Bye mum.

Last Saturday, my mother passed away after a long struggle with cancer. Today is her funeral. I won't be there, but the rest of my family will be. My thoughts are with them and my mum on this day.

Bye mum. I will miss you.

Star Wars in 3D...

OK, I'm a Star Wars fan. Have been since I was a kid (and that's quite a while back). But I'm not a fan of 3D. This latest trend to make everything in 3D, and worse still, go back and convert old films into 3D is quite annoying. I don't like. Not one bit.

Avatar was ruined for me because of this 3D crap. Due to the crowd in the cinema, I was forced to sit in the back to one side, where the 3D effect was almost negligible, and I spent most of the movie trying to "feel" the 3D, but to no avail. (I later saw it at home in 2D and actually got to ENJOY it.)

And now along comes Star Wars. Yesterday they announced they'll be converting all the films into 3D and re-releasing them into theatres. I have two problems with that (probably more, but 2 for now). The obvious one is the 3D aspect of it, but I think the one that really irks me is the cashing in on the films yet again. How about they spend the time and money on some NEW films? Hire some decent writers for once, and put together something fresh and original based in the Star Wars universe (or heaven forbid, something totally new)? And leave the 3D off... it's just a distraction that results in stupid shots of things flying close to the screen for no real reason.

And let me mention MovieStorm's and Reallusion's recent "upgrades" to include 3D exporting in their products. Complete waste of resources if you ask me. I tried it, didn't like it, won't be using it again.

That's it, I'm done. Just wanted to get that off my chest.

On a happier note, I can hardly wait for Tron: Legacy... What? It's in 3D?!? NOOOooooooo!!!!

The Solo Adventures - 2D

I caught this last night on G4 (AOTS - yeah, I watch it occasionally... don't judge me! lol). Easily one of the best animated Star Wars fan films I've ever seen. Thought I'd share...

The Solo Adventures 2D from Daniel L Smith on Vimeo.

And the winners are...

(Of the 2010 iClone Sci-Fi Movie Competition)

BEST PICTURE:




BEST TRIBUTE - ORIGINAL:

STAR WARS "THE DARK SIDE" fan film by David THOMAS from David THOMAS on Vimeo.

BEST TRIBUTE - PARODY:



And...

Best Screenplay

Voyages of the Sojourner:
The Complete Trilogy

Director: AnimaTechnica


Best Spaceman

The Endless Space

Director: Andre Peisker


Coolest Robot

Cyborgs and Robots

Director: Saúl Soto Barzalobre


Most Creative Alien

NEW HOPE

Director: Nikolay Rusenov


Best Outer Space

Sisteearth

Director: David-Josué OYOUA


Best Visual FX

INVADER

Director: TXON


Best Sound FX

SURANOS

Director: Prodybeat


More details here: http://www.reallusion.com/event/2010/sci_fi/Prize.html

I dumped FaceBook

Yesterday I deactivated my account on FaceBook. Don't be offended if you were my "friend" there, it wasn't personal when I deleted you (and everyone else). I'd just had enough of that site, so decided to leave.

FaceBook has annoyed me for quite a while, and the growing controversy over its liberal use of user's info and general privacy issues tipped me over the edge in recent days (amongst other things, such as the Spam it generates and the fact that it serves no useful purpose in my life).

So it's Goodbye to FaceBook for me!

Nothing else has changed, so feel free to carry on with your lives. :)

The Ex Files - NOW PLAYING!

And here it is, in all its glory:

The Ex Files from Phil Browne on Vimeo.

THE EX FILES

(An Underpants Conundrum)

Starring

Nahton
JetCityWoman
Kuroken
BiggsTrek

Music from

"Phil Browne's Music Collection"
ACIDPlanet's "Neutron Implosion"
"Ex Files Intro" by my vocal chords and Sony ACID
Fulkster's "Underpants Man Theme"

Studio Intro by Peter Martin (allpoint)

Resources:

Wolfzone
Warlord
BigBoss
Google's 3DWarehouse
Carnegie Mellon University
Freesound Project
Mayang's Free Textures

iClone4
3DXchange2
iClone Theme Pack - Fantasy World - Evil Force
iClone Texture Pack Essential Human Cloth Volume 1
iClone Combo Pack II
Total Materials Vol. 7 - Science Fiction
Total Materials Vol. 11 - Alien Organic

Lionhead's 'The Movies'
ArtBeats.com

Sony Vegas Movie Studio Platinum 9.0
Sony ACID Music Studio 7.0

Wavepad
Audacity


Directed By BiggsTrek

Made for Reallusion's 2nd Annual
iClone Filmmaking Competition
(2010: Sci-Fi Movie)

"The Ex Files" Intro Teaser

Just a quick one today. Above is a teaser entry for Reallusion's iClone Sci-Fi Contest. Obviously a parody of The X Files, the real thing should be released by the end of June.

