The Summer Time Animation Domination

It's summer time in Seattle and I have a great new idea: I'm going to spend it in doors creating animations. Just kidding... well, partially kidding. The past two weekends I created new animations and I already have another idea for a third which I will work on THIS weekend. So unless something irresistible comes up, I'll just keep making them on a weekly basis. Today I'll show you two that I have done so far, and go into the details of the second one. (I make another blog to talk about the first animation, but since I just completed the second animation I'm more excited to talk about that.)
 

Ok!! So I was sitting there one day thinking about my portfolio and that I really needed several animations made purely in After Effects. So I was brainstorming about a good animation that uses a lot of layers and has a bunch of moving parts when I had the idea to create an animation to simulate the inside of a clock. Now when you watch it obviously isn't designed from the blueprints of an actual clock, but it does have several key elements: A) an enclosed environment, B) moving gears, and C) the shadow of a clock face. 

A) This effect was created by importing a wood texture that I found online. I tried to find the most evenly lighted picture so that all the edges were the same brightness and there wasn't a repeating hot spot on each wall. After I imported the picture I turned it into a 3D layer, changed the rotation to create the floor, duplicated it, changed the rotation again to turn it into a wall, and repeated the process till I had my little wooden room. Doing this created a feeling of being in a space (or hopefully being in a clock).

B) The moving gears were also found online in one illustrator file that someone put up for others to use. I went through and picked the gears I liked, then precomposed them. I brought them all in individually and placed them within the clock compositon. For the rotation animation I Alt+Clicked on the Z rotation and added the expression "time*X." Then I would duplicate the gears line up the teeth and change duplicate's expression to "time*-X" so that they would rotate in the opposite direction.

C) The Shadow of the clock face was pretty straight forward. I imported a png file of the clock face (thus preserving it's transparency) and put it into my comp. Then I turned it into a 3D layer and placed it behind the camera. Then I created a spotlight and placed it behind the clock face and pointed it at the rear wall. Then I opened the clock face's Transform Properties and enabled "Cast Shadows." Viola! Instant shadow!

After I created the animation, I found some simple sound effects on Youtube and laid them on the track in Final Cut Pro. Finally I put the animation on repeat.  And that's that! I will admit that I am not 100% happy with the lighting in the scene, but it lighting is not an area that I have worked a lot in yet, so maybe that will be my next project!.

Captain America Teaser Trailer

My favorite character in the Marvel Universe has to be Captain America. He may not have the strongest super-powers, but he makes up for it with his stoicism, tactical insight, and golden moral compass. And earlier this week, I made a video homage to Cap that can be found right below. Underneath that I break down how I made the video.

The first step in making this video was shot planning. I broke down everything I needed into eight unique shots: two close up pans of Cap in ice, a long "reveal" shot of cap in ice, one close up of his hand moving, a shot of Cap spinning/throwing shield, one of him riding his motorcycle, Cap running, and finally the "movie poster" shot for the title at the end. Each one of these shots were taken with my Nikon D5100, processed through After Effects (except for the two close up pans which were never processed), and finally exported and edited in Final Cut Pro.

Before I started filming, I really wanted to make sure that my animations looked smooth. So I took my camera and did some test footage of me spinning around in circles and also rotatin
g my hand. Then I counted how many frames it took me to spin around in a complete circle so I knew I how many I had to do to recreate it. Then once I had all of my footage, I had to compile the individual photos into a .mov file. I have found the easiest way to do this is to import and layout all the photos in iMovie, then re-time that file in either AE or FCP.

I did a lion share of the work for this video in After Effects. All of the stop animation (and the motorcycle) shots were filmed in front a green screen, which I then replaced with a vignetted background that I made in Photoshop. The hand moving shot also presented a problem because the subject moved a lot during the filming, so the image jumped all over the frame. I used the image stabilizing function in AE which really helped keep the image still. For the motorcycle shot, I made the front wheel blur and put some lens flares on the headlights. Also, if you watch the running shot closely you can see that the head of Cap is actually pasted on top of a headless body! The final step in AE was to add some vignettes on the reveal shot as well as the hand moving shot to keep the dark aesthetic consistent.

