Jun 30, 2012

Craiglist Joe



Honestly? I'm surprised this style of documentary has taken a while to rear it's head. I guess 2010's Catfish (though arguably fake as heck yet entertaining) was the start of the evolution of the genre into more social media as it becomes a bare essential part of most peoples lives. While Catfish was about the secrets people hide behind the screen, this is a documentary that captures the aspect of characters that truly lie behind the screens, and the kind of personalities that remind us all of people we might or might not know.

The idea behind this film is a social experiment which involves the now prevalent Craigslist. 29 year old Joseph Garner cuts himself off from everyone he knows and everything he owns to embark on a bold adventure with only the bare essentials: A laptop, cell phone, toothbrush, and the clothes on his back. Can Joseph survive on plain old goodwill? As the trailer says (and as anyone who has sold items through Craigslist or similar sites) the characters of the real world are ones that Hollywood couldn't begin to imagine. I was interested in the film before but once I found out that Zach Galifianakis was the executive producer I knew the film might just be a winner, and really capture the heart of a land I one day hope to discover.

Craiglist Joe is in theaters August 3rd, 2012.

The Evil Dead Animated Tribute



This animated short by Daniel Kanemoto pays tribute to the classic Sam Raimi horror trilogy featuring the iconic Ash, played by Bruce Campbell. Daniel mentioned that the entire animation was inspired by one of Olly Moss' posters for Evil Dead, which you can check out after the break! This is quite possible the first time I've seen a poster inspire an entire visual style for a short, which turned out pretty kickass.

Catnip : The Grindhouse PSA



This awesome grindhouse style PSA goes into the horrific, unknown dangers of the dangerous cat-drug known as Catnip. What type of nip does your cat take, raw or processed nip (My cat personally is a fan of 'Persian Haze)? Is it a source of harmless kicks, or a crippling addiction for our fine feline friends? Prepare for plenty of puns, and try to not to end up in a Cat-atonic state yourself (Ha!).

Invade ALL of the Humans!



Described as a "micro-musical-comedy" Invade ALL of the Humans! is a super fun short with two super retro robot toys, Calculord 3 and Px Micron. Let's just say that have some serious delusions of grandeur, with hopes of world domination. These mini bots are a bit out of their league, however, and decide on a new target of domination, which they share with us via musical number. Supremely awesome, with killer "beets", as they would say.

Jun 29, 2012

The Impact Of Previsualization In Hollywood By Hanoun Safi



This was one of the most insightful documentaries I've probably seen all year, with Hanoun Safi lifting the veil on the previsualization industry. Previsualization entails visualizing complex scenes ahead of time to answer questions for people like the directors (Does this shot work?) and investors (Is this scene worth a million dollars?). Previsualization is also a term used for any process that helps visualize any aspect of a videogame, movie or creative project and answer questions for the people involved about aspects like style, color, shots, sound and a plethora of other aspects.

This 25 minute doc goes into the aspects of previsualizing shots in the movie industry, and takes a look at just a few of the incredible tools these guys use to save most of all, money and second of all, time. Its a fascinating watch, with plenty of interviews from industry people explaining the purpose of what they do in the grand scheme of things. Prepare to learn a thing or two!

The Art Of Carlo Arellano

Protoxenomorph, reimagined. (Via)
As much as you might think that the image above is a piece of official Prometheus concept art (Which I got fooled by), its just a redesign done for fun by an amazing videogame industry artist. Carlo Arellano is currently working as a Principal Concept artist over at Insomniac Games, where he's had a chance to contribute to a slew of Resistance (PS3, Vita) titles and probably some of their unannounced projects.

His style feels very industrial design minded, with plenty of thought put into making sure shapes are resolved and functional, which I really love. Some artists choose to emphasize form over function (Think about the painterly Guild Wars 2 armor sets) versus artists who try to think more functional. Carlo definitely falls in the latter camp, and inspired me to think differently about approaching designs. Check out more of his awesome work after the break!

11 Months + 3000 Pictures = This Stop-Motion



I can't even begin to fathom how much time was put into this project. What first began as a way to catalog the process of rebuilding the engine, quickly became a full stop-motion animation. Stop-motion is already a tedious process, but mixing in the rebuilding of an engine is on an entirely different level. Awesome as hell.

Nest by Michael J. Ruocco



Happy Friday! I decided to go the simplistic, yet lighthearted route with today's animated short. With a super-understated art style that works very well, Michael J. Ruocco put together a cute short story about a bird who decides to build a nest in an unfortunate spot. As he does so, I tried to figure out where exactly he was trying to build, but didn't get in until the reveal at the end. Maybe you'll do better. Enjoy!

Jun 28, 2012

The Avengers: Firefly Style


Joss Whedon is a genius. Personally, one of my favourte Joss Whedon shows will always be Firefly and if you haven't watched it I highly suggest you do; it's a spaghetti western in space and is just a treat to behold. This video has footage of Joss's hit movie, The Avengers, cut into a style simulating the opening credits of Firefly. It's a pretty sweet watch but wouldn't an Avengers TV show be sweet? I just can't get enough of the movie.

Beauty and The BEAT!



I'm a super fan of Disney films, with Beauty and the Beast being one of my all time faves. I'm also partial to parodies. So imagine my delight when this awesome ghetto-inspired parody of "Belle (Little Town)" debuted the other day. No beast, just sick BEATS! Capturing pretty much each frame from the original, Belle makes her way through the hood, questioning if there is more than her "hood rat" life. Along the way, she also comes across "Jerome" and "Lil Fool". My day has been made.

The Art Of Jorge Jacinto

A girl and a forest. (Via)
Jorge Jacinto, aka Blinck on Deviantart definitely has something going on with his environmental work. The Portugese based digital artist truly showcases some beautiful, fantastical natural landscapes with some great color usage, lighting and attention to texture in his work. A lot of digital painters forget that final touch to give their pieces a realistic tooth, the usage of photo texture overlays or texture brush work to give people an idea of the materials at play in these landscapes. Jorge has definitely grasped that aspect, even if he's still developing his technique (Quite a bit of growth from piece to piece). Check out more of Jorge's beautiful landscapes after the break!

The Star Wars That I Used To Know


This is nothing short of a cathartic piece for anyone who's ever been frustrated by the untimely fate that the Star Wars franchise has met. Portrayed by a fine Jedi covering Gotye's fantastic 'Somebody That I Used To Know,' this Jedi breaks down every stupid decision that sent our favorite scifi series into the gutter. The best part is the faux George Lucas that comes in around the chorus, delivering his stubborn vengeance onto betrayed fans. The green screen painted ending takes this into absolute brilliant territory, the one technique that represented everything that had gone wrong with the series.

