syntetik blok

original DOOM on XBOX Live

2012-01-19T04:07:00.002Z

Original Doom game was recently published for XBOX LIVE consoles. This seems to be a prequel for building up the expectations for release of long awaited successor of ID`s flagship game series, Doom4.

czech TV series about elephant

2012-01-13T14:07:00.001Z

More images are now available from animated TV series about a small elephant in Africa. Series called "Nejmensi slon na svete" (The smallest elephant in the world) is produced at Eallin Animation, Prague for Czech TV.

Some employees let go at id Software

2012-01-11T03:03:00.001Z

There recently have been some let off`s in ID software, according to an article at tomshardware.com. Also mentioning "additional content" done for Rage.
Although it`s not usual in this company, it is common in bigger productions where staff is "ramping up" for the busy periods of generating quantity of assets. And as ID has now more teams since Rage project while being financally backed by Zenimax (aquiring ID), I think they hired more staff needed for finishing the game on time. It`s not the relatively small group as it used to be. There is another team at ID working on Doom4, which some speculate to be out by the end of this year, but no official announcement has been released yet.

Judd Simantov`s rigging reel

2012-01-11T00:25:00.000Z

Very cool Judd Simantov`s rigging reel. I especially like his scuplpting/modeling, but also the wide range of the talent shown here.

Bill Leeb FLA interview

2012-01-05T00:38:00.000Z

This is really nice interview, not too old, with Bill Leeb and Jeremy (I guess current member of FLA, also being part of LeftSpineDown). I like how those guys just keep doing it for years. Same with Skinny Puppy.

And a look back to 1999, when FLA did pretty good job on Quake III Arena soundtracks, including extension Team Arena (Sonic Mayhem did also few tracks)

matchmover job

2012-01-04T16:31:00.000Z

Hello 3d job seekers, if you are interested in 3d matchmover job in Prime Focus_London Cg postproduction, you can contact me on my email with link to your online reel.This is only for chance of recommendation and quicker application process.
my email: syntetik1@gmail.com

PF 2012

2012-01-02T22:13:00.000Z

Best wishes to all readers of my blog for year 2012!

Jakub

Borderlands 2 gameplay

2011-12-20T00:29:00.000Z

This is leaked video from Borderlands 2, low quality but it still looks very cool. Mainly the variety of the whole world, stretching from mountains with falling snow to dusty desert. Everywhere you look, you can go there and play. Procedural generation of gun types, as creators say, promises millions of variations. The robot battle was looking pretty good and intense. It ironically reminded me of Doom ;) I like many ideas they throw in.

Doom 3 source code free to download

2011-12-12T02:27:00.000Z

As is id software John Carmack`s good tradition, he made the engine available for public to download and use. If you are into game engines programming and want some reference for your code, go here for the source link:

https://github.com/TTimo/doom3.gpl

Also, old id games are still available for few £ to download here from Steam.

Rage similarities to Borderlands

2011-12-04T01:21:00.001Z

I just played Borderlands today for the first time and I was amazed. There were so many elements the same as what I saw in Rage. Here`s few I`ve noticed:

being set in future but in rather wild rough world
bandits disturbing people in their settlements and player getting missions to help them
getting paid for those missions and travelling around the land
choosing what guns I carry and what I can use
gaining trust with locals by completing missions
driving cars with boost speed
slow recharge of shield (Nanotrites in Rage) and coming back to life after being killed
weapon upgrades
buy/sell credit system
Job Board in town

What`s really nice is more information and control in this game and it feels like a more proper Role Playing Game. I liked how you easily set your character`s name and even colors. Also very detailed game engine settings compared to Rage. Being able to change detail of vegetation or having 3 levels of texture quality (Borderlands is using modified Unreal Engine 3). But what really got me was walking out from Dr.Ned`s shed and seeing a night sky! There is day and night here, something that is oddly missing in Rage (probably due to its baked textures, which was maybe to keep FPS high). There is also actual map! Something missing quite a lot in Rage, also horizonal compass with mission direction (genius idea). The whole game feels also more like a real world with more freedom and randomness. The comic book style look of the game is also something cool and unique.

