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nigelgodrichproducer · 5 years ago

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Nigel Q&A in The Guardian

https://www.theguardian.com/culture/live/2020/feb/21/nigel-godrich-webchat-ultraista-radiohead-producer

Nigel did a very nice Q&A for The Guardian. Reproduced here for posterity’s sake:

Q: I saw Atoms for Peace at the Roundhouse [in London]. The lot of you seemed exceptionally into it. How much of a thrill was it to play with Flea? He seemed totally lost in the gig at points. I think Flea is one of the greatest human beings I've ever had the good fortune to spend time with, let alone make music with. He's such a generous player and probably my most rock'n'roll moment is standing on stage staring at his face 6 inches from mine, or when he jumps up on my riser. Massive respect to that guy, and you should read his book. Q: Nowadays, I’m asked to master tracks for Instagram and Spotify as opposed to vinyl and CD. What’s your view about how streaming has affected everything? – John Davis, Metropolis Mastering That's what my book's going to be about... Q: How do you use intuition as a tool in your productions and how do you know when something you are working on is finished? You mentioned Talk Talk and Mark Hollis – he stopped when he thought he could not add anything new. Can you imagine yourself doing something entirely different? Definitely. And it has crossed my mind many times - working more in visuals, videos, even film. But these days the hard thing is finding the time, when you keep getting sucked into exciting things you want to do, and can do. I could definitely write a book and I've enjoyed doing stuff on radio. Q: Is there any track from any artist you’ve worked with that you are particularly proud of? Something that brings back great memories when you listen to it? Sure! How about Diamond Bollocks from Beck's Mutations? Which was just the studio equivalent of sitting in a hot tub drinking champagne with a bunch of your best mates, and two days very well spent I would say. I'll always enjoy listening back to that sonic postcard. Q: Pavement’s Terror Twilight is one of my favourite albums and sounds incredible. But the band broke up soon after it was released and I understand that relationships were strained. Did you enjoy producing that album, and how do you think it holds up to the rest of your work? Yes I love that record actually, it's one of my favourites and I enjoyed making it immensely. It was such an adventure to fly off to America to make a record with people I hadn't met. Maybe there were some internal politics, as there are in any band, but I made friend forever in Stephen and I think I performed my role well: my idea was to make something that stood up straighter and felt like it might reach people who were turned off by the beautiful sloppiness of other Pavement records. I just thought they were such a good band and wanted them to reach a bigger audience. The writing may have been on the wall even before I got there, but I don't think I had any part of that, and I heard they're getting back to play shows, so there's always a happy ending, right? Q: Any chance of another Basement session? I would love to and plan to do more from the basement. Watch some space somewhere, but it was such an enjoyable thing to do and I look back on it as a great archive of those times. For sure it will happen. Q: Where did the artwork for the new Ultraísta album come from? Part of the fun of doing this album with Laura and Joey is the creative elements of all the stuff that isn't music. So for example we do all our own artwork and videos, and the cover is a photo I took of Laura inspired by one of my favourite photographers, Gjon Mili, a Hungarian-American photographer. We also made a lot of video content which is bleeding out into the universe slowly and relates to the album and its theme of colours, and also includes a lot of footage from the London Underground which is a particular obsession of mine. I'm great at dinner parties. Q: How hard is it making an album? How hard is a piece of string? It totally depends on a million factors. The imperative nature of your delivery date, or maybe just whimsical noodlings that can continue for some time. Or it can be really very hard, and you have to coax people who are struggling through a very difficult process. I feel like I've had every version of this. And it can be quite leisurely, eg the Ultraista record, which was what I would call a country club style social bonanza. We could take our time and work on it when we had time, and even though the challenges were there, it was actually quite natural and easy. Q: What do you listen to as you’re trying to fall asleep? I cannot fall asleep with any music playing, at all. I cannot have sex with any music playing at all. I cannot do any other activity, as my brain just tunes into it involuntarily and I'm rendered incapacitated. Q: How much Marmite do you consume? A daily teaspoon. Q: You seem to shy away from technical-oriented discussions. Any reasons for doing so? A lot of bands have noted how quickly you work and that you’re not too precious about the recording process, yet the final result comes off as meticulous. Do you have any insight into how to move fast and capture the energy of the moment? Do you organise the studio and control room in a way that is responsive to any creative situation? The reason is because I think people attach too much weight to equipment and studio trickery when the reality is I consider the most important part of making records is about musical sensibility and communication with those involved, and the notes, and the words. I get very annoyed with people asking me what my favourite microphone is. It doesn't matter. These days I don't even use the expensive ones. One of the reasons why music has become generally worse, and I'm sorry to say that, is that people think about technology more than the actual music they're making. So sue me. To your second question, see the above answer! The recording process is best when fast, because it's then the smallest obstacle to the actual music. That doesn't mean the end result shouldn't be absolutely meticulous and pored over for hours and reconsidered and reframed and sat in different places, whatever, but how far you keep you kick drum from the mic really doesn't matter. Q: Those of us who shelled out for the deluxe edition of A Moon Shaped Pool also received a small length of half-inch tape alleged to have been retrieved from actual Radiohead sessions dating back to Kid A. Were any lost and unreleased gems included as part of this Willy Wonka-like scavenger hunt, or is my piece of tape likely to contain something disappointing, like Colin Greenwood practising a bass run? This is absolutely true. I was staring at mountains of half inch tape reels from the Kid A sessions and felt sad because they were all very soon going to be unplayable useless bits of plastic that would just contaminate the environment. And thought it would maybe be better to send them off to some people who would appreciate them, so as part of the packaging with Stanley Donwood, we realised we have enough tape to wrap each special edition with a small length of it. On each tape is part of an outtake, alternative mix, instrumental, something that would have been thrown away when it became unplayable. It just felt poetic to send it out into the universe. Unfortunately I don't think people truly understand what they have... Q: What was it like working with Roger Waters? Did you consciously avoid “big guitar solos” to negate it sounding like David Gilmour/Pink Floyd. Roger is a fascinating character, really a genius. The whole experience was incredible, being able to watch this guy thinking his way around things, particularly with words and motifs and conceptual ideas. Again one of my rules in that case was there would be no big guitar solos - in the same way as the McCartney thing, I was interested in another musician, and wanted to hear him speak, and hear his musicality. As the usual formula with his solo work seems to be to find some soundalike, and use that Guitar Hero equation, which I feel is lame. So the decision was to use orchestration as a musical foil to the beauty of his simplicity and songwriting which would keep the light and focus on the words he was writing. And keep the focus of the whole work simpler. Q: I would imagine that very few people question Paul McCartney’s methods in the studio. How difficult (or not) was it to say to him, “How about doing it this way?” during the making of Chaos and Creation in the Backyard? Well, that was the entire point! Like I mentioned before, he called me, so I was able to dictate my terms, so to speak. My general appraisal was that I was more interested in him rather than the people around him, so persuading him to play everything was part of the "method" that allowed us to move forward with this work. That worked very well. His charm as a musician is astronomic and undeniable, he's a very intelligent musical person. He was very brave and put up with a lot of crap from me - he could have told me to fuck off at any point, but he really met in the middle to see this experiment through, and I left with even more respect for him than when I went in. Q: Really curious if you like classical music, and if so which pieces? Would you consider doing Big Ears festival [in Tennessee]? Yes, I would not claim to be an aficionado in any respect, but I'm a big fan of Debussy's Preludes, and one of my favourite pieces of music is his Arabesque No 1. I also love Prokofiev in general, and Erik Satie's Gymnopedies really get me going on a Sunday. Q: Is it true that much of The King of Limbs was recorded with the software Max/MSP? If it is true, how much of a hand did you have in programming and using Max/MSP? Jonny Greenwood seems to have taken all the credit … This is basically bollocks. I went to a dinner party 15 years ago and sat next to a Stanford grad who told me about this software, Max/MSP, and took it back to Johnny. He's used it on and off on lots of things, as have I. King of Limbs is made up of everyone throwing pieces of audio together - Johnny used Max/MSP in that case to link up a turnable via a piece of software called Miss Pinky. The result was a huge and gigantic mess that took me about a year and a half to unravel, and then Thom wrote over the top. So there you have it. Q: Thank you for your inspiring work! Do you have a favourite Joni Mitchell album? Joni Mitchell is my favourite human artist of all time, she is incredible. I have to give you a top three. 1. Hejira 2. The Hissing of Summer Lawns 3. For the Roses But would say all of her output between Blue and Mingus is untouchable. She is a unique combination of musical and lyrical talent. She's pretty much the only person I find can write a narrative lyrically that can remain poetic but articulating, communicating, beyond the abstract; it's very specific and very beautiful. And as a musician she dug deep into so many vats of folk and jazz, still managing to spin her incredible voice into the mix. Q: Created an account just for this. I’m a human person who enjoys audio production and engineering a lot. I’m quite shy when it comes to working with other interesting music folk, mainly down to the fact I have no idea how to write a melody. I love sounds and atmospheres, making things sound full and all that great stuff. The question I’m really getting at is: when was the first time you knew you could do this? Did that moment happen at all? And how has your relationship to music evolved? Bit of a belter of a question, but you asked for this so I don’t feel bad. I think I realised, retrospectively, that from an early age I had a fascination for recording. My dad worked at the BBC as a sound man and as a child I was surrounded by the tools of his trade so I always watched enviously and wanted to play with things. When I was very young I asked for a machine to make records, like really young, and he told me in his calm wise way: no I couldn't. But he bought me a cassette machine, so I could go around and record things: the TV, the train set, running water, things that sounded interesting when they were played back. I always aspired when I started recording music in studios, I tried to emulate my heroes, like the Trevor Horns, but found what worked best was going with the things I could do well which were an organic-ness to sound, rather than a clinical shinyness, which I loved to listen to. Making a dark brown soup was more my skill, that making a big fairy cake. I was wise to go with the things I was good at - isn't that the art of life? Q: What compels you to commit to a project? Is it a different circumstance each time? Can you please produce Keane’s next album? Tom Chaplin is a fan, I’m sure you know! Yes definitely, every project is different, but I would say I'm very wary of people's preconceptions and expectations, and generally my first question to them is: what do you think I'm going to do? Just so they don't have some idea that I'm going to repeat something I've done before or make them sound like someone else I've worked with. Generally I can make a fair appraisal of whether I have something valuable to contribute and will generally like what we can do together. I'm not under any illusion that I can improve someone I'm already a fan of so I never approach anyone – they have to ask me. Q: Are you a night owl? If so, how do you deal with society’s preference for early birds? Do you suffer from insomnia? Hell yes. Nothing great happens before dinner. I have always been like this, I have always leapt out of my bunk bed as a child at 3am to run across and start building something out of a piece of wood, or do a drawing- all creativity happens in my brain at night. I deal with the unfair preference of early birds in society by having chosen a career whereby I get to dictate my hours. I wouldn't dream of starting a working day before lunchtime. Producers start flowing over coffees at dinnertime. I like the isolation at night - there's no background noise, and you can really focus. And also night, it's has a dark cloak of melancholy which makes you connect to something inside, in a way you can't do when the sun is shining. Daytimes are for nice walks in the park - nighttimes are for sitting alone at a laptop. Q: What state are the songs in when you start working with an artist? What is the variant that most changes in the production process? Structure, aesthetics, sound? Love from Argentina! Every single version of the process is different. Sometimes you have everything completely written; siometimes it's a case of building a song from a fragment of audio that's created abstractly, which is the case with Thom's solo work and a lot of Radiohead work. Even if a song is finished you can still improve it with editing and working out what it's strengths and weaknesses are. And also how to present it as an orchestration, or sonically if there's a trick you can use to make it pull you in. I like all versions of this, because they use different parts of your brain, but sometimes it's great to be given amazing songs and a blank slate to make them happen - that hasn't happened for a while! :-) Q: You’ve worked with countless musicians. Do you adapt to their work process, do you propose a process, or is it an exchange? And with Ultraísta, specifically, did you have the same process with the second album [Sister, out in March] as with the first? Did all the time in between the two influence the way you produced an album together? Can’t wait to listen to Sister! There are no rules to methodology, in fact the skill is creating a new method each time that will generate work which will generate output, which then becomes the work. Every time you start with a band that's two guitars, bass and drums you hit the same brick wall, and it's my job to think of a quick fun way to kick the ball out of the pitch, and remain focused enough to catch it when it gets thrown back in again. With Ultraista, what started as an exercise in wordplay and groove construction on the first record this time has become a more refined process and in an effort to make more song like structures. We are all indeed different people from when we made the first things and we're amused by different things, so thus the goalposts move - to keep the metaphor going - and the method changes. Q: Which producers and which records inspired you as a young would-be producer? As a kid, I was obsessed with Regatta de Blanc by the Police, and saw it was produced by Nigel Gray. A lightbulb went off that there was someone called Nigel doing this stuff. In terms of influences, there are ones with mythological status, like George Martin, or Trevor Horn, both of whose work I absolutely love for different reasons. Martin for his inventiveness and creative approach to the technology of the day, ie the new possibilities of multitrack tape, and the use of visual devices like sound effects. Trevor Horn for his obtuseness and skill as making artful pop music using, again, the tech of the day. Which could make bend and shape things to become bigger than real life and make the brain do somersaults. And then more direct practical influences on me such as the people who actually taught me, including Phil Thornalley, John Leckie, Steve Lillywhite, and others. These are people I watched directly and emulated. Q: What is your feeling/relationship with failure? Don’t mean to be a downer, just curious to learn about your journey when overcoming failure. This is a very good question. It also depends on where you're standing. A lot of things could have been better or were small failures, small battles in a larger war. You regard as part of the process moving forward what the end goal is you're trying to succeed. I wouldn't regard any of my work as massive successes as they're all attempts to achieve the unachievable. However, if you're referring to something like the Strokes episode, it wasn't a failure, neither of us walked away hurt from that experience. It was just fascinating. And everything else has been successful, hasn't it?? Q: It’s been a year since the great Mark Hollis passed away. How much of an influence were/are Talk Talk on the Radiohead sound and your work with the band as producer? For me, personally, I was a massive Talk Talk fan and I used to listen to those records endlessly, certainly Laughing Stock and Spirit of Eden. I think they were again things that really plugged into your feelings - our version of a classical symphony that you would start and listen through to the end. Q: Which album has the best atmosphere in its production? I can never get over how rich and ghostly Time Out of Mind by Bob Dylan and Daniel Lanois is. Every record is different and you feel different about every record as time passes, but I think In Rainbows is very evocative due to hte space we recorded it in. All the ambience on that record is real, it comes from the house we recorded it in, so that conjures up a very visual image for me when I think of that record. Also Beck's Sea Change is a very emotional record, evocative, which somehow crystallised perfectly sonically to me, and if I hear any part of it it takes me back to that time. Which I regard as a job well done. It's a conduit to your feelings, which is a goal, it's what you're trying to do. Q: When you’re making a record, do you try to listen to as much other music as possible to spark ideas? Or do you do the opposite – try and isolate any external music to not get thrown off what you set out to make? When I'm working on a project I don't listen to anything else, it's not out of choice, I'm just compelled to be focused on what I'm thinking about, and it stays with me when I leave the studio. I literally don't want to hear anyone else's music!

