The Art Of Bioshock Infinite : To Columbia And Beyond

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As fellow editor Chris Riley put it best, 'This entire generation has lead up to Bioshock Infinite,' which isn't far from the truth. The third installment in the Bioshock series, developed by Irrational Games over a period of five years is truly an astounding achievement in game development, delivering a fantastic setting and story based off of real world issues. Delving deep into the concept of American exceptionalism gone too far and xenophobia, the game touches upon issues that other developers wouldn't dare to risk approaching. I can appreciate Irrational for trying to reinvent their franchises and established IP's constantly, and can only hope that other developers will take note of what Infinite accomplished.

With it's fantastically executed turn of the century look and it's interesting exploration of a dystopian utopia, the game truly captured an atmosphere that many games have strived for, but seldom accomplished. In this rather interesting Art Of post, we've gathered all the concept art we could find, as well as dedicating an entire section to some of the fantastic propaganda posters lining the walls of the floating city of Columbia. Check it all out after the break. In terms of concept artists who worked on the project, both directly and indirectly (Including the amazing fanart piece by Alex Garner, above) : Jorge Lacera, Robb Waters, Ben Lo and Chelsea Douglas.

Free Pie

Dark humor hits a really high note in writer/director Caleb Slain's short film 'Free Pie.' A man, Christopher, is visited one night by a mysterious stranger, bearing tragic news. Through a series of miscommunications, it's made apparent that while poor Christopher is still faced with a sad situation, it's not the one he thinks it is.

In an attempt to console him, the stranger has a bizarre offering: Pie. Because, hey, why not?  Free pie is free.  I absolutely loved the dark humor, and the communication style between the two main characters reminded me a lot of the dialogue and delivery of the cult classic film 'Clue.'  

Man Spaghetti

Animator Felix Colgrave has a knack for the grotesque and bizarre.  No, knack doesn't cut it.  He's pretty damn awesome with it.  In the animated short 'Man Spaghetti' (also, yeah, there's no actually use of the tasty pasta dish in this) two creatures face off, gladiator style in a coliseum.  What seems like would be a quick finish to the fight, only creates a nightmarish abomination of trouble that will haunt your dreams.  Think hydra-esque trouble, to the Nth power degree.

Judge Minty: The Nearest We'll Get To A Dredd Sequel

The Awesome-Robo staff has varying tastes from a number of different perspectives. But one thing we all agreed on last year was that one of the most entertaining action films of last year was the adaptation of the 2000AD comic: Dredd. We talked about the film a lot on our Podcast, and despite a huge boost from social media sites during the home media release, we had the revelation this week that a Dredd sequel seemed unlikely. Luckily though, we have one fan made Dredd inspired film to keep us occupied till the franchise eventually gets rebooted. Although I couldn't see why they'd bother to do that with the latest version.

This short film is scripted by frequent 2000 AD contributor Michael Carroll and adapts the storyline made famous by John Wagner and Mike McMahon published in the 2000 AD comic in 1980. The film actually has appeared at a number of film festivals with large critical acclaim, but it wasn't until the official 2000 AD site brought it to my attention that I caught wind of this project. The production team has announced that it will be free to watch on streaming sites Youtube or Vimeo between April or May, and if you are a fan of the franchise I would highly recommend checking it out.

The Tongueling (NSFW)

Uncomfortable. Bizarre. Just a few words to describe Finland-based animator Elli Vuorinen's animated short Kielitiettyni, or 'The Tongueling.' A man wanders through a desolate, depressing space of land, encounter a variety of strange yet eerily similar creatures and folks along the way, tied together by a common, tongue-y thread.  His search is simple: To find what they all have. It's a disturbing and definitely delving deep into the abstract, but I dig it.  The crude, grungy look of the animation definitely fits the animator's strange sense of humor.

Bungie's Destiny Concept Art Dump

As part of Bungie's 2013 GDC talk regarding the development of the look of characters in their upcoming Destiny project, there's been a massive amount of concept art released showcasing the evolution of the project and the many settings, characters and scenarios developed for players to experience.

The video above offers a look at factions including The Vex, Fallen, Cabal, Hive, Titan, Warlock and Hunters, and I'm guessing there's quite a few that haven't even been unveiled yet. The concept art aspect features a few years of work for the project in no particular order, including some straight up fantasy art, which is curious to say the least. The migration of a few former Guild Wars 2 (Like former concept lead Kekai Kotaki) veterans definitely lends itself to a new type of loose visual exploration style that I've typically never associated with Bungie, with the exception of Jamie Jones' contributions. Check out a massive amount of art after the break!

The Fallen (Click for full size)

Ad Collective Volume VI : Russian Railways, Marvel, Slurp TV, Life On Mars, Target

For our new readers, Ad Collective is a weekly spotlight on creative advertising projects that push the creative envelope. We're not talking mind grating, generic commercials for car insurance and laundry detergent here, rather a spotlight on individuals trying to elevate the art of advertising into more of an art form rather than an exercise in playing it safe and taking no risks.


This week brings us a wide range of amazing projects and experimentation from creative collectives and passionate individuals spanning the globe. This week's advertising campaigns, in order:

• Created by the Oscar winning Pascal Blais animation studio, this amazing advertisement for the 175th anniversary of the national Russian Railroad system was created using a slew of oil paintings done on glass, showing off the past, present and future of Russian Railways.
• The BlackMeal creative collective created this animated tribute to 80 years of Marvel, constraining themselves to a circular format to highlight some of the companies most beloved franchises and characters. Amazing FX work.
• Madrid based VJ/motiongrapher SlurpTV unleashed his inner cat person to deliver a rather unusual take on an ad for a gym. What do cats, stomachs and retro 80's disco visuals have in common? You'll soon find out.
• Lukas Vojir's Life On Mars mixes full on 50's aesthetics, from the sound to the chunky geometric visuals, this faux ad offers a believable vision of what life on Mars during that era would have been like.
• Creative collective Gentleman Scholar are behind one of the best, most cheerful ads I've ever seen Target put out, featyrubg a variety of creatures using the iconic bullseye motif as a common visual.