Considering Borderlands was released around october 2009 I guess this is one of the sources where id software took inspiration. It feels like in Rage, they wanted to take similar approach, but simplify it. I need to say, the shooting in Rage is done the best from any games out there. I just get the feeling by going to open-world and RPG type of game, they split their efforts and abandoned the pure genre of first person shooter.
Let`s imagine they wouldn`t build all this Wasteland world with its bit confusing Authority and Mutants story plot... They could make just great action packed levels (maybe in Wasteland environment, why not), but also making the game bigger and longer to play. Hopefully there is Doom 4 soon with less RPG and more levels with great action. The release could also come sooner then in another 5 years or so. It`s about more focusing on the gameplay, but graphics could still use idTech5 - not trying to push the engine again with some idTech6. I mean more people could have the hardware to play it smooth in high detail.

NextGen Skills Welcome |

2011-12-03T23:32:00.000Z

NextGen Skills Welcome |:

A website for the UK campaign supporting IT education. One of the focuses is growing talent pool for the visual effects industry.

Trailer Premiere - Video -IGN

2011-12-01T10:00:00.000Z

Trailer Premiere - Video -IGN:

'via Blog this'

id Software: New IP after Rage “would be really hard” « BeefJack - The Gamer's Sauce

2011-12-01T01:08:00.000Z

id Software: New IP after Rage “would be really hard” « BeefJack - The Gamer's Sauce:

'via Blog this'

iAnimate.net - Home

2011-11-30T18:13:00.000Z

iAnimate.net - Home:

'via Blog this'

ILM Creating the Impossible

2011-11-29T22:04:00.001Z

This is 6 youtube videos of a document about Industrial Light & Magic. It`s very cool (and that`s why it goes on my blog of course!) as it goes from 70`s Star Wars movies, there is Denis Murren and John Dykstra, the veterans of film visual effects that are still active until today, which is amazing, and it goes until today with last 6th part to ILM`s involvement on Iron Man with Jon Favreau or J.J.Abrams on Star Trek.
(you will see the rest of 2-6 parts when this video finishes or in the youtube sidebar)

maya hair jiggle setup

2011-11-27T02:19:00.001Z

I wanted to show to students an example of using Maya hair dynamics for jiggle, when they are rigging cars, but couldn`t find something on youtube, so I made Maya scene. This is also useful for anything that needs to be attached and bounce around. Maya 2011 scene is for download here:

http://www.jakubkrompolc.net/sublink/download.html

Making of music for Rage

2011-11-25T01:25:00.001Z

Read about making music score for Rage game by Rod Abernethy.

"...a mix of orchestra and hybrid techno, both elements that I used for RAGE..."

link here

AI computer chip

2011-11-21T00:39:00.001Z

"Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have designed a computer chip that mimics how the brain's neurons adapt in response to new information"

AI moves closer with brain chip

Mirror Mirror trailer

2011-11-16T23:41:00.001Z

So here is the "other Snowhite", now named Mirror Mirror. Sometimes also dubbed "the one with Julia Roberts" :) In the trailer is also our CG animated wooden mannequin (2 shots by the end), coming from our new growing creature department at Prime Focus Film in London.

Brave Trailer - YouTube

2011-11-16T18:06:00.000Z

Disney/Pixar has published trailer for their highly watched upcoming movie Brave.

UK extends film tax breaks

2011-11-15T14:33:00.000Z

Good news for UK film and visual effects as well! Film tax breaks have been extended until 2015. Read more at Reuters news.

And as addition related to this subject, here is annual 200th podcast from Vfx Guide being made recently. Managers of London top film post-production houses are being interviewed about recent state of the industry, with some looking back in its history. It`s aptly called "London Calling" :)

making of 3d animated cats

2011-11-03T00:23:00.001Z

MPC podcast shows behinds the scenes of Cat`s Pride commercial postproduction. This project involved 2 full cg cats (4 with variations) and the video shows the process of modelling, rigging and grooming and discusses some compositing challenges as well.

Rage review

2011-10-30T15:01:00.002Z

So, I have finished the long expected id`s game Rage. Here are some final screenshots and my review below.

picassa album with all images

(you can see all other screenshots if you filter only "rage" labelled posts)

Id legacy

First let`s say what has been stated before, this is great looking first person shooter. Id software has a good looking game engine and game art as one of their top priorities. This, combined with fluent performance (apart from texture up-resing), great animation and perfected shooting response of weapons and enemies is amazing experience. This is what they are famous for and always delivered in Doom 3, Quake 3 Arena, Quake series etc. I think they took Doom3 critique about its linear nature and repetitive gameplay maybe too seriously and started working on very ambitious story-driven game, adding elements never done by id before. It was interesting to see one of the Rage demos in september, where they remind you that it is still mainly an FP shooter and that id has invented this. Which did sound like going back in history and retreat from their ambitions, giving a bit ambiguous message about what to expect.

