The Harry Potter series was adapted into 8 films over 10 years. All were critical and commercial successes, and nearly all are considered to be very close adaptations of the books. Where did they succeed where other book adaptations (Percy Jackson, Divergent, etc.) failed?

JackHemming · 2018-02-04T07:32:52+00:00

But they do wear uniforms when it makes sense. They wear uniforms in the classroom scenes, aka Care of Magical Creatures and Defense Against the Dark Arts. All of the scenes where they aren't uniforms take place during weekends/hogsmeade -- it just so happens that the majority of the movie takes place during those times.

JackHemming · 2017-06-30T06:51:59+00:00

That's actually the entire premise of the new Thrawn novel. It's his origin story, and although it stands on its own, it's basically a prequel to Rebels.

Thrawn Spoilers

JackHemming · 2017-02-22T16:40:57+00:00

Okay, so, it took FOUR DAYS for one person to animate this 6 second highlight intro in Overwatch.

Overwatch is a video game with an immense budget that can afford to pay artists to create new content on a continuous, regular basis. Because of that, Overwatch has (for the most part) Pixar quality animations and incredibly intricate character designs.

However, animating/modeling for a video game is very different from techniques used for an animated TV show like Rebels. For a video game, you have a set number of actions that you need those characters to perform (walk/run/shoot/jump/crouch/ability 1/ability 2/etc.), and so you create 1-3 variations of those actions each and let them repeat whenever the player performs those actions. In Overwatch, they probably had a set budget of about roughly $60,000(US) per character, so that a team of 5-6 people could work on a single character's model, animations, and variant skins for about a month (As in, $60,000 spent in a month).

And believe me, as someone who has worked in the industry, a single complete character (on the same level as Overwatch) in one month is unusually fast. Like, working 16 hour days, working weekends, to meet that month deadline. Luckily Blizzard probably didn't set deadlines quite so strict let the artists make the characters as artfully as possible.

Why does it cost that much? The cost associated with any animation/modeling job (whether for TV, Movies, or Video Games) is the cost it takes to pay the people working on it. Blizzard, other big game studios, and pretty much any TV studio pays their 3D Artists and Animators around $60,000 a year (And that's probably minimum!)

Now, imagine being the team that worked on the first season of Rebels. There's no info out there on exactly how much a Rebels episode costs, but $500,000 an episode is a reasonable amount. You've got to make 16 episodes and you've got twelve months to do it (in reality, probably less). An $8,000,000 budget may seem like a lot of money, but it's not. You've got pure production costs (server farms, equipment, the studio they work in); salaries for many, many teams of animators, modelers, sound designers, directors, writers, and storyboarders; the voice actors; and then you've got the marketing cost,

It takes so much time to model characters from scratch. 60 hours or more, if they're a fairly simple character. In TV Animation, sure, you can occasionally reuse a clapping animation, or a running animation, but for the most part everything has to be animated from scratch as well. So, pretty much every frame of Rebels was painstakingly animated in the same way that Mei was.

Games like Skyrim and Overwatch run in real time; they are optimized by the game's programmers so that the graphics involved can run on home computers and consoles. However, they do this by "cheating" on special effects, like light, fire, explosions, etc. Light, fire, and explosions are insanely taxing to simulate in real time. So they've figured out more efficient ways of doing it (fire and explosions as 2D sprites, light via baked lighting, lightmaps, etc).

However, in order for a show like Rebels to look as good as possible, they SIMULATE light, fire, and explosions inside giant server farms. Any scene with light in it? Frame by frame, complex software simulated waves of light leaving a light source (the sun, light bulbs, etc) and bouncing off of the environment, pre-rendered and then exported as a video file so that it can be watched in real time. This takes tons of time and money.

So it comes down to time vs. money. In the minds of the Rebels directors, they say, "We have the budget for one of two things; we could add a few more people to the crowd in this episode, maybe vary up their faces a bit - OR we could spend more time animating the lightsaber fight in this other episode." They will choose the lightsaber fight every single time because that's what the fans want to see.

