All I want for Chrismas...

At long last, the first teaser trailer of James Cameron's Avatar is released on apple.com . For those not in the know, there has been a lot of anticipation for Cameron's upcoming masterpiece. Judging from the reaction of those lucky enough to attend a screening of a short clip some few weeks ago, for good reason too.

Inferring from the tidbits of information found on the Internet, and from the teaser trailer, the story is about a crippled soldier (Sam Worthington) who has his consciousness transferred to a blue alien being, or an avatar. As to why they did that I'm not sure, but like Titanic there is suppose to be an epic love story with another female alien amidst a war between the aliens and the humans.

The film was shot in 3D (As in stereoscopic), though I'm not sure I want to watch it with some thick, heavy polarized glasses after the less than pleasing experience with another 3D film.

Anyway, you can watch the trailer here, or just look at the screenshots below.

Spaceships and mechs, whats not to like?


Feeling a bit blue, are we?


cue snarling, angry alien


Just from the trailer, this must be the most emotionally convincing animated crying scene I have ever seen.

You jump, I jump?

Needless to say, I'll be looking forward to watch this on the big screen come this Chrismas.

Transformers RTS?

After watching a trailer about a new Mechwarrior game in the making, I got my hands on MechCommander 2 (Which is free for download and legal, btw) to re-live the exhilaration of commanding those hulking mechs into battle.

While I was busy blowing shit up in the game, I thought about another robot-related franchise: Transformers. Then I thought: wouldn't it be awesome if somebody made a Transformers real-time strategy / tactical game.

Due to the limited numbers of characters in the franchise, I would imagine the gameplay to be similiar to MechCommander or even Warhammer 40K: Dawn Of War, for example:

• Instead of mining resources, the player capture resources points to call in more allies or equipment.

• No base-building. Installations, if any, shall be in the form of transformed robots that is mobile and capable of combat.

• Limited number of units per mission. Like a squad-based strategy or tactical game.
  

• Featuring battlefields in Cybertron as well as Earth, with differing priorities in the diverse environment for opposing forces.

• Active units can salvage parts from destroyed units.

• Diverse range of unit expertise, eg. Optimus Prime is excellent in melee fights, where as Ironhide is a long range expert etc. Skill points can be earned and distributed for each unit.

• Functional combat roles for the units alternate modes. In fact, some objectives can't be achieved without using their alternate mode.

That's all I can think of off the top of my head. I hope some big shot game developer would stumble upon this post and decided that he would go ahead and make it. I wouldn't mind if he decides to share some profit with me too :P

Tron Legacy aka Tron 2 - Concept trailer

Tron, the movie that inspired a generation of visual effects and computer graphics artists, gets the sequel treatment.

Watch the trailer in youtube or HD quicktime here.

Can't wait!

Miniature renders - Homeworld

For no apparent reason, I was overcame by an urge to do some miniature renders. So, I dug up some Homeworld 2 game models which were extracted from the game and converted by Fabio from Foundation 3D, place some props in the scene and rendered away.

Hiigaran Interceptor


Hiigaran Scout


Vaygr Bomber

For the uninitiated, Homeworld 2 is a space based RTS game released in 2003. Despite it's age, their ship designs are still one of my favourites.

OPTIMUS!!

I bought this Optimus Prime toy look-alike-piece-of-plastic from Petronas, which costs a whopping RM 15.90 on top of a supposedly pre-requisite minimum gas purchase of RM 30.

Optimus Prime robot mode


Optimus Prime truck mode

Apart from the usual robot and vehicle mode, I discovered a few more intermediate modes.

Optimus Prime wheelchair mode


Optimus Prime wheelchair mode in a tunnel


Optimus Prime crossover mode in another film about sentient vehicles.

10 things I learnt from Transfomers 2 (Spoiler Warning)

If I am a film critic, I will only need three words to describe every Michael Bay movie:

It was awesome

Before you label me a Bay fanboy, let me be clear that this three words does not describe the quality of his films. It is like a scientific term, like how humans are called Homo Sapiens and salt is called Sodium Chloride. A Bay film? It was awesome.

It was awesome because they are loud, they have MANY explosions (in slow motion, no less), they have girls in sex-ed out outfits, they feature top of the line US military hardware and they are all brainless fun.

They are all awesome because Michael Bay decreed it to be awesome.

