JsARCLIGHT

I'm still waiting for my copy to ship... gotta love that "free" shipping!

But the real question is will he don performance capture gear again so he can play every role in the movie? Tom Hanks starring with Tom Hanks in a Tom Hanks production of a Tom Hanks screenplay directed by Tom Hanks.

But when CGI is used in real filmed movies it is used to produce the unproduceable... it's hard to make an army of orcs, two spaceships smash into each other or (in the case of forest gump) phantoms come screaming in and napalm a section of jungle into a blazing mess. In the CG world those are the easy things, the cheap show pony tricks that pay the bills. Just like in real cinema the meat and potatoes, the truly hard stuff is creating an endearing character, a "human" character that audiences can feel for and identify with. Most audiences are a tad spooked by surrealistic "real life" human characters because it is just so hard to capture that certain je ne se quois that real people posess... "real life" CG just comes off creepy nine times out of ten before it appeals to a wide audience.

Sorry about the confusion Radd I misread the meaning behind your post. While we are all bashing Square I think the obvious should be pointed out: Square went $113 million in the hole on FF:SW and lost the farm... Pixar is still around, booming, and as some might argue the only reason Disney is still around for the moment. I myself find it ironic that Disney is making their own CGI studio to fill the gap of Pixar... talk about just not "getting it". It's that intangible magic that Pixar's things have that Disney used to have... the final media the show is presented on is irrelivant, CG, traditional, etc etc it's the heart behind the show that brings it to life and attracts the viewers. FF:SW had no heart, it was a cold piece of technology... Polar Express is just creepy in this doll eyes and department store dummies sort of way. Both Polar and FF have one thing going for them, the lure of "new tech" but they both lack all the requisite items of a good, attrative and engaging story and characters. ... and now I have nightmares of Tom Hanks playing all the characters in the new CGI remake of Bosom Buddies.

Polar Express is just... creepy. That is the only way I can express my feelings on that movie. I saw it with my wife last night and... ugh. Both of us agreed in the car ride home that if you change the music and just darken the whole thing down a bit in terms of lighting the movie would pass as a low key horror film. Certain parts went out of their way to be realistic and then the next cut you had waiters stiffly dancing and throwing around sludge-like hot chocolate. Plus Tom Hanks weirds me out... hearing how he did all those roles in a mocap suit with facial capture just weirds me out even more.

I pre-ordered the special edition DVD one and got the free shipping so it will be a week or so before I get it... meh... what is three or four more days going to be when I have already waited, what, a year for this thing to show? While I am a bit excited to finally play it there is still a large part of me saying "About F**king time, guys."

That was not the point I was making... my point was lip synch, not "translation". I've seen far too much CG and know too much about how it was done to let that one slide. The Lip Synch in FF:SW was abysmal. The mouths not only barely moved at all, in many key scenes they did not even match the words being spoken. As Lynx said, the animation team on FF:SW totally bricked it. That is one of the core points where Pixar totally mops up is the range of their models and the skill of their animators. Just look how totally innane that "Bounding" short was but it was built, lit, animated and produced to top of the line standards... while the actual script and content was a tad bizzare it was top flight.

Two totally different styles of CG. Yes you can compare a Chevy Tahoe to a Lamborghini Diablo under the guise that they are both passenger vehicles but they are two totally different animals. Pixar's cartoony and surrealistic style is far superior in my eyes to the "more human than human" style of FF: Spirits Within. Square's ultra-realistic CG creates a strange problem for them like it does all realistic CG: when CG becomes too real people pick up on all the little quirks that are just "not right". For instance, look at the lip synch in FF:Spirits... it's terrible. It's downright horrid. The characters look so emotionless and stale. The more real you push CG the more everyone notices that it is CG. Movies like the Incredibles, being more cartoony in nature, you forget you are watching CG and you just get drawn in to the show. Not once while watching the incredibles did I say "fake!" or "that doesn't look right"... when you make your own style and art from the beginning people can't bash you because it was not "real enough". In the long run a lot of people like the "realistic" CG but then there are people like me who say "why make it CG in the first place if you are just trying to immitate reality?". I saw Polar Express last night and for what it is worth I'll take the Incredibles over it any day of the week... Polar Express was just... eerie.

