Comic-Con – Gaming, TV and Fish
Comic-Con is usually filled with comic books and games/collectibles and movies based on comic books. This years show featured a lot of video games, shows and collectibles that were based on new science fiction, action, horror that were also original stories.
Ubisoft featured the new multi-player connected version of Assins Creed Brotherhood. The gaming setup used 8 connected PS3s that were used for a short mini adventure, where the top two scorers after the minigame received posters signed by the developers of the game in Montreal. The game play is more immersive than prior games in the series, with additional controls over the characters, and graphics/motions that are more realistic that in past versions of the franchise.
Ubisoft Assassin\’s Creed Brotherhood
The Ubisoft booth also featured the Raving Rabbids collectibles and the new version of their Wii game Just Dance 2.
Ubisoft Raving Rabbids
Ubisoft Just Dance 2 for Wii
Similarly, the enhanced graphics and gaming performance from Nexon with their Vindictus MMO game was shown.
The game is supporting a new physics engine and networking method for PC gaming which allows for a much more intense and diverse storyline. The game also has a very rich sound library to support the game, something that lacks in some MMOs. The game play is quite responsive and visuals of the attacks are well timed with the control for the function even with the low bandwidth that was present in the convention center. The game, based on the high resolution graphics, looked really good on a large screen display, as the details are very rich and bright.
Vindictus sample game play
Telltale games was at the event with both comics and gaming. On the comic side, they had artist and author of Sam and Max Freelance Police – Steve Purcell on hand signing books and doing custom remarque drawings for fans as well as new cool Sam and Max t-shirts. These books/pins/tshirts went along with the release of Sam and Mas season 3 on the Mac and PC. They indicated that progress was continuing on the Jurrasic Park and Back to the Future episodic games, and that these games are on schedule for release on the PC platform.
As a support for the gaming hardware, Gelaskin introduced a number of new Marvell character designs. The Gelaskin product is a protective cover for iPhone, iPads, iPods laptops and other smart phones. The decorator skin is differentiated by the very high quality of designs that are from original artwork or classic licensed characters. The Marvell products brought out at the show included Ironman, SpiderMan, X-Men amongst others.
Gelaskin – Marvell Designs
As another major crossover item, you have Disney’s TRON. They booth had a full size lightcycle, and show exclusive collectibles. The new movie had a preview at the conference, but the biggest crowd for the video game. Once again, shown on the PS3 platform and large screen plasma displays, the new game is fast, bright and very engaging. The game is very quick, and the it takes a few passes to actually get used to the play. The games graphics do a very good job of amplfying the feeling of speed, and unlike some of the games in hidef (720p+), this one is very clear with no visble blur. Tron Legacy is also available on-line.
The last gaming announcement I had a chance to visit was Sony On-Line Entertainment’s (SOE) Clone Wars. The new MMO is a free to use game that is a series of mini-games that take place in the areas of the story line for the show.
Clone Wars Minigame – Light Saber Duel
The Freemium model, has certain levels that are accessible for free, while the paid model gives access to addition games. The game supports not only the characters from the animated series, but the ability to create custom characters based on those in the episodes. You can see highlights from the browser playable game at Clone Wars on YouTube.
Moving into new media, IDW had the creator and writer/author of Bloom County & Outland – Berke Breathed, at thier booth for a book signing. He also announced a new movie project, being produced by Disney, based on the picture book “Mars needs Moms!”. The film is targeted for reease in 2010. The new movie, has waited until now to go to production, to make sure the technology was available to produce the characters and backgrounds to the satisfaction of the creative team. To celebrate the event, they created a Comic-Con exclusive Fan Boy t-shirt featuring Opus and Bill the Cat.
