divine visitor

You guys with the massive long lists - y'all planning on getting these when they're released? Where does all your money come from!?

For me it's the potential of touch screen phones like the iPhone, HTC Hero etc. and where that avenue of 'gaming' could be headed.

I hope that development is simple enough and the potential audience massive enough that we start to see lots of interesting and unique interactive content from outside the traditional game development industry, maybe from graphic and motion designers, fine artists and indie game dev students - in a similar way that Flash was adopted as a platform on the web.

Nothing on the main consoles has excited me for ages though. I could well be dead inside.

An Okami game on the DS would work very well...

Mmmmm Okami DS....

Would you say it's a mistake that the DS doesn't have a camera stick? Of course not.

I consider the Wii as the same. It's a different beast altogether and should therefore have different solutions.

I agree completely, but I think Nintendo themselves have yet to show developers a solution - Zelda has no camera control at all, and Mario Galaxy sidesteps the issue by changing the nature of the 3D environment instead.

Well, the bodge of having camera controls on the Wiimote's dpad (for games that use the nunchuk) usually works okay.

Yeah that seems to work in the way Mario 64 used the C-buttons, which is okay I guess, but kinda clumsy and a bit of a step backwards, especially when the Wii Remote is meant to represent a progression in the way we interact with games.

Is it fair to say that it's completely the developer's fault and not the hardware? Nintendo themselves established the camera control with Mario 64, and then to take away a convention that clearly works without regard for the way most games are developed, and without establishing a better alternative seems a bit unfair to me. I dunno.

Personally I liked the controls for Metroid Prime 3 a lot, although it could be because I didn't really play the first two games and so didn't have to re-learn the controls. I'm not sure a pointer-controlled camera would work for every game though.

I just finished MadWorld on Wii, and really enjoyed it. Apart from the repetitiveness my only other major complaint with the game would be the camera, which is really terrible. And it kinda got me to thinking: Is it a major design flaw that the Wii doesn't have a C-stick/Right Analogue?

The more I think about it, No More Heroes had a pretty bad camera problem too, Zelda on Wii lacks the camera controls of the GameCube version, and the only game I've played that I think got it right so far is Mario Galaxy, which mostly done away with the large open environments from Sunshine in favour of spheres and smaller, more tightly designed environments that don't really need much camera movement.

Admittedly I haven't played all that many 3rd person action games on Wii so I'd be interested to hear what other people have to say. How do other games - particularly multiplatform ones like Okami and Tomb Raider - hold up on Wii? How do they handle the lack of a camera control stick and does it work?

I went with the 1st one in the end. I dunno what my mate is gonna do with the test shirt, but if there's a chance I can steal it off him I think I'd rather wear the 1st picture.

@Broken Klassic:

Have you ever thought about setting up a small space to exhibit your work? I think your stuff would be amazing to see in the flesh, as huge floor-to-ceiling prints. Seriously.

@FargalEX: Mmmm....Candyfloss hair...

@c-cat114: Cor! So are you using your FINGERS to do those?

A friend decided he wants to start making/selling t-shirts and asked me to give him an image to test out the print quality.

I know these aren't new totally illustrations, but I re-did them a bit to work better on a t-shirt. No point in doing something from scratch.

Which one should I give him?

Well, consider the studios that exist in the US and also in UK. Most of them are involved in the bread & butter work that is producing animation of kids or teen TV shows. There's still very little of an adult market for 2D or 3D animated films or TV shows. Outside of comedy, US networks won't touch it. In smaller markets like the UK, there's the same attitude plus there simply aren't the budgets to make it worthwhile.

In Japan and other parts of Asia animation that isn't targeted for children is both culturally accepted and a very well proven medium. As a result, they get the backing and the support to do some amazing stuff. Sure the narrative and needless excessive exposition can be flawed, but without a doubt: visually they produce incredible work.

Also, be thankful that the Frank O'Connor and the execs controlling the budgets within 343 are dealing with Japanese creatives. I wouldn't want to tell them how to do their jobs and micro-manage them, so hopefully neither will they.

I don't think that's the reason at all, because there are plenty of US and UK directors that don't just produce kids stuff, as well as plenty of facilities to produce the work. And since they're obviously selling this to the fans, the perception of animation by massmarket western audiences isn't an issue.