I was waiting to see if Toynazi had managed to un-f##k themselves but it seems that the only expectation they meet is that they will continue to disappoint with crappy QC. Oh well, terrible QC does one of two things to companies: ruin them or force them to improve... here is hoping a year from now the name Toynami is a footnote in the history of american toys next to Mego and LJN.

Pixar strikes again. I got back from seeing it just now. Awesome sums it up well. I like the more mature turn that Pixar has taken... I liked Finding Nemo more than their other efforts because it was darker and seemed to me to be more down to earth... even if it was a talking fish movie. Now The Incredibles has replaced Nemo as my favorite Pixar flick. I just hope they continue their trend of smarter and more mature... ... allthough from the preview "Cars" looks a tad kiddie. ... and the "Bounding" short was on crack.

I think some folks are missing some key issues on this. Yes, the software most rapidpro machines use can accept a wide array of 3D data file but the actual model itself has to be made in a certain way. You can't just port any old model from any old program and expect it to work. I see this sort of thing done every other day at my business and from what my employees tell me it is a very deliberate, specific process that must be followed and things must be made from the beginning knowing they will be used on a rapidpro machine.

My company owns a rapidpro machine, we use it to make custom mockups of items for our clients. Three things that should be mentioned about rapidpro tech: 1) you really, really need to be well versed in software like Alias Studio. You have to completely build your item in the computer before you can output it to the stereolyth machine. The model has to also meet specific criteria and be "Watertight". You can't just dump any old model into it and expect it to work. A lot of time and effort go in to making a model that is to be put off on the RP machine. 2) the resin models our machine produces are very, very fragile and require tons of sanding and finishing before they can be passed off as a big chunk of resin that looks like a product. Sometimes we even have to make our models one size larger because so much will get sanded off in the cleanup process. Add to that the fact that weak pieces like antennas, legs or anything that sticks out like a rod or pole is very weak and snaps off with the slightest touch. You think modelling with polystyrine is bad? Try resin. 3) this stuff is uber expensive. I mean, really expensive. The time it takes to make the model in studio, lay it off to the machine, the cost of the special resin for the machine, so on and so forth... an average product mockup costs my company anywhere from $500 to a few grand to lay off. Admittedly most of that comes from salaries of the people doing all the tedious work to make the item but it is still very expensive. In my experience using a machine like this to make toys or models is way too expensive and time consuming. Unless you are laying off a rapidpro of an upcoming toy or product you plan to produce by other means and you are just using this rapidpro piece to show people a rough idea of what your item will look like these machines are not really intended for the toy and hobby market.

For me Goldeneye was all about playing against your friends in the same room. I loathe online gaming because it removes the "friend" from "play with a friend". For all I know I'm playing against a super intelligent alpaca on the internet who keeps sending me 1337 Sp33K junk. I need to see another body across the way from me at a terminal or sitting next to me on the couch to have fun. To me the joy in multiplayer is the group activity. Must be why I only play multiplayer at the office any more... plus my employees love me for it. I'm the only boss many of them have ever had that allowed them to play games at work... and sadly I'm the only boss most of them have killed... over and over and over and over.

Your line of reasoning is sound Mr. March but what about Goldeneye on the N64? To me personally Goldeneye was the defining moment of console FPS games. Multiplayer mayhem to the max without four computers and a LAN. Goldeneye was an addiction of mine and my friends at parties... we would all huddle around the 64" Big screen TV at my friends house and play 4 player deathmatch for hours... while the wives/girlfriends sat in the kitchen and bitched about us.

To me that is one of the massive down sides of Halo is that it gets very repeatative very fast... sure all FPS games can get old pretty quick but for some reason Halo just seems to wear out my interest fast. I remember when I was playing it I could only play for about half an hour and then I'd get tired of it and have to stop. On the flip side of the coin I'm playing MoH: Pac Ass (as we are calling it at the office) and the game is addictive... so many things to do just in the first few missions. Add to that finding all the hidden stuff... to the best of my memory Halo had no secret things at all. Sure every once in a while you would happen across a pile of ammo and guns strewn about but those spots were not exactly hidden.

While I thought the PC port of Halo was sort of so-so and "been there done that" the storyline was the big saving grace. Well acted, well paced and it just sucks you in.

Hey Bsu, let 'em have their thread. HALO is a neat game and one of the best games on the XBox... we get Half Life 2 before them so I say we're even.

