Oh so many things ...

back on DA for the first time in forever. Did a tattoo design for a friend, and it turned out killer. Another friend has commissioned me for a tattoo design now, and it's a challenging concept. I needed to get practiced up on my drawing skills to do the concept justice. Nothing holds my attention better than an amazing set of curves, so I turned to DA's "artistic nudes" photography section and tried a few. I spent a lot of time on them, measured and re-measured everything a dozen times. There's some problems with proportion in both of them, but they're fairly minor and I don't think they ruin the image. I'm really happy with the results, two of my best drawings.

While I was working on the drawings I started diving through the massive archive of amazing lifedrawing reference, so many amazing shots, great poses, pro lighting, and gorgeous models are on this site. Model linked to a photographer, who would in turn have great work and a bunch more in the favs section ..

I left deviantart because of the horrible anime and the legions of talentless furries who fav anything with tits and a tail, but I've come back for the photography.

Some photographers are very militant with "MY ART IS NOT YOUR STOCK" warnings and threats to sue for possession of your firstborn if you use their work, so I hope that my drawings won't piss off the creators of the stuff I reference. It'm not making money here, this is just practice. I doubt I'd even add this stuff to my demo reel, drawings from photos don't "count" the same way drawing a live model does.

I'm tempted to keep going on drawing models from photo, but I really should get started on the tattoo ... I've got some ref collected. It'll involve smoke and crows wrapping around the guys arm, so laying out the drawing is a challenge. I'm trying to think of how to arrange things so they'll wrap around the muscles properly and still have room to fit everything in there.

I'm also working on writing a large story setting that I hope to turn into videogames and short films, but that project is fairly daunting at times. My theory is "bite off more than you can chew, then chew it" and it's worked so far. Every project I set for myself for the past three years has been outside of my abilities, but they've come together with some success.

The drawing "vancity" was the first jump. Went crazy finishing that thing on time. Was never quite happy with the amount of detail though, I just hit a wall of being unable to make lines tiny enough. I'd like to attempt a larger version of such a drawing, like a square meter sized canvas of the whole planet in that type of warped perspective, with caricatured cities, military battles, nukes, space stations and the moon. I've done some rough stuff on this idea, but abandoned it in favor of writing the story of that world.

Been writing a lot lately. So far I've got about thirty pages of material for this world setting, dubbed "Project Dystopia" for the time being. If I keep going at this rate, in four months I hope to have the whole timeline done, along with written planning for the first game or two to be set in this world (XBLA titles hopefully), then I'll be able to start designing and drawing everything. Archetecture, airplanes, ships, tanks, vehicles of all kinds, guns, armor, space ships, bunkers, costume design, everything. This base of writing will give me a platform for every type of design imaginable, so as I learn painting and such, I can base all my project on one growing idea. Hopefully within two years I'll have enough stuff down on paper that I'll be able to make a real game pitch to some big studios.

If that doesn't work, I'm considering a more independent rout. There are now a handful of distribution methods that could allow me to circumvent the traditional publishing methods, opting for pure digital distribution has worked for plenty of games on XBLA, the Playstation Network, and Steam, and Sony is turning the PSP into a purely online platform, hopefully the DS will move in the same direction.

I've played several digital distribution titles and been blown away. Geometry wars, Trials HD, Braid, Super Puzzle Fighter 2 HD, Castle Crashers, Flow, Flower, TF2, Battlefield 1943 ...

Digital distribution is an amazing thing. It looks like games are becomeing more and more accessable to the artist, with more options to get the product out there. We still rely on beurocracy to some degree, and always will. Call me misty eyed, but I feel we're truly in an age of artistic reneisance like no other. For the first time artists can collaborate across the globe instantly, share our work with millions instantly, gather reference of all types instantly, it's fucking beautiful!

Combined with the introduction of gaming as an interactive art platform (Flower, Braid, Pixeljunk Eden) and you've got a truly amazing time to be an artist. There are more artists alive now than ever before in history, we have generations of inspiration and instruction available practically for free, magic boxes of silicon capable of creating CG graphics that would have burned the retinas out of previous generations, and screens capable of displaying color that is impossible to achieve with natural materials ....

okay I should stop geeking out and get to work on something!

The revolution is happening all around us, I just hope my generation isn't so spoiled and jaded as to let such opportunity slip through our fingers

okay so I'm not shutting this page down yet.

Doing another flush of my gallery. Deleting old crappy stuff, uploading new awesome stuff.

consider this account inactive. I have little to no intention of uploading anything else.

I'm now attending Think Tank Training Center in North Van, I'm studying all manner of 3D art. Modeling, lighting, rigging, animation, matt painting, and a bunch of other stuff. With a little luck, I'll be working at EA a year from now.

Cheers,

Zeke

It's starting to look like my classes won't get fixed. I may actually have to drop out of my animation classes two weeks so I don't miss any of the Game Art stuff.