And then... it's back to THOTD (I promise!)

Shhh! Don't tell anyone... I released a MOVIE!

Yes, it's true, I released a short movie (no, not the-movie-that-shall-not-be-named). It's a little something I whipped up in the last two weeks, stealing from a little project I did last year. I call it "Game Over" and it's for Reallusion's Short Film Contest of 2010:



http://www.tmunderground.com/watch/027c9a799983a485c3c2/Game-Over

or

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0caM7ZWUnt4

Made for Reallusion's 2nd Annual iClone Filmmaking Competition (Sci-Fi Movie)

"Game Over"

Starring:

BiggsTrek.......................................Grock
JetCityWoman......Dark Czar / Mother

Music From "Phil Browne's Music Collection"

Studio Intro by Peter Martin (allpoint)

Resources:

Google's 3DWarehouse
Carnegie Mellon University
Freesound Project
Mayang's Free Textures

iClone4
3DXchange2
iClone Theme Pack - Fantasy World - Evil Force
iClone Texture Pack Essential Human Cloth Volume 1
iClone Combo Pack II

Sony Vegas Movie Studio Platinum 9.0
Sony ACID Music Studio 7.0

Wavepad
Audacity

Directed By BiggsTrek

Lainy Voom's Dagon (by HPL)

Dagon - HP Lovecraft from Lainy Voom on Vimeo.

I just wanted to highlight this excellent film once more (others have already done so, and with good reason). This shows just what is possible in Second Life (the visuals are breathtaking - I honestly had no idea you could get such output from that environment!) and how a true artist can bring Lovecraft to life.

I'm actually quite jealous of this film (working on my own as I am), but that's meant purely as a compliment.

Excellent work, Lainy.

SatscapeFilms' "The Duleks"

If you're a Dr Who fan like me, and have a fascination for the Daleks like me, then hopefully you'll get as big a kick out of SatscapeFilms' series, "The Duleks" as I do. He's released his fourth episode recently, and below you'll be able to catch them all:

---

(If you like them, why not pop over to his studio page at TMU and leave him a comment. I'm sure he'll appreciate the feedback!)

Haunter Sunset Demonstration

This may not be that exciting, but as I continue on with 'The Haunter Of The Dark', I find I want to share some of the results I am achieving. The above sunset is one such result. Just fiddling with the HDR and IBL settings of iClone 4, I came up with this little gem without that much hassle. The software is really very good.

The piece is still a work in progress (it's missing the foreground, for example) but shows how pretty HDR can be.

I've also done some nifty animated sequences, too (avatars, props, etc) that came out far better than expected. I'd share those, too... but then there'd be nothing left to show when the movie is done!

Soldiering on!

Production Update: The Haunter...

It's been a while since I've given any real update on the progress of this project. While I'm reluctant to give away too much of what has been going on, I still feel the need to share a little of the experience. Though I admit it's not very exciting. :)

Production has been slow. Too slow. It seems I find ways of delaying working on the movie, or perhaps I get bogged down on details of it, or (most recently) I find technical problems that I dwell on and feel the need to fix (actually, it helped a lot to fix my most recent PC issue, but you get the picture.)

Anyway, I had a bit of a breakthrough this last weekend. Finally got a fair bit of filming done. It's early days yet (did I say that? I've been working on this for months!) but I am really quite excited with the results so far.

The story is a dark one, and I'm trying to reflect that with the use of light. I'm also having a lot of fun with focus (iClone's depth of field to be precise... close enough) and that is adding to the mood of the shots. I must say I'm quite impressed with what I've produced so far (which is contrary to how I felt a few weeks ago, so phew!!) And no, that picture up there is NOT a screen shot. :)

I've also spent a bit of time on the animations. Mixing bvh/bought ones with hand made motion edited ones. It takes a LOT of time and patience, but well worth the effort.

Lastly, I've opted to do this film in 720p (1280*720). I haven't done anything of that size before ('The Movies' maxed out at 768*432, unless tweaked), and while this is beautiful to look at, it has some "issues". Disc space was the first thing, but a nice new terrabyte drive solved that. But now I find my cheapo version of Sony Vegas can only export up to 800*600... so it looks like an upgrade is in order.

So there you have it. Work progresses. Slowly, to be sure, but things are picking up.

My apologies to my voice cast and those that are waiting for this to be done. It's still got a long way to go, but it IS progressing. :)

Nahton's 'This Basic Pack Life'

http://www.moviestorm.co.uk/community/index.php?page=videos&section=view&vid_id=103345

I just wanted to highlight this BRILLIANTLY funny entry in the Moviestorm Basic Pack Contest. Literally had me laughing out loud as I watched it. Comedy doesn't get much better than this.

You can Vote Here and I encourage you to do so. :)