God of War

My first experience with God of War was when it came out on the Playstation. I got it for a friend of mine for his birthday. I ended up seeing the final boss fight and ending on a random day at his house. I didn't think too much of it because I didn't really have a strong inkling to play it at the time, despite it's amazing reviews. But it practically became the innovator of the Quicktime Event or QE. What a QE basically is, is a predetermined cutscene. It puts the player in a sort of mini game of button presses. Each button the player gets correctly the cinema keeps moving on until it finishes or the player gets it wrong. If the player should get one wrong the cinema will end with the player most likely taking damage.

Skip forward to 2011. So today I have finally beat all three God of War games (no, not all in one day). I was one of the late bloomers to the series and started playing it when the HD versions came out on the PS3. I believe I got the HD collection a month after it came out, and GoW3 sometime after because it was on sale on Amazon.com (God Bless you Amazon).

I started playing GoW1 when I got it, but got stuck and frustrated so it ended up on the back burner for several months. When I finally decided to get back to the game it probably took me 2 and a half weeks to beat all three GoW games.  I'm quite happy the way they turned out. GoW1 in a nutshell is the beginning of Kratos' journey. It provides a background and provides the sole reason for the series to exist. It's also probably the most frustrating of the 3, at least it was for me anyways. GoW2 was more refined and in the end it's a gap filler from GoW1 to GoW3. But it's still a great game in my opinion, Santa Monica Studios really stepped it up. I think I would have been a little salty how it ended if I knew that I couldn't start the next game right after the credits were over. GoW3 is one hell of a great cinematic experience for anyone. The graphics are some of the best on the PS3. The quicktime event's are even more over the top. Huge objects are moving all around you, while the ground your standing on is also moving. It's a spectacle to watch and play. I must say I didn't expect the ending to be that way, but the after credit cutscene was kind of predictable after I saw the ending one.

The influx.

I know I'm like 2 years late but this is what came to mind today. 

Capcom hasn't released a Street Fighter numbered title since 1999 with Street Fighter 3 3rd Strike. Since the inclusion of Street Fighter 4 in the arcades in 2008 and the consoles in 09'. The fighting game genre has made a huge comeback not only in the fighting game community itself but with everyone.

Back when I was a kid in the 90's I was all over Street Fighter 2 all the time. I knew how to do Hadokens, Shoryukens, Sonic Booms, mash buttons haha etc. I would never really know how deep the game would really turn out to be. When I got older I found out about the fighting game tournament scene and the fighting game community. Although I never got physically into it, I did keep an eye on what was going on. Watching whatever video I could find on a 56k dial up modem. When 3d fighters started coming out like Battle Arena Toshinden, Tekken and Soul Edge, I got into those. I pretty much played the Tekkens and the newly named Soul Caliburs til Street fighter 4. With a little bit of the SF: Alpha series, SF3, and the Vs. games here and there.

Not til Street Fighter 4 did my interest really peak, sadly. But I'm happy that I got into fighting games again. But this time I planned to get better then I ever was in any fighter. This time around I would be studying the game and learning the real basics on how to play. Not just play with all special moves and jumping around. Tournaments were still never in the plans and until this day I only participated in 2 small tourneys placing 3rd and 2nd respectively. I did ok, but can't say I'm happy with those preformances.

With the inclusion of Street Fighter 4 came many other games and even more to come. What most people are playing right now is Super Street Fighter 4, including myself. It added 10 more characters, a second ultra combo and balance changes for the whole cast. Other great games have come out in 2010 that have done well. Though I don't play them as much as I do SSF4. I'm waiting for the arcade edition of SSF4 to release it's content to the consoles.

The year 2011 will bring even more fighting games to the consoles as well as the some to the arcades before hand. Two upcoming fighters I can't wait to play are Marvel vs. Capcom 3 and the new Mortal Kombat.

Some other games that are coming out i'm excited for but have TBA release date are, Street Fighter x Tekken, Tekken x Street Fighter, and Tekken Tag Tournament 2. Get hype!

No Way!