In Final Cut, I imported all of my files and laid out a rough cut of the sequence. This involved re-timing some of the footage, trying out different music, and doing all of my voice overs. Once I had good feel for how long each shot should be I cut and mixed the final music and adjusted the timing of the VOs. My voice recordings are always very soft, so I have had a tough time trying to mix music without dropping the overall volume of the piece. BUT figuring out the best solution to that problem is just part of the fun. I'm constantly messing with settings, Googling something, and learning new tricks.

Cosplay Spotlight: Beast!

Hey all! It has been quite a while since I posted, but it is time to reveal what I have been working on for so long! Here is a video spotlight and breakdown of the Cosplay my friend Lauren McLaren and I made for Emerald City Comicon.

After 5 months of work, we made this Uncanny costume of everybody's favorite blue-haired X-Men, Beast! We debuted it at Emerald City Comicon, which was WAY bigger than last year's event. I would guess somewhere around twice the amount of people, which really blew me away. Better yet out of all the contestants for this year's costume contest, I got 3rd place in the Marvel category! What made it better is that Yaya Han (a famous professional cosplayer) was one of the judges!

It was a very successful event and I wanted to create a video to break down the individual pieces that make up this costume. The video is made up of three different elements: live action footage of the costume shot against a green screen, piece-by-piece break down snippets, and a motion background with particle effects.

Re-shot Footage

Original Footage

The live action footage of the costume was originally shot horizontal, but the footage ended up being too dark and it pixelated horribly whenever I zoomed in. So I reshot the video, moving the camera closer and turning it vertical so that the subject took up much more space in the frame. It turned out much better and allowed me to zoom in with pretty good results. As I previously stated, the original footage was also too dark which gave me a lot of problems whenever I tried to key out all of the green. The reshot video had much better lighting and didn't give any trouble in the keying process. Lighting is very tricky with green screens.

The snippets (and the live action footage) were shot using a Nikon D5100 against a nice dark red curtain and my friend Lauren McLaren played the role of Vanna White.

A majority of the project was done in Adobe After Effects, which I am currently learning how to use (though there is so much to the program, I will probably never stop learning new aspects of it). I created the yellow and blue X background out of several layers with a mask on the yellow layer to cut away chunks and give it the X shape. Then I used two particle generators and stretched them from corner to corner to get the little yellow streaks to fly by each other. After I did all that, it was a little too bright so slapped a transparent grey layer over the top of them to dull all the colors. This helped the costume pop from the background.

Once I had all of the footage, I keyed out all of the green from the live action video, turned it vertical, then scaled down the image. I also created a virtual camera within the project so that I could zoom around the live action footage. After I figured out where I wanted to zoom in I brought in the scaled-down snippets and positioned them relative to their respective pieces. Then I made all of the different media layers into 3D layers so that I could move some forward and retreat others to give the video a feeling of depth. When all of that was done, I imported the finished After Effects footage into Final Cut Pro, where I mixed all the audio and added a fade-to-black.

This was a really fun video to make and I hope you all enjoy it! I have plans to make more videos like this one in the future to spotlight all the other fun costumes that Lauren and I have created.

DIY Resin Mold Skulls

This weekend Lauren and I did our first experiment with polyester resin casting. She is making skulls for a Mystique costume belt and I made a video to share the experience with other costumers who are interested in using casting resin to make their costumes.

We bought a 32 oz container of casting resin and a small container of catalyst from the craft store and used a cookie mold to get it into the skull shape. Each skull uses approximately one ounce of resin and takes about 24 hours to cure. They are easy to make, they are lightweight and durable, and they look great.

Check out the video for the details!

Spooky Stop Motion

Happy Halloween! This was my first time doing an animation outside with lighting that changed as I went. There are some things I would do differently but I'm not unhappy with the results. More details on how I did it are below:

I shot with this with my new Nikon D5100 that I got about month ago. We were camping on the Oregon coast and I figured this would make for a great project to do while the sun went down. The shoot took roughly an hour and is composed of around 250 separate photos. Because the sun was going down, we (my girlfriend Lauren and I) couldn't go back and reshoot anything. So there are lots of things I would like to do differently if I were to do it again. As far as post production, this is the first time that I actually took stills instead of just going through and pulling freeze frames from footage. I finally figured out that by importing everything into iPhoto I could easily set all the pictures in order and touch them up as needed. After that I loaded the photos into iMovie and laid them all out in the timeline at a 10th a second a piece and saved the movie as a QT file. THEN I loaded that QT file into Avid where I did my precision editing and added music. The music is from the Sorcerer and the Apprentice. Enjoy!

