Lucky Number 2D6

Once more unto the paintshop (updated)

Forza 3's immense shininess has tempted me back into the 'paintshop' area, where I ended up spending most of my time in Forza 2 (instead of, you know, actually racing cars).

I've decided to get to work on something I always intended to do in Forza 2 but never found the time, inspired by the awesome artwork on Ed McGuinness. This is a multi-image project that should end up with at least three related livery designs, so it should keep me busy for a while.

As it's been a while since I did anything like this, I thought I'd catalogue the process. I have no idea if it'll be of any interest to anyone, but if nothing else, it might help me keep everything straight and maybe spot where I could do something better or more efficiently.

(You can't take photos in the vinyl editor in Forza 3. As I haven't decided what cars I'm going to use for the finished designs yet, I'm just slapping things onto the side of a Lexus that I've painted white in order to take these shots.)

Having picked the image I want to start with, the first step is to roughly block out the overall shape of the image. I tend to use a pale colour that won't be used in the finished design, to make it easy to remove later on. The lines are to help me when resizing parts of the image in the editor:

Once that's complete, it's time to start working on the outline of the image proper. In the past I've found it easier to complete the outline of the whole image before going to work on filling it in, but as it's been a while and this is a (re)learning experience, I've decided to spend a little time focussing on the fist which forms the single largest part of the figure. Here's the finished outline:

The next step is to copy the previous layers, recolour them to something flesh-like, then shift and shrink them to create the outline of the fist. Then I can just fill in the rest with a few more shapes before working on the detail:

First version of the detail work on the fist:

Final (well, at least for now) version of the fist, with some simple shading and some of the smaller lines removed for neatness:

More pics will follow as the rest of the figure takes shape...

Oops-a-daisy

Been a bit quiet around here lately, as I've been busy with job applications - like buses, you wait ages for an opportunity, then three come along at once.

It's a similar story with games. After a few months with precious little new or interesting, the last couple of weeks have seen me finally get around to Empire: Total War (thanks to a special deal on Steam) and now both Forza 3 and Borderlands are clamouring for my time, just when I don't have nearly as much to spare. Grumble, mutter, sigh.

Suffice it to say for now that all three are shaping up to be great fun, and I'll try to scribble down some more detailed thoughts about them soon. In the meantime, here's my new desktop background, courtesy of Ali and Forza 3's photo mode...
 

Go see Zombieland

On first hearing about it, I have to admit that I expected it to be nothing more than a pale American imitation of Shaun Of The Dead, but I was wrong - Zombieland is a damn funny movie in its own right. It may not be the world's first 'rom-zom-com', but it neatly sidesteps the long, lurching shadow of Edgar Wright and Simon Pegg's masterpiece to become one of the only new films I've seen this year that I actually hope gets a sequel.

At some point I'll probably go on and on about what's so good about it, but for now, just go see it for yourself.

New season: More shows

Although the initial rush is over, the varying schedules of the different networks means that the new US TV season continues to roll out new and returning shows. Here's a quick run-down of the ones I've managed to catch...

Blockbusters revisited: Star Trek

Sadly, as much as I enjoyed it in the cinema, J J Abrams' rebooted Star Trek didn't really hold up nearly so well the second time around. Instead of allowing me to notice more things that I liked, knowing what was going to happen just allowed the problems to become more and more glaring.

A lot of these problems are fairly minor things that only a science fiction geek would even stop to consider (the revolving barrels on the phasers started to bug me for a number of reasons, for example) and several would probably only bother fans of the original show or are a matter of personal taste (the reduction of Scotty to little more than ineffective comic relief being a personal bugbear), but there are some more serious issues as well. What really started to spoil things for me was the story structure.

Pretty much the whole second half of the movie relies on the fact that not only does young Spock uncharacteristically choose to maroon Kirk on a nearby planet instead of just throwing him in the brig (surely a far more logical option), he also 'just happens' to drop Kirk off within walking distance of the original universe Spock. Hanging a major plot development on a pure coincidence has been seen as poor storytelling since at least 18 BC, when Horace's Ars Poetica instructed poets that they should never resort to a 'deus ex machina', and what was true for the ancient Greeks remains just as true today. Throw in the fact that both the antagonist's motivation for committing genocide and his approach to doing so become less convincing (especially as the reason for the whole reboot) the more you actually think about them, and the whole thing starts to fall apart fairly quickly.