C2C - The Beat



Could this be the first result of using a hacked Kinect to generate some pretty sick visuals for a music video? Well based off the variety of discussion that the C2C's 'The Beat' has generated, I'm inclined to think so. Using some form of motion tracking mixed with a post process overlay of awesome geometric and angular shapes, this music video is a full on eye candy onslaught. If you're getting any Beastie Boy vibes from this track, you're right on the money. The French group hasn't been shy about letting the world know about who inspired them, complete with a full on tribute to 'Intergalactic' during one of their concerts, captured by a fan here. 

Jun 27, 2012

Flying cars by Matthew Porter

Damn! (Via)
Matthew Porter is a Brooklyn based photographer with an extensive portfolio and a diverse pool of commissions. However one of his photographic series completely blew me away. Flying cars ( yep, that's the name) seems taken directly out from the streets of GTA into the real world, I'm not quite sure though how the shots were achieved but i guess it really doesn't matter as they still look absolutely amazing.

After the break, 6 more stunning cars flying over city blocks for your amusement, enjoy!

Valve's Source Filmmaker - An Introduction




As the 'Meet The Pyro' short proved, they are really upping their game in video production. Now anyone can produce high quality shorts with the release of 'The Source Filmmaker,' which might just end up killing what people have been using for years now, Gmod.

The Source Filmmaker (SFM) is the movie-making tool built and used by Valve to make movies inside the Source game engine. 'Meet the Pyro' and the other Meet The Team shorts were filmed and edited inside this amazing little program. According to the Official Site the Source Film Maker uses the same assets as the game, which means anything that users will be able to create the same high fidelity shorts as Valve. Its not quite out just yet, but you can sign up for the possibility of a beta key. I'm pretty excited to not only give it a go but to see what kind of movies will be produced by the fan communities. Can you stop being awesome Valve?

Team Fortress 2 : Meet The Pyro & More Revelations



The long awaited Meet The Pyro video is finally here after three long days of Pyromania. We first got Doomsday, which brought us a new nuke themed game mode, and day two brought us City on Fire, replete with a variety of new weapons for the Scout, Sniper, Soldier and Pyro.

After 5 years of incredible Meet The Team videos, the mysterious Pyro gets unveiled as a beast out of hell with a soft side. I wasn't expecting so many rainbows, unicorns and lollipop fields. Do you believe in magic? And unlike what everyone expected, still no word on the gender of the Pyro. Damnit. What else could make this day better? Check out some  for the first bit of news regarding the Adult Swim-Valve partnership and the new items from Day 3!

Fable By Daniel Sousa




Fable is a 2005 short that finally got uploaded to the internet by Daniel Sousa, after winning a slew of awards worldwide during its festival run. I absolutely loved his sense of stylization, imbued with a visual smokiness that added a sense of grit to the world the protagonists inhabited. Due to the abstract narrative nature of this otherwise beautiful, dark short, (Something he acknowledged himself), I'm going to add a little synopsis of the short to accompany it for your reference. Enjoy.

'In this cyclical fairy tale, a man and a woman are cursed to be forever apart. We never see them inhabit the same space but yet we feel that there's a connection between them. One common element is that they both have the power to transform into animals. But when they do they are compelled to hunt down and destroy the other. They become blind to their passions and are overwhelmed by their instincts.'

Mission Chinese By Sunday Paper



Brace yourself for a pretty intense short about a Chinese cook with a knack for taking his craft of cooking as seriously as dealing with disrespectful customers. The quality of this short caught me off guard, with some incredible acting, stunning cinematography and some very memorable quotes from an assassin that I'd pay to see more of. Using an inner monologue reminiscent of Patrick Bateman in American Psycho, the short does an amazing job of conveying just how intense and focused this 'chef' is, as he obsesses over his art, his god, his food. It left me wanting more, as in a full length version.

The short was written and directed by David Parker and Cole Schreiber, who you might remember from another equally excellent short known as Rest.

RoboGal's Weekly Cute Mixtape

That FACE! (Via)
Happy Hump Day! Though a day late, I've brought you my weekly offering off all that is cute, fluffy, and sometimes downright silly. Instead of a smoke break (tsk tsk...), take a pup and kitty break instead! This week I brought you a special video, that we just came across recently. The Cat Council is going to be put on hiatus, while I try out a newer series.

More after the break!

Blue Sky's EPIC Movie Trailer Gives Us Dejavu


First came Fern Gully, then came an epic movie called Avatar, next year: EPIC. The folks at Blue Sky seem intent on turning these eco warrior films into a genre, with a CG entry to complete the triforce of nature saving flicks. They've also chosen a pretty unfortunate title for their movie, which will result in a ton of confusion if you attempt to talk to someone about this film. Picture this:

'Hey, did you get a chance to check out that EPIC movie trailer?'
'What trailer?'
'The EPIC trailer. Wait, EPIC movie?'
'What?'
'Oh f*** it.'

That aside, the plot is as follows: 'A teenager finds herself transported to a deep forest setting where a battle between the forces of good and the forces of evil is taking place. She bands together with a rag-tag group of characters in order to save their world -- and ours.'

Stylistically the movie looks awesome and I'm sure I'll check it out, but the current vibe I'm getting still feels a little too close to the other source material mentioned. Let's hope Blue Sky has something else up their sleeve to help them stand out from the rabble.

Jun 26, 2012

Team Fortress 2 - Pyromania Day 2: City On Fire

The beginning of the end. (Via)
Welcome back to the second day of Pyromania! Is your soul on fire with excitement? Well, what does the second day of the Team Fortress 2 update bring us? City On Fire: This update included a number of new items including new weapons and a selection of hats that could save a city well under the strain of a certain pyromaniac. Among them, a Leon the Professional inspired weapon pack, a gangster flavored 'Public Enemy' pack, a dumpster diver themed Soldier pack and a new flare gun for the Pyro.

Have a gander at the selection after the break and stay tuned on Awesome-Robo in case any further announcements are made. The long awaited 'Meet the Pyro,' the final Meet the Team short - premieres this Wednesday, 27th June at 11:00am PST (7:00pm GMT), and we'll have it here tomorrow!

Nipwitz Russia - Urban Freestyle Skiing



I had no idea that urban skiing was an actual 'thing,' but damn did this trailer leave me wanting more. The folks at Nipwitz decided to take a trip up to Murmansk Oblast in Russia, and let rip in various abandoned buildings while dealing with crazy knife wielding hobos. The Nipwitz freeski group is based out of Finland, and created this awesome video in collaboration with Flatlight Films. Its a surreal little piece of film, with a large variety of beautiful natural landscapes contrasted by decaying Soviet era architecture. Loved the contrast.

Elton John Vs Pnau - Sad



This isn't a standard reimagining or remix of a classic Elton John track, but a complete reimagining of the original source material for a modern audience. Elton gave a full stamp of approval to the Australian electro dance/pop duo known as PNAU following his discovery of the group in 2007, and is collaborating with them on two separate tracks for their upcoming 'Good Morning To The Night' album (July 16th). The music video is an interesting mix of psychedelia and vintage art deco themes, which accompanies a track walking a fine line between the present and the past very well.

