passion, and proceeds to proclaim Mass Effect as an entity that has had a profound influence on him. “I don’t think many people can say they’ve been a Mass Effect fan for most of their life,” he explains. “But for me, Mass Effect formed the backbone of my love of sci-fi storytelling in the way Star Wars or Star Trek did for older fans.”

Tydeous shares this emotional connection. “I grew up watching shows like Stargate SG-1 and Star Trek: Next Generation, where teams of people work together to explore the galaxy, discovering new worlds, facing dire threats, and meeting alien cultures,” they say. “For me, Mass Effect gives me that chance to explore the unknown in a way I’ll never get in the real world.”

Tydeous explains that although the community almost fizzled out, it has bounced back stronger than ever, and many fans of the mod have voiced their gratitude. “The best compliment I’ve had is when one user said the new emails [added as part of the mod] and my ‘Ghost of Antilin’ storyline were BioWare quality,” they add. “They hadn’t realised those texts were fan-written.”

Alongside the praise, working on something of this caliber comes with a variety of unseen, humorous mishaps. Although Tydeous maintains most of their modding experience has involved bashing their head against the desk in a futile attempt to understand why something isn’t working, one such mistake resulted in a barrel of laughs for them. “During some experimental combat modding, I accidentally changed the number of Banshee spawns from one to eight, as I thought I was changing the amount of Husks that spawn,” Tydeous remembers. Despite their best efforts, they never managed to defeat them.

Meanwhile, a modder who goes by the handle “Mgamerz,” who is also part of the Mass Effect Modding Workshop community and is the founder of ME3Tweaks, managed to unravel an exceptionally well-hidden secret when tinkering with some scenes featuring The Illusive Man. “In my cutscene randomiser, I expanded it to support more branching characters, such as your squadmates,” Mgamerz explains. “I did not realise that in many cutscenes there are extra versions of pawns that are used for different angles, so we have The Illusive Woman.”

The same randomiser yielded other comedy nuggets. “I was trying to randomise cutscenes and the animations a bit – it’s meant to be something you’d play if you were somewhat tipsy,” Mgamerz continues. “I did not realise the data format for these animations was different from other animations and Miranda gained a lot of flexibility.”

Evidently, the Mass Effect modding community has achieved an astronomical amount since the polarising polemic that emerged in the wake of Mass Effect 3, especially considering the obstacles blocking their path. From a full-fledged PC remaster to some original voice acting sent to Eurogamer, this is the work of a group of people who have persevered without ever having access to modding toolsets or developer-established communities. Heartwarmingly, newcomers are welcomed with open arms to this day: “Seeing the 2019 N7 Day Modding trailer we put out last year, that was especially cool,” Tydeous explains. “Seeing the live stream comments about each mod was great – especially for newer modders showing off their work for the first time.”

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However, despite the community’s investment in the original trilogy, modding Andromeda, BioWare’s ill-fated 2017 Mass Effect game, remains a complex affair. Because it runs on the Frostbite engine, none of the modding tools the community have used for the first three games are compatible with Andromeda. “As of now, it’s not possible to import new content into the game,” Ainsworth explains. “That means no new items, quests, weapons, [or] abilities. Because of this, there’s never been a community that’s formed around modding Andromeda like it did for the trilogy.”

Ainsworth adds there are people in his community who are already interested in modding Andromeda, but after enduring three long years without updates to compatibility, and after the departure of a key Frostbite modder named GalaxyMan – who, Ainsworth explains, works with EA/DICE on Frostbite proper now – “it’s looking more likely those features might never happen”.

It’s not all bad though. Recently, and for years past to boot, rumours have circulated about whether or not an official remaster for the Mass Effect trilogy will ever be released. However, according to Ainsworth, “the remaster everyone has been clamouring for is effectively already here.” Give a community this dedicated long enough and they’ll do it themselves.

