I'd love to be over with assignments...

I have tons to do and my kid has been sick since Thursday so I haven't been able to sit down and do stuff that I need to do.

I would really like to finish with the tasks for this course so I can move onto other stuff. I'm pretty sure I have done everything so far. Except for commenting.. because no one has anything that I can comment on. Has anyone done the final task yet?

Motion Capture as Storytelling facilitator - Final Task

Brief description and history of Motion Capture

As with all new technologies that are created out of a particular need, MoCap has found many ways to affect storytelling among other things. 

In brief, Motion capture evolved to a very precise way of recording the movements of actors in a three dimensional space regardless of how they look, and with accurate physics. This translated into a wide range of fields where the information could be used. It is currently used in areas such as Film and Television, Game Design, Medicine, Sports, Research, Military, and Robotics.

http://www.blu-ray.com/movies/The-Lord-of-the-Rings-Blu-ray/8852/

In the film industry, Motion Capture replaced another technique called Rotoscope where actors were filmed and later animation was redrawn on top, following the same movements. This created more life like movement for characters. This technique was used, for example, in 1978's Lord of the Rings. In that particular case, it helped all characters, be it humans, dwarves, elves, or orcs to have consistent movements. This sparkled the idea that by having an unidentified actor producing the movements, you could have any character or object following it's movement. With Today's MoCap technology we are able to do just that.

As the technology was developing, in 2001, Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within became the first full length movie to have been produced using Motion Capture. It was a whole world and characters fully created in the computer. After that, the film industry kept developing the technology as they attempted to recreate life like movements into more and more realistic environments.

Before, it would have been very difficult producing the movement of creatures that don't exist and make them believable. So was the case of The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers where the first real time Motion Capture was used to record the movements of the actor to be translated into the screen as the fully computer generated character of Gollum. It would have been near impossible finding someone that looked like the tormented creature to play the part, but by using the technology, they were able to blend the CG and real life footage into a realistic form.

http://www.myjive.com/animation-led-motion-capture

There have been countless movies and now also games that have been produced using Motion Capture. In a way using the technology helps reduce the animation time almost to zero. Yes, there has to be some cleanup of the files and the models need to be paired properly for the avatars to function properly and move according to the actor's movements. But instead of having to manually animate and process every single bone in a character's structure, taking a lot of time in the process, by just preparing the files and models correctly, all of this can be done automatically.

On to a more particular matter: Our own experience using Motion Capture to facilitate OUR storytelling.

How is it now, that a small group of students with very little experience animating, can get access to a MoCap studio? Here is our experience using the technology to help create a small story we developed for a game called House of Cats. We made this during the Mediapolis Game Jam.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/mikaelpeltomaa/23200134006/

As a Team, we developed a story where the player (a boy inside the game) had trespassed into the Crazy Cat Lady's house. He had to navigate through a house with lots of rooms full of cats and find the way out. The worst part was, the Crazy Cat Lady was though to have killed other trespassing kids before, so the aim was to not wake up the woman and leave the house alive.

We made our game and we used the technology available to us. We went to the Motion Capture studio and recorded the movements that our characters would make. We had 3 characters, The boy, the woman, and the ghost of another kid. For each character we had a series of movements planned that we would need. 

Here is me, ready to do the angry crazy cat lady's moves.

For example the boy would need to walk carefully through the room (movement one), he would topple things accidentally (move 2), he would accidentally step on a cat (movement 3), also when the inevitable waking of the woman occurred, there would have to be a move cowering from her (movement 4). The ghost basically would just move around randomly (my movement however, looked like a weird drunk dancer of some sort, I thought the legs wouldn't matter in the end). And the woman, well, she would come at you to kill you.

The video above shows one of the captures I acted of the boy walking carefully around the room and toppling an item from over a table. As you see, the translation of movement is great and it took literally seconds to create. This can then be used for any character after being linked. I, however, haven't gotten that far yet on my MoCap course, so I won't be able to make all the nifty mini-videos I wanted to make.

As with any newbie using something, of course things went wrong and our animation didn't end up looking perfectly like our motion captures. Mostly because of how the 3d model was made, but in the end I think it worked just fine for our purposes, which was to create a scary looking move, so the glitches (and our ignorance of how to properly work with the files) worked in our favor in making the woman look more demon-like than anticipated.

The video above shows the Game Over mini animation of the crazy cat lady attacking the player, along with our player (using a Virtual Reality headset) watching it happen. By the end of the 48 hours we had to create a game, we changed our concept and play mechanics so much that things were a bit off everywhere.

In our particular case, MoCap technology helped us speed things up by prerecording very quickly our movements instead of spending countless hours trying to make the characters move. As time was of the essence for us in that project, using these "simplifying" technologies is what got us through the line.

****

There is another project that I am currently working on which involves Motion Capture. It's a short story of a business man and a shoe shiner. We already went to the studio, acted and recorded the movements. This experience showed other advantages to this technology.

For example, after running around and acting, you can immediately watch what you captured and see how everything looks like. You can get the full sense of the scene and correct little mistakes if needed. By watching what you recorded, you can see if there are flaws that need to be fixed before we even get into the developing of the characters. 

For example, we noticed that one of the actors was moving very lightly and made it seem like he was barely affected by what happened. Our project is going to be a "mute" story, so expression is crucial for the transmission of emotions. This gave us the chance to go back and reenact the story with better results. Take two and we are ready.

