DIGITAL PROPS

Production designers, Art directors, Producers and Directors rejoice!
If you need clearance on a video game title and would like information on the following titles, contact us here at DIGITAGUILD.CA
These are titles that require very little in the way of time to clear for your productions. We have already cleared 9 out of 10 steps .
Note: we also have originally tunes and bands ready to lend their material to the validity of your shoot.

Titles thus far available for our Digital Props Program are as follows:

EA:

Need for Speed:
Undercover
Carbon
Prostreet

EASPORTS:
NHL 2010

MADDEN NFL 10

Fight Night Round4

Tiger Woods PGA Tour 10

NBA Live 09

NCAA BASKETBALL 09

FIFA SOCCER 09

BETHESDA/Zenimax
FALLOUT 3

 

Very decent film, however do not expect to be rocked like one would rocketh due to a Happy Gilmore experience. The movie is dark, make no bones about it. It is dark and funny. It is also fairly glib and dry a la Rushmore or Bored to Death. It really does illuminate the darker side of being in the entertainment industry from the struggle to create an income, the feelings of professional rejection and cutthroat nature of the biz. The film really carries you through the gamut of emotions when things are going well to when the veneer of immortality come crashing down. Really worth your time this little piece of Apatow, Sandler and Rogen.

The Blu-Ray elements included are the usual assortment of live updates and interactive features, however the bonus materials are very entertaining such as live stand up from the comedians that range from pre-famous events to present day support of the film itself.

8/10

I remember Borat, and I recall the ache in my intestines form laughing so hard at the embarrassing shenanigans that played out on the screen. I wanted to have that with Bruno, so badly that I think I forced myself to laugh out loud on my own to validate the hype. The movie itself was ok, kind of like a longer than necessary SNL skit. At times I laughed halfheartedly and became more engaged in debating whether the characters were paid extras or real people. In the end it doesn't really matter because it was the end sequence that was the funniest. It was great to see it on Blu-ray but there wasn't much use of the technology when it was being taken advantage of.

The beautiful thing about Blu-Ray for me is an aside from the great clarity of sound and light. The greatest thing for me is how much could actually be packed into the extra/bonus materials. This comes with a digital version for Ipods and laptops and wait for it.....very little else.
Sean Moore
6.5 /10

 

 Digital Info Site For Canada's Film Industry -------------------------------------January 2010

click links to goto item:

Bruno

3DS Max 2010
Epson Stylus Pro 3800

Devils MousePad:Assassins Creed 2
3D Studio 2010 AEC tools tip

coming up:3ds Max 2010 pt.2, Maya 2010, Zbrush 3.5, Modo 401 and the next To Hell with Technology Symposium in March.

 

VUE to a Still-Poser 8 and VUE8-Sean Moore

Fresh off the press comes VUE8 by E-On Software. A formidable and robust system for creating natural looking landscapes both with and without any semblance of manmade design. Fully integrated with all 3d systems on the market, Vue8 Xstream offers an inherent structure that places its interface into those other 3d applications for extra easy play nice. There really is no other program out there that can create realistic imagery as fine and as intricate as Vue(without any other adjustments involved) The above image was a basic default figure imported directly into Vue8 and then placed onto a default terrain structure that was populated with the Vue8 environment brush.

For those of you unfamiliar with this tool; it allows the user to place a number of elements into a roster (like plants, rocks, objects etc.), once your mix is created, you can paint the environment onto your landscapes in realtime therefore populated it exactly as you see fit. You can then of course animate the landscape and add wind and atmosphere effects to it.

The team over at E-on Software really understand too the importance of being able to run a tool right out of the box and keeping that in mind, make their entire line of environmental modellers useable to the layperson up to the professional designing cliffsides in the latest Indiana Jones production. They offer a fully functional free version as well which can be downloaded from here:
http://www.e-onsoftware.com/products/vue/vue_8_pioneer/

4.75/5

BY SEAN MOORE-
Apart from this being 3D Studio Max 2010 and one of the most robust modelling apps ever, this iteration seems to improve upon itself before even adding some great upgrades.

