Pixhell

NOVASTRIKE Now on PSN

2008-06-06T15:39:00.001-07:00

NOVASTRIKE is the first indie developer / self-published game on the PlayStation Network (PSN). Built and developed by my friend Kevin McCann and company over at the illustrious TikiGames.

Publishing your own game can be a really really difficult thing to do. Just making a game and getting it published without having substantial funding is difficult in it's own right. With the decline of innovation going on in the gaming industry and the continuation of sequel after sequel and half assed movie tie-in releases, it is important to support those indie developers!

The game is a steal for $9.99 so if you have a PSN and some cash to spare show Sony and the other publishers that we gamers like , support, and want more indie developers.

7 Deadly Sin Cups

2008-06-06T15:29:00.001-07:00

7 Deadly Sin cups (Greed pictured). Pretty awesome. They took the idea of the 7 deadly sins and applied them to wine glasses. While not at all practical from an artistic standpoint they are pretty awesome. I don't even like wine personally, but these glasses are great.

via NotCot

Releasing an Apple Product in 5 Easy Steps

2008-06-06T15:25:00.001-07:00

Gizmodo posted a video on how to release an Apple product in 5 easy steps. It's pretty hilarious when it's dissected this way.

1. Talk Smack.
2. Say "most" a lot.
3. Compare your product to small stuff.
4. Toss in a "boom"
5. Wait for applause.

6. Profit?

The "It's the most wonderful mouse you've ever used" line is hilarious. The round "puck" mouse for the iMac was probably hands down the worst product Apple ever produced. I'd rather use a Newton than have to use one of those damn mice.

Radiohead 'Nude' Created by Machines

2008-06-06T15:19:00.001-07:00

An interesting use of old technology to make music. I always like this sort of thing. Someone commented on Gizmodo "Oddly enough, things like this help me maintain my faith in humanity." I agree! This at least makes up for 5 fecal related videos ... ok maybe 2.

via Gizmodo

Troopahz

2008-06-06T15:14:00.001-07:00

A flickr gallery called Storm Troopin' is a collection of 39 photos, using Star Wars Stormtroopers toys in various settings. Very well done. Comments from the creators mention other galleries that inspired this collection, pretty amusing.

via Cpluv

Your face is cubed ...

2008-05-26T05:17:00.001-07:00

Some super swanky Photoshop work by Ricardo Salamanca. Creepy and awesome all at the same time. On his portfolio he has some "making of" shots of how he compiled the photos and the like. Very cool stuff!

via NotCot

Game Controller for your iPhone

2008-05-26T05:11:00.001-07:00

iControlpad is something I dreamed up (and a lot of other people) awhile ago and it's something a lot of people having been thinking about. I've seen 3D renders and illustrations and mock ups all over the net of similar designs all on the same idea ... making the iPhone into a portable game system.

It's an interesting idea but there's a lot of complications. Applications would have to write code to use it or have alternate mappings. Plus it makes the phone bulky, and not really "phone" use friendly. Oh well, at least you can play DOOM!

via Engadget

Weezer - Pork and Beans Video

2008-05-26T05:04:00.001-07:00

Maybe Weezer is getting their "edge" back again? Cool video.

via BoingBoing

Photoshop CS4 = GPU & Physics?

2008-05-26T05:01:00.001-07:00

Apparently on Oct. 1st Adobe is releasing the new CS4 suite of products. Photoshop CS4 supposedly will come equipped with GPU support and Physics. Definitely weird. I sort of understand where they are coming from with this on one hand and the other makes me go, WTF Adobe?

Where's our Thermo beta? Where's our final REAL Macromedia / Adobe merged code and everything plays happy together? Where's our robust and streamlined asset management tools? 64-bit support? Are you really going to ship another version of ImageReady? Seriously? Is Fireworks dead yet? Can Illustrator and InDesign be one tool yet? No ... no ... you just want to add some GPU stuff and show off how Photoshop can kinda do half-assed 3D and use physics? You don't care what the users want ... ok Adobe. Can we at least keep all of the Photoshop 1.0 legacy code? Ok thanks.

via Digg

Interpol - Rest My Chemistry Video

2008-05-13T14:06:00.001-07:00

Blip Boutique created the Rest My Chemistry Video (QuickTime) for Interpol. It's not heart stopping amazing but it's interesting to see creative types (bands, artists, etc.) playing with code and things to create dynamic visuals. It's interesting to see these things evolve. I think that the baby steps artists and designers have been taking towards programming by way of web code and other misc. tools has been an interesting journey so far.

via Computer Love

GTA 4 vs NYC

2008-05-13T13:06:00.001-07:00

There is a super keen flickr gallery comparing side by side real photos of places in NYC to their GTA 4 counterparts. It's pretty sweet!

via Boing Boing

89 Places to Download Photoshop Brushes

2008-05-10T15:47:00.001-07:00

fuel your creativity posted The Ultimate Photoshop Resource List (part 1 - brushes) a few days ago. I'm actually afraid to click on many of the links because I'm a digital pack rat and I know I'll find 1,000 new brushes I think I will use and pack the all away on my RAID. It's dangerous, proceed at your own risk!

