ParasiteArtist - The Unofficial Official Blog of Life

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noreply@blogger.com (Aaron Jones) — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 15:30:00 +0000

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Update?

noreply@blogger.com (Aaron Jones) — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 15:25:00 +0000

Wow, just realized I haven't updated this in a long time. Anyways, I've made a little progress toward Signs, but nothing really worth noting. I ran into some trouble with the models and the way they were set up. I've been focusing more on level design and graphic design. I'll put some stuff up here in the next few days.

-Aaron Jones|ParasiteArtist-

Website Update

noreply@blogger.com (Aaron Jones) — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 02:52:00 +0000

I've been working on my website a little bit. I've been working on some minor updates to the index page. I decided I wanted a rollover image over the buttons that would play a little scribble type effect.

First, I plugged in my tablet and opened up PS for some quick concepts.

I created a little animation consisting

of three frames of just some horizontal scribbles, for each button.

Of course, it took me around an hour just to make some scribbles for three buttons; I just couldn't get the right look.

Getting the rollover was pretty easy, but implementing it was a bit difficult. My index page was a few layers combined in PS. The problem was, the rollover images were little gifs, but because my index page was a giant picture, I couldn't just replace the gifs. Which leads to the next step. The idea was I would have to split the main page up into pieces, that would focus around the areas I wanted to replace.

As you can see in the image, I had to cut an area around each place I wanted a rollover image. Each red shaded area is where I wanted them. The other red boxes show where I had to make the cuts in order for the whole image to work out. I'm sure there is an easier or better way to do it though.

After the index was sliced, I cut the shaded area out, and placed them into PS so I could put the scribbles over them. Once I overlaid the cut areas with the scribbles, I merged it together and saved as a gif. Switched back over to DW where I

deleted the shaded areas from the index - leaving holes there where the rollovers would go. Insert>Media Image>Rollover Image brings up a box with some options for choosing an image, and what to switch to upon rollover. Once done, upload index to your site and bingo, all done.

Overall I'm happy with it. Of course, I could spend my time actually making my site useful, and put up my art section with some galleries. I guess I can get to that soon.

-Aaron Jones|ParasiteArtist-

Project Sign: Update 1

noreply@blogger.com (Aaron Jones) — Sun, 02 Aug 2009 01:11:00 +0000

I've got my main characters now. They are free animation rigs from http://www.johndoublestein.com/ . After getting them together, I made quite a bit of adjustments to their model to set them apart. I also made different clothes textures for the man. I'm still tweaking them, as they need multiple outfits for the short. Here is a few pictures of them so far.

-Aaron Jones|ParasiteArtist

Introducing Project Sign

noreply@blogger.com (Aaron Jones) — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 22:48:00 +0000

I've been doing a lot of little things to work on my animation. I figured I would undertake a larger project. I was working on my short, Project Immune, but I had to model everything from scratch on that. I want to focus more on animation, so I thought I would just get pre-rigged models and use them for a new short. So that's what I'm doing. The short I'm working on now is called Project Sign, and it's based on the short called Signs that I found on YouTube. My short is going to basically follow the exact same story as the YouTube clip. This should give me a huge learning boost as I try and figure out how to achieve numurous things I currently don't know how to do. Wish me luck, as it's 12 min long... Stay tuned!

Created by Publicis Mojo and @RadicalMedia
Director: Patrick Hughes
http://www.patrickhughes.com.au

-Aaron Jones|ParasiteArtist-

Red Alert 3: World Domination

noreply@blogger.com (Aaron Jones) — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 19:02:00 +0000

A friend of mine, Justin, and I play a lot of Red Alert 3. Usually once a day. Justin thought it would be a good idea to make a meta-game out of it, so we have some kind of goal when playing. So Justin and I came up with an Excel based territory meta-game.

Basically, we set up some nodes that count as territories. From there, we decide which maps in the game we want to represent the territories in Excel. After picking maps, we assigned armies. Each player has 5 armies which start at the home position. Every turn, you move one space to an adjacent space. If the territory is unoccupied, you take it. If an enemy army is there, you initiate the battle. One a battle is initiated, you open up Red Alert 3 and play it out.

