If you read the title of this post and the first thought that popped into your mind suggested this is work, it is safe to assume that you either found this site by accident, or I owe you money – but you are definitely not cut from the ilk of individuals that I am.  An artist by definition is a person who will spend their last breath, last bit of mental energy attempting to reach a plateau that eludes 99% of us; becoming worthy of ourselves. Thus, I find myself here again, battling the same dragon that continues to burn down my mental villages and strikes fear in the minds of the characters developed and underdeveloped in my head – forever gravitating back to the graphite sword.
The pencil is the ultimate test, the one tool that cannot lie, it is as revealing and as powerful as the Sword of Excalibur. In the hands of the vigilant, secret doors become unlocked, mysteries unveiled, and worlds unknown become familiar and commonplace.

Now the questions must be asked, before embarking on a journey that seems so simple, yet to the unsuspecting, deceptively elusive. With the restraints of everyday life, and the imposed wills of others, is there really enough time for a drawing a day? Moreover, what actually constitutes a drawing or defines the measurement that the time was well spent? Finally, is this mere sport or folly? Alternatively, is it something more? What would one hope to gain from attempting such a feat?

Modern day man has solved the riddle of satisfying our basic primal needs that consist of food, clothing, and shelter – a job. In some form or fashion, you are faced with contributing to society in order to achieve the basic standard of modern-day living. Someone or something has imposed its will on your time in order for you to meet your basic primal needs. It is the time that comes after these commitments I am attempting to address – me time. That highly sought after time of the day, which without much effort tends to elude the majority of whom desire nothing more but to become misers of it. Yet, a large number of people squander me-time without realizing it due to the exhaustion, or lack of motivation, induced by the commitments for attaining their primal needs. To complicate matters even further, the motivated artist is faced with a dilemma right off the bat, if you are not already drawing every day, why would you want to use the time that seems to elude us all to achieve this? The answer is simple, because drawing is one of the most fulfilling activities that reminds us how much in Gods image we truly are – possessing the ability to create, by using free will and whatever our minds can conceive. I would venture that blocking aside a minimum of thirty minutes a day is enough time to pull this off. Sure, you may have to carry your sketch pad in your backpack along with your prismacolor pencils to get it done, but who would not want to do that?

However, we now find ourselves faced with coming up with a set of parameters that defines what actually constitutes a drawing. For this exercise, I am not talking about the philosophical debate on the “Allegories of Modernism.” The goal is to define a set of rules that validates the effort, and allows us to look honestly in the mirror, and know that you actually drew “something” worthwhile. Seriously, could I just sit down and flesh out a circle, or maybe some simple stick figures, and attempt to say I satisfied my drawing requirement? Of course I can, am I mentally insane? No. The task at hand seems to be what to draw, not necessarily the level of detail. One could possibly address any weaknesses, or continue to develop a strength. Another possibility would be to venture into going all the way outside your comfort zone – discovering something new about yourself as an artist. Whatever is decided should be kept manageable, and completed in the daily allotted time. Alternatively, the drawing should at least stand on its own, revealing that some level of effort was attempted. Of course, only the artist can be the judge of time, effort, and the qualifier of the drawings overall effectiveness.

Admittedly, the only question that truly matters is why would anyone attempt to draw a picture every day for a year? Seriously, I could have sworn back when I six years old, I pulled this off with ease. All jokes aside, you really have to consider going into this what it is you expect to gain. The answers I am sure, even if 100 artists were polled, would not be automatically universal, as each reason for the pursuit is/should be a personal one. In my case, I am looking to improve mainly in two areas, character development, and perspective drawings. Oddly enough, I have always been in pursuit of these goals ever since I began to take my self serious as an artist. On a deeper level, the desire to see whom one “might” become, what new characteristic develops, or better yet, see what current set of characteristics become stronger is what is at stake here. Obviously, success would seem to weigh heavily upon what one expected to get out of this exercise from the beginning. Whatever goal, or goals chosen, this will be the mental-fuel needed to push you forward, especially on those days when you decided to fluff it off.