Anyway, If you look close enough, you may observe some snippets of wisdom underneath all those mindless awesomeness in Transformers 2 :

1. Two years is enough for anyone to forget everything. For example, a giant robot free-for-all in a populated city.


2. In China, you can cover up any secrets with a "gas leak". Including A huge rampaging robot tearing down the streets in public.


3. If a hot, scantily clad girl is inexplicably attracted to a nerd and smells like diesel, she's a decepticon.


4. Old alien robots must ALWAYS speak cryptically even when they can give clear directions. Clues like "tip of the dagger" and "the three kings" are common replacements for "Petra, Jordan".


5. The US military can deploy tanks, marines, jet fighters and helicopters in a middle east country at a moment's notice, while the local military can only send two helicopters (and be shot down as soon as they arrive)


6. True warriors must always sacrifice themselves to hide the key to a world-destroying weapon, instead of destroying the weapon itself.


7. When you plan to kill a kid, always kidnap his parents and bring him to the site where you plan to kill him, for no apparent reason.


8. If you claim to be an agent for a non-descript government agency, even Navy admirals will listen to you.


9. Small decepticons make great pets.


10. Giant alien robots have balls. literally.

So there. Don't forget to catch this awesome 2.5 hour US army recruitment video in the cinemas now!

Indie game dev - After shock by Liquid Rock Games

Liquid Rock Games, a Malaysian indie game developer consists of only one programmer and one artist with zero funding, nonetheless their work definitely rivals that of many professional development teams and studios with a AAA budget.

Check out their first upcoming game titled Aftershock.

More cinematic trailers

More cinematics for this year's E3.

Assassin's Creed 2



Halo: Reach

Star Wars - The Old Republic Cinematic

Another outstanding piece of work by Blur for Star Wars - The Old Republic, to be shown at E3 this year.



I can't quite put my finger on it, maybe it's the character designs or the lighting, but there seems to a distinct quality to Blur's works that makes it scream "Blluuurrr!". In a good way, of course.

Star Trek - Lens flare porn

If JJ Abrams's Trek film is anything to go by, our future is blindingly shiny.

I'm glad to say that this latest Star Trek reboot is, in many ways, superior than its predecessors. It had a good plot, a great cast (Simon Pegg was funny as hell, by the way), exciting space battles, fantastic visual effects and to top it all up, it features an orgy of anamorphic lens flare!

lens flare!


more lens flare!


lens flare on the bridge!


...and of course, on the title too!

Bear in mind these screenshots were taken from the trailer only. If you watched it carefully, you'll see that almost every shot had a lens flare in it.

Apparently, JJ Abrams opted for a shooting style that calls for a spotlight to be pointed at the camera whenever possible, and ILM was only too glad to obliged with an arsenal of new tools to simulate realistic lens flare in their VFX shots. You know...like Transformers, only more.

As a fellow CG artist, let me say that the CGI lens flares were very well done. I simply found it ironic and amusing that so much effort went into developing an effect that the CGI community once denounced as a hallmark of amateur work.

Lens flare is back in style, people !

LaMB - Spoilers!

Original, interesting, pretty and enjoyable.

These are the things that LaMB is not.

In 2007 Animax held a scriptwriting contest, inviting anime fans to submit their stories with the prospect of turning them into an anime show for TV. Carmelo S. J. Juinio, a writer from the Phillippines, was one of the finalist who submitted the script that became the basis for LaMB.

The story of LaMB takes place on a desert planet called Cerra. The prison system on Cerra has been replaced with lamination, a technology that puts criminals in sex-ed out, transparent body fitting suits that inhibits their freewill and the ability to open their mouth. These criminals, referred to as Lambs, are then put back into the society as labors (or slaves). Like a bad marketing campaign, the individials who engage the services of the Lambs are affectionately called Sheperds.

The show feature some (relatively) big names such as The Click Five and Simple Plan who provided the songs, Van Ness Wu and Josie Ho for the character voices and Vivienne Tam who provided the designs for some of the dresses.

As a CG artist, let me just get this out of the way: LaMB is not good to look at, to put it nicely. The show is produced by Peach Blossom Studio in Singapore, who used Flash for the 2D animation. The excuse for this was given by one of the staffs during an interview: The process of creating anime the Japanese way was too complex and time consuming, so they opted for Flash and promised to deliver something new and unique. It was probably another way to say "Animax spent all their budget getting big names onboard, so we can't afford to spend it on making good quality animations.". There are some 3D scenes, but even those are poorly implemented. I wondered how difficult was it to actually get a Japanese animation studio to do it in the first place.

