Coverage from Montreal

Insanely Twisted shadow Planet has caught the eyes of La Presse, Canada's largest francophone newspaper. They did a video interview with me a few days ago, and today, they published a cool little article in both the printed and on-line version of the newspaper. Here's a link to the article.

My apologies to my partner, Joe Olson, who gets referred to as Joe Wilson in the article.

Prelude to Eden

We're going to have some big news about the game very soon. We're all working around the clock as our completion deadline approaches. We're asking everyone for a bit more patience. I guarantee you will all agree that it was worth it when you see the finished game. In the meantime I thought I'd post my 1995 short film, Prelude to Eden, which I just uploaded on YouTube in full HD 1080P.

Videogames as Art

I recently became aware that the famous movie critic Roger Ebert wrote,"videogames can never be art". I find it puzzling that he could make such a statement, since what attracts me to videogames, as an artist, is the unlimited potential for art. The cinematics are one of the many aspects that get my creative juice flowing.


While building the cinematics, I've been forced to constantly use my imagination to solve creative and technical problems while remaining on target for our milestones. It has been challenging and exhilarating at the same time. One of the thing that Joe and I agreed upon right off the bat was to keep them short and sweet - focus on quality rather than quantity. I'll take two great minutes of animation over twenty minutes of average any time. We want the cinematics to feel like rewards, not something you want to fast-forward through.

The next challenge will be to make the transition between cinematics and game play completely seemless. I look forward to that!

Dimmu Borgir

We're very happy to officially announce that the music of Dimmu Borgir, courtesy of Nuclear Blast and Prophesies Publishings, will be featured in our game's cinematics. The music is beautiful and epic and really adds power to the images.

A bunch of us from the studio went to see them in Seattle the last time they were in town and we loved the show. We’re delighted to have them be a part of our project.

My New Short Film, Sensology

We're going to be posting some updates on the game soon. In the meantime, I thought I'd share my recently finished short film, Sensology. Enjoy.

Let's Paint An ITSP Stencil

Our trailer for ITSP inspired Ian Fagan, an artist from Portland, to create a stencil painting of one of the creatures featured in the game. He posted a video on YouTube demonstrating his technique. Check it out.

30 fps vs 24 fps

When I started doing animation work on ITSP, Joe told me that 30 frames (or more) per second was standard for video games. I've always animated at 24 frames per second, that being the standard for the movie industry. Since a lot of the animation I do is hand drawn, increasing the frame rate by 20% meant a lot more hours to produce the same lenght of animation.


And so, Joe and I decided that I would animate at 24 fps and the game engine would adjust its playback speed when displaying my animation.

But then, I saw how smooth and silky my animation looked when we mistakenly displayed it at 30 fps. I was immediately hooked. I love how animation looks at this increased rate, especially when it's hand drawn!

So no worry, all the animation in the game will be at a minimum of 30 fps. No cheat!

Fixed Fragmented Fluid

Just thought I'd let everyone know about my upcoming animated project which will premiere in Vancouver on June 25th, 2010. I've wanted to do a project such as this for many years, ever since I discovered the abstract work of Oscar Fischinger, Norman Mclaren, Kandinsky and Yves Tanguy. I got started in 2006, and now, four years later, I'm finally going to be able to share this work with an audience.

Using cutting edge technology, I will be performing the animation with the musicians, creating a dialogue between music and images that should be quite exciting. I would like to point out that the seven musicians involved in the project are all fantastic and are worth the price of admission all by themselves. So if you're in Vancouver on June 25th, you might want to check it out! Tickets can be purchased here.

You can read about how the project came about here.

New Website Layout

I've reconstructed the layout for the official site.


At the bottom of the webpage, I embeded a 1080P new rendering of the interstitials that inspired the game. The shorts were never showed in HD before. I still had the source files and was able to make a new version. Check it out.

Michel Gagne and Fuelcell Games Bring Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet to Xbox LIVE

Seattle, WA, March 2010 – Michel Gagne and Fuelcell Games are pleased to bring their independent video game, Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet, to Xbox Live® Arcade.

Michel Gagne and Joe Olson, CEO of Fuelcell Games, met in 2007 in Seattle’s Fremont district where they discussed the possibility of bringing feature quality 2d animation to the gaming world in a classic side-scrolling adventure. Shortly after, a production team was assembled and Fuelcell Games was born. Their mission: bring the vision of Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet to life.

“This is one of the most thrilling projects of my career”, said Gagne. “I love working on ITSP with Joe and his team. It amazes me to see how they’re able to expand on my concepts and animations and create such a memorable interactive experience. Simply put, this game is going to rock!”

The Fuelcell team has been busy building a studio infrastructure and quietly working with Gagne on ITSP while exploring partnerships to develop the game. After months of negotiation with several entities, it was decided that Microsoft and Xbox LIVE Arcade was the best possible home for the project.

“The team here at Fuelcell is incredibly excited to be starting production in full force on Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet”, said Olson. “We’ve assembled an extremely talented, dedicated, and passionate group of people around this unique project. The combined forces of our team of game industry veterans, Michel’s unique artistic style and vision, and Microsoft’s expertise in the downloadable game space is sure to make for a lasting impression on 2D gaming.”

“Microsoft is thrilled to have Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet heading to Xbox LIVE Arcade”, said Saxs Persson, Senior Director of Xbox LIVE Arcade. “We look forward to helping Michel and Fuelcell realize their creative vision, and continuing to support independent developers looking to drive innovation on our service.”

