Hey, everybody. I'm really sorry about the double-pimping here. Sometime around the weekend, the Where the Wild Things Are photo shoot over at Tomopop made it onto Digg: http://digg.com/d317cvW. It would be a huge help if you could digg it up to give the site a bit more exposure. It hasn't gone popular yet, but with your help I don't think it's far off. Thanks for your help. I hope you enjoy some of these unused shots.
The header pic above is another shot from the campfire scene that turned out great. I love how Aaron's head in the foreground forms that amazing silhouette against the fire and other figures.
I used a similar shot in the final piece that worked much better narratively, but I love this shot more. I love the level of detail Moishe and how the other figures are peeking out around him. Max seems to be jumping out of his head.
This was another (drastically different) angle from a photo used in the final post. I think it turned out completely adorable.
This was one of my favorite photos in the whole shoot. I didn't use it because I wanted the fire-scene to be about the group playing together. I'm so in love with the deep shadows taking over so much of his face as well as how much the line detail pops.
Truth be told that Tom (Ruffo, one of my best friends and photographer) didn't think any of the fire pics were going to turn out all that well. I had the poor guy lying down on the ground on a very cold Michigan night shooting for over an hour on that sequence just reassuring him that it was going to work.
I've got a c-blog over at Tomopop that also pimps the entry on Digg. It contains even more photos, so give it a look if you'd like to see more shots. Thanks again for your help!
Special thanks to Y0j1mb0 for showcasing the site in this weekend's c-blog recaps. You're a class act in everyway (except maybe when you deal out a late, post-victory hit in Street Fighter IV)!
Many of you know that for nearly two months, I've been writing daily over at Destructoid's sister-site tomopop.com where I work with a crew of amazingly talented folks bringing news and stories about the toys and figures industry. The first thing that I decided that I wanted to do was a photo feature on my Where the Wild Things Are figures that would coincide with the film's release. With the valuable photographic assistance of Thomas Ruffo, one of my best friends, we've been working on this goal in the time since.
Short story long, today's the day and a few hours ago the story went live. I've done a lot of things that I'm incredibly proud of and this piece stands with every last one of them. I've wanted to share it with everyone that I care about and that includes the whole of the community. The photos in this blog are some unused shots from the post. If you like these, you're going to love how the final shots came out.
"Tom, give me a cigarette. If I fall and break my neck, I'll have wished that I'd had one. And at least I'll die in my dtoid shirt!"
Special thanks to Y0j1mb0 for some great ideas in terms of presentation, and to Colette for the perfect music to inspire the writing. You guys are incredible!
It feels like ages since I've drawn/written a blog for Destructoid. For the last month I've been working lots and lots and lots of overtime. So, things have been busy with that. Which I'm hoping will finally end with this week. Then I'll be able to see a bit more free time, be able to play more video games, and hopefully read and write more about them as well.
In addition to all of that, the big news is that for the last two weeks, I've been writing over at Tomopop! I've been hired on to join the great team of toy-loving editors at the greatest site for toy enthusiasts on the planet. In my short time there, I have learned a lot, and have added a tiny bit of my own self-deprecating flavor to the mix. If you've never been over to Destructoid's sister-site, I invite you to give it a look. If you're one of the three people that enjoy my writing (my mom's one, and I'm sure that there's got to be at least two others), then rest assured that I manage to put some good old Haxan-style into nearly everything that I write there. The only difference is that at Tomopop, I'm going by my real name: Jason Millward.
Writing for Modern Method is kind of a dream come true, and this has been an exciting couple of weeks for me. This does not mean that I'll be disappearing from dtoid (sorry to disappoint). I fully intend to be as much a part of this site as I always have. Dtoid is my home. I love this place and all of you guys. I love flexing my weak-as-hell artistic skills here. Haxan is dtoid for life. I'm also writing a ton over there, now. That's all that's changed.
If you're interested, I wrote my first c-blog to serve as kind of an introduction there. I also wrote a feature interview with Canadian artist ImaginaryThomas that I'm pretty proud of. Until next time. Which should be soon, because I've been meaning to finish up that unpublished art series.
Hey everybody. I've spent the last 12 hours putting together an entry for this week's shirt.woot derby. If you've got a woot account, please vote for my design if you feel it's your jam. I would love to own one of these, and I hope that you would, too.
The theme this week is "School" so I put together an homage to arcade brawlers and The Breakfast Club. Please let me know what you think, but most importantly, give me a vote!
Thanks, everyone!
(Higher Resolution Version is in the gallery below.)
Do you recall the very first time you saw Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory (yes, saw the movie. Not read the book. I'm going for a visual here. [Just so we're absolutely clear, we're going Gene Wilder!])? Do you recollect sitting through the lame songs of the first act (DO NOT defend against this. "Cheer Up, Charlie" was the worst travesty in film since the death of Basil Rathbone) and waiting an eternity for the factory visit? Do you remember the amazement that you felt when that tiny/huge door swung open, revealing an awe-inspiring array of edible scenery? I recently had a similar event hit me with that same level of childlike wonder. I had the uncommon privilege of peeking behind the scenes of Takeshi's Little BIG Planet creations.
