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eddycurrents · 6 years

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For the week of 18 March 2019

Quick Bits:

Aquaman #46 is the penultimate chapter of “Unspoken Water”, as “Andy” and Caille confront Namma. I love the world-building that Kelly Sue DeConnick is doing here, enriching DC’s godly pantheons greatly, and I swear that Robson Rocha, Daniel Henriques, and Sunny Gho are somehow getting better with each subsequent issue. Epic storytelling.

| Published by DC Comics

Avengers #17 concludes the war of the vampires from Jason Aaron, David Marquez, Erick Arciniega, and Cory Petit. It’s as gloriously over-the-top as the entire story-arc and it sets up a new status quo for the Winter Guard as well as a few other surprises. The art from Marquez and Arciniega is glorious.

| Published by Marvel

Avengers: No Road Home #6 gives an extra-sized issue for Conan and Scarlet Witch’s adventure from Jim Zub, Al Ewing, Mark Waid, Sean Izaakse, Jay David Ramos, Marcio Menyz, and Cory Petit. It works well as a Conan story with monsters and magic, while still giving a bit of insight as to what horrors are still occurring on the traditional 616-side.

| Published by Marvel

Batman #67 is almost dialogue-free, leaving the bulk of the storytelling up to the art and sound effects from Lee Weeks, Jorge Fornés, Lovern Kindzierski, and Clayton Cowles. It’s damn good.

| Published by DC Comics

Black Badge #8 gives some rare insight into who the kids really are as Matt Kindt, Tyler Jenkins, Hilary Jenkins, and Jim Campbell dive into observational reports from the White Badges. I absolutely love the layers to the characters, as the black ops, highly secretive world that they operate in reveals even more secrets.

| Published by BOOM! Studios

BPRD: The Devil You Know #14 is the penultimate chapter in the Hellboy saga that began 25 years ago. Like every issue of “Ragna Rok”, there are some goodbyes here, checking in on numerous characters throughout the story’s history, and the continued confrontation between Hellboy, Abe, & Liz and Rasputin. This one hurts, a lot. Beautifully depicted by Laurence Campbell and Dave Stewart.

| Published by Dark Horse

Captain Marvel #3 reveals Som’s secrets while Carol tries to build an army out of the survivors. This one’s definitely a bit of a breather as the team works out a plan to take on Nuclear Man. There’s some nice character building with Carol, Hazmat, She-Hulk, and Echo. Carmen Carnero, with colours from Tamra Bonvillain, also continues to impress.

| Published by Marvel

Criminal #3 concludes the two-part “Bad Weekend” arc. I’m really quite liking how Ed Brubaker, Sean Phillips, and Jacob Phillips are approaching this series, telling a variety of tale throughout time, building up existing and new characters, and really giving depth to the world.

| Published by Image

Dark Red #1 is a great debut from Tim Seeley, Corin Howell, Mark Englert, and Marshall Dillon exploring the concept of the American vampire, like True Blood, American Vampire, or Redneck. It goes a little bit simpler diving into the ordinary, rural, service sector life of Chip the vampire, which makes for the twist in the plot more intriguing.

| Published by AfterShock

Electric Warriors #5 pulls out some more surprises in this penultimate chapter. Steve Orlando, Travel Foreman, Javi Fernandez, Richard Friend, Hi-Fi, and Travis Lanham spark the rebellion here setting up a cliffhanger for a very interesting conclusion.

| Published by DC Comics

Farmhand #6 returns from its break, weirder than ever. Amidst the EPA crawling down Jed’s labs throat trying to figure out what happened with the weird side effects and bizarre spread, Jedediah, Zeke, Riley, and Mikhail go fishing. Odd, that. Wonderfully bizarre story and art as always from Rob Guillory, Taylor Wells, and Kody Chamberlain.

