Silent Hill:


Team Fortress 2:

I think it would work because my character in the fim would be more self-aware when he journeys and progresses within the story.
I think it would work because my character in the fim would be more self-aware when he journeys and progresses within the story.
First of all, I didn't post anything yesterday because of a certain party I had to attend. So I pretty much broke the cycle...
Hideo Kojima is a genius when it comes to making video game. He is well known for his creation Metal Gear Solid series. I remember when I first watched this trailer, they first shown the history of Metal Gear Solid from the playstation era to the newest form in Smash Bros: Brawl.
And yes Kojima, I did like it.
Watch it below:
It created an emotional response when I watched it, I remembered when I first played the playstation game and the Gamecube Version until they shown the new videos of the PS3 MGS4. I was amazed and speechless and so many memories resurfaced.
I really liked the transition of the Playstation Snake to the old Snake near the end. I looked framed by framed to see how they done it and I've found out that it was a quick fade away so the transition looks natural.
And yes Hideo Kojima knows how to tease the fans.
I've found an interesting video of Resident Evil. It a compliation of the series of the character Chris Redfield.
What I found interesting is that there is a highly difference in each generation. For example the first game, the character animation is really stiff and the voice acting for the character is really bad and unconvincing.
So the point is that I might include a 3d character in my short film and this would be a good visual reference on the style.
I've made this some time ago but you get a feel of how the short films starts in the beginning.
Anyway I've added a static noise because it has the old televison feel which I intended because I want to bring in nostalgic feeling when they see an 8-bit pixel.
But from what I've shown to people, they said they do sense a old gam intro which I was intended to do.
I will improve when I finalized everything.
I have the Flu at the moment so I couldn't do much work so I might blog some crazy stuff because because I'm very dizzy and headache.
Anyway back to the main point, I had a tutorial with Chris Shepherd today.
Basically I've told him about my story and planning, he said that I've done enough research and need to move on to the preproduction.
He shown me two animation and told me that if I can figure out the structure/logic, I will have a solid film.
Right now I guess the theme will be the interaction between the Player and the Game character. Even though it's not what I had in mind but I guess it's simplistic enough for a short film.
Manipulation
Director - Daniel Greaves
Manipulation is an animation about a animator drawing a character who tries to get away from the animator. The character interacts with it's environment such as the red paint and the cartoon character think of uses on how to use it.
The main obstacle for the cartoon character is the main animator who often stops the cartoon character from escaping till the end. I liked the way, the 2d character turns into a 3d to escape into the real world.
What makes the film funny is the anticipation and the sense of the unexpected, and the way in which it playfully comments on the animation process.
What I can apply to my film is the structure such as the character introduction (how it is made, it's personality), it encounters the animator, several attempts, it was thought it was destoryed when it was crumbled, form into the real world and finally escaping.
Looney Tunes - Duck Amuck
Director - Chuck Jones
What I liked about Looney Tunes Duck Amuck, it was surreal and was fun to watch because of it's dramatic irony.
At first it shows the Daffy being tricked by the animator because he keeps changing the environment when Daffy is about to adapt to it's environment therefore we know whats happening before the character and that makes us feel absorb into it.
The unexpecting funny part was when Daffy plays the guitar but it makes an unexpecting sound, this leads Daffy building up anger and constant struggle between the animator and Daffy.
In the end it revealed Bugs Bunny who was the animator which makes it even funny because these characters has been constantly arguing.
To conclude:
So in the end I have to add a series of challenge for the game character who wants to stops the manipulation.
Cheers for Chris who has been coming into our university and giving us guidance.
Need to do storyboard/animatic asap.
I've looked at sample of classic 8-Bit games and I've found this game for the Nintendo DS where it has most of the old forgotten game all in one. Check it out:
I've just watched the sequel trailer for the next game "Retro Game Challenge 2":
I really liked the short scene where it shows two player in the living room playing the Famicon (NES), it really does make me feel very nostalgic.
But I think it's very useful for getting the 8-bit feel as a visual reference.
Hello my blog readers, I've done something productive for a change. Week 5 wasn't the best productive week I have because of the flatpack festival.
Anyway after looking at David O'Reilly, I thought I should try out some stuff out.
