Say What?! did you say?

Starting in February 2011 and finishing in August 2011, I joined the 8linQ team to make the iPhone/iPad game, ‘Say What?!’.

The Beatles are on iTunes!

During October and early November 2010, whilst working for Metropolis Studios I was part of the team that helped to bring the Beatles to iTunes.

For their release on iTunes, each of the sixteen digitally remastered albums required the creation of an iTunes LP digital album booklet.  Additionally we built a special “Box set” iTunes LP booklet itself containing both the thirteen studio albums (and Past Masters) and their LP booklets as well as additional exclusive content including a film of their 1964 concert in the USA.

The Beatles Box Set

I was part of the authoring team responsible for the creation of iTunes LP digital booklets and was responsible for coding and graphics.

The Beatles Abbey Road gallery

Where can I find this?

iTunes link (you’ll need iTunes installed): http://itunes.apple.com/gb/artist/the-beatles/id136975

Apple.com: www.apple.com/the-beatles

What are iTunes LP Digital booklets?

In short they are a digital recreation/equivalent of the album artwork you might find in a CD or LP, although being digital they are far more interactive and engaging.  Click here to learn more about iTunes LPs.

Links

Metropolis Studios  www.metropolis-group.co.uk

The Beatles  www.thebeatles.com

Apple Corp  www.applecorpsltd.com

Apple  www.apple.com

EMI  www.emi.com

I built a cross-platform Mac/PC program that plays the promotional video in both small and full screen, with standard video controls.

The promo video screen

Where can I find this?

Amazon link:  http://www.amazon.co.uk/Flood-Take-That/dp/B0048D61WQ/ref=sr_1_2?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1291650170&sr=1-2

Credits

Metropolis Studios: http://www.metropolis-group.co.uk/

Take That:  http://www.takethat.com/

The program main menu

Going Back (18 Good Reasons) is Phil Collins’s eighth studio album. It was released on 13 September 2010 in the United Kingdom and features covers of 60s Motown & Soul tracks.

I was asked to create a DVD-ROM section for the DVD with a piece of software that would copy a set of music tracks to the user’s computer.

I built a cross platform (Mac/PC) program that allows the user to select which either MP3 or full quality WAV audio tracks, which were then subsequently copied to the user’s “Music” folder on their computer.

Going Back reached No.1 in the UK Album charts for the week ending 23 September 2010.

Visit Phil Collins website: www.philcollins.com

Jeremy Browne is the Minister for Parliament for the Taunton Deane constituency in Somerset.  He was first elected to Parliament in 2005, and contacted me about building him a website to help him communicate better with his constituents.

In trying to reflect the gentle countryside nature of Somerset, I created a website with an autumnal feel.  In 2008 the website was nominated as a finalist in the British Computer Society MP Website Awards.  Unfortunately, it didn’t win, but did feature in a video about the competition.

Jeremy Browne MP 2006 site design

In late 2009, I was asked to transform the site for the 2010 General Election by giving it a complete facelift whilst keeping the same overall design.  This time the brief required a punchier and more modern feel along dynamic elements such as “Facebook”-style “on-the-fly” updates and moving gallery images.  The website facelift was built in three weeks, and launched on the Friday before the election.

Jeremy Browne MP 2010 election site redesign

In April 2010, Jeremy Browne MP was re-elected with an increased majority.  He was also appointed as a Minister Of State in the Foreign and Commonwealth office as part of the coalition government.

In November 2007, after working from 10am to 12am every week day for nearly 6 months, I was, quite frankly, knackered.  In fact, possibly a little burnt out and I needed a holiday.

I’d been building a development framework and fast authoring pipeline for the Hi-def optical format HD-DVD.  Using the framework I’d finally managed to get several products done.  I think one of them was even on time.

Now I really needed a break to relax.  Using some of my holiday time, plus a large amount of owed time-in-lieu, I managed to cobble together a total of single 6 week block off work!  So, I decided to go on a holiday abroad.  So, where to go?

So, where do you want to go?

Looking at the map of the entire world, it’s suddenly quite intimidating to choose from.  There’s so many places in the world!  And I’d quite like to visit several of them… *lightbulb moment* … so, let’s go around the world!

A little about me; I’m a natural worrier and I get bored rather easily so variation is very important to me.