Depending on where you are in the map, you start off with more or less money and sometimes you get an ally to fight with you.

We originally picked one faction for our army. For example, the first time we played, I was Allied and Justin was Soviets. After I lost almost every match, we realized that it was very one-sided that way. For the second round, we decided to assign different factions for different armies. So far, this has made a huge difference and it's no longer a one-sided battle. We after a few matches, we throw down some more rule ideas to consider for the next round. Should be interesting to see where this goes. I would like to maybe mod it a little bit and edit some ini files to give your team more/less of an advantage based on your position in the game. We'll see.

-Aaron Jones|ParasiteArtist-

Global Game Jam 2009

noreply@blogger.com (Aaron Jones) — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 20:53:00 +0000

I took part in Global Game Jam 2009, where you make a game in 48 hours. We formed a small team and got rolling on a game we called Tethered. I ended up doing the UI work so I renamed it to Space Defenders of the 23rd Century: Cleansing the Galaxy of Cosmic Scum.

The idea of the game is a 2d side-scroll game where you are a ship and you are attached to another ship with a small tether. This tether is also the tool you use to kill enemies and debris with.

While we didn't get as much done, programming side, as we wanted, we had a ton of art that never made it in because of programming constraints. We did however, at least get something in there and working.

The Escapist and BoingBoing covered parts of it. You can also check out our game here.

Here is an overview of how it all works:
"The theme and constraints for participants in the Global Game Jam will be announced at 5:00PM on Friday, January 30, 2009 in your time zone. Each local jam is allowed to manage things the way the see fit, but we hope that everyone will follow our recommendations so we share a common experience and everyone is working from a level playing field. Please show up to the jam on time. Below is a typical set-up for a game jam, each jam will vary, please check with each jam to see their schedule. Do not come to the Jam with a team. Everyone will have some time to think and pitch an idea. Collaborate with new friends or peers you admire."

Justin Hair - artist
Aaron Jones – artist
Zach Derouiche – artist
Wes Hunt – programmer
Scott Jacobs – programmer

-Aaron Jones|ParasiteArtist-

Tracking the Elephants

noreply@blogger.com (Aaron Jones) — Mon, 26 Jan 2009 22:04:00 +0000

Found this neat little app for Google Earth that allows you to track the elephants in Africa. It's very interesting to open throughout the day and take peak at where they have wondered to. I was searching for one to track whales when I came across this. Being a fan of both elephant and whales, this one works too. :)

http://www.savetheelephants.org/tracking.html

-Aaron Jones|ParsiteArtist-

Project Cell Update

noreply@blogger.com (Aaron Jones) — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 03:32:00 +0000

Still working on Whitey. I've been busy with other stuff, so I have not had much time to really work on my short. Started setting up the skeleton for him though, and roughed out a quick little sword so he has something to hold on to. Anyways, here are some pictures.

(excuse Jessie; she's available!)

You can find all of the pictures, in original sizes, on my Flickr photostream:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/parasiteartist/

-Aaron Jones-

Istanbul - Still Not Constantinople

noreply@blogger.com (Aaron Jones) — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 05:04:00 +0000

My highschool-made video has had its last play:

"Dear ParasiteArtist,

Video Disabled

A copyright owner has claimed it owns some or all of the audio content in your video Istanbul (Not Constantinople).
The audio content identified in your video is Istanbul by They Might Be
Giants. We regret to inform you that your video has been blocked from
playback due to a music rights issue.

Replace Your Audio with AudioSwap

Don't worry, we have plenty of music available for your use. Please visit our AudioSwap library to learn how you can easily replace the audio in your video with any track from our growing library of fully licensed songs.

Other Options

If you think there's been a mistake, or you have other questions, please visit the Copyright Notice page in your account.

Sincerely,

The YouTube Content Identification Team"

I guess it was only a matter of time before me reign came to an end. The interesting thing is, when I first made the video, I emailed They Might Be Giants and asked for permission to use the song in my video, to which then responded, "...the content of the agreement is for people performing new material or their own material under what's called a work for hire and gives you (aaron) the copyright to the whole magilla. which we can't sign, because the band doesn't have the right to turn over all those rights to you, or to anyone." To me, that sounds like they do not own the rights to the song. The email further says, "...as for our own ability to perform the song, we pay for the right to include that song on the album and the original songwriters earn royalties that correspond to a percentage of the sale price of an album. but that's the extent of the rights the band has in regards to that song."

