Forever Geek

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• Brits Get Lucky with Roald Dahl Stamps
• The Video Game Character of the Future
• New ‘Spider-Man’ Trailer: Okay, NOW I’m On Board

Brits Get Lucky with Roald Dahl Stamps Posted: 08 Feb 2012 04:00 AM PST Did you go through the phase of collecting stamps as a child or teenager? Did you engage in the good old activity of writing snail mail to pen pals from all over the world? Maybe today, as an adult, you still consider yourself a philatelist. If this is the case, then you might be interested in the recently launched stamps series by the UK’s Royal Mail. The series is none other than artwork from the stories of children’s book author Roald Dahl. Who doesn’t recognize that name? After Charlie and the Chocolate Factory captured the attention of people of all ages all over the world, Roald Dahl became a household name – if he wasn’t before that. I particularly remember him for his story The Witches. I still am not sure if that is to blame for my fascination with witches, but that is one tattered book in my bookshelf. In any case, even if you are not a hardcore philatelist, the idea of getting your hands on these fun Roald Dahl stamps is a worthy one. The Roald Dahl stamps are illustrated by Quentin Blake, who has been the artist behind Dahl’s works. Dahl fans will be delighted with stamps featuring The Twits, Matilda, The Witches, Fantastic Mr Fox, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, James and the Giant Peach, and The BFG. These children’s books, I think, should be introduced to every kid. While the author certainly does not lack recognition and acclaim as a writer, these Roald Dahl stamps serve as icing on top of the cake. As his daughter Ophelia Dahl states, “My dad wrote thousands of letters home throughout his life and never dreamed that one day one of his own characters would grace a stamp.” Take a look at the Roald Dahl stamps yourself. Now who is in the UK and willing to send letters via post? Via Design Taxi

The Video Game Character of the Future Posted: 07 Feb 2012 10:00 AM PST You are not looking at a real human being. Hard as it is to believe, this video demo of a new 3D skin mapping technique is CGI being rendered in real-time. Imagine playing Call of Duty or Skyrim or Arkham City with in-game characters that look every bit as 100% real as you and me, with living, breathing skin that’s both uniform and randomized to the perfect degree — perfect enough to fool the ultra-discerning human eye. Created by a pair of researchers named Jorge Jimenez and Diego Gutierrez, it’s called “Separable Subsurface Scattering” (SSS), it was made to be used by video game developers who need realistic human skin in modern video games. The amazing thing to me is that the video and the technology behind it are not pre-rendered. It’s written in Direct X 10, and to prove it, Jimenez and Gutierrez have made their tech demo freely available to download. I know as I watch it that this character is a fabrication, but my mind refuses to accept that it’s not real, because it’s flawless. Now I’m dying to see a character using SSS skin in motion. Let’s see the skin move, stretch, and contract. If it’s just as believable in how it moves, then future video game avatars are about to ascend to a whole new level of realism.

New ‘Spider-Man’ Trailer: Okay, NOW I’m On Board Posted: 07 Feb 2012 08:32 AM PST I’ve made no secret of my disdain for Sony rebooting the Spider-Man franchise so quickly after Sam Raimi and Tobey Maguire’ trilogy came to an (unplanned) end. But after watching the new trailer for Marc Webb’s Amazing Spider-Man, I’ve finally found a reason to get excited about a new Spidey. Click through to watch the trailer and check out some high-res screengrabs of its blink-and-you’ll-miss-’em key moments. First of all, do yourself a favor and bump the trailer up to full 1080p resolution, and expanded it to full screen. Totally worth it. There’s lots of cool VFX in this trailer. There’s some terrific character moments (the one that will most warm your geeky little heart is when Spidey smack-talks a car thief). There’s some dynamic, fast-paced, brutal action scenes (seriously, Peter escaping the cops: whoa). There’s some fun dialogue (Gwen noting under her breath, “I’m in trouble,” I’m guessing comes shortly after she learns Peter’s secret, and realizes that she’s in love with him). The lighting and cinematography are appropriately dark and glistening (Webb’s New York City looks like the real thing more than Raimi’s candy-colored NYC). And there’s a noteworthy absence of any hokey FPS sequences, like we saw in the teaser trailer. These are all things that fill me with great hope. But they’re not what changed my mind about The Amazing Spider-Man. What captured my imagination is that the trailer reminded me once again why we love Spider-Man in the first place. We love him because he’s one of us. He’s a dork. A geek, who gets superpowers and finds the nobility to use them for good instead of gain. A fanboy who learns the hard way that being a superhero is a lot more complicated than the comic books make it look. A regular Joe who accepts the responsibility fate has thrust on him, despite the hardships and pains that it brings, and simply tries to do the best he can with the hand he’s been dealt. I watch this trailer… And I believe. Again. Raimi’s first Spider-Man was good. 2 was excellent. Just a brilliant, brilliant movie. But 3 was a hot mess. It had so many good things going for it, including a lot of potentially great ideas. Its problem was in getting away from the core of who Peter Parker is, by awarding him with fame and adoration, and letting him get caught up in it. Peter Parker is not Superman. He’s the underdog. People love him, but they don’t throw parades in his honor or give him the key to the city. I don’t fault Raimi for trying new things and attempting to push the character in new directions. I fault Spider-Man 3 for being a bloated, busy exercise in excess that lost sight of who its hero is. From this trailer, it’s plainly obvious that director Marc Webb and star Andrew Garfield know exactly who Peter Parker is. And I can’t wait to see their dark new take on everyone’s favorite web-slinger. Oh, and the mechanical web shooters? Flippin’ awesome.

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