Since in the screen all you can see is a thin gray avatar with no features, it's very easy to see how the body moves with no extra distractions. I even have to say that the physical appearance of the actor doesn't matter, so if I'm still carrying 5 extra kilos from after the pregnancy, they don't show on the screen at all! (self esteem +1)

Tip toeing around the mad cat house.

All in all I believe this new technology has been able to produce some incredible results and I'm pretty sure that storytellers of old would have loved to see what human ingenuity has been able to produce. To show worlds as we see them in our heads so others can see them too. To experience what others experience as if we were there. Storytelling has evolved since the first person that sat down and told a story. Where will we go next?

Sources:

http://areena.yle.fi/1-3159473

https://www.flickr.com/photos/mikaelpeltomaa/albums/72157660723845149

http://www.firstshowing.net/2014/whoa-dawn-of-the-planet-of-the-apes-mocap-comparison-video/

http://www.davidbordwell.net/blog/2010/02/23/motion-capturing-an-oscar/
http://www.rotoscopers.com/2014/04/10/20-unforgettable-moments-from-ralph-bakshis-the-lord-of-the-rings/

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/MotionCapture

http://sploid.gizmodo.com/the-motion-capture-in-dawn-of-the-planet-of-the-apes-is-1580043101

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motion_capture

____________________________________________________________________________

And to finish, on a side note about quickly presenting ideas, we were so proud of ourselves! We managed to write and say our pitch in less than 30 seconds! I think that on the actual pitch (not on the practice run among ourselves) I managed to do it in less than 16. And watching the video made me realize why people have trouble understanding me when I talk fast...

Our pitch when we were only 3 first year students with no game designing experience. (Two codes joined us afterwards :D)

Finnish Media Overlook.

Look at that! I did had time to finish almost all my other assignments after all.

We had to swiftly research the  Finnish media and will give a presentation about it on thursday. here is what we looked into so far:

Media Outlet Owners

Yleisradio (YLE), also known as Finnish Broadcasting Company in English is Finland's national public broadcasting company. It is a public limited company, and 99,98% of it is owned by the Finnish state. It is widely modelled after its UK counterpart, the BBC. YLE offers many services, television and radio being the most visible.

MTV (MTV Oy) is Finland's most watched commercial television channel and one of Europe's oldest commercial television broadcast companies. Previously it was owned by several advertising agencies, however today it is owned by a Swedish publishing company Bonnier. MTV offers news in the television and on their own website and also in radio (Radio Nova). Several other channels (most of them require a fee to watch) are under MTV's ownership - Sub, AVA and the MTV Total channel package.

Aamulehti is a Finnish language daily newspaper published in the Tampere region. Aamulehti Corporation owned the paper until 2003 when it was acquired by Finnish Alma Media. Aamulehti's sister papers are Iltalehti and the business-oriented Kauppalehti.

Helsingin Sanomat (HS) is the largest subscription-based newspaper in the Nordic countries and it is owned by Sanoma which is a Finnish company that also operates in over ten other European countries. Sanoma also owns (for the most part) the television channel Nelonen.

Censorship

In Finland we have freedom of speech which gives any person right to say out loud their opinion.

Its tricky thing because now we all think we all can say whatever we want without censorship, the truth however is that there are all lot of things that are not said. Finnish media have developed this certain way how to say things. For example during election of president on 2006 there was question asked: “Should president of Finland support status of Swedish language in Finland?”

But that question doesn’t really ask anything about Finnish language legislation or the law that makes us to study Swedish in our schools.

So in a way Finnish media have found a way to ask questions about the matter people want to hear without going straight to the point. People just remember politicians talking about the topic and creates illusion of censorship media. http://www.pakkoruotsi.net/media.shtml

Safeguarding impartiality and ethics

We have “Julkisen sanan neuvosto” also know as Council for Mass Media
http://www.jsn.fi/en/

CMM was established in 1968 by publishers and journalists.

Its task is to interpret good professional practice and defend the freedom of speech and publication but it does not exercise legal jurisdiction.

Any person who considers that there has been a breach of good professional practice by media may bring this to the attention of the CMM.

Example of Finnish Media Online Article

News are exposed in a short an concise way, but the amount of information on the articles is lacking and very short. It presents the head title followed by a short description of the article. It is immediately followed by a facebook icon to "recommend" the article to others, or share it. After that an image is presented and followed by the bulk of the article. In the end, it is followed by a series of links to "related news" which may or may not be related.

On the side, a series of headlines is displayed along with a section of "our picks" where they display the articles that seems the most relevant for the journalists. It also has a timeline with news on the far right. On the top of the page, a weather report.

Interesting link about the media landscape:

http://ejc.net/media_landscapes/finland

Is there Free Press?

It’s difficult to have media that is completely objective and free, but the situation in Finland is definitely better than in many other countries. As long as it doesn’t break the laws you can get pretty much any opinions posted as long as someone is willing to publish it.

Politicians can be criticized freely and even quite radical opinions get out there. Even blatant racists and just general assholes (the True Finns party) can get their voices heard.