Gangstagrass

2008-05-10T15:09:00.001-07:00

Producer Rench, has mashed together Gangsta rap and Bluegrass for reasons unknown. Yes seriously. Oddly enough it actually works. They're allowing free downloads and you can listen to some samples on their myspace page. Too funny.

Rubik's World?

2008-05-09T16:35:00.001-07:00

Apparently there's some Rubik's Cube game called Rubik's World coming to the Wii and the Nintendo DS. While I don't particularly care; I saw a couple of screenshots of it which is why it caught my attention. I dig their faked GI rendering ... mmm soft shadows. Unless they are pre-rendered backgrounds then it's not so impressive, but it's a nice design aesthetic none the less.

More Art from Poland

2008-05-09T16:09:00.001-07:00

MOSK is the portfolio of Maciej Mizer, another artist hailing from Poland. It's funny I think Poland is becoming the 'London' of the mid 90's as far as art and design is concerned. They are cranking out the same level of amazing work, with some fresh twists. Exciting times!

Sweet NES Redesign

2008-05-08T19:03:00.001-07:00

Check it out ... now only if this was real, and supported emulation.

Why your art portfolio sucks ...

2008-05-08T18:54:00.001-07:00

Astheria has a great article on user experiences with various artist portfolio sites on the web. My wife and I browse a LOT of art and design sites and are regularly frustrated by the sometimes inconsistent or generally annoying things people do with site navigation and layout that they feel is "clever" when in reality it makes me want to stab them.

I particularly liked the part about background music in which they display this graph:

I always find this to be accelerated when in combination the controls to shut off the music are hidden, non-existent, disguised as something else, or extremely tiny.

Generally when I hit a site with music (including myspace pages) the first thing I do is turn it off. I expect it on band pages and things like that. For the most part I don't particularly care which emo song struck your fancy this morning when you woke up.

A follow up post on the same site denotes several portfolios that succeed is doing some fine presentations and why. Great stuff!

Art from Poland

2008-05-08T18:39:00.001-07:00

I ran across a new design portfolio called PEHA from a fellow named Peter Holub who is a graphic designer in Poland. He's got some pretty rad work up. I really like his use of lighting and 3D elements in conjunction with traditional 2D design elements. It really gives everything an added bit of depth and realism. Very inspiring stuff!

Nuare Art Studio

2008-05-08T18:29:00.001-07:00

Nuare art studio has some amazing work on display. They do 3D assets, concept work as well as illustration. Beautiful work!

Steampunk Animals

2008-05-07T14:37:00.001-07:00

This is some pretty wild sculpture work by Lisa Black. I'm sure all the animals in New Zealand look like this, which is why I want to live there with the hobbits. I want to do this to our cats when they kick the bucket, my wife may even endorse it.

Your Inner Nivbed

2008-05-07T14:30:00.001-07:00

Reach out and touch your inner Nivbed (he is an artist friend who loves all things tentacles). Dan Hillier has some tental-tastic images up in his portfolio. You're able to buy prints as well, sweetness!

Mirrors Edge Gameplay Footage

2008-05-06T16:18:00.001-07:00

There is some pretty amazing footage for the upcoming source engine game Mirrors Edge. I really love the over bright and vibrant colors they've chosen to go with, it's a nice departure from a lot of the under saturated and almost dream state visuals we've been given over the past few years. Visuals aside the gameplay is what is really exciting. It certainly feels like a generational leap for something like a Prince of Persia title. This game is looking really promising and I'm looking forward to seeing more glimpses of it in the future.

Cheap Artsy Laptops

2008-05-06T15:42:00.001-07:00

New Dell Inspiration laptops for $699 featuring art from Mike Ming. They only have 2 designs tho, and while they're cool they're not overly exciting. I still prefer some of the more interesting designs that been applied to Apple MacBooks, iPhones, iPods, and Zunes over the past few months. Dell seems a bit behind the curve here.

Bear Dunny

2008-05-06T15:24:00.001-07:00

This is a Bear Dunny ... this is Tea Bear ... it is awesome.

More ...

Radiohead video via Code

2008-05-06T15:15:00.001-07:00

Flight404 have created a Radiohead video strictly from code. It's pretty freaking amazing looking. The camera is a bit bland but given the amount of time they spent on it (which doesn't sound like months or anything) it's pretty freakin sweet. Check it out:

Weird Fishes: Arpeggi from flight404 on Vimeo.

