Those of you not visiting via a feed reader will notice that the site has undergone another of its annual facelifts, though this time the occasion is significant for two reasons: First of all, this May marks the 5th anniversary of maintaining this blog. When I first started I wrote under a pseudonym as the [...]

A few people at work have pointed me towards this audio interview I gave after the MIGS talk at the end of last year (a summary of which is still forthcoming, but you can see the slides here if you have a magnifying glass). If you can put up with the dodgy accent there may [...]

Today in North America – Friday in Europe. Go pick it up for Xbox or PC! This is the launch trailer, and I count some 75% of the shots here were done by the Montreal Cinematics team. So far the reviews have been overwhelmingly positive, but I still nervously await the ultimate litmus test – [...]

Another work-related post – three in a row! In a break from the norm, I’m not involved at all in the in-game animations for the sequel – so it’s cool to see several shots from one of my romance scenes ahead of the game’s realease.  Not long to go now until this project is done [...]

Today marks my first year back at BioWare, and therefore (in my head anyway) the 1st anniversary of BioWare Montreal. No longer the youngest kid on the block, we had our very first ever studio photo earlier this month to commemorate the occasion, courtesy of Bartek. Note the cool Mass Effect 2 N7 shirts I [...]

The other week an old highschool friend of mine now residing in NY contacted me for a typical “day in the life” scenario from the games industry. While it’s not representative of my current situation, (which is virtually meeting-free), I gave him an example of the height of the end of Mass Effect 1 that [...]

By some strange paradox, E3′s lack of announcements regarding the next “next generation” of hardware has prompted many news sites (and publishers) so speculate as to when the next cycle will begin. When I first began animating games at home in my highschool years and was invited up to the local game studio, DMA Design, [...]

This week is all about E3, and this time it’s going back to the way it should be – all loud noises, special announcements and awesome presentations on a world stage. We released a preview video some weeks ago which will forever be known internally as “the one with Parrish’s moustache”, but I wanted to [...]

Well done to Tony and the rest of the Dragon Age Cinematics team in Edmonton on the latest trailer for Dragon Age  – they’re really able to get a lot on screen at once! Warning: This isn’t for kids… On another note, if you’d like to see this or any other YouTube video in a [...]

A week on Wednesday two of Edmonton’s finest, Dusty and Corey, will be flying into town to give an updated version of their GDC talk on our production process, part of which uses one of the cutscenes we did here in Montreal last year to help illustrate the various stages of iteration in our levels’ [...]

The keen-eyed among you may have noticed the description on the left has been somewhat cryptic for some time now, referring to my secret location… The fact is I’ve been working on a new and exciting project and team inception for the last 6 months, and with both being officially announced I can finally reveal [...]

I’ve just been messing around with the site, making it a little more easy to find the posts most interesting to developers that may find their way here and have dropped my last showreel onto the About page, so incase you missed it here it is. This is the reel I made in January/February 2007 [...]

It was a nice treat today to find another of my previous projects, Jade Empire, has been deemed by Microsoft to be worthy of another go – this one being added to the list of games available for download on the Xbox 360′s Xbox Originals service – pick it up now for just around $10 [...]

On Tuesday I fly to San Francisco for this year’s Game Developer’s Conference so have drawn up a schedule below, (despite not being 100% fixed on many talks due to the amount of overlap on my topics of interest). Decisions are in bold, while same-time alternatives remain should I change my mind. Hope to see [...]

A spot of reminiscing was had this week after I spied my first ever project, Tom & Jerry: War of The Whiskers, (hey – we’ve all got to start somewhere right?), on the latest list of original XBOX games made compatible for the XBOX360. It brought back both good and bad memories to throw it [...]

In light of Kotaku’s recent gallery of games industry work desks I thought I’d add my own to the mix, taken late last year to accompany my testimonial on the Eidos Montreal website. As you can see, I run a tight ship… I’m sure the sterile environment will change over time as we’d only been [...]

Last week was spent on an Eidos collaboration effort in Copenhagen, Denmark at IO Interactive, makers of Hitman, Kane & Lynch, and the amazing parody of American jingoism, Freedom Fighters. The Danes were incredibly welcoming and we came away with not only an understanding of K&L’s 1000+ NPC crowd system, but also an appreciation of [...]

