My Weblog

Stupid cat...

Life has slowed a bit, but I am still not completely free of work. This week I have been wrestling with trying to get a Nintendo Wii to feed signal over a VGA cable into a Frame Grabber. It has not been fun, many swear words have been used, and many non-Nintendo friendly comments to boot. I eventually had to go back to the drawing board and do it the old fashioned way using a capture card with composite video in. When you have been used to capturing HD footage with everything being crystal clear, it feels like you are going back in time to capture footage from a fairly modern console. Could be copy protection, but...!

Last night my friend JB came over. A good time was had by all until he came to leave. Mr Jingles managed to jump through my legs as the door was open and escaped out into the street. Great. Our cats stay in night for several reasons. They are stupid and don't understand roads, they are not used to being outside at night and a large proportion of cats seems to go missing in our neighbourhood. Mr Jingles freaked out, and eventually legged it down the alleyway between me and my neighbour's house. This would have been fine, as he normally does this if he escapes out the front, but this was late at night and clearly fiddled his head. As I ran up the alleyway our recycling bin had been left right by our gate. I didn't see this, ran straight into it, scared Mr Jingles stupid but instead of running into our garden under the gate, he SQUEEZED himself under the neighbour's gate. And then realised he could not get back. Sigh. Yes, a fully grown cat was not clever enough to scale the wall, did not associate the garden with anything as he had come at it from a different angle that he was used to, so promptly sat there howling. Joy.

Eventually I had to go round, throw him back over the wall (he landed on the wheelie bin, panic not) and he still wouldn't go in the garden. I threw my hands up in disgust and resigned myself to a sleepless night worrying. 2 minutes later he came hurtling through the cat flap and then promptly lay down looking very pleased with himself. What a git.

Design for the website is coming along, but I have yet to make a choice for the image. I have 2 I like, but not sure which to use. Maybe this weekend. Maybe...

:)

TTFN

Time for a re-design

I believe it is time to give the site a make over, so this weekend I will be looking for ways to improve the visual quality of the site. No idea how long this will take, but I think it is about time.

Also noteworthy news, in the sweepstake at work for Euro 2008 I got given Holland. Good news I feel, as they crushed Italy first, and are playing France tonight. I'm not usually a football fan, but when there is a bit of money involved... :)

Busy busy busy...

Wow, long delay since my last post. Things have been UBER busy. We have dropped the VSD (Vertical Slice Demo) build of the current game we are working on last week, so things have been pretty busy for a while. I have also finally finished work on the video!! YAY!!

Here is a link to it (I have linked a 'special' version (someone showed me a trick with YouTube to get better audio quality):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fYFdr8QPctA&fmt=18

As I am doing this entry from Facebook I have not figured out all the particulars about hotlinking YouTube vids in, but am sure most of you are capable of cut and paste... ;) A warning though, this is proper 'metal' so turn the volume down unless you like this sort of thing. I am pretty pleased with the way it turned out. Yes there are many things I would do differently, but as my first time as director, editor and post artist I feel things worked out OK. Course if I do it again, I think relinquishing some of those responsibilities would be a good plan, but heck...for the budget we did the whole thing on, I can't complain.

And finally, something a bit different. Music recommendations! This year has seen the release of 2 albums by 2 of my favourite bands. Weezer and the Fratellis have both released albums very close to each other, and I have been fortunate enough to have heard both already.

The Fratellis: Here We Stand - After their fine debut with Costello Music, the Scottish boys are back with a slightly more polished sound yet still retains their rawness that made the first album so exciting. The guitar work is exemplary and if you have time, check it out. Stand out track - Mistress Mabel.

Weezer: Weezer - Yet another self-titled album (their 3rd in fact) from the band that has probably shaped my musical tastes since 1992. This album is a change in direction for the band. No longer is Cuomo (Rivers, lead singer) the lead vocal on every track, and everyone seems to get a go. This is a really nice change from previous albums, and for me, this album is amazing. The sheer diversity of the tracks, from Southern Rap to an almost messianic choir that somehow blends so perfectly with the trademark Weezer sound that I was amazed they had not tried something like this before. The last 2 albums, (Make Believe & Maladroit) felt a little underwhelming, almost as if band felt they were pandering to the powers that be. This album is a big fuck you to the record companies. Its cool to be in Weezer and be slightly quirky, and if people don't get it, then their loss. Right rant over...go buy it. Its red, so you can't miss it.