#nigel godrich #radiohead #beck #ultraista #roger waters #pink floyd #paul mccartney #the beatles #record production

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tormentedshadow · 6 years ago

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Need inspiration? I know i do thus.... Monthly challenges

Well, ive noticed that im at my most productive during october for inktober and december for the 12 days of christmas. I think when my brain is given a bit of structure and a deadline it starts to kick into gear. So ive decided to create an art challenge for every month of the year and see if i can stick to it. And im putting this out there incase any of my more artsy followers might want to do it themselves or pick out one months challenge that sounds fun to try. If yous do try i would love to see them, might help to motivate and inspire me.

Jot a world January

Basically come up with a concept for a world and/or its inhabitants. That might be creating a Tolkienesque map of the world, it could be writing a short story about it or even a bunch of notes in an ideas book. Maybe its illustrating an index of the characters or creatures in your world, or painting some of the landscapes. Either way it has to be a cohesive world. Minimum 6xA5 fully rendered pages. Or 2xA3 fully rendered or 1xA2 fully rendered. Or one small A5 sketchbook of sketches, story or notes.

Fic pic febuary

This isnt just fanart, oh no... this is fanart of fanfiction. Maybe its doing an animatic or comic strip of a scene or two of one of your favoirite fics. Maybe its drawing a couple of stills from a go to fic. Cant choose? Then do one still for number of different fics. You like big art? Then make one big peice! Minimum 6xA5, or 4xA4 or 2xA3, or1xA2/digital equivalent.

Multimedia march

Well in this one the only rule is you have to use 5 different media on one page. It could be almost anything, crayons, pencil, paint, papier-mache, modeling paste, collage, felt, pastels, chalk. Hell you could use coffee, makeup, toilet roll, tinfoil, go out and stick some leaves in! Whatever works. Maybe you want to create a scene or a charcter, maybe you want to create abstract patterns have at it. 6xA5, or 3xA4, or 2xA3, or 1xA2

Agraian april

I admit it the only reason this is on here is because ive recently become adicted to stardew valley. Now thats out of the way this could be used to design your own farm where ever it may be whatever it might grow. Is the farm on mars? Or maybe you want to do some studies of real farms, crops or animals. Perhaps instead you'd prefare to draw some foliage trees and flowers. 6xA5, or 3xA4, or 2xA3, or 1xA2

Make a colouring book may

Do you ever look at some of the adult colouring books they have now and are just like wow. Now become them. What ever you want but try and emulate the colouring book style, detailed, simple, traditional, digital doesnt matter as long as your lines are crisp. 1-6 pages.

Journey june

For this one you have to show a journey is it a journey of the self, is it an adventure of a group, is it a holiday? Maybe its a short story, a comic or a series of stills. 6xA5 or equivalent.

Jar dwelling july

I know this has been done a billion times but i still think its cute. What or who dwells within your jars, is it aliens, a house, a planet a, a monster? Maybe its some potions or a fish or some interdimensional food products. What ever it is there need to be at least six of them, big or small.

Absurd abodes august

Ive recently got quite into isometric house/room concept designs on pintrest. I want to make some! Is it a witches hut or a multy story tree house maybe its a dungeon that houses a bunch of freindly skeletons. How absurd can you make your abode? 6xA5 or 1 xA3

Shiney september

Its time to make some shineys, use whatever shimery shit you got. You got metalic paints or gell pens? Do you have glittery goods? Maybe you havnt thats fine just use tin foil. Maybe you want to create your own pokemon and make them a shiney card, or do you want to paint lots of treasure, or do you want to make things that are definatly not shiney into the most eye watering glitterly mess you can, then this is the challenge for you! 6xA5, or 3xA4, or 2xA3, or 1xA2

Obscure october

I left this one vague so that anyone participating in the anual inktober can work this theme into it, no sense in more stress of an extra challenge.

New naritive november

For this one you need to create a grimm like fairytail of your own invention and illustrate it. Is it page by page or a strip? No length or size options for this one, what ever it takes.

Decorum december

Because i have my own challenge to do in this month ive made the theme easy to integrate into it. For everyone else i supose this is a chance to draw some nobles or royalty some victorians, anything or one with a stiff upper lip so to speak. No size or amount options for this either.

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alexsbrain · 7 years ago

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Ocean’s 8

The other night my brother and I went to the Carlton in Toronto to catch Ocean’s 8. I had stayed away from the film for a few weeks, I’d caught a few review headlines since it opened, dud, fizzled out, and franchise fatigue had cropped up a few times. When I first saw the publicity still last year, of all the women on the subway, I was amazed that a bunch of my favourite actresses, comedians, and pop singer (Rhianna) were all doing a film together and I put it on my list. I was pleasantly surprised by Ocean’s’8, it was a lot quirkier and funnier than I thought it would be, and occasionally I had to wipe away a tear from laughing.

Early publicity still

The film follows the standard heist format pioneered by post war noir filmmakers. The star, Sandra Bullock, plays Debbie Ocean (Danny Ocean’s sister), and after hatching a scheme in prison for, “five years, eight months, and twelve days,” is released and has to put together a crack-pot team in order to steal a Cartier necklace worth over a hundred-million dollars. There are the typical vignettes of Ocean assembling her team, there’s her former partner turned nightclub owner (Cate Blanchette), the hacker 9-ball (Rihanna), a kleptomaniacal fence (Sarah Paulson), the jewelry expert (Mandy Kaling), the down and out fashion designer (Helena Bonham Carter), and the street wise pick pocket (Awkwafina). Together they execute Ocean’s daring plan to steal the necklace at the Met Gala. There are a few twists and turns in the plot which brings in an insurance agent from England, played by James Corden, to find the jewels. The audience is brought into the action through a series of well timed gags and hair-raising moments of suspense.

Hathaway and Bonham Carter at the Met Gala

I’m a huge fan of heist films, there’s something about the sub-genre that appeals to me. Going all the way back to the Noir heists The Asphalt Jungle, and the French film Rafifi, I’m a sucker for a group of criminals trying to make one last big score. I wasn’t however a huge fan of the original Ocean movies, nor of the Soderbergh reboot. Which is why I was pleasantly surprised that this installment was so good and incredibly funny. It felt like I was watching an old comedy with Carol Lombard or Rosalind Russell, the comedic power of some of these actresses shines through in almost every scene. Helena Bonham Carter has some of the best reactions I’ve seen in years, her subtle head and eye movements executed just at the right time cracked me up, she wears a puzzled look on her face for most of the film which is incredibly endearing. Bonham Carter, being the veteran English actor of the bunch, even knows how to get all the mileage out of a costume during the Met gala, as she moves about in a bizarre outfit in such a way that makes it hilarious. She’s even poking fun at herself as she has been known for some odd fashion choices over the years at red carpet events. Sarah Paulson is very reserved but incredibly funny, her character, a waspy housewife, always seems to be on the brink of loosing her cool façade (she never does), and it’s fascinating to watch her play a mother role in a heist film. Some of her jokes were visual gags that were set up beautifully. The young Awkwafina gets most of the laughs as the street wise hustler, her role had the most potential for comedy, and she relishes every single moment she is on screen. She knows exactly when to hold a joke, letting in linger in the air, something most comedians don’t understand today. It’s not that you have to be funny all the time, it’s that you have to understand the rhythm of a joke. There’s a touch of Leslie Neilson or Bea Arthur in her comedic pauses.

Awkwafina as Constance shines

Anne Hathaway steals some of the show as the vapid gum chewing movie star Daphne Kluger. Her timing is incredibly precise, she uses her gum chewing and big beautiful eyes to really sell her jokes, chewing on her pauses and delivering her lines with surgical precision. I think Hathaway needs to do more comedy outside of the schlocky rom-com type of humour that is ill fitting for her and reboot some the old Carol Lombard type plots that are entirely missing from cinema today.

What was surprisingly nice was that the two headliners, Sandra Bullock and Cate Blanchette, never once took the spotlight away from someone else. They played their roles effectively and knew how to share the stage with the supporting cast allowing each of the others to grab some laughs and shine in their roles. If anything, the film was missing one good fight between Bullock and Blanchette. It would have been nice to add just a little tension between the two characters early on in the film, the should we do this scene was flat and self aggrandizing in their sisterly bond.

