Horsley's Digital Media Blog

Been having a gander on a few different sites today, and already I've seen some pretty cool stuff.

For example, this:



Yeah, that's a heavily modified Ferrari Enzo by a European tuner by the name of Gemballa. Others have apparently said that the car looks real ugly, but I particularly like the fighter-style bodywork. It is very reminiscent of a high-performance race car, and I'm sure that if someone was crazy enough to go and put this beast into a race, the 700hp V12 in the rear of the car will surely make good work of its competitors, as the bodywork does generate a reasonable amount of downforce. Definitely a car of my dreams.

Been venturing through this site called IdN and found some rather interesting stuff which I shall share with everyone.


First off is this video.



The video is rather powerful, especially with its message. I've always been a bit of a fan of the shadow hand puppets thing, and the seamless animating really appealed to me. Sometimes not using much is a good thing as only silhouettes were used in this film clip, and to a great effect. The shapes made by the hands, especially the birds throughout the clip, really help to convey the message shown in the clip, and the use of irony really helps with conveying said message. Overall I really liked the clip.


Here's a pretty cool image.



The way this was constructed is unreal. I really like the way that the underground complex was carved into the paper stack, and the assortment of accessories that are included un the complex and on the ground above made a good impression of it being occupied. The use of lighting to show depth also came out well. Overall it is a good job, and very creative!

More of the artist's works here


Some visual eye-candy now.

"Star Water Dress" for Mattoni by Velvet from idnworld on Vimeo.

Yep. Some ads really do come out well, and I was very impressed with the overall product. Sure it seems a little risque, but the way that the water dress was made and the interaction between the lifelike dress with the surrounding environment, especially when some people got a bit wet from being splashed, really appealed to me visually as it was was integrated seamlessly. In addition, the water element in the ad ties in very well with the product it is advertising, and now that I think about it, the ideal of spring water being pure is very well conveyed by the fact that the woman doesn't appear to be wearing any undergarments, displaying a 'pure' body of sorts.


This looks 3D.



But it actually isn't. This is a set of toy dolls, albeit a pretty limited set. I rather like this because of several things, and in particular the sharp angles used in the expressions to really convey the agression coming from both dolls. In addition, the bunny suit that the human wears really exaggerates his dark, tough and aggressive attitude. I guess they're already sold out, but that doesn't really matter, I very much like how these two came out, especially the human guy.

More images here


And finally, god damn this video is good.



Okay, so some people might not be into the whole crime/drugs/sex/violence thing, but the visuals, the animation in particular, really appealed to me. Pretty much everything appeals to me in the video, and I got a bit of a chuckle out of it in some scenes of the video. The first time around you feel like you have no idea what the hell is going on, so watching it a second time was a good idea for me as it helped me more closely watch everything that was happening. The dialogue wreaks of mobster, which further got me immersed into the film. Overall, a brilliant animation.

All images are taken inside Forza Motorsport 3's Photomode. No altering in Photoshop or anything like that (although I do plan on giving some of them a touchup), just used the tools inside the Photomode.

Well, it'd be good if we had an unlimited supply of milk, but alas, it's not possible.

So the next alternative is playing the game Get The Glass. The name of the game is pretty simple and self explanatory really, so I'll move straight onto my thoughts about the game.

The board-game style of layout is good, and the way it was designed along with the animations worked out very well, and even the water animation is intricate. The attention to detail overall is good, even if the animations themselves looked a little muddled graphically. The gradual change from day to night is a nice touch as well.

In terms of gameplay, while it seems pretty simplistic at first look, it operates as a board game should. The Mastermind cards are often challenging along with the Hot Pursuit minigames, while the Fortune and Misfortune cards can pretty much make or break your game if the police are close by. I didn't get much of a look at the Milkatraz segment, but the 'Wheel of Fortune' style system had me counting on sheer luck to get me out, and I returned to where I left off prior to being caught. In some parts I was pretty confused as to what to do, but it took me long enough to work things out, especially getting inside Fort Fridge. My only real concern is the emulation of the die when it's being rolled... it seems a bit funky at times and doesn't seem to completely operate like a real die would when being thrown at an obscene speed! Oh well, nothing is necessarily perfect, right?

Sometimes I've found that puzzle + board game combinations don't work out extremely well, but Get The Glass pulls this off while still looking handsome.

They be crazy!

They love Google's camera.

Really though, as I've been going through QBN I've been discovering more and more awesome and interesting things. The variety on the site is a nice touch, and the ordering of topics change with each new comment so it is effectively in real time. I found the interface to be a pain in the ass to work with initially until I had a better look and worked it all out, and now I ended up coming across some rather interesting gardening work:



Seems like the Brits are crazier with F1 than I thought XD

If there's one country where you'll find insane obstical courses, it's Japan.