Alex P

Members
 View Profile  See their activity

  • Content count

    90

  • Joined

  • Last visited

Posts posted by Alex P

  3. Posted

    And let's check in on what Sarah Palmer's been up to this whole time!

     

    Oh, okay, she's just been chain-smoking while watching horrifically graphic nature documentaries on a preposterously large TV in the middle of the night in the same living room where her husband murdered her niece a few decades back. I guess everyone processes things in their own way, so that's cool.

  23. Posted

    I found the discussion of the weather outside the Presidium humorous. I too am playing Mass Effect from the beginning (and finding it mostly spectacular). If you interact with Garrus while standing in the Presidium's main hall, he's scripted to tell you exactly why the weather outside is that way.

    I'm not going to ruin the illusion for you guys, but it's something I laughed at while listening to the cast.

  24. Posted

    Thanks! That's very helpful

    Hmmm... well besides the game, Gagne was part of a Q&A where he spoke about how he got his job at Don Bluth studios in the 80s by making his own short film in Canada at a young age and then making the trip to California by lying to his dad for the funds that he already had an interview set up. Once in the studio, he and begged the secretary to take a copy of his short film and show it to Don Bluth. A month later, Don Bluth calls him, giving him a great first job in the animation industry. He did not show the short film though, but it's the one with the music note. He and his wife were selling various comic books and storybooks in the courtyard at the college it was at inbetween speakers. They were also showing Prelude to Eden on loop behind them his TV screen.

    While some of this may be wrong, what I remember of Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet was a full first level being played (a recording, since he said he sucked at the game) with the space ship being upgraded with a grabber that allowed it to throw rocks at some of the silhouetted creatures on the walls. There was this really amazing sequence at the end of the level where you fly up to some eyeballs in the walls that seem harmless enough until it turns out to be a giant monster with a big mouth that chases you through corridors and breaks a lot of rocks in the process. He also showed the original trailer (or something similar) that was posted. He then answered some Q&A on the game, but most of what was asked was about the music used, whether people wanted to play it or not, what programs he used, as well as Gagne speaking of showing the game to Microsoft soon to see if they wanted to publish it. This was two months ago though, I'm not sure if that went through. I think he's hoping to get XBLA distribution at some point.

    He also showed this short abstract animation he did for this dissonant jazz that was shown at I think a music festival in Canada. He won an award for the music video and that's what led him to animate a similar sequence in Ratatouille in the background when Remy is eating different foods and describing how it feels to taste them. Apparently Brad Bird had seen the short animation and thought it would be great for the film.

    There was also a Q&A with all of the speakers at the end with generic questions, but I don't remember much of what he said during that. Someone did ask how to best get along with other people in the industry and Gagne said that he doesn't try and that's why he works alone in a basement. A lot of what he said was with a smile and a laugh though, so he probably wasn't extremely serious about a lot of his remarks.

  25. Posted

    Anything else you remember about the game or Gagne?

    Hmm, I was at a industry convention Dallas a month ago and Michel Gagne was there showing a lot of gameplay footage (that apparently wasn't public yet) as well as selling his books and short films DVD. He was kind of a butt and ragging on programmers for not always being able to handle his smooth 24 fps animations and that when the frame rate drops, he gets really angry.

    He was also going on some ridiculous rant about artists drawing, painting, and animating on the computer and that his stuff in this game is handdrawn from start to finish besides the scanning part. Which I guess he was trying to say it made him better? I don't know. In my opinion you would get the same results if you used Illustrator and save time to boot, but eh... that's me being presumptuous.

    There was a video play through of the complete first level and boss, so it did look good and it looked like a lot of fun, though.

    At one point he did say the music was not final and that they were just using his favorite band or whatever. He is apparently trying to get Dimmu Borgir to do the music for real though. Maybe that deal won't go through and we can rejoice?

    EDIT: And now the video disappeared due to copyright while I typed all of that.