Sony Pictures released a vastly improved trailer for the upcoming movie Chappie. The effects look good and the cast is intriguing: Dev Patel, Hugh Jackman, Sigourney Weaver, and both Yolandi and Ninja from Die Antwoord (who seem to be playing versions of themselves). At one point in the trailer, Dev Patel says, “What interests me…
I love CGI and some of my dear friends are digital graphic artists, but effects made with physical objects can be so delightful. The Verge has a nice piece about Lumino City, the sequel to the game Lume, which takes place in a 10 foot tall miniature city that was built in a studio. The article…
A lovely little machinima filmed in Second Life. Little Marie from Pepa Cometa on Vimeo. [Tip of the hat to Jac Mornington, who sent a note about this video. Among other things, Jac is one of the folks behind the gorgeous Santaurio sim, which provides some of the settings in the film.]
Jonathan Mann’s “Are Video Games Sexist?” Auto-tune rebuttal is fantastic. It’s catchy and amusing — except for the screenshots of hate tweets near the end of the video — but it also is a good little primer in how to think critically about an argument that could seem persuasive on the surface, but is actually a…
Today I was pleased to attend the in-Second Life premiere of AvaJean Westland’s machinima project, “Virtually News”. There was a great turn-out for the premiere at the LEA Theatre and you can see her video right here: Photos from the premiere: The content of this video isn’t a perfect match for my sense of humor, but I appreciate the time…
The video below from CGP Grey is more pessimistic than my opinion and overstates some numbers, but it is a broad, persuasive look at the current and near future of robots in every workplace. It’s fifteen minutes long and I recommend watching the entire thing if you have time. I’ve been doing a lot of…
The movie Lucy opened in the US last week and it has simultaneously thrilled and enraged the geek subculture of which I consider myself a member. If you somehow haven’t seen the trailer, here you go: See the dilemma? On the one hand, we get a superhero-type action movie with a female protagonist, directed by Luc…
It’s a theme that turns up now and then in science fiction: uploading the elderly to preserve their memories and save resources in meatspace. The short film Life Begins at Rewirement by Trevin Matcek takes another look: There are a lot of directions we could take in critiquing the film; we could spend hours on…