There are very few keys to making a great and memorable hero. Of course, it can be done in the traditional sense where he stands for truth, justice and is honorable in all things. Clark Kent in Smallville embodies all these characteristics and it makes for a great show. On the other hand, in today's world and for today's audience there is another way. Movies like Pitch Black show a hero character with a very different personality, and yet it still works.

Another recent movie presents a hero who, while not having the best or most honorable personality, is still very memorable. That movie is the comic book style action flick Jumper. Despite many bad reviews, I really enjoyed this film, and I believe I have figured out why. It's not because the hero is necessarily good. In fact, one reviewer describes him as, "...a jerk without one redeemable bone in his body." What makes this hero work for today's audience, which is surely a young audience, is that his power is something everyone would want to have.

Too many people who chose to hate the film, and it is certainly a choice how we react to external stimuli, allowed the character flaws of the hero, played by Hayden Christensen, to turn them against the movie. One reviewer even said that it had him rooting for the paper-thin, religious zealot, villain, even though he was an atheist. Now no movie is, of course, for everyone, but I think those who chose to be down on it may have missed something really cool that the movie presented. One reviewer, who I believe caught it, had this to say:

"All the things he does with his power is for himself, no one else. To me, the most meaningful scene in this film, is the few seconds when he watched the News of TV, saw a bunch of people get caught in flood, and then emotionlessly turned it off. He could have gone and saved those people, and become a stereo-type hero. But he didn't. He got superpower, he use it to enjoy life. It's that simple. But isn't it what we would all do, if we got his power?"

There is a freedom that is represented by what this character has. A freedom I believe most people long for in their own lives. I don't mean the specific acts of teleporting into a bank and robbing it. I am talking about a lifestyle. This lifestyle is portrayed so well in the movie that I suspect that those with whom is resonated like the film, and those who could not connect were unhappy with the presentation.

The anti-herioc character of Riddick, created by Vin Diesel and David Twohy in the movie Pitch Black, offers something similar. While his special ability has somewhat more limited use than that of the Jumper, I'm sure everyone remembers being afraid of the dark. It's very easy to connect to the idea of having the ability to see clearly in absolute darkness. Today we have electric lights enough to brightly illuminate any hour of the day, yet we still know how effective blackouts and power outages can be in horror movies. In that situation, one might recall a desire for the eyes of Riddick.

A character can stand for truth, justice, and honor with no special ability at all, and still be a very memorable lead. That's only one path to making a great hero, though. Sometimes, starting with a superpower that represents the greatest of wish fulfillment, or a doorway to wildest dreams, can lead to some great characters that audiences will never forget.

Tags: movies

Every so often, in the world of digital content creation, the subject must naturally turn to piracy and the effects it has on the industry. While there are hordes of people willing to offer solutions, far too many of them seem to center of stamping it out, fighting against it. Some, particularly organizations hit hardest like the RIAA or MPAA, even desire or expect the government to step in and lay down the law.

It's unlikely anything will ever be done about it. Business models are simply going to have to change. Adapt or die. There's been a lot of talk on the net lately about why "free" is the future of business in the online world. There are also already plenty of examples of those who have adapted and proven that "free" can be turned into a very profitable venture.

Direct sales to end users is not the only way to turn a profit from one's work.

Have you ever notice that all of Google's services are, and always have been, free? Yet they are one of the largest companies in cyberspace even shelling out $1.6 billion to grow larger with the free site, Youtube.

All of the cartoons and content on Homestar Runner, the hard work of those artists, is, and has always been, available on their site totally free. Yet they have grown from a garage operation to a full size company with a staff of employees.

There are a number of online comics that have been free since their inception and they have grown into huge, profitable operations.

There are even plenty of indie musicians who earn good money from their work and art because they realize that good and popular bands have assets that can never be pirated. Selling records as a business became big in the middle of last century. Talented musicians have been getting rich from their work and art for over a thousand years before that. Business have to adapt.

People can scream and rave all they want about how politicians and the government or police should do something about it, but it simply isn't going to happen. More piracy happens outside of America than inside. The Pirate Bay, the largest warez site in the world, is an eastern european operation. Most are well aware of how rampant piracy is in Asia. Not all countries share, or have any interest in, our intellectual property laws. They don't care and it would do them no good whatsoever to start caring.

As a content creator myself, I am not in any way in support of piracy nor do I condone it. I wish it did not exist, but crying about it isn't going to solve anything. Screaming for the government to do something about it isn't going to solve anything. DRM and copy protection isn't going to solve anything. Adapting to new business models will solve everything.

Many net business are already adapting and seeing incredible returns in a new market catering to what people both want and expect on the net which is free content.

