Video Game Art - NMT&D

This is my first post of the semester. I had completely forgotten about it until my mother-in-law said I should be doing a blog. Let me catch you up on the past few weeks I've missed.

Week of August 23rd

Classes started up for Fall semester. This is my next to last semester. Last chance to make a run for the Honor Society. My wife made it, and it's her last semester. I just feel like so much crap has happened to us over the past few years. When does it get easier to balance it all? Anyway, the school had said they would be updating from CS3, and I thought they said they'd be doing CS4, but as it turns out, they went right to CS5, which was just released. That's really cool because it's better than what many of the studios will be using for now. By the time I get my bachelors, I'm sure it'll be dated again, since that's how fast technology evolves, but at least now I'm going to be developing my skills at the same rate of development of those in the industry. I had already been working with CS4 last semester at home, so I can't wait to see what refinements and new techniques CS5 has to offer.

Week of August 30th

We went to see "Avatar" this week. I had wanted to see it when it first came out, but with all the hype, and my brother-in-law making fun of it, my wife decided she had no interest in it. I had mentioned after the fact that I was disappointed we never saw it on the big screen, so when she saw it was being re-released, she bought us tickets as a surprise. Then I came down with Strepp Throat, so we couldn't go cause my wife made me go to the doctor instead. I was so bummed. Once my fever broke, we were able to convince the manager to still honor the tickets for another showing. I'm so glad we got to see it on the big screen. It truly was epic. My wife says it replaced "Enemy Mine" as her favorite. I'd say it's in my top 10. I think they could have easily have turned it into a trilogy, but I get that it was such a new concept that they didn't know how audiences would respond. It's a shame how much business dictate the development of art, but I get it. This movie had such amazing color choices and the animation was near flawless. I'd be so proud to put my name on a movie like that. I hope I can keep up with everyone else once I'm out of school and in the industry.

Week of September 6th

We were up in New Hampshire this week and heard about this transportation system called the Megabus. It goes through Canada, New England down to like North Carolina or something. Anyway, it can be dirt cheap, I guess the seat cost goes up the more full the bus becomes, which is just strange. But whatever, better for me. I think we might take it to come back up and visit Salem and Boston during the fall break. It's cool, not just cause it's cheap and I don't have to drive, but it has free wi-fi on the bus! I'm not sure how that works, but I think we may be able to watch NetFlix during the drive. At the very least, we can work on our schoolwork and get it out of the way early in the weekend so we can have fun and than again on the way home to wrap up anything we haven't finished. Good way to use time effeciently and effectively. It's amazing how much our society depends on the internet nowadays. But I'm with them, three things I can't live without are airconditioning, a car, and internet.

Week of September 13th

My parents were out of town this week and we had to house/pet sit. The don't have a wireless router, so I had to bring ours, since it would be excessive to bring both our desktops. There's really nothing to it. It takes maybe 5-10 minutes. Also, this week while we're at my parents we'll be watching cable. This might not be exciting to most, but we gave up cable when we moved here three years ago to cut down on costs. We're so behind all the time on news, series storylines, movie releases, new shows, etc. It's funny, but I think I miss the weather channel and commercials the most. It makes me feel like I'm back in touch with current events. I have tv show dvds, but watching movie previews and consumer commercials make me feel more up-to-date on technology and such. Discovery channel is cool too. Actually, a good example of how isolated I am sometimes is when I mentioned I liked Discovery Channel my wife mentioned about the hostage situation from two weeks prior. Times are getting strange. I think the stress of the economy is making some people just snap. Anyway, back to the cable. RCN seems to be starting to catch up to Comcast, but they're still not quite there, I hope the next place we move has Comcast. Not only were they cheap by comparison, but they had more features and never went down like RCN does.

Week of September 20th

We knew we were going to see Resident Evil 3D, so we went back and watched the first three Resident Evil movies to refresh ourselves of the full storyline. Out of all four, the first still stands as the best. The second was kinda campy, but good. The third sucked, but the fourth was at least better than the third. The fourth started to pull in more of the video game aspect, which was kinda cool that they used the movie to promote video game interest. The announced that Albert Wesker was going to be in MvC3 around the same time as the release of the movie. I love when storylines are communicated through multiple New Media mediums. It's so much more complex feeling and more interesting that way. By the end of the movie, all I wanted to do was play some old school Resident Evil, but I had homework. Never seems to be enough time to enjoy video gaming anymore.

Week of September 27th

So my wife saw that the Smithsonian Art Museum in Washington, D.C. is going to be having a video game art exhibit from May to September of 2012. They'll be showing the art graphics of the video games I grew up with and have a display of the evolution of gaming stations. I can't wait to visit! I wish they already had something like this somewhere. I already have my own collection of systems and handhelds that I plan on displaying when we move in January, so it's cool that I'll have my own in house museum. But I am excited by the art work and feel that it's about time this medium be recognized as artwork. People take for granted how much hard work and ingenuity go into developing these storylines, images, and the coding to manipulate through the game.