TTFN... :D

Weekend madness...again

This weekend saw the final night out of some friends who are leaving the area of Portsmouth to go live somewhere more civilised. Ironically, the evening proved that this was indeed the correct choice, as after a debacle at the American Bar (which resulted in me being slapped round the chops by what I can only describe as a poorer relative of the Mountain Gorilla) and then on the way home witnessing 2 vandals who had been walking down our road systematically smashing peoples car windows we can only conclude that we need to get our asses in gear and sort the house out. Yes the market is not great at the moment, but people shouldn't have to deal with things like this.

Sunday morning we spent with a WPC who took down my wife's statement about what we saw, and my word: some of the stories we were told that morning, coupled with her apologies that there was no officer around at the time despite the police being rung by our neighbour and the sheer volume of paperwork that they have to fill in, it is little wonder the Police are having problems. And horrendously, they all know about these problems and want things to change, but yet again it has to come down from the top. We are tempted to complain to the Police in the hope that the higher-ups get enough of these letters to encourage them to put more officers and support on the streets. Just shocking. On a slightly amusing note, the 2 vandals were almost dressed identically, with black and white horizontally striped tops. All they were missing was a bag with the word SWAG written on it, and it would have just like the cartoons.

Coming this week, I have a party to go to this Saturday. I am nervous. It is being alikened to a student party. I haven't been to one of those in a few years now...

The music video is also starting to finally come together. I have got about halfway through all the final tightening of the shots, and another good session this evening should mean it is ready to go into post tomorrow, render times not withstanding.

Right, back to the world of computer games...

Friday...again

This week has mostly been me tired. I forgot to mention that at the weekend we encountered 'Saga-Louts'. Yes you read that right. This was a party of around 30 senior citizens who met up at the hotel we were staying at, and the loudest ones were busy shouting outside our window at 3am in the morning. They were, to be fair, only regaling stories and the like, but the lead saga-lout had the loudest voice ever, coupled with a very heavy welsh accent. To say that is annoyed me would be putting it mildly...grrr....

Music video is coming along nicely still. Aaron and I spent quite a few hours last night just nailing all the final shots, so we are almost at the final running order. Still needs a bit of syncing and cutting in various places, but overall we are close.

Weekend coming, out for dinner on Saturday with some friends, and then of course catching up with Lost and Battlestar Galactica and Scrubs and Dirty Sexy Money...I think I watch too much TV.

BTW, anyone who has not caught Dexter yet should do themselves a favour and start watching it. ITV is now a fair way through season 1, so I would recommend picking up the DVD boxset (which is not very expensive anymore, try www.play.com) and give it a go.

Speaking of which I think I lent mine to my mother at Christmas...she is getting as bad as I am at remembering to give things back...

Oh well...

Nice...

Looks like Typepad has finally added Facebook support. I would like to think that it will mean I update my blog more..not so much thinking that will happen though... :P

Busy weekend. Family wedding in Worcetser (Madeleine's side). There was a LOT of alcohol, a lot of people and to be fair, a lot of love. They certainly knew how to throw a party...I met LOADS of people ranging from Madeleine's cousin Pete, who used to be a UFC cage fighter(!) through to the band who reliably told me they were getting too old to party till 1pm. They were very good though. :D

Music video is coming along a pace. A few people have seen WIP, and I have had some good feedback so far. We are getting very close to the final edit of the video, and then we can begin work on the final Post. There is some placeholder in there now to give a flavour of the look we are going for, but it needs tightening up, and of course all the colour correction still needs to be done as well as matte mask painting (to hide bits of the studio).

Hopefully this week we will get to that stage, so it should be around soon. :)

In the can...

So...we are now done with all the filming for the music video. It happened this weekend, and it was ace. Freaking scary, but ace. It helped that I was working with people I knew and have worked with before, but taking the reins of directing something? Quite scary... 1st day nerves definitely got the better of me on Saturday, but by the end of the day I felt good with what we had filmed, and the next day was certainly much better from point of view.

I think we managed to get some really nice shots, stuff that you generally don't see in a music video from a first time up and coming band. Having access to cranes and so forth was a big help, and so we were able to get the camera pretty high and make the band look really ace.