Digital Extremes' Warframe Looks Very Interesting



Digital Extremes, best known for their work on Unreal, Bioshock II, the Darkness II and 2008's awesome Dark Sector just droppped an exciting new diorama teaser for their upcoming free to play PC shooter. Despite having an unfortunate name the art direction looks pretty damn stellar, with two distinct factions: The Tenno and the Grineer fighting over long lost Warframes, exoskeletal augmentations with the ability to turn the tide of battle for the faction in possession of them.

Digital Extremes described the game as an MMO-Lite shooter, with squads of four players banding together to fight the oppressive race in this universe, the Grineer via a variety of combat missions. It looks like skill trees will come into play, with each of the players Warframes possessing the ability to level up and add new abilities to your arsenal. With a procedural mission generator, fast paced PvE combat and a customization system I'm looking forward to getting into the beta before the game launches on December 31, 2012 (Mayan apocalypse, etc). In a fashion similar to Hawken, you can head over to PlayWarframe.com to reserve your callsign and enlist your friends for perks. Get yourself an awesome, high res wallpaper after the break!

Shooby Shooby Do Yah!



In our fun, upbeat music video/animated short of the day, we bring you Czarek Kwasny's "Shooby Shooby Do Yah!", with music by Mocean Worker. This bright, vibrant 3D animation shows a whimsical train taking a journey though a variety of environments, while slowly growing in size along the way. Kwasny goes into further description about his process and the symbolism behind the short on his website, including how we pick up different experiences along the way that makes us who we are.

The Prototype: Singularity Effect


Prototype is an upcoming movie from Andrew Will, revolving around the awesome premise of  technological singularity, a future event that would involve the emergence of an intelligence far advancing that of humanity. In Terminator terms, the act of 'becoming aware.' The upcoming scifi thriller, which stars an experimental military drone gone rogue is set to land around 2013.

The teaser has already drawn a few thousand comments about how the drone shares design elements from characters in several movies and videogames, so we broke it down into a simple diagram for your consumption below.

The Art Of Massimo Carnevale

(Via)
Massimo Carnevale is an Italian based comic book artist/illustrator who caught my eye with some of his work on Vertigo's Northlanders. He is commonly referred to as 'Il Maestro' (the master) for his incredible compositions and style, which is a beautiful mishmash of painterly illustration mixed with graphical elements. This combination works beautifully in the work we collected, which covers some of the comic book/graphic novel covers he's worked on over the last few years.

Using an approach which mixes his distinct style with elements like selective detail and saturation, each one of his striking covers succeed in telling a story, which isn't always the case. Massimo has worked on comics including Northlanders, Y: The Last Man and Terminator 2029. Check out a selection of his work after the break!

Jun 25, 2012

Mojang Unveils Scrolls



Team Mojang, the folks behind Minecraft just unveiled this awesome new debut trailer for their upcoming RTS/Card game hybrid which blends Magic The Gathering with strategy elements. If you guys remember, Team Mojang found themselves in a legal battle with Bethesda for simply having the term 'Scrolls' in their title, which they somehow believed shared too much similarity with Elder Scrolls (Roll your eyes now).

Despite looking like a pretty damn fun game with some excellent gameplay, the internet hate machine has decided to rear its head and get up in arms because this title dared to not be Minecraft 2: Electric Boogaloo. With captivating arguments like 'These graphics f***ing suck' and 'Too far from Minecraft,' we invite you to delve waist deep into the mind numbing stupidity of the Youtube comments in this video, so you can lose a little more faith in humanity. That aside, the pay to play beta is rapidly approaching so keep your eyes on their official website for more announcements.

Team Fortress 2 Pyromania Day 1: Doomsday

The end times are upon us (Via)
Hey everyone! Meet the Pyro is confirmed for Wednesday! But do you want some more Team Fortress 2 themed goodness in your life? Well today marks the first of a three day pyrobration update for TF2. What is today's update? A new gamemode AND map!

Doomsday pits BLU against RED to win the honor of transporting a suitcase nuke full of recalled Mann Co. 'Australium' to American monkeynaut Poopy Joe’s rocket. It seems that bit of viral information given to us through the viral campaign did pay off. You can read more about it through the official site, linked above. The long awaited 'Meet the Pyro,' the final Meet the Team short - premieres this Wednesday, 27th June. Stay tuned for the Awesome-Robo coverage throughout the week!

Calvin Harris - Let's Go (Remix)



In this international music video, several boyfriends from around the world start to playfully bug their girls to get up and get out of the house to get their day started. And go figure, its perfect for a track called 'Let's Go,' minus the guy waking up before the girl part. The girls also all have the same dream about a certain music artist. Who? Well the music video's artist of course, Calvin Harris! The Scottish singer/DJ's electrotrack is a pretty decent, upbeat way to get your sluggish Monday going, so administer generously. Let's go people.

Prada's Fall 2012 Steampunk Flair

(Via)
Very interesting. As part of their fall 2012 lineup, Prada unveiled their 'Il Palazzo: A Palace Of Role Play' collection featuring some familiar faces in some rather eye catching outfits. The aesthetics truly did end up feeling like something that could be straight out of a steampunk universe, with some truly industrial feeling combinations that begged for some more copper and leather. The actual theme of the show is a lot more amusing, focusing on the illusion of appearing more important with deceptively fancy looking clothing. Read more about it here. More images after the break!

As modeled by Gary Oldman, Jamie Bell, Garrett Hedlund, and Willem Dafoe

Disney's Gravity Falls - Cultish Goodness



The upcoming Disney trailer for 'Gravity Falls,' a series created by Alex Hirsch kind of caught my interest with its cute style and emphasis on the paranormal. The show features twins Dipper and Mabel Pines dealing with strange happenings in the titular town of Gravity Falls, with their Uncle Stan in tow. Certain little touches definitely added some interesting flair to the trailer, including Uncle Stan's fez, which bears great resemblance to hats worn by Shiners (Related to Freemasons) and the little image which briefly flashes at the end of the trailer. After a little investigation, it turns out that the nonsensical looking letters on the page: 'VWDQ LV QRW ZKDW KH VHHPV' translate to 'Stan is not what he seems' by moving each part of the code three letters back.

Stan is not what he seems.
Considering Alex's self proclaimed obsession with shows like the X-Files and Twin Peaks, I have a feeling that this show might offer some very interesting twists to anyone that decides to follow it. The show premieres June 29 on the Disney Channel.

Judge Dredd Reboot - Why Even Bother?



I finally got around to checking out the debut trailer for 'Dredd,' an attempted reboot of the classic 2000AD property revolving around futuristic law enforcement officers known as Judges. With their combined roles of police, judge, jury and executioner these Judges were pretty much any criminals worst nightmare. A slew of articles have already berated this trailer for sharing a little too many plot points with last year's excellent Indonesian action flick The Raid: Redemption which pretty much has the same vertical premise: Enforcement officials attempting to reach a criminal boss/mastermind who resides atop a criminal tenement. Dredd also adds the element of hilariously cheesy oversized helmets, poor Clint Eastwood imitations and horrible one liners. Expectations : Nonexistent, but at least the trailer provided a few laughs.

