Batman: Arkham Knight Announce Trailer

Not that often we get an applause after a trailer launch. This is really nice.


Fire It Up!
Randolf

Donnie Yen vs. Bruce Lee CG Animation

This is actually quite entertaining if you are a fan. They did a good job in capturing the fighting styles of both fighters as they are quite believable.

Star Wars - Old Republic Cinematics

These movies are really great. I would love to see this as a full length feature or series. The creators have a knack for timing, making things look cool and amazing fight choreography.

Be sure to check out the Badass Asian Girl Jedi - she totally kicks butt. At least, she looks Asian.

Kung Fu Panda 2: Trailer 2

Hooray! The sequel to my bestest, most favoritest, awesomest, movie of all time! This looks great. The movie has more action, more characters, and bigger sets.

ED 209: Classic Robocop Scene

Saw Robocop appear on Netflix the other day, and I immediately fast forwarded to the most memorable scene of the movie - it has been years since I've seen this movie. The scene features a malfunctioning robot animated via stop motion, great sound, and visual effects squib work (this is the bloody explosion stuff happening on the guy's body).

Also is a documentary about the scene called "Making ED 209), as well as the latest poster for the scheduled remake.

Enjoy!

Priest: Trailer

Coming in May 2011. The trailer is pretty cool, based on a Tokyopop graphic novel, the movie looks like a new and interesting take on an age old war. What do you think, "Legion", meets "Aliens", meets "Road Warrior"?

Thor: Trailer

In this trailer, they make Thor to be a troublemaker - don't be saying such mean stuff to your Dad, especially if he's the king of the Gods, what are you thinkin?. The movie looks pretty cool, I like how they make him look to be a well trained "battle tested" fighter - I didn't expect that. Well, for what its worth, here you go...I smell an Avengers movie....

Enjoy!

Batman: Arkham City 'Hugo Strange Trailer'

Wow, the animation and overall production of this game trailer is nice and tight. Something to look forward to in 2011. Somebody please make a movie of this quality!

Enjoy!

"Sucker Punch": Trailer

Finally a movie with tough girls in lingerie with guns, swords, ninjas, samurai, epic fight scenes, robots, and dragons in a cool cg package. Can't wait.

To to learn more, visit the official movie website here >>

IRON BABY

A sweet, well crafted, cute and highly entertaining piece from Patrick Boivin - Oh, did I mention that this piece is very cute. Patrick was also responsible for crafting the piece "Iron Man Vs. Bruce Lee". Hey Patrick, keep doing the good work, we love your stuff.

Fire it Up!

Randolf

God of War III: Making Chimera

Chimera in Greek mythology is a creature that is part lion, goat and part snake, and is featured as one of the main obstacles in the Playstation's God of War III video game. This featurette is something that you will enjoy and learn a lot from. It features various interviews from all of the designers who contributed to the creature and it takes you through the many cool stages of development from conceptual development, modeling, animation and even fighting strategy - something you don't see very much these days.

Very nice and inspiring! Those of you who got a feeling for this conceptual art stuff, this is what you got to do, can you match this stuff? Yes, of course you can...just don't stop.

Fire it up and keep going! See ya'll at the top.

Ali - thanks for the heads up, and congrats on graduating.

Randolf

Dragon Age 2: Trailer & Interview

Dragon fans, here's something coming down the firepit...can't stop watching this one. Its got great character design, animation, fight choreography and action packed editing that rivals film. Pay close attention to the camera movement. Nice work Dragon Age 2 .Crew. Can't wait for this game to come out - March 2011. To learn more about Dragon Age 2, click here >>.

And for something a little extra: Mike Laidlaw is a lead designer for Dragon Age 2, and in this interview, he gives insight into story structure, and unique programming concepts (2:55) new to the game. Enjoy.

DC Universe Online: Trailer

A well crafted, dark and brutal brawl / city cage match of everyone we know DC. Thanks Manuel for the heads up. This was awesome.

Azureas Rising Proof of Concept

This is a really nice action packed animated short Azureas Rising from Black Sun Entertainment The animation is a concept for a feature film trilogy. The work is stunning. Great timing, editing, lighting and texturing work. Good luck guys.

You can learn more about the animation by visiting the Azureas Rising site.

"Brink" - Cinematic Trailer

This "Brink" trailer is pretty awesome. What makes this game pretty unique is its focus on free running, which is something that I'm a big fan of. The controls are quite sensitive, they would have to be if you want to incorporate some "free running" moves. Enjoy! Hey Mr. Key, thanks for the heads up. The game looks great, but I can watch this trailer over and over again.

You can watch an example of the gameplay below.

Azo - Showreel 2009

This guy is straight up incredible! Simply nuts! And highly entertaining. His profession is an animator for a game company and uses many of his moves as reference for his animations. Way cool.

