A Pixelated Point of View

At the beginning of the year I started producing APPOVTALK video's. APPOVTALK is a format that highlights/discusses various aspects of machinima making in general, videogames related to machinima or specific aspects that are related to or found in my work. The first episode was released last february and explores in depth (haha. get it? DEPTH...) what role depth of field maps played in three recent Quake III Machinima's: DEPTHMAP, DEPTHMAP NEXT and IGNIIITION. The video is nine minutes long and highlights three different examples. The first example showcases using a depthmap as primary footage. The second example showcases the combination or depthmap and original footage, and the last example explores secondary roles for depth of field maps, such as for color grading or visual effects. The tone of voice is a bit too formal for my liking in this episode, but truth is that I originally recorded this for research on the PRESS START project in the UK. Any new APPOVTALK episodes wil...

Right. So I was cleaning out my computer earlier today and came across a folder with random screen captures made on my now late Nintendo 2DS XL that I made with Luma3DS. It's a bit of random stuff, specifically from Animal Crossing New Leaf. Thought it would probably be fun to share it. Enjoy all of the randomness. Gotta love these random lines from the characters. Don't ever change, Anchovy.

After four (!) works were featured in the official selection of the Milan Machinima Festival last March, I have two more announcements to make in terms of exhibitions and festivals that will take place this month. ALC VIDEOART FESTIVAL, ALICANTE SPAIN (5-14 MAY) IGNIIITIION Instagib and DEPTHMAP NEXT are part of the official selection of the ALC VideoArt Festival held between the 5th and 14th of May in Alicante, Spain. Both films will be part of a physical exhibition in the Museo de Aguas de Alicante. ATHENS DIGITAL ART FESTIVAL, ATHENS GREECE (25-29 MAY) Both installments in the DEPTHMAP series (DEPTHMAP/DEPTHMAP NEXT) are featured at the Athens Digital Art Festival, held in Athens Greece between the 25th and 29th of May. Both films are part of a physical exhibition at Kotzia Square.

 Allright, some more Source and Source Filmmaker updates. Also a post with some more technical stuff for those interested. I've started experimenting with Source in early february, since I wanted to do more in Source Filmmaker, wanted to experiment with the Source Demo Smoother (basically the only way to create cinematic playbacks of demo's pre 2012, before SFM was officially released by Valve) and eventually I wanted to move on to making my own maps and models for machinima in Source. Learning Source and understanding Hammer has been a very interesting process so far. And to be fair although I've experimented a lot I have not yet built a custom map of my own. For some reason that's just the way how I like to do things. Just spending hours on decompiling maps, reading books, watching tutorials, reading mapping forums/discords/blogs, loading game maps in Hammer and understanding how they consist of various brushes and in/outputs is more interesting to me and also in addi...

Source Filmmaker is a perfect example of a piece of software that I really wanted to learn to utilize, but never got around to actually doing it. Back in 2012 when the beta was released I was extremely eager to dive in like many, but then I discovered how steep the learning curve of the software really is. Every couple of months I would boot it up, put a few models in and close it. Now that I have been exploring the Source engine for the past couple of months by learning Hammer through books and tutorial video's, the SFM does not seem to be that daunting anymore. The tutorials shared by many on YouTube actually make sense now. I remember I'd watch a particles tutorial on Source and the SFM and I would just be left speechless at the end because I had no idea what step 1 was again. Now I'm finding my way around it. Yesterday I finally created my first tangible piece in the SFM with Left 4 Dead assets. The scene was filmed in L4D_garage02_lots (better known as the Crash Course...

 It has been a couple of months since the release of Experience. I've been fairly quiet since that time. I wanted to use this opportunity to briefly recap on what I've been up to the past three months. The past three months were dedicated to research, more research, webdesign, pre-production for upcoming projects, work and entrepreneurship. ARCTIC LIME AUDIOVISUAL  I have been working on my own post-production company since august of last year, called ARCTIC LIME AudioVisual. Besides all of the required administrative matters and preparation, there was one thing that hogged up all my time significantly: the actual website. Having no money to spend for luxurious website designer packages that allow you to drag and drop or to even pay a web designer, I was left to my own devices to find out how in the world I was going to actually build a decent looking and responsive website. I had prior WordPress experience, but that was by far not enough to build my own website. I als...

 

  A final surprise, just before the dawn of the new year. The last day of 2021 brings the release of my latest Machinima project: Experience. And this time, I'm not alone! The film was made in collaboration with German game developer pixelsplit. Experience takes place within the game Virtual Rides III. A game released in 2017 by pixelsplit in which you are fully able to customize and control over 20 real-life funfair rides, to any way as you see fit. This 9 minute film shares an exciting point of view of the fairground through a visual study approach from a multitude of angles, and perspectives throughout day and night (even while on the rides!) The film highlights the premises of the fairground, the visitors, the stalls, and of course all the rides. Did I already mention that every single ride's backdrops, fonts and colors were handpicked and customized? Every single ride has their own color pallette, designated font, and custom-made backwall images with either self-made work ...