Jun 24, 2012

The Black Dynamite Trailer Is Here



Following the recent announcements about an Adult Swim/Valve cooperation last Friday, another announcement came in the form of the official trailer for the long anticipated cartoon adaptation of Black Dynamite. Created in collaboration with Titmouse, the animated series went through a viewer approval process to gauge interest last August, in the form of a ten minute pilot. Needless to say, everyone loved it and the show got approved with flying colors with a premiere date set for July 15. Check out the official poster after the break! And if you haven't checked out the amazing 2009 liveaction Black Dynamite movie, what the hell are you waiting for? 

Goodbye - My Robot Friend



US based electronica/indie rock group My Robot Friend just recently put out the video to their single "Goodbye". The animation tells the story of a man lost out on the water who experiences memories of his love, and slowly attempts to put his life back together. Or is that the real story? The surprise twist at the end comes at somewhat of a shock. The art style is simple, as is the color scheme, but the latter seems to have some significance (i.e. blue = sadness, orange = happiness). The tune itself is pretty sweet, something I'd want to listen to while driving on a long stretch of isolated road.

How to Train Your Dragon - Live Projections



I had heard that Dreamworks was working on theatrical adaptation of the excellent 2010 How To Train Your Dragon, but I had no idea that they were already touring. Dubbed as the 'How To Train Your Dragon Live Spectacular,' this behind the scenes video goes into some of the incredible projection sets and animatronic dragons, which are nothing short of absolutely stunning. It actually looks so visually breathtaking I'd consider dropping the money to fly out to one of the tour locations just to experience it. If you were as impressed as we were, I'd recommend you check out the website to see if the traveling tour is coming to a location near you.

The Hives - Go Right Ahead



Well, this music video for the Hives' new track is pretty awesome, featuring the Swedish rockers traveling around a city in blimps, top hats and dress coats for their catchy new single which debuted around March. As much as I dig the track though, its still hard to get over how hard they ripped off ELO's (Electric Light Orchestra) classic 1979 track, 'Don't Bring Me Down.' At least they gave Jeff Lyne, the writer of the original an unofficial writing credit to try and cover their bases. Yet you have to stop and ask yourself, how hard is it to come up with your own 4 chord riff? Oh well.

Jun 23, 2012

Where The Hell Is Matt? - The 2012 Edition



Following his highly successful 2006 and 2008 videos of him dancing around the world, Matt Harding has new and even more awesome video that was just released the other day. Taking a few years traveling what feels like damn-near everywhere, his new uplifting video brought a huge smile to my face. Putting aside my strong feeling of travel envy, I really admire how he was able to get so many people from so many cultures to come out, and just dance like crazy. Even more amazing, was how he was able to get into countries that are seemingly difficult to get into, such as Syria and North Korea (shout out to our own Syria trip photos, taken prior to the current conflict). He explains on his website that he filmed in Syria in July 2010, prior to the conflict, though he chose to blur the dancers faces in editing for their own safety. As far as North Korea goes, he said it's as easy as a Google search for North Korea tours. Pretty ballsy and awesome, we'd say.

Black Sabbath



Created for the Videophonic session at PromaxBDA 2012 (An entertainment marketing festival), the goal was to create a music video for a band that predated the era of music video entertainment. Ryan Bosworth, who directed the music video chose the wonderfully dark debut track from Black Sabbath's 1970 debut album to accompany his amazing scifi short slash music video about individuals driven to the edge of madness. Despite the 42 year gap, the track ended up fitting surprisingly well with the theme of the short, which is quite an accomplishment.

Jun 22, 2012

Meeting The Pyro On Monday? And More Team Fortress Type news

The plot thickens?
Dear readers. Thanks for the countless emails, facebook messages and twitter PM's. I am aware the Pyro updated the official Team Fortress 2 site, and that bananas indicate the Pyro is some sort of banana loving monkey woman. In other news, I have become the new Valve reporter for the site. I love the title, though I lose the ability to count to three.

In case you missed out, in preperation for the new update Valve added 7 new items to Team Fortress 2 in hype for the "Meet The Pyro" update, the last video of the series that has garnered millions of views. What you may have missed are the many announcements that have come since then. Is Adult Swim working on a Team Fortress TV show, or a collection of Squidbilly hats? When will the new update be available at last? Find out after the break!

DeckTwo Global City



Its really cool to see the folks at DeckTwo using technique that the masters used (Camera obscura/projection) for their new city mural known as Global City, showcasing a huge amount of global monuments on two walls. Compared to their previous works (Like their absolutely insane bathroom murals), this is definitely a little tamer in feel but still pretty damn awesome for thick marker work.

Lil' Red by Cale Atkinson



It seems as though the story of Little Red Riding Hood is a recent animators' favorite (see here and here), and is also a personal favorite of my own. Well, fairy tales in general. Canadian artist/animator Cale Atkinson created a visually stunning short, one with bright, vibrant colors. He went for a minimalist style, and pulled it off beautifully. A quick search led me to Atkinson's deviantart and blog where displays more of his amazing art.

Jun 21, 2012

Les Gobelins Annecy 2012 Shorts



With an Irish theme set for this years Annecy international animated film festival (Which concluded on June 9th), the folks at the French animation school Les Gobelins set out to provide a series of shorts which play on both cultural and political aspects of the divided nation. While some of the shorts took a more tongue in cheek approach to the theme, some of the other shorts like 'The Line' (Above) and 'Matches' definitely touched on the turbulent past of Ireland, with an optimistic twist.

Check out the other 4 shorts: Holy Sheep, Hurley's Irish, Matches and Beyond the Sea after the break!

Pogo - Lead Breakfast



Pogo has returned, and with probably my favorite track to boot. Using samples from Quentin Tarantino's Pulp Fiction, Pogo manages to build a track that manages to fit any mood set. I've already set the track on repeat a few times today and I don't think that it will end anytime soon. For a while it seemed like Pogo was getting rather stale, but I think he's proven that he's more than capable of mixing things up.

Metric - Youth Without Youth



The Canadian indie-rock juggernauts Metric released this music video to coincide with their 5th album, Synthetica which is out now! The music video for their first single features plenty of shots of Emily Haines (Their lead singer) looking fantastic on a sound stage as all kinds of abstract imagery. According to the director of the music video (Justin Broadbent) the imagery is representative of key moments during the bands career and themes present in the album. The explanation didn't really help me decipher the slew of bizarre imagery, but its nonetheless pretty damn fun to watch. Head over to Soundcloud for a taste of the new album!

