I’ve wanted to animate cartoons since I was old enough draw. I had originally gone to the Art Institute to learn 3d but didn’t last long enough to get to the animation classes. Honestly I had spent so long knowing I was going to be an animator that when I went to regular college to finish my art degree I couldn’t ever actually focus on an area of study like most of the other students in my classes who knew they were photographers or knew they were painters or whatever. It was my own fault I kind of just coasted through school not finding my niche knowing good and well the entire time what it was. Sure enough I latched onto digital design well enough to get a few jobs doing everything from cookie-cutter web design, client-mandated design, to what I’m doing know which is totally fun but I’d never think I’d be doing apparel design in my life. So, what do I do about it?
I’m learning 3ds MAX. Yep, 8 years later I’m going back to animation. Not because I want to but because I can’t watch a movie or play a videogame without it slapping me in the face. Back in high school my ex let me borrow his PS2 during spring break while he went out of town with is family. Of course, by borrow he meant babysit which I very much did. Beat Final Fantasy X three times in a row ( had to get Tidus’ final overdrive with each girl lol) I remember watching the cinematics and just being in awe of how awesome they looked on my 9 inch CRT tv. I freaking cried during the ending the first time I watched it. (Final Fantasy X was my Twilight ok.)
So when did I decide to up and learn 3d animation all of a sudden? Well, it would have to be a mix of things from the past week. When Corey came to visit he brought his 360, which was good because I got Forza3 for Christmas and couldn’t play it yet due to our xbox being sent off for repairs. I played just enough races with a Ford Fiesta to get enough credits to buy the e30 M3. The graphics on Forza3 are so far beyond Forza2 its almost scary to watch. I figured if i could do THIS with Illustrator how hard could it be to model a car.
Then we went and saw Fern Gully…I mean Avatar…in 3d. The entire time I was watching the movie I couldn’t help but think I could so totally do that if I could just learn the program. Cut to a few days later having a conversation with Cody about what my next step should be as far as my art career goes. Basically I’m capped out where I am currently, which isn’t bad ( I make plenty and my job is awesome) but if I ever want to have e30 money and pay off all these student loans I need to have some larger guns in my arsenal of art skills. Illustrator is a pretty big gun but 3ds Max and Maya are like the Congo Laser and Death Star in comparison. 
I spent all day today going over layouts and tutorials in the free 30 day trial of 3d Studio Max. It took me three hours to get through the first tutorial and another three to get the thing actually outputted to video hahah. So far it seems like just a massive amount of information and billions of tools and options to click and select but once I get the hang of it this shouldn’t be too bad at all. You can see up above the 30 second clip of the revolving door I made today. Since I didn’t have the source files they talk about I couldn’t get the glass in the door to show up clear so they are solid, eventually I’ll laugh at myself for not knowing how to do that but I gotta start somewhere. I want to start doing a tutorial every night. Perhaps I’ll update everyday with the results! I’ve got a book on its way and I’m gonna see about getting a full version of the software. Though I’m kind of scared because it took every ounce of my computers juice to render that revolving door hahaha.
Christmas is almost here, and the rush to buy presents the day after thanksgiving is just around the corner. You want to get that video game player in your life something you know they will enjoy on their favorite console, however with the economy what it is and brand new games going at 60 to 80 dollars a pop these days you don’t want to risk overspending on a game that will be in the bargain bin at walmart for $9.95 three months later. Therefore, I give you my top 5 video games for 20 dollars. Given these are all games we own and have played extensively. The rules for this list are the game has to currently cost around 20 dollars (to where 29.99 counts and 19.99 counts) and is readily available from most retail stores including walmart, best buy, target, etc. If your looking for very old games or used games go to gamestop or a mom and pop video game graveyard.
5. Final Fantasy III (Nintendo DS)
This is probably one of the best “classic” style RPG’s I’ve played for the DS. You play as a small group of characters who each have different abilities known as “jobs”. These jobs state what type of character they are such as theif, mage, fighter,etc. But the cool thing about this game is that you can change your characters jobs. (its what FFX-2 should have done, no spheres were harmed during the making of this game.) This random customization gives you great gameplay and replay factor.
Similar alternatives: Golden Sun (Game Boy Advance) – Its like Pokemon meets Final Fantasy
4. Cooking Mama (Nintendo DS)
Wat? Yes, Cooking Mama for the DS is a great game. Sure, I didn’t know about it until it showed up in the 19 dollar bin at walmart but hey for 20 bucks I had to give it a shot. OMFG. One of the best uses of the stylus and dual screens I’ve seen yet. Your a student learning to cook food and “Mama” is there to help you along the way, giving you directions such as “chop these onions”, “peel some carrots”, and the best one of all “microwave for 3 minutes”. The first recipes are beyond easy with things like instant ramen where all you do is pour water into the cup and heat it. They later become more challenging with things like fried dumplings and such. A great game if you don’t have hours to devote to leveling or questing.