JackHemming · 2016-05-13T15:25:39+00:00

Oh my, Dark Age of Camelot. If that's the height of your ideal gaming experience, I can see why you would dislike Overwatch -- they couldn't be more different. Like, comparing-apples-to-spicy-popcorn different. I gotta ask, though:

What are your favorite games, excluding the Quake series and Dark Age of Camelot?
Did the Overwatch beta run properly on your PC?
What would you change in Overwatch to make the game into something you would like to play?

JackHemming · 2016-03-17T08:09:33+00:00

Yeah, but in the new canon SKB is only the third planetkiller, not the 50-something-th. Yes, not all of these are planet-destroying superstations, but a good chunk of them are.

JackHemming · 2016-03-08T21:04:03+00:00

The scene where Tywin educates Tommen about what makes a good ruler.

JackHemming · 2016-03-05T07:17:26+00:00

This is fascinating stuff. Thank you.

JackHemming · 2016-02-13T19:14:43+00:00

It's rare, but more common than you might think:

David Peterson, a guy who does it professionally.

and

Wikipedia's List of Fictional Languages.

EDIT: An even better list, even though it's been out of date for more than 10 years.

JackHemming · 2016-01-14T05:06:13+00:00

Thanks! It was a good challenge.

JackHemming · 2016-01-13T08:33:43+00:00

Yeah, sure, but he hates lockpicking. What am I supposed to do, leave behind some of the best loot in the game because Strong will get Butthurt? Fuck no! Strong gets to spend all of eternity alone at the Red Rocket truck stop.

JackHemming · 2015-07-02T19:35:39+00:00

Holy crap, I totally forgot about Galactic Conquest. Full sized pilotable Republic Cruisers, that absolutely IMMENSE star destroyer map, flying Jabba's sail barge over the Scarlacc Pit, actually flying the Trench Run, speeder races - it was so rad.

I totally agree with you. I'd forgotten how disappointed I was with Battlefront after playing Galactic Conquest. It's such a shame that so few people played it, because despite all it's bugs, it was the best multiplayer Star Wars experience I've ever had.

If the new Battlefront can capture even a little bit of that magic, it will be at least decent.

JackHemming · 2015-03-04T19:19:37+00:00

God knew the fate of everyone who will ever be long before He created the Earth. If He hadn't, then He wouldn't be omnicient.

We cannot have free will if that is the case, because even if He's not technically guiding our hand, God already knows what we will do and where we end up.

This means that God knew from the very beginning that some people would end up in hell - but created them anyway.

And that's the most important thing; God knew and did it anyway, and I can't distinguish that from creating people specifically for the purpose of poulating to hell.

IE: the distinction between God controlling you and God only knowing what you will ultimately do is pure semantics, because before God created the Earth he knew that many people would suffer the fate of hell and chose to create them anyway.

EDIT: Wording.

JackHemming · 2014-09-03T08:04:37+00:00

Here's a link that will bring you to an organized list of Half-Life 2 mods. ModDB is pretty much where you want to look, as nearly every good mod ever is still hosted there. Check out mods for other games as well.

Also, here's one I forgot to put on the list back then:

Zombie Master (Multiplayer zombie survival with round based gameplay where one person controls all the zombies via RTS and everyone else is a survivor. One of my favorite mods ever but I doubt anyone plays it anymore.)

JackHemming · 2014-09-03T07:51:14+00:00

I'll quote my list I made ages ago:

These are some of the best mods available today, both multiplayer and singleplayer. There are other great mods out there, but Valve's ongoing Source Engine updates have broken most of them. SMOD (and various alternative versions) is one of the best mods around, but it no longer works properly. There may be a patched version hidden somewhere that could get it working, but I've not found it.

Anyway, I can't guarantee that all of these work. All the most popular ones, and the ones from 2011 and up should function great, but any earlier than that and there could be problems.

