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The winner of this week poll was prswirve for Crimson-1881. Well done prs and great work from everyone who entered.
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Posted in Challenge Favorites
Sometimes I feel so bad for Stan Lee!
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Posted in Uncategorized
Amazingly, considering how much of a fan I am of his work, we've never covered any of DiCicatriz's work in COTW. But this week that will change, because, guess what. Yup, you guessed.
So, to kick off, lets look at the shading. DiCicatriz has always been one of those people where I struggle to tell exactly how much shading has been done, because it all looks so seamless and natural. He certainly has a great understanding of lighting. The contrasts on the red section of the hoodie in the first version are the best example of this, but it is also very prevalent if you look at the skin, especially on the face and left arm.
The costuming is also great. The double item shoes, which use two different perspectives to achieve a different style shoe to what either of the original pieces were. In my opinion the black ones on the first version work better, because you can't see the join between the two different shoes and that makes it look more cohesive. The Mexican flag theme works very well on the first version, but the rainbow hoodie is just spectacular. It's quite a simple effect to do, turn one of the gradient rectangles (in background-shapes) 90 degrees, shorten them to preference and then align them so the colours make a continuous rainbow and mask each rectangle to whatever item you are doing (in this case a top), but the effect works brilliantly.
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Posted in Character of the Week, Uncategorized
Every week I put up a new Poll Position post yet I never tell you all the results of the previous Poll, I am going to try and fix that oversight! Either in the new Poll position post, or in the comments ( in the event I write and schedule the poll before the previous one closes ) I will try to remember to post the results of the last poll. Right now I am going to give the results of the last five closed polls that I have posted:
Captain my Caption Winner: Malcolm Reynolds
Sexist Garb Edition Winner: Starfire
SuperGirl Fashion Winner: The New 52 Supergirl
Electro vs Static Winner: Static
Future Superhero Movies Winner: Wonder Woman
So those are the winners are per your votes of MY last 5 polls!
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Posted in Versus
This week I thought I would cast the design net a little further out...and feature a costume, makeup, special effects, and creature designer. Sir Richard Leslie Taylor is the creator and head of New Zealand film prop and special effects company Weta Workshop. Raised in the small town of Patumahoe, just outside of Pukekohe, Taylor was educated at Wesley College, Paerata.
A close friend of Peter Jackson, he and his company created all of the props, costumes, prosthetics, miniatures and weaponry for Jackson's epic The Lord of the Rings film trilogy. For his work on the three films, he shared in winning four Academy Awards. This included two for The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring in Make Up and Visual Effects, and two for The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King in Costume Design and Make Up.
Academy Awards
Nominated: Best Costume Design, The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001)
Won: Best Makeup, The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001)
Won: Best Visual Effects, The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001)
Won: Best Makeup, The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003)
Won: Best Costume Design, The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003)
Won: Best Visual Effects, King Kong (2005)
Film Credits
The Wind in the Willows (visual effects supervisor) (in production)
2012 The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (creatures)
2011 The Devil's Rock (design & effects supervisor: Weta Workshop)
2009 The Lovely Bones (design supervisor: Weta Workshop)
2009 District 9 (design & effects supervisor: Weta Workshop)
2008 Eel Girl (short) (effects supervisor: Weta Workshop)
2007 The Water Horse (supervisor: Weta Workshop)
2007 30 Days of Night (designer: Weta Workshop, effects supervisor: Weta Workshop)
2006 Black Sheep (special effects)
2005 The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (creative supervisor: Weta Workshop)
2005 King Kong (special miniature effects)
2005 The Legend of Zorro (miniature train designer: Weta Workshop, miniatures designer & supervisor: Weta Workshop)
2003 The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (creatures: armour and miniatures, workshop supervisor: Weta Workshop - uncredited)
2003 Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World (miniature effects supervisor: Weta Workshop)
2002 The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (creatures: armour and miniatures)
2001 The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (president: Weta Workshop - uncredited, supervisor: special makeup, creatures, armour and miniatures / Weta workshop - uncredited)
Young Hercules (TV series) (creature special effects - 6 episodes, 1998-1999) (creature special effects designer - 2 episodes, 1998)
1998 Heaven (special effects)
1996-1998 Xena: Warrior Princess (TV series) (special effects designer - 3 episodes)
1997 Tidal Wave: No Escape (TV movie) (miniature effects supervisor: Australia)
1994 Once Were Warriors (prosthetics)
1994 Heavenly Creatures (borovnian prosthetics and suite effects designer, prosthetic effects)
1994 Hercules: The Legendary Journeys - Hercules and the Lost Kingdom (TV movie) (special effects designer: Weta Ltd.)
1993 The Tommyknockers (TV mini-series) (alien supervisor: New Zealand)
1992 Braindead (creature & gore effects, stop motion animator)
1989 Meet the Feebles (puppet maker)
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Posted in Uncategorized
This week, I want to talk about comic books and politics. Should comics be influenced by politics? And have comics lost some of their sense of social justice?
