Stephen E. Dinehart's IMD Blog

So you want to make a prophet? He is simple recipe I came up with:

Ingredients:
1 part baby doll
2 parts old linen pants
1 part Oven baked modeling clay
1 part Acrylic Paint

Directions:
Mix, sculpt, sew, paint and add salt to taste.

Tomorrow night @ 9:00PM on the WB Network some of my “The Movies” Machinima will be playing. It’s a two part short, there will be a spot @ both ends of the show.

Check it out if you get a chance!

The times they are a changing…true for me in a piece of tech I hold dear, my Symbian Smart Phone. Behind me I am leaving my Nokia 3650 and moving on to a Nokia 6682. So I thought it would be a good time to do a comparison. Why are these phones different? What does this new media object mean to my life as an artist?

It started 2002, my first year here @ USC, Scott and the 1st years (now graduates) where into the Nokia 3650 model. Scott had suggested at times during the 511 and elsewhere that all the IMD students ought to have them.

I didn’t pick mine up until late June of 2003, back then t-mobile seemed to have a good selection of current devices, and I got the 3650 for $199.00. It arrived shortly there after; this was my first real mobile media device; my phones before that where of the bland realms of early 2G technologies. I used the address books and made phones calls in that Dialectic LCD world of greens and grayish blacks, no more accept the occasional log access.

The 3650 quickly brought me to a new land. I was ripping A/V representations of life in the blur as it passed me by. I didn’t have a car then, so as I rode the Metro transit system around town and I’d glean from the experience.

Then at home I’d mix the experience on my Mac using a rudimentary tool like i-Movie.

My Lifelog database grew daily, I felt more involved with life, and had a keen sense of my agency within the world; the constant gleaning helped me to test the borders of my interaction with the great system that is totality.

Eventually it grew buggy and I dissatisfied with it’s audio/video quality; my creative burst died down, as I settled into the realities of a first generation smart phone. Smart, I would say, was not the word for it.

I tecnholusted and waited, as I saw new models sprout from Nokia, the series 60 was tempting.

Meantime, this past spring I began to hear about Flash Lite, a mobile version of Macromedia’s Flash that has so dominated multimedia web-development in recent years. I had been a junkie for so long I felt like it was destiny.

It was then after I saw my content on a mobile device for the first time that I realized that the next year of my life or more would be dedicated to exploring rich mobile media and it’s future potential.

I got a call from JAMDAT mobile to do some QA Testing for them. It was there I got to see the true state of mobile media; it was in the gutter rolling in piss poor content pushed by buzz-laden lackeys. I knew I needed to do something about it.

I read more Blog entries than I can remember trying to evaluate a new device, all just as buggy. It wasn’t until the 6670 showed it’s head that people began to talk about the bugs finally being resolved and by then I was completely broke.

The there was the 6680. All the reviews I could find were written in praise, but what need do I have for two way video calls? Sounds cool, but I felt a feature that is a little premature. So I went the Nokia 6682, basically the 6680 without the front mounted 640x480 camera for video calls.

What a glorious device, the OS runs wonderfully, Almost seamless. It’s increased performance and quality is awesome. I hope it to will act as it predecessor, as an activator in my life, a tool for expression, research, and socialization; bringing me closer to my dream of a portable total media device that can record all of my varied expressions and experiences.

Nokia 3650:

32-bit ARM RISC processor
Processor speed: not disclosed by manufacturer.
4MB RAM built-in
GSM/GPRS 900/1800/1900
Bluetooth v1.0
Symbian 6.0 (Series 60)
4.59 Ounces
5.10 Inches
WAP 1.0
TFT color LCD, 12 bit, 4096 colors.
176 x 208 Screen Res
Flash Lite 1.1 compatiable

Nokia 6682:

220 MHz CPU
10MB RAM built-in
GSM/GPRS/EDGE 850/1800/1900
Bluetooth v1.2
Symbian 8.0 (Series 60)
WAP 2.0
1.3 megapixel (1280 x 960 pixels) camera
4.62 Ounces
4.28 Inches
TFT color LCD, 16bit, 262,000 colors
176 x 208 Screen Res
Flash Lite 2.0 Compatiable

What an awesome experience, the last 558 business of interactive media class, a 3 hour pitch-a-thon. Fun & learning was had by all! Everyone was on thier feet running...it was quite a show, check out a bit of the mayhem I recorded on my 6682.

Mon 11/28/2005 15:41

Wed 11/30/2005 18:26 11302005(001)

Never seen it this packed in the zml.

Wed 11/30/2005 18:27 11302005(006)

Neto

Wed 11/30/2005 18:26 11302005(003)

I’ve been cracking out on Starcraft for a little more than a week now. I’ve had many nights where my REM sleep was nothing more than an RTS mirror world; interfacing my subconscious with an RTS mentality. I’ve only had this experience a few times before, always when I immerse myself in fictitious digital spaces, be it a modeling program or Halo2.

What does it mean? Could a program be created that allows you to conduct a lucid dream theatre? I’ve asked these questions before and alas have no answers.