“Had to be me,” I imagine the Mass Effect modding community saying. “Someone else might have gotten it wrong.”

from EnterGamingXP https://entergamingxp.com/2020/01/the-mass-effect-trilogy-remaster-everyone-wants-is-already-here/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=the-mass-effect-trilogy-remaster-everyone-wants-is-already-here

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joechappel · 5 years

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VICTORY

“O death, where is thy sting? O grave where is thy victory?” - I Corinthians The written word is painfully ill-suited to convey the textured nuance and layered complexity of human communication, in its glorious fullness. Irony, sarcasm, and the way we display one emotion to guard another...these are all part of the beautiful way we Homo sapiens communicate. Much of this nuance is achieved through non-verbal means, whether it be visual cues, or the aural cues found in the rise and fall, timbre, or breathiness of a voice, or in countless other ways. I often reflect on this when I hear about the tweets of the man who currently lives at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, especially when weighed against that same man’s outrageous speech and behavior at his political rallies. I am intentionally NOT a follower, but it would be nearly impossible to not know about them - that in itself says so much. It becomes glaringly obvious when staffers write Tweets meant to make him “relatable” (like his tweet about A$AP Rocky) and when he becomes that most dangerous of combinations: unhinged and unmanaged; and writes something more dark, more genuine, and more revealing, like his reprehensible language inviting Americans to leave their own native land and “go back” to some other country, all because they do not look like his small-minded idea of what an American should look, think, and behave like. Sadly, many Americans find connection in his words, written or otherwise, and there has been much hypothesizing about how influential his hate speech would be to his followers. How far would they go? Unfortunately, the question has some very dark answers, and the freakishly tragic answers to that question keep coming with greater frequency. Even the most willfully ignorant observer finds it difficult to ignore the evidence. When the suspects of more than one mass shooting subscribe to the verbatim philosophy, language, tenets, and policies elevated by the POTUS himself, there can be no denying the connection. At this point, we can no longer delude ourselves into believing we are still in some earlier time of hypothetical what-ifs and the ‘gaming-out’ of different ghoulish scenarios in regards to the behavior of Trump followers in the wake of his dog whistling and race-baiting speech. We are no longer in a time of predictions. We are in a time of analysis. The truth is we’ve been at this point for a very long time, but even the most aloof onlooker really has to work hard to not notice on days like this. Back to my point on language, I often run into friends who jokingly comment on my seemingly shameless anger they glean from my posts, but as I already said, the written word often misses the precise mark. What the reader sees as anger can often be anxiety and fear. And I know that these days when I wake up and type what guides my spirit in the moment, it is my fear that consumes me. Fear as an American witnessing the shameless unraveling of the pillars of our democracy, fear as a gay Black man who cannot escape the ‘othering’ of his very person and will always be amongst the most obvious and identifiable of targets to the xenophobic, racist, and/or homophobic bully. And They will always come for me and my kind first, so my fear is of an existential nature. So you may read unlimited anger, but I’m telling you it’s more often panic and fear - especially because so many of you don’t seem to notice or (this is the most frightening of all) you don’t seem to care (enough). Fear as a human sharing my vulnerability in the presence of others (like being willing to stand naked in public or willing to risk ridicule and rejection - these are my Kryptonite) because the older I get, I’m learning that the only way to live the life that enrages my demons and gladdens my angels is to walk in my truth. It is the only way I can sleep at night and hold my head a little higher in the day. The fear and the anger and the anxiety are determined to do their toll, one way or another. That is an energy none of us can wish, pray, or ignore away. The power we possess is in our choice to hold it all in and let the damage be on us or to be vulnerable and open and honest about it and hope that the energy dissipates in some healthy useful way. The other risk we take is that the dissipation can be ugly and unhealthy when we put it back out into the world. That is what is happening with these misguided men. They are releasing a horrendous pain out into the world, because they can no longer bear their loneliness, their deprivation, and their feeling of being wronged in this life, and along comes a voice and a movement that gives them permission to wallow in righteous anger and preys on their brokenness - it is a harmonic convergence of vulnerability, toxicity, and ignorance that comprises the recipe for the tragic events of Gilroy and El Paso and Charlottesville and countless other places. To say that I feel sympathy for these men would