The word “free media” is used a lot, but it kind of remains open who and what it actually refers to, or if it's all finnish media in general. Like in this article.

http://yle.fi/uutiset/vapaa_media_pelasti_henkeni/6318533

____________________________________________________________

** This was a group task, so team members opinions are expressed as well.

Busy Busy Mediapolis Game Jam

Two of my friends and I participated in the Mediapolis Game Jam. It was the first game jam I've ever attended. I loved it, it was great, but i'm exhausted. Therefore I'm not sure if my blog post for this weekend will be on time but here is this post saying why.

Photo by Mikael Peltomaa

I will write more about the game jam later on as well. But for now this is it.

Another media blog entry. (day 2)

Wow, I'm still amazed at how quickly the heart of the common person changes. Yesterday the internet felt a wave of sorrow and compassion, and today... Today it's already too much?

I kept following what happened with the topic of the attacks on Paris, and this is where the web is at now:

How weird is it that we were talking about these massive media events in class and one happens before next class? Does he know something? Do we?

Another media blog entry. (updated a lot)

It's terrible that such bad news appear right when you have to do a dedicated assignment about media. I could say so many things about what's going on, but i'm not going to, It's too much stuff that I don't want to get started on that.

Instead, I will yet again point at how weird it is that people turn to social media for news.

In this case, I was browsing around and ran into this post:

http://9gag.com/gag/aepwZdB

The person that posted this mentioned that they don't know french and they don't understand whats going on in the news, so naturally they turned into a place they know will most likely provide answers.

Among the ordinary "Fallout 4 is out" and "John Travolta" posts, there were a lot of messages posted by people following the news all over the world. Many in the USA are posting pictures of governmental buildings that have been lit with the colors of France's flag to show support. It's amazing how nowadays you can so easily find out what happens around the world as a reaction to another event.

I'm sure many would not see those pictures at all if it wasn't for social media. The printed press and even the news webpages can only "print" a limited amount of pictures, right?

Here are a few images of what's going on right now.

I don't know. It seems to give a sense of unity. I don't log into social media to check whats going on, I mostly log when i'm bored and have nothing else to do, like have a few seconds of peace that could not be used to, say, play a game.

I keep updating this because I've been paying attention to how things have developed over the day.
It seems at first people seemed to be shocked and supportive. Now some other issues have been arising:

Need I say more?

Documenting Ideas. News for all.

Well, it was strange. We had to come up with a way of delivering news that was different from what we currently have. I guess I had been pushing the boundaries of the exercises slightly as of late. So now we get more defined outlines.

As we went back to our fortress of thought, riddled with dirty dishes and all kinds of disgusting features (yet the best seats in the school) we set up to redefine the concept of news itself. (Yes, i'm feeling a bit poetical after watching some Dr.Who and hearing "fire in the water" one too many times.)

One of our team members suggested that we try to tackle it in a more controversial way. It's weird but all I could think of was how news were presented in a completely non-objective and biased way in V for Vendetta. And in a way we ended up trying to do something in that style. Kind of.

The weirdest thing is: What a coincidence... That day was the 5th of November...

(Yes, that extra comma there makes my grammar-nazi senses tingle.)

We started our mandatory discussion trying to define exactly what we wanted. I certainly was aiming for something different but as a team decision, the best I can do is try to help define it. As always, I went to the computer and tried narrowing down the ideas as best I could and put them into a presentation. Its hard when we are so caught up on making and exploring ideas that we then need to go back to a few simple statements and write the down.

No wonder when we try to ground the ideas we have such a conflicting time, some of our ideas end up being contradictory by nature. And it always seems like we have a lot of time to think about things, and we end up running out of time in a flash.

In any case, our idea was that instead of delivering news in a direct and pre-digested way, we would do more of a dialog between two opposing opinions on the matter and try to make people think for themselves. Revolutionary, right? We tried to aim it as making people truly get involved mentally.

Think about it this way. If I tell you Replicators are dangerous, you might just nod and move on with your day. Maybe one day in the future you will remember the word Replicator, but won't remember if it was good or bad. If instead, I show you the struggles of Replicator Fifth and sarcastically say how loving and caring this character was, you might (if you have a curious nature) feel compelled to learn more and make your own judgement. See what I did there? If you have no idea what Replicators are and have no idea what I'm talking about, you might feel tempted to click on the links and read a bit about what those things are. (Or if you are lazy you will just keep going, if you even keep going at all.. I'm looking at you Patricia! *grin*)

The point doesn't end there. If you clicked on the links you might have learned that Fifth was a replicator who was betrayed and in turn became an enemy for the humans on a tv series called Stargate SG-1. You would have learned that indeed replicators were a nasty plague that drove the Asgard to commit mass suicide ending their existence as a race in the galaxy and they might have almost destroyed our dear Milky Way. But if you hadn't been somehow pushed into learning about it on your own, by your own conviction, (or in this case being 'spoon fed' by me in this paragraph) you would have "Maybe remembered the word Replicator, but not remembered if it was good or bad."

That was basically the point we wanted to make in class. I think we failed miserably in the execution as I believe the idea didn't get trough. It didnt help that we had quite a few contradictory ideas floating around and we were force, due to lack of time, to condense everything to have something to present.

Shame on us really. I hate bad quality work.

Wow how weird.

You know when you haven't even thought about something for years and you suddenly remember about it. then you log on and there it is?

Someone posting about the movie I mentioned yesterday at class. Evolution.