The Apple iPhone 5 19-Pin Scheme

The first reveal of the upcoming design change. (Via)
Editorial ahead! Now that we're clear that some opinions are going to be stated, and I have that out of the way, let me ask you: Do you happen to own an iPhone? Looking forward to getting the next generation? Well as nice as it's probably going to be, you might as well throw away every single accessory you've ever bought for your previous phones. Every single accessory created for the phone since its launch in 2007 might be headed towards redundancy with the latest rumors, which state that all future iPhones will ditch the standard 30 pin charger cable for a smaller 19 pin cable. People are stunned by this possibility, myself included. I mean, why fix something that's seemingly not broken?

Have you guys ever heard of 'planned obsolescence?' It's a practice which encourages planning and designing a product so it's only useful for a limited time, before becoming obsolete. It's common practice, and used by many companies to create demand for the 'newer, better' model of the product. Yet this move is possibly prompted by the major accessory makers facing dwindling sales, as customers see no need to buy new accessories for a smartphone that had a universal dock system for 6 generations. What most tech blogs failed to address was the following question: Did the top accessory makers pad Apple's pockets, or hardball negotiate for an incentive to drop the standard cable as a means of forcing consumers to buy new accessories? We're inclined to think so.

Considering that three of the top accessory makers have been the first to confirm (TechCrunch) that they're working on 19 pin accessories already for the launch of the iPhone 5, the motive is simple : Greed. And why not? It's a fail safe business plan, designed to shake out the smaller accessory makers with tons of unsold '30 pin' stock and a good amount of people will probably conform to this odd decision without question. As for myself, after four years and owning 3 generations of iPhones I don't think I can support such practices anymore. As much as I'd love buying a slew of artificially overpriced accessories again, I'd rather start looking for an Android phone.

Edited 6/21/12 3:06pm CDT for clarity.
Edited 6/23/12 2:38am CDT for further clarity.

Pusheen the Cat

Damnit Pusheen! (Via)
We just came across our favorite website ever (well, second favorite, *wink). Is it about a cat? Why, yes it is! Our new favorite drawn kitty friend has an entire website of his own, along with some ultra-neat swag! To show just how cute and awesome Pusheen is, we've lined up his essential Cat Etiquette list. Pusheen embodies everything we love and hate about cats, but all is forgiven when you take a glance at his adorable roundness. Think of it as your Thursday I-need-a-mental-break-and-a-smile gift from us.

More catiquette after the break!

Jun 20, 2012

Mike Diva Takes A Moment To Remind Us He's Still Around


Mike Diva, you've been a huge disappointment these last few months. Yeah, I still take the time out of my week to check out your newest video, but let's be honest, they've been pretty bad. Passive-aggressive letter to Mike Diva aside, Mike Diva's newest entry to theYouTube project bammo, (a channel that proves a YouTube "super channel" doesn't really work) is actually pretty damn entertaining. Plus there's some nice VFX to boot.

While bammo has been relatively lackluster since it's inception (spoiler alert: it's f*cking horrible), content like this and CorridorDigital's Sync series gives a little hope for the channel. Even then, can we at least stop with these f*cking abysmal thumbnail images? I mean, look at it. Good god.

The Art of Lorenzo Ceccotti


A lot of artists I enjoy capture an aesthetically pleasing image, but often times fail to evoke any sort of emotion in me (I swear I'm not a robot). Sure, I might think that something looks awesome or cute, but it can feel like that the only feeling the piece is evoking is my inner-obsession for all things colorful. I think I've made it obvious that I'm sucker for line art that tends to pee color onto the page, but sometimes I stumble onto an illustrative artist who completely captivates me without neon greens and pinks.

Lorenzo Ceccotti is a Rome based artist using influences ranging from Manga to Comic Books in order to provide some awesome work. I actually get a really heavy Mamoru Hosoda (The Girl Who Leapt Through Time, Summer Wars) and Masamune Shirow (Ghost in the Shell) vibe from a lot of his work which is far from a bad thing. For a full portfolio of Lorenzo's work, check out his website here and then hit the break for 8 more pieces

Movies R Fun by Josh Cooley



Pixar artist Josh Cooley put together a really awesome "kids" book, á la Little Golden Books. The premise? Awesome yet inappropriate famous movie scenes. He covers Alien, The Big Lebowski, Fight Club, Terminator, and many other classics. While my memories of Little Golden Books consist of "Hush, Hush, It's Sleepy Time" (totally an actual title), I think a fine book such as Cooley's will finally usher me into adulthood. Though sold out at the moment, you can buy a bunch of "Movies R Fun" prints at Cooley's store! The entire picture link is above, just click through for more!

MTV Night Videos By Emil Sellström



This series of idents were created for MTV Europe's after hours music program (Yeah, MTV is still an actual music channel overseas). I absolutely loved all the callbacks to iconic retro artists and series like Moebius and Tron mixed with his absolutely bizarre, angular protagonist that inhabits all of them. Looking back I kind of realized that these idents were bite sized little morsels of hyper creativity that sparked my imagination. I'm glad they've managed to stick around despite the onslaught of awful reality TV and crappy mass market music. Speaking of which, have you guys had the chance to listen to the latest Offspring track? My ears are bleeding.

Cut Chemist Featuring Blackbird - Outro



You didn't get enough sleep. You couldn't sleep. You decided to stay up all night to get some more loot for that real money auction house. And as you're nodding off, you kind of realize that you're going to get into deep sh**, but kind of don't care. Well let me introduce you to a good dose of Cut Chemists latest collab, infused with some high energy flow by Blackbird and Deantoni Parks' furious percussion.

Like a burst of audiovisual caffeine, guarana and a slew of other vitamins the music video accompanies the sound perfectly, with a high octane tour through the streets and back alleys of downtown LA that will definitely give you that much needed buzz to keep you going a little longer. Cut Chemist explained that his inspiration for the frenzied pace of this track came from his want to run following his release from jail recently (No details as to what landed him there). The turntable master is returning with a new LP, Die Cut which is set to be released pretty soon. Stay tuned.

Jun 19, 2012

New Team Fortress 2 ARG?

(Via)
Valve, you tease us so. Team Fortress 2 has just updated with the following items:
Goldfish, PocketLint, Cheese Wheel, Banana Peel, Barn Door Plank, Secret Diary & Damaged Capacitor, all of which can be viewed after the break. Each item features a cryptic, mysterious description hinting at some major reveal found through the standard "Item Drop" system in-game.

Speculation from the Facepunch forums suggests that the burnt diaries will reveal the video "Meet The Pyro" when enough are collected. The capacitors have 6.22 written on them, suggesting an update for this friday, which also hints at electronics, and the rumoured "Mann Vs.Machine" mode that's been highly hyped over the last few months whilst some are suggesting it's an ARG for Steam's annual Summer Sale. I guess we'll see soon enough but I wouldn't put it past Valve to just tease us like a kid with a magnifying glass. We are the ants, but if these hint towards a MAJOR update to the game update and don't lead to anything really soon I'll eat my oversized Mann Co. hat. And I'll just call it now, the Pyro is a damn female. We''ll find out soon enough.

Update: 25th June 2012
Update: 14th August 2012
Update: 15th August 2012

AWESOME-ROBO: PODCAST 11 ARRIVES!



