Interesting Interview With "Nintendo: ON" Creator

[Clashman]

http://www.1up.com/do/feature?pager.offset=2&cId=3141783

I just got a link to this in my email. Pretty good read. Among the more interesting points raised, IMO:

Unbelievably, he created the Nintendo On video from scratch, by himself, in a matter of days. The project culminated in a marathon five-day work session that ultimately left Belmonte sick in bed from the extensive mental and physical exhaustion.

Solo artist and video editor Pablo Belmonte created the Nintendo On movie in roughly five days, even after having lost all but small pieces of his epic work in a hard drive crash.

In less than a week, using one computer as a rendering tool and the other to modeling station, Belmonte crafted an incredible Internet hoax without the assistance of the speculated dozens of additional modelers and animators.


Sunday, May 8
After waking up, Belmonte creates a model for Mario's face and develops the Nintendo On system, while simultaneously preparing these scenes for rendering on a friend's computer. To prepare for the next day of work, he sleeps for two hours.



Monday, May 9
By a stroke of luck, Belmonte recovers the famous millions of castles scene from the original video thanks to the help of a friend. Besides creating the castle screen counter, work on the opening scene was started before inevitably crashing into bed for a grand total of two hours - again.

Tuesday, May 10
Besides finishing the rendering and editing process for the complicated introduction sequence, the castle and initial Nintendo On scenes are completed. Additionally, the square filters are made, as well as a cartoon-styled tutorial character with applied bones movement. Seeing as how two hours of sleep is far too much, Belmote sets his alarm for a single hour of rest.

Wednesday, May 11
Nearing the final stretch, Belmote prepares the tutorial character scenes and retouches an ancient Metroid background used in a previous piece of work. Unfortunately, the complete lack of sleep had caught up to him at this point, forcing him into bed all day to recover. Not only did he pass out for the rest of the day, but through the night, too. Time was running out, though, and the video needed to be finished up.



Thursday, May 12
This was it, the end of the road. After preparing the finished Metroid video, retouching an old Samus model, he added textures and applied a new bones system. Animations and other small details were also prepared for the other Metroid sequences. Next, the Mario model was done with the bone system and new castle background, complete with finished Mario animation and scenes. Finally, the scenes were stitched together with clever editing based on music he'd been listening to in the days before. Unsurprisingly, he didn't sleep.

Friday, May 13
The video is initially released on a number of Spanish-speaking websites and message boards before flooding onto the rest of the Internet, sparking a number of debates over the Revolution and the video's authenticity. Nintendo responds with nodding approval, even if the video's employs a different vision for their own Revolution.

The Nintendo On presentation ends just as its getting started, but that's intentional; Belmonte didn't have enough time to finish the video to the scope of his original vision. In actuality, the current video represents roughly 10% of Belmonte's ideas, and while a 30 minute version once existed, it was lost in a hard drive crash, taking hundreds of gigabytes of data with it. All Belmonte was able to recover was the Mario castle sequence from a friend's computer.

The Nintendo On clip is really dramatic because the original idea had nothing to do with what you have all finally seen," he said. The original idea for Nintendo On came to him about six month ago, and encompassed four months dedicated of work before nearing completion. After the crash, it would have been easy to chalk the frustration up to bad luck, but rather than give up and move on, Belmonte mentally calculated the week before E3 provided enough time to produce something worthwhile, even if it wasn't wholly reflective of his original vision. Had the events gone according to plan, however, the Ninendo On presentation would have been far more encompassing than its current representation.

With all of the attention heaped upon this aspiring designer, however, it's not surprising he's using the spotlight to make a number of statements about his personal beliefs regarding Nintendo and corporate mentality at large. Belmonte claims to be tired of companies feigning to take risks, expressing disappointment in Nintendo's recent offerings in the hardware and software markets. "I am completely against companies selling their souls to commercial interests, and perhaps, this point is the most difficult to achieve," he says, "telling a multinational company that there are more important things than money is like telling the Pope [that] God doesn't exist.

I've already picked out quite a bit of it. Better to let you all read the whole thing. They also have some other concept videos he's done including a Zelda video, F Zero video, and Super Mario Universe video. I'm in the process of downloading them now. All I have to say is that someone needs to give that man a job.

 

[McFly]

Re: Interesting Interview With "Nintendo: ON" Crea

All I have to say is that someone needs to give that man a job.

Or a girlfriend.

Fredi

 

[Vaan]

So the world finally met Pablo? This guy is a fake-making-legend