Everyone has an opinion or at least should have one. Since the new year has begun I've been seeing a lot of worst movies of 2010 lists out there. Which is great and all. But with The Expendables being one of them?! No way. Don't get me wrong, I am a huge movie fan. Most of my favorites are the movies that make you think. Have great characters and great character development. Great story arcs. Movies that mean something deeper then what you see on screen. But, I was born in the 80's growing up mostly in the 90's. I know my roots. Growing up with the likes of Sly Stone, Schwarzenegger, Dolf Lundgren, Mr. T, all those yolked action stars. They made simple movies about kickin ass and forgettin names. Real simple stories with some "over the top" (see what I did there?) action. And I still love and appreciate those movies. The Expendables brought a feeling of nostalgia. It brought back the 80's with a 20th century flare. I think thats what Stalone was going for. It wasn't one of the best movies of 2010 but definitely not one of the worst.

The Expendables, one of the worst movies of 2010? No way!

Today is a good day.

With the decision to let go of our 49er head coach Mike Singletary, left us all in wonder who was going to be our next coach. I personally wanted Jon Gruden but am very happy with the 9ers choice of Jim Harbaugh, now former coach of Stanford. He has a 5 year deal. Let's see what he can do with our team. Now we just need a new QB...and a lot of other things lol

3D Animation, demo reel.

Ah the Demo Reel. A few pieces of footage can make or break you from getting a job. If you don't know what a demo reel is I will make this as simple as I can. A demo reel is a digital portfolio. But it usually contains video instead of still pictures. They should range from about 1-2 minutes long. Containing the best work in the front to keep the employer engaged in your reel. You don't want to put the worse pieces in the front because they might just decide not to finish your reel. You probably have roughly 30 seconds to show the employer what you have as an artist before they decide your reel is worth finishing or not. I'm talking like I have all this experience getting an art job, when in reality I don't. But I did learn something from college!

I guess this short piece will stay in the front of my demo reel for now. I actually want to make some new stuff to add into here so I can bump this one down one or two spaces. Even this one is very far from perfect. *Sigh*

This piece will probably be 3rd or 4th. I'm trying to keep dialogue pieces in the front for a better emphasis on lip syncs and acting. Then put the body mechanics in the back. I'm trying to cater to certain companies with this version of my demo reel. Companies like Pixar and Dreamworks are more acting oriented. Video game companies might want more running and jumping animations for example. More physical pieces.

This is a first.

So I never thought I was ever in my life, going to have even the smallest inkling to start a blog. I don't even know where to start.

Well so how bout that 2010 huh? Great times for some, not so great for others. Our San Francisco Giants won the World Series! Still as giddy as a school girl about that.

As for me I started the year off with a bang by getting a DUI. Got pulled over for speeding (I was going with the flow of traffic, great job drivers education) and ended choppin it up in the drunk tank with a bunch of characters. Getting arrested and thrown in jail for 9 or so hours sucked. But the part that really messed me up was losing my license for 8 months. That really put me in what the fuck mode. I like to drive and I despise asking people things. Luckily I have an amazing set of friends and family that helped me out.

I graduated from the Academy or Art University in the middle of the whole ordeal. But not having a license was very de-motivating for me to work on my demo reel for a career job. So very selfishly, I decided to take the summer off from working on that stuff and get back to it in a few months. I finished it but I recently decided I should analyze it again.

While I was over looking my Demo Reel. I decided that it still needs a lot more tweaking here and there. And I also decided to re-render all of them in 720p. Maybe I should of just went for 1080p instead, oh well. Some of the renders take long periods of time due to how long they are, so that got me thinking. A very random thought at that. Maybe I should start a blog haha.

I went to a elementary school called Reignierd. Everyone always laughs at me when I told them I went there. Either cause they never heard of it or they knew it sucked. My graduating 8th grade class was probably the biggest class in that schools history, with a whopping 15 kids! The high school part had like 6 kids total for 9th-12th grade.

I got into trouble almost everyday in Reignierd elementary school and they made up write composition papers from two hundred to maybe a thousand words. I was able to pump those out no problem. Because they had one flaw. They could be about anything you want. Im curious if the teacher even read them. Because my friends and I used to pass them around and read each others papers and just laugh. I guess that was a small spark in my blog stardom. Oh Reignierd Elementary looked like this:

If you look closely you can see me playing basketball. See me? I knew you'd find me! Thats where I figured out I suck at basketball. Something I learned there was: Don't let that ball land on the fence cause it will pop. Or if it went over it, we would never get it back.

First post out the way, we'll see how long I keep this up.