Suggested Viewings: British Cinema

All of you aspiring film aficionados have probably thought to yourself, "I want to expand my understanding of the cinematic medium by watching foreign films." Shortly after you doubtlessly remembered that the reason you don't is because you don't like reading subtitles. Many people have told me that the reason that they don't like to watch foreign movies is because they don't want to read subtitles. Personally, they don't bother me in the slightest, but I can see where people are coming from. So, in light of the Queen's Diamond Jubilee I have pulled two British action movies for your viewing pleasure. This way you can explore foreign cinema without the alienating foreign language! It's a nice way to ease yourself into exploring films from beyond our borders.
The following movies are also tied together with two common themes: They are all directed by Guy Ritchie and star Jason Statham. So you know they're going to be awesome.

 Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels (1998)
When a group of no-bodies get cheated in a high-stakes card game they end up half a million pounds (that's British money) in debt with only a week to pay it back. Guy Ritchie movies always have a lot of great action and comedy. They characters, situations, and dialogue will get at least a few chuckles out of you. Lots of gangsters, guns, and f-bombs in this little gem.

Snatch (2000)

Jason Statham, yet again, finds himself being chased by gangsters in one of my favorite action movies. Brad Pitt plays a bare-knuckle boxing gypsy that gets two boxing promoters in trouble with the bookmakers. This one has a great cast and a truly chaotic (yet manageable) story line. If you're looking for witty comedy, bad-ass dialogue, and pig farmers, this is the one for you.

Guy Ritchie has also made another movie that is similar to the above called Revolver which was released in 2005 in the UK and 2007 in the US. I personally do not believe it is quite good enough to suggest everyone to go watch it, but if you really liked the first two you'll probably like this one as well.

Discussions with Devs: Beatrice the Biologist on Amoeboid

In this episode I sit down with the voice of Katie McKissick, also known as Beatrice the Biologist, to talk about her new game Amoeboid. It's a kind of like Pac-Man on the cellular level.

Check out her blog here, http://www.beatricebiologist.com/.

Suggested Viewings: Eastern Westerns

Genres are very important in marketing films.  For example it is easier to tell someone that the latest Ryan Reynolds' movie is a comedy then it is trying to explain the plot. Why? Because genres are socially accepted conventions that everyone understands. Marketing agencies use genres to sell stories that no one has ever heard of. A lot people will go see a romance movie, not because they know the story but because they like the genre.  There are many films out there that cross over between a single genre, like romantic comedies or sci-fi horror.  But there are many more genres that are not quite as popular. One of my favorite genre mash ups would have to be Eastern Westerns. Most American audiences are familiar with the western genre. Lots of cowboys, dusty towns, and gun fights. Those same audiences may not be familiar with Samurai movies which are very similar in nature. A lone character with an inability to fit into society ends up floating from town to town looking for adventure (and violence).  The following three films are filled with swords, guns, samurai, cowboys and dust. Lots of dust.

Sukiyaki Western Django (2007) (Japanese with subtitles)

This movie was made by the cult Japanese director, Takashi Miike. Director Quentin Tarantino also guest stars in the film, doubtlessly having some input in some aspects. In the film, a town is caught in a war between two rival gangs and only a strange nameless hero can help put the bloodshed to an end and save the town.  It's a bloody film with lots of guts and steel flying through the air. If you like westerns and aren't afraid of blood, you'll like it. 

Bunraku (2010) (English)

Another big aspect of eastern action movies is martial arts. Directed by Guy Moshe, Bunraku has this in excess. Instead of a lone hero this movie has two, one from each genre. When a cowboy (Josh Hartnett) and a samurai (Gackt) find themselves in a post-apocalyptic town run by a crazy killer (Ron Perlman), it takes an enigmatic barkeep (Woody Harrelson) to lead them down the right path. The movie is highly stylized around the Japanese art of shadow puppets which makes for a really cool intro.

The Good, the Bad, the Weird (2008) (Korean with subtitles)

This genre blending comedy comes from South Korea and was inspired by Sergio Leone's The Good, the Bad, the Ugly (1966). It shares a similar story where three men try to beat each other to a hidden treasure. The character dynamics are not quite the same for example the Good character (played by Clint Eastwood in the original film) is a bounty hunter and not nearly as intriguing and mysterious as the original Blondie. But the Bad guy is just as Bad and the Weird is just as Ugly.

