Tom and Jerry - Spotlight Collection, Volume 2

I just saw at IGN that a new Tom and Jerry DVD set is out. A heads up to Tom and Jerry fans.

Click here to see what's in it.

"Plucker" in Stores Now

"THE PLUCKER IS OUT!! 160 page hardbound illustrated novel. Over 100 paintings. All for $24.95. Brom combines his arresting illustrations and compelling storytelling to create a world where fairytale tradition collides with vileness and depravity, suffering and consequence. Published by Abrams. Available in most bookstores."

nuff said.

click here to visit the site.

Condemned

I gave Monolith a hard time with F.E.A.R but credit where credit is due , they make kick ass games. A friend showed me this upcoming monolith game for xbox 360 and it looks amazing in every aspect , i might have to buy a 360 to play this.

Make sure you watch the trailers

check it out here.

The Problem of "Zombie Eyes" in Games

So you are playing a game and you are supposed to be involved in the story emotionally , then this NPC comes along and while delivering his line his eyes never moves , never blinks he stares ahead fixedly even though in the context of the scene he should be at least looking at you.

This is the biggest problem with game animation at the moment , especially in FPS games. The only game that came close to breaking that barrier is half life 2 , I applaud valve for taking the effort to put in facial animation that reflected the characters mood. And the characters blinked and followed you with their eyes and there were even some instances of eye darts.

Small as it might seem that kind of detail stuff makes the game so much better. And with the technology we have nowadays there is no excuse to not have that stuff in agame.

Most recently I am playing Quake 4 and its a great game , they obviously invested a lot of money in hiring professional actors for voice acting and it shows , yet the npc's all look braindead and suffer from what i mentioned above. how hard can it be to at least have some procedural blink animation on those characters?

The day we will have realistic facial animation in games is the day games will leap ahead in immersiveness. I cant wait for it.

Shortfilm by Cube

Yet another awesome french shortfilm. Must be something in their water...

click here to be impressed.

Manwatching: A Field Guide to Human Behaviour

My roommate was reading this book and I got curious and ordered a used copy from amazon (its out of print) and man does it rock!

The book discusses in detail gestures humans make and why they make them. there are a lot of pictures and illustrations too and its written in a very easy to read fun way. If you are a animator this is one book you dont want to be without.

As of know there are 3 used copies left on amazon so dont wait :)

Click here to check it out.

F.E.A.R the Bookcase

So I just beat FEAR , it was a great game but it also has the age old FPS design flaws that should not be there in the year 2005.

in Fear you play as a elite special forces soldier whose team deals with paranormal stuff , you are after this one guy who controls clone soldiers with his mind.

You also have this special ability to slow down time , in short there is nothing you cant take on but the bookcase.

Now what is with the bookcase you might ask? is it a boss?

There is this section of the game where your objective is clearly visible behind a breakable glass , and all that stands between you and that objective is the damn metal bookcase. But unlike what the games marketing boosts the only objects you can interact with are a computer monitors and barrels. The bookcase is not one of them. Thats just bad game design when they make you go into some cliche airduct to reach to your objective. I spent 30 minutes trying to find a way to jump into the airduct and ended up using god mode to pass the obstacle.

Note to developers:

-Let us interact with the environment. Just being able to knock down a couple computer monitors is not interaction.

-Try to have some variation in the environment , enemies and weapons. There are like 5 enemies throughout the game , you are always in some office building and the weapons are all the same.

I am looking forward to the game that will take FPS's to that next level. Meanwhile if you are looking to relieve some stress after work , FEAR is your game , it has great enemy AI and awesome battles.

Pbase.com

If you are looking for pictures for reference or other purposes forget google image search and check this site out. A lot of high res images and logical search results unlike google's useless image search.

Click here to check it out.

Depeche Mode New Album!

I am so glad i decided to stop by virgin today otherwise i would have missed this. Depeche Mode is back and better then ever the new album is flawless it makes you forgive them for exciter. Now if only i can find tickets for the concert...

Light with Style

I dont know about you folks but i am a mood lighting freak. I love playing around with lighting. this store called "generate" has some of the coolest lights i have seen , pretty affordable too.

Click here to check it out.

Annotate Pro

This is one of the greatest tools you can have as a animator. Annotate pro is a on screen drawing tool that lets you draw anything you want on top of your app , then when you hit right click you can go back and work in your app while displaying what you drew on top. therefore it is excellent for checking spacing , arcs , to mark the position of something you have to counter animate frame by frame , to give crits to people and to write funny notes on your coworkers monitors when they take a bathroom break. There is a 30 day trial you can try and the full thing costs 19$ or so anyway.

Click here to check it out.

Cintiq is Finally Here!

Wooooooooooooooooooooooooot!

This saturday I went and picked up my wacom cintiq 21ux which i have been waiting for since early june. i'll post a very in depth review later on but for now let me say:

IT FRIGGIN ROCKS!

This is really the next level when it comes to interaction , it feels like you are really putting pen on paper and just letting ideas flow , I animated some small tests with it and combined with annotate pro this was the best animation experience i had. When you program the side keys you dont even have to touch the keyboard in maya when animating or modeling.

It is pricy but if you can afford one dont think twice and just get it , its worth every penny.

Venom is in Spiderman 3!

So i was randomly checking up IMDB today and guess what I saw.

Topher Grace as Venom....The casting director must be on crack or something cause I sure dont see no venom when I look at this guy. But on the plus side Venom will be in the movie and most likely he'll be all cg anyway i cant care less if Rick Moranis played him. Yet another movie i cant wait for.

Grandma vs Idiot Driver

This is one absolutely excellent vid that was captured by some skateboarders.

Click here to watch.

Free and Useful Stuff

A friend showed me this website where you can download dozens of super useful free utilities. Things such as the countdown timer pictured above which you can set to display various deadlines and many many others.

Take a look at it here.