be an awful exaggeration...I don’t even want to use the word ‘empathy’, but in a some ways I do understand the genesis of their mental and emotional depravity. This year in particular has been one monumental cosmic mindfuck. I have experienced unexpected loss, the stripping away, paring down, and letting go of so many things I thought were prerequisites to the defining of me...all of it as the universe keeps whittling me down to my most bare essentials. And somehow I know I’m still not done - there is a transformation afoot and I am being shown who I am and am not, what I can live with and without, who is and isn’t essential in my life. The gift of such a time is that I’m also being offered a newfound clarity in my life’s priorities. I am not my progeny - I am childless. And I am not the lesser half of a spouse - I am single. I am not my next cool gig. I am not my last cool gig. I am not Big Joe or Skinny Joe - I am at all times wonderfully and simply Joe. I am not my casual acquaintances. And I am still me, even when my most cherished friends and loved ones leave my life one way or another. I am still me, when my physical ‘stuff’ gets lost or stolen or broken or misplaced. I am not my wealth or lack thereof. I am vulnerable, sensitive, still somewhat broken, talented, opinionated, imperfect, sassy, intelligent, on-a-journey Joe. All day and everyday. Occasionally I go through my photos on my phone as I did the other day. Each time I notice something cool or interesting about the collection in its entirety. This time I was struck by how many pictures I am embracing or being embraced by someone. I thought I had a bunch of selfies on my phone, but my pics tell a different story. I am a man who defines himself through the relationships in his life. I am my friends. I am my loved ones. It is in the company of others that I truly flourish. As much as I regard myself as a loner, I need that human interaction to thrive - just like all humans, I need to relate. It is that same need that I believe drives so many to become hypnotized by the sinister words of POTUS. Young White males who feel alone, abandoned, forgotten, left behind, denied entry into a life of unearned entitlement that is their perceived birthright ....these vulnerable individuals find connection and kinship in his racist and nationalistic hate-speech. The point is that I can relate to loss and loneliness and feeling robbed of one’s things and even one’s very station in life. That kind of pain has a universality to it, but the myriad ways we choose to let it manifest in our lives can have consequences that go far beyond our personal spheres of influence. Sometimes the unhealthiness of our coping skills has irreversibly tragic outcomes. A friend used to always end his emails with the famous Horace Mann quote “be ashamed to die until you have won some victory for humanity.” I was so moved by it that I stole the idea (like 100% of the truly wise and impressive things I share) and started ending my own letters and email with the same quote. I’ve since stopped using the quote that way but it popped into my head today. The funny thing is that when I first heard it, I thought “some victory” equated with a grand feat. Anything less than Nobel-laureate-worthy work, or some act that would garner the attention and praise of a thankful public was not qualified to fulfill the task. I needed to write a symphony, run for office, cure something, write the next great American novel or do some other noteworthy deed. Today when I read the same exact words and measure them against the ugliness and tragedy of the world around me, my concept of “some victory” alters. When my portion is fully rendered and I am weighed in the balance for the last time who is the man others will describe? Did his arms stiffen and perpetually keep others at length or did those arms endlessly seek to embrace, comfort, and help others? Did that man walk in the fullness of his truth or did he wither in fear? Was he a model of good citizenship, to the best of his ability, for the next generation to witness or did he leave them to figure it out all on their own? Did he steward his world and his wisdom and then selflessly pass it on or did he selfishly hoard it, taking it all to the grave? Today I am convinced Mann’s ‘victory’ is in our successfully living better today than we did yesterday. I believe that when we are willing to be vulnerable and walk in our truth we can access a compassion for others such as the immigrant, the less advantaged, or whomever we deem the ‘other’, and simultaneously we can show the Patrick Crusiuses of the world a better way forward than the cruel narrow path our failed current leaders have set before these at-risk individuals. The deed is done, so there is no saving this particular man and the lives he has taken, but perhaps we can channel our righteous anger for some other future good and save the next scared, lonely, and angry individual from making the same sick choice. There are untold lives at stake. Yes, we should be ashamed to die, not having “won some victory for humanity.” But the victory is nearer and more immediate than we think. The victory is in our personal living and the battle rages on at the core of our collective soul. More than our thoughts and prayers, this world could use our better living and a greater expression of our humanity. “Be ashamed to die, until you have won some victory for humanity.” - Horace Mann