Even though I know that the AEC tools have been around for a few versions, it wasn't until version 2010 came to life that these tools made their mark. Yes they have been included in past versions, but now they are easy to use. So no more extruding and extrapolating architectural references and elements from 2d sketches and drawings. You can now, very easily use the wall tools for pulling up walls, the door tools for inserting doors, the window tools for inserting windows and yes the stair tools for building your spiral, regular, closed, or open staircases complete with options for railings, rise/run, backs, railing caps etc.

The other great improvement in my mind is the reworking of the Materials explorer, it now functions well as an explorer should. Clear and concise, the list based doorway to your textures makes for a much smoother workflow and creative experience. Autodesk has also gone and included approximately 100 new tools/enhancements in this package for better or for worse some work others...not so much. The absorption of plug-in PolyBoost brings you the majority of the new elements, a great bonus if you don't already own the $150 plug-in.

The one thing I don't understand however regarding the hoopla around it is the new "ribbon" across the top that houses the Graphite tools. It is a lot of real estate to give up for a slick looking percentage of your ui.

Onto the really exciting news-in the humble view of this reviewer is something added after the release of 2010. This is a plug-in available to registered users and it bridges the gap between great conceptual artists and capable 3-d modellers. It is a godsend, it is a bit of code that now allows you to import directly, .skp files into your 3ds application. That's right, Sketchup to 3ds Max! There may be a wack load of new items but when it comes to things pertinent to the film industry, this is a great big golden egg for us.-

More to come

4.5/5

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HARDWARE:

EPSON 3800 STYLUS PRO By Sean Moore

I have to say that the whole experience left me cold, the first printer arrived in a heavily built cardboard tomb but despite the amount of padding and support that adorned it, it arrived broken. Broken or in a state of non-functionalis. The offending brute was sent back and then we waited. Until one day out of the blue arrived another one of these behemoths (during a spat of renovation and drywall to our surroundings). Eventually a new spot was cleared for the machine with 3 blacks and I set about removing the no less than 24 pieces of tape, cardboard inserts, foam and binding, plopped in all 8 cartridges and stood back while it cleaned and configured itself.

Once done, it sat there staring at me, staring through me, challenging me. C'mon punk, almost to ask:"You feeling CMYK today punk? Well, are ya?" I was feeling hesitant at $1300 a pop.

To start, lets dispel any myths one might have heard from overzealous salespeople or those suffering with printer envy:

1- The 3800 houses a K3 setup consisting of Black, Light Black and Light Light black ink for an unprecedented array of tones

2-It prints on media ranginging from 4"x6" to 17"x22" with 3 seperate loading systems and can but really shouldn't be used to print on media(vinyl, canvass )other than papers.

3-The maximum resolution is 2880 x 1440 dpi

4-Weighs in at 43.2 lbs and measures 27"x 15" x10" (WxDxH)

5-Prints gallery quality archival prints (color and black and white: up to 200 years), scratch resistant and water fast printing.

Being a less than stellar producer of astoundingly beautiful prints, which were printed on Epson High Quality Ink Jet and High Quality Matte papers, I am of the belief that this item is best suited for the heavier, semi gloss and gloss papers. Although the prints were decent, they all seemed to be muddied and lacking and punch or dynamism. My Epson 1280 produced on a whole, much nicer images. I am going to however print a rash of super high re images before sending the unit back and on the higher density media. This shall determine the final score of this product.

Otherwise, the Epson 3800 hundred functioned much better than any other Epson I've had. It is quick to start and to react to print requests and a few times I had to cancel a job dreading the inevitable madness that is redoing a print on an Epson. The amazing thing about it though, there was no madness. No madness other than my River dance like jig that indicated my sheer joy with the recovery time of a cancelled job. It took no time. There was no endless back and forth of garbled text and black smudges. I cancelled a job, and restarted it and it did exactly that. It re started and printed remarkably fast. I want to love this printer, but until a regimen of fine prints pour from one of 3 outputs, I will not be feeling so CMYK. What for the image samples in the next installment.