| Published by Image

Guardians of the Galaxy #3 advances “The Final Gauntlet” from Donny Cates, Geoff Shaw, Marte Gracia, and Cory Petit as Starfox’s Dark Guardians continue to try to beat Gamora’s location out of people and the real Guardians try to convince Star-Lord to help protect her. Very nice bits of humour, phenomenal artwork, some interesting developments regarding Wraith and Knull, and I’m really getting the impression that the “new Thanos” is the scarred and broken Starfox.

| Published by Marvel

Immortal Hulk #15 is more brilliance from Al Ewing, Joe Bennett, Ruy José, Paul Mounts, and Cory Petit. This arc definitely seems to be focused on Hulk’s old friends and family, with this issue featuring Doc Samson, and it’s a wonderful exploration of how Samson is alive again and an analysis on who this Hulk happens to be.

| Published by Marvel

Incursion #2 feels even more epic than the first issue as Gilad turns to Doctor Mirage for assistance, then sets out on a quest through the Deadside. Andy Diggle, Alex Paknadel, Doug Braithwaite, Diego Rodriguez, and Marshall Dillon are crafting what feels like one of the next foundation stones for the future of the Valiant universe. With some of the best art I’ve seen from Braithwaite and Rodriguez.

| Published by Valiant

Infinity 8 #10 begins the fourth cycle, “Symbolic Guerrilla”, adding Kris and Martin Trystram to the creative mix, to introduce us to undercover agent Patty Stardust, stage manager to the Symbolic Guerrillas band, as she gets tapped to try to figure out what’s causing the ship’s destruction and try to stop it. Absolutely love the art from Trystram.

| Published by Lion Forge / Magnetic Collection

Invisible Kingdom #1 is gorgeous. I’m a huge fan of Christian Ward’s artwork and this is incredible. Beautiful use of colour, fascinating character and architecture designs, interesting layouts, delivering a sense of the alien and the familiar at the same time. Between Ward’s art and G. Willow Wilson’s concepts and character building, this feels like they’ve put a lot of thought into world building and it pays off in what feels like a living, breathing society and culture in this first issue. Also a nice mix of “futuristic” and normal lettering from Sal Cipriano that aids nicely in setting the tone and atmosphere for the story. This is an auspicious debut and looks like it should be another hit for Berger Books.

| Published by Dark Horse / Berger Books

Justice League #20 continues “The Sixth Dimension” from Scott Snyder, Jorge Jimenez, Alejandro Sánchez, and Tom Napolitano. The artwork from Jimenez and Sánchez is worth the price of admission alone, this is an incredibly beautiful looking book.

| Published by DC Comics

Lazarus: Risen #1 is the very welcome return of the series from Greg Rucka, Michael Lark, Tyler Boss, Santi Arcas, and Simon Bowland in its new double-sized quarterly format, which also includes a short story from Lilah Sturges, some RPG content from Crystal Frasier, and other assorted backmatter. It’s good. Damn good. Easing us back into the conflict of the world as Johanna Carlyle starts taking care of the family’s problems as more conflict and complications begin to arise. Incredible artwork from Lark, Boss, and Arcas.

| Published by Image

Meet the Skrulls #2 continues to be highly entertaining as the family enacts some of their plans and Carl certainly isn’t going to win any father of the year awards. Niko Henrichon’s artwork is a huge plus for the story, nicely balancing the normal world, the alien nature of the Skrulls, and some neat monster designs to boot.

| Published by Marvel

Middlewest #5 gives us a bit of a look back at how much of an abusive asshole Abel’s father is, while in the present Abel makes an arrangement with the carnival folks. Jorge Corona and Jean-Francois Beaulieu continue to make this one of the most visually interesting series running.

| Published by Image

Naomi #3 presents a number of revelations about some of the characters, including Naomi’s mom acting like a savage mama bear, but not exactly the revelations you’d expect. Brian Michael Bendis and David F. Walker are still taking it a bit slow as to what exactly is going on with Naomi herself, instead building up the characters around her (part of me wonders if she’s actually a Monitor). Also, Jamal Campbell’s artwork remains stunning, truly beautiful work.