Suggested Viewings: Animated Marvel Adventures!

Welcome to the first installment of my new weekly series, Suggested Viewings.  When I was in film school we were given suggested viewings to go with our lessons.  I've decided to put this method to good use and help people explore film.  Since I do most of my movie watching on Netflix, all of the films I'll be referring to can be found on Netflix Instant.

Since I'm still on a pretty big superhero kick from the The Avengers movie, I'll be talking about animated Marvel cartoons.  Animated shows and movies are great because they can get away with things that live action movies cannot.  For example, it is extremely difficult to get CG special effects to look realistic enough for people to suspend their disbelief. However, cartoons do not have this problem because they are not realistic to begin with.  And once you buy into the following cartoons it will be hard for you to pull yourself out.








Black Panther: The Animated Series (2009)
Back in 2008 BET teamed up with Marvel Knights to create an animated comic series for TV that was released in 2009 and debut on television in the US in November 2011.  The series is based around the origin of the Black Panther who is the king of the reclusive nation of Wakanda in Africa. Out of all the animated comic book series that Marvel Knights has released, I think that this one is the best. It's a good series and with rumors of Black Panther getting his own movie, it's a good way to get associated with the character.

The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes (2010-Present)

If you liked The Avengers movie then you may also want to check out this cartoon. It was made for Disney's Toon XD channel and originally debuted in the fall of 2010. It has all of the characters from the movie and a few more (Black Panther, Wasp, and Ant Man). This show has great animation, voice acting, episodic continuity, and story lines that are complex enough to be enjoyed by an older audience. It's a well rounded show in its own right and with an extensive line-up of characters from the Marvel universe.  I would recommend it to anyone who can't get enough Marvel exposure.

Next Avengers: Heroes of Tomorrow (2008)

I watched this movie in the build up to The Avengers movie.  It takes place in an alternate universe where Ultron (a sentient robot created by Hank Pym) has conquered the world and killed most of the original Avengers. However, the super-team's children were saved by Tony Stark and trained from an early age in hopes that they will be able to defeat Ultron. I had a lot of laughs watching this and would recommend it based solely on the voice acting performances of the kids.

Hulk Vs. (2009)

Most of the time our favorite heroes are fighting on the same side but Marvel also likes to pit them against each other from time to time.  This animated feature doesn't have much in the way of a story line but it sure is  a lot of fun to see the Hulk fight Thor and Wolverine. If you just want to see some all-star fighting then this one is for you.

Choreography v Fast Cuts: Why The Avengers Was So Refreshing

This weekend I saw The Avengers and it was awesome.  And beyond the geek pandering and cheap laughs, it had some really impressive elements including the best filmed action sequences that I’ve seen in a very long time.  


A lot of modern day action scenes skip long choreographed shots and use fast paced editing of brief, tightly framed shots.  For example, in a scene where a waiter drops a cup of tea and a ninja catches it before it hits the floor, all of the action could fit into one frame/shot without the camera cutting or moving.  But the excitement of this scene could be enhanced by breaking all of the smaller actions into separate close ups:   A foot slips.  The ninja notices.  The cup falls off the tray.  A hand jets out.  The waitress’ shocked face.  The hand catching the cup.  The cup returning to the tray.  The ninja sitting back down.   This technique adds to the excitement of the moment by bombarding the audience with close ups that literally make the action bigger and faster.  While there is no fundamental problem with this, I happen to believe this fast cutting technique is over used and often disorienting.  I think a lot of filmmakers feel a need to pump up their scenes with fast cuts even if it doesn't need it.  I remember asking myself, “is it necessary to play up the action in a scene where two giant robots are fighting and crashing into a highway overpass?  Is that not exciting enough?”  


Another reason people use this technique is to add confusion and disorient the audience.  If you had to film a bar fight and wanted to portray the chaos of the scene, you could use the fast cutting technique by showing a stream of images of bar patrons bludgeoning, punching, kicking, swearing, puking, and screaming in rapid succession.  You could convey the confusion of the fight by overwhelming the audience with imagery.  While I understand why a filmmaker would choose to do this in a bar fight, I can't understand why a filmmaker would use this disorienting fast cutting technique to show people gathering in a dilapidated town square for a reaping.


**I will also take the time to make this plea: Filmmakers, DO NOT USE FAST CUTS IN 3-D!!!  We can barely sit through a two+ hour film with 3-D glasses on, please do not tax our senses with your wily edits!