Consequently, one has to entertain the idea that there is always enough time in the day to pull something off like this. Sometimes, it is as simple as giving up one thing for another, validating a priority and eliminating what is not. If the choice is to venture forward, keep in mind that this exercise is strictly for the development and the benefit of the individual. Regardless of what someone else may think of the drawings, you alone understand its purpose, the reason for the drawing, and how this process is the next step towards your evolution as an artist. I am reminded of an interesting quote from Chuck Jones as he recalls a lesson from his art instructor, “…it was no discouraging surprise to me that my first instructor at Chouinard Art Institute, like Nicolaides at the Art Students League, greeted his beginning classes with the following grim edict: ‘All of you here have one hundred thousand bad drawings in you. The sooner you get rid of them, the better it will be for everyone.’ This was not a discouraging statement to me, because I was already well into my third hundred thousand.” (Jones, 1999)

Ok, so maybe a drawing a day for a year is nothing more than a drop in the bucket, but it is definitely a start in the right direction. Whatever the case may be, whatever your situation, and if you actually read this far, you know what to do – start drawing.

References:
Jones, C. (1999). Chuck Amuck. In M. G. Chuck Jones, The Life and Times of an Animated Cartoonist (p. 51). Farrar, Straus and Giroux .

Artists appear in order of images used – all copyrights reserved
Andie Tong
Mitsui
Espinojr
Joe Quesada

Without a doubt, I have enough sketch pads littered about, and if by some Disney magic they could talk, my love affair with this art style would be vetted easily.  Trust me, I could put on display, a parade of countless sketches that have resulted in hybrids and half-drawn characters in this style, of whom suffered neglect over soggy Captain Crunch cereal and broken pencil leads.  However, artwork alone is not enough to make me want to play a game; game play and the perceived fun factor has a lot to do with it as well. Enough about me already, onward with my review of the Shank demo.

I would most likely be considered what people refer to as an “old-school” gamer. ( I know, I am still talking about me.)  My chops were honed on games like Contra-Hard corps, Double Dragon and Streets of Rage.  As artifacts go, you might likely find a footprint of mine in the form of a Converse All-Stars sole pattern, somewhere in an abandoned and dusty defunct arcade – evidence enough that I participated in ushering in the coin-op era, but then that would be giving away too much.  Nevertheless, Shanks brings back at least for me, some nostalgia as far as pure beat-em ups and hack and slash games of the 80′s go.  The game is amazingly fluid, the physics are just right and the action is turned up just enough for you to enjoy what is actually taking place on-screen.  Some games are just a mosh pit of sprites, explosions and whatever else that causes most gamers to button mash, as if  the game controller is screaming unholy profanities while you’re hopelessly trying to silence it.  Subsequently, there is never truly an idea of how or why you survived the melee that ensued.  Usually, all that remains is the evidence of the thousands of pieces of debris left over from the things that were trying to kill you, and then it repeats.  Thankfully, Shank is nowhere near this.

From the onset, the combat moves for Shank seemed fairly simple, slash with your shanks, hack and tear with a chainsaw, and blow away anyone coming in front or behind, with your dual pistolas of course.  As the demo progressed, the game was already proving to be more than just your average run, jump, and shoot.

To illustrate, the game starts off with the an animated back story of our hero Shank, who watches helplessly as his beloved girlfriend is carried off in the arms of a ridiculous sized wrestler named “The Butcher.”  One of the more aesthetically pleasing aspects about the graphics, is that the back story and the game seem to transition in and out between each other almost seamlessly.  In other words, if it weren’t for the on-screen indicators, you would not know if you were in a cut-scene or the game, unless you tried to move.  Likewise, the graphics which appear to be Hi-Res vector art, presents the game as a AAA Flash title on steroids.  I hope that by using the phrase “Flash game,” I don’t minimize the brilliance that is being pulled off here.  The animation sequences alone are some of the best work I have seen in this style of game.  For instance, I was gaped in amazement when I noticed the main character on one knee, knife deep in the chest of a baddie, while looking backwards and firing off rounds towards incoming attackers.  Definitely bad ass.  The aforementioned animated sequence was just one of the craziest and hyper fluid animations that the main characters goes into, resulting in baddies being sent to their digital after-lives.