Here is something I've made quickly and tested:
I have to stay I'm pretty happy with the results but one of the concerns I have is the rendering took some time so I'll probably need to think more about getting good speed rendering and lighting/shader.
I've also looked at a tutorial on how to make a 3/4 perspective camera in Maya:
http://drawlogic.com/2007/05/06/howto-setup-orthographic-camera-in-maya/
I'm finished going to the Flatpack Festivals and it is amazing. The last event I went was Shorts of Wall because I worked on a film Momster which was shown and it's great because alot of people said it was good and the good news is that it was nominated in the BAFTA Awards, how cool is that!!
Anyway back to the main topic, in the Unpacked event. The first and best talk featured with David O'Reilly. I've seen his feature short film in Futureshorts and I liked it for it's unique style. Once I've heard the person himself is coming, I've decided to go even when I'm not a morning person.
Please say Something is his film which won a Berlinale award:
"Set in the distant future, this is the story of a troubled relationship between an abusive Mouse and his wife, an intensely emotional cat. "
I didn't know the animator was 23 and he already archeived a film award. Also he already contributed to films Son of Rambow and Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy, films I've already seen. It was an honour to meet the person himself and what surprised me is that he is actually a college drop-out and look at his success.
His presentation talk was very interesting and I couldn't help myself writing notes. He was very passionate with film/animation theory and gave some of his thoughts within the industry.
I think one of the messages he made was very useful and that is "Authenticity".
Oh yeah the time lapse print screening seems really cool when he showed the process of Please Say Something.
I've spoke to him after his talk and man was it cool. I've asked whether the 3/4 perspective camera was inspired by video games but he replied saying that Jason (John Arne Sæterøy) and Chris Ware known for their comic book are the inspiration.
Some of the things he made me thought about is the rendering for the film in 3d application. For example, Aliased Pixel is where it has no smooth mesh, no motion blur, no raytracing or complex shading.
You can read his interview from the Berlinale Awards:
http://jotta.com/jotta/article?no=2575
Website:
http://www.davidoreilly.com/
And here are stuff I've made in Maya for the last couple of days:
I've made the mind bubble from Illustrator and imported it into Maya. The background is a nurb plane with paper texture.
Raytracing shadows are amazing but takes ages to render. The idea comes from the art direction of paper mesh or traditional materials and Little Big planet.
Cavell Ord Shrimpton (one of the new motion graphics tutor) suggested me to change the mind bubble texture into more cardboard based so I later did and it looks sweet. She also suggest the background have some creative stuff in it such as finger painting or face paint.
At the moment, my ideas are little black stickmans all gather (therefore community) would all mind bubble of the same thing and a lightbulb appears (An idea/creativity) and it rotates revealing the text Creative community.
An independent music video featuring DOOKIE-POO and CHOROCCO TOFU with music by THE MONTAUK PROJECT. Watch as Dookie travels through some of the greatest, classic arcade games of all time to save the girl.
What I like about is that it uses so many classic old 8-bit video game references especially it used Super Mario like saving the girl and the level set up. It really does bring nostalgic when I watch Dookie-Poo travels throughout the classic game.
The introduction was really fun with the arcade leading into the game with it's statistics.
And the credits of the film with the high score is ingenius but who made what?
Check out the website at:
http://www.dookie-poo.com/
Synopsis
"We Are the Strange focuses on "two diametrically opposed outcasts" as they "fight for survival in a sinister fantasy world." These two outcasts are an abused woman named Blue who has a mysterious degenerative disease and a living doll named eMMM.
The two meet in the Forest of Still Life, where Blue follows eMMM to Stopmo City on a search for his ideal ice cream parlor. Upon arriving in Stopmo City, they are caught in the middle of a fierce battle between bizarre monsters, making their progress difficult. Thankfully, a hero named Rain appears and easily destroys every monster that faces him. Blue meets Rain before he partakes in an "impossible battle against the source of all that is evil in Stopmo City." During the battle, Rain, along with Ori are crushed by Him after Rain states he wants to avenge his son. When the outlook seems grim, a fist made of aluminum foil breaks through the ground and starts the final showdown between good and evil.