Its finally here! This weeks podcast was filmed inside our 'quaint' hotel room in LA during our stay for the E3 convention recently, and Chris makes a triumphant return to the land of Podcast-ery. In this podcast we discuss all the crazy people we ran into during our time at the con, our impressions of the show this year and even get yelled at by random people. Among some of the games we go into, Revengeance, Elder Scrolls Online, Quantum Conundrum, Hawken, Kinect, Capcom games we weren't meant to see and more! We all had an amazing time, met a ton of people and even got recognized by a few big names. Not a bad end result after all.

Chris is also sporting a badass Doom! shirt in this Podcast. Pick one up if you haven't already at our AwesomeRobo store!

PBS Off Book : The Evolution Of 8bit Art



I've got a fixation with 8bit goodness, and PBS delivers yet again with their wonderfully relevant Off Book series. This episode, which focuses on the lasting appeal of the format discusses how its come back based off of a combination of nostalgia and creative uses. There's a certain appeal to working with limitations, and countless artists in various formats have found a way to express themselves using the venue of 8bit. This minidoc goes into the gamut of ways that the 8bit format has stood the test of time in the unlikeliest of ways.

Space Stallions Is Becoming A TV Show!


I just received an exclusive press release at around today from a group known as Gunhil, an Irish multimedia group. The contents of the press release made me realize that there is some sort of omnipotent power who wants to see the glory days of the 80's cartoon era restored to present time. Space Stallions captivated us, and the internet with its awesomely campy premise, which was a mashup of just about every retro cartoon in the book: Silverhawks, Bravestarr, Heman, Heavy Metal and a slew of others. And this September, the show will become a reality with a reveal planned at the European Cartoon Forum expo in September.

And guess what? The folks who picked up the show will be marketing this for a 13+ audience and 'people who grew up with this style of animation.' A revolution is coming this fall, AwesomeRobo readers.. Brace yourselves for a torrent of potential awesomeness, and get that spandex ready. Check out the original trailer that went on to become a viral sensation, and the badass promo poster after the break!

Blow Job By Tadao Cern



Simplicity is truly a beautiful thing, especially when it comes to art. Just take a half dozen or so females, an air gun, and a high speed camera and the result is nothing short of mind (face) blowing. These shots, which probably only took a few seconds each spawned this video, and a total of 100 amazing portraits extracted from the stills, which you can find on Tadao Cern's Facebook. I get the feeling that I'll be having nightmares based off this videos thumbnail for the weeks to come.

Art Of Qian Yi

(Via)
Qian Yi is an incredibly talented 23 year old Chinese illustrator who I remembered stumbling into a year or so back. Since the last time I saw his work, he's made some incredible strides towards improving his work via plenty of experimentation in different rendering styles. Qian is currently residing in Iceland, which leads me to assume that he must be working for CCP (Eve Online, DUST 514, etc) as of now.

His work tends to gravitate between highly graphic and painterly, with an emerging style that is reminiscent of watercolor with his simulated use of washes mixed with sumi-esque paint strokes. Nonetheless, it was pretty awesome to go through his massive, vibrant gallery and pick out some of his strongest pieces. Check out a few choice selections from his gallery after the break!

RoboGal's Weekly Cute Mixtape

No bun? He IS wild! (Via)
It only seems like yesterday that it was Tuesday and it was my job to wrangle together a posse of cute and fluffy little things for you all (at least their photos). But here we meet again! Don't forget to take a short break and ease your mind with this hand curated basket of cuteness I have to offer.

5 more wonderful specimens after the break!

Jun 18, 2012

Gadgets & eating disorders

(Via)
Deep Fried Gadgets is a photographic series created by Henry Hargreaves, in which well... The guy deep fries gadgets. From state of the art to run of the mill devices, all of them seem intriguingly edible and almost tasty, although I have the hunch that most of these tempura battered creations are probably just mock ups of the real thing. If I had the type of money to burn on deep frying electronics that had caused me grief over the years, I'd seriously consider taking up this hobby.

After the break, a gourmet selection of deep fried, crunchy electronic goods. Enjoy!

Teach Me How To Box, Thank You For Telling Me How Terrible I Am


Having needed the motivation at times to get off my ass and work towards getting into better shape, I've always found that having a pissed off verbal motivator (Bootcamp style?) has always yielded the best results. This look at the Church Street Boxing Gym in NY is pretty damn hilarious, as former champion fighter Eric Kelly unleashes a barrage of creative verbal abuse to get his somewhat clueless clients motivated.

In a way I can kind of see how it benefits Eric, a fighter in his prime stripped of his ability to fight professionally due to an accident that damaged one of his eyes. An arena to vent his frustration while simultaneously mentoring others. At the end of the day he's incredibly grateful to have a chance to do something he loves, and simply clowns on his clients to make them tougher. I can get behind that.

Jun 17, 2012

The art of SHOTOPOP

(Via)
Shotopop  is the name of an amazing design collective stationed across 3 continents and 5 countries that perform in a broad range of visual art departments; typography, illustration, motion graphics, infographics (just to name a few).
I just fell in love with their bright, beautiful, and overly detailed illustrations. And even though it seems that they are at least 5 guys under the Shotopop moniker,  they seem to share the same style and visual taste, something that's not very easy to accomplish.

After the break, nocturnal flying medusas, samurai high school girls and space chinese dragons await! Venture forth into the cosmos!

The Karaoke Breathalyzer



Have you noticed that only wasted people seem to take the stage at Karaoke? I'm a drinker. A HEAVY drinker to boot too at times. The amount of times I've embarrassed myself because of the sweet taste of alcohol is quite frankly an embarrassment in itself. One of the unfortunate side effects of the substance is that I start to believe I have talent. This will often lead to me taking the microphone & performing an 'amazing' session of Karaoke. The last time was a rendition of 'Teenage Dirtbag' so bad I nearly got kicked out of the club. Whilst this invention doesn't take away the humiliation, it might just save a few lives.

Bar Aurora & Boteco Ferraz have created the 'Karaoke Breathalyzer.' In order to increase awareness about drunk driving, the world’s first microphone breathalyzer was created. People were then invited to sing karaoke. At the end of each song, instead of the score people were greeted with their alcohol blood level. Honestly? The idea is genius. I took this more seriously than most Government sponsored adverts. It's light hearted enough to make you think, allows you to laugh at yourself and delivers an important message: If you can take the stage, you should be responsable enough to take the wheel.

Adventure Time/Studio Ghibli Mashups


Young artist David (also known as dmd, or Deighvid) did an awesome mashup of Adventure Time and Studio Ghibli, the latter being an Awesome-Robo all-time favorite. Done in the simple, whimsical style of Adventure Time, he brings to life the wide variety of Studio Ghibli films, from Princess Mononoke to Kiki's Delivery Service. Don't forget to check out the rest of David's work on his tumblr!

More after the break!