If you're middle aged, don't be trying this stuff at home. You could pull something!

Enjoy!

Shaolin Pepsi

We're approaching that time of the year once again when Superbowl commercials take the main stage. I saw this and thought it was cleverly executed and simple, although some people still don't get it (especially the end).

Whatever you do, don't try this at home...ouch!
Highly entertaining!

Here's to an incredible 2010! Happy New Year to all of you.

Who is Sho Kosugi?: "Ninja Assassin" Review

I think there's a commercial in front of this clip, let it load.

This Thanksgiving (2009), after binge eating turkey to fill the entire year, me and the family needed to work it off, so what did we do...watch "Ninja Assassin"! This movie was highly entertaining. Yes, the movie is predictable, we know what's going to happen to the star (Rain), that he's going to survive an attack and you know what's going to happen in the end. But still, regardless of the predictability, it was still engaging, kudos to the group who were able to put this movie together.

For those of you who have seen the movie, I included a clip with this post that shows some of the training and timing involved in creating some of the action shots. I thought it was nice to watch after watching the film. Oh yeah, and if you are a visual effects fan, you'll be happy to know that the special effects shots were directed by John Gaeta of "The Matrix".

Seriously, lots of serious movie goers and critics are not giving this film good reviews, but we're talking ninjas folks, they don't care what you think, they just want to kill you.

Here's what I liked about "Ninja Assassin":

Great timing:

We are used to action scenes in movies, and the timing of the scenes in "Ninja Assasin" were well executed and edited. Good job.

Ninja Supernatural Ability:

Going back to my experience in watching ninja movies back in the 80's, it was interesting to see how this was portrayed, we really haven't seen this before. We see ninjas appearing out of shadows, and disappearing and reappearing in the fight scenes to trick your senses. I thought this was a nice upgrade. Also, add to this, the supernatural, heavy duty, turbo, shuriken throwing skills and you get lots of fun. After seeing this, I really believed that ninja stars can pepper the outer shell of a BMW. Wow!

Story Variety:

I liked how we trained with the young assassins in an old Japanese temple and how we followed them until present time. The timeline jumps back and forth in time which is a nice attempt to make things interesting. It works.

CG Animation:

The CG animation of the main character's weapon was well done. There is also lots and lots of CG blood splatters and decapitations. Although, in my classes, as we discuss the film perhaps, this took away from the film. Lots of people would have liked to have seen more elaborate squib work. Okay - point taken.

Rain:

The lead actor in the film is believable in serving up some major wup ass. Some girls also think he's good looking (that's for you Athena). He looks like lots of asian guys I know, that's a great conversation starter at parties (Brandon?).

And the best part...

Sho Kosugi:

Sho was the original actor who starred in many of the ninja films in the 80's and I thought it was awesome that he played the father of the ninja clan in this movie. The movie pays homage to his contributions and his appearance was fitting, who else would be the father of the most dangerous ninja clan in the world?

I hope the success of this movie opens up more opportunities to explore the ninja genre in film. In video games and anime however, its always going to be popular, we love ninjas.

Now for a history lesson for all the kid ninja maniacs. The original trailer to "Enter the Ninja" starring Sho Kosugi...I know, you may the white ninja is Stormshadow, but he's not. There are some caucasian ninjas too you know. Enjoy and check out the movie.

Shaolin Form: Da Hong Quan

I'm posting this video as many of us are big fans of fight scenes. The movements in this clip are from an impressive young Shaolin master. As I watched this clip, my knees began to hurt...Ouch!

Check out his vertical movement as he completes the form. Well done.

Enjoy and Fire it Up.

Last Airbender Trailer

We've been waiting a long time for this trailer. We're wondering however, why "Avatar" isn't in the title? From what we see here however, the look of the film looks great. The film looks like its going to be loaded with plenty of martial arts and tons of CG...(the Fire Nation in this clip looks pretty dart awesome)...just the way we like. The only thing this needs now, is a tight story and great character acting. Hopefully the director, Shyamalan, a story driven director, will pull through and make this one of his best films, I really like his work. Below is the trailer, and underneath that is an interview clip with the director M.Night.Shyamalan.

Video Games | The Last Airbender | Exclusive Trailer HD

XBox 360 | Playstation 3 | Nintendo Wii

One controversy surrounding the Last Airbender film, is an issue surrounding race. It came up many many months ago as news of the film spread. In my classes, rumors were floating around about casting "white" actors to play the main characters of the animation. Many people were upset because the characters in the film were descendant from a multicultural society with a predominantly asian influence. So far, the main Avatar character featured in the trailer not only looks this part, but also has pretty slick bow staff moves.



And of course, for those of you who have a bo staff, but don't know how to twirl or strike with it (like me), here's a video that teaches you how to do it.