Left 4 Dead

Despite my initial fears, L4D is still great, and has been eating most of my free moments over the past few months.

The game is survival horror, and you choose one of 4 characters to survive against entertainingly large amounts of zombies. Mixed in there are 4 (also playable) special infected types. You generally play with other people, and usually against other people.

After prepurchasing the game, I was certain the full version would have more variation in it than the demo. More infected types, more survivors, more weapons, more levels. To my dismay, it only had more levels, but I keep playing, and it's still fun.

Fortunately Valve continue to support their games post release, so this game will probably continue to evolve over time, (just as Team Fortress 2 has) maintaining a strong userbase in the meantime.

Claudio Munoz

Fell in love with this illustration in The Economist today. 

There is nice grouping in the heads, in pairs. I love how the expressions blends from being terrified of going down the roller coaster, to sullenly noticing death from behind. And the one squealing like a pig! Meanwhile the background is so playful!  

The artist's name is Claudio Munoz, more gems to be found in his portfolio.

The Thing

John Carpenters The Thing is a cult horror film with a gory charm I had forgotten until recently. I found it particularly interesting for its wild special effects shots with gruesome images of dogs and humans and other creatures being imitated by the Thing, sometimes rather inaccurately.

I was interested to learn that the special effects were mostly handled by a young guy named Rob Bottin, who lived at the studio for the year or so it took to complete the film, subsequently being admitted to hospital... He really loves his job! Stan Winston also helped out with some shots of the dog monster in the kennel, which I felt were less wild and exaggerated (and more spooky) than some of the other parts Bottin handled.

However, without picking each shot apart, it all sums up to a wild ride. You should watch it (again?), unless you're a little squiemish about.. well.. revolting images.

Oh, and word has it that a prequel is in the pipes, involving the events suffered by the Norwegian crew after discovering the alien ship. I suppose it could have some kind of surprise ending involving more aliens... Either way the bar has been set pretty high!

Raptor Run Test

I've been playing around with this giant bird character for a little while. Its basically a velociraptor with a beak, a shorter tail, and longer arms. This animation would be a run that is just before a pounce, so I have the hands out a little; they would otherwise tuck in under the chest.


Raptor Run Test from Joe on Vimeo.

Facelift

I've been away for a little while, having pre-christmas work nightmares, and then post-christmas travels. So, to boost my enthusiasm now that I'm back, I decided to spruce things up around here. Looks better to me!