| Published by DC Comics / Wonder Comics

Outpost Zero #8 takes us out onto the ice to show what happened when the drill team uncovered the dome, then spends the rest of the issue dealing with the ramifications of that, making the residents of Outpost Zero even more reluctant to go outside to do anything to protect themselves, and the kids still don’t know what to make of what they say. This is kind of a taking stock issue, with the characters trying to figure out next steps again.

| Published by Image / Skybound

Pearl #7 returns with a new arc from Brian Michael Bendis, Michael Gaydos, and Dave Sharpe, with Pearl “on the run” from Mr. Miike, the Endo Twins, and a new player in the FBI’s Yuko Masako. This is developing more of Bendis’ dialogue tics as time goes by, but they’re largely forgiven for just how incredible Gaydos’ artwork is.

| Published by DC Comics / Jinxworld

Sparrowhawk #5 concludes what has been an excellent fantasy adventure from Delilah S. Dawson, Matias Basla, Rebecca Nalty, and Jim Campbell with the confrontation between a fully-changed Artemisia and the faerie queen. It’s great, with some interesting ramifications in all of what Artemisia has lost in her quest to return home for revenge. Great artwork from Basla and Nalty.

| Published by BOOM! Studios

Spider-Man: Life Story #1 is off to an interesting start from Chip Zdarsky, Mark Bagley, John Dell, Frank D’Armata, and Travis Lanham. It’s an introspective look at Peter Parker’s life, with some key moments, starting off in the ‘60s deeply tied to then-current events. Some of the best art from Bagley I’ve seen in a while, really nice stuff.

| Published by Marvel

Stronghold #2 continues the impressive world-building from Phil Hester, Ryan Kelly, Dee Cunniffe, and Simon Bowland. We’re introduced this issue to the opposite side in The Adversary and his minions, while the “good” of the Stronghold is put into question and Michael continues to wrestle with who and what he is. Great character work from Hester accompanied by some terrific art from Kelly and Cunniffe.

| Published by AfterShock

Teen Titans #28 is part one of the “Terminus Agenda” crossover with Deathstroke and it kicks off with a bang. Damian’s been travelling down a potentially dark and dangerous road for awhile and it looks like it may be coming to a head with this arc. Amazing action artwork from Bernard Chang and Marcelo Maiolo as the Teen Titans and Deathstroke clash.

| Published by DC Comics

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #92 delves into the negotiations of transfer of power of the Foot Clan to Karai in earnest, delivering some interesting complications to the story that look like they’re going to have significant ramifications. Michael Dialynas, with colours from Ronda Pattison, consistently provides some of the best depictions of the Turtles and the Mutanimals.

| Published by IDW

Thor #11 serves as a counterpoint to last issue’s conflict with Odin, as Thor is aided by his step-mother, Freyja, on the even of The War of the Realms. Beautiful guest art from Lee Garbett and Antonia Fabela.

| Published by Marvel

Venom #12 is another big issue. With art from Joshua Cassara and Rain Beredo, we get more insight into Eddie’s son and a startling development, even after last issue, regarding the symbiote. Donny Cates and the entire creative team are really going full-bore in developing compelling additions to Venom’s mythos.

| Published by Marvel

The Warning #5 feels like one of the first major payoffs for sticking with the story. Edward Laroche has been giving this a real slowburn, making it decidedly feel like chapters and snippets from a work that should probably be read at once. They've been good, but not always entirely satisfying as monthly comics. The set-up last issue and the incendiary contact this issue, though, have really lit a fire to the action.

| Published by Image

West Coast Avengers #9 is kind of bittersweet. It’s another fun issue, full of humour, great character development, and wonderful artwork--from Kelly Thompson, Gang Hyuk Lim, Tríona Farrell, and Joe Caramagna--but it’s the second-to-last issue. I feel like the industry needs more of these types of upbeat superhero series, not less. Especially for Jeff the Land Shark puppy.