Ocean’s 8 was co-written and directed by Gary Ross who’s resume includes Big, Pleasantville, and Mr. Baseball (one of my favorite cinematic guilty pleasures). He knows exactly how to set up a joke or a gag and executes it beautifully. What I found interesting is that most of the audience didn’t laugh at some of the funniest moments in the film. It seemed my brother and I, and a group of friends behind us, were the only ones who got the subtle jokes. I think one of the problems is that audiences today aren’t used to the subtly of reactions and visual gags. My favourite moment in the film is when Sarah Paulson’s character is introduced. She is living in the idyll of suburban America and making a healthy green smoothie when Debbie Ocean calls her, her son playing in the background. Answering the phone, she says, “Buddy do you want to stop that,” the threat is implied. Debbie tells her she’s in her garage and when Paulson walks into her garage there are boxes and boxes of stolen goods. It’s such a wonderful joke, that here in this perfect suburban house lies a kleptomaniacal fence. When Debbie asks her what she tells her husband about all the stolen goods Paulson replies dryly and at just the right moment, “eBay,” I couldn’t help but crack up at her delivery.

The perfect life, the perfect house, a life of crime

The other problem plaguing the film is it’s underwhelmingly simplistic visual style. The camera moves and cuts competently enough, but the whole style is reminiscent of a de-contrasted Instagram photo or a mediocre Tumblr mood board. It’s a problem shared with a lot of commercial films these days, lackluster shadow-less vistas of muted colours that lacks any texture or depth. One thing that made last years The Florida Project so appealing was its rich palette and crisp composition, great care was taken at figuring out the mise-en-scène. It’s disappointing that the Ocean’s films, being reboots of the iconic 60’s jet set era, don’t devote more effort to their visual look. There was one sequence in a post-modern airport for a fashion show, and the occasional horizontal venetian blind wipe, but aside from that, the film looks like some washed out mediocre miniseries on the FX channel.

Strong composition, but the lackluster, and washed-out lighting renders the style bland

Ocean’s 8 isn’t pretentious or hokey, it’s just an all female version of a heist film with some incredibly talented actresses. Checking over the box office receipts, the film is doing incredibly well this summer, and along with the Black Panther, is proving to the Hollywood establishment that you can deliver a great product with an all female cast, or a cast of people of colour, or on queer themes, and still turn a tidy sum. People want to watch a good product and they want to see themselves in the characters on the screen. Aside from a few missed opportunities to set this film apart from its predecessors, it’s a fun diversion this summer. If you’re a fan of good comedic pacing, or of any of the actresses, it’s worth the price of admission.

#oceans 8 #awkwafina #sarah paulson #cate blanchett #mandy kailing #sandra bullock #anne hathaway #helena bonham carter #heist films #movies of 2018 #rihanna #women #carol lombard

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bigweldindustries · 7 years ago

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i just read your tags on that nintendo post and yes,,, pls post your rant about stylisation in modern games i'd really like to hear... well no,, see your thoughts on it :D

SFGFGHGF thank you Angie!!

(popping this under a cut as I got out of hand kjghjfgkjhfg)

(alsO keep in mind this is primarily about home consoles. i don’t mention hand helds nor do i really touch on arcade games, those are topics for another day)

I’d like to open this by saying that I’m pretty childish in a whole bunch of ways, but one of my biggest is that I am very much attracted to bright colours. It shows in my art - everything I draw is very, very colourful. I love stylisation, I love colour.

Colour, as it so happens, was vital to video games up until the late 90s - the advent of the 32-bit era. Even the fourth generation (think SNES and Genesis/Mega Drive) could typically only produce 64-256 colours on screen at a time, depending on resolution.

(The bastard child which we do not talk about is the Neo Geo, which could display 4096 colours on screen at one time, but the Neo Geo was a super expensive ‘luxury console’ and literally a bunch of arcade level components, hence why it was so far ahead graphically.)

For this reason, palettes were bright and expressive. Add in the fact that all home consoles at the time were raster image based (except for the sole, bizarre exception of the doomed Vectrex) and stylisation is the obvious outcome - once we got the graphical output for it, of course. Third generation games began to show stylisation - Phantasy Star and Final Fantasy III may be visually similar, but the nuances in the spritework are still plain to see - and then the 16 bit era really drove it home.

The late 90s brought home gaming into a whole new dimension - 3D! Glorious, blocky, polygon-y, 3D. And stylisation well and truly went bonkers, maybe even more so than it did back during the sprite-based 16 bit era.

Something important to keep in mind when considering 90s to early 00s gaming however is that everyone, for whatever reason, had Sonic fever, and so was trying to whip up their own fucking furry mascot. Platforming had always been a prominent genre, ever since the early 80s when Donkey Kong debuted and was immensely successful. Suddenly, we’re platforming in 3D, and there are furry mascots everywhere. Seriously, think of as many platforming game with animal mascots as you can, and I assure you you’re not even scratching the surface.

Even putting aside the bright and friendly animal-based platformers, there’s still a tonne of fascinating examples of styles. Tomb Raider, Metal Gear, and Silent Hill all went for closer to realism than cartoon styles, and yet were all stark and distinctly stylised in their own different ways. Graphical output still had distinct boundaries, and stylisation was the way it was overcome.

I feel like stylisation hit it’s peak immediately before it’s decline, with the sixth generation heralding in some of what are, in my opinion, the most wonderfully stylised games out there. the original Ratchet and Clank games, Metroid Prime, Okami, Space Channel 5, the Legend Of Spyro games.....Hell, Jet Set Radio and Jet Set Radio Future come from this time period, and are some of the most famously styled games of all time. Just enough polygons to render some absolutely wonderful models, not enough to warrant photorealism.

That was, at least, until the seventh generation. Bright and atmospheric stylisation was out, and photorealism was in.

(Unless you happened to be Nintendo, of course. Nintendo just shrugged, gave us Miis, Super Mario Galaxy, a whole bunch of The Legend of Zelda, and some third party kids games, and carried on like that until today, where they show no sign of slowing. Thanks, Nintendo. Owe you one.)

But with everyone else, stylisation very quickly died. The rise of the FPS definitely didn’t help here, with every studio clamouring to have their slice of the pie, but very quickly studios turned to photorealism. Far Cry, Call Of Duty, Assassin’s Creed, Uncharted.....Very quickly, stylisation was abandoned. There was also that god-awful period where everyone and their nan was cranking out games with gritty washed out palettes, though we seem to have finally pulled through that one. Thank god. Thanks for that one, Call Of Duty.

My point is that graphical advancements seem to have killed a lot of the visual creativity that always went into games, and instead everyone seems to be intensely focused on how realistic a game looks. I’m personally sick of it - I don’t give a shit that you can animate every hair in generic white protagonist #897′s beard, when it looks incredibly visually similar to every other fucking game in it’s genre.

If I were to take a screenshot of a whole bunch of the most popular games from the last 10 years and show them to someone who wasn’t into games at all, they probably wouldn’t be able to tell 90% of them apart, whereas games of literally any other generation can be told apart visually with ease. There is so little visual differentiation in modern gaming, and it frustrates the everliving fuck out of me. We have so much graphical power, and yet all anyone wants to fucking do is replicate real life visuals - why?

Hell, the 10% of actually visually diverse games make it feel even more sparse. Take for example We Happy Few, Bioshock, and Borderlands (I haven’t actually gotten around to playing any of the Borderlands games but they’re on my to-do list) - wonderfully atmospheric and full of some absolutely fantastic visuals. They’ve found themselves art styles, all gloriously unique and notable in their own ways. Even Overwatch is notable, with it’s stylised characters and bright colours. Hell, I give Fortnite props for it’s fucking style, for crying out loud.

Aside from that, the only people consistently pumping out games with stylised graphics? Nintendo - and small, independent studios. Small, independent studios who are constrained, much like the sixth generation - not by lack of graphical power, but instead by lack of budget. They don’t have the money to buy fancy software and pay some cunt to animate four billion hair’s on some white dude’s face, so instead they find a niche in the gameplay market and stylise to save time and money.

(Slight deviation here but Nintendo on the other hand are absolutely fascinating to me, in that a lot of their strength is in their franchising. They’ve got gaming franchises which have been around longer than some other studios have even existed. They’re the sole survivor from the third generation, outliving Sega and Atari. Even their newer franchises, such as Bayonetta, Splatoon, and Xenoblade, still stick to a bright and stylised appearance. Each and every Nintendo property has it’s own style, but they’re still congruent enough that Smash Bros. doesn’t look particularly odd - unlike when Sony tried to do the same with their Playstation AllStars Battle Royale, which was one of the most bizarre things I think I’ve ever seen, to this day. Nintendo well and truly are the family gaming company - there’s something there for everyone, no matter how young nor old.)

Don’t get me wrong, there’s a time and a place for stylisation. One of the very few genres I still take interest in is racing games - a niche in which realism is fantastic and very often awe-inspiring. Realism can be gorgeous, and I don’t hate the style! I just hate the complete and utter bottlenecking of the industry and the fixation on making things look as realistic as possible when there’s so much potential in stylisation. There’s so, so little visual diversity in modern gaming and it’s honestly sad as hell. Also I really miss fun cartoony platformers as a genre and not just an occasional nostalgia-grab but that’s more an Axel thing than an industry thing.

Jesus fuck I rambled on for sO FUCKIGN LONG BUT. yeah there’s my thoughts on that i guess!!!! O:

#ask #axel grinds on #nightvisionxpixels #iM SORRY KGFHFK #i have a lot of emotions about this so. have an. essay #i juST WORDCOUNTED IT AND THERE'S NEARLY 1.3K WORDS IM SOBBING IM SO SORRY KJGHJFG

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blogblogbrog · 5 years ago

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Assignment 3 Commentary

Before coming up with ideas, I brainstormed for topics that I was interested in researching on for the infographic. I came up with a list of topics such as:

- Trending music

- Asian Oscar nominees

- Academy awards for Best International Feature Film across the years

- Dance

I searched for infographics relevant to these and found that dance infographics looked relatively different from what I had in mind – I expected infographics to show dance steps but most of them described the dance as a whole with fewer illustrations. I found a lot more infographics on music and film awards (Spotify even automatically made infographics for each individual user’s listening habits) and decided to think of fresh topics on dance to make a more original infographic.

Ultimately, as I was listening to a Doja Cat song which was getting growingly viral on TikTok with a simple short dance routine, I became momentarily inspired to make an infographic on Viral Dances across the decade. After doing my research, I came up with some sketch attempts to illustrate the most popular viral dance of each year over a span of 10 years (which I later narrowed to 8 so more space could be dedicated to illustrations of the dances).

These are some of the rough sketches with short explanations below.

Prior to sketching, I already had the idea to use silhouettes to represent the moves and hence sketched with that in mind.

The above is a bunch of sketches I made in attempt to organize the dance moves. I tried incorporating them into a circle but I eliminated that idea because I wanted to show a series of dance moves (dance sequence) to illustrate steps. And I felt that a circular illustration of clusters of dancing figures would look to disorganized for an A4 sized infographic.

Another idea I had was to illustrate moving figures in a timeline such that one series of moves would progress into another. This was inspired by two things:

1) Akuma from the game ‘Street Fighter’ which inspired the idea of multiple figures in a straight line

2) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EUFKjo8uPpA

The concept of changing locations using dance moves. The shadow transitions inspired this concept too. (kind of like the Shadow Imitation Technique in Naruto) The idea of transition came from these sources

3) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UhqA0CaPrF8

The concept of identifying similarities in dances which was used in this video also inspired this.

I ultimately decided not to use this concept because I found that by doing so, I would have to find similarities between dance moves. And since I wanted to illustrate the progression/evolution of viral dance moves, I would have to fill in the transitions between the different dance sequences with extra steps.

These extra steps would not have existed in the original dance sequences since the viral dance sequences representative of each year were vastly different. I felt that these intermediate transition steps may confuse and mislead viewers. Kind of like forcefully transitioning between viral dances with little visual similarity.

Ultimately, I settled on a timeline concept. I tried a few more styles for the timeline such as:

And a regular vertical timeline.

Ultimately I decided on a vertical timeline to have a neater presentation and better use of the space. I tried a few sketches and researched on some related facts I could possibly place in the infographic.