The character voice overs are also rather unconvincing. The delivery of the dialogue is emotionless and inappropriate at best, downright cringeworthy at worst. The music is nothing to shout about either; Why they got western bands to perform the songs, when there are perfectly fine artists in Asia, is anybody's guess.

Admittedly I was at first intrigued by the idea of lamination as well as an Animax original production. But when more and more footage of the show began to surface, I started to get a bad vibe about it. Those feelings were soon proven correct when it was finally aired it last week. To Carmelo S. J. Juinio's credit, the premise of the show was quite promising on paper, only to be let down by poor execution.

LaMB is launched on several platforms including a website, graphic novels, mobile content and a video game.

Hotel 626

If you are into horror films, this interactive flash game should make you scream with giddiness. It's pretty professionally done, as it is apparently sponsored by Doritos (odd, but don't ask me why).

long dark corridors - hallmark of the horror genre

For the best scare, make sure you switch off the lights and put your headphone on. Oh, you'll also need a working webcam and a microphone to complete the game.

Good luck.

P/S : IMPORTANT! the game will only run between 6pm to 6 am, though you can change your Windows clock to trick it into running, but whats the fun in that?

Street Fighter galore

OH lookie! The Legend of Chun Li! another pile of hollywood-ize shit I don't wanna watch!

On the other hand, Street Fighter IV ( The game! dammit! ) is looking increasingly drool-worthy, visual-wise.

Dragonball: Evolution - International Trailer

WHAT

THE

F*CK !?

Dragonball - live action suckfest

Hollywood has proven many times that they have the uncanny knack to bastard-ize whatever original IP from the orient they can get their grubby paws on. One of the latest, and by far the worst, is Dragonball.

This live action adaptation of the iconic manga has apparently been in production for a while. Not only they decided to cast western actors in the place of the original, easternly characters (Justin Chatwin, the f*cking annoying emo son of Tom Cruise from War of the Worlds, as Son Goku), the producers saw fit to make it so that all the characters are almost unrecognizable from their hand drawn counterparts.

Point in case: in the early volumes of the dragonball saga, Goku will transform into a giant ape when he sees the full moon. In the movie, the giant ape has turned into a ogre from a dungeons and dragons game -

If the image above has not scare you away, point your browser here for the trailer. I have tonnes of respect for Chow Yun Fatt, but what in Pete's name is brother Fatt doing in this movie!?

Next up! Akira will be the next victim. Already there are news of the story being set in New York instead of New Tokyo, Tetsuo's name has been changed to Travis and god knows what other heretical "fixes" have they introduce to the movie.

The prevalent mentality of hollywood producers is that they know best how to make an already successful IP "better". While it is fair to say that for an adaptation certain changes has to be made to make it relevant to audiences today, that's not an excuse to arrogantly force those changes simply because you think you know better; As the old adage goes: if it ain't broken, don't fix it.

I shudder to imagine which property they are going to butcher next.

Armored Core - For Answer cinematic

Armored Core 4 had one of the best looking cinematic intro video and was one of my favorite CG game cinematic along with everything produced by Blur, Digic and Blizzard.

Then when you wonder how much better can giant fighting robots look, out comes the cinematic trailer for Armored Core: For Answer.



Watch/download Hi-Def version here.

While you're at it, enjoy the much revered Armored Core 4 cinematic as well:

Download Red Alert for free (Legally !)

In anticipation of Red Alert 3's launch on the 27th of September and to commemorate 13 years since the release of the original game, Electronic Arts has made the first Red Alert game available for download on the Red Alert 3 website, effectively rendering it freeware.

To download, point your browser HERE . Also included on the site are instructions to run RA properly on Windows XP. Have fun!

Movie - Vexille (Possible spoilers !!)

The film has been release over a year ago, but more on that later.Vexille is a 3D anime movie about a dystopian world in the future, something like the Appleseed films, so be prepared for some comparisons.

