Tuesday, April 19, 2011

I Like Comics.

Got my camera fixed.

Could ‘Fanboy’s Photoblog’ make a comeback?

Probably not, that shit was stupid.

WalkingDead_Lomo1

Can’t wait till Book Seven comes out, but I’m running out of shelf space. I have more graphic novels than actual novels. Does that make me uncultured?

This is another try at Lomo style photoshopping, but I took it straight from an online tutorial that didn’t really explain much, so, uh, I don’t know, don’t judge it too harshly?

Still, original content, be happy. Break from the EPIC-OTW’s.

Cause, you know, nothing about exam week is epic.

Also, the watermark is the kiddy version. Don’t steal my stuff, cause it’s so good. I’ll use my awesome (beginner/intermediate level) Illustrator prowess to whip up some sleek and sexy watermark with lines and twisty morphing letters and a catchphrase. Watch out, 2011.

Listening to Adele makes me artsy. Might go on a midnight photo-taking sesh ‘round the neighbourhood with Adele wailing about heartbreak to accompany me.

You’re welcome to join in with me and Remembering Sunday when she’s not too lazy to accompany us.

Should be fun, kids.

Monday, April 11, 2011

EPIC Short Film of the Week

Animooted and in French!

DAT AXE THROW.

1 Part cute beaver
1 Part Sims talking
1 Part sick fucking axe attack

SAUTEE UNTIL AWESOME.

Wednesday, April 6, 2011

EPIC Fan-made Title Sequence of the Week

X-Men: First Class Title Sequence from Joe D! on Vimeo.

Spitting image of 60’s title sequences. If you’re a dedicated fanboy/girl you can probably guess which characters those stylized figures represent.

Apart from that expertly recreated, and pretty distinctive style of the 60’s, I love the soundtrack that goes under it. Melding of eras, beauty to my ears.

What It’s All About

Ryan Woodward is a vet of the motion picture industry—he’s done drawn storyboards for dozens of big-name features dating back to last decade, and some blockbusters like the Spider-Man series and the upcoming Cowboys and Aliens.

Basically, he’s the guy who gets the vision of the images on paper before any other kind of production begins, but, he’s also an animator, a figure artist, and a really cool dude to aspire to. He’s fast become one of my role models.

A while back, I posted a really evocative, simple, and elegant 2-D animated short film that he independently produced, called Thought of You.

I can’t find the original post, but I posted before on this short, and it’s great.

But here’s the kicker—he made a documentary about coming up with the idea and some commentary on being an artist in general, really good words from this guy’s mouth. I think he hits it on the nose about the creative passion that most artists have—the need to get it out. Seeing something in your head, and seeing it on a page, on a screen, canvas, sheet music, hearing it on guitar, whatever—there’s always that need to simply do it because you have to.

Thought of You - Making Of from Ryan J Woodward on Vimeo.

Sunday, April 3, 2011

I’m well aware of what this post means.

I apologize in advance.

tl;dr? Fuck you, read it anyways.

I don’t really pay attention to haters. Haters on what? Just haters in general. The flamers, the trolls, the people who respond with bad grammar and one-sided arguments, the shit-disturbers, the idealists, the nihilists, and the simple-minded folk who reject an opinion that doesn’t correspond with theirs, and make it intensely noticeable on the internet.

Usually, fuck ‘em all. Usually, I don’t give a shit what haters say, because I’m better than them. Usually, they are just obnoxious asshats that are little more than a speck of forgotten dirt in an entire city that tramples on them and their self-righteous, derogatory, and loathing hatred for happiness.

Usually, I ignore it.

But, fuck you people who don’t like new Green Lantern Wondercon footage.

Yeah, fuck you. Not because you don’t like it—I’m fine with that, you don’t have to like a trailer because your entitled to your opinion. No, fuck you, because I’ve been slowly discovering what goes on behind the making of visual media in terms of the effort, manpower, and efficiency that’s needed to create anything resembling a product worthy for green-lighting.

To the ‘CGI isn’t developed enough’ bandwagonners, what the FUCK do you know about creating CGI? What are you basing your value judgement of Green Lantern’s preliminary footage that’s not even completed yet on? It looks like a video game? Well, no shit you dolt, of course it does, it’s fucking computer-generated imagery.

imageWhy don’t they cast real aliens, from real planets? Yeah, they should stop cutting corners by designing completely new characters from scratch. This CGI is too CGI-y, it’s not real enough.

Yeah, well what the fuck is real about an intergalactic space police force with thousands of unique alien species as members? There’s nothing fucking real about comic books and superheroes. There’s nothing real about the adventures they go on or the villains they fight or the crises they have to avert. Comic books are not about what’s real.

If you were even interested in this film at all—if you did more than just hear that this was a movie about a superhero, that Green Lantern is not just the black guy from the cartoon, that there’s anything more to it then ‘big name actor to make it mainstream while cashing in on the fanboys’; you would know comic books is exactly about the opposite of real.