Zombie By Guy COllins



This deceptively simple looking animation by Guy Collins is a strangely cheerful, uplifting little piece about collaborating to survive in a post apocalyptic wasteland. The aspect that got me the most about the short was the somewhat strange music by Kevin McLeod, which over time grew on me and ended up accompanying the rythm and pacing of the escape. The short culminates with an escape to the structure dubbed as the 'anti zombie fortress' by the internet, which is a nice tip of the hat to the meme lovers out there.

Phantasma (NSFW)



In this obvious retelling of the Phantom of the Opera, Alessandro Corrêa created this beautifully opulent, and colorful animated short rightfully dubbed Phantasma. The theatrical and bizarre look and feel is reminscient, in my opinion, to Cirque du Soleil; a visual mind-f*ck that's difficult to look away from. With an essentially borrowed story, the short seems to be more about displaying Corrêa's beautiful art style, that looks modern with a slight vintage edge. Also, this is definitely NSFW!

Repeat Repeat Feat. Uppermost



This awesome little mashup was submitted to us by Vimeo user JoshieOfCourse featuring the music of the fantastic French producer, Uppermost. With a nice dose of kinetic anime and movie action edited altogether, it feels just right for a relaxed summer sunday afternoon.

Jun 16, 2012

Gundam X Battlefield = Mobile Suit Gundam Battle Operations



I never quite got into Gundam, especially after gauging the nearly infinite size of the universe, the sheer number of anime series, merchandise and other aspects of the franchise. I can, however acknowledge that this newest attempt by Bandai to create a proper videogame adaptation for the franchise is a step in the right direction. I mean what sucks is that Gundam as a franchise has a history of botched videogame adaptations (Minus the Super Robot Wars titles), akin to the stigma that movie videogame adaptations seem to suffer from. Yet the premise of Gundam would work so well with genres that Bandai has never bothered to even delve into. I mean, why has there never been a cross between Gundam and say, Armored Core? Seems like it would sell a ton, no? Instead we've had to deal with the likes of Gundam Dynasty Warriors. Lets hope this can finally buck that trend.

Mixing elements of Battlefield and other shooters into a free to play arena title in which players can take the role of infantry, or actually pilot a full scale Gundam is a pretty damn cool multiplayer concept. The title will be landing this summer on the PSN network in Japan, but I'm kind of hoping this title will have a chance to make the jump overseas.

The Mouse Tail



La Queue de la Souris (or The Mouse Tail) is the classic story of the food chain, and picking on those smaller than yourself. A little field mouse comes across a big, ferocious lion but instead of becoming dinner, he makes a bargain with him: He'll find him another more appetizing meal instead. I loved the simple color scheme, and angular style. It's the perfect example of "less is more".

The Brave Knock-Off Film



Disney Pixar's Brave hasn't even been released yet, and already a cheap knock-off has been made. With stiff animation and cheesy lines, we shouldn't expect much more from the folks who also made Life's A Jungle. We understand that originality has been going for a premium these days, but such blatant rip-off's just seem completely uncalled for. That said, they're hard not to subject yourself to (that might be just us...). Listed for $25 on Amazon, but at a discounted price of $19.99 (score?), the DVD will be released on June 19th. But it'll also be available for live streaming, because how can you wait for the DVD to arrive?

Jun 15, 2012

Valve Prepares To Take Over The Virtual Banking World

(Via)
I hate posting about something twice in the row, but this proves how far ahead in the game Valve really are. Team Fortress 2 has had it's own economy for a while, using weapons and hats like stocks in a company with rates going up and down at a constant rate. Loads of articles have been written about the subject, but something has happened that we kind of saw coming at some point or the other: Valve has hired an economist.

Valve has signed up economics professor Yanis Varoufakis as their resident expert adviser to link game economies and solve virtual currency exchange problems. It's one smart move, as the deceptively titled 'free to play' model has started to take off in the games industry. The Team Fortress 2 transition to this model was a fantastic example, a title notorious for its homegrown economics. With titles like Diablo 3 starting to use real money auction houses for digital weapons; it makes sense for someone to keep an eye on things and report, but is it a good habit for games to rely on these ideals? Let's wait and see on how Valve uses Mr. Varoufakis' expertise to probably set an example to follow, again.

The Art Of Prometheus

(Via)
In honor of the release of Ridley Scott's long anticipated return to the ailing Aliens franchise, I wanted to dedicate this Friday to honoring all the artists and artisans that helped bring the world of Prometheus to life. From concept artists to visual effects sculptors, they definitely accomplished the goal of creating a visually stunning film with some of the best 3D work I've ever seen in theaters.

Despite reviews being mixed, I'd like to remind everyone that the original Alien received the same mixed reception upon its release in 1979 for reasons similar to Prometheus. So if you've been relying on your polar opinion friends to determine whether or not to check it out, let us recommend you ignore those guys and give yourself a chance to experience this film and make your own conclusions. Either way, we've compiled a ton of posts and art to give you a well rounded idea of just how much care and attention went into the visual development aspect of this film. This post will mainly feature the work of Ben Procter, David Levy and Carlos Huante (Who did the majority of the work). Check out a ton more art by these guys after the break, and don't forget to check out our other Prometheus related posts from today!

Developing The Look Of The Prometheus By Steve Burg

The 'Magellan.' (Via)
Steve Burg was one of the concept artists brought on to help with pitch phase concept art for the Prometheus project. For those of you unaware, that stage is typically where the film is presented ot the studio for consideration/funding. Steve was responsible for providing quick, iterative concepts of the Prometheus (Known as the 'Magellan' at the time of these concepts) to meet Ridley Scott's vision of the ship. His groundwork would lock down several key aspects of the ship, like the VTOL  engines (Vertical take off and landing) and body shape. Check out the evolution of the ship after the break!

Prometheus Mood Pieces By Alex Kozhanov

Exit (Via)
Alex Kozhanov, an artist who goes under the monicker of 'Gutalin' is a Russian freelance artist based out of Kalningrad, Russia who had a chance to work in Ridley Scott's visual development stable for Prometheus. If I were to guess, I'd say he contributed early on to provide various mood and atmosphere pieces for the locales that eventually ended up in the movie.

With a specialty revolving around matte painting and high level visual language, Gutalin managed to create a few pieces perfectly capturing the spirit of HR Giger's biomechanical style, melding organic shapes with industrial motifs. Check out more of his work after the break!

Prometheus : Creating The Look Of The Engineer By Connor Sullivan

The Space Jockey unmasked. (Via)
A sculptor by the name of Conor O' Sullivan recently uploaded a ton of fascinating behind the scenes images of some of the work that he and a team of other people contributed to visualizing the true form of the Space Jockeys, also known as 'Engineers' in the film. These enigmatic and massive humanoid creatures are a central plot point in the movie, and the key link to the first Alien movie.

I'll give it to whoever designed these guys though, as they definitely were visually striking and incredibly foreboding. The makeup work was so well done that I couldn't figure out if they were rendered in CG or comprised of practical effect work. If you've already seen the movie, venture forth into an awesome look at the development of the Engineer.