| Published Marvel

X-O Manowar #25 is largely all-battle between the bounty hunters and Aric & Schon from Matt Kindt, Tomás Giorello, Diego Rodriguez, and Dave Sharpe. Kindt gets in some nice character moments between Aric and Schon, but you're going to be wanting to pick this up for more gorgeous artwork from Giorello and Rodriguez.

| Published by Valiant

Other Highlights: American Carnage #5, Archie #703, Aristophania - Volume 1: The Kingdom of Azur, Bitter Root #5, Bloodborne #10, Delver #2, Dungeons & Dragons: A Darkened Wish #1, Edgar Allan Poe’s Snifter of Terror #6, Evolution #14, Firefly: Bad Company #1, Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man #4, Grumble #5, Haphaven, High Level #2, James Bond 007 #5, Jessica Jones: Purple Daughter #3, JesusFreak, Kaijumax Season 4 #5, Lucifer #6, Lumberjanes #60, Marvel Action: Avengers #3, Miles Morales: Spider-Man #4, Monstress #21, Rainbow Brite #5, Savage Sword of Conan #3, Solo: A Star Wars Story #6, Spider-Man: City at War #1, Star Wars #63, Superb #18, Wizard Beach #4

Recommended Collections: Batman - Volume 9: The Tyrant Wing, Beasts of Burden: Wise Dogs & Eldritch Men, Belzebubs, BPRD: Hell on Earth - Volume 5, Crowded - Volume 1, Encounter - Volume 2, Family Man, Harrow County Library Edition - Volume 2, Nancy Drew: Palace of Wonder, Polar - Volume 4: Kaiser Falls, Seven to Eternity - Volume 3

d. emerson eddy has been to Flavortown. It was an experience.

#This Week in Comics

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saxrecords · 7 years

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//full post here// After a month at Obras Foundation I’ve gathered some thoughts, creations and discoveries I’ve come by along my residency.

My plan was to write and record new music for an upcoming record, and while doing that experimenting around my way of composing to change it. I’ve recorded some material, written more, but also played and performed in different situations, building a soundscape in and around a natural environment, improvising sound illustration to another artist’s poems with different arrangements, as well as painted and played chamber music.

Two thirds through my residency I had an artist talk where I described the composing ideas I was dealing with and trying to develop then.

I started with drawings and paintings I do in between recording takes, mentioning my interest for the organic process of growing, corked trunks being a motive I’ve used for many years and overly present here with Alentejos cork oaks, and linking it to my fascination for some examples of painting on wood existing in Lisbon being one of my anchor points to the city.

(old corked trunk, black ink on paper and marble)

(structure of plants (upper left corner) applied with marble stamp (bottom))

(different distance gives different perspective, ink on paper)

I then described the idea and the process behind my latest release in 2016 which shows different facets. I first went through the background and concept for the project “Cikatri$”, the latest release being a record with a cyclic artwork in several parts to solve in a dynamic puzzle, the music pressed on blended-colored vinyl. The musical content is on the A-side a recall of a band a few weeks into a tour in Southwest USA, and on the B-side an electronic version of it showing a direction I am taking. When the record was released it was first presented as a 3D-audio mix in a special listening session in Stockholm, then in a live performance later on the same day. More information about the project here.

I then talked about my background as a classically trained musician and Tonmeister, and how I deal with my hearing and sensibility in my creation. I’ve been looking at ways to deal with tones more freely despite my hearing since I have perfect pitch, still without handling music styles seriously since I have little interest in them. I described examples of sound recollections I’ve made in that purpose, then the discussion moved on to the well-known associations process in synesthesy.

I talked about musical collaborations I’ve had in Stockholm and suggested collaborations with performances or work in progress to other artists present at Obras at that time, which resulted in the sound illustration of a poem by Norwegian artist Matias Ringheim in two versions (electronic with analog synths, and acoustic with a piano), and a chamber music try with Beate Schnaithmann, a cellist from Switzerland.

