D E C E M B E R 0 4
Winter break movie grades. Dave finishes up his fifth quarter at PC, where Neil Powell from Powell NY gives a great presentation.
Sightseeing In Torvus Bog
Happy New Year...this winter break consisted of seeing old friends, visiting the Frank Gehry and Chermayeff & Geismar exhibits at the Corcoran Museum, and catching up on video games with Metroid Prime 2. Caught a lot of movies as well; Phantom of the Opera (B+), Ocean's Twelve (B), Elf (B), Street Fighter (D+), Super Mario Brothers (F-) and second viewings of The Last Samurai (A) and Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (A). Classes start back up on Monday.
Friday, December 31 at 12:39 PM
Kid Icarus Flies Again
Critiques went great last Thursday night; probably the best ones so far. Click here for a new fifth quarter projects portfolio page. It includes a beta version of Miyamoto. Still haven't quite finished it...I'll probably get around to it after the holidays. About 25% of the music is in, everything else is just placeholders. It's turning out to be pretty sweet; every person who has played it comments on one thing in particular...MIKE FREAKIN' TYSON.
Well that about wraps things up for 2004. I leave tomorrow morning for Burke and will be there through New Year's. Enjoy the projects and the game, and keep in touch over the break!
Sunday, December 19 at 7:27 PM
'appy 'olidays!
Click here to see my Cartoon Network holiday promo mockup for Advanced After Effects.
Miyamoto will be up by next week.
Monday, December 13 at 5:44 PM
Cooler Than A Stained Glass Deacon
Click on the image to the left for a 1024x768 wallpaper for your computer to start the hype for Cadence of Seasons. So here's what's up. It gets bigger inside my imagination every day, but in the reality of production while juggling other work, I've only gotten past the title screen! I'm trying to finish as much as I can, but it would take a miracle to get the first chapter out by the end of the year. That being said, I do hope to do some major damage to it over my two-week winter break. And there is a chance that it might appear as a "featured project" from Portfolio Center in an upcoming national magazine article. Pressure's on...I better deliver.
Friday, December 3 at 3:27 PM
Welcome To New York
Holy crap, Neil Powell from Powell NY spoke at our school today and was unbelievably awesome. This ranks up there with the Chip Kidd and Brian Collins presentations in my all-time favorite seminars. He showed us a branding case study about reinventing Rheingold Beer that was phenomenal, citing several unorthodox techniques they used to stir up recognition and controversy, which resulted in an explosion of sales. His small company doesn't rely on titles or ranks; everyone is a "creative" and pool their strengths together to make incredible results. And handing out advice like "awards don't mean crap" and "no one owes you any favors" was good to hear. Inspirational stuff. While in college a seminar was usually synonymous with eye-gouging boredom, about 80% of PC seminars are honest-to-God entertaining and interesting.
Oh yeah, I know I haven't changed this month's fake magazine cover yet, and probably won't get around to it. Okaysamurai.com will get a facelift soon if I get a chance to work on it over the winter holidays. It'll be condensed down to the journal, portfolio, archives and contact sections. On the tech side of things, I'm hoping to write it entirely in CSS and XHTML, and give the journal an RSS feed so you can read it on a cell phone or PDA.
Thursday, December 2 at 10:02 AM
Gonna Break That Birdy's Neck
Pop lyrics are usually terrible; it's mostly about if the syllables and melody sound decent enough with the music. Destiny's Child is the perfect example of this; Lose My Breath is musically fresh and original with the drumline thing going on, but the words seem thrown in simply because they rhyme. Eminem is one of the few artists on popular radio whose lyrics I actually follow (and Like Toy Soliders does the snare drum thing better than Beyonce). At least he's telling stories instead of rehashing the same tired "maybe baby" lines.
Wednesday, December 1 at 7:48 PM
Okay Samurai Multimedia is Dave Werner's personal site. I'm currently working at Minor Studios in San Francisco. Thanks for visiting! (more...)
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