My first draft was a vertical timeline segmented by the representative platform which the video was popularized on. Illustrations of the main dance move were first incorporated in the year number. A short segment was also dedicated to explain what a viral dance was, for those who did not know.

A description of the background of the dance move and how it got popular was described.

However, I decided to expand on this skeleton draft by incorporating more illustrations of the dance sequence. I decided to move the words around to accommodate the dance sequences.

I also decided to segment a larger area for more background information so the timeline would not be the only thing. I sketched different versions of this segmentation.

This was one of the segments I tried to sketch. However, I found that this would render the timeline way too small to be of significant attention. Hence, I edited from the first draft and made the changes.

I decided to segment the top portion for some facts, and went with a browser theme to segment some facts about dance. The new description included both the history of how the dance move gained its virality and how the dance was essentially done.

After the critique, I received the comments that the text was too long and I could omit some details to shorten the text. Hence, working on that prototype, I set off to first gather the illustrations for the dance moves. These illustrations would be a huge portion of my infographic.

For consistency, I wanted the same figure to be represented across all the dances so that it would be easy for the viewer to interpret without confusing them. As such, I got a model to perform the moves which I recorded in slo-mo and later screen captured three main moves for each sequence (except for The Floss, which I later narrowed down to two moves since that would be clearer than having an intermediate move).

I decided the colour of the words by using similar shades to their corresponding social media platform where they had gone viral on.

The process of obtaining the illustrations was rather tedious and would be explained below:

I used magnetic lasso on Photoshop to extract the figure as a layer.

Then I created a clipping mask with a black-coloured layer to obtain the silhouette.

The below is a screenshot of the layers for one of the silhouette files during editing on Photoshop.

After exporting the silhouette as a PDP file, I opened it on Illustrator and referenced the original image to fill in important details that were not visible in the silhouette. As seen below, the original line at 1.0pt was too fine and when I zoomed out it was too faint.

As such, I increased the white lines to 6.0pt as per below. The screenshot below also shows the layers used for each of the silhouettes within Illustrator.

I did this for all twenty-three (23) of the silhouettes used for the infographic and put them in the file according to my sketch.

I followed most of what was portrayed on the sketch. However, I faced a challenge when having to place the silhouettes over the words. The initial plan was to place the smaller silhouettes over low opacity wordings. However, I felt that it would have been difficult to see the words or even pay attention to it. I also felt that the illustrations were too small.

As such, I adjusted the leading of the words and blew up the illustrations. I also decided to tweak certain sizes of the illustrations to provide some variation.

After doing this, I found that the words were still blocked. Especially with its low opacity, I figured that it would have been overpowered if I were to change the background colour, which I intended to. Thus, I decided to adjust the leading and tracking of all the words such that the illustrations would fit within the spaces between the letters well, instead of outright blocking the words. Additionally, I changed the opacity of the words to 100%.

I received this suggestion, after my second critique, to reduce the opacity of the illustration. I did not want to do so because this would steal the attention on the illustration from the viewer. While the name of the dance was important, the illustration was the most important and basically the highlight of the infographic. As such, I readjusted the illustrations instead of reducing their opacity.

While some of the words were slightly blocked, I made sure that the overall word was well visible and understandable.

Continuing my journey to complete the second critique prototype, I followed the sketch and completed it. However, I found the typography of the title to look strange, which I ended up mentioning in my forum post.

I tried a few fonts but ended up going with an italic one since I wanted a cleaner look. This was one of the bold fonts I ended up scrapping because the long sentence of words looked too imposing being in bold:

I spaced out my illustrations, not wanting to cramp up the infographic at this stage.

I chose a faint orange background because all the text colours were well visible on it. And I also did not want to go with a white background because the theme was viral dance, which was a more exciting, fun and casual topic. As such I wanted to make use of colours to convey this lighter mood. White would have been too sterile for the theme.

I tried to play around with the background as well, and initially added giant blown-up silhouettes in the back. On reflection, I found that a huge reason for this issue I had with the background stemmed from the over-abundance of empty space between the diagrams. I would later tackle this issue ater the second critique.

Ultimately, I abandoned the silhouette backgrounds because I felt that it drew attention away from the content, and also interfered with the timeline (which I wanted to be white since white looked best pierced through the icons like a kebab haha)

Hence this was my second critique submission in the end:

After receiving comments from the second critique, I found the need to adjust 3 main things

1) The size of my illustrations and to add more visual directions.

2) Increase the visibility of my title since it was not well-visible.

3) Change the second fact about 1 in 10 dancers going professional since it was not directly related to Viral Dance.

The first thing I did was to tackle 1 and 3. I first changed my fact to a fact directly relevant to viral dances and raised a fact on the current most popular dance trend in 2020. Since, 2020 is not yet over, this would be a nice fact to raise and a nice verdict for the viewer to call as the year progresses. (if someone were to see this in 2021 and the overall 2020 viral dance representative ended up to not be Renegade, it would be a funfact to know that in the first quarter of the year, Renegade was a strong contender)

I mentioned the choreographer’s name, since there had been controversy over how little credit was given to her despite the virality of the choreo. As such, this was both a funfact and and attempt to subtly pay homage to her. To illustrate her, I sketched and traced her on ProCreate on the iPad, referencing the original video of her choreo before repeating what I did for the other illustrations (magnetic lasso, clipping mask etc.)

Next, I added more details to the dance illustrations to emphasise the directions for the movements.

I then blew them up such that they were much more visible. In doing so, I realized that with the empty space filled up more, the background need not be fancy or more attractive and it solved my background worry too.

Adjusting the title was the hardest part and I tried various variations of bolding, changing the font, italicizing and more:

I even tried removing the windows theme and played around with the size of the bordering rectangle.

Ultimately I tried to shorten the title, changing it and playing around with the fonts, tracking and opacity/shades.

I decided to just align the words center and blow them up as large as possible.

I even attempted to use small caps but it gave off a sterile vibe that was too calm for my more exciting theme. Ultimately I realized that it was vertically dismissive and decided to tweak it such that it took more vertical space.

I ended up with the style below. Where I used visual hierarchy to focus on viral dance trends, bolded the whole title and also used the ‘8 years of’ to allow it to be more vertically imposing.Thus the final decision on using this.

Thus concluded my final submission. Below is the screenshot of the layers as well as the final work.

Final work:

#assignment 3

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someincompetentgirlcomics-blog · 8 years ago

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Competent boy comics

Post 3 of 3

Those readers with a keen eye for footnotes will have noticed that in past posts (via said footnotes) I allude to the idea that there are some “state sanctioned” exceptions to the New Zealand competent boy comics hegemony. That is, I consider there are a small number of comics that don’t fulfil all the criteria but that the competent boy gatekeepers appear willing to include in their various ‘New Zealand comics’ conversations, events and publications.

I am referring essentially to the practice of tokenism; when an organisation or group, on their own terms, incorporates a limited number of ‘others’ and in doing so appears inclusive and progressive. And I think in the competent boy version of ‘New Zealand comics’, tokenism is rife. I will illustrate this contention with some specific examples, but first want to discuss generally the concept of tokenism as I understand and utilise it in this post.

Tokenism is more ambiguous than the definition suggests. While it is no replacement for true diversity, good things can come from it. For those tokenised, the benefits include visibility which can lead to connection with others and/or genuine opportunities. For the ‘New Zealand comics’ audience, token works do provide at least the glimmer of a world more exciting and interesting than that of the competent boys and a basis for further exploration should individuals be so inclined.

Tokenism can be deliberate or unintentional (I suspect in the case of competent boy comics it is mixture of both) and does not preclude genuine skill on the part of the individual being tokenised, nor genuine admiration on the part of those ‘doing’ the tokenising. So I do not say that the comics I am about to discuss are not worthy of attention, nor that they are not truly loved by individual competent comics boys (and others)[1].

Tokenised objects and the individuals who make them may be admired intrinsically but within the context of a dominant discourse this is not their only worth. They are also valued for their representative purpose. Tokenism places a burden on individuals and/or works to represent all others like them.[2] There are some typical ways by which we can recognise tokenism via this representative function. These include (in no particular order):

● When a lone ‘other’ is asked repeatedly to speak for their ‘group’ and/or about being a member of that ‘group’.

● When the same named individual appears as the ‘representative’ over and over again; when instead of involving many qualified and diverse participants, organisers limit involvement to one or two who are canonized as the most worthy or expert.

● When the activity or output of the canonized ‘other’ resembles that of the organisers; it can be comprehended to some significant degree against the values of the dominant paradigm. With competent boy comics I perceive there are two non-negotiables in this regard. These are ‘success’ (the comics are published or win awards or some celebrity says they like them) and the ability to draw in a traditional, things-look-like-things kind of way.

I think all of the above attitudes and behaviours are evident within ‘New Zealand comics’ as promoted by the competent boy comics discourse. I’m going to illustrate this contention with examples regarding women, LGBQT, and punk comic makers (there are others).

First up, punk comics. Whether ‘punk’ is the right word is debatable, but by it I mean comics that are obviously ‘made’ by someone and rejoicing in this. Comics that are a bit brutal, a bit silly, and a bit ugly-beautiful; that don’t care about being universally liked or commercially successful; that are a paradoxical mix of deep-deep- love and don’t-give-a-fuck-ness. The kind of comics I like.

It is interesting that despite all their hard work to make comics as bland and respectable as possible, competent comics boys do cling tightly to romantic notions of the comic as defiant, outlaw and a bit punk. Therefore whenever they organise anything ‘New Zealand comics’ they tend to include a token example, and fairly often this example is Oats.

Oats is a gang of friends who made a lot of comics in the mid-nineties and who make a few comics now. It is my comics gang and it is difficult to describe, coming to me as a series of impressions and feelings - mischievous giggling, the green glow of the photocopier, the smell of Waikato Draught, the furtive handing out of comics at parties, fun, love, and productive rebellion. The competent boy comics discourse has though a different version of Oats. It goes pretty much like this:

1. Oats is a group with an outsider DIY punk-type aesthetic;

2. Stefan and Clayton’s comic ‘City of Tales’ is amazing and here’s a City of Tales comic to illustrate;

1. Some other Oats comics/comic makers exist including xxx;

2. A few quotes, nearly always one from me (if the Oats exposé is in written form).

The above narrative, while not exactly untrue, has been put through the competent boy comics filter. Thus it fulfils a bunch of tokenism criteria:

● First is the ‘canonization’ of Oats and its repeated use as the lone ‘representative’ of punk comics (there are an infinite number of other amazing and diverse New Zealand punk comics and comic-makers that bear no resemblance to anything Oats and are hardly ever acknowledged).

● Next is the ‘canonization’ and repeated use of named individuals and their works as the lone ‘representatives’ of Oats (I love Stefan and Clayton with all my heart, and City of Tales is amazing - heartfelt , weird, funny, sad, brutal, beautiful - but there is a whole lot of other Oats stuff).

● Third is that the ‘representative’ comic ‘City of Tales’ can be comprehended by the competent comic boys against their own success criteria. It’s ugly but obviously intentionally and skilfully so (Stefan and Clayton can ‘draw’), it’s ‘successful’ (was in the Small Press Expo for example), and you can get it in ‘proper’ book form. (There is much more to City of Tales than this, but these are the parts the competent boys generally ‘get’.)

● Finally are my own experiences in regards to the way I am inevitably asked by competent comics boys to speak for Oats or about Oats (this is not the same in other comics sub-cultures where I am asked about all kinds of things). I have mixed feelings about this. I do want the world to know about Oats, and as I said tokenisation brings with it some good things. It is tiresome though to always be approached as a ‘representative’ of other comic-makers and never really as a comic-maker yourself.