The other great subject of this residency for me has been to explore my time, as to consider a routine both in composing as in organizing musical training and for example going through written material. This is a relevant question in my case in regard to my next project from September, where I will be on board a sailing boat for several weeks to compose music using the sound recorded by the scientific team on board for environmental research, modular synths and tools, and various field recording material (more info about this project here)

A less technical, more conceptual reflexion also started then for me from my time at Obras in regard to this upcoming expedition, considering both art and nature in my creation: building a sound scape in a very green and very noisy place known in the region as the “hidden paradise”. For now just a few pictures below about this performance, which might develop into a video- and sound- work that might be presented in Stockholm soon. Stay tuned! /Aurélie

//Artwork pics by Ludger van der Eerden, performance pics by Ludger and Carlos//

Thank you Carolien van der Laan and Ludger van der Eerden at Obras and everyone I've met, artists and friends under my residency, read Obras' May newsletter here

#artresidency #synth #freefield #amonthinalentejo

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wjmartinfsstudent-blog · 8 years

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Asset Management Mastery Journal

lnvidual Post Modem

This project was a very strong learning experience into how assets management would work within the game industry. I learned quite few lessons through this class, I am also very glad that this class was in the course of this learning year in the game design master’s degree. The first lesson that I learned would be about the idea of time management. The way that this lesson was learned was when the estimates were given for the work that was to be done I believed that the best course of action at first would have been to give myself more time to do the characters that were assignment to me. I estimated that it may have taken longer than what it would due to making sure that I was covered for anytime that I may go over while creating the characters that were assigned to me in the game. I realized at the end of that week that I should have not done that, when I found out upon delivery of the information, it was recommended that I would be time boxed, which would mean that I had to then set my estimates to less time to get them complete. I was a little worried at first and the reason why is because I knew that my parents were coming down that weekend as well as on the day that I was told this I was given a big project in capstone. I was worried about the time management that would come into play. That weekend I also had a personal emergency that weighed heavier on my mind. This was tough to deal with along with everything else that was going on. I unfortunately prioritized the capstone work over my project work that weekend. I also did not get to the specific project work until late night of the deadline, I ended up being late and had to ask for more time from the art lead Alex, Which I do regret that I had to do that because I had to then rushed through the characters that I had to get done for the project. I did get the deliverable in however they were not at the standard that was expected for the game.

Through milestones 1 and 2, The main lesson that I learned would have been about prioritizing my time. I learned this lesson and I am also grateful for the experience because it allowed me to get some real-world experience to how a project could be with real life distractions, dealing with the personal emergency as well as my parents visit and the capstone work. I learned this lesson and I can take this to real word with this experience and apply it. Milestone 3 was a lot different because I now knew what had to be done and I learned from the experience with the feedback that I received and I made sure that the first priority after I had gotten out of capstone was this class project. As soon as the capstone work was completed then I would begin working on my project work continued work on the characters for the project every day. I also did get a chance because of capacity to see about redoing two models that I had trouble with the last Milestone. I tried a different approach when looking into the new models I decided to do everything that I could to make it look like what it was supposed to be, for an example when creating a wizard, I wanted to make sure that it looked like a wizard including what you would expect like a beard and a robe, Which seemed great at first until it was pointed out to me by the team that the redone wizard did not match the concept art. Because the concept art did not have a beard it was more of a Mario wizard without the beard. I also learned a lesson here. I learned that as an artist it is more important to match the concept art for what the art lead believes that the character should be. This was another lesson that I learned, I will continue to bring into the real-world experience that I am glad that I had also learned in this class project experience.

