The glitch scene in production

It's the end of April, just thinking back that this project started like February/March and now it's coming to the end. But luckally the deadline is pusheed back a week but it doesn't mean I can relax but I have to hasten myself.

Without spoiling too much, the glitch scene will have a Red screen of death. Something that anybody experience from games and computers.

I used Fractual noise effects to create a TV noise.

I also downloaded this cool plugin called digieffects damage. It is an After Effects Plugin that allows you to create damage/corrupted clips. I've also looked at Hex Editor, that allows you reduce the bytes of files and giving them a corrupted file look. I gave it a go but I couldn't figure out how to use it.

I have to mention Metal Gear Solid because the battle with Pyscho Mantis (Boss of the level) was just beyond words. When it was released alot of people thought how to defeat him when he knows the player's control. Simply switch the controller port and the screen screen changes to below:

It reveals Hideo in an AV channel mode which I thought to myself at that time, the game switched off. You can watch the battle clip below:

Also from Metal Gear Solid series, in the second game there is a bit where Snake has to load up the old computer:

Eboy

Yesterday I was at the illustration department and I've found this cool pixelated illustrator called Eboy, his work can be purchase at 1973:

http://www.nineteenseventythree.com/index.html

Eboy
Graphics collective eBoy is Steffen Sauerteig, Svend Smital and Kai Vermehr who have been collaborating on cards and wrap with NineteenSeventyThree since 2004. Their highly recognisable unique form of artwork features a complex world of pixellated cityscapes and characters. Most recently they have designed the cover artwork for Groove Armada’s new album Soundboy Rock and single Get Down. eBoy has previously teamed up with a host of famous brands such as Adidas, Amazon, Coca-Cola, Computer Arts Magazine, DaimlerChrysler, Diesel, DKNY, Egg, Honda, Kellogs, Levi’s, Microsoft, MTV, Nestle, Nike, Paul Smith, Pepsi, Renault, The Face, The Guardian and The New York Times Magazine. To find out more about eBoy click on this link: hello.eboy.com

So when I have the time after making the film, I could made posters like these to promote my film perhaps...

Some stuff I looked at

Oh boy we have have 4 weeks till the deadline that is scary stuff. Anyway the process of my animation is going so and so, I've finally animated some parts and animated about 30 seconds.

Killer 7:

Goichi Suda is the mastermind behind this crazy game, I like the ending credits of the animation (shown above).

Teenage Mutant Hero Turtle Game:

Man this man is so in the 80's, it was released on the NES and I found the ending cutscene where it is a text base narration. When the text rolls out, the music in the background is like a typewriter.

Vector render

OK guys check this out, does this look like flash/MS Paint crappy block drawing? And yes it's a self-portrait of myself.

Actually this is from Maya with the vector render and yes I tried again and played around with the setting. This time I've changed the vector renderer to one colour fill and it looks like flash animation now. And with this new setting the render is very quick and accessible.

The print screen evidence to show that it's not made in Flash/MS Paint.

David OReilly animation that has fluid seemingless transition between 2d and 3d animation:

Vocational Study

Here is my 8-bit animation for Vocational Study:

It's a simple animation I've quickly made, you could say it's a test on 8-bit animation test.

G.U.4 logo

Hello folks, Nixon here. Keeping you guys updated, I'm working on the logo and I have to say it's very gold bling.

Here are some research I've made while looking at video game logos:

http://www.gamesradar.com/f/the-visual-evolution-of-game-logos/a-20090219123030500042

The retrospective of Megaman:
http://www.gamesradar.com/f/the-ultimate-mega-man-retrospective/a-2008062794557758069/p-3

Captain Planet game in the 80's:

The logo of 8-bit games I've looked at have several things in common such as:

• Gradient colour
• Big bold lettering/typeface
• Dynamic look
• Shadow

  

I don't like it at the moment but I think I'll increase the size of the pixel to look more pixalated.

Back from Easter

It's really hard to get back in gear after the Easter Holidays but I'm trying really hard to work.

First of all I've asked a couple of people to look at my intro of my film and the comments are really positive.
I asked Duncan who said "It feels really nostalgic because I grew up with that era of games." So my aim was already archieved within the first 30 seconds of my short film and I'm happy with it.
He really helped by saying that the scanline effect wasn't too stood out and it blended in very well or it made eye strain.

Oh yeah I decided to name my film G.U.4, when you pronounce G.U. (Jiyuu) it means freedom in Japanese "自由", the 4 number is just a parody of sequels of game leading to 4 and up.

My thoughts of of name consist of:

• Generation-up 4
• Glitch-up 4
• Game-Up 4
• Game-unlockable 4
• Ghost-User 4

I pretty much almost finish the menu interface besides from the name.

Maya Vector

Hello fellow bloggers and reader, it's been ages since I've posted something partly because I'm working and it's the Easter Holiday.

One of the things I've done is trying Maya's Vector render. Because there will be a transition of flash and 3d.

After testing it out, the rendering takes longer compared to my previous render so I think I should abandon the vector render. Although I do like the outline shaded look but it is a very time consuming process.

Production Stage

I've started the production today.

The intro for my film:

Some of the print-screens I've taken while making:

I've used Flash to create some of the menu interface.

I've used after effects to composited the clips together.

Animatic in progress

I haven't posted up my progress of my film and I feel really ahamed because the whole pre-production because I'm a slow worker and now I feel pressured.

Anyway this is my animatic for the beginning:

I will going to finish this by today for sure but I'm not really feeling motivated. But the positive side is that the story is completed and all needs to do is the storyboard and animatic and the making should starts in a hafty.

But after looking at my schedule I have to really kick myself to do the uni work because time really flies by.

Glitch

In my short film, the glitch is the cause/cataylst of making my character feel self aware of his surrounding. I imagine it to be some crazy visual effects.

The visual will be something like this:

The Pokemon glitch in the Game Boy.

I also like the pixelating of this corrupted image:

The rainbow colour glitch:

Here is a tutorial on how to make a Digital glitch effects which I found in Computer Arts.

Game Covers

I've noticed that when I hand in work it's always a last minute burn DVD so I don't go for the extra mile. But this time will be different. For example I am going to make a DVD cover for my final thing.

I've looked at Kotaku website and found this interesting article that someone is making classical covers of modern games:

The person who started this creative repackaging is Olly Moss.
http://hellforge.gameriot.com/blogs/Hellforge/Classic-Covers-for-Video-Games

I really like the texture of the game covers and also the simplicity of design, colour and layout.

Here are some real classic Artari Game covers, so I can have a reference:
http://mightygodking.com/index.php/2008/04/21/fun-from-yesterday/

I also looked at another article about making fake atari games:

And finally a tutorial on how to make a artari game cartridge on photoshop:
http://psdtuts.com/tutorials-effects/super-retro-game-cartridge-design/

Game Boy-inspired screenshots of recent video games

Recently (and by “recently” I mean “over two years ago“) Pixelation ran a little contest on their forum to see who could create Game Boy-inspired screenshots of more recent video games.

I've taken 3 images and made a comparison to it's original game. The games are Bioshock, Final Fantasy XII and Ico.

I think the whole Gameboy style visual is pretty nice expecially the lighting is green which gives a mood. For example in the Matrix, the lighting is green because it represents Matrix world while in the real world it is filtered blue.