So the rules for the trip:

1. At least one country had to be “relaxing”.
2. One country should be Japan (I’m a big fan of Manga).
3. Each country had to be different from the other countries in as many ways as possible (people/language/temperature/activities) and I wanted to cram as much different stuff in as possible.
4. I really wanted to meet up with my best friend Carl, who lives in Australia.
5. I had 6 weeks.  Which sounds like a lot, and it is, but flights take time.  And flights around the world take lots of time.
6. Round the world plane tickets require you to keep travelling east or west around the planet.  Stop wherever you like, but keep going in the same direction.
7. I would start travelling in February 2008.

Where to go to relax?

“Where’s the most relaxing place you’e ever been?”, I asked my colleagues, using the highly scientific method of whoever-happens-to-be-passing-the-door-when-idea-comes-to-mind.

“Thailand“, said Emma and Zoe, instantly.

“Thank you”, and Thailand was added to the list.

A change please!

That’s the relaxing trip done and it leaves me in the middle of Asia.  Where next?

Thailand is a hot, sunny, relaxing location, so in the interests of variation lets go somewhere different; cold, not-so-relaxing but interesting.  Well, cold means north of the equator, and I had to keep travelling east.  A cold interesting place NE of Thailand? China.

China looked to be a fascinating place;  a gigantic country, with a fascinating past, beautiful architecture, a place both modern and ancient at the same time.  It would be the middle of Winter and be freezing, so big coat required.

Domo!

China is handily enough right next to Japan.  Japan has always seemed fascinated since I started reading Manga.  I’m also a huge fan of Studio Ghibli’s animated films, and buried somewhere near Tokyo is the Studio Ghibli museum (where they show Ghibli films that you can only see in the museum).  For Ghibli fans, it’s rather pilgrimage-like.

Both Carl and I had talked previously about a trip to Japan and we resurrected the idea.  I would fly to Japan from China, and he would fly from Australia. We’d meet up and explore Japan together.

Nice one Mate!

Carl offered to put me up with him in Sydney after the Japan Trip, allowing me the chance to explore Sydney and a bit of Australia, and see if the spiders were quite as big, scary and abundant as the tales say.  Australia in February is still in high summer, which would make a nice change from the relatively cool temperatures of Japan.

Flowers in the hair

For the last leg of the trip and the remaining few days I fancied a stop off and chill out in San Francisco.  Having explored New York previously on the east coast, I wanted to see what the west coast of the U.S.A. was like.

And that was my rough plan for my trip.

Runners Up

There were of course quite a few places that I would have liked to have visited but I just couldn’t fit into the time.

Latin America: I tried desperately to fit in a trip to Machu Picchu, but I couldn’t manage it.  It’s a minimum of a week or more to get all the necessary flights, plus a short trek.

Antarctica: There’s a boat that leaves from the tip of South America, Ushuaia, that travels down to Antarctica.  But even the shortest journey is at least 9 days long, and costs £2000-3000 pounds – most of the cost of the rest of the trip.  Pity, I really had wanted to see Penguins.

Activities please!

On the Thailand and China legs of the tour, I decided to go on a guided tour.  For this I used Intrepid Travel, and their two tours: A Taste of Thailand and A Taste Of China.  They came recommended by my Trailfinders Travel agent.  I’m rather glad that I used Trailfinders to organise the whole trip as it was a lot of work to figure out what and where to go to.  It could definitely be organised without an agent, but I was quite new at the whole travelling thing and there was a lot there I didn’t know.

Speak more loudly and more slowly

Being relatively new to travelling abroad I was concerned about the language barrier.  To that effect I bought various phrase books.  Turns out I needn’t have bothered.

The Thai language has a set of five intonations: high, low, rising, falling or in a mid-level tone.  The classic example is the word “mai”.  ”Mai” in a falling tone means ‘not’ but at the end of a sentence with a high tone it indicates a question.  In total, “mai” has a different meaning for each intonation, meaning that the sentence “‘mai mai mai mai mai” when said in the five different intonations roughly translates as  ’new wood doesn’t burn, does it?‘.  I could barely even hear the different sounds lets alone pronounce them correctly.  Fortunately, spoken English is quite common, especially in Bangkok.  Most of the locals understand enough English to try to sell you something.

In China however, the language advice was a little more … adventurous –  ”If you’re lucky, the staff in your hotel may speak English”.  Other than that, unless you are at a tourist site, in China nobody speaks English.  Chinese is also intonational language, so again, I didn’t stand a chance.  I tried, but mostly the locals looked at me like I was talking gibberish.  Which I most likely was.

In Japan I figured it wouldn’t be too bad what with my extensive Manga vocabulary – perfect provided we get attacked by giant robots or need to swear profusely.