The longest shampoo commercial in the history of mankind.

Oh my...

Pre-task.

Time Travel. Media Landscape Report.

The world is healing.

If you haven't, read this post first.

I hope you enjoyed the short story setting I wrote for this assignment. It costed me a lot to do it, since I paid for an upgrade for my 3d modeling program (*grin*) and well... It did take the whole weekend to make and render that tiny video of the chair with plants and water. Too much water, and in retrospective, I shouldn't have used brushed steel as a material for the chair, too many reflections of water waves and plants moving around. But now I have so many ideas of pictures I want to make related to this story! Now that i just uploaded the video, i gotta say.. it looks terrible and horrific. I hate it. I have no idea what happened with compression rates or something while uploading. This is a nightmare...

Anyways, back to the assignment. On this trip to the future, I followed a Worst Case Scenario with a twist. Since the assignment was defined as "no right or wrong answers" I did push it a bit to the extreme and had a lot of fun in the process of making the whole story in my head (and checking lots of facts and conventions so that things sound plausible, I even came up with my own interplanetary time system and all!).

I wrote the story of how the world ends due to disarray and chaos. How, sadly, the amount of small minded people overwhelms the possibility of a brighter future and eventually ends with the demise of the human species. Before all is lost, the party blamed for the chaos (the aliens who hadn't even made contact with us by the time of the war aka 'The Raze') comes and saves the day for the few remaining bits of human society and takes them to safety while, well, Earth gets a makeover.

In this setting, I considered the media going back to a more primal state, where it is actually used as a means of communication, no hidden agendas, no evil handlers, no puppeteers and no zombified spectators. An Utopian media if you will. The way intelligent and moral beings would use it, discarding the bad aspects of it.

The media would affect the society in a way that it would (in my setting in the future) help reintegrate the remaining people. It would give back a sense of community and belonging, while being friendly, informative and positive. It would be awaited instead of just another part of the busy lives of our contemporary lives.

All in all. Yeah, I hope you enjoyed.

Time Travel. Regional Gyration Notation: Year 2025...

The following text has been translated to CEL (Common Earth Language: previously known as English)

To citizens of the human colony on 'Tabetha':

The latest probe on Earth has sent back promising results. Radiation levels have effectively started decreasing following the events of The Raze. Relocation to Earth is now possible and available. Apply to secure your place in The Ark in the next junction cycle.

Following is a short demonstration of plant life regeneration and ecosystem reformation. Due to transmission delays, the video demonstrates events from 3 years ago. Decontamination methods used have proven effective.

(wow the quality of this video really went to hell, wtf?)

 End of communique.

----------------------------------------

We are going HOME!

Good news from our hosts in this far away corner of the Galaxy! It seems that their relentless efforts to heal our broken planet have paid off! Radiation levels are dropping fast and their probe sent us confirmation of local vegetation growing without intervention and outside the Regrowth Zones.

Applications for the first trip on The Ark have begun. Don't forget to inform your supervising agent and apply with the necessary forms available in the grid.

Have a pleasant afternoon.
-Darleth Scorial, Communications Manager.

----------------------------------------

A time for remembrance.

It has been 6 years already since we lost the ability to live on Earth. Thanks to our kind hosts we have been able to retrieve electronic files with information regarding The Raze. Let us remember the past an honor those who were lost on that tragic chain of events.

Following confirmation from the Kepler space observatory, the debate on existence of life outside our Solar System was finally put to rest. After much deliberation on Alien life and the consequences that could bring, several governmental organizations across the world came together to create a spaceship capable of Faster than Light Travel. It was early in the year 2017 that the Astraeus was launched and it triumphantly entered Hyperspace.

Following the success of the Astraeus, many populations began to manifest fear of the encounter with another intelligent life form, remember that at this time, we had not yet made contact with our gracious hosts. Riots began on most mayor cities of the planet and eventually, the 'Humanitarians' began a series of offensive attacks against the various forms of government. Martial law was put into effect on most countries but regardless the population of Earth all fell into disarray.

The Dark Day (July 17th, 2019) marked the end of our Human era. On that day, nuclear war began with the detonation of large yielding atomic bombs at ground level in many areas of the world. It was speculated at the time that a small number of individuals infiltrated an arsenal and began the attack.

The nuclear war was swift and unstoppable. The following months after the fallout brought death to the population of Earth. By September a mere 0.000012% of the population remained, most suffering from severe radiation poisoning.

It was then when our kind hosts arrived and saved the 88,534 people that were left on the planet. Advance medical procedures were performed to stop and eliminated the radioactive illnesses that we had. Along with a few species of animals, our hosts also retrieved the over 10,000 seed samples from the vaults at Svalbard. They kindly began a campaign to rehabilitate our planet.

November 1st, 2025.

Story, concept and all images and animations made by Barbara Leal

Continue to the media report here.

Pre-Post-Task

(Ok, in preparation for what I have planned for my task for this week, I will post here a few links to interesting and relevant information that will be somewhat intertwined with what I will be doing.

Mind that since I'm rendering an unrelated, heavy-atmosphere (meaning tons of clouds), animation right now, I can't get right into starting with what I will do. You know, sometimes my program and photoshop don't get along and there's a chance of crashing what has already been rendered.
In any way, here is what is relevant to my task: )

____________________________________________________________________

...

Relevant Pre-Raze information acquired...