Iron Man 3 : Taste The Rainbow (Of Mark Suits)

In the third installment of Iron Man, Tony Stark will face off against his biggest foe yet, The Mandarin. Originally a supergenius posessed with the power of ten rings of alien origin, granting him various powers, it seems like the movie will ground the nemesis as a Sun Tzu obsessed terrorist mastermind instead (Played by Ben Kingsley) running an international do-no-goodery cell called 'The Ten Rings.' Originally intended to be Tony Stark's foe in the original movie, he was put off due to being too ambitious of a character to introduce in the first film (Aka, hard to top).

As part of the marketing campaign for the upcoming film (May 3), a recent Facebook initiative just finished which unlocked a preview of various experimental suits that will be featured in the film, fighting alongside Tony Stark. Check out the whole lot of them after the break!

Rubber House Presents: Iron Sheik

From Rubber House studio, the same folks who brought us those awesome animated Gotye music videos in recent months comes a new series called Animated People. Starring former WWF/WWE legend Iron Sheik, Rubber House animated a rather curious tale about how two foes in the ring ended up as cellmates during a rather irresponsible night of debauchery. The video is from a new Youtube channel called 'Buh,' which based off our info is a collab between Tim & Eric Heidecker, Michael Cera, Reggie Watts and Sarah Silverman.

The Illustrations Of Sterling Hudley

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Sterling Hudley is an amazingly talented, award winning contemporary fine arts illustrator, renown for his surreal compositions. Following a brief stint as a commercial illustrator, Hundley reverted to the pursuit of his personal work as a priority, and it's been nothing short of a wild ride, including his recent Kickstarter project, 'The Spoils Of Saint Hubris' recently getting fully funded, and then some.

His rendering style has moved into a highly geometric, planar style to reflect his shift into an exploration of hubris, and his attempt to visually narrate when ambition overcomes compassion. As much as he loved working in the commercial fields, Sterling's need to share his personal stories overcame the need to submit to other people's visions. Check out more of his incredible work after the break!

Skullgirls Ends IndieGoGo Campaign With Nearly Double

Wow guys, what a ride. Skullgirls may have been down for the count once, but fans have proven that they're not willing to let that happen again. After the month long IndieGoGo campaign, Skulls girls has raised over $829k reaching every single stretch goal and basically assuring that the game's cast will basically double.

While I was definitely expecting the campaign to be funded, I could have never imagined the support it gained in the past week alone. Not only are founders given the option to vote for two brand new characters and three confirmed characters, but the folks over at Mane6 (previously known for the cancelled MLP: Fighting is Magic) are also being given the Skullsgirls engine. 

Awesome job everyone, things like this bring a lot of hope back for the way games are headed.

Let's Check Out : The Organ Trail (Director's Cut)

In our second installment of our new indie feature series, Chris and I present a look at The Organ Trail, a rather tongue in cheek indie title that just recently got accepted into Steam via their Greenlight initiative. Created by the indie developers called Men Who Wear Many Hats, the game started off as a flash project before successfully being Kickstarted into a multiplatform project with many added features back in early 2012.

Watch us embark on a journey into a land of typhoid, dysentery and zombie deer battles in this zombified take on the classic Apple 2 Oregon Trail game. No rivers were forded during the making of this feature, 5 unlucky souls were put down in the process.

Perihelion (NSFW)

Nick Cross's Perihelion is a a very dark, animated short paying tribute to the works of influential German painters from the early 20th century (Otto Dix, Richard Oelze, Ingrid Griebel-Zietlow, Rudolf Schlichter and Max Ernst), as well as the works of Francisco Goya. The common thread between these artists being that they all lived under the shadow of fascism and the brutality, which their paintings reflected. Perihelion is a tonal piece with no distinct narrative, yet filled to the brim with disturbing end of the world style imagery, contrasted by Nick Cross' stylized approach to his imagery.

The Wolverine Official Trailer : Logan's Feeling Vulnerable

Following three relatively disappointing entries into the X-men franchise, which started with the awful X-men: Last Stand, followed by the widely panned (And non-canon) Wolverine: Origins and concluded with 2011's mediocre X-men: First Class, I was honestly relieved to see Marvel put the series on ice temporarily and rethink their approach to the franchise.

Dare I say it, this entry actually looks interesting for the fact that it features Logan losing his healing factor, implying an entirely new dynamic to the typically invincible, cocky Wolverine that we're used to seeing. Aside from giving him a reason to stop taking his existence for granted, the trailer also implies that losing others is the true factor that continues to eat away at him. As good as the trailer is though, I'm taking it with a grain of salt considering writer Mike Bomback's involvement, who managed to mangle the Total Recall remake so badly that it was close to unforgivable. Cautious optimism is the best way to move forward.

Metal Gear Solid V : The Phantom Pain Trailer

It's finally out. Following a few arduous months of relentless teasing by Hideo Kojima regarding the cryptic Phantom Pain project and Ground Zeroes, it turns out that the joke was on us yet again, as Metal Gear Solid V is both of those projects combined. You wily devil, Kojima.

Featuring a fitting song by Garbage called 'Not Your Kind Of People,' the 6 minute trailer features 100% in game footage showcasing the attention to detail that we've only come to expect from the folks at Kojima productions. Phantom Pain is supposedly slated for release on PS3 and Xbox360 at some point with similarities to Peace Walker's base building gameplay.

Whereas Ground Zeroes, according to Kojima will star Big Boss, best known for his role in the Metal Gear prequels. So in conclusion, the next gen game will be a prequel to Phantom Pain, which will also tie in to Metal Gear Solid V somehow. If you're confused at this point in regards to these choices, you're not alone..Answers will arrive in due time. Sit back and take in this stunning 6 minute trailer of everything that these games will have to offer, and ask yourself: 'How does Solid Snake play into any of these titles?' With all the mentions of comas, two Foxes coming from one and implied deaths...I'm going to throw out one word and theory: Clones.

The Art Of Alex Ahad : Skullgirls And Beyond

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With the clock ticking down on the Skullgirls Indiegogo initiative, as well as the project gaining acceptance within the Japanese fighting community, I thought it would be wise to shed a light on the man behind the visuals of Skullgirls, Alex Ahad.

Serving as a creative director since the inception of the project, Alex brought his distinctly contemporary digital art style to the table, mixing primarily Japanese and Western influences to create a colorful art style that's been a treat since day one. This type of style has proliferated over the last few years thanks to websites like Deviantart and Tumblr, serving as a conduit of inspiration and reference for the ridiculous amounts of up and coming artists out there. From Skullgirls to Street Fighter, Alex has provided his own unique twist on existing franchises and thrown out some truly fun ideas himself. Check out more of his colorful work after the break!

Premier Automne

From animation studio Je Regarde comes this amazingly beautiful short, 'Premier Automne,' or in English 'First Fall.' The story involves a little girl named Apolline, and a little boy named Abel: Apolline lives in the summer time, whereas Abel lives in the winter.

Unexpectedly, they meet one day, colliding their two worlds. The encounter is not without some interesting results, to say the least. You can probably take a guess based on the title alone, but the way everything is executed is beautifully ethereal.  Haunting, even. Bonus: Puppies, yay!

Big Black Delta - "Side Of The Road"

Warren Kommers directed this stylish, minimal music video for the electro-pop spinoff project lead by Jonathan Bates of Mellowdrone. Featuring some chunky retro synth beats and an awesomely glitched out visual and aural presentation, Side Of The Road hits all the right notes for that mid day lull. Can't wait to hear what else Big Black Delta has in store for us.

30 Things At 30

Animator Fabricio Lima created this somewhat humorous, personal and introspective project, an exploration of 30 things he knew about himself to mark his 30th birthday. Lima created a gif for each of these traits he was aware of, and compiled them into an intimate look into the mind of an artist in this charming animation. Music by The Rhombus.

Alone In The Zone : Living In Fukushima

Now for your dose of the surreal. Two years after the devastating Fukushima meltdown triggered by the Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami on the 11th of March, 2011, one farmer named Naoto Matsumura still resides in the fallout zone to tend to his animals. Braving high radiation, isolation and public scrutiny, he offers his take on the strange life he's chosen to lead.

The documentary also offers the perspective of a farmer forced to leave his land and livelihood behind, and his rather harsh views on the governments hands off policy, TEPCO's refusal to clean up the radiation. Regardless, both men have some truly interesting stories about what went down in their hometown of Tomioka.

Everybody Wants To Kill Bruce

If you've been disappointed with the direction the past two Die Hard films have gone, this 10 minute re-edit holds more entertainment value than both combined. Using clips from 39 movies, Bruce Willis is hunted down from every corner.

The flow of this short is pretty damn impressive and I was amazed at how well all the clips fit together. I found myself giggling at the sheer ridiculousness of it multiple times while also having a blast figuring out where each scene came from.

The Painterly Art Of ArtSammich

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ArtSammich, aka Sam Nielson's work is guaranteed to put a smile on your face. With a wonderfully painterly body of work reminiscent of a contemporary animation style, his work mixes whimsical subject matter with some truly excellent rendering, heavily reliant on light and form. Sam also regularly participates in workshops through companies like Schoolism, Masters Of Digital Painting and more. You guys should check out his blog for some truly amazing insights into his process, especially if you're into digital painting.

With 9 years of experience working at Avalanche software, a subsidiary of Disney Studios, he's currently working on the much anticipated Disney Infinity, which we're looking forward to dumping our life savings into. Gotta catch 'em all. Check out more ArtSammich goodness after the break!

Quantic & Alice Russell - Magdalena

Spanish director/animator Lucas Borras was tapped to help create the music video for UK-based Quantic & Alice Russell's track Magdalena.  The collaborative DJ/composer and singer/songwriter duo are known for their funk and soul style, and don't disappoint with this very retro-sounding, chill track.

With a vintage look and stop motion approach, Borras used a slightly weathered-looking background to frame a series of 2,500 hand modified photographs. The slight rough-looking style definitely gives it a lot of warmth, and charm.

Music Video Roundup - Decibels, Reggie Watts, Sigur Rós

British electro-pop band Decibels just released a delightfully catchy new jam called Ruza, featuring an old man visiting his old haunts while wistfully reminiscing of good times past. Reminiscent of groups like Hot Chip, the track is an eclectic mix of pleasant basslines and percussion with an overall uplifting, summery feel.

The 3D Printed Guns Documentary

With the advent of 3D printing, it was inevitable that the technology would at some point be used for the wrong purposes, like printing guns illegally. 24 year old Cody R.Wilson figured out how to print a semi-automatic rifle using CAD files, and has been sharing his information online for anyone else to create untraceable weapons from the comfort of their own home.

This could ruin the entire potential of 3D printing to be used to improve society and for creative purposes, because the second lawmakers catch on to this man's actions, we as the general public might end up losing the ability to have unrestricted access to high end 3D printers, period. As intelligent as Cody R. Wilson seems, it's a shame that he's put his talents to poor use in my opinion.

Guest Grumps Ft. Grant Kirkhope

We may have just begun our own series featuring video game playthroughs, but I rarely get to post about Grant Kirkhope. Game Grumps has been one of the few "Let's Play" channels on YouTube that consistently brings their laughs, but this episode might take the cake. Who knew that the famous ex-Rare composer was so goddamned hilarious. If you have an hour to spare I suggest you spend it at least listening to this episode, I can guarantee a few laughs out of it.

Chasm: Metroidvania Filled Goodness

Fresh out of GDC comes this fantastic trailer for the upcoming title, Chasm. Filled to the brim with Metroidvania style action, this game was destined to hit my list of titles to watch out for. Set for Windows, Mac and Linux, Chasm is a 2D hack n' slash platformer with a twist, following the recent trend in procedurally generated content. Chasm is definitely looking like an incredibly solid title especially if you're like me who's been relatively hard-pressed to find a game with solid replay value.

While the game isn't due til early 2014, there's still no reason for you to not support it early on. If you head over to the game's Steam Greelight page, you can vote for the title to get a little extra publicity and give it the chance to hit the Steam marketplace when it releases. This and next year are already looking fantastic for games especially for the indies, I can't say I'm not excited.

Let's Check Out : Super House Of Dead Ninjas

Today we're launching a new series which will be called Let's Check Out! a new series that will offer bite sized looks at videogames that will hopefully give readers a better idea of what to expect from these indie offerings. The games we'll feature will be a mix of games sent to us directly be developers, demos from initiatives like Steam Greenlight, and reader recommendations. Email us!

Our first Let's Check Out is Super House Of Dead Ninjas ($5.99) by Megadev and Adult Swim Games, a remake of the most excellent House Of Dead Ninjas, which was a smash hit on the Adult Swim game portal. With some awesomely 16-bit visuals and gameplay reminiscent of a mix of Spelunky and Super Meat Boy, this game kicks buckets of retro ass. If you enjoyed it, subscribe to us on Youtube for more goodness.

The Colorful Art Of Pascal Campion

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Pascal Campion's art is all about capturing a feeling or a mood, and he does it wonderfully. The French-American illustrator studies illustration in Strasbourg, France before moving to California to work with studios including Dreamworks, Disney, MTV, Nickelodeon, Cartoon Network and many others as a freelancer.

With an emphasis on color and light versus detail, his pieces provide a welcome escape into a world of warm colors, pleasant settings and plain out serenity. Check out more of the artists painterly pieces after the break!

Playing Super Mario's RAM Timeline As A Musical Instrument

Chris Novello's insane musical feat involves reverse engineering the original NES title's RAM into a glitch fest using two specific hardware controllers, including one touch surface. Novello explains it much better than I ever could, so here is his breakdown:

Mario’s universe is held in RAM, which the NES uses to draw his world for each frame of the game. By recording the entire state of the NES memory for every frame, I’m able to go back to any moment in Mario’s life. So then I use the X-axis of the Soundplane to sweep through the timeline of Mario’s universe.

Not only that, but the Soundplane is multitouch, so I use a second finger to specify start and endpoints in a playback loop. Technically, this is similar to the way samplers and granular synths work in audio.. but with the entire memory state of the NES. Conceptually, it is like Super Mario meets Groundhog Day. Mario’s universe computer/time machine gets caught in hellish loops.

Joe Han's Animation Reel : What 14 Years Of Experience Looks Like

I'm baffled that Joe Han is currently looking for a job, as I've never seen a reel this good since starting this blog. Joe was one of the employees affected by the Valve layoffs, which seemed to affect a significant number of former movie industry folks. Gabe Newell alluded to his dissatisfaction with movie industry folks in his recent Reflections Of A VideoGame Maker talk, just a week before that strange layoff.

Joe has had a chance to work at WETA and Valve on the Lord Of The Rings trilogy, King Kong,TinTin, iRobot, Left4Dead, Counterstrike: Global Offensive, Portal 2, Team Fortress 2, including the amazing shorts for Meet The Medic, Meet The Pyro and Mann Vs Machine. This really begs the question, why did he get laid off, considering his stellar contributions to all of Valve's key franchises? We'll probably never know, but I doubt he'll have a hard time getting a new job at one of the best studios out there in no time.

Riddick Teaser Trailer (2013)

Vin Diesel will return as Riddick following a decade long hiatus for the franchise, which faltered due to a less than stellar box office performance for it's 2004 sequel, Chronicles Of Riddick. The original director, David Twohy and Vin Diesel will be reuniting for the third entry into the series, simply titled, 'Riddick,' featuring the titular protagonist stranded on a rather unfriendly planet in a rather familiar sounding plot line (Pitch Black, much?).

Left for dead on a sun-scorched planet, Riddick finds himself up against an alien race of predators. Activating an emergency beacon alerts two ships: one carrying a new breed of mercenary, the other captained by a man from Riddick's past.

Let's see if this movie will manage to reignite interest in the franchise, considering that it's been pretty much dormant since 2004. Check out the first official movie poster after the break.

Watch This Movie: Spring Breakers Is Not What It Seems

We had one of the strangest moviegoing experiences in years with Harmony Korine's Spring Breakers, a movie that was made to seem very common and ordinary in it's marketing, yet offered something starkly different to those who took the bait. This movie was a cinematic venus fly trap in the best way imaginable, drawing the stereotypical crowd who'd be interested in a 'party' movie before slapping them in the face with a movie so strange, surreal and ironic that it's nothing short of brilliant.



We'd heard rumors that this movie was selling itself as something it wasn't, but when we entered the theater to find a bunch of 16-18 year olds getting pumped about a Spring Break themed, fun movie..We were perplexed and bracing ourselves for the experience to come. What the movie ended up being was a true freefall into darkness for four girls, which unfolded in an uncnoventional narration style that juggled present, past and future at the same time with plenty of surreal, uncomfortable moments that reminded me of Gaspar Noe's Enter The Void in it's abstract style.

The movie could be referred to as a dark satire in it's entirety, and a cautionary tale of what happens to people who consider 'YOLO' and Scarface as things to glorify and live by. All glitz, glamour and no consequences? Think twice. If anything I'd consider this movie as a complete middle finger to movies like Project X, which went so far as to throw out the aspect of responsibility in a movie about taking things too far. If you're looking for a truly different cinematic experience, I'd highly recommend checking Spring Breakers out, I guarantee that it's unlike anything you've seen in recent years.

Dragon's Crown Gets Atlus' Blessing And A Release Date

Vanillaware's Atlas published ode to the old side scrolling fantasy beat em'up just recently received a new trailer, and a US release date to boot. Set to be released on the PS3 and Vita simultaneously on August 6th, 2013, the creators of games including Odin's Sphere and Muramasa: The Demon Blade will be bringing us another beautifully art directed entry with a call back to a once forgotten genre.

If you missed our initial coverage/concept art feature, check it out over here. The game hasn't received much press due to the fact that their previous publisher (Ignition) mishandling the project, but Atlus stepped in and picked the project up. The music and gameplay takes me back to the good old days of RPG's, an era in which Square had nothing to do with Enix, and games were still grounded in established genres, unlike the fantasy/scifi/fashion hybridization that's been prevalent as of late. Given the developers track record, I think Dragon's Crown will be yet another solid for Vanillaware's excellent track record. Stay tuned for more updates.

Alphabets Heaven - Birthday

UK-based electro artist Alphabets Heaven teamed up with artist/animator Renata Gasiorowska to create this understated yet bizarre music video for the track 'Birthday.' With child-like drawings on a construction paper-esque background, and cool, understated colors, it really works well with the chill, hypnotic music.

The Art Of Erik Jones

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Erik Jones has been making waves in the contemporary art scene with his glitched out portrait works, rendered out with traditional mediums including acrylics, oils, colored pencils, pastels and more. Typically featuring females encased in a series of highly abstracted, angular shapes, his pieces provide a pleasant contrast between chaos and harmony, soft and sharp.

Erik just recently exhibited at the renown Spoke Art gallery, and will be featured in next month's issue of Hi-Fructose..2013 is shaping up to be quite the break out year for Mr. Jones. Check out more of his awesome work after the break!

The Promise

A promise made to a good friend years ago, comes back to haunt a semi-slacker.  I mean, feeling down on yourself at a low point in your life, making drunk pleas for the sweet release of death isn't really THAT unheard of.  Right? Guys...?

Well, ahem, this guys buddy agrees to help him with that, but then of course he decides to back out of it.  The casual nature of this conversation is awesome, and certainly less dramatic than it could be. Created by Sam Molleur, Curt Neill, and Elisha Yaffe. 

What Is Wildstar?

NCSoft and Carbine Studios just released their latest trailer for Wildstar as they head into beta, and I couldn't think of a better promo to get people excited for what's to come and everything the the game will have to offer. The passion behind the game is palpable, and we're looking forward to giving the game a spin once we infiltrate the beta.

If you haven't seen the promo videos for the two factions (The Dominion and Exiles), get on it..Stat. Considering how genuinely enthusiastic the devs have been in regards to their game, keep your eyes peeled for beta at Wildstar HQ.

Will Sasso Lemon Compilation

It's been a while since I've come across something that's utterly retarded nonsensical and without any reason whatsoever.  I mean, seriously, it's been at least a day or two. Anywho, actor/comedian and MadTV alum Will Sasso has a hilarious Vine account, and his most notable nemesis. The lemon.

The citrus fruit regurgitation figures into the majority of his clips, along with Hulk Hogan.  Because, yeah, why not?  On that note, this also brings to our attention the Vine app, which allows user to make super short (think 5-6 second) videos, almost like a gif.  Currently only available on the iPhone, we await it's debut on the Android.

DuckTales Remastered

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Do you hear that? That's the sound of thousands of 90's children crying in happiness to what might be one of the best announcements in years. Screw your Durango and PS4, we have an HD remastered DuckTales in the pipeline. Developed by the fantastic team at WayForward (Adventure Time, Contra 4, Mighty Switch Force), DuckTales is set for this Summer.

While most studios would call it good with an HD skin, WayForward isn't like most. While the game looks absolutely gorgeous, the team has expanded upon it further by including more levels, side character development and even reprising roles for the original DuckTales cast. Yes, you heard correctly, the surviving voice actors from the original cartoon are returning for this beautiful reunion.  On top of everything, we're also getting the opportunity to swim in Scrooge's money pool. Holy sh*t, you guys, this is huge!

On top of everything else, Jake Kaufman is also set to remaster the games memorable soundtrack. Capcom has really outdone themselves with this announcement and I couldn't be happier, but let's face it the most important thing to expect from this entire ordeal is a remastered version of this song.

The Art Of FeiGiap - Impossible Cities, Colorful Worlds

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There's something inherently Ghibli-esque about Chong FeiGiap's beautiful paintings, capturing that sense of wonder typically present in the best animes the studio had to offer, as well as a dash of Tekkon Kinkreet's amazingly colorful, complex cities.

The Malaysian artist uses a mix of Sketchup (Architecture+Perspective block outs), Painter and Maya to craft each one of his beautiful pieces, drawing from colorful favela/slum architecture, the result of having to construct your buildings with whatever you could get your hansd on. His pieces have a wonderful sense of personality and scale, building upon a visual language he's built in his own mind for the distinct characters that inhabit them. Check out more of his awesome work after the break!

DIY Bullet time : GoPro Style

Created by Marc Donahue, this amazing GoPro rig uses a few dozen cameras to simulate the effect made famous by the Wachowski's Matrix trilogy, at a faction of the price. Despite some slightly dampened fidelity in image transitions due to shutter speed and the inherently fish eye nature of the lens, this video turned out pretty damn amazing consider it was an amateur effort.

You Got Halflife 2 In My Doom, And Doom In My Halflife 2

We've seen film mashups, experienced amazing musical mashups from the likes of Ludachrist to Chrono Jigga, but we've never seen videogame mashups reach this level of amazing. A few passionate modders took it upon themselves to port Doom (GMDoom, or Garry's Mod Doom) into the Source engine, and the results are absolutely surreal/face meltingly amazing. The idea of fragging a few headcrabs with a BFG or that insanely satisfying shotgun from Doom II might just prompt a reinstall.

Caro Emerald - Tangled Up

I think I may have found one of my new favorite musical artists in Dutch jazz singer Caro Emerald. Talented, beautiful, and incredibly stylish, I instantly fell in love with her track, Tangled Up. Not to mention this sexy, vintage-inspired music video, cleverly tying in the tango (Tangled? Tango? Get it!?). The flat, graphic animation style works seamlessly with the classy, stylish sound. If you like this, we'd also recommend checking out the electro-swing sound of Caravan Palace.

Star Trek : Into Darkness International Trailer

In between filming music videos for psychedelic bands and preproduction on Star Wars: Episode VII, JJ Abrams and Paramount are getting the wheels turning for the highly anticipated Star Trek : Into Darkness sequel, which looks like it'll offer a more cerebral, complex antagonist (Rumors point to him being a reboot of Khan) for the Enterprise crew to deal with. I've got a soft spot for calculating villains in movies.

When the crew of the Enterprise is called back home, they find an unstoppable force of terror from within their own organization has detonated the fleet and everything it stands for, leaving our world in a state of crisis. With a personal score to settle, Captain Kirk leads a manhunt to a war-zone world to capture a one man weapon of mass destruction. As our heroes are propelled into an epic chess game of life and death, love will be challenged, friendships will be torn apart, and sacrifices must be made for the only family Kirk has left: his crew.

Dreamworks Unveils A New Turbo Trailer

Longtime Dreamworks artist/writer David Soren (Shrek, Madagascar, How To Train Your Dragon) will be making his directorial feature debut this year with Turbo, based off of his own original concept. Featuring a premise similar to a hero origin story, it seems like Turbo will focus on one very unordinary snail's powers and his dream to win the Indy500. It's a fun premise, and the art direction seems solid, so here's to hoping that it's not going to fall into the forgettable Dreamworks movie category (Megamind, Monsters Vs Aliens, Shrek XIV).

Music Video Roundup -Futurecop, Instrumenti, Wavves

Futurecop's just premiered their brand new music video for Atlantis 1997 a sick retro-synth pop track reminiscent of a mix between M83 and Kavinsky. Comprised of Pete Carrol and Manzur Iqbal, the duo also collaborated with French artist Laurent Ashe (Lifelike) to create a sick Italo Disco inspired remix of Atlantis 1997, which you can check out below.

The Awesome Art Of Godtail

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Godtail is a Japanese freelance illustrator who truly struck me with his Western influenced art. Taking a queue from Takeshi Koke's hyperkinetc anime feature, Redline and shows like Gonzo's Afro Samurai, his work carries that hybrid east meets west style that's become prevalent as of late.

The artist has had a chance to work for a slew of companies over the years, not limited to marketing campaigns for Adidas, Astro, Square Enix and many others, as well as dedicating quite a bit of time to developing his own projects and IP ideas, like $Match (Above). Check out a ton more of his awesome work after the break!

Game Theory (A Live Mashup)

I always find it to be a treat when mash-up artists provide live renditions of their work,  it gives a nice representation of the work that goes into each song even if it doesn't show the entire music making process. Using re-wired video game controllers, Ithaca Audio provides an intense beat accompanied with a video showcasing where each sample is pulled from.

At first the song may seem like a sampling of sounds pulled throughout pop-culture, but it definitely picks up around the two-minute mark.

This Beetlejuice Minecraft Rollercoaster Is Mind-blowing

There have been plenty of amazing Minecraft projects in the past few years, but I don't think anything comes close to the work Rivergrl21 and Nuropsych1 has put into this piece. Lets all ignore the fact that Beetlejuice is my favorite movie of all time and instead sit in awe at the incredible amount of time and effort that was put into this project.

After working on and off for two months (on the Xbox version surprisingly), the two Minecraft prodigies have created one of coolest virtual rides to ever grace the video game industry. I honestly felt that the ride began to feel more like an interactive music video than an actual roller coaster, which is completely okay with me! Great job guys, this is absolutely mind-blowing.

Dennis Miller's Tribute Posters : Hotline Miami, Portal, Sword & Sorcery And More

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Dennis Miller is a part time German artist that has been makign waves with his awesome indie videogame and cult film tributes lately, including his absolutely kickass Hotline Miami (Play it if you haven't already) poster, capturing the downward psychological spiral of the game's protagonist perfectly.

The 27 year old artist's work and design sense has improved significantly over the last year, and I hope that he gets a chance to pursue his illustrating hobby fulltime soon, as there's a ton of potential present here. Check out his tributes to Chell from Portal, Sword & Sorcery, Tiny & Big and They Live after the break.

The Phantom Flex Highlight Reel - Slowmo Galore

This highlight reel of slow motion goodness was compiled from the second season of the Danish show Dumt & Farlight (Stupid & Dangerous), featuring a pretty entertaining 5 minutes of objects being blown up and captured on the ridiculously expensive slow motion cam known as the Phantom Flex ($50k-150k). From cups being thrown on lawnmower blades to full on trailers being reduced into craters in the ground, this show wins in the variety category. Check out the season one highlights after the break.

The Art Of Tyler Stott

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Tyler Stott is an animator/illustrator based out of Sunnyvale, CA with a truly appealing style, a prevalent one at that which I've come to dub as 'contemporary digital,' drawing inspiration from Disney and Pixar's animation styles and preproduction art.

Based off of scouring the net for a few years now, this simplified, bold style has definitely grown in popularity over the years, opting for a more heavily design oriented approach, from silhouette to interior details. Tyler's work mixes his background in animation with a conceptual edge, resulting in some boldly designed, yet understated pieces. Check out more of his awesome work after the break, and pick up one of his prints over at his humble little shop.

Tina (NSFW)

Gobelins graduate/illustrator/director/animator Wassim Boutaleb J. just released this new trailer for his proof of concept short Tina, featuring a look into the typical night of an exotic dancer. Created in collaboration with Amélie Falière's unique style and the music of Candy Clash, I hope to see this get realized into a full short sometime soon.

Supergiant's Transistor Reveal Trailer

From the artwork, to the music, to the characters all the way up to the gameplay, Bastion was nearly perfect. Supergiant Games is back and they're newest game, Transistor, is looking absolutely stunning. While the beautiful soundtrack pulled me in, the artwork made me stay, this game looks absolutely gorgeous.The overall style is still very reminiscent of Bastion, which is far from a bad thing as it looks like the studio has improved on nearly everything.

With a release date of 2014 I'm going to have a difficult time waiting around for this beauty.

Music Video Roundup: Compuphonic, Django Django

Belgian producer Compuphonic's 'Sunset' (Ft. Marques Toliver) got an awesome stop motion based treatment from the Lisbon based Salon Alpin creative collective. Built with an unmistakably retro-synth pumped foundation, Sunset is a blast to the past. And on a related note, Compuphonic has one of the best websites I've ever seen, emulating the look of the very first Apple operating system, OS1. Check it.



Despite indie rockers Django Django having had a meteoric rise to success in 2012 with their self titled debut album, they made a rather interesting mistake of making their music video overshadow their understated track, 'Wor.' Featuring a look at the gravity defying Well of Death Riders from Allahabad, India..The documentary style approach to the music video nearly drowns the track completely out. However, it's commendable for it's experimental approach.

The Colony Trailer

If this movie has anything going for it, it's the team up of Lawrence Fishburne and Bill Paxton as leading men in a post-apocalyptic film set during a second ice age. On the plus side though, the trailer did have a mild The Thing vibe, and is the first movie to be filmed at the decommissioned Canadian NORAD  facility in Ontario, which reaches up to sixty stories in depth. Other than that we're looking at a complete russian roulette scenario for the final product, featuring a relatively unknown director (Jeff Renfroe). If this movie takes a route more rife on psychological horror rather than cheap startle moments, (Like every f***ing 'horror' movie made in the last 10 years) this might have a chance to be good.

Beneath the icy surface, survivors of Colony Seven struggle as food supplies dwindle and temperatures continue to drop. Plagued by illness and internal conflict, the colonists suspect the worst when they mysteriously lose contact with Colony Five – the only other known settlement. Sam (Zegers), a strong-willed mechanic with a tragic past, joins a team headed up by Briggs (Fishburne) on a dangerous expedition to find out what happened. After a hellish trek, they discover a threat much worse than imagined, and now Colony Seven must win a savage battle to preserve the last of humanity.

Tim & Eric's Go Pro Show

Just over a week ago, Jash hit the scene on YouTube. With a lineup including Tim & Eric,  Sarah Silverman, Michael Cera and Reggie Watts, the channel became instantly destined for YouTube success.For myself, Tim & Eric was probably the most exciting inclusion for the project, if solely for the fact that their anti-humor is absolutely perfect for the ADD-centered entertainment YouTube provides.

Tim & Eric's Pro Show looks to be the first step for Jash's complete YouTube domination. While seemingly simple on it's surface I fully expect some incredibly awkward and uncomfortable antics to emerge from the first-person views of Tim & Eric.

The Art of Asuka Isii

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Asuka Ishii's work completely drew me in upon first glance with it's seemingly grandiose scale. Each paints (literally) a world that is equally as beautiful as it is soothing which perfectly captures the feeling of wonder one might get from a pleasant dream. The amount of detail placed into each painting is absolutely mind-blowing and I found myself staring at each painting for minutes at a time.

Since each image managed to hold such grand scale, I investigated a little further and found that some of Asuka's work is actually as big as it seems, often times filling entire rooms. The fact that each work holds it's original scale so well even when shrunk down really shows the talent Asuka Ishii holds.

After the break I've left you with six more pieces by Asuka Ishii that you can take a look at.

Insane Office Escape 2 - Bigger, Badder, Better

Russian punk indie band Biting Elbows might have just crafted one of the most spectacular, exhilarating cinematic sequences we've ever had a chance to feature on this blog..So good in fact that I believe director Ilya Naishuller will be getting the attention of Hollywood this time around for his masterful execution of this GoPro driven extravaganza, called 'Bad Motherf***er.'

Created as a sequel of sorts to the band's 2011 Stampede music video (Below), which used a similar format, 'Bad Motherf***er' takes the original and pushes it a few hundred times past it's predecessor, including the re-introduction of some scifi elements and some immaculately planned shots and choreography. I'm just in awe of how well executed this was, offering some truly visceral thrills that action movies haven't been able to deliver in years.

The Awesomely Stylized Concepts Of Matias Hannecke

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Matias Heinecke is a Canadian designer and illustrator based out of Toronto, with a slick style mixing old school and new school animation aesthetics with a conceptual edge. Heavily design oriented versus filling his images with needless detail, every plane, stroke and shadow intentionally placed to help his bold designs shine.

What's not to love? His fluid poses mixed with his chunky, planar painting style, his concepts are truly a thing to behold. I'd love to see Matias be placed in charge of art directing a videogame project to see what type of visual language he'd come up with, I think it would be a welcome change of pace from what we're typically used to. Check out more of his awesomeness after the break!

Luke's Change : An Inside Job

Luke's Change is a tongue in cheek reference to Loose Change, the somewhat conspiracy theory lead documentary series relating to the 9/11 attacks being an inside job, but set in the Star Wars universe. Using an investigative journalist approach, this fun little spinoff offers a take on the events leading to the Death Star's explosion being rather..Unlikely.

'An examination of some questionable events and circumstances leading up to the destruction of the Death Star, through the eyes of an amateur investigative journalist within the Star Wars galaxy. The focus is mainly on the connections between the people who created and operated the Death Star and those responsible for destroying it.'

Avian Inspired Quadrotor Snatcher - Coming Soon To A Dystopian Future Near You

Created by the GRASP Lab over at the University Of Pennsylvania, a team of four engineers managed to create a rather precise, eagle inspired mechanism for micro UAV's (Unmanned Aerial Vehicles). As presented in the video, this would allow UAV's to fly down and snatch up targets on command with a great deal of precision.

As cool as it is on paper, you have to consider that the research that has gone into these quadrotor UAV's will inevitably be scaled up to be combat/recon ready sometime in the future (Like the DARPA Mule project). It's a little bit disconcerting to think that these creations will be roaming the skies someday as military instruments, time will tell how these end up being applied to practical use.

Chrono Jigga

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Featuring the smooth lyrics of Jay-Z and the unforgettable soundtrack of Chrono Trigger (Which I recently just finished), Chrono Jigga has exploded in popularity over the last week or two. Kentucky based producer 2 Mello put together this absolutely seamless mashup, after figuring out that the two meshed really well. If you haven't given it a listen yet, time to take the plunge with the player below.

Props to the excellent Jake Wyatt for his awesome art mashup piece created after hearing the mix himself. You can download the mix for free over here.

Jojo In The Stars

From the BAFTA winning Studio AKA comes this beautiful debut film from Director Marc Craste. JoJo In The Stars is an atmospheric 12 minute story of love, self-sacrifice, and jealousy played out against a monochromatic world that is both nightmarish and hauntingly beautiful at the same time.

Skullgirls Support Continues to Amaze

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I don't think I'll be able to forgive myself for being so late to post this, but it's important to inform you about the Skullgirls Indiegogo campaign if you don't already know about it. Normally I try to avoid posting campaigns that have been funded to infinity and beyond, but Skullgirls and it's community is truly something special.

Last year, after the unfortunate demise of Reverge Labs all seemed doomed for the Skullgirls developer but shortly thereafter the team reformed to create Lab Zero Games. After efforts to push Skullgirls into the limelight during EVO, things started to look pretty grim for the developers once again. It's truly a shame to see a company like Reverge Labs/Lab Zero get brushed aside amongst other competition, especially after witnessing the amount of love the crew puts into their work.

Luckily, the community behind Skullgirls has something to say about the entire ordeal. 

The Art Of Drigzabrot : Guns, Girls, Robots

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Drigzabrot is an LA based freelance illustrator with a specific subject interest: Guns, Girls, Robots, and combinations of all of the above. Not necessarily a bad thing, because even specializing within a certain subject niche can at times be quite marketable. It's nearly a running joke with the artist, who mentions in his bio:

'Drigz considers drawing a girl a good day - drawing a girl and a gun, a great day - and drawing a girl, a gun and a robot, an AMAZING day.'

Having been featured in Spectrum, UDON's Darkstalkers tribute and several unannounced projects, he's had no shortage of work with his appealing, painterly style. Check out more of his work after the break.

Roman - Aftermaths

Bullion Productions with Federico Urdaneta helped create an insanely bizarre promo for budding electronica artist 'Roman'. It was done as a series of 5 consecutive vignettes, told as Monday through Friday.

Apparently known for his 'decadent' lifestyle, Urdaneta said he wanted to show the end of a typical debauched night, i.e. the aftermath. Certainly an interesting approach to take when promoting a new artist, but I really dig it for it's uniquely bizarre, gritty appeal. Also for the mysterious nature of this new artist. Promo = Successful.

The New YouTube By RubberNinja

I think anyone can relate with the general annoyance regarding websites like Youtube and Facebook punching their users in the nuts every few months with complete layout overhauls, confusing new features, privacy resets and general sadness. Well YouTube just took the initiative a few days ago by trying to make their website look more like Facebook(?) recently, and animator Ross O'Donovan created this fine tribute to showcase his displeasure with the design roulette (TM) style approach that these websites seem to enjoy unleashing on their users. No need to fix what's not broken.

Game Of Thrones, Breaking Bad, Walking Dead: 1995 Style

A few YouTubers have been having fun taking modern shows and thrusting their intros back into the past, the cheesy era of the mid nineties where big budget good TV shows were equatable with the likes of Xena, Hercules and...Fresh Prince? The advent of cinematic TV series didn't quite rear their heads till the last few years, and I shudder at what we used to be subjected to.

From the fonts to the choice of music to the VHS warping, these tributes are a perfect emulation of the trends of the times. Check out the hilariously upbeat Breaking Bad and Walking Dead intros after the break.

Botjira's Awesome Videogame Collages

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Collage is a style we rarely run intoduring this modern era of digital painting, 3D and flash animation, but Botjira (Anonymous) is one of those young artists that still embraces it. Using a mixture of heavy stock paper, good old scissors & glue and a touch of watercolor and acrylic, Botjira crafts some modern tributes to videogame characters, with a specific affinity for Valve's stable of franchises.

Despite the awesome source material, there's still something incredibly old school about the execution, probably because it reminds me of how prevalent the style was with editorial illustration during the late 90's. Nonetheless, this work kicks ass. Check out more of the collage masters work after the break!

Background Paintings from Adam and Dog

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We've made it no secret that we here at AwesomeRobo are crazy big fans of the animated short, 'Adam and Dog,'. This includes our argument that it should have won the Oscar over 'Paper Man,' as seen on our most recent podcast. That aside, we took a look at some of the beautiful environment art by creator Minkyu Lee. His use of light and textures really pulled together a grand and yet serene setting: The raw, unadulterated natural Earth.

More after the break!

Yang Yongliang's Moonlight Series

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And now for a trip into the monochromatic realm, Moonlight is the latest from Yang Yongliang, a truly amazing based artist/photographer who figured out a way to combine his love for traditional Chinese painting with his experiences growing up in a rapidly evolving Shanghai. The paintings come off as dreamy, hazy natural landscapes at first, but at a closer glance you start to make out the buildings, highways and smog haze creating that artificially elevated sense of atmospheric perspective (Technical term for the effect the atmosphere has on the appearance of an object as it is viewed from a distance).

Juxtaposing the past and present of China in his fantastically executed pieces, Yang Yongliang's work speaks to the ever changing landscape of his country. Check out more from the Moonlight series after the break.

Oz - "Saturdays"

The latest clip from director Benjamin Badou (Whom we featured for his Bladerunner tribute) is an ultra widescreen ode to the cosmos, the kaleidoscopic and the abstract, featuring the laid back sounds of the trip-hop/ambient group comprised of Olivia Zulke, JH Rochereuil & Roman Caceres-Durey known as Oz. Loved the 2001 tributes thrown in: 'It's full of stars!'

Circa

James Chiny of Hypoly created this haunting short, entitled 'Circa.' Using a series of shots pulling away from different landscapes, he subtly shows us the story of a quiet, uninhabited Earth. His use of warm yet barren-feeling color, and foggy atmosphere really sets the mood and leaves you wandering, 'What happened?' Make sure to watch all the way through to the end. Everything about it is understated but definitely leaves a lasting impression.

Strange Oaks

Spanish studio Headless Productions created an adorable animated short with 'Strange Oaks.' Played out as a commercial, it's aimed at your local witch. This gourmet food option is way better than an everyday, boring rat. And with lots of options, such as drive through and late night, Strange Oaks always has them covered. They have a nice child for 'every taste.' Silly and lighthearted, it's the perfect animated short for a nice Saturday afternoon.

Industrial Divinities By Aaron Beck

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Aaron Beck is one of the senior concept designers over at WETA workshop, having had the chance to contribute his industrial design skills to films including District 9, Avatar as well as having contributed designs to the upcoming Elysium and Mad Max: Fury Road.

Using a mixture of photo compositing and a heavy understanding of mechanical function, Aaron's works lean heavily on a functional design foundation. Whereas many concept artists tend to leave aspects like say, how a joint might rotate to give it a good range of motion to the imagination, artists like Beck will go all the way to make sure their design makes sense. In conclusion, this falls into the two camps that concept artists tend to head in - Form over function, or function over form. Check out more of his designs after the break.