Tag: execution

Movie Round-Up: July 10th, 2009

Reviews

Bruno:

Did you like Borat?  If so, you’ll probably like Bruno.  Personally, I can’t stand Sacha Baron Cohen.  To me, he’s one of those people who has really funny ideas, but then his execution of them is too long, to the point of become uncomfortable and losing its appeal.  Perhaps that is his intent.  In an event, I won’t be going to see it.  I can only hope that this movie doesn’t produce as many quotes as Borat.

I Love You, Beth Cooper:

Beth Cooper is the head cheerleader.  Denis Cooverman is the invisible nerd who has alphabetically sat behind her in many classes for many years.  And he decides that since he spent all his life not talking to Beth Cooper, that his valedictorian speech at graduation is his last chance to do it.  He also uses the speech as a platform to air a number of other unsaid grievances from his high school days, and the rest of the movie follows the consequences.  Beth and her two best friends show up at Denis’s party (which is just Denis and his best friend Rich), Beth’s military school high strung boy friend shows up, and Beth and Denis and their friends run off together.  Really, there are no surprises here.  Denis is the sort of guy for whom high school sucked and the end of it is the beginning of his life, and Beth is the sort of girl for whom high school rocked and the end of it is leaving her with nothing.  Throughout the night, Beth becomes real for Denis and he has to ease up on the dream image he has built up over the years, and Beth comes to see herself through his eyes and that maybe life after high school won’t be so bad anyway.  The movie is full of crazy happenings and funny moments, and I enjoyed myself all the way through.  Perhaps I Love You, Beth Cooper isn’t worth a full price ticket, but its definitely worth a matinee.

From Idea to Execution…

Random Thoughts

A couple of patches ago, Verant introduced for EverQuest a customizable User Interface. This new UI uses XML and a SIDL engine to basically allow someone to do anything they want with it.

Of course, the first people to slam out new designs were those people who play the game way too much. Every mod was aimed at less lag, more visible space. Slim, compact, no frills interfaces.

Jodi says to me, “I want to have a body to put my stuff on.” Or something close to that. My first reaction was to think it would be too big, bulky and cumbersome. It would take way too much space to put in a drawing of a person and to put all the items for the inventory on it.

After letting it sit in my head for a day, I started to try to come up with a layout for inventory boxes in the shape of a person, but without the actual person. The problem of course is that in the game you have boots, leggings, and a belt, then about 15 items from the waist up. Too much to get it to lay out well while keeping it compact.

Then, while sitting at work fighting sleep between calls on a sunday afternoon, my brain was electrified with inspiration.

The Vitruvian Man.

From there, my mind raced, placing parts from the Inventory all over and around the image. I made three or four mock-ups, then I headed home for the day.

Once home, I started fiddling with numbers. I sized the image that I wanted for the background, then began pixel placing the inventory.

A few hours of work placing pieces and fiddling with the contrast and gamma correction on the image, and I was finished.

So here are some screen shots of the final product in 2 resolutions: 1024×768 and 1280×1024. And if you read this page and want to download the mod itself, its here.

Enjoy.