For more information on Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet visit www.insanelytwistedshadowplanet.com or the official blog at http://michelgagne.blogspot.com.

Catsuka

Catsuka is the first French television program entirely devoted to animation. Each episode features news, clips, short films, studio spotlights and artist profiles. I was honored to be the featured artist on the just released episode five (segment starts at 5:00). The episodes are in French but each one is filled with enough eye candy to keep your interest even if you can't understand the language.

Spawn

I did this interpretation of Todd McFarlane's famous character for my pal Royce Viso about 10 years ago. I'm glad I took a scan before giving it to him.


By the way, I know there are a lot of people waiting to hear what's happening with the game. I can't say much at this point except that we have a verbal agreement with a publisher and we expect to make a big announcement very soon.

ITSP Gets Mexican Exposure

Here's a piece of coverage from south of the border. You can read the article from issue #46 of Gamers Magazine (if you know Spanish) in PDF form by clicking here.

Shadow Tidbits: Outlaw Social Zombies

Last November, I posted about a shadow puppet show I designed for the Victoria Philharmonic Choir in 2007, called The Spectre's Bride. The opening act for the show was a band called Outlaw Social. I was commissioned to do a zombie shadow puppet rendition of the band members for the event's press material.


...and here is the picture I had to work from:

ITSP Gets Russian Exposure

Last summer, we were contacted by the editor of a Russian gaming magazine called Igromania. They wanted to do a feature on our game and sent us a bunch of questions. We went back and forth with emails and phone calls and later, we were sent a PDF of the two-page spread layout. Looks like the issue came out last September. We'd love to get a physical copy of it if anyone has a spare.

Shadow Tidbits: Brett's Tattoo

Last June, my good friend Brett called from Iowa to tell me that he was going to get a tattoo of two of my designs that he had cobbled together.

When he sent me an image of what he had done, I almost got sick. I never do tattoos for people (please don't ask) but what he was going to have permanently tattooed on his body was so hideous that I had no choice but to agree to quickly come up with a better design. I fired up my Cintiq tablet and fifteen minutes later, I email him this design which he immediately got tattooed on his lower back.

Shadow Tidbits: ZED #8

As I mentionned in my last post, we're in serious negotiations to get the game signed. This means that until the signatures are inked on the contract, we have to stay quiet about ITSP. Fuelcell have been making lots of progress on the technology side of things and I personally can't wait to get back in the saddle in March 2010, when we are scheduled to resume full production. In the meantime, I'm going to be doing a series of post called "Shadow Tidbits", which will display some of my artwork past and present, that features shadow silhouette imagery. This is kind of a follow-up to "My History with Shadow Puppets" posts I've been doing these past weeks.

First up, is the cover of ZED #8, which came out in March 2007. ZED is a comic series I started in 2001, and I've been doing one issue a year ever since. I'm planning on releasing the final issue, ZED #10, in September 2010, exactly 10 years after the release of issue #1.

ZED is the story of a cute and adorable alien scientist who discovers a clean and efficient way to produce energy. When he demonstrates his invention , he inadvertently triggers a deadly chain of events - a monumental disaster that claims the life of his parents, the hierarchy of the galaxy, and 60 billion beings. Suddenly, his dreams of offering his society free energy become a nightmare as little ZED must come to terms with the knowledge that he caused the death of his parents and the annihilation of an entire planet; and now he's a pariah, hated by virtually everyone. As the story progresses, we realize that things may not be as they seemed at first.

Among the comics' recurring cast, is the Heavy Metal shadow band called Krah which is features here, on the cover of ZED #8.

More on ZED at www.zedcomics.com.

Update

We're in negotiations and are hoping to sign a deal soon. Our goal is to find the best home for ITSP and resume full production in March. In the meantime, I'm working on Fixed Fluid Fragmented, Flight 7, as well as a project with Electronic Arts, which I can't talk about at this point. To keep the blog going until we make an official announcement, I'll be posting artworks from my past and present done in a shadow puppet style.

Joe is also doing an interview and we'll post that as soon as it goes live.

My History with Shadow Puppets Part 7

In June 2007, I was contacted by Simon Capet, artistic director of the Victoria Philharmonic Choir. He asked me if I'd be interested in production designing a live shadow puppet theatrical presentation of Dvorak's epic masterpiece, "The Spectre's Bride". It didn't take long for me to agree to the proposal.


The two shows took place at the University of Victoria’s Farquhar theater in British Columbia, Canada on October 30 and 31, 2009. The sold out performances featured a 65-piece orchestra and 80-voice choir, along with soloists Ken Lavigne, tenor, Anne Grimm, soprano, and Bruce Kelly, baritone. It premiered a new English libretto by Mollie Kaye. Puppeteer Tim Gosley assisted by members of the Puppetry Guild of Victoria handled the choreography of the shadow puppets presentation.


My tasks included designing all the sets, characters and props. You can see some more sample of this work here.

New Studio Space

It's actually been a few months since Fuelcell moved into it's new studio space, but it's been such a busy few months I haven't had a chance to post some photos, until now. It features a covered entry with a better view, our walls are a bit thicker, and there's much more usable space than the last studio.


So much space in fact that we used a bit of it to house the classic 1988 Williams pinball: The Cyclone, one of my favorite tables when I was a teenager. Chris Eng, our junior programmer, currently holds the high score at 9,952,390.