So after nearly three years looking forward to it, I’m gonna miss all the hype and press surrounding the launch of Mass Effect due to being on holiday in Turkey – (no bad thing :). Thankfully I managed to catch this just before leaving – certainly looks a little inconsistent with the animation style of [...]

You know you’ve hit the big time when your cutscene gets a Penny Arcade strip all of its own, so congratulations to Brad on making headlines with his bi alien sex scene – reportedly the lone element that pushed the game into the Mature ratings bracket in North America. I seem to recall him spending [...]

In this 2nd Web of user-created content it appears even videogame trailers are up for grabs to be remixed. The game’s not even out yet and already fans are cutting up and overdubbing Mass Effect trailers, the best of which was this effort combining audio from South Park with clips from multiple previous trailers. I [...]

This week saw a return to basics, getting back to grips with Maya after a 3 year affair with 3D Studio Max. While this most recent relationship had at often times been tumultuous, it did bear many great fruits and I hope as many of the hard-won battles as possible can be carried back to [...]

As a comical finale to the whole “Experts” affair, a link was sent around the other day about the TV spot that appeared on local station Musique Plus, whereby I got mentioned by name as an example of a non ex-Ubisoft employee on the team. They even went as far as giving a free plug [...]

Nearly two months off work after having moved to Montreal at the end of April, I finally started work at Eidos last week. Unlike every other first day I’ve ever had, this time I had to pack a suitcase as myself and the others were whisked off to the elegant Chateau Vaudreuil just outside Montreal [...]

Some months ago, the UK edition of Microsoft’s PR Rag, The Official XBOX Magazine, visited the alsoran’s studio for a tour of the current project’s work in progress. Due to always having the most interesting, moving work to show, the press stopped off at the animation team area where they were given a demonstration of [...]

In his time, the alsoran has worked with some of the most talented, experienced and inspirational individuals in the industry today, yet many of them remain humble about their achievements. It is important to always bear in mind that despite your own accolade, however great it may appear, there will always be others equally if [...]

This week the alsoran returned from the final LA mocap shoot for his current project. Mocap direction is becoming easier with each new visit, with tips and tricks learned every session. This one required multiple actions to be recorded in a short time due to the only female actor having a stricter deadline, and the [...]

Minami-ward, Kyoto, Autumn of 2003. Standing outside the city’s favourite son, Nintendo, the monastic headquarters cast a shadow on the alsoran preparing for his grand entrance. The brilliant white, cube-like building took on an imposing nature even on that sun-baked day, a nervous fear beginning to grow as he envisioned the genius inside that gave [...]

Last week the alsoran gave his first public speaking presentation outside of his weekly team meeting, which is a precursor to a planned GDC talk once his current project is complete. Due to confidentiality and the proprietary nature of several of the systems overviewed, the presentation remained fairly high level, only touching on technical issues [...]

So the alsoran arrives home after an extended holiday following E3 with a lot to think about regarding the direction of the games industry. Though there is much to write about in the immediate future, we’ll begin with what was undoubtedly the highlight of the show – the alsoran finally speaking to one of his [...]

Updates have been scant this past month as the alsoran has been busy at work helping to plan out the requirements for a demo for the upcoming 2006 Electronics Entertainment Expo. Of note, absolutely no throwaway assets are being created for the demo build, only a re-prioritisation of already scheduled work to bring certain areas [...]

So the alsoran has spent a couple of days this week posing out characters for an upcoming magazine cover. Once a first-pass render was created the images were sent to the magazine in question for critique, and changes were wholly expected due to text placement requirements etc. What was not anticipated, however, was an outright [...]

Today the alsoran would like to talk about one of his greatest inspirations – the eternal optimist – Skeletor. Beset by the same obstacles almost daily, you can be sure he will be back again next time with a new plan, always 100% convinced that this this time it will work. Regardless of how many [...]

Yesterday the alsoran visited the local hospital to try out the motion-capture equipment they have installed to research abnormal walk gaits such as limps etc. It’s no Giant Studios, but after some time to setup the ball positions the results are looking positive so far. His technical animator colleague pushed the equipment much further than [...]

For the last two days the alsoran has been fortunate enough to have been atending lectures and a workshop by Ed Hooks, author of Acting For Animators. Invited into the studio for the second time to give the animators a greater insight into acting as we move into a period where a deeper level of [...]