When it comes to LGBQT comic-makers, the tokenised, canonized, lone representative individual-of-the-moment is Sam Orchard. Sam does many great non-competent things in his comics, my favourite being the way his characters talk to the reader (I do love a comic that knows it’s a comic!) But as with Stefan and Clayton, Sam can draw things-that-look-like-things and his work is ‘successful’ (available in ‘proper’ books and bookshops). And again, a whole lot of other LGBQT comic-makers are ignored. This country’s proud history of radical feminist lesbian cartoonists for example, is consistently and upsettingly invisible in any competent boy comics ‘New Zealand comics’ narrative.

Competent boy comics tokenism is probably most stark in relation to women comic-makers. Like the radical feminist lesbian comic-makers of the previous paragraph, the discourse renders most female cartoonists invisible, acknowledging only one or two specific individuals. This is forcefully illustrated by the following handy real-life anecdote: “Hey!” I said recently to a competent boy comics gatekeeper, “why weren’t there any women in that New Zealand comics thing you organised?!” Without a trace of irony, he replied “Sarah Laing wasn’t available”.

Sarah is my friend. She is also the most recent of a small number of canonized female comic makers whose work somehow satisfies the competent boy comics criteria and who are therefore considered ‘important’.[3] In this capacity Sarah is often called upon to ‘represent’ all women, a lone female amongst the competent comics boys or featuring on that most blatantly tokenistic of initiatives, the ‘women in comics’ panel.

I find lots of non-competent beauty in Sarah’s work; it is unflinchingly honest and there are those lovely scratchy lines and bright blobby colours. From a competent boy comics perspective though, her work is ‘successful’ (published in proper books and magazines) and she can draw things-that-look-like-things. Like Stefan and Clayton and Sam, her work meets the ‘right’ criteria. The gatekeepers ‘get’ it, therefore they deem it important, include it in ‘New Zealand comics’ and feel like they are inclusive, progressive and ‘right on’ for doing so.

But I don’t think the competent boy comics status quo is ‘right on’. I think it is stink and I yearn for an alternative. Instead of tokenism I’d like to see ‘New Zealand comics’ as a genuine celebration of diversity, one based on respect, dialogue, and learning and laughing about different comics, comic-makers, comic-making approaches and values. Fckn Oats.

[1] For my own part, in any competent boy comics context I am drawn to the things not-quite-like the others. I consider these comics to be the most interesting and they are the ones that don’t give me a stomach ache.

[2] The issue of ‘representation’ is particularly infuriating and funny given the minutiae separating the work of one competent comics boy from another. Apparently though, these (to me barely perceptible) differences are important signifiers of personal style and unique voice.

[3] I count four ‘important’ women in twenty years (full disclosure - I’m not one of them) and they’ve been canonized chronologically, one after the other, definitely not all at once. I know this because I am observant but also because of all the messages I got from competent comics boys telling me we really must include xxx in Three Words, that no New Zealand women’s comic anthology would be complete without them. I say, yes those women are amazing. And so are the 60-odd others in the book.

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aurelliocheek · 4 years ago

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Get Packed: Creating a Game for Google Stadia

Developer Moonshine Studios provides insights into the development process of their first game, which was recently released exclusively on Stadia.

The Developer Moonshine Studios is located at the tail-end of Cornwall which is the westernmost part of the South West Peninsula of the island of Great Britain. The studio was founded in 2018 and their first game is Get Packed, which has just been launched exclusively on Google Stadia. In this context we had the opportunity to talk to Dr Marcus Gardner and Jamie King, who are both founding members of the studio. The two share details about the advantages of developing a title for Stadia and how it came to the decision to release their first game solely on Google’s new platform. We also talked to them about the ongoing Corona crisis and how the current situation is affecting the work of developers. In this last section of the interview, they also give a few tips on how small studios can engage funding providers and publishers even in these difficult times, for example with a ‘contactless’ pitch.

Every step should be thought through so that no item gets damaged while moving it.

Making Games: How did the idea for Get Packed came to life and since when is the developer Moonshine Studios working on the chaotic co-op party game about a calamitous removals company? Moonshine Studios: Get Packed is out now, first playable on Stadia, but it has been quite the journey since we first started. Our four co-founders met in May 2017 as part of an EU funded university incubator/accelerator programme based in the digital tech industry called Falmouth Launchpad. As the programme name suggests, it was based in the far South West of Cornwall, run by Falmouth University. The programme focuses on creating and developing a team with the intent of incorporating as a company at the end of the year. This is underpinned by a Master’s degree in Entrepreneurship, which we study while developing the product and company. Out of a cohort of 20, the four of us were partnered together to form one of the games teams. Without going into detail of our market research, we came to the conclusion that we should develop a game focused on the interaction between players. Whether in the form of a co-operative experience such as Overcooked, or competitive like Gangbeasts. Or a mixture of both like Crawl. We started brainstorming ideas to create a co-operative game that combines competitive elements to create these fun interactions. At the time, our artist Callum had recently helped a friend move from campus and remembered the clown-like challenge of cramming everything into this tiny car. Moving objects is something a lot of people can relate to, and a goldmine for comedy. Our earliest prototype involved moving Tetris-shaped objects into a van, where the players would maximise their score based on how tidily they packed everything. Conversely, we found that just piling everything in anyhow using physics was far more comical, and then ideas just started flowing from there. We found that many multiplayer co-operative games have quite a similar cartoony style, and didn’t want Get Packed to get lost in the mix; we wanted to make it more visually different than other titles on the market. The overall style and environment design take inspiration from miniature models and the work of director Wes Anderson. Selective colour palettes with muted tones and bright lighting are utilised to create a playful but stylish look to the game. 3D models follow a sharp, low poly topology to increase performance and visual clarity. Lightly chamfered edges and PBR texturing differentiate the visual style from conventional low poly games to create an almost miniature model aesthetic. Now that we had a basic game loop, art style and a bunch of level ideas, we wanted to introduce a narrative to wrap it all together. Neither physics-based games or party games tend to have much of a story, so we felt this was another area which we could make Get Packed stand out. We took all our wacky level ideas and grouped them into themes, which we then converted into narrative beats. As time went on, more and more layers were added to the story, which resulted in a very silly, but surprisingly intricate narrative. The game is set in the fictional town of Ditchlington; imagine an Americanized version of Cornwall and you’d be close. Ditchlington has been purchased by the sinister Industrial Salt Company who intends to obliterate it for the sake of an enormous salt mine. Player’s take the role of up to four Ditchlington residents who have just been evicted thanks to the Salt Corps greediness. While packing their own belongings, they begin to realise they have a real knack for it and decide to take advantage of the town-wide evictions and create “Last Ditch Removals”. This sees Last Ditch Removals packing up homes, businesses and other dubious locations to make sure it’s citizens are safe, and hopefully, along the way, come up with a scheme to stop the city from being demolished. The cutscenes are delivered via a top-down shot of an animated scrapbook which details Last Ditches’ journey, and this was again a nod to many of the shots seen in Wes Anderson’s films. To create unique and silly characters, we looked to some of our favourite animations such as Wallace and Gromit and the Simpsons for further inspiration. While the majority of the story is told through the animated cutscenes, the levels are full of hidden references and nods to Ditchlington’s history to help bring the world to life.

If too much damage accumulates you get fired and the round is over.

Are there features in the game which were may easier to realise on Stadia compared to other platforms? Working with Stadia has been an amazing experience. Unity has fantastic integration, so the whole development cycle hasn’t been too dissimilar from that of a console game. However, thanks to the power of Stadia, we’ve been able to push the graphics and wacky physics that much further. During development (pre-Stadia), we encountered a number of challenges. Get Packed is played from a birds-eye perspective, and often you can see the entire map. That means it’s a huge area to render, exacerbated by the sheer amount of physics objects which can be manipulated by the player. Knowing the specifications of the target hardware was incredibly useful, allowing us to pack each area to limit without affecting performance. Accurate lighting was another challenge pre-Stadia development. Baking the lighting would’ve been the ideal solution, and would have allowed for faster render times. Still, with all the moveable elements, it became clear that realtime lighting was the only viable solution. Even then, it was tricky balancing the requirements of the shadow system with the destructible meshes and explosions. It looks great, but that level of chaos began to push the hardware. Fortunately, these limitations pretty much evaporated when we focused on Stadia development. Thanks to the power of the Stadia servers, we could push the wacky physics and gorgeous lighting much further than we anticipated.

Does co-op gameplay thrive on players sitting together in the same room? We’re thinking of usual real-life interactions you would expect to see between players gathered together, such as funny scuffles, yelling, and swearing. Over the past few years, there’s been a massive resurgence in couch co-op. Long gone are the days of gaming being seen as a solitary activity. Now it’s just another way for family and friends to spend time with each other. Local-only co-op games – such as Overcooked and Crawl – perform extremely well, so there’s clearly an audience. When we started development on Get Packed, one of our core pillars was to create a game which encourages these types of engaging social experiences, whether online or together in the same room.

Coatsink developers working on the game in their office in Cornwall.

Does the co-op mode support online gaming in case your friends live in a distance where you rarely meet each other? Friends and family can invite each other to play through Stadia and jump into a game with no hassle at all. It features both local and online play, so whether you are playing on the couch with a partner or want to play with someone on the other side of the world, that can easily be done. You can even mix the two, with a few people playing locally and connecting with others online.

Is it possible to communicate with your friends via headset during an online match? Most definitely! You can easily invite your friends to a party on Stadia to start a voice channel with them before starting up the game. Jumping on a voice communications channel with your friends as you are chaotically packing things adds an extra layer of comedy as things go wrong. Part of the game’s experience is being able to enjoy the naturally occurring comedic interactions between you and your friends during gameplay!

What was the motivation behind releasing Get Packed first on Stadia? The game looks like it would also work fine across other popular platforms like PC, PS4, Xbox One, and of course Nintendo Switch. Over the last several years, there has been a huge shift in the way games are marketed, which has led to a massive boom in the development of games from smaller independent studios. Smaller Indie titles can gain massive traction through content creators streaming games content to their audiences. With the Games Video Content market growing at a very fast rate, and both streamers and viewers looking for new ways to interact with one another, Stadia offers a number of interesting features that can make the most of the shift in games entertainment culture. When we were designing the idea for the game Get Packed, we already knew that we wanted to make a game that was not just fun to play, but also fun to watch. When we were later presented with the opportunity to be a ‘First on Stadia’ title, the decision was a no-brainer. Stadia offers an extremely innovative and ambitious new platform that has the potential to change the way in which games are played drastically. As technology continues to grow rapidly, more people have access to faster and more affordable internet, making it even easier to play games than ever before. It is incredibly exciting to be a part of this new pioneering technology as one of the first ‘First on Stadia’ titles. In terms of gameplay, Get Packed is a very physics-heavy game, which can typically be quite intense on hardware. Not everyone has access to such hardware; however, by utilising Google’s high-end systems through games streaming, we can really see how far we can push the physics systems, while still allowing people to enjoy smooth gameplay at the highest graphical settings. Although the game focuses on couch co-op gameplay, in this day and age, social gatherings may not be possible. This makes online play incredibly important, and any developer who’s dipped their fingers into online physics will know how challenging and performance heavy it can be. Thankfully, Stadia can alleviate a lot of the typical performance problems that could come as a result of players connecting to the internet with different levels of hardware.

The developers showed their game at several events.

Are there any differences between online and local matches regarding gameplay? The local campaign is complemented with the animated story of our Ditchlington heroes, but in regards to gameplay, they are exactly the same. The online mode consists of a multiplayer playground similar to that of Gangbeasts, where players can join their friends or strangers in a lobby where they can select any level and mode that they have unlocked. The only differences are that players may have access to levels they haven’t unlocked yet by joining a player who has unlocked it, high scores and challenges won’t be saved for players who haven’t unlocked them in this case. The story cutscenes currently aren’t present in online play. However, we are considering bringing back that option, as many players dive straight into online games without ever learning of the backstory behind the game.

