avatar

 

industry news

Dragonball The Movie The Game

Posted by Brian Ashcraft at 2:00 PM on September 30, 2008

Like most big Hollywood movies, the makers of the Dragonball flick are planning a video game... based on the movie. But there are already tons of good Dragonball games that are, you know, based on the anime/manga. Regardless! Twentieth Century Fox has a new Senior Vice President of New Media Licensing who's drawing up a list of Fox flicks that could turn into video games. Included in that list is apparently movies like the upcoming Avatar from James Cameron along with Dragonball from some dude. If you think actor Justin Chatwin looks strange as Goku just wait until he's mocap'd for your 3D gaming pleasure.

Fox taps THQ vet for video game post [Playthings via Dragonball - The Movie]

xbox 360

How to Build Your Own Xbox 360 Avatar

Posted by Adam Barenblat at 8:00 AM on September 20, 2008


If you were worried about how the Xbox 360 avatar creation system was going to work, don't fret. Major Nelson has made this video showing us what we can expect when the fall update hits. It actually looks really solid with some very amusing animations. Now the only question is when can we expect to be making Mii's quirky representations of ourselves? Something tells me it might be in November, but hey, you never know.

NXE - What you need to know: Avatars

real world

First Look At James Cameron's Avatar Set

Posted by Brian Ashcraft at 3:00 PM on September 9, 2008

For those unfamiliar with James Cameron's upcoming Avatar, the very gamey flick follows an ex-Marine's struggle for survival on an alien planet. The title refers to the main character's status as an avatar — a human mind in an alien body. Besides creating oodles (yes, oodles) of CG alien characters to inhabit the flick, Cameron is also planning to show the movie (and the movie based games!) in stereoscopic 3D. The avatar game is apparently already running in stereoscopic 3D! Cameron has been shooting the film in New Zealand, and it's about 60 percent done. Cameron's gunning to have it finished it time for its December 2009 release. Above is a picture of the set, which looks more like they're making a game and less like a movie in the traditional sense.

Avatar Set Picture And James Cameron Interview [Latino Review]

xbox 360

Rumour: Microsoft Avatar Creator Art

Posted by Brian Ashcraft at 12:30 PM on August 4, 2008

As announced at E3 (and leaked way before that), Microsoft is introducing Avatars to Xbox LIVE. Here are supposedly the first images of the Avatar creator. These screens are not from the actual Fall dashboard update, but rather, are a "image collage" put together by game site Xbox 360 Fanboy of thumbnails and artwork that will apparently be used in the creator. They should give you an idea of what Xbox LIVE Avatar making will be like — there are icons for clothing, skin colour, height, weight, hair style and accessories.

Source: First images from 360 Avatar creator [Xbox 360 Fanboy]

wii

Epic STILL Not Interested In Making Wii Games

Posted by Brian Ashcraft at 8:00 PM on July 8, 2008

Lots of people have the Nintendo Wii. For example, I have a Nintendo Wii and, yes, maybe you do too! With such a high install base, making Wii games would seem like a valuable part of any developer's arsenal. Not Epic's, no sir-ey. The developer has stated in the past that it has no intentions of making Wii games, and Epic honcho Mark Rein still is sticking with his nothanks.jpg for Wii development:

Read More »

xbox 360

Microsoft Avatars Will Be Playable, Licensed?

Posted by Luke Plunkett at 12:30 PM on June 16, 2008

Courtesy of the same leak that's spilled everything else today, there's a little more information to be had on the rumoured introduction of Microsoft's Avatar system. Some of the marketing material mentions that, like Miis are in stuff like Wii Sports, the Avatars will be implemented into "various arcade and retail games" as playable characters. Also mentioned are "hundreds of clothing options", a feature which is interesting when you look at the sample pic attached to the leak (above) and - provided it's real - see one of the characters is wearing an Incredibles shirt, suggesting that unlike Nintendo's offering, there'll be the option of clothing your Avatar in various licenced outfits. Maybe, and this is total conjecture, even a little Master Chief costume?

Read More »

real world

Avatar Might Be Lacking On Story

Posted by Brian Ashcraft at 7:00 PM on May 22, 2008

Whether it's creating CG liquid robots or making movies underwater, James Cameron hasn't just pushed boundaries, he's toppled them over and then stomped the crap outta them. His upcoming movie Avatar doesn't sound any different! For those unfamiliar with the years off flick, the very gamey flick follows an ex-Marine's struggle for survival on an alien planet. The title refers to the main character's status as an avatar — human mind in an alien body. Besides creating oodles (yes, oodles) of CG alien characters to inhabit the flick, Cameron is also planning to screen the movie (and the movie based games!) in stereoscopic 3D. But what about the story? Says Cameron:

Read More »

industry news

Avatar Game Already Running In Stereoscopic 3D

Posted by Luke Plunkett at 2:30 PM on May 21, 2008

Anyone seen a movie in stereoscopic 3D? I caught Beowulf a few months back, thought it was great. Partly for the 3D, but mostly for the glasses, because the ones my cinema were handing out were replica Buddy Holly specs, with not a blue or red piece of cellophane in sight. Classy. I mention this because James Cameron's upcoming sci-fi "epic" Avatar will be screened in stereoscopic 3D, and Cameron has 3D on the brain, wanting to screen not just the movie in the third dimension, but the games based on the movie as well. Indeed, Cameron's told Cnet that a 360 build of the adaptation is already up, running, and up and running in 3D. Sounds good to me. So long as the glasses look good.

James Cameron: 3D heading beyond movies [CNET]

real world

How's James Cameron's Avatar Movie Going?

Posted by Brian Ashcraft at 1:20 AM on February 23, 2008

Last we heard about James Cameron's big sci-fi yarn Avatar Ubisoft had bagged the game rights. For those unfamiliar with the years off flick, it follows an ex-Marine's struggle for survival on an alien planet. The title refers to the main character's status as an Avatar — human mind in an alien body. (Space Marines, aliens, wow, already sounds like a game!) How's the project coming along? According to Cameron:

Things are going well on Avatar, or at least as well as can be expected on such a ridiculously complex project. We've wrapped principal, and most of the live action portion of the movie is already cut. It's starting to look and sound like a movie. I'm ecstatic with the performances and the look. The cast chemistry worked out perfectly...

There's a spirit on this film, an esprit de corps amongst the virtual team, that comes from knowing we're doing something absolutely groundbreaking. It's why people still have good morale after working on this thing for two years or more. And we still have more than a year and a half to go. I don't know if this will be a good film, great film, awful film, but I can say with absolute certainty that you will see stuff you've never imagined, and that the process of making this film will generate a lot of interest within the technical side of the biz. When I edit with some of our early stuff, "shot" using our virtual camera system over a year and half ago, it already looks laughably crude.

Image how it will look in a decade — hilarious! Even if this is a crash and burn bloated mess, we're sure it'll look push movie-making tech forward leaps and bounds. That's at the very least.
Avatar Update [AICN] [Pic]