Oh well, no big deal. I actually have two versions on that video on YouTube. They took down the one with the most views, but I still have another one on there. The differences between them are the intros and the outros. It had a good run, I'm not upset over it. It seems searching for it still shows the video. I guess it is not gone completely yet. You can check it out before it's too late. It's pretty sweet. :)

Istanbul (Not Constantinople)

-Aaron Jones|ParasiteArtist-

Beats Being in the Gulag

noreply@blogger.com (Aaron Jones) — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 20:07:00 +0000

Getting a little Red Alert 3 action going on for Xbox 360. This is Co-op Soviet Campaign with a buddy of mine, Justin H.

I couldn't help it; I had to post this picture. Our mission was to defend the Tech Center and not allow it to be captured by enemy engineers. We failed once and decided we didn't want to do the mission a third time - so we defended it well this time. :)

-Aaron Jones|ParasiteArtist-

Marathon Finished!

noreply@blogger.com (Aaron Jones) — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 17:10:00 +0000

Epic Runners
Originally uploaded by parasiteartist

The Raleigh City of Oaks Full Marathon was Sunday. I was super pumped for this. It started at 7am and took me 4:11:57 to finish, but I finished! Not a bad time for a first marathon I think.

Four of us Epic folk started this marathon crazy talk over a year ago. It has been one long tough year, but we managed to stick to it and we all started and finished our first marathon. Thanks to everyone for their support!

Marathon = 26.2 mile run

Aaron Jones | ParasiteArtist

Last Day

noreply@blogger.com (Aaron Jones) — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 18:17:00 +0000

Gears of War 2 - new trailer

"Last Day” features the hauntingly beautiful music track, “How it
Ends,” by indie rock band DeVotchKa, which can be found on Zune
Marketplace. The ad spot was created entirely within Unreal Engine 3,
the same graphics engine technology used in the “Gears of War”
franchise.

Microsoft and Epic Games partnered with ad agency T.A.G SF,
special effects house Digital Domain and director Joseph Kosinski, the
same collaborative team that created the award-winning “Mad World”
(2006) television commercial for the original “Gears of War” campaign.

Press Release Gamerscore Blog

Polar Bears Are Not Renewable

noreply@blogger.com (Aaron Jones) — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 13:58:00 +0000

Urge Congress to Permanently Protect the Arctic Refuge!

Target: U.S. House of Representatives
Sponsored by: Defenders of Wildlife Action Fund

The Arctic National Wildlife Refuge is home to caribou, snow fox and millions of migratory birds. It is also the most important onshore denning habitat for America's vanishing polar bears.

But this natural treasure is constantly under siege. Time and time
again, the oil industry and their allies in Congress have sought to
open this special place to harmful new drilling, threatening all of the
wildlife that depend on it for survival.

And now President Bush has called for drilling in the Arctic Refuge by 2010 in his new budget proposal!

We need to permanently protect the Arctic Refuge! Urge your
Representative to support the Udall-Eisenhower Arctic Wilderness Act
(H.R. 39) to permanently protect the coastal plain of the Arctic
National Wildlife Refuge.

http://www.thepetitionsite.com/takeaction/567728305

The Legend of the Scarecrow

noreply@blogger.com (Aaron Jones) — Sun, 05 Oct 2008 16:47:00 +0000

The Legend of the Scarecrow from Carlos Lascano on Vimeo.

Screenplay & Direction: Marco Besas
Animation Director / Original Artwork: CARLOS LASCANO.
Editing & compositing: Carlos Lascano
Original Music, 3D model 3D animation: Fernando Cascales
Voice: Sancho Gracia

Marathon Training

noreply@blogger.com (Aaron Jones) — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 15:40:00 +0000

We will be running almost the entire marathon path tomorrow - 23.04 miles. *Loads up on carbs*

Epic Runners - Marathon 23
Find more Runs in Raleigh, North Carolina

ScribeFire

noreply@blogger.com (Aaron Jones) — Sun, 21 Sep 2008 04:17:00 +0000

Downloaded this sweet little Firefox add-on called ScribeFire that lets you quickly post to your blog from any browser window by pressing F8; thought I would give it a try... Sweet!