I put most of the blame on the poor quality of music in GTA:SA on the lisence issue. Sure if they could have got the lisences for all the actual music that was chart topping in 1992 (like they did in Vice City) then the game would have felt more "correct"... but sadly most of the artists that were topping the charts in 92 are either still somewhat active (and demanding large sums for their "Best" music) or they are just being dorks and not letting a game like GTA have rights to their music. When I think of music in 92 (I was not really in America then so my thoughts might be wrong) I think of bands like REM, Red Hot Chilli Peppers, Pearl Jam and such for alternative (none of whom are rep'ed in the game) not the more niche stuff they had on Radio X. Depeche Mode? That was late '80s... Violator was like 88 or so... I remember having that tape before 1990.

The only 2 Disc Shrek 2 set that I've seen has been the international release... aparently the Brits and Aussies got it but I have not seen it on American shores. Then again I don't go to Blockbuster so they could have them in store but not on their website.

There is a tremendous amount of stuff going on in this game hence the chopiness that I keep hearing people talk about. Just in the Pearl Harbor level alone there are Jap Zeroes everywhere, shooting the crap out of everything... people running everywhere, tons of stuff blowing up. I was impressed by the sheer amount of stuff going on in the game. Heck, even in the boot camp level there are tons of recruits doing calesthenics in the background and in the pre-boot landing zone level there are enough things going on to really place you "there" in the combat. The danger to all of that is that in some respects there is "too much" going on. Just like the actual battles most likely were there is no set "direction" of the fight, it just seems to engulf the player... it happens all around you. I'm actually somewhat thankful for the very linear levels otherwise you'd be lost in all the crap going on. The other thing with the game is much like CoD it feels very, very "Scripted" in what happens. Nothing feels random or unique, the whole gameplay experience is very laid out beforehand with little to no variation... sure a jap footsoldier may go around a obsticle to the left when he went around it to the right the time before but other than minor nuances there is little to no "randomness" to the game. The AI is also just a beefed up version of what has come before. The makers just tweaked a few things to make them seem more "intelligent" but they are just the same old MoH enemies with the same patterns and predictable responses.

If you ask me then it lost most of it's humor with the translation. Admittedly all I saw was about the first ten minutes or so but my wife summed up my thoughts in five words when she said "This show... is so stupid." Perhaps it was just me, or the part of the show I saw, or the fact I was looking forward to watching Shrek rather than this but the show just seemed far too juvinile for Adult Swim. I did pick up on the occasional "adult humor" bit in the show but sheesh it just came off so teletubby... the slow, almost retarded pace of the dialogue... the simplistic and cheap (as in not much happening) animation... the show just reeked of internet flash cartoon to me. Either I've missed the joke entirely or this show is made for people with lobotomies.

I caught the beginning of it before putting on a new movie to watch with the wife (Shrek2) and thought it was painfully terrible. Is it just me or did this show really. really lose a lot in translation. I mean, Spongebob Squareass makes me laugh more than that pile of crap did... are there like only jokes that the Japanese would get or something?

Arise from the dead! Anyway I got my copy tonight and just got done playing it... I'm a bit past the Pearl Harbor sequence. So far the game for the most part is Call of Duty: The Pacific Zone for me... the game has not added all that much other than spiffed up graphics, some hoakey "command calls" fuctions and a teeny bit of squad management things. I'm really hoping this game opens up more after the first few levels because so far it is a fair rail shooter in spots (that really remind me of CoD) and an average WW2 shooter in others. I'm also having trouble with my Raedon 9800 Pro card... does not want to install the new driver so I have to run the game in Hardware 1.1 mode rather than 2.0... don't know if that makes much more impact though.

He's making his own topic so the people that hated the game and bashed it last time will not "ruin" it for him like the last thread. It's evident in the second line of his post.

The radio stations in San Andreas just seem to put all their empasys on making fun of whatever it is the station is about. For instance Radio X... you cannot hear one DJ break that they are not making fun of Gex X kids with trust funds or blathering on and on about "X" and being alternative. It just feels so "one trick pony"... I guess that is because in my mind I keep comparing like Radio X in SA to Wave 103 in VC. Adam First just "felt" like an actual DJ from 1986... Sage just feels like an actor making fun of an alt-rock DJ. And scarily Axl Rose is quite a talented DJ... at least when working from a script. I dance my way... to express that which cannot be said! - Claude Maganot (that's Maganot, Madge like in badge, uh like in duh and no like in I know more than you)