Regional Gyration Notation: Year 2015...

... 4 Solar Revolutions before The Raze.

Ion Engine Breakthrough Could Take Us To Mars At A Fraction Of The Fuel

Independent expert confirms that the "impossible" EM Drive actually works

Scientists can’t explain what huge object is blocking the light from this distant star

(this video was made by WarpGazer)

Here I am. What is this script writing?

So, in order to prepare myself for the seemingly frightening task set by the script writing teachers. I have just downloaded the CeltX program for script writing, mind you i have no idea how I should do things.

Is my cat the only cat that needs a chaperon to go to the toilet?

Ask me to make a small script for capturing my skillups in a different window on my MUD client:

local w = GetWorld ("skills")  -- get "chat" world

if w then  -- if present
  for _, v in ipairs (TriggerStyleRuns) do
    w:ColourTell (RGBColourToName (v.textcolour), 
                  RGBColourToName (v.backcolour), 
                  v.text)  
  end -- for each style run
  w:Note ("")  -- wrap up line

end -- world found

Excellent.

Ask me to dress up with a silly suit and play around:

With the Motion Capture suit. 

Done!

but .. use an unfamiliar program and unknown format to examine a scene in a tv show or movie and make a scene description like a pro would do? I have no clue! I don't even know when a scene starts and ends! In a sense it's interesting because I will learn something new and completely unexplored to me. But right now i have that nasty deep feeling in my gut that I might be going against the flow. I'm not the kind to shy away from trying something out. But after receiving the grades from some previously taken courses, I have come to realize that putting the effort to participate all the time (even at the expense of my own self) and do all the extra work to try to have the best quality possible might not even reflect into my grades.

I tent to participate a lot. If i ever miss a class it's because something really strong happened. Meaning that I don't really skip class. I don't like being late, I don't overshoot deadlines, I don't sit quietly in the room while someone asks for participants. Yet ... bah i'm very.. unmotivated. Sad even. Is there a point? If I cruise around like a lot of the other students and get the same grade, why do I even bother?

I've always felt it's good for me to participate and be honest, people don't always have to agree with what is being said by others. Life is supposed to be a dialog, a push and pull. It doesn't mean I don't like you, or i'm trying to embarrass you, sometimes I might challenge you, but because i want you to broaden your mind. We are all adults here.

I always feed bad when a teacher or speaker asks for someone to participate and everyone stays there quietly waiting for someone else to step up. I always thought it was a nice gesture of me to try to break the </pause> But who knows, maybe my participation is not liked after all.

"Adorno and Horkheimer assert that culture industry eradicates autonomous thinking and criticism, serving to preserve the reigning order."

I'll have to agree with that, and it applies to many things apparently. Wow... just wow...

Post task - Stalking a famous person

At the first mention of the task I had no idea what thing I could come up to that was remotely decent. "A famous person", I was hoping so bad it didn't had to be the typical celebrity. But then it occurred to me: I don't have to 'follow' a fool! I can actually choose someone of interest. And thinking back, I already did.

Sam at the Cupola module at the ISS

I remembered I am following Samantha Cristoforetti on facebook. For those who don't know, she is an astronaut that currently has the record for the longest space mission for a woman (199 days). I started following her because I ran into some very interesting videos she was making of how life happens outside of our little blue dot. Simple tasks that in space a completely different.

This is a nice video:
https://www.facebook.com/ESASamanthaCristoforetti/videos/382879435250834/

I guess being in space must be a great experience for all the senses, but then I would be terrified of coming back down. Just imagine the trip down on the Soyuz. I remember plummeting down to earth from 1 kilometer up and the first 3 seconds were hell. And once the parachute was deployed everything was peachy, but the free fall on the capsule with ever increasing temperatures and turbulence. Wow, I just can't fathom that anymore.

I hope that my SpaceVR videos will take me to the ISS in the safety of my own home next year. Really looking forward to that.

I think it is very cool how Esa is managing the "get to know space" thing. In a way they are most likely encouraging the curiosity in people to see what happens in space. By having this interaction of the astronauts with a facebook fan base, they can show what their life is like up there.

She seems to be a very cheerful and smart person, well educated and formal yet playful in a way. I think the world would be a better place if these heroes were as popular as the crap television we have nowadays.

With all the time travel going around.

Let's not forget this most interesting theory.

Yes. I'll make you click on a link :P

I really don't...

I was reading an interesting article (and skipping some parts, yes, because I have a lot of programming to finish before next week, because I'll have MoCap class starting and overlapping with the last programming class and I need to show the teacher the finished programs before that time)

And i found something of the most horrifying thing that as a Game Design Student I could have found out...

"The Kim Kardashian game, across iOS and Android, has at least as many installs as DOTA2 if not many more — except DOTA2 is #1 on Steam by far, while the Kardashian game is just one of many huge mobile hits with tens of millions of users."

Really world? I'm not saying that DOTA2 is the best game in the world, but there are some amazing games out there.. yet this? A game about a woman who is famous for having a porn video or something like that.

It's annoying to me to think that I'm using the blog to rant a lot, but it's of course, part of human nature to try to share those things that shock us.

Anyways, it's an interesting article that if you are interested you can read here:

10 Big Myths About Video Games, Debunked By The People Who Make Them

Are we ready for Stop Motion!?