Jun 14, 2012

Paper Prometheus



The hype leading up to Prometheus was nothing short of extraordinary. I mean, we ourselves might have written an article or two (or a million). Now that the film was just had it's US release not even a week ago, the feedback has been a bit all over the board. Personally, RoboBrain and I found it to be entertaining and visually stunning, with perhaps a few unanswered questions. That said, I recently came across this Sweded version (by way of paper and drawings) of the film's trailer and couldn't resist sharing. Enjoy!

This Is Not Real By Gergely Wootsch



Gergely Wootsch's 'This Is Not Real' sparked a little bit of confusion, especially due to its distinct aesthetics and stripped down art style, extremely reminiscent of David O' Reilly's work. As a typical art school mistake, Gergely mentioned on the video that he decided to stick too close to his influences rather than taking them and making them his own.

That didn't bug me too much, because this short excels at its interesting, somewhat abstract narrative of a boy delving into his imagination to escape his less than ideal, gloomy reality with mixed results. His final admission of everything around him being surreal represents the ultimate escape, his final disconnect from a world that he doesn't belong to, or want to be in.

Turboten : Comics With Trailers



Why hasn't this practice caught on in the US? Just like Ankama's 'Teotl' comic trailer that we posted a few months ago, it seems like indie comic artists get the benefit of actually getting animated trailers to promote their upcoming manga-esque titles.

Turbo Ten jumps on the entire shonen-sports category bandwagon, an entire genre which has the magical power of making any athletic activity look absolutely badass. The only unfortunate downside is that these fine comics haven't yet made the jump overseas. Here's to hoping, because I'd pick this up day one.

Jun 13, 2012

What ARE You Planning Valve?

(Via)
Valve, I have things I should be doing right now. I'm working on artwork, waiting for emails and doing large amounts of tidying. You HAD to choose this time to release with another great gaming deal, and another possible ARG. That's right folks, the Potato Sack Returns!!

This time around, it's known as the Potato Sack Reunion. For $20, you get 1... 2... 3... KICK IT! (Drop That Beat Like an Ugly Baby), AaaaaAAaaaAAAaaAAAAaAAAAA!!! for the Awesome, Amnesia: The Dark Descent, AudioSurf, Bit.Trip Beat, Cogs, Defense Grid: The Awakening, Killing Floor, Rush, Super Meat Boy, The Ball, The Wonderful End of the World and Toki Tori. The package of games would cost over $77 if purchased individually. A good deal, no? There might be more to this, though if you don't know the history of the potato sack, then you don't know what rumours are flying around the internet...so find out more after the break!

Kali Bris : I Love Your Face



Have you ever listened to a track and instantly realized that a band would be absolutely amazing to see live? Well that's the feeling I got with Kali Bris' synth heavy track, 'I Love Your Face.' The track, which was created by an Estonian pop artist/producer was released with a fantastically cute music video by Chintis Lundgren. The track is part of an album coming out in September called 'Moon Ghost' through Onesensemusic records. I get a feeling that this particular bird is going to get a ton of action tonight. Absolutely love it, and give this guy some love on Facebook!

24 Samples Of Brother Brain's Pixel Madness

Its Shinku Hadoken time. (Via)
Brother Brain, aka John McGregor is a heck of a prolific New York based pixel artist/Tumblr aficionado with a massive gallery of custom made gaming gifs. His little bite sized snippets capture the essence of the games that most of us fell in love with back in the heyday of 16 bit gaming (Or the NeoGeo's 24-bit amazingness).

If you're a retro aficionado looking to get a fix of nostalgia today, look no further. We've compiled a small sampling of Brother Brain's gif goodness from his massive gallery of over 150 specimens and counting. We're just hoping your internet connection doesn't suck too much, because this is not a light post by any means. Venture forth into the past after the break!

Kinext Gen: An Awesome-Robo E3 2012 Experience


No, the Kinect didn't have any killer titles to show at this year's E3. Still, there was plenty of entertainment to be had throughout the Microsoft booth (so long as you had a camera in hand). To wrap up the end of our E3 extravaganza may I present you: Kinext Gen, a celebration of all things Kinect at E3 2012.

Jun 12, 2012

The art of Victor Mosquera

Another smoggy morning in Altani 34-x (via)
Victor Mosquera is a Bogotá based concept artist with some really cool illustrations. His main pieces tend to consist of scifi landscapes with some absolutely incredible mood and colors, illustrating an odd, dystopian future. I really enjoy Mosquera's lighting treatment in his images, though clearly digital and futuristic, they manage to bring some reality and rawness in them as if the locations already exists somewhere else... but what good concept artist doesn't?

After the break, a small selection of Victor coolest illustrations, from galaxies far away right to your screen. Enjoy!

RoboGal's Weekly Cute Mixtape

Um, up? Please? (Via)
Welcome back to our weekly edition of the mind-numbingly cute, and relaxing world of the Cute Mixtape! After a crazy week in LA for E3, we're all in need of some serious R&R. Sit back, take a break, and enjoy this weeks cute and fluffy offerings.

Check out some more awesome cuteness after the break!

More Prometheus On It's Way? New Viral Video "Thus Spoke Zarathustra"



No spoilers! The end credits of Prometheus had an interesting advert for Weyland Corp with the address for this website, as well as a date: 10/11/12. This video, entitled "Thus Spoke Zarathustra" also hints towards this date and site. What could it all mean? The video takes its title from a novel by German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche and is essentially about the death of God, something viewers of this film are all but familiar with. But the video itself? Well....there isn't much but the possibility of more Ridley Scott is a good reason to get excited.

Starcadian - HE^RT


I've been in a constant binge of Chillwave since the release of Neon Indian's Psychic Chasms, the retro 70's vibe always manages to set the mood just right. With a constant search to find more Chillwave artists to add my library, I'm always constantly amazed by the sheer quality the genre holds. Starcadian does everything right with setting the mood, while also giving a groovy beat to get you focused throughout your work day (not that I'm working right now, but we can pretend). The accompanying music video is equally as awesome, giving homage to classic sci-fi cinema with b-movie twists. Also, goddammit, those stars are relaxing as all hell to watch.

The 2012 E3 Booth Babe Hover Hand Championship!

Chris showing the Capcom booth babes a good time.
While running to and from appointments this year, Chris and I engaged in a battle known as the AwesomeRobo 2012 Hoverhand Championship, with the numerous booth babes we ran into. In between rounds we attempted to pull off our most awkward, hoverhanded maneuvers on the oblivious models, as they stared into our oversized camera lens like deer in headlights. With each set of models our attempts got more and more extreme, culminating in a full on melt down on Day 3.

We invite you to be our judges this year, by simply leaving a comment on which one of our editors succeeded in pulling off the most advanced combo of hoverhand/facial terror. Who will win? Chris Riley or Robobrain? After the break get ready for Heaven or Hell, duel one, FIGHT!