At this point, I am aware I have not touched on the controls.  Truthfully, it’s fairly straightforward, and you find yourself reacting subconsciously, not really thinking about what you “should” be doing at any one given instance – well, maybe when you need to jump.  For the most part, the controls for the game are smooth and they just work, point blank.

The beauty of the system is the animated sequences that occur from what seems likely countless button combinations. It’s the animation sequences that draw you deeper into the game, the hero “Shank” seems alive and ready to do your bidding with the push of a button.  Pure button smashers will enjoy the reward of the built-in combo system and the on-screen acknowledgement of successful combos during a melee of death and destruction.  Early on into the game, you will quickly find out what combination of buttons allow for certain moves, along with which combos are more efficient against the larger, more harder to dispatch of bad guys. Granted, a majority of the baddies don’t drop from the first hit, slice or blast from a bullet, but that alone adds to the insanely paced action that is closing in from both sides of the screen.

Without a doubt, this was another fun and enjoyable game to play, which more than catered to my old school coin-op lineage.  The Demo ends with you entering into a caged death match against a larger than life size character, “The Butcher.”  Remember that he is the initial antagonist who kidnapped and from what I can tell, killed Shank’s girl. Consequently, after more onscreen violence, bloodshed, awesomeness and a plethora of mind-blowing combos, the demo is over if you managed to kill The Butcher.

After experiencing the game for what it is, I cant help but wonder what lies ahead.  Based on the screen shots from the levels in the unlocked version of the game, it appears that I have not even scratched the surface on how fun this game may truly be.

I’d have to rank this up there with those games that you play when all you want to do is just jump in, kill some stuff and get out. There are definitely hours of fun to be had, more weapons to discover and even crazier, larger than life characters to face down and destroy.

If you are comic book enthusiast or enjoy the occasional graphic novel, I’d recommend the game on that perception of it alone.  In short, Shank appears to offer gamers a visceral thrill ride with the back drop of a graphical novel that comes to life, sort of like an animated cross between Kill Bill and Desperado.  Chalk this one up as another title that I will more than likely end up buying, not hard on the wallet either…only $14.99 and available on Steam.

……………………………..

References:

Shank: http://shankgame.com/

Contra Hard Corps: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Contra:_Hard_Corps

Double Dragon: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Double_Dragon

Streets of Rage: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Streets_of_rage

Samurai Jack: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samurai_Jack

JLA: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Justice_League_(TV_series)
Batman Beyond: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Batman_Beyond
Kill Bill: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kill_Bill_Volume_1

Deperado: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desperado_(film)

Steam: http://store.steampowered.com/

After a few hours, I began to grow tired of catching up with friends via social media and perusing my favorite technology bookmarks.  Admittedly, I’m super tired by now as the past events of the day and homework have done me in, the cool air from the A/C is making me want to shut everything down and crash for the night.  However, I have commitments to keep, goals to attain and a self-imposed mountain of documentation to wade through…it is obvious that I am stalling.

Anyway, I begin to realize that the initial tutorials in the DirectX samples were at best grossly beginner level.  Seriously, very beginner and it was this realization that started to make me even sleepier.

Usually, when I start to cover material or attempt to review documentation I know well enough, my eyes will instantly start to glaze over the information, my brain begins to sound the alarm and fights the idea of attempting to retain any of it.  For example, the creation of a Win32 window was tutorial #0…OMG, where is the hot fork with the blunt tips so I can jab my eyes out in order to stay awake?  Likewise, the next couple of tutorials were similar in comparison, but I digress and realized the need for them…I was tired.