As the trailer really makes a big deal of the studios involved, and knowing Microsoft's strategy in a lot of their Xbox 360 marketing, I think it's more to do with getting credibility upfront with endorsement from big names. And fair enough, if that's the case. These Japanese studios are obviously tried-and-tested hit-makers, and there's probably a reasonable amount of crossover between the core gamers Microsoft are targeting with this, and fans of Anime.

And of course, I'm sure the fact that the Japanese can work wonders with a budget half the size of something done in the US/UK, is a nice bonus.

I wonder why these big American executives keep heading over to Japan to get these short films done, it's not as if there isn't a ton of animation talent on their own shores, not to mention over here in the UK and everywhere else. It'd certainly make for more interesting variety. While Animatrix had a couple of really great shorts, I thought all the Batman ones were really really weak.

As for Halo Legends, the concept sounds ridiculous but nobody can judge it from just press releases and snippets of footage.

I bet the guys at IG and Studio4C etc had themselves a good laugh at the awful Halo character designs they've been handed, though.

As Couk said, the raddest skater needs to be on a t-shirt. I would pay many monies for such an item.

My friend Dan drew this at work a few weeks ago and I only just found it in my bag:

Makes me laugh every time I look at it.

Haha, brilliant!

Background painting for some animation:

Bloomin heck Gunstar!

First illustration in absolutely ages:

Bill Sienkiewicz.

I don't know squat about comics, never really been a fan of em, but just got done reading a friend's old copy of Elektra: Assassin and was totally blown away by this dude's illustrations. Man, he sure knows how to compose an image. Also, I especially love the way it personifies the time period it was created in (the 80s) so well, and the inventive use of different visual styles represent the seemingly erratic storytelling. Read it and you'll see what I mean.

Aw man! That's mega-unfortunate, although I know how much work it takes to make a film. Good Luck mate.

Just been trying out brush pens and spontaneous line.

Feeling good.

Nice!

Brushpens are totally the beez-kneez

The first time I'd ever seen a QTE sequence was in Sega's Die Hard Arcade on Saturn. For people who haven't played it, they were found in-between levels where you're running to the next area and quickly have to react to an enemy's sudden appearance. They were simple one-button-press sequences and really worked well as part of an arcade game.

I also quite enjoyed them in Shenmue 1 since they were used in a very similar way to Die Hard Arcade, but the crazy, over-elaborate cinematic events they have become - particularly in games such as Fahrenheit - is ridiculous.

I got the Wipeout one from a random local newsagent. It's very nice actually, although not really the kind of cool imagery I'd associate with the series. I'd rather it be something a bit more iconic from The Designer's Republic's work, particularly from 2097 or W3.

I'm pretty sure Corel Painter can record your brushstrokes as you do them. Although, a lot of those time-lapse animations are actually played in reverse, they're done by taking a finished drawing and rubbing it out bit by bit. You could use any old software for that.

Great colours. It's got a really nice textured look to it too

I got this around the same time that Crazy Taxi came out on Dreamcast, and I ended up preferring Super Runabout. Mind you, as much as I love it, never has a game made me so furious as when you get right to the end of a long-ass mission on this game and only just fail.

It's got John Lasitter all over it.

Charater out of normal environment .. Check

Charater who doesn't understand who he really is ... Check

Buddy road trip with added danger ... check

"she's found a new friend" .. Check

wise cracks .. check

Overcoming adversity and gaining stength .. Check

Saving the day .. check.

I thought this too. One scene in particular was right out of Toy Story 2. I mean, really reeeaaally similar.

It was a decent enough film, certainly Disney's strongest CGI movie so far... but I felt pretty indifferent about it all.

And although I'm not a fan of the Cars movie, the Cars short was visually AMAZING. So crisp and shiny.

Oratan sold a lot more by comparison (Dreamcast sales obviously).

I would be extremely surprised if Oratorio Tangram on XBLA sold more than Ikaruga.

As much as I love OT, I reckon this is a really odd choice by Sega. It's as niche as it gets.

That's awesome Ste. Love the way you've done the beam of light behind the text. And all those rocks PLUS all the crosshatching must've taken you ages!

Best FargalPIC™ ever.