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callumreyesfutureworks2 · 7 years

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Route To Industry

The role in the games industry which I hope to achieve is that of a 3D environment artist. I have always been amazed and inspired by the whole new worlds and environments that can be created by the medium of games. Ever since I have been playing games, the environments within have been a keen focal point of my attention. It is a very frequent occurrence for me to be playing a game only to spend long periods of time simply observing and inspecting the environments when I should really be completing an objective. However the inspiration and motivation I get from well made environments in games is a welcome distraction.

I hope to use this assignment to find out what I need to do to achieve my goal of being a 3D environment artist in the games industry relating to both indie and AAA development. I will focus mainly on the type of skills I will need to be successful and also what my portfolio should include to best demonstrate my abilities and attract possible employers.

My first avenue of research involved looking into the online portfolios of 3D environment artists in the games industry. The reasons for me doing this was to:

- Get a feel and understanding of how successful artists present their work. How important is good presentation in relevance to attracting, impressing and holding viewers

-What type of works should I be including in my portfolio? Should I show a range of works consisting of different styles or should my portfolio be more focused?

-What software and skills are the people I am aspiring to be like showing?

With these questions and research aims I started to view portfolios.

The first portfolio I viewed was by Clinton Crumpler: http://www.clintoncrumpler.com/

Upon loading up his website/portfolio I was instantly drawn in. Not only from the glimpses of beautifully rendered examples of his work, but also by the professional and aesthetically pleasing layout and presentation.

The majority of the page is taken up by a variety of Mr Crumplers work which, when clicked, takes you to more of his work related to that specific project. The work on his home page instantly draws your eye and quickly demonstrates his experience and skill set. The render and image quality is very high and the layout is symmetrical. This symmetrical layout was something I found visually pleasing and I suspect that doing this could possibly convey, subconsciously, the notion that Mr Crumpler is professional and organised. The ordered presentation of his work certainly gave me this impression.

The next thing I noticed was the variety of work Mr Crumpler presented. From the homepage you can see that he has the ability to produce assets of different types from landscape to props, to buildings and vehicles. Although it is clear Mr Crumpler mainly works in producing realistic looking/ life-like assets his presented work isn’t repetitive.

Although the visual style isn’t too varied, in terms of realistic looking assets, Mr Crumpler displays his ability to create high quality work for different themes. The main example that demonstrated this was his work on Gears of War 4 and the “Swarm” assets from said game. Yes, the graphic style was realistic looking, but Mr Crumpler demonstrated his ability to generate very high quality ORGANIC environments, showing his skill set is not limited to the artificial/ man made.

I found this interesting as what it meant to me was that even if I wanted to specialise and focus on a particular art style -at present time I am mainly inspired and motivated by graphically realistic environments in games. Not to say I don’t take inspiration from more stylised games- it doesn’t mean I cant show variety in my work. Seeing this work by Mr Crumper has made me want to start learning the techniques to create this type of organic environment assets.

With Mr Crumpler working on a AAA game like Gears of War 4 I wanted to find out the role he had in the production and therefore the additional skills aside from modelling and texturing I may need to know or could benefit from knowing if I were to aim to be an environment artist on a AAA title.

Mr Crumpler notes “ My primary roles were creation of all the materials, meshes, textures, and some effects for the pods, tendrils, skins, decals, goo, and crystals. I also worked with other teams to establish spline setup, blueprint creation and usage, bio-luminescent lighting, explosion effects, and other aspects of swarm integration and look development for the game.”

This enlightened me as it showed that simply being able to create a model and texture it too a high standard may not be enough. I will likely be required to, or at least benefit from, having skills in these other areas. Although this is a relatively daunting thing to think about, I am glad that I know what may be required of me and I can begin to learn these types of extra skills. This is definitely something that will impact my route to industry in terms of the heights I can reach, I feel.

I began to research information about what the role of being a 3D environment artist might be like on a day to day basis. I found Tanner Kalstroms’ article called “So you want to be an environment artist?” to be a useful read.

https://www.gametextures.com/so-you-want-to-be-an-environment-artist/

It begins by showing how the working life of a environment artist can be a long and demanding one, especially during crunch time. Long hours and little sleep can be expected when deadlines approach. However Tanner goes on to explain that these times are always bad “ Sure, the video-game industry can have some darkness, some bad PR about “crunch time”, but don’t let that fool you. It’s not always bad, in fact, most of the time it’s the complete opposite. Being an Environment Artist can be a treat. You get creative freedom, you get to indulge yourself, experiment, and try new things every single day”. This was something I was pleased to read as creative freedom, even if limited, is something important to me as one of my biggest desires in terms of working in the industry is to be able see my own work and influence on a game that is played by multitudes of people.

