Well, actually tomorrow it's my birthday, but I'll be taking a much needed day off, so I'm posting here basically just to say that.
Yeah, that's about it really: a day off tomorrow and a bank holiday on Monday, so I'll see you on the flip-side.
Thursday, 30 April 2009
beowulf
The next rentalage was beowulf.
It was okay.
According to the time counter it was the best part of two hours long, and it didn't really feel like that, and that's always a good sign. I think this was mainly a reflection of the story, which was quite interesting.
I've heard of Beowulf before as a kind of ancient heroic epic. From what I understood (and I can't even be arsed to go and google) it's written big-arse poem style and is Nordic in origin.
Which is why I found it odd that some of the characters were speaking with Welsh accents. Strangely it was only some of them though - as if they'd that it was a good idea and then half way through decided not to keep it up.
I've no idea how close the film was to original story then, but I guess my point is that it wasn't delivered in verse and it didn't seem to have a Nordic bone in its body. But for all that it was entertaining enough.
However, the main thing of note about Beowulf is that it was CG animation. Yes, yes, loads of stuff is CG animation, but this is CG animation of the type attempting to be as realistic as it can be. It's not toys or monsters (well, there are monsters, but not of the cute, simplified style) it's actual humans represented with proper proportions and realistic movement.
Well, that's its aspiration anyway. Unfortunately it kinda fell a long way short.
Don't get me wrong - it wasn't unwatachably bad - but it was a long way short of the point where you'd think "these are real people".
As a player of video games, to me, it resembled an extended cut-scene. A very high-end cut-scene where they've spent a big chunk of the budget, but a cut-scene nonetheless.
The problem really is that it's still incredibly difficult to capture the tiny subtleties of human movement and keep the process practical. Well, and affordable - it works way better if you're talking about short special effects sequences in a traditional film. An entire movie done like that has to take some shortcuts or it'll cost, like, five times as much as any other film ever.
To me it actually looked like they were using motion capture (with the white balls and people in green suits).
One of the weird things about motion capture is that most of the time it looks like what it is - a slightly simplified version of actually people moving about. However, occasionally, it'll capture some subtlety that cons you into thinking it's real. And that's its downside - these hits emphasise the more prevalent fails.
In a way it's where traditional animation excels. There's something about the way introducing a human brain into the process that captures the nuisances. Even though, ironically, they'll often actually be exaggerations.
Anyway, the point is Beowulf both shows how far this sort of animation has come, but also shows there's still a long way to go.
It was okay.
According to the time counter it was the best part of two hours long, and it didn't really feel like that, and that's always a good sign. I think this was mainly a reflection of the story, which was quite interesting.
I've heard of Beowulf before as a kind of ancient heroic epic. From what I understood (and I can't even be arsed to go and google) it's written big-arse poem style and is Nordic in origin.
Which is why I found it odd that some of the characters were speaking with Welsh accents. Strangely it was only some of them though - as if they'd that it was a good idea and then half way through decided not to keep it up.
I've no idea how close the film was to original story then, but I guess my point is that it wasn't delivered in verse and it didn't seem to have a Nordic bone in its body. But for all that it was entertaining enough.
However, the main thing of note about Beowulf is that it was CG animation. Yes, yes, loads of stuff is CG animation, but this is CG animation of the type attempting to be as realistic as it can be. It's not toys or monsters (well, there are monsters, but not of the cute, simplified style) it's actual humans represented with proper proportions and realistic movement.
Well, that's its aspiration anyway. Unfortunately it kinda fell a long way short.
Don't get me wrong - it wasn't unwatachably bad - but it was a long way short of the point where you'd think "these are real people".
As a player of video games, to me, it resembled an extended cut-scene. A very high-end cut-scene where they've spent a big chunk of the budget, but a cut-scene nonetheless.
The problem really is that it's still incredibly difficult to capture the tiny subtleties of human movement and keep the process practical. Well, and affordable - it works way better if you're talking about short special effects sequences in a traditional film. An entire movie done like that has to take some shortcuts or it'll cost, like, five times as much as any other film ever.
To me it actually looked like they were using motion capture (with the white balls and people in green suits).
