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Game of Thrones Fan Art Contest

The folks over at Cornucopia3D are holding a Game of Thrones Fan Art Contest all this month, until June 30th. Create a landscape, city, hamlet, or castle from Westeros. Or you can illustrate an event from the George R.R. Martin book series or the TV show they made from it, such as a coronation, treaty negotiation, battle, or assassination. Of course, you can not use any copyright images from either source, you will have to create your own original artwork inspired by the series. There are a few other rules, which you can get from their web site, along with a list of the prizes. If you don’t feel like entering the contest but want to show off some of your artwork they have a ton of non-contest galleries you can upload to as well.

They also have some software and 3D modeling resources you might find useful, including a free copy of Vue 2014 Pioneer. If you haven’t used Vue before, it is one of the best 3D modeling programs available for easily creating terrains and landscapes, from a single scene to an entire mountain range or planet. The Pioneer version is a full product, not crippleware or a limited time trial, but it is their entry-level version. There are modules you can buy to upgrade it to some of the functionality of the other versions, such as 3D model importing with bone rigging and texture/bump mapping, but it is a great way to get started on creating your own worlds.

Short: Mech, Human Trials

This short film from Patrick Kalyn looks like a trailer rather than a short, giving me the impression I will see it posted to Kickstarter, looking to be funded into a full feature film. I would consider contributing if it was, because I like what I see so far. I also think he did a nice job with his PSA and the viral design web site Don’t Do Mech attached to it. Considering he is a Visual Effects guy who’s credits include Avatar, District 9, X-Men: The Last Stand, Jumper, Dead Like Me, and King Kong, plus being writer/director on 4 projects including Mech, I think he has a shot at making something interesting. Thanks to SF Signal for the heads up on this one.

MECH: HUMAN TRIALS from Patrick Kalyn on Vimeo.

New Show: The Musketeers

The show The Musketeers is coming to BBC America, and even though they are not exactly French (let’s face it, in most Musketeers variations, the British were the enemy even worse than the French king or Cardinal Richelieu himself!), this looks like it might be very good fun indeed. And I do like the Tag Line: 17th Century Paris, where Law And Order is more an idea than a reality. The show kicks off on June 22nd, and I intend to be there to check it out. Let’s face it, Alexandre Dumas was a genius with a unique place in time and a wonderful understanding of the human heart. I can’t wait to see which direction this newest variant on his story goes in.

Something to Do: Movies, 13Jun14

This week we get How to Train Your Dragon 2, the animated fantasy sequel. I enjoyed the original Dreamworks production and the first season of the TV show. I felt season 2 of the show had gone a bit down hill, losing touch with the stories original values in honor of getting a bigger audience share by emphasizing the adventure aspects. I am hoping that the second movie takes us back to the kind of heart and character expressed in the first one. If you are in the mood for something more serious, The Signal may or may not be an alien invasion story that some folks have compared to District 9 for originality when it was on the film festival circuit. Other folks have been less positive, but I do like the trailer, and it got nominations at Sundance, so I may just check it out. I will not be attending The Rover, partly because it is in limited release this week, but mostly because the description reads like yet another Mad Max wannabe, and I have already seen my quota of Australian post apocalypse movies. It may be better than I think it is, because it got nominated for Best Film in Cannes; and it goes into wide release next week, so anyone who is interested can catch it then.

Something to Watch: DVDs, 10Jun14

In movies, Kill Zombie! is a Dutch horror/comedy. After a night in jail, four hung-over friends and one female officer emerge to discover their city ravaged by a zombie outbreak cause by a meteor shower. The other film choice isn’t genre as such, but an esoteric and visually stunning production called Visitors, a non-verbal film by Godfrey Reggio, Philip Glass, and Jon Kane.

In TV, Resurrection: The Complete First Season is based on the book The Returned by Jason Mott. I was certain it was the American remake of the 2012 French TV show Les Revenants, which won an International Emmy for Best Drama Series, but I was wrong. Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey is on the list this time as well, and I think this show proves Dr. Neil deGrasse Tyson is a fitting inheritor of Carl Sagan’s cosmic mantle. This is a rather nice release schedule, since the season finale episode airs tonight at 9PM in my time zone, and I am a big believer in instant gratification.

In Anime, Maoyu is the story of the war between humankind and the Demon King. Except, as the hero named Hero discovers, the King is a Queen, and she has a plan to bring lasting peace to both realms with his help. So is this a deal with the devil or the best options for both species? Warning, for those looking for a serious combat-centric war show, this series is a Romantic Comedy/Fantasy. Date A Live: Complete Series is about the spacequakes that killed 150 million people when they first happened 30 years ago, and our protagonist has just learned that the spacequakes are caused by the Spirits, mystical creatures found at ground zero. Now he has been recruited to help save the world by sealing the Spirits powers. The complication is that Shido is an ordinary high school boy, the Spirits are all cute girls, and the only way to seal one is to make her fall in love with you. Surprise, this one is also a Romantic Comedy/Fantasy.

Deltora Quest Megaset, the epic magical quest series, is a bit confusing. It is an excellent series of children’s books from Australian author Emily Rodda that was made into either 52 or 65 episodes of Anime, depending on which Anime web site you read, but everyone agrees the box set has 52 episodes. It was supposed to have been released on May 13th, but most of the web sites say release was delayed until June 10th. When I check the Barnes and Noble web site it says you can pre-order it for the 10th, but when I go to Amazon it says there are only 12 left in stock and has May 13th as the release date, while Wallmart says it came out on June 3rd and they have lots of copies. So I don’t have a clue if it is coming out this week, last week, or last month, but probably one of those times.

Passepied new album

A new tune from Passepied, the song being Tokyo City Underground MV, and yes, the MV does mean Music Video. The lead vocalist is also a graphics artist and helps create the animations for her videos, as you may have noticed from Wednesday’s post. This track is from their new album, and will be in stores on June 18th, and available on iTunes at the same time. I also included another track which was from a mini-album released just a month or two back.