Tuesday, November 3, 2009

The New Tampa Museum of Art



Yvonne by Alison Mealey


Alison Mealey does a number of types of artwork but this particular piece is from a

collection known as UnrealArt. This artwork is created using the game Unreal

Tournament, a first person shooter. Mealey sets loose 20‐25 computer controlled

players (bots) upon a map she created that gives the bots loose guidelines on where

to go. Running alongside the game is a script that logs the location of every bot once

a second. Along with position every death is logged as well. These logs, in the final

image, are represented as circles. The larger circles being bots that were logged in

midjump, being closer to the ‘camera’. The final image is produced from these logs.

Cash Cow by Jose Emroca Flores


Emroca is a Senior Concept Artist for High Moon Studios in California. He does oils,

sketches, photography and much more with his work being featured prominently in

shows and magazines. This image is quite interesting and speaks a lot about our

community as a whole. Many of us know (and love) Starbucks and as they continue

to spring up every across the country people continue to suckle from the overpriced

udder. Not only is this about Starbucks but also it’s about societies brand name

consumerism. Emroca has made an excellent commentary with this piece.

Fallout 3 Capital Wasteland by Craig Mullins


Craig Mullins is very notable in the world of concept artists, he is known for the

efficiency and excellence in his work. For this piece he was hired by Bethesda

Studios to do concept art for their game Fallout 3. The game, though set in and after

a nuclear war in the 22nd and 23rd century, is heavily influenced by the post‐war

1950’s. This piece is set in post‐war Washington D.C. where a washed up Aircraft

Carrier has become a new city for the survivors (wastelanders). Mullins actually

pulled the image of an actual aircraft carrier and digitally altered it to give the

ruined look it has in the final work.

Zelda 8-bit by Jimi Benedict


Jimi Benedict began his career as an artist about two years before graduating

from College. In an interview he said that most of his inspiration and criticisms

came from the online community. Towards the beginning of his career he used

to try very hard to get work as an artist, but as he became better at marketing

himself the jobs began to come to him. In this work we see the image of a

classic video game character, Link from the Legend of Zelda series, transformed

in an unusual yet classic way, surrounded by another work of art.

Arbiter and Chief by Craig Mullins


This piece of artwork was commissioned by Bungie as part of the promotions for

the (then) up and coming game, Halo 3. Craig Mullins worked with Bungie on a

previous series entitled Marathon. In this work we see the Arbiter following the

chief in a very menacing way. This was done to fool the viewer into believing that

the alien is somehow aggressive towards Master Chief. When the game was

released however it was revealed that the arbiter was in fact an ally of humanity.

Craig Mullins continues to work closely with Bungie and Microsoft.




Tuesday, September 29, 2009

A Fourth Welcome Sign


It's not just a game, it's a following.

Monday, September 21, 2009

Virtual Self

Technology has transformed modern life, of that there is no doubt. It affects others differently, however. For some people, technology plays a very minor role their lives, for others it is almost as important as oxygen.
I love technology. Things like ipods, blackberries, the xbox, etc, were all created for us to use. Technology is a continually growing creation, why fight it?
I love video games. I love the artwork, the gameplay, the sheer power it has to shape any world (or universe!) and immerse someone so completely in a different land. My favorite is Halo, not only because Master Chief is the most badass hero ever created, but because the storytelling in the video games (as well as the tie-in novels) is so vivid and deep. Had I never encountered Halo, my life certainly wouldn't be the same.

Thursday, September 10, 2009

Chaos


This is a real picture taken of animals in the wild, no joke. This stuff actually happened. I'm totally for real about these pictures. They have not been doctored or edited in any way!