Furthermore, I found myself getting side tracked, drifting mentally and thinking of other ways to approach my goals, the highlighter markers strewn about my desk were beginning to become interesting.  In other words, I was slipping into a state where I was going back to the initial planning phase for achieving the mission.  Granted, I already have a plan in place, but I continued to wrestle with why should I crawl before walking.  In the end the answer was simple, because I said I would.

At this point I’m trying to come up with a presentation format that will prove beneficial to a newbie who is venturing out for the first time with DirectX.  My goal definitely is not to write a set of DirectX tutorials, but to highlight the salient points that 1.) A newbie necessarily would not know to focus on.  and  2.) The “lazy coder” wants made available to him/her without having to actually hunt for it.  In short, identifying an audience to address will help determine the blue print necessary to present my findings.

I’m sure that this post highlights the fact I am ready to jump head first into all the cool features of the API.  With my hair on fire, I am fighting the urge to get immersed into reverse engineering the tutorials out-of-order just to suit my desires.

Consequently, I don’t want to miss the forest for trees – I have plenty of time before I graduate from DeVry, so much to learn and lots of room for personal growth.  Having said all that I have, my knee burns will reveal that I am crawling, so if you happen to see my mom, please remind her that my bottle is on the table…I cant reach it.

Of course, as with most hobby programmers, I had my stints with OpenGL and SDL, but I always seemed to gravitate back to DirectX.  I suppose a few reasons for my love affair with DirectX was mainly due to marketing of course, the occasional big update and for DirectX just having a complete kit for someone wanting to make games  i.e. audio, networking, etc, not to mention, there were tons of books at that time which covered the API.

Now after all these years I’ve come to a point where I desire to specialize,  the rigours of the hobby gaming scene has brought me to the realization that my passion is truly in graphics programming.  Sure, most of us who embark in this arena want to make games, who doesn’t? That in itself was the main reason I started way back when.  Truth be told, the games I’ve developed although small in comparison to most has helped me reach my conclusion validating my passion.  Programming each piece of the puzzle and getting enough exposure on a small-scale helped solidify what I did not want to code, professionally.  Don’t get me wrong, I’m not naïve enough to think I had come near to scratching the surface on what takes place with AAA teams but I know enough to realize programming for audio, networking, A.I., etc were not going to be my first choices.

Over the last few years, I’ve developed the majority of my tech demos and small games using DirectX 9 but had never really thought about truly exploring the depths of the API, digging deep and truly mastering its contents.  I’d more or less grab a book, print out a few articles and tutorials in order to glean the necessary information to satisfy whatever project I was working on.  It has been only recently that I have begun to understand one should be proficient in at least one area,  this may give you a fighting chance at breaking into this industry.  Personally, I prefer not to attempt to give it a go as a “generalist,”  I think I have that position down cold after a decade.

So now I find myself starting over as it were, as if I climbed into a time machine and dialed up 1998, here we go again, but this time I know what I want … plan in hand.

Venturing forward, I have a few goals in mind such as developing a robust engine/framework. An engine that will allow for me to concentrate on the development of simulations and small game demos.  The most immediate goal is of course to become a power user of the DirectX API.  Upon achieving this status, I feel that later on I will position myself with the luxury of focusing solely on industry best practices, patterns and algorithms, all while having the solid knowledge of one API under my belt.

Sure, the argument could be made that OpenGL would be the way to go as DirectX is limiting me to one platform. Honestly, I’m not too much worried about my decision at this point, it’s just an API.  At this stage it is all about focus and motivation, what I like and what I feels comfortable and familiar.

My initial research will revolve around the June 2010 DirectX SDK, version 9.29.1962 of which was published on 6/7/2010.  I plan on going through and reverse engineering each tutorial, researching further whatever points of interest the tutorial covers when applicable.  After the completion of each tutorial,  I’ll write up a technical document in the form of a postmortem, hopefully the information provided could prove useful to someone else.

Pursuing the DirectX 10 API is only the first rung in a series of several steps towards my journey into specializing in graphics programming.

DirectX Developer Center http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/directx/
DirectX SDK June Kit http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?displaylang=en&id=6812