08 5 / 2013
Photographing ghostly plane wrecks
Photographer Dietmar Eckell has traveled the world in search of ruin, shooting everything from abandoned buildings, forgotten military sites and decomposing cars. His newest project he shoot 15 rotted out plane carcassesleft over from crash sites where there were no fatalities and everyone was rescued.
To read the full article and see more of Eckell’s photos click here.
07 5 / 2013
Would-Be Pirates Get a Taste of Delicious, Delicious Irony
Some gamers who attempted to pirate a new title released over the weekend learned an important lesson in a gloriously ironic way.
Or, as is more likely, they didn’t actually learn a damn thing. But we can laugh at them:
On Sunday, new studio Greenheart Games released its first product, a game-development simulator called Game Dev Tycoon. In theSimCity-style game, you build a game developer up from the ground, managing resources and growing it from garage startup to the next Activision.
Trouble is, if you downloaded a pirated version of the game — that Greenheart itself put onto BitTorrent in an attempt to dragnet would-be freeloaders — you would eventually hit a wall that didn’t exist in the paid version, as shown above. The game tells you that you can’t make any more money as your fictional product is being excessively pirated.
Clever! But what makes this story wonderful is the responses from some players, e.g.:
Back in the 80s and 90s I could easily make a 1m sales with 9-10 game but now it’s not possible due to the piracy. It says bla bla our game got pirated stuff like that. Is there some way to avoid that? I mean can I research a DRM or something…
So far I am going nowhere. My profit is little to none. … So what I have to do now? There’s no point in inventing a new engine because the revolutionary game made out of it will get pirated and I will not be able to cover my expenses.
Oh, you think? Tell me more about the effects of piracy. Maybe Greenheart’s experiment will cause a few game swipers to start paying money for things they want.
06 5 / 2013
How One Man Made the Breaking Bad Lego Videogame You Can’t Play
LEGO videogames usually tend to be fairly wholesome affairs. But what happens when you add Jesse, Mr. White and a whole lot of meth-making? Pretty much a parody teaser for the best videogame that doesn’t actually exist.
Built by animator and designer Brian Anderson, “Lego Breaking Bad The Video Game parody” (above, complete with spoilers) is one man’s attempt to reimagine the AMC show Breaking Bad as a Traveller’s Tales game, complete with gun-toting face-offs, Walt/Jesse Pinkman, and — yes — meth-making. The idea, Anderson told Wired, came after watching the face-melting scene in the Indiana Jones: The Original Adventures game five years ago.
“I started thinking of other movies movies with fairly shocking moments that would be funny if they were acted out by LEGO characters – the ear scene from Reservoir Dogs, the shower scene from Psycho,” said Anderson. And after a binge-watch session of Breaking Bad on Netflix last fall, he knew where to begin.
The LEGO-izing of Walt and Jesse required hundreds of hours of rendering time, and much like a drug dealer, Anderson started with a single brick. To create the most basic of building blocks, he combined a partial cylinder with a large flat square, then multiplied that shape until he had something that looked like LEGO piece – a shape he replicated again and again and again.
“I purposely left [the logo] off the bricks in case LEGO wasn’t happy with the video,” Anderson said. “Removing that one LEGO logo at the beginning would be an easy change. Removing every tiny LEGO logo from every single brick would have been nearly impossible.”
Using those bricks, Anderson started building 3-D environments and models, which he populated with characters, vehicles, coins and all matter of ephemera. He also created a virtual camera to move around the space and then animated the 3-D characters to do their best acting work. All told, between January and April, Anderson’s computer — a new unit he’d just had custom built — spent about 1,300 hours rendering.
With the help of Maya, After Effects, Photoshop, ZBRush and Illustrator Anderson produced a video that looks like it could be one of the coolest games ever – if it were real. Watching Mr. White and Jesse’s cooking and final face-off with the Rival Dealers in Anderson’s video is great and all, but a full game that includes the final demise of Gus Fring and the many uses of Lily of the Valley would just be amazing. And that’s part of the reason he made it.
In a teasing not on the Youtube page for the video, Anderson adds, “I have no affiliation with Traveller’s Tales, Lego, or [Breaking Bad network] AMC. I’m just a huge fan of the stuff they make. But seriously, if they all got together and made this game, for real, I’d buy it and play the crap out of it.”
So say we all, sir. So say we all.
03 5 / 2013
A book/laptop hybrid model to demonstrate how we are sourcing information
(via artsyrup)
03 5 / 2013
Saturday, May 4th is FREE Comic Book Day
Above: Atomic Robo and Bodie Troll
It’s that time of year again when comic book shops around the world give away free comic books. For a preview of what’s being offered this year check out Wired.com’s article: Free Comic Book Day: These Are the 10 Titles You Need to Grab.
22 4 / 2013
Men ride a weed-burning rail car in Texas, June 1941.
Photograph by Luis Marden, National Geographic
(via crookedindifference)
14 4 / 2013
Scaiku!
Last week, I posted some science-inspired haiku poetry and many of you sent in your own. Thanks for all the replies, tweets and comments with great, geeky poems!
I drew up some of my favorites along with some beautiful Japanese woodblock art (click the photos to view them biggu). Don’t worry, if you don’t see yours, you can check out everyone’s submissions here.
Got any more scaiku?
13 4 / 2013
Anish Kapoor C-Curve Carl Abrams
The Anish Kapoor C-Curve sculpture is on top of the South Downs overlooking Brighton, as one of the exhibits within the Brighton Festival.
(via artsyrup)
10 4 / 2013
Lepidonotopodium piscesae has noted your presence.
From the Handbook.
The “Deep Sea fauna With Googly Eyes” Tumblr is the best thing I’ve found this week.
Terrifying! Hilarious! Ack!
10 4 / 2013
Treehouse Community
Finca Bellavista (FBV) is a sustainable treehouse community situated on 600 acres of land in the mountainous South Pacific coastal region of Costa Rica. FBV is the brainchild of Mateo and Erica Hogan, a married couple from Colorado who fell in love with Costa Rica.
(via crookedindifference)