Obviously Australia and the U.S.A. wasn’t a problem, although when I San Francisco, I made sure to pronounce the word Colour and Honour with the necessary “u”.

When I was working at Abbey Road Studios, I was incredibly lucky enough to do a little bit of work on Peter Jackson’s “The Lord of the Rings” trilogy.  To celebrate I decided to make a picture in my favourite art style: isometric pixel art.

My own pixel art style of  is a bit different to other people’s.  Many “hardcore” pixel artists work with very limited palettes (often just 8, 16 or 32 colours in total), evoking an amazing 16bit console late 80′s/early 90′s video game feel.  Myself, I’m not that fussed so I use whatever colours I like, although most of the colours are sourced directly from the film stills.

Once I had finished the picture, I got several requests asking how I made it, so I’ve bashed together this page showing how the elements in the picture were composed together.  I find the actual construction and composition of complex things quite fascinating, so I hope you will too.

What to draw?

I had to pick a scene from the Lord of the Ring films.  Isometric pixel pictures often show a large area containing many small but detailed individual characters.  However during the most of the trilogy only a few characters are ever on screen at once.  The only time there are lots of people is during an battle.  One of the most epic battles is the pivotal moment in The Two Towers film when thousands of Uruk-Hai attack Helm’s Deep.  This seemed like a perfect choice.

Where to start?

I started by watching the film looking for some decent still frames that would help me understand the scene.

Film still from the Two Towers showing the army and Helm's Deep

After watching it, I was able to work out the general geography and layout of all the various elements.    I then had to consider the picture composition; the isometric view means we are going to have the view point either from behind the defenders in the fortress looking at the Uruk-Hai army (figure 1) or looking toward the fortress from the view point of the Uruk-Hai (figure 2).

Figure 1. Viewpoint from the defenders looking at the huge army

Figure 2. Viewpoint from the Army looking at the defenders

Choices, choices

At this point, it’s down to the artist’s personal preference as to which would make for the most interesting picture.

The first idea’s major element is the immense army standing in front of the fortress and its few defenders, which is pretty interesting and bleak picture.  However, the majority of the Uruk-Hai army are just queuing to get to the front line to attack, so there won’t be much going on in the picture.  The Uruk-Hai that do make it to the front line will likely be obscured by the wall.  And finally, all of our heroes, Aragon, Legolas, Gimli, etc, have their backs to us.

The second picture has less of the army, but all of the film’s heroes (Aragon, Gimli and Legolas) are visible.  Also the wall’s weakpoint, the drainage grate is visible, which allows us to set the time frame for the scene to moments before the wall is destroyed.

I decided to go with the second layout as it meant I could drawing the heroes from the front.  Next, the fun bit – the drawing.

Drawing People

I start off with a blank document and immediately colour it blue, which will form the main background, and help set the tone for the other colours in the picture.  I then draw a rough humanoid shape which will be my template for every other character and everything else.

My basic humanoid shape

And then place him into my scene.

He looks a bit lost really.

Just another brick in the wall

This is an isometric drawing, so let’s get some isometric lines in there.  These are lines which are two pixels horizontally for every 1 pixel vertically.  First scene element we’ll need is the most critical piece; the wall.

Doesn't look much like a wall to me

In order to draw the wall, we need to have a look at the film stills, and see how the wall is built.  We also need to work out where the light is coming from.  Turns out it’s mostly moonlight, with a few torches casting a bit of yellow, but generally it’s all blue.  Let’s draw the wall with the ramparts in.  The tops of the wall are lighter than the sides.

That's more like a wall.

Now we have a wall, let’s make a ladder to climb it.  This is just a couple of isometric lines going two pixels vertically for every one horizontally.

No point having a wall without a ladder ...

How’s anyone supposed to climb that?  It needs rungs fool!

Now it can be climbed. Doesn't look very "real" though.

The ladders the Uruk-Hai in the film use seem more like cobbled together pieces of wood and nails than anything elegant, so ours don’t need to look that nice either.  The main problem with the ladder is that it doesn’t look like it is touching the wall.  What we need is the moonlight’s shadow.

That looks better.

With that simple change it now looks connected.  The shadow is simply a black pixel drawing of a simple ladder set at 36% opacity.  Now, we need someone to climb the ladder.  We need some Uruk-Hai.

Oh Hai Uruk-Hai

Using our basic humanoid shape, I created an Uruk-Hai with a spear and a shadow.

Our basic Uruk-Hai

He’s lonely.  He needs some friends.

From just a few ...