By now you can understand my apprehension when I got tickets to go see The Avengers in 3-D Imax.  Yet, the unbearable and disorienting fast cuts never came.  Instead, during the middle of the New York fight scene I was delighted by a long cut that focused on and then moved seamlessly from one fighting Avenger to another.  By choosing to not use the tired ol' crutch of fast cuts, Joss Whedon had created a beautifully choreographed scene that was both action-packed and coherent.  I was actually allowed to look at the whole battlefield and admire the action instead of having my face pushed into every hammer blow and repulsor blast.  


This specific long shot was both awesome and iconic, and I will bet good money that if you saw The Avengers you know exactly what shot I'm talking about.  I hope that other filmmakers out there noticed it too.  It's time they stopped hiding behind fast-cuts and learn how to actually choreograph a scene.  




Further Viewings: If what I said resonated with you at all and you would like to see well choreographed action movies I suggest Ong-bak: The Thai Warrior (2003) or one of Jackie Chan's earlier films from the 90s.  These can be found on Netflix.

Discussions with Devs: Magic Pixel Games

The second of episode of Discussions with Devs has arrived!  It can now officially be called a series.  Today, I sit down with Holden Link from Magic Pixel Games.  It was founded back in 2010 by several game industry veterans with a mission for fun.  Holden and I talk about how the studio was founded, their latest game Carnival Island, and developing games for motion control platforms.  Enjoy!

As always, if you have any suggestions for future episodes then comment below or email me at ryanjsuter@gmail.com  And thanks!

Comic Review: AvX #1 and the Marvel AR app

I want you to do something.  Get out your smartphone or tablet computer and download the Marvel AR app (it's available on iOS and Android).  Now open the app, make sure your sound is on, and point it at the AvX cover and watch the magic.

On April 3rd the first Avengers versus X-Men came out.  I'm pretty excited about the series because Captain America is my favorite super hero and the X-Men is my favorite super team.  It is going to have some very awesome match-ups for sure.  In this story arc, the destructive Phoenix Force is rocketing toward Earth and people are starting to freak out.  It's coming to Earth to embody the newest mutant, Hope, as its host and everyone knows it.  The Avengers are trying to stop the coming of the Phoenix Force and have some sort of plan that involves taking Hope from the X-Men.  However, Scott Summers (Cyclops) is the leader of the X-Men and is refusing to give Hope over to the Avengers.  Scott knows that the Phoenix Force can be very destructive, but he also knows that whenever it destroys something it leaves behind a rebirth of new life.  He believes that the Phoenix will restore the mutants that were lost when Scarlet Witch changed reality back in the House of M story arc by changing all but 200 mutants into regular people.

It is understandable that both parties are conflicted as to what to do, but I have to admit that I am disappointed in my favorite heroes' problem solving/conflict resolution skills.  You would think that they could all work together to figure out a solution, but I guess they used up all of their teamwork skills in Fear Itself.  Then again, comics wouldn't be very interesting if there wasn't any fighting.

AvX #1 is a great read. The cliff hangar at the end has me pumped for #2 which comes out this Wednesday.  And while I'm excited to see where the story goes, I'm more excited to explore its integration of the Marvel AR (augmented reality) app.  If you didn't/couldn't try it out here's what you missed:  the app uses your camera and you point it at the page/pane that has the AR logo in the corner and watch as it brings the page to life.  The front cover of AvX #1 has animations and video that serve as a trailer for what's inside.  It's so cool.  Then on the title page inside, Marvel Editor in Chief, Alex Alonso, walks onto the screen to tell you about the series and the AR function.

The app is a little finicky but overall it adds a whole new dimension to enjoying the book.  I like comics, but my biggest complaint is that they are so short I'm always left wanting more.  So with all new content I got a lot more out of AvX #1 then I have with any other comic.  The best part is that the technology is brand new, so it will only get more sophisticated with time.  I can't wait for this Wednesday.

Discussions with Devs: Tarver Games

It's done!  Below is the first installment of Discussions with Devs, your guide on the awesome journey through the Indie dev community.  In the show, I talk to Chris Cross from Tarver Games in Long Beach, CA about his current project Cold War 2.0, working in Unity 3D, and his blog (jimtarver.blogspot.com).

Enjoy!

A big thanks to Chris for working with me and being my guinea pig on this project.

