Roger Ebert, an industry-respected film critic, has shocked the gaming community for the second time in 2010; He’s cried “uncle.”

In a surprising turn of events, Ebert posted a brand new blog entry stating that his position on video games was one of ignorance and bullheadedness.

I should not have written that entry without being more familiar with the actual experience of video games.

By now, most gamers who are able to tear themselves away from the controller are intimately familiar with Roger’s initial claim and subsequent revival that games cannot be art. A position that I felt the need to respond to in a blog entry of my own.

No one could have predicted how gigantic the inevitable backlash would be. As Ebert noted, he received and approved thousands of “mostly well-written” responses to the opposition of his own stance.

It’s more than Anna Karenina, David Copperfield and The Brothers Karamazov.

Roger goes on to speak of the fallout of this solitary entry, and how Sony, paired with Kellee Santiago (whom Ebert’s first 2010 game post was a response to) had offered the critic a chance to test his theory. Given the ok, a Playstation 3 would be provided to Ebert, along with some installed games, including “Flower”.

As of this writing, Ebert has yet to accept the invitation and admits that “I didn’t want to play a video game.”

The article wraps up, and finds Roger addressing many critical concerns by attempting to find his own definition of art. A search that, he also admits, cannot in principle exclude games, as he had initially argued.

As affected gamers everywhere collectively rejoice and begin endless chains of “I told you so”s and “suck it, Ebert!”s, it’s important to note the manner in which Roger has conceded a point. He’s acknowledged that he’s mostly ignorant to the experience of gaming (as I had hypothesized in my previous entry). He’s allowed room for other opinions outside of his own, and, most importantly, he’s listened to his critics.

Well played sir, but you still owe me 30 minutes of Passage.

The project is an interactive virtools project that plays like a first person videogame. I wanted to make the whole experience to be symbolic of my college experience..having a dream and finding out how to make it a reality..or even simply the search for what I love.

Here is a link to a few slides proposing the idea before it was developed

The person in control, using an xbox 360 controller with a typical first-person setup, started out in a dark and dingy hallway..no end in sight..only doors to the left and right.

The object is simple: Walk from the beginning to the end..the hallway takes around 5 minutes to walk straight to the end from the starting point..along the way, images fly at the user trying to turn them around and confuse them and sounds entice the user to open the doors along the way and investigate. If the user walks through the door, they’ve strayed from the path to their goal and are thrown in a purgatory of sorts..

They have to crawl their way back on track following sounds and visual cues to lead them in the right direction. Once close to the end of the hall, a white light indicates they’ve almost reached their goal. When they make it to the end of the hall, they’re transported to a colorful and serene landscape full of life..

After a few moments to walk around and take in the sights and sounds, the user is transported back to the beginning of the hall…once a dream is attained life doesn’t stand still…there are other dreams to follow…always a new path to tread.

I’ve begun testing a program I’ve been tweaking which I hope will result in a fully functional 3d representation of the original super mario bros. which appeared on the NES.  I’m doing everything myself (character modelling, sound effects/scoring, interface, game setup/scripting), so it may take some time, and it’s sure taking a ton of energy, but I’m really excited about the possibilities of developing on my own terms and making something that’s really stellar.

I’ll be updating the site with progress on the game…anything from character models to background design to complete level demos, so keep your eyes peeled for new music and progress reports.

The eye, sometimes called “the window to the soul,” becomes the window to a story about finding where you belong. “Home” is a video project completed in December of 2007 during my senior year as an undergraduate at the University of Illinois at Chicago.

The idea was about personal intimacy. I wanted to tell an intimate story from an intimate perspective. Personally, the story comments on my experiences in Chicago upon arriving their from a small town. The video starts out chaotic and fast paced. You can hear and see evidence of the big city and it’s effects on a small-town boy. As the video makes it’s way to the end, the setting gradually becomes less and less chaotic while sounds become less jarring and more comforting.

While I did have my own specific ideas for making the narrative, I wanted the video to be shot and presented in a way that would be open for interpretation

My goal was to use processing to create a series of projects that would merge both visual and audio aesthetics. The semester culminated in “Raindrops” being displayed on the big screen. The video above is a document of the show. Users could approach the screen and press anywhere on it to create a drop. Sounds were associated with the creation of each raindrop. “Raindrops” was meant to encourage user collaboration and thought as if each person were inside a room staring out a window during a rainy evening.

Click on the link below to interact with the project. Simply click on the screen and hold to create drops wherever your mouse is located on the screen:

Raindrops

I spoke about some of the projects that I was currently working on, and I explained my process in generating ideas and what it means to me to create art.

You can check out the interview on Chicago Public Radio’s website:

http://www.chicagopublicradio.org/Content.aspx?audioID=23079

or you can listen right here

This is the mid-term assignment for my AD406 Compositing class for the Spring 2008 semester of my senior year at the University of Illinois in Chicago. It was a group effort. Yu Li came up with an idea of an ant trying to avoid being crushed, and that planted a seed in my head that eventually led to the Chef movie.

Kevin O’Neill gives a spectacular performance as the crazed chef who is obsessed with his tomatoes.

Dave Mathews, along with Yu Li, developed the 3d model of the kitchen in which the chef exists.

I played the piano track to the scene and completed most of the compositing in After Effects CS3.

If you’d like to see an early sketch I made of how I wanted the scenes rendered, you can check out the demo for the project found here.

For my second assignment in compositing, we were asked to take it a bit further and actually incorporate motion matching techniques where the objects would appear to interacting with each other in a convincing way.

I have always thought I could take Bald Bull in a fight, and this was my chance to prove it. I couldn’t pass it up!

Prepare to meet your match Bull!

In this short animation, Pac-Man is being chased by a ghost from the arcade game only the action is taking place in the middle of the downtown Chicago Subway System.

If this project moves forward, I think it could end up being a really hilarious parody or commentary on the pop culture phenomenon that was “1-18-08.”