Messages

Eric: It sure does! A Golden Wake is mainly about the founding of Coral Gables.

P.S. Grundislav, I'd LOVE to see a roto tutorial from you

I'll see about putting one together for the next big rotoscoped animation I do.

In the meantime I put a very basic description up on my blog

Results definitely vary.  The trickiest part of tracing photos is finding ones that have good composition for a game.  If you stick to the photo 100%, it will limit your composition severely.  Personally, I would recommend tracing photos only if there's some kind of real life location you want to depict and can't get right on your own. 

As an example of varying results:

This background from Ben Jordan 5, like most of the others in that game, was traced from a photo.  Notice how the bar and chairs are much closer to the camera and therefore look gigantic compared to the characters at full size.  That chef is probably standing on a ladder to be able to see over the top of the bar, and those chairs are the size of giant thrones.  Also, the place mat nearest to the camera could probably make a decent beach towel for Ben.


This background from A Golden Wake was also traced from a photo, but I didn't stick to it completely and took some liberties.  This photo works much better as a background because it's a straight-on view and the main walkable area is the sidewalk, where there isn't much variety in perspective.  Also, the original photo was in black and white, so it gave me the chance to paint whatever colors I wanted.

This is the original photo:

Because.

That was really good!  I can't believe you sat on it for so long and didn't want to release it.  Glad my and 304's nagging paid off!

Spanish interpreter.

So after some serious thought and consideration, I've unfortunately realized that coming to Mittens this year isn't going to be good for my wallet, since I already spent a lot of money on my trip to Australia, am currently unemployed, and have a move to New York planned for September.  Go ahead and free up my spot for someone else.  I hope to see you all again next year!

I'm afraid that's all we recorded, what with having to fight off kangaroos and deadly insects the rest of the time.

This evening I am again in San Francisco staying with Edmundo before catching my final flight back home to Miami tomorrow afternoon.

Wait, what? Didn't you move to the Big Apple recently?

Not yet, that happens later this year.

Let it not be said that we don't listen to our public (which is to say Ponch.)

Here is a special mini-podcast recorded on location in Walpole, Western Australia!

On April 2 I headed to Brisbane airport and caught a flight to Perth. Upon arrival I found a cat holding a big sign which read "GATO." Fearing for my life, I followed him to his car, where I attempted to appease him by giving him lots of American candy. It worked, and we drove to a beach where I stuck my feet in the Indian Ocean.

Following that, we drove east towards the mysterious land of Doodlakine. A couple of hours of listening to music and singing along later, we arrived and I was given a brief tour of the city. Soon after, I was taken to the Chandler Homestead, where I met Mr. Chandler, the mayor of Doodlakine, as well as Mrs. Chandler and Ben's brother. After a lovely steak dinner, we went out on Ben's dad's ute and spotted some night creatures.

The next day, we embarked on our road trip, but first we stopped at the home of Grandma Chandler, who wished us luck fishing later in the week. From there, we began the drive to Esperance, stopping on the way in Ravensthorpe for a Mrs. Mack's meat pie. How I survived that remains a mystery.

We arrived that afternoon in Esperance, and spent the next day and a half there going to the beach, swimming, climbing rocks, jogging, and basically being bad nerds until the evening, when we would discuss game-related things. On Friday we drove to Albany, which was a quaint seaside town ripe for exploration. I had unfortunately come down with a bit of nerd flu from GDC, but I didn't allow it to affect my enjoyment. We were the only guests of the hotel we stayed in, and we got a lovely window from which we serenaded the town (tee hee.)

After departing Albany, we got to Walpole, a very sleepy town. Some might even call it comatose. However, the point of going there was to fish with Ben's dad and Trevor from down the road, so fish we did. The first night proved uneventful, save for the recording of a mini podcast, but the next day we each caught a big salmon and had fish and chips for dinner.

Once done in Walpole, we drove back to Perth, where we met up with Scarab for an afternoon of pub food and beer. From there we went to the home of DarthHelmet86 (another LPer) who very graciously let us spend the night. The following morning we just managed to catch our flight to Sydney, where we met up with Ryan.

There are more details, but I am tired now. This evening I am again in San Francisco staying with Edmundo before catching my final flight back home to Miami tomorrow afternoon.

Bogans is now over

More singing!

Less lens flare, more lyrics, more BOGANS!
http://youtu.be/cvyGiVE3moI

http://youtu.be/F8r55DOiU5g

Here's the alternate viewpoint.

Jeez, no pressure or anything  

I'll do my best to get it done for Mittens.

Just ask the barmaid about local gossip until she repeats herself, then go back to the oddly-shaped rocks.

I'm curious : Did you change your drawing technique? If I'm not mistaken you sued to draw real drawing s and then scan them. Did you draw directly in low-res? I recognize your style but the backgrounds look sharper and seem to have a higher contrast.

I used the technique that I've finally settled on which I did in Ben Jordan 2 Deluxe and am using in A Golden Wake, which is drawing with my tablet at 640x400 then scaling down to 320x200.  The scanning thing was only for Ben Jordan 8, and it proved to be way too time-consuming and didn't look as great as it could have.

Looking really nice!  Glad this is progressing and will see the light of day.