My biggest concern, though, is that the movie lacks most of the core values and ideals that make Star Trek what it is - or at least, what it was. The characters face no significant moral, ethical or philosophical challenges in the course of the whole film, there aren't any particularly interesting science fiction ideas, and the lack of Trek's clearly stated humanist values becomes more and more apparent as the action sequences - gripping though they may be - rush by.

It's perhaps a testament to Abram's skill as a director - as well as the generally excellent casting and effects work - that I was only vaguely aware of most of these concerns the first time I saw Star Trek, when I was as swept up in the spectacle and carried along by the pacing as most of the professional critics seem to have been, and in that sense the movie definitely works as a 'summer blockbuster'. But a big, dumb roller-coaster ride is all that it really is - once you start to scratch the slick and glossy surface, it rapidly becomes apparent that there's precious little underneath. 

New season: Returning Shows

As well as many new US TV shows, last week saw the return of several that I enjoy, including House, The Mentalist, Castle, How I Met Your Mother, The Big Bang Theory, Heroes and Dollhouse.

I haven't had a chance to watch Dollhouse yet, although after the literally mind-blowing DVD-only episode 'Epitaph One', I'm really looking forward to seeing it. Heroes will have to wait until I finish Season 3 (I know it's supposed to get a lot better once the fourth 'chapter' starts, but I got stuck ploughing through 'Villains' and still haven't got round to finishing it). But how were the others?

(Oh, before I forget, I should point out that the following may contain 'spoilers' about previous seasons of the shows in question. I honestly don't think that anything I say is going to ruin anyone's enjoyment - I think all are worth watching to one degree or another, whether you know how they're going to end or not - but if you really, really don't want to hear what happened in the last season of 'Show X' because you haven't got around to watching it yet, it's probably best to read with care.)

New season: New Shows

It began with a trickle, but last week the new US TV season picking up the pace with a flood of new and returning shows, several of which I managed to fit into my busy schedule of looking for work and trying to avoid spending money. I'll cover the returning shows in another post, but here's what I though of the new ones...

Mmmm... Shiny

The Forza 3 demo (available on Xbox Live now) is awesomely shiny.

Guilty pleasures: Blood and Bone

As a child of the '70s and a teenager of the '80s, more of my youth than entirely necessary was spent watching action and martial arts movies of wildly variable quality and production values. Which probably goes some way to explaining why I still spend too much time watching straight to DVD releases, and why I enjoyed Blood and Bone so much.

Make no mistake, this tale of a taciturn ex-con entering the world of illegal street fighting in LA is no work of art, or even a particularly great movie. It does, however, have three things going for it.

The first is star Michael Jai White. It's not unusual for the lead in a low budget fighting movie to be an accomplished martial artist (White has no fewer than 7 black belts and 26 Karate titles to his name, including the US Open and North American Open). What is unusual is for him to bring so much acting experience and ability. His character, 'Bone', is a man of few words, but White imbues him with the iceberg-like sense that there's a whole lot going on beneath the implacable surface. In addition to which, he can really move.

Which leads to the second thing that Blood and Bone has going for it - the fights are great. From the opening scene in a prison bathroom through to the inevitable confrontation with the film's principal antagonist, 'James' (also very ably played by British actor Eamonn Walker), the action is varied, well paced, cleanly shot and very well choreographed. White has impressive speed and agility for a man of his equally impressive physique. The fight scenes make the most of it, and aren't afraid to let him kick loose (literally) with some flashy airborne moves.

Unarmed combat purists might point out that such techniques aren't particularly practical or 'realistic', but then that leads to the third and, for me, biggest thing that Blood and Bone has going for it - and why I found so much guilty pleasure in what, on the surface, would appear to be just another B-grade action movie. Strip away the modern trappings - the neon and bling, the questionable music choices and the already cliched 'illegal street fighting' setup - and what you have is an old-school martial arts movie in which a lone hero kicks serious ass in the pursuit of retribution, justice and honour. Those are exactly the kind of movies I most enjoyed on grainy VHS back in the '80s, and it would seem that I'm still a sucker for them today.

New seasons are in the air

As September rolls on, the Fall TV season is finally getting under way in the US, which hopefully means there'll be some shows worth watching for a change - other than the darkly comic brilliance of True Blood, there's been precious little of note over the Summer. The CW was first out of the gate this year, pairing the fifth season of Supernatural with the launch of The Vampire Diaries the week before last. This week, Fox joined the fray with the second season of Fringe.

So how were they?