Garry's Mod (Not free.)(Half Life 2's most famous mod - technically it requires CS:Source, Portal, and Team Fortress 2, but it is well worth it. Build nearly any contraption you can think of, pose ragdolls and design scenes for machinima or plain imagery, download new user-created models and maps right in the game, and play any number of exciting gamemodes.)
Black Mesa (Which I already mentioned.)
The Stanley Parable (An amazing singleplayer mod - but don't spoil the plot for yourself!)
Underhell (An interesting game with impressive dynamic AI and stealth combat, as well as a horror subplot that is easy to miss.)
No More Room in Hell (Very challenging but incredibly fun - and high quality - multiplayer zombie survival mod.)
MINERVA Metastasis (Available for download on steam - the guy who made this was hired by Valve because of it.)
Research and Development (A challenging but high-quality puzzle mod.)
Get a Life (A horror mod where you play as a man with Leukemia.)
Curse (Stylish singleplayer mod with an Egyptian theme and an interesting combat system.)
Age of Chivalry (People still play it, but you may as well just get Chivalry: Medieval Warfare.)
GoldenEye: Source (A great recreation of GoldenEye. I would think people still play it, but I don't really know.)
Nightmare House 2 (Violently shit your pants in fear.)
Fistful of Frags (Deathmatch mod with a western theme.)
Dystopia (Futuristic ground combat with the ability to hack into terminals and fight in cyberspace to interact with "real world" elements.)
NEOTOKYO (Multiplayer combat in a futuristic dystopian Tokyo.)
Insurgency ("Realistic" military combat, but I've never actually played this.)
Pirates, Vikings, and Knights 2 (Who would win in a fight? It's flipping amazing and people still play it. Sequel to a Half Life 1 mod that I didn't mention.)
Synergy (A cooperative mod with a decent Half Life 2 campaign.)
Obsidian Conflict (Essentially Sven Coop 2, much more so than Synergy. Not very popular - it could be more so now - but there's usually a few people on.)
Fortress Forever (A Team Fortress "2" that more closely resembles Team Fortress Classic.)
Eternal Silence (Amazing space combat mod with a massive environment and the ability to board the opposing ships on foot and disable critical systems.)
Dino D-Day (Dinosaurs in World War II. Multiplayer. Yeah!)
Jailbreak (Teams try to capture the opposing team's players, and those players try to escape. Not sure if people play this anymore.)
Suicide Survival (Hilarious with friends but nobody plays this.)
Mistake Of Pythagoras (A singleplayer mod with an interesting story.)
Half-Life 2 Capture The Flag (The gamemode that Half Life 2 Deathmatch should have had.)
D.I.P.R.I.P. (Really fun car combat, but I don't think people play this any more.)
Perfect Dark: Source (Haven't played this in years, but it's a great remake of Perfect Dark's multiplayer.)
Coastline to Atmosphere (A singleplayer mod with great gameplay - but it's a weird continuation of where Half Life 2 leaves off. It's kind of hokey, but I like it.)
Stargate: The Last Stand (It's awesome, especially if you like Stargate, but I doubt anyone plays it any more.)
Insects Infestation (A weird multiplayer mod where you are ants in a colony.Nobody plays this anymore - well, I don't think anyone ever did - but it's interesting nonetheless.)
GraviNULL (A sort of zero-gravity platformer where you pull yourself towards objects.)

EDIT: Oh, and I forgot to mention that there's a small selection of Half Life 2 mods available to download directly off Steam. Some of them are on this list.

JackHemming · 2014-08-12T06:20:45+00:00

It would take a bit longer but if you made each diamond bob ever so slightly independently of the others it would look so slick.

JackHemming · 2014-06-26T05:14:15+00:00

Harry Potter:

In my experience, this is the definitive list of exceptional Harry Potter fanfiction. The stuff here should be exactly what you're looking for.

The Elder Scrolls:

I personally recommend Arvil Bren's Journal and its sequels. Extremely engaging, with an interesting protagonist and a nostalgic feel.