One of the weird things about motion capture is that most of the time it looks like what it is - a slightly simplified version of actually people moving about. However, occasionally, it'll capture some subtlety that cons you into thinking it's real. And that's its downside - these hits emphasise the more prevalent fails.
In a way it's where traditional animation excels. There's something about the way introducing a human brain into the process that captures the nuisances. Even though, ironically, they'll often actually be exaggerations.
Anyway, the point is Beowulf both shows how far this sort of animation has come, but also shows there's still a long way to go.
Tuesday, 28 April 2009
Productivity
So, the aforementioned productivity that I, er, mentioned... before.
Er, what?
Oh, yes - productive weekend.
I had a lot to do (chores mainly), and while I still felt a bit tired after the preceding week, I pushed through on Saturday and got it done in an efficient fashion.
One of the things I was pleased I kept on top of was the telly. There was both a MotoGP and a F1 GP to watch, as well as all the usual telly stuff I record and I managed to watch all of it.
I've still only got Red Riding waiting on my PVR and we now seem to be getting into the proper summer schedules. That means there will be far less on that I'll be interested in, which is a good thing.
I also did all the scanning I needed to and watched some fansubs while I worked:
Valkyria Chronicles, my first real show of the new season, was quite good - surprisingly so, actually.
I understand it's based on a game so I wasn't hoping for much and to be fair the plot is a bit on the tried and tested side (if not a bit played out). However, it does have some interesting characters, and they're what really count.
I mean, again, you've probably seen them before, but they're not done badly and are quite likeable. The main guy is especially interesting with a kind of blunt way of looking at things, but disarmingly charming with it.
Charady no Joke na Mainichi was bloody awful.
Well, maybe that's a bit harsh, but if something is called "daily joke" and then basically isn't actually all that funny, it's kinda failing from the get-go, isn't it?
Add into that the use of cheap CG animation and you've got something that's distinctly not my cup of tea.
And speaking of poor CG animation, Macross Fufonfia is right on up there with it. I've not got a link for it, btw, as I'm not sure it really counts as anime.
What they've basically done is take the Macross Frontier girls and put them in office jobs, but chuck in a few jokes relevant to the Macross world too.
It was pretty tedious.
Examurai Sengoku was quite good.
I never know what genre this sort of show falls into, but I tend to call it "hard-boiled samurai" in that it features lots of tough-guy samurais. In fact, I think mostly they're yakuza. At times they border on stereotypes, though I don't think it's being played for laughs (well, I didn't find it funny).
It was enjoyable enough if you didn't think too hard about it and took it just for entertainment value.
Kemono no Souja Erin was quite good. I'm pretty sure it's aimed at kids and has some rather obvious "message" bits, but they aren't too bad - certainly not up to the cringe worthy standards of kids cartoons in my youth.
The setting is also quite nice and there's an interesting conflict in the set up, in that the peaceful and pleasant village the main girl lives in trains fearsome beasts that are then used to fight wars. These wars being nasty, but also presumably why the village itself is so peaceful and pleasant.
One annoying thing I did discover is that GONZO's arrangement with Bost is now defunct. This means that having paid for Strike Witches I now can't watch it there.
I also discovered that the streaming of it on Crunchyroll is coming to an end - you can only get it by paying.
Perhaps I was being dumb, but I'd always assumed that one of the advantages of these download/streaming series is that the shows wouldn't expire in such a fashion. I'm not sure I'm as keen if it's entirely geared to people watching the shows week-on-week.
Er, what?
Oh, yes - productive weekend.
I had a lot to do (chores mainly), and while I still felt a bit tired after the preceding week, I pushed through on Saturday and got it done in an efficient fashion.
One of the things I was pleased I kept on top of was the telly. There was both a MotoGP and a F1 GP to watch, as well as all the usual telly stuff I record and I managed to watch all of it.
I've still only got Red Riding waiting on my PVR and we now seem to be getting into the proper summer schedules. That means there will be far less on that I'll be interested in, which is a good thing.
I also did all the scanning I needed to and watched some fansubs while I worked:
Valkyria Chronicles, my first real show of the new season, was quite good - surprisingly so, actually.
I understand it's based on a game so I wasn't hoping for much and to be fair the plot is a bit on the tried and tested side (if not a bit played out). However, it does have some interesting characters, and they're what really count.
