Miguel Endara has posted a timelapsed video of the creation of his father’s portrait, entitled “Hero”. Endara first pencil-sketched then stippled the picture with 3.2 million ink dots. Check out more of his work at miguelendara.com.
So, here’s something interesting. Vodo.net is a sort of Kickstarter for films. Producers make movies and series, then offer them for free via torrents. You can then donate in kickstarteresque tiers if you liked the show.
The Tunnel is a horror movie chronicling the adventure of a New South Wales journalism crew who gets in over their heads in some abandoned train tunnels under Sydney. From the promo:
In 2007 the New South Wales government suddenly scrapped a plan to utilise the water in the disused underground train tunnels beneath Sydney. In 2008, chasing rumours of a government cover-up and urban legends surrounding the sudden backflip, investigative journalist Natasha Warner led a crew of four into the underground labyrinth. They went down into the tunnels looking for a story – until the story found them.
This is the film of their harrowing ordeal. With unprecedented access to the recently declassified tapes they shot in the claustrophobic subway tunnels, as well as a series of candid interviews with the survivors, we come face to face with the terrifying truth.
This never before seen footage takes us deep inside the tunnels bringing the darkness to life and capturing the raw fear that threatens to tear the crew apart, leaving each one of them fighting for their lives.
I’m downloading it now; I’ll try to remember to let you know how it turns out. But Vodo.net may prove to be a great new way to watch film.
So, I’ve mentioned Rebecca Mayes here before. She writes songs about video games. They aren’t exactly reviews or critiques, more like songs inspired by them, though they often have critical parts to them. The music is often ethereal and evocative, and always beautiful. Below is her offering for Halo 2. Usually, she pens her own lyrics, but these are the words of Marianne Williamson, as used by Nelson Mandela for his inauguration speech. Beautiful words on their own, but Rebecca manages to make them even more special. Listen.
Liz has been working hard on art for me between bouts of getting married, holding down a full-time job, moving and all that piddly stuff. So, I thought I’d share some of her initial sketches.
Trillids:
The Trillids are one of the most interesting of the galaxy’s species, being the only known intelligent species to have three sexes. In fact, all complex life on their home-world Shemarbruc is trisexual. All three sexes — alpha, beta, and gamma — are rather short, with hairless, slightly moist, smooth grey-green skin, reminiscent of frog skin…The most obvious deviance from the humanoid form is in the facial features, set on a slightly bulbous cranium. While the eyes are quite human, with surprisingly similar coloring of the irises, they are large and deep-set, beneath strong brow ridges on a steeply sloped forehead. The nose is broad, and flattened, with fine crenations around the perimeter of the nares, while the lower half of the face protrudes slightly forward in an almost canine fashion. Trillids also lack external ear structures, having only large tympanic membranes beside their eyes, also protected somewhat by bony annular protrusions connected to the brow ridge.
These are initial sketches, and the final people look a little bit different. You’ll have to wait for the book to see what I mean.
Loramyps:
The Loramyps are a semi-sessile, sapient plant species, resembling large, thick-boled bushes. Their roughly hemispherical canopies are thick with large, palmately compound purple-black leaves. The leaves are purple-black with a rough matte surface. In the spring they sport a multitude of huge creamy-white flowers resembling magnolia blossoms. They top out at around ten feet tall with ten foot diameter canopies and four foot diameter trunks. Their smooth, umber-colored trunks are bare up to about five feet from the ground where a sparse ring of flexible, whip-like, prehensile branches begins. These appendages, which can reach sometimes up to ten feet, are tipped with frilly yellow-green foliage, resembling down. When not in use, they are kept wrapped around the trunk.
We’re still dialoguing on these, but the Loramyp in the atrium is just about perfect, no?
Durgen:
The Durgens are a protean metal-based life form. They generally mass about 3.5 times an average male human, but being made of a denser material, they are smaller than humans. They average around 4’ 6’’ tall and weigh around 656 pounds. These beings generally take the form of whomever they are dealing with at the moment. If faced with a group of multiple species, they mimic the dominant one in the party…The Durgens have an unusual societal structure and might be better referred to as The Durgen, singular. They are a communal species, in the strictest sense of the word. Individual Durgens are but extensions of The Durgen, an enormous organism existing on their home-world, Hydoorgyr. From time to time, The Durgen buds off and sends its new Gemma out to accomplish some mission — help find food, rendezvous with visitors, explore new star systems, et cetera.
As always, Liz is a pleasure to work with. Y’all should definitely hire her to do something for you.
…says Wil Wheaton about his design for a new T-shirt available through J!nx.com.
"Never forget your roots. In this modern era of Dwarven Forge terrain, full-color dungeon tiles, power cards and pre-painted minis, let’s remember where we started: sitting on the floor, surrounded by books and dice, building dungeons with nothing more than a pencil, some graph paper, and our imagination." -Wil
I’ve been working with artist Liz Radtke again on concepts for the Kalens of Star Lost. Can I just say that she so frickin rocks! Her first attempt (the golden retriever) was too dog-like and too butch. That stemmed from my inadequate description. The next iteration (the other four pix) was awesome. I don’t claim that she reached into my brain and pulled out the perfect image. I can’t because I didn’t have a fully formed image in mind, just pieces of what I knew should be there:
Kalens are a tall, svelte, furry species, most closely related to terrestrial marsupials. They are, however, asexual and androgynous…Their facial features offer an interesting mix of familiar terrestrial animals. Their ears are tall, pointy, and tufted, like a lynx‘s. Their eyes are large like those of a lemur. And their snouts are slightly extended, but short, like an affenpinscher‘s, with a wide mouth full of small, sharp front teeth, and a surfeit of wide molars in back…
From that, and a short critique on the first draft, she has managed to create a fully formed creature that looks like the best stuff you see in the special features menu of a scifi movie. Sweet!
I recently threw together a generic fantasy game supplement featuring two dice games. The conceit I hung them on was that they were played by this race of goblins that lived in the highlands of a fictitious world, who like to use caltrops for gaming implements. Liz Hooper, a friend of a friend, has graciously agreed to do a bit of cover art for the project. Here is her initial sketch, which I think is incredible. I can’t wait for the finished product. If you want to see more of her work, she has also illustrated an upcoming RPG called Do. The design blog for that is here, and you can catch sketch work in past archive months, like January.
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Hudspeth Games