Hexagram themselves were brilliant. Real nice guys, (I obviously knew Aaron, as I work with him) but very professional. Just got the job done, despite4 the fact that we were in a fairly cold barn. They had employed a session drummer for the video, as their drummer had left just before, so they borrowed a guy called Jonno from a band called Biomechanical

He was AMAZING. I have seen good drummers in my time, but he was a step above that. And he was like 18 or something. Anyhoo, he was also a really great chap, and I feel very pleased to have met him.

Anyhoo, going to capture some film footage now...I am very excited about editing this together... :D

More soon.

Kisses!!

Like a bee...you know...

I don't seem to have enough time in the day at the moment. I have so many things to do, and I have decided to update my blog instead. How tragic. Still, Easter is upon us, some time off is almost here (Mads and I have taken next week off for some R'n'R) but before that I have to direct a music video!! Am very excited. This weekend the band Hexagram, myself and a film crew will be filming for 2 days to make Hexagrams debut music video.

We have hired an infinity studio, got HD film equipment and are going for something simple but really tight and well done. No mad storylines, no over the top CGI (though there is going to be a lot of post work for me) just Hexagram playing their socks off in the middle of no-where.

I have roughly storyboarded certain sequences that I want in there, but I have to spend a bit more time before Saturday to make sure that the shooting schedule is roughly worked out. We have a plan of sorts but I am sure there will be lots of 'winging it' on the days. Still, this could be the beginning of bigger things for Hexagram (and hopefully me) so watch this space. I will of course be posting WIP up here as and when I get to it as well as updates on the Hexagram site, so keep your eyes open.

On top of that I am finishing some corporate ID work (sorry Saul, I WILL get to it tonight) another showreel video for a hairdresser, and also getting the milestone work done for my real job. Am quite looking forward to the time off. I can see lots of relaxing happening...oh yes. :)

Right...time to get back to work...I have some lovely HTML to look at (we present a lot of our 2D ideas at work in web format as it is nice and easy to deliver and update). I hate HTML. It bores me. To be honest, I have not done any web work in such a long itme now, I am WELL behind on modern web practise. Good thing I don't want to go back to that. Don't mind designing them, but building them...there are people out there with more patience than me for doing that sort of thing...

TTFN...

Cursor, a cursor. My Wii for a Cursor...(well not really)

So, I am currently neck deep in designing the interface for our first Nintendo Wii game. Now, having done a slew of research on various Wii games that are out, I am rooting around for some inspiration for a pointer. Yes, like Zelda, Like Harry Potter we are having a pointer on screen to reflect where the wii-mote is aiming. Now, previously titles either use a 3D glowing ball or some sort of glow effect, and that does look very nice indeed. I am tempted to say that it is very useable, and does not need improving upon, but I feel compelled to try.

So my question, faithful reader(s), is any ideas on what could be used instead? It can't be anything too spindly, must not resemble anything from an RTS (real time strategy) game, so no crosshairs etc. Can you help?!?!

Going cycling this weekend, as I have deemed the weather good enough to go out. I know being a fair weather cyclist does not make me a hard core cyclist, but to be fair, I don't care. :D

Apologies...

My blogging has been slack. I have no excuse and I blame many things. Some have already been mentioned, others I have yet to mention.

Anyhoo, as I am sure has been confirmed by now, Silent Hill Origins is coming to PlayStation 2, and yes I once again did all the UI work. This was a complete re-do from scratch, as there was no intention of making a PS2 version at the time. This means that every single screen had to be rebuilt from the ground up, as the native resolution of the PSP is 480x272, and the PS2 will render at least twice as many horizontal lines as that. This was quite good fun, as it meant I had a chance to polish all the things that irritated me with the original, as well as some new stuff features/tweaks to the UI as well. Not sure when it is out yet...but watch this space.

My current project is as yet unnamed, but is for the Nintendo Wii and Nintendo DS. This should be huge amounts of fun for a UI designer, as they are both very unique in the way you can interact with them. This means more considerations, and above all looking at what other games have done before in this genre and either improve or copy. I hate to say this, but ever since I was told at University that most designers are like parasites, embracing and eating design and then morphing and evolving into something new, which never quite loses its original style, I have been more and more aware of where my influence comes from in regards to the way I work and how I design.

Currently I am at the concepting stage, which is generally the time you get to be the most creative. At the moment I am having a slight block. Having been bounced around various other projects since finishing Silent Hill PS2, I have been doing some video work, some DTP work and some other concepting for another project, so my brain is finding it hard to settle back into just one thing.

Anyhoo...best do some work now, shall finish this later...