I mean, again, you've probably seen them before, but they're not done badly and are quite likeable. The main guy is especially interesting with a kind of blunt way of looking at things, but disarmingly charming with it.
Charady no Joke na Mainichi was bloody awful.
Well, maybe that's a bit harsh, but if something is called "daily joke" and then basically isn't actually all that funny, it's kinda failing from the get-go, isn't it?
Add into that the use of cheap CG animation and you've got something that's distinctly not my cup of tea.
And speaking of poor CG animation, Macross Fufonfia is right on up there with it. I've not got a link for it, btw, as I'm not sure it really counts as anime.
What they've basically done is take the Macross Frontier girls and put them in office jobs, but chuck in a few jokes relevant to the Macross world too.
It was pretty tedious.
Examurai Sengoku was quite good.
I never know what genre this sort of show falls into, but I tend to call it "hard-boiled samurai" in that it features lots of tough-guy samurais. In fact, I think mostly they're yakuza. At times they border on stereotypes, though I don't think it's being played for laughs (well, I didn't find it funny).
It was enjoyable enough if you didn't think too hard about it and took it just for entertainment value.
Kemono no Souja Erin was quite good. I'm pretty sure it's aimed at kids and has some rather obvious "message" bits, but they aren't too bad - certainly not up to the cringe worthy standards of kids cartoons in my youth.
The setting is also quite nice and there's an interesting conflict in the set up, in that the peaceful and pleasant village the main girl lives in trains fearsome beasts that are then used to fight wars. These wars being nasty, but also presumably why the village itself is so peaceful and pleasant.
One annoying thing I did discover is that GONZO's arrangement with Bost is now defunct. This means that having paid for Strike Witches I now can't watch it there.
I also discovered that the streaming of it on Crunchyroll is coming to an end - you can only get it by paying.
Perhaps I was being dumb, but I'd always assumed that one of the advantages of these download/streaming series is that the shows wouldn't expire in such a fashion. I'm not sure I'm as keen if it's entirely geared to people watching the shows week-on-week.
Monday, 27 April 2009
colonization
I had a very productive weekend.
I'll probably blather on about it a bit more tomorrow, but today I just wanted to mention I actually played a game! After months of buying them but never actually playing them, I sat down on Sunday afternoon and had a mini-session.
The game in question was Civ4: Colonization, which is a stand-alone expansion, if that makes any sense. It allows you to take on the roll of a colonist heading to the new world (the Americas) and setting up a new country.
What they've done is use the Civ4 engine, which is very pretty, to update a very old spin-off game. I never played the original, but so far I'm enjoying this version of it.
Although I do have to admit it's a little daunting to start with - unlike most Civ games there's no tech tree. That means you can access all units and improvements from the get-go, which is interesting, but it means there's a veritably bewildering list of options and stuff to get your head around.
It's a real vertical learning curve to start with, although after a while it becomes apparent that having mastered those basics, that's all there is to it - there's no new technology/resource going to come along and change everything.
So far, from my little toe-dip I've enjoyed it. Certainly more than I did the proper Civ4 game, which was shiny and pretty but seemed like "Civ-lite" to me.
But we'll see how I go. And whether I'll have any spare time to really play it!
I'll probably blather on about it a bit more tomorrow, but today I just wanted to mention I actually played a game! After months of buying them but never actually playing them, I sat down on Sunday afternoon and had a mini-session.
The game in question was Civ4: Colonization, which is a stand-alone expansion, if that makes any sense. It allows you to take on the roll of a colonist heading to the new world (the Americas) and setting up a new country.
What they've done is use the Civ4 engine, which is very pretty, to update a very old spin-off game. I never played the original, but so far I'm enjoying this version of it.
Although I do have to admit it's a little daunting to start with - unlike most Civ games there's no tech tree. That means you can access all units and improvements from the get-go, which is interesting, but it means there's a veritably bewildering list of options and stuff to get your head around.
It's a real vertical learning curve to start with, although after a while it becomes apparent that having mastered those basics, that's all there is to it - there's no new technology/resource going to come along and change everything.
So far, from my little toe-dip I've enjoyed it. Certainly more than I did the proper Civ4 game, which was shiny and pretty but seemed like "Civ-lite" to me.
But we'll see how I go. And whether I'll have any spare time to really play it!
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