NESS

So we've probably all heard by now that David Boreanaz is directing the Angel ep this week [i]Soul Purpose[/i]. Angel himself will be directing, well, himself, along with his fellow actors. When I first heard about this, I said I was kinda wary and was pegged a pessimist for my comment. I was sort of mad about this, but everyone is entitled to have his or her own thoughts. Anyway, I'm still wary. There is no guarantee that David's directing is going to be really great simply because he's been on the show for five years and has been playing this character for eight. From what I understand, and have heard from Joss' commentaries for Firefly, directing involves lighting and the placement of characters, how a shot is going to be constructed, discussing how the actor should play the scene, etc. Doesn't sound easy to me. I mean, I have faith in David as an actor, but I'm still not completely convinced that this episode is going to look phenomenal. I guess it doesn't have to in order to be a good episode, but I suppose I'm just spoiled now thanks to Firefly's amazing look. :biggrin: Well, we'll see how things are when Wednesday rolls around. Maybe my opinion will change. David has said before that he always wanted to direct. Maybe this will give him a chance to expand his skills.

ZACHSMIND

I have not forgotten about Remnants. I do intend to finish it. However, time is precious and other things seem to keep getting in the way and taking precedence. Both online and offline. I know where I was going with it and I have a firm picture of where I wanted it to end. Hopefully someday soon you'll see it too. Thank you for your patience. =)

PUMAMANREDUX

* begin log * Bought the DVD set for XMas for myself ... been able watch the episodes in official order through [b][i]Out of Gas[/b][/i] on disc 3, went back and watched a few eps with commentary .. I watched the extras pretty much all except for a few deleted scenes ... watched the easter egg too. I found out about this series via another non-related internet bboard .. didn't think too much about the DVDs until I saw it in several stores over a two day period * end log *

FOFFILMS

Here we go! I am finally getting juiced at the prospects of the animations for "Firefly: Orpheus" I did some re-texturing of the firefly model and it is turning out really nice. I still have a bit of work to do on the firefly effect for the engine, but it is coming along and I feel fairly confident that when all is said and done we will have a top notch effect there. My new test is online at: www.fof-films.com/EasterEggs/fireflycomp1_Broadband.mov With a little more work I think we'll be ready to go. I am currently also building 3d models of our interior sets, we'll be shooting the entire show green screen (at the moment) so I am doing some big work on building the interior of the ship. I'm trying to put it together as a complete model, so you can do an entire interior fly through in one shot, but the size of the file is eating me alive... So... Until I upgrade from my 2 ghz machine to a 3 ghz with 1 gig of ram... It may be built in sections. So... On the lighter side my notebook had some sort of crash and literally the ONLY file that was affected was the Firefly Orpheus Script I was working on. Thankfully I had the previous version still, so I am currently having to go through and do a re-write to get it back to the re-write I had already done.... YEARRRRGH! Anyway, back to the grindstone. Drop me a line and let me know what you think thus far on the animation tests. As always props to Biootech for his use of the model.

BELASERA

I was wondering if anyone knows waht the hard numbers are on DVD sales? I know it sold better than expected, and I would be interested in specifics. No reason, really, I'm just nebbin'.

HAKEN

Here's an interesting article about online RP. [quote] Blood on the virtual carpet: tempers flare as 'editor' is thrown out of online town with 80,000 inhabitants By Andrew Gumbel in Los Angeles 16 January 2004 Peter Ludlow is not just a computer gaming enthusiast. He's also a philosophy professor, with an abiding interest in the relationship between the real and the virtual worlds. So when the world's most successful virtual-reality game, the Sims, launched an online version just over a year ago, he didn't just join in for fun; he also decided that he could carry out research for his next book. And that was where the trouble started. Alphaville, the game's fictional city, could have gone in any number of directions, depending on the arbitrary decisions of the online game players who make up its people through their chosen "avatars", or game characters. Alphaville could have become a socialist utopia, a grand experiment in free-market capitalism or simply a reflection of the allure and the pitfalls of any real Western city. As it was, Alphaville quickly turned into a hellhole of scam-artists, crime syndicates, mafia extortion artists and teenage girls turning tricks to make ends meet. It became a breeding ground for the very worst in human nature - a benign-sounding granny, for example, who specialised in taking new players into her confidence, then showered them in abuse. Then there was the scam-artist known as Evangeline, who started out equally friendly and then stole new players' money. Professor Ludlow, who teaches at the University of Michigan, decided he would chronicle Alphaville's seamy reality by setting up a newspaper,The Alphaville Herald, run by his game alter-ego. He reported on the scams and the prostitution rings, and also interviewed the protagonists. (Evangeline, his most intriguing source, turned out, in real life, to be a spectacularly warped teenage boy.) But that was before his dispassionate academic inquiry ran smack into the authoritarian brick wall of the game's manufacturer and controller, the California gaming company Electronic Arts. The Alphaville Herald was closed down and Professor Ludlow's avatar, Urizenus, was kicked out of town. "While we regret it," Electronic Arts told him in a letter, "we feel it is necessary for the good of the game and its community." Officially, the reason for Professor Ludlow's expulsion was that he included links in his inside-the-game newspaper to outside websites, including one that gave players instructions on how to cheat. What Professor Ludlow and a growing band of academics and sympathisers believe, however, is that his efforts to publicise the tawdry fantasy activities of real-life teenagers were becoming simply too uncomfortable for Electronic Arts to stomach. The company wants to draw the maximum number of players to the Sims Online, one of a growing number of interactive computer games attracting audiences possibly hundreds of thousands of people. Such is the interest in the phenomenon that the Sims Online game is to be featured in a California exhibition, opening today, which will feature a real-life recreation of a room from the game. The game is rated "T" for teenager and is sold, according to the marketing materials, as a "fun-filled" exercise in fantasy projection. Publicity highlighting the very dark place that Alphaville had become was not likely to be good for business, and could even get the company into trouble over its rating. Shortly before he was thrown out of Alphaville, Urizenus and his fellow reporters were openly questioning whether teenage game players should be allowed to trade in human flesh, albeit virtual flesh, and wondering whether the Sims Online should be restricted to adults. Professor Ludlow's expulsion was only the beginning of a fascinating new phase in the game. Electronic Arts, through its online game controller, Maxis, has been cracking down on bad behaviour to clean up Alphaville and, one assumes, try and boost its audience which is stuck at a 80,000 (EA had hoped for a millio