Does the game have features that only Stadia can offer? If so, what happens to these features in case of a future release on other platforms? Post-release, we will be looking to add Crowd Play to Get Packed and exploring other Stadia specific features. When designing Get Packed, one of our core design goals was to create a game which was not only fun to play, but fun to watch. Having the ability to instantly switch from watching your favourite streamer to playing with them is a brilliant idea and would be perfect for our game. These features are a massive bonus for both streamers and viewers. The growing video games content market has shown a rapid increase in the number of people who enjoy watching and interacting with their favourite content creators to the extent where it is considered a staple in the lives of the younger generations. Get Packed was designed to promote fun interactions between players, and this greatly matches what Stadia is also trying to achieve between streamers and viewers. While these Stadia specific features would be a massive addition to the entertainment value of the game, they aren’t crucial to the core game experience, and would not affect development in the case of a future release on other platforms.

Moving can be quite the chaos, but at least it’s a funny chaos.

Finally, some questions regarding the current Corona crisis: How does the worldwide pandemic affect the work of developers and publishers? Has your work changed significantly in this context? Did some of your employees or maybe entire departments have been working decentralised in their home offices even before the crisis occurred? Many large developers and publishers are based in cities where the Coronavirus has had a much larger impact, increasing the likelihood of employees becoming sick or self-isolating out of precaution and care for others. Depending on the company, this could quite easily result in many delays while the company sets up a remote work infrastructure for its employees. Older companies may have a more traditional structure, so they may have found it more challenging to move everything digital in comparison to a small indie developer who has remote employees dotted around the world. Many companies hold their new game titles in secrecy and very close to their chest. Creating a secure environment for employees to work remotely without running the risk of information leaks can be a very costly exercise. For us at Moonshine Studios, which is located at the tail-end of Cornwall, the impact of Coronavirus is quite minimal in comparison. Our small office has been closed since the lockdown; however, it has been very easy for us to adapt to a remote office environment. Since starting up, we have always had a flexible approach to remote working and work hours. While we do have a core office where the majority of us work, people have the freedom to work from home whenever they choose. Graham, one of our programmers, lives quite far away from the office compared to the rest of us and finds it much easier to work at night due to the lack of distraction. As such, we’ve made sure our work infrastructure has been able to accommodate this. Not only that, but some of us have also been in more long-distance relationships, and being able to work remotely for a month or two at a time has been great in fostering them. With the onset of cloud computing and the availability of a plethora of digital management tools for every situation, it has never been so easy to collaborate and set up a remote office network than ever before. Utilising digital collaborative tools such as Slack, Github and Trello alongside Unity indicated that we already had the infrastructure for working from home, which meant that our productivity hadn’t been massively affected by the lockdown. Some slowdown is inevitable; however, as we are all working from personal laptops and desktops that aren’t as powerful as our office workstations. We mostly communicate through Slack, which enables us to easily group topics and direct message to each other. However, conveying complicated ideas or issues can be a struggle via text, in which case we hold quick video chats, especially when they relate to the design of important gameplay features. The biggest difficulty for us with the current lockdown is that we simply miss the office and the company culture. We are all good friends, so to be isolated for weeks can be challenging. We recently started an online coffee chat every other morning to catch up with each other to make sure everyone is doing well, considering the current climate.

Is there a chance that digital products could perhaps achieve an increase in sales as a result of the crisis? Historical video games sales data has shown that more people are moving from physical to digital media, and the current situation will only strengthen this. We have seen the highest unemployment numbers we will probably ever see in our lifetime, with millions of people off work on furlough or having lost their jobs completely. With limited options, while waiting for the economic climate to move back towards normality, those that are currently stuck at home with their loved ones (who may also be in a similar situation) need to find ways to entertain themselves as a form of escapism. Video games are the perfect form of media to do this. They not only act as a form of entertainment, but are also used to create and strengthen social bonds, and can often be a way to stimulate or destress the mind. There have already been multiple reports of increased game sales, game streaming viewership and concurrent players. The World Health Organisation has even recommended playing active video games while in isolation. There is no doubt this will have a big impact on the video games industry, whether that would be introducing gaming to a whole new audience that has previously stayed clear of it, or making it a social staple like board games nights once were. While we could have never predicted what has happened, since right from the start of development, making the game available for online play has been a key goal. Although Get Packed and similar party game experiences shine the most in a setting where players are sitting around the same screen, we know that a large portion of the audience can only play games with others online. It has always been important to us to have both online and local co-op in Get Packed, so that family and friends could enjoy the gaming experience together, wherever they are in the world.

No item is too big or weird to move.

We notice that developer conferences all around the world get cancelled at the moment, which is a big problem for small developers. Usually visiting a developer conference helps to get in touch with publishers quickly and allow multiple pitches in a short amount of time. For many indies, pitching at the publisher’s site (with flights, hotel, etc.) is too expensive. So do you have any tips for a ‘contactless’ pitch? Which information should be part of the first email, and how should a future webcam presentation look like to raise the interest of a publisher? We feel a great deal of sympathy for the developers who had made plans to attend these conferences, some who will not get their money back. In those early pitching phases when you are still looking for funding, every expense is crucial and to not get anything back from it could cripple a company. That’s why it’s been amazing to see the support of places like WINGS who spearheaded the GDC Relief Fund, allowing people to recoup some of their costs. My hope is that this situation will encourage more publishers to focus on online pitches, so future developers don’t feel the need to attend these events. When sending pitches to publishers, it’s important to catch their attention. For us, we knew our game shined brightest when you saw people playing it, so we made a semi-public game night at a university and invited people to come to play the game in exchange for some free food. We recorded them playing and mixed their reactions into the trailer. It was clear that everyone was enjoying playing the game themselves as well as competing against their friends for the highest score. Everyone likes a bit of friendly competition and being able to capture the emotions of those interactions was fantastic. Even before the lockdown started and the games expos were cancelled, it was still very important to have a strong ‘contactless’ pitch. When you attend an event, there are many occasions where you just aren’t able to set up those essential meetings or miss the opportunity to show the game to a potential publisher; you may have to make that first contact by email. Perfecting that is even more important in the current climate. Keep in mind when sending emails to publishers, that they probably get hundreds of messages a day. We found being brief, transparent, but informative with all your needs, the funds required, and an eye-catching trailer was what worked for us. While the first contact is very important, being able to follow up with a realistic view on scope, sales, budgeting and planning is a large bonus. Publishers want to know whether they can trust the team to deliver the game they are pitching in a specific time frame within budget. Ultimately though, if you have something playable to show, this experience can speak a thousand words, so make sure to pitch at the right time with the best possible build you can provide.

Dr Marcus Gardner Co-Founder & Programmer

Originally specialising in mechatronics and robotics, Marcus switched careers to utilise his experience in systems design, programming, project management and independent research to create memorable experiences in games.

Jamie King Co-Founder & Designer

Specialising in games design, Jamie has previously created games and interactive exhibits for award-winning visitor attractions. While primarily a designer, he also assists with art direction the 3D asset production.

The post Get Packed: Creating a Game for Google Stadia appeared first on Making Games.

Get Packed: Creating a Game for Google Stadia published first on https://leolarsonblog.tumblr.com/

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entergamingxp · 5 years ago

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the 20 best games for Xbox One you can play right now • Eurogamer.net

The Xbox One might not sit at the very top of the console market this generation, but it’s provided one of the most incredible comeback stories these past few years. After a famously shaky start, Microsoft’s Xbox One has been transformed into a formidable ecosystem – thanks to a philosophical shift, and in Xbox One X an incredible piece of hardware. The X can safely boast of being the most powerful console available, making it the platform of choice for multiplatform games, but it’s thanks to initiatives like Game Pass as well as original exclusives such as Sea of Thieves that makes Xbox One arguably one of the best places to play games right now. Here’s our personal pick for 20 of the best Xbox One games out there for Microsoft’s console right now.

Editors Note: Eurogamer is refreshing its series of ‘best games’ features, and today we’re looking at the Xbox One. You’ll continue to see more platform lists appearing on the home page in the coming weeks – we’ve covered the best PS4 games so far – with the aim to update them several times a year as new releases supplant a given system’s existing library.

Sunset Overdrive

The thing about Sunset Overdrive was that, even before it landed, it seemed exciting. This hardware generation got off to a bit of a bad start. It was all about mega games, games as services, and yet Sunset Overdrive, with its dumb jokes, its bright colours, its explosions that spelled out the word “BOOM” in fireballs seemed like the best of the PS2 era, a knockabout action game that was emphatically not for everyone.

In the hands, Sunset Overdrive is a total delight, too, quickfire gags piling on top of one of the most beautifully empowering control systems in years as you rail-grind, bounce, and air-dash your way across a personable open-world, compact enough to be ownable, bright enough to make exploring a delight.

Want to read more? See our full Sunset Overdrive review and buy now from Amazon.

Forza Horizon 4

What started just a few years ago as a spin-off to the more conventional Xbox racing flagship, Forza Motorsport, is now arguably the best racing game series anywhere – and certainly one of the most popular. Forza Horizon, with its gorgeous open-world maps and upbeat festival gimmick, marries unimpeachable car-nerd authenticity to a joyous, adventuring spirit that widens its appeal beyond motorsport fans to anyone who likes fun video games.

For the fourth game, developer Playground brought the series home to Britain with its best map to date, made even more romantically exciting by changing seasons – while constant live updates have rendered it impossible to put down.

Want to read more? See our full Forza Horizon 4 review and buy now from Amazon.

What Remains of Edith Finch

Edith Finch offers a rambling mansion designed with the intricacy and engineering flair of a pop-up book and tells the story of a doomed family through the stories and objects they left behind. Exhilarating, romantic, funny and devastating, this is an astonishing reminder of the power of games.

Want to read more? See our full What Remains of Edith Finch review and buy now from Amazon.

Sea of Thieves

Every pirate cliché stuck in a single game? It works because pirate clichés are wonderful things, and because Rare is that unusual developer that’s confident in its own silliness while humble enough to listen to feedback.

What launched as a bit of a curio – Eve Online at sea and with a sense of humour – has blossomed into a wonderfully generous open-seas swashbuckler, filled with creaking boats, clattering skeletons, and a sense of mystery that settles around some occasionally rather sparse systems. A delight.

Want to read more? See our full Sea of Thieves review and buy now from Amazon.

Outer Wilds

This is a game to set your watch by, a clockwork solar system filled with compact treasures and a genuine sense of wonder. Blast off in a rickety launcher from a wooded planet and travel between a cluster of worlds, all of which are shaped by violent forces.

There is something beautiful about the way the narrative unfolds, completely unforced, completely without combat. The fact that you can land on a comet and wander about would be enough in itself to grant this a special place in players’ hearts. But the comet is just the start, and the sense of mystery runs very deep. A total gem.

Want to read more? See our full Outer Wilds review and buy now from Amazon.

Halo: The Master Chief Collection

To be honest, if multiplayer is your thing you may be better off turning to Halo 5: Guardians – a fine, underrated package that has been assiduously updated and has a very active community. But its weak campaign pales in the face of this towering, comprehensive monument to everything that came before.

It includes two all-time-greats that are as stirring now as ever – the first Halo: Combat Evolved and Halo 3 – plus the fascinating spin-off ODST, while fan-favourite prequel Reach will be added soon. The Master Chief Collection had issues upon release, but after a lot of work it stands as one of the finest and most generous reissue compilations anywhere. An essential part of any Xbox library.

Want to read more? See our full Halo: The Master Chief Collection review and buy now from Amazon.

Cuphead

Those halcyon, creativity-kissed days of the summer of arcade that once blessed the Xbox 360 may be but a memory, but this generation Cuphead has served as an admirable reminder of the indie heart that once beat through Microsoft’s store.

It’s a fine game on its own merits too, with some interesting inspirations – Treasure’s offbeat boss-rush Alien Soldier is perhaps the most prominent – and an art style that’s to die for. Oh, and it’s also impossibly brutal – but hey, that’s just as it should be for a hard-edged 2D run-and-gunner like this.