Takeshi's Sackboy on the set of his third level, Sackburger(TM).
I recently began anew work on LBP levels of my own (re-inspired by my playthrough of Takeshi's latest level: Sackburger[TM]). This past weekend I put in a ton of time into it. Wanting to show it off my progress, I went straight to the greatest level designer in Dtoid history. After taking a tour and talking a bit of shop, he invited me to his pod to take a tour of some of the things that he was working on. What do you say to something like that, aside from "Who do I have to kill?"
Haxan's Ico-themed Sackboy visits Sackburger(TM).
I'm not going to ruin anything that he's putting together by divulging any specifics. What I will say is that I toured a new level that is nearing completion (which is every bit as great as what he's come up with up till now), I also got a peek at something we all remember from our childhood being recreated in LBP-form with fantastic results so far (Remember the dude that built the working calculator in LBP? Amateur by comparison).
Beyond that, though, was one of the coolest things ever. Takeshi has levels that are essentially warehouses of unused ideas. You enter the level, and you're immediately hit by cool device after cool device. Many things were created for levels, but ultimately didn't fit, or were inspirations that he's hasn't incorporated into a stage yet. It's like a garage where he tinkers and perfects a contraption before moving it out to it's final destination. An inventors workshop in a virtual realm. I can't even describe how impressive this all was to see.
Takeshi's evil mastermind terrorizes the Sackville Shop n' Drop.
If you own a PS3 and don't yet own Little BIG Planet, you're doing yourself a major disservice. If you've got both and haven't checked out Takeshi's levels, then you're seriously selling yourself short on this whole existence thing. Get on it, now. Do a community search for "johanhin", add him to your "hearted" creators and be sure to heart up his levels if (rather when) you've enjoyed them. And keep an eye out for more. I've seen the things that he's cooking up, and you're in for some serious surprises!
Takeshi and his first level: Destructoid.
If you've not seen them already, check out Takeshi's posts regarding his two of his previously released levels: Destructoid and Sackburger(TM). Also, check out his excellent tutorial for building your own Little BIG Planet levels.
Earlier this week I posted the first of three entries of unused drawings that I've created since joining the site. And a new pic of ν-13 from BlazBlue. Today it's more of the same! So, let's kick this thing off with a new pic of ν-13.
One of the things that I try to stay away from in my drawings is using reference materials. My mind has damn near no visual memory at all. Which is to say that if I close my eyes, I probably won't remember what you're wearing and I certainly couldn't visualize your facial features in all but the vague-est sense. Because of this, I will never be able to draw a picture that actually looks like the person I'm drawing. But it also kind of frees my drawings from the restraints of reality. There are obvious exceptions, like the ν-13 from the last post, where her costume was so intricate that I really needed to lock down the look. I did a pencil sketch of the detail, then only used my sketch for reference. And I deliberately changed a couple of things. You know, for fun.
I bring this up, because in this case, I wanted to get ν-13 out of costume. I was trying to boil the character down to what really draws me to her (well, the parts that aren't how badass her metallic angel suit is). And it really is less of a physical thing. It has everything to do with her voice. Her voice has a flat, mechanical quality to it, but also an innocense. It's like she's untouched by the knowledge of a human adult, and is constantly seeing the world through fresh eyes. Like a child, almost. So, that was where I was going with it. I did a sketch at work, and intended to match her in-game outfit when I did my final piece. But, I really ended up loving the vulnerability of the clothes I had given her, so I stuck with them.
For my post celebrating Destructoid's third anniversary, I had created a shooped NES controller, configured to look like Mr. Destructoid. This was inspired by the helmet of the Destructoid robot that is carrying Sterling from my page in the Dtoid alphabet book. I wanted to see that idea in real life. I started with a sketch, and then I used textures from a picture of an actual controller and combined them over the sketch to create the final image. But I still really liked the sketch as it was. So, I colored it and hung on to it as well. A smaller version was posted in the comments for RetroforceGo!'s NES episode.
These three pieces are drawings that I've made of Carollelogram over the last two years. Sadly, we're no longer on speaking terms, and she's all but left the site. I was really proud of these so I thought I'd include them here for everyone to see. The second one is actually the first thing I had drawn when I got my tablet set up. And the third came from me asking her for an idea of something to draw. She asked if I could draw her as Battle Angel in her Motorball uniform.
This picture of Sam Fisher was meant to go along with June's Monthly Musing. The topic was regarding unfulfilled potential. That reminded me of a story arc in the first Splinter Cell game. Sam's loses contact with his daughter just as the US has been attack in multiple locations by terrorists. This just after he's learned that there's a mole in the CIA, and he now has to break into CIA headquarters (his own government's agency) to find the mole, all the while worrying about the safety of his daughter. This was the coolest thing I had ever experienced in a video game up until that point. As good as any movie, really. Until I beat the level and they explained away everything that made the situation so groundbreaking. I wanted to tie in his daughter's kidnapping to her death that kicks off the upcoming sequel. But replaying, it, I realized that I remembered it wrong. She wasn't kidnapped. The phone just disconnected because the terrorists had destroyed all military communications. Oh well.
