Archive for the ‘Video Games’ Category
Fantastic Half-Life…*Ahem* VALVE inspired short
First of all, check it out here.
Secondly, I just want to say I think this piece rocks. So much fun to watch and kudos to InfectiousDesigner for doing such an awesome job!
Third, I wanted to address some of the criticism this has gotten. One of the overwhelming comments I’m seeing have to do with the use of After Effects. Like ‘It was awesome, totally too much after effects though….” Ok first of all, what does that even mean? Too much effects? Too many explosions? Too much coolness? Would you rather have had them actually blow stuff up? Aside from the fact that the effects work looks great as it is, this film had a budget of $1,200.00, and I don’t think hiring a pyro-tech was in the ‘things to buy’ category. The thing that bugged me the most about this was the idea that the creators just threw their footage in to After Effects and it came out looking the way it did. As if After Effects is a Big Red Easy Button you can push to make your footage look cool. No, this piece took serious work, and it paid off in my opinion.
Ok enough of that, the second critique was a bit more understandable. Basically, people didn’t like the fact that there were no head-crab zombies and they included stuff from the other Valve games (Left-4-Dead, Portal, Team Fortress, etc). But what I think people are missing is that this is a nod, an homage, to ALL of Valve’s games. It’s not strictly a Half-Life fan film. Now, I’ll be honest, I was a little surprised by the kung fu fight with the combine soldier. But that was before I woke up this morning with fond memories of playing a little mod called ‘Action Half-Life‘ where you ran around like Neo and kicked virtual booty in the third person. I’m not sure, but I’m wondering if that’s why the kung fu was added.
Anyway, all around great job guys. This is what we want to see, people actually making films. Love it.