Sunday 15 August 2010

that train 2 game tv advert

right so you will undoubtedly have seen that TV advert for the train2game, see below if not,

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lryse0HsQO4 (copy and past in to the address bar)

well I got sick of the advert being in my face, as it offer people the chance to do a computer game/ animators course with out going to university and still have the same qualification as some one who has for three years, so I sent off for an information pack just to compare it to the information I have seen from the game students in Glyndwr University game course, and from what I can tell about the course it is identical in the type of work that the people on the course and in the animation course animation course have to do.

After reading this information it really makes me wonder are these last few years of my life been worth it, sure I'll have a degree from a university but tell me this;

a) Whats the point of going to university and getting in debt?
b) Are these sites that allow you to train and gain professional qualifications even legal?

after all the whole point of going to university is to weed out the best of the best from the worst of the worst, but if the are websites that let you train at home with out any help, support or yes even access to tutors for real time comments and feed back, don't give me that look Ms Maguire and Mr Townsend, even though 99.9% of the time they never allow you to use creativity the would rather have us churn out more of what they are used to seeing, or some CGI maya Hippo that can dance,
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I9i7Numw9Xo (copy and past in to the address bar)

Thursday 5 August 2010

Clash of the Titans Review


This is a a review of the movie Clash of the Titans, with Liam Neeson as Zeus and Sam Worthington as Perseus. The movie is an update and remake of the 1981 film which is based, however loosely on the Greek myth of Perseus.

The movie opens with a narration by Io, Gemma Arterton, telling the story of the Titanomachy, war of the Titans, which goes into a short sequence of a casket floating to the surface after a storm and is found by a fisher man,which he opens and finds a baby boy , the story then flash-forwards about ten years and the fisherman, his with and a young Perseus are sitting by a fire on the shore and talk about the boys destiny, at this point the story is very much like the 1981 version with the boy living in a small fishing village with his family, the story then jumps forward by 12 years and the now adult Perseus, Sam Worthington, is aboard his families boat when a group of soldiers destroy a 50 - 60 foot stone statue to the god Zeus as a open sign of war against the gods, up to this point there hadn't been much use of CGI or any other animation techniques which I found refreshing as most movies that came out around the same time had a shit load in the first act of the story.

The second act of the story opens and is as fast paced as the original 1981 version, the next major use of CGI animation the fight sequence with the huge scorpions this is pretty much it as far as the high lights of the second part of the animation goes the rest of the animation in the second act of the is confined to simple in camera effects and make-up magic.

The third and final act of the story starts of well as the heros of the story face off against Madusa in an mixed media layer, mostly green screen, with the hero decapitating her head, but the final part of the story is predictable and slow, the only feature of the final sequence is when the hero, Worthington, destroys the kraken, the enormous sea monster, with the decapitated head of Maduse.

All in all the movie is enjoyable through out the first two acts however at the end the story seems some what rushed and unfinished, as the story leaves a number of minor plot points unresolved and up in the air.