Want to read more? See our full Cuphead review and buy now from Amazon.

Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice

Speaking of tough games… From Software’s previous titles haven’t exactly shied away from presenting players with seemingly insurmountable challenges, but Sekiro is something else. Getting beyond the opening area is a feat almost equal to surviving Dark Souls’ Blighttown, and it only gets harder from there on out.

Good thing that the challenge is always fair, then, and that the combat system is brilliant – poised, balletic and with little flickers of brutality, all served by the strength of vision and clarity of art that has made FromSoft one of modern gaming’s greatest studios. Sekiro’s a tough game, but if you stick it out you’re in for something truly special.

Want to read more? See our full Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice review and buy now from Amazon.

Fortnite

Fortnite’s greatness isn’t that it’s the best battle royale out there but that it’s a game that offers unparalleled ways to engage with it. You can play it as a walking simulator or an exploration game as easily as a shooter. Character and animation combine to create a wonderful playground, while the incremental level design – level design by midnight elves – should change the ways that games tell their stories through their landscapes.

Want to read more? See our Fortnite tips and tricks.

Scourgebringer

Scourgebringer’s the kind of game you install and never have to delete – so compact it barely takes up any room, so vivid it’s always in rotation. Room by room rid the world of horrible pixelated foes in this kinetic and violent pocket roguelike. The world is richly detailed and the enemies are horribly memorable, but the real thrill here is in the movement. Fantastic.

Want to read more? See our full Scourgebringer impressions and buy now from the Microsoft Store.

Monster Hunter: World

The care that this game takes with its animals makes you feel a bit weird about laying into them, frankly. A huge dinosaur will rise out of the swamp where it has been hiding, and thick mud will be running over its huge back plates. Such beauty! Such a sense of a life lived beyond the game. But when all you have is a giant hammer, maybe everything looks like a giant nail? That’s only half the game, anyway, and the other half, in which you get increasingly more fabulous trousers, is just as good. Environment, animals, loot: this is both gloriously simple and dizzyingly deep. Just enjoy!

Want to read more? See our full Monster Hunter World review and buy now from Amazon.

Assassin’s Creed Odyssey

Ancient Greece seemed like a bit of a misstep at first. After the grandeur and chilly mystery of Egypt, weren’t the Greeks a bit too human with their fighty, spoiled gods and away-break coastlines? In fact, the warmth of the Greek canon is what makes this game such a delight, a sprawling, very human adventure spread across beautiful islands and glorious azure seas.

Depending on who you choose to play as it’s got one of the series’ greatest leads, too. And even if Odyssey’s magpie eye for systems sees even more of the series’ DNA being diminished, what emerges is a confident RPG with a generous heart.

Want to read more? See our full Assassin’s Creed Odyssey review and buy now from Amazon.

Resident Evil 2 Remake

For years Capcom’s struggled to find the balance between Resident Evil’s action excesses and the survival horror on which the series was founded, and often found itself flitting between the two to awkward effect. It turns out the solution was to be found in one of the series’ most cherished games, as this remake folds together all that came after it with the eerie horror of the 1998 original for what’s easily the best Resident Evil since the hallowed RE4.

Want to read more? See our full Resident Evil 2 review and buy now from Amazon.

Titanfall 2

If good directing is good writing and good casting, then Titanfall 2 suggests good game design is often a suite of empowering traversal abilities and a bunch of interesting things to do with them. Titanfall 2’s multiplayer was always going to work, its mech-battling, wall-running gauntlets refined over the course of the first game’s lifetime.

But its single-player is the surprise star here, an inventive, restless campaign that is always muddling with the basics of its premise and a storyline that proves surprisingly moving and engrossing. Titanfall 2 is one of the greatest single-player FPS games ever made, and nobody really saw that coming.

Want to read more? See our full Titanfall 2 review and buy now from Amazon.

Minecraft

The Xbox 360 was the first console you could play Minecraft on, and Xbox still feels like this game’s home-from-home – even through, after acquiring it, Microsoft declined to make it exclusive, and you can play it on pretty much anything. It remains a unique and total original, a fountain of fun and creativity for a whole generation of players, and a deceptively simple sandbox that it’s all too easy to get completely lost in.

It might surprise you, going back to its original mode, to discover that it also functions as quite an uncompromising survival game, as you shore up yourself and your creations against the onslaught of night-time terrors. Not just for kids.

Want to read more? See our full Minecraft review and buy now from Amazon.

Lonely Mountains: Downhill

The great outdoors has rarely been so beautifully invoked in this downhill racing game set amongst a handful of magnificent low-poly mountain ranges. Play for the best times or to track down hidden resting spots. Stay for the melancholy reminder that we belong in the heart of nature, and that, as the saying goes, the cure for loneliness is solitude.

Want to read more? See our full Lonely Mountains: Downhill review and buy now from the Microsoft Store.

The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt

An earthy, rural epic, at this point The Witcher 3 is a generational touchstone of design, the sheer mass of its success enough to form a kind of gravitational pull towards grittiness, grimness and scale. So many imitators have tried to capture its magic but so few have really cracked it: its brilliance comes from its humanity. It’s in the complexity of its characters, the nuance of its sometimes moral, sometimes amoral throughline, and the tangible, muddy depth of its world.

At times it still leans towards the puerile – the old staples of lust and gore are ever-present, along with the odd dose of teenage nihilism – but its generosity, its texture and its character remain unmatched. As we move towards a new generation, The Witcher 3 remains the archetypal gaming blockbuster.

Want to read more? See our full The Witcher 3 review and buy now from Amazon.

Call of Duty Modern Warfare (2019) and Warzone

The latest incarnation of Modern Warfare may not have the nuance of the original, or sleight-of-hand narrative bombast of Modern Warfare 2, but it still packs an almighty punch as a classic shooter. Its campaign is gorgeous, if a little uneven, and with the free addition of Warzone – a surprisingly interesting take on the already cluttered battle royale genre – and some all-time great multiplayer maps like Modern Warfare 2’s Rust returning, the package now is quite something. It may have needed to borrow from its ancestors to get there, but it’s still great. Big, dumb, but brilliant.

Want to read more? See our full Call of Duty: Modern Warfare review and buy now from Amazon.

Gears 5

The title’s undergone the subtlest of changes, as too has the game itself as The Coalition puts its stamp on Microsoft’s stomping cover shooter series, and for the most part it works. This is a whittling back to the things that matter, a kind of Gears jus, accompanied by some daring new ideas that branch out in new directions (don’t be put off by the inclusion of an open world section – it’s beautifully executed and lends the series an even greater degree of freedom that’s more akin to classic Halo than anything else). It’s seriously fun to play and easily the best big blockbuster exclusive available on Microsoft’s console.

Want to read more? See our full Gears 5 review and buy now from Amazon.

GTA 5

GTA’s tone might be a little wonky, but little else about it is. A massive everything-bagel of a game, it’s as much a second life simulator now as it is a place to steal cash and blow up cars. It’s Online mode, too, is almost an entirely separate game in itself, fostering huge, dedicated communities and subcultures in a way that very few other games can. GTA Online’s heists stand out above all. Enormously fun, even all these years later, they represent everything that developer Rockstar seems to be about: a somewhat folly urge to match the greats of cinema, and an uncanny ability to make a playground of action-fuelled fun.

Want to read more? See our full GTA 5 review and buy now from Amazon.

If you want to hear us explain why we’re doing ‘best games’ lists, and how we’ve settled on the games we have, then you can listen to our process live with a dedicated episode of the Eurogamer Podcast. Do note that this was recorded at the time of our original, 15-game-long list of Switch games, so you’ll see a handful of those have since changed (our apologies, Donky Kong).

Give our podcast a listen through iTunes, Spotify, RSS, and SoundCloud.

from EnterGamingXP https://entergamingxp.com/2020/04/the-20-best-games-for-xbox-one-you-can-play-right-now-%e2%80%a2-eurogamer-net/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=the-20-best-games-for-xbox-one-you-can-play-right-now-%25e2%2580%25a2-eurogamer-net

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benlewisgraphicdesign · 8 years ago

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MAKING OF MODEL

In response to Haring and Stevenson I decided to create a 3D outcome. I used ceramics to explore this and made a clay head which represented an ‘insane’ character I had been drawing in my sketchbook. After making and glazing the head I wanted to take it further and make this outcome more exciting, it didn’t feel finished. I thought about how I had used 3D outcomes before and made a puppet. The puppet had a fabric body and hard head made of card and paper màche. This is an example of how my experience has influenced me and assisted in solving problems. This influenced my idea to create a body for the head. The artist’s I had researched has used sculpture and 3D outcomes to bring there characters to life but this seemed an obvious alternative which could potentially create something more interactive for the audience than just a drawing.

(Puppet I had made previously) Also a very sinister looking head.

The head is made of clay and I didn't want to use this material for the body as it would likely be fragile and hard to display. Also I wanted to keep on experimenting with different techniques and involve mixed media, much like some of the artists I’ve researched had done. (Haring, Stevenson and Bruno Munari) I like the idea of the body looking very different and out of place compared to the head, using a different style, material and creating an ‘opposition’. I didn't have much experience in sewing but I thought fabric would be the best way to go, I had used fabric for the tail of a puppet in a previous assignment. The head is quite sinister and scary so bright and busy patterned fabrics seemed a suitable contrast that could still potentially link to the ‘insane’ character trait of the head. In colour theory blue and yellow have some of the most positive connotations so would benefit being on it’s outfit to contrast the emotion of the head.

I hand sewed the body for the model, this was an easier way of working for me however it didn’t achieve the highest quality result a sewing machine would have. Despite this the hand-rendered aesthetic of the body suited the style I work in and draw in as it’s not a polished or particularly realistic style. It also didn't take the model too seriously and reflects the light hearted style I’m trying to achieve that points fun at the concept, much like how Mark Gonzalez presents issues in society. The outfit had influences from my previous puppet with the fabric choice but the constructs of it were inspired by the fashion in the old photographs I had collected at the car boot sale. The younger men in the photographs were wearing scruffy shirt and ties which contrasts the ‘old character’ on the head too.

In order to make the body I used a lot of stuffing which gave the model a soft texture and feel of a ‘teddy bear’ contrasting from the hard clay head on top. It was important to use tight stitches and I binded over the stitching again so that things like the arms and legs would be securely attached. As you can see in the image above the long legs the character has were bunched up at the top and were hard to attach to the body in a secure way that looked like they were actually attached. I used old jeans to create some little shorts for the puppet that hide these parts of the leg. This is an example of creative problem solving and instantly changed the aesthetic to a more high quality one.

A challenge was attaching the clay head to the fabric body. I tried drilling into the clay but after it had been in the kiln it became too durable. This lead me to use the apoxy resin (arendite) which is a super glue. I had to work in a well ventilated space with gloves on to ensure the fumes and strength of the glue didn't injure me or anyone around. I used the glue to fix a piece of wire on to the back of the head. Admittedly it was difficult to reinforce and some layers of hot glue gave a helping hand to securely fixing that on. It was important that it was secure as the head was heavy and needed to be able to hold itself up and the body. I then threaded through the wire onto the fabric to attach it. I like this as it allowed some movement and rotation for the head further bringing the character to life.

Further exploring colour theory I used some yellow stitching to create messy cross hatches and patches on the trousers. The yellow has positive connotations of sunlight, positivity and goodness which contrasts from the crazy and scary looking clay head. Also the rough stitching in yellow gave a rougher, authentic look to the trousers that worked well with the style of the head. What would I improve or add to this? Potentially some little hands and feet made of clay would add more detail and improve the quality of the model. It could potentially be a good way to weigh down the arms to the body as well. How effective was this process? Creating the body was very time consuming and took a lot of trial and error due to my lack of sewing and constructing experience. With the amount of time it took to make the head as well this was a lengthly outcome to create. However I am pleased with the body and the likeliness i have maintained to the original sketches of this character in my sketchbook.