Similar games: Cooking Mama 2 (DS), Cooking Mama Cookoff (Wii) – i have not played these
3. Forza Motorsport 2 (Xbox 360)
Lets take the realism of the gran turismo games and add fun stuff like custom wheels, exahust and full on engine swaps! YES! I have literally played this game for hours. There is a very wide selection of cars for a racing game (note: if you buy the platinum hits version it comes with a disk with all the downloadable cars) not to mention totally fun to play. You can drift around corners, crash into other cars and lose your bumper. Take a brand new GTR skyline and run it into the trees at the Nürburgring. Its fun to take total crap cars like Honda Civics and rice them out or soup up a classic mustang all without using real money.
Similar Games: Gran Turismo 4 (PS2), Gran Turismo 5: Prologue (PS3) – Have not played GT5:P
2. Final Fantasy X (PS2)
Hey you already put a Final Fantasy game on here! Shut up this is totally different from every Final Fantasy game in existence (that’s not its sequel). For once there is no run around the world and do whatever you want hoping to find the next town that has mobs surrounding it your level. This game is totally linear, you CANT get lost and die roaming around towns. It has 5 minute cinematic cut scenes that make it more like a movie than a RPG. If you a have a girlfriend that hates the fact that you do nothing but sit at your computer and play World of Warcraft all day, go to your closet, dust off your PS2, hook it up to that now defunct tv of yours and have her play just the first 10 minutes of this game. You MIGHT find her two weeks later with all the ultimate weapons, fully unlocked overdrives, each character maxed out on the spheregrid all on three separate games one with each different girl throwing the ball for tidus’ final overdrive. And when she is done with that she will just play blitzball all day. Yes buy this game, buy it now if you want to keep that girlfriend when Wrath of the Lich King comes out. She will still love you while she wanders around the Omega Dungeon for fun.
Similar games: Final Fantasy X-2 (PS2) the sequel to this game the only final fantasy to have a direct sequel and now we all know why. Unless your a die hard fangirl don’t attempt this game, you will lose your mind (yes 100% completion kthxbye).
1. Oblivion (Xbox 360, PC)
Or if you quit your WoW account years ago and need something to fight the craving you can always play in the infinite world of Morrowind. Oblivion is one of those games where you can just run around collecting apples and have just as much fun making the same potion out of those apples as you would running through a cave full of kobalds. This game is so fun I’ve played at least 200 hours of it never getting my character past level 5 and doing all kinds of fun quests and stealing everything from everyone and selling it to buy stuff from them later. Pickpocket everyone, steal from the guards, kill all manner of pirates and bandits and things. The level of detail is unholy, too bad the character faces are too. I do not recommend this game on PC unless your computer can handle it. This is a very Dungeons and Dragons kind of game where everyone talks like their at a Renaissance festival – you have been warned.
Similar Games: the expansion packs lol
What is YOUR favorite game from the past 10 years?
I like making these.The rules behind this list were they had to be actual playable characters in the games they debuted in, and of course had to be totally cool. So sorry Zelda, Peach, and Daisy go cry in a castle while you wait for your tiny boyfriends to come save you. Oh and a word of warning dont go googling the first three without the safesearch on ^_0.
#5. Lara Croft (Tomb Raider)
Chick + Guns + Shorts = Fun for the whole family. Yeah she is a walking pair of tits but she is one of the first leading female game characters. Its like Indiana Jones hopped up on girl power and and the expansion tool. Guys liked it for the aesthetics and game-play, girls liked it because they didn’t have to play as a 6 foot tall white guy with short brown hair and combat boots. Also you get to have huge guns strapped to your thighs.
#4. Chun-Li (Street Fighter II)
Chun-Li is the first female player to be in a fighting game, and was one of the first to not fall in the damsel-in-distress role. Finally your guy friends could be beaten by a girl twice over. Since she was significantly weaker than the male characters she single-handedly made it harder to beat the game, a trend that was repeated in every single fighter game to follow.
#3. Rikku (Final Fantasy X, X-2)
Rikku! Who doesn’t like her? She breathes new life into the age old thief class of the Final Fantasy games with fun AUDIBLE battle comments, green swirly eyes and lets not forget…HUGE STEEL CLAW ARM WEAPONS. She gets to steal stuff off mobs and make her own grenades. She can also hold her breath for extended periods of time making her the only girl in the game you can use in underwater combat. You finally get to play a fantasy rpg as the worlds biggest chunk of jail-bait.
#2. Samus Aran (Metroid)
Samus is the first lead character in a space adventure game, which is a big deal in 1987. However, you don’t even find out she IS a girl until the end of the game where she removes the suit of cybernetic armor. Samus is the main character in the Metroid series, originally a side scrolling shootemup for the NES. Coolest parts: Orange robot suit, your a bounty hunter, HUGE blaster arm GUN, a blonde, and most fun…you can turn into a metal basketball…no kididng.
#1. Chell (Portal)
Ok, so she isn’t going to win any beauty contests anytime soon but check this out…in portal you play as a……….SMART WOMAN…..OMFG. A smart woman with a plasma gun that shoots holes through walls to solve puzzles and escape a secret lab run by a smart-ass computer who tempts you with cake upon completion of some test your apparently participating in. Aside from the supercool portal gun, she also sports some totally awesome leg thingys that are supposed to help you survive falls. Lets not forget the unhealthy attraction to a certain giant metal box.
