Samurai | The Download Munkey

Art Friday : Code Guardian aka What Happened on 03 June 1943

September 13th, 2007

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On 3rd June 1943, an unidentified object was spotted crossing the Atlantic Ocean by a lone American seaplane (a Vought OS2U Kingfisher to be exact).

Unfortunately, no further reports were received from that seaplane and it was presumed destroyed.

Not long after, the alarm was sounded at Jersey Harbor as a grey giant rampaged thorough the naval base and destroyed all in its path.

Due to the secrecy of the weapons used, this incident was neither reported nor written about by military historians throughout the world until this video was recovered recently.

The 13 min video is actually a fully computer-generated film titled Code Guardian written, produced and directed by Marco Spitoni of www.cee-gee.net. What’s a Code Guardian exactly? You have to watch the film to find out

Additional 3D models and digital content in the film were supplied by Alessandro Baldasseroni (remember the Hellgate London’s Hunter illustration?), Giovanni Bianchin, Iacopo Di Luigi and Alessandro Briglia.

The paint scheme on this beautiful Mustang E2-S appears to be fictional because squadron code E2 belongs to the 361th FG which had blue markings on the tail (see here)

The quality of the models, textures and animation is top-notch and Marco’s skills have definitely improved a lot when compared to his earlier works. The explosions in the video appear quite pixelated probably due to the video encoder but doesn’t really detract from the overall experience.

Download Code Guardian (under Movies - 161 MB) or read about the creation of the Aviator’s Wife photo (below) or the spectacular floating drydock used in the video at Alessandro Baldasseroni’s website here.

Read about Cee-Gee via Alessandro Baldasseroni’s site while looking for the original artist for the Hunter illustration. It’s amazing that there’s so much quality artwork and 3D stuff out there on the .NET that deserves much more publicity outside creative circles

MORE @ THE DOWNLOAD MUNKEY:
miotd.com - Mecha Artwork
Alessandro Baldasseroni - Illustrator (Hellgate London, Marvel Ultimate Alliance)
Marek Okon - Illustrator
Gundam Musou / Dynasty Warriors Gundam Intro Video

Sabertooth UFS Wallpapers Update

April 27th, 2007

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The website for the Ultimate Fighting System CCG by Sabertooth Games has been updated with new wallpapers for Street Fighter : The Dark Path (8), Soul Calibur III : Soul Arena (7), King of Fighters 2006 (7) and Samurai Shodown V (5). The update also means the links in my previous post here are broken

The highlights of the new wallpapers are again the Soul Calibur III : Soul Arena ones. The character artwork for Mitsurugi and Taki are excellent but the wallpapers would be nicer with a cleaner design and less gaudy colours.

The Samurai Shodown V wallpapers take second place. Two of my favourites, Yoshitora (six! swords) and Hanzo the ninja.

King of Fighters 2006 wallpapers are also available on the same page as the Samurai Shodown V wallpapers, mainly for the major characters like Alba, Kyo Kusanagi and Mai Shiranui.

Last but not least, we have the Street Fighter : The Dark Path wallpapers for characters like Evil Ryu and T.Hawk (haven’t seen this character for a long long time)

If you’re looking for the older wallpapers, they’re still in their respective sections - the original Soul Calibur III’s Mitsurugi wallpaper below is still my favourite - I love samurai characters!

Tags: Ninja Samurai Tabletop Games Wallpapers

Sengoku Basara Wallpapers

April 18th, 2007

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Wallpapers of 21 characters from Sengoku Basara / Devil Kings (US), another crowd fighting game like Dynasty Warriors, but set in the time of the Sengokujidai period in Japanese history which started after the end of the Onin War in 1476 to the fall of Osaka Castle to the Tokugawa clan in 1615.

The character designs are loosely based on the appearances of their historical counterparts from the Sengoku period. Date Masamune (Azure Dragon), the famous Lord of Sendai, is portrayed with his distinctive crescent helmet badge but with an eye patch (the real Date Masamune lost his right eye due to smallpox when he was young but there is no mention of him using an eye patch) and six! katanas.

Date Masamune in Sengoku Basara

Most of the other characters do not wear the traditional samurai armour of their historical equivalents in the game - take Maede Toshiie (Lark) for example, who was historically a samurai and member of Oda Nobunaga’s elite red horo bodyguard unit, but is depicted unarmoured. The ruthless Oda Nobunaga (Devil King) himself is portrayed wearing western-style armour and wielding a elaborately decorated European pistol / sawed-off shotgun.

Maeda Toshiie and Oda Nobunaga

Overall, the character designs are a pretty imaginative take on Japanese medieval warriors (see my favourite below). Download the wallpapers at Capcom (Click the 壁紙 button at the bottom left).

Update: For a comparision between the different designs for characters of the same name in Koei’s Samurai Warriors and Capcom’s Sengoku Basara /Devil Kings, check out this interesting article at KOEI Warriors.

Tags: Games Samurai Wallpapers

The Story of Hero Yoshitsune Shura Desktop Wallpaper

April 16th, 2007

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A nice Samurai-themed wallpaper from the box art of action/tactical game The Story of Hero Yoshitsune Shura for the PS2 (Japan-only). The Story of Hero Yoshitsune Shura is an extended version of The Story of Hero Yoshitsune (Wikipedia) and revolves around the historical battles of Minamotono Yoshitsune, a famous 12th century samurai general.

The wallpaper is available in 800×600 to 1280×1024 resolutions from the official site.

The game characters for this game are well modelled too - visit the Characters section on the official site to view them.

Also check out this wallpaper from the box art of the original The Story of Hero Yoshitsune game.

Tags: Games Samurai Wallpapers

Sana Takeda - RF Online Illustrator

March 29th, 2007

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Sana Takeda has done artwork for the Korean MMORPG, RF Online created by CCR Inc and published by Codemasters.

Her gallery at www.sanatakeda.or.tv showcases some of her artwork for RF Online (Gallery 2) as well as her other artwork for manga and collectable card games. One example of her work for RF Online below.

For RF Online wallpapers based on Sana Takeda’s artwork , see this previous post Korean MMORPG Wallpapers (IV) -RF Online.

Her artwork (other then those for RF Online) have very distinctive Japanese influences - the Japanese masks in Oni, Samurai references in Oni-Kiri-Maru and fox spirits in Kitsune.