There we go, now we have some basic Uruk-Hai soldiers, including one with a flaming torch, another with Saruman’s White Hand flag, and even a lazy one lying on his back.  Let’s put them in the scene and do a little bit of cloning work.

"Begun the Clone Wars has."

Call that a Wall ?

Now we have an Uruk-Hai army, but no defenders!  In fact, there’s not even any room for the defenders!  That wall needs a load of work!  Let’s build them a place behind the ramparts for the defenders to stand.

Thicker wall

The wall also needs the drainage hole where the bomb is placed, and a stream leading down the hill.  The drainage hole is simply a layer above the wall.

Added the drainage hole and stream

The wall looks too clean.  Was Helm’s Deep built yesterday?  Let’s add some detail and age it.

Strange how just a few pixels makes the wall look so much more interesting

Okay, the wall is done, and we have a drainage hole.  However, it still looks like a peaceful protest.  It needs some action!

The assault on the wall

The Uruk-Hai army is currently a bit dull.  Let’s add some unique elements to it them more interesting.  In the film the Uruk-Hai army has two notable members; a crazy Uruk-Hai with a burning torch who runs at the drainage hole bomb, and there’s a Uruk-Hai leader who stands on a rock giving, presumably, motivational advice to his fellow Uruk-Hai.

You wait ages for a bus to be invented ...

The Uruk-Hai have made a few more ladders for the assault, and unfortunately one Uruk-Hai has climbed the ladder and been shot by an arrow.

The first Uruk-Hai casualty.

Let’s make and clone some more climbing Uruk-Hai.

More cloned Uruk-Hai

And more attackers!  Note that you only have to draw a few, and then clone them onto multiple ladders.

That's a lot of Uruk-Hai

The Defenders

Let’s add a couple of Uruk-Hai who have made it to the top of their ladders and a couple of Elvish defenders.

Finally, battle is joined.

Here we see that one Uruk-Hai has a hit an defender in the back!  The scene is starting to get quite interesting.

Stabbed in the back!

That’s a pretty large army.  The Uruk-Hai are going to win at this rate.  We need a few more nameless defenders to help hold them off, whilst we wait for the heroes to arrive.  We’ll also add the grill in the drainage hole to stop anyone trying to run through it.

More elves.

The gunpowder bomb is now in the drainage gate.  We even have a couple of plants next to it.

Bomb set in the drainage gate.

Time for our heroes to make an appearance.  Gimli is in combat, counting his kills, whilst Aragon shouts to Legolas to kill the Orc carrying the burning torch.

Our heroes are here!

Let’s add a bit more of a body count.  The movie shows the wall being very busy as well as a few dead Uruk-Hai and Elves.  Gimli has also managed to behead an Uruk-Hai.

An exciting scene atop the wall

I think we are nearly there with the scene.  Let’s add some arrows from the main keep off screen from the Keep to finish it off.  The composition is pretty much done.  However, it’s not very easy to look at.  At the moment the viewer’s eye jumps around the image trying to make out what’s going on.  We need to highlight particular elements and tell the story to the viewer.  We need to light the scene.

A few arrows to help out the defenders

Lights, Camera, more lights …

Good lighting will really help improve the dramatic impact of the scene.  The area behind the wall isn’t very interesting, there’s no-one there nor is there any light sources, so let’s fade it out.  It helps balance the colours in the picture and also makes the battle on the wall stand out.

The lighting of the scene is very important

Now let’s try and bring out the torches of the Uruk-Hai Army, including the main torch carrying Uruk-Hai.

This is done using a "glow" effect on the torches

In the movie, the crazy fuse-lighting Uruk-Hai’s torch is sparking like mad and leaving a trail.  Let’s add that trail to help lead the viewers eye to the charging Uruk-Hai.  We’ll also bring out the other torches further and actually make them cast some light on nearby Uruk-Hai.  We also add in the missing shadows of the Uruk-Hai on the ladders onto the wall below.  We are nearly there.

The glow from the torches is pixel work on a layer with a low opacity with the blend mode set to "screen"

We’ll subtly harmonize the colours together, making the scene slightly more blue and slightly darker, further higlighting the characters on the wall.

The final touches are very subtle

Finally, we’ll add a bit of smoke and haze to give the scene a colder look.

A bit of smoke and haze to give the impression of cold.

And this is the completed picture.  I’ve simply cropped it, and scaled it up.  I’m a fan of the chunky look of Pixel Art so I don’t mind seeing the larger pixels.

Click the image for a larger view!

If you made it this far, firstly, wow, and secondly, thank very much for reading!

Nick