the team fortress 2 aesthetic

Reading Spy Vibe, it occurs to me that the art direction of Team Fortress 2 owes a huge debt to the mod aesthetic of the 60′s, as presented in technicolor in spy movies.  Also, maybe, a perverse sort of homage to the Hudson River School.  And maybe also Krazy Kat.

There’s a great deal of natural beauty presented in the game, and its garish, cartoony style only serves to highlight the majestic quality of the American landscape.  I say American even though there’s no consistent signifier indicating where the skirmishes of the game unfold, but it seems like an intrinsically American sort of experience – you know, teams of brutal idiots murdering each other for fun with a variety of different weapons.  Valve does a tremendous job with their art direction, tying functionality into aesthetic pretty seamlessly – as this post on their new alpine aesthetic demonstrates.

an interview with the creators of ‘Escape from City 17′

An interview with the creators of the $400 viral Half-Life 2 short film, as cross-pollinated all over the internet by now:

So what’s the exact breakdown of that C$500 figure? “The equipment and software isn’t included in the budget because we already owned it from previous projects,” David Purchase told me by email. Rather it refers to the money spent on live-action elements, like the authentic-looking uniforms worn by the brutal Combine enforcers. “The costumes, and used/broken airsoft guns made up the bulk of the budget. There was no crew. We weren’t paid for the hours of time we put into it.”

If you haven’t seen this ridiculously cool short video, check it out:

This is the sort of thing I’d love to work on.  Which is why I’m learning After Effects.  But how long until I can make something like this? Ekkk.