I'm actually quit exited by this upcoming course and I have started trying to figure out how I would make my whatever character come to life.

So I started looking around at how characters are made and I found a good easy tutorial for making an armature, Here it is:


And another for the clay:

This is the Goblin King!

Now this is the David Bowie I like! haha

Anyways it is an excellent movie Labyrinth if someone hasn't watched, It's mindblowing when you really start analyzing it.

Just felt like watching it, while I wait for the noise outside this room to lower to I can listen to Neil Gayman's speech.

Reality Tv Show - Cheetahs

At class we were assigned to create the concept of a reality tv show. My team and I went up to Score room to sit at comfortable sofas and bounce ideas back and forth until we reached something we were all happy with.

Our Concept: Cheetahs (Like 'cheaters' but my team liked the play of words with the animal)

We came to the idea of creating a competitive reality tv show where students try to get the best grade possible in a class to win a reward. The class should be of a particular difficulty as to really challenge the students. This would take place in an ordinary school.

Astrophysics would be presumably a difficult topic for art students.

Primary aim: Known to all participants, the aim is to get the best grades possible in an astrophysics class. The student with the top grade will be rewarded with a scholarship to the school/university of their choosing.

Secondary aim: Unbeknownst to all, 3 to 4 participants would have different study backgrounds than the rest (I.E. art students). These students would be told separately that they are the only ones that don't belong in the group. They will be told that they must do all they can to get the best grades while at the same time keeping their background hidden. They must pretend to know as much as the regular students. Bluffing and cheating would become necessary. They would not know that there are others bluffing their way to the top as well.

Students that are caught cheating would be automatically removed from the competition. So they would have to either really find a way to learn and understand everything they need, or they would have to cheat and bluff.

Would they cheat, or strive to be better?

• It's called Cheetahs because of the dual play of words with the word 'cheaters'.
• Students try to get the best grade during a semester of school.
• It's competitive because participants need to do their best to attain the best possible score.
• It's educational because it would present the class with real world information.
• It makes it different because it's educational at it's base, but also deals with the human nature of dishonesty and 'cruising' through classes without real understanding of them.
• Other media can be involved by perhaps hinting on the nature of the 'secret' individuals. Participants would be unaware of the existence of these secret students, but the audience would probably be actively trying to figure who they are and would pay extra attention to the signs of dishonesty.

Tv series and realities. What is real?

During class we were shown some extracts from some reality tv. I keep getting shocked by what entertains the average Joe and Jane. Scripted reality shows just overwhelmed my tolerance for idiocracy. Is this what we, as a society, have come to? I would love to think that the thirst for knowledge and understanding of the world around us would take us closer and closer to an Utopia. That which makes us thrive and pushes us to the edge, to experience, and to explore would make our species 'worthy' of the next step of our evolution. But instead, we are are diminished into nothing more than crazy gossip addicts. Drunken idiots fighting over who has the most 'game' or the best rant.

Which takes me to my next point. Either whomever makes, produces, pays, encourages this to be made, is either genius or insane. It's a very thin line after all.

I understand that drama and sex sells. Our western culture is manufactured specifically to what works best. So having any kind of situation involving people with enhanced (according to society's current take of beauty) physical characteristics will turn heads and turn on tvs/laptops/tablets and so on.

I think that sometimes society and those in control of the media are too fixated with what the world is and wants today, that it neglects to contemplate the two most meanigful words that have pushed the edges of the preestablished definition of our culture: what if. What if people actually do want to be better? What if people actually want to be better informed? What if people are honorable? What if they struggle with the crap that is offered to them? What if they want something more?

One can only hope, right?

Maybe, just maybe, one day we will become a better society. One of true understanding and acceptance. One that would 'see with eyes unclouded'.

No wonder Delight turned into Delirium.

(Yeah back at the Sandman thing, Seriously, Sandman is amazing. It has the right amount of crossover and mixed storytelling. I particularly love when Dream walks out of Hell after challenging Lucifer and Beelzebub.)

Ok. Back to reality. And onto reality shows. In my next post, I will describe the reality tv show that my teammates and me invented. Not surprisingly, its something about honor and knowledge.

Photographing the Milky Way.

Steven Christenson

Following a series of articles from Star Circle Academy I finally opted for trying my luck at photographing our dear swirl of magic, The Milky Way.

Our Galaxy is somewhere between 100,000 and 120,000 light years in diameter and is home to about 400 billion stars. That's a lot of tiny little dots of lights in our night sky. I have alwys seen amazing pictures taken of the Milky Way, but I have never attempted to do it myself.

So now that I stumbled upon this article, I started my googling journey to find comprehensive instructions.

Starting from the first part here.

following to the Second Part

and arriving to the Final Part

Funny enough, as I contemplate on trying my luck tonight or tomorrow night while we are visiting my inlaws in Keminmaa (low light polution, way up north, etc) I went to check the current moon phase, since it's best to try these pictures with low moonlight. And oh behold! Today actually we have a new moon, so it would be perfect, weather allowing. You can check the moon phases here.

Anyways that's it for right now, as I need to prepare for the tediously long train trip to the north. If I manage to produce something worthy, I'll be posting a followup with the pictures. But for now, I leave this here in case anyone is interested and might want to try their luck too.

Happy Syysloma! or Autumn break!