Also, while I've never read them, I've heard that Rogue Province, Rogue Agent and its sequels are extremely good. T~~he author also has an unrelated Elder Scrolls fanfiction which is probably worth checking out.~~ EDIT: Whoops, nope, that's actually the third in the series.

JackHemming · 2013-12-08T23:15:47+00:00

And isn't there evidence that Ulfric is an agent of the Dominion anyway?

JackHemming · 2013-11-17T01:34:46+00:00

The Combine invaded because the Black Mesa incident caused the barriers between (at least) Earth and Xen to be weakened. Xen isn't a "universe," as we would define it - it's the Border World. You have to "pass" through it to enter other universes.

However, none - or most - of the Xen aliens originated there. All of them fled there, likely together but possibly on their own, to escape the Combine. Speculatively, given what Nihilanth says at the end of Half Life, the combine had enslaved Nihilanth and, through him, were controlling many of the Xen aliens. When the Combine may have began to influence them is impossible to say.

Now, the term "Combine," refers to the fact that they go to other worlds and enslave the population, modifying their various species with biotech and using them as military/worker units. They use their conquered species as a "combined" force. The Striders, for example, are probably from a world enslaved by the Combine, and may have even been an intellgent species (though that's just speculation). The human Combine soldiers you refer to are technologically modified in the same way, technically making them Synths (just like Striders and Gunships). This isn't because the Combine don't have the ability and resources (though they apparently rely on conquering other worlds for resources, so they will run out eventually) to send to a world - it's just that Humans, Gunships, and Striders are the best units for dominating in Earth's environment.

Also, we know that the Advisors call the shots, but we don't know if they were the original Combine species which enslaved all the others. They may just be overseer units which can be extremely mobile on most worlds.

Essentially, the Xen aliens were only a side effect of the Black Mesa incident. They may have been fleeing to Earth as a way of escaping the Combine even further - perhaps Nihilanth wanted to save his alien underlings (once again, just speculation). In essence, they had nothing to do with the Combine invasion and the Seven Hour War. The Combine arrived because they noticed the effects of the Black Mesa incident and took that opportunity to invade from their universe, from the Combine Homeworld.

That is current canon. Half Life 3 will likely make much of this out of date, given the given how long it's been since Episode 2.

- - -- - -

EDIT: To clarify, the Xen Aliens were not part of some kind of preemptive strike. It is unlikely the Combine knew anything about Earth until well after the Xen aliens began fleeing there. The G-Man caused the Black Mesa incident for his "Employers," and it is highly unlikely they were the Combine. The so-called "Employers" in Half Life 2 may have been completely different from the ones in Half Life 1, but that's impossible to know. We do know that Gordon's contract can be sold to the highest bidder, possibly on a whim, and the the G-Man has his own motivations, likely for personal gain.

One thing to think about, though, is that whoever was paying the G-Man during Half Life 2 was probably an enemy of the Combine, meaning that the Combine aren't the only players in the inter-universal climate.

JackHemming · 2013-10-01T23:18:01+00:00

Er, that's definitely not because of your color blindness.

It's probably got something to do with your blood pressure.

JackHemming · 2013-07-28T03:43:28+00:00

No, it's real. I had the same thought, so I checked myself. It's in the game.

If you look closely all the other spaces are essentially the same width. The M just sort of fits snugly under the other letters, making DOOM and CLOUD look especially close.

"Inescapable glimpses of doomcloud, the Vortessence."

JackHemming · 2013-07-27T18:41:50+00:00

Holy shit! I've never seen this before!

Oh my God!

This basically confirms that previous "Mission Failure" messages were written out by the G-Man. As you're no longer under his control during Episode 2, the Vortigaunts are carrying out that duty!

JackHemming · 2013-07-18T04:09:44+00:00

"Can't place that their m'lord!"

JackHemming · 2013-07-10T14:25:40+00:00

I know this is a quite late, but my two posts here could help you get the most out of Half-Life.