Dammit.

There's a very headed debate occuring in the gaming world this week. A highly anticipated game, Manhunt 2, which was to be released in a matter of weeks, has now been delayed to a "to be announced" date due to the massive amount of violence and gore it contains.

Originally to be released July 10th on the PS2, PSP and Wii, Manhunt 2 lets you play as a scientist who awakens on a operating table with a dead body on top of him and a bloody needle sticking out of his arm. You must then murder your way out of the grotesque asylum filled with tortured men who have been experimental subjects of "The Project", an illegally operated weapons research team.

Gameplay mechanics on the Wii are particularly violent, as the Wii's motion tracking controllers mean that you will be making the thrusting motion with your arms as your on-screen character stabs broken bottles into his victims necks, or make the sawing motion as you character uses a hack saw to disembowel his enemies. Attacks using stealth can even be "charged up" to increase their deadly accuracy and gory execution.

Upon reviewing the game, the ESRB dubbed the game "Adults only" due not only to the violence, but to the handful of sex scenes within the game as well. The problem with this rating is that both Sony and Nintendo have a longstanding policy not to allow AO games on their platforms.

This left Rockstar in a tough position. Do they simply cancel the game and cut their losses? Or do they take it back into development, and release it at a later date in a watered down, "Mature" rating form?

Rockstar opted for the latter of the two options, which has lead to an uproar in online gaming communities.

The gamers feel that they are being censored needlessly, pointing out the levels of sex and violence in other mainstream medias such as movies like the Saw series. All three of the Saw movies contain the same type of violence, yet none of them warranted an Adults Only rating, why should this game be any different?




I would argue that there is a massive difference.


Now I am a strong believer in the right to express oneself. If you are offended or disgusted by the amount of gore in this game, don't play it! Parents have a responsibility to monitor and regulate their own children's media consumption, so don't give me that "think of the children" crap.

Despite the fact that I don't believe in rampant censorship, I agree with the actions taken by Nintendo and Sony in disallowing the game on their platforms. These companies have their reputation to consider. Can you honestly picture Nintendo allowing a game like this on their console? This is a company which has built their entire image around the ideals of family entertainment, not gore and violence.

As for the rating itself, I would argue that there is a massive difference between watching a movie where other people are committing horribly violent acts, and playing a game where you are doing these acts yourself. The psychological difference between passively watching violent acts played out by actors in a film, and actively participating in an interactive simulation of said violence is massive, and the ESRB was right to rate this game Adults Only.



But I think the problem is rooted else ware, in the ethics of game violence.



First allow me to point out that violence is very different from gore when it comes to gaming.

I've played dozens and dozens of "violent" games. In fact, near every game I own is violent. In Ratchet and Clank you are given an arsenal of deadly weapons with which to dispose your enemies. In Viewtiful Joe you punch and kick your way through many levels of enemies. In Super Smash Bros you clobber the daylights out of Nintendo's most recognizable faces. In Dynasty Warriors you take control of a mighty Chinese warrior and kill hundreds of men per stage.

Consider the amount of violence in these games.

Now take into consideration that in none of these games is there any blood whatsoever. None. As massively violent as these games are when looked at analytically, they are absolutely gore free.

It's also notable that none of these games rank higher than the "Teen" rating by the ESRB.


These are all great games made by some very talented people who understand that you don't need to include blood in a game to make it good.

When it gets down to it, that's the key word isn't it? Blood.

Take, for example, Company of Heroes. An amazingly innovative, beautiful, and fun to play WWII real time strategy game. In CoH you take control of the Able company as they fight their way towards Germany in the Allies most powerful assault. Every battle you fight in this game is real. Every weapon you use existed in the war. This game allows you to play through history, giving people a chance to witness first hand the horrible consequences of war.

And yet, there's no blood. Despite the thousands of casualties you witness, the piles of dead bodies you see, there's no blood to be found.

The problem with Manhunt 2 isn't so much the violence, but the blood and gore. Instead of being a graphical detail used to elevate the gameplay by making it realistic, Manhunt 2 uses the blood and gore as a core attraction to the game.

Now that's not to say that no game should ever have blood in it. Look at Gears of War. An incredible game released last fall in which you are a soldier in the last human offensive against and invasion of insectoid humans known as the Locusts. Blood is everywhere in this game. You can use the chainsaw bayonet on the end of your gun to saw your opponents in half, which results in a spectacular splatter of blood which will actually hit the camera and drip off. When you critically wound an opponent in multiplayer, you have to run up and finish them off by curbstomping their skull into the pavement.

Yet the blood is not the main attraction of GoW. It's the gameplay.

Blood and gore in videogams should never be used as a selling point.

Gameplay is the key. In the end, it should just be fun.

-Zeke-