Army of Three 1: Demon Blade Deceptions

A lot of websites have professional layouts which separate sections and stuffs but that means I'll always have to open the links to these interesting video in separate windows or tabs. They are good but as a person who works in the VFX industry where you always have to show your work-in-progress to a lot of people from supervisors to directors or clients, I like to keep my desktop (or at least my internet browser) tidy and clean.

So I made this Army of Three series as a place to group three interesting videos I found into one single blog post. Of course 3 aren't enough to show ALL goodies one might find in any given day (let alone every single second which new videos are posted throughout the net) and some videos might be a bit dated but I think it's better than spamming the post with 20 videos, right? So Army of Three will therefore reflect my personality and interests on a particular day.

Here are the three videos of Monday March 30, enjoy!



2D Goody! Oboro-Muramasa Trailer



In this new era that industries is steering away from traditional art style into the styles of 3D graphics and whatever hell these kinda things are (even giant such as Disney shut down its 2D studios), I feel good to see developers/studios (mostly Japanese) that are still keeping the looks of hand drawn arts. In my opinion, this Wii title will definitely be a 'must have' for 2D lovers who find themselves having Odin Sphere, Guilty Gear or any other 2D goodies in their collections.

source: GameTrailers

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Ubisoft's RUSE



This trailer is really cool, I love the directing and editing of this piece, although the CG parts (supposed to look 'in-game' I guessed) could use more details in texturing and lighting but it's a decent trailer for eyes and ears.

I really can't imagine how the art of deception would work in an RTS game. In my opinion, if RUSE is a turn-based strategy game like X-com or S²:Silent Storm, the deceptive strategies and decoy mechanics might work better since players who took the bait will waste their turn (as well as resources) and scratch their heads while witnessing enemies' wrath (just like chess where you have to really plan steps ahead and no tank rushes or cannon fodders to easily help you turn the table around)... yeah, this is just me who sucks at RTS games speaking.

You can check out more videos of RUSE here

video source: PoderMortal@Youtube

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How Benjamin Button got his face



Ed Ulbrich, the digital-effects guru from Digital Domain, explains the Oscar-winning technology that allowed his team to digitally create the older versions of Brad Pitt's face for "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button." - TED

This video might bore the hell out of most of the regular civilians. But for CG enthusiasts and digital artists (such as myself), this is something REALLY interesting as Ed Ulbrich, the visual effects executive producer at Digital Domain, talked about the processes and techs which made visual elements of "The Curious Case of Brad Pitt Geezer" possible.

Really good stuff!

source: TED (Technology, Entertainment, Design)