Berkeley Breathed
In the area of television, the Dicovery Channel is again at the cutting edge of dinosaur recreation. The challenge to the design and creative team was to make a new series that tells a less documentary style story with an updated reality graphics for the dinosaurs, than the ground breaking series “walking with dinosaurs”. The new series is called “the Reign of Dinosaurs” and features a seasoned animation team, many of whom worked on the Disney movie “Dinosaur”. The series is different in that there is no dialog or narration for the series, rather it is a series of short stories (6 one hour shows each with 6-10 short segments per show) that each feature a specific type of dinosaur in some scientifically based experience. Samples that were based on pre-inked sketches and partially completed animation covered topics such as courting rituals and surviving a storm. The animation team is doing the concept, story lines, and full drawing sketches. The detail animation is being done around the world by teams that have the inking, coloring, animation and rendering resources to keep the project on schedule. The reference team at Discovery has the capability to complete animation for any episode, just not the manpower resources to do the whole series in the time frame available. The animation team – Ricardo Delgado, Tom deRosier, David Krents, Iain McCraig, Mishi McCraig, Pete Von Sholly and producer Erik Nelson, have been maintaining the IP on the project with thier custom built and modifiable Zbrush models for the Dinosaurs. This method of building a Zbrush base model, allowed them to quickly create multiple characters each with different facial expressions, but showing similar body shape and style. The animation team is shown in the following figure.
Discover Reign of the Dinosaurs
USA Networks once again had panel discussions and press conferences to promote their original series Burn Notice, Psych and White Collar. Once again, the Burn Notice press event and panel was dominated by the very talkative Bruce Campbell who plays “Sam” on the show. The added dynamic of the new character of “Jesse” helps them to build a bit more of the character depth and background on the show, as each character does not have to “do as much” to complete the story lines.
The group from Psych was once again having fun with the show and enjoying the creative directions. The success has allowed them to bring in some of their favorite guest stars and do new projects like a multi-episode homage to “Twin Peaks’ in the show. James Roday as the director and primary writer of the episode, in addition to his role as Shawn, is excited about the freedom the network has given them based on the success to date to explore creative stories. Maggie Lawson, who plays Detective Juliet O’hara, not only remembers the interview I did with her last year, but added that she is still doing a lot of the physical stunts herself. In the episode where she became the damsel in distress and was “kidnapped” and tied to a chair at the top a clock tower.
Maggie Lawson of Psych
Rather than use a green screen, and despite her abject fear of heights, she actually was placed on the chair overlooking the edge of the clock tower to complete the scene. In true form, her partner on the show Carlton Lassiter (played by Tim Omundson), made light of the situation and her fear, while making sure that she was safe during the scene. Tim discussed the dangerous stunts he had performed such as the tap dancing scene that was at the end of one of episodes. He actually performed the dance himself.
The last USA show that appeared at the event was the first time appearance of the cast of White Collar. Based on having to be a real life mom, Tiffany Thiessen was only available for the initial cast photos, and did not get a chance to participate in the Q&A. The rest of the cast was available and discussed the uniqueness of the story lines and benefits of actually shooting on location in NY rather than a “fake NY” or “fake city” background.
Just as on the show, veteran actor Willie Garson (Mozzie) takes care of Matt Bomer (Neal Caffery) who in comparision is new to the “series talks” and “press tours”. Willie straightened Matt’s tie before pictures and made sure everyone was in the right place for pictures. Matt said the show schedule was pretty busy, as he typically received short notice (a couple of days) to get educated on a subject that he would be covering on the show. In some cases it was learning about Artwork in others it could be “you will be riding a horse” type of activities. In a light moment, Tim Dekay (agent Peter Burke) discussed his shift in role from being the debonaire and sophisticated leading guest character on other shows to being the “regular guy with the hot wife” on White Collar. He jokingly mentioned, the director makes him feel good about this by announcing “do a close up of the pretty people (Matt and Tiffany), and then pull back the shot when you have to include Peter (Tim)”.
A change of pace at the show was the appearance of Mr Timms.
The group supporting Mr. Timms was promoting him as “a super special fish”. While not directly related to a comic book character or a TV / film series, he is a replica of a standard goldfish. The crowds were very long for the booth and to receive a windup Mr. Timms fish, as the fish is supposed to bring smiles, peace and happiness to the people who hold it. The goal of the group sponsoring the booth, was to hand out the fish (in various forms based on the game you play in the booth) to people and try and get 1Million people to upload a photo of them with Mr. Timms. In this way, the little goldfish will bring happiness to the portion of the world that he interacts with.
JC