I revisited the ceramics process to make small hands. I wanted to keep taking this further until there was a high quality look to the puppet. The hands were glazed in the same style and were effective in adding that extra detail to enhance the quality and also weighed down the arms slightly so they fell nicer by the puppets side.

How effective was this process? I found sewing the body extremelt time consuming and tedious as a process. However the outcome was how I had intended it and looked high quality enough to potentially exhibit. Why do I want to exhibit this? I am really focusing on extending my skills, creating a varied body of work and challenging this theme surrounding stereotypes and opposition. This puppet is a prime example of the way my style and use of materials and processes has developed since undertaking this project contrasting massively from the 2D digital outcomes I have made in previous projects.

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courage-a-word-of-justice · 8 years ago

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Kado 7 (includes notes on Kado 6.5 + Tsukigakirei 6.5) | Boku no Hero Academia 21 | Grimoire of Zero 7 | Royal Tutor 8 | Tsukigakirei 7

Kado 7 (includes notes on Kado 6.5 + Tsukigakirei 6.5)

Some notes on the recap: It’s interesting they styled the title card to be like a silent movie, but the embellishments in the top corners are high-tech. Tsukigakirei’s recap was a slog because it awkwardly cut, but because of all the indications of time and the fact there’s already a narrator, this show fits a recap style much better (but the titlecards and changing of the eyecatch make this ep feel fresh, which is great!). Also, it seems I was wrong about how it had been three days since Kado’s appearance (see ep 5’s commentary), because the counter hits 5 days when the first passengers are released.

Wait…that “brain” was a device???

“Hi Setten”, LOL. Also, I found out “kado” (with this combo of kanji -> 過度) can mean “excess” or “immoderation”, and “setten” means “settings” or “options”...I first remember seeing the word in the Boueibu game, where “setten” of course would refer to things like “volume on/off” and that.

Apparently, the Google CEO’s name is Sundar Pichai…I thought it was Larry Page and Sergey Brin as co-CEOs, but I guess I was wrong…Also notice Ward’s iPad says “ihou sonzai” (anisotropic being).

Oh flap. Adam’s pulling a Great Fitz here…

I’ve seen the “I can’t dry my laundry!” screenshot before, but seeing it in context is funny all over again. In fact, it makes it even funnier.

I was worried about how the show might get a little too philosophical after ep 6’s end, but it’s good to see Hanamori retains his sleeping capabilities. *stifles laughter* They even rendered Hanamori’s bedhead.

“Kado comes here, and instead of running, they find a way to market it.” – It’s an interesting, yet extremely obvious point that we tend to ignore because we’re so used to it. That’s why tourism – even fake tourism - sells. Why do I bring this up? Because I want to, for one, and because I hope to exploit this angle for Half-Paid Heroes. (I wanna know how to make Kado cake, too…)

CR subbers, I thought Gonno’s first name was “Takumi”?...

That’s cute, it’s a helicopter landing spot, complete with “H” marking.

If I didn’t know any better, I might’ve called Shindo zaShunina’s sidekick. (LOL)

This “stacks of books” scene is something like what I imagined when I wrote White Parasite’s La Luna’s hideout in the mountains…that’s one of the reasons I’ve been able to give Kado and zaShunina an unyielding love. Also, I thought the promo 2D Shunina looked creepy, so this 2D shot of Shunina stole my heart!!!

The cube seats remind me of those child corners in libraries and that, where you have mini stools for playing pretend. Oh. Speaking of which, it reminds me of this Rubik’s cube.

Okay. I thought Kado would be a show devoid of such things, but let’s play the game of “What drugs were the producers on today?”

Okkkkkkkkkay. (stifles laughter) Did you realise the Shunina heads made a heart, with the “real” (existing in the normal dimensions) Shunina in the middle? Hahaha…

Wait. That screaming thing in episode…2, I think it was? The bit where Shindo grabs his head in agony?...was Shunina giving him (Shindo) the sense of the anisotropic? Ahhhhhhhhh. That makes sense now!

“They were good humans.” – Just in case you didn’t forget Shunina is an extradimensional bishie being. I guess it’s kind of along the lines of Kai’s (Royal Tutor’s) “You’re all good boys!”, which is true both there and here. In most cases (except maybe Shunina and Ward), the boys of Kado are good boys.

A bookmark. For an avid reader like Shunina (or myself…haha), it’s a perfect gift. Just make sure they’re not so heavy they fall out of books, because then they’re useless.

They put the festival scene in 2D! (It would be a cost cutting measure for sure, but…you know what I said about 2D Shunina previously? Yeah, that.) Also, it just goes to show you even a high concept sci-fi show like this goes for the jugular in depicting fanservice for the “people who like hot guys” and “people who like tsunderes”. However, did Shunina change his own clothes? Did Shindo or someone else get the yukata for him? Does Shunina even have the concept of “changing clothes”???

Fake Nintendo Switch. I’ve also seen this screenshot making the Tumblr rounds before.

LOL, giant turtle. I like turtles.

Haha, negotiating even at a festival. I LOLled too hard at the line, “What is buttered potato?” (but I also like buttered potatoes…I like a lot of things).

“Saraka-san, zaShunina, you, and the turtle will be in group B.” This typo’s the same case as the Gonno one earlier this ep.

“Are there any negative effects?”

How do you lose an anisotropic being at a festival? I actually hope he isn’t being rabidly devoured by a bunch of girls who think he’s hot.

Just seeing the credits reminded me that Shinawa was absent this ep (which was good). Also, has Natsume appeared in every ep’s credits so far? I don’t remember because I normally don’t watch credits.

Boku no Hero Academia 21

“Sparking Killing Boy”, LOL.

The more I watch Mei, the more I feel like I’m watching The Truman Show (where there’s one woman who advertises things near the beginning of the movie).

The belt transformation refers to sentai heroes.

Hmm…I agree with Deku on Aoyama’s strategy, since his laser is best used from afar.

That was an unexpected (for me) win for Tokoyami. I knew his Quirk was good all around, but I thought Yaoyorozu would win for sure. It’s just the difference in confidence, eh?

“…focussing on the shield Yaoyorozu made.”

I kinda get what Uraraka’s saying. After all, she might end up dragging Deku down one day by relying on him too much.

Grimoire of Zero 7

It annoys me how tavern girl looks so similar to Zero.

Why do fantasy travellers (or Brock in Pokémon, for that matter) never have big packs? You’d think they do…

The colour of the night sky in this episode is pretty.

This wolf’s like Sonic (One Punch Man). Such a sore loser.

Hey wait, did Thirteen see her…uh, assets? Did he dress her wounds?! Eep! I do not ship this. *shakes head*

Royal Tutor 8

Ouch, Licht, you got burnt! On the other hand, I agree with Bruno that he should sleep forever, noting past comments I’ve heard him (Licht) say.

Ah, the zoo. What nostalgia that brings. I’ve been to the closest zoo at least twice…thrice…four times…? I don’t remember anymore, but the zoo is always a fun place.

It’s smiling, ReLIFE style!

Braunbar (with umlaut over the second a) is German for…wait for it…brown bear.

Bunnies can bite you when you least expect it. From my experience, they don’t draw blood though. (How do I know this? There’s one outside my window as I speak. He’s probably someone’s stray, although no one’s come for him so my family have had to take care of him.)

Shut up, Licht! That’s not comedy, that’s just killing time!

I still wonder…how does Kai actually wear that jacket? It must be troublesome to put on if he’s always wearing it like that.

Ahhhh! Dangit, Kai’s too good for words. The only thing that can quell my “fan of bishies” heart is fangirl screaming.

Those “tricks” of yours didn’t work, Licht. Get out. Besides, Bruno, I barely remembered that brick joke.

My heart sank a little when I saw they weren’t using the cheesy live-action version of the ED. Still the next episode looks like it will address some plot-critical things, and I’m worried for Kai because he’s the sort who can’t get over his problems easily. (As a sidenote, a similar tabloid article shtick was used in SGRS, so I welcome this plotline.)

Tsukigakirei 7

Vita Sexualis is a Mori Ougai work, so I’m kinda on edge about it…knowing Bungou’s Ougai, that is.

Why does this ep’s title sound like it should be a Boueibu one instead???

These (mostly still) shots of theme parks just make it seem like the staff are scrounging for money.

According to the omake at the end of one ep, you’re meant to ship Roman with the teacher (as ick as that is), so I can understand why Roman’s on his lonesome.

Stop egging her on, Hira! She’ll get nervous! (I say that because I don’t like roller coasters much.)

I feel like the word “viva” is being overdone, attendant person. Google-sensei says the word means “live (verb)”, so it doesn’t make sense at all.

Hira’s freckles really don’t seem to be a mistake. Also my brain can’t make sense of “sorabune” – the word for ship/boat is “fune”, but it doesn’t become “bune” when attached to another word...not that I know of, anyway.

Yamashina? We’ve never been told Roman’s surname before…

Potori Water, LOL. Parody on Pocari Sweat if you didn’t know that.

It’s nice that they didn’t do the full-on “can on face at aumsement park” thing I’ve come to expect from romances, because Detective Conan kinda solidified that as the norm for me.

The Big O in this case isn’t an anime, it’s a Ferris wheel.

Josei Next Door did a CR article where she suggested people needed to talk to each other more, and while it was on The Royal Tutor, sometimes I wish Akane and Kotarou would talk to each other properly too…welp, I spoke too soon (sort of).Why “sort of”? Because Kotarou is speaking to Hira, but he ain’t speaking to Akane.

I feel a twinge of guilt in that I wanted Chinatsu’s and Hira’s dreams to be shattered to make way for the canon couple, and Chinatsu’s tears exacerbate that feeling. I guess this is what it’s like to be a shipper, eh – to ignore the feelings of couples in order to get your own way, knowing your dreams may not even become reality? (But can’t these kids all be happy??? It could easily be a “pair the spares” situation, now that I think of it.)

The takoyaki’s nice, but that background with the screaming girl is creepy…It appears to be a parody on Beavertails, for some odd reason. Why is there a Canadian product being used as product placement in an anime (and why a product I’ve only ever heard of from a Canadian TV show, to boot)???...*record scratch* Okay, I’m weirded out, and I admit defeat. Beavertails exist in Japan.

Couple selfies. That just goes to show how much trends can permeate culture…hey, does that mean people may one day use memes in anime? (Even though anime creates memes?) It’s meme-ception!

It seems live action footage was used for this show, if you look closely, and it’s not just the OP I’m talking about…

Finally, a part of Tsukigakirei I can get behind! These night scenes are so real! If it weren’t for Kotarou and Akane, I’d think these scenes to be photos and not animation at all.

I get this feeling that we’ll end with either their graduation or them as adults, with Kotarou telling their kids “…and this is how I met your mother.” Which would be awkward as all get out, but okay. (I haven’t seen How I Met Your Mother by the way, although it sounds like a scenario that would happen in it…)

Aw, dangit. They got their kiss interrupted. At least it wasn’t by Chinatsu, that would’ve caused more tears on her end.

Mireta (used in “Did you see the fireworks?”) seems to be an odd formation of mieta, but in slang, people break the grammar rules all the time, so I’d suspect people break the spelling rules too.

I was surprised to find out this ep’s ED LINE chat is a wife to a husband. That confirms my How I Met Your Mother thoughts, somewhat. (The husband had overtime and got the wife juice. It seems they were going to an event, because the wife says to check the invitation guest list...and so on, so forth.)

Oh? There are more omakes? I’ll watch ‘em someday when I’m bored…I guess.

#simulcast commentary #grimoire of zero #seikaisuru kado #oushitsu kyoushi haine #tsukigakirei #boku no hero academia 2 #Chesarka watches Grimoire of Zero #Chesarka watches Kado #Chesarka watches Tsukigakirei #Chesarka watches Boku no Hero Academia #Chesarka watches Oushitsu Kyoushi Haine #that was longer than I thought it would be.

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