To Alpha Centaury in 100 years??

Isn't it exiting? The Em Drive might be feasible after all!

"Test results indicate that the RF [radio frequency] resonant cavity thruster design, which is unique as an electric propulsion device, is producing a force that is not attributable to any classical electromagnetic phenomenon and, therefore, is potentially demonstrating an interaction with the quantum vacuum virtual plasma," - Nasa Team

Credit: NASA/Glenn Research Center

Click here to see the short article from Space.com

A drive that defies the laws of physics is another example of how science fiction can turn into science fact. Just to think that maybe by the Time Oskar (my one and a half year old son) is old, there might be hyper drives being used. It is so exiting! Imagine the possibilities.

To me the ultimate question of the universe is black holes. Bundle of questions gone unanswered. They are one of the most interesting things in the universe to me. I can't wrap my head around them the longer I try to understand them. Who knows, maybe near my dead-bed I will be able to get this answered before I pass into nothingness. Wow, just wow.

What other amazing things might lay with our understanding and use of the EmDrive? And with our new developing technologies even these types of travel might be accessible to the general population of Earth via VR. Can you imagine experiencing real life 3d footage of a probe going into hyperspace?

This would be the time to fast foward "The Game" a few years and see where things lead.

Post-tasks from class.

A) Having read the article "How Older Viewers Are Rescuing Cinema" I will answer the next questions:

• How does the article characterizes the link between audience, film production, distribution and exhibition?
• Well since the audience that likes going to the movies has aged, the production had to age as well, mature and adapt to what the consumer wants. The film production had to target what the people want to see and dwell on it. raising the quality definitively helped as the mature audience is able to recognize it. 
• Do the films enjoyed by older audiences reinforce or challenge traditional stereotypes about this group?
• Well in my opinion, it reinforces, stereotypes after all are averages of what is notices. Older people have different needs and likes. I'm not into things that 10 years ago were super important to myself. As we grow we evolve and mature and change. It's human nature to adapt and to change. Change is a constant in our development. The cinema industry has to adapt to the changes that people go through. If the paying customers want more spacious seats with better customer service and are willing to pay for it, then they do it. Just like in Mexico we have the VIP rooms where you pay way more, but you get a super comfortable reclinable sofa, a side table, you have waiters and there's a lot of space in between the rows, no more being blocked by the tall guy sitting in front of you. Nowadays, you go to the movies to live and experience, not only to watch a movie. You can watch a 3d movie at home just the same. But the experience is what sells now. Good that they notice and make movies that appeal to that audience.

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B) Videos from Madonna and David Bowie.

• How does gender influence the representation of the artists?
• Well on the Madonna case, very obviously it represents the sexual exploitation. The video is very sexual and it appeals to the phrase that "sex sells". As the singer in this case is female (even though she is very old) she is still represented as the desirable object. In the case of Bowie, heck i still don't know what to make of it. It's very neutral. They don't try to sell the idea of him being desirable, after all he is just a weird plush in front of a parade of random kitsch stuff.
• Is genre playing a part in the representation?
• Most definitely. The "pop" genre is very well know for appealing to the mass audiences and selling sex. It's right there in that alley. It shows exactly what in my mind "pop" is, and reminds me of how/why I don't like it.
• Are we likely to discuss these artists in the same terms?
• I don't know about likely, I would assume not, as the subjective view from me and you might be very different. I don't particularly like the style, nor the execution of this kind of music, therefore I would be unable to give an objective critical view on it. If YOU like it, you are entitled to your own opinion and likes, I can live with that, no problem. Just because you like it (and defend what you like about it) doesn't mean you have to convert me into your way of thinking, same goes for what i like. I don't like sexualized music that just talks about how "cool" you are for being wild and crazy. I like my music to be something more and different.

Now for some extra input from me:

Madonna. Girl? Girl gone wild? isn't she like 70? I can say that the two things i could think while seeing the guys with high heels was 1) omg they are talented on high heels, i should be so lucky, and 2) Satyrs anyone?

On a side note. Holy macaroons Batman! Bowie has gone even further away from the Goblin King. It's like a kitsch cemetery of doom met high level drugs. Oh wow.  

I'm embarrassed at watching these videos. I certainly didn't want to be caught watching them. Who watches these? Why? Is this why humanity sucks so badly?

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C) Perform a textual analysis of an official music video of your own choosing.

Always with scary looking Eddy pictures.

This is the video I will be analyzing: It is Iron Maiden's "The Final Frontier" Song.

I'm stranded in space, I'm lost without trace

I haven't a chance of getting away

Too close to the sun, I surely will burn

Like Icarus before me or so legend goes

I think of my life, reliving the past

There's nothing but wait 'til my time comes

I've had a good life, I'd do it again

Maybe I'll come back some time, my friends

For I have lived my life to the full

I have no regrets

But I wish I could talk to my family

To tell them one last goodbye

The final frontier

The final frontier

The final frontier

The final frontier

If I could survive to live one more time

I wouldn't be changing a thing at all

Done more in my life than some do in ten

I'd go back and do it all over again

For I have lived my life to the full

I have no regrets

But I wish I could talk to my family

And tell them that one last goodbye

The final frontier [x4]

[Guitar solo]