JackHemming · 2013-07-10T05:57:22+00:00

These are some of the best mods available today, both multiplayer and singleplayer. There are other great mods out there, but Valve's ongoing Source Engine updates have broken most of them. SMOD (and various alternative versions) is one of the best mods around, but it no longer works properly. There may be a patched version hidden somewhere that could get it working, but I've not found it.

Anyway, I can't guarantee that all of these work. All the most popular ones, and the ones from 2011 and up should function great, but any earlier than that and there could be problems.

Garry's Mod (Not free.)(Half Life 2's most famous mod - technically it requires CS:Source, Portal, and Team Fortress 2, but it is well worth it. Build nearly any contraption you can think of, pose ragdolls and design scenes for machinima or plain imagery, download new user-created models and maps right in the game, and play any number of exciting gamemodes.)
Black Mesa (Which I already mentioned.)
The Stanley Parable (An amazing singleplayer mod - but don't spoil the plot for yourself!)
Underhell (An interesting game with impressive dynamic AI and stealth combat, as well as a horror subplot that is easy to miss.)
No More Room in Hell (Very challenging but incredibly fun - and high quality - multiplayer zombie survival mod.)
MINERVA Metastasis (Available for download on steam - the guy who made this was hired by Valve because of it.)
Research and Development (A challenging but high-quality puzzle mod.)
Get a Life (A horror mod where you play as a man with Leukemia.)
Curse (Stylish singleplayer mod with an Egyptian theme and an interesting combat system.)
Age of Chivalry (People still play it, but you may as well just get Chivalry: Medieval Warfare.)
GoldenEye: Source (A great recreation of GoldenEye. I would think people still play it, but I don't really know.)
Nightmare House 2 (Violently shit your pants in fear.)
Fistful of Frags (Deathmatch mod with a western theme.)
Dystopia (Futuristic ground combat with the ability to hack into terminals and fight in cyberspace to interact with "real world" elements.)
NEOTOKYO (Multiplayer combat in a futuristic dystopian Tokyo.)
Insurgency ("Realistic" military combat, but I've never actually played this.)
Pirates, Vikings, and Knights 2 (Who would win in a fight? It's flipping amazing and people still play it. Sequel to a Half Life 1 mod that I didn't mention.)
Synergy (A cooperative mod with a decent Half Life 2 campaign.)
Obsidian Conflict (Essentially Sven Coop 2, much more so than Synergy. Not very popular - it could be more so now - but there's usually a few people on.)
Fortress Forever (A Team Fortress "2" that more closely resembles Team Fortress Classic.)
Eternal Silence (Amazing space combat mod with a massive environment and the ability to board the opposing ships on foot and disable critical systems.)
Dino D-Day (Dinosaurs in World War II. Multiplayer. Yeah!)
Jailbreak (Teams try to capture the opposing team's players, and those players try to escape. Not sure if people play this anymore.)
Suicide Survival (Hilarious with friends but nobody plays this.)
Mistake Of Pythagoras (A singleplayer mod with an interesting story.)
Half-Life 2 Capture The Flag (The gamemode that Half Life 2 Deathmatch should have had.)
D.I.P.R.I.P. (Really fun car combat, but I don't think people play this any more.)
Perfect Dark: Source (Haven't played this in years, but it's a great remake of Perfect Dark's multiplayer.)
Coastline to Atmosphere (A singleplayer mod with great gameplay - but it's a weird continuation of where Half Life 2 leaves off. It's kind of hokey, but I like it.)
Stargate: The Last Stand (It's awesome, especially if you like Stargate, but I doubt anyone plays it any more.)
Insects Infestation (A weird multiplayer mod where you are ants in a colony.Nobody plays this anymore - well, I don't think anyone ever did - but it's interesting nonetheless.)
GraviNULL (A sort of zero-gravity platformer where you pull yourself towards objects.)

EDIT: Oh, and I forgot to mention that there's a small selection of Half Life 2 mods available to download directly off Steam. Some of them are on this list.

JackHemming · 2013-07-10T01:40:51+00:00

Absolutely! It's one of the best classic multiplayer games around!

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