The first skill Tanner speaks about being beneficial and somewhat required for environment artists was confidence. Tanner makes it clear that it is not only important for you to have confidence in your work but also in yourself to speak your mind when you think a decision isn’t correct. This had an impact on me. I am a confident person but sometimes I will refrain from pointing out flaws I see in other peoples design decisions because I don’t want to hurt their feelings. However this made me realise that it is likely for the best of the team and the project to speak my mind when I see something wrong, even if I myself turn out to be incorrect.

Tanner then went onto talk about concept art and how the common lack of it means that I as an environment artist will have to source my own inspiration and ideas for a variety of sources.

“What does this mean to you? Well, you have to be prepared. There are going to be moments where you’re faced with a task and you have no direction aside from a vague “Make something cool.” from your director. This is that moment when you have to turn to your resources, be comfortable searching the Googs, looking through art books (Which you probably should start collecting as soon as possible), and looking through concept art online. You will need to compile this information, you will need to make it into meaningful direction for yourself.”

This information was important to me as sometimes, although I like being able to add my own creativity to my work, when there is no direction uncertainty sets in and my work can take a hit. This is due to me questioning myself whether my design choices are correct. However after reading the article I now know this is something I will have to improve or become more used to.

Tanner closes this part of the article with this “ it’s important that you know that video-game art is not all copying concept art verbatim. It requires you to build, and it requires you as an artist to be at the top of your art-game. This goes right back to the matter of confidence above.” This is something that will stay with me.

Tanner then spoke about the importance of interaction with other artist you work with and learning from them. Those who are not prepared to learn from others will fall behind over time. Learning from others in your studio is something likely to enable a lengthy career.

I started to read the comments on the article and somebody asked about how should an aspiring artist build their portfolio. This was a question I was wondering myself. Tanner had responded to the comment and mentioned the monthly noob challenge by Polycount. I had never heard of this before so I went to check it out.

The mothly noob challenge features a challenge for artist to create a 3D environment, based off of concepts provided, within a one month time frame. Those that partake then post their results at the end of the time frame and can compare and receive feedback with and from others.

This is something I think I will definitely start to take part in. Not only will it boost my portfolio but it will also challenge me to create scenes that I might choose to avoid if I was given the opportunity. This will surely increase my skills as a 3D artist and also prepare me for situations where I have to model something out of my comfort zone.

Towards the close of Tanners article they make a point about the importance of pride in ones work. Tanner makes a statement that I will bear in mind “ people who make those one extra steps happen are the ones that get noticed, and those little details that a prideful worker, and an average worker make are what set exceptional apart from extraordinary.”

One of biggest statements that stood out to me was “ As a company-runner, and person who helps lead artists I’ve learned that I’m looking for the type of pride in regards to ones work. I can’t stand artists who don’t take pride in their work, who turn in things they’re not proud of; who do not take the extra mile.” This stood out to me because it gives a good insight of what people are looking for when it comes to artist and that I should always be proud of my work, and if I am not then I should improve it.

Looking at Job

I then decided to look at job advertisements online to try and get an understanding of some of the key skills and requirements the role of 3D environment artist frequently demands.

Average salary: £30,000

This was the first job i looked at :https://www.totaljobs.com/job/artist/creative-personnel-job68721553?WT.mc_id=A_RE_IDPPC_MP0_ORG_0

This advertisement was for a AAA studio working on a high end console game which required an environment artist.

The salary stated was £160 per day.

The advertisement then listed the responsibilities you would undertake and desired skills the company would like you to possess.

Taken from the advertisement-

Your duties will include:

Create outstanding Environment artwork that sets a high quality bar for the rest of the team.

Help others to consistently reach that bar by mentoring and guiding more junior or less experienced colleagues.

Contribute to the set-up of suitable pipelines and workflows, including prototyping, documenting processes and helping to specify, test and drive to quality tools created by the Technical Art and Engineering teams.

This made it clear that this position was not for inexperienced artists. It was interesting to see the extra roles that more senior artists have to take on. You are to lead by example and motivate the more junior artists.