Outsourcing animation, in order to save costs, has been a mainstay of the American animation industry for more than two decades now. Numerous countries, where labor is much cheaper than hiring homegrown talent, have seen the struggling animation industry through many trials over the years. Now, however, the tables have turned. With the U.S. dollar at the lowest it's been in 13 years, Chinese companies have begun outsourcing their animation to operations here in the U.S.

To that end, Studio ArtFX and Terrence Walker have been offered $438.00 American dollars to animate a 90 minute feature film for burgeoning Chinese technology firm Siu Kru Yu. Although the firm, which has specialized in IT since its inception, has never ventured into entertainment before, the team of managers in charge of the project seem confident that the script, penned by the bosses wife, will break them into the business with a bang. Company president Chien Lee Zhang, however, has chosen not to be personally involved in the project.

"My wife has wanted to write since she was a child." Spoke the aging CEO. "Even though she has never written a story before, I am certain that her script might find some viewers." Although turned down by numerous studios in China, the prospect of animating the film for a low cost in the U.S., with its steadily weakening dollar, has made company president Zhang's wife's dream a reality.

"This would not have been possibly if not for current economic circumstances." laughed Zhang. "Films take a long time to make. If the dollar continues to fall, it'll be like getting all that work done for free."

Tags: Art

I posted this in the Daz forums yesterday and it sparked an interesting debate, so I decided to repost it here:
(all images from Daz and Vue galleries)

There is much that can be said in praise of CG art where the creator did everything themselves, and I think we all know of certain CG sites where the type of art we do here is seriously looked down upon or even viciously attacked.

I used to be a professional artist (and all that implies). Human characters and rigs was my focus. I was very good at it and achieved photorealism on more than one occasion. I have modeled sub-D characters, NURB characters, and polygon characters. I have worked in video games, TV and film. For most of that time I knew very little, if anything, about the whole Poser world. What little I did hear, coming from "professional artists" was not good. Sadly, I believed it without ever having looked at the program for myself. These guys use Maya. They must be right, right?

The first time someone really tried to push me into Poser was quite a few years ago when I was at the now defunct EA Vegas, formerly known as Westwood Studios. He was an avid Poser user and did a lot of matte paintings for Threshold, on the Mortal Kombat movies and TV series. When you see those little people walking around in the matte paintings, those are Poser people.

So one day he said, "I can't imagine why you don't use Poser. It's perfect for what you do!" I replied, "Yeah, yeah..." Still he decided to show me just how quick and easy it was to populate a scene with characters walking and running around. He also showed me how much content, as far as human styles and costumes, there was available. Still I thought, "Maybe I use it for extras or background characters." On one of the Command & Conquer games there was a scene where Cain, the bad guy, is giving a speech to a bunch of soldiers. He did the crowd in Poser. It was easy.

That was a long time ago, so it must have been Poser 2 or 3. Over the years I saw Poser get better, but never gave it much more thought. Then something changed.

Around 2006 I was working on a movie, a low budget creature flick directed by the guy who designed the dragons for Reign of Fire. Because he had a name and had worked on quite a few big movies, he had connections. This allowed him to "borrow" sets for his film that we could never afford. Being an art director, he threw up some tarps, some lanterns and some good lighting and BOOM! New set. He did the same with costumes. He knew people and it helped. So did we have totally original stuff of our creation in the film? No, but it made our movie of less than $2 million look like it must have cost $20 million or more. That's when I gave Poser more serious consideration.

If there's one thing I never liked to model, it's generic, real world things, like, say, a Baretta 9mm pistol. I modeled one once. Did a great job too, near photoreal, but it took a lot of time and effort and had I known about this site back then I would have paid $20 for a pack of guns and moved on.

As I mentioned before, human characters was my focus and I had been modeling them for ages before I found about this site. When I saw the latest versions of Poser and then later found this site I was truly happy! Why should I continue to model human characters? There comes a point past which human characters are not getting any better. And that goes double for generic clothing like T-Shirts, jeans, underwear, bikinis and the like. They are everywhere here! If there's one thing I don't believe in, it's reinventing the wheel.

I mentioned in another thread how I paid nearly $50 for a mask on Turbo Squid. I was working on a scene where I needed it and at that point I had two choices. Pull out a card, pay the $50. Drop the mask in the scene and move on, OR drop everything I am doing and spend the time to model up and texture a mask to go on the wall in the background of my scene. Personally, I would rather spend m time focusing on my story, characters, good lighting etc.

Buying content that does what you need simply makes sense, and the prices on this site can't be beat. You think Stone Mason's prices are high? A few buildings cost hundreds of dollars on a "pro" site like 3D02. Speaking of which, who do you think is buying content off these super expensive pro sites? I asked a buddy of mine at Zoic about buying content and he said, "Hell yeah! All the time." The big guys buy content too. When you have a tight deadline on your TV show or movie and you need to flip a 2007 BMW 525, do you think they pay some guy thousands and give him months to model it? So while the "pro" artists on certain sites may sit around and bash Poser, they do plenty of content buying too, even in shows like CSI, BSG, Angel, X-men and many more.

