Stuff Angrybeth Likes :)

Angrybeth likes Machinima

2008-04-20T23:06:00.007+01:00

Eden: The Zhang Chronicles - Crysis

The 1k Project - Trackmania

9 Crimes - World of Warcraft

Grid Review - Second Life ( using CrazyTalk for lipsync )

Resources - check out
Machinima.com
WoW model and map viewers
QAvimator - .bvh editor for Secondlife

Angrybeth liked LaserDisc Games

2008-04-20T19:48:00.006+01:00

Well 1983 saw the release of Dragon's Lair and for me sparked an interest in Interactive Movies, that really effected my choices as I grew up. For some obscure reason we never started out with a VHS or BetaMax Deck in the house, I grew up with a Philips LaserDisc Player, so I had a particular interest when my brother pointed out that the video game cabinent used the same principle. As a Videogame, it stood out against the crowd of Pac-Man's and Defenders, and enjoyed watching others playing the game, especially as it was a money eater, but mainly it was because the games had a plot.
Overtime, an obsession to find other LaserDisc games in arcades kept me entertained in Blackpool and Redcar. Ones I really remember well were:
Firefox, that used footage from the film, Space Ace - the scifi equivelent of Dragon's Lair, Hologram Time Traveller - that used this weird parabolic bowl projection system that made the game look like a free-standing hologram, and a really fun lightgun based game called Mad Dog McCree, that used live action.

When I was doing my Interactive Arts Degree back in the early 1990's, one of my final year projects was the creation of a live action based interactive film using an Amiga 1200 and 16 shades of grey video footage, captured onto ( a stonking ) 40mb harddrive. An interactive fiction in the guise of a weird Franz Kafka meets Film noir film.

Looking back on these games now, they are limited in the range of interaction, at best branching narratives that fold back to a winning conclusion. But for the time, and before broadband and fast computers that can render in realtime , they were inspiring the next generation of interactive film-makers. They also demonstrate where Interactive Storytelling needs to improve on, with autonomous characters and Procedural Worlds and Plots that the audience can deeply invest in.

Angrybeth likes SoundToys

2008-04-20T19:18:00.008+01:00

I'm grabbing Electroplankton, mainly as it represents a mainstream videogame artwork. Created by Toshio Iwai, these little interactive sound toys for the Nintendo DS, spurred me on in my creation of SL based sound toys. As Electroplankton exploited the hardware of the DS to creative effect, a lot of my investigations into SL based sound toys, exploited what was capable in Second Life.

I've always been into interactive and generative computer based visuals and sound generators, making my own, since acquiring an Amiga500 in the late 80's and a copy of Dpaint and AMOS.
It was joining Second Life, that revived my interest in making Soundtoys, after several years kicking it with filmmaking. From simple loop sequencers to more complex datamining based generative sound generators, I like playing around with SecondLife scripting.

Ultimately - a lot of my practice is making toys, rather than art installations - all of my pieces tends to be focused on making people experiment and play with the work, rathet than something standalone and self-contained. I get a buzz out of seeing people making their own machinima of playing with my stuff.

Aurili Oh dancing while playing with Synthy-go-round, machinima by WillowShenlin.

Osprey Therian, jumping about in SynthyCube.

Anywho - you can find my stuff lying around in Second Life - mostly at the Port Sim

Check out SoundToys.net - a portal to a lot of really cool and playful experiments.

Check out Adam Nash / Adam Ramona - sound artist using Second Life.

Angrybeth likes Rez

2008-04-20T15:48:00.006+01:00

I just love Tetsuya Mizuguchi's REZ from the day I got it in 2002 for my Sega Dreamcast, and still playing it in the guise of the new Xbox360 HD version that came out recently in 2008.

Aesthetically to me, a continuation from Tron. For me, Rez appeared whilst I was still doing VJing and Motion Graphics, so felt right at place when I got to play it. What was memorable though - and I can't remember something being similar at the time - was the fusion of the music and the game elements. Though basically a Game on Rails shooter, the exchange of the usual explosion and gun sounds for musical notes and percussive sounds, produced for me, a really involved music video.

example of gameplay

Both Rez and Tron, are definite visual influences on my Second life creations (particularly now they've added glow effect) - especially with my last sound toy I made called Pusher-Tron

Angrybeth likes Tron

2008-04-20T15:19:00.000+01:00

The film Tron (1982) by Steven Lisberger, was a really big influence on me, more so than Star Wars, it got me aware of Special Effects and Computer Generated Imagery. For me, it's this film, that got me into computer graphics and thinking about using them as a tool in storytelling.

Tron also introduced me to the work of the concept artist Syd Mead.

Angrybeth likes Riven

2008-04-20T14:48:00.002+01:00

I love the aesthetic of Riven, though I liked the original Myst, when I saw this running on my Mac in 1997 I was blown away by the Cinematic quality, and spent many a while just engrossed in the detail of the locations. Not suprisingly the production designer was an ex ILM concept designer - Richard Vander Wende

Riven's World was definetly an inspiration to me, a visual look that I was attuned to my informative years growing up in the Dales of England, with its old ruined castles, rivers and impenetrable woods, as well as an Engineering Father that took us to see Steam Trains, Beam Engines and other Steampunky Victorian MachinerY.

For the last year, I've been doing bits and pieces for a non-profit sim in Second Life called - Story Island - for Media that Matters. The design of the island's architecture and landscaping has been definetly had the Myst games as a big influence.

Angrybeth likes Psi-Ops

2008-04-20T12:31:00.000+01:00

A game that really opened up my eyes to the crazy things you could do with the Havok physics engine was Psi-Ops:The Mindgate Conspiracy by Midway Games - made in 2004.
Though other games were already employing physics successfully to create real world simulation - it was the conceit of the player having telekinesis that created a really fun Havok sandbox. From being able to toss and whip objects and other characters around to TK surfing (standing on a box whilst picking it up with Telekinesis) created a multitude of creative ways you could complete a level.

It was through playing a session of Psi-Ops, that I was inspired to create Super-Collider.

Super-collider works through making objects in Second Life grabbable - in the edit object tabs its a tick box called Allow Others to Move. Combined with physics enabled ( and in this case - a script that makes the object behave like there is no gravity ), users can push or pull the object around in the 3Dspace with their mouse. Collision with the walls or other objects trigger notes to play.