General Competencies:

Experience with cutting-edge techniques and technology related to environment art and a strong desire to stay ahead of the game.

Able to proactively self-organise and prioritise work for yourself and others.

Able to contribute to guiding and mentoring groups of junior artists, contractors, and outsourcers.

Excellent communication skills.

The first requirement of this ties into previous points made by Tanner I feel. It is important that you have the desire and motivation if you want to succeed in this role.

The second requirement of being self-organised also ties into points made by Tanner. Whereas Tanners example of concept art not always being given was more specific, I feel this shows that you need good initiative and the ability to work by yourself in this role.

Again communication skills are needed.

Artistic Competencies:

Accomplished at all aspects of environment creation, including sculpting, modelling, surfacing, texturing, with decent drawing skills and a good artistic eye for colour, value, tone, silhouette, etc.

Accomplished at scene building, with a focus on composition and an understanding of how this fits with game design.

Able to contribute to the stylistic development of the environment elements

Comfortable working in a variety of art styles.

This section was interesting as it was focused on the artistic requirements the artist must have. This job seemed to mainly focus on the modelling and texturing of components of the environments. One thing that stood out to me was the desire for the artist to be comfortable in a variety of art styles. This strengthens my motivation to take part in the monthly noob challenge.

Technical Competencies:

Understanding of tools, techniques, best practices and technical limitations related to real-time environment creation.

Able to contribute to the technical design of systems, to work closely with the Technical Art and Animation teams to arrive at elegant tools and solutions.

Comfortable at all stages of game development, from concept through pre-production to production.

Comfortable working with (and around) bespoke, in-development tool sets as well as with more mature engines and pipelines.

This was probably the main part of the job requirements that stood out to me. The technical competencies are something I definitely need to work on in order to better my job prospects.

A Specific Company

One of my favourite games for its environment is Dishonored. I spent many hours in this game just looking around at the environments and seeing how their designers and creators brought this games universe to life. I felt like the environment was real and lived in and the atmosphere was palpable. Ever since playing Dishonored it has become one of my biggest inspirations for 3D environment art. Although the art style is not something I tend to go for when creating my scenes, it has inspired me to try my hand at creating a scene with a similar art style.

Arkane studios is the developer behind the game and for this reason I decided to see if they had any job advertisements going for the 3D environment role. I did this as a potential dream goal job experiment to see what type of requirements I would have to fill to be a 3D environment artist for the company.

Arkane Studios listed the following requirements

Requirements

• 5+ years’ experience modeling 3D objects and generating textures

• Deep knowledge of Maya, Photoshop and other asset creation tools (ZBrush highly recommended)

• Exceptional texture creation ability; hand-painted textures is a plus

• Good analytic eye for volumes, shapes, proportions, detail distribution, color and materials composition

• Able to work from photo reference or concept art when available, as well as ability to provide their own

• Able to work within poly and texture budgets

• Strong English communication skills (verbal and written)

• Candidates must submit an online portfolio

The first thing that stood out was the 5 years minimum industry experience. This wasn’t a surprise but it was good to know the time frame I would be looking at before I could get a role in a AAA company of Arkane Studios’ stature.

Again the need to provide or source your own reference material shows up.

Finally “candidates must submit an online portfolio” this affirms to me the need to have a strong portfolio.

Conclusion

So what is my route to industry?

My first goal is to develop my portfolio with the aim to try to create my own website to display my work. I want to take key strong points I felt were present in Clinton Crumplers portfolio.I plan to develop my portfolio by participating in things like Polycounts monthly noob challenge. Part of this is also developing my skills in software such as substance designer.

Another thing I need to take time to learn is the technical side of 3D environment art. Things like particle systems etc.

I also wish to take part in more social meetups and events to get to know and network with other people within the industry. I have yet to have gone to a Manchester Gamers Unite meetup and I think that will be a good start.

In terms of actually getting into the industry I plan on potentially starting a small company with some friends in order to get some experience and also for the creative freedom that could come with that. However if that doesn’t work out or my mind changes over the coming year I will likely try to get freelance work whilst applying for junior environment artist roles.

I would also like to take part in game jams depending on how things turn out.

#DD2000 #futureworks

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