This is a shortened version of the interview.  I will post the full version at a later time.

ECCC Part 3: The "least colossal Colossus ever"

Costumes

Kitty Pryde (Lauren McLaren)
 and Colossus (Me)

Our morning started around 8 am.  We woke up and started getting into our costumes by 9 am.  I previously posted about our costumes for the event.  My girlfriend went as Kitty Pryde and I went as Colossus.  (If you follow the comics, you may be aware that Kitty and Colossus recently broke up after Colossus took on the Bands of Cytorrak to help the Xmen stop the Juggernaut from destroying San Francisco in the Fear Itself story arc, but we went as a couple anyway.)  It took about an hour to finish my makeup and we finally got to the con at about 10:30 am.

Galactus and Silver Surfer

We had expected to turn some heads, but neither of us were prepared for the amount of attention we received.  Before we could get our passes and get into the event, we were swarmed by people wanting to take pictures with us.  We didn't even make it into the first panel because we stopped for so many pictures.  The coolest thing about dressing up was how excited people got. "You two are my favorite couple!" was a phrase we heard a lot.  We even got tweeted by a CB Cebulski from Marvel.  And on one blog that had a photo gallery of the cosplayers, I found my favorite quote: "That is the least colossal Colossus ever."

Falcon!

The coolest costumes that we saw at the event were Galactus (Marvel Comics), Falcon (Marvel Comics), and Bender (Futurama).  We got an opportunity to chat with Galactus when we all got stuck in an impromptu Marvel photo session.  He had made the entire suit himself, including the helmet.  His wife sewed all the fabric and he made all the hard plastic pieces from fiberglass, resin, balsa wood, and foam.  As you can see in the picture it was amazing.  The Falcon outfit was awesome too.  He even had wings that folded out to wow the crowds.  But the best (and most annoying) thing about that guy was the he was tall, buff, and handsome like a super hero.  People like that ruin the curve for average people like myself.  Finally, there was the Bender costume.  It looked great, but the best part were all the accessories that they had for it: different eyes, a mouth with a cigar, and a tutu.

Overall, the experience was amazing.  My GF and I had fun making the costumes, I learned a whole lot about the comic industry, and met some really cool and creative people.  We're already looking forward to next year.  Got any good ideas for a costume?!

ECCC Part 2: Panels

Panels

The panels started at the top of each hour and were supposed to run for 50 minutes or so, but a lot of them ran over which screwed up the schedule.  And because many of the panelists were booked at back-to-back panels, they sometimes showed up late.  I think the whole show could have benefitted from running the panels on tighter schedule.  But regardless of that, all the panels we attended were fun and educational.  The first panel we went to we missed because it filled up before we could get there.  After that we learned to show up early.

The second panel was How to Edit Comics.  I've done film/tv editing and I know the role of a literary editor, but I didn't know the first thing of what it takes to edit a comic book.  Turns out the editor is like a ringmaster at a circus, coordinating between all the different artists (pencilers, inkers, colorists, etc.) to make sure that the book hits all its deadlines.

The third panel was Pint O' CB where fans got to ask any questions they had for Marvel Comics' Senior Vice President of Creative and Creator Development, C.B. Cebulski.  Since this was a Marvel panel and we were dressed as Kitty and Colossus, I decided to go up and ask a question in character.  The panel didn't release any groundbreaking news, but it was fun and we all had a some good laughs.

The fourth panel was Starting a Successful Kickstarter.  Kickstarter is a website where people can raise funding for their projects.  It was a very informative panel and I encourage any creative types with a good idea to go take a look.

The fifth panel was Oh My, It's George Takei.  This panel was held in a huge hall with probably a thousand seats.  We lined up 30 minutes early and still had to wait to get in because so many people had stayed in the hall after the previous panel.  It was worth the wait.  George Takei is very funny and he had the whole audience going with all of his funny stories.  However, the moderator was Danny Bonaduce.  He got a few laughs out of me, but I mostly just thought he was an ass.

The final panel we went to was the Star Wars Radio Play and it was my favorite.  The panel consisted of famous voice actors from Futurama, Pinky and the Brain, Finding Nemo, Teen Titans, etc.  Billy West, Tara Strong, Maurice LaMarche, John DiMaggio, Kevin Conroy, Jess Harnell, and Rob Paulsen did a reading of New Hope while there were randomly assigned different voices by the moderator.  My favorite combo was Futurama's Bender as Princess Leia performed by John DiMaggio and Power Puff Girls' Bubbles as Darth Vader performed by Tara Strong.  I love doing impersonations and voices, so I was enthralled and inspired by the talent on stage.