-Aaron Jones-

Crawling out of the Crunch-Hole (and into a brighter one!)

noreply@blogger.com (Aaron Jones) — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 20:42:00 +0000

Crunch has ended for most (most not including me). Either way, I still have
some updates to throw down here, so here we go:

I have missed some run days due to working, but I am still mostly on schedule. I will still be participating in the Raleigh Marathon November 2nd! The runs got pretty big, with a long 20 mile run last Sunday. It seems it has pretty much peaked though, keeping the long runs withing 14-18 but upping the mid-week runs to 8-10 miles per day. Not bad.

In the midst of this work madness and this crazy run madness, I still found a little bit of time to start working on my level idea. I boxed it out, played with a few design ideas, reboxed, and finally settled on where I want to go with it. I just started it last month, but I only got maybe a few hours of actual work into the finalized version. So these images are a little dated, not showing some recent work.

These levels are being made with UnrealEd (Unreal Engine 3) from the Gears of War PC version. The idea is, you start off in a shipment area - like a port where boats come down a small canal and load/unload things to different areas of the city (leaving the map name, so far, to be called "Shipment".) It is a single-player map. You start off in this area where you objective is to find Omega Squad; whos last transmission was broadcasted from this shipment area. You arrive in this area and you begin to explore the level. Well, I guess I could go into details as to what happens in the level, but that would spoil the surprise (the images are just a hint of what to expect). So you can check out these images for a rough idea of the level layout. On top of this level, I am also working on a UT3 (Unreal Tournament 3) level out of the UT3 UnrealEd. Unfortunetely, I do not have the latest version of the map saved on my drive here, so I cannot shot you images from that level. I will be sure to grab some screen from it as soon as I get a chance.

I think the UT3 map is much further along than my Gears level though. Hopefully crunch will wrap up soon so I can focus more attention to them so they get the love they need. I will be sure to keep you (if anyone even reads this) updated on my progress with this. I hope to finish them both within the next few months, but as work increases, time for self decreases. Meh, time is precious - patience is a virtue. :)

As crunch slows down, I am going to start to work on my portfolio again. First, I will start (continue) on this website so it will be a functioning site instead of just routing you to my bloggy blog. I have the sketches and the flow charts all down and ready to go, but my main problem is what I want to accomplish most likely needs to be done in Flash, which is something I have almost no experience in. So I will have to learn as I go, using the Flash free 30-day trial. I am sure there are other ways to accomplish what I want, but I am not sure of them. At the same time, I have a couple Maya projects I want to finish, and a couple that I want to start. I also have some more ideas I want to sketch out and paint. On top of all of that, I want to finish up my levels. So taking this semester off of college will give me the time I need to build up everything I have not had time to do and things I have been puting off . These next few months shall be interested.

-Aaron Jones|ParasiteArtist-

Marathon Training

noreply@blogger.com (Aaron Jones) — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 11:58:00 +0000

It's been a lot of work so far. It takes a lot of dedication and time to train for such an event. My greatest mileage covered so far was 12 miles. As the mileage gets greater and greater, more things will get sacrificed such as time with friends, personal art projects, and personal work. Working minimum ten hour days is causing a strain on this as well. I can no longer go out after work and run a quick 20 minutes. It now takes at least an hour to complete our weekly runs. So if I get out of work at 18:00, start my run at 18:30, I will not finish until, at the current schedule, around 20:00. I will not get home until 20:30. That leaves me enough time to take a shower, eat dinner, and be in bed at 21:30 to get enough sleep to do it all again.

Running is not all that bad though. Even though I am losing time to myself, I enjoy running, and how I feel after running is great. I always feel great after running; like I can do anything. It will all be worth it when I cross the finish of the marathon this November.

Anyways, this week is a slow week with only four miles a day to run - easy. I will get more time to take care of some things this week. I will however, be setting a new mileage record for myself this Sunday with a 14 mile run. I am actually pretty excited about it. I will take my four milers pretty easy and prepare for this Sunday. This time I want to be fully prepared (I did not hydrate or eat correctly on the 12 miler). This should be fun, I think I will run Umstead again.