Now, to get to the bottom of this, I have to go back to the Silver Age of Comics, the late 50's to early 70's, a time of great social and political reform and upheaval, especially in America. The prevalent black civil rights movement saw the birth of the first black superheroes, such as Black Panther and Falcon at Marvel and Black Lightning at DC. But even before then, there were some instances of comics favouring civil rights. For example Real Fact Comics issue 5 (DC, 1946) ran a highly favourable piece on Paul Robeson, a black actor/ singer/ athlete, which included the phrase "He already, by example, has taught the world, as well as his race, that color has nothing to do with greatness." which was hugely progressive for a time when there was still segregation in federal buildings. Also some comics featuring white protagonists came out against racism, such as Green Lantern/ Green Arrow, The Avengers and Captain America (admittedly the later two really only came out against racism when they had the two aforementioned black heroes amongst their rooster of characters). However, whilst black people seem to be doing well in comics now, I still think that some ethnic groups are being left out. For example, whilst I can think of a few Asian superheroes, I struggle to think of many Hispanic heroes and I can only think of at best 3 representatives each for any religion that is not Christianity. I can't name any explicitly Muslim heroes apart from Dust from the X-Men (Simon Baz is never said to be Muslim as far as I'm aware, just Arab-American, but feel free to correct me if I'm wrong) and I can't think of any Hindu heroes off the top of my head.
Then we come to more a political side. Whilst I am glad to see a decent proliferation of LGBT heroes and heroines in comics today, I can't help thinking that the writers are actually shying away from any big political story-lines that might result. This is also now true about dealing with racism. It's almost as if they are denying that these problems exist. I know comics are still meant to be aimed at younger people (some might say kids), but surely that's a good enough reason to do it. By including any character specifically as a "good guy" (Batwoman, Hulkling and Wiccan from the Young Avengers, etc.) you are saying that it doesn't matter who they love, hopefully making an impression. So why is the bad side being ignored. They're saying "this isn't something that is wrong" about being gay, so why are they not saying "this IS something that is wrong" about the hatred and violence directed at people just for being different.
Anyway, that's my two pennies worth. I'd like to hear what you guys think about this subject. However, be warned. I want a fair and reasonable discussion, so if I see anyone being unreasonable or being intolerant towards any group mentioned above, I will be removing your comments.
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Posted in Uncategorized
I had my first ever audio interview with the great folks at "Creative Commoners", in an episode airing today. We talked about all things HeroMachine, with featured shout-outs to Kaldath, Hammerknight, DiCicatriz, MSchute, and more. I hope you check it out and if you do, please let me know what you think. It turns out talking about yourself for an hour is pretty intimidating, but luckily the hosts were all funny, kind, and professional and I ended up having a really good time.
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Posted in HeroMachine 3, Meta, Things I Like
It is once again Caption Contest time and so without further ado I give you the image I want your best/funniest replacement dialog for.
The normal rules apply, you are limited to Three (3) entries per person, and all entries need to be in by Noon Eastern time next Tuesday September 17th. Remember that this is a family friendly website while crafting your entries and keep things clean! Good Luck everyone!!
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Posted in Caption Challenges
It has been a couple weeks since I last wrote an Anime Talk post, and I wanted to thank you all for your patience. So now that I have managed to pull myself together and set down to write I have decided to take a look how Manga heavily inspires Anime. Here in the west we do see many tv shows and cartoons that have been inspired by comics, but Anime seems to be much MUCH more influenced by the Japanese version of comics, "Manga".
Myself I am not a huge fan of Manga as I have mentioned before on the blog but I have to admit that a great deal of my favorite Anime shows were originally Manga titles though often times the show has only a passing resemblance to the source material. So all this being said, our topic of discussion is simply, do you prefer reading Manga, or watching Anime ? A simple question, but one I do not think will be easily answered by most but I could be wrong. Myself as I said I don't care for manga and much prefer Anime which is odd as I tend to prefer reading any a book then watching the movie based on that book ( or book based on the movie ) as the written format usually is more detailed and thus more enjoyable for me, just not in this case.
So what are your thoughts on the subject ? Let us know in the comments below and hopefully we can get a good discussion going.
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Posted in Anime
Three middle-aged nerds (including yours truly!) review all of the MCU movies in chronological order. Short, funny, and full of good vibes, check it out and let us know what you think!
Nerdmudgeon.com