The final task that was given to me for that milestone was to set up some testing for the game. I did go ahead and do the testing, however when I did the testing I added my name to the notes that were already on the document, however there was a separate row specifically for my testing note information. When this was pointed out to me I did go ahead and copied the rows from the document on the excel file to file in that information, I did not realize that the excel file was formatted is a specific way so the copy and paste information would not be the correct rows. Which again would be another lesson for the continuation of the project and real life. When going into final milestone it was decided that the two artists would switch roles. That would mean that I would do props and Matias would do the characters for the game the reason for that would be because I was running very close to the amount of capacity that I had allowed for the project. I continued to work and I decided to try to get everything in as early as I could and did there was an issue with one of the props. I had a great art lead to help with a PDF that was sent to me with better explanations of how the props should work along with explanations of edge flow and the ways that things moving within the 3D space when modeling, which was very helpful with looking into and learning different aspects of 3D modeling. I truly appreciate the work that my Art lead put into the creation of this document. I will continue to learn and get better as an artist and a worker in the gaming industry. The final week for the Milestones I am going to continue to go through my previous characters or props that I have created and make any kind of improvements that I am be able to rather it be remodeling or little changes. This class was definitely a good way of giving a good look at what an actual project in the game industry would be like and the way that time management and asset management can play in the game industry.

Group Postmortem

Before we had stepped into Asset Management, the group was dealt with a challenge. Our capacity had two less people than Prototyping and Content Creation. This became an opportunity for the group as multiple people got more fluid roles in the project. We had a producer cover audio, an art lead also cover design, and two artists who got to try their hands at both character art and prop art. Immediately the group became more well-rounded thus.Learning from our mistakes two months ago, we immediately knew we needed an art lead. This allowed us to agree to a certain design that would not confuse the art team as we did when we made Little Cupid. The art lead provided references for all art which, unfortunately, was not followed. Some on the art team had their own vision and did not consider the art lead’s thought process as to why he chose the references he did. This caused frustration among the team as the lead kept sending assets back As the project went on the producer had to sit down with those artists not following the references to explain why the assets were getting rejected and an understanding was reached. The art lead had those references picked out to not only assist the artists but to fit the theme of the game.

The group decided to take an asset pack from the Unity store and re-skin it. The reason this strategy was chosen was because there was no developer on the team. One student took on the role with little experience and experimented with adding another tool to his toolbelt. His role involved a high amount of art asset integration as we were just replacing objects already in the asset pack. This became problematic as we had a missed milestone by one of the artists. Time management and outside distractions became an issue causing low quality models to be pushed out which in turn got rejected. That artist learned from his mistakes and managed his time between classwork and capstone very well for the remainder of the project. Even allowing for models to be redone from the original missed milestone. Models that were turned in after the milestones were greatly improved thanks to a detailed presentation the art lead made up for the artists.As the project moved along we began to get into a rhythm thanks to the group defining the game right from the start – an infinite shooter that was very content rich. Members of the group began to see the end project and enjoyed playing the game in their spare time.

The group had a bit of an issue with the quality assurance testing. The testing plan was not specific enough and multiple iterations needed to be made as the project moved along. Builds did not get out on time before presentation day which caused incomplete testing results to be present in front of the investor. Sloppy testing was also present as the quality test plan was sometimes filled out in a copy paste fashion instead of typing out the results one-by-one. The group remedied the situation by creating a log in which people could sign out the test plan and sign it back in when they were done. Multiple copies of the plan were made so that information would not be overwritten.The final challenge we faced involved most the group padding their estimates causing the producer to have to time box the estimates. Our original estimate was over double the actual capacity for the project! The time boxing became time intensive but it became clear that even with time boxing the assets were being completed with a negative delta. This caused an issue where we did not have enough planned for the game on the UI side. The group had to scramble to get work for her to do as her hour count was very low. She helped by redesigning a couple of stage environments, as well as contributing in quality assurance testing for the group.All in all, the project had some rocky moments but flowed a lot better than it did two months ago. The issues we dealt with were mostly minor which had easy fixes. The group felt as if they gained a ton of knowledge from the experience and can use that information in the future.

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