CGI-brows - they're the future

Well, not really. Unless you love crazy eyebrows XD

CGI-brows from Andrew Gaynord on Vimeo.

Not much to say about it, I just thought it was a good short film about a very strange technique.

'Love is War' and 'Meltdown'

I've become a bit obsessed with Vocaloid lately, and a couple of videos in particular keep my attention more than others (most of the songs are amazing, but I'm just after the visuals with the audio today).

First off is Love is War, a song by the most well-known Vocaloid, Miku Hatsune.

(subbed for your convenience ;P)


The fast paced shots, the constantly moving camera, the solid black shading. These are the 3 main things I love about this video. It matches the feel and the power of the song immensely, although with Miku's voice, song of the feeling is lost, as her voice is mainly designed for 'cutesy' songs and doesn't quite have the power for it (being a synthed voice doesn't help either).

This cover version I found, however (sung by a real person), adds power to the song that I think's needed to give the video its full effect.




The second video is Meltdown, sung by another Vocaloid, Rin Kagamine.



The constantly shifting overlays make it hard to feel that the still images are outstaying their welcome, as they always give you a sense that there's something more to look at the in the picture. Mixed with 3D graphics and amazing emotion-filled vocals (which like I said, for a synth voice its hard to do), and I think this is one of the best Vocaloid videos out there.

An odd game's (kind of) redesign

Anyone here heard of Terramex? It's a game I've got on my old (and awesome) Acorn Archimedes, which I still love playing. Trouble is, not many people of heard of it. Truth be told, I like it that way, but it'd be nice to see it's weirdness get a little recognition in the odd obscure reference or picture.

So I decided to redesign and recreate in 3D certain aspects of the game. Y'know, as a little warm up for the final year. Here's what I've got so far.

Some characters/enemies (reference pics below).


Top left is Henri Beaucoup (in the middle), who I designed with his chin way too pointy ^^;
Middle right is Big John Caine (to the right of Henri in the pic), who's my first ever attempt at a jaw shape like that.
And in the background's a really creepy looking feint image of Prof Eyestrain (top right in my sketches)

Middle left's a really freaky monster that doesn't seem to do anything. It just had a really unnatural repeating movement and scared the hell out of me as a kid.
Bottom left's a dragon-pterodactyl type thing that flies in straight lines and kills you if you touch it. It can get kind of annoying when you get you're timing wrong on one part of it.

And finally, bottom right is the 'main baddy', if you will (well, I get the comet's that, but it doesn't do much in the long run). They randomly pop out of rocks and kill you. Timing means nothing to them, which is why they're a total wind up. This one's next to the first item you collect in the game; the vacuum cleaner. It flies. Awesome.

Right, now doodles and explainations are out of the way, here's a 3D model of the flying thing I started work on. I haven't got a clue how to UV unwrap it to texture it though :/

Not bad for a few hours work, if I do say so myself. And this coming from the person who had a challenge with Sir Cuthbert and his mad lot.

See the world in Tetris. Or the head, at least.

Some 3D art I found while on my daily roamabout on Kotaku.

Click the image to go to the website.


This is pretty much how I see things after I spend a little too long on Tetris, a close representation of the 'Tetris Effect', if you will.

I'm planning to try out a strange mini-project sometime this week, which'll involve sketches and 3D work, if all goes well. I'll write another post about that in a short while.

I found an amazing animation on YouTube called Draw With Me.



I'll admit, I cry easily, and this was no exception. The built up of the music and the expressions of the characters, along with the message really got to me. The end part's a little....strange, to say the least (once you realise what happened, it's even more amazing though), but I still love how effective it was in showing you what it wanted to show (despite seemingly following anime drawing cliches).

Manga Jiman is all done!

So I spent the last nearly 3 weeks working on my manga Jiman contest entry and sent it off a couple of days ago. I then got a PSP and Dissidia: Final Fantasy, which accidently took up the last couple of days of my time.

There was a load of stuff I wanted to mention here, like different artists and stuff, but they've totally slipped me mind right now. From now on, I'm making a list of things I want to mention, that should help.

Planning to email about the client project this month, along with trying out more styles / 3D work so I can at least have a portfolio started. DeviantART has a portfolio service now, which I intend to use :)

Hmm..

So not much happened that was worth posting about the last 10 days. Still gotta get my games work together (and nab some screen shots of the level) and all that. Suppose I'll just say what I've been up to lately.

Well, I'm gonna start work on the Manga Jiman contest (deadline's September 25th). Finally getting more of an idea what to do with that. I've started taking commissions to get used to working with different ideas and styles and stuff. Currently on my 3rd commission, and right now, even tho' I'm staying close to my anime style, I'm getting more confident in asking for critique and using it to improve what I'm working on. I've also taken up voice acting. Strange one, but if I can provide a voice or two to my own work and hopefully some others, then that'll be all the better ^^

Add that to trying to play my clarinet better and do some more work on 3DS Max and I don't think I'm doing too bad :) Well, by my standards, anyway. I'll find out a few practitioners to talk about for Tuesday, along with my elusive games work (which as I've said before, is highly not worth it, but really needs posting).

A Rare opportunity?

Bad pun, I know, but throw stuff at me later (when you find out why it's so bad). This week's updates are Wednesday (today, whee), Friday and Sunday, 'cause go figure, I've got stuff on the days I planned up update this blog.

So, a news article on Kotaku reported that Rare is currently seeking designers to help with new games for Project Natal. The strange thing is that because this is a 'new' way of playing games, they're not showing any preference to previous work and design experience, which is a good opportunity for those who don't have much experience yet (okay, now throw stuff at me).

I also found this gallery of various boxart designs. I love seeing all the different ways you can design a cover to something, and often wonder how they manage to make each one so different. It's an essential design technique I still haven't got my head around.

Hopefully next update'll be something that's not on Kotaku, but it's such an easy place for this kinda thing (note to self: find something not games related for Friday)