The panels were all very interesting and entertaining.  We would have liked to have gone to more, but we were also busy showing off our costumes.  Come back tomorrow and I'll tell you all about it.

ECCC Part 1: The Booths

After months of planning, yesterday my girlfriend and I went to the Emerald City Comicon.  In short, it was amazing!  It took over the whole convention center and spanned four floors.  The panels were hosted in rooms on all the levels, but the comic-centered booths were only on the fourth floor and the gaming booths were on the first floor.  There was a huge crowd of people (many of whom dressed in cosplay) from all ages and areas of interest, which made for a really fun atmosphere.  The show ran from Friday to Sunday, but we only went for Saturday.  There is so much to say about the con, so over the next few days I'll break it into three easy to chew pieces: the booths, the panels, and of course the costumes.

Booths
The fourth floor was the main floor where they had a huge hall set up with lots of booths.  There were booths of artists, shops, and organizations.  When most people think of comic books they picture super heros like Batman (DC Comics) or Spiderman (Marvel Comics), but there is a vast world of comic books that cover all kinds of genres.  There were little kid comics, historical comics, graphic novels, LGBT comics, web comics and more.  Comics are a great artistic way to explore a lot of rich worlds.  We had a fun time just going around and looking at all the variety.

On the first floor they set up all the gaming booths.  There were card games, an arcade, a Guitar Hero contest, and demos of the latest Star Wars game for the Kinect.  They had a really cool R2D2 Xbox with a C3P0 controller.  The gaming section booths looked great and had a lot of stuff, but since the area was pretty small it was packed with people.

The artist booths were my favorite.  Their artwork covered original material as well as personal takes on well known subjects like super heroes or television shows.  The artwork was not just limited to drawings; there was a lot of comic-inspired figurines, crafts, and jewelry.  Many of the artists were there doing sketches at their booths.  It was cool to see the artistic process first hand.  And since most comic book artists are freelance the show is a great way for them to get fans and find work.

There were also a lot of shops set up with really cheap comic book deals, toys, tshirts, etc. but we didn't bring any extra money for shopping.

The booths were interesting, but it was hard to get a good look at them since we were in costume and everyone was stopping us to take pictures (including the people running the booths).  We mostly just used walking around the booths as a time filler while we waited for tomorrow's subject: panels.

Family

When people are born they are dealt a certain hand of cards. I was dealt a particularly good hand.  One of those cards was having a very loving family.  I was always supported in whatever pursuit I chose.  Sports, music, education, etc. When I moved to California for school, I had some relatives from my mom's side of the family to help look out for me.  My aunt, uncle, and cousins made me feel at home.  I also had my friends from my school.  I never missed out on the family atmosphere even though I moved 2000 miles away from where I was born.
When I was laid off from THQ and decided to move to Washington, I had a much smaller friend circle and no blood relatives around.  I was fortunate enough to have my girlfriend's family take me in; I will always owe them for the generosity they have shown me.  But I will be candid with the fact that I was unsure of my future in the area.  Not having a job began to weigh heavily on me and I unconsciously put up emotional walls to protect myself just in case things did not work out and I had move away.  I started to think the encouragement I was receiving from my local companions was to mostly protect themselves from me freeloading off of their generosity.  I was still in contact with my immediate family, but without face to face contact, their sincere encouragement only went so far.
Today, I got a job.  It's not in the game industry like I had hoped but it is a good job and I am more than happy to have it.  The outpouring from my family was one of relief and excitement.  They worry about me being so far away and now they have the piece of mind that I am gonna be alright.  My kin's reaction was not altogether surprising to me.  However, the affection from my Seattle coherts was.  Their excitement was abundant and genuine.  I realized today that my emotional barriers had blurred my perception of their concern.  They were not merely worried about how I might affect them, but they were truly concerned about my well being, my future, and my happiness.  Just like my family back home.
I was under the impression that I made the move to Washington where I didn't have any family.  I am happy to admit that I was wrong.