Also here is a 200 MB QuickTime version (more detail).

Filter Forge

2006-06-06T10:22:00.000-07:00

I ran across a site this morning called Filter Forge. Filter Forge is a program that is currently in beta. It let's build your own filters inside of PhotoShop or all on it's own in a standalone program. The results are pretty amazing and it's got a fully visual node-based editor. If that's not enough it can output all types of maps for use in 3D texturing including bump and normal maps. It also generates seamless and resolution independent textures along with a host of other things. Check out all of it's features here.

The best part ... since it's in beta you can download it for free!

2 DVDs to Watch For - June 28th

2006-06-04T14:32:00.000-07:00

In the Coming Soon section of Gnomon Workshop is a couple of interesting DVDs that are going to hit their online store on June 28th.

Ian Joyner of Blur Studios is doing modeling and texturing tutorial DVDs which include using Max, Polyboost, ZBrush, Photoshop, DeepUV, ZappLink, Zmapper, Bodypaint and more. If you're interested in "next-gen" character art this sounds like a really good place to start learning or refine your current talents. I'm looking forward to getting my hands on these!

NeverWinter Nights 2 Concepts by Nivbed

2006-06-04T14:08:00.000-07:00

Nivbed posted a lot of his concept artwork that he did for NeverWinter Nights 2. Nivbed is my office mate at Obsidian Entertainment, Inc., he's an awesome guy and an amazing artist.

Hopefully if all works out as planned he and I will be working together again on our next project at Obsidian. This is really exciting since we're going to get to really drive the visuals for this project. Once it's announced (which won't be for awhile) I'll be able to say more, but visually I think it's going to blow people away.

Here's some of Nivbeds stuff from NWN2 ... check out the link above to see more stuff in his post.

Using DirectX Shaders in 3ds Max

2006-06-04T13:29:00.000-07:00

A solid article on GamaSutra talking about Using DirectX Shaders in 3ds Max, useful stuff if you're using Max in a development enviroment. There's nothing better for artists than being able to see what they're working on before they get art into the engine.

Gamasutra - Book Excerpt - "Better Game Characters By Design"

2006-06-04T13:25:00.000-07:00

An book exerpt over on GamaSutra is up called "Better Game Characters By Design". Has some interesting bits in there.

The Escapist - Issue #47

2006-06-04T13:17:00.000-07:00

The Escapist - Issue #47

A new Escapist is up tackling the issues of American Corpatism meets Gaming Company. Good stuff.

Modo 201

2006-06-04T00:58:00.000-07:00

Modo 201 is released. Modo is brought to you by some of the guys who created the program Lightwave. It works similarly but with a lot of new features and a new and slicker interface. Find out more about Modo 201.

X-Men 3 Visual Effects Coordination

2006-06-04T00:45:00.000-07:00

John Bruno talks to CG Society about coordinating the visual effects on X-Men 3.

CGS: How many visual effects shots were there in the film?

JB: 900. They started with 600, but they wanted to go out with a bang on the series.

900 special effect shots created within 9-10 months!?

CGS: How did you accomplish so much so fast?

JB: You have to divide it up. If you have two companies doing 900 shots, that’s 450 each. If you have four companies, well, do the math. We ended up with 10 that had a couple hundred shots or less. Also, we divided it up smartly. Everyone managed their shots quite well and picked the right techniques, whether part model or all CG or in camera. We had the right combinations and the right people in areas they could handle. I told them in the beginning, “If you can’t do these shots, please tell us. It will help us. It won’t look bad if you took on work and have to give some back. If you can’t do it, we’ve got to know.”

Multi-Touch Interaction Research

2006-06-04T00:42:00.000-07:00

Bi-manual, multi-point, and multi-user interactions on a graphical interaction surface. This is pretty nifty. How long until we see this stuff at home?

Blur Studios talks about RoN Production

2006-06-04T00:32:00.000-07:00

Blur Studios speaks with CG Society about their production pipeline on the Rise of Nations CG trailer. Check it out here.

Sketches by Charles Lebrun

2006-02-24T00:59:00.000-08:00

A French site, but some awesome drawings. These are a little creepy but very interesting head studies for anthropomorphic faces. Especially the 2nd page.

Miguel Ortega on Underworld:Evolutions 3D work

2006-02-24T00:52:00.000-08:00

Miguel Ortega has a new site and demo reel up at War Productions. Also, check out this thread over at ZBrush Central. Nifty keen!

PolyBoost

2006-02-24T00:45:00.000-08:00

If you're a 3DS Max user, this is a must have tool. PolyBoost is freakin' awesome.

There is a blog now ...

2006-02-23T09:29:00.000-08:00

I have a blog and shit. Rockin'. A new place to never get updated and horde useless information.

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