Mike Milo’s Journal

Hot DAMN this is funny! I love the Internet Explorer guy!

Well after many months of working at home, fighting the good fight, starting tomorrow I go back to the trenches to fight once again for cool cartoons! This time I am going to work as a Development Artist at a studio called Gigapix in Chatsworth, CA.

It’s a huge studio with over 30,000 sq ft. of space and I am anxious to get started!

What have they done you say? Who are they?

Well that’s the beauty of it, they are just really starting out so I am getting in at the ground floor. They are fully funded though and plan on doing animated features which I have always wanted to be involved with.

Here’s a blurb from their website:

GigaPix Studio’s goal is to create original, high quality, feature length family films utilizing digital animation. We are passionate and dedicated to developing projects that not only enrich our lives but also those of our audience.

Anyone who reads this blog (all four of you) knows that development is something I love to do and when the chance to do it full time came up I jumped at the chance!

My duties will vary day to day but I am told that one day I might be animating an online cartoon in After Effects or Flash and then the next designing a character fro a feature film we’re developing and then the next day builidng a puppet for a pitch.

It’s the perfect job for me because I like to do all sorts of things… just being creative. Now I get to do it for pay!

Wish me luck!

Extremely clever! Check it out!

It makes me sad that these people are so ignorant that they feel they have to try to destroy our most precious symbol. Granted, perhaps our President is a bit of a War-Monger lately but honestly we are all not that just as all Muslims don’t want to blow up planes. What I find ironic is that you don’t see our country protesting and burning things BECAUSE of this event while if we did it to thier flag or their God they would be rioting in the streets. Who’s the real evil?

To see a better view of this picture Right-Click on it and select View Image.

I’ve been really busy lately with all the stuff I have to do, I’m animating a commecial for a Spa called Mountain Haven and it’s almost done. I’ll post it when I’m finished. Also, I am always developing new ideas to pitch to the studios and I have a few that I think are really cool. the first one is called For the Birds and I am just about to start storyboarding that. It’s an idea I’ve had for a long time but for some reason could never decide what the characters should look like until this past week.

Here is a very rough design of some of the characters for one of my newest idea. The green bird is called The Captain, a nerdy kid who believes he’s an alien and the Cardinal is Frankie, a loud-mouthed kid who wears his emotions on his sleeve. Neither is set in stone of course but it’s a good jumping off point as I head into storyboarding the story.

Below is a concept sketch of what I picture the school will look like but I have a freind of mine Maurice doing the final bg. Mine is clearly not designy enough to work as-is.

Lately I have been playing a game called Half Life 2 on XBox and let me tell you if you have not played it and like games then you should run right now to the store and buy it immediately because it is one of the most fascinating games I have ever played.

The game starts out and you are Gordon Freeman, a fugitive on an alien-infested Earth being picked to the bone, its resources depleted, its populace dwindling. Freeman is thrust into the unenviable role of rescuing the world from the wrong he unleashed back at Black Mesa. And a lot of people people he cares about are counting on him. I

t’s pretty basic, you run around killing bad guy soldiers and trying to get the guy that started it all. Along ythe way you meet Alyx Vance who is one of the hottest chicks I’ve ever seen in a game. Unlike Lara Croft who is overtly physically sexual with her pontoon boobies, Alyx is just the hot bad girl chick you knew in college. Shapely, smart and resourcful. I am amazed by the detail in this game as the people look the most like actual humans I have ever seen. Great eye candy the whole way through.

Ok so it’s pretty to look at… why do I like it so much?  Well, unlike most games where you are corralled from one spot to another and then watch a “movie” of what’s happening in the story, Half-Life 2 just keeps you in the room as ewveryone speaks making it feel more like you are actually living the experience. What’s more is that you can pick things up! That’s right… you can pick up, throw and kill people with most things. In a true puzzle nature, in certain places you need to figure out how to get to new areas by either stacking boxes or wood or bricks or using a ballast to hoist you up somewhere or using a 2X4 to lay across a chasm so you can precariously walk across it.
Apparently the whay they do it all is by using a physics engine called Havoc which makes almost everything in the game moveable.  Pretty amazing. Later in the game you’re given a Gravity Gun which allows you to pick up and hoist huge things. You can even grab soldiers and throw them at other ones! How cool is that!?!?!

It also uses a thing called ragdoll physics so when you shoot someone on top of a building they fall and bounce arms flailing and flopping around. Very real.

It’s not too bloody either so you don’t have to really worry about that with regard to kids but it is a bit scary as there are lots of dark places for baddies to hide and there are these things called Head Crabs which jump onto your head and take over your body turning you into a zombie-like creature. Very scary. There are also these bugs called Ant Lions which are nasty creatures that burrow in the sand and they can feel the vibrations when you walk on their terrain. They lie bured eveyewhere waiting to kill you. Later you figure a way to control them and sick them on the bad guys which is really cool. Really amazing stuff when you consider that it’s all just 0’s and 1’s running through your computer or XBox to create all this stuff.

Here’s a bit from the Half Life 2 Website toting some of the game’s impressive features!

• Characters – Advanced facial animation system delivers the most sophisticated in-game characters ever seen. With 40 distinct facial “muscles,” human characters convey the full array of human emotion, and respond to the player with fluidity and intelligence.

• Physics – From pebbles to water to 2-ton trucks respond as expected, as they obey the laws of mass, friction, gravity, and buoyancy.

• Graphics – Source’s shader-based renderer, like the one used at Pixar to create movies such as Toy Story® and Monster’s, Inc.®, creates the most beautiful and realistic environments ever seen in a video game.

• AI - Neither friends nor enemies charge blindly into the fray. They can assess threats, navigate tricky terrain, and fashion weapons from whatever is at hand.

Anyway, it’s a great game and having just finished it I am a bit miffed that the newest game Half Life 2 Epsiode ONe isn’t coming to the XBox. It’s only for PC play. Grrrrr.

Buy the game. You will not regret it.

While I have to admit I am biased (because I worked on it), Xiaolin Showdown is a great show. The story gets better as the series goes on and it has susinct voices that match the characters personalities very well. The characters, Omi, Raimundo, Kimiko and Clay are all young martial artists going to a school to learn to be Xiaolin warriors with the bumps of growing up getting in the way constantly.

Personally my favorite character is Jack Spicer because he’s more or less an idiot and I can fully identify with that! I love his gadgets which are odd and for the most part useless. Wuya the Witch is a great character as well because she is ineffectual ude to her being a ghost causing an interwsting dynamic between her and Jack who have teamed up to destroy the world through the Shen gong Wu talismans that pop up across the earth.
There is many things about this show that make it first rate in my opinion. But don’t take my word for it go buy it! The characters, the plot, the humor, the different personalities, and the colorful animation style. This is a must have DVD!

While I wasn’t a huge fan of the comic or the animated series, now THIS looks cool! Suddenly, I am really looking forward to this film. I hope the humans are animated as well or it will ruin it. Great animation and great moves! Such a well directed trailer. If the film is half as well directed it’s gonna be all eye-candy for this fella!