Raleigh City of Oaks Marathon - Umstead section 14 miles
Find more Runs in Raleigh, North Carolina

Gears of War 2: Rendezvous E3 2008 Trailer

noreply@blogger.com (Aaron Jones) — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 20:10:00 +0000

New Gears 2 trailer. Wow!

Or perhaps you prefer YouTube?

New Gears of War 2 Multiplayer video!

noreply@blogger.com (Aaron Jones) — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 11:36:00 +0000

Foreign Airlines are Sweet

noreply@blogger.com (Aaron Jones) — Sat, 07 Jun 2008 16:58:00 +0000

So our trip to Thailand was a success. All of our flights worked out and everything was booked like it should have been. Everything was smooth. Anyways, on to some pictures.

The plane rides were rough. I found that after all of our traveling, China Airlines is by far the best airline around. Besides the fact that their Engrish is a little hard to understand, they were incredibly nice and they fed us pretty good.

Now let's move on too what really matters. Entertainment! During the flight, these stripper-poles came out of the floor and the flight attendants got half-naked and started pole dancing! Ok ok ok, maybe that didn't happen. But we had screens on the backs of each seat, and they gave us free headphones to use with it (something we had to pay $2.00 for on other flights). Also, we were able to watch all of the content on the small screens for free such as movies, music, games, and travel info (also something you had to pay for on our Delta flight). I watched Jumper, The Spiderwyck Chronicles, Rambo, and some other one I can't remember, as well as listened to soundtracks and learned a little Thai with some language games.

The plane food was surprisingly good. Although I couldn't bring myself to eat the duck egg, I was able to eat pretty much anything else that was offered. I would have to say the best thing I had

was on Thai air, and it was a chicken sandwich. I opened the nice little box of food to see *cue Zelda discovery music* a sweet chicken sandwich! The first thing that came to mind was, "Uh oh. To eat this I am going to need some ketchup. And not just any old ketchup, but I am going to need some Heinz." I unwrap the sandwich (hey, I'm hungry dammit, I'm still going to eat it; just not going to be happy about it) when I discover... Yes, you guessed it. Beautiful ketchup. And not just some generic ketchup, but my long lost mistress, back to make me happy as it always does - Heinz! I am not able to read Thai, but I know my Heinz when I see it. So I applied my fruitful bounty onto my deceased feathered friend and the rest, as they say, is

history. Except the fact that after Keith and I finished our meal, the flight attendant asked if we would like another one, which we took. Thailand is called The Land of Smiles.

Well that is enough for now.

-Aaron Jones-

Obama clinches Democratic Nomination

noreply@blogger.com (Aaron Jones) — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 12:46:00 +0000

So I am back from Thailand with good news! Let me start off with this video of Obama's victory speech after winning the Democratic Nomination for President of the United States of America.

I will update again later with more info from my vacation in Thailand; with pictures!

-Aaron Jones-

Diving in Thailand pt.2

noreply@blogger.com (Aaron Jones) — Fri, 16 May 2008 13:43:00 +0000

Ah, so the bookings are complete! My counterpart, Keith, and I have our flights booked. (Not a fun or cheap process btw)

Our hotel and dive shop have also been booked. We will be staying at the Baan Suay hotel at Karon beach in Phuket. Looks like a nice enough place. It was recommended by a dive master that lives in Thailand; the same dive master that did the Thailand bookings for us.

The dive shop we will be at is called Dive Asia. I am pretty excited about this place, as it comes highly recommended by a few people and on a bunch of diving forums I read.

We will be leaving here May 23rd and will be getting back June 2nd (and have to work that day). Be prepared for a flood of pictures next month.

-Aaron Jones-

Image courtesy of Whale-Shark.org

Gears of War 2 Footage Debut

noreply@blogger.com (Aaron Jones) — Sat, 10 May 2008 17:14:00 +0000

Gears of War 2 gameplay footage was released last night! You can now check out the new Gears and grab a sneak peak of what is in store for you in November.

You can also check out GameTrailers break down of the video to show you things you might have missed. (below)

-Aaron Jones-

Video courtesy of GameTrailers