In year 2067, the UN declared a ban on robotics and cybernetics research. Japan, under the influence of the Daiwa Industries, protested against the ban and subsequently shut off all contact with other nations by means of a high tech physical and electromagnetic barrier around the archipelago country. A decade later, a US police task force named SWORD was alarmed by an android incursion and a secret meeting between US politicians and a representative from Daiwa Industries. They decided to infiltrate Japan, the country that has now become an enigma to the outside world.

The titular character is the female protagonist of the movie and a member of the SWORD team. When her team is seemingly wiped out and she finds herself in the custody of an underground resistance group in Tokyo, she discovers the horror that has beset the nation of the rising sun since the isolation.

The basic premise presents an epic and intriguing setting, even if it bears some striking similiarity to Masamune Shirow's works. Unlike Appleseed or Ghost In The Shell, however, the flick fails to develop the Vexille as the main character that we are suppose to empathize with. The relationship between Vexille and her lover Leon, who is also her team leader echoes that between Deunan and Briareous in Appleseed. Unfortunately, the romantic aspect was severely underdeveloped even when it was one of the main motivation for Vexille's actions in the film. In fact, I wouldn't know that they are a couple if not for a scene of them in bed together early in the film.

On the other hand, there's also this Maria character who is the leader of the resistance and has a history that was far more interesting than Vexille's. The film could've been named Maria and it would've made more sense.

In terms of visuals and animation, it's a mixed bag. Generally, I find the quality to be a slight notch above Appleseed, though the motion captured actions and facial expressions are somewhat lacking, if not disturbingly stiff in extreme cases. The shading is a hybrid of regular smooth shaded and cel shaded with anatomically correct character design, though I prefer Appleseed Ex Machina's stylized characters and the painterly look. However, what won me over was Vexille's art direction, cinematography and the AMAZING attention to detail (IMHO easily put Appleseed to shame). In many cases, it was the cinematography that saved an otherwise zombie-like motion captured scene.

All in all, I thought it was a solid production. Back to the topic of the film's release: unlike Appleseed, I did not come across any marketing materials related to this movie. No trailers, no nothing. Ironically, I only came across this movie when I was looking up information on Ex Machina and has been looking for a while before I finally bought it. Considering the production value, I'm surprise nobody bothered to come up with a decent marketing campaign!

On a very unrelated note: I also just watched M.Night Shyamalan's The Happening. What a mess. Ever had one of those conversation where you're sure you're talking about a specific subject, but the other guy keep rambling and mumbling on and off topic incoherently? This film is like that.

I cannot imagine how much worse his films can get.

Bomber man

I've been playing Bomberman (aka Dyna Blaster) a lot these days. I dunno, there is this mesmerizing calm that overcomes me when I blow things up, old school style. Anyway, I couldn't sleep so I cooked up this rendering.

Everything from modeling, texturing to rendering took about 6 hours.

For those who want to play this game again, check out abandonia.com for all your nostalgic needs.

Movie - Journey to the Center of the Earth

The center of the Earth was....shiny

First of all, I did not enjoy Journey to the Center of the Earth. It was cliche, corny and the romance sub-plot was downright cringe-worthy. It is basically a re-telling of Jules Verne's adventure epic with a modern twist and fancy CGI, but lacking any originality and imagination. According to the plot, Verne's literature turns out to be every bit the truth, which was the perfect excuse to lift the settings straight off the book and apply it in the film without having to come out with anything new.

I was never eager to watch it, having viewed the trailer which did very little to hide the fact that it is just another Brendan Fraser action-adventure comedy drama (what a mouthful). The only reason I watched it at the cinema anyway was because it was the cheapest 3D movie in town.

This being my first 3D movie experience, I was hoping that the visuals would help me ignore the awful storyline. Unfortunately, the 3D glasses provided by the cinema was not ergonomic to say the least. What made it worse was that I was wearing glasses, so the 3D glasses was actually hanging precariously on the tip of my nose all the time. I ended up using my finger to hold the 3D glasses up throughout the whole movie just so it won't slip off.

Wearing the 3D glasses also darken the visuals somewhat. Considering the story spent a significant amount of time in relative darkness, I found it at times difficult to discern anyting on screen at times. The problem was compounded whenever there were fast moving scenes which made it even more difficult to follow.

I was expecting a fresh cinema experience with literally popping visuals, which is what 3D cinema is all about. What I got in the end was an strained finger and a mild urge to throw up.