You know what? I say let the pros talk while they spend $200 on a human model that looks no better than Victoria. Or worse, spend months to model something that doesn't come close. (Have you seen the digital stunt doubles in some recent movies?! PS3 games look better!) And if they want to say what we do isn't art, let them say it if it makes them feel better! Do you enjoy what you do? Do you love playing with the software and the content we have here? Does your art look the way you want it to look? Then who cares what anyone else has to say?

I'm going to make something cool in Poser now.

Tags: Art

*** MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS ***

I had my suspicions, even from the trailers. I suspected this movie might just contain some very big turn-offs for me. Sadly, an article on Tractor Facts titled 10,000 B.C.: And a White Man Will Lead Them confirmed my worst fears. In that article it states:

"D'Leh - looking handsome above - fights killer ostriches, horse-whispers to a saber tooth, gets mystical about the moon, plants crops, and leads a legion of black men into liberating themselves (and pyramid slaves) from The Almighty. That last bit comes off as more than a little condescending, because, for some inexplicable reason, large villages of capable black warriors are unable to rise up until a white man shows them the way."

I have to say I am truly sick of this mentality from Hollywood. Since the dawn of film, Hollywood has depicted a world view where up until old honest Abe Lincoln came along, blacks are shown anywhere in the world, through all of human history, to be slaves. I won't even get into the mountains of archaeological or anthropological evidence that show that nothing could be further from the truth. Still, even classic writers like Shakespeare created dramatic stories which featured black characters in positions of power and influence in, of all places, Europe. Yet, in Hollywood the same backwards myth perpetuates.

That's only one aspect of Hollywood myth making that has irked me for some time now. Another reviewer, writing on Kaylow Media had this to say:

"Plus, the Pharaoh is depicted as a shrouded, hissing snake-like villain. It’s only after he’s killed by The World’s Most Improbable Spear Toss that we see that he’s an ordinary Caucasian white guy. Ruling ancient Egypt. In Africa."

If you go by what Hollywood shows, one would not even realize that Egypt is in Africa, let alone was ever an African kingdom. I think a simple look at Joel Freeman's Egypt photo gallery says all that need be said about how the ancient Egyptians saw themselves. Hollywood has never been known for anything resembling historical accuracy and there is a reason for this. Consider a movie like Troy. Greeks are not today, nor were they at any point in history, white like Brad Pitt and Sean Bean. When Hollywood creates, they create a Hollywood world.

Now don't get me wrong. I don't fault Hollywood for what they create, nor do I expect that they should do any different. I'm simply saying that I'm done watching it. Their works are simply not for me. This is, in fact, the whole matter. One must consider who the movies are made by and who they're made for. Think of it this way. In China, when they sit down to make the next great wuxia epic, do you think the creators sit down and think, "I want to make an epic movie and I want it to have a Chinese hero instead of a white guy."? Of course not! That would be ludicrous. It's all about who the movie is by and who it's for. The largest American movies are made for the largest majority of the population. That's both wise and financially sound. There's no reason to expect them to do any different.

What this means, though, is that for those of us who desire to see something different, or want a different experience, we have to make it! That's what it comes down to. Sitting around waiting for someone to make something for us, when they have no valid reason to, is folly. If we want to see a different story, then we must make that different story. If we want a different kind of hero, then we must create that hero. Some of the best movies, TV shows and anime done were made because the creator wanted to see something different and wasn't getting it anywhere else. So it is with any of us who want something different. No need to sit down and lament what someone else is making. Instead of spending two hours watching it, spend that two hours creating something for you.

Tags: movies, Hollywood

I decided to remove the link to the old blog archive from the main menu and it has now been replaced by the gallery. It's not a completely new gallery. Some of the images were on the previous incarnation of this site. A few are new. The link to the blog archive has now been made into a category in this blog. In fact, I have, up until now, been unaware of just how useful blog categories can be. I was schooled by my friend Bryan when he setup his blog to chronicle his Carnival Cruise voyages, even though I introduced him to Rapid Weaver, the web design tool I use for this site!

Learning from his blog, I will begin making better use of categories in the future, including adding a FAQ category to keep a tally of questions I am often emailed. I can also organize posts based on the different projects I am doing using categories, so those who are interested in a particular item, like Anigen, will be able to jump directly to the posts dealing with that subject. I'm not yet sure how I will work it all out, but it will probably be slowly implemented over time.

So from here on out, to get to the old blog archive, click here.

Tags: Art