The purpose of my RTS mission was analysis, is Starcraft the best RTS of all time? I’m still not sold, but it is an awesome game. The epic nature of it’s space opera story is incredible. The storyline is full of exposition, like several hundred man-hours of it. It’s too much for me, and I love epic sci-fi; but I don’t play games centered on micromanagement to read a novel.

The balance, which is much praised, is awesome, but I can’t help but wonder if it is all an illusion. I believe the balance is on part of the level design, not so much the 3 races. Although in tales I’ve heard from expert players of Battle.net, the forces are very balanced despite their innate differences.

I have to admit I only made it through the 10 Terran missions, and a couple of the Zerg and Protoss. I got pretty sick of it. Every new level you have start the whole process of resource management over, as if the last 30 minutes of building and management didn’t happen. It’s kind like an RPG letting you buy a new sword and taking it from you on the next mission, as if to say “ha-ha, try again”.

What this leads me to is my favorite idea from a future RTS feature, a consistent world.
Why rebuild every time? Why not have a world where you are required to build say 3 armies in different terrains, and the have latter missions dedicated to combining your forces to overcome a great force.

When it is all said and done, I’m glad I now understand Starcraft; it is essential for any aspiring RTS buff.

My Class PPT Pres:
Download file
Unit Spread sheet I created for balance comparisions:
Download file

"Information Operations Roadmap" a wonderful classified document has been leaked, and thanks to the BBC it's easily available. Reality is stranger than fiction; I've heard of communication bombs, but Intelligent Network Viruses, and Internet Psyops is new to me, it's a 78 page PDF available on the BBC website.

"The "roadmap" calls for a far-reaching overhaul of the military's ability to conduct information operations and electronic warfare. And, in some detail, it makes recommendations for how the US armed forces should think about this new, virtual warfare."

"Psyops, is finding its way onto the computer and television screens of ordinary Americans."

"US forces should be able to "disrupt or destroy the full spectrum of globally emerging communications systems, sensors, and weapons systems dependent on the electromagnetic spectrum".

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/4655196.stm

I've had allot of fun creating these Mission Maps, and look forward to refining my skills. Check 'em out and let me know what you think. I look forward to executing and testing them in WorldBuilder.

Trolls_and_Ents_missionmap View image
Kill_all_Elves_missionmap View image

Sounds great to me, I'm insulted usually that the industry thinks they can sell games/brands to me with women clad in, well, almost nothing.

I guess this doesn't mean they'll dissapear, but they'll be certainly harder to see, and I hope allot more respectable!

Now if they can just turn down the bass....hmmm...maybe next year?

from the IGDA guides for E3:

Material, including live models, conduct that is sexually explicit and/or sexually provocative, including but not limited to nudity, partial nudity and bathing suit bottoms, are prohibited on the Show floor, all common areas, and at any access points to the Show. ESA, in its sole discretion, will determine whether material is acceptable.

For 2006, The Board has adopted an amendment to the current Character of Exhibit/Attire Policy enforcement. Exhibitors will receive ONE verbal warning when a violation of the policy is encountered. Should another violation occur, the ESA will impose a $5,000 penalty, payable immediately on-site and require that models comply with the dress code before returning to the floor.

My thesis is well underway, I spend long days and nights working at home in my empty living room, now studio, creating art assets, designing sound, composing music, programming and planning. and at this point I feel like I’m just wrapping up the loose ends. I have to remind myself that having scripting things like spell functions are fun! Sure a heal spell is a mere 30 lines of code, but hey, for me that’s huge. The whole game is about 700 lines.

The core game system is finished except the following, which I should have wrapped within two weeks.

1. Base Build
a. Spell system
i. Script 1 other spell function
ii. create game state variable (encounter, combat, movie)
b. Level up
i. Affect Spells
ii. fills up MP and HP to 100%
iii. create new design
c. Death
i. create new design
d. Map/Monster Spawn dependency
' c. Item System
d. Triggers

I’m extremely excited with the level of narrative quality I have been able to accomplish; it has this kind of He-man cartoon quality in an animated comic form. I tested doing some VO for the characters but after doing some viewing of my tests I have decided it takes away too much, makes my characters too human.

An issue I’ve always had, that fantasy and sci-fi worlds are so based in our reality. It is a dilemma, I’ve tooled over many times. My conclusion is that you can have a alien world be foreign, but truly alien worlds would be incomprehensible, their characters would communicate in ways very unfamiliar.

There is a balance to be had between the familiar and the new, a remix of old perceptions with new stimuli to create a wholly new experience.

Here is a dilemma I’ve been having, how much information should I show the player. That is, how much HUD is enough? The first image on the left(above) in my older convention of showing the numbers, the right is a newer version where I have converted to the convention of meters to reflect values. Not sure which I like yet, how bout you?

In transmedia works the viewer/user/player (VUP) transforms the story and enables the Artwork to surpass medium, to become thought, both conscious and sub, in the fluid imagination of the VUP mind. It is in transmedial play that the ultimate story agency, and decentralized authorship can be realized.

Download the full file

http://journeyofjin.com

I have also submitted the final beta to the Flashlite Exchange. Thanks to all for thier love and support!!!