Assassin's Creed 2
UBISOFT
I loved it, I hated it, I loved it some more and then fell under its spell. Large portions of my day disappeared into the dreamy atmosphere of this title like so many waves upon the green, wet moss of a Venetian building foundation. This is such a masterpiece and such a design rich example of new media artistry. The layers of research and history that this game exudes blows my mind. I have had architecture students stumbled by the sheer detail of the city planning and facades along with the luxurious interiors of the Vatican and manors proliferating the land of Assassins Creed 2.

I actually did get really aggravated at the beginning of the game as there were certain key events one had to complete in order to progress the story and when you lack attention you miss out on what is happening and become....yes...aggravated like me.

When I did finally figure out what was going on, I was consumed by the multi-faceted storyline and visually compelling cinematics that became more and more breathtaking as your roster of special moves and attacks became larger. Your hunger for revenge becomes validated and you end up becoming the games protagonist. I especially enjoyed wrapping myself in a white sheet with old English muffin boxes being used as greaves and gauntlets. So cool. For real.

All of my stupidity aside, this is the closest I've come to playing a game that felt like watching an epic show like Rome or Gladiator, in that you really become excited as to see what happens in the next chapter. The characters in the game are superbly modelled and all have great ai, some with very endearing personalities such as Leonardo DaVinci who becomes a close friend and supplier of great gadgets. This brings me back to design, a very large percentage of the games documents and weaponry were derived from actual DaVinci schematics as were the larger pieces of artwork that you see throughout.

This is a great game and God forbid actually educates those playing with the excellent riddles and puzzles that provide bits of a very interesting and slightly terrifying video. You walk away with more historical, art and socio-political information then you would with any other title.

The only real drawback to the experience was when your character who has access to all of this information through the use of a great technological device that splices your dna, history and subconscious into the first person, is returned to the present time. For whatever maintenance or rest your psyche needs, these scenes are redundant and dull in comparison to the golden chalice of video game design that is Italy in the world of DaVinci. Not to mention the 3 modern characters that seem to be increasingly annoying upon your returns (well the guy is, and the female "tomboy" tech is with all the happy-happy-hey-no-problemo bravado). The 3rd is kinda like a digital crush, so no harm there right?

9/10

 

TIPS & HINTS

Autodesk 3d Studio Max 2010 AEC Tools tip

Have you had a chance to try out the AEC tools in 3D Studio Max 2010 lately? The sheer ease with with you can create a 3d model from a 2d plan drawing is remarkable. However, there are times when you use the wall tool to create your parametric walls and your doors and windows don't sit properly in them. Meaning, you usually see the outline of the element but there is no transparent/opening in the arrangement. These tools should create that opening automatically. No worries, here's the solution for perfect windows and doors:
Click the element you are working with to select it, then click the link icon located in the upper left of the screen and choose the wall within which you are placing your item, and voila! It "wakes up" the system and jumpstarts the symbiotic nature of the tools.

ANG WIRELESS CONNECTIONS GETTING YOU DOWN?

Do you own an HP computer? Do you have an AGN wireless card in your system? Do you lose your wireless connection when the wind blows, or like me, lose your network/wireless adapter presence 100% from one minute to the next? If not, you are lucky, if so, you are frustrated and lucky to have found this tip. Follow this link and download the update, it will solve your issues:

http://downloadcenter.intel.com/filter_results.aspx?strTypes=all&ProductID=3062&OS
FullName=Windows+Vista+Home+Premium%2C+64bit+version*&lang=eng&strOSs=
159&submit=Go%21

ADOBE ILLUSTRATOR CS4 MULTIPLE ART BOARDS

this is such an awesome innovation, as it allows you to streamline web site designs as well as make your printing of similar designs a snap. However, the best thing so far is when you need to create PDF files. Make the original on multiple art boards in AI CS4's awesome new tool and export as a PDF when done, it will create a multi page document as well as print all pages for you.