And guess what, the same goes for the movie. How do you make something that’s the farthest from real, into a reality? You grind for months in post-production, go through dozens of phases of planning and production, meetings on how to successfully adapt this character from the comics and keep its design style, or what changes should be made to that character to improve it. You do what you do, as a CGI artist, as someone who knows what they’re doing, to make the movie some money, and on the side, get some satisfaction that the fans will love what you’ve done, because you love what you’re doing.

That’s the essence of creating art—creating movies, comic books, games, any other type of visual media—you try to create a reality for the audience that immerses them, gets them into it, makes them feel like they’re the part of the world that you’ve made, the world that was started from scratch from a template, a sketch, an idea, and make it come to fruition. That’s what visual storytelling is.

And if you fucking haters don’t appreciate it enough, not because you like hating, not because your opinion is invalid, but because you don’t even know the fucking tenth of what goes into creating CGI, then it’s your loss. You won’t be able to enjoy even the upcoming hype its going to get because you refuse to believe in something other than a delusional standard you set for yourself that prevents you from properly enjoying something for what its worth.image

What did you want? Black Swan in space?

Did you think Tron 2, 2012, Battle:LA, District 9, and others were successes because of their incredible writing or direction (some of them are, actually); no, it’s because they’re carried by the ability of their digital artists to recreate worlds that immerse their audience. That’s the job of a digital artist. That’s what they fucking do.

That’s what sells. The marketing of the fabricated world being reality. That’s why you’ll probably watch it anyways, and then post online, much like in the style of this blog, of why it didn’t live up to your ‘expectations’ because you expected exactly what you wanted to expect beforehand.

You’ve critiqued the film before you’ve seen it.

Oh wait, you’re already doing that.

Not to mention the care in faithfulness they’ve maintained to the original comic book mythos; Parallax, Sinestro, Krona, Rot Lop Fan, friggin’ Apros, for Christ’s sake, who looks exactly like he does in the comics—if any of those don’t ring a bell, you don’t have the FUCKING RIGHT to criticize it before it’s even been finished production.

And the CGI isn’t ‘developed enough’ because it hasn’t completed development of the CGI, you fucktard. They learned from the teaser, not to release any more marketing footage because they want to continue working on the CGI—you know what that means? More people working more hours to please you, you ungrateful cretin.

imageMaybe that’s why you’re wondering where the marketing for it is, apart from the recent WonderCon footage release and their panels at other conventions. Why there’s no online or televised marketing. Because they want to make it as good as possible. But guess what, there’s always the haters.

Be it the uptight, relentless hard-core fanboys, the anti-CGI guys, or the film elitists who shouldn’t even have a say in the genre of ‘superhero action’, all of you are going to have your panties in a knot over this one.

Because you guys are haters, and you fucking suck ass.

If you want to drain your own happiness like a Black Lantern drains emotions, be my guest. But don’t express it to me. Don’t even express it publicly. Seal your unjustified hate in a plastic room so you can freely be a tard in private. I don’t want to witness that indecency. I don’t want to witness your disrespect for motion picture professionals.

Cause if you had any idea how much effort goes into creating something like this, of this epic scale, you wouldn’t be a hater. You’d be appreciating every single fucking frame of that new trailer. Every composited scale on an alien body. Every artificial set extension. Every trace of rotoscoping . Every goddamn digital lighting effect, prosthesis application, environment texture, sound design, motion capture sequence, and everything else that goes into simply making the world look, sound, and feel real enough for you.

Don’t tell me the CGI sucks. That it’s a CGI shit-fest. That it’s underdeveloped.

Cause you know what, hater?

You don’t know what the fuck you’re talking about.

Oh yeah, and Ryan Reynolds is a decent actor, get over being bitter that he plays a typecast cheeky/suave 20-something, you jealous turd.

Yeah, I’m mad. Deal with it.

Green Lantern is the shit. In Brightest Day, motherfuckers.

1301026408044

Saturday, April 2, 2011

Holy Fucknuts, what?

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It’s good year to be a geek.

Green Lantern’s Light, bitches.

Excuse me, while I go clean my keyboard.

EPIC Game Trailer of the Week

An indie game developer called Adhesive Games Ltd. took 9 months to hash out this beautiful, ridiculous, unbelievable trailer:

That HUD. Oh my God, that HUD.

Apparently, it’s with Unreal Engine 3, but who really cares what they used to make this, the HUD, the environments, and the combat look incredible.

An FPS on steroids, with giant mechs and bigger guns. And rocket-packs.

And that HUD (Heads-Up Display); Jesus Christ, its like if Gran Turismo 5 transported itself into a mech and added everything Japanese animation has taught us about futuristic fucking awesomeness, all into a pretty package (that’s still under development, this is the first build release).

Remember, it took them nine months. Fucking. Ridiculous.