Story

Now let`s look at the story and I`ll start at the end. It was a bit unexpected. I was like: that`s it?? This pretty much topped the whole unsatisfied feeling about the story, which I had later during the game. I was somehow recruited by Resistance, without being really motivated to join them and explained who is Authority which they fight against. This is the main line of the story, but it doesn`t work somehow. I`m told Authority is looking for me, because I am Ark survivor, but I`m not sure, what they want. Also "someone said" they also do modifications on mutants and control them, no proof. There is no clear reason to fight them. And there is no plan as well about what will happen if we defeat them. There is some desire to activate all other Arks and start a revolution, which I manage in the last mission. Arks emerge on surface and that is The End. Player doesn`t see anything positive happening after this. The game just ends. Also it raises doubts, as Authority knows I breached their system and Arks will emerge on surface, first thing they would do is get there and arrest/kill those guys who have no weapons just woken up from hybernation. And what happens to me, the player? I`m sure I would still have to fight my way back to Subway Town.

So as I progressed, I didn`t have much motivation to fight Authority. There were exceptions, like killing bandits or mutants to help defend the settlements, protect delivery of goods, make roads safer or find someone`s lost wife. Express package delivery was fun too. But these were only side missions. The main target of the game remained unclear.

As an example, here is a goal from previous id game Doom3: Close the gate to Hell on Mars as demons could get to Earth. It was simple, but it worked.

Non-player Characters

During game you meet different "guide" NPCs who send you on the missions. First one is Dan Hagart voiced by John Goodman (Big Lebowski) and from all other that follow, this one was the best. He is the one who saves you from the Ark and gives you the first gun and later his crossbow as a personal gift. It`s a shame he doesn`t appear later in the story as your guide or maybe a member of the Resistance, as his performance was best. Only one thing was strange, as he almost makes it your fault, that his settlement is under attention and getting trouble "since you are here". But it was him, who saved you from the Ark on the first place and asked to do "dirty work" for them.

Later you have to move to Wellspring and after that to Subway Town, but you`re missing this Dan Hagart-type person who is on your side. Others seem to clearly care about their business and you do jobs for them. The player to NPCs relationships is where the game story starts to crack as well. Making a game like this is the same as making a movie. Audience needs to find some lead character, which they like and find realistic as a human being with their joys and problems. The side characters in Wellspring and Subway were pretty good in their small roles, giving you tips and comments. With leading NPCs, with first half of the game there was Dan Hagart, and quite good Wellspring Mayor and Sheriff. With Resistance people it gets worse and hits peak with Subway Town mayor Redstone. His peformance was a parody of small-town mafia boss. I mean, even bad character can be interesting and fun. Not in this case. Also I guess his original design remains on the Subway Town loading image, but I`m not sure what happened during his convertion to a game asset... :)
Just to add, you cannot skip the character speaking and have to listen to all the stuff.

Environment Interaction

As much as canyons and messy indoors look realistic, they feel frozen. Compared to Doom3, you cannot even push a chair in empty office. There are many cases where invisible wall stops you going further on a concrete block to look around. You cannot even die falling from a cliff, because it`s simply blocked. You are simply forced to follow prepared path, like in a castle tour. A bit more freedom is outside when you are driving.

I guess this is the cost of pre-rendered megatexture world of idTech5. Rage team`s shedule couldn`t probably allow to build free-movement environment, while maintaining the same quality level. The missing rigid dynamics are probably to keep FPS high, although nvidia PhysX could provide enough power, but this is only PC option.

Summary

Rage is top quality game, a lot of fun and great atmosphere. Id software worked with RPG elements for the first time and made a big step into more complex world then a plain shooter. There are times when it really works and it`s nice experience. They should now assess their priorities for next game, learn from this project, but also cut down the development time for the release of the next title.

As an id fan I`m giving 9/10

Rage screenshots update

2011-10-27T02:30:00.002+01:00

More nice pictures from Rage gameplay (mainly Gearheads and Jackals)
picassa album link

Blizzard - making of Diablo 3 cinematic

2011-10-26T13:11:00.001+01:00

This is pretty cool Making Of by Blizzard, known for their great work on cinematics. For anyone interested in how this was made, watch this video.
Animation/Rigging starts at miute 33.

http://youtu.be/M-skQwvbuYU