X-Men Origins: Wolverine: Before and After CGI special effects

NYTimes: Some Pirates Won’t Watch Illegal ‘Wolverine’. So goes the title of a NYTimes blogpost. Apparently, someone at 20th Century Fox (un) intentionally "leaked" a rough cut of the film before it's to hit theaters, a rough cut that lacks any special effects or computer graphics imagery.

Well, lads and lassies, risking imprisonment, sneaking through movie lot security, with bruised knees and past gunfire, we here at Solargun.com have gotten our hands on an exclusive just for you. That's right. We managed to smuggle a screenshot of a scene that has star Hugh Jackman before and after the computer graphics department airbrushes out all the "ugly realities".

 
Before: When you're a star like Hugh Jackman, you have some basic demands.



After: Hugh Jackman as Wolverine in finished airbrushed shot

The Daysleepers

Never eat beans before scuba diving


I was listening to The Radio Dept. on Last.fm and stumbled upon an excellent New York band called The Daysleepers. Dreamy guitars with a lot of reverb creating a lush, layered, textured sound reminiscent of highly influential acts of the early 90's like Cocteau Twins, My Bloody Valentine, The Cure, perhaps some other more obscure 4AD bands (Red House Painters) or Projekt bands (Love Spirals Downwards). In fact, they describe themselves on their homepage as "shoegaze, dreampop, ambient music", having been inspired by "Slowdive, My Bloody Valentine, Cocteau Twins, The Cure, and the Chameleons". Oooh, just what I like. On Amazon.com, there's an impressive quote from Robin Guthrie of the Cocteau Twins: "Lovely sounds ... lovely guitars." The album features both male vocals with a sense of nostalgic longing and beautiful ethereal female vocals. It's pure awesomeness.

Their web splash page has nice contemporary design elements: dark photo of giant octopus tentacles overlaid with a nice 2d floral illustration with half opacity.


Think twice before ordering the Phillip McKraken sushi...


I like how the 2d illustration looks a wee bit like flowers and a wee bit like waves. The tentacles are a nice association with the first track "Release The Kraken" from their first full debut album "Drowned in a Sea of Sound" (2008). For that track, I like how the "release" has a double meaning: does it mean "unleash", as in, unleash the monstrous kraken to destroy the world? or does it mean "free", as in free the enigmatic mysteries of nature? In the lyrics, it's kinda cool that the Kraken is a symbol for love. About the Kraken...


This Kraken loves the people on the ship


...on a random note, I originally thought this band was Swedish. Why you ask? Well, I was listening to Swede Pop on Last.fm, and this band was part of the set. So when I found the album on Amazon.com, and saw that the first track was called "Release the Kraken", I naturally thought it was a Swedish band, since the first thing one thinks about the Swedes are gigantic Krakens.


Swedish Chef playing air guitar


Current band members are:
- Jeff Kandefer
- Scott Beckstein
- Elizabeth Kandefer
- Mario Gimbrone


It's always snowing in Buffalo, NY


Current discography is:
- Drowned in a Sea of Sound (2008)
- The Soft Attack (EP) (2006)
- Hide Your Eyes (EP) (2006)

External Links:
- The Daysleepers
- Amazon.com
- Browse similar bands on Last.fm
- Discography on discogs.com
- Myspace

Someone doesn't know how to render smoke

I've been seeing these advertisements throughout the city for a new horror flick called "The Haunting in Connecticut". I can't think of anything scarier than Connecticut. The first time I saw these posters, I couldn't really make out WTF I was looking at. But upon closer inspection though, I thought someone had vandalized the posters with some brown love.


Looks like a Zune ad.


Upon even closer inspection, the only thing that crossed my mind was: "ew"


What Haley Joel Osment is reduced to acting in these days.


What is apparent about this poster is that someone doesn't know how to properly render smoke. The volumetric and specular effects are so full of fail. The smoke or ghostly ectoplasm I'm familiar with usually has a thin, wispy, ethereal quality to it. But this particular smoke has a lot of girth, is brown, reminiscent of large intestines, and appears to to have a somewhat metallic, shiny, chocolate chrome effect. Chrome + Chocolate = Scary. Maybe it's the smoke of Montezuma's ghost.


Two girls, one cup, and one boy with ipecac.


To be fair, perhaps it's not supposed to be some ectoplasmic goo from beyond at all, but the aftermath of some bratwurst fest in Hamburg gone horribly awry. In which case, the poster graphic is perfect!

Retro hand illustrations are "in"... but why?

One design trend I've been seeing a lot of lately is the retro look of hand drawn illustrations that appear as though they were drawn with markers and tempra paints, like some sort of 70's inspired art from 1982. A recent cover of Computer Arts magazine (issue #158) is a "perfect illustration" of poor execution.


This cover made my eyes bleed.


Do I like it? Eh, not really. What's wrong with it? It seems simplistic yet messy, and appears to lack any artistic skills. There is no symmetry, no balance, no depth, and no control over the contours, form, or lines. It's simply a two dimensional barf of colors and shapes.


Prince Charles as a high school art student.


This particular Computer Arts cover is particularly atrocious because of the fey douchebag on the cover. He's right out of your high school art class and the symbol of pastey, anemic folk art, complete with Zoolander's Blue Steel sunken cheeks. Note the hand-silkscreened T-shirt with stretched out neck and 70s jogging jacket. Also, the placement of the "Get your dream job" right in his crotch, well, maybe there was a typo when typing "Get your cream job".


The money shot.


Although I appreciate this new wave of neo-psychedelia, there is just too many examples of poor execution. But what of a good example? Here's one:



Delicious with a cherry on top.


The reason I liked this execution is because it puts a very contemporary spin on classic psychedelia. It's from the "new retro" tutorial on the Computer Arts website. Note the galaxy background with purples and blues, reminiscent of OS X. The rainbow also has a nice glassy effect with some fairly complex gradients, not an easy skill to master for an amateur.