Six alternate soundtracks and author's commentary, including soundtrack by Noise Inc. are available on the DVD. The music used in We Are the Strange Trailer has been made by chiptune artist YERZMYEY/AY-RIDERS (a cover of t.A.T.u.'s "30 minut") using ZX Spectrum computer."
Probably the most weirdest abstract film I've ever seen, I'm not sure whether Kings of Power 4 Billion % or We are the strange is weirder but they're pretty much at the same wavelength.
I'm starting to lose the point it gets to be too much and is weak in the area of getting the viewer involved with the characters and story. Very little of the story is explained, so you can get lost in a hurry and never recover. After a while, I found myself not caring what was happening and just attempted to enjoy the strange visuals and sound- effects.
I really like the intro of the film, introducing all the cast of the character defining who is evil or good and the cameraman is defined as netural representing us.
Websites:
http://www.wearethestrange.com/
http://wearethestrange.blogspot.com/
At the moment I'm trying to at least get a rough storyboard by today and improve it by the end of Week 5. So my intentions is to end the preproduction stage by week 5 and start the production of animation at week 6 but I have a feeling that the preproduction will go longer...
Basically what happened in week 4 is that I've been playing around with my idea of my film.
I need to clarify this information: " I am making a short film told in a video game style."
Chris Shepherd has been coming in and helping out the 3rd Year Animation & Live Action people. He reviewed my work and said that he likes the idea but he said I need to establish my character's psychology/personality and recommended me watching Pixar's short film Knick Knack and the flash Animator vs Animation. Also the character needs to be at odds of the landscape.
I have several ideas of my story:
One of the things we discussed was how I can have a muscular character who was designed as a war machine game character but he prefers to be a gentler person like flowering and this would be a "Dramatic Irony." One of the visual we said was how the bullets could be seed and it grows out of the level bring the character to a different world.
I've also researched Digital cinematography/layout based on video game so I can get the best results in portraying the film. I looked at side view camera, 3/4 perspective, overhead view, top perspective and 1st person view.
I'll keep you guys posted.
Hi guys, here is some update on the 181 stuff I'm doing:
181 promo:
I've played around with after effects to create it, I really liked the stencil alpha effects but the animation of the stripes needs to be better.
The 181 awards ident:
I've animated it and the feedback I've got from people were positive. People thought the glow of the golden trophy was a pretty touch-up.
I've talked to people and they said that if I use the 3d file such as object file, I'll be able to make a replicate trophy from the product design group.
The good people of Gametrailer made review videos of recent new games.
I've edited out the game review so you get to see the actual footage, you can view it here:
I like the visual transition of the 8 bit generation blowing out towards the screen in 3d cel-shaded style. I think I might use this as a visual reference for my short film.
It communicates very well in each chapter covering the Story, Design, gameplay and presentation.
I really liked the way how the camera view of it. It really does make Mario look small and vunerable.
Here is a character I've looked through Flicker, quite cute I say.
Anyway I was playing around in Maya and created my 8-Bit character in retro 3d style. I played around with the lighting I only used a Directional Light, Mental Ray and Raytraced options. The lighting is amazing with it's soft shadow touch, however it took me about 5 minutes to render a single frame in HD size even though the polygons are just single face cube. I'm still not sure on how I got the results but hopefully I'll found the reason.
Now I need to concentrate on my storyboard and preproduction for now...
I know this should of been done ages ago but I finally got it sorted:
My Aims:
I aim is to create a short animation film. In the end I want the film to be used for my portfolio/show reel and hopefully would be shown in film festivals.
My primary objective is to show my visual narrative skills in story telling because I’ve feel that a lot of student work tend to focus more about the visual rather than the narration.
My secondary objective is to make the finish piece look professionally made. I want show my technical skills in applications such as Flash and 3d applications so I can show my abilities in animating, modelling and visual effects.
Quick concept:
My inspiration comes from early video game culture such as the 8 bit era because I’ve grew up playing game and it’s a world I know and became a crucial part of my childhood.
To explore the relationship between the gamer and the game character.
Learning Outcome:
Here are some of my learning outcome:
Here's my finalized Video pitch:
Myspace: http://www.myspace.com/anamanaguchi
Check out their live:
So hopefully my film have that kind of sound. I will be working with Tao Lin who I worked with before in my Rehash - ReSketch video: