Plan for Nauris Krauze

It's getting harder and harder to actually sit down and write a .plan. Time has become a scarce commodity. Not a bad thing really, but then again - .plan writing has that special retrospective quality that helps you get your mind straight. So in fact, all the .plans, including this, are amateurish efforts of self-analysis. Bear with me in this journey through oceans of Rorschach specks and jungles of banana trees.

First, at last I'm happy and proud owner of Nikon D70 digital camera. I had craved for digital camera for some time, but also wanted one that could use the objectives of my F65. Finally price of D70 has fallen to acceptable level and I got around to purchasing it.
Of course, I immediately set out for some texture hunt and realized how weird people are looking at me, with my camera and tripod, focusing on some ugly ghetto cement wall. I guess I'll just have to get used to it.
Currently I've set myself unofficial goal of creating pretty varied texture library, in July I'm spending two weeks home in Latvia and there should be some rich pickings of post-soviet nature.

Second, Snachurz love continues, we had some debates and there have been some serious tech changes, but we'll talk about them when we have more to show. Right now just some concept art for one of the maps Craig is slaving on.



Third, with all the Snachurz work, contract thingies and helping here and there, I suddenly understood that I havent done any art just for my own pleasure, its always some kind of task. A rather bad thing, since certain art muscles become fat and slow that way. So I decided to start speedpainting. Basically, its simply painting roughly, keeping time in mind, picture shouldnt take more than 30 minutes. So you end up just barely defining shapes and getting mood and then- finita la comedia, move on to the next one. Had forgotten how much fun it can be, not really worrying about anything, just hacking away. Kinda like GID mentality.

Here are some of the quickies. Time ranges from 15 to 30 minutes per each.







Finally, some last GID doodles for Antocalypse Now. Now, I didnt really spend much time on this GID, mostly because Tom had gathered bunch of cool artists and not much needed doing in the first place:) Most of my work was done pre-GID with concepts.
From what Tom was blabbering, I gathered game had very Nam feeling, desperate, f*k all, we-are-all-gonna-die-anyway. Which I followed.




On the GID day, it appeared that not much 2D work was needed anyway, so I just polluted IRC channel till Tom shut my mouth saying i should make something for the menu screen. Which was fine and dandy, only noone had any clue what the game was called. Since I had googled lots of Vietnam related images in the morning, Apocalypse Now imagery was burnt into my frontlobe so I asked what about Antocalypse Now? Which was fine with Tom so ANow it was. Thats the great thing about gidding, such stuff gets easily out of way. Go snitch to Copola now. Next step obviously was imitating Apocalypse Now movie poster, just because it was the sillyiest thing to do and all. I think it's got the right feeling of the original.



For the rest of the GID I slacked and watched those 3D monster gurus in work and threw around silly remarks like the only pupil who has not gotten after-lessons assignment but hangs around anyway and wrecks everybody's nerves.
Oh, yeh, I also made this little composition portrait of Djaggs beautiful ant soldier and gave it a cigarette. Just because it was GID and I could. Was supposed to be a portrait of selected unit but it didnt make it into the game. So here it is- limited edition, rarity and whatnot.



And finally, on an even merrier note, I'm ready to share my late-nights addiction - a small, yet really interesting shareware beta of a game made by Turkish couple. Mount&Blade, check out
Taleworlds .
Its RPG. With dynamic gameworld ala Pirates! With *tumtetum* mounted combat I have never seen before. Why hasnt anyone made a game like that before? It gives completely different tone to combat, charging enemy knights on your steed, arrows zipping by and sticking in your shield while you do medieval equivalent of drive-by shooting but with pitchfork or turkish sword. Game is obviously not finished yet, but beta has large community already, eagerly waiting for mod tools, flooding poor devs with suggestions and sharing their adventures in forums. Recommended. Mounted combat has never been more fun. Oh, wait, I havent really seen mounted combat before!
Btw, cool dude (he's so cool because he works on Snachurz, dig it?) Robert Brower is in final stages of preparing for release of horse pack for Torque. Last I heard, he's putting together some promo materials, pack itself is ready. No its not pimping. Yes, I wish him the best.

You know what? With M&B and the brand new fan-made expansion pack for Thief2 (with cinematics, pro-level voice acting and even more pro map-design) my gaming needs are covered for now. Retail shelves can start crying for me, because I sure am not gonna cry for them.


Ok, so it was lengthy incoherent rambling, but hey- it has pictures! And I feel better already. See, its cheaper than renting couch for 50 bucks per hour in the office of complete stranger who couldnt care less whether you hated your father or like to dress like wookie when its full moon.