This last picture is from another abandoned blog. This was right after the Wii's firmware upgrade 4.0. I went from having Wii with zero excess memory, to one that was relatively devoid of games. I was wanted to run a contest to fill up someone's SD card. But I ran out of cash. Damn economy. Maybe I'll get back to that someday.
I've got one more lost art blog to go which features an early concept of my alphabet page which was going to be drastically different than how it ended up. Really super neat, because I wasn't even going to draw it. So keep an eye out. And be sure to hit the gallery for full res images of today's ν-13 pic and both versions of the Destructoid NES controller.
Legitimately beat Mike Tyson and went through Another World Circuit undefeated.
Beat the original Contra without dying. Twice.
Can land the damn plane in Top Gun and can also refuel in midair.
Can't beat Ghost & Goblins without the level select code and has never lied about it.
Thinks Friday the 13th is a great game even if the physics, controls and weapons are garbage.
Mario Paint caused him to buy a Super Nintendo and largely leave his Sega Genesis behind. He has played it more than most video games and wore down the mouse pad so that the grid only shows around the corners.
Has beaten Street Fighter II: The World Warrior and Super Street Fighter II: The New Challengers on the SNES on the hardest difficulty without losing a single round. Multiple times.
Is still friends with the girl who worked at a local game store and sold him Street Fighter II nearly 17 years ago.
Beat Final Fantasy 2 in a weekend when he was a kid, yet can't get through a role-playing game these days if his life depended on it.
Has never beaten Final Fantasy VII.
Prefers pads to sticks.
Likes the N64 controller.
Prefers the Duke to the S-controller.
Doesn't think that Super Mario 64 is all that great.
Got an Xbox mostly for Buffy: The Vampire Slayer. And thinks it's a damn good game. Really.
Swore he would never buy a Game Boy Advanced SP, but immediately broke down once the NES edition came out. (And regarding the NES Classics series, true in-store dialogue: "Dude, are you serious?! They seriously expect people to pay 20 dollars a piece for games they can just downlo...Ooh! Zelda!")
Really liked the first Halo. (Well, there goes my dtoid cred.)
Can rock out Dynamite Rave in Dance Dance Revolution like it's nobody's business.
Played the hell out of Animal Crossing: Wild World and hid that fact from nobody.
Stomped Brad Nicholson at Street Fighter IV, but had to resort to the cheapest of tactics in order to do so. ;)
Thinks you're really, really, really smart. And pretty.
Top ten favorite games (in no particular order):
The Legend of Zelda (NES)
Mike Tyson's Punch-Out (NES)
The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask (N64)
Phantom 2040 (SNES)
Street Fighter II (any version)
Metal Gear Solid 3: Subsistence (PS2)
Final Fantasy 3/6 (SNES)
Ico (PS2)
Sin and Punishment (N64)
Picross (DS)
(NVGR)
I love drawing, though I realize that I'm not very good. I figured early on that drawing my own header art would help my blogs stand out. Thanks to Destructoid, and to the scanner that Carollelogram got me for my birthday last year, I feel like I've developed a unique style that's distinctly my own.
Outside of games I've got a DVD collection that is exploding out of a 5'x6' shelf (over 400 titles). So suffice it to say that I love movies. I'm a huge horror fan and I host an annual Dusk Till Dawn Horror Movie Marathon nearly every October. My top ten favorite films in order are as follows:
1. The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (Il Buono, il Brutto, il Cativo, 1966)
2. Night of the Living Dead (1968)
3. Seven Samurai (Shichinin no Samurai, 1954)
4. The City of Lost Children (La Citι des enfants perdus, 1995)
5. The Apartment (1960)
6. Strings (2004)
7. Heavenly Creatures (1994)
8. The Big Lebowski (1998)
9. Batman: Mask of the Phantasm (1993)
10. Kiss Kiss Bang Bang (2005)
Music-wise, my top 3 bands are The Pixies, The Velvet Underground and Radiohead. I listen to damn near every genre of music (except modern country. I yearn for the days of Hank Williams, Sr. and Tammy Wynette). Hit random on my mp3 player and you'll get everything from darkwave to hip hop to 80's synthpop. I karaoke pretty regularly. I can't sing, but I surround myself with people who can. Still, you've not experienced all there is in life until you've seen me proper butcher True by Spandau Ballet.
Then, as for the literary interests, my love lies with pulp detective novels of the thirties and forties. Raymond Chandler is simply the greatest ever. And Dashiell Hammett is just fantastic. Lately, I've been reading through Frank Herbert's Dune Chronicles at Carollelogram's recommendation. Two books in and I have to say they're astonishing.
If you do the Twitter thing, Haxan1 is my handle should you want to follow me.
Feel free to friend me to your console of choice should you ever want to play a game of Street Fighter. Just be sure to let me know that you're from Destructoid and you'll get the royal treatment.
Destructoid is an independently-run publication forged by our love of video games and the gaming community's need of accountable enthusiast press living the dream since March 16, 2006
Takeshi's Sackboy on the set of his third level, Sackburger(TM).