Exploring Washington: Count down to ECC

Last fall, long before I moved to Seattle, my girlfriend, Lauren, and I decided we wanted to go to the Emerald City Comicon in full Cosplay outfits.  I was onboard from the get-go.  My girlfriend was the first to decide on a character. She called me one day and was very excited to tell me she had decided on Kitty Pride from the X-Men (she is the girl that can walk through walls).  I laughed at her and asked why she picked an xmen from the b-list and she had a simple answer: she has red hair. I told her that there was plenty of other way more iconic women from the Marvel Universe with brown hair. But then I started looking and I found out that really isn't. All of the women have jet black, fire red, or bleach blonde hair. And since she didn't want to buy a wig, Kitty was the best choice.
So then I picked Kitty's mutant boyfriend, Colossus (the big Russian guy that turns his skin into liquid metal).  My first thought was how awesome of a character that is for a Cosplay costume.  But then I started to realize just how much work it was going to be. Nonetheless, with ECC this weekend, I am happy to say that Kitty and Colossus will be there and we are very much ready to go.
I encourage you all to go check out the details of the costume making on Lauren's blog: Cosplay Update: Ready for Con

Game Review: Draw Something

Two weeks ago I saw some people playing Draw Something on their iPads.  I downloaded it on my phone and started playing the modern-day Pictionary game for myself.  I've had a lot of fun playing it so I thought I'd write a good review for the world to see.  It's a turn-based social game where players take turns drawing and guessing pictures.  The game revolves around a central mechanic that records your drawing and plays it back to the guesser.  It connects you and your friends through Facebook and is available on iOS and Android platforms.

One of the reasons I really like this game is because it is so accessible to people.  It's really simple, you just pick your prompt then draw your picture.  The game gives you three prompts, an easy, medium, and hard word.  After you pick your prompt you can draw whatever you want to get your point across.  This opens the doors for boundless creativity.  I like seeing the creative side of my friends and family.  I'm not playing with any da Vincis or van Goghs, but it's fun to see everyone's artistic ability no matter what the level.  Though today, I had really hard time figuring out a drawing of what was allegedly a bed.  The best part about playing with friends is using inside jokes in the pictures.  Playing a Twilight drinking game a few weeks ago turned out to be great material for one of my proudest masterpieces.

But the game isn't without it's problems.  The biggest let down is the small amount of words to choose from.  I've had words repeated against the same people in less then ten moves.  One time my friend drew an Ewok and the next turn the hard prompt I got was also Ewok.  I understand that the game makers want people to buy the full version to get more words, but I thought that was just a little ridiculous.  However, this is just a small complaint against an otherwise very fun game.

All in all, I would recommend this game to anyone who has a compatible device.  It's free, it's fun, and any can play it.  So what are you waiting for? Go Draw Something!**


**(I'm more than slightly ashamed for that, but I couldn't help myself.)

Discussions with Devs: The Plan So Far

For a while now, I've been tossing around the idea of doing Skype interviews with Indie game developers.  I've mentioned it to a few people and they all seemed to like the concept.  If you're interested, here are some details about the project:

• The title of the project is called "Discussions with Devs"
• They segments would be 5-10 min video Skype interviews
• We would talk about the studios, what inspires them, how they got into it, and their latest game of course
• The objective is to have fans get to know the developers behind their favorite games, get the developers some free publicity, and offer insight into the Indie community and the future of gaming
• My girlfriend, Lauren McLaren, wrote the theme music

Here is the title intro for the upcoming segment:

  A few weeks ago, I discussed it with Richard Williams, a former coworker of mine from THQ, and he was nice enough to put me in contact with a guy named Chris Wright.  Chris, is starting up a business in Melbourne, Australia called Surprise Attack that does PR and marketing for Indie devs, so he seemed like the perfect person to talk to about my idea.  Yesterday, I chatted with him via Skype and got some very good pointers on working with Indie developers and where to start searching for good studios.  After my talk with Chris, I finally feel prepared to start sending out feelers to potential interviewees.  However, the whole gaming industry is on hold right now due to GDC, so even though I've already heard back from some people they won't have an answer till next week.  But that's OK, cause I still have some issues to iron out.

There are some websites that are doing similar work, including toucharcade.com.  That website follows all the different games and trends in the world of mobile developers.  They even do a weekly podcast that I've been listening to.

All-in-all I'm really excited for this project.  If you have any suggestions for my show, or ideas for potential interviews, post a comment below or email me at ryanjsuter@gmail.com. And thanks!