There isn't much time, must say my last rites

Nobody is here to read them to me

Must say my goodbyes, if only a line

A message to tell them in case they might find

For I have lived my life to the full

I have no regrets

But I wish I could talk to my family

To tell them that one last goodbye

The final frontier, the final frontier [x2]

• What is the musical genre and how can you identify it?
• First of all, I'm pretty sure Iron Maiden might be one of the most iconic Heavy Metal bands. Just like Madonna is the queen of Pop. But in case someone doesn't know, the music is characterized by using a lot of distortion in the guitars (check), usually songs have guitar solos (check) and are fast paced (check). The theme of a lot of metal songs go beyond just "girls having fun" or "where the hell am I?" Also the portrait of the albums tend to go along the lines of monsters or other aggressive types.
• What world view is being put forward in the song/video?
• Well, it's showing the ... alien world overview, a hyper-space window, the wastelands of the planet and... Ok in all seriousness, I think it's portraying some very human aspects. 
• The arrogance of mankind that they are above others. He is facing another mercenary and racing him towards the planet. He shoots down the other ship and assumes that Eddy would not survive. This same arrogance is presented when he leaves the station and heads back to his ship after blowing up the tunnel. "For sure Eddy died this time"
• Human exploration. We humans are natural explorers, lonely adventurers that most likely in the future will venture into space and explore it's secrets.
• Ignorance and assumptions. Eddy assumes that by having the key and relic he will he able to control what it does. Ignorance is not bliss, He shouldn't meddle with what he doesn't understand. He blew up the planet and the ship he was on along it. These two traits are very human too, but in this case the director showed how Eddy (presumably of another race) shows similar traits.
• In the end it also leaves a question open, did Eddy survived? Intriguing. 

In this particular case, the song tells a story. By reading just the lyrics you might take it literally (as it was intended i presume) and say the character is in a spaceship and is living his last moments as he approaches the deadly radiation zone of a star. He looks back at his life and is content with how he lived it. He accepts his impending demise and waits gracefully for his end. Not a bad way to go. 

What I love most of this song, and why i chose this one for the analysis, was because of the video. The video shows the story of how the character ended up drifting towards a star. How he travels to another planet and fights Eddy (who might be a mercenary looking for the same artifact) and how in the end he is jettisoned out of his ship into space. The song is the last thoughts in his mind before fading into nothingness.

It is something that i love about metal, the storytelling. Even though the lyrics go one way, the visual story is showing you something else. In this case another part of the same story.

Anyhow, even my toddler approves! He was one year old and instinctively learned how to headbang, and also did this funny sideways dance when he started walking. Makes his mama proud :D

Mindtreking Mindtrek, Part 3

Sorry for the abrupt termination of the previous part of the Mindtrek series. Sometimes my under-development posts stay open for far too long on my computer and I eventually have to restart and/or close the tab.

Back to the Mindtrek. The next part that I visited was the Game Research Lab. There, individual presenters exposed their research projects done at the Uni. The first man to present, showed his project which was about merging the teacher and students life together. To do this, they created a series of trading cards, and a game, to involve the two parties and try to "gamify" the working and studying environment.

The trading cards had information on the different teachers and students, a picture, hobbies and other information about them. The aim of the game was to have these cards show information about people and then challenge players to "fight" for them. The game went like this: Everyone was given X amount of cards, the person to have the most cards at the end of the allocated time (in months i believe) would win something. To gain (or loose) cards, players had to challenge each other. You would choose a card from your deck and then ask the person you challenged, to give you the information about the person who's card you had. I.E: if the card was info about "Monica" then you would show the person you challenged the picture of Monica and ask what her hobby is. If they answer correctly, you loose your card and they keep it. If they answer incorrectly, then you get a card from them.

He explained how it took a long while to get players to start interacting, and when eventually the traction was good, the time was almost over.

There was another presenter who explained her project. They made also a card game to help managers motivate the employees. She showed a lot of theoretical information they gathered for the game but at some point it hit me. There is no game in this "game". It was more of help card for managers, but there weren't players per-se involved, there was no game mechanics, no interaction between players and no purpose to the game. The cards she mentioned were color coded, had pictures and showed an overwhelming amount of information. They seem to be better suited at being picked by random in the morning by the manager, being read, and then trying to apply the information onto real life.

It is important to understand the theory behind, the psychology, and aspects of motivation, but only by understanding game mechanics can you make a project into a game.

The next presentation I'll write about is for the Open & Connected presentation. It was a long presentation about open source and data connectivity in medicine. But To me it was more interesting when he started talking about Watson. I love Watson. I'd love having a tiny A.I. to own and teach things to. It gave me an idea for a game. But back to the presentation. I think it was very interesting the idea that your medical history can follow you around. It would make things much easier and smoother when changing hospitals/clinics. He spoke how checking your vital signs and other levels, the system could detect life threatening conditions 24 hrs before the symptoms appeared. I think that's quite commendable. It's like when you know you are about to fall ill with the flu and can do nothing about it, but you know it's coming and prepare for it.

This presentation did, however, made me wonder about Skynet. You know. If the computer can grow to the point of having all the relevant information, there would be a time when humans would no longer see the need for studying. This would create an idiotic society that eventually would be enable to sustain itself, and if allowed, A.I.'s would become humanity's caretakers. Existing, among other reasons, to maintain the health of people.

Again.. Sorry, I'll have to cut this again, on toward part 4.