Animation In Demand, FMA and the PS3 Release
Posted by Nuke in Animation, Media, Second LifeAnimation In Demand
I've let my blogging lapse again but for good reason. I've been a little pre-occupied with creating animations for Second Life avatars. I haven't really had the drive to animate lately, even for my own creative ideas, because computer animation is very computer intensive and time consuming. Creating avatar animation enables me to practice the principles of human animation, make a little Second Life spending money as well as contribute to the Second Life community in general.
I'm being courted by a few Second Life developers and being asked to create custom animation sequences for them. I've been asked for pricing but honestly, I have no idea what to charge. I know I always under-value my work and my time. Good animation is time consuming and labour intensive. I should adopt a more professional mindset and charge what the work is really worth.
Full Metal Alchemist: Conqueror of Shamballa
I just wrapped up the entire FMA series and capped it off with the movie, Conqueror of Shamballa. Great series. Dunno why I didn't latch onto it sooner. The movie could use some work though. It was very heavy handed with its peace and co-existence message and they tried squeezing in too many plot elements into it. The result was uneven pacing and a convoluted story line with too many loose ends. There are ways to write an ending that gives viewers good closure, but leaves the story open-ended. CoS had more of the latter.
There seemed to be so many elements contained within CoS that I think they should have opted for a 3 volume OVA series instead of trying to make a single film out of it. That way, they'd have 45 min. to an hour to establish 3 proper acts to this concluding chapter and explore the new story elements properly.
Still, FMA fans won't be too disappointed. There's plenty of action and great animation, and a chance to see their favourite FMA characters one more time, though some only have disappointingly minor cameo appearances.
Definitely worth checking out if you're any kind of FMA fan.
PlayStation 3 Release
The news is reporting that gamers are camping out for the upcoming PS3 release. Don't these people ever learn? Not only do they put themselves through great inconvenience, they also pay more money and suffer through the the trials and tribulations of a first release system. And for what? Bragging rights to say they were the first to purchase a PS3? What's that really worth? Ultimately nothing in the end.
It's not worth the hassle, in my opinion— especially when you can get shot at. 
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Not to mention that initial reports on various review sites are showing that the initial games for the PS3 are paling in comparison to the XBox 360 versions. Looks like the PS3 devs will need to do a bit of work on making things right on the PS3. At any rate. I’ll wait till I have a TV set that can actually be driven at 1080p before considering one of these consoles. By that time the next gen after the current gen consoles will be out and I would guess everyone will have figured out some important lessons with respect to the new higher rez format and new chips.
One thing that is getting me annoyed more than anything are the buy extra content after you buy the game. So you pay 60+ for a game and then spend another 60+ for extra content. Or just keep paying. And in some cases the base 60+ game really isn’t much. You’re paying a lot more for games then.
Companies still try to bring about the ’service’ marketing type scheme. Making people pay possibly small amounts monthly but which add up to big bucks over time. But they aways seem to forget that people hate those schemes. Ah well. Not that I will become a client of a console at any time soon. Too busy with my own hobbies.
I’m not up on console news but I’ve been hearing the same thing from different people/places in that the PS3 is less than stellar given the price.
Analysts at Merril Lynch say that the XBox360 will capture a lot of Sony’s market share here in North America this time around.
I don’t mind the idea of ‘leasing’ a game but the extra content has to be worth it— and I mean really worth it.
I can see some companies bundling new content with updates that fix game play issues as a way to force users to pay for patches that normally should be free.
hmm i am no sony fan (i perhaps could be called anti-sony;D ) but most launch titles never show off the best of a system, those titles usually come with the second gen (the 360 didnt have a must have title for me untill oblivion(which is when i purchased my 360). Also for shame mike for not mentioning the Wii! i am going to pick one up on sunday with a few games (now Zelda is a launch title!). As for camping out for the ps3, there were people at the target i goto on tuesday night! and i read online of people before that in warmer climates, crazy stuff (ill camp out for a few hours, mostly out of anxiousness).
That goes to my point about running to buy a first release system just for the bragging rights isn’t worth it and that it pays off to just wait for hardware fixes/improvements, second gen titles and give the developers time to get a handle on the development ins and outs of the system.
I haven’t mentioned the Wii probably because Nintendo usually didn’t have the kinds of games that interested me so it’s not usually on the forefront of my mind. Not to downplay the Wii or anything…
The new controller scheme gives developers some really good opportunities now and I hope they jump on them with right away.